Address:
Department of Linguistics
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
105 Smith Building, CB#3155
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
Email: hsub [at] email.unc.edu
Hello! I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My research interests are in syntax and phonology, and occasionally their interfaces. Broadly, I study the sources of word-order variation, the effects of morpho-syntactic factors on phonological processes, and the mental representation of optionality and exceptionality in language. My recent work has examined the syntax of functional projections and head movement (in clauses and nominal expressions), generative approaches to optionality in phrasal movement, and interactions between scalar constraints and gradient symbolic representations in Harmonic Grammar.
More of my previous and ongoing work can be found on the Research page.
I pronounce my family name as [ɕy] with a rising tone in Taiwanese Mandarin, [ʃu] (like ‘shoe’) in English.
New and forthcoming papers
- Hsu, Brian and Benjamin Frey. Word order in Cherokee: information structure, thematic structure, and variability. Article manuscript [submitted draft on Lingbuzz]
- Hsu, Brian and Caitlin Smith. 2023. Idiosyncratic hiatus resolution: an argument for Gradient Harmonic Grammar. In AMP 2022 proceedings. https://doi.org/10.3765/amp.v10i0.5459
- Hsu, Brian. 2022. Gradient symbolic representations in Harmonic Grammar. Language and Linguistics Compass 16: e12473. https://doi.org/10.1111/lnc3.12473. [submitted draft]
- Hsu, Brian and Yiwen Peng. Positions of Mandarin classifiers in and out of compounds: implications for distinctness, selection, and projection. Submitted to WCCFL 39 proceedings. [submitted draft on Lingbuzz]
Recent papers
- Hsu, Brian. 2021. Harmonic Grammar in phrasal movement: an account of probe competition and blocking. In NELS 51, eds. Alessa Farinella & Angelica Hill, 237-250. Amherst: GLSA. [submitted draft on Lingbuzz]
- Hsu, Brian. 2021. Review of Rebecca Woods and Sam Wolfe (eds.) Rethinking verb second. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2020. Journal of Linguistics 57(1): 226-231. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226720000468 [accepted draft on Lingbuzz]
- Hsu, Brian. 2021. Coalescence: A unification of bundling operations in syntax. Linguistic Inquiry. 52(1): 39-87. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00372. [accepted draft on Lingbuzz]
- Hsu, Brian and Saurov Syed. 2020. Cooccurrence of nonarticle determiners as evidence for split DPs and bundled projections. Language 96(3): e114-e134. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2020.0051 [LSA open access version]
Some less recent papers
- Hsu, Brian. 2019. Exceptional prosodification effects revisited in Gradient Harmonic Grammar. Phonology 36: 225-263. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0952675719000125 [accepted draft on Lingbuzz]
- Hsu, Brian and Karen Jesney. 2018. Weighted scalar constraints capture the typology of loanword adaptation. In Proceedings of AMP 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.3765/amp.v5i0.4246.
- Hsu, Brian. 2017. Verb second and its deviations: an argument for Feature Scattering in the left periphery. Glossa 2(1): 35. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.132
- Hsu, Brian and Karen Jesney. 2017. Loanword Adaptation in Québec French: Evidence for Weighted Scalar Constraints. In Proceedings of WCCFL 34. [available online]