Faculty of Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies
University of Social Sciences and Humanities, VNU-Hanoi
My name is Thanh Viet Cao (Vietnamese: Cao Thành Việt /kaːwᴬ¹ tʰɛŋᴬ² vietᴰ²/). I obtained my PhD degree from the Institute of Linguistics at National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan, in May 2025. Before that, I got both my BA and MA in linguistics from the Faculty of Linguistics at University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University (VNU, Hanoi). My main research interests include semantics, pragmatics, and syntax of classifier languages in light of formal approaches, i.e., model-theoretical semantics and comparative syntax within the framework of generative grammar. My PhD dissertation (title: Quantification and Plurality at the Interface: The case of Vietnamese) mainly touches upon strategies of universal quantification (involving the four D-quantifiers tất-cả, cả, mọi, and mỗi) and plurality (involving các and những) in Vietnamese from compositional and cross-linguistic perspectives. Besides, language contact among MSEA languages from historical linguistics aspects, especially the historical lexicology (i.e., etymology) of the Vietnamese lexicon, has always drawn my attention since the first days I engaged with linguistics.
November 1, 2025: officially joined (back) the Faculty of Linguistics and Vietnamese Studies at USSH, VNU-Hanoi (i.e., my alma mater before NTHU)
May 14, 2025: successfully defended PhD dissertation! (Download full text here)
May 1, 2025: SEALS 33 (2024) proceeding paper is out!
Thanh Viet Cao (2026), Sino-Vietnamese linguistic early contact and the three-stage hypothesis, Taiwan Journal of Linguistics 24(1):103-155. DOI 10.6519/TJL.202601_24(1).0003. (Download here)
ABSTRACT
The three-stage hypothesis about the relative chronology of tonogenesis in Chinese and Vietic posited in Alves (2018a) has raised significant hypotheses concerning the Early Sino-Vietnamese strata and their Sinitic etyma. On the basis of an extended dataset, this study aims to reexamine the relevant hypothesis, particularly the Vietnamese marked Pingsheng (i.e., ngang/huyền) reflexes for Middle Chinese Qusheng items, and modify it with more phonological evidence and implications, including a finer-grained stratification of Sinitic loans found in Vietnamese.
Logic stuff: browse the materials here.
LaTeX stuff: logic-oriented here & linguistics-oriented here.
IPA stuff: download Keyman here.
State-of-the-art findings in formal linguistics: check LingBuzz.