Talks

* student co-author

Recent and upcoming

2026, 9 October. Wh-doublets in Cantonese and their typological implications. FLorum (HKU). [slides]

2026, 16–18 October. Syntax below words: verbal suffixation in Chinese. NELS 57. [with Ka-Fai Yip] [slides]

2026, 14–15 November. Resumption and a number mismatch in Mandarin Chinese. WECOL 2026. [with Jianing Yang*]

2026, 14–15 November. Verb doubling and VP dislocation in Mandarin: beyond surface similarity. WECOL 2026. [with Zijie Yang*]

2026

  1. Non-agreeing resumptive pronouns in Mandarin Chinese. SICOGG 28. [with Jianing Yang*]

  2. No meaning why: Chinese why-expressions under grumble predicates. SICOGG 28. [with Wenze Wu*]

  3. The ditransitive syntax and the modal semantics of you-NP. IACL 32. [with Puze Yang*]

  4. The syntax of the free choice marker suibian in Mandarin. IACL 32. [slides]

  5. No reason why: Chinese wh-expressions in embedded contexts. TEAL 15. [with Wenze Wu*]

  6. Single-word English prepositions in Cantonese–English code-switching contexts. WOC 26. [with Tyra Wai-Nga Cheung*]

  7. Deriving pseudogapping in Chinese. NACCL 38. [with Yuyang Liu]

  8. Syntax below words: verbal suffixation in Chinese. CLS 62. [with Ka-Fai Yip] [slides]

  9. Revisiting Parallel Chains: a long road to repetition. GLOW in Asia WYS 2. [with Ka-Fai Yip] [slides]

  10. Optional but not free: licensing Focus Projection in East Asian languages. GLOW in Asia WYS 2. [poster]

  11. Revisiting Parallel Chains: a long road to repetition. PLC 50. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

  12. Why pseudogapping does occur in some languages but does not in others. PLC 50. [with Yuyang Liu] [slides]

  13. Pseudogapping parameters. LSA 2026. [with Yuyang Liu]

2025

  1. Clausal parentheticals in Chinese: the semantics of which in code-mixing speech. ICFAMC 4. [slides]

  2. Wh-doublets in Cantonese and their encoding of evidentiality and plurality. ICFAMC 4. [with Hok-Yuen Wong] [slides]

  3. No reason why: Chinese wh-expressions with vacuous meaning. LSHK-ARF 2025. [with Wenze Wu*] [slides]

  4. Challenging the Head Licensing Condition of VP ellipsis: evidence from you-NP-VP in Mandarin Chinese. LSHK-ARF 2025. [with Puze Yang*] [slides]

  5. From demonstrative to discourse: the cartographic footprint of Cantonese gam2. IWSC 6. [slides]

  6. The syntax of the free choice item sidaan in Cantonese. Yue 29. [slides]

  7. On the absence of pseudogapping in Cantonese. Yue 29. [with Yuyang Liu] [slides]

  8. Parametric variations in discontinuous predicates in Sinitic languages. TEAL 14. [with Ka-Fai Yip] [handout]

  9. Surface and deep anaphora in sluicing and stripping: symmetries and asymmetries in Mongolian and Uyghur. TEAL 14. [with Xue Bai]

2024

  1. A conjunction approach to phrasal wh-doublets in Cantonese. Yue 28. [with Hok-Yuen Wong] [slides]

  2. The dual status of the demonstrative gam2 in Cantonese. Yue 28. [slides]

  3. Do so without do: verbal anaphora in Mandarin. LSHK-ARF 2024. [with Siyu Wei*]

  4. A derivational view on verbal suffixes in Chinese. LSHK-ARF 2024. [slides]

  5. 「噉」還不是句末助詞？ [Is gam2 not yet a sentence-final particle?]. Invited talk, 第五屆現代漢語句末助詞研討會 (The Fifth Workshop on Sentence-final Particles in Modern Chinese), Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. [slides]

  6. Predication in disguise: which-constructions in Hong Kong Cantonese code-mixing speech. IWSPM 2024. [slides]

  7. Phrasal wh-doublets in Cantonese. WOC 24. [with Hok-Yuen Wong] [slides]

  8. 「廣東話達人挑戰」的公共數碼人文學反思 [Public digital humanities reflections on the “Cantonese Master Challenge”]. WOC 24. [with Yip-Po Lai, Mei-ying Ki, Chaak-ming Lau, Kam-Pang Wong, Hok-Yuen Wong, and Ka-Fai Yip] [slides]

