User:StandardRhyme/Jaklin Kornfilt
Jaklin Kornfilt
Jaklin Kornfilt is a theoretical linguist and professor at Syracuse University who is well-known for her contributions to the fields of syntax, morphology, Turkish language and grammar, and Turkic language typology.[1] At Syracuse University, she is also Director of the Linguistic Studies Program and Director of the Computational Linguistics Program.[2]
Kornfilt is the author of Turkish (1997), a comprehensive overview of the grammatical properties of the Turkish language. Her work was renowned for its near-exhaustive survey of the syntactical and morphological systems of Turkish.
Early Life and Career
Kornfilt graduated from German High School in Istanbul, Turkey. She then moved on to Heidelberg University in Heidelberg, Germany, where she studied Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies, supported by a German Academic Exchange Fellowship.[1] She graduated with her bachelor's degree in 1970. Later, she continued her studies in theoretical linguistics at Harvard University, earning her M.A. in 1980 and her Ph.D. in 1985, writing her dissertation on "Case, Marking, Agreement, and Empty Categories in Turkish."[3]
Selected Research
Descriptive Grammar of Turkish
Kornfilt’s Turkish was considered the major successor to Turkish-language descriptive grammars of G.L. Lewis’ Turkish Grammar (1967) and Robert Underhill’s Turkish Grammar (1976)[4][5]. Her work provided a thorough investigation of the syntactical and morphological properties of Turkish and defining its key typological features and universal characteristics[6].
Her work is a contribution to the Descriptive Grammars series by the Routledge publishing company. The series overviews a variety of languages through the lens of theoretical and descriptive analyses, using a framework called the Questionnaire as a structural tool for comparing grammars across language types[6]. More specifically, the Questionnaire surveys language features in a manner that is:
- sufficiently comprehensive to cover the major structures of any language that are likely to be of theoretical interest;
- sufficiently explicit to make cross-language comparisons a feasible undertaking (in particular, through the detailed numbering key); and
- sufficiently flexible to encompass the range of variety that is found in human language[6]
Kornfilt’s text is one of the first Turkish grammars to "incorporate overtly the native speaker's linguistic intuitions into its language description,"[6], as Kornfilt indicates various degrees to which ungrammatical sentences may be judged to be ungrammatical. As she explains in the preface, "[a]nother unusual feature of this book, and especially of the syntax chapter, is probably the fact that shadings of grammaticality or acceptability are noted, rather than reflecting an all-or-nothing approach"[4].
Structure of Turkish
In the preface, Kornfilt traces the genealogical history of Turkish as the Turkic language with the most speakers and a member of the Altaic language family. She notes that Turkish was written in Arabic script from the beginning of its history in the Anatolian peninsula, until its orthography was converted to the Latin alphabet following the language reforms of 1928, upon the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. She emphasizes that this Modern Standard Turkish is the focus of the book[6].
In five chapters, she surveys Syntax, Morphology, Phonology, Ideophones and Interjections, and Lexicon. With a total of 575 pages, the book devotes an overwhelming majority of attention to Syntax and Morphology. Given that even the Morphology chapter often describes syntactical properties, Kornfilt is primarily interested in the syntax of Turkish[6]:
Ch 1. "Syntax": 211 pages
Ch 2. "Morphology": 270 pages
Ch 3. "Phonology": 32 pages
Ch 4. "Ideophones and Interjections": 3 pages
Ch 5. "Lexicon": 16 pages
"Syntax" and "Morphology"
Across sixteen subparts, the chapter surveys aspects of Turkish syntax:
A notable innovation of Kornfilt's syntax is observation of the relationship of the
Additionally, Kornfilt denies the existence of a separate topic marker in Turkish syntax. This contradicts the view that the form -ise (copula + conditional) or the particle de are topic markers, as in the following sentences[6]:
(1) Fasulye-yi ise en çok Ayşe sev-iyor.
Bean-Acc. Cop Supl most Ayşe love-pres.
'As for beans, Ayşe likes them the most.'
(2) Fasulye-yi de en çok Ayşe sev-iyor.
Bean-Acc. Part Supl most Ayşe love-pres.
'As for beans, Ayşe likes them the most.'
Turkic Languages
Written for the book, The World’s Language Families (1990), Kornfilt’s chapter on “Turkish and Turkic Languages”
“General and Historical Background”
Kornfilt provides the background of Turkish and
With regards to the geographical groupings of Turkic languages, Kornfilt acknowledges that there is no broad consensus on their classifications. Ultimately, she chooses to classify the Modern Standard Turkish spoken in the Republic of Turkey as part of Anatolian dialect of the Osman language group, which is part of the larger South-West Oyuz group of Turkic languages.
“Phonology and Orthography”
Kornfilt highlights the phonological characteristics of Turkish. She begins by remarking on the symmetry of Turkish vowels, as there are four pairs of high and non-high vowels, varying in backness and rounding. She states that non-high vowels can only be round if they are in a word-initial syllable. She argues that the most prominent property of Turkish vowels their adherence to vowel harmony, as they regularly assimilate to one another to match according to backness and rounding.
Kornfilt also explores the orthographic characteristics of written Turkish. While Turkish adopted the Latin script following the writing reforms of 1928, there are a few changes that the Republic of Turkey made in the characterizations of letters. As Kornfilt describes: "Instead of -i, the sign used for the high back non-round vowel, we find ı, i.e. a dotless i. The difference between the two non-round high vowels is signalled in the same way for capital letters: I . for the front, I for the back, high non-round vowel...Other letters that don’t correspond to the familiar phonetic symbols are the following: c for [j], ç for [č], ş for [š], j for [ž]".
Additionally, Kornfilt explores other features of Turkish phonology:
“Morphology”
Kornfilt begins by commenting on the highly
She goes on to survey the most productive suffixes of Turkish, along with the rules governing their order when combined together. More specifically, she surveys:
- plural markers: -lAr
- possessive suffixes, referred to as "agreement suffixes" because they express the person and number features of their 'possessors'
- case morphemes
- causative affixes: -lA
- voice suffixes, which are the leftmost productive class of verbal suffixes:
- middle/reflexive: (-(I)n)
- reciprocals: (-(I)ş)
- passives: (-Il/n)
- causatives: (-DIr/t)
- negation marker: -mA
- moodmarkers:
- desideratives: -sA
- necessitative: -mAlI
- optative: -(y)a
- tense markers:
- definite past: -DI
- reported past: -mIş
- aorist: -(A)r
- future: -(y)AcAK
- present progressive: -(I)yor
- main participle morphemes: -(y)An and -DIK
- converbs, or gerundives:
- manner suffixes: -(y)ArAk
- conjunction adverbials: -(y)Ip
- time adverb suffix: -(y)IncA
- gendermarkers
Government and Binding
NP-Movement
Kornfilt has also contributed to understanding of the
- The understood embedded direct object is the S-Structurematrix subject;
- Whether an agent phrase shows up or not, the agent of the matrix and of the embedded verb are understood as co-referential, just like in Control contexts in general;
- The embedded verb is an infinitive (suffix -mAK)-a form found in Control contexts;
- Both the embedded infinitive and the matrix verb have to carry Passive morphology (with one exception, to be discussed later);
- Only 3 matrix verbs occur in this construction, exemplified above, all Subject-Control verbs;
- Infinitives in Turkish bear no Agreement morphology. This is true in Control contexts as well as in IDPs.[8]
The following are some example sentences of Turkish IDPs[8]:
(1) üniversite-ler (polis tarafından) kuşat-ıl-mak iste-n-di
university-pl. police by surround-Pass-Infin. want-Pass-past
'The universities were wanted to be surrounded by the police'
(2) üniversite-ler (polis tarafından) kuşat-ıl-mağ-a başla-n-dı
university-pl. police by surround-Pass-Infin.-Dat. begin-Pass-past
'The universities were begun to be surrounded by the police'
(3) üniversite-ler (polis tarafından) kuşat-ıl-mağ-a çalış-ıl-dı
university-pl. police by surround-Pass-Infin.-Dat. try-Pass-past
'The universities were tried to be surrounded by the police'
The following are active counterparts of the above Turkish IDPs that involve Control[8]:
(4) polis [PRO üniversite-ler-i kuşat-mak] iste-di
police university-pl.-Acc. surround-Infin. want-past
'The police wanted to surround the universities'
(5) polis [PRO üniversite-ler-i kuşat-mağ]-a başla-dı
police university-pl.-Acc. surround-Infin.-Dat. begin-past
'The police begun to surround the universities'
(6) polis [PRO üniversite-ler-i kuşat-mağ]-a çalış-tı
police university-pl.-Acc. surround-Infin.-Dat. try-past
'The police tried to surround the universities'
Kornfilt claims that while IDPs in other languages can normally be explained by
In other words, the same CP-Transparency found in factive contexts that renders embedded subjects under the rule of government via the matrix verb is also present in non-factive contexts as well, such as in her Turkish examples. Her proposal links this CP-Transparency phenomenon to the traditional effects of S-bar Deletion in that the ‘offending’
Disagreement on Kornfilt’s account
Wayne Harbert opposed Kornfilt in his review of her article
Scrambling and Word Order
Properties of Scrambling in Turkish
In her article, "Scrambling, Subscrambling, and Case in Turkish" (2003)
Against scrambling as an instance of "Move-Alpha"
In her article, "Against scrambling as an instance of Move-alpha" (1994)
Case Marking
Direct Objects
In her article, "The case of the direct object in Turkish: Semantics, syntax and morphology" (2005)
References
- ^ a b “Interview with Dr. Kornfilt (Spring 2018).” The Maxwell School of Syracuse University, 3 Apr. 2019, www.maxwell.syr.edu/moynihan/mesp/spring_2018_newsletter/Interview_with_Dr__Kornfilt/.
- ^ “Jaklin Kornfilt.” College of Arts & Sciences at Syracuse University, Syracuse University, thecollege.syr.edu/people/faculty/kornfilt-jaklin/.
- ^ Peoplepill.com. “About Jaklin Kornfilt: Linguist: Biography, Facts, Career, Wiki, Life.” Peoplepill.com, peoplepill.com/people/jaklin-kornfilt.
- ^ ISSN0003-5483.
- ^ "LINGUIST List 9.645: Kornfilt, Turkish". The LINGUIST List. 1998-05-02. Retrieved 2021-03-13.
- ^ ISBN 0-415-00010-6.
- ^ Kornfilt, Jaklin. "Turkish and the Turkic languages." The world’s major languages 2 (1990).
- ^ ISBN 978-94-009-0135-3
- ^ ISBN 978-94-009-0135-3, retrieved 2021-03-14
- ^ a b Kornfilt, Jaklin. "Scrambling, subscrambling, and case in Turkish." Word order and scrambling 125155 (2003).
- ^ a b c d Bayer, Josef, and Jaklin Kornfilt. "Against scrambling as an instance of Move-alpha." (1994): 17-60.
- ^ a b c d e f Von Heusinger, Klaus, and Jaklin Kornfilt. "The case of the direct object in Turkish: Semantics, syntax and morphology." Turkic languages 9 (2005): 3-44.
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