Research
I am a syntactician interested in morphosyntactic theory, variation, and change. I have worked on topics including nominalisation, case assignment, reduplication, pronominal structure, and contact-induced change.
In my work, I draw on original data collected through a range of methodologies, including fieldwork, collaborative resource creation, corpus development, and (psycho)linguistic experiments.
My research has investigated languages including Kalmyk Oirat, Khalkha Mongolian, Korean, Megrelian, Singapore English (Singlish), and Turkish.
Works
- 2026. Young Singaporean English: Current developments in CSE morphosyntax in a digital world. Jakob Leimgruber, WIlkinson Gonzales, Mohamed Hafiz, Jun Jie Lim, Nick Huang, & Mie Hiramoto. Cambridge Elements in World Englishes. doi.org/10.1017/9781009634717
- Under review. Asymmetries in plural wh-reduplication in Korean and beyond. Seoyeon Jang & Jun Jie Lim.
- 2026. Small nominalized clauses in Khalkha Mongolian: Asymmetries in mixed extended projections. Jun Jie Lim. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 44(8). doi.org/10.1007/s11049-025-09692-2
- 2025. Sociolinguistic variation in Colloquial Singapore English sia. Mohamed Hafiz, Mie Hiramoto, Jakob Leimgruber, Wilkinson Gonzales, & Jun Jie Lim. World Englishes, 44(1–2), 218–236. doi.org/10.1111/weng.12700
- 2024. Subject agreement in Kalmyk: Implications for nominative case assignment. Jun Jie Lim. Acta Mongolica, 22(606), 126–139. doi.org/10.22353/am.202401.10
- 2024. Clause-final adverbs in Colloquial Singapore English revisited. Jun Jie Lim, Mie Hiramoto, Wilkinson Gonzales, & Jakob Leimgruber. Journal of English Linguistics, 52(4), 321–345. doi.org/10.1177/00754242241278838
- 2024. Adverbial confirm in Singlish: Insights from a text message corpus. Jun Jie Lim, Mohamed Hafiz, WIlkinson Gonzales, Jakob Leimgruber, & Mie Hiramoto. Asian Englishes, 26(3), 648–665. doi.org/10.1080/13488678.2024.2398853
- 2023. Is it in Colloquial Singapore English: What variation can tell us about its conventions and development. Wilkinson Gonzales, Mie Hiramoto, Jakob Leimgruber, & Jun Jie Lim. English Today, 39(4), 243–256. doi.org/10.1017/S0266078422000141
- 2023. Corpus of Singapore English Messages (CoSEM): Description and explorations. WIlkinson Gonzales, Mie Hiramoto, Jakob Leimgruber, & Jun Jie Lim. World Englishes, 42(2), 371–388. doi.org/10.1111/weng.12534
- 2021. “You don’t ask me to speak Mandarin, okay?”: Ideologies of language and race among Chinese Singaporeans. Jun Jie Lim, Spencer Chen, & Mie Hiramoto. Language & Communication, 76, 100–110. doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2020.10.003
- 2021. Ethnic and gender variation in the use of Colloquial Singapore English discourse particles. Jakob Leimgruber, Jun Jie Lim, WIlkinson Gonzales, & Mie Hiramoto. English Language and Linguistics, 25(3), 601–620. doi.org/10.1017/S1360674320000453
- 2025. Functional expansion and syntactic change in Colloquial Singapore English Is it. Mie Hiramoto, Wilkinson Gonzales, Jakob Leimgruber, Jun Jie Lim, & Mohamed Hafiz. In S. Rüdiger, S. Leuckert, & J. R. E. Leimgruber (Eds.), World Englishes and social media: Platforms, variation, and meta-discourse, 15–39. Bloomsbury. [link]
- 2022. From Malay to Colloquial Singapore English: A case study of sentence-final particle sia. Mie Hiramoto, WIlkinson Gonzales, Jakob Leimgruber, Jun Jie Lim, & Jessica Choo. In A. Ngefac, H. Wolf, & T. Hoffmann (Eds.), World Englishes and creole languages today: Existing paradigms and current trends in action, 117–130. Lincom. [link]
- To appear. Containment matters for dependent case assignment: Evidence from Khalkha Mongolian. Jun Jie Lim. Proceedings of NELS 56.
- To appear. Dissociating genitive case from possessor agreement: Evidence from Khalkha Mongolian nominalised clauses. Jun Jie Lim. Proceedings of WAFL 16.
- 2025. Two positions for wh‑reduplication: Evidence from Korean and Turkish. Jun Jie Lim & Seoyeon Jang. In Michael Barrie (Ed.), Proceedings of WAFL 18, 131–140. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 97.
- 2025. Nominalisations without DP: Dissociating genitive case assignment and possessor agreement. Jun Jie Lim. In Nikolas Webster, Ya˘gmur Kiper, Richard Wang, & Sichen Larry Lyu (Eds.), Proceedings of WCCFL 41, 390–399. Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
- 2024. Finiteness, agreement and subject case in two varieties of Mongolian. Jun Jie Lim. In Erdene Tumen-Ochir, Julia Sinitsyna, & Shigeru Miyagawa (Eds.), Proceedings of WAFL 17, 107–118. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 94.
- 2024. ACAL in SoCAL: Selected papers from the 53rd Annual Conference on African Linguistics. Yaqian Huang, Nina Hagen Kaldhol, Jun Jie Lim & Anthony Struthers-Young. (Eds.). Berlin: Language Science Press. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11189852
- To appear. Ямаран учрар темән җил уга үлдсмб? [Why don’t we have the Year of the Camel?] Darina Gedeeva, Ghilyana Dordzhieva, (trans.), Jun Jie Lim (trans.), & Tsonkhlaev, T. (illus.).
- 2025. Selected fieldwork materials from Bulgan sum: Part I: Songs and interviews. Ghilyana Dordzhieva, Darina Gedeeva, & Jun Jie Lim. Printed by Snowfall Press.
- 2025. Ямр учрар бөкүн җиигдг болҗ: Хальмг тууль [Why the mosquito buzzes: A Kalmyk folktale]. Darina Gedeeva, Ghilyana Dordzhieva, (trans.), Jun Jie Lim (trans.), & Gilyana Dobrovolskaya (illus.). Printed by Snowfall Press. studykalmyk.com/mosquito
- 2025+. Kalmyk Living Dictionary. Darina Gedeeva, Ghilyana Dordzhieva, Jun Jie Lim, Amber Frey, Kianna Rojas, Sina Sabet, Alana Schiffel-Golab, Carlee June Schulz, Kaylee Tran, Jasper Wu, & Chunxiao Zhang. Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages. livingdictionaries.app/kalmyk
- 2024. Corpus of Singapore English Messages (CoSEM). Wilkinson Gonzales, Mohamed Hafiz, Mie Hiramoto, Nick Huang, Jakob Leimgruber, Jun Jie Lim. github.com/wdwgonzales/CoSEM
- 2021+. UCSD Field Methods: Todos Santos Cuchumatán Mam, 2020–21. Angela Ramirez, Emily Clem, Sihun Jung, Jun Jie Lim & Milad Mayel. California Language Archive. dx.doi.org/doi:10.7297/X2NP23GM
- 2025. (A)symmetries in the morphosyntax of embedded clauses in Khalkha Mongolian. Jun Jie Lim. Ph.D. dissertation, University of California San Diego. escholarship.org/uc/item/3x7738sf
- 2018. To move or not to move – That is the echo question. Jun Jie Lim. B.A. Honours thesis, National University of Singapore. scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/143513
Presentations
- 2027, Jan. Inclusory pronouns in two Mongolic languages: Insights into pronominal structure. Jun Jie Lim. LSA Annual Meeting 2027, San Francisco, USA.
