Jaklin Kornfilt

Jaklin Kornfilt is a theoretical linguist, working at Syracuse University.

Kornfilt graduated from Heidelberg University with a bachelor's degree in applied linguistics and translation studies in 1970. She obtained a master of arts degree in theoretical linguistics from Harvard University in 1980. She earned a PhD again in theoretical linguistics from the same university in 1985. Her PhD thesis was "Case Marking, Agreement, and Empty Categories in Turkish".

After graduation, Kornfilt began to work as an instructor at Syracuse University in 1983. She became professor of linguistics in 2003.

Kornfilt's major study areas include syntactic theory, theoretically informed linguistic typology, and the syntax—morphology interface, with special emphasis on the syntax and morphology of Turkish and of the Turkic languages. She also studies German and the Germanic languages. She published a book entitled Turkish Grammar in 1997.

She also organized and led a linguistics working group of The Central New York Humanities Corridor, an interdisciplinary partnership with Syracuse University, Cornell, and the University of Rochester from 2005 to 2010.

Awards

Kornfilt was awarded the Humboldt Research Award by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Bamberg in 2010.