  9. So what? On the nature of gam2 in Cantonese. Invited talk, FoCaL 7. [slides]

  10. “Sloppy” identity reading and sluicing-like constructions in Mandarin, Uyghur and Mongolian. International Symposium on Silk Road Linguistics. [with Xue Bai] [slides]

2023

  1. 線上問答遊戲「廣東話達人挑戰」：遊戲化科普與眾包式數據收集 [Online quiz game “Cantonese Master Challenge”: gamifying linguistics popularization and crowdsourced data collection]. DADH 14. [with Yip-Po Lai, Mei-ying Ki, Chaak-ming Lau, Kam-Pang Wong, Hok-Yuen Wong, and Ka-Fai Yip]

  2. What’s borrowed, and what’s not: revisiting the which-construction in Hong Kong Cantonese. Yue 27. [slides]

  3. The distribution and interpretation of the free choice item sidaan in Cantonese. LSHK-ARF 2023. [with Sze Ching Tsang*]

  4. Chain Faithfulness: restricting Partial Copy Deletion on discontinuous constituents. Syntax near NYU. [with Ka-Fai Yip] [poster]

  5. 凝望粵語：藏在腦袋裡的語言知識 [Staring at Cantonese: what’s inside our brain]. Public seminar (invited), 學識 Hok6. [slides]

  6. A structural account on the non-uniform information structure in right dislocation. SICOGG 25. [poster]

  7. An emerging type of relative clauses in Cantonese. WOC 23. [slides]

  8. VP ellipsis in disguise: uncovering VP ellipsis in Japanese. Invited talk, Department of Linguistics, Osaka University.

  9. The division of labor in Japanese clausal and predicate ellipsis. TEAL 13. [with Yuta Tatsumi] [slides]

  10. Stay alone, move together: deriving embedded reduced questions in Chakhar Mongolian. TEAL 13. [with Xue Bai] [poster]

2022

  1. 從香港粵語的離合詞看移位理論 [Separable words in Hong Kong Cantonese and their implications for movement theories]. Invited talk, Yufa Shalong (Grammar Salon), Fudan University (online). [slides]

  2. A structural account on the non-uniform information structure of right dislocation. LSHK-ARF 2022. [slides]

  3. Last but not least: right dislocation in Mongolian. WAFL 16. [slides]

  4. Focus Intervention Effects of verb movement in Cantonese. NACCL 34. [slides]

  5. Linearizing syntactic movement: when Economy compromises. Invited talk, LT Research Forum Series, City University of Hong Kong (online). [slides] [Video link]

  6. No tense: a bi-contextual evaluation approach to temporal reference. GLOW in Asia XIII. [with Roumyana Pancheva and Maria Luisa Zubizarreta] [slides]

  7. Revisiting the tense semantics in perfective suffixes in Cantonese. WOC 22. [with Roumyana Pancheva and Maria Luisa Zubizarreta]

  8. Genuinely tenseless: encoding time in Cantonese. SALT 32. [with Roumyana Pancheva and Maria Luisa Zubizarreta]

  1. Processing discontinuous predicates in Cantonese. FoCaL 5. [with Ka-Fai Yip, Sheila Shu-Laam Chan, and Carmen Tang]

  2. Processing discontinuous predicates in Cantonese. WICL 6. [with Ka-Fai Yip, Sheila Shu-Laam Chan, and Carmen Tang]

  3. Separable verbs as partial deletion in Cantonese. IACL 28. [with Ka-Fai Yip and Sheila Shu-Laam Chan]

  4. Licensing VP movement and ellipsis in Mandarin and Cantonese. WCCFL 40. [with Victor Junnan Pan]

  5. Genuinely tenseless: encoding time in Cantonese. Invited talk, Yale Semantics Reading Group (online). [with Roumyana Pancheva and Maria Luisa Zubizarreta]

  6. Genuinely tenseless: encoding time in Cantonese. PLC 46. [with Roumyana Pancheva and Maria Luisa Zubizarreta]

  7. ATB-movement and parasitic gaps: from the perspective of head movement. PLC 46.

2021

  1. Partial deletion at word level: discontinuous predicates in Cantonese. BCGL 14. [with Ka-Fai Yip and Sheila Shu-Laam Chan]

  2. Head dependencies across coordination and subordination. LSHK-ARF 2021.

  3. Hyperraising, evidentiality, and phase deactivation. WFL 13. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

  4. Licensing *v*P movement and ellipsis in Mandarin and Cantonese. NACCL 33. [with Victor Junnan Pan]

  5. Separable verbs as partial deletion in Cantonese. NACCL 33. [with Ka-Fai Yip and Sheila Shu-Laam Chan]

  6. Discontinuous predicates in Cantonese as partial deletion. USC Syntax+ / UCLA SynSem (online). [with Ka-Fai Yip and Sheila Shu-Laam Chan]

  7. Modality in the nominal domain: expressing ignorance in indefinites. Invited talk, Yale Semantics Reading Group (online).

