About me

I'm an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Seoul National University.

Before coming to SNU in 2020, I did my PhD in linguistics at NYU and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 1102) in Saarland University and at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development.

I'm Korean-American, from Pasadena, California. My last name is 황 in Korean, which is pronounced [hʷaŋ].

Research interests

General: Laboratory phonology, language acquisition, speech production and perception, computational modeling.
Specific: Recoverability, predictability, statistical learning, phonotactics, crosslinguistic perception, loanword phonology, lexical representation.

Education

2017 PhD in linguistics, NYU.
2007 BA in linguistics and Japanese, UCLA.

Grants and awards

2022-25 Samsung Electronics Device Solutions Research Grant:
"Analysis on Cognitive Bias Sources in Human Language Processing for Human-like AI Development and Big Data Analytics".
2020-22 New Faculty Research Grant, Seoul National University.
2015-17 NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant # 1524133:
"Predictability and Recoverability of High Vowel Reduction in Speech".
2014 Dean's Student Travel Grant, New York University.
2011-16 MacCracken Graduate Fellowship, New York University.

Research

Publications

2023 "Feature-driven new sound category formation: Computational implementation with the L2LP model and beyond" Front. Lang. Sci. 2:1303511. (with Kakeru Yazawa, Mariko Kondo, and Paola Escudero). [pub]
2023 "Australian English listeners' perception of Japanese vowel length reveals underlying phonological knowledge" Front. Psych. 14:1122471 (with Kakeru Yazawa and Paola Escudero). [pub]
2023 "Modeling a phonotactic approach to segment recovery: The case of Japanese high vowels" Studies in Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology 29(2) (with Kakeru Yazawa). [pdf]
2023 "Spectral and temporal implementation of Japanese speakers' English vowel categories: A corpus-based study". J. LabPhon 14(1) (with Kakeru Yazawa, Takayuki Konishi, Mariko Kondo, and Paola Escudero). [pub]
2021 "Multiple sources of surprisal affect illusory vowel epenthesis". Front. Psych. 12:3664[pub]
2020 "Language-dependent cue weighting: An investigation of perception modes in L2 learning". SLR (with Kakeru Yazawa, Paola Escudero, and Mariko Kondo). [pub]
2020 "Effects of surprisal and boundary strength on phrase-final lengthening". Proc. 10th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2020 (with Bistra Andreeva and Bernd Möbius) [pub]
2019 "Non-native vowel perception in a 4IAX task: The effects of acoustic distance". Proc. ICPhS 2019 (with Alba Tuninetti and Paola Escudero) [pub]
2019 "Perception of Japanese vowel length by Australian English listeners". Proc. ICPhS 2019 (with Kakeru Yazawa and Paola Escudero) [pub]
2019 "Effects of phonotactic predictability on sensitivity to phonetic detail". J. LabPhon 10(1):8[pub]
2019 "Reconciling CV phonotactics and high vowel deletion in Japanese". Supp. Proc. AMP 2018.[draft]
2018 "Recoverability-driven coarticulation: Acoustic evidence from Japanese high vowel devoicing". JASA 143(2)[pub][pre-print][stim]
2017 "Phonotactics and alternations in the acquisition of Japanese high vowel reduction". Proc. BUCLD 41 (with Frans Adriaans). [pdf]
2016 "Perception of illegal contrasts: Japanese adaptations of Korean coda obstruents". Proc. BLS 36. [pdf]
2014 "An acoustic study of trans-vocalic ejective pairs in Cochabamba Quechua". JIPA 44(2) (with Gillian Gallagher). [pdf]
2014 "Compositionality questions: Quantifier words and their multi-functional(?) parts". Language and Linguistics 15(1) (with Anna Szabolcsi and Vera Zu). [pdf]

