Mitsuhiko Ota

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Phone0131 650 3949
Emailmitsling.ed.acuk

Accepting PhD Students

Research Interests

Phonological and lexical acquisition; phonetics and phonology in atypical populations; prosodic structure.

Research Groups

Developmental Linguistics Research Group
Phonetics and Phonology Research Group
Edinburgh Laboratory for Language Development (ELfLanD)

Visiting and Research Positions

2019- Professor, University of Edinburgh, UK
2007-2019 Reader, University of Edinburgh, UK
1999-2007 Lecturer, University of Edinburgh, UK
2006-2013 Visiting scholar, RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Japan

Websites

Personal webpage

Lab webpage

School webpage

Teaching

Undergraduate courses taught: Linguistics I (Brain and language, first language acquisition and second language acquisition), Linguistics 2 (Phonology), Intermediate Phonology, Advanced Phonology, Optimality Theory, Honours Foundation: Language and Cognition.
Postgraduate courses taught: First Language Acquisition, Second Language Acquisition, Second Language Phonology, Advanced Topics in First Language Acquisition, Advanced Topics in Second Language Acquisition, Developmental Phonology, Maturational Constraints on Language Acquisition.

Administrative Roles

2023-present: Research Excellence Framework (REF) coordinator.
2022-2025: Research Ethics Convenor, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences.
2015-2021: Director of Postgraduate Studies, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences.
Founder of the Edinburgh Laboratory for Language Development (ELfLanD) & lead academic of the "babylab" facility.
2002-2016: Programme director, MSc in Developmental Linguistics.
2014: Deputy Director of Postgraduate Studies, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences.
2014-2015: PPLS Representative to the Recruitment and Admissions Strategy Committee (RASC), College of Humanities and Social Sciences.
2009-2012: Director of Quality Assurance & Enhancement, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences.
1999-present: Honours and MSc course organizer, Advanced Phonology, Optimality Theory, First Language Acquisition, Second Language Acquisition, Second Language Phonology, Advanced Topics in First Language Acquisition, Advanced Topics in Second Language Acquisition, Developmental Phonology, Maturational Constraints on Language Acquisition.
2000-01 and 2003-04: Course director, Linguistics 2, Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics.

Education/Academic qualification

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Phonological Theory and the Acquisition of Prosodic Structure: Evidence from Child Japanese, Georgetown University

Award Date: 1 Jan 1999

Master of Arts, Pragmatic transfer in second language speech acts, Columbia University

Award Date: 1 Jan 1993

Bachelor of Laws, A World-System Theoretic Analysis of the Political Changes in Indonesia 1965, Sophia University

Award Date: 1 Jan 1988

Research Themes and Networks

Childhood & Youth

Fingerprint

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1 Similar Profiles

32 Article
15 Chapter (peer-reviewed)
7 Poster
6 Conference contribution
More

Child consonant harmony revisited: The role of lexical memory constraints and segment repetition
Ota, M., Mar 2026, In: Language and Speech. 69, 1, p. 155-182 28 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Open Access
File
Skewed distributions facilitate infants’ word segmentation
Wolters, L., Ota, M. & Arnon, I., Oct 2025, In: Cognition. 263, 7 p., 106221.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Open Access
File
Testing the relationship between preferences for infant-directed speech and vocabulary development: A multi-lab study
Soderstrom, M., Rocha-Hidalgo, J., Muñoz, L. E., Bochynska, A., Werker, J. F., Skarabela, B., Seidl, A., Ryjova, Y., Rennels, J. L., Potter, C. E., Paulus, M., Ota, M., Olesen, N. M., Nave, K. M., Mayor, J., Martin, A., Machon, L. C., Lew-Williams, C., Ko, E.-S. & Kim, H. & 22 others, Kartushina, N., Kammermeier, M., Jessop, A., Hay, J. F., Havron, N., Hannon, E. E., Hamlin, J. K., Gonzalez-Gomez, N., Gampe, A., Fritzsche, T., Frank, M. C., Durrant, S., Davies, C., Cashon, C., Byers-Heinlein, K., Boyce, V., Black, A. K., Bergmann, C., Anderson, L., Alshakhori, M. K., Al-Hoorie, A. H. & Tsui, A. S. M., Sept 2025, In: Journal of Child Language. 52, 5, p. 984-1009 26 p.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Open Access
File
Zipfian frequency distributions facilitate infants’ speech segmentation
Wolters, L., Ota, M. & Arnon, I., 5 Jun 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) p. 152-153. 2 p.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Poster › peer-review

Open Access
File
Can agreement marking benefit infants?
Tal, S., Ota, M. & Culbertson, J., 4 Jun 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) p. 90-90. 1 p.
Research output: Contribution to conference › Poster › peer-review

