I graduated from Seoul National University with a BA in psychology. I became interested in linguistics when I took Stephanie Harves' syntax class at Pomona College. I was so enthralled by the theory of Universal Grammar (UG) (a set of principles and parameters that constrain all human languages) that I decided to pursue a PhD in linguistics. Now I am a PhD candidate in linguistics at University of Southern California.

My primary research area is in psycholinguistics. I am mainly interested in how language-specific grammatical properties interact with language processing. My dissertation research investigates in particular how English and Korean speakers integrate words and sentence structures to produce well-formed sentences under the guidance of Elsi Kaiser.

I am also interested in English and Korean syntax. I have done some works on active/passive alternation, classifiers, distransitives and wh-questions.

Some of my current preoccupations other than my research are: my two cats, food (especially pastries and cakes), drink (wine, coffee and tea), and music (classical and pop). I also run and swim.

curriculum vitae [pdf]

contact information

heeju hwang
university of southern california
department of linguistics
grace ford salvatori 301
los angeles, ca 90089
email: heejuhwa at usc dot edu