Junko Ito

ICM 2006, Madrid

Research interests

Phonological theory and the structure of words, in particular, as they relate to syllable theory, underspecification, and prosodic minimality.

Since my dissertation, which developed a prosodic theory of the syllable (coda condition, prosodic licensing, etc.), my work has been concerned with constraint-based phonological theory--in recent years, more specifically with an optimality-theoretic model of phonology. One empirical focus of my research has been the morphophonemics and prosody of Japanese, including compound structures and their phonological form. A secondary line of investigation concerns the structure of the phonological lexicon and its implications for the theory of grammar. Languages analyzed in some detail in my work include Japanese, Ainu, German, and Danish. For further information, please refer to my publications list and current research.