I am currently proceeding with research on General Extenders (GEs) in American English, which is counted as a “diachronic pragmatic” study. GEs seem to have been grammaticalized at utterance-final positions. GEs are helpful expressions in on-going communications, endowed with developed expressive function (Onodera, 2021. “Kan-shukanteki kara setsuzoku teki e no henka: Imi kinou hensen no moo hitotsu no hokosei” (From intersubjective to textual: Another direction in functional-semantic change) In Hayase and Amano (eds.) Constructions and Subjectivity).

One conspicuous direction in semantic change, “from intersubjective to textual”, has been documented in different languages (Japanese, Chinese, English, Russian, Sicilian, Korean, etc.) these days. At first glance, this direction looks a counterexample to the long-supported hypothetical direction “propositional > textual > expressive” (Traugott 1982). This theme was addressed in the panel “From Intersubjective to Textual Function: Motivation for the Rise of Discourse Markers/Pragmatic Elements” for IPrA 2021 (June 29). A new volume on this topic, based on IPrA 2021 panel, is currently planned for publishing.

Research Grants include:

• 2016—present Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research B. “Grammaticalization in Japanese and Neighboring Languages”. Collaborative researcher. PI: Heiko Narrog (Tohoku University).
• 2014 -- 2016 Aoyama Gakuin University Soken Project Grant. “Comparative Study on English and Japanese Peripheries and Their Functions (Principal Investigator)”.
• 2010 -- 2011 Gakushuin University Grant. “Synthetic Study on Historical Pragmatics”. (Visiting Researcher)
• 2009 -- 2010 Gakushuin University Grant. “Synthetic Study on Historical Pragmatics”. (Visiting Researcher)
• 2008 -- 2009 Gakushuin University Grant: “Synthetic Study on Historical Pragmatics”. (Visiting Researcher)
• 2006 -- 2008 JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C). “Historical Pragmatic Study on Development of German, English and Japanese Discourse Markers”. (Co-Investigator) PI: Hiroyuki Takada (Gakushuin University)
• 2002 -- 2006 JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C). “Development of English and Japanese Discourse Markers: Pragmaticalization and Subjectification”. (Principal Investigator)
• 1996 -- 1997 JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B). “Interdisciplinary Study on Language and Communication (Co-Investigator).

Academic Service (Selected)

2013 -- present

Member of the Steering Committee, The Pragmatics Society of Japan

2018 -- present

Member of the Standing committee, The Pragmatics Society of Japan

2018 – 2019

Chair of the International Event Committee, The Pragmatics Society of Japan

2019 – present

Vice president, The Pragmatics Society of Japan

2014-16

Member of the Steering Committee, Linguistic Society of Japan

Editorial Boards

2000 -- present

Journal of Historical Pragmatics (Benjamins)

2016 -- present

Journal of Cognitive Linguistics (The Japanese Cognitive Linguistics Association)

2013 – 2019

Studies in Pragmatics (The Journal of the Pragmatics Society of Japan)

2019 – present

East Asian Pragmatics (Equinox)

2020 – present

IPrA Bibliography of Pragmatics online (Benjamins) Associate editor.

Membership in Professional Associations