Masaya Yoshida

Currently, an ESRC postdoctoral fellow at

Psychology, PPLS,

The University of Edinburgh

y-masaya_at_ta2.so-net.ne.jp

 

About me

The focus of my research is on aspects of syntactic representations both in static knowledge of language and in real time sentence processing. The studies I have carried out so far attempted to integrate work in theoretical and typological syntax and experimental psycholinguistics in order to reveal representations of sentence structures built in real time and mechanisms working behind online sentence processing.

  • Research Interests
    • Psycholinguistics: Sentence Processing (Syntactic prediction in online sentence processing)
    • Syntax: Cross-Linguistic Studies on Island Constraints, Ellipsis Phenomena (the syntax of sluicing and gapping)

     

Academic Background

  • University of Maryland, College Park, MD. PhD. in Linguistics. 2006
  • Sophia University, Tokyo, M.A. in Linguistics: 2001.
  • Meiji Gakuin University, Tokyo. B.A. in English Literature: 1998.

Papers and Publications

PhD.Thesis, Major and Minors Papers

  • Masaya Yoshida (2006) Constraints and Mechanisms in Long-Distance Dependency Formation. PhD. Dissertation. University of Maryland, College Park.
  • Masaya Yoshida (2004) Relative Clause Prediction in Japanese. First Generals Examination Paper.(Major area of sepecialization)
  • Masaya Yoshida (2004) The Specificity Condition: PF-condition or LF-condition? Second Generals Examination Paper (Minor area of specialization)

Jounal Articles

Published

  • Nina Kazanina, Ellen Lau, Moti Lieberman, Masaya Yoshida & Colin Phillips. The Effect of Syntactic Constraints on the Processing of Backwards Anaphora. Journal of Memory and Language, Vol. 56, 384–409.
  • Hajime Ono, Masaya Yoshida, Sachiko Aoshima & Colin Phillips, Processing Exclamatives; Different from Interrogatives? in Ninchi Kagaku [Cognitive Studies: Bulletin of the Japanese Cognitive Science Society], Vol. 13, No 3 (Sep. 2006)
  • Diogo Almeida & Masaya Yoshida, A Problem for the Preposition Stranding Generalization. Linguistic Inquiry, Vol. 38, No 2 (Spring 2007).

    Under Revision

  • Masaya Yoshida, Antecedent Contained Sluicing. A manuscript submitted to Linguistic Inquiry.

Manuscripts

  • Masaya Yoshida, Gappin in NP
  • Masaya Yoshida, On the Syntax of Nominal Conditionals
  • Masaya Yoshida, On the Syntax of Conditional Clauses in Japanese
  • Masaya Yoshida, Why Ellipsis but not Otherwise?: The Syntax of Why-Stripping

Conference Presentations, Posters and Proceedings

Upcoming presentations

  • Masaya Yoshida, On the syntax of conditional topics in Japanese. The paper to be presented at 5th Workshop on Altaic Formal Linguistics (WAFL 5), SOAS, University of London, London, UK. May 2008
  • Masaya Yoshida & Ángel J. Gallego, Phases and Ellipsis. The paper to be presented at 27th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL27), UCLA, Los Angels, CA, USA. May 2008.
  • Masaya Yoshida & Michael Walsh Dickey, Active dependency formation for adjunct wh- phrases, Poster to be presented at The 21st Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill, NC. March 2008.
  • Masaya Yoshida & Michael Walsh Dickey, Prediction in parsing: Either syntactic or semantic. Poster to bepresented at The 21st Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill, NC. March 2008.
  • Rachel Baker, Celina Troutman, Melissa Baese, Masaya Yoshida & Michael Dickey, 'Either' prediction 'or' local attachment: Competing effects during on-line comprehension. Poster to be presented at The 21st Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Chapel Hill, NC. March 2008.

