Nayoung Kwon (권나영)

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Nayoung's areas of expertise include neuro-/psycholinguistics and syntax. She is interested in human language processing, focusing on the questions of how language system interacts with other cognitive functions and how grammatical variations in language structure map into processing. In addition to the theoretical tools adopted in comparative syntactic research, the methods she employs to investigate the cross-linguistic parsing strategies include ERPs, eye-tracking, and self-paced reading.

TEACHING

Introduction to Korean linguistics, (East Asian) Psycholinguistics, Second Language Acquisition, Languages and Cultural Formation in Korea, Research methods

PUBLICATIONS

Kwon, N., & Lee, Y. (2024).  When grammaticality is intentionally violated: Inanimate honorification as a politeness strategy. Journal of Pragmatics.

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2024).  When social hierarchy matters grammatically: Investigation of the processing of honorifics in Korean. Cognition. (link to the osf project page)

Sturt, P., & Kwon, N. (2023). Agreement attraction in comprehension: Do active dependencies and distractor position play a role? Language, Cognition and Neuroscience.

Siegelman, et al. (2022).  Expanding horizons of cross-linguistic research on reading: The Multilingual Eye-movement Corpus (MECO). Behavior Research Methods. 

Zhang, A., & Kwon, N. (2021). The interpretational preferences of null and overt pronouns in Chinese. Journal of Linguistics.  

Kwon, N. (2020). The processing of a long-distance dependency in Korean: An overview. The Cambridge Handbook of Korean Linguistics. 

Or, H., & Kwon, N. (2019). False belief reasoning in pronoun resolution during on-line sentence processing. English Language and Linguistics, 25, 87-99. 

Kwon, N., & Ong, D., Chen, H., & Zhang, A. (2019). The role of animacy and structural information in relative clause attachment: Evidence from Chinese. Frontiers in psychology, 10.

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2019). Proximity and same case marking do not increase attraction effect in comprehension: Evidence from eye-tracking experiments in Korean. Frontiers in Psychology, 10.

Sturt, P., & Kwon, N. (2018).  Processing information during regressions: An application of the reverse boundary-change paradigm. Frontiers in Psychology, 9.

Kwon, N. (2018). The effect of grammatical variations on predictive processing. Japanese/Korean Linguistics, 25. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. 

Kwon, N. (2018). 뇌파(ERPs)를 이용한 언어 연구를 위한 제언. 응용언어학, 34, 35-51.

Kwon, N. (2018). Psycholinguistics expanding eastward. Journal of Cognitive Science, 19, 285-290. 

Kwon, N., Sturt, P, & Liu, P. (2017). Predicting semantic features in Chinese: evidence from ERPs. Cognition, 166, 433-446. (Stimuli)

Kwon, N., & Lee, Y. (2017). On the nature of structure in structural priming. Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2016). Attraction effects in honorific agreement in Korean. Frontiers in Psychology, 7. (Stimuli)

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2016). Processing control information in a nominal control construction: An eye-tracking study. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 45, 779-793. 

: The study examines the initial access of control information comparing the processing of giver vs. recipient nominal control sentences. The results showed that control information was used to constrain dependency formation, but there was also recency preference such that the parser prefers to assign a recent antecedent to PRO.

Sturt, P., & Kwon, N. (2015). The processing of raising and nominal control: an eye-tracking study. Frontiers in Psychology, 6.

: We examined reflexive-antecedent dependencies in raising, nominal control, and coordinate construction. The results showed facilitatory intrusion effects only when the reflexive-antecedent dependency was mediated by raising and nominal control but no comparable effect was found for direct dependencies. The results are discussed in the context of content-addressable direct retrieval hypothesis.

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2014). The use of control information in dependency formation: An eye-tracking study. Journal of Memory and Language, 73, 59-80.

: Using nominal control sentences, we examined whether predictive information is given priority over a structural preference in syntactic ambiguity resolution. The results showed that there are limitations on the influence of predictive dependency formation on on-line structural disambiguation.

Kwon, N., Kluender, R., Kutas, M., & Polinsky, M. (2013). Subject/Object processing asymmetries in Korean relative clauses: Evidence from ERP data. Language, 89(3), 537-585.

