TURKISH: A COMPREHENSIVE

GRAMMAR
Routledge Comprehensive Grammars
Comprehensive Grammars are available for the following languages:

Modern Written Arabic

Cantonese

Catalan

Chinese

Danish

Dutch

Greek

Indonesian

Japanese

Slovene

Swedish

Turkish

Ukrainian

Modern Welsh

Titles of related interest

 Colloquial Turkish: A Complete Course for Beginners

Jeroen Aarssen and Ad Backus

Dictionary of the Turkic Languages

Kurtuluş Öztopçu, Zhoumagaly Abuov, Nasir Kambarov and Youssef Azemoun

TURKISH: A COMPREHENSIVE
GRAMMAR
Aslı Göksel and Celia Kerslake

LONDON AND NEW YORK

 First published 2005 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York,
NY 10016

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of
thousands of eBooks please go to [Link]
© 2005 Aslı Göksel and Celia Kerslake
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or
by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission
in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from
the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data has been applied for

ISBN 0-203-34076-0 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-415-11494-2 (pbk)

ISBN 0-415-21761-X (hbk)
 CONTENTS

Acknowledgements vii
Introduction viii
Abbreviations xvii
List of conventions observed in this book xx
The Turkish alphabet and writing conventions xxii

1
Part 1 Phonology: the sound system

1 Phonological units 3
2 Sound changes produced in the stem by suffixation 14
3 Vowel harmony 21
4 Word stress 26
5 Intonation and sentence stress 35

41
Part 2 Morphology: the structure of words

6 Principles of suffixation 43
7 Word classes, derivation and derivational suffixes 49
8 Inflectional suffixes 65
9 Reduplication 90
10 Noun compounds 94
11 Clitics 100
 107
Part 3 Syntax: the structure of sentences

12 Simple and complex sentences 109

13 The verb phrase 126
14 The noun phrase 144
15 Adjectival constructions, determiners and numerals 170
16 Adverbial constructions 189
17 Postpositional phrases 214
18 Pronouns 230
19 Questions 251
20 Negation 271
21 Tense, aspect and modality 283
22 Definiteness, specificity and generic reference 322
23 Word order 337
24 Noun clauses 351
25 Relative clauses 380
26 Adverbial clauses 399
27 Conditional sentences 419
28 Conjunctions, co-ordination and discourse connection 438

Appendix 1 Reduplicated stems 462

Appendix 2 Tense/aspect/modality suffixes 465
Glossary of grammatical terms 470
Bibliography 480
Index 484
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The present book would not have been in the form it is had it not been for the generous
feedback of the following colleagues, friends and students, linguists and teachers and
users of Turkish, who read and commented on parts of the manuscript: Didar Akar,
Öznur Ayman, Ercan Balcı, Cem Çakır, Georgia Catsimali, Monik Charette, Ruth
Christie, Ann Denwood, Dilek Elçin, Eser Erguvanlı-Taylan, Kate Fleet, Jorge
Hankamer, Katerina Hardiman, Atakan İnce, Meltem Kelepir, Elisabeth Kendall,
Wilfried Meyer-Viol, Mine Nakipoğlu-Demiralp and [Link] Özsoy. We are grateful to
all these people for sparing the time to help us in this way.
We owe special thanks to Ceyda Arslan for reading the whole manuscript
meticulously. Her detailed and insightful corrections helped us avoid many errors.
Dimitris Antoniou and Andras Riedlmayer provided valuable help in pointing us to
some of the statistics about Turkish speakers outside Turkey, and Mehmet Ölmez,
Şükriye Ruhi and Güneş Müftüoğlu kindly responded to our questions about reference
grammars in current use for teaching purposes in Turkey. We are indebted to Meltem
Kelepir, Zeynep Kulelioğlu, Mine Nakipoğlu-Demiralp, Gülen Ergin and Müfide Pekin
for their readiness to give us their acceptability judgements on problematic constructions,
and to Onat Işık for his technical help in transferring several files from one computer
system to another. We are also grateful to our students at Boğaziçi and Oxford
Universities, who (whether they were aware of it or not) constantly brought to our
attention aspects of Turkish that we might not otherwise have thought about.
Gratitude is due to our successive editors at Routledge, Simon Bell, Sophie Oliver,
Sarah Butler, Liz O’Donnell and Ruth Jeavons for their feedback and patience throughout
the years, and to several anonymous reviewers for their comments.
During the preparation of this book we have drawn heavily on the work of others,
some of it unpublished. Unfortunately the format of this book does not allow us to
acknowledge our sources at the appropriate points in the text. We hope that this will not
give the impression that all the observations and descriptions presented in the book
belong originally to us, and that we will be forgiven for having to content ourselves with
simply including our sources in the bibliography. Needless to say, responsibility for any
shortcomings that this book may have rests entirely with ourselves.
Finally, we should like to thank our closest friends and our families for their unfailing
support in what has been a prolonged and often too absorbing task.
Aslı Göksel
Celia Kerslake
July 2004
 INTRODUCTION

TURKISH AND ITS SPEAKERS

Turkish belongs to the Turkic family of languages, which have been spoken for many
centuries across a vast territory from the Balkans to China. Within this family, which
includes such languages as Uighur, Uzbek, Tatar and Kazakh, Turkish forms part of the
southwestern or Oghuz branch. Its closest relatives are Gagauz (spoken by less than
200,000 people of Orthodox Christian religion, mostly in southern Moldova),
Azerbaijanian (spoken by up to 20 million people in Iran and Azerbaijan) and Turkmen
(spoken by some 3 million people in Turkmenistan and by about 400,000 in Iraq).
Turkish itself is spoken predominantly in the Republic of Turkey, of which it is the
official language. No statistics are available as to how many of Turkey’s population of 70
million have Turkish as their first language. Most of the ethnic minorities have undergone
considerable (in some cases, total) linguistic assimilation. In the largest ethnic minority,
that of the Kurds (which is variously estimated to make up between 8 per cent and 20 per
cent of the country’s population), a large number of people are bilingual. A reasonable
estimate would probably be that Turkish is now the first language of 55–60 million of
Turkey’s citizens, with another few million people speaking it with equal fluency to their
native language.
Turkish speakers outside Turkey fall into two groups. The first consists of
communities located in various lands that were formerly, for several centuries, part of the
Ottoman Empire. There are populations of this kind in Bulgaria (760,000), Greece
(115,000), Macedonia (80,000) and Romania (23,000). Cyprus, also former Ottoman
territory, has seen its Turkish-speaking population considerably enlarged by migration
from Turkey since 1974. There may be as many as 150,000–200,000 Turkish speakers
living in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus at the time of writing.
The second group of Turkish speakers outside Turkey comprises those who, since the
1960s, have taken up residence in various western European countries, Australia and
North America. The number in western Europe is nearly 4 million, of whom half live in
Germany. The Australian Turkish community numbers some 40,000, and the number of
Turkish speakers in North America is 50,000–60,000. Although in all these migrant
communities there is a tendency for the use of Turkish to decline with each succeeding
generation, it can probably be stated with reasonable certainty that Turkish is spoken as a
first language or with native fluency by about 65 million people worldwide.
 BREAK WITH THE OTTOMAN PAST

The Turkish language underwent two kinds of radical change as part of the revolutionary
reform programme launched by Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) after the establishment of the
Republic in 1923. The first was a sudden and comprehensive change in the medium in
which it was written, with the introduction of a specially adapted form of the Latin
alphabet in 1928, accompanied by a total prohibition on any further use of the Arabic
script for teaching or publication in Turkish. The second affected the substance of the
language itself, particularly its lexicon, and comprised a systematic campaign, launched
by the official Turkish Language Foundation in 1932, to ‘liberate’ Turkish from its
‘subjugation’ to other languages, i.e. to Arabic and Persian. In order to give some
indication of the significance of this change it will be necessary to say something about
the Ottoman form of Turkish, the precursor of the modern language.
As a linguistic term, ‘Ottoman’ denotes the form of Turkic which became the official
and literary language of the Ottoman Empire (1300–1922). This was, essentially, the
variety of Oghuz Turkic which developed in Anatolia after that region was settled by
Oghuz Turks in the eleventh to thirteenth centuries. It was written in the Arabic script,
the form of writing adopted not only by the Oghuz but by all the Turkic-speaking peoples
who, from about the tenth century onwards, had accepted the Islamic faith. The primacy
accorded in Islam to the Arabic language itself, the language of the Qur’an, had a
profound impact on the intellectual life of Ottoman society. The language of scholarship
and of Islamic law, and the medium of instruction in the only schools available to the
Muslim population before the nineteenth century, the medreses, was Arabic. In literature,
on the other hand, the influence that was more directly felt was that of Persian, since it
was the aesthetics of Persian poetry and ornate prose that provided inspiration for the
Ottoman literati. A truly cultured Ottoman was expected to have a fluent command of
‘the three languages’, and many Turkish-speaking Ottomans did indeed write treatises in
Arabic and/or poetry in Persian.
As far as Ottoman itself was concerned, the degree to which written texts reflected the
spoken idiom varied greatly according to the level of education of the writer and the
purpose and intended readership of the document. In any kind of sophisticated writing the
Turkish structural base became all but submerged, surfacing mainly in the inflectional
morphology and in other non-lexical items such as pronouns, determiners, and auxiliary
verbs. Arabic and Persian borrowings were not confined to the lexicon, but included
grammatical elements also. Arabic words were often used in their distinctive plural
forms, and adjectives were made to agree with them in terms of gender, as they would in
Arabic itself. A host of Arabic prepositional phrases, completely alien to Turkish syntax,
were imported more or less as lexical units. A number of Persian constructions became
particularly prevalent. One was the ubiquitous izafet, by which the head of a noun phrase
was linked to the modifying noun or adjective that followed it (as in asakir-i Islam
‘armies of Islam’ or memalik-i Osmaniye ‘Ottoman dominions’). Another was the
compound adjective, used mainly for ornamental or rhetorical reasons, and often
designed to rhyme with its head noun (as in padişah-ı alem-penah, ‘world-sheltering
monarch’ or vezir-i Asaf-tedbir ‘vizier wise as Asaf’). It should be noted that the majority
of these imported elements were totally absent from the language of the unschooled
Turkish-speaking masses. On the other hand, some common words of Arabic or Persian
origin, such as perde ‘curtain’, kitap ‘book’, namaz ‘ritual prayer’, cami ‘mosque’, had
become fully integrated into the general lexicon. The only significant foreign
grammatical influence to be seen in the popular language was the Indo-European type of
subordinate clause (introduced by a subordinating conjunction, and having a finite verb.
(See the clauses with ki discussed in Chapters 24–6 of this book.)
The term ‘Ottoman’ was not applied to the language of the Ottoman state until the
mid-nineteenth century, when, as part of the reform movement known as the Tanzimat,
attempts were made by the government to foster a sense of Ottoman identity that might
save the ailing empire. Before then, when it was necessary to distinguish Turkish from
any other language, it had been called precisely that (Türki or Türkçe), however
impregnated it might have been with Arabic and Persian elements. It was in the Tanzimat
period that Turkish (under the politicized name ‘Ottoman’) first began to be taught in
schools, the new state schools designed to train soldiers, bureaucrats and technical
experts for the service of a modernized state. There was now a clear need for the
language to be defined and streamlined, through the production of grammars and
dictionaries, in order to maximize its effectiveness as a means of public communication.
A newly emerging class of Turkish intellectuals, who had access to Western writings and
were full of new ideas that they wanted to convey to a wide public, shared the state’s
interest in regularizing and simplifying the language, although their standpoint—liberal
and patriotic—was largely opposed to the government. The new genres of writing in
which they were involved, principally journalism, drama and the novel, all played their
part in the evolution of a modern form of Ottoman, shorn of much of its rhetorical
opacity, and with a regularized, transparent sentence structure much closer to that of
modern Turkish.
The closing decades of the life of the Ottoman Empire witnessed the emergence of a
new sense of ethnic identity among the Turkish educated elite, which had hitherto defined
itself only as Ottoman and Muslim. The discoveries of European Turcologists drew
attention to the long-forgotten linguistic and cultural links existing between the Turks of
the Ottoman Empire and other peoples spread out far across Asia. The first scholarly
dictionary of Ottoman Turkish to be written by a Turk, the Lehçe-i Osmani (Ottoman
Dialect) of Ahmet Vefik (1877), clearly identified Ottoman as just one branch of a much
wider, ‘Turkish’ language .1 This revolutionary idea was at the heart of an incipient
Turkish national consciousness that gathered strength as the empire increasingly fell
victim to internal disintegration and the predations of the European powers.
After the constitutional revolution of 1908 the politically dominant Committee of
Union and Progress gave all but overt encouragement to the formation of a number of
societies and publications devoted to the promotion of this new sense of Turkish
nationhood, which was incompatible with the official ideology of Ottomanism. As the
Ottoman state teetered on the brink of final collapse, the Turkish language became for
many intellectuals and writers the key to unlocking the spirit of unity and common
purpose that alone, they believed, would enable the nation (in some as yet unknown
form) to survive.
This message was first clearly enunciated in 1911 in the journal Genç Kalemler
(Young Pens), which called on young writers to put themselves in the service of the
nation by creating a ‘national literature’ in a ‘new language’. The rules of this ‘new
language’ (yeni lisan) were defined quite precisely: no Arabic and Persian grammatical
constructions were to be used, except in lexicalized phrases for which there was no
available alternative; Arabic and Persian plural forms were to be avoided; Arabic and
Persian words that were not current in the spoken language, and for which a Turkish
equivalent was in common use, should similarly be rejected (e.g. for ‘water’ Arabic ma
and Persian ab should both be abjured in favour of Turkish su). Already at this period
there were extremists who wanted to see all Arabic and Persian loan words, even those
long integrated into the popular language, replaced by Turkish synonyms, if necessary
retrieved from old texts or imported from eastern ‘dialects’. But at this stage the moderate
view prevailed, and the ‘new language’ campaign was remarkably successful in its aims.
By the period of the First World War the use of a natural, unadorned Turkish, close to the
language of speech, had become the unquestioned stylistic imperative of literary writing.
However, bureaucratic, legal and scholarly discourse remained more resistant to change,
as evidenced even in the diction of Atatürk’s famous six-day speech of 1927, the Nutuk.
The Kemalist language reform (dil devrimi) begun in the 1930s differed from all
previous efforts in two important ways.2 First, despite the nominally autonomous status
of the Turkish Language Foundation (Türk Dil Kurumu, TDK), this was an openly state-
sponsored campaign, funded by annual grants from the state budget and having at its
disposal all the implementational apparatus of the bureaucracy, the education system, and
the
1
The Turkic/Turkish distinction is a recent terminological innovation of western origin.
2
For a recent study in English of the language reform movement see Lewis (1999).

state radio monopoly. Second, the aims and scope of this project were far more radical
and ambitious than anything that had gone before. There was now an overt commitment
to complete purification of the language, and any word that was deemed worthy of
acceptance was designated öztürkçe ‘pure Turkish’. This new lexicon included, in
addition to native words already in general use, the following new categories: (1) words
used in Anatolian dialects but not part of the current standard language of the urban elite;
(2) obsolete Turkish words discovered by searching through relatively unpretentious texts
from the early and middle Ottoman periods; (3) neologisms derived from Turkish roots
and suffixes; (4) other more dubious coinages, often similar in form to European words,
which were justified by pseudo-etymologies. It should be noted that there was very little
antagonism to the quite conspicuous European borrowings (such as otobüs, gazete,
elektrik, demokrasi) which had entered the language as part of the general process of
modernization from the late eighteenth century onwards, predominantly from French.
The remarkable fact about the project of socio-linguistic engineering comprising the
language reform is the enthusiasm with which it was embraced by a large majority of the
Turkish educated class. This applies not only to first-generation Kemalists but also to
their children, some of whom, in the 1960s and 1970s, were inspired as much by
socialism as by nationalism. In the middle decades of the twentieth century the ‘language
question’ was a subject of fierce controversy, with the Kemalists and leftists equally
committed to the purist ideal, regarding it as representing all that was modern, secular
and progressive, while conservatives fought a rearguard action in defence of the nation’s
cultural heritage, and the moral, emotional and aesthetic values attached to many of the
words that had been consigned to disuse. Since the 1980s the heat has gone out of this
debate, but this is due as much as anything to the fact that in large measure the aims of
the reformers have been achieved, and that, for better or for worse, the lexicon of Turkish
in the early twenty-first century is radically different from that of the early twentieth
century.

PREVIOUS GRAMMARS OF TURKISH

The first comprehensive modern treatment of Turkish grammar was Jean Deny’s
monumental Grammaire de la langue turque, dialecte osmanli (Paris, 1921). This was a
significant first step towards the creation of a terminology that would accurately reflect
the features of the language without trying to assimilate them to Indo-European
preconceptions. While Deny’s main focus was on the standard spoken and written
language of Istanbul at the time of writing (pre-1914), his work also encompasses current
popular and dialectal forms and older Ottoman usages. A Turkish translation by Ali Ulvi
Elöve, with useful additional notes, was published twenty years later by the Turkish
Ministry of Education (Türk Dili Grameri (Osmanlı Lehçesi), 1941).
Within Turkey itself, the change of alphabet and the language reform movement
generated both a surge of interest in the structure of the language and a great pedagogical
need for a new conceptualization and a new terminology. Tahsin Banguoğlu’s Ana
Hatlariyle Türk Grameri (Outlines of Turkish Grammar) (1940), was produced in
response to a ministerial request for a work that might serve as a basis for school
textbooks. Modern in its approach, and drawing on contemporary French linguistics,
Banguoğlu’s book identified itself as a descriptive, not a historical grammar, and was rich
in examples reflecting the spoken language. It was reprinted in 1974 with updated
terminology, under the title Türkçenin Grameri (The Grammar of Turkish), and is still
highly regarded. Ahmet Cevat Emre’s Türk Dilbilgisi (Turkish Grammar) (1945) was the
earliest comprehensive grammar to be published by the Turkish Language Foundation
(TDK). It was less systematic than Banguoğlu’s work, and was not reprinted, but it
remains of considerable historical interest.
Muharrem Ergin’s Türk Dil Bilgisi (Turkish Grammar) (1952), a historical grammar
of Oghuz Turkic, is a very different kind of work, and was written from a standpoint
opposed to the radicalism of the TDK. It is highly traditional in its approach, and
concentrates almost entirely on phonological and morphological phenomena.
The next milestone in the description of Turkish was the grammar published in
Russian by the Soviet Turcologist [Link] in 1956. This work, unfortunately not
linguistically accessible to the present authors, is recognized as having provided a highly
valuable and original synthesis of research on Turkish down to that date.3 Four years later
appeared the Osmanisch-Türkische Grammatik of [Link] (Wiesbaden, 1960).

3
See Hazai (1978), 77; Johanson (1990), 152.
 Despite its title (which was intended to emphasize the essential continuity between
Ottoman and modern Turkish), this book was designed as a practical reference tool for
German-speaking learners of Turkish.
The first Turkish grammar to be written from a theoretical-linguistic standpoint was
Lloyd [Link]’s A Reference Grammar of Modern Turkish (Bloomington, Ind., 1963).
This was a pioneering attempt to describe the grammatical phenomena of Turkish in
structural terms, i.e. as a complete system, and it marked an important new beginning in
conceptual terms. At about the same time, two further grammars of a broadly pedagogical
nature appeared in Turkey. Haydar Ediskun’s Yeni Türk Dilbilgisi (New Turkish
Grammar) (1963), reissued as Türk Dilbilgisi in 1985 and regularly reprinted down to
today, was designed as a university textbook for non-specialist students. It includes an
introductory section on language in general, and on the Turkish language reform
movement in particular. Tahir

Nejat Gencan’s clearly arranged and readable Dilbilgisi (Grammar), published by the
TDK in 1964 and reprinted many times since, had the avowed objective of deriving the
rules of Turkish from a wide-ranging assemblage of examples from admired writers (old
and new), and from time-honoured usages such as proverbs.
The two grammars that are best known to English-speaking learners of, and
researchers on, Turkish are those of Lewis (1967) and Underhill (1976). Geoffrey
Lewis’s philologically based Turkish Grammar (2nd edition 2000) is insightful and
highly readable. The author uses examples drawn from mid-twentieth-century Turkish
literary and journalistic texts, and devotes particular attention to the structures that are
most alien to an English-speaking learner of Turkish. Robert Underhill’s Turkish
Grammar (Cambridge, Mass., 1976) is arranged as a coursebook. This means that
pedagogical concerns determine the way in which the material is organized, and some
space is allocated to vocabulary, exercises and matters of usage. Nevertheless, this work
by a linguist from the generative tradition brought increased clarity to a number of topics,
and continues to be much in demand both as a teaching tool (particularly in the USA) and
as a resource for linguists.
The influence of generative linguistics had already been seen in the concise survey of
Turkish grammar published by Yüksel Göknel in 1974 under the title Modern Türkçe
Dilbilgisi (Modern Turkish Grammar). This includes, as well as a description of Turkish
phonology, morphology and syntax, a section in which linguistic theories, predominantly
generative, are applied to the structures discussed. A more recent comprehensive
grammar in Turkish, Mehmet Hengirmen’s Türkçe Dilbilgisi (Turkish Grammar) (1995),
which describes itself as a textbook for students and teachers, is also inspired by this
approach. In addition to the sections on Turkish grammar, it has a chapter on the
application of generative theories of syntax to Turkish, as well as a chapter on the Turkic
languages.
Jaklin Kornfilt’s volume Turkish (London, 1997), is the most recent comprehensive
grammar to appear in English. It forms part of Routledge’s Descriptive Grammars series,
addressed mainly to linguists who seek data on specific points across languages. The
structure of the book is determined by a research questionnaire that has been applied
uniformly to all the languages covered in the series. Kornfilt’s analyses are well
supported by examples, some illustrating little discussed or hitherto unnoticed aspects of
Turkish.
The last few years have also seen the appearance of pedagogical presentations of
Turkish grammar in both French and German. Bernard Golstein’s Grammaire du Turc:
ouvrage pratique à l’usage des francophones (1997; second edition 1999) and Brigitte
Moser-Weithmann’s Türkische Grammatik (2001) are addressed respectively to French-
speaking and German-speaking learners of Turkish. Despite their limitations of scope and
analysis, the French-Turkish and German-Turkish comparative dimensions of these
works furnish some interesting insights.
Scientific linguistic research on the structure and use of contemporary Turkish was a
rare phenomenon before 1970.4 The situation has, however, changed radically in the last
three decades, as modern linguistic methodologies have increasingly made their impact.
Already by the beginning of the 1980s there was sufficient research activity, both in and
outside Turkey, for a series of biennial international conferences on Turkish linguistics to
be launched, and the twelfth of these was about to take place as this book went to press.
Attempting a scholarly description of Turkish grammar is no longer an isolated struggle.
On the contrary, it requires an engagement with the collective achievement of an
international body of scholars in a field that is increasingly well connected to the
linguistic mainstream.

AIMS AND ORGANIZATION OF THIS GRAMMAR

What we have aimed to do in this book is to provide a description of the structure of

contemporary standard Turkish that is both systematic and comprehensive. We have
divided the book into three main parts, dealing respectively with phonology (the sound
system), morphology (the structure of words) and syntax (the structure of sentences). We
have paid particular attention to the distinction between morphology and syntax, in order
to bring out as clearly as possible the systems in place at each level.
The chapters in Part 2 are concerned exclusively with the forms that words can take.
In Turkish, because of its highly agglutinative structure, the description of word structure
is largely a matter of identifying the different categories of suffixes, and the rules
determining what kinds of stem they may attach to and in what order. All discussion of
how words combine into phrases, clauses and sentences is confined to Part 3. This is also
where semantic issues, i.e. the effects of structure on meaning, are discussed.
There is a hierarchy among the structures discussed in Part 3. For example, adjectival
structures (Chapter 15) usually form part of noun phrases (Chapter 14). Noun phrases, for
their part, can occur as complements within the verb phrase (Chapter 13), and/or combine
with verb phrases to form clauses or sentences (Chapter 12). Furthermore, there is a
parallelism between the phrasal structures described in Chapters 14–16 (having
respectively a nominal, adjectival and adverbial function) and the clausal structures

4
See Underhill (1986).
 described in Chapters 24–6 (which follow the same sequence). The ample use that we
have made of cross-references throughout the text serves in part to draw attention to the
systematic links between different levels of the language. It also makes it possible to
draw the reader’s attention from one use of a particular form (e.g. a suffix or clitic) to
others described in another part of the book, and in so doing to help readers both to
connect and to distinguish between different functions of the one form.
The book is intended to be useful to a wide range of people interested in Turkish, first
and foremost university students and other advanced learners of the language, but also
teachers and translators of Turkish, and academic linguists. Our methodology has been
informed by questions of concern to general linguistic scholarship, but we have taken
care to make all our explanations accessible to those without a formal linguistic training.
We have strictly avoided any involvement with theoretical issues, and have kept our
terminology as simple and neutral as possible. Every point has been clearly illustrated
with examples. All the examples are translated, and selective use has also been made of
linguistic glosses, which indicate the grammatical functions of individual suffixes. It
should be noted that in the examples which are thus glossed, the segmentation is
morphological, not phonological, i.e. the hyphens show the boundaries between roots and
suffixes, and between the suffixes in a sequence; they do not mark syllable boundaries (as
required by the conventions of Turkish orthography). A glossary of grammatical terms
has been provided at the end of the book, and terms that can be found in the glossary are
shown in bold on their first occurrence in a chapter.
Limitations of space make any claim to totally comprehensive coverage unrealistic,
and we have had to exercise a degree of selectivity with regard to forms or usages that
have marginal currency. Where we regard an item as in fairly common but declining use
we have placed a triangle ( ) in front of it. This happens mainly in the case of words of
Arabic origin which are adverbials or form part of postpositional or converbial structures,
and are increasingly being replaced in actual usage by native or coined equivalents.
Arabic and Persian inflectional forms are no longer a productive part of the Turkish
language, and we have therefore excluded them entirely.
It is very important to note that this is a descriptive, not in any sense a prescriptive,
grammar. In other words we have tried to record how the language is actually used at the
present time, without offering any judgements as to what is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. We have
sought to reflect variety of usage as well as regularity, and in this connection we have had
to indicate in some places that a particular construction is used only by some speakers
and not favoured by others. Another kind of variation is that relating to register, i.e. to the
formality or otherwise of the speech situation or text type. In our discussion of particular
forms and constructions we have been careful to mention if there is any stylistic
restriction on their use. A downwards arrow (↓) has been placed in front of any form that
is confined to very informal contexts. Otherwise, unless we have mentioned in the text
that a particular form or construction is formal, informal, colloquial, etc., it can be
assumed that it is in unrestricted use.
Most suffixes in Turkish are variable in form according to the rules of vowel harmony
and consonant alternation, which are explained in Chapters 3 and 6 respectively. In this
book any parts of a suffix that are subject to such variation are shown in capital letters,
e.g. -lAr, -sIn, -DI. Similarly, many suffixes have an initial vowel or consonant that is
dropped in certain contexts. Such deletable elements are shown in brackets when a suffix
is cited, e.g. -(y)mIş.
The English translations of the example sentences have been made as idiomatic as
possible. Where the structure of the idiomatic translation is so different from that of the
Turkish as to make it possibly difficult to see how it was arrived at, we have added in
brackets a literal translation of all or part of the sentence. Where translations are provided
for individual words (e.g. in Parts 1 and 2) it should not be assumed that these represent
the only meanings that these words can have.
 ABBREVIATIONS
ABL ablative case
ACC accusative case
ADJ adjective/adjectival/adjectivizer
ADV adverb/adverbializer
AOR aorist
AT attributive
AUX auxiliary verb
C consonant
CL clitic
COM comitative
COND conditional
[Link] conditional copula
CONJ conjunction/connective
COP copula
CV converb marker
DAT dative case
DEF definite
DER derivational suffix
DET determiner
EMPH emphatic
ENUM enumerator
[Link] evidential copula
EV/PF evidential/perfective
FUT future
GEN genitive case
GM generalizing modality
IMP imperative
IMPF imperfective
INDEF indefinite
INF infinitival
INFL inflectional suffix
 INS instrumental
INT interrogative
INTR intransitive
lit. literally
LOC locative case
N noun
NC noun compound
[Link] noun/nominal-deriving suffix
NEG negative
[Link] negative aorist
OBL oblique case
OBLG obligative
obs. obsolete
OPT optative
PART participle
PASS passive
[Link] past copula
PF perfective
PL plural
POSS possessive
POT potentiality
PROG progressive
PRON pronominalizer
PSB possibility
REC reciprocal
REF reflexive
RP relative pronoun
SG singular
s/he she, he (also ‘it’, depending on the context)
s.o. someone
s.t. something
s.w. somewhere
SUB subordinator
TAM tense/aspect/modality
TR transitive
V vowel
[Link] verb deriving suffix
VN verbal noun marker
1 first person
2 second person
3 third person
Ø zero
 LIST OF CONVENTIONS OBSERVED IN
THIS BOOK

italics in the text or in lists are used for Turkish examples

italics in the text are used for highlighting a point in the text
italics in the English translations correspond to the highlighted parts in the Turkish
examples
bold in the Turkish examples highlights the point which is being discussed
bold italics in the Turkish examples emphasize a particular part in a highlighted
section
bold in the text (apart from headings) is used to highlight the key concepts under
discussion in a chapter, and/or to indicate a term that is explained in the glossary
. (full stop) between two English words in the glosses indicates that the corresponding
item in Turkish is either one word, or two (or more) words which do not have a word-for-
word translation into English
‘ ’ indicates a letter in the alphabet
‘ ’ in the text indicates a mention of a part of a suffix, or one of the forms of a suffix
‘’ indicates English translations of Turkish words, phrases and sentences
/ shows that either form is grammatical
/ / indicates the phonemic representation of a phonological unit
| indicates the boundary between two intonational phrases
[ ] indicates the phonetic realization of a phonological unit (i.e. the sound of a
particular segment)
[ ] in the Turkish examples indicates a subordinate clause
[ ] in the translations indicates either (i) a word or phrase which is required for the
grammaticality of the English translation or for stylistic reasons, but which does not
occur in the Turkish example or (ii) in cases where a subordinate clause is marked in the
Turkish example, a subordinate clause
( ) in a suffix indicates that the enclosed item is present only under certain morpho-
phonological conditions
( ) in an example indicates that the item enclosed is optional
(…) indicates the omission or dislocation of a particular item
{ } used selectively to mark the boundaries of a noun phrase
indicates that a form is dated or in decreasing use in standard Turkish
indicates a verbal inflectional suffix which is in use but is limited in productivity
↓ indicates that the form is very informal
- (hyphen) in front of a form indicates that it is a suffix
- (hyphen) after a form indicates either that it is a verb (e.g. gül- ‘laugh’) or that it
cannot occur without a suffix (e.g. bura- ‘here’)
- (hyphen) in the Turkish glosses indicates suffix boundaries
 ~ indicates syllable boundaries
‘A.’ and ‘B.’ at the beginning of examples indicate different speakers
capital letters in the suffixes indicate variability
capital letters in the Turkish examples and English translations indicate stressed words
or syllables
small capital letters in the Turkish examples indicate secondary stress
´ (acute accent) indicates stress within individual words
 THE TURKISH ALPHABET AND
WRITING CONVENTIONS

The list below provides a rough guide to the pronunciation of the 22 consonants and 8
vowels in Turkish. Only the most prominent aspects of pronunciation are highlighted.
The explanations are based on the speech habits of native speakers of British English and
should be read in conjunction with Section 1.1.
Letter Pronunciation
A, a pronounced as u in ‘cup’
B, b b as in ‘bit
C, c j as in ‘jam’
Ç, ç ch as in ‘chip’
D, d d as in ‘deep’
E, e e as in ‘ten’
F, f f as in ‘fit’ or ‘full’
G, g g as in ‘get’ or ‘gull’
ğ either lengthens the sound of the vowel preceding it or is silent between two vowels
H, h h as in ‘hope’; pronounced also in word medial and final positions and sometimes silent
between two vowels
I, ı pronounced as a in ‘among’, ‘alone’
İ, i a shorter form of ee as in ‘beet’ or i as in ‘bit’
J, j s as in ‘leisure’
K, k k as in ‘kept’, ‘cure’ and ‘calf’
L, l l as in ‘lamp’, ‘bull’ or ‘lurid’
M, m m as in ‘milk’
N, n n as in ‘no’
O, o o as in ‘off’
Ö, ö resembles the sound which is produced when e as in ‘bet’ is pronounced with the lips
rounded, as in the German sound ‘ö’
P, p p as in ‘pin’
R, r produced with the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar ridge
S, s s as in ‘hiss’
Ş, ş sh as in ‘sheep’
T, t t as in ‘time’
U, u u as in ‘cute’ or put’
Ü, ü resembles the sound which is produced when i as in ‘bit’ is pronounced with the lips
rounded, as in the German sound ‘ü’
V, v v as in ‘very’
Y, y y as in ‘you’
Z, z z as in ‘zigzag’

CIRCUMFLEX

In the writing system, a circumflex ‘^’ is sometimes placed over a vowel to indicate that it
is long, e.g. kâtil [kha:thil] ‘murderer’, but this is neither regular nor a reliable means of
identifying a long vowel (see [Link]).
Again, in some words of Persian or Arabic origin, a circumflex may be placed on a
vowel to palatalize the previous consonant:
kâr ‘profit’
gâvur ‘foreigner’ (derogatory)

In words such as hâlâ ‘still’, the circumflex fulfils both functions by showing as long the
vowels (in both syllables) and palatalizing ‘l’.
In view of the functional ambiguity of the circumflex, and the fact that its use is
declining, it has been avoided altogether in this book except in the cases of hâlâ ‘still’,
kâr ‘profit’, kâh…kâh ‘now…now’, where its omission could lead to ambiguity.

APOSTROPHE

The apostrophe is used for separating a proper noun from its inflectional suffixes, as in:
Semra’dan ‘from Semra’
Hürriyet’te ‘in Hürriyet’ (a newspaper)

When a derivational suffix (Chapter 7) is attached to a proper name, the apostrophe can
be placed before or after it:
 Ankaralı’lar/Ankara’lılar ‘the people of Ankara’

If the proper name is a -(s)I compound (10.2) the apostrophe is placed after -(s)I or -lArI:
İçişleri Bakanlığı’ndan ‘from the Home Office’
İçişleri’ne ‘to the Home Office’ (shortened form)
Ticaret Odaları’nın ‘of the Chamber of Commerce’

(Note that the ‘n’ of the suffixes -(s)I(n) and -lArI(n) is placed after the apostrophe.)
Proper names are spelt as in their bare form, even in cases where the addition of a
suffix changes the pronunciation (2.1):
Ahmet’in [axmedín] ‘Ahmet’s’
h
Tarık’ın [t a:rí:n] ‘Tarık’s’

SYLLABIFICATION AND DIVIDING A WORD AT THE END OF A

LINE

All syllables contain one vowel in Turkish. A vowel cannot be the first item in a syllable
unless it is at the beginning of a word, i.e. it always belongs to the same syllable as a
preceding consonant if there is one:
a~ta~ma~dım ‘I could not throw’

A syllable cannot begin with two consonants, except at the beginning of loan words:
at~tım ‘I threw’
park~tan ‘from the park’

Note that the silent consonant ‘ğ’ conforms to the conditions on consonants:
ba~ğı~ra~ma~ya~ca~ğım ‘I will not be able to shout’

At the end of a line, a word can be divided at any syllable boundary, irrespective of
whether the division breaks up a single semantic unit (such as a stem or a suffix):
park ‘park’ par~ka ‘to the park’
git- ‘go’ gi~di~le~me~ye~ce~ği~ne ‘instead of [one] not being able to go
[there]’

(Note that in the second example the verb root ‘git’, the passive suffix ‘il’ and the
converbial suffix ‘yeceğ’ are broken up.)
 PART 1
PHONOLOGY: THE SOUND
SYSTEM
 1
PHONOLOGICAL UNITS

Words are made up of sequences of distinct phonological units called consonants and
vowels. Some consonants and vowels sound the same wherever they occur within a word,
and have a single pronunciation. Others have more than one way of being pronounced,
depending on the surrounding sounds. The various pronunciations of a phonological unit
conditioned by its position are called its allophones.
Phonological units are indicated by double slashes (/ /), and their allophones by square
brackets ([ ]). The corresponding Turkish alphabetical symbols are indicated by inverted
commas (‘ ’). Long vowels and doubled consonants are indicated by a following colon
(:).

1.1 CONSONANTS AND VOWELS

1.1.1 CONSONANTS
The consonants in Turkish differ from each other in terms of whether they are voiced or
voiceless, their point of articulation and their manner of articulation. The
voiced/voiceless contrast is the most prevalent one in processes involving phonology and
word structure (2.1, 6.1.2).
Voiceless consonants Voiced consonants
/p/ /b/
/t/ /d/
/k/ /g/
/c/(‘k’)
(‘g’)

(‘ç’) (‘c’)
/f/ /v/
/s/ /z/
/∫/(‘ş’)
(‘j’)
/h/
/γ/(‘ğ’)
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 4

/m/
/n/
/ł/(‘l’)
/l/
/r/
/j/(‘y’)

[Link] Consonants and their allophones

The following factors affect the pronunciation of particular consonants in certain
environments:
(i) palatalization (producing a consonant with the tongue against the hard palate)
affects the velar consonants /k/, /g/ and /ł/, and the glottal consonant /h/ in front
vowel environments
(ii) aspiration (producing a consonant with force) affects the voiceless plosives
/p/, /t/, /k/, /c/, and the voiceless affricate
(iii) bilabialization (producing a consonant by bringing the lips together) affects
the voiced labio-dental consonant /v/ and to a lesser extent, its voiceless
counterpart /f/
The descriptions below regarding the pronunciation of consonants in ‘word-final
position’ apply only to those cases where a word is followed by a pause or uttered in
isolation. Otherwise, the pronunciation of a word-final consonant is, in most cases,
conditioned by the initial sound in the following word. For example, /p/ which is
described below as aspirated at the end of a word or before a vowel sounds so only if it is
followed by a pause or a word beginning with a vowel. If it is followed by a word starting
with a consonant it is an unaspirated /p/. In other words, the ‘p’ of tıpa ‘stopper’, Tıp
Ansiklopedisi ‘Encyclopaedia of Medicine’ and tıp ‘medicine’ (pronounced in isolation)
are all aspirated, whereas the ‘p’ in tıpkı ‘just like’ or in Tıp Dergisi ‘Journal of
Medicine’ is unaspirated.
Another point about pronunciation concerns two identical consonants that occur next
to each other. Such clusters are pronounced with a delayed release as in attım [ath:ım] ‘I
threw [it]’ (as opposed to atım [athım] ‘my horse’) and kaç çocuk [ ]
‘how many children’ (as opposed to kaç okul [ ] ‘how many schools’).
The consonants of Turkish and their allophones are given below. Where the phonetic
symbol is different from the orthography, the latter is indicated in brackets (e.g.
(‘ç’)).
/p/ [p] şapka ‘hat’, aptal ‘stupid’, kitapçı ‘bookshop’, iplik ‘thread’
h
[p ] para ‘money’, pirinç ‘rice’, pırasa ‘leek’, top ‘ball’, ip rope’, kapak ‘cover’, ipek ‘silk’
 Phonological units 5

[p] is an unaspirated voiceless bilabial plosive which occurs before a consonant. [ph] is
an aspirated voiceless bilabial plosive which occurs before vowels or in word-final
position.
/b/ [b] bebek ‘baby, doll’, bora ‘gale’, biz ‘we’, ebe ‘midwife’, öbek ‘group’, abla ‘elder sister’

[b] is a voiced bilabial plosive. It does not occur in word-final position except in a few
loan words such as rab ‘(the) Lord’, rob ‘robe’ and ab ‘water’, and is rare in syllable-
final position.
/t/ [t] katla- ‘fold’, saatçi ‘clockmaker’, etnik ‘ethnic’, atkı ‘scarf’
h
[t ] tarak ‘comb’, tirşe ‘aquamarine’, türev ‘derivative’, etek ‘skirt’, otuz ‘thirty’, ütü ‘iron’,
inat ‘insistence’, it- ‘push’

[t] is a voiceless unaspirated denti-alveolar plosive which occurs before a consonant. [th]
is an aspirated dental plosive which occurs before a vowel or in word-final position.
/d/ [d] dere ‘stream’, dam ‘roof’ , doğru ‘correct’, diz ‘knee’, dümen ‘wheel’, kadın ‘woman’,
badem ‘almond’, ödün ‘compromise’, adlı ‘named’

[d] is a voiced denti-alveolar plosive. It does not occur in word-final position except in a
few words such as ud ‘lute’, had ‘limit’, ad ‘name’, most of which are borrowed, and is
rare in syllable-final position.
/k/ [k] bakla ‘broad beans’, sıkma ‘squeezed’, okşa- ‘caress’, parkta ‘in the park’
h
[k ] kafa ‘head’, sıkı ‘tight’, doruk ‘zenith’, sok- ‘push in’, kazak ‘sweater’
[c] ikna (et-) ‘convince’, ekle- ‘add’, eksi ‘minus’
h
[c ] keçi ‘goat’, kömür ‘coal’, iki ‘two’, sök- ‘dismantle’, bölük ‘squadron’, erk ‘power’

[k] is a voiceless unaspirated velar plosive which occurs at the end of a syllable
containing a back vowel (one of /ı/, /a/, /o/ or /u/) and before a consonant. Its aspirated
counterpart [kh] occurs before a back vowel and in word-final position following a back
vowel. [c] and [ch] are voiceless palatal plosives which occur with front vowels (one of
/e/, /i/, /ö/ or /ü/). [c] occurs at the end of a syllable containing a front vowel and before a
consonant, and its aspirated counterpart [ch] occurs before a front vowel and in word-final
position following a front vowel. The palatalization of [ch] is more pronounced when it
follows /i/ or /ü/ and occurs at the end of a word, as in yörük ‘nomad’ or the final ‘k’ in
küçük ‘small’.
An even more palatalized version of [ch] occurs before palatalized back vowels in
some loan words, as in kağıt ‘paper’, kufi ‘Cufic’, katip, ‘clerk, secretary’, mahkum
‘prisoner’. Note that [ch] in these instances constitutes a separate phonological unit (/c/),
as it contrasts with [kh]: kar [ ] ‘snow’ and kâr [ ] ‘profit’.
/g/ [g] gaz ‘gas’, gıdıkla- ‘tickle’, gocuk ‘duffle coat’, ‘anorak’, gaga ‘beak’

[ ] gez- ‘stroll’, giy- ‘wear’, göç ‘migration’, Ege ‘Aegean’

 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 6

[g] is a voiced velar plosive which occurs in syllables with the back vowels /ı/, /a/, /o/,
and /u/. Its palatal counterpart [ ] occurs in syllables with the front vowels /i/, /e/, /ö/ and
/ü/. /g/ does not occur in syllable-final or in word-final position except in loan words such
as program ‘programme’, psikolog ‘psychologist’, lig ‘league’ and katalog ‘catalogue’.
A slightly more palatalized version of the sound [ ] can also occur before a
palatalized back vowel in loan words, as in yegane ‘only’, gavur ‘infidel’ (derogatory),
dergah ‘dervish convent’. Here [ ] belongs to the separate phonological unit , which
is a voiced palatal plosive.
biçki ‘cutting out’, saçma ‘nonsense’, içmeler ‘springs’
[ ]
(‘ç’)
çene ‘chin’, çabuk ‘quickly’, çöp ‘rubbish’, uçuk ‘pale’, ölçü ‘measurement’, kılıç
[ ‘sword’, ilgeç ‘postposition’
]

[ ] is a voiceless post-alveolar affricate which occurs before a consonant. Its aspirated

counterpart [ ] precedes vowels and also occurs in word-final position.
caz ‘jazz’, cebir ‘algebra’, cuma ‘Friday’, cins ‘type’, acı ‘pain’, böcek ‘insect’
(‘c’) [ ]

[ ] is a voiced post-alveolar affricate. It does not occur in syllable-final position and

rarely occurs in word-final position (e.g. hac ‘pilgrimage’ and sac ‘sheet iron’, mostly for
purposes of distinguishing these words from words containing its voiceless counterpart
, i.e. haç ‘cross’ and saç ‘hair’).
/f/ [Φ] ufuk ‘horizon’, küfür ‘curse’, kof ‘rotten’, örf ‘common usage’, ‘custom’
[f] fakat ‘but’, nefes ‘breath’, defter ‘notebook’, lif ‘fibre’

[Φ] is a voiceless bilabial fricative which occurs in the pronunciation of some speakers
before the rounded vowels /u/, /ü/, /o/ and /ö/ and to a lesser extent in word-final position
following a rounded vowel. [f] is a voiceless labio-dental fricative which occurs
elsewhere.
/v/ [ω] tavuk ‘chicken’, kavun ‘melon’, havuç ‘carrot’
[β] vücut ‘body’, vur- ‘hit’, ov- ‘massage’, döv- ‘beat’
[v] virgül ‘comma’, vatan ‘motherland’, ev ‘house’, tava ‘frying pan’

[ω] is a bilabial glide which occurs between two vowels where at least one of the vowels,
usually the one following it, is rounded. [β] is a voiced bilabial fricative which also
occurs with rounded vowels but only when it is not intervocalic (i.e. when it is in word-
initial or syllable-final position). The difference between [ω] and [β] is very slight and is
not audible in the speech of some speakers. [v], the voiced labio-dental fricative, occurs
elsewhere.
/s/ [s] sarı ‘yellow’, somurt- ‘sulk’, su ‘water’, süt ‘milk’, ısı ‘heat’, askı ‘hanger’, pas ‘rust’
 Phonological units 7

[s] is a voiceless denti-alveolar fricative.

/z/ [z] zar ‘dice’, ‘membrane’, zehir ‘poison’, otuz ‘thirty’, doz ‘dosage’, uzun ‘long, tall’, azınlık
‘minority’

[z] is a voiced denti-alveolar fricative.

/∫/ [∫] işlek ‘busy’, şiir ‘poem’, ‘poetry’, şarkı ‘song’, aşık ‘lover’, meşin ‘leather’, kaş
(‘ş’) ‘eyebrow’, güneş ‘sun’

[∫] is a voiceless post-alveolar fricative.

/ / [ jüpon ‘underskirt’, jet ‘jet’, jilet ‘razor blade’, garaj ‘garage’, bej ‘beige’, Jülide (a
(‘j’) ] name), ajan ‘agent’, ejderha ‘dragon’

[ ] is a voiced post-alveolar fricative. It occurs in words borrowed from Indo-European

languages, in particular from Persian and French.
/γ/ (‘ğ’) soğuk ‘cold’, bağır- ‘shout’, eğik ‘bent’, dağ ‘mountain’, gittiğim ‘that I went’

The so-called ‘soft g’ lacks a corresponding ‘consonantal’ sound in standard Turkish,

although it is pronounced as a voiced velar fricative in some dialects. It behaves like a
consonant when a suffix follows it (see 6.1.3), and is either inaudible as a consonant or
may be pronounced as a palatal glide in the environment of front vowels and as a bilabial
glide in the environment of rounded vowels. In particular:
(i) When it is in word-final or syllable-final position, it lengthens a preceding
back vowel (dağdan [da:dan] ‘from the mountain’ and sığ [sı:] ‘shallow’), but
may be pronounced as a palatal glide when following a front vowel (eğlen-
[ejlæn] ‘have fun’).
(ii) Between identical back vowels it is inaudible (sığınak [sı:nakh] ‘shelter’, uğur
[u: ] ‘good luck’).
(iii) Between identical front vowels it is either inaudible (sevdiğim [sevdi:m] ‘that
I love’) or sounds like a palatal glide (düğün [düjün] ‘wedding’).
(iv) Between rounded vowels it is mostly inaudible but can also be pronounced as
a bilabial glide soğuk ([soukh] or [soωukh] ‘cold’).
(v) Between a rounded vowel and an unrounded vowel it is mostly inaudible but
can also be pronounced as a bilabial glide (soğan [soan] or [soωan] ‘onion’).
(vi) ‘a+ğ+ı’ sequences may either sound like a sequence of /a/ followed by /ı/ or
like a sequence of two /a/ vowels (ağır [ ] or [a: ] ‘heavy’).
(vii) ‘ı+ğ+a’ sequences, on the other hand, are pronounced as sequences of /a/
followed by /ı/ (sığan [sıan] ‘[one] which fits’).
(viii) When ‘ğ’ occurs between an ‘e’ and an ‘i’ it is either inaudible or
pronounced as a palatal glide [j], hence words with the sequences ‘e +ğ+i’ and
‘i+ğ+e’ can sound like words written with a ‘y’, as in değil [dejil] ‘not’ and diğer
[ ] ‘other’ (the former being similar to words written with a palatal glide,
e.g. meyil ‘slope’). ‘e+ğ+i’ sequences may also sound like a sequence of two /i/
vowels, hence değil is often pronounced [di:l] in colloquial speech.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 8

For the pronunciation of ‘ğ’ in forms containing the future/participle suffix -(y)AcAK, see
[Link].
Note that vowel sequences formed as a result of an intervening ‘ğ’ are made up of two
distinct syllables and are not diphthongs or long vowels. In these vowel sequences stress
falls on the second syllable, provided that other conditions on word stress are met (see
Chapter 4).
/h/ [ç] hile ‘trick’, ihtimal ‘possibility’, Salih (a name)
[x] ıhlamur ‘linden’, ahşap ‘wooden’, kahve ‘coffee’, sabah ‘morning’
[h] hala ‘paternal aunt’, horla- ‘snore’, ahır ‘barn’

[ç] is a voiceless palatal fricative that occurs with front vowels in the following
environments: before a front vowel, between a front vowel and a consonant, and after a
front vowel in word-final position. When the vowel is /i/, the palatalization is more
pronounced. [x], the voiceless velar fricative, follows a back vowel and precedes a
consonant, or follows a back vowel in word-final position. [h], the voiceless glottal
fricative, occurs before a back vowel. /h/ may be silent between two identical vowels, as
in pastahane [phastha:nε] ‘bakery shop’ and daha [da:] ‘more’, or between a vowel
(usually /a/) and a consonant, causing the preceding vowel to lengthen as in kahve
[kha:vε] ‘coffee’ and Ahmet [a:meth].
/m/ [m] masal ‘fairytale’, mine ‘enamel’, müzik ‘music’, emin ‘sure’, kumar ‘gambling’, kambur
‘hunchback’, tarım ‘agriculture’, ekim ‘October’

[m] is a bilabial nasal.

/n/ [n] nasıl ‘how’, nine ‘grandmother’, on ‘ten’, ünlü ‘famous’, inek ‘cow’, sorun ‘problem’
[ŋ] yangın ‘fire’, banka ‘bank’, mangal ‘brazier’

[ ] engin ‘boundless’, dingin ‘calm’

[n] is a dental nasal which occurs in all positions except when it is followed by /k/ or /g/.
/n/ is realized as a velar nasal [ŋ] following a back vowel and preceding a velar plosive,
and as a palatal nasal [ ] following a front vowel and preceding a palatal plosive.
There is no audible difference between ‘n’ and ‘m’ when either of these occurs before
a labio-dental fricative (‘f’ or ‘v’). In s uch ca ses , the preceding ‘n’ or ‘m’ becomes
slightly nasalized: Enver [ ] (a name), amfi [ãfi] ‘lecture room’.
/ł/ [l] leylek ‘stork’, lira ‘lira’, elli ‘fifty’, gül ‘rose’, ölüm ‘death’
[ł] oluk ‘gutter’, kalın ‘thick’, bal ‘honey’, pul ‘stamp’

[l] is a palatalized post-alveolar lateral which occurs adjacent to front vowels, and [ł] is a
velarized dental lateral which occurs adjacent to back vowels. /l/ generally gets
assimilated with a preceding /n/ in fast speech, e.g. kadınlar ‘women’ may be pronounced
[ ] and anla- ‘understand’ as [anna].
 Phonological units 9

The palatal sound [l] can also occur adjacent to back vowels in loan words such as lale
[la:le] ‘tulip’, laf ‘word(s)’, ilah ‘god’, rol ‘role’. Here it belongs to the phonological unit
/l/.
/r/ [r] rahat ‘comfort’, renk ‘colour’, iri ‘big’, artık ‘waste’, oruç ‘fasting’

[ ] tür ‘type’, ger- ‘stretch’, iksir ‘elixir’, kar ‘snow’, mor ‘violet’

[r] is a voiced alveolar tap produced with the tip of the tongue touching the alveolar
ridge. It occurs in initial and medial positions. Its devoiced counterpart [ ] occurs in
word-final position. /r/ is sometimes deleted in colloquial speech, in particular in the
imperfective suffix -Iyor (see [Link] for details) and in bir ‘a’, ‘one’. In the case of bir,
this usually occurs when it is not stressed (bir ev [bi év] ‘a house’) but also sometimes
when it is stressed (bir daha [bída:] ‘again’, sadece bir ev [ bí ev] ‘only one
house’).
/j/ [j] yer ‘place’, yoğurt ‘yogurt’, yağ ‘oil’, ayak ‘foot’, oyun ‘game’, ayna ‘mirror’, kay-
(‘y’) ‘slide’, huy ‘disposition’

[j] is a palatal glide. The sequence ‘i+y’ can be realized as a long vowel, as in iyi [i:]
‘good’ and diyeceğim [ ] ‘I will say’.
The glottal stop survives mainly in the speech of some elderly speakers, and is going
out of usage. It is confined to words of Arabic origin, and mostly to those in which it is
intervocalic (saat [sa’ạth] ‘clock’, ‘watch’, fiil [fi’il] ‘verb’, teessüf [the’es:üФ] ‘sorrow’,
taarruz [tha’ar:uz] ‘assault’). Note that an intervocalic glottal stop can also be pronounced
as a long vowel ([Link]).

1.1.2 VOWELS
Turkish has a very symmetrical vocalic system, consisting of the eight vowels /a/, /e/,
(‘ı’), /i/, /o/, /œ/ (‘ö’), /u/, /y/ (‘ü’). The symbols , /œ/ and /y/ will henceforth be
replaced by their counterparts in the Turkish orthography, /ı/, /ö/ and /ü/ respectively.
These vowels differ from each other in terms of the height of the tongue, the
roundedness of the lips and the frontness of the tongue.
High Non-high (mid and low)
Rounded Unrounded Rounded Unrounded
Front ü i ö e
Back u ı o a

In addition, Turkish has the long vowels /a:/, /u:/, /i:/ and /e:/ in loan words of Arabic and
Persian origin.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 10

[Link] Vowels and their allophones

Vowels can occur at the beginning and end of words, and between two consonants. In
words of native origin, /o/ and /ö/ occur only in the first syllable (except for words which
contain the imperfective suffix -Iyor, see 3.4 (vi) and [Link]).
Some general factors which affect the pronunciation of vowels are the following: the
back vowels /a/, /o/ and /u/ are palatalized when following or preceding the palatal
consonants /c/, and /l/, which occur only in loan words. All vowels except /a/ and /o/
get lowered in word-final position.
/a/ [a] kara ‘black’, aşı ‘vaccination’, kurak ‘arid’, algı ‘perception’, banka ‘bank’
[ạ] laf ‘word(s)’, ‘banter’, lapa ‘mush’, alfabe ‘alphabet’, kağıt ‘paper’

[a] is a low, back and unrounded vowel. Its fronted allophone [ạ] occurs with the palatal
consonants /c/, and /l/ in loan words.
/e/ [e] sevgi ‘love’, ekim ‘October’, bez ‘cloth’, senin ‘your’
[ε] ile ‘with’, küfe ‘large basket’, bale ‘ballet’, dene- ‘try’
[æ] gel- ‘come’, ver- ‘give’, ben ‘I’, sen ‘you’, gizem ‘mystery’

The non-high, front and unrounded vowel /e/ has three allophones. Going from the
highest, i.e. mid, to the lowest, these are: the mid, front, closed vowel [e], its lowered
counterpart [ε], an open-mid, front vowel, and [æ], a low front vowel. [e] sounds like a
shorter form of the vowel sound in the English word late, [æ] resembles a shorter form of
the vowel sound in bat, and [ε] is between the two, with a sound similar to the vowel in
air in English.
[æ] occurs before /l/, /m/, /n/, /r/ in instances where the sequences ‘er’, ‘em’, ‘en’ and
‘el’ are not followed by a vowel, as in her ‘each, all’, gerdi ‘s/he stretched’, kent ‘town’,
pergel ‘pair of compasses’. [ε] occurs in wordfinal position. [e] occurs elsewhere. All
three occur in words such as gezegende [gezegændε] ‘on the planet’, perende [perændε]
‘somersault’ (see also 2.5). Note that /e/ may be pronounced either as [e] or [æ] in a
limited number of words before /l/, /m/ and /n/. Hence, some speakers pronounce elbise
‘dress’, kendi ‘self’ or hem ‘both’ with [e], others with[æ].
/i/ [i] erik ‘plum’, iletişim ‘communication’
[I] ilgi ‘interest’, deri ‘skin’, kedi ‘cat’

[I] is a higher-than-mid, front, unrounded vowel which occurs in word-final position. Its
pronunciation resembles the vowel sound in bit in English. [i], which occurs elsewhere, is
a front, high, unrounded vowel, a shorter version of the vowel sound in beat in English.
/ı/ [ı] asıl ‘real’, kışla ‘barracks’, ılık ‘lukewarm’, kırmızı ‘red’

[ı] is an unrounded, high, back vowel.

 Phonological units 11

/o/ [o] o ‘he/she/it/that’, bol ‘abundant’, otur- ‘sit’, kop- ‘snap’, protokol/‘protocol’
[ọ] lokum ‘Turkish delight’, rol ‘role’

[o] is a mid, back, rounded vowel. Its palatalized counterpart [ọ] occurs adjacent to /l/ in
loan words. /o/ occurs only in the initial syllable in words of Turkic origin, but may
appear in any syllable in loan words.
/ö/ [ö] göl ‘lake’, ölçü ‘measurement’, dökül- ‘be spilt’, sözlük ‘dictionary’, kuvöz ‘incubator’,
şoför ‘chauffeur’

[ö] is a mid, front, rounded vowel. In loan words /ö/ can occur in any syllable, but like /o/
it appears only in the first syllable in native words.
/u/ [u] buluş ‘finding’, ufak ‘small’, koşul ‘condition’
[ụ] lut ‘lute’, blucin ‘denims’, lugat ‘dictionary’, kufi ‘Cufic’
[ ] bu ‘this’, kutu ‘box’, ordu ‘army’

[u] is a rounded, high, back vowel which sounds like the vowel in the English word truth.
[ụ] is its palatalized allophone, which occurs adjacent to the palatal consonants /c/,
and /l/ in loan words. [ ] is more lowered than [u] and occurs in word-final position. It
is pronounced in a similar way to the vowel in put in English.
/ü/ [ü] üzüntü ‘sadness’, püre ‘mash’, süprüntü ‘rubbish’, ömür ‘life’
[Y] üzüntü ‘sadness’, örgü ‘knitted’, sövgü ‘curse’

[ü] is a rounded, high, front vowel. [Y] is more lowered than [ü] and occurs only in word-
final position.

[Link] Long vowels

Long vowels occur in words borrowed from Persian and Arabic. These have two separate
sources. They are either long vowels in the original language or they originally contained
a glottal stop ([Link]), which, together with the vowel that precedes it, has become a long
vowel in Turkish. Sometimes long vowels are indicated by a circumflex (^) in the
orthography. Those long vowels which derive from an intervocalic glottal stop are
usually written as two vowels. The list below provides a few examples without
distinguishing between these distinct sources:
/a:/ matbaa ‘press’, kira ‘rent’, mavi ‘blue’, arif ‘wise person’
/u:/ mevzu ‘topic’, suret ‘copy’, buse ‘kiss’, Numan (a name)
/i:/ fiil ‘verb’, ilan ‘advertisement’, sine ‘bosom’, Didem (a name)
/e:/ teessüf ‘sorrow’, temin ‘acquisition’, tesir ‘effect’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 12

See [Link] for the effect of ‘ğ’ and ‘h’ on preceding vowels, and 2.4 for vowel length
under other circumstances.

1.2 THE DISTRIBUTION OF CONSONANTS AND VOWELS

In Turkish roots are predominantly monosyllabic, i.e. they contain a single vowel. There
are no vowel sequences in Turkish, except in loan words (see [Link]).
The most common combinations of consonants (C) and vowels (V) are VC (at ‘horse’,
ol- ‘be’, in- ‘descend’, iş ‘work’, üç ‘three’) and CVC sequences (gel- ‘come’, bak-
‘look’, güz ‘autumn’, göl ‘lake’). There are also CV sequences such as bu ‘this’, şu ‘that’,
su ‘water’, ne ‘what’, de-, ‘say’, but these are fewer in number and those which are
nominals usually require an additional consonant (‘n’ or ‘y’) when they combine with
suffixes (6.1.3). Other types are VCV sequences such as ara- ‘look for’, ile ‘with’, öte
‘far side’, and VCC and CVCC sequences such as ört- ‘cover’, sert ‘hard’, genç ‘young’.
There is a single occurrence of a root which consists only of a single vowel, the word o
‘he, she, it, that’. This word requires a consonant when it combines with a suffix (6.2
(ii)).
In this book we treat the following words also as roots, although they have more than
one syllable:
(i) Loan words such as hazır ‘ready’, kitap ‘book’, köşe ‘corner’ and otomatik
‘automatic’. Some such words are derived forms in their original language but
cannot be broken up into smaller units in Turkish.
(ii) Words of Turkic origin which do not have a recognizable monosyllabic root
in modern Turkish, such as damar ‘vein’, ördek ‘duck’, eski ‘old’, ana ‘mother’,
bekle- ‘wait’, oku- ‘read’ and çalış- ‘work’.
In the overwhelming majority of cases, a word which contains more than one syllable in
Turkish is a derived word (see 7.2). For the rules of syllabification in Turkish see p. xl.

1.2.1 CONSONANT CLUSTERS

Consonant clusters, i.e. sequences of two different consonants, occur word-initially only
in loan words. Some speakers insert one of the vowels /i/ or /ı/ in or before the cluster:
Alternative pronunciation
spor ‘sport’
[ , ]
h h
stil ‘style’ [ist il, sit il]
stres ‘stress’ [sitres]
tren ‘train’ [thiræn]
psikoloji ‘psychology’
[ , ]
kral ‘king’
[ ]
 Phonological units 13

grev ‘strike’ [gırev]

plan ‘plan’ [philan]

Consonant clusters are frequently found in word-final position, as in ilk ‘first’, alt
‘lower’, sark- ‘hang’, kork- ‘fear’, zamk ‘adhesive’, renk ‘colour’, kart ‘tough’, üst ‘top’,
aşk ‘love’, baht ‘luck’, teyp ‘tape recorder’, genç ‘young’, felç ‘paralysis’, bronz
‘bronze’, şans ‘luck’, alarm ‘alarm’.
 2
SOUND CHANGE PRODUCED IN THE
STEM BY SUFFIXATION

There are a number of contexts where the addition of a suffix causes a change in the
quality of the last consonant or vowel of a stem. Certain of these changes are confined to
specific lexical items, whereas others occur as part of a general phonological process in
the language. Those which occur only in certain words are:
(i) A voiceless consonant alternating with its voiced counterpart, e.g. kitap ‘book’
but kitabım ‘my book’ (2.1)
(ii) A single consonant alternating with its doubled counterpart, e.g. sır ‘secret’
but sırrım ‘my secret’ (2.2)
(iii) A high vowel alternating with zero (i.e. absence of that vowel), e.g. burun
‘nose’ but burnum ‘my nose’ (2.3)
(iv) A short vowel alternating with a long vowel, e.g. zaman ‘time’ but zamanım
[zama:nım] ‘my time’ (2.4)
The changes which are part of a general phonological process are:
(v) Final ‘k’ alternating with ‘ğ’ in nominals, e.g. çocuk ‘child’ but çocuğum ‘my
child’ (2.1)
(vi) [æ] alternating with [e], e.g. ben [bæn] ‘I’ but benim[benim] ‘mine’ (2.5)
(vii) Final ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘u’ and ‘ü’ alternating with ‘ı’ or ‘i’, e.g. de- ‘say’ but diyecek
‘s/he will say’ (2.6)

2.1 ALTERNATIONS OF VOICELESS/VOICED CONSONANTS:

‘p’/‘b’, ‘t’/‘d’, ‘k’/‘g’, ‘k’/‘ğ’, ‘ç’/‘c’

In some stems ending in one of the voiceless consonants ‘p’, ‘t’, ‘k’ and ‘ç’, this final
consonant changes to its voiced counterpart before a suffix beginning with a vowel.
‘p’ is replaced by ‘b’
‘t’ is replaced by ‘d’
‘(n)k’ is replaced by ‘(n)g’
‘ç’ is replaced by ‘c’
‘k’ is replaced by ‘ğ’

Some of these alternations take place in words borrowed from Arabic or Persian, where
the word originally ends in a voiced consonant (‘b’, ‘d’, ‘g’ or ‘c’, as in kitab ‘book’). As
 Sound changes produced in the stem by suffixation 15

Turkish does not have any of these consonants in final position (1.1.1) the final segment
is devoiced in the bare form (hence kitap) or in syllable-final position (i.e. when followed
by a suffix beginning with a consonant, e.g. kitaptan ‘from the book’). The original
voiced consonant is retained when it is followed by a suffix beginning with a vowel (e.g.
kitabım ‘my book’). Alternations in voiceless/voiced consonants also occur in many
words of Turkish origin. Note that only some of the words which in their bare form end
in a voiceless consonant are subject to change.
(i) final ‘p’ → ‘b’
dolap ‘cupboard’ dolaba ‘to the cupboard’
cep ‘pocket’ cebim ‘my pocket’

(ii) final ‘t’ → ‘d’

kilit ‘lock’ kilidim ‘my lock’
kanat ‘wing’ kanadı ‘its wing’

There are relatively few nominal roots that undergo ‘t’/‘d’ alternation. The class of nouns
ending in a non-changing ‘t’ includes the large number of Arabic borrowings which end
in the Arabic feminine suffix -et/at, such as cumhuriyet ‘republic’ → cumhuriyetin ‘of the
republic’, and French loan words ending in ‘t’, e.g. bilet ‘ticket’ → biletim ‘my ticket’,
ceket ‘jacket’ → ceketim ‘my jacket’.
(iii) final ‘n’+‘k’ → ‘n’+‘g’
renk ‘colour’ renge ‘to the colour’
denk ‘equal’ dengi ‘his/her/its equal’

‘k’ alternates with ‘g’ only when it is preceded by ‘n’ (otherwise it alternates with ‘ğ’; see
(v) below). Nouns of this form which have been borrowed in recent times from European
languages do not normally undergo ‘k’/‘g’ alternation:
tank ‘tank’ tankı ‘his/her/its tank’
bank ‘bench’ bankı ‘his/her/its bench’

(iv) final ‘ç’ → ‘c’

ağaç ‘tree’ ağacı ‘his/her/its tree’
güç ‘power’ gücün ‘your power’
taç ‘crown’ taca ‘to the crown’

(v) While the scope of the aforementioned alternations is limited to particular

words and is a lexical matter, the next alternation is a general rule which applies
to nominals ending with ‘k’ when they are combined with a vowel-initial suffix.
In such cases ‘k’ alternates with ‘ğ’. Due to the pronunciation properties of ‘ğ’
([Link]) this process is also referred to as ‘k’/Ø alternation.
final ‘k’ → ‘ğ’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 16

yaprak ‘leaf’ yaprağı ‘its leaf’

gök ‘sky’ göğe ‘to the sky’
otomatik ‘automatic’ otomatiğe ‘(in)to automatic’

Note that only a final ‘k’ which is preceded by a vowel undergoes ‘k’/‘ğ’ alternation.
Final ‘k’ alternates with ‘g’ when preceded by ‘n’ (see (iii) above), otherwise it remains
as ‘k’ (eg. zamk ‘adhesive’ and zamkı ‘the adhesive’ (ACC)). ‘k’/‘ğ’ alternation also
affects suffixes ending in ‘k’, such as -DIK ([Link]), -(y)AcAK ([Link], [Link]) and -
mAK ([Link]):
gelecek ‘s/he’s going to come’ geleceğim ‘I’m going to come’
aldık ‘we bought’ aldığımız ‘the one/that we bought’

In the case of -mAK, ‘k’ also alternates with ‘y’:

almak ‘to buy’
almaya/almağa ‘(in order) to buy’ (also pronounced [ ] or [ ])

‘k’/‘ğ’ alternation does not affect words with long vowels (2.4). For example, tebrik
‘congratulation(s)’, where ‘i’ is originally long, does not undergo ‘k’/‘ğ’ alternation,
hence, tebriki [thebri:chI] ‘his/her congratulation(s)’.
There are certain categories to which alternations of voiceless/voiced consonants do
not generally apply:
(a) Most monovocalic nominal roots are not subject to these changes:
saç ‘hair’ saçım ‘my hair’
yük ‘load’ yüküm ‘my load’
top ‘ball’ topum ‘my ball’
at ‘horse’ atım ‘my horse’

(b) The vast majority of verbal roots are not subject to these changes. A verbal root such
as kap- ‘snatch’ retains its final consonant in suffixation, hence kapın ‘snatch!’, although
the identical-sounding nominal root kap ‘container’ reverts to its original voiced
consonant when a suffix beginning with a vowel is added: kabın ‘your container’.
Similarly the verb ak-‘flow’ retains its final consonant under suffixation (e.g. akan
‘flowing’) but the adjective ak ‘white’ may not (cf. ağar- ‘become white’, but akı ‘its
white (part)’). There are only a few verbs that have a change in their final consonant
when followed by a vowel-initial suffix:
et- (auxiliary verb/‘do’) eder ‘s/he does’
git- ‘go’ gidiyor ‘s/he is going’
güt- ‘cherish’ güdecek ‘s/he will cherish’
tat- ‘taste’ tadınca ‘upon tasting’
 Sound changes produced in the stem by suffixation 17

The only way to be sure whether a noun ending in ‘p’, ‘t’, ‘k’, or ‘ç’ is subject to
alternation with ‘b’, ‘d’, ‘g’/‘ğ’ or ‘c’ is to look in a dictionary. Despite the fact that the
nominals which do not undergo change outnumber those that do, the standard practice
adopted in dictionaries is to take the pattern of change shown above as the norm, and to
mark only those nouns which retain a final ‘p’, ‘t’, ‘k’, or ‘ç’. Thus ağaç, çocuk, kitap
and kağıt (all of which undergo change) will be found without annotation, whereas saç,
top and millet are presented in the form saç (-çı), top (-pu), millet (-ti).

2.2 ALTERNATIONS OF SINGLE CONSONANTS WITH DOUBLE

CONSONANTS

In a small number of nouns ending in ‘b’, ‘t’, ‘d’, ‘k’, ‘l’, ‘s’, ‘z’, ‘m’ and ‘n’ the final
consonant is duplicated when a vowel is attached to it. These are words borrowed from
Arabic, which, in their original roots, have geminates, i.e. doubled consonants. In Turkish
such words appear with a single consonant in their bare form or when followed by a
suffix beginning with a consonant.
hak ‘right’ haklar ‘rights’ hakkın ‘your right’
his ‘emotion’ histen ‘of the emotion’ hissi ‘emotional’
sır ‘secret’ sırlar ‘secrets’ sırrımız ‘our secret’
hat ‘line’ hatlar ‘lines’ demiryolu hattı ‘railway line’
zıt ‘opposite’ zıtsa ‘if [it’s] the opposite’ zıddı ‘the opposite of it’

Some of these words keep their original double consonants when they combine with the
auxiliaries et- ‘do’ and ol- ‘be’ (13.3.2): hallet- ‘solve’, hallol- ‘be solved’, hisset- ‘feel’.
Others appear in nominal-verb compounds with a single consonant: hak et- ‘deserve’.
It should be noted that since bare stems do not give any indication that they end in
geminates, such words have to be learned individually. Nouns belonging to this class are
indicated in dictionary entries in the form sır (-rrı), hat (-ttı), zıt (-ddı). The form of any
nominal-verb compounds derived from these words also has to be checked in a
dictionary.

2.3 VOWEL/Ø ALTERNATION

There are a number of nouns in which the high vowel (‘ı’, ‘i’, ‘u’ or ‘ü’) of the final
syllable in the bare form does not appear when a suffix beginning with a vowel is
attached to the root (e.g. isim ‘name’ but ismi ‘his/her name’). Many of these are words
of Arabic origin which do not have a vowel in this position. For example, the Arabic
word ism ‘name’ does not contain a vowel between ‘s’ and ‘m’. In Turkish when such a
word appears in its bare form an epenthetic vowel is inserted, hence the second ‘i’ in
isim.
It is important to remember that this is not a general phonological process. It occurs in
some words of Arabic origin and in a very few roots of Turkish origin. When such roots
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 18

combine with a stressable suffix (4.3.1) containing a high vowel, such as the accusative
case marker -(y)I, there is invariably no epenthetic vowel in the inflected form. However,
there may be variation among speakers regarding the inclusion of epenthetic vowels in
words with a suffix containing a non-high vowel (such as the dative case marker -(y)A).
Root Root+I (e.g. -(y)I (ACC)) Root+A (e.g. -(y)A (DAT))
karın ‘belly’ karnı karna or karına
şehir ‘town’ şehri şehre or şehire
izin ‘permission’ izni izne or izine

It is not possible to know without looking in a dictionary whether the final high vowel in
the bare form of a root is epenthetic or not. Stems which look identical may differ in this
respect:
koyun ‘bosom’ → koynu ‘his/her bosom’
koyun ‘sheep’ → koyunu ‘his/her sheep’
nehir ‘river’ → nehri ‘the river’ (ACC)
Nehir ‘Nehir’ (a name) → Nehir’i ‘Nehir’ (ACC)

If a root containing an epenthetic vowel is followed by an auxiliary verb beginning with a

vowel (et- ‘do’ or ol- ‘be’ (13.3.2)), the epenthetic vowel does not appear, and the noun
and verb coalesce into a single word:
sabır ‘patience’ sabrı ‘his/her patience’ sabret- ‘be patient’
kahır ‘distress’ kahrı ‘his/her distress’ kahrol- ‘bed damned’

In the rare cases where a root with an epenthetic vowel is followed by an unstressable
suffix (4.3.2) beginning with a vowel, e.g. the group 2 person marker -(y)Im (8.4), the
epenthetic vowel is retained for purposes of stress; thus nehrím ‘my river’ but nehírim ‘I
am a river’ (poetic).

2.4 SHORT/LONG VOWEL ALTERNATIONS

In a number of stems which have ‘a’, ‘u’ or ‘i’ in the final syllable, these vowels are
replaced with their long counterparts /a:/, /u:/ and /i:/ when a suffix beginning with a
vowel is attached:
meram ‘plight’ mera:mını ‘your/his/her plight’(ACC)
hukuk ‘law’ huku:ken ‘legally’
zaman ‘time’ zama:nım ‘my time’
zemin ‘ground’ zemi:ni ‘the ground’ (ACC)
 Sound changes produced in the stem by suffixation 19

As in gemination (2.2) and in most cases of epenthesis (2.3), the alternation of short
vowels with their long counterparts occurs in words of Arabic origin, in this case those
which originally contain a long vowel. These words have to be learned individually, as
there is no indication in the roots that they contain a long vowel. This process can also
take place across word boundaries when such words are followed by an auxiliary verb
beginning with a vowel (et- ‘do’ or ol- ‘be’ (13.3.2)):
merak ‘curiosity’ mera:k et- ‘be curious’
emin ‘sure’ emi:n ol- ‘be sure’

Short/long vowel alternation does not affect proper nouns that are derived from common
nouns with long vowels:
murat ‘wish’ → mura:dı ‘his/her wish’
Murat ‘Murat’ (a name) → Murat’ı ([murathI] or [muradI]) ‘Murat’ (ACC)

2.5 æ/e ALTERNATION

[æ], which is a lowered allophone of /e/, does not occur in environments where it is
followed by a consonant+vowel sequence ([Link]). In cases where a stem or suffix has
[æ] but is followed by a consonant+vowel sequence as a result of (further) suffixation,
this [æ] is replaced by [e]:

gel- ‘come’ [ ] [ ] ‘I came’ [ ] ‘s/he

comes’
evler ‘houses’ [evlæŗ] [evlærdε] ‘in (the) houses’ [evlerim] ‘my houses’
sen ‘you’ [sæn] [sændε] ‘on you’ [senin] ‘your’

2.6 ALTERNATION OF ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘u’ AND ‘ü’ WITH ‘ı’ AND ‘i’

In the spoken language, some suffixes which conjoin to a stem by means of the consonant
‘y’ (6.1.3) may affect the pronunciation of a preceding ‘a’, ‘e’, ‘u’ or ‘ü’. The presence of
‘y’ often causes these vowels to be pronounced as ‘i’. Alternatively, ‘a’ and ‘u’ can be
pronounced as ‘ı’. The suffixes that most commonly cause such a change are the suffix -
(y)AcAK ([Link], [Link]), the participle suffix -(y)An ([Link]), the adverbial suffix -
(y)IncA ([Link]) and the combination of the optative suffix with the 1st person optative
marker: -(y)AyIm ([Link], 8.4). In the case of the verb roots de- ‘say’ and ye- ‘eat’, the
change is reflected in the orthography:
de- ‘say’ di-yen (say-PART) ‘(the one) who says’
ye- ‘eat’ yi-yecek (eat-FUT) ‘s/he will eat’

In most cases, however, only the pronunciation is affected:

 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 20

atla- ‘jump’
atlayan (jump-PART) ‘(the one) who jumps’, pronounced [ ], [atłıjan] or
[atlijan]
özle- ‘miss’
özleyince (miss-CV) ‘upon missing’, pronounced [ ] or
[ ]
oku- ‘read’
okuyacak ‘s/he is going to read’, pronounced [ ] or

[ ]
üşü- ‘be üşüyeyim ‘let me be cold’, pronounced [ü∫i:m] [ü∫ijejim]
cold’

Note that the effect of ‘y’ on a previous vowel can result in the violation of vowel
harmony (e.g. [atliyan] above).
Inflectional suffixes which end in ‘a’ or ‘e’ also tend to be affected by a following ‘y’.
For example, the vowel of the negative suffix -mA is usually replaced (in pronunciation)
with a high vowel when followed by a suffix beginning with ‘y’:
atlama- ‘not atlamayabiliyorum (jump-NEG-PSB-IMPF-1SG) ‘I [may or] may not jump’,
jump’ pronounced [atłamajabilijorum]/[atłamıjabilijorum]/ [atłamijabilijorum]

The imperfective suffix -(I)yor has a similar effect on the final ‘a’ or ‘e’ of the stem it
attaches to; see [Link].
 3
VOWEL HARMONY

Vowel harmony is a phonological process which determines what vowel will appear in
all but the first syllable of a word. In roots with more than one syllable, the second vowel
harmonizes with the first one:
kabak ‘marrow’ etek ‘skirt’
uzak ‘far’ ipek ‘silk’

Similarly, when a suffix is attached to a stem, it harmonizes with the properties of the
vowel in the preceding syllable, irrespective of whether the stem is of native or foreign
origin:
kuş-lar ‘birds’ ev-ler ‘houses’
puma-lar ‘pumas’ otobüs-ler ‘buses’

After describing the types of vowel harmony in 3.1, we discuss how vowel harmony
operates in suffixes (3.2) and in roots (3.3). In 3.4 exceptions to vowel harmony are
given.

3.1 TYPES OF VOWEL HARMONY

As a result of vowel harmony, only the following sequences are permissible in native
Turkish words:
‘a’ can only be followed by ‘a‘or ‘ı’
‘ı’ can only be followed by ‘a’ or ‘ı’
Back vowels
‘o’ can only be followed by ‘a’ or ‘u’
‘u’ can only be followed by ‘a’ or ‘u’
‘e’ can only be followed by ‘e’ or ‘i’
‘i’ can only be followed by ‘e’ or ‘i’
Front vowels
‘ö’ can only be followed by ‘e’ or ‘ü’
‘ü’ can only be followed by ‘e’ or ‘ü’

Vowel harmony in Turkish is a combination of two kinds of harmonization process. One

of these is fronting harmony, which is the assimilation of a vowel with the vowel in the
preceding syllable in terms of frontness. A front vowel can only be followed by a front
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 22

vowel and a back vowel can only be followed by a back vowel, as in aç-ıl-dı ‘[it] was
opened’, güç-tü ‘[it] was difficult, böl-üm ‘part’, düş-en ‘falling’.
The other type of harmony process is rounding harmony, which is the assimilation of
a vowel with the vowel in the preceding syllable in terms of roundedness. Unless it is in
the first syllable of a word, a rounded vowel occurs only when it is preceded by another
rounded vowel. (For exceptions see 3.3.) Roundedness is thus a property which is copied
from the rounded vowel of the previous syllable. This process only affects suffixes and
clitics with high vowels. Some examples are üz-ül-dü-nüz ‘you became sad’, sor-ul-ur ‘it
is asked’, öv-ün-dük ‘we boasted’.
The vowels ‘o’ and ‘ö’ only occur in the initial syllable of a word, except in loan
words such as lodos ‘south-westerly gale’, otobüs ‘bus’ and protokol ‘protocol’.

3.2 VOWEL HARMONY IN SUFFIXES AND CLITICS

A handful of exceptions aside (see 3.4), vowel harmony operates in all suffixes and
clitics, irrespective of whether these are attached to words of native or foreign origin. In
terms of vowel harmony, there are two types of suffix in Turkish, I-type and A-type. In
this chapter, we use the term ‘suffix’ as a cover term for suffixes proper and clitics
(Chapter 11).

3.2.1 VOWEL HARMONY IN I-TYPE SUFFIXES

The vowels of I-type suffixes are high, but they get their other features (i.e. frontness and
roundedness) from the preceding vowel. Fronting and rounding harmonies determine
whether the vowel in this type of suffix will be ‘i’, ‘ı’, ‘ü’, or ‘u’ when affixed to a
particular word. For example, a stem with a front unrounded vowel combines with the
form which contains the front unrounded vowel ‘i’, and a stem with a back rounded
vowel combines with the form with the back rounded vowel ‘u’. When an I-type suffix is
attached to a root or stem:
‘ı’ is selected if the preceding vowel is ‘ı’ or ‘a’ ‘i’ is selected if the preceding vowel is ‘i’ or ‘e’
kız-ın ‘your daughter’ diz-in ‘your knee’
baş-ın ‘your head’ el-in ‘your hand’
‘u’ is selected if the preceding vowel is ‘u’ or ‘o’ ‘ü’ is selected if the preceding vowel is ‘ü’ or ‘ö’
burn-un ‘your nose’ yüz-ün ‘your face’
kol-un ‘your arm’ göz-ün ‘your eye’

Examples of I-type suffixes are the genitive suffix -(n)ın, -(n)in, -(n)un, -(n)ün, the
accusative suffix -(y)ı, -(y)i, -(y)u, -y(ü) and the evidential/ perfective suffix -mış, -miş, -
muş, -müş. The consonants and vowels in brackets are deletable (6.1.3). Capital letters
indicate alternating sounds (6.1.2).
Stem I-type suffix Forms Stem+I-type suffix
çay ‘tea’ -(I)m ([Link]) -m, -ım, -im, -um, -üm çay-ım ‘my tea’
 Vowel harmony 23

su ‘water’ -lI (ADJ) -lı, -li, -lu, -lü su-lu ‘watery’

güzel ‘nice’ mI (INT) -mı, -mi, -mu, -mü güzel mi ‘is it nice’
sor- ‘ask’ -DI (PF) -dı, -di, -du, -dü -tı, -ti, -tu, -tü sor-du ‘s/he asked’

3.2.2 VOWEL HARMONY IN A-TYPE SUFFIXES

The vowels of A-type suffixes are unrounded and non-high, but are variable in terms of
whether they are back or front. The choice of the appropriate vowel in an A-type suffix
depends on whether the vowel in the syllable preceding it is front or back. A stem with a
front vowel combines with the ‘e’ form of the suffix; a stem with a back vowel combines
with the ‘a’ form. A-type suffixes are only affected by fronting harmony. The
roundedness or unroundedness of the preceding vowel does not affect them. When an A-
type suffix attaches to a root or stem:
‘a’ is selected if the preceding vowel is ‘a’, ‘ı’, ‘e’ is selected if the preceding vowel is ‘e’, ‘i’,
‘o’ or ‘u’ ‘ö’ or ‘ü’
hava-dan ‘from the air’ ev-den ‘from the house’
kız-dan ‘from the girl’ biz-den ‘from us’
yol-dan ‘by the road’ göl-den ‘from the lake’
şun-dan ‘of this’ tür-den ‘of the type’

Examples of A-type suffixes are the plural suffix -lar, -ler, the dative suffix -(y)a, -(y)e,
the conditional suffix -sa, -se and the future marker -(y)acak, -(y)ecek.
Stem A-type suffix Forms Stem+A-type suffix
tür ‘type’ -lAr (PL) -lar, -ler tür-ler ‘types’
yık- ‘destroy’ -mA (NEG) -ma, -me yık-ma ‘don’t destroy’
gelenek ‘tradition’ -sAl (ADJ) -sal, -sel gelenek-sel ‘traditional’

3.3 VOWEL HARMONY IN ROOTS

Vowel harmony operates in native roots, e.g. kabak ‘marrow’, oda ‘room’, uzak ‘far’,
erik ‘plum’ and inek ‘cow’. With only a few exceptions (3.4 (i)), fronting harmony occurs
in all native roots.
As for rounding harmony, again the majority of native words display this, but there are
a few cases where the vowel in the second syllable is rounded despite the fact that the
preceding vowel is not. This is usually the result of an intervening labial consonant (‘p’,
‘b’, ‘f’, ‘v’ or ‘m’): savun-‘defend’, tavuk ‘chicken’, kabuk ‘shell’, ‘skin’.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 24

3.4 EXCEPTIONS TO VOWEL HARMONY

(i) A few native roots, such as anne ‘mother’ and elma ‘apple’, and stems which contain
invariable suffixes, such as kardeş ‘sibling’ are non-harmonic.
(ii) Compounds (some of which are written as a single word, see Chapter 10) are non-
harmonic: bugün ‘today’, keçiboynuzu ‘carob’, Karagöz (a shadow theatre character).
(iii) Loan words often violate the rules of vowel harmony, e.g. kitap ‘book’, kalem
‘pencil’, lale ‘tulip’, penaltı ‘penalty’, fasulye ‘bean(s)’, marul ‘lettuce’, masum
‘innocent’, jaluzi ‘Venetian blind’ and lobi ‘lobby’.
(iv) The vowel of a suffix may get harmonized as a front vowel even where a loan
word does not have a front vowel in the last syllable:
hakikat-siz (truth-ADJ) ‘disloyal’
bahs-i (topic-ACC) ‘the topic (ACC)’
harb-in (war-GEN) ‘of the war’
kalp-ler (heart-PL) ‘hearts’

This happens regularly in loan words that end in a palatal ‘l’:

gol-ü ([Link]) ‘his/her goal’
etol-den (scarf-ABL) ‘from the scarf’
hal-im ([Link]) ‘my condition’

Loan words that behave in this way appear in the dictionary as hakikat(-ti), gol(-lü), etc.
(v) Suffixes and prefixes of foreign origin are invariable:

-izm: Şamanizm ‘Shamanism’

-en: tamamen ‘completely’
anti-: antidemokratik ‘antidemocratic’
bi-: bihaber ‘unaware’, ‘ignorant’

(vi) A few native suffixes, or parts of suffixes, are invariable:

(a) The second vowel in the bound auxiliaries -(y)Abil, -(y)Iver, -(y)Agel, -
(y)Adur, -(y)Akal, and -(y)Ayaz ([Link]): kalkabildi ‘s/he managed to stand
up’; the non-deletable vowel of the imperfective suffix -(I)yor ([Link]):
görüyorum ‘I see’; the converbial marker -(y)ken ([Link]): bakmışken ‘having
looked’
(b) The vowels in the following derivational suffixes ([Link]):

-gen: altıgen ‘hexagon’

-gil: halamgil ‘my aunt and her family’
-(I)mtrak: pembemtrak ‘pinkish’
-leyin: sabahleyin ‘in the morning’
 Vowel harmony 25

(c) The suffix -ki (8.1.4) optionally undergoes vowel harmony after gün ‘day’ and
dün ‘yesterday’: dünki/dünkü ‘yesterday’s’.
(vii) The following clitics are invariable (11.1): bile, ki, ya, ile and ise: baktım ki ‘upon
seeing’, söyledim ya ‘but I have said [it]’, Korhan ile ‘Korhan and…’, bunlar ise ‘as for
these’.
See also 2.6.
 4
WORD STRESS

The term stress refers to the high pitch and loudness with which a syllable is pronounced
relative to others in the same word or sequence of words. This chapter discusses the
position of stress in isolated words. The syllable which is stressed in an isolated word is
the same one which is stressed when that particular word is the most prominent one
within a sequence of words (see Chapters 5 and 23). In this chapter an acute accent will
be used to indicate a stressed syllable. The conditions determining sentence stress, i.e.
which particular word within a sentence is to be stressed, are discussed in Chapter 23.

