Alain Peyraube

Alain Peyraube is Chair Professor of Chinese Linguistics at the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS) since 2001 and Directeur de Recherche at the CNRS (Paris, France) from 1997 to 2001. He has held leadership roles as Deputy Director of the CNRS Division of Humanities and Social Sciences (1997-2001) and Director of the CNRS-EHESS Institute of East Asian Linguistics (1984-1998).

• Doctorat d’Etat (1984) and Ph.D. (1976) from Paris 7 and Paris 8 Universities

His research spans Chinese diachronic syntax and semantics, cognitive approaches to language diversity, and the typology of East Asian languages. Recent work focuses on grammaticalization, causatives, and semantic evolution in Sinitic languages.

Publications highlight trends in historical syntax, causative constructions, and cognitive linguistics. Key contributions include studies on motion events, directional complements, and volition expressions in Classical and Modern Chinese dialects.

• 1988 French Academy Stanislas Julien Prize
• 2002 Corresponding member, Academia Sinica (Taiwan)
• 2006 Member, Academia Europaea
• 2007 Honorary Professor, University of Beijing

Peyraube has advised numerous research projects and collaborated with institutions like Academia Sinica and the European Research Council. His work bridges historical linguistics and cognitive theory, emphasizing cross-linguistic comparisons and functional analysis.