CV

Education

• Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics, University of Melbourne, 2020
• B.A. (Honours) in Linguistics, University of Melbourne, 2015
• B.A./B.Ed. in Linguistics and ESL Education, La Trobe University, 2014

Experience

2025 – Current — Associate Professor, University of Aizu

• Introductory English
• Languages and Linguistics
• Machine Learning for Linguistics

2023 – 2025 — Associate Professor, Nagoya University of Commerce and Business

• Linguistics 1 (Phonetics), Linguistics 2 (Phonology), TOEIC Progress, Seminar, English Fundamentals

2019 – 2022 — Assistant Professor, Nagoya University of Commerce and Business

• Linguistics 1 (Phonetics), Linguistics 2 (Phonology), TOEIC Progress, Seminar, English Fundamentals

2017 – 2019 — Teaching Assistant, University of Melbourne

• LING20005 Phonetics, LING30002 Phonology, ESLA90001 Professional Communication, ARTS90006 Introductory Academic Program

2015 – 2018 — Lecturer, Navitas, La Trobe University

• 079164E English for Further Studies, 079163F General English

2014 – 2015 — English Teacher, Navitas, La Trobe University

• 079164E English for Further Studies, 079163F General English

Scholarships, Awards, and Grants

• 2026 — Visitorship, University of Melbourne
• 2024 — Visitorship, University of Melbourne
• 2023 — Research Award, NUCB Undergraduate School
• 2020 — Kakenhi Research Grant (20K13055)
• 2019 — Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship
• 2018 — Graduate Research in Arts Travel Scholarship; Research and Graduate Studies Scholarship (Languages and Linguistics)
• 2017 — Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship
• 2016 — Dean’s Honours List, Faculty of Arts
• 2015 — W. T. Mollison Scholarship; Dwight Final Assessment Prize in Linguistics

Publications

Full list with links available on the Publications page.

Journal Articles

Townley, A., Nae, N., & Kilpatrick, A. J. (2026). Inclusive diverse learning environments at the forefront of internationalization in higher education: A case study of international student experiences at a private business university in Japan. Forum of International Development Studies.

Kilpatrick, A., & Bundgaard-Nielsen, R. (2026). Say it like you mean it: Linguistic vividness and the attentional optimization hypothesis. Cognition, 269, 106406.

Flaksman, M., & Kilpatrick, A. J. (2025). Against the tide: How language-specificity of imitative words increases with time (as evidenced by surprisal). In M. Flaksman & P. Akumbu (Eds.), SKASE Journal of Theoretical Linguistics.

Kilpatrick, A. J., & Bundgaard-Nielsen, R. L. (2025). Exploring the dynamics of Shannon’s information and iconicity in language processing and lexeme evolution. PLOS ONE, 20(4), e0321294.

Kilpatrick, A. J. (2025). The negativity bias is encoded in language. JASA Express Letters, 5(2).

Ngai, C. H., Kilpatrick, A. J., & Ćwiek, A. (2024). Sound symbolism in Japanese names: Machine learning approaches to gender classification. PLOS ONE, 19(3), e0297440.

Kilpatrick, A. J., & Ćwiek, A. (2024). Using artificial intelligence to explore sound symbolic expressions of gender in American English. PeerJ Computer Science, 10, e1811.

Kilpatrick, A. J., Ćwiek, A., Lewis, E., & Kawahara, S. (2023). A cross-linguistic, sound symbolic relationship between labial consonants, voiced plosives, and Pokémon friendship. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 722.

Kilpatrick, A. J., Ćwiek, A., & Kawahara, S. (2023). Random forests, sound symbolism and Pokémon evolution. PLOS ONE, 18(1), e0279350.

Kilpatrick, A. J., Kawahara, S., Bundgaard-Nielsen, R., Baker, B., & Fletcher, J. (2020). Japanese perceptual epenthesis is modulated by transitional probability. Language and Speech, 63(4), 980–1003.

Kilpatrick, A. J., Bundgaard-Nielsen, R. L., & Baker, B. J. (2019). Japanese co-occurrence restrictions influence second language perception. Applied Psycholinguistics, 40(2), 585–611.