4.1 STRESS IN ROOTS

4.1.1 REGULAR ROOTS

Most roots in Turkish (including all polysyllabic verbal roots and some loan words) are
stressable on the final syllable:
kadín ‘woman’
kalabalík ‘crowd’
cumhuriyét ‘republic’
hastá ‘ill’
kutú ‘box’
beklé ‘wait’
öğrén ‘learn’

Where a particular root is stressable on a syllable other than the last, this is indicated in
dictionary entries.
In vocative forms, i.e. forms of address, stress is placed on the penultimate syllable:
Kádın! ‘Hey woman!’
Çocúklar! ‘Hey kids!’
Hüséyin! ‘Hüseyin!’

If a diminutive suffix (-CIK, [Link], or its inflected form -CIğIm) is added to a form of
address, the stress remains in its original position:
Semrá’cığım ‘Semra darling!’
 Word stress 27

4.1.2 IRREGULAR ROOTS AND STEMS

The following groups of words have irregular root stress:
(i) Adverbs are mostly stressable on the first syllable:
şímdi ‘now’
bélki ‘perhaps’
yárın ‘tomorrow’
áncak ‘only’, ‘only just’

Note that this rule does not apply to words which function primarily as adjectives
(16.1.2), but to those that are adverbs in their primary function (16.1.1). Thus in Bunu
koláy yaptım ‘I did this easily’, the adjectival koláy ‘easy’ retains its regular stress
position even though it functions as an adverb in this sentence.
(ii) Many nouns of foreign origin (in particular, those which are borrowed from a
language other than Arabic or Persian) do not conform to the stress pattern of native
words, and are stressed on a syllable other than the final one:
lokánta (Italian) ‘restaurant’
bánka (Italian) ‘bank’
iskémle (French) ‘chair’
táksi (French) ‘taxi’
lόbi (English) ‘lobby’
fútbol (English) ‘soccer’
péncere (Persian) ‘window’
politíka (Greek) ‘politics’
iskéle (Greek) ‘quay’
satsúma (Japanese) ‘satsuma’

(iii) Place names have a non-final stress position:

Tǘrkiye, Ánkara, İstánbul, Táksim, Adána, İngiltére, Fránsa, Afríka

Exceptions are place names ending in the suffix -istan, which are stressed on the last
syllable:
Hindistán ‘India’
Gürcistán ‘Georgia’

Some speakers place the stress in place names ending in -istan on the penultimate
syllable (e.g. Gürcístan).
Note that the difference in stress is the only distinguishing factor between some place
names and otherwise identical common nouns:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 28

mısír ‘maize’ Mísır ‘Egypt’

ordú ‘army’ Órdu (a city on the Black Sea coast of Turkey)
bebék ‘baby’ Bébek (a district in Istanbul)

(iv) The following question words and those that contain the suffix -rA (see 4.3.2 (iii))
are stressed on the first syllable:
hángi ‘which’
háni ‘where’ (informal)
násıl ‘how’
níçin ‘why’

(v) Stems which have reduplicative prefixes (Chapter 9) and most of the stems containing
loan prefixes (7.4) are stressed on the prefix:
kápkara ‘pitch black’
ásosyal ‘antisocial’

(vi) Stems that contain unstressable suffixes, see 4.3.1.

(vii) Stems which are compounds (4.2).

4.2 STRESS IN COMPOUNDS

Most noun compounds are stressed on (the stressable syllable of) the first element:
búgün (bu ‘this’+gün ‘day’) ‘today’
báşbakan (baş ‘head’+bakan ‘minister’) ‘prime minister’

This is also true of -(s)I compounds (10.2), irrespective of whether the two roots are
written together or separately:
sokák lambası ‘street light’
telefόn rehberi ‘telephone directory’
çáy bardağı ‘tea glass’
dérs kitapları ‘textbooks’
búzdolabı ‘refrigerator’ (lit. ‘ice cupboard’)
kasímpatı ‘chrysanthemum’ (lit. ‘November aster’)
deréotu ‘dill’ (lit. ‘stream weed’)

However, there are exceptions, and some compounds are stressed on the final syllable,
like regular stems:
 Word stress 29

alışveríş (alíş ‘taking’+veríş ‘giving’) ‘shopping’

bilgisayár (bilgí ‘knowledge’+sayár ‘[something] that counts’) ‘computer’
kabakulák (kaba ‘coarse’, ‘puffy’+kulak ‘ear’) ‘mumps’

In compounds consisting of two verbs ([Link]) or a nominal and a verb (13.3.2), stress
falls on (the stressable syllable of) the first word:
anlamís ol- ‘have understood’
bitiríyor gözük- ‘seem [to] be finishing’
yardím et- ‘help’
hastá ol- ‘become ill’

For stress in compound verb forms containing bound auxiliaries, see 4.3.1 (iii).

4.3 STRESS IN SUFFIXES

In terms of stress, the suffixes of Turkish are divided into two classes: stressable and
unstressable.

4.3.1 STRESSABLE SUFFIXES

The great majority of Turkish suffixes belong to this class. The effect of stressable
suffixes on the position of potential word stress is as follows:
(i) When a stressable suffix is added to a root in which the final syllable (whether part
of the root, or itself a suffix) is also stressable, the position of word stress moves to the
new final syllable.
kitáp ‘book’
kitap-lár ‘books’
kitaplar-ím ‘my books’
kitaplarım-dá ‘in my books’
kitaplarımda-kí ‘the one in my books’
kitaplarımdaki-lér ‘the ones in my books’
kitaplarımdakiler-é ‘to the ones in my books’
kír- ‘break’
kır-íl ‘be broken’
kırıl-acák ‘it will be broken’
krılacak-lár ‘they will be broken’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 30

(ii) When a stressable suffix is added to a root in which the final syllable is not stressable
(4.1.2), i.e. is irregular, the position of word stress remains on the stressed syllable of the
root:
iskémle ‘chair’
iskémle-ler ‘chairs’
iskémleler-imiz ‘our chairs’
iskémlelerimiz-de ‘on our chairs’
iskémlelerimizde-ki ‘the one on our chairs’
iskémlelerimizdeki-ler ‘the ones on our chairs’
Afríka ‘Africa’
Afríka-lı ‘African’
Afríkalı-lar ‘Africans’
Afríkalılar-ın ‘of Africans’

As a result, inflected common nouns and inflected place names have different stress
patterns:

mısırdakilér ‘the ones in the maize’

Mísır’dakiler ‘the ones in Egypt’

(iii) Some suffixes which are polysyllabic, e.g. -(y)ArAk ([Link]), -mAksIzIn ([Link]), -
sAna, -sAnIzA (8.4), -(I)yor ([Link]) and -(y)Iver, -(y)Agel, -(y)Akal, -(y)Adur and
-(y)Ayaz ([Link]), are stressed on their first syllable. The other syllables in these
suffixes are unstressable:
kaz- ‘dig’ kaz-árak ‘by digging’
bak- ‘look’ bak-máksızın ‘without looking’
gel- ‘come’ gel-íyor ‘s/he is coming’
tut- ‘hold’ tut-úver ‘hold’
şaş- ‘be astounded’ şaş-ákal-dı-m ‘I was astounded’

The first syllable of these polysyllabic suffixes bears the word stress even when other
stressable suffixes follow:
gel-íyor-lar ‘they are coming’
tut-úver-miş ‘apparently s/he suddenly took hold of [it]’

When they attach to irregular roots they either retain their stress, or they lose it and the
original stress of the root reemerges:

Afrikalılaşárak or Afríkalılaşarak ‘by becoming Africanized’

 Word stress 31

Afrikalılaşíyor or Afríkalılaşıyor ‘s/he is becoming Africanized’

If two suffixes of this group of stressable suffixes occur on the same word, the first one is
stressed:
tut-úver-iyor ‘s/he suddenly takes hold of [it]’

4.3.2 UNSTRESSABLE SUFFIXES AND CLITICS

There are a number of suffixes and clitics in Turkish which do not take stress and are pre-
stressing except in certain cases where two of them occur within the same intonational
phrase (see 11.2). These are:
(i) The copular markers -(y)DI, -(y)mIş, -(y)sA (8.3.2), the converbial marker -(y)ken
([Link]) and the generalizing modality marker -DIr (8.3.3):

gel-sé-ymiş ‘if s/he had arrived’

gid-ér-se ‘if s/he goes’
otur-úr-ken ‘while sitting’
oku-yacák-tır ‘s/he will most certainly read’

(ii) The marker -(y)lA/ile ‘with’, ‘by’, ‘and’ (8.1.4):

elíyle ‘with his/her hand’, ‘his/her hand and…’

Alí’yle ‘with Ali’, ‘Ali and…’

(iii) The derivational suffixes -(A/I)cIK, -CA, -CAsInA, -en, -(y)In, -lA ([Link]), -leyin, -
rA:
úfacık ‘tiny’ kadínca ‘womanly’
uçárcasına ‘as if flying’ tamámen ‘completely’
kíşın ‘in winter’ yáyla ‘plateau’
néreye ‘[to] where’ όrada ‘there’

(iv) The following person markers (8.4):

(a) the 1st and 2nd person markers belonging to group 2, i.e. -(y)Im, -sIn, -(y)Iz, -
sInIz:

uyúrum ‘I sleep’, ‘I will sleep’

anlamíşsın ‘you have understood’
(b) The 2nd person markers of group 4, i.e. -yIn, -yInIz, and those belonging to
group 3, i.e. -sIn, -sInIz. (Note that the other -sIn, i.e. the 3rd person optative and
imperative suffix (groups 3 and 4) is stressable):

anlayásınız (diye) ‘(so that) you understand’

 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 32

(c) The 3rd person plural suffix -lAr of group 2 when it is attached to a non-case-
marked subject complement:

Tutsáklar ‘They are prisoners’ (see also 8.4, 22.3 (34)).

(v) The particle bile ‘even’ ([Link]):

Ahmét bile ‘even Ahmet’

(vi) The clitic mI ([Link]):

gittiníz mi? ‘did you go?’

(vii) The clitic -(y)sA/ise ([Link]):

bénse ‘as for me’

(viii) The negative marker -mA (8.2.2) and composite suffixes containing it (e.g. -mAdAn
([Link])):

gít-me-dik ‘we didn’t go’

bák-madan ‘without looking’

Note that one exception is the occurrence of -mA in the negative aorist form -mA(z)
([Link]), which is stressable, e.g. bak-máz-dık ‘we were not in the habit of looking’, yaz-
má-yız ‘we will not write’.
(ix) The clitics dA ([Link] (ii–iii)), ki ([Link]) and ya ([Link]):

anlıyorúm da ‘I understand, but…’

bakmıyordúm ki ‘but I WASN’T looking’
gördǘm ki ‘I realized that…’
gördǘm ya ‘I HAVE seen (it)’

[Link] The effect of unstressable suffixes and clitics on word stress

The addition of unstressable suffixes and clitics to a word may or may not change the
existing position of stress within that word. (Note that clitics attach to phrases which may
be made up of one or more words (Chapter 11)).

Regular roots
The addition of any one of the unstressable suffixes and clitics except the negative suffix
and the clitics in (ix) above (i.e. dA, ki and ya) to a regular root does not change the
existing position of stress in that word:
geldilér ‘they have arrived’ geldilér-se ‘if they have arrived’
geldilér bile ‘they have already arrived’
 Word stress 33

yorgún ‘tired yorgún-um ‘I’m tired’

yorgún mu ‘is s/he tired?’
bisiklét ‘bicycle’ bisiklét-le ‘by bicycle’
bisiklét-se ‘as for the bicycle’
çocúk ‘child’ çocúk-ça ‘childish(ly)’

Irregular roots
The addition of (i)–(iv) in 4.3.2 (i.e. the copular markers, the generalizing modality
marker, the marker -(y)lA/ile, and the adverbial and person markers specified there) to an
irregular root tends not to change the existing position of stress within that word:
İstánbul İstánbulda-ydım‘I was in Istanbul’
İstánbul-la‘with Istanbul’

The addition of bile ‘even’, mI (interrogative), -(y)sA/ise ‘as for’ (i.e. (v)–(vii) in 4.3.2)
and dA (in its additive function described in [Link] (ii)) to an irregular root may or may
not change the existing position of potential stress within that word. The stress may either
remain in its original position, or it may be attracted to the position just before the clitic:
İstánbul İstánbul
bile/İstanbúl bile ‘even
Istanbul’
İstánbul mu?/İstanbúl
mu? ‘Istanbul?’
İstánbulsa/İstanbúlsa ‘as
for Istanbul’
İstánbul da/İstanbúl
da ‘Istanbul too’

Co-occurrence of unstressable suffixes and clitics

When two or more of the above-mentioned suffixes or clitics (i)–(ix) cooccur in a word,
stress falls on the syllable immediately before the unstressable suffixes or clitics or
immediately before their unstressable segments:

otur-úyor-muş-sun bile ‘apparently you were already sitting’

otur-acák-sa da mı ‘even if s/he’s going to sit?’
iste-míş mi-ydi-n ki ‘had you asked for [it], then?’

An unstressable suffix followed by a stressable suffix

The addition of a stressable suffix to one of the unstressable suffixes or clitics does not
alter the position of stress. In the examples below, -DI and -lAr are stressable suffixes
following an unstressable suffix:
otúrma ‘don’t sit down’ otúr-ma-dı ‘s/he hasn’t sat down’
okuldá ‘at school’ okuldá-ymış-lar ‘apparently they are/were at school’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 34

Stress and the negative suffix

The addition of the negative suffix changes the existing position of potential stress within
a word, attracting it to the syllable before itself:
sevíyor ‘s/he likes [it]’
sévmiyor ‘s/he doesn’t like [it]’
İstánbullulaş ‘become like a native of Istanbul’
İstanbulluláş-ma ‘don’t become like a native of Istanbul’

Stress and the clitics dA, ki and ya

The addition of these clitics ((ix) in 4.3.2) has the effect of placing stress on the
immediately preceding syllable, even if this syllable is otherwise unstressable:
istemíştim ‘I had wanted [it]’ istemiştím ki [otursun] ‘I had wanted [him/her to sit
down]’
anlayámıyorum ‘I can’t understand anlayamıyorúm ki ‘but I can’t understand [it]’
[it]’
söylémemiş ‘s/he hasn’t said [it]’ söylememíş ya ‘but s/he HASN’T said [it]’
yürǘyorum ‘I (can) walk’ yürüyorúm da koşamıyorum ‘I can walk, but I can’t run’

Note that ‘continuative’ dA ([Link] (i)) does not place stress on the preceding
constituent. See 11.2 for the stress pattern in sentences with more than one clitic.
 5
INTONATION AND SENTENCE STRESS

Intonation refers to the rising and falling of the voice in terms of pitch. The continuous
flow of speech may be seen as divided into consecutive sections known as intonational
phrases. An intonational phrase, which may be as short as a single word, but usually
consists of several, is the unit of speech within which a single primary stress and a single
intonation contour occur. There may be pauses between intonational phrases. If a
sentence contains more than one intonational phrase the stress which is the most
prominent is called sentence stress.
In this chapter we describe the main intonation contours of Turkish and the position of
primary and secondary stress in unmarked sentences. The syllable which is acoustically
the most prominent one in an intonational phrase is said to have primary stress, indicated
by capital letters below. A syllable which is less acoustically prominent than the one
which has primary stress but which still stands out among the others is said to have
secondary stress, indicated below by small capital letters. Where an example consists of
more than one intonational phrase, the boundary between them is shown by a vertical
stroke. The effect of shifting the position of stress, and the interaction of this with the
order of constituents in a sentence, are discussed in Chapter 23. The effect of clitics on
sentence stress is discussed in 11.2.

5.1 THE INTONATION CONTOURS OF TURKISH

There are three types of intonation contour in Turkish:

(i) Slight rise followed by fall:
This is the standard contour for statements (including negative statements) regarded by
the speaker as complete, and also for the last intonational phrase in more complex
statements.

(1) O HER zaman yemek-ler-in-i loKANta-da yer.

s/he every time [Link]-ACC restaurant-LOC eats
‘S/he always eats in a restaurant.’
(ii) High rise followed by fall:
This is the standard contour for yes/no questions (expressed with mI (19.1)).
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 36

(2) Dün çocuk-LAR okul-a git-Tİ mi?

yesterday child-PL school-DAT go-PF INT
‘Did the children go to school yesterday?’
(iii) Slight rise, followed by fall-rise:
This occurs:
(a) in questions involving a wh-phrase (e.g. ne ‘what’, nereye ‘where’, kim ‘who’
(19.2)).

(3) Her gün NEreye gid-iyor-SUN?

every day where go-IMPF-2SG
‘Where do you go everyday?’
(b) in all intonational phrases whose content is not complete in itself and needs
continuation. Important examples are conditional clauses, other adverbial clauses
and all but the last of any co-ordinated series of items and of lists:

(4) Eğer sokağ-a çık-mak isTİ-yor-SAN… (Conditional clause)

if street-DAT [Link]-VN [Link]-2SG
‘If you want to go out…’

(5) Bugün Ziya-yla buluş-tuĞ-UN zaMAN… (Adverbial clause of time)

today Ziya-COM [Link] time
‘When you meet Ziya today…’

(6) EVE gitTİM, ÇANtamı alDıM… (Co-ordinated items)

‘I went home, took my bag…’
 Intonation and sentence stress 37

5.2 POSITION OF STRESS IN THE INTONATIONAL PHRASE

5.2.1 PRIMARY STRESS

In a simple sentence which is uttered as a single intonational phrase the unmarked
position of primary stress is the stressable syllable of the word which is situated just
before the predicate:
(7) Aydın bana çiÇEK getir-di.
Aydın I(DAT) flower bring-PF
‘Aydın brought me flowers.’
(8) Şu anahtarı HANginize vereyim?
‘Which of you shall I give this key to?’
(9) Dışarda bir köPEK var.
‘There’s a dog outside.’
Two factors may cause a change in the position of stress:
(i) Clitics and the negative suffix:
When a clitic occurs in a sentence, primary stress is placed on the stressable syllable
of the phrase before it (see also [Link], 11.2)
(10) LONdra-ya mı gid-ecek-siniz?
London-DAT INT go-FUT-2PL
‘Are you going to go to London?’ (i.e. ‘Is it London you’re going to go to?’)
(11) Londra’ya gideCEK misiniz?
‘Are you going to go to London?’
(12) Ahmet’TE de bunlardan bir tane var.
‘There’s one of these in Ahmet’s office too.’
(13) Turgut nasıl bilSİN ki?
‘How on earth should Turgut know?’
The negative marker causes primary stress to occur on the syllable before it (4.3.2(viii),
8.2.2):
(14) [Herkesin burada olduğun]-u BİLmiyordum.
‘I didn’t know [everyone was here].’
(ii) Focusing a constituent:
Focusing a constituent may cause primary stress to appear on a constituent other than
the one which immediately precedes the predicate:
(15) Zeki babasıNI onbeş yıldır görmüyormuş, annesini deĞİL.
‘Zeki hasn’t seen his FATHER for 15 years, not his mother.’
For a detailed discussion of the interaction of focusing and primary stress, see 23.3.1.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 38

5.2.2 SECONDARY STRESS

Secondary stress occurs mainly on the following types of constituent (where it is
indicated in small capital letters):
(i) The stressable syllable of subject and topic (23.3.3) noun phrases:
(16) Dün Zeki-nin aBla-sı iş-TEN ayrıl-mış. (Subject)
yesterday Zeki-GEN [Link] work-ABL leave-EV/PF
‘Zeki’s sister left her job yesterday.’
(17) Arkadaş-lar-ıMIz-la BUrada buluş-acağ-ız. (Topic)
[Link]-COM here meet-FUT-1PL
‘We’re going to meet our friends here.’
(ii) Adverbs which are not in the immediately preverbal position (in which case they have
primary stress), in particular daha ‘more’ and en ‘most’:
(18) Çamaşır-lar-ı GEne makina-nın iç-in-DE bırak-mış-ım.
laundry-PL-ACC again machine-GEN [Link]-LOC leaveEV/PF-
1SG
‘I seem to have left the laundry in the washing machine again.’
(19) Kitapları HEP yerDE bırakıyorsun.
‘You always leave the books on the floor.’
(20) Bundan daHA uygun bir sözcük düşüNEmiyorum.
‘I can’t think of a more appropriate word.’
(21) Bu hayvanların arasında EN vahşisi kapLANmış.
‘Apparently the most savage these animals is the tiger.’
(iii) Most quantificational constituents, i.e. determiners (15.6) such as her ‘every’,
numerals (15.7), pronominalized determiners (18.4 (iv)) such as bazısı ‘some [people]’,
kimi ‘some [people]’ and pronominal quantifiers (18.6.1) such as herkes ‘everyone’, her
şey ‘everything’:
(22) Halk politikacıların ÇOğuna güVENmiyor.
‘The people don’t trust most politicians.’

5.3 SENTENCES WITH MORE THAN ONE INTONATION

CONTOUR

Complex sentences containing an adverbial clause or a conditional clause have more than
one intonation contour:

(23) Bugün Ziya-yla buluştuğuNUZ zaMAN | bana teleFON ed-in.

 Intonation and sentence stress 39

today Ziya-COM [Link] time I(DAT) telephone

[Link]
‘When you meet up with Ziya today give me a ring.’

(24) Biletleri alDIysan | içeRİ girelim.

‘If you’ve got the tickets, let’s go in.’
 PART 2
MORPHOLOGY: THE
STRUCTURE OF WORDS
 6
PRINCIPLES OF SUFFIXATION

In Turkish the vast majority of words which contain more than one syllable are complex.
Processes of word formation create words that can be very long and sometimes
correspond to whole sentences in English. The main word formation process in Turkish is
suffixation, the formation of a new word by attaching an affix to the right of a root. Any
linguistic item to which suffixes can be added, whether this is a simple root or a
combination of a root plus suffix(es), is referred to as a stem.
The principles that apply to the attachment of a suffix to a stem also apply to some of
the clitics that can be placed after the final suffix of a phrase (Chapter 11).
In 6.1 we describe the conditions which determine the vowels and the consonants in
suffixes and clitics and the changes that take place at the boundaries between stems and
suffixes. In 6.2 irregular alternations to the stem are discussed, and 6.3 explains the order
of suffixation in a word.

6.1 THE FORM OF SUFFIXES

Almost all suffixes in Turkish have more than one form. The initial consonant in some
suffixes and the vowels in almost all suffixes depend on the consonants or vowels that
precede them. For example, the plural suffix has two forms, -lar (as in kuş-lar ‘birds’)
and -ler (as in kedi-ler ‘cats’), with only the vowel alternating between ‘a’ and ‘e’,
whereas the perfective suffix has eight forms, -dı, -di, -du, -dü, -tı, -ti, -tu, -tü (as in kal-dı
‘remained’ but düş-tü ‘fell’), where both the consonant and the vowel are subject to
alternation. The alterable sounds in a suffix are indicated in this book by capital letters,
hence the plural suffix is written as -lAr, and the perfective suffix as -DI.

6.1.1 VOWEL ALTERNATION IN SUFFIXES

The vowel of a particular suffix is selected on the basis of the rules of vowel harmony,
which are explained in 3.2. Some suffixes and clitics do not undergo vowel harmony (see
3.4).
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 44

6.1.2 CONSONANT ALTERNATION IN SUFFIXES: ‘ç’/‘c’, ‘t’/‘d’

AND ‘k’/‘g’
Some suffixes in Turkish begin with the voiceless/voiced pairs ‘ç’/‘c’ (e.g. the
occupational suffix -CI ([Link]), ‘t’/‘d’ (e.g. the locative suffix -DA (8.1.3) or ‘k’/‘g’
(e.g. the adjective-forming suffix -GAn ([Link])). The choice between using the voiced
or voiceless variant depends on the last phonological unit in the stem. When a suffix
beginning with one of these pairs is attached to a stem ending in any one of the voiceless
consonants, the voiceless variant in the pair is used as the initial consonant of the suffix.
Otherwise (i.e. when the stem ends in a vowel or a voiced consonant) its voiced
counterpart is used. To summarize:
‘p’, ‘t’, ‘k’, ‘f,’ ‘h’, ‘ç’, ‘ş’, ‘s’ are followed by ‘ç’, ‘t’, ‘k’
‘b’, ‘d’, ‘c’, ‘v’, ‘l’, ‘m’, ‘n’, ‘j’, ‘r’, ‘z’, ‘y’, ‘ğ’ and vowels are followed by ‘c’, ‘d’, ‘g’

These alternations are shown by the use of capital letters. Thus ‘C’ represents ‘ç’/‘c’, ‘D’
represents ‘t’/‘d’, and ‘G’ represents ‘k’/‘g’:
C: posta-cı ‘postman’ süt-çü ‘milkman’
D: oda-da ‘in the room’ sokak-ta ‘in the street’
G: diz-gi ‘print’ as-kı ‘hanger’

6.1.3 THE ATTACHMENT OF A SUFFIX TO A ROOT OR STEM:

DELETABLE VOWELS AND CONSONANTS
In Turkish, vowels do not occur next to each other. Therefore if a suffix beginning with a
vowel is attached to a stem ending in a vowel, either the initial vowel of the suffix is
deleted, or the consonant ‘y’ is added. As a result, suffixes are divided into two groups:
those which can lose their initial vowel and those which can acquire the buffer consonant
‘y’. All such vowels and consonants are shown in brackets in the citation forms of
suffixes.
Examples of the first type are the 1st person possessive suffix -(I)m, the aorist suffix -
(A/I)r and the adjectival suffix -(I)mtrak. Most derivational suffixes (Chapter 7) are of
this type.
pul-um ‘my stamp’ but kafa-m ‘my head’
gör-ür ‘s/he sees’ but ara-r ‘s/he searches’
yeşil-imtrak ‘greenish’ but sarı-mtrak ‘yellowish’

Some examples of suffixes which take the consonant ‘y’ are the converbial suffix -
(y)IncA, the dative suffix -(y)A and the future marker -(y)AcAk. Most inflectional
suffixes (Chapter 8) are of this type.
gel-ince ‘upon coming’ but dene-yince ‘upon testing’
 Principles of suffixation 45

Yusuf-a ‘to Yusuf’ but Emine-ye ‘to Emine’

sor-acak ‘s/he will ask’ but atla-yacak ‘s/he will jump’

A suffix beginning with a consonant is directly attached to a root or stem ending in a

consonant, as is the case with the ablative suffix -DAn, the perfective suffix -DI and
many others:

ev-den ‘from the house’

git-ti ‘s/he left’

However, there are three exceptions. One of these is the genitive suffix (8.1.3), which has
a deletable initial ‘n’. Another is the 3rd person possessive suffix, which has a deletable
initial ‘s’. Finally, the distributive suffix contains a deletable ‘ş’. These consonants
appear in order to avoid vowel sequences; otherwise they are deleted. In the citation
forms of suffixes these are shown in brackets:
Genitive -(n)In (8.1.3):
Yusuf-un (Yusuf’s) but Suna-nın (Suna’s)
Betül-ün (Betül’s) but Emine-nin (Emine’s)

3rd person possessive marker -(s)I(n) (8.1.2):

ev-i (his/her house) but elbise-si (her/his dress)
kitab-ı (his/her book) but kafa-sı (his/her head)

(For the (n) in -(s)I(n) see 6.2 (iib).)

Forms which contain suffixes with deletable initial sounds can be ambiguous, as it
may not always be clear which segment a particular vowel or consonant belongs to:

diz-im ‘my knee’ (diz ‘knee’-[Link])

dizi-m ‘my serial’ (dizi ‘serial’-[Link])

Note that a stem ending in ‘ğ’ ([Link]) combines with the vowel-initial variant of a
suffix:

dağ-ın ‘of the mountain/ your mountain’

bağ-ımız ‘our vineyard’
iç-tiğ-im ‘that I have drunk’

6.2 IRREGULAR CHANGES IN ROOTS AND SUFFIXES UNDER

(FURTHER) SUFFIXATION

Apart from the sound changes described in Chapter 2, some roots and suffixes undergo
additional changes when a suffix is added. These changes are as follows:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 46

(i) The pronouns ben ‘I’ and sen ‘you’ become bana ‘to me’ and sana ‘to you’ when
the dative suffix -(y)A is added.
(ii) At the end of certain types of stem ‘n’ appears when particular suffixes are added:
(a) In the case of the 3rd person pronoun o (18.1.1) and the demonstrative
pronouns (18.2), ‘n’ appears when the following are attached:

the plural suffix -lAr (8.1.1)

case suffixes (8.1.3)
the adverbial suffix -CA ([Link])
the adjectival suffix -sIz ‘without’ ([Link])

Some examples are: ona ‘to him/her/it’, onlar ‘they’, onca ‘according to him/her’, onsuz
‘without him/her/it’, bunu ‘this (one) (ACC)’, şunlar ‘those’, bunsuz ‘without this’,
bunca ‘this much’.
The same applies in the case of the colloquial usage in which the
comitative/instrumental and conjunctive suffix -(y)lA ‘with’ (8.1.4) is affixed to the non-
case-marked, rather than to the genitive-marked, form of these pronouns: ↓onla ‘with
him/her’ (cf. onunla), ↓bunla ‘with this’ (cf. bununla).
(b) There are a number of other pronominal stems and two suffixes in which an
‘n’ appears when either case suffixes (8.1.3) or the adverbial suffix -CA ([Link])
are attached. These are the following:
– the personal pronoun kendi- (in its 3rd person reflexive, simple pronominal and
emphatic usages (18.1.3)): kendinde ‘at/on him/ her(self) (colloquial)’, kendince
‘according to him/her(self)’. Kendi behaves differently from the other two groups
listed below in that in informal speech -(y)lA can also attach to it by means of an
intermediary ‘n’: ↓kendinle ‘with him/her(self)’.
– the 3rd person possessive suffixes -(s)I (singular) and -lArI (plural) (8.1.2) and
pronouns containing them: kendisi ‘self’, ‘s/he’ (18.1.2), kendi kendisi ‘self’
(18.1.3), birbiri/birbirleri- ‘each other’ (18.1.4), and all of the pronominalized
determiners listed in 18.4 (iv): kendisine ‘to himself/herself’, birbirlerini ‘each
other (ACC)’, bazılarından ‘from some of them’, hepsinde ‘in all of them’, birine
‘to one of them’.
– the suffix -ki in its pronominal usage ‘the one…’ (18.5): evdekinde ‘in/on/at the one
in the house’, buradakinden ‘from the one which is here’.
(iii) In the case of just two stems, su ‘water’ and ne ‘what’, ‘y’ appears at the junction
with any of the following suffixes:
(a) the possessive suffixes, except the 3rd person plural
(b) the genitive suffix
e.g. suyum ‘my water’, suyun ‘your water’, ‘of the water’, neyimiz ‘what (of ours)’, neyi
‘what (of his/hers)’ (also nesi, but neleri ‘what (of theirs)’, sular ‘waters’). Note that the
forms ↓nem and ↓nen for ne+possessive can be used in informal contexts.
 Principles of suffixation 47

(iv) Certain adjectives, some of which are themselves derived forms, lose their final
consonant (‘k’) when combining with derivational suffixes:
alçak ‘low’ +-(A)l _ alçal- ‘decline’
ufak ‘small’ +-(A/I)cIK _ ufacık ‘tiny’
küçük ‘small’ +-mAn _ küçümen ‘rather small’

Others lose their final vowel in such circumstances:

kuru ‘dry’ +-(A)K _ kurak ‘arid’
sarı ‘yellow +-(A)r _ sarar- ‘fade’

In speech, the locative pronouns bura- ‘here’, şura- ‘here’, ‘over there’ and ora- ‘there’
(18.3.1) and the wh-phrase nere- ‘where’ ([Link]) may lose their final vowel when a
locative or ablative case marker is added:
bura- ‘here’ +-DA _ burda/burada ‘(in) here’
nere- ‘where’ +-Dan _ nerden/nereden ‘from where’

(v) Surnames ending in -oğlu: Note that -oğlu ‘son of’ contains the 3rd person singular
possessive suffix -(s)I (8.1.2), hence conforms to the pattern mentioned in (iib) above, as
in Senemoğlu’nu, Senemoğlu’ndan. However, case suffixes (but not -CA) can also
combine directly with such names, without an intermediary ‘n’, as in Senemoğlu’yu,
Senemoğlu’dan, etc. (but Senemoğlu’nca).

6.3 THE ORDER OF SUFFIXATION

In Turkish a large number of suffixes and clitics can be added to a single root. In the
overwhelming majority of cases, derivational suffixes (Chapter 7) precede inflectional
suffixes (Chapter 8). Clitics (Chapter 11) occur after inflectional suffixes.
(1) suç-lu-luk-la mı
[Link]-INS INT
DER-DER-INFL CL
‘in a guilty manner?’
(2) diz-ge-ler-im-de
[Link]-LOC
DER-INFL-INFL-INFL
‘on my lists’
(3) yap-ı-laş-tır-ıl-ma-mış
[Link]-CAUS-PASS-NEG-EV/PF
DER-DER-INFL-INFL-INFL-INFL
‘has not been built up’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 48

Note that the clitic dA ‘also’, ‘and’, which regularly occurs after all the inflectional
suffixes in a word, in colloquial usage may appear between the two segments of -(y)Abil
([Link]):
(4) Gid-ebil-ir-im de.
go-PSB-AOR-1SG also
INFL-INFL-INFL CL
‘And I can [indeed] go.’
(5) Gör-üş-tür-ül-e-me-ye de bil-iyor mu-ydu-nuz?
see-REC-CAUS-PASS-PSB-NEG-PSB also PSB-IMPF [Link]-2PL
‘Did it also sometimes happen that you were not allowed to see each other?’
The attachment properties of each suffix and clitic are described in the relevant sections
of Chapters 7, 8 and 11. See also 7.3 for the internal ordering of derivational suffixes.
 7
WORD CLASSES, DERIVATION AND
DERIVATIONAL SUFFIXES

This chapter discusses the word classes of Turkish and the means by which new words
are formed by using derivational suffixes. Section 7.1 introduces the word classes of
Turkish, such as noun, adverb, verb, etc. 7.2 is on derivation, the formation of a new
word by means of attaching a suffix to a root. In 7.2.1 and 7.2.2, we list the derivational
suffixes that attach to verbs and nominals respectively, and in 7.3 we discuss the ordering
of derivational suffixes. 7.4 is on prefixation, a process which has a very limited range of
application in Turkish.

7.1 WORD CLASSES

A word in Turkish can belong to one of the following classes: nominal (noun, pronoun,
adjective or adverb), verb, postposition, conjunction or discourse connective, interjection.

7.1.1 NOMINALS
The group nominal contains four word classes: noun, pronoun, adjective and adverb.
In Turkish the boundaries between noun, adjective and adverb are somewhat blurred.
Many lexical items are able to occur with the typical functions of more than one of these
classes, although in almost all such cases one function or another is dominant in the
actual usage of that item. We call this its primary function. For example, the word güzel
can occur as a noun in güzelim ‘my beauty’ (affectionate mode of address), or as an
adverb, as in Güzel konuştu ‘S/he spoke well’. But in by far the majority of its
occurrences the function of the word güzel is adjectival, as in güzel bir köpek ‘a beautiful
dog’. Below we describe the criteria for identifying the primary function of any specific
word belonging to the nominal group.
(i) Nouns:
A noun is a word used for a thing (e.g. ağaç ‘tree’), a person (e.g. kadın ‘woman’), an
abstract concept (e.g. mutluluk ‘happiness’), or the proper name of a person (e.g. Suzan)
or place (e.g. Londra). Nouns in Turkish can be inflected for number (8.1.1, 14.3.1),
person (8.1.2, 14.3.2), and case (8.1.3, 14.3.3).
(ii) Pronouns:
A pronoun (Chapter 18) is a word which is substituted for a noun phrase in contexts
where it is either not necessary to name the referent explicitly or where it is impossible to
do so. Examples are sen ‘you’, bu ‘this (one)’, başkası ‘another (one)’, ne ‘what’, kimse
‘anyone’, ‘no one’. Pronouns are inflected for number, person and case: bunlar ‘these’,
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 50

hepimiz ‘all of us’, şurada ‘here’, ‘over there’. There is no gender distinction in Turkish
pronouns.
(iii) Adjectives:
An adjective (15.2) ascribes some property, quality or status to the entity denoted by a
noun. Examples are sarı ‘yellow’, yumuşak ‘soft’, and dürüst ‘honest’. Adjectives in
Turkish can be modified by adverbials such as çok ‘very’, son derece ‘extremely’ and
oldukça ‘rather’, as in çok önemli ‘very important’, oldukça yumuşak ‘rather soft’
([Link]). They can be expressed in comparative or superlative forms by the addition of
the modifiers daha ‘more’ or en ‘most’, as in daha dürüst ‘more honest’, and en yumuşak
‘softest’ (15.4.2 and 15.4.3). Determiners, such as bir ‘a/an’, her ‘each’, bütün ‘all’ and
bu ‘this’, ‘these’ (15.6), and numerals, such as iki bin ‘two thousand’, üçüncü ‘(the)
third’ (15.7) are functionally related to the adjective class.
Most lexical items which occur primarily as adjectives can also occur as nouns, taking
plural, possessive and case suffixes as required, or they can function as adverbs, in
particular as circumstantial adverbs of manner (16.4.3). An example of the first type is
the word küçük ‘small’, which is primarily used as an adjective, as in küçük kızlar ‘little
girls’, but which can also be used as a noun, as in küçükler ‘(the) little ones’. An example
of the second type is the word kötü ‘bad’, as in kötü araba ‘(a) bad car’, which when
placed immediately before the verb in a sentence functions as an adverb meaning ‘badly’,
as in kötü yüzmek ‘to swim badly’.
(iv) Adverbs:
An adverb modifies, that is to say provides further specification of the meaning of, a
verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a whole sentence (Chapter 16). Adverbs that
modify verbs typically provide information about the manner, time or degree of the
occurrence of an event: yavaşça ‘slowly’, hep ‘always’, çok ‘a lot’. Adverbs that modify
adjectives or other adverbs specify the degree to which the concepts they denote apply,
such as biraz ‘somewhat’ and çok ‘very’ in biraz büyük ‘somewhat large’, çok sık ‘very
often’. Examples of adverbs that modify a whole sentence are belki ‘perhaps’ and
maalesef ‘unfortunately’. Occasionally, words that occur primarily as adverbs can be
inflected as nouns. Thus şimdi ‘now’ can appear in the form şimdilerde ‘nowadays’,
which includes number and case markers.

7.1.2 VERBS
A verb is a word which expresses an action, event, process or state, such as koş- ‘run’,
bit- ‘end’, ol- ‘be’, ‘become’, kal- ‘remain’, ‘stay’. Verbs in Turkish are inflected for
voice (8.2.1, 13.2), negation (8.2.2, 20.1), tense, aspect and modality (8.2.3, Chapter
21) and person (8.4, 12.2.1). Verb stems, derived or non-derived, are indicated in this
book by a following hyphen.

7.1.3 POSTPOSITIONS
Postpositions (Chapter 17) are words which take noun phrase complements. Examples
are karşı ‘against’ (e.g. bana karşı ‘against me’), sonra ‘after’ (e.g. toplantıdan sonra
‘after the meeting’, and için ‘for’, e.g. kimin için ‘for whom’). Lexical items that occur
primarily as postpositions (17.2) are not inflected when functioning as such. However, an
 Word classes, derivation and derivational suffixes 51

important sub-class of postpositions (17.3) is formed from nouns by the addition of

possessive and case markers (e.g. ön-ün-de ‘in front of from ön ‘front’). Some lexical
items which function primarily as postpositions may also occur as nouns. For example,
karşı can also be used meaning ‘the other side’, and in this case it can be inflected like a
noun, as in karşıdan ‘from the other side’.

7.1.4 CONJUNCTIONS AND DISCOURSE CONNECTIVES

Conjunctions join two or more items which have the same syntactic function. Examples
are ve ‘and’, fakat ‘but’, and de…de ‘both…and’, as in Hasan ve Hüseyin ‘Hasan and
Hüseyin’, Git ama kalma ‘Go but don’t stay [there]’, and Can da sen de ‘both Can and
you’. Discourse connectives are used between, or sometimes inside, sentences for
purposes of cohesion in discourse. Among other functions, they can introduce statements
which are a further development of a previous statement, e.g. hatta ‘moreover’, üstelik
‘and on top of that’, or they can be used for expanding on a previous statement e.g. yani
‘in other words’, or for presenting a fact that appears to contradict what has just been
said, e.g. halbuki ‘whereas’. Conjunctions and discourse connectives constitute the only
word class that cannot be inflected. They are discussed in detail in Chapter 28.

7.1.5 INTERJECTIONS
These are words which express feelings, such as ay ‘ouch!’, ‘wow!’, hay allah ‘oh dear!’,
vah vah ‘what a shame!’, allah allah ‘good heavens!’, or which are used to initiate
conversation or to express the speaker’s attitude towards the hearer, such as yahu ‘hey’.
A few interjections in Turkish can be used as nouns and can combine with inflectional
suffixes (e.g. ahlarımda ‘from my sighs’) or derivational suffixes (e.g. ahla- ‘sigh’).

7.2 DERIVATION

Derivation is the creation of a new lexical item (i.e. a word form which would be found
in a dictionary). The vast majority of derivation in Turkish is achieved through
suffixation. Prefixation is used, to a very limited extent, for reduplication (Chapter 9),
and in a few loan words (7.4). Compounding, which is another type of word formation
process, is discussed in Chapter 10. In very rare cases, word formation does not involve
any of the above derivational processes, as in the case of kuru ‘dry’ and kuru- ‘(to) dry’.
When a derivational suffix attaches to a stem it produces a new word connected in
meaning to that stem. Some derivational suffixes change the class of the word they attach
to. For example, the nominal-deriving suffix -I combines with verbal stems such as kaz-
‘dig’ and güldür- ‘cause to laugh’ to form the nouns kazı ‘excavation’ and güldürü
‘comedy’. Other derivational suffixes create words of the same class as the stem to which
they are attached. For example, the suffix -lIk can derive nouns from nouns, as in the case
of krallık ‘kingship’, ‘kingdom’ from kral ‘king’.
In most cases, the meaning of a word which contains a derivational suffix is not
predictable by segmenting it into parts. For example, the words kayık ‘boat’, kayak ‘ski’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 52

and kaydırak ‘slide’ are all derived from the verb kay-‘slide’, and although the suffixes
themselves indicate that these words are nominals, they do not give an indication as to the
exact meaning of the new words they form. Similarly, the particular suffix that a word
can take is not predictable. For example, the suffixes -lA, -lAş, -(A)l and -(A)r can all
change adjectives into verbs that express the process of changing state (i.e. become what
the adjective denotes), but the adjectives they attach to are not chosen on the basis of a
particular grammatical condition, as witnessed by the words genişle- ‘widen’, kalınlaş-
‘broaden’, incel- ‘become thin’ and kabar- ‘swell’.
The roots that derivational suffixes attach to may not always be identifiable words in
modern Turkish. Some derivational processes took place a long time ago, and while the
derived word is still in use the root may have become obsolete (e.g. yayla ‘plateau’). It
may also be the case that the root of the word is still in use in some parts of Turkey but is
no longer used in modern standard Turkish (e.g. dilim ‘slice’).
Productive derivational suffixes are those which regularly have particular meanings
and can be used freely with a particular type of stem. For example, the suffix -lI, in one
of its meanings, can be used freely with almost all place names, to indicate that a person
comes from, or is a native of, the place specified, as in Londra’lı ‘Londoner’, Kuzey
İrlanda’lı ‘native of Northern Ireland’, oralı ‘(person) from there’. The majority of
derivational suffixes, however, are unproductive. This means that although they may be
present in a number of words that are still in use, they are no longer perceived by
speakers as items usable in the production of new words (e.g. utangaç ‘shy’).
Derivational suffixes were widely used as a means of coining new words to replace
their non-native counterparts during the language reform movement that was launched in
the early 1930s. Words of mostly Arabic and Persian origin, but also some other loan
words, were replaced by new words made up by adding derivational suffixes to Turkish
or Turkic roots. While most of the derivational suffixes employed were Turkish, a few
were borrowed from other Turkic languages (e.g. -tay in kurultay ‘conference’). Many of
the new words thus formed have replaced their loan counterparts, or are in the process of
doing so; others proved short-lived, and yet others co-exist with their synonyms or near-
synonyms of foreign origin, e.g. teklif (Ar.) and öneri ‘proposal’, mesela (Ar.) and
örneğin ‘for example’, teorik (Fr.) and kuramsal ‘theoretical’.

