Arienne Dwyer (University of Kansas)

Turkic linguistics has certainly had its share of enduring questions large and small, from their relationship to Mongolic to the description and theorization of relative clauses in a particular language. New developments in typological, corpus, historical, and experimental linguistics allow us to ask new questions, and to bring new methods to bear on old questions. Identifying grand challenges can foster collaboration and attract funding. So, this “talk” is actually a facilitated discussion of what you, the assembled Turkologists and Turkologically curious, view as the important research questions of our field. Initially, I will whet your appetite by raising a few possibly provocative challenges, questions, and methodological and empirical gaps. Stimulating a lively dialogue has the ultimate aim of jointly identifying some new possible areas of collaboration and new research agendas.