Professor Zhang Cheng is a distinguished scholar in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at the School of Humanities, Tsinghua University. She earned her Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Chinese Linguistics from East China Normal University between 1984 and 1991. Later, Professor Zhang then earned her Ph.D. in Chinese Historical Linguistics at Peking University (1995–1998). Her academic career includes a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University during 2007–2008, along with visiting professorships and research positions at various institutions in the United States, France, and Hong Kong.

Professor Zhang's primary research focuses on historical syntax and grammar pedagogy for Chinese as a second language. She has led multiple nationally and provincially funded research projects through competitive grants. Her significant scholarly contributions include:

l Diachronic changes in Chinese word order

l The evolution of patient-subject constructions in Chinese

l The origins and development of numeral classifiers in Chinese

l Typological comparisons between Chinese and other languages

l Chinese for Academic Purposes.

1. ZHANG Cheng, The Historical Evolution of The Word-order of Prepositional Phrases in Chinese, Beijing: Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 2002.

2. ZHANG Cheng, Diachronic Changes in Chinese Word Order, Beijing: Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 2010.

3. ZHANG Cheng, The Historical Evolution of Chinese Nominal Classifier: A Typological Approach, Beijing: Peking University Press, 2012.

4. ZHANG Cheng, and LI Wenjie, Typological Studies on Grammar of Chinese as A Second Language, Beijing: Tsinghua University Press, 2019.

ZHANG Cheng, ZHANG Yongmei, and QIU Bing, A Brief History of the Chinese Language, Beijing: Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 2016

1. ZHANG Cheng, “Diachronic-Synchronic Interfaces in Chinese Comparative Constructions,” Linguistic Research, 2005, No.1: 43-48.

2. ZHANG Cheng, “On The Evolution of Patient-Verb Construction in Late Middle Chinese,” Chinese Linguistics, 2005, No.1.

3. ZHANG Cheng, “PV and PAV Sentence Pattens in Tang and Wudai Dynasty Chinese,” Linguistic Sciences, 2005, No.2: 81-91.

4. ZHANG Cheng, and RONG Jing, “The Historical Evolvement and a Comparative Study of Patient-Initial Patterns between Archaic and Modern,” Language Teaching and Linguistic Studies, 2008, No.4: 33-40.

5. ZHANG Cheng, “Review of Classifiers: A Typology of Noun Categorization Devices by A.Y. AIkhenvald,” Contemporary Linguistics, 2009, No.3: 271-274.

6. ZHANG Cheng, “The Change of Numeral Phrases and Head Nouns in Chinese,” Chinese Linguistics, 2009, No.2: 178-185.

7. ZHANG Cheng, “Typological Comparison between the Semantic Systems of Measure Words in Chinese and Thai Language,” Chinese Teaching in the World, 2009, No.4: 508-518.

8. ZHANG Cheng, and RONG Jing, “The Evolution of Semantic Features of Chinese Prepositional Patients, Linguistic Research,” 2009, No.4: 12-16.

9. ZHANG Cheng, “System of Classifiers in Late Archaic Chinese,” HAN YU SHI XUE BAO, 2010, Vol. 10.

10. ZHANG Cheng, “The Change of Disposal Structures in Yuan-dynasty Language Contact,” Lishi Yuyanxue Yanjiu, 2011, Vol.4. Beijing: The Commercial Press.

11. ZHANG Cheng, “Han-language Causative Structures in Yuan-dynasty Linguistic Intercourse,” Minority Translators Journal, 2012, No. 2: 78-87.

12. ZHANG Cheng, “The repeater in Chinese and other language,” Newest Trends in the Study of Grammaticalization and Lexicalization in Chinese, DE GRUYTER MOUTON, 2012.

13. ZHANG Cheng, “The Relation between the Development of General Classifiers and the Establishment of the Category Numeral-Classifiers in Chinese,” Journal of Chinese Linguistics, 2012, Vol. 40, no. 2: 307-321.

14. ZHANG Cheng, “Semantic Characteristics of Causative Sentences in Song Dynasty,” Linguistic Research, 2013, No.3: 12-19.

15. ZHANG Cheng, “The Textual Functions of the Conjunction Gu (故) in Archaic Chinese,” Research in Ancient Chinese Language, 2014, No.2: 26-34.

16. ZHANG Cheng, and WANG Xiaozhe, “Comparative Studies of Systems of Numeral-classifiers between Chinese and Southeast Asian languages—Approaches on Typology and Pedagogy,” Overseas Chinese Education, 2014, No.3: 247-261.

17. ZHANG Cheng, “On the absence of cause in causative structures in early Mandarin: A case study of language contact,” Studies of the Chinese Language, 2014 No.3: 236-246.

18. Zhang Cheng, “Diachronic changes and synchronic differences of the negative adverbs of perfective aspect in the Ming and Qing dynasties,” Studies of the Chinese Language, 2015, No.5: 554-565.

19. ZHANG Cheng, “The Change of Verb Reduplication on Realis-Irrealis Distinction,” Journal of Tsinghua University (Philosophy and Socia Sciences), 2016, No.3: 135-144.

20. ZHANG Cheng, and CUI Yue, “Study on the Textual Function of the Speech Verbs Yue(曰) Yan(言) and Yun(云) in the Book of Songs and Its Cross Language Universals,” Linguistic Research, 2017, No.3.

