DrYoko Yonezawa

Primary Research Interests

• The grammar-pragmatics interface
• Interface between language, culture, and social cognition
• Construction of identity through language
• Language, gender, and political discourse
• Comparative studies of Japanese and East Asian languages

Key Research Projects (Selected)

• Language, gender, and power in Japanese politics: A linguistic analysis (Monograph project)
• 二人称の言語学 [Linguistics of second person reference] (Monograph project)
• Pragmatics of second person reference: Reported speech and mental spaces in Japanese (Invited and refereed chapter in The Cambridge Handbook of Usage-Based Japanese Linguistics)
• Agency and strategic restraint: Media framing and the price of not taking offence in Japanese political discourse (Refereed chapter in Toxic Language in East Asia, Routledge)

Selected Grants

• SLC EMCR Research Accelerator Awards (SLS, USYD 2025)
• Japan Women's University Priority Research Grant (Japan Women's University, 2023)
• The Faculty Strategic Research Fund (Victoria University of Wellington, 2021)