Yukinori Takubo

Yukinori Takubo served as the Director-General of the National Institute for Japanese Language and Linguistics (NINJAL) from October 2017 to March 2023, and currently holds the position of Professor Emeritus at NINJAL and Kyoto University. He is also an invited professor at NINJAL. He received his D. Lit. in linguistics from Kyoto University.

Takubo's research interests include generative syntax, pragmatics, discourse management theory, Mental Spaces, formal semantics, and the description and documentation of Ryukyuan languages, sister languages of Japanese. His academic publications have appeared in various journals, including Gengo Kenkyu, Journal of the Linguistic Society of Japan, Journal of Japanese Linguistics, and Journal of Pragmatics.  He has authored and co-authored many books, book series, and special issues of journals, such as the Theory and Practice of Language Faculty Science (Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 2020), Minami Ryukyu Miyako Ikema Hoogen Ziten (Dictionary of Ikema, a variety of Miyako Ryukyuan) (Tachikawa: NINJAL, 2022), Handbook of Japanese Semantics and Pragmatics (Boston/Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton), Nihongo no Kozo: Suiron to Chisikikanri (Structure of Japanese: Inference and Knowledge Management) (Tokyo: Kurosio Publishers), Kiso Nihongo Bunpou (Essential Japanese Grammar) (Tokyo: Kurosio Publishers), Shijishi (Demonstratives) (Tokyo: Kurosio Publishers), Iwanami Series of Language Sciences, Gengo Kenkyu, and Journal of Semantics.

Takubo was editor-in-chief of Gengo Kenkyu, Journal of the Linguistic Society of Japan, and served as vice president of Japan Cognitive Science Science Society and as the President of the Linguistic Society of Japan.

Before his current position, Takubo was a full-time visiting lecturer at Dongguk University in Korea, associate professor at Kobe University, professor at Kyushu University, and professor at Kyoto University. He has also taught at the LSA Institute at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and was a Fulbright Scholar in Residence at Carleton College.

Takubo is currently constructing a web-based museum for the documentation of endangered languages in Ryukyu, and a prototype of this museum can be accessed at www.kikigengo.jp.