Open Access
File

Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing 2025
Kelly-Iturriaga, L. (Presenter), Ota, M. (Presenter) & Pickering, M. J. (Presenter)
6 Sept 2025
Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participation in conference
Children's sensitivity to animacy constraints in possessive noun phrases: Priming induces non-adult-like structures in Czech preschoolers
Skarabela, B. (Speaker), Ota, M. (Contributor) & Smolík, F. (Contributor)
4 Sept 2025
Activity: Academic talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
Language learning, language use and the lexicon-led model of phonotactic typology
Ota, M. (Invited speaker)
29 Jan 2025
Activity: Academic talk or presentation types › Invited talk
Children’s speech development: Japanese
Ota, M. (Speaker) & Ueda, I. (Contributor)
25 Nov 2024 → 28 Nov 2024
Activity: Academic talk or presentation types › Oral presentation
A role for computational modelling of children’s earliest phonological development
Ota, M. (Speaker)
6 Jan 2024
Activity: Academic talk or presentation types › Oral presentation

1 Active
15 Finished

Language learning, communication and the emergence of phonotactic constraints
Ota, M. (Principal Investigator) & Smith, K. (Co-investigator)
Economic and Social Research Council
1/03/24 → 11/03/27
Project: Research
The Edinburgh Child Language Corpus
Ota, M. (Principal Investigator)
Royal Society Of Edinburgh
1/04/22 → 30/06/23
Project: Research
The Edinburgh Child Language Corpus
Ota, M. (Principal Investigator)
UK-based charities
1/04/22 → 31/03/23
Project: Research
PPLS Small Project Grant: The effects of Zipfian distributions on infant word segmentation
Ota, M. (Principal Investigator)
1/01/22 → 31/07/22
Project: University Awarded Project Funding
PPLS Small Project Grant - : The effects of rhyming on early word learning
Ota, M. (Principal Investigator)
1/01/20 → 31/07/20
Project: University Awarded Project Funding

Falls Church corpus
Ota, M. (Creator), Carnegie Mellon University , 29 Apr 2016
http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/browser/index.php?url=Biling/FallsChurch/
Dataset
Electronic Corpus of spontaneous speech of Japanese-speaking children (age 1-2 years)
Ota, M. (Creator), Carnegie Mellon University , 2009
http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/phon/
Dataset

Do babies understand each other with their babbling?
Ota, M.
14/03/26
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
Brief interview on BBC Radio 5 Live
Ota, M.
2/08/18
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities
Baby talk
Ota, M.
26/06/15
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
Mitsuhiko Ota discusses the role of baby-talk words in language development
Ota, M.
31/12/13
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Expert Comment
Baby talk ‘helps infants learn faster’, says Mitsuhiko Ota
Ota, M.
30/05/16
20 items of Media coverage
Press/Media: Research

Mitsuhiko Ota

Personal profile

Research Interests

Research Groups

Visiting and Research Positions

Websites

Teaching

Administrative Roles

Education/Academic qualification

Research Themes and Networks

Fingerprint

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Dive into details

Child consonant harmony revisited: The role of lexical memory constraints and segment repetition

Skewed distributions facilitate infants’ word segmentation

Testing the relationship between preferences for infant-directed speech and vocabulary development: A multi-lab study

Zipfian frequency distributions facilitate infants’ speech segmentation

Can agreement marking benefit infants?

Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing 2025

Children's sensitivity to animacy constraints in possessive noun phrases: Priming induces non-adult-like structures in Czech preschoolers

Language learning, language use and the lexicon-led model of phonotactic typology

Children’s speech development: Japanese

A role for computational modelling of children’s earliest phonological development

Language learning, communication and the emergence of phonotactic constraints

The Edinburgh Child Language Corpus

The Edinburgh Child Language Corpus

PPLS Small Project Grant: The effects of Zipfian distributions on infant word segmentation

PPLS Small Project Grant - : The effects of rhyming on early word learning

Falls Church corpus

Electronic Corpus of spontaneous speech of Japanese-speaking children (age 1-2 years)

Do babies understand each other with their babbling?

Brief interview on BBC Radio 5 Live

Baby talk

Mitsuhiko Ota discusses the role of baby-talk words in language development

Baby talk ‘helps infants learn faster’, says Mitsuhiko Ota

Mitsuhiko Ota

Personal profile

Research Interests

Research Groups

Visiting and Research Positions

Websites

Teaching

Administrative Roles

Education/Academic qualification

Research Themes and Networks

Fingerprint

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

Research output

Activities

Projects

Datasets

Press/Media