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2013). Null pronominal (pro) resolution in Korean, a discourse-oriented language. Language and Cognitive Processes (currently, Language Cognition and Neuroscience), 28(3), 377-387.

이윤형 & 권나영. (2012). 명사구의 특성이 한국어 문장 이해에 미치는 영향: 안구 운동의 추적 연구. 한국 심리 학회지: 인지 및 생물.

Kwon, N., Lee, Y., Gordon, P. C., Kluender, R., & Polinsky, M. (2010).Cognitive and linguistic factors affecting subject/object asymmetry: An eye-tracking study of pre-nominal relative clauses in Korean. Language, 86(3), 546-582.

Kwon, N., Monahan, P., & Polinsky, M. (2010). Object control in Korean: A backward control impostor. In Norbert Hornstein & Maria Polinsky (eds), Movement Theory of Control. John Benjamins, 299-328.

Kwon, N. (2008). A Parsing paradox in head final languages: Head-driven vs. Incremental parsing. In Emily Efner & Martin Walkow (eds), Proceedings of the 37th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS 37). Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Graduate Linguistics Student Association (GLSA).

Kwon, N., & Polinsky, M. (2008). What does coordination look like in a head-final language? In Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, Barbara (ed), Asymmetric Events (Converging Evidence in Language and Communication Research), 11. John Benjamins.

Polinsky, M., Monahan, P., & Kwon, N. (2007). Object control in Korean: How many constructions? Language Research, 43.1. Seoul, Korea.

Kwon, N., Polinsky, M., & Kluender, R. (2006). Subject preference in Korean. In Donald Baumer, David Montero & Michael Scanlon (eds), Proceedings of the 25th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 25), pp 1-14. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

Kwon, N. (2006). A semantic and syntactic analysis of Vietnamese causatives. In Asier Alcazar, Roberto Mayoral Hernández & Michal Temkin Martínez (eds), Proceedings of Western Conference in Linguistics 2004 (WECOL 2004).Fresno, CA: California State University.

Kwon, N., & Polinsky, M. (2006). Object control in Korean: structure and processing. In Naomi McGloin & Junki Mori (eds), Japanese/Korean Linguistics 15. Chicago, IL: Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI).

Kwon, N. (2004). Syntactic and semantic mismatches in the Korean ko-construction. In Vineeta Chand, Ann Kelleher, Angelo J. Rodríguez & Benjamin Schmeiser (eds), Proceedings of the 23rd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 23). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS (Selected)

Kwon, N. (2025). Investigation of nominal expressions in Korean: Focusing on honorific features. Invited talk presented at the Workshop on Nominals and Nominalizations in Korean and Beyond, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Kwon, N., & Shin, G. (2025). When overgeneralizing a linguistic function: Second language Korean learners' knowledge about subject honorification as a politeness strategy. 38th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing, University of Maryland, College Park, USA.

Kwon, N., & Mun, S. (2025). Enhancing parsing accuracy by fine-tuning language models with honorific awareness. 38th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing, University of Maryland, College Park, USA.

Kim, J., & Kwon, N. (2025). Beta power reduction in response to subject-verb honorific agreement violations in Korean. 38th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing, University of Maryland, College Park, USA.

Kwon, N., & Lee, S. (2025). Interactions between cognitive accessibility and parsing strategies: processing cataphora in Korean. 38th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing, University of Maryland, College Park, USA.

Kwon, N. (2024). Keynote speech. How respectful should you be?: Processing and acquisition of honorific agreement. Annual conference of the International Association for Korean Language Association. Ewha Women’s University, Seoul, Korea. 

Liu, X., & Kwon, N. (2024). Attraction Effects in the Processing of Long-distance Chinese Classifiers: An Eye-tracking Study. 37th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.

Kwon, N., & Lee, S. (2024). Different interpretational preferences in pronominal resolution during off- and on-line sentence processing: Evidence from Korean with pro and overt pronouns. 37th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.

