Kazuma Kimura

Kazuma Kimura (木村一馬)

About Me

I'm a graduate student at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Cognitive Science and Language Department). My research focuses on formal syntax, sentence processing, and computational linguistics. A broader research goal is to understand how language is constituted by both discrete structure and continuous processing dynamics, and how these properties are represented across different systems (human vs. LLM). I'm currently working with Masaya Yoshida (UAB) on syntax and sentence processing, and with Saku Sugawara (NII) on Natural Language Processing and computational linguistics.

Research Interests

General

  1. Formal syntax
  2. Sentence processing
  3. Computational linguistics

Specific

  1. Japanese syntax (Case-assignment, quantifiers, and exceptive constructions)
  2. Filler-gap dependencies in Japanese (wh-dependencies and scrambling), and thier computational modeling
  3. The internal mechanisms underlying dependency resolution in LLMs (Transformer-based models, mechanistic interpretability)

Education

12.2025–present
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
Ph.D. in Cognitive Science and Language
04.2023–03.2025
University of Tsukuba
M.A. in Social Sciences and Humanities (English Linguistics)
04.2019–03.2023
Ibaraki University
B.A. in Social Sciences and Humanities (English Linguistics)

Experience

05.2025–present
National Institute of Informatics
Research Assistant, Research and Development Center for LLMs
08.2024–03.2025
RIKEN
Research Part-timer, Center for Advanced Intelligence Project