- 2025, Oct. Containment matters for dependent case assignment: Evidence from Khalkha Mongolian. Jun Jie Lim. NELS 56, New York University, USA.
- 2025, Aug. Passives in CSE revisited: The emergence of the tio-passive. Mohamed Hafiz, Nick Huang, Wilkinson Gonzales, Mie Hiramoto, Jakob Leimgruber, & Jun Jie Lim. NWAV-AP 8, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
- 2025, Jun. Variation in clause-final adverbs in a corpus of Colloquial Singapore English. Jakob Leimgruber, Mie Hiramoto, Wilkinson Gonzales, & Jun Jie Lim. ICAME 46, Vilnius University, Lithuania.
- 2024, Aug. Two positions for wh-reduplication within DP: Evidence from Korean and Turkish. Seoyeon Jang & Jun Jie Lim. SICOGG 26 & WAFL 18, Jeonbuk National University, South Korea.
- 2024, Jun. Wh-reduplication in Korean and Khalkha Mongolian. Seoyeon Jang & Jun Jie Lim. LSA Annual Meeting 2024, New York City, USA.
- 2024, Jan. Adverbial confirm in Singlish and beyond: Insights from a text message corpus. Mohamed Hafiz, Wilkinson Gonzales, Jakob Leimgruber, Mie Hiramoto, & Jun Jie Lim. SPCL Winter Meeting, Virtual.
- 2023, Sep. Finiteness, agreement and subject case in two varieties of Mongolian. Jun Jie Lim. WAFL 17, National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar.
- 2023, Aug. Plural pronoun constructions in two varieties of Mongolian. Jun Jie Lim. International Conference on Mongolic Linguistics, National University of Mongolia, Ulaanbaatar.
- 2023, May. Nominalisations without DP: Dissociating genitive case assignment and possessor agreement. Jun Jie Lim. WCCFL 41, UC Santa Cruz, USA.
- 2022, Dec. Sia, siak, sial, siol: Variation in Colloquial Singapore English sia. Mohamed Hafiz, Mie Hiramoto, Wilkinson Gonzales, Jakob Leimgruber, & Jun Jie Lim. NWAV-AP 7, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.
- 2022, Sep-Oct. Dissociating genitive case from possessor agreement: Evidence from Khalkha Mongolian nominalised clauses. Jun Jie Lim. WAFL 16, University of Rochester, Virtual.
- 2022, Sep. Is it is it is a problem?: The many functions of is it in Colloquial Singapore English. Mie Hiramoto, Wilkinson Gonzales, Jakob Leimgruber, & Jun Jie Lim. ICLCE 9, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia.
- 2022, Jan. Adverbial confirm in Colloquial Singapore English. Jun Jie Lim. SPCL Winter Meeting, Virtual.
- 2022, Jan. Dependent accusative case in Khalkha Mongolian: Evidence from converbal adjuncts. Jun Jie Lim. LSA Annual Meeting 2022, Washington D.C., USA.
- 2020, Jan. Sentence-final adverbs in Colloquial Singapore English revisited. Jun Jie Lim & Mie Hiramoto. SPCL Winter Meeting, New Orleans, USA.
- 2019, Dec. From Hokkien to Colloquial Singapore English: An emergence of toh in Youthspeak. Hannah Naomi Chee, Mie Hiramoto, Jessica Choo, Wilkinson Gonzales, Jakob Leimgruber, & Jun Jie Lim. English in Southeast Asia Conference, Singapore.
- 2019, Jun. (bo)jio and its variants in Singlish WhatsApp messages. Jakob Leimgruber, Wilkinson Gonzales, Jessica Choo, & Jun Jie Lim. IAWE Conference, University of Limerick, Ireland.
- 2019, Jun. “You don’t ask me to speak Mandarin, okay?”: Language ideology of Mandarin-speaking Singaporeans. Jun Jie Lim & Mie Hiramoto. IPrA Conference, Hong Kong University.