7.2.1 SUFFIXES THAT ATTACH TO VERBS

Suffixes that attach to verbs create new words which are either nominals (noun, adjective
or adverb) or verbs.

[Link] Suffixes that attach to verbs to form nominals

Nominal-forming suffixes that combine with verbs mostly create words that function
primarily as nouns. They may also create adjectives, and in rare instances adverbs. Most
suffixes of this type are unproductive.
-A Forms nouns: süre ‘time span’, yara ‘wound’. Less commonly it forms adverbs: geçe
‘past’ as in ikiyi çeyrek geçe ‘quarter past two’.
-(A)C Forms nouns: süreç ‘process’, kaldıraç ‘pulley’, bağlaç ‘conjunction’.
 Word classes, derivation and derivational suffixes 53

-(A)cAn Forms adjectives: sevecen ‘loving’.

-AğAn/- Forms adjectives. The more frequently used form is the one containing ‘ğ’: olağan
AgAn ‘usual’, durağan ‘still’, gezegen ‘planet’ (see also -GAn below).
-(A)K Forms (i) nouns, usually denoting concrete objects: elek ‘sieve’, adak ‘sacrifice’,
kayak ‘ski’; (ii) adjectives: ürkek ‘timid’, korkak ‘cowardly’.
-(A)l Forms (i) nouns: okul ‘school’, kural ‘rule’; (ii) adjectives: sanal ‘virtual’.
-(A)m Forms nouns: kuram ‘theory’, dönem ‘period’, anlam ‘meaning’.
-(A)mAK Forms nouns: basamak ‘step’, kaçamak ‘evasion’.
-(A)nAK Forms nouns: tutanak ‘minutes’, ödenek ‘subsidy’, görenek ‘custom’.
-(A/I)r Forms:
(i) nouns: keser ‘adze’, yarar ‘benefit’, ‘use’, gelir ‘income’
(ii) adjectives: çalar saat ‘alarm clock’, okuryazar ‘literate’
(iii) adjectival clauses: uzaktan farkedilebilir bir renk ‘a colour (which is) noticeable
from far away’.
-(A)v Forms nouns: sınav ‘examination’, görev ‘duty’, türev ‘derived form’.
-(A)y Forms (i) nouns: olay ‘event’, deney ‘experiment’; (ii) adjectives: yapay ‘artificial’,
düşey ‘vertical’.
-C/-InC This pair of suffixes (-ç is added to verbs ending in -n, otherwise -Inç is used) forms (i)
nouns: direnç ‘resistance’, basınç ‘pressure’; (ii) adjectives: iğrenç ‘disgusting’, gülünç
‘ridiculous’.
-DI Forms nouns: uydu ‘satellite’, alındı ‘receipt’, çıktı ‘printout’.
-DIK Forms (i) nouns: tanıdık ‘acquaintance’; (ii) adjectives: bildik ‘familiar’, tanıdık
‘familiar’. See [Link] (v) for a special adjectival usage.
-GA/- Forms nouns: dizge ‘system’, süpürge ‘broom’, çizelge ‘table’ (i.e. tabulated
(A)lgA information).
-GAC Forms (i) nouns: süzgeç ‘sieve’, kıskaç ‘pincers’, yüzgeç ‘fin’; (ii) adjectives: utangaç
‘shy’.
-GAn Forms (i) nouns: etken ‘factor’, sürüngen ‘reptile’; (ii) adjectives: konuşkan ‘talkative’,
kaygan ‘slippery’.
-GI Forms nouns, mostly denoting concrete objects: silgi ‘eraser’, sürgü ‘bolt’, but also
abstract nouns such as bilgi ‘knowledge’, sevgi ‘love’.
-GIC Forms nouns: dalgıç ‘diver’, başlangıç ‘beginning’.
-GIn Forms (i) nouns: baskın ‘raid’, sürgün ‘exile’; (ii) adjectives: etkin ‘active’, durgun
‘calm’.
-I Forms (i) nouns: yazı ‘writing’, güldürü ‘comedy’, batı ‘west’; (ii) adjectives: dolu ‘full’,
duru ‘clear’.
-(I)K Forms (i) nouns: konuk ‘guest’, kayık ‘boat’; (ii) adjectives: soluk ‘faded’, kırık ‘broken’.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 54

-(I)lI A compound of -I (above) and -lI ([Link]). Forms adjectives and adjectival phrases:
yazılı ‘written’, (kağıda) sarılı ‘wrapped (in paper)’.
-(I)m/- Forms nouns from underived verb roots: bölüm ‘department’, ‘chapter’, ‘part’, seçim
(y)Im ‘choice’, ‘election’, deneyim ‘experience’, or from derived intransitives with -(I)l/-n:
gerilim ‘tension’, devinim ‘movement’.
-(I)n Forms nouns: basın ‘(the) press’, yayın ‘publication’, ‘broadcast’, yığın ‘heap’.
-(I)ntI Forms nouns: söylenti ‘rumour’, girinti ‘indentation’, alıntı ‘quotation’.
-(I)t Forms nouns: geçit ‘crossing’, ‘pass’, yazıt ‘inscription’, umut ‘hope’.
-mA Forms (i) nouns: başma ‘printed cloth’, kıyma ‘minced meat’, inme ‘paralysis’, ‘stroke’;
(ii) adjectives: dökme ‘(of metal) cast’.
-mAC Forms nouns: bulamaç ‘thick soup’, yırtmaç ‘slit’.
-mAcA Forms nouns: bulmaca ‘puzzle’, koşmaca ‘tag (game)’, çekmece ‘drawer’. This is a
complex suffix made up of -mA and -CA ([Link]).
- Forms adjectives. The form -mAdIK, which contains the negative suffix, is a productive
mAdIK suffix, unlike its affirmative counterpart -DIK (see above). It can attach directly to verb
stems or to their passive form: kırmadık ‘unbroken’, görmedik ‘unseen’, görülmedik
‘unseen’, ‘unprecedented’.
-mAK Forms nouns: ekmek ‘bread’, çakmak ‘lighter’, yemek ‘food’, ‘meal’.
-mAn Forms (i) nouns indicating a person’s occupation: öğretmen ‘teacher’, danışman ‘adviser’,
eleştirmen ‘critic’; (ii) adjectives: şişman ‘fat’ (see also -mAn, [Link]).
-mAz Forms:
(i) nouns: açmaz ‘impasse’, tükenmez ‘ball-point pen’
(ii) adjectives: bitmez ‘endless’, anlaşılmaz ‘incomprehensible’
(iii) adjectival clauses: gözle görülemez (bir ayrıntı) ‘(a detail) which is invisible
to the [naked] eye’.
-mIK Forms nouns: kıymık ‘splinter’, kusmuk ‘vomit’.
-mIş Forms nouns from intransitive verb stems: geçmiş ‘(the) past’, dolmuş ‘car operating like a
bus’, ermiş ‘saint’.
-sAK Forms nouns: tutsak ‘prisoner’ (see also -sAK, [Link]).
-sAl Forms adjectives: görsel ‘visual’, işitsel ‘aural’ (see also -sAl, [Link]).
-sI Forms nouns: tütsü ‘incense’, yatsı ‘ritual worship performed by Muslims two hours after
sunset’, giysi ‘garment’.
-tay Forms nouns denoting an institution or organized meeting: Danıştay ‘Council of State’,
çalıştay ‘(academic) workshop’ (see also -tay, [Link]).
-tI Forms nouns from two-syllable stems ending in -l or -r: doğrultu ‘direction’, bağırtı
‘shout’, morartı ‘bruise’.
-(y)AcAK Forms nouns: yiyecek ‘food’, içecek ‘drink’, gelecek ‘future’. See [Link] (v) for a
special adjectival usage.
 Word classes, derivation and derivational suffixes 55

-(y)An Forms nouns: sıçan ‘rat’, bakan ‘minister’.

-(y)AsI, -(y)AsI forms adjectives which mean ‘worthy of…’, but these forms are going out of
- usage: görülesi ‘worth seeing’. Both -(y)AsI and -(y)AsIcA form adjectives used in
(y)AsIcA, expressing ill-wishes: kahrolası(ca) ‘damned’, lanet olası(ca) ‘cursed’. -(y)AsIyA forms
adverbs indicating the degree to which an action is performed, in terms of the imagined
- endpoint: ölesiye ‘to the point of dying’, doyasıya ‘to the point of
(y)AsIyA fulfilment/satisfaction’.

-(y)IcI/- Probably the most productive suffix in this category, this forms:
cI
(i) nouns expressing:
(a) a person practising a certain profession, or having a certain occupation:
koruyucu ‘guardian’, öğrenci ‘student’, dilenci ‘beggar’.
(b) a tool, machine or substance performing a particular function: yazıcı
‘printer’, yatıştırıcı ‘sedative’, uyuşturucu ‘narcotic’.
(ii) adjectives denoting that the action of a verb is an inherent quality of the person
or thing to which the adjective is applied: yapıcı ‘constructive’, üzücü
‘distressing’, yorucu ‘tiring’.
(iii) adjectival clauses that mark an attribute which is regarded as an inherent
property of the entity denoted by the noun that the adjectival construction
qualifies. The noun which is qualified is always inanimate and is the subject of
the root verb: nezleyi önleyici (ilaçlar) ‘(medicines) that prevent the common
cold’, endişelerimizi giderici (sözler) ‘(words) that ease our worries’.
Note that the -cI form of this suffix occurs only after ‘-n’. See also -CI in [Link], the
counterpart of this suffix which is added to nominals.
-(y)Iş Forms nouns: direniş ‘resistance’, giriş ‘entrance’, yürüyüş ‘walk’, ‘march’.

[Link] Suffixes that attach to verbs to form verbs

-(A/I)klA Indicates repetitive or intermittent action: uyukla‘doze’, dürtükle- ‘prod continually’.
-AlA Indicates the suddenness of the onset of an action: şaşala-‘be bewildered’, durala-
‘suddenly stop (to reflect)’.
-(I)n In the vast majority of cases this suffix, which is identical in form to the reflexive suffix
([Link]), forms intransitive verbs: sevin- ‘be happy’, görün- ‘appear’, ‘seem’, kaçın-
‘avoid’, but it can also form transitive verbs: edin-‘acquire’.
-(I)ş This suffix, which is identical in form to the reciprocal suffix ([Link]), indicates one or
other of the following:
(i) that the action denoted by the root verb is performed in an unorganized manner:
koşuş- ‘run back and forth’, uçuş- ‘fly about’
(ii) a shared act: bölüş- ‘share’, ↓kırış- ‘share’, fısıldaş ‘whisper among themselves’
(iii) the intensity of a property of the root verb: kokuş-‘give off a putrid smell’, ‘become
rotten’ (from kok‘smell’).
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 56

- (-(I)ş+-DIr (reciprocal+causative, [Link], [Link])) Indicates intensive or repetitive action:

(I)ştır araştır- ‘investigate’, itiştir- ‘push back and forth’.

7.2.2 SUFFIXES THAT ATTACH TO NOMINALS

Suffixes that attach to nominals create both verbs and other nominals (nouns, adjectives
and adverbs).

[Link] Suffixes that attach to nominals to form verbs

-A Added to nouns: kana- ‘bleed’, türe- ‘spring up’, ‘derive’ and adjectives: boşa- ‘divorce’.
-(A)l Added to adjectives of quality, to form intransitive verbs: kısal- ‘become short(er)’, daral-
‘become narrow(er)’, incel- ‘become thin(ner)’.
-(A)r Added to adjectives, particularly those denoting colour, to create verbs that indicate the
process of acquiring that colour or state: karar- ‘turn black’, ağar- ‘turn white’, delir- ‘go
mad’.
-(A)ş Added to nouns: yanaş- ‘approach’.
-(A)t Added to nouns: gözet- ‘safeguard’.
- Added mostly to onomatopoeic stems: kıpırda(n)-‘move’, ‘fidget’, çatırda- ‘crack’,
DA(n) şakırda- ‘jingle’, vızılda(n)- ‘hum’, ‘buzz’, ‘whinge’. The ‘-n’ is added only where the
subject is human.
-GIr Occurs in words with onomatopoeic stems that do not stand independently: fışkır- ‘spurt
out’, püskür- ‘spray’.
-(I)K Makes intransitive verbs from (i) adjectives: acık-‘become hungry’, gecik- ‘be delayed’;
(ii) nouns: gözük-‘seem’, ‘appear’.
- Added to adjectives to form transitive verbs: azımsa-‘underestimate’, özümse- ‘assimilate’,
(I)msA ‘make one’s own’. Also used with the pronoun ben ‘I’: benimse- ‘consider [s.t.] one’s
own’.
-lA Added to:
(i) nouns: tuzla- ‘put salt on’, avla- ‘hunt’
(ii) adjectives: akla- ‘acquit’, kurula- ‘dry (transitive)’
(iii) onomatopoeic stems indicating the sound produced by animals: gıdakla- ‘crow’,
miyavla-‘miaow’, havla- ‘bark’
(iv) interjections: ahla- ‘(to) sigh’, ofla- ‘(to) huff’.
The result of (i) and (ii) is most often a transitive verb, but there are cases where -lA can
also create intransitive verbs: çabala- ‘try hard’, şişmanla- ‘become fat’, zayıfla-‘grow
thin’.
-lAn (-lA+-n (passive/reflexive, [Link], [Link])) Added to (i) adjectives: kurulan- ‘dry oneself’,
‘be dried’, hazırlan-‘get ready’, (ii) nouns: avlan- ‘hunt’, güneşlen- ‘sun-bathe’, hırslan-
‘get angry’. All of these verbs are intransitive. Most of those which are derived from
adjectives also have a transitive form (see -lA above), but the vast majority of those that
 Word classes, derivation and derivational suffixes 57

are derived from nouns do not have a transitive counterpart. -lAn combines with the
causative suffix -DIr (e.g. evlendir- ‘to marry (two people to each other)’, hırslandır-
‘make [s.o.] angry’) only in cases where the corresponding -lAt suffix (see below), for
idiosyncratic reasons, does not combine with a particular root.
-lAs (-lA+-(I)ş (reciprocal, [Link])) Added (i) to adjectives of quality to form intransitive verbs
that indicate the process of attaining that particular quality: güzelleş-‘become beautiful’,
koyulaş- ‘darken’, ‘thicken’, kırlaş-‘turn white (of hair)’; (ii) to nouns to indicate mutual
activity: haberleş- ‘communicate with one another’, mektuplaş- ‘communicate with each
other by letter’, e-mailleş- ‘e-mail (each other)’.
-lAt (-lA+-t (causative [Link])) Added to adjectives to form transitive/causative verbs: kirlet-
‘make [s.t.] dirty’, serinlet- ‘make [s.o.] cool down’, genişlet- ‘expand [s.t.]’. Some of
these verbs do not have a corresponding -lA form.
- Added (i) to nouns to form transitive or intransitive verbs: önemse- ‘consider important’, susa-
sA ‘become thirsty’; (ii) to adjectives to form transitive verbs: garipse- ‘consider strange’, hafifse-
‘consider trivial’.

[Link] Suffixes that attach to nominals to form nominals

A few of these suffixes are of Arabic or Persian origin. Words containing Arabic and
Persian suffixes are increasingly giving way to their synonyms of Turkish origin.
-(A)C Attaches to nouns to form adjectives: anaç ‘motherly’, kıraç ‘infertile’.
- See -CAK
(A/I)cIK
-(A)K Attaches to adjectives to form adjectives: solak ‘left-handed’, kurak ‘arid’.
-(A)l Attaches to nouns to form adjectives: yerel ‘local’, ulusal ‘national’, yasal ‘legal’. This
suffix was introduced as part of the language reform movement alongside -sAl, and has
the same function.
-(A)n Attaches to nouns or adjectives to form nouns: köken ‘origin’, düzen ‘system’.
-ane A suffix of Persian origin (pronounced [a:nέ]) which attaches to nouns borrowed from
Arabic and Persian to form adjectives: şairane ‘poetic’, dostane ‘friendly’.
-(A)rI The spatial nominals iç ‘inside’ and dış ‘outside’ can be used in their bare form only as
adjectives (e.g. iç taraf ‘inner part’, dış kapı ‘outer door’). Otherwise they always have to
have possessive marking (e.g. evin içi ‘the inside of the house’). The addition of the
derivational suffix -(A)rI allows these words to appear on their own and to be case-
marked: dışarı (çık-) ‘(go) outside’.
-(A)t Attaches to nouns or adjectives to form nouns or adjectives: özet ‘summary’, başat
‘dominant’.
-(A)y Attaches to nouns to form adjectives: güney ‘south’.
-baz A suffix of Persian origin which is added to nouns to form nouns: cambaz ‘acrobat’,
düzenbaz ‘cheat’.
-CA (unstressable) This is a productive suffix which:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 58

(i) creates adjectives

(a) from nouns, meaning ‘characteristic of a …’, describing actions or attitudes:
çocukça ‘childish’, aptalca ‘idiotic’
(b) from the pluralized form of a ‘round’ numeral, expressing a large number in
an
imprecise fashion: binlerce ‘thousands of’ yüzlerce ‘hundreds of’, or of a measure
expression, again suggesting a large amount: kilolarca ‘kilograms of’, hektarlarca
‘acres of’
(ii) creates nouns, adjectives or adverbs denoting a language from nouns of nationality:
Japonca ‘(in) Japanese’, Isveççe ‘(in) Swedish’
(iii) creates adverbs (see 16.1.6 for details).
Also combines with the verbal noun suffix -mA (see -mAcA ([Link])).
-CA (stressable) Reduces the intensity of adjectives: güzelcé ‘prettyish’, hızlıcá ‘quite fast’,
küçükçé ‘rather small’. The same function is more often performed by a modifying
adverbial of degree such as oldukça ‘quite’ (16.5).
-CAK, - -CIK, -(A/I)cIk are all diminutive suffixes which a used for expressing endearment and/or
CAgIz, pity. The choice of the appropriate suffix is not predictable: çocukcağız ‘the poor/dear
child’, kedicik ‘the poor/dear little cat’, kuşcağız ‘the little birdie’, yavrucak ‘the poor
child’. -CIK also (i) indicates smallness: sözcük ‘word’, adacık ‘little island’, (ii)
unproductively combines with adjectives which contain (unstressable) -CA, as in
yakíncacık ‘close by’, hémencecik ‘immediately’, usually with the effect of emphasizing
the quality expressed by the adjective. In the same way, -(A/I)cIK, both of which are
unstressable, are added to adjectives, intensifying the degree of diminutiveness they
express: dáracık ‘very narrow’, ázıcık ‘very little’, kǘçücük ‘tiny’.
-CAK Apart from its diminutive usage mentioned above, this suffix derives:
(i) adjectives from adjectives (synonymous with adjectival (stressable) -CA): büyücek
‘rather large’ from büyük ‘large’
(ii) nouns from nouns: oyuncak ‘toy’, or from verbs: salıncak ‘swing’
(iii) (in colloquial registers) adverbs from nouns: evcek ‘the whole household together’,
mahallecek ‘as a neighbourhood’ (in contexts such as ‘We objected as a
neighbourhood’)
(iv) occasionally adverbs from adverbs indicating haste: çabucak ‘very quickly’ (from
çabuk ‘quickly’).
-CAnA Colloquial form of unstressable (adverbial) -CA: güzelcene ‘nicely’, yavaşçana ‘slowly’,
kolaycana ‘easily’.
-CAsI (-CA+3rd person possessive) Unproductive composite suffix which forms modal adverbs
(16.3): hakçası ‘in truth’, ‘frankly’, erkekçesi ‘honestly’.
- Derives manner adverbs from adjectives with a negative connotation: aptalcasına
CAsInA ‘stupidly’, salakçasına ‘like a twit’, see also [Link].
-CI A productive suffix which, when added to nouns, forms:
(i) nouns indicating a person associated with a profession: güreşçi ‘wrestler’, lokantacı
 Word classes, derivation and derivational suffixes 59

‘restaurant owner’, Almancacı ‘German teacher’. Also occurs in the question word
neci used to inquire about someone’s occupation.
(ii) nouns or adjectives indicating ideological adherence to a person, cause or idea:
devrimci ‘revolutionary’, gerici ‘reactionary’
(iii) nouns indicating a person engaged in a particular activity: yolcu ‘traveller’, kapkaççı
‘snatch-and-run thief’
(iv) nouns indicating one who likes or is in the habit of consuming a particular type of
food or drink: içkici ‘boozer’, tatlıcı ‘someone with a sweet tooth’
(v) adjectives indicating the habitual involvement of a person with the entity denoted by
the root: palavracı ‘liar’, ‘lying (person)’, şüpheci ‘sceptical (person)’.
See also -(y)IcI, the counterpart of -CI which is added to verbs, [Link].
-CIl Added to nouns to form adjectives and nouns, this suffix indicates love or affinity
towards what is denoted by the stem: insancıl ‘humane’, ‘philanthropic’, evcil
‘domesticated’, öncül ‘premise’. It is also added to the pronoun ben ‘I’: bencil ‘selfish’.
-DA Added to nouns to form nouns and adjectives: gözde ‘favourite’.
-DAm Added to nouns to form nouns: gündem ‘agenda’, yöntem ‘method’.
-DAn Added to nouns or adjectives to form adjectives and nouns: sıradan ‘ordinary’, neden
‘reason’, içten ‘sincere’, toptan ‘wholesale’.
-dan A suffix of Persian origin which is attached to nouns to form nouns: şamdan
‘candlestick’, cüzdan ‘wallet’.
-dar A suffix of Persian origin which is attached to nouns to form (i) nouns: kasadar ‘cashier’;
(ii) adjectives: dindar ‘religious’.
-Daş/- Added to nouns to form nouns denoting possessors of a shared attribute: yandaş
Deş ‘supporter’, kardeş ‘sibling’ (from karın ‘abdomen’), meslektaş ‘colleague (i.e. person of
the same profession)’.
-en An unstressable Arabic suffix which is attached to nouns to form adverbs: şahsen
‘personally’, hakikaten ‘really’.
-engiz A suffix of Persian origin which is added to nouns to form adjectives: esrarengiz
‘mysterious’, dehşetengiz ‘awesome’.
-gen Added to numerals to form names given to geometric figures: dörtgen ‘quadrilateral’,
altıgen ‘hexagon’.
-gil This suffix indicates group membership, especially when referring to species of animals
or plants, and is used with the plural suffix: baklagiller ‘legumes’, turunçgiller ‘citrus
fruits’. In non-standard usage it may also refer to human groups, being attached to (i)
proper names: Ahmetgil ‘Ahmet and his family/group’, and (ii) nouns indicating family
members (in which case -gil is preceded by a possessive suffix: amcasıgil ‘his/her uncle
(and his family)’.
-(h)ane The word hane ‘house’, borrowed from Persian, appears as a suffix in words denoting
places (pronounced [a:nέ]): hastahane ‘hospital’, pastane ‘cake shop’, kayıkhane ‘boat
house’.
-I This suffix forms adverbs of time from the pluralized form of nominals denoting time:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 60

sabahları ‘in the morning(s)’, önceleri ‘formerly’ (see [Link] (63)).

-(I)msAr Attaches to adjectives to form adjectives: iyimser ‘optimistic’, karamsar ‘pessimistic’.
-(I)msI Attaches to nouns or adjectives to form adjectives expressing similarity to the entity
denoted by the root noun: barakamsı ‘shed-like’, meyvamsı ‘fruity’ (see also -sI below)
- Attaches to adjectives which express colour and taste, to express approximation to what
(I)mtraK that adjective denotes: mavimtrak ‘bluish’, ekşimtrak ‘sourish’.
-(I)ncI Added to cardinal numbers to derive ordinal numbers: ikinci ‘second’, yüzüncü
‘hundredth’ (15.7.2). Also used with the question word kaç ‘how many’ to inquire about
the number of a particular item in an ordered list: kaçıncı (gün) ‘which (day)’, and
optionally with son ‘last’: sonuncu ‘last’.
-istan A Persian suffix which forms names of countries or regions: Macaristan ‘Hungary’,
Arabistan ‘Arabia’.
-(I)t Forms adjectives and nouns: eşit ‘equal’, karşıt ‘opposite’.
-iye An Arabic suffix which forms nouns: maliye ‘public finance’, Harbiye ‘Military Academy’.
-iyet An Arabic suffix which forms nouns: maliyet ‘cost’, medeniyet ‘civilization’.
-(I)z Attaches to numerals to
indicate (a member of) a group
of siblings born in a single
birth: dördüz ‘quadruplet(s)’,
ikiz ‘twin(s)’.
-kar
A suffix of Persian origin (pronounced [ ] which is added to nouns to form nouns
indicating a person associated with a profession or occupation: sanatkar ‘artist’, hizmetkar
‘servant’.
-lA Attaches to nouns to designate a place associated with the concept in the root: yayla
‘plateau’ (from yay (obs.) ‘summer’), tuzla ‘salt mine’. This suffix is unstressable, and
stress remains on the root.
-lAm Attaches to nouns to derive nouns: denklem ‘equation’, önlem ‘precaution’.
- Attaches to nouns to derive nouns or adverbs: gözleme ‘pancake’, şekerleme ‘crystallized
lAmA fruit’, ‘nap’, balıklama (atla-) ‘(dive) head-first’.
- Unstressable suffix attaching to terms denoting times of the day to derive adverbials:
leyin sabahleyin ‘in the morning’, geceleyin ‘at night’ (see also -(y)In below).
-lI This a productive suffix which derives:
(i) nouns and adjectives where the entity described possesses, is characterized
by, or is provided with the object or quality expressed by the stem:
(a) from nouns and adjectives: atlı ‘horseman’, ‘horsedrawn’,
sevgili ‘lover’, ‘dear’, akıllı ‘clever’, mavili ‘in blue’, hızlı
‘rapid’. Also occurs in the question word neli, used to
inquire about the attribute of something (e.g. neli
dondurma ‘what kind of ice cream’).
(b) from nouns of place and locative pronouns (18.3.1) to
 Word classes, derivation and derivational suffixes 61

indicate a person belonging to or coming from that place:

üniversiteli ‘university student’, Londralı ‘Londoner’,
köylü ‘villager’, buralı ‘from here’. Also occurs in the
question word nereli ‘from where’, used to ask about a
person’s country (or town, etc.) of origin.
(c) from numerals to indicate groups made of items
containing that number of objects: üçlü ‘threesome’, ‘trio’,
altılı ‘sextet’.
(ii) adjectival phrases from noun phrases, which express that the entity described possesses, is
characterized by, or is provided with the object or quality expressed by the noun phrase:
kısa saçlı ‘short-haired’, dört çocuklu ‘with four children’, mavi elbiseli ‘in a blue dress’,
bindokuzyüzlü yıllar ‘the nineteen hundreds’. If the adjectival phrase thus formed is
derived from a -(s)I compound (10.2), the compound marker -(s)I is deleted before -lI is
added: deniz manzaralı ‘with a sea view’ (cf. deniz manzarası ‘sea view’), üç yatak odalı
‘three-bedroomed’ (cf. yatak odası ‘bedroom’).
The double usage of this suffix, -lI…-lI, produces adjectives: kızlı oğlanlı (bir grup) ‘(a group)
of girls and boys’, or adverbs: geceli gülndüzlü (çalış-) ‘(work) day and night’.
- This productive suffix derives:
lIK
(i) nouns from nouns, adjectives or adverbs to indicate:
(a) the state relating to a particular concept: krallık ‘kingship’, sağırlık ‘deafness’, iyilik
‘goodness’, çabukluk ‘speed’
(b) an application, embodiment or institutionalization of the concept in question: krallık
‘kingdom’, iyilik ‘good deed’, askerlik ‘military service’
(c) an object or garment associated with a body part: gözlük ‘spectacles’, başlık
‘headgear’
(d) a storage place or container for a particular type of object: odunluk ‘woodshed’,
kitaplık ‘bookcase’, pabuçluk ‘shoe rack’
(e) a place where the entity denoted by the root noun is found collectively: zeytinlik
‘olive grove’, mezarlık ‘cemetery’
(f) a person whose relationship is analogous to the blood relationship indicated by the
root noun: analık ‘stepmother’, evlatlık ‘child servant’
(g) a banknote: onluk ‘tenner’.
(ii) adjectives which indicate:
(a) when added to nouns, suitability for the type of entity denoted by the root: dolmalık
‘for stuffing’, elbiselik ‘for a dress’, karakolluk ‘requiring police intervention’
(b) when added to nouns denoting periods of time, recurrent production or
occurrence: günlük ‘daily’, aylık ‘monthly’
(c) when added to numerals, the approximate age of a person: ellilik ‘in (his/her)
fifties’, or the value or price of something: yüz milyonluk ‘worth a hundred
million’.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 62

(iii) adjectival phrases from quantitative expressions of the form numeral+noun, which
according to the meaning of this noun can express weight, length, capacity, duration,
value, price, etc.: beş kiloluk ‘weighing five kilos’, üç saatlik ‘three-hour’, iki kişilik
‘suitable for two people’, beş yüz milyon liralık ‘worth five hundred million lira’.
- Forms adjectives and nouns with idiosyncratic meanings: sarman ‘ginger’ (used of cats),
mAn toraman ‘sturdy’, katman ‘layer’ (see also -mAn in [Link]).
-rA Unstressable suffix which attaches to demonstrative pronouns and ne ‘what’, to form locative
pronouns (18.3.1) bura- ‘here’, ora- ‘there’, nere- ‘where’. In some dialects these can appear
on their own, but in standard Turkish they must combine with one of the nominal inflectional
suffixes (the plural suffix, case and person suffixes).
- Forms nouns: tümsek ‘mound’, bağırsak ‘intestine’ (see also -sAk in [Link]).
sAK
-sAl A suffix introduced as part of the language reform to replace the Arabic suffix -(v)i, it
attaches to nouns to form adjectives that express the notion of relationship to the concept
denoted by the root noun: tarihsel ‘historic(al)’, yapısal ‘structural’, küresel ‘global’. In rare
cases it also forms nouns: kumsal ‘sandy beach’. See also -sAl in 7.1.1.
-sI Like -(I)msI and -(I)mtrak, this suffix expresses approximation to a particular quality. Added
only to nouns to form adjectives: kadınsı ‘feminine’, çocuksu ‘naïve’.
-sIl Forms adjectives: yoksul ‘poor’, varsıl ‘wealthy’.
-sIz This productive suffix is added to
(i) nouns to form adjectives denoting that the entity described lacks whatever is expressed
by the root: parasız ‘penniless’, ‘free (of charge)’, eşsiz ‘unequalled’, sınırsız
‘unlimited’
(ii) nouns and pronouns to form adverbs denoting the non-involvement in an event of
whatever is
expressed by the root: arabasız ‘without a/the car’, parasız ‘free of charge’, ‘without
paying’, sensiz ‘without you’
(iii) nouns to form nouns (a rare usage): ↓aynasız (slang) ‘police officer’, telsiz ‘wireless’,
‘walkietalkie’, Hamursuz ‘Passover’.
- This distributive suffix is added productively to numerals (15.7.3): üçer (kişi) ‘three (people)
(ş)Ar each’, onaltışar (kitap) ‘sixteen (books) each’, and to the question word kaç ‘how many’:
kaçar ‘how many each’. When combining with yarım ‘half’, the initial consonant remains:
yarımşar ‘half each’.
-tay Added to nouns to form nouns denoting an institution: Yargıtay ‘Supreme Court’ (see also -
tay in [Link]).
-tI Added to onomatopoeic stems to form nouns: gıcırtı ‘squeak’, takırtı ‘rattle’, gürültü
‘noise’.
-vari A suffix of Persian origin (pronounced [va:rí:]) but going out of usage: gangstervari
‘gangsterlike’, Amerikanvari ‘American-style’. Both vowels in this suffix are long.
-(v)i An Arabic suffix (pronounced [vi:]) which forms adjectives: milli ‘national’, resmi ‘official’,
hukuki ‘legal’ ananevi ‘traditional’.
 Word classes, derivation and derivational suffixes 63

-(y)A An Arabic suffix which indicates feminine gender: müdire ‘female director’. Also appears
on names given to women: Aliye, Fazıla.
- An Arabic suffix which forms nouns: tahkikat ‘investigation’, ihracat ‘exports’, maddiyat
(y)at ‘material things’.
- Unstressable suffix which attaches to terms denoting seasons, deriving adverbials: yazın ‘in
(y)In (the) summer’, kışın ‘in (the) winter’ (see also -leyin above).
-zede A suffix of Persian origin, which when added to nouns forms nouns indicating the victim of
some catastrophic event: depremzede ‘earthquake victim’, felaketzede ‘victim of a (certain)
disaster’.

7.3 THE INTERNAL ORDERING OF DERIVATIONAL SUFFIXES

There are no clear-cut rules governing all combinations of derivational suffixes.

However, there are a few points which apply to the majority of cases:
(i) Unproductive derivational suffixes tend not to co-occur.
(ii) Suffixes which are unproductive tend to precede productive ones (although it may
be very difficult in many cases to decide which category a suffix belongs to). For
example, the productive noun-forming suffix -lIk follows the unproductive -(y)An:

bak- ‘look’+-(y)An→bakan ‘minister’+-lIk→bakanlık ‘ministry’

But the same suffix -lIk can occur before or after an equally productive one, e.g. the
noun-deriving suffix -CI:

göz ‘eye’+-lIK→gözlük ‘spectacles’+-CI→gözlükçü ‘optician’

göz ‘eye’+-CI→gözcü ‘guard’+-lIK →gözcülük ‘being a guard’
It can also recur in the same word:

göz-lük-çü-lük ‘the profession/business of an optician’

7.4 PREFIXATION

Apart from the reduplicative prefixes discussed in Chapter 9, the only prefixes Turkish
has are of foreign origin:

antidemokratik ‘antidemocratic’
postmodern ‘postmodern’
gayrimüslim ‘non-Muslim’
bihaber ‘unaware’, ‘ignorant’
namütenahi ‘infinite’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 64

With the exception of anti-, which has some degree of productivity, these prefixes occur
only with loan words. Most of the words thus formed are stressed on the (first syllable of
the) prefix.
 8
INFLECTIONAL SUFFIXES

Inflectional suffixes indicate how the constituents of a sentence relate to each other, and
express functional relations such as case, person and tense. In this chapter a description
of the forms and attachment properties of these suffixes is provided; for the meaning and
usage of each suffix, the reader is referred to the relevant chapters in Part 3.
In section 8.1 we discuss the inflectional suffixes that attach to nominals, and in
section 8.2 those that attach to verbs. Sections 8.3 and 8.4 focus on the copular markers
and person markers, both of which can attach to nominals and to verbs. Section 8.5
explains the attachment properties of suffixes that form subordinate clauses.

8.1 NOMINAL INFLECTIONAL SUFFIXES

The suffixes that attach to nominals are those marking number, possession and case. The
only number suffix is the plural suffix -lAr. The possessive suffixes indicate the person of
the possessor. The order in which nominal inflectional suffixes appear on the stem is
number-possession-case (see [Link] (38) for an exception):
(1) çocuk -lar -ın -a
child -PL -[Link] -DAT
NUMBER POSSESSION CASE
‘to your children’
These forms can further be combined with the copular markers (8.3.2), -DIr (8.3.3) and
person markers (8.4) to form predicates ([Link]):
(2) Ev -ler -imiz -de -ymiş -ler.
home -PL -[Link] -LOC -[Link] -3PL
‘Apparently they are/were at our homes.’

8.1.1 THE PLURAL SUFFIX -lAr

The suffix -lAr ([Link]) is used primarily to indicate plurality: köpekler ‘dogs’, sular
‘[glasses, etc. of] water’, şunlar ‘these’, sarılar ‘the yellow [ones’]; see [Link] for other
functions. This suffix should not be confused with the 3rd person plural marker -lAr
which appears, as at the end of example (2) above, on predicates to indicate subject
agreement (8.4 and 12.2.2).
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 66

8.1.2 POSSESSIVE SUFFIXES

The forms of the possessive suffix are:
1st person singular -(I)m ‘my’
2nd person singular (familiar) -(I)n ‘your’
(formal) -(I)nIz ‘your’
3rd person singular -(s)I(n) ‘his’, ‘her’, ‘its’, ‘their’
1st person plural -(I)mIz ‘our’
2nd person plural -(I)nIz ‘your’
3rd person plural -lArI(n) ‘their’

Examples:
ev-im ‘my house’ araba-m ‘my car’
ev-in ‘your house’ (familiar) araba-n ‘your car’ (familiar)
ev-iniz ‘your house’ (formal) araba-nız ‘your car’ (formal)
ev-i ‘his/her/their house’ araba-sı ‘his/her/their car’
ev-imiz ‘our house’ araba-mız ‘our car’
ev-iniz ‘your house’ araba-nız ‘your car’
ev-leri ‘their house(s)’ araba-ları ‘their car(s)’

For the number ambiguity in the 3rd person forms, see 14.3.2 and 14.4.
Apart from indicating the possessor in a noun phrase (14.3.2, 14.4), possessive
suffixes are also added to the subordinating suffixes -DIK, -(y)AcAK, -mA and -(y)Iş
(8.5.1) to mark the subject of the subordinate clause: ilgilendiğimiz (konular) ‘(the topics)
that we are interested in’, gidecekleri (ülke) ‘(the country) that they will go to’,
anlamanız (için) ‘so that you understand’, (kitabı) okuyuşu ‘his/her reading the book’.
For a full discussion see Chapters 24–6.
Possessive suffixes can be followed by case markers: odamda ‘in my room’, the
marker -(y)lA/ile ‘with’, ‘by’, ‘and’ (8.1.4): annemle ‘with my mother’, ‘my mother
and…’ and to a limited extent by the adverbial suffix -CA ([Link]): kanımca ‘in my
opinion’.
The 3rd person singular form -(s)I(n) appears as -(s)I when no other suffix follows it:
tepesi ‘its top’, yüzü ‘his/her face’. When it is followed by a case suffix or by the
adverbial suffix -CA, it appears as -(s)In: tepesinde ‘at its summit/top’, yüzüne ‘to his/her
face’, fikrince ‘in his/her opinion’. Similarly, the 3rd person plural form -lArI(n) appears
as -lArI when no other suffix follows. However, when there is a case suffix or -CA
following it, it appears as -lArIn: elbiselerine ‘to their dress(es)’. (See 14.4 for the
ambiguity of forms containing the 3rd person plural possessive form, e.g. ev-lerin-e ‘to
their house(s)’ and forms containing the plural suffix+3rd person singular possessive
 Inflectional suffixes 67

marker, e.g. ev-ler-in-e ‘to his/her houses’, ‘to their houses’. See 6.2 for other forms
containing ‘n’.) In this book, for reasons of simplicity, we use the forms -(s)I and -lArI
when referring to these suffixes.
The suffix -(s)I has a number of functions in addition to those that it shares with the
other possessive suffixes:
(i) it marks the head of a noun compound: düğün pastası ‘wedding cake’ (10.2)
(ii) it marks the head of a partitive construction: kitaplardan üç tanesi ‘three of
the books’ (14.5.2–3)
(iii) it forms pronominals from a variety of word classes: burası ‘here’, içerisi
‘inside’, eskisi ‘the old one’, hiçbiri(si) ‘none of them’ (18.3–4)
(iv) it appears on (impersonal) verbal nouns which contain -mA: okuması zor ‘[it]
is difficult to read’ ([Link], [Link])
(v) it occurs in some composite suffixes: anlamazmışçasına ‘as if
uncomprehending’ ([Link], 26.3.6).

8.1.3 CASE SUFFIXES

Turkish has five case suffixes:
-(y)I marker of the accusative case: sarayı ‘the palace (ACC)’, suyu ‘the water (ACC)’,
küçüğü ‘the small one (ACC)’.
-(y)A marker of the dative case: Kars’a ‘to Kars’, dereye ‘(in)to the river’, masaya ‘on (to) the
table’, size ‘to you’.
-DA marker of the locative case: radyoda ‘on the radio’, evde ‘at home’, sepette ‘in the
basket’.
-DAn marker of the ablative case: okuldan ‘from/of/out of (the) school’, sonuçtan ‘from/of the
result’, sisten ‘from/of the fog’.
-(n)In/- marker of the genitive case: çocuğun ‘the child’s’, Fatma’nın ‘Fatma’s’, bahçenin ‘of
Im the garden’. -Im attaches to 1st person pronouns: benim ‘my’, bizim ‘our’.

The function of these suffixes is discussed in 14.3.3.

8.1.4 OTHER NOMINAL INFLECTIONAL MARKERS

- This marker can have comitative, instrumental or conjunctive meaning. In all of these
(y)lA/ile functions it appears predominantly in the suffixal form -(y)lA, and only rarely as the
separate form ile. The comitative/instrumental marker forms postpositional phrases
(17.3). Like the dative, locative and ablative case markers it attaches to noun phrases,
enabling them to function as oblique objects ([Link]) or adverbials (13.1.3). However,
unlike the case suffixes it is unstressable (4.3.2):
Ahmét’le ‘with Ahmet’ (comitative), kalémle ‘with a pen/ pencil’ (instrumental), baltáyla
‘with an axe’ (instrumental). This marker also functions as a noun phrase conjunction:
Ahmet’le Mehmet ‘Ahmet and Mehmet’, kedimle köpeğim ‘my cat and my dog’ (see [Link]
(ii)).
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 68

In the standard language, -(y)lA attaches to the genitive-marked forms of the following
pronouns (i.e. genitive-attracting pronouns), except where the plural suffix -lAr is also
present (see 17.2.1):
(i) simple personal pronouns (18.1.1): benimle ‘with me’
(ii) demonstrative pronouns (18.2): şununla ‘with this/that one’
(iii) kim ‘who’ ([Link]): kiminle ‘with whom’.
The free-standing form ile is not used with genitive-attracting pronouns. In everyday speech,
-(y)lA may be attached directly to pronouns without an intervening genitive case marker:
↓benle ‘with me’, ↓şunla ‘with this/that one’, ↓kimle ‘who with’. In very informal speech
contexts ‘l’ may be pronounced as [n] and the marker itself may be followed by [n]:
↓Fatma’ynan, ↓şunnan, ↓kimnen.
- This is a stressable suffix whose vowel is invariable except that, in some cases, it harmonizes
ki(n) with a preceding ‘ü’: evdeki ‘(the one) in the house’, oradaki ‘(the one) over there’, sizinki
‘yours’, kızınki ‘the one belonging to the girl’, suyunki ‘the one belonging to (the) water’.
When it follows dün ‘yesterday’ and gün ‘day’ (and words containing gün) it is generally
pronounced (and spelt with) ‘ü’: bugünkü/bugünki ‘today’s’, dünkü/dünki ‘yesterday’s’. In
all other cases where it follows ‘ü’ it is more likely to be pronounced as ‘i’: gülünki ‘that of
the rose’. The consonant ‘n’ appears only when -ki is followed by a case suffix or -CA:
evdekinde ‘in/on/at the one in the house’ (see 6.2). In this book, for reasons of simplicity. we
refer to this suffix as -ki. (The suffix -ki should not be confused with the clitic ki, for which
see [Link])
-ki has two main functions: to form attributive adjectival phrases (15.3.6–7) and to form
pronominal expressions (18.5).
These are formed in the following ways:
(i) By attaching -ki directly to adverbials which express a location in time: yarınki
(gazete) ‘tomorrow’s (newspaper)’, bu seneki (portakallar) ‘this year’s oranges’, her
zamanki ‘the usual (one)’.
Note that where the temporal adverbial takes the form of a -(s)I compound, the
compound marker is deleted
before the affixation of -ki: Salı günkü (programlar) ‘Tuesday’s (programmes)’.
(ii) By attaching -ki to noun phrases and postpositions which contain the locative suffix:
sokaktaki araba ‘the car on the street’, önünüzdeki ‘the one in front of you’.
(iii) By attaching -ki to noun phrases which contain the genitive suffix: seninki ‘yours’, adamınki
‘the man’s [one]’, odanınki ‘the one belonging to the room’. (Expressions formed in this way
are pronominal only.)
Any pronominal form containing -ki can be further inflected by adding:
(i) the plural suffix -lAr: masadakiler ‘the ones on the table’, masanınkiler ‘the ones which
belong to the table’. As a result, words which contain -ki can sometimes have more than one
plural suffix: masalardakiler ‘the ones on the tables’.
(ii) a case suffix, which can be added to a singular or plural form: bendekine ‘to the one that I
have’, evinkileri ‘the ones belonging to the house (ACC)’, bahçedekinden ‘of/from the one in
the garden’. As a result, words which contain -ki can sometimes have more than one locative
or genitive marker: anneminkinin (rengi) ‘(the colour) of my mother’s one’, evdekilerde
 Inflectional suffixes 69

‘at/on/in the ones in the house’.

