Welcome
Referentiality is a central theme in my research agenda as it serves as a bridge between non-verbal cognitive and linguistic skills, offering insights into the interface of language and cognition. Since I advocate that language is cognition, I employ a diverse range of research methods to understand the cognitive processes behind linguistic/language input and output (e.g., eye-tracking, ERP, fMRI, sentence completion, picture description, and corpus analysis).
My inquiries have included the following: (1) Investigating the online cognitive processing of demonstratives and anaphors in discourse, exploring processing differences between referential expressions;
(2) Considering cognitive and language functions in examining several factors (e.g., psychometric measures: working memory, education, social status, age, and reading habits) that influence an addresser’s choice of anaphoric expressions;
(3) Understanding how interlocutors interpret messages with referential ambiguity, especially in cases of multiple interpretations or noisy input, and assessing its impact on eye movements and brain activations that reflect cognitive processing behind language input;
(4) Identifying instances of underspecified referential expressions (shallow processing) and brain and eye-movement reactions to such cases;
(5) Exploring speech biomarkers of psychosis;
(6) Investigating the potential for detecting psychosis and aphasia by analysing language profiles in patient groups;
(7) Examining the relationship between language and thought in psychosis;
(8) Predicting childhood emotional neglect through analysis of pauses and referentiality;
(9) Exploring potential correlations between hippocampus and linguistic metrics in individuals with a history of emotional neglect; and
(10) Modelling brain representations of the concreteness of words in contexts using GPT-2 and human-ratings .
My previous research underscores the critical role of language in psychiatry, highlighting its connections with central symptoms, neurobiological correlates, and prognostic significance.
I am currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Prominence in Language project at the University of Cologne, Germany. I'm working with Prof. Klaus Von Heusinger. We are investigating referential and conceptual activation in the processing of referential expressions in discourse. This is a great experience for me because SFB, funding, provides me an opportunity to collaborate with leading scholars in the clinical research and neurolinguistics. Explore our exciting LAMBDA project: Unraveling Language Markers and Brain Dysfunction in Early Psychosis.
Collaborators
Prof. Massimo Poesio, Queen Mary University of London, UK & University of Utrecht, Netherlands.
Prof. Wolfram Hinzen, University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.
Prof. Emre Bora, Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey.
Dr. Markus Phillip, University of Cologne, Germany.
Prof. Kai Vogeley, University of Cologne, Germany.
Prof. Joseph Kambeitz, University of Cologne, Germany.
Dr. Patrick Sturt, University of Edinburgh
Dr. Stuart Watson & Dr. Sinead Mullally (Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University).
Previous collaborators
Prof. Fernanda Ferreira
Prof. Ted Sanders
Prof. Deniz Zeyrek
Prof. Rosemary Varley
Dr. Vitor Zimmerer
Prof. Douglas Turkington
Prof. Nicol Ferrier
Please scroll down to see details of my recent publications. You can also contact me by email.
My inquiries have included the following: (1) Investigating the online cognitive processing of demonstratives and anaphors in discourse, exploring processing differences between referential expressions;
(2) Considering cognitive and language functions in examining several factors (e.g., psychometric measures: working memory, education, social status, age, and reading habits) that influence an addresser’s choice of anaphoric expressions;
(3) Understanding how interlocutors interpret messages with referential ambiguity, especially in cases of multiple interpretations or noisy input, and assessing its impact on eye movements and brain activations that reflect cognitive processing behind language input;
(4) Identifying instances of underspecified referential expressions (shallow processing) and brain and eye-movement reactions to such cases;
(5) Exploring speech biomarkers of psychosis;
(6) Investigating the potential for detecting psychosis and aphasia by analysing language profiles in patient groups;
(7) Examining the relationship between language and thought in psychosis;
(8) Predicting childhood emotional neglect through analysis of pauses and referentiality;
(9) Exploring potential correlations between hippocampus and linguistic metrics in individuals with a history of emotional neglect; and
(10) Modelling brain representations of the concreteness of words in contexts using GPT-2 and human-ratings .
