Draft:Rint Sybesma

Rint Sybesma (Rintje Pieter Eelke Sybesma; born 1960). is a Dutch Sinologist. He is Professor of Chinese linguistics at Leiden University (the Netherlands), specializing in Chinese syntax. He was educated in the Netherlands (Leiden University) and China (Liaoning University). On 1 September 2022, Sybesma was appointed Director of Education of the Leiden University Institute for Area Studies.

Scientific work
Sybesma’s research focuses on Chinese syntax (sentence structure). He works mainly within the Generative grammar tradition. Sybesma has worked on the linguistic properties of Chinese languages in comparison with other languages (macrovariation)  (e.g., English, Dutch, Kwa, Bantu, etc.) as well as variation within Chinese languages (microvariation) (e.g., Mandarin, Min, Wu, Xiang, Yue, etc.)

More specifically, Sybesma’s main research interests in Chinese syntax lie in several domains of Chinese grammar. In the nominal domain he has written articles on the role of classifier and expressions of definiteness (Cheng & Sybesma 1999). In the verbal domain he works on resultatives, inner aspect and the degree of analyticity of the Chinese verb phrase (Sybesma 1999). Sybesma has also addressed the issue of aspect and tense in Chinese, describing how a language without morphological reflexes of these categories encodes them nevertheless (Sybesma 2007). Finally, Sybesma addresses the meaning and compositionality of sentence-final particles (Sybesma & Li 2007), a wide-spread grammatical category in Chinese languages. He was the Editor-in-Chief of The Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics (ECLL), published by Brill in 2016.

Sybesma has been awarded several research grants. He was Principal Investigator on a project called “Functional categories in analytic languages” (2008-2012, funded by Dutch Research Council (NWO)) ; this project investigated which functional categories are overtly realized in so-called “analytic” languages and to find out whether they form a natural class.

Literary translations and popularization of Chinese languages and culture
Sybesma participates in promoting Chinese languages and culture to the general public. In addition to writing in newspapers, magazines and websites on language issues relevant to the society at large, he has written books about linguistics for a general audience.

Sybesma is a translator of modern Chinese literature, including both fiction and poetry, into the Dutch and Frisian language (including seven books, by Chen Yingzhen, Zhang Xianliang, Wang Anyi, Yu Dafu).

Translation works

 * 2006. Chen Yingzhen, Mijn eerste opdracht, Het Trage Vuur, nr. 36. [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch; with afterword written with Thomas Hun-tak Lee.]


 * 2006. Wang Meng, “Polemitis”. De Tweede Ronde, Lente 2006, 34-35. [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 2003. Kang Baiqing, “De vrouw”. Het Trage Vuur 22, 70. [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 1998. Chen Mengjia, “Wilde ganzen”. Het Trage Vuur 6, 27. [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 1998. Feng Zhi, “Slang”. Het Trage Vuur 6, 28. [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 1997. Gedichten van Xu Zhimo. Vijfhonderd opzichters van vijfhonderd bibliotheken doven de lichten, samengest. door W. Idema, Leiden, Plantage, p. 56-66. [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 1996. X.L. Zhang, De boom van wijsheid. De Geus, Breda. [Fragment opgenomen in Een lier van prikkeldraad, Novib, 1996.] [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 1995, De Geus, Breda. Geuzenpocket 48.] [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 1993, De Geus, Breda, Geuzenpocket 13, dezelfde titel, zonder het nawoord.] [Een fragment, getiteld “Donkere verleiding” is, overigens zonder vermelding van de vertaler, opgenomen in Shanghai blues. China na de dood van Mao, samenst. Jannie van der Leer, Byblos, Amsterdam, 2002, p. 59-72.] [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 1993. Wang Anyi, Een dorpsvertelling uit Klein-Bao. De Geus, Breda. [Geuzenpocket 20.] [Pocketuitgave van het titelverhaal en “De tijd gaat verder” dat eerder in De staart van de vlieger was verschenen; tweede verhaal is grondig herzien.] [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 1992. X.L. Zhang, Doodgaan went. Unieboek/Het Wereldvenster, Houten. [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 1990. X.L. Zhang, Eethuisje Amerika. Unieboek/Het Wereldvenster, Houten. [With afterword.] [Pocketuitgave


 * 1990. Wang Anyi, Een dorpsvertelling uit Klein-Bao. Unieboek/Het Wereldvenster, Houten. [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 1989. Xu Zhimo, “De mens een beest”. Gedichten voor China. De Geus, Breda, p. 45. [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 1989. Sun Yi, “Draak”. Gedichten voor China. De Geus, Breda, p. 83. [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 1989. Hou Dejian, “Mooie Chinezen”. Gedichten voor China. De Geus, Breda, p. 87. [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 1989. [anonieme muurkrant], Gedichten voor China. De Geus, Breda, p. 88. [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 1989. Gu Cheng & Yang Lian, “Ter nagedachtenis”. Gedichten voor China. De Geus, Breda, p. 90-92. [tr. from Mandarin into Dutch]


 * 1988. X.L. Zhang, De vrouw in het riet. Unieboek/Het Wereldvenster, Houten. [Met nawoord.] [Pocketuitgave juni]

Service to the global sinological community
Sybesma was the president of the European Association of Chinese Linguistics (2003-2007). He was also a member of the executive committee of The International Association of Chinese Linguistics (1995-1997). Both associations are dedicated to the promotion of Chinese linguistics, the former within Europe and the latter internationally. He is currently at the editorial board of the following journals (list not exhaustive):  Concentric, Syntax , International Journal of Chinese Linguistics , Lingua Sinica , and Studies in Chinese Linguistics

Sybesma and Lisa Cheng were the chief editors of Glot International between 1996 and 2003 (See, e.g., Cheng & Sybesma, eds., 2000).

Selected linguistic publications

 * Sybesma, Rint. The mandarin VP. 1999. Springer. (online)
 * Cheng, Lisa L.-S. and Rint Sybesma. 1999. Bare and not-so-Bare Nouns and the Structure of NP. Linguistic Inquiry 30.4: 509-542. (online)
 * The first glot international state-of-the-article book : the latest in linguistics. 2000. (Edited by Lisa Cheng and Rint Sybesma.)
 * Sybesma, Rint. 2007. Whether we tense-agree overtly or not. Linguistic Inquiry 38.3: 580-587.(online)


 * Sybesma, Rint and Boya Li. 2007. The dissection and structural mapping of Cantonese sentence final particles. Lingua 117: 1739-1783.(online)


 * Sybesma, Rint and Joanna Ut-Seong Sio. 2008. D is for Demonstrative. Investigating the position of the demonstrative in Chinese and Zhuang. The Linguistic Review 25: 253-478.(online)


 * Cheng, Lisa, Jenny Doetjes, Rint Sybesma and Roberto Zamparelli. 2012. On the Interpretation of Number and Classifiers. Rivista di Linguistica 24.2: 175-194. (Special Issue: The Structure and Interpretation of Nouns and Noun Phrases, Part II).(online)


 * Cheng, Lisa, and Rint Sybesma. 2015. Mandarin. In: Kiss T. & Alexiadou A. (Eds.) Syntax – Theory and Analysis. An international handbook. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 1518-1559.


 * Sybesma, Rint. (Eds.). 2016. Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics (5 Volumes). Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-18643-9 (publisher's page, online)


 * Sybesma, Rint. 2021. Voice and little v and VO-OV word-order variation in Chinese languages. Syntax 24(1): 44-77.(online)


 * Sybesma, Rint. 2022. Four different structures for locative resultatives. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 50(1): 277-289. (online)