Conference Proceedings

Kilpatrick, A. J., Bundgaard-Nielsen, R. L., & Iida, H. (2026). Markedness as surprisal: Information theory and language inefficiency. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci 2026).

Mooshammer, T., & Kilpatrick, A. J. (2025). Age-related positivity effects in the perception of constructed languages. Proceedings of the 21st P&P: Phonetik und Phonologie im deutschsprachigen Raum.

Kilpatrick, A. J., & Bundgaard-Nielsen, R. L. (2025). Say what you mean: Linguistic vividness and information theory. Proceedings of the 31st Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing.

Kilpatrick, A. J., & Bundgaard-Nielsen, R. L. (2025). Language processing insights from average phonemic bigram surprisal. Proceedings of the 31st Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing.

Kilpatrick, A. J., & Flaksman, M. (2025). The exception of humor: Iconicity, phonemic surprisal, memory recall, and emotional associations. Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on Computational Humor.

Kilpatrick, A. J., & Bundgaard-Nielsen, R. L. (2024). Decoding informativity and iconicity in American English. Proceedings of the 19th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology.

Kilpatrick, A. J., & Peperkamp, P. (2024). Coarticulation and transitional probability in Japanese perceptual epenthesis. Proceedings of the 19th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology.

Kilpatrick, A. J. (2024). Information equilibration in English and Japanese morphemes. Proceedings of the 19th Conference on Laboratory Phonology.

Kilpatrick, A. J. (2024). Sound symbolism in automatic emotion recognition and sentiment analysis. Proceedings of Cognitive A.I.

Kilpatrick, A. J., & Wang, Y. (2023). Training artificial intelligence to assess ESL writing using complexity measures. The Japanese Society for Language Sciences Handbook.

Kilpatrick, A. J., & Kawahara, S. (2022). Using random forests to identify sound symbolic relationships in Pokémon names. Proceedings of the 13th Iconicity in Language and Literature Conference.

Kilpatrick, A. J., Kawahara, S., Bundgaard-Nielsen, R. L., Baker, B. J., & Fletcher, J. (2019). Predictability, word frequency and Japanese perceptual epenthesis. Proceedings of the 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences.

Kilpatrick, A. J., Kawahara, S., Bundgaard-Nielsen, R. L., Baker, B. J., & Fletcher, J. (2018). Japanese listeners are more likely to perceive illusory vowels in predictable contexts. Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Meeting on Phonology.

Kilpatrick, A. J., Kawahara, S., Bundgaard-Nielsen, R. L., Baker, B. J., & Fletcher, J. (2018). Japanese vowel devoicing modulates perceptual epenthesis. Proceedings of the 17th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology (pp. 121–124).

Kilpatrick, A. J., Kawahara, S., Bundgaard-Nielsen, R. L., Baker, B. J., & Fletcher, J. (2018). Japanese coda [m] elicits perceptual epenthesis and assimilation. Proceedings of the ISAPh 2018 International Symposium on Applied Phonetics.

Kilpatrick, A. J., Bundgaard-Nielsen, R. L., & Baker, B. J. (2016). Japanese vowel deletion occurs in words in citation form. Proceedings of the 16th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology (pp. 325–328).

Presentations

Machine Learning Analysis of Sinhala Vowel Length Perception. Oral presentation, International Conference on Phonetics and AI in Language Education (Phonetics Hong Kong). Hong Kong (2026).

Markedness as surprisal: Information theory and language inefficiency. Poster, Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society (CogSci). Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2026).

Information distribution in Japanese ideophones and adjectives. Poster, Hanyang International Symposium on Phonetics and Cognitive Sciences of Language (HisPhonCog). Seoul, Korea (2026).

Exploring Sound Symbolism in Japanese Ideophones: A Dictionary- and Machine Learning-Based Approach. Oral presentation, Japanese Language Society (JLS) 2025 Fall Conference. Okayama, Japan (2025).

Phonemic Bigram Surprisal and the Decline of Expressivity in Iconic Lexicon. Oral presentation, 58th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE). Bordeaux, France (2025).