My previous research underscores the critical role of language in psychiatry, highlighting its connections with central symptoms, neurobiological correlates, and prognostic significance.
I am currently a postdoctoral researcher in the Prominence in Language project at the University of Cologne, Germany. I'm working with Prof. Klaus Von Heusinger. We are investigating referential and conceptual activation in the processing of referential expressions in discourse. This is a great experience for me because SFB, funding, provides me an opportunity to collaborate with leading scholars in the clinical research and neurolinguistics. Explore our exciting LAMBDA project: Unraveling Language Markers and Brain Dysfunction in Early Psychosis.
Collaborators
Prof. Massimo Poesio, Queen Mary University of London, UK & University of Utrecht, Netherlands.
Prof. Wolfram Hinzen, University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.
Prof. Emre Bora, Dokuz Eylul University, Turkey.
Dr. Markus Phillip, University of Cologne, Germany.
Prof. Kai Vogeley, University of Cologne, Germany.
Prof. Joseph Kambeitz, University of Cologne, Germany.
Dr. Patrick Sturt, University of Edinburgh
Dr. Stuart Watson & Dr. Sinead Mullally (Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University).
Previous collaborators
Prof. Fernanda Ferreira
Prof. Ted Sanders
Prof. Deniz Zeyrek
Prof. Rosemary Varley
Dr. Vitor Zimmerer
Prof. Douglas Turkington
Prof. Nicol Ferrier
Please scroll down to see details of my recent publications. You can also contact me by email.
Publications
A monograph under review
Çokal, D. & Poesio, M. (re-submitted). Cognitive evidence on anaphoric interpretation. Elements in Psycholinguistics. Cambridge University Press.
Papers under review
Çokal, D. & Poesio, M. (re-submitted). Underspecified representation of plural pronouns.
Papers in international journals (anonymously reviewed)
Çokal, D., Bishop, J., Tarregrossa, J., Patterson, C., Grice, M., Wehrle, S., Lialiou, M., Repp, S., Seeliger, H., Eisenbeiß, S., von Heusinger, K., Vogeley, K., & Schumacher, P. (2025). Individual differences in discourse management, Frontiers in Communication-Language Communication.
Çokal, D. & von Heusinger, K. (2024). The role of alternatives in the cognitive processing of German demonstratives: insights from online and offline processing. Frontiers in Psycholinguistics. doi.org/10.3389/flang.2024.1433482
Çokal, D. & von Heusinger, K. (2024). German demonstratives in contrast. Dialogue and Discourse. doi.org/10.5210/dad.2024.102
Bruera, A, Tao Y, Anderson, A., Çokal, D., Haber, J., & Poesio, M. (2023). Modeling Brain Representations of Words' Concreteness in Context Using GPT2- and Human Ratings. Cognitive Science, 47 (12), e13388. doi: 10.1111/cogs.13388. PMID: 38103208.
Çokal, D., Filik, R., Sturt, P., & Poesio, M. (2023). Anaphoric reference to mereological entities. Discourse Processes.
Poesio, M., Yu, j., Paun, S., Aloraini, A, & Haber, J., Çokal, D. (2023). Computational Models of Anaphora. Annual Review of Linguistics.
Çokal, D., Claudio, P.F., Ture-Abaci, O., Yalcin, B., Bora, E., & Hinzen, W. (2023). Referential noun phrases distribute differently in Turkish speakers with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research.
Çokal, D., & Sturt, P., (2022). The real-time status of strong and weak islands. PLOS ONE.
Mullally, S., Grafton-Clarke, D., Mawson, R. W., Unwin, M., Webber, K. S., Rossi, K., Brown, S., Dodd, A.L., Pepper G.V., Çokal, D., Gallagher, P. & Watson, S. (2022) Growing up unloved: the enduring consequence of early emotional neglect on the qualia of memory and imagination. PLoS ONE.
