Hilário de Sousa

Research interest

Areal linguistics – The Far Southern China linguistic area
Aim: to clarify the direction of diffusion for various linguistic phenomena in the
region. Currently, Chinese and Southeast Asian linguists have opposite
conclusions on the direction of diffusion for certain phenomena, e.g. the lateral
fricative consonant.

Phonotactics – Typology and database of syllable-medial glides in Sinitic languages
Hypothesis: Far-Southern Sinitic languages have syllable structures where the
medial glide form an onset together with the preceding consonant. This is similar
to the consonant clusters in the neighbouring Kra-Dai languages. On the other
hand, other Sinitic languages to the north have syllable structures where the
medial glide form a unit with the following rime. (The extent of these two types of
syllable structure amongst the Sinitic languages has yet to be investigated.)

Semantic typology – Typological study of the linguistic expressions of the senses, e.g.
colour, smell, oral sensations, pain, temperature.

Interclausal morphosyntax – Typological study of switch-reference in the New Guinea
region
Hypothesis: the bulk of complexity of switch-reference system is in the Eastern
Highlands of Papua New Guinea, and switch-reference is diffused from there
through the highlands.

Other research interests:
Word order typology in Australian, Pacific, and Asian languages
Phylogentic relationships amongst languages in Asia-Pacific region
Ideophones/ expressives
Morphosyntax of expletives in languages of various typological profiles. The acquisition of the morphosyntax of expletives.
Pidgins and Creoles
Immigrant language varieties/ heritage languages
Intonation in tonal/non-tonal languages, and the acquisition and perception of tones, by speakers from tonal versus non-tonal background
Morphosyntax of taboo expressions
 

Publications

• de Sousa, Hilário. under contract. A Grammar of Southern Pinghua (Sinitic Languages of China: Typological Descriptions series). Berlin; New York: De Gruyter Mouton.
   
• Phan, John D. and Hilário de Sousa. sumbitted. “Southwestern Middle Chinese: Preliminary evidence from Hunan, Guangxi, and Sino-Vietnamese”. Submitted to Journal of Southeast Asian Linguistics Society.
   
• de Sousa, Hilário. in press. “On Pinghua, and Yue: some historical and linguistic perspectives”. Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Asian Interactions.
   
• de Sousa, Hilário. 2021. “The expansion of Cantonese in the last two centuries”. In Zhengdao Ye (ed.). The Palgrave Handbook of Chinese Language Studies. Singapore:  Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1007/978-981-13-6844-8_35-1.
   
• Majid, Asifa, Seán Roberts, Ludy Cilissen, Karen Emmorey, Brenda Nicodemus, Lucinda O’Grady, Bencie Woll, Barbara LeLan, Hilário de Sousa, Brian L. Cansler, Shakila Shayan, Connie de Vos, Gunter Senft, N. J. Enfield, Rogayah Razak, Sebastian Fedden, Sylvia Tufvesson, Mark Dingemanse, Ozge Ozturk, Penelope Brown, Clair Hill, Olivier Le Guen, Vincent Hirtzel, Rik van Gijn, Mark A. Sicoli, and Stephen C. Levinson. 2018. “Differential coding of perception in the world’s languages”. PNAS 115 (45): 11369-11376. doi:10.1073/pnas.1720419115.
   
• de Sousa, Hilário. 2017. “Pinghua (of Guangxi)”. In Rint Sybesma, Wolfgang Behr, Yueguo Gu, Zev Handel, C.T. James Huang, and James Myers (eds.). Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics, vol.3: 425–431. Leiden: Brill. doi:10.1163/2210-7363_ecll_COM_00000332.
   
• de Sousa, Hilário. 2016. “Some non-canonical switch reference systems and the fundamental functions of switch reference”. In Rik van Gijn and Jeremy Hammond (eds.). Switch Reference 2.0 (Typological Studies in Language 114): 55–92. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
   
• de Sousa, Hilário. 2015a. “Language contact in Nanning: Nanning Pinghua and Nanning Cantonese”. In Hilary Chappell (ed.). Diversity in Sinitic Languages: 157–189. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198723790.003.0007.
   
• de Sousa, Hilário. 2015b. “The Far Southern Sinitic Languages as part of Mainland Southeast Asia”. In N.J. Enfield and Bernard Comrie (eds.). Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia – The State of the Art: 356–439. Berlin; New York: De Gruyter Mouton. doi:10.1515/9781501501685-009.
   
• de Sousa, Hilário, François Langella, and N.J. Enfield. 2015. “Temperature terms in Lao, Southern Zhuang, Southern Pinghua and Cantonese”. In Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm (ed.). Linguistics of Temperature: 594 – 638. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi:10.1075/tsl.107.19sou.
   
• Chen, Yujie, Hilário de Sousa, Jian Wang, Sing Sing Ngai, Xuping Li, Weirong Chen, and Hilary Chappell. 2014. “Láibǐxí biāozhù xìtǒng jí qí zài Hànyǔ yǔfǎ yánjiū zhōng de yìngyòng [The Leipzig glossing rules and its application in the research of Chinese grammar]. Fāngyán 2014(1): 1–13.
   
• de Sousa, Hilário -). 2013. “Nánníng Shàngyáo Pínghuà de yīxiē míngcí duǎnyǔ xiànxiàng duìbǐ yánjiū” [Comparative study on some noun phrase phenomena in Nanning Shangyao Pinghua]. In Liú, Dānqīng, Léi Zhōu, and Cáidé Xuē (eds.). Hànyǔ Fāngyán Yǔfǎ Yánjiū de Xīnshìjiǎo — Dìwǔjiè Hànyǔ Fāngyán Yǔfǎ Guǒjì Xuéshù Yántǎohuì Lùnwénjí [New viewpoint on the studies of the grammar of Chinese dialects — Proceedings of the Fifth International Academic Conference on the Grammar of Chinese dialects]: 141–160. Shanghai: Shanghai Education Publishing House.
   
• de Sousa, Hilário. 2012. “Generational differences in the orientation of time in Cantonese speakers as a function of changes in the direction of Chinese Writing”. Frontiers in Cultural Psychology 3: 255. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2012.00255.
   
• de Sousa, Hilário. 2011. “Changes in the language of perception in Cantonese”. Senses and Society 6(1): 38–47. doi: 10.2752/174589311X12893982233678.
   
• de Sousa, Hilário. 2008. “The development of echo-subject markers in Southern Vanuatu”. In Timothy Jowan Curnow (ed.). Selected papers from the 2007 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. http://www.als.asn.au.
   
• de Sousa, Hilário. 2006a. “What is switch-reference? From the viewpoint of the young people’s switch-reference system in Menggwa Dla”. Te Reo 49: 39–71.
   
• de Sousa, Hilário. 2006b. “Switch-reference in a dying Language: the case of Menggwa Dla”. In Keith Allan (ed.). Selected papers from the 2005 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society. http://www.als.asn.au.