Yasuhiro Shirai

Yasuhiro Shirai serves as Professor in the Department of Cognitive Science at Case Western Reserve University's College of Arts and Sciences. Previously, he held faculty positions at Cornell University (Assistant/Associate Professor of Linguistics) and the University of Pittsburgh (Professor of Linguistics).

His research centers on language acquisition mechanisms, with emphasis on:

• First and second language acquisition of grammatical constructions
• Tense-aspect system development
• Relative clause acquisition
• Cognitive modeling of language processing

His work bridges psycholinguistics, cognitive linguistics, and syntax through empirical and theoretical frameworks.

Professor Shirai's publications appear in leading journals including Applied Psycholinguistics, Language Learning, and Studies in Second Language Acquisition, alongside over ten authored/edited volumes such as The Acquisition of Lexical and Grammatical Aspect (Mouton de Gruyter) and the Handbook of East Asian Psycholinguistics: Japanese (Cambridge University Press).

He currently holds editorial leadership as Associate Editor for First Language (Sage) and Frontiers in Psychology, shaping discourse in language acquisition research.