Fatih Ünal Bozdağ
Assistant Professor of English Translation and Interpretation
Osmaniye Korkut Ata University
Learner corpora · Usage-based grammar · Cognitive Grammar · Bayesian modelling
I am a researcher working at the intersection of corpus linguistics, Cognitive Linguistics and natural language processing. Most of my work asks how learners of English build and stabilise grammatical knowledge from usage, and how their first language shapes that process. I approach these questions with large learner corpora, construction-based descriptions of grammar, and probabilistic and Bayesian models.
Three threads run through my research:
- Usage-based accounts of learner grammar. Constructional transfer, formulaicity and distributional stability in L2 English (modal verbs, passives, dative constructions, tense–aspect, hedging and metadiscourse), studied with corpus data (ICLE, EFCAMDAT, TICLE) and multilevel or Bayesian models.
- Turkish from a Cognitive Grammar perspective. Aspect and progressivity, embedded locative constructions, and grammaticalisation of motion and posture verbs across Turkic languages. My book Turkish Aspect through Cognitive Grammar (Artsürem, 2026) brings this line together.
- Tools for corpus research. Reproducible Python pipelines for construction detection, metadiscourse annotation, lexical and syntactic complexity, and computational stylometry (bitig). Code and data for my studies are released where copyright allows.
I teach discourse analysis, translation technology (CAT tools), medical and legal translation, and academic writing in the English Translation and Interpretation programme.
Research within applied linguistics
My work belongs to applied linguistics, the field concerned with language as it is learned, taught and used, and it draws on several complementary theoretical frameworks rather than on a single method. Usage-based linguistics and Construction Grammar provide its account of acquisition, in which grammatical knowledge emerges from repeated experience with form–meaning pairings and remains sensitive to their frequency and distribution. Cognitive Grammar supplies the semantic analysis of aspect, locative constructions and the grammaticalisation of motion and posture verbs, both in Turkish and in the English of Turkish learners. Second language acquisition research frames the questions of cross-linguistic influence, constructional transfer and developmental change, whereas learner corpus research and Bayesian modelling make it possible to test them on large samples of authentic learner writing. Furthermore, the findings bear on language teaching, since they show which constructions, verbs and functions learners from particular first languages underuse or extend, and they inform my own teaching of grammar, academic writing and translation.
Education
- PhD, English Language Teaching, Çukurova University, 2019. Dissertation: Error mapping and remedial intervention regarding English tense–aspect structures of Turkish EFL learners (supervisor: Cem Can).
- MA, English Language Teaching, Çukurova University, 2014. Thesis: Lexical verbs in academic writings of Turkish learners of English as a second language: A corpus-based study (supervisor: Hatice Sofu).
- BA, English Language Teaching, Çukurova University, 2011.
Selected recent work
Bozdağ, F. Ü. (in press). Native and learner verb preferences as predictors of passive use in L2 English writing. Language and Cognition. doi data SSCI · in press
Bozdağ, F. Ü. (2026). Modeling distributional stability in learner English passives: The Linguistic Clusters Framework. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory. Advance online publication. doi pdf code data SSCI · open access
Bozdağ, F. Ü., & Mo, J. (2026). Cross-linguistic influence in upper-intermediate to advanced L2 construction learning: A multidimensional analysis of L1 effects on probability, frequency, diversity, and verb-construction associations. Lingua, 341, 104239. doi accepted ms data SSCI
Bozdağ, F. Ü., Morris, G., & Mo, J. (2025). A corpus-based analysis of noun modifiers in L2 writing: The respective impact of L2 proficiency and L1 background. PLOS ONE, 20(3), e0320092. doi pdf SCIE · open access
Bozdağ, F. Ü., Morris, G., & Mo, J. (2024). A Bayesian probabilistic analysis of the use of English modal verbs in L2 writing: Focusing on L1 influence and topic effects. Heliyon, 10(7), e28701. doi pdf SCIE · open access
Full list: Publications.