Current projects

A bit about my dissertation (in progress):

Information Structure of the Clause-final Position in Hong Kong Sign Language

How languages encode information structure notions (e.g., focus, topic) has been widely discussed across spoken languages, much less so in sign languages that adopt a visual-gestural modality. My dissertation investigates the information structure in sign languages by focusing on the correlation between focus and the clause-final position in Hong Kong Sign Language. The research question regarding the correlation emerges based on the observation that in many sign languages (but not so much across spoken languages), categories like wh-expressions in wh-questions, the A(nswer)-clause in clausal Question Answer Pairs (QAPs), negative markers, and focused phrases tend to occupy the clause-final position. This project aims to advance the scientific understanding of this phenomenon.

Following are the projects that I've been working on in recent years:

Focus in HKSL
Wh-questions in HKSL
Role shift and indexicality in HKSL
Question Answer Pairs in HKSL
Negation in HKSL
Quantifiers in HKSL

Wh-questions, Question Answer Pairs, Negation, and Quantifiers serve to gain a better understanding of the property of the clause-final position of sign languages; Role shift, indexicality, and all other topics listed serve to unveil the picture of information packaging in the visual modality in sign languages.

Please feel free to contact me via email. Thank you!

[One of my favorite calligraphies, located at CUHK main library. Lit.: 維: only, as 唯; keep |虛: empty; humble; weak |能: can |受: receive; or teach, as 授 ). In my view, you can combine the glossings for possible meaning(s)]