(iii) one of the markers -(y)lA/ile (see above), -CA ‘according to’, ‘by’ (16.1.6), or -sIz ‘without’
([Link]). The combination with -(y)lA/ile is regular: sokaktakiyle ‘with the one on the street’,
mutfaktakilerle ‘with the ones in the kitchen’, arabanınkiyle ‘with the one belonging to the
car’, perdeninkilerle ‘with the ones belonging to the curtain’. On the rare occasions when -ki
combines with -CA or -sIz, these attach to the plural form: Amerika’dakilerce ‘by the ones in
America’, bahçedekilersiz ‘without the ones in the garden’.
-ki can combine with a genitive or locative form that already contains -ki:
ev-de-ki-ler-in-ki ‘the one belonging to those at home’
anne-m-in-kin-de-ki ‘the one on my mother’s’

8.2 VERBAL INFLECTIONAL SUFFIXES

There are two distinct types of verb form in Turkish: finite and non-finite.
(i) Finite verb forms:
The inflectional suffixes that can appear in finite verb forms are the following:

voice suffixes (8.2.1)

the negative marker (8.2.2)
tense/aspect/modality markers (8.2.3)
copular markers (8.3)
person markers (8.4)

A finite verb form in Turkish obligatorily contains a person marker from groups 1–4
(8.4), which indicates the subject:
(3) Otur-acağ-ım.
[Link]-FUT-1SG
‘I’m going to sit down.’
Note that a 3rd person singular subject is indicated by the absence of any person marker
from groups 1, 2 and 4:
(4) Şu anda evden çık-tı.
leave-PF
‘S/he has just left the house.’
In all forms except the 2nd person imperative and the 3rd person optative, a verb contains
one of the tense/aspect/modality suffixes from position 3 (8.2.3):
(5) Yüz-üyor-uz.
swim-IMPF-1PL
‘We’re swimming.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 70

Voice suffixes, the negative marker and copular markers may also occur in finite verb
forms:
(6) Yık-ıl-ma-mış-tı.
[Link]
‘It had not been demolished.’
The order in which the suffixes appear in a finite verb form is:
ROOT-VOICE-NEGATION-TENSE/ASPECT/MODALITY-COPULAR MARKER-
PERSON MARKER-DIr
(7) Döğ -üş -tür -t -ül -me -yebil-iyor -
muş -sunuz -dur.
beat -REC-CAUS-CAUS-PASS -NEG -PSB-IMPF -[Link] -
2PL -GM
VOICE NEGATIVE TAM COPULAR PERSON
MODALITY
SUFFIXES MARKER SUFFIXES MARKER MARKER
MARKER
‘It is presumably the case that you sometimes were not made to fight.’
Irregular combinations are explained in the description of individual suffixes.
(ii) Non-finite verb forms:
The inflectional suffixes that can appear in non-finite verb forms are the following:

voice suffixes (8.2.1)

the negative marker (8.2.2)
tense/aspect/modality markers from positions 1 and/or 2 ([Link]–2)
subordinating suffixes (8.5)
nominal inflectional suffixes (8.1)

Non-finite verb forms obligatorily contain a subordinating suffix (also called a

subordinator). Because these are nominalized forms, most of them can be followed by
some or all of the nominal suffixes described in 8.1 (see 8.5 for details).
(8) sev-mek-le
like-SUB-INS
‘by loving [him/her/it]’
The order of the suffixes in a non-finite verb form is the following:
ROOT-VOICE-NEGATION-SUBORDINATING SUFFIX-NOMINAL
INFLECTIONAL MARKERS
(9) bak -tır -ma -dığ -ın -dan
check -CAUS -NEG -SUB -[Link] -
ABL
VOICE NEGATIVE SUBORDINATOR PERSON CASE
 Inflectional suffixes 71

SUFFIX MARKER MARKER MARK

ER
‘because you haven’t had [it] checked’, ‘from the one you didn’t have checked’

8.2.1 VOICE SUFFIXES

These are the causative, passive, reflexive and reciprocal suffixes. Voice suffixes come
immediately after the verb root preceding all other suffixes. The only exception to this is
the combination of the passive suffix with -(y)Iver (see [Link]). For the effect a voice
suffix has on the structure of a clause see 13.2, and for the ordering of voice suffixes see
13.2.4.

[Link] Causative
The causative suffix attaches to transitive and intransitive verb stems. It has the
following forms:
- yaptır- ‘make/let [s.o.] do/make/build [s.t.]’, koydur- ‘have/make [s.o.] put [s.t.] [s.w.]’,
DIr öldür- ‘kill’, doldur- ‘fill [s.t.]’
-t kapat- ‘close [s.t.]’, daralt- ‘reduce’, uyut- ‘make/let [s.o.] sleep’
-It sarkıt- ‘dangle [s.t.]’, ürktüt- ‘scare’, korkut- ‘scare’
-Ir düşür- ‘drop’, bitir- ‘finish [s.t.]’, duyur- ‘announce’, pişir- ‘cook [s.t.]’
-Ar çıkar- ‘extract’, gider- ‘remove’
-Art çökert- ‘crush’

Which form of the causative suffix occurs with any particular verb stem is predictable, at
least in part, from the form of the stem. Around thirty monosyllabic stems, most of which
are intransitive, combine with one of the forms -It, -Ir, Ar or -Art. Polysyllabic stems
ending in a vowel, ‘l’ or ‘r’ combine with -t. In all other circumstances -DIr is used.
It is possible for more than one causative suffix to appear simultaneously on a single
verb stem. Such combinations conform to the rules given above. Thus -t follows -DIr, -Ir
or -Ar (as these suffixes end in ‘r’) and -DIr follows -t or -Art: bit-ir-t-tir-di ‘s/he
arranged for it to be finished’. For the syntactic properties of multiple causativization see
[Link].
Some intransitive verbs do not combine with the causative suffix, and instead have
unrelated transitive counterparts. For example, the transitive counterpart of gir- ‘enter’ is
sok- ‘insert’ (also ‘allow to enter’). These can be further causativized (as in soktur-).
Another irregular verb is em- ‘suck’, for which the transitive form is emzir- ‘breastfeed’.
Some verbs which contain a form that looks like a causative suffix are not derived
directly from an existing non-causative root, e.g. getir- ‘bring’, götür- ‘take’, kaldır-
‘raise’ (derived from kalk- ‘rise’), none of which contain separable roots.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 72

[Link] Passive
The passive suffix -Il/(I)n (can be attached to transitive and intransitive stems. It turns a
transitive verb into an intransitive one, as in sev- ‘love’→sevil- ‘be loved’, or an
intransitive verb into a subjectless predicate (see [Link]–4).
The passive suffix has the following forms:
-n aran- ‘be searched (for)’, ‘be rung up’, tıkan- ‘be blocked’, yıkan- ‘be washed’
-In bilin- ‘be known’, delin- ‘be punctured/perforated’
-Il yapıl- ‘be done/made/built’, görül- ‘be seen’

-n is attached to stems ending in a vowel, -In is attached to stems ending with the
consonant ‘l’, and -Il is attached to stems ending with all other consonants.

[Link] Reflexive
The reflexive suffix -(I)n is an unproductive suffix, which combines only with a few
roots. It attaches to transitive verbs, to form an intransitive verb denoting an action that
one can perform on or for oneself.
yıka- ‘wash [s.t.]’ → yıkan- ‘have a bath/shower’
kurula- ‘dry [s.t.]’ → kurulan- ‘dry oneself’
tara- ‘comb’ → taran- ‘comb one’s hair’
ört- ‘cover’ → örtün- ‘cover oneself’
sar- ‘wrap’ (tr.) → sarın- ‘wrap oneself (in)’
giy- ‘put on [a garment]’ → giyin- ‘get dressed’ (intr.)

For the syntactic effects of reflexivization see [Link]. For the non-reflexive usage of the
suffix -(I)n see [Link].
Note that the reflexive suffix shares a form with the passive suffix. As a result, the
reflexive and passive forms of some verbs are identical, e.g. yıkan- can mean ‘be washed
(by someone)’ or ‘have a bath/shower’, depending on the context.

[Link] Reciprocal
The reciprocal suffix -(I)ş combines with only a few transitive and intransitive stems, and
indicates mutual involvement in an action. When it combines with a transitive stem it
usually indicates the reciprocity of an action (i.e. A does x to B and B does x to A):

araş- ‘ring each other’, öpüş- ‘kiss each other’, seviş- ‘make love’, ‘love each other’,
görüş- ‘see/meet up with each other’
 Inflectional suffixes 73

Stems containing the reciprocal suffix tend not to combine with the similar-sounding
verbal noun suffix -(y)Iş ([Link]). Instead they combine with -mA ([Link]). Some verbs
that seem to have a segment identical to a reciprocal suffix are not transparently related to
a non-reciprocal stem, e.g. konuş- ‘speak’. (See also -(I)ş, [Link] and -lAş [Link].)

8.2.2 THE NEGATIVE MARKER

The negative marker -mA is situated between voice suffixes and tense/ aspect/modality
markers. It is unstressable and causes the syllable before it to receive stress, except in
most combinations with the aorist suffix (see [Link] for details): anlámadık ‘we did not
understand’, anlaşílmasın ‘let it not be understood’, anlamáz ‘s/he does not understand’.
(See 4.3.2 (viii), [Link] and 11.2.2 for the combination of -mA with other unstressable
suffixes and clitics.) There are irregularities in the combination of the negative marker
with:
(i) the aorist -(A/I)r (producing the combination -mA-z) ([Link])
(ii) the possibility suffix -(y)A ([Link])
(iii) the non-premeditative suffix -(y)Iver ([Link]).
The vowel of the negative suffix becomes a high vowel (‘ı’ or ‘i’) when it is followed by
-(I)yor ([Link]), -(y)AcAk ([Link]) and a few other suffixes beginning with ‘y’ (see 2.6).
In the case of the -mA+-(I)yor combination the vowel also undergoes vowel harmony like
an I-type suffix (3.2.1), which is reflected in the orthography: anlamıyor ‘s/he does not
understand’, görmüyor ‘s/he does not see’ (see 2.6 for other examples).
The negative marker occurs in composite suffixes such as -mAdAn and -mAzdAn
([Link]). For its occurrence in compound verb forms see 20.1.2.

8.2.3 TENSE/ASPECT/MODALITY MARKERS

Most of the suffixes falling into this group have more than one function, and may
simultaneously mark tense, aspect and/or modality. The syntactic and semantic properties
of these suffixes are discussed in detail in Chapters 21 and 27, and are summarized in
Appendix 2.
When tense/aspect/modality markers co-occur, they appear in the order given below:
1 2 3 4 5
Copular
markers
-(y)A -(y)Abil (possibility) -DI (perfective) -(y)DI (past -DIr
(possibility) copula)
-(y)Iver (non- -mIş (perfective/ -(y)mIş (evidential (generalizing
premeditative) evidential) copula) modality)
-(y)Agel -sA (conditional) -(y)sA (conditional
copula)
-(y)Ayaz -(A/I)r/-z (aorist)
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 74

-(y)Akal -(y)AcAK (future)

-(y)Adur -(I)yor
(imperfective)
-mAlI (obligative)
-mAktA
(imperfective)
-(y)A optative

The following points should be noted:

(i) Suffixes which are in the same column cannot co-occur on a single stem.
(ii) Finite verbs (except for imperative forms and 3rd person optative forms)
obligatorily contain a suffix from position 3:
(10) Geç-ti-n.
pass-PF-2SG
3
‘You’ve passed.’
(11) Bitir-e-me-miş-tir.
finish-PSB-NEG-PF-GM
135
‘S/he has probably not been able to finish [it]’.
(12) Oku-yabil-ecek-miş.
[Link]
234
Apparently s/he will be able to read [it].’
(iii) The markers in positions 4–5 can also attach directly to a subject complement, to
değil or to the existential expressions var/yok in nominal sentences (8.3, [Link]).
(13) Yazın Paris-te-ydi-k.
[Link]-1PL
4
‘We were in Paris during the summer.’
(14) Mutlaka zamanı var-dır.
existent-GM
5
‘I’m sure s/he has the time.’
(iv) Non-finite verb forms obligatorily contain a subordinating suffix (8.5), but they can
also contain suffixes from positions 1–2.
(15) otur-abil-mek
sit-PSB-VN
2
‘to be able to sit [down]’
 Inflectional suffixes 75

[Link] Position 1
- The possibility suffix -(y)A ([Link]) appears only in negative verb forms. It is the only
(y)A tense/aspect/modality suffix that precedes the negative suffix: bakamayız ‘we cannot look’,
göremiyordur ‘s/he probably can’t see’. It can co-occur with the possibility suffix -(y)Abil
from position 2: bakamayabiliriz ‘we may/might not be able to look’.

[Link] Position 2
The suffixes in this group consist of one of the verb roots bil- ‘know’, ver-‘give’, yaz-
‘make a mistake (obs.)’, dur- ‘stay’ and kal- ‘remain’. All of these suffixes except for -
(y)Abil are stressed on the first syllable (4.3.1 (iii)). They occur with one of the suffixes
in position 3.
- The possibility suffix -(y)Abil ([Link]) can occur with any of the suffixes in position 3:
(y)Abil gidebileceğim ‘I shall be able to go’, görebildiğim ‘(the one) that I can see’. See also -(y)A
above.
- This suffix can occur with all the suffixes in position 3 except for -mAktA: bitirivermiş
(y)Iver ‘apparently s/he finished [it] without effort’, pişiriverirdim ‘I would just have cooked it’. It
can either follow or, less commonly, precede the negative suffix: yapmayıverdi ‘s/he
simply didn’t do [it]’, yapıvermedi ‘s/he refrained from simply doing [it]’. Although it
follows voice suffixes in general, it may precede the passive suffix: yapılıverdi/yapıverildi
‘it was suddenly done’.
-(y)Agel, -(y)Adur, -(y)Ayaz -(y)Akal
These markers mostly occur in (semi-)lexicalized forms, or are obsolescent:
yapagelmişizdir ‘we have gone on doing [it]’, düşeyazdım ‘I almost fell’. The least
lexicalized one is -(y)Adur: okuyadur ‘go on reading’ ([Link]).

[Link] Position 3
-DI The perfective suffix can be followed by a person marker from group 1, one of the copular
markers -(y)DI or -(y)sA, but not by -(y)mIş or -DIr: olduk ‘we became’, gittiydin ‘you had
left’ (see -(y)DI below), beklediysen ‘if you have waited’.
- The evidential/perfective suffix can be followed by a person marker from group 2, any one
mIş of the copular markers, and by -DIr. When it is not followed by another tense/aspect/
modality marker, -mIş indicates both evidentiality and perfectivity: koşmuş ‘apparently
s/he ran/has run’, unutmuşum ‘I seem to have forgotten’. When it is followed by a copular
marker or -DIr, it indicates only perfectivity: başlamıştık ‘we had started’, anlamamışsa
‘if s/he has not understood’, görmüşlerdir ‘they must have seen [it]’. Similarly, when -mIş
is followed by an auxiliary verb in compound verb forms ([Link]) it indicates only
perfectivity: yapmış olduk ‘we have done [it]’, görmüş bulunuyorum ‘I have seen [it]’.
-sA The conditional suffix can be followed by a person marker from group 1, or by -(y)DI or -
(y)mIş, but not by -(y)sA or -DIr: düşünsen ‘if you thought/were to think’, hazırla-
masaydın ‘if you had not prepared [it]’. In colloquial contexts -sA can be replaced by the
optative suffix -(y)A (see below) when followed by a copular marker:
arasaydın/arayaydın ‘if (only) you had rung’, ‘you should have rung’.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 76

- The aorist suffix is phonologically irregular, as it displays a variation between six vowels,
(A/I)r/- ‘ı’, ‘i’, ‘ü’, ‘u’, ‘a’ and ‘e’. It is also the only suffix that has a different form (-z) when
z used with the negative marker. The aorist suffix may be followed by a person marker from
group 2, or any one of the copular markers, but not by -DIr: okurum ‘I read’, gülerdin
‘you used to/would laugh’.
The distribution of the different forms is as follows:
(i) -(I)r attaches to polysyllabic stems: konuşur ‘s/he speaks’, koparır ‘s/he breaks [it]’,
and to monosyllabic stems which already contain a suffix: ye-n-ir ‘it is eaten’ (but
yen-er ‘s/he beats [s.o]’).
(ii) Monosyllabic verbs ending in ‘l’ or ‘r’ are unpredict in terms of which form they
combine with. Of the forty-odd monosyllabic stems that end in ‘l’ or ‘r’, the
following combine with -Ir: al- ‘take’, bil- ‘know’, bul- ‘find’, dur- ‘stop’, gel-
‘come’, gör- ‘see’, kal- ‘stay’, ‘remain’, ol- ‘be’, öl- ‘die’, var- ‘reach’, ver- ‘give’,
vur- ‘hit’: bilir ‘s/he knows’, kalır ‘s/he stays’, görür ‘s/he sees’, bulur ‘s/he finds’.
Other stems ending in ‘l’ or ‘r’ combine with -Ar: örer ‘s/he knits’, kurar ‘s/he
establishes’.
(iii) Monosyllabic verbs ending in any other consonant combine with -Ar, with the
exception of san- ‘imagine’: sanırım ‘I think’.
(iv) The way in which the aorist suffix combines with the negative suffix -mA is highly
irregular:
(a) The suffix itself takes a completely different form, -z, when it follows -mA: gitmez ‘s/he
doesn’t/won’t/ wouldn’t go’, anlamazsın ‘you wouldn’t understand’.
(b) Where a negative aorist verb form does not contain a copular marker, the -z is deleted in the
1st person singular and plural: yemem ‘I won’t/wouldn’t eat’, kalmayız ‘we won’t/wouldn’t
stay’. This means that, in these particular forms, the aorist is expressed by the absence of a
distinct suffix.
(c) Unlike the negative suffix in other contexts (8.2.2), the negative-aorist combination -mAz is
stressed, except where (i) it is preceded by the possibility suffix -(y)A, or (ii) it is followed
by the 3rd person plural marker -lAr.
The table below shows the negative-aorist forms of the verb bak- ‘look’, both with and without the
presence of a copular marker. In the second column the past copula -(y)DI is used as an example of
a copular marker.

Negative+aorist Negative+aorist+ copular marker

1st person sg. bak-má-m bak-má-z-dı-m
2nd person sg. bak-má-z-sın bak-má-z-dı-n
3rd person sg. bak-má-z bak-má-z-dı
1st person pl. bak-má-yız bak-má-z-dı-k
2nd person pl. bak-má-z-sınız bak-má-z-dı-nız
3rd person pl. bak-ma-z-lár bak-ma-z-lár-dı
- The future suffix may be followed by a person marker from group 2, any one of the
(y)AcAK copular markers or by -DIr: geleceğim ‘I shall come’, silecektiniz ‘you were going to
 Inflectional suffixes 77

erase [it]’, bulacaktır ‘I’m sure s/he’ll find [it]’.

Despite being written with ‘a’ or ‘e’, the initial syllable of the future suffix is often

pronounced like an I-type suffix (3.2.1): kalacak ‘s/he will stay’ [ ]

dönecek ‘s/he will return’ [ ]. When this suffix is followed by a person

marker starting with a vowel, the final ‘k’ is replaced by ‘ğ’ ([Link]). In formal speech,
the inflectional sections of forms such as seveceğim ‘I will love’ and alacağım ‘I am
going to take [it]’ are pronounced as two consecutive vowels with stress on ‘ce’ or ‘ca’:
[ ] or [ ], [ ] or [ ]. But in
everyday speech the combination of the future marker with person markers has a
contracted version,
as shown for the verb in- ‘go/come down’ in the table below. See also 2.6 for a general
discussion of the effect of the initial -(y) of a suffix on a preceding vowel.

Future marker -(y)AcAk+person marking:

Formal Familiar
1st p. sg. ineceğim
[ ]/[ ] ↓[ ]
2nd p. sg. ineceksin
[ ]/[ ] ↓[ ]
3rd [Link]. inecek
[ ]/[ ] [ ]
1st p. pl. ineceğiz
[ ]/[ ] ↓[ ]
2nd p. pl. ineceksiniz
[ ]/[ ] ↓[ ]
3rd [Link]. inecekler
[ ]/[ ] [ ]

In the case of forms with back vowels, the [æ] in the future suffix is replaced by [a]:
[ ] ‘you are going to write’, etc.
- The imperfective suffix -(I)yor contains the obsolete verb stem yor-, which is invariable.
(I)yor Except where the negative marker is present, yor- assigns stress to the preceding vowel,
whether this vowel is -(I) or the final vowel of the stem that -(I)yor attaches to: koşúyor
‘s/he runs’, korúyor ‘s/he protects’. (For the effect of the negative suffix on word stress see
[Link].)
-(I)yor combines regularly with stems ending in a consonant: satıyor ‘s/he sells/is selling’,
görüyor ‘s/he sees’. Stems ending in a vowel combine with the component ‘yor’. In the
case of stems ending in a high vowel (‘i’, ‘ı’, ‘ü’ or ‘u’) ‘yor’ is added directly to the stem:
eriyor ‘it melts/is melting’, kuruyor ‘it dries/is drying’. However, where a stem ends in ‘a’
or ‘e’, the combination with ‘yor’ causes this vowel to become high (see 2.6). This high
vowel is then subject to vowel harmony (3.2.1):
anla- ‘understand → anlıyor ‘s/he understands’
okşa- ‘caress’ → okşuyor ‘s/he caresses/is caressing’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 78

bekle- ‘wait’ → bekliyor ‘s/he waits/is waiting’

özle- ‘miss’ → özlüyor ‘s/he misses’

The same situation occurs when -(I)yor is attached to the negative marker:
saklama- ‘not hide’ → saklamıyor ‘s/he doesn’t hide/ is not hiding’
söyleme- ‘not tell’ → söylemiyor ‘s/he doesn’t tell/ isn’t telling’
-(I)yor may be followed by a person marker from group 2, any one of the copular markers
or by -DIr: çalışıyorum ‘I work/am working’, arıyordu ‘s/he was looking for [it]’,
anlıyorsa ‘if s/he understands [it]’, gidiyordur ‘s/he’s probably going’. In colloquial speech
the ‘r’ at the end of the suffix is often not pronounced when it is followed by a suffix
beginning with a consonant: gidiyorsun ‘s/he goes/is going’ [ ]/

[ ], ödüyorduk ‘we were paying’ [ ]/ [ ],

or when it is at the end of a word: sarıyor ‘s/he wraps’ [saríjo]/[ ]. ‘r’ is retained
when it is followed by a suffix beginning with a vowel: seviyorum ‘I love/like’
[sevíjorum].
-mAlI The obligative suffix ([Link]) may be followed by a person marker from group 2 or by
any one of the copular markers: oturmamalısın ‘you must not sit’, anlattırmalıydılar ‘they
should have made [him/her] tell [the story]’. In formal texts it can also be followed by -DIr
when the verb is in the 3rd person singular or plural form: gitmelidir(ler) ‘s/he/(they)
should go’, yapılmamalıdır ‘it should not be done’.
- This is an imperfective suffix which is mostly used in formal contexts. It may be followed
mAktA by a person marker from group 2 or any one of the copular markers: okumaktasın ‘you are
(in the process of) reading’, bitirmekteydim ‘I was (in the process of) finishing’. It can also
be followed by -DIr when the verb is in the 3rd person singular or plural form:
dönmektedirler ‘they are (in the process of) returning’, görülmemektedir ‘it is not
seen/observed’.
-(y)A The optative suffix occurs mostly in the 1st person singular and plural forms: gideyim ‘let
me go’, ‘I’ll go’, oturalım ‘let’s sit (down)’. It may also occur in the 2nd person singular
and plural forms, usually in adverbial clauses of purpose with the subordinator diye or ki
([Link], [Link]): gösteresin (diye) ‘(so that) you [can] indicate’. Apart from the person
markers in group 3, -(y)A may be followed by -(y)DI or -(y)mIş: gideydim ‘if I had gone’.
In these combinations with copular markers -(y)A is an informal alternative to the
conditional suffix -sA (see above).

8.3 THE COPULA ‘BE’, COPULAR MARKERS AND -DIr

The copular markers in position 4 are composite. They are made up of the copula -(y)-
and the suffixes -DI, -mIş and -sA.
 Inflectional suffixes 79

8.3.1 THE COPULA ‘be’

The copula, which in most cases corresponds to the verb ‘be’, has different forms. These
are:
(i) -(y)-: This appears in -(y)DI, -(y)mIş, -(y)sA and in the converbial form -(y)ken
([Link] and 26.3.16). The segment ‘y’ in these markers should not be confused with the
consonant which occurs at the beginning of many suffixes for purposes of attachment
(6.1.3). The markers containing the copula -(y)- are unstressable (4.3.2 (i)). -(y)- is the
contracted form of i-, see below.
(ii) The bound stem i-: This is an obsolescent stem which appears in the now seldom
used forms idi, imiş ise and iken, e.g. seviyor idiysen ‘if (as you imply) you
loved [him/her]’. In the limited cases in which they are used, they are most often the
stressed word within the whole sentence and they are stressed on their second syllable.
This is because they are used primarily for purposes of emphasizing the tense or modality
that a particular copular marker expresses, especially by contrast to another tense or
modality expressed in the preceding utterance. For example, in a context where someone
makes a statement to the effect that Ahmet likes horror films, whereas the hearer believes
that Ahmet used to like horror films but no longer does, s/he could respond by saying:

Sever idí.
‘He used to.’

(iii) ol- (see [Link]–3).

8.3.2 THE COPULAR MARKERS -(y)DI, -(y)mIş AND -(y)sA

These markers are the contracted forms of idi, imiş, and ise (8.3.1 (ii)). They
attach to:
(i) Verbs containing one of the suffixes in position 3 (see the description of individual
suffixes for exceptions): bırakmıştı ‘s/he had left’, yürümekteymişler ‘apparently they
are/were walking’, koşuyorsak ‘if we are running’, bitirmiş olacaklardı ‘they were
supposed to have finished [it]’.
(ii) To nominals (7.1.1) to form nominal predicates ([Link]): hastaydı ‘s/he was ill’,
evdeymişler ‘apparently they are/were at home’, hevesliysek ‘if we are enthusiastic’.
Note that the component -(y)- is omitted following a consonant: satıyorduk ‘we were
selling [it]’, yemişti ‘s/he had eaten’, oynarsan ‘if you play’. -(y)DI and -(y)sA are
followed by person markers belonging to group 1, and -(y)mIş by person markers
belonging to group 2 (see 8.4 for details and exceptions). The copular markers are
unstressable, and place stress on the (stressable) syllable before them (see 4.3.2 (i) and
[Link]).
-(y)DI The past copula can attach to:
(i) All suffixes in position 3 on a verb stem: koşuyordu ‘s/he was running’, kalkmalıydı
‘s/he should have got up’. The forms -DIydI and -mIştI are identical in meaning, but
the former is restricted to informal registers: gelmişti ‘s/he had arrived’, ↓geldiydi
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 80

‘s/he had arrived’.

(ii) Nominals: öğretmenimdiniz ‘you were my teacher’, buradaydım ‘I was here’,
hastaydık ‘we were ill’.
Note that -(y)DI can also occur after a person marker which is attached to the perfective
marker -DI ([Link]): gittimdi ‘I have been [there]’, as well as before it: gittiydim.
For the combination of the past copula with the conditional copula see -(y)sA below.
- The evidential copula can attach to:
(y)mIş
(i) all suffixes in position 3 on a verb stem except for -DI: anlıyormuşsun ‘apparently
you understand/understood’, otursaymışlar/otursalarmış ‘apparently, if they had
sat…’
(ii) nominals: öğretmenmiş ‘apparently s/he is/was a teacher’, evimmiş ‘it is/was
apparently my house’.
See -(y)sA below for the combination of the evidential copula with the conditional copula.
-(y)sA The conditional copula can attach to:
(i) all suffixes in position 3 on a verb stem except for -sA: görmüşse ‘if s/he has
(apparently) seen’, seviyorsan ‘if you love [him/her]’.
Note that -(y)sA can also occur after a person marker which is attached to the perfective
marker -DI ([Link]): gittimse ‘if I have gone [there]’, as well as before it: gittiysem.
(ii) nominals: şöförse ‘if s/he is a driver’, yaşlıysa ‘if s/he is old’, evdeysem ‘if I am at
home’
(iii) the copular markers -(y)DI and -(y)mIş. When it combines with these other copular markers, -
(y)sA usually follows them: gidiyorduysan ‘if (as you imply) you were going’,
bakıyormuşsan ‘if (as seems to be the case) you were said to be looking’. However, some
speakers use the reverse order with -(y)DI: gidiyorsaydın
In nominal predicates the free-standing forms idiyse and imişse are generally preferred to the
suffixed combinations -(y)DIysA and -(y)mIşsA: masada idiyse ‘if it was on the table’.

8.3.3 -DIr
The generalizing modality marker -DIr follows person markers (8.4), except in the case
of the 3rd person plural suffix -lAr, which it may precede or follow:
1st person singular gid-iyor-um-dur ‘I’m presumably going’
2nd person singular (familiar) gid-iyor-sun-dur ‘you’re presumably going’
(formal) gid-iyor-sunuz-dur ‘you’re presumably going’
3rd person singular gid-iyor-dur ‘s/he’s presumably going’
1st person plural gid-iyor-uz-dur ‘we’re presumably going’
2nd person plural gid-iyor-sunuz-dur ‘you’re presumably going’
 Inflectional suffixes 81

3rd person plural gid-iyor-lar-dır/gid-iyor-dur-lar ‘they’re presumably going’

-DIr occurs in:

(i) verbal forms which already contain one of the position 3 suffixes -mIş, -
(y)AcaK, -(I)yor, -mAlI, -mAktA: anlamışlardır ‘they’ve probably understood’,
unutacağızdır ‘we will almost certainly forget’, sanıyordur ‘s/he’s probably
assuming’, bilmelidir ‘s/he must know’, gitmektedir ‘s/he is going’. -DIr co-
occurs with -mAlI and -mAktA only in the 3rd person singular and plural forms.
(ii) verbal forms which have the combination -(I)yormuş (the imperfective suffix
followed by the evidential copula). This occurs only in colloquial registers:
↓bitiriyormuştur ‘s/he must have been finishing [it]’.
(iii) nominal predicates: yırtıcı bir kuştur, ‘it’s a bird of prey’, güzelsindir ‘you
are definitely pretty’, burdadır ‘s/he’s probably here’, vardır ‘there is/must be’.
(iv) expressions denoting a period of time: bunca zamandır ‘for all this time’ (see
[Link] (iii)).
When -DIr is attached to an indefinite noun phrase which is the subject or object in a
sentence, it emphasizes the scale of the event described: Bir curcunadır gidiyordu ‘There
was pandemonium’, Bir inattır tutturdu ‘S/he is being totally unreasonable’.

8.4 PERSON MARKERS

Person markers are attached to both verbal and nominal predicates, to indicate the
(grammatical person of the) subject. They follow all other suffixes: kaçsan ‘if you ran
away’, çalışıyoruz ‘we’re working’, bakayım ‘let me see’, gidin ‘go!’, odamdayım ‘I’m
in my room’, except in the following cases, where they optionally or obligatorily precede
another suffix:
(i) 1st and 2nd person forms which contain -DIr (see 8.3.3)
(ii) verb forms with -DI followed by -(y)DI or -(y)sA (see group 1 below)
(iii) the 3rd person plural suffix -lAr: When this suffix occurs in a form which contains
a position 3 suffix and a copular marker, its preferred position is between these two, but it
may also come at the end:

kat-sa-lar-dı/kat-sa-ydı-lar ‘if they had added [it]’

bak-acak-lar-mış/bak-acak-mış-lar ‘apparently they are/were going to look’

In nominal predicates the 3rd person plural suffix normally follows a copular marker:

öğrenci-ydi-ler ‘they were students’

hasta-ymış-lar ‘apparently they are/were ill’

However, there are two exceptions:

 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 82

(a) When suffixed to a locative-marked noun phrase -lAr may precede a copular
marker, although this is less common:

orada-ydı-lar (or orada-lar-dı) ‘they were there’

evde-yse-ler (or evde-ler-se) ‘if they are at home’
(b) When suffixed to one of the negation markers değil or yok (20.2–3), -
lAr normally precedes a copular marker, although the reverse order is also
possible:
öğrenci değil-ler-di (or değil-di-ler) ‘they were not students’
evde yok-lar-mış (or yok-muş-lar) ‘apparently they are/were not at home’

A non-case-marked subject complement to which the 3rd person plural predicate marker -
lAr has been added should not be confused with a noun phrase containing the number
suffix, i.e. the plural marker -lAr. In the former case -lAr is unstressable, whereas in the
latter case it is stressable (see also 4.3.2 (ivc) and 22.3 (34)):

Öğretménler. ‘They are teachers.’ (3rd person plural predicate marker)

öğretmenlér ‘(the) teachers’ (number suffix)

For the circumstances under which the 3rd person plural predicate marker can be used or
omitted see 12.2.1–2. The conditions that apply to the usage of the familiar and formal
2nd person singular forms in the groups below are the same as those described for the
selection of the 2nd person singular pronouns sen ‘you’ (familiar) or siz ‘you’ (formal) in
18.1.1.
There are four groups of person markers that occur in predicates.
Group 1
1st person singular -m
2nd person singular (familiar) -n
(formal) -nIz
3rd person singular
1st person plural -k
2nd person plural -nIz
3rd person plural (-lAr)

The 3rd person singular is expressed by the absence of any suffix: geldi ‘s/he has
arrived’, kalsa ‘if s/he were to stay’, yazmıştı ‘s/he had written’.
The markers in this group are used after:
(i) The position 3 verbal suffixes -DI and -sA: çekildiniz ‘you retreated’, baktılar
‘they looked’, bıraksak ‘if we were to leave [it]’, uyusan ‘if you slept’, kaldılar
‘they stayed’.
 Inflectional suffixes 83

(ii) The copular markers -(y)DI and -(y)sA: çekilirdiniz ‘you used to retreat’,
bırakıyorsak ‘if we are leaving [it]’, evdeydik ‘we were at home’, hastaysalar ‘if
they are ill’.
When a verb form contains -DI followed by -(y)DI or -(y)sA, the person markers can
occur either after -DI or after the copular marker: geldinizse/ geldiyseniz ‘if you have
arrived’, baktıydık/baktıktı ‘we had looked’.
Group 2
1st person singular -(y)Im
2nd person singular (familiar) -sIn
(formal) -sInIz
3rd person singular
1st person plural -(y)Iz
2nd person plural -sInIz
3rd person plural (-lAr)

The 3rd person singular is indicated by the absence of any suffix: okuyormuş ‘apparently
s/he’s reading’, bakacak ‘s/he’s going to look’, orada ‘s/he’s there’.
The markers in this group are used after:
(i) The position 3 verbal suffixes -mIş, -(A/I)r, -(y)AcAK, -(I)yor, -mAlI, -mAktA:
unutmuşsun ‘you seem to have forgotten’, biliriz ‘we know’, hatırlamalıyım ‘I
must remember’, gideceğim ‘I shall go’, ilgilenmemişler ‘apparently they did not
take any notice’.
(ii) The copular marker -(y)mIş: çalışmalıymışız ‘apparently we have to work’,
söylüyormuşsunuz ‘apparently you’ve been saying’.
(iii) Nominals which are part of nominal predicates: okuldayım ‘I’m at school’,
hastasınız ‘you’re ill’, buradalar ‘they’re here’.
In colloquial speech, the ‘s’ in the forms -mIşsIn(Iz) (evidential/perfective suffix+2nd
person singular/plural) and -(y)mIşsIn(Iz) (evidential copula+ 2nd person singular/plural)
can be deleted, reducing these forms to -mIşIn(Iz) and -(y)mIşIn(Iz): satmışın ‘I hear
you’ve sold [it]’, bitiriyormuşunuz ‘I gather you’re finishing [it]’. The combination of
group 2 person markers with the future suffix also has a colloquial version (see -(y)AcAk,
[Link]).
Group 3
1st person singular -yIm
2nd person singular (familiar) -sIn
(formal) -sInIz
3rd person singular -sIn
1st person plural -lIm
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 84

2nd person plural -sInIz

3rd person plural -sIn(lAr)

All of the person markers above except the 3rd person forms attach to the optative suffix
-(y)A ([Link], [Link]): bakayım ‘let me see’, oynayabilesiniz ‘[so that] you would be
able to play’, kaçalım ‘let us escape’. The 3rd person forms -sIn and -sInlar do not attach
to the optative suffix (or to any other position 3 suffix) but conjoin directly with the verb
(which may contain a suffix from position 2): git-sin ‘let him/her go’, oynasınlar ‘let
them play’, kalkmayıversin ‘let him/her just not get up’, bitirebilsinler ‘[so that] they are
able to finish [it]’.
Group 4
2nd person singular (familiar) -, -sAnA
(formal) -(y)In, -(y)InIz, -sAnIzA
3rd person singular -sIn
2nd person plural -(y)In, -(y)InIz, -sAnIzA
3rd person plural -sIn(lAr)

These are person markers used in imperative forms. They attach directly to the verb stem:
okutun ‘make [him/her/them] read’, gel ‘come here!’. The 2nd person persuasive
imperative forms ↓-sAnA and ↓-sAnIzA are composite forms containing the conditional
suffix, the 2nd person markers from group 1 and the harmonized interjection A. These
two person markers are mostly used for expressing suggestions rather than orders:
↓otursanıza ‘why don’t you sit down’, oturun ‘sit down!’ (see [Link]).

8.5 SUBORDINATING SUFFIXES

Suffixation is the primary means of forming subordinate clauses in Turkish.

Subordinating suffixes are nominalizing suffixes. They combine with verb stems to form
nominals, some of which can be inflected with the plural suffix (8.1.1), the possessive
marker indicating the subject of the subordinate clause (8.1.2), a case suffix (8.1.3), -
(y)lA or -ki (8.1.4). Any verb form which contains a subordinating suffix is non-finite.
Non-finite verb forms are of the three following types:
(i) verbal nouns: these are non-finite verbs of noun clauses (Chapter 24)
(ii) participles: these are non-finite verbs of relative clauses (Chapter 25)
(iii) converbs: these are non-finite verbs of adverbial clauses (Chapter 26).
Some examples are:
(16) [Sorun yarat-acağ-ı] belli. (Verbal noun)
problem [Link] clear
 Inflectional suffixes 85

‘It is clear [that s/he will create problems].’

(17) [Sorun yarat-an] kuruluş-lar uyar-ıl-dı. (Participle)
problem create-PART organization-PL admonish-PASS-PF
‘The organizations [that were creating problems] were admonished.’
(18) [Sorun yarat-maktansa] sonuç-lar-ı kabullen-di. (Converb)
problem create-CV consequence-PL-ACC accept-PF
‘[Instead of creating problems] s/he accepted the consequences.’
The majority of subordinating suffixes in Turkish form only one of the three types of
non-finite verb. However, certain subordinators, namely -DIK, -(y)AcAK, -mA and -mAK
can form more than one type of subordinate clause. In some cases they do this by
combining with other suffixes or words. In this section we describe the attachment
properties and morphological characteristics of each subordinating suffix. For a full
discussion of their functions see Chapters 24–7. Note that where person marking is
obligatory in a particular non-finite form, this is indicated below by the 3rd person
singular form.

8.5.1 MULTI-FUNCTIONAL SUBORDINATING SUFFIXES: -DIK, -

(y)AcAK, -mA, -mAK

[Link] -DIK and -(y)AcAK

-DIK and -(y)AcAK form all three types of subordinate clause. They can be followed by
possessive suffixes and case suffixes. Where they function as participles in headless
relative clauses (25.3), they can be followed by all of the nominal inflectional suffixes
described in 8.1, including the plural marker, -(y)lA and -ki: sattıklarımınki ‘the one
belonging to those that I sell/sold’.
-DIK This suffix usually expresses present or past time. It forms:
(i) Verbal nouns: gittiğini (bil-) ‘(know) that s/he has left’, kıskandırdığınızı (anla-)
‘(understand) that you are making/have made [s.o.] envious’ (24.4.3).
(ii) Participles: göremediğim (film) ‘(the film) that I was not able to see’, öpüştüğü
(kız) ‘(the girl) whom s/he has kissed/is kissing’ ([Link]).
(iii) Converbs: baktığımızda ‘when we look/looked’, anladığımdan ‘because I
understand/(have) understood’.
-DIK has a converbial function when it occurs in one of the following combinations
(26.2–3), some of which involve postpositions (Chapter 17):

-DIğIndA: yürüdüğümde‘when I walk’

-DIkçA: koştukça ‘the more [s.o.] runs’
-DIğIndAn (beri/dolayı/ötürü): geldiğimizden beri ‘since we arrived’
-DIğI (için/zaman/sırada/anda/halde/kadarıyla/takdirde/gibi/sürece/ nispette):
bakmadığım için ‘because I haven’t looked/am/was not looking’, gördüğüm anda ‘the
moment I saw [it]’
-DIğInA (göre): istemediğinize göre ‘since you don’t/didn’t want [it]’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 86

-DIktAn (sonra/başka): aldıktan sonra ‘after taking [it]’, anladıktan başka ‘in addition
to understanding’

-(y)AcAK This subordinator indicates (relative) future time, and forms:

(i) Verbal nouns: anlayacağımı (san-) ‘(imagine) that I would understand’, iteceğini
(düşün-) ‘(think) that s/he would push’ (24.4.3).
(ii) Participles: okuyacağım (kitap) ‘(the book) that I am/was going to read’,
sevemeyeceğim (bir kişi) ‘(a person) that I shall/would not be able to like’, görüşeceği
(doktor) ‘(the doctor) whom s/he is/was going to see’ ([Link]).
(iii) Converbs: öğreneceğine ‘instead of learning’, isteyeceğimden ‘because I am going
to want’.
-(y)AcAK has a converbial function when it occurs in one of the following
combinations (26.2.3), some of which involve postpositions (Chapter 17).