Conferences

2023 "Quantifying cross-linguistic differences in phonetic feature informativity". International Workshop on Phonetic and Phonological Processing and Learning (PPPL); Tsukuba, Japan; Dec. 21, 2023.
2023 "Quantifying phonetic informativity: An information theoretic approach". Satellite workshop talk at Interspeech 2023 (Limits and Benefits of Information-Theoretic Perspectives in Spoken Communication); Dublin, Ireland; Aug. 18, 2023.
2023 "Quantifying phonetic informativity: An information theoretic approach". Poster at HISPhonCog 2023; Seoul, Korea; May 26-27, 2023. [poster]
2020 "Effects of acoustic similarity in the MMN response during L2 speech perception" (with Alba Tuninetti and Paola Escudero). Poster at 12th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language; Brisbane, Australia; Oct. 21-24, 2020.
2020 "Acoustic consequences of vowel deletion in devoicing environments" (with Jason Shaw and Shigeto Kawahara). Poster at LabPhon 17; Vancouver, BC; July 6-8, 2020.
2020 "Effects of surprisal and boundary strength on phrase-final lengthening" (with Bistra Andreeva and Bernd Möbius). Paper at 10th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2020; Tokyo, Japan; May 25-28, 2020.
2019 "Perception of Japanese vowel length by Australian English listeners" (with Kakeru Yazawa and Paola Escudero). Poster at ICPhS 19; Melbourne, Australia; Aug. 5-9, 2019.
2019 "Non-native vowel perception in a 4IAX task: The effects of acoustic distance" (with Alba Tuninetti and Paola Escudero). Talk at ICPhS 19; Melbourne, Australia; Aug. 5-9, 2019.
2018 "Reconciling CV phonotactics and high vowel deletion in Japanese". Poster at AMP 2018; San Diego, CA; Oct. 5-7, 2018. [abstract][poster]
2018 "Syllabification of consonant clusters by L1 Japanese L2 English speakers". Poster at HISPhonCog 2018; Seoul, Korea; May 18-19, 2018. 
2018 "Effects of cognitive development in speech perception" (with Paola Escudero and Alba Tuninetti). Talk at HISPhonCog 2018; Seoul, Korea; May 18-19, 2018. 
2016 "Phonotactics and alternations in the acquisition of Japanese high vowel reduction" (with Frans Adriaans). Poster at BUCLD 41; Boston, MA; Nov. 4-6, 2016. 
2016 "The role of phonotactics and alternations in the acquisition of Japanese high vowel reduction" (with Frans Adriaans). Poster at J/K 24; Tokyo, Japan; Oct. 13-16, 2016. 
2016 "Illusory epenthesis and recoverability-conditioned sensitivity to phonetic detail". Poster at LabPhon 15; Ithaca, NY; July 13-16, 2016. [poster]
2016 "Targetless /u/ in Tokyo Japanese" (with Shigeto Kawahara and Jason Shaw). Poster at LabPhon 15; Ithaca, NY; July 13-16, 2016. 
2016 "Effects of recoverability on perception of illusory vowels". Talk at LSA 2016; Washington D.C.; January 7-10, 2016. [slides]
2014 "Acoustic effects of predictability and gender on Japanese high vowel reduction". Poster at LabPhon 14; Tokyo, Japan; July 25-27, 2014. 
2014 "Effects of predictability on vowel reduction". Poster at ASA 167; Providence, RI; May 5-9, 2014. [poster]
2010 "Perception of illegal contrasts: Japanese adaptations of Korean coda obstruents". Talk at BLS 36; Berkeley, CA; February 5-7, 2010. 

Manuscripts

in prep "Learning to reduce and recover: The role of phonotactics and alternations in Japanese high vowel reduction" (with Frans Adriaans).
2017 Shaping speech patterns via predictability and recoverability. Doctoral dissertation, New York University.  [LingBuzz]

Teaching

2024
Spring G Studies in Experimental Phonetics: On Mechanisms and Representations
U Statistics for Linguistics
2022
Fall G Studies in Phonology 2: Speech Perception
U Applied Phonetics
Spring G Studies in Experimental Phonetics: Acoustic Phonetics
U Introduction to Phonetics
2021
Fall G Studies in Phonetics 2: L1 and L2 Acquisition of Speech Sounds
U Applied Phonetics
Spring G Seminar in Phonology: Predictability and Recoverability
U Statistics for Linguistics
2020
Fall G --
U Phonology 1
Spring G Experimental Phonetics: Perception and Production
U Statistics for Linguistics

Contact

Department of Linguistics
Seoul National University
1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu
Seoul 08826, Korea