Publications

Journal articles

Accepted. Standard negation and aspectual definiteness in Chinese varieties. Language and Linguistics.

To appear. Standard negation in Gaozhou Yue. Journal of Chinese Linguistics. (January 2026) [PDF]

2023. Rethinking postverbal 'acquire' and related constructions in Cantonese: Polyfunctionality and

parameters. Language and Linguistics 24(4). 674-732. [PDF]

2018. On the interaction between negation and aspects in grammaticalization: a cross- linguistic study of three Chinese varieties. Current Research in Chinese Linguistics 97(1). 215-232.

Book chapters

Accepted. Negation in Cantonese. In Andy Chin, Shin Kataoka & Bit-chee Kwok (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Cantonese Linguistics. Routledge.

2022. Croft’s Cycle in Mandarin and Cantonese through history and across varieties. In Ljuba Veselinova & Arja Hamari (eds.), The Negative Existential Cycle from a historical-comparative perspective (Studies in Diversity Linguistics Series), 357-401. Berlin: Language Science Press. [PDF]

2020. Beyond one, two, three: number matters in classifier languages. In András Bárány, Theresa

Biberauer, Jamie Douglas & Sten Vikner (eds.), Syntactic architecture and its consequences I: Syntax inside the grammar, 511–525. Berlin: Language Science Press. [PDF]

Conference proceedings

2022. Standard negation and aspectual definiteness: new evidence from Cantonese. Proceedings of the 24th Seoul International Conference on Generative Grammar (SICOGG 24), 59-81. Seoul: Hankook Munhwasa. [PDF]

Invited talks

2024. Negation and existence: A new perspective on the Chinese negation puzzle. SyntaxLab. University of Cambridge. 18 June 2024.

2022. Cohesion analysis of texts: A study on reading comprehension and teaching effect of Chinese pre-service teachers. The Hong Kong Metropolitan University RIBiLT seminar series. 26 January 2022. (with Edith Cheung)

2020. Rethinking polysemy: An all-in-one framework of dak1 in Cantonese. The Hong Kong Metropolitan University RIBiLT seminar series. 23 September 2020. [Video]

2016. Cantonese: the biggest endangered language. Cambridge Endangered Languages and Cultures. University of Cambridge. 2 March 2016. (with Ricky Chan) [PDF]

Presentations

Peer-reviewed conference presentations

2024. The evolution of Chinese polar questions: from negative particle to A-not-A. 28th International Conference on Yue Dialects. Hong Kong Metropolitan University (HKMU), Hong Kong. 13–14 December 2024.

2024. Negative markers and the evolution of yes-no questions in Cantonese. 15th International Conference of the Association for Linguistic Typology (ALT15). The Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. 4–6 December 2024.

2024. The evolution of Chinese polar questions: from negative particle to A-not-A. 37th Paris Meeting on East Asian Linguistics (JLAO37). The Centre de Recherches Linguistiques sur I'Asie Orientale (CRLAO), Paris. 4–5 July 2024.

2022. Standard negation and aspectual definiteness: new evidence from Cantonese. 24th Seoul International Conference on Generative Grammar (SICOGG 24). Korean Generative Grammar Circle. 12–14 August 2022 [online due to pandemic].

2022. Revisiting postverbal 'acquire' in Cantonese. 28th Annual meeting of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL-28). The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong. 20–22 May 2022 [moved online due to pandemic].

2021. Postverbal acquisitive modal and related constructions. a parametric approach. 23rd Seoul International Conference on Generative Grammar (SICOGG 23). Korean Generative Grammar Circle. 11–13 August 2021 [moved online due to pandemic].

2021. Postverbal “acquire” in Cantonese: a unified analysis. 33rd North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL 33). University of Chicago. 24–25 June 2021 [moved online due to pandemic].

2020. Number matters in Mandarin and Cantonese. 24th International Conference on Yue Dialects. University of Macau. 13–14 November 2020 [moved online due to pandemic].

2020. Verbal definiteness and presupposition effects in Gaozhou Cantonese standard negation. 32nd North American Conference on Chinese Linguistics (NACCL-32). The University of Connecticut. 18-20 September 2020.

2020. The Chinese negation puzzle revisited: a study of Mandarin and Cantonese varieties. 5th Workshop on Innovations In Cantonese Linguistics (WICL-5). The Ohio State University. 18-19 April 2020.

2019. A DP account for variation in classifier dependency in Cantonese and Mandarin. LSHK Annual Research Forum. Hong Kong. 7 December 2019.

2018. Presupposition effects and standard negation in Gaozhou Cantonese. LSHK Annual Research Forum. Hong Kong. 1 December 2018.

2017. Polyfunctional GET marker in Chinese varieties: a unified account of postverbal DAK. 22nd International Conference on Yue Dialects. Hong Kong. 8-9 December 2017.

2017. The shaping of Mandarin negation - a new perspective from grammaticalisation. 25th Annual meeting of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics (IACL-25). Budapest, Hungary. 24-28 June 2017.

2017. Croft's negative existential cycle and the shaping of the negation system in varieties of Chinese. Negative existential cycle workshop. University of Stockholm. 4-5 May 2017.

2015. On the interaction between negation and aspects in grammaticalisation: a cross-linguistic study of three Chinese varieties. 20th International Conference on Yue Dialects. The Chinese University of Hong Kong. 11-12 December 2015.

2015. On the shaping of Chinese negation systems – interaction between Croft’s negative-existential cycle and BE/HAVE evolution. 9th International Conference of the European Association of Chinese Linguistics (EACL-9). Stuttgart, Germany. 24-26 September 2015. [PDF]

2014. Explaining variation in classifier dependency in Mandarin and Cantonese nouns. 2nd Asian and European Linguistic Conference (AE-Link 2). Newcastle, United Kingdom. 5-6 December 2014. [PDF]