Profile
Xuhui Hu is currently a Tenured Associate Professor and head of the Institute of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, School of Foreign Languages at Peking University. His research interests include syntax, morphology, and pragmatics. Dr Hu serves as vice president of Chinese Association of Formal Linguistics, Editor-in-Chief of Yuyanxue Yanjiu (Linguistic Research), and a member of the editorial board of Journal of East Asian Linguistics. He has published research papers in leading international and Chinese journals of linguistics such as Linguistic Inquiry, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Journal of Linguistics, Waiyu Jiaoxue yu Yanjiu (Foreign Language Teaching and Research), Waiguoyu (Foreign Languages), and Dangdai Yuyanxue (Contemporary Linguistics). Dr Hu has also published an English monograph with Oxford University Press (2018) and co-authored a Chinese monograph with Tsinghua University Press (2023).
Educational Experience
PhD in English Language and Literature, Nanjing University, China (2010)
PhD in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, The University of Cambridge, UK (2015)
Work Experience
2015- 2021: Assistant Professor, Institute of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Peking University
2021- present: Tenured Associate Professor, Institute of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics, Peking University
Research Interests
Syntax, morphology, and pragmatics
Teaching Courses
Syntax (compulsory course, postgraduate level);
Morphology (postgraduate level);
Pragmatics (postgraduate level);
Issues in Theoretical Linguistics (compulsory course of PhD students);
General Linguistics (compulsory course of English Department, undergraduate level);
Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (co-teacher, undergraduate and postgraduate level);
Language and Cognition (undergraduate level);
English through Western Intellectual Thoughts (undergraduate English course)
Selected Publications
Books
Hu, Xuhui. 2018. Encoding Events: Functional Structure and Variation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hu, Xuhui et al. 2023. New Development in General Linguistics. Beijing: Tsinghua University Press. (in Chinese)
Hu, Xuhui. Linguistics Through Chinese. Oxford: Oxford University Press (under contract).
Selected Journal Articles & Book Chapters
Hu, Xuhui & Joseph Perry. 2025. Multifunctionality and Contextual Realization: A Case Study in Yixing Chinese. Linguistic Variation (1).
Chen, Yifan & Xuhui Hu. 2025. Pragmatic ellipsis and its pragmatic consequences: Chinese ye-shi (‘also be’) at the syntax-pragmatics interface. East Asian Pragmatics (3).
Wang, Siyu & Xuhui Hu. 2025. ‘Arrive’ ‘to’ ‘achieve’: The morphosyntax of dao in Mandarin Chinese. Journal of East Asian Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10831-025-09309-0
Hu, Xuhui. 2024. Bundling telicity, verbal quantification, and perfective aspect: A study on lə in Yixing Chinese. Journal of Linguistics (2).
Hu, Xuhui. 2024. Language faculty and its connection with the external world: A generative approach-based exploration of the language model. Waiyu Jiaoxue Yu Yanjing (Foreign Language Teaching and Research) (3) (in Chinese).
Hu, Xuhui. 2023. Antisymmetry, Morphological Merger, and Chinese resultative compounding. Studies in Chinese Linguistics (2).
Hu, Xuhui. 2022. Same root, different categories: Encoding directions in Chinese. Linguistic Inquiry (53).
Hu, Xuhui. 2022. Property, possession, and adjectives. In P. Panagiotidis & M. Mitrovic (eds.), Ao: The Lexical Status of Adjectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Hu, Xuhui. 2022. Predicate formation in the XS-Model. In Linnaea Stockall, Luisa Marti, David Adger, Isabelle Roy & Sarah Ouwayda (eds.), For Hagit: A Celebration. QMUL Occasional Papers in Linguistics (47).
Hu, Xuhui. 2021. The Generative Constructivist Framework: Word Formation, event structures, and nominal structures. Yuyanxue Yanjiu (Linguistic Research) (31) (in Chinese).
Hu, Xuhui. & Yuchen Liu. 2021. Plural Events and the Progressive Particle in Dalad Chinese, and the Final-over- Final Condition. Journal of East Asian Linguistics (30).
Hu, Xuhui. 2020. Functional items, lexical meaning and telicity. A Parameter Hierarchy based approach to the parameters of telicity. In A. Barany et al (eds.), Clausal Architecture and Its Consequences. Synchronic and Diachronic Perspectives. Berlin: Language Science Press.
Hu, Xuhui. 2019. Chinese middles: A cross-linguistic perspective. Dangdai Yuyanxue (Contemporary Linguistics) (1) (in Chinese).
Hu, Xuhui. 2019. Middles in English and French: A minimalist parametric approach. Waiyu Jiaoxue Yu Yanjiu (Foreign Language Teaching and Research) (1) (in Chinese)
Hu, Xuhui & Perry, Joseph. 2018. The Syntax and phonology of non-compositional compounds in Yixing Chinese. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory (NLLT)(3).
Hu, Xuhui. 2018. Telicity at the syntax-lexical semantics interface. Yuyanxue Yanjiu (Linguistic Research) (25) (in Chinese)
Hu, Xuhui. (2017) The syntax of negative questions and their answers in Chinese and English. In Si, Fuzhen. (ed.) Studies on Syntactic Cartography. Beijing: Social Sciences in China Press.
Hu, Xuhui. 2016. On English resultative constructions. Waiyu Jiaoxue Yu Yanjiu (Foreign Language Teaching and Research) (6) (in Chinese).
Research Projects
1. Principal Investigator: Neo-Constructional Approach Based Studies in Grammar: With Special Reference to Yixing Dialect. National Project, National Social Science Fund of China, 2018-2022.
2. Principal Investigator: An Introduction to Morphology, Peking University Course Development Fund, 2015-2017.
3. Principal Investigator: A Minimalist Approach to Syntax-Pragmatics Interface. Peking University Humanities Research Series Publication Fund, 2016-2019.
4. Principal Investigator: Generative Constructivist Approach to Syntactic Studies. Peking University Humanities Research Series Publication Fund, 2018-2022.
5. Participant: The Generative Approach to Chinese and the Theoretical Development of Studies in Chinese Grammar in the New Era. Key National Project, National Social Science Fund of China,2018-2025. (PI: Professor SHI Dingxu)
Participant: Multiple-disciplinary Approach to Cognitive Studies, Key National Project, National Social Science Fund of China, 2013-2018. (PI: Professor ZHOU Beihai)
Academic and Administrative Service
2025-present: Head, Institute of Linguistics &Applied Linguistics, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University (Deputy Head from 2022-2025)
2022-present: Vice President, China Association of Formal Linguistics
2024-present: Chief Editor, Yuyanxue Yanjiu (Linguistic Research)
2021-present: Editorial board member, Journal of East Asian Linguistics
Honors and Awards
2025: Supervisor of Peking University Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation (PhD student: Yifan Chen)
2024: Excellent Postgraduate Teaching Award, Peking University
2023: Supervisor of Peking University Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation (PhD student: Yingyi Li)
2021: Boya Young Scholar, Peking University
2020: Wang Xuan Young Scholar Award, Peking University
2020: New Oriental Young Scholar Award, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University
2017: NG Teng Fong Excellent Young Scholar Award, Peking University
2016: Excellent Class Advisor, Peking University
