Publications

  • Minai, U., Ito, K., & Royer, A. (2023). Comprehension and processing of the universal quantifier in children, adolescents and adults. Journal of Child Language, 1-21, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0305000923000533. link
  • Madden, A. & Minai, U. (2023). Acquisition of Japanese Negative Polarity Item Licensing by English-speaking Second Language Learners. Japanese/Korean Linguistics 30.
  • Nobuki, A. & Minai, U. (2022). The role of the contrastive topic -wa in the felicity judgment of negation in Japanese. Japanese/Korean Linguistics 29. link
  • Ishikawa, M. & Minai, U. (2022). Children's comrehension of possessive and adversative passives in Japanese: Examining alternating hypotheses. BUCLD 46 Proceedings.  link
  • Minai, U. (2020). Book review: T. Ionin and M. Rispoli, Three streams of generative language acquisition research. First Language, DOI: 10.1177/0142723720905445 link
  • Covey, L., Coughlin, C., & Minai, U. (2018). An eye-tracking study examining the role of question-answer congruency in children's comprehension of only: a preliminary report. Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics Volume 39. link
  • Yang, X., Minai, U., & Fiorentino, R. (2018). Context-sensitivity and individual differences in the derivation of scalar implicature. Frontiers in Psychology 9:1720. DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01720. link
  • Krueger, B., Storkel, H., & Minai, U. (2018). The influence of misarticulations on children's word identification and processing. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, DOI:10.1044/2017_JSLHR-S-16-0379. link
  • Chu, C.-Y., & Minai, U. (2018). Children's demonstrative comprehension and the role of non-linguistic cognitive abilities: a cross-linguistic study. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 47(6), Special Issue: Experimental Approaches to the Study of Child Language: A Cross-linguistic Perspective, 1343-1368. DOI: 10.1007/s10936-018-9565-8 link
  • Minai, U., Gustafson, K., Fiorentino, R., Jongman, A., & Sereno, J. (2017). Fetal rhythm-based language discrimination: A biomagnetometry study. NeuroReport 28(10), 561-564, DOI: 10.1097/WNR.0000000000000794.  link
  • Minai, U. & Nadtochiy, N. (2017). Native and non-native comprehension of the Japanese existential quantifier nanko-ka. In Nakayama, M. & Su, Y.-C. (eds.) Studies in Chinese and Japanese Language Acquisition: In Honor of Stephen Crain, pp. 197-219. John Benjamins. pdf
  • Minai, U. (2017). Yooji-no imikaishaku-wa naze otona-no sore to wa kotonaruno-ka (Why is meaning comprehension by children different from that of adults?). In Takami, K., Gyoda, I. & Ohno, H. (eds.) Hushigi-ni miti-ta kotoba no sekai (The world of language, filled with wonder), pp. 68-72. Kaitakusha. pdf
  • Connelly, P., Minai, U. & Gabriele, A. (2016). Comprehension of mimetics by adult native speakers of Japanese. Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics Volume 37, pp. 23-41.
  • Johnson, A. & Minai, U. (2016). Children's knowledge of structure-dependent semantic interactions between logical words. Language Acquisition, 23(4), 407-415, DOI: 10.1080/10489223.2016.1187611. link
  • Fiorentino, R., Naito-Billen, Y. & Minai, U. (2016). Morphological decomposition in de-adjectival nominal in Japanese: masked and overt priming evidence. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 45(3), 575-597. DOI: 10.1007/s10936-015-9349-3 link
  • Minai, U., Isobe, M. & Okabe, R. (2015). Acquisition and use of linguistic knowledge: scrambling in child Japanese as a test case. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 44(3), 287-307, DOI: 10.1007/s10936-014-9347-x link
  • Brown, R., Chu, C.-Y., Hess, G. & Minai, U. (2014). Assessing preschool children's knowledge of compounds from a logico-semantic perspective. Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics Volume 35, pp. 95-111.
  • Chu, C.-Y. & Minai, U. (2014). Comprehension of the demonstratives by Chinese-speaking preschool children. Proceedings of the 14th International Symposium on Chinese Languages and Linguistics (IsCLL-14), pp. 109-123, Institute of Linguistics, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. pdf
  • Chu, C.-Y., Gabriele, A., & Minai, U. (2014). Acquisition of quantifier scope interpretation by Chinese-speaking learners of English. Selected Proceedings of the 5th Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America (GALANA 2012), pp. 157-168, Cascadilla Press, Somerville, MA. pdf
  • Hunt III, L., Politzer-Ahles, S., Gibson, L., Minai, U., & Fiorentino, R. (2013). Pragmatic inferences modulate N400 during sentence comprehension: evidence from picture-sentence verification. Neuroscience Letters 534, 246-251. link
  • Minai, U., Jincho, N., Yamane, N., & Mazuka, R. (2012). What hinders child semantic computation: children's universal quantification and the development of cognitive control. Journal of Child Language 39, 919-956.
