Chao Li

Chao Li is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the College of Staten Island (CSI), part of the City University of New York (CUNY) system. He earned his BA from Hebei Normal University, his MA from Peking University, and his PhD from Yale University. He joined CSI in 2007 after teaching at Peking University.

Dr. Li's research spans multiple core areas of linguistics, with a central focus on the interactions between different components of language. His primary interests include Syntax, the Syntax-Semantics Interface, Information Structure, Linguistic Typology, Morphology (particularly morphosyntax), Language Acquisition, and Sentence Processing. He approaches these domains as a unified system, developing and testing theories through cross-linguistic analysis and studies of language learning and processing.

His publications reveal a strong trend in analyzing specific syntactic and morphological constructions in East Asian and Celtic languages. His work frequently centers on Mandarin Chinese, with detailed studies on resultative constructions, the bei-passive, possessor-raising, and double-nominative structures. He also conducts typological research on causatives, resultatives, and the topic/subject prominence distinction, and has published on the verbal nouns of Celtic languages and the case-marking system of Nepali.

Dr. Li is the author of the book Mandarin Resultatives: Where Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics Meet (2008), which exemplifies his integrated approach to linguistic analysis.

He has not been recognized with any publicly listed scientific awards. There is no information available about his graduate students or any grants he may have received. His research is conducted within the linguistics department at CSI.