Ken Hiraiwa

Research Interests

My research areas of interests are:

Linguistic Typology (qualitative and quantitative)
Syntax
Linguistic Theory
Fieldwork and Endangered and Less Familar Languages
Interfaces with Syntax (Morphology, Semantics, Phonology)

Some research topics include: Clausal Architecture (CP/DP Parallelism, Articulated Clausal Structure), Syntactic Operations, A-bar phenomena (Focus, Prediate Cleft, Topic, Wh), A phenomena (Case/Agreement, movement, Merge/Agree), EPP, Spell-Out (Syntax/PF), Ellipisis, Grammaticalization, Serial Verbs, Nominalization, Ellipsis, Scrambling, Existential constructions, among others.

Some languages of interest include: Japanese, Ryukyuan languages, East Asian languages, West African languages (Gur and Kwa), Native American languages (Athabaskan), Germanic languages (Icelandic) etc.

 

Teaching

Junior Associate Professor, Meiji Gakuin University Curent–2009.
Assistant Professor of Linguistics (tenure-track), University of Victoria (BC, Canada), 2009–2008.
JSPS Research Fellow,University of Tokyo, 2008–2005.
Ph.D in Linguistics: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 2005.

 

Grants and Fellowship

2012–2010: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (No. 22720168): [3390,000 yen]
2008: University of Victoria, Internal Research Grant. "The A-bar Syntax of the Shuri Okinawan Language and Universal Grammar: A Preliminary Study". University of Victoria [$4,000].
2008-2005: JSPS Research Fellowship
2008-2005: The Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Fellows (No. 1710271): [$33,000]
2007-2005: JSPS Fellowship for Research Abroad (awarded, but declined)
2004-2003: Ken Hale Fellowship for Linguistic Field Research, MIT (used for my fiedlwork in Ghana): [$4,000]
2001: LSA Institute Fellowship. University of California, Santa Barbara, CA.: [$1,500]
2005, 2003-1999: MIT Research Fellowship.
2001-1999: Rotary Japan Foundation Fellowship (awarded, but declined)

 

Services

Editorial Board for Syntax (2012–2008)

Chief Language Editor for SSWL (The Syntactic Structures of World's Languages) (2010–2009)

 

[Ad hoc]

Book/Journal/Grant Reviewer for JEAL, LI, Lingua, NLLT, SAL, Studia Linguistica, Syntax, Mouton de Gruyter, MITWPL, NYUWPL, Gengokenkyuu, CJL/RCL, National Science Foundation (NSF), and others.

Conference Reviewer for NELS, J/K, and others.

 

Fieldwork

Dagbani (2009)
Okinawan (current-2008)
Buli (2004-2003)
Moore (2004-2003)
Gurene (2004-2003)
Dagaare (current-2003)
Kabiye (2006-2005)

 

References

Noam Chomsky (MIT)
Chris Collins (NYU)
Alec Marantz (NYU)
Akira Watanabe (U. of Tokyo)