  8. Licensing VP movement and ellipsis in Mandarin and Cantonese. Invited talk, UConn LingLunch (online). [with Victor Junnan Pan]

  9. Verbal “infixation” as partial deletion: a case in Cantonese verbs. PLC 45. [with Ka-Fai Yip and Sheila Shu-Laam Chan]

  10. Deriving separable verbs in Cantonese. BEAL Forum 4. [with Ka-Fai Yip and Sheila Shu-Laam Chan]

  11. Separable verbs, syllable deletion, and micro-variations. phex 11. [with Ka-Fai Yip and Sheila Shu-Laam Chan]

  12. Licensing VP movement and ellipsis in Mandarin and Cantonese. SCAMS 2020–2021. [with Victor Junnan Pan]

  13. Movement of quantificational heads. Invited talk, SMircle, Stanford University (online).

  14. Specific unknowns: a case study of epistemic indefinites in Cantonese. LSA 2021.

2020

  1. Indirect evidence as a licensing condition of hyperraising in Cantonese and Vietnamese. BCGL 13. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

  2. Movement of quantificational heads. Invited talk, Yale Syntax Reading Group (online).

  3. Movement of quantificational heads. NELS 51.

  4. Generalized Scope Economy. NACCL 32. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

  5. Strength in deontic modals as acceptability and optimality. NACCL 32.

  6. Generalized Scope Economy. SICOGG 22. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

  7. Hyperraising and evidentiality. SICOGG 22. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

  8. Syllable deletion and morphological length in Cantonese verbs. FoCaL 3. [with Sheila Shu-Laam Chan and Ka-Fai Yip]

  9. Cantonese classifiers at the syntax–semantics interface. WOC 20.

  10. M-zi “not-know” in Cantonese as an epistemic marker. WICL 5.

  11. Zero-coded passives in Cantonese. WICL 5. [with Sheila Shu-Laam Chan and Ka-Fai Yip]

  12. Verb doubling and Cyclic Linearization. WCCFL 38.

  13. Raising, phase unlocked. WCCFL 38. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

2019

  1. M-zi “not-know” in Cantonese as an epistemic marker. LSHK-ARF 2019.

  2. Sentence-initial root modals and focus. LSHK-ARF 2019. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

  3. M-zi “not-know” in Cantonese as an epistemic marker. CUSP 12.

  4. Quantifier-Raising a head. GLOW in Asia XII & SICOGG 21.

  5. Cyclic Linearization and verb doubling. LSA Linguistic Institute 2019.

  6. Two classes of doxastic attitude verbs. FoCaL 2. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

  7. Strength in possibility modals: from weak necessity to strong possibility. IACL 27.

  8. Head movement with semantic effects: aspectual verb raising in Cantonese. LSA 2019.

2018

  1. Decomposing wh-expressions in Cantonese. CSS 11. [with Hok-Yuen Wong]

  2. Epistemic indefinites and reportative indefinites in Cantonese. PACLIC 32. [with Hok-Yuen Wong]

  3. Two subclasses of verbs of thinking in Cantonese. LSHK-ARF 2018. [with Ka-Fai Yip]

  4. Expressing ignorance beyond the nominal domain in Japanese: a comparative view. JK 26.

  5. Head movement with semantic effects: aspectual verb raising in Cantonese. CSSL 2018.

  6. Strength in possibility modals: from weak necessity to strong possibility. NASSLLI 2018 (student session).

  7. Aspectual verbs in Cantonese are quantifiers over times. FoCaL 1.

  8. Taxonomy of wh-expressions in Cantonese. FoCaL 1. [with Hok-Yuen Wong]

  9. Defookasu to touchibun [Defocus and right dislocation]. Invited talk (in Japanese), postgraduate seminar of Prof. Keiko Mochizuki, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

  10. The notion of defocus and right dislocation. The 7th USC–Yonsei University Joint Symposium, University of Southern California.

2017

  1. Defending the notion of defocus in Cantonese. Yue 22.

  2. Deontic modality in Japanese: positioning the recommendation-type modal expressions. JK 25. [with Tony Tsz-Fung Lau]

2016
  1. Right dislocation of verbs in Cantonese: a case of head movement to specifier. Yue 21.
2015
  1. A study on the periphery of Japanese and Cantonese. Yue 20.