Kwon, N., Kim, J., Nam, K., & Kim, J. (2024). Real-Time Computation of Social Hierarchy During Online Sentence Processing. 37th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing (formerly known as CUNY), University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.

Liu, X., & Kwon, N. (2024). The Interpretational Preferences of Pronominals in L2 Chinese. Paper to be presented at 2024 Chinese Language Teachers Association Annual Conference. St. Louis, Missouri, United States.

Kwon, N. (2024). Invited talk. Language, culture and Korean education abroad. The 3rd International Conference of Korean Culture and Language. Korea University, Seoul, Korea. 

Kwon, N. (2023). Keynote speech. When power matters grammatically. Keynote speaker. International Circle of Korean Linguistics (ICKL) 2023, Palacký University Olomouc, Czech Republic. 

Kwon, N., & Lee, S. (2023). Interpretation of pronominal elements in Korean. 36th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing (formerly known as CUNY), Pittsburgh, USA. 

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2019). Different ways to process honorific features: Evidence from ERPs. 32nd Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Boulder, USA

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2018). Proximity and same case marking do not increase attraction effect in comprehension: Evidence from eye-tracking experiments in Korean. 31st Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Davis, USA.

Sturt, P., & Kwon, N. (2018). The facilitatory role of regressions in recovery from processing difficulty: an application of the reverse boundary-change technique. 31st Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Davis, USA.

Ong, D., & Kwon, N. (2018). The role of animacy and structural information in relative clause attachment: Evidence from Chinese. 31st Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Davis, USA.

Kwon, N. (2017). Invited talk. Effects of grammatical variations on language processing. The 25th Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference. University of Hawaii, Manoa, USA.

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2017). Different case marking does not dampen attraction effect in comprehension: Evidence from an eye-tracking study of subject-verb honorific agreement in Korean. 30th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Boston, USA.

Sturt, P., & Kwon, N. (2017). Agreement attraction: roles of active dependencies and attractor position. 30th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Boston, USA.

Kwon, N. (2016). Invited talk. Factors affecting the processing of relative clauses in Korean: Evidence from self paced reading, eye-tracking and ERPs. The Japanese Society for Language Sciences (JSLS 2016), University of Tokyo, Japan.

Zhang, A., & Kwon, N. (2016). Interpretation of null and overt pronouns in Chinese. 29th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, FL, USA.

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2016). Facilitatory intrusion effects in subject-verb honorific agreement in Korean. 29th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, FL, USA.

Sturt, P., & Kwon, N. (2016). The role of retrieval interference in recovery from ungrammaticality. 29th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, FL, USA.

Kwon, N., & Zhang, A. (2015). The importance of being animate: an ERP study of  Korean animacy agreement. 28th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, LA, USA.

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2015). Exploring the interface between social cognition and morpho-syntax: an ERP study of Korean subject honorifics. 28th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, LA, USA.

Kwon, N., Cunnings, I., & Lesmana, M. (2013). Time course of reference resolution by early and late bilinguals.19th Annual Conference on Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP 2013). Aix-Marseille University, France.

Kwon, N. (2013). Invited talk. Effects of structural variation on dependency formation. MAPLL, 2013. Kwansei Gakuin University, Osaka, Japan.

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2013). The interplay of discourse and structural constraints on referential processing: an ERP study. 26th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing.Columbia, South Carolina.

Kwon, N., Liu, P., & Sturt, P. (2013). Predicting upcoming words but not semantic features:evidence from ERPs. 26th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. Columbia, South Carolina.

Sturt, P., & Kwon, N. (2013). The processing of raising and nominal control. 26th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. Columbia, South Carolina.

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2012). Early bilinguals' on-line use of lexical and grammatical information in sentence processing. 25th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. CUNY, NY.

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2011). Pro resolution in a discourse-oriented language: a self-paced reading time study in Korean. 17th Meeting of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology, Donostia - San Sebastián, Spain.

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2011). Structural ambiguity resolution in nominal control construction: Eye-tracking studies with mono- and bilinguals. 17th Meeting of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology, Donostia - San Sebastián, Spain.

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2011). When lexical information could disambiguate structural ambiguity: Reading time study with early bilinguals. 8th International Symposium on Bilingualism, Oslo, Norway.

