Hooi Ling Soh

she/her/hers

sohxx001@umn.edu

612-624-8092

Linguistics

120 Ford Hall

224 Church St SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455

Collegiate Affiliation

Linguistics

Links

Ph.D Dissertation (Linguistics, 1998), MIT: Object Scrambling in Chinese (Advis…

MA Thesis (Linguistics, 1994), University of Calgary: Aspect and the organizati…

A central problem in linguistics is determining which part of our linguistic knowledge is innate and which is acquired through exposure to the language in our environment. Research addressing this question has focused on identifying what is universally true about human languages, on the assumption that linguistic universals are potential candidates for innate linguistic knowledge. My research addresses these broad issues by investigating the extent to which there exist universal principles governing the structure and interpretation of sentences across languages. Recent topics of my research include how aspectual information (i.e., information on the temporal perspective and internal structure of events) is represented in the mind of the speaker and how meanings of discourse particles (i.e., particles used to express the speaker’s attitude towards the content of what is uttered, or the speaker's assumption about whether the content of what is uttered is known to the other discourse participant(s)) are represented. My research has focused mainly on languages spoken in East and Southeast Asia, in particular Mandarin Chinese, Malay and Hmong.

My research has received support from the Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation, the Pacific Cultural Foundation, the Graduate School and the College of Liberal Arts of the University of Minnesota.

Educational Background & Specialties

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Educational Background

Ph.D.: Linguistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998
M.A.: Linguistics, University of Calgary, 1994