    Past Presentations

    • Masaya Yoshida & Ángel J. Gallego, Phases and Ellipsis. The paper to be presented at "Local Modelling of Non-Local Dependencies in Syntax", Workshop, 30th meeting of the German Linguistic Society (DGfS). Universität Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany. March 2008.
    • Chizuru Nakao & Masaya Yoshida (2006)“Not-so-propositional” Islands and Their Implications on Swiping. In the Proceedings of Western Conference on Linguistics (WECOL).
    • Chizuru Nakao, Hajime Ono, & Masaya Yoshida (2006) When a Complement PP Goes Missing: A Study on the Licensing of Swiping. The Proceedings of The 25th. West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 25).
    • Masaya Yoshida, Sachiko Aoshima, Hajime Ono & Colin Phillips (2006) Conditionals and Long- Distance Dependency Formation in Japanese. Poster presented at The 19th Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. City University of New York, NY. March.
    • Hajime Ono, Masaya Yoshida, Sachiko Aoshima & Colin Phillips (2006) Real-Time Processing of Japanese Exclamatives and the Strength of Locality Conditions. Poster to be presented at The 19th Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference. City University of New York, NY. March.
    • Masaya Yoshida (2005) Sometimes Smaller is Better: Sluicing, Gapping and Semantic Identity. Paper presented at NELS 36 at Univerity of Massachusetts, Amherst.
    • Sachiko Aoshima, Colin Phillips & Masaya Yoshida (2005) The Source of the Bias for Longer Filler-Gap Dependencies in Japanese. Paper presented at The 18th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. At University of Arizona, Tucson.
    • Masaya Yoshida (2005) The rightward movement analysis of gapping in NP and its structural implications. Paper presented at The 24th West Coast Coference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 24). At Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
    • Chizuru Nakao & Masaya Yoshida (2005) Japanese Sluicing as a specificational pseudo-cleft. Paper presented at Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics. At Keio University, Tokyo, Japan.
    • Nina Kazanina, Ellen Lau, Moti Lieberman, Colin Phillips & Masaya Yoshida (2005) Constraints on Coreference in the Online Processing of Backwards Anaphora. Poster presented at The 18th Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference at University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
    • Chun-Chien Hsu, Colin Phillips & Masaya Yoshida (2005) Cues for Head-Final Relative Clauses in Chinese. Poster presented at The 18th Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference at University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona.
    • Masaya Yoshida, Sachiko Aoshima& Colin Phillips (2004) Relative Clause Prediction in Japanese. Paper presented at The 17th Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference at University of Maryland, College Park.
    • Nina Kazanina, Ellen Lau, Moti Lieberman, Colin Phillips & Masaya Yoshida (2004) Use Of Grammatical Constraints In The Processing of Backwards Anaphora. Paper presented at The 17th Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference at University of Maryland, College Park.
    • Sachiko Aoshima, Masaya Yoshida & Colin Phillips (2004) The Real-time Application of Structural Constraints on Binding in Japanese. Poster presented at The 17th Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference at University of Maryland, College Park.
    • Hajime Ono, Masaya Yoshida, Sachiko Aoshima & Colin Phillips (2004) Japanese Exclamatives and the Strength of Locality Conditions in Sentence Generation. Poster presented at The 17th Annual CUNY Sentence Processing Conference at University of Maryland, College Park.
    • Masaya Yoshida (2003) The Specificity Condition: PF-condition or LF-condition? Paper Presented at WCCFL XXII 2003 at University of California, San Diego.
    • Masaya Yoshida (2002) When negative statements are easier: processing of polarity items in Japanese. Poster presentet at CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. at City University of New York, New York, March 2002.
    • Masaya Yoshida, and Tetsuya Sano (2001) Psycolinguistic Studies on Japanese Head Internal Relative Clauses. in M. Cristina Cuervo, Daniel Harbour, Ken Hiraiwa, and Shinichiro Ishihara (eds). Proceedings of Formal Approaches to Japanese Linguistics 3 (FAJL3), MIT Working Papers in Linguistics #41.

