Hiroyuki Oshita

Education

1997. Ph.D., Linguistics, University of Southern California.
1989. M.A., Applied Linguistics, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
1987. M.A., English, University of Canterbury, New Zealand.
1984. B.Ed., Hiroshima University, Japan.

Dissertation

Title: “The Unaccusative Trap”: L2 Acquisition of English Intransitive Verbs. Committee: William Rutherford (Chair), Maria Luisa Zubizarreta, Maria Polinsky, Mario Saltarelli.

Current Research Topics

• U-shaped development on the L2 acquisition of intransitive verbs
• Lexical conceptual structure and L2 acquisition
• L2 syntax of conditional and locational change

Current Positions

Associate Professor of Japanese and Linguistics
Graduate Chair
Coordinator of the Japanese Program

Publications

Oshita, H., Alharbi, T, and Fnu, S. 2019. Are Overpassivization Errors Due to Nontarget Causativization? Libby Chernouski and David O’Neil (eds). Proceedings of the third Purdue Linguistics, Literature, and Second Language Studies Conference. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars.

Oshita, H. 2014. U-shaped Development: Definition, Exploration and Falsifiable Hypotheses. Jeffrey Connor-Linton and Luke Wander Amoroso, eds., Measured Language: Quantitative Approaches to Acquisition, Assessment, and Variation, pp. 155-170. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press.

Ayako Deguchi and Hiroyuki Oshita. 2004. Meaning, Proficiency and Error Types: Variations in Nonnative Acquisition of Unaccusative Verbs. Susan H. Foster-Cohen, Michael Sharwood Smith, Antonell Sorace and Mitsuhiko Ota, eds., EuroSLA Yearbook 2003, pp. 41-65.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 2004. A Review of Unaccusativity in Second Language Japanese and English by Makiko Hirakawa, Hituzi Syobo, Tokyo 2003. Second Language 4, 99-101.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 2004. Is There Anything There When There Is Not There? Null Expletives and Second Language Data. Second Language Research 20, 2, 95-130.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 2002. Uneasiness with the Easiest: On the Subject-Verb Order in L2 English. Second Language 1, 45-61. The Japan Second Language Association (J-SLA).

Hiroyuki Oshita. 2001. The Unaccusative Trap in Second Language Acquisition. Studies in Second Language Acquisition 23, 2, 279-304.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 2000. What Is Happened May Not Be What Appears To Be Happening: a corpus study of “passive” unaccusatives in L2 English. Second Language Research 16, 4, 293-324.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 2000. Trying to See the Unaccusative Forest in Second Language Acquisition. In: Social and Cognitive Factors in SLA: Selected Proceedings of the 1999 Second Language Research Forum, pp. 243-263. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 1998. The Unaccusative Trap and the Development of L2 Lexicon. CLS 34: The Panels, pp. 493-510. (The Proceedings from the Panels of the Chicago Linguistic Society’s Thirty-fourth Meeting. Volume 34-2.)

Hiroyuki Oshita. 1995. Compounds: a View from Suffixation and A-Structure Alteration. In: Booij, Geert and Jaap van Marle, eds. Yearbook of Morphology 1994, pp. 179-205. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 1994. A-Structure Template and Formation of English Deverbal Adjectives. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics #23, pp. 247-265.

Presentations (juried)

Oshita, H., Schad, N., Choi, S.  2021.  L1 and L2 Acquisition of the Split Intransitivity: Why Are Unaccusatives Easy for Kids but Difficult for Adults? Kentucky Foreign Languages Conference 2021 (online), University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY. April 24.

Oshita, H., Nguyen, A., Larkin, R., Tytko, T., Sakach, M., and Pack, R.  2021. "An Earthquake Occurred Many People to Death?!": Acceptable vs. Unacceptable Resultative Sentences in English. American Association for Applied Linguistics 2021 (online), University of British Columbia. March 23.

Oshita, H., Nguyen, A., Tytko, T., Larkin, R., Pack, R., and Sakach, M.  2020. Expressing Change of State with A Resultative Phrase: Native and Non-Native Grammars of English. Second Language Research Forum, Vanderbilt University. October 24.

Oshita, H., Nguyen, A., Tytko, T., Larkin, R., Pack, R., and Sakach, M.  2020. Change of State Expressed by English Transitive Sentence. Kentucky Foreign Languages Conference. University of Kentucky, Lexington. April 18. (accepted but canceled due to COVID-19)

Oshita, H., Nguyen, A., Hoback, J., Soto Lucena, I., Consolini, C.H., and AlQahtani, N.  2019. Semantico-Syntactic Variations in Transitive Predicates Expressing Locational Cahnge: Implications for Native Grammar and L2 Research. Second Language Research Forum, Michigan State Univdersity, East Lansing. September 19.

Oshita, H., Hoback, J., Soto Lucena, I., Consolini, C.H., Nguyen, A., and AlQahtani, N.  2019. Change of Location Expressed by English Transitive Sentence. Kentucky Foreign Languages Conference. University of Kentucky, Lexington. April 12.

