I have developed research strengths in Phonology and
Phonetics, especially suprasegmental phonology, through fieldwork-based investigation of Prinmi, a Tibeto-Burman language of
Yunnan, China. With broad interests in Linguistics, my research experience extends from analysis of Chinese languages to descriptive linguistics on Tibeto-Burman languages and covers sociolinguistic study of language endangerment as well as semantic change in language evolution.
Education
Ph.D. in
Linguistics from Australian National University
Dissertation: Fundamentals of Prinmi (Pumi): A Tibeto-Burman Language of Northwestern Yunnan, China
M.A. in Linguistics from Simon Fraser University, Canada
Thesis: The BA Resultative Construction: A Comprehensive Study of Mandarin BA Sentences.
B.A. in Linguistics (cum laude) from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.
Courses Taught
LING1001
Introduction to Linguistics (Team-teaching)
LING2004
Phonetics: Describing Sounds
LING2027
Phonology: An Introduction to the Study of Sound Systems
LING3003
Linguistics Field Trip
LING6001 Research Methods in Linguistics (Team-teaching)
LING7004
Phonetics and Phonology
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Major Research Interests
Descriptive linguistics, with a focus on the sound system of lesser-known
languages;
Semantic change and grammaticalization;
Sociolinguistics on languages of China, including language maintenance and linguistic ecology;
Speech technologies for minority languages of China; and
Typological phonology of tone languages, especially those of the Far East.
Interested in one of these areas for your postgraduate research?
Read on here.
Research Projects
A descriptive grammar of Prinmi (a Tibeto-Burman language of Yunnan);
Exploring phonological typology of languages of China;
A study on pronunciation of Tangut characters in classical dictionaries.
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Dissertations Completed under Direct Supervision
Doctoral Dissertation
HO Wing See. 2011. A Phonological Study of the Tone-melody Correspondence in Cantonese Pop Music.
M.A. Thesis
CHAN Miu Kuen. 2011. A Study of the Intelligibility of Taishanese to Cantonese-Speakers.
LING Hiu Yan. 2010. Production of English /r/ And /w/ by Cantonese L1 Speakers in Hong Kong.
YIU Suet Yee. 2011. Tone assignment of English spoken in Hong Kong.
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Selected Publications
2007. Studies
on Bǎ Resultative Construction: A comprehensive approach to
Mandarin Bǎ sentences. Lincom Studies in Asian
Linguistics 62. München: Lincom.
Articles
2011. The partially denasalized bilabial plosive in Southern Min: comparison to [mb] in Amdo Tibetan.
Proceedings of the 17th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 584-587.
2010a. Phonological change in Hong Kong Cantonese through language contact with Chinese topolects and English over the past century. In: Robert McColl Millar, Marginal dialects: Scotland, Ireland and beyond. Aberdeen, UK, Forum for Research
on the Languages of Scotland and Ulster, 198-218.
2010b. Rhoticization as a Secondary Articulation in Stops: Evidence
from Prinmi. Chinese Journal of Phonetics 2: 74-81.
2010c. 粤语的「据由」助词初探。《澳门人文社会科学研究文选. 语言翻译卷》(程祥徽主编), 北京，社会科学文献出版社: 150-159。
2008. Learning of Minority Languages in Yunnan, China. In De Graaf, Tjeerd, Nicholas Ostler and Reinier Salverda (eds.) Endangered Languages and Language Learning (Proceedings of FEL XII), pp. 93-100. Bath, England: Foundation for Endangered Languages.
2007a. Challenges in Language
Modernization in China: The case of Prinmi. In David, Maya, Nicholas
Ostler and Caesar Dealwis (eds.) Working Together for Endangered
Languages: Research Challenges and Social Impacts (Proceedings of FEL XI), pp. 120-126. Bath, England: Foundation for Endangered Languages.
2007b. The
Use of Perception Tests in Studying the Tonal System of Prinmi
Dialects: A Speaker-centered Approach to Descriptive Linguistics.
Language Documentation and Conservation 1.2: 154-181.
2006a. A
Typological Study of Tonal Systems of Japanese and Prinmi: Towards a
definition of pitch-accent languages. Journal of Universal
Language 7.2: 1-35.
2006b.
粵語的「據由」助詞初探
Journal of Macao Polytechnic Institute 9.4: 105-113.
2005a. China. In Philipp Strazny (ed.)
Encyclopedia of Linguistics. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn. Pp.
189-194.
2005b. Tone Languages. In Philipp Strazny (ed.)
Encyclopedia of Linguistics. New York: Fitzroy Dearborn.
Pp. 1117-1120.
2005c. <普米语语言现代化中存在的问题—兼谈文字推广和语言保存> ，大卫·布莱德雷编《中国云南濒危语言遗产保护研讨会》，69-78页，墨尔本：拉特罗布大学。
2003. Prinmi: a sketch of Niuwozi. In
Graham Thurgood and Randy LaPolla (eds.) The Sino-Tibetan Languages.
London: Routledge Press. Pp. 588-601.
2001a. Semantic Change vs. Categorical Change: A study of the development of Mandarin
BA. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 29.1: 102-128.
2001b. The
pitch-accent system of Niuwozi Prinmi. Linguistics of the
Tibeto-Burman Area 24.2: 57-83.
2000a. A
Computational Study of the Ba
Resultative Construction: Parsing Mandarin Ba
Sentences in HPSG. In Ikeya, Akira & Masahito Kawamori (eds.)
Proceedings of the 14th Pacific Asia
Conference on Language, Information and Computation, pp. 67-78.
Chiba: Toyo Gakuen University.
2000b. Topic-Comment
Constructions in Prinmi. In The 33rd International Conference
on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics, pp. 348-359. Bangkok:
Ramkhamhaeng University.