Çokal, D., (2022). Turkish discourse anaphors: bu and o. Gianollo, Chiara, Lukasz Jedrzejowski & Sofiana I., Lindemann: Paths through meaning and form. Festschrift offered to Klaus von Heusinger on the occasion of his 60th birthday (pp. 46-49). Köln: Universitäts-und Stadbibliothek Köln.
Çokal, D., Sturt, P., & Ferreira, F. (2021). Processing of discourse anaphors by L2 speakers of English. Dialogue and Discourse, 12(2), 38-80.
Schroeder, K., Durrleman, S., Çokal, D., Delgado, S.A., Marin, A.M., & Hinzen, W. (2021). Relations between intentionality, theory of mind, and
complex syntax in autism spectrum conditions and typical development. Cognitive Development.
Çokal, D., Zeyrek, D., & Sanders, T. J. M. (2020). Subjectivity and objectivity in Turkish causal connectives? The results from a first corpus
study on çünkü and için. In Zeyrek, D. & Özge, U. (Eds.) Discourse structure and meaning: the view from Turkish (pp.223-247). de Gruyter Mouton: Trends in Linguistics.
Little, B., Gallagher, P., Zimmerer, V., Varley, R., Douglas, M., Spencer, H., Çokal, D., Deamer, F., Turkington, D., Ferrier, N., Varley, R., Hinzen, W., & Watson, S. (2019). Language in Schizophrenia and Aphasia: the relationship with non-verbal cognition and thought disorder. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 389-405.
Çokal, D., Zimmerer, V., Turkington, D., Ferrier, N., Varley, R., Watson, S. & Hinzen, W. (2019). Disturbing the rhythm of thought: speech pausing patterns in schizophrenia, with and without formal thought disorder. PLOS ONE.journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217404
Çokal, D. (2019). Discourse Deixis and Anaphora in L2 Writing. Dilbilim Araştırmaları, 241-277. Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Yayınevi, İstanbul.
Çokal, D., Zimmerer, V., Varley, R., Watson, S. & Hinzen, W. (2019). Comprehension of embedded clauses in schizophrenia with and without formal thought disorder. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 207 (5), 384-392.
journals.lww.com/jonmd/Fulltext/2019/05000/Comprehension_of_Embedded_Clauses_in_Schizophrenia.12.aspx
Çokal, D., Sevilla, G., Jones, W.S., Zimmerer, V., Deamer, F., Douglas, M., Spencer, H., Turkington, D., Ferrier, N., Varley, R., Watson, S. & Hinzen, W. (2018). The Language Profile of Formal Thought Disorder. npj: schizophrenia -Nature subgroup.
www.nature.com/articles/s41537-018-0061-9.
Çokal, D., Sturt, P. & Ferreira, F. (2018). L2 referent representation in processing and production. Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of Cognitive Science Society.
Çokal, D., & Sturt, P. (2017). The effect of referring expression on antecedent-grouping choice in plural reference resolution. Discourse Processes. In honor of Tony Sanford. .pdf
Çokal, D., Sturt, P., & Ferreira, F. (2016). Processing of It and This in Written Narrative Discourse. Discourse Processes. pdf
Ferreira, F. & Çokal, D. (2015). Sentence Processing. In G. Hickok, & S. Small (Eds.). Neurobiology of Language. Elsevier. .pdf
Çokal, D., Sturt, P., & Ferreira, F. (2014). Deixis: This and That in Written Narrative Discourse. Discourse Processes, 51(3), 201-229. .pdf
Çokal, D. (2012). The Online and Offline Processing of This, That and It by native speakers of English and by Turkish non-native speakers of English. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Middle East Technical University. Ankara.
Çokal, D. (2010). A New Look at Discourse Deixis: A contrastive Analysis. VDM publisher.
Çokal, D. (2010). The Pronominal bu-şu and this-that: Rhetorical Structure Theory. Dilbilim Araştırmaları, 1, 15-33. Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Yayınevi, İstanbul. .pdf
Çokal, D. (2009). Conversational Repair in Foreign Language Classrooms: A Case Study in a Turkish Context. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research. Issue 38. Winter 2009, 17-3.
