Author Archives: Faruk Akkus

Faruk Akkus’ book to be published at Oxford University Press

Faruk Akkus’ monograph (with David Embick and Mohammed Salih), titled “Case and the syntax of argument indexation”, has been accepted for publication at Oxford University Press (Studies in Theoretical Linguistics)!

The current version is available on lingbuzz: https://lingbuzz.net/lingbuzz/007378

A short description of the monograph is below:


Abstract:
This book deals with case and the syntax of argument indexation. We argue for an approach in which case labels (‘Nominative’, ‘Ergative’, etc.) are shorthand for bundles of decomposed features; crucially, these features are part of the syntax, and also referred to in the morphology. A key idea in the approach is what we call Case Targeting: the idea that probes may target arguments with specific case features. Importantly, syntax and morphology can refer to these features differentially, leading to various interesting mismatches. This includes allowing Clitic Movement in syntax to produce both morphophonological clitic and affix on the PF side. Conversely, Agreement operation in syntax can produce morphophonological clitic and affix on the PF side. We focus primarily on Sorani Kurdish varieties (Iranian languages), but also investigate and apply our approach to other Iranian languages (Kurmanji, Zazaki, Laki, Persian, Rushani, Shughni), Indo-Aryan (Hindi, Nepali, Gujarati, Maithili), Semitic (Arabic, Neo-Aramaic), and Polynesian (Nukuoro). We elaborate on various implications of the approach for implicational hierarchies, case containment, case assignment mechanisms etc. We maintain that discussions of inherent vs dependent case approaches should be approached at a fine grain, one that is informed by the representation of case features that we argue for.

Akkus presents at ICKL-5

Faruk Akkus presents two talks at the 5th International Conference on Kurdish Linguistics (ICKL-5), virtually held at the University of Graz, September 24-25, 2021. The titles of the talks are as follows:

Faruk Akkus, Mohammed Salih (UPenn), and David Embick (UPenn). Cross-referencing oblique arguments in Kurdish varieties.

Songul Gundogdu (Mus Alparslan University), Faruk Akkus:  On periphrastic “give” causative in Kurmanji Kurdish and Sason Arabic

Akkus publishes at Linguistic Inquiry

Faruk Akkus’ paper titled “Evidence from Sason Arabic for ?-Movement Feeding Case-Licensing Relations” appears at Linguistic Inquiry. The abstract of the squib is as follows:

This squib presents an argument for a locality-based, Case-theoretic licensing approach to configurations in which certain positions cannot be occupied by overt material at Spell-Out. Investigating an indirect causative construction in Sason Arabic, I demonstrate that the embedded agent is separated from its licenser by a phase domain, and as such cannot be Case-licensed. ?-movement makes licensing possible, placing the embedded agent and its licenser in a local configuration. I also show that this approach fares better than alternative hypotheses such as the Exfoliation account or a PF-based account.