Kwon, N., & Polinsky, M. (2011). Anaphoric inventories and bound variable interpretation: Evidence from Korean. 24th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. Stanford University, CA.

Kwon, N., & Sturt, P. (2011). Pre-verbal syntactic processing in Korean. 24th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. Stanford University, CA.

Kwon, N., Yun, J., Hale, J., & Whitman, J. (2011). Processing of Noun Complement Complex NPs with subject and object pro in Korean. 24th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. Stanford University, CA.

Kwon, N. (2011). A syntactic analysis of Korean relative clause with on- and off-line experiments. 85th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. Pittsburgh, USA.

Kwon, N. & Sturt, P. (2010). Active Gap Strategy in a cataphoric dependency: evidence from an eye-tracking study. 16th Annual Conference on Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP 2010). York, UK.

Kwon, N., Polinsky, M., Kluender, R., & Lee, M. (2009). Anaphoric inventories and bound variable interpretation: Evidence from Korean. 22nd Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. University of California, Davis, CA.

Kwon, N., Kluender, R., Polinsky, M., Lee, Y., Gordon, P. C., & Kutas, M. (2007). Processing advantages of subject gaps in syntactic and referential gap-filler dependencies: Evidence from reading time, ERP and eye-tracking data. 13th Annual Conference on Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP 2007), Turku, Finland.

Kwon, N., Lee, Y., Kluender, R., Polinsky, M., & Gordon, P. C. (2007). Pre-nominal subject relatives are easier to process with or without context: An eye-tracking study in Korean. Interdisciplinary Approaches to Relative Clauses, Cambridge, UK.

Kwon, N., Kluender, R., Polinsky, M., & Kutas, M. (2007). Processing advantages of subject gaps: Syntactic and referential gap-filler dependencies in Korean. Interdisciplinary Approaches to Relative Clauses, Cambridge, UK.

Kwon, N., Polinsky, M., & Kluender, R. (2006). ‘Wait and see’ strategy in the processing of long-distance dependencies. 19th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, CUNY Graduate Center, NY.

Kwon, N. (2005). Case marking signals more than structure building: processing evidence from Korean double nominative constructions. 37th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS 37), University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL.

Kwon, N., Polinsky, M., & Kluender, R. (2005). Trace or Pro? Effects of language parametric variation on processing. 18th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.

Kwon, N., Polinsky, M., & Kluender, R. (2005). Control as A-movement: evidence from the processing of forward and backward control in Korean. 18th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ.

Kwon, N., & Polinsky, M. (2005). Processing evidence for control as A-movement. 15th Japanese and Korean Linguistics Conference, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI.

Kwon, N. (2005). Null Pronoun or Trace? Parametric sentence processing. 13th Workshop on East Asian Languages (WEAL 13), University of California, Santa Barbara, CA.

Kwon, N., & Polinsky, M. (2005). Clause chains and syntax/semantics mismatches. 9th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference (ICLC 9), Seoul, Korea.

Kwon, N., Polinsky, M., & Kluender, R. (2005). When a gap precedes its filler. 11th Annual Conference on Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP 2005), Ghent, Belgium.

Kwon, N., Polinsky, M., & Kluender, R. (2005). Empty categories in relative and adjunct clauses: evidence from processing. Workshop on Relative Clauses, Leipzig, Germany.

Kwon, N. & Polinsky, M. (2005). Heritage language retention: A quantitative study.  Heritage Learners: Overcoming Curricular Challenges, Pre-Conference Symposium of the 25th South Asian Language Analysis (SALA 25) Roundtable, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL.

Kwon, N., Polinsky, M., & Kluender, R. (2004). Processing of relative clause sentences in Korean. 10th Annual Conference on Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP 2004), Aix en Provence, France.

Kwon, N. (2004). A semantic and syntactic analysis of the causative structure in Vietnamese. Western Conference in Linguistics 2004 (WECOL 2004), University of Southern California, CA.

Kwon, N. (2004). Syntactic and semantic mismatches in the Korean ko-construction. 23rd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL 23), University of California, Davis, CA.