Ruhi, Ş., & Çokal, D. (2009) Features for an internet accessible corpus of spoken Turkish discourse. Working Papers in Corpus-based Linguistics and Language Education 3.
Ruhi, S., Hatipoğlu, Ç., Eröz-Tuğa, B., Işık-Güler, H., Acar, G., Eryılmaz, K., Can, H., Karakaş, Ö., & Çokal, D. (2010). Sustaining a Corpus for Spoken Turkish Discourse: Accessibility and Corpus Management Issues. Language Resources: From Storyboard to Sustainability and LR Lifecycle Management, Language Resources and Evaluation Conference, LREC, University of Malta, 17-24 May (pp. 44-48). .pdf
Ruhi, S., Işık-Güler, H., Hatipoğlu, Ç., Eröz-Tuğa, B., & Çokal, D. (2010). Achieving Representatives Through the Parameters of Spoken Language and Discursive Features: The Case of the Spoken Turkish Corpus. In I. Moskowich-Spiegel Fandiño. B. Crespo Garcia, I. and Larei Martin (Eds). Language Windowing Through Corpora. Visualizacion del lenguaje a traves de corpus. Part II (pp. 798-799). Universidade da Coruna. .pdf
Kiliçkaya, F. & Çokal, D. (2009). The Effect of Note-taking on University Students Listening Comprehension of Lectures. Kastamonu Eğitim Dergisi, 17(1), 47-56.
Ruhi, Ş. & Çokal, D. (2008). Türkçe İçin Sözlü Derlem Oluşturmada Bazı Temel Sorular (Trans. Of the title: Major Questions In Designing A Spoken Corpus of Turkish). Mersin Sempozyumu Bildiri Kitapçığı, Mersin University, 19-22, October, (pp. 553-560), Mersin.
Çokal, D. (2007). Konuşma Dilinde İşte’nin Bilişsel Edimbilim Işığında İşlevlerinin Çözümlemesi (Trans. of the title: Analysis of the cognitive pragmatic functions of işte in spoken language). 21. Ulusal Dilbilim Kurultay Bildirileri, Mersin University, 10-13, May (pp. 46-56), Mersin.
Poesio, M., Yu, j., Paun, S., Aloraini, A, & Haber, J., Çokal, D. (2023). Computational Models of Anaphora. Annual Review of Linguistics.
Çokal, D., Claudio, P.F., Ture-Abaci, O., Yalcin, B., Bora, E., & Hinzen, W. (2023). Referential noun phrases distribute differently in Turkish speakers with schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research.
Çokal, D., & Sturt, P., (2022). The real-time status of strong and weak islands. PLOS ONE.
Mullally, S., Grafton-Clarke, D., Mawson, R. W., Unwin, M., Webber, K. S., Rossi, K., Brown, S., Dodd, A.L., Pepper G.V., Çokal, D., Gallagher, P. & Watson, S. (2022) Growing up unloved: the enduring consequence of early emotional neglect on the qualia of memory and imagination. PLoS ONE.
Çokal, D., (2022). Turkish discourse anaphors: bu and o. Gianollo, Chiara, Lukasz Jedrzejowski & Sofiana I., Lindemann: Paths through meaning and form. Festschrift offered to Klaus von Heusinger on the occasion of his 60th birthday (pp. 46-49). Köln: Universitäts-und Stadbibliothek Köln.
Çokal, D., Sturt, P., & Ferreira, F. (2021). Processing of discourse anaphors by L2 speakers of English. Dialogue and Discourse, 12(2), 38-80.
Schroeder, K., Durrleman, S., Çokal, D., Delgado, S.A., Marin, A.M., & Hinzen, W. (2021). Relations between intentionality, theory of mind, and
complex syntax in autism spectrum conditions and typical development. Cognitive Development.