-(y)AcAğI (için/zaman/sırada/anda/halde/gibi): kalkacağın zaman ‘when you are going

to get up’, oturmayacağı için ‘because s/he isn’t/wasn’t going to stay’, gideceği gibi ‘in
addition to the fact that s/he is/was going to go’
-(y)AcAğIndAn (dolayı/ötürü): satmayacağından ötürü ‘on account of the fact that
s/he is/was not going to sell [it]’
-(y)AcAğInA (göre): içmeyeceğime göre ‘since I’m/I was not going to drink [it]’
-(y)AcAk (kadar/derecede): saklayacak kadar ‘to the point of hiding [it]’

Note that words containing the subordinating suffix -(y)AcAK have a different stress
pattern and pronunciation from words containing the future marker -(y)AcAK ([Link]).
The finite forms which contain the future marker -(y)AcAK combine with the unstressable
(group 2) person markers (4.3.2 (iv)) and have short vowels, whereas the non-finite forms
which contain the subordinator -(y)AcAK are followed by stressable possessive markers
(8.1.2). However, in the informal contracted forms that occur in non-finite as well as
finite future verbs, this distinction in stress is neutralized in the 1st and 2nd person
singular and the 2nd person plural. (Compare the table below with that given for the same
verb in- ‘go/come down’ in [Link].)
Subordinator -(y)AcAk+possessive marking:
Formal Familiar
1st p. sg. ineceğim
[ ]/[ ] ↓[ ]
2nd p. sg. ineceğin
[ ]/[ ] ↓[ ]
3rd [Link]. ineceği
[ ]/[ ] ↓[ ]
1st p. pl. ineceğimiz
[ ]/[ ] ↓[ ]
2nd p. pl. ineceğiniz
[ ]/[ ] ↓[ ]
3rd [Link]. inecekleri
[ ]/[ ] [ ]
 Inflectional suffixes 87

[Link] -mA and -mAK

Both -mA and -mAK form verbal nouns and converbs. These two suffixes differ in respect
of which nominal inflectional markers they can combine with. The plural suffix attaches
to -mA only: (evden) kaçmalar ‘incidents of running away (from home)’. Combinability
with possessive suffixes is the most significant difference between the two subordinators.
While -mA is often followed by one of the possessive markers, -mAK cannot combine
with them:
-mA -mAK
koşmam (için) koşmak (için)
‘(in order for) me to run’ ‘(in order) to run’
These forms can be inflected for case:
gitmenizi (bekliyor) gitmeyi (bekliyor)
‘s/he expects you to leave’ ‘s/he expects to leave’
şarkı söylemene (bayılıyor) şar kı söylemeye (bayılıyor)
‘s/he loves [the way] you sing’ ‘s/he loves singing’
koşmamda (ısrar etti) koşmakta (ısrar etti)
‘s/he insisted that I run/ran’ ‘s/he insisted on running’
konuşmamdan (korkuyor) konuşmaktan (korkuyor)
‘s/he is scared that I might talk’ ‘s/he is scared of talking’

-mA can also combine directly with the genitive case-marker, whereas -mAK cannot:
üniversiteye gitmenin (anlamı) ‘(the significance) of going to university’. Some speakers
attach the locative case marker directly to -mA: cevap vermede (geciktim) ‘I am/was late
in responding’, but forms where the locative suffix is attached to -mAK are more
widespread: cevap vermekte (geciktim) ‘I am/was late in responding’.
Note that when -mAK combines with a suffix beginning with a vowel, as in the case of
the accusative and dative suffixes, the resulting form is spelt and pronounced more
commonly nowadays as -mayı, -meyi (ACC) and -maya, -meye (DAT), rather than -mağı,
-meği (ACC) and -mağa, -meğe (DAT). Since a case marker can also attach to -mA
directly without an intervening possessive marker (as seen above in the case of the
genitive and locative case markers), it may not always be clear whether the accusative or
dative case marker has attached to -mA or to -mAK. In this book we adhere to the new
spelling of these forms (with ‘y’ rather than ‘ğ’) and consider these forms as a
combination of -mAK+ACC/DAT.
-mAK This subordinator forms:
(i) Verbal nouns: almak (iste-) ‘(want) to buy’, sevmeyi (öğren-) ‘(learn) to love’,
ağlamaya (başla-) ‘(start) crying’ (24.4.1)
(ii) Converbs: içmeksizin ‘without drinking’.
-mAK has a converbial function when it occurs in one of the following combinations
(26.2–3), some of which involve postpositions (Chapter 17):

-mAk (üzere/için/yerine/suretiyle/şartıyla): vermek için ‘in order to give’

-mAklA (birlikte): okuyabilmekle birlikte ‘although able to read’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 88

-mAksIzIn (formal): dönmeksizin ‘without returning’

-mAktAn (öte/başka/gayrı): satmaktan öte ‘apart from selling [it]’
-mAktAnsA: bitirmektense ‘rather than finishing [it]’.
-mA This subordinator forms:

(i) Verbal nouns: anlamamamı (iste-) ‘(want) me not to understand’ (24.4.2)

(ii) Converbs: yürümekten başka ‘apart from walking’.
-mA has a converbial function when it occurs in one of the following combinations
(26.2–3), some of which involve postpositions (Chapter 17):

-mAsI (için/halinde/durumunda/yüzünden): öksürmesi halinde ‘in the event of his/her

coughing’
-mAsIndAn (itibaren/önce/sonra/ötürü/başka/dolayı): seçilmesinden önce ‘before s/he
was elected’, istemememizden ötürü ‘because we don’t/didn’t want [it]’

-mAsInA (rağmen/karşın): anlaşmanıza rağmen ‘in spite of your getting along well
together’.

8.5.2 SUBORDINATING SUFFIXES WHICH HAVE A SINGLE

FUNCTION

[Link] -(y)An and -(y)Iş

- This suffix forms participles: okuyan (çocuk) ‘(the child) who studies/is studying’
(y)An ([Link]). When it occurs in headless relative clauses (25.3) and pronominalized complex
adjectivals (18.4 (vi)), it can be followed by all of the nominal inflectional suffixes
described in 8.1: okuyanlarımıza ‘to the ones among us who study/are studying’.
Much less productively than in its usage as a participle, -(y)An can be used idiomatically in
informal contexts to express the unexpectedly large number of people involved in a
particular activity. In these cases it is reiterated on identical and adjacent verb stems, and the
second verb has dative case marking: Konsere giden gidene ‘Masses of people went to the
concert’. Şu saçma dergiyi de alan alana! ‘Everyone’s buying this ridiculous magazine!’
-(y)Iş This suffix can combine with the plural marker, possessive suffixes and case suffixes. It
forms verbal nouns: oturuşumu (beğen-) ‘(like) my way of sitting’, konuşuşunuz ‘the way
you talk’ (24.4.4).

[Link] Subordinating suffixes which only form converbs

The following suffixes form converbs (26.2–3). With the exception of -mlşÇAsInA, none
of these suffixes combine with person markers:
(i) Converbial suffixes containing the negative marker -mA or -mAz
-mAdAn (önce/ evvel): The forms containing -mA are stressed on the syllable
preceding the negative marker (cf. 4.3.2 (viii)), e.g. yıkílmadan ‘before being
demolished’.
 Inflectional suffixes 89

-mAzdAn (önce/ evvel) (-mA combined with the negative aorist form -z): The forms
containing -mAz occur with önce or evvel. They are stressed on the case suffix
following the negative marker, e.g. yıkılmazdán önce ‘before being demolished’. The
form -mAzdAn önce is slightly more formal than -mAdAn önce.
(ii) Other converbial suffixes:
-(y)IncA yüzünce ‘when [s.o.] swims/swam’, kalkmayınca ‘when [s.o.] doesn’t/didn’t get up’.
-(y)ArAk koşarak ‘running’, büyüyerek ‘growing up’, çalışarak ‘by working’. Also ↓-(y)ArAktAn:
bakaraktan ‘looking’.
↓-(y)AlI düşüneli (beri) ‘since thinking about [s.t.]’, geleli beri ‘since arriving’, ‘since [s.o.]
(beri) arrived’. Colloquial form of -DIğIndAn beri.
-(y)IncAyA (kadar/değin/dek)/↓-(y)AnA (kadar)
gidinceye kadar ‘by the time [s.o.] went’. -(y)AnA is a colloquial version: ↓oturana
kadar ‘by the time [s.o.] sat down’.
-(A/I)r/-(y)AcAk/-mIş/-(y)mIş/-(I)yor gibi
kalkacak gibi ‘as if about to get up’, anlar gibi ‘as if understanding’, içki içmiş gibi ‘as if
having drunk alcohol’.
-(A/I)rcAsInA/-mIşçAsInA
hissedercesine ‘as if feeling’. With the form -mIşçAsInA, there is the possibility of
adding person marking: konuşuyormuşumcasına ‘as if I was talking’.
-(y)Ip koşup al- ‘run and get’, girip otur- ‘enter and sit down’. Because of its conjunctive
function, this suffix is discussed in 28.2.
-(y)ken The segment -(y)- is the copula (8.3.1). Because of this, -(y)ken attaches not directly to
the verb stem, but instead to a position 3 verbal suffix or to a nominal (cf. 8.3.2, 26.2.3
(ii)): bakarken ‘when/while ([s.o.] is/was) watching’, çocukken ‘when/as a child’, ‘when
[s.o.] was a child’, sokaktayken ‘while in the street’, bizimken ‘when [s.t.] is/was ours’.
Unlike the other copular markers, it cannot combine with person markers, except
optionally with the 3rd person plural suffix -lAr: gider(ler)ken ‘as they go/went’. It is
invariable (i.e. its vowel does not undergo vowel harmony, see 3.4).

A few converbial subordinators are added to pairs of verbs that follow immediately after
each other:
-(y)A…- Added to identical or similar verb stems or to semantically contrasting ones: baka baka
(y)A ‘staring’, yedire yedire ‘continuously making [s.o.] eat’, bağıra çağıra ‘at the top of
his/her voice’, gide gele ‘going back and forth’, bata çıka ‘sinking and rising’.
↓-DI…- Added to identical verb stems. The first stem has person marking: duydum duyalı ‘ever
(y)AlI since I heard [it]’, baktırdın baktıralı ‘ever since you had [it] checked’, alındı alınalı
‘ever since it was bought’.
-(A/I)r…- This pair of suffixes consists of the aorist and negative-aorist position 3 verbal suffixes
mAz ([Link]). These produce a converbial form when added to consecutive identical verb
stems without any person marking: yer yemez ‘as soon as [s.o.] eats/ate’, gider gitmez
‘as soon as [s.o.] leaves/left’.
 9
REDUPLICATION

Reduplication is the repetition of a word or part of a word. There are three types of
reduplicative process in Turkish:
(i) emphatic reduplication: kıpkırmızı ‘stark red’ (9.1)
(ii) m-reduplication: çirkin mirkin ‘ugly, or anything like that’ (9.2)
(iii) doubling: yavaş yavaş ‘slowly’ (9.3).

9.1 EMPHATIC REDUPLICATION

Emphatic reduplication is used for accentuating the quality of an adjective:

uzun ‘long’ → upuzun ‘very long’
güzel ‘pretty’ → güpgüzel ‘very pretty’

It occurs mainly with underived adjectives, and occasionally with adverbs.

In emphatic reduplication, a prefix is attached to the stem. If the stem begins with a
vowel the prefix consists of this vowel and the reduplicative consonant ‘p’:
ince ‘thin’ → i+p+ince → ipince ‘very thin’
eski ‘old’ → e+p+eski → epeski ‘very old’

If the stem begins with a consonant, the prefix consists of this consonant, the vowel
following it and one of the reduplicative consonants ‘p’, ‘s’, ‘r’ or ‘m’:
sarı ‘yellow’ → sa+p+sarı → sapsarı ‘bright yellow’
katı ‘hard’ → ka+s+katı → kaskatı ‘hard as a rock’
temiz ‘clean’ → te+r+temiz → tertemiz ‘clean as a pin’
siyah ‘black’ → si+m+siyah → simsiyah ‘pitch black’

In some cases the reduplicated segment contains an additional segment:

(i) -A:

gündüz ‘daytime’, ‘by day’ gü +p+e+gündüz ‘in broad daylight’

sağlam ‘in good condition’ sa+p+a+sağlam ‘in very good condition’
yalnız ‘alone’ ya+p+a+yalnız ‘all alone’ (also yapyalnız)

(ii) -Il or -Am, in some cases where the reduplicative consonant is ‘r’:
 Reduplication 91

çıplak ‘naked’ çı+r+ıl+çıplak ‘stark naked’ (also çırçıplak)

parça ‘piece’ pa+r+am+parça ‘torn to shreds’, ‘smashed to pieces’
The occurrence of a particular reduplicative consonant is, to a degree, based on the
consonants in a stem. For example, the reduplicative consonant cannot be the same as the
first or second consonant of the stem. The number of stems which can undergo emphatic
reduplication is limited. A list of such stems with their reduplicated forms is given in
Appendix 1.
Words which undergo emphatic reduplication are stressed on the initial syllable (e.g.
kápkara, sápasağlam, ápaçık) except when the reduplicated form contains -Il or -Am, in
which case this latter syllable bears stress (e.g. çırílçıplak). Emphatically reduplicated
words cannot occur with the modifiers in 15.4 (such as çok ‘many’ or en ‘most’).

9.2 m-REDUPLICATION

The function of m-reduplication is to generalize the concept denoted by a particular word

or phrase to include other similar objects, events or states of affairs. This is a colloquial
usage.
(1) Doktor önce hastanın gözüné mözüné baktı, sonra sorunu anlamadığını
söyledi.
‘The doctor first checked the patient’s eyes, etc., then said that s/he didn’t
understand the problem.’
(2) Eve çat kapı bir alıcı geldi, odalarí modalarí dolaştı.
‘Today a prospective buyer came unannounced, [and] looked around the rooms,
etc.’
(3) Soner’í monerí görmedim.
‘I didn’t see Soner or anyone.’
m-reduplication involves the repetition of a word or phrase in a modified form. If this
word or phrase begins with a vowel, the modifying consonant ‘m’ is prefixed to its
second occurrence:

etek metek ‘skirt(s) and the like’

içecek miçecek ‘drinks and the like’

If the word or phrase begins with a consonant, this consonant is replaced by ‘m’ in its
second occurrence:

kapı mapı ‘door(s) and the like’

çay may ‘tea and the like’

In most cases the reduplicative form immediately follows the word which it reduplicates.
One exception is noun compounds, where the entire compound is repeated, with only its
first word undergoing m-reduplication:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 92

(4) Ben adam tarih hocasıymış marih hocasıymış anlamam. Fransız tarihini
ondan daha iyi biliyorum.
‘I don’t care if he is a history teacher or whatever. I know more about French
history than he does.’

9.3 DOUBLING

Doubling is the simple repetition of a word. It occurs with nouns, adverbs, adjectives and
measure terms.
(i) Doubled adverbs, doubled nouns, doubled adjectives and doubled distributive
numerals (15.7.3) all occur with an adverbial function (see 16.1.3):
yavaş yavaş ‘slowly’
çabuk çabuk ‘quickly’
kapı kapı ‘from door to door’
damla damla ‘in drops’
sabah sabah ‘early in the morning’
usul usul ‘slowly and softly’
rahat rahat ‘comfortably’, ‘easily’
birer/birer ‘one by one’

(ii) Doubled adjectives are also used as modifiers with plural nouns, both to draw
attention to the quality denoted by the adjective and to indicate a large quantity of the
item in question:
koca koca (ağaçlar) ‘many huge (trees)’
sarı sarı (evler) ‘many yellow (houses)’

(iii) When doubled nouns are used adjectivally they are usually used without plural
marking on the noun that is modified. These forms indicate a large quantity or a great
variety of the item in question:
çeşit çeşit yiyecek(ler) ‘all kinds of (dishes)’
boy boy kutu(lar) ‘boxes of all sizes’
kutu kutu kitap ‘many boxes of books’

(iv) The particle mI ([Link]) inserted between two occurrences of an adjective

intensifies its meaning. These forms are colloquial, and are usually used either as
predicative adjectives or in indefinite noun phrases:
Adam kurnaz mı kurnaz ‘The man is extremely sly’
güzel mi güzel bir kız ‘a remarkably pretty girl’
 Reduplication 93

Forms doubled with the aid of mI can occasionally be used as adverbs:

yavaş mı yavaş (okuyor) ‘(s/he reads) very slowly’

9.3.1 DOUBLING IN LEXICAL FORMATIONS

There are a number of idiomatic expressions that are created by doubling. Some of these
contain similar sounding words which may or may not exist independently, or they may
be formed by two words that denote similar concepts:
konu komşu ‘neighbours’
ufak tefek ‘tiny’
paldır küldür ‘with an enormous noise’
çoluk çocuk ‘wife and children’
süklüm püklüm ‘in a crestfallen manner’
 10
NOUN COMPOUNDS

In this chapter we discuss noun compounds, word-like units which are made up of two
nouns or an adjective and a noun. There are two types of noun compound:
(i) bare compounds: kız kardeş ‘sister’, naylon torba ‘plastic bag’, Yeşilbahar
Sokak ‘Yeşilbahar Street’, büyükbaba ‘grandfather’
(ii) -(s)I compounds: at arabası ‘horse-drawn carriage’, gaz sobası ‘gas stove’,
Atatürk Bulvarı ‘Atatürk Boulevard’, buzdolabı ‘refrigeration’.
In both types the first noun or adjective modifies the second noun, which is called the
head. As seen in the above examples, some compounds are written as one word.
Noun compounds whose modifiers are clauses (e.g. savaşın uzun bir süre devam
edeceği korkusu ‘the fear that the war would go on for a long time’) are discussed in
24.6. See 4.2 for stress in compounds.

10.1 BARE COMPOUNDS

These are of two types: bare noun compounds and adjective-noun compounds.

10.1.1 BARE NOUN COMPOUNDS

These consist simply of two juxtaposed nouns, with no suffixation to mark the relation
between them. This type of compounding is of restricted occurrence. Its main areas of
usage are listed below.
(i) Compounds in which the first noun specifies the sex or the profession of the person
denoted by the second noun:
erkek kardes ‘brother’
kızarkadaş ‘girlfriend’
kadın doktor ‘woman doctor’
avukat kadın ‘woman who is a lawyer’

(ii) Compounds in which the first noun specifies the nationality of the person denoted by
the second noun (also expressed by -(s)I compounds (10.2)):
Alman mimar ‘German architect’
Türk çocuklar ‘Turkish children’
 Noun compounds 95

(iii) Compounds in which the first noun specifies the material from which the item
denoted by the second noun is made:
çelik kapı ‘steel door’
taş duvar ‘stone wall’
yün çorap ‘wool sock(s)’

(iv) The names of various cooked dishes:

şiş kebap ‘shish kebab’
kuzu fırın ‘oven-cooked lamb’

(v) Street names in which the second noun is sokak ‘street’:

Akgül Sokak ‘Akgül Street’

The use of bare noun compounds for street names is a fairly recent development, and
forms such as Akgül Sokak are used interchangeably with the corresponding -(s)I
compound form (with Sokağı instead of Sokak; see 10.2). Even official usage is not
consistent, and the abbreviation ‘Sok.’, commonly used in postal addresses and on street
signs, obscures this variation.

10.1.2 ADJECTIVE-NOUN COMPOUNDS

These compounds are made up of an adjective and a noun. As in bare-noun compounds,
there is no suffixation to mark the relation between the two components. The majority of
these compounds are written as single words:
karabiber ‘pepper’
karafatma ‘cockroach’
darboğaz ‘(economic) bottle-neck’
kabakulak ‘mumps’
akciğer ‘lung(s)’
sarı humma ‘yellow fever’

10.2 -(s)I COMPOUNDS

This is by far the more common type of compounding in Turkish. -(s)I compounds
consist minimally of two juxtaposed nouns, the first of which has no suffixes while the
second is marked with the 3rd person possessive suffix -(s)I (8.1.2). Some examples are:
otobüs bilet-i ‘bus ticket’
el çanta-sı ‘handbag’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 96

masa örtü-sü ‘tablecloth’

çay bardağ-ı ‘tea glass’
çocuk bahçe-si ‘children’s playground’

The plural of a -(s)I compound is formed by attaching the 3rd person possessive suffix (in
this case always -I) to the plural form of the second noun:
otobüs biletler-i ‘bus tickets’
el çantalar-ı ‘handbags’
çay bardaklar-ı ‘tea glasses’

In the case of -(s)I compounds that are written as one word, there is some variation in
how the plural is formed. In most such words the plural suffix precedes the possessive
suffix, just as in the separately written compounds:
buzdolap-lar-ı ‘refrigerators’
yayınev-ler-i ‘publishing houses’

There are a few cases, however, where the possessive suffix is treated as an integral part
of the word, and the plural suffix follows it:
ayakkabı-lar ‘shoes’
yüzbaşı-lar ‘(army) captains’
binbaşı-lar ‘(army) majors’

In a very small number of cases the plural can be formed either way:

kasımpatı-lar/kasımpat-lar-ı ‘chrysanthemums’

The function of the 3rd person possessive suffix (8.1.2) in -(s)I compounds is not to
signify possession of one thing by another. It simply serves as a grammatical indicator of
the compounding of the noun to which it is affixed with the immediately preceding noun.
A particular function of -(s)I compounds is to unite the particular names of
topographical features, institutions and geopolitical entities with the noun denoting the
category of item in question:
Ağrı Dağ-ı ‘Mount Ararat’
Van Göl-ü ‘Lake Van’
Efes Lokanta-sı ‘Ephesus Restaurant’
Türkiye Cumhuriyet-i ‘Republic of Turkey’

A similar usage is seen in time expressions in which a date or the name of a day or month
is compounded with the noun denoting the unit of time in question (see [Link]):
 Noun compounds 97

1912 yıl-ı ‘the year 1912’

cuma gün-ü ‘Friday’
ocak ay-ı ‘the month of January’

-(s)I compounding is obligatory in cases where something non-human is specified as

peculiar to, or characteristic of, a specified nation. Turkish words expressing nationality
(e.g. Türk, İngiliz, Alman) are nouns, not adjectives:
Türk kahve-si ‘Turkish coffee’
Türk Lira-sı ‘Turkish Lira’
Alman ekmeğ-i ‘German bread’
Fransız edebiyat-ı ‘French literature’

Note that for some nationalities, the noun used as a modifier in -(s)I compounds is not
necessarily identical with the word used to designate a person of that nationality:
Yunan müziğ-i ‘Greek music’
Hint diller-i ‘Indian languages’

When the head noun is one that denotes human beings, adjectival forms with -lI ([Link])
are preferred:
Yunanlı doktor ‘Greek doctor’
Hintli müzisyen ‘Indian musician’

Note that in the case of Yunan(-lı) and Hint(-li), noun phrases on the pattern of Hint-li
doktor (adjective+noun) replace the bare noun compound forms such as Alman mimar
shown in 10.1.1.
In the case of countries for which Turkish does not have a separate noun of
nationality, the name of the country is used in place of it in -(s)I compounds:
Çin fener-i ‘Chinese lantern’
Brezilya takım-ı ‘the Brazilian team’

Names of other geographical or geopolitical entities (e.g. continents, regions, cities) are
also used in -(s)I compounds in the same way:
bir Afrika ülke-si ‘an African country’
Ortadoğu siyaset-i ‘Middle East(ern) politics’
Akdeniz iklim-i ‘Mediterranean climate’
Uşak halı-sı ‘Uşak carpet’ (carpet made in Uşak, or in that style)
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 98

As we saw in 10.1.1 (ii) above, when nouns of nationality (Türk, Alman, etc.) occur in
compounds denoting human beings, the second noun can be left unsuffixed, forming a
bare noun compound. However, in these cases a -(s)I compound is also possible:
İngiliz çocuklar-ı ‘English/British children’
Türk işçiler-i ‘Turkish workers’
Japon askerler-i ‘Japanese soldiers’
bir Rus sporcu-su ‘a Russian athlete’
Yunan başbakan-ı ‘the Greek prime minister’

There is a subtle difference between the meanings of the bare compound and the -(s)I
compound in such cases. While the bare compound identifies one or more individuals
who just happen to have a certain nationality, the -(s)I compound either (i) expresses a
whole class or group generically (such as British children, or the Turkish workers in a
particular factory, town, or country), or (ii) presents a person not primarily as an
individual human being but as someone functioning in some capacity on behalf of his/her
nation or country.

10.3 EMBEDDING COMPOUNDS WITHIN OTHER COMPOUNDS

Compounds can often be embedded within other compounds. For example, compounds
such as İngiliz edebiyatı ‘English literature’ or göz hastalıkları ‘diseases of the eye’ can
act as modifiers in other compounds:
İngiliz Edebiyat-ı Bölüm-ü ‘Department of English Literature’
göz hastalıklar-ı hastane-si ‘hospital for diseases of the eye’

Note that in these cases the marker -(s)I occurs on the head of each compound. Hence
longer forms can contain several markers, one for each head:

Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı Kadıköy Kız Yüksek Meslek Okulu
Müdürlüğü ‘The Directorate of the Kadıköy Technical College for Girls under the
Ministry of National Education of the Republic of Turkey’

The head of this multi-layered compound is müdürlük ‘directorate’, which is modified by

the following construction, itself a -(s)I compound:

Türkiye Cumhuriyet-i Milli Eğitim Bakanlığ-ı Kadıköy Kız Yüksek Meslek Okul-u
‘Kadıköy Technical College for Girls under the Ministry of National Education of the
Republic of Turkey’

The head of this compound is okul ‘school’, which has two simple modifiers, meslek,
here meaning ‘technical ‘and the adjective yüksek ‘high’ which when combined with okul
means ‘college’. Kız ‘girl’ modifies yüksek meslek okulu ‘technical college’, and Kadıköy
 Noun compounds 99

modifies kız yüksek meslek okul-u ‘technical college for girls’. Kadıköy Kız Yüksek
Meslek Okulu is modified by Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı, which is also a
construction with embedded compounds. The head of this compound is bakanlık
‘ministry’, modified by the noun phrase milli eğitim ‘national education’. The compound
Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı ‘Ministry of National Education’ is modified by Türkiye
Cumhuriyeti ‘Republic of Turkey’, itself a compound.
Note that when a compound acts as the head of another compound, only one
occurrence of -(s)I on the head is possible:

Kadıköy Kız Yüksek Meslek Okul-u ‘Kadıköy Technical College for Girls’
Polonya gölge tiyatro-su ‘Polis h shad ow theatre’

10.4 SEPARABILITY OF THE CONSTITUENTS OF COMPOUNDS

The constituents of bare noun compounds and -(s)I compounds usually form a single unit
and are inseparable. However, there are two exceptions:
(i) Conjoined compounds:
When two compounds have the same head, they can be conjoined by ve ([Link]), and
the first occurrence of the head can be deleted. The head in such cases may or may not
have plural marking:

kız ve erkek çocuklar ‘female and male children’, ‘girls and boys’
İngiliz ve Alman ‘(the) British and German cinema(s)’
sineması/sinemaları

(ii) Adjectives modifying the head:

Adjectives, determiners and numerals modifying the head noun are placed before the
whole compound in the same order as they are placed before the head of a noun phrase
(see 15.9):
güzel bir masa örtüsü ‘a beautiful tablecloth’
birtakım ilginç çocuk kitapları ‘some interesting children’s books’

However, in compounds which refer to official bodies, an adjective (but not determiners
or numerals) may be placed before the head noun:

eski Dışişleri Bakanı/Dışişleri eski Bakanı

‘the former Foreign Secretary’
 11
CLITICS

Clitics are particles that are attached to phrases. The clitics in Turkish follow the suffixes
that occur on the final word of a phrase. Most clitics can attach to any type of phrase, and
thus have freedom of movement inside a clause, unlike suffixes, which are fully
integrated with the word to which they are attached. Some clitics undergo vowel harmony
(Chapter 3) like suffixes, but others are non-harmonic. They are all unstressable, and in
the majority of cases cause stress to occur on the phrase they are attached to (see
[Link]–3) for some exceptions concerning dA and -(y)sA/ise, and 19.1.5 for an
exception concerning mI). For details of the position of stress within a word followed by
clitics, see [Link]. For the stress effects of combinations of clitics see 11.2.

11.1 THE CLITICS OF TURKISH

The clitics of Turkish are the following:

(i) the particle mI (the most typical function of which is to form yes/no questions)
(ii) the discourse connectives dA, -(y)sA/ise, and ya, and the discourse connective
and subordinator ki
(iii) the additive connective bile ‘even’
(iv) the copular markers -(y)DI, -(y)mIş, -(y)sA (8.3.2), the adverbial marker -
(y)ken ([Link]) and the generalizing modality marker -DIr (8.3.3)
(v) the person markers belonging to group 2 (8.4)
(vi) the comitative/instrumental and conjunctive marker -(y)lA/ile (8.1.4).
Of these, the last three groups are discussed elsewhere in this book. The clitics discussed
in this chapter, with the exception of -(y)sA, are written separately from the preceding
word.

11.1.1 THE PROPERTIES OF PARTICULAR CLITICS

[Link] bile
This is an additive connective which is non-harmonic (see also [Link] (iv)):

yolladım bile ‘I have already sent it’

ev bile ‘even a/the house’
 Clitics 101

[Link] dA
The first consonant of this marker is invariable and is pronounced [d], but its vowel
harmonizes with the vowel in the preceding syllable:

annem de ‘my mother too’

yaparım da ‘I will do [it], too’

When it combines with a form containing the possibility suffix -(y)Abil, it can be inserted
after -(y)A in colloquial speech:

bakabilirim de ‘I can also look’

baka da bilirim ‘I can also look’ (colloquial)

The clitic dA is a conjunction and discourse connective with additive, adversative,

continuative/topic-shifting and enumerating functions. It occurs after stressed
constituents, except when it functions as a continuative/topic-shifting connective. Its
functions are as follows:
(i) Continuative/topic-shifting connective ([Link] (i), [Link] (iiia)):
Bu hediyeyi de Envér aldı.
‘As for this present, Envér bought it.’
(ii) Additive ([Link] (iiib)):
seyrétmedim de
‘and moreover I didn’t watch [it]’
When dA functions as an additive connective the stressable syllable of the word
preceding it bears stress.
(iii) Adversative [Link] (i):
seyretmedím de (anlattılar).
‘I didn’t watch [it] but ([people] told [me about it])’.
When dA functions as an adversative connective the syllable preceding it bears stress.
(iv) Enumerating (28.3.2):
Ayşe de Semra da
‘both Ayşe and Semra’
In these constructions dA attaches to each item that is enumerated.
See also its usage in combination with -sA ([Link]) and -(y)sA ([Link])

[Link] -(y)sA/ise
This is a discourse connective with topic-shifting and contrastive functions ([Link] (ii),
[Link] (iii)). Although it assigns stress to the syllable preceding it, the stressed
constituent never carries primary stress within a sentence. This clitic either occurs as -
(y)sA, or less commonly as the separate form ise. It is mostly added to 1st and 2nd person
pronouns or proper nouns, and can follow case markers:

bense ‘as for me’

Ahmet’se/Ahmet ise ‘as for Ahmet’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 102

Zehra’yıysa ‘as for Zehra (ACC)’

onlarınsa (hiç parası yok) ‘as for them (they don‘t have any money)’

It can also attach to any adverbial expressing location in time:

Öğleden sonraysa yürüyüşe çıktık.

‘And in the afternoon, we went for a walk.’

When this clitic attaches to the 3rd person singular pronoun o ‘he/she/it’, only its free
form can be used:

o ise ‘as for him/her/it’

Note that the form oysa ([Link]) is a discourse connective with the quite different
meaning of ‘whereas’.

[Link] ki
ki is of Persian origin and, unlike the adjectival/pronominal -ki(n) (8.1.4), cannot be
stressed. In the first four of its functions listed below, it assigns stress to the syllable
preceding it, even if this syllable is otherwise unstressable ([Link]). It has the following
functions:
(i) Subordinator connecting a noun clause to a superordinate clause (24.3.2):
İnanıyorum [ki herşey düzelecek].
‘I believe [that everything will come right].’
(ii) Subordinator connecting an adverbial clause to a superordinate clause (26.1.2):
Sana bunu söylüyorum [ki sonradan şaşırmayasın].
‘I’m tell ing you this [so that you won’t be surprised later].’
(iii) Repudiative discourse connective ([Link]):
Anlayamıyorum ki! ‘I just can’t understand.’
(iv) Exclamation (12.4):
In exclamations, ki comes at the end and is used with o kadar or öyle(sine) ‘so’:
Londra sonbaharda o kadar güzel olur ki!
‘London is so beautiful in autumn!’
(v) Relative clause marker (25.6):
(a) Comment (25.6.3):
In this function, ki introduces a clause that supplies a comment or additional
information about the phrase that has just been uttered:

Bugün hava açarsa, [ki açacağını pek sanmıyorum,] bahçede mangal yakacaklarmış.
‘If the weather brightens up today, which I don’t really think it will, apparently they’re
going to have a barbecue in the garden.’

(b) In non-restrictive relative clauses (25.6.1):

 Clitics 103

Semra [ki partileri sevmez], o bile eğlendi.

‘Even Semra, [who doesn’t like parties,] had fun.’

(c) In restrictive relative clauses (25.6.2):

Bir şöför [ki park etmeyi bilmesin], ona güvenip arabasına binilmez.
‘A driver [who doesn’t know how to park a car] isn’t to be trusted to drive one
around.’

(d) ki can also be used following the demonstrative pronoun şu (18.2) to present
the content of a fact, belief, desire, etc., referred to by a headless relative clause
(25.3):

[Bildiğim] şu [ki, herkesin tatile ihtiyacı var].

‘All [I know] is [that everyone needs a holiday].’

[Link] mI
The clitic mI has the following functions:
(i) Question particle in yes/no questions (19.1.1), and alternative questions (both direct
(19.1.2) and indirect ([Link])).
When mI is added to a main clause predicate, its position depends on what kind of
suffixes or clitics (if any) appear at the end of the predicate. mI immediately precedes any
of the items listed below:
(a) the copular markers -(y)DI and -(y)mIş (8.3.2):

Gitse miydik? ‘Should we have gone?’

Başlamış mıydınız? ‘Had you started?’
Burada mıymış? ‘Was it here?’

(b) the person markers in group 2, except for the 3rd person plural marker (8.4)
and the colloquial combinations with -(y)AcAK mentioned in (e) below):

Gidiyor musun? ‘Are you going?’

İster miyiz? ‘Would we want [to]?’
Hazır mısınız? ‘A re you ready?’

(c) the generalizing modality marker -DIr (8.3.3) in 3rd person forms:

Unutmuş mudurlar? ‘[Do you think] they have forgotten?’

Evde midir? ‘[Do you think] s/he/it’s at home?’/‘Is s/he at home?’
Otherwise, i.e. in forms with -DIr containing markers of the other persons, it immediately
precedes the person marker:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 104

(Acaba) geçmiş miyimdir? ‘I wonder if I have passed.’

On the other hand, mI immediately follows any of the items listed below:
(a) the person markers in group 1:

Gördün mü? ‘Did you see?’

Gitsek mi? ‘Should we go?’
Yürüdünüz mü? ‘Did you walk?’

(b) the person markers in group 3 (except for the 2nd person forms, which do not
combine with the question particle for semantic reasons):

Kalayım mı? ‘Shall/should I stay?’

Baslasın mı? ‘Should s/he start?’

(c) the 3rd person plural form -lAr:

Gittiler mı? ‘Have they left?’

Uyanırlar mı? ‘W ill they wake up?’
Okuldalar mı? ‘Are they at school?’

(d) a subject complement ([Link]) that is not followed by any predicate

markers:

Akıllı mı? ‘Is s/he intelligent?’

Benimki mi? ‘Is it mine?

(e) the colloquial forms of the combination of future marker with 1st or
2nd person markers (8.4):

[ ] ‘Are you going to look [at it]?’

[ ] ‘Are we going to walk?’
mI places stress on the stressable syllable in the preceding word ([Link]; for an
exception, see 19.1.5).
(ii) Adverbial clause marker (26.1.6 and 27.6.2):
When mI functions as an adverbial clause marker it follows verb forms which have the
perfective suffix -DI:
gittin mi ‘as soon as you go’
evini sattın mı ‘once you’ve sold your house’
Clauses with mI functioning as an adverbial have a slight rise of intonation at the end,
unlike questions, where the intonation falls at the end (see 5.1).
(iii) Intensifier in doubled forms (9.3):
 Clitics 105

ilginç mi ilginç ‘very interesting’

hızlı mı hızlı ‘very fast’

[Link] ya
The clitic ya is non-harmonic and typically places stress on the syllable that precedes it,
even if this syllable is otherwise unstressable ([Link]). It has the following functions:
(i) Contrastive adversative conjunction (‘but’) ([Link] (ii)):
Gittim ya onu göremedim. ‘I went there but couldn’t see her/him.’
This usage is colloquial, and occurs only where an affirmative sentence is followed by
a negative one.
(ii) Repudiative discourse connective that occurs in sentence-final position ([Link]):
Görmedim dedim ya! ‘I told you I didn’t see him/her!’
(iii) Reminding discourse connective that occurs in sentence-final position (28.3.12):
Hani sana göstermiştim ya, işte o elbise. ‘Remember the dress I showed you? That
one.’
(iv) For the stressable discourse connective ya that precedes a phrase and introduces
alternatives or a speculative question, see [Link] and [Link] (vii):
Ya parası yoksa? ‘What if s/he doesn’t have any money?’
The clitic ya, which has a short vowel, should not be confused with the interjection ya,
the contracted form of yahu, which has a long vowel.

11.2 CLASSIFICATION OF CLITICS BY RELATIVE POWER

Clitics vary in the degree of prominence, particularly height of pitch, which they produce
in the affected syllable. From this aspect clitics fall into two classes, the first having a
stronger effect:
I ki, mI and ya
II bile, dA (in its additive function, see [Link] (iiia)) and -(y)sA/ise

11.2.1 COMBINATIONS OF CLITICS WITHIN THE

INTONATIONAL PHRASE
If two clitics are present within the same intonational phrase (Chapter 5), only one of
them retains its stress-generating force (for clitics which occur adjacently see [Link]):
(i) If both clitics are from the same class, the one which occurs earlier in the
intonational phrase predominates. For semantic reasons, the only possible combination of
this type involves mI and ki:
(1) Tohumları soğukTA mı bırakmıştın ki?
‘Had you left the seeds in the cold, then?’
(ii) If the two clitics are from different classes, the one which belongs to class I
predominates:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 106

(2) Kağıtları da okuMUŞ mu?

‘Has s/he read the papers too (i.e. in addition to doing other things)?’
(3) Çerçeveleri bile temizlemişSİN ya!
‘But you have even cleaned the frames!’

11.2.2 THE COMBINATION OF CLITICS WITH THE NEGATIVE

MARKER -mA
-mA usually generates stress, causing it to fall on the syllable preceding it ([Link]).
However, when it occurs in combination with one of the clitics mI (interrogative), dA (in
its additive function, see [Link] (iiia)) or bile, stress falls before whichever one occurs
first in the sentence:
(4) Bu gözlükle sahneYİ mi göremiyormuş?
‘Can’t s/he see the STAGE with these glasses?’
(5) Yeni öğrencilerini daha GÖRmedin mi?
‘Haven’t you seen your new students yet?’
(6) BEN de içmeyeceğim.
‘I’m not going to have [any] either.’
(7) Semra ücretini aLAmamış bile.
‘Semra couldn’t even [succeed in] getting her wages.’
The pre-stressing effect of ki, ya or adversative dA (28.3.4 (i)) in sentence-final position
is strong enough to neutralize the pre-stressing effect of a preceding -mA. When -mA
occurs with ki or ya stress falls on the syllable preceding ki or ya:
(8) Kimseyi görmeDİM ki!
‘But I didn’t see anyone!’
This happens even if the syllable in question is otherwise unstressable (see 4.3.2):
(9) (Hani) eski gazeteleri atmamışTIM ya…
‘Remember I hadn’t thrown away the old newspapers?…’
 PART 3
SYNTAX: THE
STRUCTURE OF
SENTENCES
 12
SIMPLE AND COMPLEX SENTENCES

From the structural point of view, sentences are either simple (i.e. contain only a main
clause, as in (1)) or complex (i.e. contain a main clause and one or more subordinate
clauses, as in (2)):
(1) Dün okullar açıldı.
‘The schools opened yesterday.’
(2) Dün [yolda giderken] [yıllardır görmediğim] bir arkadaşıma rastladım.
‘Yesterday, [as I was walking along the street], I ran into a friend [whom I hadn’t
seen for years].’
In this book we indicate subordinate clauses using ‘[]’ (square brackets).
In 12.1 we discuss the main constituents of simple sentences, and in 12.2 we focus on
the agreement between the subject and the predicate. The structure of complex sentences
is summarized in 12.3, and different types of subordinate clauses are discussed in detail
in Chapters 24–7. Sentences can also be classified functionally, as statements,
questions, volitional utterances and exclamations. These are discussed in 12.4.

12.1 CONSTITUENTS OF A SENTENCE: SUBJECT AND

PREDICATE

12.1.1 PREDICATE
The predicate expresses an event, a process or a state in which the subject is involved:
(3) Necla bir hafta içinde projeyi bitirecek.
‘Necla will complete the project within a week.’
(4) Bu çocuk hasta.
‘This child is ill.’
The predicate of a simple sentence, or of the main clause in a complex sentence, is
described as finite. According to the type of predicate they have, sentences in Turkish are
divided into two main groups, verbal sentences and nominal sentences.

[Link] Verbal sentences

These are sentences whose predicates are finite verbs (8.2 (i)):
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 110

(5) Bu gün evde kal-a-ma-m.

[Link]-1SG
‘I can’t stay at home today.’
For a detailed discussion of the properties of such sentences, see Chapter 13.

[Link] Nominal sentences

These are sentences whose predicate either does not contain an overt verb at all or whose
verb is one of the forms of the copula (ol- ‘be’, ‘become’, ‘exist’ or -(y)- ‘be’; see 8.3.1).
This type of predicate is called a nominal predicate.
(6) Necla öğretmen.
‘Necla is a teacher.’
Non-modalized utterances with non-recurrent present time reference, such as (6), do not
have an overt copula. Past tense (21.2.1) or evidential modality (21.4.3) can be indicated
by copular markers (8.3.2):
(7)
(a) Necla öğretmen-di.
[Link]
‘Necla was a teacher.’
(b) Necla ev-de-ymiş.
[Link]
‘Apparently Necla is/was at home.’
For the expression of other types of tense, aspect and modality it is necessary to use the
suppletive form ol- of the copula ([Link]):
(8) Necla öğretmen ol-acak-tı.
teacher [Link]
‘Necla was going to be a teacher.’
Turkish nominal sentences are of two kinds: linking and existential.

Linking sentences
These correspond to the pattern x is y, and contain the following:
(i) a subject (if overtly expressed; see 12.1.2, 18.1.5)
(ii) a subject complement as (part of) the predicate
(iii) a copular marker (suffixed to, or immediately following, the subject
complement). In present-tense sentences which are not aspectually or modally
marked the copula has no overt expression. Person/number marking of the
predicate is attached to the copular marker, if there is one, otherwise to the subject
complement
(iv) (optionally) one or more adverbials.
 Simple and complex sentences 111

(9) Ben o sırada öğretmen-di-m.

SUBJECT ADVERBIAL [Link]-COPULAR.
MARKER-PERSON. MARKER (PREDICATE)
I [Link] [Link]-1SG
‘I was a teacher at the time.’
The function of the subject complement is to provide some kind of description of the
subject, such as identification, characterization, location, state of belonging, etc. The
subject complement may be an adjectival, a noun phrase or a postpositional phrase. If a
noun phrase, it may be marked for any grammatical case except the accusative case:
(10) Biraz yorgundum. (Adjectival)
‘I was rather tired.?
(11) Siz çok iyi bir doktorsunuz. (Non-case-marked noun phrase)
‘You’re a very good doctor’
(12) Sözüm sanaydı. (Dative-marked noun phrase)
‘My words were for you.’
(13) Herkes ona karşıymış. (Postpositional phrase)
‘Apparently, everyone is/was against him/her.’
Linking sentences are negativized by means of the expression değil ‘not’, which is placed
between the subject complement and the copular marker:
(14) Dün ev-de değil-di-k.
home-LOC [Link]-1PL
‘We weren’t at home yesterday.’
For the various functions of değil see 20.2.

Existential sentences
Whereas linking sentences present, or assume knowledge of, a subject and relate some
attribute or identification to it, existential sentences merely assert the existence or
presence of a subject. The statement is usually made in relation to either (i) a location in
time or space, or (ii) a possessor. There are thus two kinds of existential sentence:
locative and possessive.

Locative existential sentences

These are of the type there is an x (in y) or x has y. The basic constituents of a locative
existential sentence (listed in the order in which they occur) are:
(i) at least one adverbial of place or time
(ii) the subject (shown in bold below)
(iii) one of the two expressions var ‘present/existent’ and yok ‘absent/non-
existent’. (These can only be used in predicative function. For the usage of the
copula ol- instead of var/yok see [Link].)
(iv) a copular marker (as in linking sentences, not present in the case of present-
tense sentences which are not marked for aspect or modality).
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 112

(v) 1st or 2nd person marking if required. (Yok but not var may also take a 3rd
person plural marker.)
(15) Buzdolabın-da iki şişe bira var.
fridge-LOC two bottle beer existent
‘There are two bottles of beer in the fridge.’
(16) O gün ben yok-tu-m.
that day I [Link]-1SG
‘I wasn’t [there] on that day.’
When the expression indicating ‘location’ denotes persons or institutions, locative
existential sentences express the concept x has y:
(17) Ben-de bir kitap var.
I-LOC
‘I have a book.’
If the subject of such a sentence is definite/specific, it may be topicalized (see 23.3.3)
and thus placed at the beginning of the sentence:
(18) Bu kitap bende var.
‘I have this book.’
Although close in meaning, locative existential sentences of the type there is an x (in y)
cannot be used interchangeably with linking sentences (i.e. x is y) where the subject
complement is a locative noun phrase:
(19) Banyoda MuRAT vardı. (Locative existential sentence)
‘MURAT was in the bathroom.’
(20) Murat BANyodaydı. (Linking sentence)
‘Murat was in the BATHROOM.’
The difference between these two is that (19) would be used in a situation where one
wanted to indicate who the person in the bathroom was (hence ‘Murat’ is focused)
whereas (20) would be used in a situation if one wanted to indicate Murat’s whereabouts
(hence ‘bathroom’ is focused). Note that the negative form of (20) can be expressed by
either değil or yok; see 20.3 (36) for an example.

Possessive existential sentences

These express the concept x has y. Their basic constituents are:
(i) a genitive-possessive construction (14.4) or a possessive-marked noun phrase,
which is the subject (shown in bold in the examples below)
(ii) (optionally) one or more adverbials
(iii) var ‘present/existent’ or yok ‘absent/non-existent’
(iv) a copular marker (not overtly expressed in the case of present-tense sentences
which are not marked for aspect or modality).
 Simple and complex sentences 113

The adverbials, if there are any, are generally placed before the possessive-marked noun
phrase. They may either precede or follow the genitive-marked possessor constituent (if
there is one):
(21) Ayten-in İstanbul’da iki arkadaş-ı var./İstanbul’da Ayten-in iki arkadaş-ı
var.
Ayten-GEN two [Link] Ayten-GEN two [Link]
‘Ayten has two friends in Istanbul.’
(22) O gün paramız yoktu.
‘We had no money that day.’
Note that the concept x has y can be expressed by both possessive existential sentences,
as in (23), and locative existential sentences, as in (17):
(23) Benim bir kitabım var.
‘I have a book.’
Possessive existential sentences are used for expressing possession or relations between
people and things which are either of a permanent nature or are considered as such. The
possessed constituent in these constructions cannot be definite or specific. Possessive
existential sentences are mainly used for expressing the following:
(i) Familial and other personal relations, as in (21).
(ii) Part-whole relations:
(24) Masanın üç ayağı var.
‘The table has three legs.’
(iii) Authorship:
(25) Shakespeare’in birçok oyunu var.
‘Shakespeare has [written] many plays.’
(iv) Ownership:
(26) Murat’ın yatı var.
‘Murat has a yacht.’
Locative existential sentences, on the other hand, denote contiguity between persons or
things at a particular time:
(27) Nejat’ta sadece 10 dolar varmış.
‘It seems Nejat only has 10 dollars [on him].’
The subject in these constructions can be definite or non-definite:
(28) Murat’ta bu resim/bir resim var.
‘Murat has this/a picture.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 114

[Link] The complementarity of -(y)- and var/yok with oI-

The complementarity of -(y)- and ol-

When the concept be is expressed by the copula -(y)- (8.3.1, 8.3.2) this takes one of the
following forms, with the meanings shown:
(i) past tense, in which case the copular form -(y)DI is used (21.2.1 and [Link])
(ii) evidential modality, in which case -(y)mIş is used (21.4.3)
(iii) conditional modality, in which case -(y)sA is used (Chapter 27)
(It is also present in the non-finite form -(y)ken, see 26.2.3 (ii).)
(29) Buranın adı Koyundere-ymiş.
[Link]
‘I am told that this place is called Koyundere.’
In finite verbal predicates -(y)- appears after verbs inflected with position 3 suffixes
(8.2.3) and does not always correspond to ‘be’ in English:
(30) Ahmet eve git-ti-yse…
[Link]
‘If Ahmet has gone home…’
Note that -(y)- is omitted after a stem ending in a consonant:
(31) Bu bina eskiden okulmuş.
‘This building used to be a school.’
ol-, which is another form of the copula (8.3.1), is used in all other instances, e.g. when a
nominal predicate expresses:
(i) Future tense (21.2.3):
(32) Bugün iş-te ol-acağ-ım.
today work-LOC be-FUT-1SG
‘I shall be at work today.’
(ii) Habitual aspect (21.3.2):
(33) Her gün iş-te ol-uyor-um.
every day work-LOC be-IMPF-1SG
‘I am at work every day.’
(iii) Necessitative modality ([Link]):
(34) Bugün iş-te ol-malı-ydı-m.
work-LOC [Link]-1SG
‘I should have been at work today.’
(iv) Possibility ([Link]):
 Simple and complex sentences 115

(35) Bugün iş-te ol-abil-ir-di-m.

work-LOC [Link]-1SG
‘I could have been at work today.’
(v) Commitment ([Link])
(36) Bugün iş-te ol-ur-um.
work-LOC be-AOR-1SG
‘I will be at work today.’
It is also used to express the nominal predicates of subordinate clauses:
(37) [bugün iş-te ol-an] kadın
work-LOC be-PART woman
‘the woman who is/was at work today.’

The complementarity of var/yok and ol-

In a way closely parallel to its function as a suppletive form of the copula -(y)-, ol- is
used (instead of var/yok) to produce future-tense and aspectually or modally marked
existential predicates, as in:
(38) Eskiden bütün otobüslerde biletçi ol-ur-du. (Habitual aspect)
[Link]
‘There used to be a conductor on all the buses.’
(39) Daha büyük bir arabamız ol-sa keşke. (Volitional modality)
be-COND
‘If only we had a larger car.’
ol- is used instead of var/yok also in non-finite existential predicates:
(40) [ev-de su ol-ma-dığ-ı zaman] (cf. Evde su yok.)
house-LOC water [Link] time
‘when there isn’t any water in the house’
(41) [bahçe-si ol-an] ev (cf. Evin bahçesi var.)
[Link] exist-PART house
‘the house that has a garden’
For further discussion of aspectual distinctions in nominal sentences, including the use of
ol- to express become, see 21.3.4. Ol- is also used as an auxiliary verb in compound verb
forms ([Link]).

12.1.2 EXPRESSION OF THE SUBJECT

In Turkish the subject is not always overtly expressed within the sentence. Sentences
without an overtly expressed subject, and the conditions under which these occur, are
discussed in 18.1.5.
If the subject is expressed, this is always by some kind of noun phrase (Chapter 14),
which can be simple, such as a single pronoun as in (42), or a noun modified by
determiners, numerals and/or adjectives as in (43):
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 116

(42) Ben o adamı sevmiyorum.

‘I don’t like that man.’
(43) Her yıl bu kentte iki bin beş yüz yeni bina yapılıyor.
‘Every year two thousand five hundred new buildings are constructed in this
town.’
It can also be complex, i.e. a noun clause (Chapter 24):
(44) [Jale’nin işten çıkartıldığı] doğru değilmiş.
‘Apparently it’s not true [that Jale has been dismissed from her job].’
The subject of a simple sentence or main clause is always in the non-case-marked form.
Subjects of certain kinds of relative clauses and of most noun clauses, on the other hand,
receive genitive case marking (see Chapters 24–25).
For the factors determining the position of the subject in the sentence, see 23.2–3.

12.2 AGREEMENT OF SUBJECT AND PREDICATE

The predicate shows agreement with the subject in terms of person and number.

12.2.1 PERSON AND NUMBER MARKING ON THE PREDICATE

First and second persons

In all sentences which have a 1st or 2nd person subject, the addition of the appropriate
person suffix (see 8.4) to the predicate is obligatory whether or not the subject is
separately represented in the sentence by a pronoun. (The only exception to this is
sentences which have pronominalized determiners as subjects; see [Link] (72), (75)–
(76).)
(45) (Ben) yorgun-um.
(I) tired-1SG
‘I’m tired.’
(46) (Siz) yeni komşularımızla tanıştınız mı?
‘Have you met our new neighbours?’
(See also 12.2.3 (88) for 1st and 2nd person marking on the predicate with sentences
which have pronouns as subject complements.)

Third person singular

Turkish does not have overt marking of the 3rd person singular on predicates:
(47) Annem yorgun.
‘My mother’s tired.’
(48) Ahmet hiçbir şey yapmadı.
‘Ahmet hasn’t done anything at all.’
 Simple and complex sentences 117

The only exception is the imperative/optative, where the 3rd person singular is marked by
-sIn:
(49) Öğleden sonra bize gelsin.
‘Let him/her come round to us this afternoon.’
Where a 3rd person singular subject is a person or thing that the speaker assumes can be
unambiguously identified by the hearer (either through previous mention or because of
the shared experience of the speech situation), it is the absence of any person markers on
the predicate that indicates the 3rd person singular identity of this subject:
(50) A.-Annen nasıl?
‘How’s your mother?’
B.-Yorgun.
‘(She’s) tired.’
Where the subject is overtly expressed by a noun phrase denoting a collectivity of human
beings, such as aile ‘family’ or halk ‘people’, this predicate does not have plural person
marking.
(51) Anadolu halkı denizden çok dağları bilir.
‘The people of Anatolia are more familiar with mountains than with the sea.’
A sentence which has an explicitly singular 3rd person human subject may be given a
plural-marked predicate if the speaker wishes to express deference towards that
individual.
(52) Selim Bey evdeler mi acaba?
‘Is Selim Bey at home, I wonder?’

Third person plural

Where a 3rd person plural subject is not expressed by an overt noun phrase, and the
referents are animate, plural marking of the predicate is obligatory:
(53) Bodrum’a gittiler.
‘They’ve gone to Bodrum.’
(54) Dün çok yorgundular.
‘Yesterday they were very tired.’
In most cases where the subject is overtly expressed by a noun phrase containing a
numeral modifier, the predicate does not take plural marking:
(55) Bu sınıfta elli iki öğrenci var.
‘There are fifty-two pupils in this class.’
(56) Dün otuz üç mektup geldi.
‘Yesterday thirty-three letters came.’
However, where the subject noun phrase is the head of a partitive construction (14.5),
refers to human beings, and is situated at some distance from the verb, plural marking of
the verb may occur:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 118

(57) {Yarışmacılar arasından iki üç kişi}, jürinin ısrarına rağmen yaşlarını

söylememiş(ler).
‘{Two or three of the competitors}, despite insistent requests from the judges,
have apparently not stated their ages.’
In other contexts, the use of a non-case-marked noun phrase containing a numeral
modifier in a sentence with a plural-marked verb is usually adverbial (equivalent to a
phrase with olarak see 16.1.9 (iib)), indicating that the action denoted by the verb is/was
performed as a group:
(58) İki kızkardeş seyahate gittiler.
‘They went on holiday, [just] two sisters [together].’

12.2.2 AGREEMENT OF THE PREDICATE WITH DIFFERENT

TYPES OF PLURAL SUBJECT

[Link] Subject marked with the plural suffix

In a sentence where the subject is overtly expressed by a plural-marked noun phrase, the
3rd person plural marker is often omitted from the predicate. The regularity with which
this happens differs according to whether the entities referred to by the subject are human
or non-human, and whether they are specific or non-specific.
(i) Specific human subjects:
In the case of specific human subjects, plural marking of the predicate is optional but
common. It draws attention to the distinctness of the individuals constituting the set
which is referred to, and may imply that the participation of each one in the action or
state described by the predicate is not identical but in some way individuated. If the
predicate in such a sentence is not given plural marking, the implication is that the
speaker is more interested in the event or state as a whole than in the internal makeup of
the group of individuals involved. (59) and (60) illustrate the optionality of plural
marking of the predicate in sentences with an overtly expressed, specific and plural-
marked human subject.
(59) Bazı arkadaşlarımız bu fikre katılmadı(lar).
‘Some of our colleagues didn’t agree with this idea.’
(60) Senin çocuklar burada değil(ler).
‘Your children are not here.’
Where the idea of individuated action by the participants is inherent in the meaning of the
predicate, plural marking of the predicate is more or less obligatory:
(61) Öğrenciler sürekli aralarında konuşuyorlardı.
‘The students were talking among themselves all the time.’
(ii) Specific animal subjects:
In the case of specific animal subjects, use or non-use of plural marking on the
predicate depends on the speaker’s attitude to animals. If s/he views them as broadly
 Simple and complex sentences 119

comparable to human beings in terms of having individual identity, then plural marking
of the predicate is possible:
(62) Köpekler geceleri hep havlar(lar)dı.
‘At night the dogs would always bark.’
(iii) Specific inanimate subjects:
As for sentences with specific inanimate subjects, plural marking of the predicate is
usual here in the case of entities seen as moving or acting through a force that is in some
way inherent to them:
(63) Ağaçlar artık yaprakları nı döküyordu/döküyorlardı.
‘By now the trees were shedding their leaves.’
(64) Arabalar çok hızlı geçiyordu/geçiyorlardı.
‘The cars were speeding past.’
Otherwise, where the sentence expresses a situation in which the role of the inanimate
plural-marked subject is not an active one, plural marking, although not usual, is
sometimes encountered:
(65) Buradaki odalar banyoluymuş.
‘Apparently the rooms here have ensuite facilities.’
(66) Anahtarlar buraya bırakılıyor.
‘The keys are left here.’
(iv) Indefinite subjects:
Even if human, animate or quasi-animate, a plural-marked subject which is indefinite,
as in (67a), does not trigger plural marking on the predicate:
(67) Bu resimleri çocuklar yapmış.
(a) ‘Children painted these pictures.’
(b) ‘The children painted these pictures.’
Sentences with plural-marked subjects and no plural marking on the predicate can be
ambiguous, as (67) illustrates. The addition of plural marking to the predicate, however,
indicates unambiguously the definite status of the subject:
(68) Bu resimleri çocuklar yapmışlar.
‘The children painted these pictures.’

[Link] Subjects containing determiners

Where the subject noun phrase contains one of the determiners that occur with non-
plural-marked noun phrases, such as birkaç ‘a few’, ‘several’, birçok ‘many’, kaç ‘how
many’ and her ‘every’ (15.6.1 (ii)), the predicate is not plural marked:
(69) Birçok kişi çocukluğunu pek düşünmez.
‘Many people don’t think much about their childhood.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 120

[Link] Pronominalized determiners as subjects

When the subject is a pronominalized determiner (18.4 (iv)), such as hiçbir-imiz ‘none of
us’, bazılarınız ‘some of you’, hangileri ‘which of them’, ‘which (ones)’ or one of the
pronominalized forms derived from the adverb hep (18.4 (v)) such as hepimiz ‘all of us’,
marking of the predicate with the appropriate person suffix may or may not be obligatory,
depending on the quantified pronoun.
(i) Hepimiz/hepiniz/hepsi (‘all of us/you/them’):
With the 1st and 2nd person forms of these quantified pronouns referring to all-
inclusive groups, person marking is obligatory in both nominal and verbal predicates:
(70) Hepimiz tatilde deniz kıyısına gidiyoruz.
‘All of us go to the seaside in the vacation.’
The 3rd person form is most commonly used without a person marker, but it may also be
used with a 3rd person plural marker:
(71) Oyuncuların hepsi yeni kostümler istiyor(lar).
‘All the actors want new costumes.’
(ii) Hiçbirimiz/hiçbiriniz/hiçbiri (‘none of us/you/them’):
Where the 1st or 2nd person form of this pronoun occurs as subject, 1st or 2nd person
marking of a verbal predicate is optional:
(72) Hiçbirimiz bugün sokağa çıkmadı(k).
‘None of us went out today.’
Most speakers, however, regularly add person marking to nominal predicates:
(73) Neden hiçbiriniz evde değilsiniz?
‘Why are none of you at home today?’
With the 3rd person form hiçbiri ‘none of them’, the predicate is never plural marked:
(74) Hiçbiri gelmeyecek.
‘None of them is going to come.’
(iii) Bazı(ları)mız/bazı(ları)nız/bazısı/bazıları/kimimiz/kiminiz/kimisi/ kimileri (‘some of
us/you/them’):
With the 1st or 2nd person forms of these pronouns, person marking is optional on
both verbal and nominal predicates:
(75) Bazılarımız bu konudan hoşlanmıyor(uz).
‘Some of us don‘t like this topic.’
(76) Kiminiz burada değildi(niz).
‘Some of you weren‘t here.’
With the 3rd person forms bazısı, bazıları/kimisi/kimileri ‘some of them’, the preferred
form is for the predicate not to have plural marking:
(77) Bazıları evde yoktu.
 Simple and complex sentences 121

‘Some of them weren’t at home.’

[Link] Conjoined subjects

Where a pair or series of conjoined subjects includes ben ‘I’ or biz ‘we’, the predicate is
marked for 1st person plural:
(78) Arkadaşlarımla ben bu akşam dışarı çıkmıyoruz.
‘My friends and I aren’t going out tonight.’
Where a pair or series of conjoined subjects includes sen/siz ‘you’ and excludes ben ‘I’ or
biz ‘we’, the predicate is marked for 2nd person plural:
(79) Sen ve arkadaşların Almanya’ya hangi yıl gittiniz?
‘What year did you and your friends go to Germany?’
Where a group of conjoined subjects includes both a 1st person pronoun and a 2nd person
pronoun, the tendency is for the 1st person pronoun to be the last in the series of
conjoined subjects:
(80) Ya Ahmet ya siz ya da ben hazırlıklar a gönüllü katılmalıyız.
‘Either Ahmet or you or I must volunteer for the preparations.’
When both or all in a series of conjoined subjects are 3rd person, the predicate may or
may not have plural marking, according to the principles explained in [Link].
(i) Subjects conjoined by the conjunctions ve ‘and’ ([Link] (i)), veya ‘or’, ya da ‘or’,
ya…ya ‘either…or’ ([Link]), hem…hem, gerek…gerek ‘both…and’, dA…dA
‘both…and’ (28.3.2), ne…ne ‘neither…nor’ (20.4)
These subjects can be in any order among themselves:
(81) Ne Ayşe ne ben yalandan hoşlanmıyoruz.
‘Neither Ayşe nor I like lying.’
(82) Sen ya da Ahmet, bugün oraya gidip bu işi bitirin.
‘You or Ahmet should go there and finish it off today.’
(ii) Subjects conjoined with -(y)lA/ile ‘and’:
-(y)lA/ile is a common means of joining two noun phrases (8.1.4, [Link] (ii)):
(83) Annemle babam üniversitede tanışmış(lar)
‘My mother and father met at university.’
(84) Bulaşıkla çamaşır mutlaka birer makine ister.
‘Dish washing and laundry definitely each require a machine.’
If one of the items conjoined by -(y)lA/ile is a personal pronoun, it usually occurs as the
second item. Since the person marker on the predicate indicates this person, this pronoun
may be omitted (see also 18.1.5):
(85) Ahmet’le (ben) dün deniz kenarında yürüyüş yaptık.
‘Yesterday Ahmet and I went for a walk on the seashore.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 122

Note, however, that sentences where the pronoun of a conjoined subject is deleted may be
ambiguous. Since the predicate of such a sentence has plural marking (in the case of the
1st and 2nd persons and in the case of the 3rd person, when it has plural marking) it may
be unclear whether the ‘hidden’ pronoun is singular or plural:
(86) Ahmet’le dün deniz kenarında yürüyüş yaptık.
(a) ‘Yesterday Ahmet and I went for a walk on the seashore.’
(b) Yesterday we and Ahmet went for a walk on the seashore.’
Note also that -(y)lA/ile functions as a conjunction only when it is between the two items
it conjoins. Otherwise it functions as a postposition:
(87) Ben Ahmet’le dün deniz kenarınd a yürüyüş yaptım.
‘Yesterday I went with Ahmet for a walk on the seashore.’
In such a case the constituent bearing -(y)lA/ile is not part of the subject, but forms with
the comitative marker an adverbial of manner (16.4.3 (iv)); hence the predicate in (87)
has 1st person singular marking because of its agreement with ben ‘I’. For the postpositi
onal fun ct ion of -(y)lA/ile see (v) and [Link]. For the inclusive nature of -(y)lA/ile, see
[Link] (ii).

12.2.3 PERSONAL PRONOUNS AS SUBJECT COMPLEMENTS

When the subject complement of a linking sentence is a personal pronoun, the person
marker agrees with this pronoun rather than with the subject:
(88) Ayşe ben-im.
Ayşe I-1SG
‘I am Ayşe.’
Note that (88) is a sentence where the subject complement and the subject of a regular
linking sentence such as (89) are swapped:
(89) Ben Ayşe-yim.
I Ayşe-1SG
‘I am Ayşe.’
This kind of reversal can occur only where the subject complement (Ayşe in (89)) is a
non-case-marked noun phrase.
There is an important difference in the meaning of these sentences (rendered by the
position of sentence stress in English) in that (88) corresponds to ‘I am Ayşe’ (i.e. a
response to the question Who is Ayşe?) whereas (89) corresponds to ‘I am Ayşe’ (i.e. a
response to the question Who are you?}.

12.3 COMPLEX SENTENCES AND SUBORDINATION

 Simple and complex sentences 123

Complex sentences contain at least one subordinate clause in addition to a main clause.
Structurally, the predicate of a subordinate clause can be finite (i.e. identical in form to a
main clause):
(90) [Maç birazdan başla-yacak] de-n-iyor.
match soon start-FUT say-PASS-ıMPF
‘It is said [that the match will be starting soon].’
(91) [Çocuğun babası kim] bilinmiyor.
‘It’s not known [who the father of the child is].’
(lit. ‘[Who is the father of the child] is not known.’)
But the majority of subordinate clauses are non-finite (i.e. contain a verbal predicate with
one of the subordinating suffixes in 8.5):
(92) [Maç-ın birazdan başla-yacağ-ı] söyleniyor.
match-GEN soon [Link]
‘It is said [that the match will be starting soon].’
(93) [Maç başla-yınca] herkes ayağa fırladı.
match start-SUB
‘[When the match started] everyone jumped to their feet.’
(94) [Maç-ı izle-yen] kişiler yağmurdan sırılsıklam olmuşlar.
match-ACC watch-SUB
‘The people [who watched the match] got soaked.’
A finite subordinate clause can be directly connected to the superordinate clause (as in
(90) and (91)), or it can be linked to the superordinate clause by means of a subordinator
(e.g. diye):
(95) [Maç birazdan başlayacak] diye biliyorduk.
‘We thought [(that) the match would be starting soon].’
The subordinators that link finite clauses to superordinate clauses are the following: diye
(24.3.1 and 26.1.1), ki (24.3.2 and 26.1.2), madem (ki) (26.1.3), nasıl (ki) (26.1.4), mI
(26.1.6 and 27.6.2), the clitic dA (26.1.7) and some other obsolescent subordinators
containing ki, such as ola ki, meğer ki, kim ki, ne zaman ki. The Persian-
derived subordinator ki stands at the beginning of its clause, in the manner of Indo-
European subordinators such as its French and Italian cognates que, che.
Subordinate clauses have three different functions:
(i) noun clauses function as subjects or objects
(ii) relative clauses function as adjectival phrases
(iii) adverbial clauses function as adverbials
These clauses are discussed in detail in Chapters 24–7.
The clause within which a subordinate clause occurs is called the superordinate
clause. The superordinate clause may either be the main clause of the sentence or another
subordinate clause. In the examples below the superordinate clauses are shown in bold
italics. The superordinate clause is a main clause in (96) (where the subordinate clause is
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 124

an adverbial clause), a relative clause in (97) (where the subordinate clause is a noun
clause) and a noun clause in (98) (where the subordinate clause is an adverbial clause):
(96) Füsun bu kitap-lar-ı [öğretmenlik yap-ar-ken] kullan-mış-tı.
Füsun this book-PL-ACC teaching do-AOR-SUB [Link]
‘Füsun used these books [when she was working as a teacher].’
(97) [Füsun-un bu kitap-lar-ı kullan-dığ-ın]-ı duy-an kişiler
Füsun-GEN this book-PL-ACC [Link]-ACC hear-SUB people
‘the people who heard [that Füsun was using these books]’
(98) Füsun’un [kullan-ıl-mı-yor diye] kitap-lar-ı sat-ma-sı
Füsun-GEN use-PASS-NEG-IMPF SUB book-PL-ACC [Link]
‘Füsun’s selling the books [on the grounds that they were not being used]’
Note that a clause which contains ki can only be subordinate to a main clause.

12.4 FUNCTIONAL SENTENCE TYPES

Sentences can be classified functionally, that is according to the type of utterance that
they express. The four major types of utterance are statements, questions, volitional
utterances and exclamations, all of which can be expressed by both verbal and nominal
sentences.
(i) Statements:
(99) Köyde Bayram’m ailesi zengin sayılıyormuş.
‘In the village Bayram’s family is apparently considered rich.’
(100) Bayram’ın ailesinin diğer köylülerden daha çok toprağı var.
‘Bayram’s family has more land than the other villagers.’
(ii) Questions:
What marks a sentence as a question is the presence either of the interrogative clitic mI
or of a wh-phrase such as ne zaman ‘when’ or kaç ‘how many’. For a full discussion of
how questions are expressed in Turkish see Chapter 19.
(iii) Volitional utterances:
These are utterances which express the speaker’s attitude towards the possible
performance of an action or the occurrence of an event. The most common types include
commands, suggestions and wishes (21.4.4).
(101) Saat ikiden sonra beni telefonla ara. (Imperative)
‘Ring me after two o’clock.’
(102) Bu akşam dışarda yiyelim. (Optative)
‘Let’s eat out this evening.’
(103) Çabuk bitirseler bari. (Conditional with optative meaning)
‘I hope at least they finish quickly.’
(iv) Exclamations:
 Simple and complex sentences 125

Exclamations often contain a wh-phrase, such as (19.2): ne ‘what’, ne kadar ‘how

(much)’, nasıl ‘how’, or ne biçim ‘what kind (of)’. Exclamations of this kind have the
intonation pattern of statements, and are thus distinguishable from questions (5.1).
(104) Burası ne güzel bir yer!
‘What a beautiful place this is!’
(105) Ay nasıl güldük!
‘Oh, how we laughed!’
Exclamations can also be expressed with o kadar/öyle(sine)…ki ‘so’ ([Link]) or pek
(de):
(106) Su o kadar soğuktu ki!
‘The water was so cold!’
(107) Çocuğu öylesine seviyor ki…
‘S/he loves the child so much…’
(108) Pek de tatlı bir oğlunuz varmış!
‘What a sweet son you have!’
 13
THE VERB PHRASE

A verb phrase consists of a verb, its complements, and adverbials that modify the verb.
At its simplest, a verb phrase consists of an (inflected) verb alone:
(1) Oturuyorum.
‘I am sitting down.’
(2) shows a verb phrase consisting of a verb and an adverbial:
(2) Yavaş yürü.
‘Walk slowly.’
(3) shows a phrase consisting of a verb, its complement (the direct object suyu ‘water’)
and three adverbials (yavaşça ‘slowly’, sürahiden ‘from the jug’, masadaki bardağa ‘into
the glass on the table’):
(3) Suyu yavaşça sürahiden masadaki bardağa döktü.
‘S/he slowly poured the water from the jug into the glass.’
Both main clauses (4) and subordinate clauses (bracketed section in (5)) contain verb
phrases. Most examples in this chapter are sentences consisting of only one (main)
clause.
(4) Ahmet çay-ı bardak-tan iç-ecek.
Ahmet tea-ACC glass-ABL drink-FUT
‘Ahmet will drink the tea from a glass.’
(5) [Ahmet-in çay-ı bardak-tan iç-me]-si gerek-iyor-du.
Ahmet-GEN tea-ACC glass-ABL [Link] [Link]
‘Ahmet was supposed to drink the tea from a glass.’
Types of verb and the constituents of the verb phrase are discussed in 13.1. In 13.2 we
describe the structure of verb phrases which have causative, passive, reflexive and
reciprocal verbs, and in 13.3 we discuss auxiliary verbs.
Other elements that are associated with verb phrases are discussed elsewhere, namely
negation in Chapter 20 and tense, aspect and modality in Chapter 21. The ordering of
verbal inflectional suffixes is discussed in 8.2 (see also 6.3). The majority of sentences in
this chapter have the unmarked word order subject-object-verb; see Chapter 23 for
variations in word order.

13.1 CONSTITUENTS OF THE VERB PHRASE

 The verb phrase 127

13.1.1 THE VERB

The internal structure of a verb phrase depends primarily on the transitivity or
intransitivity of the verb. This distinction relates to the ability of a verb to take a direct
object. Verbs which cannot take direct objects (see [Link]) such as git- ‘go’, düş- ‘fall’,
otur- ‘sit’, kork- ‘be afraid (of)’, sevin- ‘be happy (about)’ are intransitive:
(6) Londra’ya gidelim.
‘Let’s go to London.’
(7) Ayşe çok hızlı koşuyordu.
‘Ayşe was running very fast.’
Verbs such as as ye- ‘eat’, gör- ‘see’, yaz- ‘write’, boya- ‘paint’, on the other hand, have
direct objects (bold in the examples below), and are thus transitive:
(8) Erol duvar-lar-ı yanlışlıkla boyamış.
Wall-PL-ACC
‘Apparently Erol painted the walls by mistake.’
(9) Bugün sınıfta çok önemli konular işledik.
‘Today in class we covered [some] very important topics.’
However, there is a group of intransitive verbs that can also be used transitively. These
are verbs of motion such as yüz- ‘swim’, koş- ‘run’ and yürü- ‘walk’, and they may take
direct objects expressing distances:
(10) Normal bir koşucu 100 metre-lik bir mesafe-yi 20 saniyenin
100 metre-ADJ a distance-ACC
altınd a koşabili
‘An ordinary athlete can run a distance of 100 metres in under twenty seconds.’
In the majority of cases, the direct object and the adverbials in a verb phrase can be
omitted if they are recoverable from the context. For example, the verb işle- ‘cover (a
topic)’ can appear without its direct object in a context such as the one below (see also
28.4.3):
(11) A.-Bugün sınıfta önemli konular işlediniz mi?
‘Did you cover important topics in class today?’
B.-İsledik.
‘[Yes,] we did.’

13.1.2 COMPLEMENTS OF THE VERB

In a verb phrase, a complement is a constituent that ‘completes’ the meaning of the verb,
and that stands in a particular structural relationship to it. The complement of a verb is
always a noun phrase, which can be simple or complex (Chapters 14 and 24). It
represents the person(s) or thing(s)—other than the subject—affected by the action of the
verb. Some verbs (e.g. gül- ‘laugh’ or yüz- ‘swim’) have meanings which are complete in
themselves and do not have any kind of complement. Other verbs, such as yık- ‘destroy’,
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 128

anla- ‘understand’, kork- ‘fear’, denote actions or states which require complements.
There are two types of complement, direct objects and oblique objects.

[Link] Direct object

A direct object denotes a person or thing which is brought into being, or to which
something is done, by the action of the subject. In Turkish the noun phrase which
constitutes the direct object is usually non-case-marked if non-definite (i.e. indefinite or
categorial, see 22.2 and 22.3), but if definite it has the accusative case marker -(y)I
Indefinite direct object:
(12) Bir mektup yaz-dı-m.
a letter write-PF-1SG
‘I wrote a letter.’
Categorial direct object:
(13) Yaz-lar-ı açık hava sinema-sın-da film seyr-ed-er-ler-di.
summer-PL-NC open air cinema-NC-LOC film [Link]
‘They used to watch films in outdoor cinemas in the summer.’
Definite direct object:
(14) Bu parça-yı ancak çok iyi bir piyanist çal-abil-ir.
this piece-ACC only very good a pianist play-PSB-AOR
‘Only a very good pianist can play this piece.’

[Link] Oblique object

Oblique objects denote persons or things which are not directly affected by the action of
the verb but which are an integral part of its meaning. They have one of the dative,
locative, ablative or comitative/instrumental markers. They occur with intransitive verbs
especially with those which express emotion, such as hoşlan- ‘like’, ‘fancy’, kork- ‘fear’,
sevin- ‘be happy (about)’, üzül- ‘be sad (about)’ and kız- ‘be angry (about/with)’. Which
particular case marker appears on the complement noun phrase is determined by the verb.

Dative-marked oblique object

Verbs such as inan- ‘believe’, güven- ‘trust’, acı- ‘feel sorry (for)’, sevin- ‘be pleased
(about)’, üzül- ‘be sad (about)’, kız- ‘be angry (about/with)’, kıy-‘be merciless (towards)’,
bayıl- ‘adore’, tap- ‘worship’, and compound verbs such as razı ol- ‘agree (to)’, ↓gıcık ol-
/↓kıl ol- ‘be irritated (by)’ (slang), boyun eğ- ‘submit (to)’, sıkıl- ‘be upset (by)’ and uy-
‘match’, ‘comply (with)’ take complements with dative case marking:
(15) Herkes piyanist-e bayıl-dı.
pianist-DAT adore-PF
‘Everyone adored the pianist.’
(16) Bazı insanlar [tatsızlık çıkar-may]-a bayıl-ıyor.
conflict create-VN-DAT love-IMPF
 The verb phrase 129

‘Some people love [creating conflicts].’

Locative-marked oblique object

Verbs such as karar kıl- ‘decide (on)’, kusur et- ‘fail (in)’, diret- ‘insist (on)’, ısrar et-
‘insist (on)’ take complements in the locative case:
(17) Kocası evin renginde ısrar ediyor.
‘Her husband is being insistent about the colour of the house.’
(18) Çocuk [okul-a git-me-mek]-te diret-iyo
school-DAT go-NEG-VN-LOC insist-IMPF
‘The child insists on [not going to school].’

Ablative-marked oblique object

Verbs such as hoşlan- ‘like’, ‘fancy’, iğren- ‘be disgusted (by)’, soğu-‘lose one’s love
(for)’, bık- ‘get fed up (with)’, sıkıl- ‘get bored (with)’, faydalan- ‘take advantage (of)’,
‘benefit (from)’, kork- ‘be afraid (of)’, şüphelen- ‘suspect’, vazgeç- ‘give up’ and some
compound verbs such as nefret et- ‘hate’, memnun kal- ‘be happy (with)’ take
complements in the ablative case:
(19) Nermin kazadan sonra evinden soğudu.
‘After the accident, Nermin became apprehensive about [living in] her house.’
(20) Nermin bir gün geldi ki [yemek yap-mak]-tan bık-tı.
food-make-VN-ABL [Link].-PF
‘The day came when Nermin got fed up with [cooking].’

Comitative/instrumental-marked oblique object

Verbs such as ↓dalga geç- ‘make fun (of)’, ilgilen- ‘show an interest (in)’, alay et- ‘make
fun (of)’ take complements which have the comitative/instrumental marker:
(21) Serap kızkardeşiyle hep dalga geçiyor.
‘Serap always makes fun of her sister.’
(22) Erol sinema-yla çok ilgilen-iyor-du.
cinema-GOM/INS very [Link]
‘Erol was very interested in films.’
The oblique objects of some verbs are not uniquely associated with a single case suffix.
For example, if the complement of the verb utan- ‘be ashamed/embarrassed’ is simple, it
has ablative case marking, but if it is a clause ([Link]), it can have either ablative or
dative marking:
(23) Erol o kadar utangaç ki doktordan bile utanıyor.
‘Erol is so shy that he is even embarrassed [to be seen] by the doctor.’
(24) …[konuş-mak]-tan/…[konuş-may]-a bile utanıyor.
speak-VN-ABL speak-VN-DAT
‘…that he is even embarrassed to speak.’
Some verbs which take oblique objects also have direct objects, such as mahkum et-
‘sentence (to)’, ‘condemn (to)’, it- ‘lead (into)’, sürükle- ‘drag (into)’, zorla- ‘force
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 130

(to/into)’. The oblique objects of these verbs are either abstract nouns or clauses formed
with -mAK ([Link]).
(25) Allahtan kimse-yi ölüm-e mahkum etmediler.
[Link]-ACC death-DAT
‘Luckily they didn’t condemn anyone to death.’
(See (35) in Chapter 23 for another example.)

13.1.3 ADVERBIALS
The adverbials in a verb phrase modify the verb by describing:
(i) Its destination or target (indicated by the dative case marker):
araba-ya (git-) ‘(go) to the car’
ayna-ya (bak-) ‘(look) in the mirror’
oğlan-a (paket-i ver-) ‘(give the package) to the boy’

(ii) Its location (indicated by the locative case marker):

kanape-de (uyu-) ‘(sleep) on the sofa’
biz-de (kal-) ‘(stay) at our place’
durak-ta (otobüs bekle-) ‘(wait for a bus) at the bus stop’

(iii) The source of the action or the space through which an action takes place (indicated
by the ablative case marker):
büro-dan (kağıtlar-ı al-) ‘(take the papers) from the office’
mutfak-tan (yemeğ-i getir-) ‘(bring the food) from the kitchen’
evlerin üstün-den (geç-) ‘(pass) over the houses’

(iv) The manner in which the action takes place indicated by:
the comitative/instrumental marker
bıçak-la (ekmek kes-) ‘(cut bread) with a knife’

a simple adverb
yavaş (yürü-) ‘(walk) slowly’

a derived adverb
korkak-ça (kaç-) ‘(run away) in a cowardly fashion’

an adjective used adverbially

güzel (oku-) ‘(study) well’
 The verb phrase 131

For a full discussion of adverbials see Chapter 16.

13.2 TRANSITIVITY AND VOICE

In many instances where English has unrelated stems for transitive and intransitive pairs
(e.g. drop and fall), or identical verbs with transitive and intransitive meaning (e.g.
change (something) and change (in the sense of go through a change)), Turkish uses
voice suffixes to alter the transitivity of a verb. There are four voice suffixes in Turkish
(8.2.1): the causative, the passive, the reflexive and the reciprocal. In the overwhelming
majority of cases the final suffix of a verb derived in this fashion automatically indicates
the transitivity or intransitivity of a stem. Almost all verb stems ending in the passive,
reflexive or reciprocal suffixes -Il, -(I)n, -(I)ş, or the composite suffixes -lAn or -lAş, are
intransitive (see [Link] for exceptions), and verb stems ending in the causative suffix (-
DIr, -t, -It, -Ir, -Ar, -Art) or the composite suffix -lAt are transitive.
Transitivizing an intransitive verb by attaching the causative suffix ([Link]):
değiş- ‘change’ değiş-tir- ‘change (s.t.)’
uğraş- ‘be busy (with)’ uğraş-tır- ‘preoccupy’
yürü- ‘walk’ yürü-t- ‘make (s.o.) walk’
ürk- ‘be scared (of)’ ürk-üt- ‘scare’
düş- ‘fall’ düş-ür- ‘drop’
çık- ‘go/come out’ çık-ar- ‘remove, get (s.t.) out’

Intransitivizing a transitive verb by attaching the passive ([Link]) or reflexive suffix

([Link]):
yık- ‘destroy’ yık-ıl- ‘fall apart’, ‘be destroyed’
eğ- ‘bend (s.t.)’ eğ-il- ‘bend over’
sakla- ‘hide (s.t.)’ sakla-n- ‘hide’
yıka- ‘wash’ yıka-n- ‘be washed’, ‘get washed’,
‘have a bath/shower’
ört- ‘cover’ ört-ün- ‘cover oneself’

Voice suffixes alter the function of the major constituents in a sentence, as explained
below.

13.2.1 CAUSATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

The causative suffix (i.e. one of the forms -DIr, -t, -It, -Ir, -Ar, -Art, see [Link]) can
attach to transitive and intransitive verbs.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 132

(i) When it attaches to a transitive verb, it expresses the concepts ‘cause’, ‘make’,
‘have’, and, in negative environments or with reference to involuntary acts, ‘let’, ‘allow’
or ‘be unable to prevent’:
(26) Her gün camlar-ı sil-dir-iyor-lar.
every day windows-ACC wipe-CAUS-IMPF-3PL
‘They have the windows cleaned every day.’
(27) Ev-i çoktandır boya-t-ma-dı-k.
house-ACC [Link] paint-CAUS-NEG-PF-1PL
‘We haven’t had the house painted for a long time.’
In a causative construction based on a transitive verb (e.g. aç- ‘open’), the performer of
the action denoted by this verb (the causee) can be expressed by a dative-marked noun
phrase. The causee is usually human, but can also be an inanimate entity to which
inherent power is attributed, such as a car or other machine.
(28) Nuran Deniz-e kapı-yı aç-tır-dı.
Deniz-DAT door-ACC open-CAUS-PF
‘Nuran made Deniz open the door.’
(29) Annesine bulaşık yıkatmıyor.
‘S/he doesn’t let his/her mother wash the dishes.’
(30) Şule elini makinaya kaptırdı.
‘Şule got her hand caught in the machine.’
Causative constructions with dative-marked noun phrases can sometimes be ambiguous,
because a dative-marked noun phrase could have an adverbial function (see 13.1.3):
(31) Bu ev-i Ahmet-e yap-tır-dı-m.
this house-ACC Ahmet-DAT make-CAUS-PF-1SG
This sentence can mean ‘I got Ahmet to build this house’, where the dativemarked noun
phrase Ahmet’e denotes the person who has built the house, or it may mean ‘I had this
house built for Ahmet’, where this same noun phrase marks the beneficiary. To resolve
such ambiguities beneficiaries can be expressed by postpositional phrases:
(32) Bu evi Ahmet için yaptırdım.
Ahmet for
‘I had this house built for Ahmet.’
It should be noted that sentences in which the beneficiary is indicated by other means
(e.g. a postpositional phrase) are preferred to sentences where both the causee and the
beneficiary are indicated by a dative-marked noun phrase.
(ii) In the case of intransitive verbs, the person or thing that is made to perform or
undergo the action denoted by the root verb is in the accusative case:
(33) Bütün atık su-lar-ı deniz-e ak-ıt-tı-lar.
all waste water-PL-ACC sea-DAT flow-CAUS-PF-3PL
‘They released all the waste water into the sea.’
(34) Adamı üç bıçak darbesiyle öl-dür-düler.
 The verb phrase 133

‘They killed the man by stabbing him three times.’

Causation can also be expressed by means of a complex sentence containing verbs like
zorla- ‘force’ ([Link] (58)), sağla- ‘ensure’ or yol aç- ‘cause’ ([Link] (84)).