  • Minai, U. & Takami, N. (2012). Semantic and pragmatic meaning of the existential quantifier some in second language acquisition. Proceedings of Boston University Conference on Language Development, Volume 36, pp. 349-360, Cascadilla Press.
  • Ito, K., Jincho, N., Minai, U., Yamane, N., & Mazuka, R. (2012). Intonation facilitates contrast resolution: evidence from Japanese adults and 6-year olds. Journal of Memory and Language 66, 265-284.
  • Minai, U. & Fiorentino, R. (2010). The role of the focus operator only in children's computation of sentence meaning. Language Acquisition 17(3), 183-190.
  • Minai, U. (2008). Probing logical aspects of language development. In T. Sano, M. Endo, M. Isobe, K. Otaki, K. Sugisaki and T. Suzuki (eds.) An Enterprise in the Cognitive Science of Language: A Festschrift for Yukio Otsu, pp. 613-626. Hituzi Syobo Publishing Company, Tokyo, Japan.
  • Crain, S., Goro, T. & Minai, U. (2007). Hidden units in child language. In Schalley and Khlentzos (eds.) Mental States Volume 1: Evolution, Function, Nature, John Benjamins Publishers, Amsterdam, Netherlands.
  • Minai, U. (2007). Logico-semantic aspects of children's knowledge about the universal quantifier: new empirical evidence. In A. Belikova, L. Meroni, and M. Umeda (eds.) Proceedings of the 2nd Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America, pp. 285-296. Cascadilla Proceedings Project, Somerville, MA, USA.
  • Minai, U. (2006). Non-local dependency in child language. In Y. Suzuki, K. Mizuno and K. Takami (eds.) Gengo kagaku-no shinzui-o motomete [In Search of the Essence of Language Science]: Festschrift for Professor Heizo Nakajima on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday, Hituzi Syobo Publishing Company, Tokyo, Japan.
  • Minai, U. (2006). Direct approach to inference in child Language: a case study of every. In A. Belletti, E. Bennati, C. Chesi, E. Di Domenico and I. Ferrari (eds.) Language Acquisition and Development: Proceedings of Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition 2005, pp. 357-366. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, UK.
  • Minai, U., Goro, T. & Crain, S. (2006). Covert downward entailment in child English and Japanese. The Proceedings of the Inaugural Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America, K.U. Deen, J. Nomura, B. Schulz and B. D. Schwartz (eds.), Honolulu, HI. University of Connecticut Occasional Papers in Linguistics, 4, pp. 205-216.
  • Minai, U. & Crain, S. (2006). Semantic interactions of quantificational expressions in child language. The Proceedings of the Inaugural Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition North America, K.U. Deen, J. Nomura, B. Schulz and B. D. Schwartz (eds.), Honolulu, HI. University of Connecticut Occasional Papers in Linguistics, 4, pp. 217-228.
  • Goro, T., Minai, U. & Crain, S. (2005). Bringing out the logic in child language. In L. Bateman and C. Ussery (eds.) Proceedings of the Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, Volume 35, pp. 245-256.
  • Goro, T., Minai, U. & Crain, S. (2005). Two disjunctions for the price of only one. In A. Brugos, M. R. Clark-Cotton and S. Ha (eds.) Proceedings of Boston University Conference on Language Development, Volume 29, pp. 228-239. Cascadilla Press.
  • Minai, U., Meroni, L. & Crain, S. (2004). Children's non-local interpretation of quantification. In Y. Otsu (ed.) Proceedings of the Fifth Tokyo Conference on Psycholinguistics, pp. 255-276. Hituzi Shobo Publishing Company, Tokyo, Japan.
  • Crain, S., Meroni, L. & Minai, M. (2004). If everybody knows, then every child knows. In J. van Kampen and S. Baauw (eds.) Proceedings of the Conference on Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition 3, pp. 127-138. LOT, Utrecht.
  • Minai, U. (2000). The acquisition of Japanese passives. In M. Nakayama and C. J. Quinn (eds.) Japanese/Korean Linguistics, Volume 9, pp. 339-350. CSLI Publishers, Stanford, CA.