Çokal, D., Zeyrek, D., & Sanders, T. J. M. (2020). Subjectivity and objectivity in Turkish causal connectives? The results from a first corpus
study on çünkü and için. In Zeyrek, D. & Özge, U. (Eds.) Discourse structure and meaning: the view from Turkish (pp.223-247). de Gruyter Mouton: Trends in Linguistics.
Little, B., Gallagher, P., Zimmerer, V., Varley, R., Douglas, M., Spencer, H., Çokal, D., Deamer, F., Turkington, D., Ferrier, N., Varley, R., Hinzen, W., & Watson, S. (2019). Language in Schizophrenia and Aphasia: the relationship with non-verbal cognition and thought disorder. Cognitive Neuropsychiatry, 389-405.
Çokal, D., Zimmerer, V., Turkington, D., Ferrier, N., Varley, R., Watson, S. & Hinzen, W. (2019). Disturbing the rhythm of thought: speech pausing patterns in schizophrenia, with and without formal thought disorder. PLOS ONE.journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217404
Çokal, D. (2019). Discourse Deixis and Anaphora in L2 Writing. Dilbilim Araştırmaları, 241-277. Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Yayınevi, İstanbul.
Çokal, D., Zimmerer, V., Varley, R., Watson, S. & Hinzen, W. (2019). Comprehension of embedded clauses in schizophrenia with and without formal thought disorder. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 207 (5), 384-392.
journals.lww.com/jonmd/Fulltext/2019/05000/Comprehension_of_Embedded_Clauses_in_Schizophrenia.12.aspx
Çokal, D., Sevilla, G., Jones, W.S., Zimmerer, V., Deamer, F., Douglas, M., Spencer, H., Turkington, D., Ferrier, N., Varley, R., Watson, S. & Hinzen, W. (2018). The Language Profile of Formal Thought Disorder. npj: schizophrenia -Nature subgroup.
www.nature.com/articles/s41537-018-0061-9.
Çokal, D., Sturt, P. & Ferreira, F. (2018). L2 referent representation in processing and production. Proceedings of the 40th Annual Conference of Cognitive Science Society.
Çokal, D., & Sturt, P. (2017). The effect of referring expression on antecedent-grouping choice in plural reference resolution. Discourse Processes. In honor of Tony Sanford. .pdf
Çokal, D., Sturt, P., & Ferreira, F. (2016). Processing of It and This in Written Narrative Discourse. Discourse Processes. pdf
Ferreira, F. & Çokal, D. (2015). Sentence Processing. In G. Hickok, & S. Small (Eds.). Neurobiology of Language. Elsevier. .pdf
Çokal, D., Sturt, P., & Ferreira, F. (2014). Deixis: This and That in Written Narrative Discourse. Discourse Processes, 51(3), 201-229. .pdf
Çokal, D. (2012). The Online and Offline Processing of This, That and It by native speakers of English and by Turkish non-native speakers of English. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Middle East Technical University. Ankara.
Çokal, D. (2010). A New Look at Discourse Deixis: A contrastive Analysis. VDM publisher.
Çokal, D. (2010). The Pronominal bu-şu and this-that: Rhetorical Structure Theory. Dilbilim Araştırmaları, 1, 15-33. Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Yayınevi, İstanbul. .pdf
Çokal, D. (2009). Conversational Repair in Foreign Language Classrooms: A Case Study in a Turkish Context. Eurasian Journal of Educational Research. Issue 38. Winter 2009, 17-3.
Ruhi, Ş., & Çokal, D. (2009) Features for an internet accessible corpus of spoken Turkish discourse. Working Papers in Corpus-based Linguistics and Language Education 3.