Specialties

Syntax
Syntax-Semantics Interface
Semantics

Publications

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Publications

Soh, Hooi Ling (2024). Mandarin Chinese sentence final de as a marker of private evidence. In Elin McCready and Hiroki Nomoto (eds.), Discourse Particles in Asian Languages Volume I East Asia. 67-82. Abingdon: Routledge.
Soh, Hooi Ling (2024). On the discourse particle dah in Colloquial Malay (and sudah in Sabah Malay). In Hiroki Nomoto and Elin McCready (eds.), Discourse Particles in Asian Languages Volume II Southeast Asia. 121-146. Abingdon: Routledge.
Sera, M.D., Soh, H.L., Brinderm D., Kuo, J.Y., Fuller, J.W., Hammerly, C.M., Stevens, J., Shao, R., Batteen C., Li, D., Davis, N. & Cai, W. (2023). A cross-cultural study of language and cognition: Numeral classifiers and solid object categorization. Memory and Cognition 51(3): 601-622.
Soh, Hooi Ling (2022). Negative polarity, intensification and free choice: The case of the Hmong emphatic particle li. In Proceedings of the 8th Triple A Workshop for Semantic Field Workers, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Soh, Hooi Ling (2019). Colloquial Malay discourse particle punya as a modal evidential. Oceanic Linguistics 58 (2): 386-413.
Nomoto, Hiroki and Hooi Ling Soh (2018). Malay. In The Mainland Southeast Asia Linguistic Area. Alice Vittrant and Justin Watkins (eds.). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Reese, Brian and Hooi Ling Soh (2018). Parenthetical I’m telling you as a marker of private evidence. In Proceedings of the 92nd Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA).
Soh, Hooi Ling (2016). Aspect. In Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics. Rint Sybesma, Wolfgang Behr, Gu Yueguo, Zev Handel and C.-T. James Huang (eds.). Leiden: Brill.
Soh, Hooi Ling, and Hiroki Nomoto (2015). Degree achievements, telicity and the verbal prefix meN- in Malay. Journal of Linguistics 51(1): 147-183.
Soh, Hooi Ling (2014). Aspect and tense. In The Handbook of Chinese Linguistics. C.-T. James Huang, Y. H. Audrey Li and Andrew Simpson (eds.). 126-155. Malden: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.
Fortin, Catherine and Hooi Ling Soh (2014). Blocking effects and the verbal prefix ber- in Malay and Indonesian. In Proceedings of the 20th Annual Meeting of Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association
Xiao, Yun, Liang Tao and Hooi Ling Soh (eds.). (2011). Current Issues in Chinese Linguistics. New Castle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Simpson, Andrew, Hooi Ling Soh and Hiroki Nomoto (2011). Bare classifiers and definiteness: A cross-linguistic investigation. Studies in Language 35(1): 168-193.
Soh, Hooi Ling and Hiroki Nomoto (2011). The Malay verbal prefix meN- and the unergative/unaccusative distinction. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 20(1): 77-106
Soh, Hooi Ling (2011). Phonological opacity in Malay: Its relevance for constraint evaluations in the Optimality Theory. In Kajian dan Pendidikan Bahasa: Festschrift untuk Profesor Isamu Shoho (The studies and teaching of Bahasa: A festschrift for Professor Isamu Shoho), Hiroki Nomoto et al. (eds.), 118-144. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.
Soh, Hooi Ling (2010). Voice and aspect: Some notes from Malay. In Proceedings of Workshop on Indonesian-type Voice System, 25-35. Tokyo: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
Soh, Hooi Ling (2009). Speaker presupposition and Mandarin Chinese sentence final –le: A unified analysis of the “change of state“ and the “contrary to expectation“ reading. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 27(3): 623-657.
Soh, Hooi Ling and Hiroki Nomoto (2009). Progressive aspect, the verbal prefix meN-, and stative sentences in Malay. Oceanic Linguistics 48(1): 151-175.
Soh, Hooi Ling (2008). The syntax and semantics of change/transition: Evidence from Mandarin Chinese. Theoretical and Cross-linguistic Approaches to the Semantics of Aspect, Susan Rothstein (ed.), 387-419. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Soh, Hooi Ling and Meijia Gao (2008). Mandarin sentential –le, perfect and English already. In Event Structure in Linguistic Form and Interpretation, Johannes Dí¶lling, Tatjana Heyde-Zybatow and Martin Schí¤fer (eds.), 447-473. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
Soh, Hooi Ling (2007). Ellipsis, Last Resort, and the dummy auxiliary shi “˜be’ in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistic Inquiry 38(1): 178-188.
Soh, Hooi Ling and Meijia Gao (2007). It’s over: Verbal –le in Mandarin Chinese. In The Grammar-Pragmatics Interface: Essays in honor of Jeanettee K. Gundel, Nancy Hedberg and Ron Zacharski (eds.), 91-109. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Tham, Shiao-wei and Hooi Ling Soh (2006). Discourse effects of lexical specification: the case of the Mandarin aspectual particle –le. In Proceedings of KONVENS 2006, Miriam Butt (ed.), 181-188. Konstanz, Germany: University of Konstanz.
Soh, Hooi Ling and Meijia Gao (2006). Perfective aspect and transition in Mandarin Chinese: An analysis of double –le sentences. In Proceedings of 2004 Texas Linguistics Society Conference: Issues at the Semantics-Pragmatics Interface, Pascal Denis, Eric McCready, Alexis Palmer and Brian Reese (eds.), 107-122. Somerville, Mass.: Cascadilla Press.
Soh, Hooi Ling and Jenny Yi-Chun Kuo (2005). Perfective aspect and accomplishment situations in Mandarin Chinese. In Perspectives on Aspect, Angeliek van Hout, Henriette de Swart and Henk Verkuyl (eds.), 199-216. Dordrecht: Springer.
Soh, Hooi Ling (2005). Wh-in-situ in Mandarin Chinese. Linguistic Inquiry 36(1): 143-155.
Soh, Hooi Ling (2005). Mandarin distributive quantifier GE “˜each’, the structures of double complement constructions and the verb-preposition distinction. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 14(2),155-173.
Soh, Hooi Ling (2003). Antecedent-contained deletion constructions in Mandarin Chinese. In Proceedings of North East Linguistic Society (NELS 33), Makoto Kadowaki and Shigeto Kawahara (eds), 367-378. Amherst, Mass.: GLSA Publications.
Soh, Hooi Ling (2001). The syntax and semantics of phonological phrasing in Shanghai and Hokkien. Journal of East Asian Linguistics 10(1). 37-80.
Soh, Hooi Ling (1999). Object scrambling in Chinese: A comparison with scrambling in Dutch and German. In Proceedings of North Eastern Linguistic Society (NELS 29), Volume 2, Pius Tamanji, Masako Hirotani and Nancy Hall (eds), 129-144. Amherst, Mass.: GLSA Publications.
Soh, Hooi Ling (1998). Scrambling in double complement constructions. In Proceedings of Western Conference of Linguistics (WECOL 10), Elly van Gelderen and Vida Samiian (eds), 452-467. Arizona State University, Tempe.
Soh, Hooi Ling (1998). Object scrambling in Chinese: A closer look at post-duration/frequency phrase positions. In Proceedings of North Eastern Linguistic Society (NELS 28), Volume 2, Pius Tamanji and Kiyomi Kusumoto (eds), 197-211. Amherst, Mass.: GLSA Publications.
Soh, Hooi Ling (1998). Certain restrictions on A-bar movement in Malay. In Proceedings of the Third and Fourth Meetings of Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association 1996-1999, Matthew Pearson (ed), 295-308. Department of Linguistics, University of California, Los Angeles.
Soh, Hooi Ling (1994). External arguments and ter- in Malay. In Proceedings of the 1994 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association, Volume 2, Päivi Koskinen (ed.), 535-546. Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto.

