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Converbs in heritage Turkish
(2021)
Turkish expresses adverbial subordination predominantly by means of converb clauses. These are headed by nonfinite verbs, i.e. converbs, which have a converb suffix attached to the stem. The different converbs express different aspectual relations between the subordinate and the superordinate clause, and they can be modifying or non-modifying. We analyse data from speakers of Turkish as a heritage language in Germany and the U.S. as well as monolingual speakers of Turkish in Turkey. The data come from two age groups: adults and adolescents. We show that unlike in canonical Turkish, converbs in heritage Turkish can be multifunctional, meaning that they can express both simultaneity and causality, for example. Furthermore, we show that converbs in heritage Turkish can be both modifying and non-modifying. As possible factors which might be responsible for such variation, we discuss language contact, sociolinguistic differences between the speaker communities (Germany vs. the U.S.) and age of the speakers.
This paper attempts to account for the syntactic distribution of the particle sey in Turkish, in particular its suffixed variant which is a placeholder for expressions that have to be inserted into the discourse later. The paper argues that the distribution of suffixed sey is determined by constituent structure, meaning that Bey can only substitute for syntactic constituents. Thus, sey acts as a pro-form, similar, for instance, to pronouns substituting for noun phrases. This has two implications: First, as sey is a quasi-universal pro-form with the ability to substitute for a wide range of constituents, sey-substitution can be used as a constituency test to peek into the constituent structure of virtually any major syntactic domain. Second, the overall sey-substitution pattern across different syntactic domains constitutes evidence for Kayne's binary branching hypothesis.
The ability to spell correctly is a fundamental skill for participating in society and engaging in professional work. In the German language, the capitalization of nouns and proper names presents major difficulties for both native and nonnative learners, since the definition of what is a noun varies according to one’s linguistic perspective. In this paper, we hypothesize that learners use different cognitive strategies to identify nouns. To this end, we examine capitalization exercises from more than 30,000 users of an online spelling training platform. The cognitive strategies identified are syntactic, semantic, pragmatic, and morphological approaches. The strategies used by learners overlap widely but differ by individual and evolve with grade level. The results show that even though the pragmatic strategy is not taught systematically in schools, it is the most widespread and most successful strategy used by learners. We therefore suggest that highly granular learning process data can not only provide insights into learners’ capabilities and enable the creation of individualized learning content but also inform curriculum development.