My research lies at the intersection of theoretical and experimental linguistics, particularly experimental syntax and sentence processing. With a background in theoretical syntax, I am broadly interested in mismatches between grammatical well-formedness and acceptability: why structurally well-formed sentences may sometimes be difficult or judged unacceptable, and, especially, why sentences that appear structurally ill-formed may nevertheless be perceived as acceptable. I use experimental evidence to investigate whether such patterns arise from grammatical representations, processing mechanisms, discourse factors, or interactions among them.

Most of my work to date has used controlled acceptability judgment experiments in Korean. I am interested in expanding this work through a wider range of experimental paradigms, including speeded judgments and online measures of sentence processing. By combining theory-driven questions with multiple experimental methods, I aim to distinguish stable grammatical effects from temporary processing effects and contribute to a more empirically grounded understanding of linguistic structure.