C.-T. Tim Chou

"To define the class of possible human languages: this is the ultimate aim of linguistics." Andrea Moro <Impossible Languages>

Professor

Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures Graduate Program of Foreign Literatures & Linguistics

National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, TAIWAN

I investigate how human mind works through studying:

the generative procedure and structure of sentences (generative syntax);
how these structures map to meaning (syntax-semantics/pragmatics interfaces);
the cross-linguistic variation (Mandarin-Vietnamese) in terms of syntax and syntax-semantics-pragmatics interfaces.

Publications

Chou, C.-T. T. 2026. On hyper-raising in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 35-1. [SSCI / A&HCI]
Chou, C.-T. T. & Y.-H. Chen. 2025. On verbal similative plurality in Mandarin Chinese. Concentric Studies in Linguistics 51-2: 274-302. [THCI-Level 1]
Chou, C.-T. T. & Phan, T. 2025. Vietnamese mình: attitudes, empathy, and the blocking effect. Language & Linguistics. [SSCI / A&HCI]
Chung, M.-H. & C.-T. T. Chou. 2025. Climbing towards the NLU of the universal reading of shei ‘who’. Concentric Studies in Linguistics 51-2: 303-348. [THCI-Level 1]
Phan, T. & Chou, C.-T. T. 2025. Locative inversion in Vietnamese. Languages 10(3): 50. [Scopus, ESCI (Web of Science)]
Chou, C.-T. T. 2024. Satisfying the composite probe on the Topic head in Mandarin Chinese. Studia Linguistica 79-1: 911–40. [A&HCI]
Chen, Y.-H, C.-T. T., Chou & P.-J. Shen. 2024. On the scalarity of nu-V constructions in Taiwan Mandarin. Studia Linguistica 79-1: 29–61. [A&HCI]
Chou, C.-T. T. 2020. External set-Merge of heads and composite probing: the case of locative inversion in English and Chinese. Studia Linguistica 74-3: 775–819. [A&HCI]
Chou, C.-T. T. & G. Fernández-Salgueiro. 2020. A last resort approach to (number) feature inheritance. Studia Linguistica 74-3: 694–716. [A&HCI]
Chou, C.-T. T., T.-Y. Chen, A. Pires. 2020. Acquisition of null objects in Mandarin Chinese by heritage speakers: Syntax-pragmatics interface knowledge without inflectional morphology. International Journal of Chinese Linguistics 7-2: 223–269.
Chou, C.-T. T. & S. Hettiarachchi. 2016. On Sinhala subject case marking and A-movement. Lingua 177: 17–40. [SSCI / A&HCI]
Hsin, S.-C. & C.-T. T. Chou. 2014. A Preliminary Survey of the Quantity and the Cross-Strait Interchangeability of the vocabularies in Chinese textbooks for beginner's level. Taiwan Journal of Chinese as a Second Language 9: 1-15. (THCI)
Chou, C.-T. T. 2013. Unvalued interpretable features and topic A-movement in Chinese raising modal constructions. Lingua 123: 118–147. [SSCI / A&HCI]
Chou, C.-T. T. 2012. Syntax-pragmatics interface: Mandarin wh–the–hell and Point-of-View operator. Syntax: A Journal of Theoretical, Experimental, and Interdisciplinary Research 15-1: 1–24. [SSCI / A&HCI]

Research Awards

[2025-2027] Recruiting Outstanding and Excellent Scholars Award, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwa
[2023-2025] Recruiting Outstanding and Excellent Scholars Award, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan
[2021-2023] Recruiting Outstanding and Excellent Scholars Award, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan
[2018-2019] Recruiting Outstanding and Excellent Scholars Award, Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan
[2018] Start-up Research Funding, National Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
2017 Academia Sinica Research Award for Junior Research Investigators
[Nov/2014 – Nov/2015] Junior Faculty Research Funding, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan
[Sep/2012 – Aug/2013] Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
[2011 – 2013] Studying Abroad Scholarship, Ministry of Education, Taiwan
[Jan/2012 – Aug/2012] Humanities Candidacy Research Fellowship, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor