Research at Boğaziçi

Here you can find some research from my master’s degree at Boğaziçi, written about ten years ago. Looking back at this work now, the connections are much clearer than they were at the time. Jonathan (Bobaljik) once told me that each project we undertake often contributes to a larger research agenda, even when we do not yet recognize it. I used to think of myself as somewhat scattered in my interests, but revisiting these earlier projects, I can see recurring questions already taking shape such as negation, focus, ideophones, and the structure of a particular dialect. These are the main themes that overtake my research as you can see in my dissertation.

Lower your expectations, here is my paper on derivational suffixes in Turkish. It looks at productivity and form-meaning relations in suffixation, with examples that already connect to my broader interests in ideophones and the status of non-arbitrary meaning in grammar.

I also worked on the syntax of focus particle in Turkish. Find the paper here. There is not much semantics in this one, still I am not competent to do but I do believe that syntax does more interpretive work than it is sometimes given credit for. (Pardon my syntax bias.)

And my favorite dialect of Turkish. Check my work on vowel (dis)harmony in Trabzon dialect. Here we go. 10 years ago I was fancy and using Government Phonology, good old days.