- 2019, Mar. “I needed you sia”: Emergence of a sentence-final particle in Singlish. Jessica Choo, Mie Hiramoto, Wilkinson Gonzales, Tong King Lee, Jakob Leimgruber, & Jun Jie Lim. English in Contact 2019, Kyushu University, Japan.
- 2019, Jan. Issit issit is only a tag question? Grammaticalization and pragmaticalization of issit in Singlish. Wilkinson Gonzales, Jessica Choo, Jakob Leimgruber, Mie Hiramoto, & Jun Jie Lim. SPCL Winter Meeting, New York, USA.
- 2019, Jan. Ethnic and gender variation in the CMC use of Singlish discourse particles. Jakob Leimgruber, Jessica Choo, Wilkinson Gonzales, Mie Hiramoto, & Jun Jie Lim. SPCL Winter Meeting, New York, USA.
- 2018, Aug. Colloquial Singapore English sentence-final adverbs revisited. Jun Jie Lim & Mie Hiramoto. Methods in Dialectology 16, Tokyo, Japan.
- 2026, May. An account of the plural pronoun construction in Mongolian. Jun Jie Lim. S-Babble, UC San Diego, USA.
- 2024, Sep. A progress report on Kalmyk revitalization efforts in the US. Jun Jie Lim. Language, Culture, Intercultural Communication Conference, Khovd, Mongolia.
- 2021, Feb. A configurational account of case in Khalkha Mongolian. Jun Jie Lim. SCAMS, University of Southern California, USA.
- 2021, Jun. Between transmission and diffusion: The case of sia in Singlish. Mie Hiramoto & Jun Jie Lim. Sociolinguistics Symposium 23, University of Hong Kong.
- 2021, Feb. Sentence-final adverbs in Colloquial Singapore English revisited: Increasing frequency and stabilization in a WhatsApp corpus. Mie Hiramoto, Wilkinson Gonzales, Jakob Leimgruber, & Jun Jie Lim. NWAV-AP 6, National University of Singapore.
- 2021, Oct. Panel discussant. “You don’t ask me to speak Mandarin!” Chineseness in Singapore. Panel: Who’s in and who’s out? Language identity and membership in Singapore. Jun Jie Lim. Nanyang Technological University, Virtual.
Teaching
- 2026 Spring. LING 101 Mysteries of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics.
- 2025 Fall. LING 101 Mysteries of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics.
As Instructor of Record
- 2024 Summer. LIGN 120 Morphology.
As Graduate Teaching Assistant
- 2025 Spring. LIGN 120 Morphology. Instructor: Gabriela Caballero.
- 2025 Winter. LIGN 121 Syntax I. Instructor: Alex Rodriguez Aispuro.
- 2024 Fall. LIGN 130 Semantics. Instructor: Joshua Wampler.
- 2024 Spring. LIGN 130 Semantics. Instructor: Seoyeon Jang.
- 2024 Winter. LIGN 101 Introduction to the Study of Language. Instructor: Will Styler.
- 2023 Spring. LIGN 120 Morphology. Instructor: Farrell Ackerman.
- 2023 Winter. LIGN 121 Syntax I. Instructor: Michelle Yuan.
- 2022 Fall. LIGN 121 Syntax I. Instructor: Emily Clem.
- 2022 Spring. LIGN 120 Morphology. Instructor: Michelle Yuan.
- 2022 Winter. LIGN 121 Syntax I. Instructor: Emily Clem.
- 2021 Fall. LIGN 177 Multilingualism. Instructor: Sharon Rose.
- 2021 Summer. LIGN 8 Languages and Cultures of America. Instructor: Justin McIntosh.
- 2021 Spring. LIGN 125 Syntax II. Instructor: Emily Clem.
- 2021 Winter. LIDS 19 Independent Language Study. Instructor: Grant Goodall.
- 2020 Fall. LIDS 19 Independent Language Study. Instructor: Grant Goodall.