Oshita, H. 2018. Against “Conceptualizable Agent” as an Explanation for Passive Unaccusative Errors. Kentucky Foreign Languages Conference. University of Kentucky, Lexington. April 19.

Sudiman F., Alharbi, T., & Oshita, H. 2018. Overpassivization and Conceptualizable Agent: The Case of L1 Arabic Speakers. ILLS (Illinois Language and Linguistics Society) Conference. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champagne. April 6.

Alharbi, T. Sudiman, F., & Oshita. 2018. Are Overpassivization Errors Due to Nontarget Causativization? PLLS (Perdue Linguistics, Literature and Second Languages Studies) Conference. Purdue University, West Lafayette. March 3.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 2012. U-shaped Development in Japanese Speakers’ Acquisition of English Intransitive
Verbs,” J-SLA 2012. Hosei University, Tokyo. June 2-3.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 2012. U-shaped Development: Definition, Exploration and Falsifiable Hypotheses. Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics. Georgetown University. March 8-11.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 2011. Finding U: Transitional States of Grammar in the Acquisition of Split Intransitivity. Second Language Research Forum. Iowa State University. October 13-16.

Hiroyuki Oshita and Ayako Deguchi. 2005. Looking for “U”: Evidence for the Unaccusative Trap Hypothesis. Second Language Research Forum 2005. Teachers College at Columbia University. October 7-9.

Hiroyuki Oshita and Ayako Deguchi. 2004. Factors that Conspire to Shape “U”. GASLA 7. Indiana University at Bloomington. April 15-18.

Ayako Deguchi and Hiroyuki Oshita. 2003. Lexical Semantic and Developmental Variations in the Acquisition of Engoish Unaccusative Verbs by Native Speakers of Japanese. Japan-SLA Conference. Daito Bunka University, Tokyo. May 24-25.

Ayako Deguchi and Hiroyuki Oshita. 2003. Meaning, Proficiency and Error Types: Variations in Nonnative Acquisition of Unacusative Verbs. EuroSLA 2003 Conference. Edinburgh, Scotland. September 19-21.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 2000. Uneasiness with the Easiest: the Subject-Verb Order in L2 English. 20th Annual Second Language Research Forum. University of Wisconsin at Madison. September 7-10.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 2000. On Psychological Reality of Null Expletives. American Association for Applied Linguistics 2000 Annual Convention. Vancouver, British Columbia. March 11-14.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 1999. Trying to See the Unaccusativity Forest in SLA Research. Second Language Research Forum 1999. University of Minnesota. September 23-26.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 1998. How Input Fools Learners: the Unaccusative Trap in L2 English. International Congress on Trends in Second Language Teaching and Learning. Ottawa, Canada. April 20-23.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 1998. The Unaccusative Trap and the Development of L2 Lexicon. 34th Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. University of Chicago. April 17-19.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 1998. The Unaccusative Trap in L2 English. 51st Annual Kentucky Foreign Language Conference. University of Kentucky. April 16-18.

Hiroyuki Oshita and Joe Allen. 1996. On the Origin of ‘Passivized’ Unaccusatives in L2 English. Linguistic Society of America Meeting. San Diego, CA. January 4-7.

Hiroyuki Oshita and Joe Allen. 1995. L2 Acquisition of English Unaccusative Verbs: Crosslinguistic and Developmental Aspects. EUROSLA 5 Conference. University College Dublin, Ireland. September 7-11.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 1994. Compounds: a View from Suffixation and A-Structure Alteration. Linguistic Society of America Meeting. Boston, MA. January 6-9.

Presentations (unjuried)

Hiroyuki Oshita. 2003. Conversational Story-Telling: Learning from (Good and Bad) Samples. Symposium in the Second Summer Japanese Institute: Pragramtics in the JFL Classroom. University of Hawaii at Manoa. August 8.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 2000. Is There Anything There When There Is Not There?: Null Expletives in L2 English. Invited Colloquium Talk. University of Southern California. Los Angeles. April 11.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 2000. The V-S Word Order in L2 Chinese: A Reanalysis of Yuan 1999. Invited Class Talk. University of Southern California. Los Angeles. April 10.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 1999. Is There a Ghost in the Bedroom?: On Psyhological Reality of Null Expletives. The Department of Linguistics Colloquium. Ohio University. November 5.

Hiroyuki Oshita. 1996. L2 Acquisition of English Unaccusative Verbs: Structural, Crosslinguistic, and Developmental Aspects. USC Linguistics Student Workshop. Los Angeles. April 19.

Selected Professional Workshop and Training Participation

The Second Summer Japanese Institute: Pragmatics in the JFL Classroom. August 4-8, 2003. University of Hawaii at Manoa.

The First Summer Japanese Institute: Pragmatics in the JFL Classroom. July 22 – August 2, 2002. University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Asian Business Language Workshop, June 30 – July 1, 2000. Park City, Utah.

ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview Workshop, June 5-8, 2000. Monterey, California.