C.-T. James Huang

C.-T. James Huang is a Professor of Linguistics at Harvard University since 2001, where he has also served as Director of Graduate Studies (2002–present) and Acting Chair (2006). He previously held faculty positions at the University of California, Irvine (1989–2002), Cornell University (1985–1991), National Tsing Hua University (1983–1985), and the University of Hawai’i (1982–1983). His work focuses on formal linguistic theory, particularly syntax and its interface with semantics, with a strong emphasis on Chinese and East Asian languages.

• Ph.D. in Linguistics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 1982
• MA in Linguistics, National Taiwan Normal University, 1974
• BA in English, National Taiwan Normal University, 1971

His research spans generative syntax, the syntax-semantics interface, parametric theory, and syntactic typology. He has made significant contributions to understanding argument structure, syntactic movement, anaphora in Chinese, and the formal analysis of questions across languages. Recent work explores the analytic-synthetic macro-parameter in syntactic typology, linking it to micro-parameters in linguistic variation and change.

He has been honored with prestigious awards, including election as Academician of Academia Sinica (2016), Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America (2015), and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1988–1989). He also served as President of the International Association of Chinese Linguistics (2000–2001) and founded the Journal of East Asian Linguistics.