Book Reviews
2011. A Grammar of Eton (By Mark Van de Velde).
2008a. Dramatized Discourse: The Mandarin Chinese ba-construction (By Zhuo Jing-Schmidt). China Review International, 15.2: 228-233.
2008b. Koguryo: The Language of Japan's Continental Relatives (Second Edition)
(By Christopher Beckwith).
2007. Atlas of the World's Languages (Second Edition) (Edited by R. E. Asher
and Christopher Moseley).
2006. Language Diversity in the Pacific: Endangerment and Survival (Edited by Cunningham, Denis; Ingram, D. E.; Sumbuk, Kenneth).
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Recent Conference Presentations
| Nov, 2012 |
黑与白——试诠释两个自称名词Nosu和Prinmi，宣读于第六届国际彝缅语学术研讨会。四川成都，西南民族大学。
|
| Oct, 2012 |
Issues in Classification of Prinmi Dialects. Presented at The 45th International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics. Nanyang Technology University, Singapore.
|
| Sept, 2012 |
Language Contact and Chinese Nationalism. Presented at the Language Contact in Asia and the Pacific. University of Macau, Macau, China.
|
| May, 2012 |
Phonological Modification through Bilingual Speakers: the case of word-tone system in coastal Chinese topolects. Presented at International Conference on Bilingualism and Comparative Linguistics. Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
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| March, 2012 |
Utterance-final particles with grammaticalized intonation in Cantonese. Presented at the Workshop on Innovations in Cantonese Linguistics. The Ohio State University, Columbus,USA.
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| March, 2012 |
Chinese Influence on Vietnamese: a Sinospheric tale. Presented at the Language Empires in Comparative Perspective. University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
|
| Sept, 2011 |
A Preliminary Classification of Prinmi Dialects. Presented at the 17th Himalayan Languages Symposium. Kobe City University of Foreign Studies, Kobe, Japan.
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| July, 2011 |
On historical phonetics: Non-language specific and unidirectional sound changes.
Presented at the 20th International Conference on Historical Linguistics. National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan.
|
| July, 2011 |
The average Chinese language: An outline of typological profile. Presented at the Workshop on Typological Studies of Languages of China, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong.
|
| Jan, 2011 |
The Prosodic System of Japanese as a Subtype of Tone System: Evidence from Prinmi. Presented at
CUNY Conference on the Phonology of Endangered Languages.
(Handout)
City University of New York, New York, USA.
|
| Oct, 2010 |
Numerals in Tangut. Presented at The 43rd International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and
Linguistics. Lund University, Lund, Sweden.
|
| July, 2010 |
语言生态与西部大开发，宣读于中国社会语言学会第七届国际学术研讨会。青海西宁，青海民族大学。
|
| June, 2010 |
Language Ecology and Developing China's West: The case of Yunnan. Presented at The Third Conference on
Heritage Maintenance for Endangered Languages in Yunnan, China. Yuxi, Yunnan, China.
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| May, 2010 |
送气擦音的语音特点 — 以黔东南黄平苗语为例, 宣读于第九届中国语音学学术会议。天津，南开大学。
|
| April, 2010 |
Pragmatic Strategies in Prinmi. Presented at Workshop on Pragmatic Markers in Asian Languages. National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
|
| Feb, 2010 |
The Role of Domain in the Lexical Tone System. Presented at The 32nd Annual Conference Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft. Berlin, Germany.
|
| Feb, 2010 |
Diversity in Sino-Tibetan Languages. Presented at The Conference on Sino-Tibetan Language Studies.
Chiangrai Rajabaht University. Chiangrai, Thailand.
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| Aug, 2009 |
从语调到声调—以粤语句末语气助词‘呀’、‘喎’为例,宣读于南开大学语言研究所和天津市语言学会主办之「首届汉语韵律及语调研究讨论会」。大连，辽宁师范大学国际教育学院。
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| Aug, 2009 |
白语中的唇齿音(The Labio-dentals in Bai)，宣读于中国社会科学院民族学与人类学研究所、上海市高校比较语言学E-研究院（上海师范大学）、大理白族自治州人民政府、大理学院合辦之「首届白语国际学术研讨会」。(Presented at the First International Conference on the Bai Language. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Shanghai Normal University, Dali Bai Autonomous Prefecture Government, and Dali College. Dali, Yunnan, China.)
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| July, 2009 |
Syllable-tone, Word-tone and Melody-tone: Towards a Typology of Tone Languages of China.
Presented at the 8th Biennial Conference of the Association for Linguistic Typology.
University of California, Berkeley, USA.
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| Jan, 2009 |
試評〈白狼歌〉之壯語破譯 ，宣讀於香港中文大學舉辦之「古道照顏色─先秦兩漢古籍國際學術研討會」。 |
| Sept, 2008 |
Learning of Minority Languages in Yunnan, China. Presented
at the Twelfth Conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages. Fryske Akademy, Ljouwert/Leeuwarden, Netherlands.
|
Sept, 2008 |
Sibling Terminology in Prinmi. Presented at the 41st International
Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics. SOAS, London, UK. |
Sept, 2008 |
Size Doesn't Matter: Language Endangerment in China. Presented
at the 41st International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and
Linguistics. SOAS, London, UK. |
Sept, 2008 |
(with Caroline Féry.) Word Order, Information Structure and Intonation of Discontinuous Nominal Constructions in Cantonese. Presented at the 41st
International Conference on Sino-Tibetan Languages and Linguistics. SOAS, London,
UK. |
April, 2008 |
Rhoticization as a Secondary Articulation in Stops:
Evidence from Prinmi. Presented at the International Symposium on Phonetic
Frontiers. Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China. |
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