Pui Yiu Szeto

Pui Yiu Szeto
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Hong Kong University of Science and Technology | UST · Division of Humanities

PhD in Linguistics

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32
Publications
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118
Citations

Publications

Publications (32)
Article
This paper introduces the results of an exploratory study, aimed at designing and testing an ecological discourse analysis framework, applicable to texts in Chinese language. Focusing on vocabulary, the study followed an iterative deductive-inductive process. First, a preliminary framework of lexical indicators was identified through literature rev...
Article
Full-text available
The present study employs a quantitative method to investigate phonological profiles of languages spoken across the coastline of East Asia, ranging from the Chukotka Peninsula to the Malay Peninsula. The sampling includes 264 linguistic varieties from 17 different genealogical units. 20 typological features related to various domains of phonology,...
Article
摘要: 語言聯盟 (Sprachbund) 泛指沒有親緣關係 (或關係疏遠) 的語言之間,在同一區域長期接觸下產生的結構趨同現象。雖然學界不乏關於語言聯盟的研究,但以往的研究未有具體及劃一的標準去界定何謂語言聯盟。因此,語言聯盟的概念時而模糊不清,甚至令人質疑其存在意義。有見及此,本文建議以歷史證據為基礎,去建立清晰嚴謹的標準來辨識語言聯盟。以此方法界定的語言聯盟具有相似的形成背景,從而確保彼此之間的可比性,令學者得以將研究重心置於語言接觸的機制及結果。中國歷史悠久、地大物博、族群紛雜、語種繁多,為語言聯盟的研究提供了一個重要平台。目前,中國境內最少有兩個符合嚴格標準的語言聯盟,分別為華南地區的西嶺南語言聯盟,以及西北地區的安多語言聯盟。區域內各語言族群間的密切接觸互動,不僅導致語言結構和文...
Article
Full-text available
The morpheme ‘give’ is among the most well-studied lexical items in the realm of grammaticalization. This study sets out to provide a typological and areal analysis of the distinct forms and multiple functions of ‘give’ in 27 varieties of Hui Chinese, a lesser-known group of Sinitic languages. Making use of both primary and secondary data, we have...
Article
Full-text available
While predominantly seen as a technical process, environmental planning is in fact largely shaped by cultural and ideological factors. Ecolinguistics offers a coherent approach to analyse these elements, by unearthing their linguistic traces and exposing how they naturalize social-ecological goals. So far, limited efforts have gone into developing...
Article
語言聯盟(Sprachbund)泛指沒有親緣關係(或關係疏遠)的語言之間, 在同一區域長期接觸下產生的結構趨同現象。雖然學界不乏關於語言 聯盟的研究,但以往的研究未有具體及劃一的標準去界定何謂語言聯 盟。因此,語言聯盟的概念時而模糊不清,甚至令人質疑其存在意義。 有見及此,本文建議以歷史證據為基礎,去建立清晰嚴謹的標準來辨 識語言聯盟。以此方法界定的語言聯盟具有相似的形成背景,從而確 保彼此之間的可比性,令學者得以將研究重心置於語言接觸的機制及 結果。中國歷史悠久、地大物博、族群紛雜、語種繁多,為語言聯盟 的研究提供了一個重要平台。目前,中國境內最少有兩個符合嚴格標 準的語言聯盟,分別為華南地區的西嶺南語言聯盟,以及西北地區的 安多語言聯盟。區域內各語言族群間的密切接觸互動,不僅導致語言 結...
Article
Full-text available
This study examines the use of various types of disposal constructions in the Chenghai dialect of Chaoshan Southern Min. Based on the distinction between head-marking and dependent-marking grammar, we identify four types of disposal constructions, depending on the position of the marker. We performed the fruit cart task to elicit disposal construct...
Article
Full-text available
This paper attempts to discuss the convergence phenomena in the Amdo Sprachbund in the light of genetic and cultural/religious factors. As an ethnolinguistically diverse region, the Amdo Sprachbund constitutes a natural laboratory for the study of language contact and human interaction at large. Unsurprisingly, populations within the Amdo Sprachbun...
Article
Full-text available
It is well-known that Tai-Kadai languages have affected the typological profiles of Southern Sinitic varieties. For example, compared with their northern sisters, Southern Sinitic varieties display a stronger tendency towards head-initial structures, as in the N-N compounds for expressing the sex of animals and in post-verbal temporal adverbs. Give...
Article
Full-text available
Decades of works dedicated to the description of (previously) lesser-known Sinitic languages have effectively dispelled the common myth that these languages share a single “universal Chinese grammar”. Yet, the underlying cause of their grammatical variation is still a matter for debate. This paper focuses on typological variation across Sinitic var...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The present study puts in parallel the use of six auxiliary verbs across languages in Northeast and Southeast Asia with some reference to South Asian and West African languages. The results show that the following groups of lexical verbs are employed as auxiliaries with similar semantics in many languages: (1) be/sit/stand/stay > progressive, (2) g...
Chapter
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This chapter outlines a research framework in which pidgin and Creole languages (PCL) are conceptualized as adaptive systems with inherent idiolectal variation, a prerequisite to evolutionary change. Although such variation is present in all languages, PCL evolve in highly heterogeneous and multilingual ecologies characterized by certain sociohisto...