Age-Related Positivity Effects in the Perception of Constructed Languages. Oral presentation, 21st Phonetik und Phonologie im deutschsprachigen Raum (P&P). Leipzig, Germany (2025).

Say what you mean: Linguistic vividness and information theory. Poster, 31st Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP). Prague, Czech Republic (2025).

Language Processing Insights from Average Phonemic Bigram Surprisal. Poster, 31st Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP). Prague, Czech Republic (2025).

Exploring the Sound Symbolism of Size in American English with the XGBoost Algorithm. Poster, English Linguistic Society of Japan 18th International Spring Forum. Tokyo, Japan (2025).

Machine Learning vs. Linear Regression: A Case Study on Gender Sound Symbolism in Japanese Given Names. Oral presentation, 2025 Annual Meeting of the American Name Society. Online (2025).

The Iconic Treadmill Hypothesis and Surprisal: Offsetting the Cognitive Costs of De-iconization. Oral presentation, Iconicity Seminar. Otatu, Japan (2025).

The negativity bias is reflected in the iconic markedness of emotional valence. Oral presentation, Iconicity Seminar. Otatu, Japan (2025).

Coarticulation and Transitional Probability in Japanese Perceptual Epenthesis. Oral presentation, 19th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology. Melbourne, Australia (2024).

Decoding Informativity and Iconicity in American English. Oral presentation, 19th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology. Melbourne, Australia (2024).

Which phonological features express size sound symbolism? Oral presentation, 21st International Congress of Linguists (ICL). Poznan, Poland (2024).

Exploring the Gender of /k/ and /o/ in Japanese Sound Symbolism. Oral presentation, 31st Japanese/Korean Linguistics Conference. Melbourne, Australia (2024).

Information Equilibration in English and Japanese Morphemes. Poster, 19th Conference on Laboratory Phonology. Seoul, South Korea (2024).

Sound Symbolism in Automatic Emotion Recognition and Sentiment Analysis. Oral presentation, Cognitive A.I. Bari, Italy (2023).

Iconicity Through the Lens of Information Theory. Oral presentation, Iconicity Seminar 2023. Nagoya, Japan (2023).

Training Artificial Intelligence to Assess ESL Writing Using Complexity Measures. Oral presentation, Japanese Society for Language Sciences. Tokyo, Japan (2023).

Deriving gender from phonemes: Evidence from Mandarin names using the Random Forest algorithm. Oral presentation, 45th Annual Conference of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft. Cologne, Germany (2023).

Using Random Forests to Identify Sound Symbolic Relationships in Pokémon Names. Oral presentation, 13th Iconicity in Language and Literature Conference. Paris, France (2022).

Predictability, Word Frequency and Japanese Perceptual Epenthesis. Poster, International Congress of Phonetic Sciences. Melbourne, Australia (2019).

Japanese Vowel Devoicing Modulates Perceptual Epenthesis. Oral presentation, 17th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology. Sydney, Australia (2018).

Japanese Listeners Are More Likely to Perceive Illusory Vowels in Predictable Contexts. Poster, AMP2018: 6th Annual Meeting on Phonology. San Diego, USA (2018).

Japanese Coda [m] Elicits both Perceptual Assimilation and Epenthesis. Oral presentation, ISAPh2018: 2nd International Symposium on Applied Phonetics. Aizu, Japan (2018).

Japanese Perceptual Epenthesis is Modulated by Transitional Probability. Oral presentation, LabPhon16 Satellite Event. Lisbon, Portugal (2018).

Japanese Vowel Deletion Occurs in Words in Citation Form. Poster, 16th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology. Sydney, Australia (2016).

Japanese Co-occurrence Restrictions Influence Second Language Perception. Poster, New Sounds 2016, 8th International Symposium on the Acquisition of Second Language Speech. Aarhus, Denmark (2016).

Workshops

Decision tree-based classification algorithms. Tutorial hosted on Envision Box (2024).

Decision tree-based machine learning algorithms. Invited workshop, Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS). Berlin, Germany (2023).