Colloquium Talks

  • Masaya Yoshida, Mechanisms and Constraints in Long-Distance Dependency Formation. Talk at the Linguistics Colloquium Series at Kings College London, London, UK. December 2007
  • Masaya Yoshida, Gapping in NP. Talk at the Linguistics Colloquium Series at University of Chicago, Chicago, IL. April 2007.
  • Masaya Yoshida, Problems of Representations in Sentence Processing. Talk at the Linguistics Colloquium Series at University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC. April 2007.
  • Masaya Yoshida, Mechanisms and Constraints in Long-Distance Dependency Formation. Talk at the Linguistics Colloquium Series at North Western University, Evanston, IL. November 2006
  • Masaya Yoshida, Constraints and Mechanisms in Long-Distance Dependency Formation. Talk at the Linguistics Colloquium Series at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada, May 2006

Invited and Other Presentations

  • Masaya Yoshida, In Search of Gapped Structures. Paper presented at The First UMD– UFRJ Meeting on Syntax and Neuroscience of Language, Federal University of Rio de. Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, January 2006.
  • Diogo Almeida & Masaya Yoshida, Sluicing in Brazilian Portuguese and Preposition Stranding Generalization. Paper presented at The First UMD–UFRJ Meeting on Syntax and Neuroscience of Language, Federal University of Rio de. Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, January 2006.
  • Masaya Yoshida, The Rightward Movement Analysis of Gapping in NP and Its Structural Implications. Paper presented at 3rd. ECO-5 Student Conference, at Harvard University, Boston, MA. 2005
  • Chizuru Nakao & Masaya Yoshida, Japanese Sluicing as a Specificational Pseudo-Cleft. Paper presented at 3rd. ECO-5 Student Conference, at Harvard University, Boston, MA. 2005

 

Current Projects

-Sentence Processing

  • Either-or and Syntactic Prediction in Online Sentence Processing. (with Mike Walsh Dickey (University of Pittsburgh)) {Main experiments done, Winter 2007; to be presented as a poster at 21st CUNY conference}
  • Adjunct Filler-Gap Dependencies (with Mike Walsh Dickey (University of Pittsburgh)) {First experiment done, Winter 2007; to be presented as a poster at 21st CUNY conference}
  • Syntactic Prediction and Locality Bias in Online Sentence Processing (with Rachel Baker, Melissa Baese, Celina Troutman (Northwestern University) & Mike Walsh Dickey (University of Pittsburgh)) {First experiment done, Winter 2007; to be prsented as a poster at 21st CUNY conference}
  • Syntactic Prediction in Sluicing (with Mike Walsh Dickey (University of Pittsburgh)) {First online experiment underway}
  • Either and the Prediction of or (with Patrick Sturt (The University of Edinburgh)) {First experiment underway}
  • Binominal Each and the Representation of Number in Online Sentence Processing (with Patrick Sturt (The University of Ediburgh))
  • Either-or and Syntactic Prediction in German (with Caroline Engstler (Northwestern University))
  • Incremental Processing of Relative Clauses (with Patrick Sturt (The University of Edinburgh))
  • The Prediction of Verb-Forms in Japanese (with Patrick Sturt (The University of Edinburgh))
  • Classifier Mismatch Effects and Relative Clause Prediction in Japanese (with Patrick Sturt (The University of Edinburgh))
  • Constraints on "Gap-Filler" Dependency Formation in Japanese (with Tomohiro Fujii (Nanzan University) & (with Patrick Sturt (The University of Edinburgh)))

-Syntax

  • The Syntax of Conditional Clauses in Japanese
  • The Syntax of Conditional Adverbs in Japanese
  • The Syntax of Why-Stripping
  • Gapping in NP
  • Antecedent Contained Sluicing
  • The Syntax of Swiping and Rightward PP-Shift (with Chizuru Nakao (University of Maryland)& Hajime Ono (Hiroshima University))
  • Weak Crossover under Sluicing (with Akira Omaki (University of Maryland))