A. Sumru Özsoy is a leading

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

and Turkish academic working at

Boğaziçi University Boğaziçi University ( tr, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi), also known as Bosphorus University, is a major research university in Istanbul, Turkey. Its main campus is located on the European side of the Bosphorus strait. It has six faculties and tw ...

Istanbul ) , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = 34000 to 34990 , area_code = +90 212 (European side) +90 216 (Asian side) , registration_plate = 34 , blank_name_sec2 = GeoTLD , blank_i ...

Education

Özsoy received a bachelor's degree in

comparative literature Comparative literature is an academic field dealing with the study of literature and cultural expression across linguistic, national, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries. Comparative literature "performs a role similar to that of the study ...

from Robert College in 1971. She obtained a master's degree in linguistics from

in 1975 and a PhD in linguistics from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1983. Title of her PhD thesis is "''Kendi-reflexivization in Turkish: A syntactic, semantic and discourse analysis''".

Career

Özsoy started her career as an English instructor in 1972. She was a teaching assistant at the University of Michigan from 1977 to 1983. Then she joined Boğaziçi University in 1983 and became professor of linguistics at the Department of Western Languages and Literatures in 1994. She represents the Turkish Linguistics Community at the Permanent International Committee of Linguists (CPIL).

Work

Özsoy's fields of study are syntax, structure of Turkish,

Caucasian languages The Caucasian languages comprise a large and extremely varied array of languages spoken by more than ten million people in and around the Caucasus Mountains, which lie between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Linguistic comparison allows t ...

cognitive linguistics Cognitive linguistics is an interdisciplinary branch of linguistics, combining knowledge and research from cognitive science, cognitive psychology, neuropsychology and linguistics. Models and theoretical accounts of cognitive linguistics are con ...

sign languages Sign languages (also known as signed languages) are languages that use the visual-manual modality to convey meaning, instead of spoken words. Sign languages are expressed through manual articulation in combination with non-manual markers. Sign l ...

and

Turkish Sign Language Turkish Sign Language ( tr, Türk İşaret Dili, TİD) is the language used by the deaf community in Turkey. As with other sign languages, TİD has a unique grammar that is different from the oral languages used in the region. TİD uses a two-ha ...

. She is one of the linguists who studied the now extinct language Ubykh focusing on its syntax. She studied with Tevfik Esenç, the last fluent speaker of Ubykh, in his later years. She organized an international conference, namely Conference on Northwest Caucasian Linguistics, at Boğaziçi University in 1994 in memory of Georges Dumézil, who analysed the language in detail, and Esenç. She is the author of several books, including ''Türkçe-Turkish'' (1999) and ''Türkçe'nin Yapısı. Sesbilim'' (2004; ''Structure of Turkish. Phonology''). She has also published numerous articles in her fields of study. She was the coeditor of '' Dilbilim Araştırmaları'' from 1990 to 2011 and has been among the editors of ''

Turkic Languages The Turkic languages are a language family of over 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia ( Siberia), and Western Asia. The Turkic l ...

'' since 1997 which is published by the Harrassowitz publishing house.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ozsoy, A. Sumru Living people Robert College alumni Boğaziçi University alumni University of Michigan alumni Academic staff of Boğaziçi University Turkish women academics Linguists from Turkey Linguists of Turkic languages Linguists of Northwest Caucasian languages Ubykh language Women orientalists Women linguists 20th-century linguists 21st-century linguists Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century Turkish women 21st-century Turkish women