Language and Information Sciences

Website

• http://phiz.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~tanaka/index-e.html

Research Interests

My research field is theoretical linguistics (phonology and morphology). The ultimate goal of my research is to create an integrated formal model of language with cognitive and biological bases by exploring the evolution, typology, diachronic change, synchronic variation, and acquisition of language, while contemplating the current trends and future possibilities of methodology in phonology.

My current research interest lies in the following five issues: 1) formal theory and methodology in phonology, 2) biolinguistic modeling of the origin and evolution of phonology using Optimality Theory, 3) comparative study on phonological structures in Japanese and English within the framework of Optimality Theory, 4) prosodic structure as an organizing principle of phonological systems, and 5) typology of dissimilatory processes.