Academic Appointments


  • Professor, East Asian Languages and Cultures
  • Professor (By courtesy), Linguistics

Administrative Appointments


  • Coordinator, Chinese program (1991 - Present)

Program Affiliations


  • Center for East Asian Studies

Professional Education


  • BA, East China Normal University, English Language and Literature (1974)
  • MA, University of Oregon, Linguistics (1984)
  • Ph.D., Cornell University, Linguistics (1988)

Current Research and Scholarly Interests


My primary research interest is in Chinese linguistics studying how linguistic forms and meanings vary systematically in different socio-cultural contexts in modern Chinese languages. My other works concern with morphosyntactic changes in the history of Chinese and pedagogical grammar in teaching Chinese as Second Language.

2023-24 Courses


Stanford Advisees


All Publications


  • The Uses of De 的 as a noun phrase marker Oxford Handbook on Chinese Linguistics Sun, C. Oxford University Press. 2015: 326–78
  • Introduction Oxford Handbook on Chinese Linguistics Wang, W., Sun, C. 2015: 19–33
  • The Grammaticalization of the BA construction: Cause and Effect in a Case of Specialization Oxford Handbook on Chinese Linguistics2015 Sun, C. 2015: 429–44
  • The pragmatics of the Chinese marker DE: WO de BABA versus WO BABA Chinese Language and Discourse Sun, C. 2014; 5 (1): 7-24
  • Grammar for Chinese as a Second Language Journal of International Chinese Teaching and Research Sun, C. 2014: 43-47
  • Aspectual marker: Issue of ZHE grammaticalization in the history of Chinese and Wu dialects Journal of Chinese Linguistics Long, G., Sun, C. 2013; 392-417: 392-417
  • Aspectual classification of Mandarin Chinese verbs: A perspective of scale structure Language and Linguistics Peck, J., Lin, J., Sun, C. 2013; 14 (4): 663-700
  • A copula analysis of SHI in the Chinese cleft construction Language and Linguistics Zhan, F., Sun, C. 2013; 14 (4): 755-89