Utako Minai

Utako Minai is an Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Kansas, where she directs the Developmental Psycholinguistics Lab. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Maryland and completed postdoctoral research at RIKEN Center for Brain Science.

Her research examines first language acquisition mechanisms, focusing on how children develop semantic knowledge and utilize it in real-time language processing. Experimental approaches include eye-tracking and cognitive tasks across English, Japanese, Mandarin and Turkish language contexts.

Current NSF-funded projects investigate predictive processing in Mandarin relative clauses. Teaching includes First Language Acquisition courses and Japanese linguistics at undergraduate/graduate levels.