[1][2] Bril completed her agrégation in 1977, subsequently working as an English teacher between 1978 and 1993, then as Assistant Professor (Maître de Conférences) at Tours University between 1998 and 2001.

[2][3] Her doctoral degree was awarded in 1995 by Paris Diderot University for a book-length treatment of utterance structure in the Austronesian language Nêlêmwa.

Bril’s research focuses on the description and analysis of Austronesian languages, including Nêlêmwa, Zuanga, and Amis, from synchronic, diachronic and typological perspectives.

In order to achieve this, she has carried out extensive and original linguistic fieldwork on these underdescribed and endangered languages.

[4] The linguistic phenomena she has investigated include coordination and subordination, complex predicates, reciprocals, middles, symmetrical voice, valency, grammatical number, and possession.