Elin McCready is an American linguist and professor in the Department of English Language and Literature at

Aoyama Gakuin University is a private Christian university in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Originally established in 1874 by missionaries from the Methodist Episcopal Church, it was reconfigured in its current form in 1949 as part of Aoyama Gakuin. Aoyama Gakuin University ...

. She researches

semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and compu ...

pragmatics In linguistics and related fields, pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship between the interpreter and the in ...

, and

philosophy of language In analytic philosophy, philosophy of language investigates the nature of language and the relations between language, language users, and the world. Investigations may include inquiry into the nature of meaning, intentionality, reference, the ...

, focusing in particular on phenomena like evidentials, honorifics, and slurs. She is also co-director of Aoyama Gakuin University's Singularity Research Institute.

Academic career

McCready earned a PhD at the University of Texas-Austin in 2005, with a dissertation entitled, "The dynamics of

particles In the physical sciences, a particle (or corpuscule in older texts) is a small localized object which can be described by several physical or chemical properties, such as volume, density, or mass. They vary greatly in size or quantity, from ...

." McCready has written widely cited articles published in prestigious journals including ''

Natural Language and Linguistic Theory ''Natural Language & Linguistic Theory'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering theoretical and generative linguistics. It was established in 1983 and originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers. Since 2004 the journal is ...

'', ''

Linguistic Inquiry ''Linguistic Inquiry'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal in generative linguistics published by the MIT Press since 1970. Ever since its foundation, it has been edited by Samuel Jay Keyser Samuel Jay Keyser (born 7 July 1935) is an American ...

'', ''

Linguistics and Philosophy ''Linguistics and Philosophy'' is a peer-reviewed journal addressing "structure and meaning in natural language". This journal, along with '' Studies in Language'', is a continuation of the journal ''Foundations of Language'' (1965 to 1976). The ...

'', ''

Semantics and Pragmatics The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

'', and ''Journal of Cognitive Science''. She has written two books, ''Reliability in Pragmatics'', and ''The Semantics and Pragmatics of Honorification: Register and Social Meaning'', and has (co-)edited numerous volumes, including ''Formal Approaches to Semantics and Pragmatics: Japanese and Beyond''. In 2021, she received a ''Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award'' from the

Alexander von Humboldt Foundation The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (german: Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung) is a foundation established by the government of the Federal Republic of Germany and funded by the Federal Foreign Office, the Federal Ministry of Education and Rese ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

, which supports researchers who "are expected to produce cutting-edge activities."

Gender recognition in Japan

McCready is a

trans woman A trans woman or a transgender woman is a woman who was assigned male at birth. Trans women have a female gender identity, may experience gender dysphoria, and may Gender transitioning, transition; this process commonly includes Feminizing horm ...

. After transitioning in the US, McCready filed to update her

permanent residence ''Permanent Residence'' () is a 2009 Hong Kong film starring Sean Li and Osman Hung. It was directed by Hong Kong filmmaker Danny Cheng, also known as Scud. The film explores several themes traditionally regarded as 'taboo' in Hong Kong society ...

card in Japan, where she lives with her wife and three children. The Japanese government refused to recognize her transition, as doing so would require them to effectively recognize

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

(which Japan currently does not) or to unilaterally annul the couple's marriage. As a result, McCready and her wife have filed suit against the Japanese government. A documentary, ''It's Just Our Family'', has been produced about the couple's struggles with this treatment. In 2019 McCready organised a trans inclusive club night, called WAIFU, after being refused entry to an existing women's club night.

Selected publications

* * * McCready, Elin. 2015. ''Reliability in Pragmatics''. Oxford. ISBN 0198702841 * McCready, Elin. 2005. ''The dynamics of particles''. PhD dissertation, University of Texas. * McCready, Elin. 2019. ''The Semantics and Pragmatics of Honorification: Register and Social Meaning''. Oxford. ISBN 0198821360. * McCready, Elin; Yabushita, Katsuhiko; Yoshimoto, Kei, eds. 2014. ''Formal Approaches to Semantics and Pragmatics: Japanese and Beyond''. Dordrecht: Springer. ISBN 9789401788137

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McCready, Elin Living people Linguists from the United States Women linguists Semanticists Transgender academics Transgender women Aoyama Gakuin University faculty LGBT in Japan Year of birth missing (living people)

Academic career

Gender recognition in Japan

Selected publications

See also

References