Jaklin Kornfilt, professor of linguistics in Syracuse University’s College of Arts and Sciences, believes learning has no boundaries. Witness her recent involvement with Lingua (Elsevier, 2011), an international journal devoted to problems of general linguistics. A majority of the editorial work, she says, was completed via email and Skype in Germany, where a Humboldt Research Award enabled her to spend two semesters at the University of Stuttgart.
The result is an acclaimed special issue on nominalizations in linguistic theory that she co-edited with John Whitman, professor of linguistics at Cornell University. Both scholars also contributed a joint article on syntactic theory in the afterword.
“Lingua is a top-tier journal in theoretical linguistics and is widely read,” says Kornfilt, a member of the languages, literatures and linguistics (LLL) faculty since 1983. “The topic of clausal nominalizations is important for linguistic theory because such clauses are verbal internally and are nominal externally. They have a categorially hybrid character that poses interesting theoretical challenges.”
Kornfilt attributes the success of this issue to the contributors, all of whom are internationally renowned syntacticians and theoretical typologists. One contributor, Cornell linguist John Bowers, authored an article on non-event nominals and argument structure. “[The journal] looks excellent,” he says. “The papers are interestingly divergent in their approaches, but, at the same time, are thematically coherent. It is quite a useful volume.”
Kornfilt’s involvement with Lingua marks the latest chapter in a high-profile career. Born and raised in Istanbul, she earned a Ph.D. in theoretical linguistics at Harvard University, while also taking courses at M.I.T., where linguist Noam Chomsky served as her main dissertation adviser.
“Jaklin’s scholarly contributions cover a substantial range,” he says. “Perhaps her most distinctive contribution has been to bring Turkish and related languages to the center of concern in theoretical linguistics, [along] with the quite interesting and often unexpected properties that she has revealed, of considerable, broader significance.”
Kornfilt’s foray into syntax and morphology has not only put SU on the linguistics map, but also conferred on her international visibility and renown. As a “Humboldtian,” Kornfilt worked on several projects in Stuttgart’s Institute of Linguistics, where she was a special guest of the Center of Linguistics and Cognition. Some of her findings will surface in a forthcoming book about Turkish syntax—the only one of its kind in English.
Kornfilt is the author of many other publications, including the landmark book “Turkish Descriptive Grammars” (Routledge, 1997). She also has led a linguistics working group of the Central New York Humanities Corridor, an interdisciplinary partnership with SU, Cornell and the University of Rochester.
Gerald Greenberg, associate professor of Russian and linguistics at SU, considers Kornfilt an asset because of her specialization in syntactic theory and in the study of Turkish and Turkic languages. “There is no doubt why Jaklin enjoys the international reputation she does,” he says. “She is creative and prolific. Her research is extremely interesting, and has influenced the work of many others, including my own. This kind of research translates into better learning for our students.”
“I think theoretical research is often misunderstood as something esoteric or inaccessible,” says Kornfilt. “The truth is that it is the foundation for many of the advances that affect our lives. Pure research can exist without applied research, but the latter can’t flourish without the former.”
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