LSA 2009

Hilary Chappell is currently Chair Professor in Linguistic Typology of East Asia at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. Her main research is on the typology of Sinitic languages with the goal of gauging the extent of their grammatical diversity. This involves a comparison of construction types such as the passive, comparative or the causative, using transcriptions of discourse data from the ten principal language groups within the Sinitic taxon (Southern Min, Cantonese, Shanghainese, Beijing Mandarin, Hakka etc). She is also currently undertaking research on the syntax of a highly conservative Chinese language, Waxiang, with recent field trips to western Hunan province in China where it is spoken.

1978: Bachelor of Arts/Asian Studies (First class Honours degree), Australian National University
1984: Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics, ANU
1984-1986: Humboldt Fellow, University of Cologne
1987-1988: Fulbright Fellow, University of California at Santa Barbara / University of Southern California