The heart of my research concentration is comparative syntax, specifically the investigation of cross-linguistic and cross-dialectal variation to figure out the design specifications underlying all human languages. I believe that utilizing insights from theoretical linguistics in conjunction with experimental studies provides a stronger means of advancing our understanding of the language faculty.
Some of my current work includes:
- ergativity and argument indexing in Iranian languages
- the syntax of (indirect) causatives, with a focus on (Sason) Arabic, Voice-related phenomena in general, such as reflexives, passives, impersonals
- role of Agree beyond Agreement, e.g., in binding, clitic doubling, ‘complementizer agreement’
- the ontology of implicit arguments
- the syntax of speech act participants, with a focus on vocatives
- investigation of (the limits of) contact-induced syntactic changes, with a focus on ‘word’-internal code-switching
I conduct my research on contact-induced syntactic changes hand in hand with my research on the documentation and investigation of understudied Arabic dialects, including my native dialect, Mutki-Sason Arabic.
SOME SOURCES ON SASON ARABIC
- Akkuş, Faruk. 2015. Sason Arabic: a morphological sketch. Ms. Yale University. [pdf] (a non-comprehensive morphological sketch I prepared for Jim Wood’s Morphology I class at Yale University, Fall 2015).
- Yakut, Büşra. 2013. Syntax of Sason Arabic: A Descriptive Review . Ms. Boğaziçi University. [pdf] (with permission of the author).
- Brody, Parker. 2016. Sason Arabic: a phonetic sketch. Ms. Yale University. [pdf] (with permission of the author; a phonetic sketch of the language for Ryan Bennett’s Phonetics course).
- Taylan, Eser. 2017. Language Contact in Anatolia: the case of Sason Arabic. In Endangered languages of the Caucasus and beyond eds. Ramazan Korkmaz and Doğan Gürkan. Brill. [link]
Faruk Akkuş 