Ruhi, S., Hatipoğlu, Ç., Eröz-Tuğa, B., Işık-Güler, H., Acar, G., Eryılmaz, K., Can, H., Karakaş, Ö., & Çokal, D. (2010). Sustaining a Corpus for Spoken Turkish Discourse: Accessibility and Corpus Management Issues. Language Resources: From Storyboard to Sustainability and LR Lifecycle Management, Language Resources and Evaluation Conference, LREC, University of Malta, 17-24 May (pp. 44-48). .pdf
Ruhi, S., Işık-Güler, H., Hatipoğlu, Ç., Eröz-Tuğa, B., & Çokal, D. (2010). Achieving Representatives Through the Parameters of Spoken Language and Discursive Features: The Case of the Spoken Turkish Corpus. In I. Moskowich-Spiegel Fandiño. B. Crespo Garcia, I. and Larei Martin (Eds). Language Windowing Through Corpora. Visualizacion del lenguaje a traves de corpus. Part II (pp. 798-799). Universidade da Coruna. .pdf
Kiliçkaya, F. & Çokal, D. (2009). The Effect of Note-taking on University Students Listening Comprehension of Lectures. Kastamonu Eğitim Dergisi, 17(1), 47-56.
Ruhi, Ş. & Çokal, D. (2008). Türkçe İçin Sözlü Derlem Oluşturmada Bazı Temel Sorular (Trans. Of the title: Major Questions In Designing A Spoken Corpus of Turkish). Mersin Sempozyumu Bildiri Kitapçığı, Mersin University, 19-22, October, (pp. 553-560), Mersin.
Çokal, D. (2007). Konuşma Dilinde İşte’nin Bilişsel Edimbilim Işığında İşlevlerinin Çözümlemesi (Trans. of the title: Analysis of the cognitive pragmatic functions of işte in spoken language). 21. Ulusal Dilbilim Kurultay Bildirileri, Mersin University, 10-13, May (pp. 46-56), Mersin.
Awards and Projects
2023 LAMBDA Project
2014 Texlink (Cost Project) http://textlinkcost.wix.com/textlink
2013 Middle East Technical University PhD Prize
2009 UBITAK-ULAKBIM International Publication Award
SOBAG 2009-2011 (with Prof. Sukriye Ruhi) Turkish National Science Foundation project, An Experimental Psycholinguistic Investigation of Discourse Deictic Demonstratives and Discourse Connectives In Turkish And English As Native And Non-Native Languages, Project No: 108K405.
ODT-STD Oct 2008-Jan 2009 (with a team under the supervision of Prof. Sukriye Ruhi) Turkish National Science Foundation project, METU Turkish Spoken Corpus, Project No: 108K283.
2014 Texlink (Cost Project) http://textlinkcost.wix.com/textlink
2013 Middle East Technical University PhD Prize
2009 UBITAK-ULAKBIM International Publication Award
SOBAG 2009-2011 (with Prof. Sukriye Ruhi) Turkish National Science Foundation project, An Experimental Psycholinguistic Investigation of Discourse Deictic Demonstratives and Discourse Connectives In Turkish And English As Native And Non-Native Languages, Project No: 108K405.
ODT-STD Oct 2008-Jan 2009 (with a team under the supervision of Prof. Sukriye Ruhi) Turkish National Science Foundation project, METU Turkish Spoken Corpus, Project No: 108K283.
A New Look at Discourse Deixis: a contrastive analysis
My first book! This was published by VDM Verlag in 2010. You can see more details (or even buy it!) here. The following is from the jacket blurb:
To date, most studies on 'this' and 'that' have focused upon their place in spoken discourse, defining their functions on the basis of a handful of selected examples and largely neglecting their broader roles within discourse structures. Analysis of their roles in written discourse has remained limited and tentative. This book aims to address this by carrying out a contrastive analysis of the pronominal uses of 'this' and 'that' within the written academic corpus, investigating their discursive roles in the light of the tenets of Centering and Rhetorical Structure theories in order to further our understanding of their pragmatic functions. It examines occurrences of 'this' and 'that' in terms of syntax and pragmatics, and describes the circumstances under which'this' or 'that' is preferred. It sheds interesting new light on the written use of 'this' and 'that' and will be of especial interest to linguists and to instructors in written English as either a first or a second language.