21. ZHANG Cheng, “Study of ‘V De Lai2 (V Bu Lai2)’ and ‘V De Liao3 (V Bu Liao3)’ Constructions of Possibility in Old Mandarin,” Lishi Yuyanxue Yanjiu, 2019, Vol. 13.

22. ZHANG Cheng, “The Purpose Constructions Consisting of Lai (Come) of Chinese in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,” Journal of Tsinghua University(Philosophy and Socia Sciences), 2019, No.6: 128-139.

23. ZHANG Cheng, and LIU Yanlin, “Grammaticalization of “Zai + Demonstrative Locatives” During Ming and Qing Dynasties,” Linguistic Sciences 2020, No.1: 13-27.

24. ZHANG Cheng, and SUN Pinjian, “The Usage Change of Temporal Adverbs ji（既）and yi (已) in the Late Ancient Chinese,” HAN YU SHI XUE BAO, 2020,Vol. 22: 84-95.

25. ZHANG Cheng, and CUI Yue, “The Grammaticalization of the Common Speech Verbs in Early Ancient Chinese,” Linguistic Research, 2020, No.4: 35-44.

26. ZHANG Cheng, LI Jiapan and SHEN Shengxia, “A Study on the lexical usage characteristics of Academic Chinese,” Language Teaching and Linguistic Studies, 2020, No.6: 19-27.

27. ZHANG Cheng, “The function of the sentence-final particle lai(来) in late Old Mandarin and its diachronic change,” Studies of the Chinese Language, November, 2021, No.6: 643-766.

28. ZHANG Cheng, and LIN Di, “A Comparative Study of Three Sentence-Final Particles “LAI(来)” “LE₂(了₂)” “LE YE(了也)” in the Tang and Song Dynasties,” Yangtze River Academic, 2022, No.1: 101-112.

29. ZHANG Cheng, “Formation and Development of the Morphological Pattern ‘Zhuan V’,” Lishi Yuyanxue Yanjiu, Volume 1. Beijing: The Commercial Press, 2023.

30. ZHANG Cheng, “Study of the Semantic Continuous Contexts in Grammaticalization of Adverb ‘zhuan’ in Middle Chinese,” Linguistic Sciences, 2024, No. 2: 113-128.

31. ZHANG Cheng, and QIN Jingxuan, “Research on the Usage of the Postposition “Gu(故)” in the Structure “Wei. . . Gu(为……故)” in Ancient Chinese,” Zhongguo Xungu Xuebao, 2024, Vol.9: 68-92.

32. ZHANG Cheng, “The Change of Language in its Dissemination Through Written Literature: A Case Study of the Usage of the Personal Pronoun “Zan”（咱）in the 16th and 17th Centuries,” Yangtze River Academic, 2025, No.2: 96-104.

33. ZHANG Cheng, “The Formation and Development of RETUREN Verbs in Classical Chinese,” Studies of the Chinese Language, 2025, No.2: 209-220.

1. Principal Investigator of the project titled Historical Changes and Evolutionary Mechanisms of Chinese Word Order (Grant No. 200008), National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award Funding Project for Higher Education Institutions.

2. Principal Investigator of the project titled The Historical Evolution of Chinese Nominal Classifier: A Typological Approach (06BYY037), National Social Science Fund of China, 2006.

3. Principal Investigator of the project titled A Typological Study of Chinese Classifiers, Supported by Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University, 2007.

4. Principal Investigator of the project titled “Typology-Based Language-Specific Research on Chinese as a Second Language” (12JJK740012), Major Project of the Key Research Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences under the Ministry of Education, 2012.

5. Principal Investigator of the project titled “A Typology-Based Contrastive Study of Categorical Expression” (11GH02), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, 2011.  

6. Principal Investigator of Subproject 2 (“Weak Compositionality of Monosyllabic Intransitive Verbs with NP Complements”) of Major Project of the National Social Science Fund of China, titled “A Corpus-Based Study of Non-Compositional Diachronic Changes in Chinese and Language Evolution Principles” (18ZDA292).

7. Principal Investigator of the project titled “Data-Driven Research on the Evolution of Ming-Qing Koine and Regional Dialects” (2024THZWJC21), Tsinghua University Independent Research Project, 2024.

1. Visiting Scholar, Department of East Asian Languages & Cultural Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA, January 10 - March 20, 2005.

2. Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, Harvard University, USA, September 2007 – June 2008.

3. Visiting Professor, Division of Humanities, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, September 1 - December 30, 2010, where Professor Zhang Cheng taught a graduate course – Historical Syntax of Chinese.

4. Visiting Scholar, Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur l'Asie Orientale (CRLAO), CNRS, France, July 13 - August 3, 2012.

5. Visiting Scholar, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), France, June 1 - July 1, 2023.

1. National Excellent Doctoral Dissertation Award, Ministry of Education, China, 2000.

2. Professor Zhang Cheng’s Monograph, The Historical Evolution of The Word-order of Prepositional Phrases in Chinese, received the Second Prize in the 8th Beijing Outstanding Achievement Award in Philosophy & Social Sciences (2004).

3. Professosr Zhang Cheng’s monograph, The Historical Evolution of Chinese Nominal Classifier: A Typological Approach, received the Second Prize in the 13th Beijing Outstanding Achievement Award in Philosophy & Social Sciences (2014).