Ryo Otoguro

Ryo Otoguro is a Professor at Waseda University's Faculty of Law, specializing in theoretical linguistics. He holds a PhD from the University of Essex and has been at Waseda since 2009, progressing from Assistant Professor to Professor. His research focuses on Lexical-Functional Grammar, constraint-based approaches, and linguistic typology, with particular emphasis on morphology-syntax interfaces across languages including Japanese, Germanic, and Romance languages.

His research examines case systems, agreement phenomena, verb inflection, modality, and negation through formal linguistic frameworks. Otoguro develops models connecting conceptual structures with linguistic representations using mathematical functions, contributing to theories of language evolution from primitive to complex grammatical systems.

Otoguro has received the British Government Overseas Research Students Award (2003) and secured multiple JSPS grants including studies on agreement phenomena (2017-2020), verb inflection (2014-2017), and modality (2011-2013). As Director of Waseda's Institute for the Study of Language and Information (2021-2025), he leads research initiatives while teaching linguistics courses across departments.