Activities

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Activities

Professional

Editorial Board: Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. December 2014 - Present
Editorial Board: Journal of East Asian Linguistics. October 2008 - Present
Standing committee: International Symposium on Malay/Indonesian Linguistics (ISMIL). July 2011 - Present

Outreach

Hmong Linguistics Reading/Research Group: The research and reading group on Hmong linguistics meets regularly over the course of the academic year. The goal of the group is to create a space for students, faculty, language teachers and community members interested in learning, reading or researching about the Hmong language to get together and to support each other. The group is open to the UMN community, researchers at other institutions, language teachers and community members. Participants should feel free to attend when they can, without committing to being there for every meeting. The activities will be responsive to the interests of the regular participants of the group. Meetings will be held via zoom. Please email sohxx001@umn.edu if you have questions or are interested in joining the group..
The UMN Hmong Corpus Project (Under development): The goal of this project is to build a publicly accessible web-based annotated corpus of the Hmong language, to be hosted by a UMN server. The corpus, which will have easy-to-use functions, will be annotated with word-for-word translations, selected grammatical information, and sentence translations in English. Once completed, the corpus will be the first such publicly accessible web-based corpus on Hmong that supports not only linguistic research but also language teaching and learning..

Research

Keynote Presentation: The 8th Triple A Workshop for Semantic Field Workers, National University of Singapore, Singapore (online). Negative polarity, intensification and free choice: The case of the Hmong emphatic particle li, June 21-27, 2021 .
Presentation: University of Minnesota community-engaged Hmong linguistics group. On the particle li in Hmong, February 2020.
Presentation: The 23rd International Symposium on Malay/Indonesian Linguistics, Banyuwangi, Indonesia. Colloquial Malay sentence final punya and preverbal modal auxiliary mesti, July 2019.
Presentation: Indiana University Linguistics Club Colloquium, On the discourse particle punya and epistemic modal auxiliary mesti in Colloquial Malay, April 20, 2018.
Presentation: The 22th International Symposium on Malay/Indonesian Linguistics, UCLA. The role of aspect in the acceptability of epistemic modals in questions: Evidence from Colloquial Malay, May 2018.
Presentation: The 92nd Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), Salt Lake City, Utah. Mandarin Chinese sentence final de as a marker of private evidence, January 2018.
Presentation: The 92nd Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America (LSA), Salt Lake City, Utah. Parenthetical I’m telling you as a marker of private evidence, January 2018 [with Brian Reese].
Keynote Presentation: The 23rd Annual Meeting of the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Tokyo, Japan. Evidentiality, modality, focus and presupposition: The case of the discourse particle punya in Colloquial Malay, June 10-12, 2016.
Invited Presentation: University of Chicago, The Morphology and Syntax Workshop. Evidentiality and modality: The case of the discourse particle punya in Colloquial Malay, November 4, 2016.
Presentation: The 20th International Symposium on Malay/Indonesian Linguistics, Melbourne, Australia. On certain distributional restrictions on the discourse particle punya in Colloquial Malay, July 2016.

Awards

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Awards

Award for Excellence in Academic Unit Service, 2023
CLA Seed Grants for Social Science Research, 2023.
CLA Seed Grants for Social Science Research, 2020.
CLA Seed Grant for Hard-to-Fund Research, 2018-2019.
Chiang Ching-Kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange Grant for Professors. Scholar Grant for the project titled New Approaches to the study of the discourse (sentence final) particle DE in Mandarin Chinese, 2016-2017.
Imagine Fund Annual Awards, 2015.

Courses

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Courses

LING 4201 Syntax I
Ling 5201 - Syntactic Theory I
Ling 5202 - Syntactic Theory II
LING 5900/8900 Topics in Linguistics (Syntax and semantics of Southeast Asian Languages)
Ling 8210 - Seminar in Syntax (Word order and scrambling; Ellipsis; The syntax of aspect; Voice and aspect)
Honors Seminar: Linguistics in the media and beyond
Ling 5001 - Introduction to Linguistics (Graduate)