Article
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This article discusses 40 grammatical features in Japonic and Koreanic in relation to their neighbouring languages in Northeast Asia. The data comprise 66 modern language varieties of 13 different linguistic affinities, and 12 historical languages (including Old and Middle Japanese and Old and Middle Korean). The results generated from a computatio...
Thesis
Full-text available
Decades of works dedicated to the description of (previously) lesser-known Sinitic languages have effectively dispelled the common myth that these languages share a single “universal Chinese grammar”. Yet, the underlying cause of their grammatical variation is still a matter for debate. This thesis focuses on the typological variation across Siniti...
Article
Full-text available
This paper reviews a number of specific features typical of analytic languages, in an attempt to investigate whether Creole languages can indeed be grouped, at least structurally, with other languages of the analytic (or isolating) type. Based on Sybesma et al. (forthcoming) , a study of the nature of analyticity, we select eight features which con...
Article
Full-text available
本文以定量方法调查东亚海岸语言的类型特征。根據来自17个语系或语族,共140个语种的資料,我们把东亚海岸地区划分为八个语言区域,区域内的语言不论亲缘关系,均会呈现一定程度的趋同现象。我们同时发现,各语言区域间的分界线,往往跟历史上的战区或贸易中心吻合,显示人口迁移跟语言结构的演化是息息相关的。
Article
Full-text available
This paper examines the close parallels between the contact phenomena in Cantonese-English bilingual children and Southeast Asian creoles, especially in the domain of perfective aspect marking. ‘Already’ is a cross-linguistically common lexical source of perfective aspect markers given its conceptual link with the sense of perfectivity. In contact...
Chapter
Full-text available
This paper consists of four related arguments: we first review the claims about the nature of grammaticalization in isolating languages, specifically those of East and Mainland Southeast Asia (EMSEA); based on this we present a view that suggests that grammaticalization is indeed a type-specific, or areal, phenomenon. Following on that we propose t...
Article
Full-text available
This study explores the range and diversity of the typological features of Mandarin, the largest dialect group within the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan family. Feeding the typological data of 42 Sinitic varieties into the phylogenetic program NeighborNet, we obtained network diagrams suggesting a north-south divide in the Mandarin dialect grou...
Article
Full-text available
The emergence of perfective ‘already’ is attested in Cantonese-English bilingual children and a number of Southeast Asian contact languages. Analyzing the use of already in Cantonese-English bilingual children, we find that both the semantic and syntactic properties of the Cantonese [zo2 ... laa3 ] construction are mapped on already. While the emer...
Article
Full-text available
This paper examines the emergence of perfective aspect in Cantonese-English bilingual children from the perspective of contact-induced grammaticalization, focusing on the novel use of already. Although the adverbial already seems to serve a function similar to that of the Cantonese perfective marker zo2 in the bilingual children, other model constr...
Thesis
Full-text available
This thesis examines the emergence of perfective aspect in Cantonese-English bilingual children from the perspective of contact-induced grammaticalization, focusing on the novel use of already to mark perfective aspect. The child usage differs from English in lacking the ‘contrary to expectation’ reading normally associated with already (Traugott a...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The emergence of perfective aspect in Cantonese-English bilingual children is examined from the perspective of contact-induced grammaticalization, focusing on the novel use of already to mark perfective aspect. While this function resembles that of the Cantonese perfective marker, other model constructions suggest that the function of already may c...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Contrary to popular belief in the last decade, recent comparative genomic studies provide strong evidence for the occurrence of interbreeding between the Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Based on anatomical, genetic, and archaeological evidence, this study argues that the Neanderthals were biologically language-ready, but their simple social system m...

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