Personal profile

My research interests lie in functional-cognitive models of grammar, corpus linguistics, and syntactic variation and recent language change. I explore how grammatical structures function in communication, how their meanings are shaped, why speakers choose one construction over another when alternatives are available, and how these patterns or constructions emerge and develop. I approach these questions through the lenses of Functional Discourse Grammar and Usage-based Construction Grammar.

Publications

Mustafa, Ozan. (forthcoming). “It’s just that they’re ambiguous: An FDG account of it BE (not) that and fragmentary not that”. In: Monielly Serafim & Matthias Mittendorfer & Kees Hengeveld eds, The Interpersonal Level in Functional Discourse Grammar. (Studies in Language Companion Series). Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Mustafa, Ozan. (2025). “(Not) to my knowledge: form, function and placement of epistemic expressions in English”. In: Elnora ten Wolde, Riccardo Giomi & Kees Hengeveld (eds). Linearization in Functional Discourse. Berlin: de Gruyter. Chapter DOI: 10.1515/9783111517629-005

Mustafa, Ozan & Gunther Kaltenböck. (2025). “The emergence of last I checked fragments: a story of shifting allegiance”. Folia Linguistica 59.2: 301-327. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/flin-2024-0041

Kaltenböck, Gunther & Ozan Mustafa. (2024). “The corpus of Contemporary American English”. In: Hilary Nesi & Petar Milin (eds.). Reference Module in Social Sciences [online]. (To be published in International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. 2026. 3^rd edition). Amsterdam: Elsevier. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-323-95504-1.00109-5

Mustafa, Ozan & Gunther Kaltenböck. (2024). “Last I heard: on the use of evidential last I fragments”. English language and Linguistics 28.3: 589-612. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674324000297

Presentation

Mustafa, Ozan. (2025d). “It’s like I got a unicorn: the ‘comparative’ existential construction”. Invited talk. FDG Online Lecture Series 2025 (University of Amsterdam, online).

Mustafa, Ozan. (2025c). “t’s just that they’re ambiguous: an FDG account of it BE (not) that and fragmentary not that”. Tenth International Workshop on Functional Discourse Grammar (University of Amsterdam).

Mustafa, Ozan. (2025b). “The it BE that construction: extraposition, cleft, or something different?”. 33. Jahrestagung der AAUTE (University of Salzburg)

Mustafa, Ozan. (2025a). “What is the representational (semantic) meaning of interrogatives?” Fun*Cog Meetings WT25 (University of Vienna, online)

Mustafa, Ozan. (2024e). “The ambiguous it BE (not) that: the inferential and existential readings”. 48. Österreichische Linguistiktagung (University of Innsbruck)

Mustafa, Ozan. (2024d). “A constructional family of negative epistemic expressions”13th International Conference on Construction Grammar (University of Gothenburg).  

Mustafa, Ozan. (2024c). “Polarity in parenthetical epistemic expressions in English: form, function and position”. 10th Biennial International Conference on the Linguistics of Contemporary English (University of Alicante)

Kaltenböck, Gunther & Ozan Mustafa. (2024). “The emergence of last I checked fragments: a story of shifting allegiance”. 10th Biennial International Conference on the Linguistics of Contemporary English (University of Alicante)

Mustafa, Ozan. (2024b). “The inferential construction: an FDG account”. Eighth International Conference on Functional Discourse Grammar (Universidade Federal de São Carlos)

Mustafa, Ozan. (2024a). “The inferential construction: form & function” Vielfaltslinguistik 6 (University of Graz)

Mustafa, Ozan & Gunther Kaltenböck. (2023b). “Last I checked: On the use of ‘(the) last I + Verb’ expressions”. Societas Linguitica Europaea 56th Annual Meeting (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens)

Mustafa, Ozan. (2023). “Polarity in extra-clausal epistemic expressions in English: form, function and placement”. International Workshop for Functional Discourse Grammar 2023 (University of Graz)

Mustafa, Ozan & Gunther Kaltenböck. (2023a). “Evidential last I checked expressions”. 18th International Pragmatics Conference (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

Kaltenböck, Gunther & Ozan Mustafa. (2022). “Ellipsis as addition: the case of semi-insubordination”. 9^th Biennial International Conference on the Linguistics of Contemporary English (University of Ljubljana)

Mustafa, Ozan. (2022). “Not that you asked, but here it is: a formal and functional taxonomy of not that-clauses in Present-day American English”. 43^rd International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English (Anglia Ruskin University)

Education

Employment