[Link] Multiple occurrences of the causative suffix

The causative suffix can also attach to a stem already containing a causative suffix:
(35) Su-lar-ı durmadan temizlikçi-ye balkon-dan aşağı ak-ıt-tır-ıyor.
water-PL-ACC continuously cleaner-DAT balcony-ABL down flow-CAUS-
CAUS-IMPF
‘S/he is always getting/making the cleaner (to) run the water down off the
balcony.’
Whether the root verb is intransitive or transitive, causative sentences without a dative-
marked noun phrase (indicated in brackets above) are more common than those that have
one. In the event of the dative noun phrase being omitted from (35), the sentence would
mean ‘S/he is always getting the water run down off the balcony’.
If the root verb is transitive (e.g. kes- ‘cut’), an additional causative suffix is often
used simply as a means of emphasizing causation, but it may also imply the addition of
another intermediary. In most cases, a transitive stem with two causative suffixes is
identical in meaning to its single causative counterpart:
(36)
(a) Saç-ım-ı kes-tir-di-m.
[Link]-ACC cut-CAUS-PF-1S
‘I had my hair cut.’
(b) Saçımı kes-tir-t-ti-m.
cut-CAUS-CAUS-PF-1SG
‘I had my hair cut.’
If the causee is expressed, the addition of a second causative is generally preferred:
(37) Saçımı berber-e kes-tir-t-ti-m.
hairdresser-DAT cut-CAUS-CAUS-PF-1S
‘I got the hairdresser to cut my hair.’
The double occurrence of the causative is even more clearly preferred when the causee
and the beneficiary are both expressed in the sentence:
(38) Karı-sın-a/karısı için bir ev yap-tır-t-mış bir İngiliz mimar-ın-a.
BENEFICIARY CAUSEE
[Link]-DAT/[Link] for a house make-CAUS-CAUS-EV/PF a
British architect-NC-DAT
‘He got a British architect to build a house for his wife.’
In informal speech, a third occurrence of the causative suffix only highlights the fact that
the event was caused, rather than adding one more intermediary to the clause.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 134

[Link] Causatives of verbs of emotion

Causative constructions based on certain verbs of emotion such as kork-‘fear’, ürk- ‘be
scared/intimidated’, kız- ‘be angry (with)’ and sevin- ‘be happy (about)’ have a special
structure. Their oblique objects function as the subject in their causativized counterparts
(39b):
(39)
(a) Hayvan-lar güneş tutulmasın-dan ürk-üyor.
animal-PL solar eclipse-ABL [Link]-IMPF
‘Animals are frightened by solar eclipses.’
(b) Güneş tutulması hayvan-lar-ı ürk-üt-üyor.
solar eclipse animal-PL-ACC [Link]-CAUS-IMPF
‘Solar eclipses scare animals.’
Note that there are some verbs of emotion which do not follow this pattern, and
causativize just like intransitive verbs which do not have oblique objects (such as soğu-
‘lose one’s love (for)’, nefret et- ‘hate’). On the other hand, there are also a number of
verbs which involve an action rather than an emotion, and which display the pattern
illustrated in (39) (e.g. uğraş- ‘be busy with’).

13.2.2 PASSIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

In Turkish both transitive and intransitive verbs can combine with the passive suffix
([Link]).

[Link] Passivizing a transitive verb

This is usually done for purposes of topicalizing (23.3.3) the direct object and
suppressing the agent or perpetrator of the action denoted by the verb. The process of
passivization has the effect of making the direct object of a transitive verb the subject of a
passive one. In the examples below the corresponding active sentence is shown in
brackets:
(40) Ev bu yıl artık sat-ıl-acak. (cf. Biz evi bu yıl artık satacağız.)
house this year finally sell-PASS-FUT
‘The house will finally be sold this year.’
(41) Televizyon şu anda tamir ed-il-iyor. (cf. Tamirci televizyonu tamir ediyor.)
TV [Link] repair AUX-PASS-IMPF
‘The television set is being repaired at the moment.’

[Link] Expressing the agent in a passive sentence

Although one of the reasons for passivizing a direct object is to suppress the agent of an
action, it is still possible to express the agent in a passive clause. The agent is expressed
 The verb phrase 135

either by using the postposition tarafından (17.3.2), a locative or ablative noun phrase or
the adverbial suffix -CA (16.1.6).
In a tarafından phrase the agent acts as the complement of the postposition (tarafından
‘by’). These phrases are equivalent to ‘by’ phrases in English, but used less frequently.
Agentless passive sentences are much more common in Turkish than those containing a
tarafından phrase.
(42) En iyi oyun birinci sınıf öğrencileri tarafından hazırlanmış.
‘The best play was performed by the first year students.’
A tarafından phrase usually comes immediately before the verb in a passive sentence.
Phrases with tarafından can normally only refer to animate entities, usually to human
beings. Occasionally they can be used (with personifying effect) to refer to machines (e.g.
makina tarafından ‘by the machine’). An inanimate agent can usually only be expressed
by means of some other type of adverbial, particularly by an ablative- or locative-marked
noun phrase. (For the causal meaning of the ablative case marker see [Link] (i))
(43)
(a) Ayışığ-ı keten-i parçala-r-mış.
moonlight-NC linen-ACC [Link]
‘Apparently moonlight fragments linen.’
(b) Keten ayışığ-ın-dan/da parçala-n-ır-miş.
linen moonlight-NC-ABL/LOC [Link]
‘Apparently linen gets fragmented by moonlight/[as a result
of being] in the moonlight.’
(44)
(a) Fırtına bütün evleri yıktı.
‘The storm destroyed all the houses.’
(b) Fırtına-da bütün evler yıkıldı.
storm-LOC
‘All the houses were destroyed in the storm.’
Another way of expressing the agent in a passive construction is by attaching the suffix -
CA ([Link], 16.1.6 (iii)) to the agentive noun phrase. This can be done only when the
agent of an action is an official body, such as a ministry, or an organization or group of
people. This usage is typical of formal discourse, and is mostly confined to official
speeches and broadcasts.
(45) Bugün Başbakanlık-ça vergi-ler konusunda önemli
today government-ADV tax-PL regarding important
bir açıklama yap-ıl-acak-mış.
an announcement [Link]
‘Apparently, an important announcement regarding taxes is expected to be made
today by the government.’
(46) Bu toplantı okulumuzca düzenlendi.
‘This meeting was organized by our school.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 136

[Link] Impersonal passives

The addition of a passive suffix to an intransitive verb produces an impersonal passive
construction:
(47) Adalara artık deniz otobüsüyle mi gid-il-ecek?
go-PASS-FUT
‘Will hovercraft be the way that [people] go to the islands now?’
In such constructions there is no particular person or group of persons that is understood
as performing the action denoted by the verb, hence such sentences cannot have agent
phrases. The closest English equivalents are active sentences with ‘people’, ‘one’ or the
impersonal ‘you’ as subject.
Impersonal passives occur most often with aorist marking, to express a general
property of a particular entity (see [Link]). (48) below indicates a property of
cobblestone streets:
(48) Arnavut kaldırım-ı üst-ün-de topuklu pabuç-la yürü-n-mez.
[Link]-NC [Link]-LOC [Link] shoe-COM walk-PASS-
[Link]
‘[You] can’t walk on cobblestone streets wearing high-heeled shoes.’
In impersonal passive constructions the action denoted by the verb is understood to be
attributed to human beings; hence sentences such as the following cannot refer to actions
by inanimate entities.
(49) Parmaklık o kadar alçak ki balkondan aşağı düş-ül-ebi-ir.
fall-PASS-PSB-AOR
‘The railing is so low that [one] could fall off the balcony.’

[Link] Double passive constructions

When a transitive verb combines with two passive suffixes, the result is again an
impersonal passive which refers to a property of a particular entity. These constructions
are quite marginal, and are almost always used with the aorist suffix. In double passive
constructions the first occurrence of the passive suffix has an intransitivizing function.
(50) Böyle laf-a kır-ıl-ın-ır.
such word-DAT hurt-PASS-PASS-AOR
‘[One] can be hurt by such words.’
(51) Bu duruma tabii ki üz-ül-ün-ebil-ir.
sadden-PASS-PASS-PSB-AOR
‘[One] can of course be upset by this situation.’
In colloquial Turkish some speakers tend to use a second passive suffix after the suffix -
(y)Abil as in yap-ıl-abil-in-ir ‘[it] can be done’. This duplication does not serve any
syntactic function.
For the obligatory occurrence of passive morphology in the main clause of a sentence
whose subject is a -mAK noun clause that is itself passive, see [Link].
 The verb phrase 137

Some irregular cases

(i) Some forms which have two passive suffixes (such as söyle-n-il- ‘be told’, de-n-il- ‘be
said’ and ye-n-il- ‘be eaten’) are not ‘double passive’ constructions in the sense described
above, but are identical in meaning to their counterparts with a single passive suffix (i.e.
söyle-n- ‘be told’, etc.).
(ii) In the spoken language, the form ko-n-ul- ‘be placed’ is the more frequently used
passive form of koy- ‘place’, ‘put’, rather than koy-ul- ‘be placed’.
(iii) The passive form of kapa- and kapat- ‘close’ is kapat-ıl-:
(52) Okul meğer belediye başkanı tarafından kapat-ıl-mış.
close-PASS-EV/PF
‘The school was apparently closed down by the mayor.’
The stem kapan-, unless used in a reflexive sense ([Link]), denotes the action of closing
in an intransitive sense:
(53) Köşedeki dükkan yedide kapa-n-ıyor.
close-PASS-IMPF
‘The shop on the corner closes at seven.’
(iv) Anlaşıl- ‘be understood’, ‘be clear’ is an irregular passive form whose root is anla-
‘understand’.

13.2.3 CONSTRUCTIONS WITH NON-PRODUCTIVE VOICE

SUFFIXES
The reflexive and reciprocal suffixes are intransitive. These combine with only a limited
number of verbs.

[Link] Reflexive constructions

Reflexive constructions contain the reflexive suffix -(I)n ([Link]), which combines only
with transitive verbs. In the most common type of reflexive construction, the agent of an
action performs the action on himself/herself:
(54) Bu kız daha sabahleyin yıka-n-mış-tı.
wash-REF-PF-P. COP
‘This girl had taken a bath/shower only that morning.’
(55) Sarman durmadan yala-n-ıyor-du.
[Link]
‘Sarman was licking himself incessantly.’
(56) O sıralarda bütün kadınlar eve kapa-n-miş-tı.
[Link]
‘In those days all women used to stay indoors/kept themselves at home.’
In another type of reflexive construction, the way in which the agent is affected by the
action is somewhat indirect, as in giyin- ‘get dressed’, sürtün- ‘rub (oneself) against
[s.t.]’:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 138

(57) Aferin! Çabucak giy-in-di-n.

wear-REF-PF-2SG
‘Good for you! You got dressed very quickly.’
The vast majority of reflexive verbs are intransitive. However, there are a few transitive
ones:
(58) Hergün kokular sürünüyor.
‘S/he puts on perfume every day.’
Although the reflexive suffix and the pronoun kendi ‘self ‘are mutually exclusive when
kendi functions as a reflexive pronoun, there are some instances when the reflexive suffix
can co-occur with kendi in its other functions. This happens when kendi is:
(i) Used emphatically ([Link] (i)):
(59) Çocuklar kendi-leri yıka-n-abil-ir-ler.
[Link] wash-PASS-PSB-AOR-3PL
‘The children can have a shower themselves.’
(ii) Used in its doubled form kendi kendi- (18.1.3) with dative case marking:
(60) Çocuklar kendi kendi-lerin-e yıka-n-abil-ir-ler.
self [Link]-DAT wash-REF-PSB-AOR-3PL
‘The children can have a shower by themselves.?
See also [Link] for the derivational usage of -(I)n.

[Link] Reciprocal constructions

Reciprocal constructions are intransitive constructions which describe an event in which
at least two agents perform the same action upon each other. The verb is marked with the
reciprocal suffix -(I)ş ([Link]), as in dövüş-‘fight each other’:
(61) Kemal-le Zeki döv-üş-tü(-ler).
Kemal-CONJ Zeki [Link]-REC-PF(-3PL)
‘Kemal and Zeki had a fight’
In reciprocal constructions there is more than one way of expressing the two (or more)
agents of the action. One of these is by using a conjunction such as ve or -(y)lA/ile ‘and’
([Link] (i–ii)), which forms a composite subject as in (61) above. In such cases the verb
can have plural person marking.
Alternatively, one of the agents can be expressed as an adverbial of manner (16.4.3
(iv)), by means of the comitative suffix -(y)lA/ile ‘with’ used as a postposition (17.2.1
(iii)):
(62) Kemal Zeki-yle dövüştü.
Zeki-COM
‘Kemal fought with Zeki.’
 The verb phrase 139

In these constructions there is only one subject (here Kemal) and the verb therefore has
singular person marking (see also [Link] (ii)). There is a slight difference between the
meanings of the two constructions. While in (61) the two agents of the action, Kemal and
Zeki, have equal standing as agents of the verb, (62) is a statement about an action
performed by Kemal, in which Zeki is also involved.
The reciprocal pronoun birbir- ‘each other’ (18.1.4) can be used in reciprocal
constructions with -(y)lA as an adverbial of manner:
(63) Kemal-le Zeki birbir-leri-yle döv-üş-tü-ler.
Kemal-CONJ Zeki [Link]-COM [Link]-REC-PF-3PL
‘Kemal and Zeki fought (with) each other.’
For other examples of verbs to which the reciprocal suffix can be added see [Link]. The
reciprocal suffix also appears in the verb-forming suffix -lAş ([Link]).

13.2.4 COMBINATIONS OF VOICE SUFFIXES

More than one voice suffix can attach to a verb. Since these suffixes affect the transitivity
of a clause, the order in which they are attached is very important. The last suffix to
appear determines the (in)transitivity of the stem.
Apart from the double occurrences of the passive and the causative which are
explained above, other combinations are also possible. When the passive suffix attaches
to a verb, the only other voice suffix that can attach to it is a second passive, as discussed
in [Link]–4.

Causative (+causative)+passive
This is the most productive of combinations. In such constructions the verbal complex as
a whole (e.g. dik-tir-il- below) is passive, and therefore the sentence does not contain a
direct object:
(64) Herkes-e birer ağaç dik-tir-il-di.
everyone-DAT a tree plant-CAUS-PASS-PF
(i) ‘It was arranged that a tree be planted for everyone.’
(ii) ‘Everyone was made to plant a tree.’
Where, as in (64), there is just one causative suffix on the verb, a dative-marked noun
phrase (such as herkese) is more often used to express a beneficiary (as in (64 (i)), than to
express the causee (as in (64 (ii)). By contrast, when a passive suffix is attached to a
double causative, the more likely interpretation is the one where the dative-marked noun
phrase expresses the causee, as in (65 (i)):
(65) Bütün öğrenci-ler-e resim-ler yap-tır-t-ıl-dı.
all student-PL-DAT picture-PL paint-CAUS-CAUS-PASS-PF
(i) ‘All the students were made to paint (pictures).’
(ii) ‘It was arranged for pictures to be painted for every student.’
The addition of a causative suffix followed by a passive suffix produces a stem different
in meaning and structure from the corresponding root. For example, both the root piş-
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 140

‘cook (intransitive)’ and the stem piş-ir-il- (piş-CAUS-PASS) ‘be cooked’ are
intransitive, but a sentence with piş-ir-il- can contain an agent, whereas this is not a
possibility with simple verbs.
(66) Fasulye [kart ol-duğ-un-dan] üç saat-te piş-ti.
bean stringy [Link]-ABL three hour-LOC cook-PF
‘[Because the beans were stringy] they took three hours to cook.’
(67) Keşke şu fasulye-ler doğru dürüst bir ahçı tarafından piş-ir-il-seydi!
[Link] this bean-PL proper a cook by [Link]
‘If only these beans had been cooked by a prope r cook!’

Reciprocal+causative
In these sequences the last voice suffix is causative; the stem is therefore transitive and
the sentence contains a direct object:
(68) Baba-ları kardeş-ler-i öp-üş-tür-dü.
[Link] sibling-PL-ACC kiss-REC-CAUS-PF
‘The(ir) father made the sisters/brothers kiss each other.’
(Note that -(I)ştır may also function as a derivational suffix, see [Link].)

Reciprocal+passive
Reciprocal+passive sequences produce impersonal constructions (cf. [Link]):
(69) Bu arena-da her zaman döv-üş-ül-müş-tür.
This arena-LOC always [Link]-REC-PASS-PF-GM
‘People have always fought in this arena.’

Reciprocal+causative+passive
This sequence produces intransitive stems with a passive sense:
(70) Onlar bura-da döv-üş-tür-ül-dü.
They here-LOC beat-REC-CAUS-PASS-PF
‘They were made to fight each other here.’

Reflexive+passive
These are impersonal passive constructions (13.2.2) because the stem to which the
passive is added is intransitive:
(71) Bu hamam-da iyi yıka-n-ıl-ır.
this bath-LOC well wash-REF-PASS-AOR
‘[One] can get washed pretty well in this bath house.’

13.3 AUXILIARY VERB

An auxiliary verb cannot stand on its own and occurs with another verb or nominal.
There are three types of auxiliary verb in Turkish:
 The verb phrase 141

(i) Bound auxiliaries:

These are the suffixes -(y)Abil, -(y)Iver, -(y)Ayaz, -(y)Adur, -(y)Akal.
(ii) Free auxiliaries:
These are verbs such as ol- (which is also one of the forms of the copula), et-, gel-
, dur-, kal-, düş- bulun-, eyle- and buyur-.
(iii) i-/-(y)-:
These are also forms of the copula, see 8.3.1–2.

13.3.1 COMPOUND VERB FORMS

These are formed by using bound and free auxiliaries.

[Link] Compound verb forms containing bound auxiliaries

The verb roots bil- ‘know’, ver- ‘give’, gel- ‘come’, yaz- ‘make a mistake’ (obs.), dur-
‘stay’, kal- ‘remain’ can also function as bound (i.e. suffixed) auxiliaries appearing as
part of the composite suffixes -(y)Abil, -(y)Iver, -(y)Agel, -(y)Adur, -(y)Ayaz and
-(y)Akal ([Link]), which appear in position 2 on the verb stem.
The most common of these suffixes is the possibility suffix -(y)Abil ([Link]).
(72) Her gün çikolata yi-yebil-ir-im.
every day chocolate eat-PSB-AOR-1SG
‘I could eat chocolate every day.’
-(y)Iver mostly indicates swiftness and suddenness of an action, as in (75), or the ease
with which an action is performed, as in (76):
(73) O anda odaya bir adam gir-iver-di.
enter-AUX-PF
‘Suddenly a man entered the room.’
(74) Şu pencereyi kapa-yıver-sene.
‘[Why don’t you] just close that window?’

The remaining bound auxiliaries are either (semi-)lexicalized or obsolescent. -(y)Agel

indicates that the action denoted by the verb is habitual and customary:
(75) Onlar [Hristiyan olmamaların a rağmen] yıllardır Noel’i kutla-yagel-miş-ler-
dir.
‘They have been celebrating Christmas for years, [even though they aren’t
Christians].’

The compounds containing -(y)Adur and -(y)Akal are semi-lexicalized. -(y)Adur

is mostly used with motion verbs such as git- ‘go’, yürü- ‘walk’, koş- ‘run’, to indicate
the continuous nature of the action. Verbs with -(y)Adur are usually imperative:
(76) Sen yürüyedur, ben sana yetişirim.
‘You keep on walking, [and] I’ll catch you up.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 142

-(y)Akal is almost exclusively used with the verbs bak- ‘look’, don- ‘freeze’ and şaş-
‘be surprised’, producing the forms bakakal- ‘be amazed’, donakal-‘be stunned’ and
şaşakal- ‘be dumbfounded’:
(77) [Söylediklerini duyunca] donakaldık.
‘We were stunned [when we heard what you said].’
The verb roots dur- ‘stay’ and kal- ‘remain’ can also be used as free forms. These
separate verb forms are more productive than their suffixed counterparts -(y)Adur and
-(y)Akal, and are used following the conjunctive suffix -(y)Ip (28.2):
(78) Şan derslerine gid-ip dur-uyor ama şarkı söylediği yok.
go-CONJ AUX-IMPF
‘S/he keeps going to singing lessons, but s/he doesn’t sing.’
(79) Burada böylece otur-up kal-dı-k.
sit-CONJ AUX-PF-1PL
‘We were just left sitting here.’

[Link] Compound verb forms containing free auxiliaries

The free auxiliaries ol- and bulun- can form compounds with verbs. Ol- is fully
productive, while bulun- is limited in usage. These auxiliaries function as buffer stems
which, acting as carriers for tense/aspect/modality suffixes, supplement the tense/aspect
marking that is already present on the lexical verb in a finite clause (e.g. bitir- in (80)):
(80) Bu arada da ders-imiz-i bitir-miş ol-acağ-ız.
meanwhile and [Link]-ACC finish-PF AUX-FUT-1PL
‘And in the meantime we will have finished our homework.’
For a survey of the wide range of compound verb forms in common use in finite clauses
see 21.5. For those occurring in conditional clauses see [Link] and 27.2.6.
In non-finite compound verb forms the free auxiliaries act as bearers of the
subordinating suffix, freeing the lexical stem to carry a tense/aspect marker (see 24.4.7,
25.4.1, 26.2.3 (i)):
(81) [Semra’yla konuş-uyor ol-duğ-un sırada] bütün sırlarını anlatmıştın
speak-IMPF [Link]
‘[At the time when you were on speaking terms with Semra], you told [her] all
your secrets.’
The auxiliary verb bulun- is generally confined to formal or pedantic discourse:
(82) Kayıtları bugün saat 17 itibariyle kapat-mış bulun-uyor-uz.
finish-PF AUX-IMPF-1PL
‘We [officially] finished registration at 5 p.m. today.’
However, it can have the different function of attributing an element of involuntariness to
the action denoted by the verb, suggesting that it was carried out either by mistake or as
 The verb phrase 143

an unintended result of some other action. In compound verbs with bulun-, the lexical
verb has to be inflected with -mIş:
(83) [Ankara’ya bir kere gel-miş bulun-duğ-umuz-a göre] bari Kale’yi
come-PF [Link]-DAT [Link]
gezelim.
‘[Since we have landed up in Ankara anyway], why not let’s visit the castle?’
In compound verbs with free auxiliaries, only the lexical verb can carry voice suffixes; -
(y)Abil (and to a lesser extent -(y)Iver) can occur on the auxiliary verb or the main verb:
(84) Gör-ül-müş ol-abil-ir mi-yiz?
see-PASS-PF AUX-PSB-AOR INT-1PL
‘Could we have been seen?’
(85) Anne-sin-i gör-ebil-miş ol-du.
[Link]-ACC see-PSB-PF AUX-PF
‘S/he has managed to see his/her mother.’
For the combination of compound verb forms with the negative suffix, see 20.1.2.
A rather less productive compound verb form contains -mAzlIktAn gel-.
This construction is restricted to verbs of perception and cognition, such as duy-
‘hear’, anla- understand’, etc., and is identical in meaning to its negative counterpart -
mAmAzlIktAn gel-. Sometimes it occurs as -mAzdAn gel-:
(86) Beni duymazlıktan/duymamazlıktan/duymazdan geldi.
‘S/he pretended not to hear me.’

13.3.2 NOMINAL-VERB COMPOUNDS

Nominal-verb compounds are made up of a bare nominal (noun or adjective) followed by
a verb used as a free auxiliary. Ol-, et-, yap- gel-, dur-, kal-, çık-, düş-, buyur-, eyle-
form nominal-verb compounds such as sebep ol- ‘cause’, yardım et- ‘help’, inat et- ‘be
obstinate’, takdir et- ‘appreciate’, karşı gel- ‘oppose’, karşı dur- ‘resist’, mecbur kal- ‘be
obliged’, karşı çık- ‘oppose’, zayıf düş- ‘become weak’, af buyur- ‘forgive’ (only used
in requests), istirham eyle- ‘ask for mercy’, işbaşı yap- ‘start work’. In some cases, the
nominal and the auxiliary verb are joined up: affet- ‘forgive’, hallet- ‘solve’, hallol- ‘be
solved’ (for the phonological properties of words combining with et- see 2.2). These
compounds are inflected like ordinary verbs:
(87) Ahmet arkadaş-lar-ın-a hep yardım ed-er.
Ahmet [Link]-DAT always help AUX-AOR
‘Ahmet always helps his friends.’
(88) [Beni anlamamak]-ta inat ed-iyor.
‘S/he obstinately refuses to understand me.’
 14
THE NOUN PHRASE

A noun phrase is any sequence of words that can function as the subject of a sentence:
(1) Bunu sen al.
‘You take this one.’
(2) [Her gün oraya gidip gelmek] zor.
‘It’s difficult [to go there and back every day].’
A noun phrase can also function as some kind of complement, such as:
An object:
(3) Yeni komşuları tanımıyordum.
‘I didn’t know the new neighbours.’
A subject complement:
(4) O sırada lise öğrencisiydik.
‘We were high school students at the time.’
The complement of a postposition:
(5) Bunları [Amerika’nın diç politikasını daha iyi anlamak isteyenler] için
yazıyorum.
‘I’m writ ing all this for people who want to understand American foreign policy
better.’
The most complex kinds of noun phrases are subordinate clauses, which are discussed
elsewhere in this book: noun clauses (exemplified in (2) above) form the subject of
Chapter 24, and headless relative clauses (as in (5) above) are explained in 25.3.
In this chapter we look first at the structure of the noun phrase (14.1), then consider
the extent to which distinctions of countability are grammaticalized (14.2). The next
sections explain how noun phrases are inflected for number (14.3.1), possession (person)
(14.3.2) and case (14.3.3). The last two sections examine composite structures involving
a combination of two noun phrases: the genitive-possessive construction (14.4) and
partitive constructions (14.5).

14.1 STRUCTURE OF THE NOUN PHRASE

The Turkish noun phrase consists of an obligatory constituent, called the head, and one
or more optional constituents, known as modifiers. (6)–(8) are noun phrases of varying
degrees of complexity. In each case the head is shown in bold:
(6) oda
‘the room’
 The noun phrase 145

(7) büyük bir oda

‘a large room’
(8) [Mustafa’nın çalışma odası olarak kullandığı] oda
‘the room that Mustafa uses as a study’
All modifiers in the Turkish noun phrase, however complex, precede the head. The head
is the location for any inflectional suffixes that pertain to the noun phrase as a whole:
(9) {Bu kattakien güzel oda-lar-ımız}-ı size ayırdık.
[Link]-ACC
‘We’ve given you {our best rooms on this floor}.’

14.1.1 ITEMS WHICH CAN FUNCTION AS THE HEAD OF A NOUN

PHRASE
There are three word classes that can function as the head of a noun phrase: nouns, noun
compounds, and pronouns. Some examples of each are given below:
(i) Nouns:
(a) common nouns
adam ‘man’, para ‘money’, tarih ‘history’
(b) proper nouns
Mustafa, İstanbul, Avrupa
(ii) Noun compounds (Chapter 10):
(a) bare compounds
kız öğrenci ‘female student’, taş duvar ‘stone wall’
(b) -(s)I compounds
otobüs bileti ‘bus ticket’, Türk kahvesi ‘Turkish coffee’
(iii) Pronouns (Chapter 18):
sen ‘you’, bu ‘this’, orası ‘that (place)’, hangisi ‘which (one)’, öteki ‘the other’
Of these three classes, pronouns differ from the other two in that they very rarely
occur with any modifiers.

14.1.2 MODIFIERS IN THE NOUN PHRASE

Modifiers that may be present in a noun phrase fall into two classes: determiners and
adjectivals.
Determiners (15.6) constitute a small class of items whose function is to specify the
limitation (or lack of limitation) of the potential referent of a noun phrase, such as bu
‘this’, aynı ‘the same’, her ‘every’, etc.
Adjectivals (15.1–5) attribute some kind of quality to the head of a noun phrase.
Turkish adjectivals range from simple adjectives, such as iyi ‘good’, yeni ‘new’, zengin
‘rich’, yüksek ‘high’, through various kinds of more complex forms and phrases to
relative clauses (Chapter 25), which have a sentence-like internal structure.
(10) küçük bir kız
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 146

little a girl
ADJ DET N
‘a little girl’
(11) şu raf-ta-ki bütün eski kitap-lar
that shelf-LOC-ADJ all old book-PL
DET ADJ DET ADJ N
‘all the old books on that shelf
(12) [Deniz-in sev-diğ-i] bazı Türkyemek-ler-i
Deniz-GEN [Link] some Turk dish-PL-NC
ADJ DET NC
‘some Turkish dishes that Deniz likes’

14.2 COUNTABILITY

There is no clear grammatical distinction in Turkish between countable and uncountable

nouns. As shown in 14.2.1 and [Link], both the indefinite article and the plural suffix
can be used with almost any noun. However, nouns denoting non-discrete, continuous
entities such as su ‘water’, toprak ‘earth’, müzik ‘music’ are not normally combinable
with numerals or with the quantifying determiners kaç ‘how many’, birkaç ‘a few,’
‘several’, or birçok ‘many’, unless the context makes clear that the counting is based
upon either a conventional measure of the substance in question, as in (13), or distinct
types of the substance, as in (14):
(13) Bakkaldan birkaç bira al.
a. few beer
‘Get a few [bottles of] beer from the corner shop.’
(14) Bu memleketin en az beş altı müziğ-i var
five six [Link]
‘There are at least five or six [kinds of] music in this country.’
Conversely, the quantifier biraz ‘a little’, ‘some’ cannot normally be used as a determiner
with nouns that denote discrete, countable entities, such as çocuk ‘child’, şehir ‘city’,
resim ‘picture’. However, in very informal registers this combination can occur where a
speaker envisages a group of items in a vague, undefined way, without giving any
importance to their individuality:
(15) Masada biraz kalem, kitap falan vardı galiba.
‘I think there were some pens, books and suchlike on the table.’
All words denoting fruits and vegetables are used interchangeably to refer either to an
individual item (16) or to the type (17):
(16) Dün üç şeftali yedim.
‘I ate three peaches yesterday.’
(17) Şuradan biraz şeftali alalım.
‘Let’s get some peaches from here.’
 The noun phrase 147

14.2.1 USES OF THE INDEFINITE ARTICLE bir WITH NOUN

PHRASES THAT DO NOT DENOTE DISCRETE ENTITIES
(i) As in the case of numerals in general, bir ‘one’, ‘a(n)’ can designate a conventional
measure of the substance in question:
(18) Bana bir su ver.
‘Give me a [glass of] water.’
(ii) It can also refer to one instance of a quality or state:
(19) İçime bir rahatlık girdi.
‘A [sense of] relief came over me.’
(iii) In combination with an adjectival, it attributes a quality to a particular instance of the
class denoted by the noun:
(20) Güzel bir pirinç buldum.
‘I’ve found a nice [kind of] rice.’

14.3 NOMINAL INFLECTION

The inflectional suffixes that can be added to the head of a noun phrase are those set out
in 8.1. In this section we look at how three of these sets of suffixes, namely the plural
suffix (8.1.1), possessive suffixes (8.1.2) and case suffixes (8.1.3), affect the meaning of
a noun phrase.

14.3.1 NUMBER

[Link] Plural marking with -lAr

The only suffix marking number in Turkish nominals is the plural suffix -lAr. The basic
meaning of this suffix is to denote more than one item from the class indicated:
bos oda-lar ‘vacant rooms’
kim-ler ‘who’ (referring to more than one person)

Noun phrases that have to be plural-marked:

A noun phrase containing one of the quantifying determiners bazı/kimi/bir kısım
‘some’, ‘certain’, birtakım ‘some’, ‘a number of , normally has to be plural marked:
(21) Bazı insan-lar çocuklarına tuhaf adlar koyarlar.
some person-PL
‘Some people give their children strange names.’
However, there are some fixed expressions in which singular nouns do occur with these
determiners, e.g. kimi/bazı zaman ‘sometimes’, bazı kimse ‘some people’. In the case of
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 148

the quantifiers bütün/tüm ‘all’, ‘the whole’, the meaning of the noun phrase is crucially
affected by whether the head is plural marked or not:
(22) Bütün sınıf ayağa kalktı.
‘The whole class rose to its feet.’
(23) Bu yıl bütün sınıflar daha kalabalık olacak.
‘This year all the classes are going to be larger.’
Restrictions on the use of plural marking:
(i) -lAr is not used where plurality is already indicated by the presence of a numeral as
a modifier in the noun phrase:
üç çocuk ‘three children’
yirmi beş dakika ‘twenty-five minutes’

The only exceptions to this rule are the proper names of well-known groups:
Üç Silahşörler ‘the Three Musketeers’
Yedi Cüceler ‘the Seven Dwarfs’

(ii) Where certain quantifying determiners (15.6.1), i.e. çok ‘a lot of’, ‘many’, fazla ‘too
much’, ‘too many’, az ‘not much’, ‘not many’, biraz ‘a little’, birkaç ‘a few’, ‘several’,
bir miktar ‘some’, bu kadar/şu kadar/o kadar ‘this much/that much’, ‘so much’, kaç
‘how many’, and her ‘every’, are used in a noun phrase, the head noun is always left in
the singular form:
her Türk vatandaşı ‘every Turkish citizen’
kaç kişi ‘how many people’
birkaç boş oda ‘a few empty rooms’
çok kitap ‘a lot of books’

The determiner birçok ‘many’ sometimes occurs with a plural-marked head noun,
although the non-marked form is generally preferred, and is obligatory in the case of kişi
‘person’:
birçok kadın(lar) ‘many women’
birçok kişi ‘many people’

(iii) The combination of bir and -lAr:

The head of a noun phrase which includes the indefinite determiner bir ‘a(n)’ (15.6.1)
normally has to be in the singular form. However, in the case of the pluralized forms of
the pronouns bir şey ‘something’ (18.6.1) and bir yer ‘somewhere’, the sequence
bir…lAr regularly occurs in informal contexts:
(24) Harun o gün bana bir şeyler söyledi.
‘Harun told me some things that day.’
(25) Bu yaz bir yer(ler)e gidiyor musunuz?
 The noun phrase 149

‘Are you going anywhere this summer?’

The combination bir…lAr is occasionally encountered (again in informal usage) with
other nouns. It conveys that the referent is conceived as being plural, but that its identity
is unknown or unknowable.
(26) Bir sesler duydum galiba.
‘I think I heard something’ (lit. ‘some sounds’).

[Link] Further uses of the plural suffix -lAr

There are several other uses of -lAr which are observed particularly (although not
exclusively) in nouns whose primary denotation is an uncountable substance.
(i) A plurality of conventional measures or portions of the thing concerned:
(27) Çay-lar-ı koyayım mı?
tea-PL-ACC
‘Shall I pour out the tea?’
This particular use of -lAr can occur even with nouns whose primary denotation is a
countable entity:
(28) Balıklar yendikten sonra tavuklar geldi.
‘After the fish had been eaten chicken arrived.’
(ii) A plurality of separate quantities of the thing concerned:
(29) Kir(ler) bir türlü çıkmıyordu.
‘The dirt just wouldn’t come out.’
(30) Bu işte büyük para(lar) var.
‘There’s big money involved in this business.’
(iii) In the case of substances with a granular composition, the addition of the plural
suffix shifts attention from the substance en masse to its constituent elements:
(31) Kum-lar-ı parmaklarının arasından geçiriyordu.
sand-PL-ACC
‘She was sifting the (grains of) sand through her fingers.’
(iv) The plural suffix can be used to designate a plurality of types of a substance:
(32) Bizim Migros’ta güzel şaraplar var.
‘There are nice wines at our Migros.’
(v) Certain expressions can be intensified by the addition of -lAr to the noun, for
example:
(33) Kan(lar)a bulanmıştı.
‘He was covered (all over) in blood.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 150

(vi) The addition of -lAr can also highlight the spatial extent of the substance referred to,
whether in area or volume terms:
(34) Kum(lar)a uzandım.
‘I lay down on the sand.’
(vii) In the case of nouns expressing abstract states, the addition of the plural suffix
usually expresses a plurality of occurrences of this state:
(35) Böyle tembelliklerim çok oluyor.
‘I’m often lazy like this.’ (‘Such acts of laziness on my part occur often.’)
(viii) -lAr can be added to certain expressions of time and place, giving a sense of
approximation, or giving the expression a wider meaning. The list below gives some
common examples. Although the locative case-marked form is shown for several items,
other case markings also occur according to context.
buralarda ‘around here’
bir yerler ‘anywhere’, ‘somewhere’
oralar (güzel) ‘(It’s nice) round there.’
Erzurum taraflarında ‘around Erzurum’, ‘in the Erzurum area’
uzaklarda ‘in the distance’
1995 ortalarında ‘about the middle of 1995’
mayıs başlarında ‘at about the beginning of May’
bu haftanın sonlarına doğru ‘towards the end of this week’
o sıralarda ‘at about that time’
o tarihlerde ‘around that date’, ‘at that period’
şimdilerde ‘these days’
sonralari ‘later on’
bir zamanlar ‘once’ (=at some time in the past)

Approximations about people’s age fit into the same pattern:

kırkbeş yaşlarında bir adam ‘a man of about fory-five’
o yaşlarda ‘at about that age’

(ix) For the use of -lArI to express recurrent time (sabahları ‘in the morning(s)’,
cumartesileri ‘on Saturdays’, etc.) see [Link] (63).
(x)
(a) When attached to the name of a famous person, -lAr means ‘and people like
that’:
 The noun phrase 151

(36) Dünya’dan Atatürk’ler, Nehru’lar geçmeseydi şimdiye kadar ne hale

gelirdik?
‘If people like Atatürk and Nehru had not passed through the world, what state
would we be in by now?’
(b) Another function of -lAr attached to the name of a person is to produce an
expression referring to the group normally associated with that person. This group
could consist just of the named person and his/her spouse/partner, or it could be
their family, group of friends, etc. The precise meaning varies with the context,
and this usage is confined to informal situations.
(37) Ahmet’ler gelmedi.
‘Ahmet and his wife/girlfriend/family/gang didn’t come.’
The same usage can occur with expressions of relationship. Note that in such expressions
the possessive suffix precedes the plural suffix.
(38) Abla-m-lar nerede?
[Link]-PL
‘Where are my elder sister and her boyfriend/husband (etc)?’ (cf. abla-lar-ım
([Link]) ‘my elder sisters’)

[Link] Transnumeral uses of the unmarked form

A noun phrase that is unmarked for number, i.e. whose head does not carry the plural
suffix and which does not have a numeral or other quantifying determiner among its
modifiers, may be either singular or transnumeral (number-neutral) in meaning. If it has
definite status it will have singular meaning, but if it has generic or categorial status it
will have transnumeral meaning. These various referential statuses are discussed in detail
in Chapter 22.
(39) İlaç bana çok iyi geldi.
‘The medicine did me a lot of good.’
(40) İlaç hastaya göre seçilmelidir.
‘The medicine/Medicines must be chosen according to the patient.’
(41) Doktor bana ilaç yazmadı.
‘The doctor didn’t prescribe me any medicine(s).’
The noun phrase ilaç ‘medicine’ is definite and therefore singular in (39), generic and
therefore transnumeral in (40), and categorial, therefore again transnumeral, in (41).

14.3.2 POSSESSION
The possessive suffixes (8.1.2) correspond to the six grammatical persons. A noun phrase
marked with a possessive suffix (except where this is a 3rd person suffix functioning as a
compound marker (10.2) or pronominalizer (18.4)) is understood as denoting a person or
thing that is possessed. The possessive suffix indicates only whether the possessor is 1st,
2nd or 3rd person, singular or plural.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 152

(42) Arkadaş-lar-ınız ne kadar kalacaklar?Z

[Link]
‘How long are your friends going to stay?’
(43) Ahmet oda-sın-ı arıyordu. Numara-sı akl-ın-da kalmamıştı.
[Link] -ACC [Link] [Link]-LOC
‘Ahmet was looking for his room. Its number was no longer in his head.’
If there is a need to be more explicit about, or to emphasize, the identity of the possessor,
this can be done by a genitive-possessive construction, that is, by modifying the
possessed constituent with a genitive-marked noun phrase (see 14.4 below).
Certain combinations of the possessive suffixes with plural and/or case suffixes give
rise to potential ambiguity:
(i) Following a consonant-final stem, the sequences [[Link]+case] and
[[Link]+case] are indistinguishable, because of the ‘n’ that is included in the 3rd
person possessive suffix before a case suffix or -CA (6.2, 8.1.2). (44) can therefore be
read in two ways:
(44) Ev-in-i daha gör-me-di-m.
(a) [Link]-ACC
‘I haven’t seen your house yet.’
(b) [Link]-ACC
‘I haven’t seen his/her house yet.’
(ii) A single -lAr can sometimes express two different notions of plurality
simultaneously: plurality of the thing possessed, and plurality of the (3rd person)
possessor. The form -lArI on a subject noun phrase is capable of three interpretations:
(a) plural+3rd person singular possessive
(b) 3rd person plural possessive
(c) plural+3rd person plural possessive
This ambiguity is illustrated in (45):
(45)
(a) Bilet-ler-i burada.
[Link]
‘His/her tickets are here.’
(b) Bilet-leri burada.
[Link]
‘Their ticket is here.’
(c) Bilet-leri burada.
[Link]
‘Their tickets are here.’
In (a) -lAr indicates the plurality of the tickets. In (b) it is part of the suffix -lArI,
indicating a 3rd person plural possessor (‘their’). In (c) it is performing both functions
simultaneously.
 The noun phrase 153

(iii) The 2nd/3rd person ambiguity identified in (i) is sometimes compounded with the
3rd person singular/plural ambiguity identified in (ii):
(46)
(a) Arkadaş-lar-ın-a soralım.
[Link]-DAT
‘Let’s ask your friends.’
(b) Arkadaş-lar-ın-a soralım.
[Link]-DAT
‘Let’s ask his/her friends.’
(c) Arkadaş-ların-a soralım.
[Link]-DAT
‘Let’s ask their friend.’
(d) Arkadaş-ların-a soralim.
[Link]-DAT
‘Let’s ask their friends.’
In (d) the element -lAr is again expressing plurality both of the possessor and of what
is possessed (here ‘friends’). Such potential ambiguities are resolved by using modifiers
and forming genitive-possessive constructions, as explained in 14.4 below.

[Link] Marking possession in -(s)I compounds

Because only one possessive suffix can be attached to a noun at any one time, if a suffix
indicating possession is added to a -(s)I compound (10.2) the compound marker -(s)I(n)
has to be dropped. As a result, the non-possessed forms and the 3rd person possessed
forms of any particular -(s)I compound are indistinguishable:
yatak oda-sı

(i) bed room-NC ‘bedroom’

(ii) bed [Link] ‘his/her bedroom’
yatak oda-m
bed [Link] ‘my bedroom’
In the case of noun compounds that end in a consonant, where case marking is present the
2nd/3rd person ambiguity discussed in 14.3.2 (i) also arises:
(47) Ders kitab-ın-ı beğenmedim.
(a) lesson book-NC-ACC
‘I didn’t like the textbook.’
(b) lesson [Link]-ACC
‘I didn’t like your textbook.’
(c) lesson [Link]-ACC
‘I didn’t like his/her textbook.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 154

Where a plural suffix is present the kinds of ambiguity discussed in 14.3.2 (ii) and (iii),
regarding whether the plurality affects the possessed item, the possessor, or both, also
arise:
(48)
(a) Telefon numara-lar-ın-ı yazdım.
(i) telephone number-PL-NC-ACC
‘I‘ve writ ten down the telephone numbers.’
(ii) telephone [Link]-ACC
‘I’ve written down your telephone numbers.’
(iii) telephone [Link]-ACC
‘I’ve written down his/her telephone numbers.’
(b) Telefon numara-ların-ı yazdım.
(i) telephone [Link]-ACC
‘I’ve written down their telephone number.’
(ii) telephone [Link]-ACC
‘I’ve written down their telephone numbers.’
In all of these cases, except for the non-possessive (47a) and (48a (i)), the use of a
genitive-marked noun phrase or pronoun can eliminate the ambiguity (see 14.4).

14.3.3 CASE
Turkish has five case suffixes (8.1.3), which mark respectively the accusative, dative,
locative, ablative and genitive cases. (The comitative/ instrumental marker -(y)lA/ile,
which shares some properties with case suffixes, is discussed in 8.1.4 and 17.2.1.) The
function of case marking (or its absence) is to indicate the relationship between the noun
phrase to which it is attached and other sentence constituents.

[Link] The non-case-marked noun phrase

A noun phrase is left without case marking when it functions as one of the items listed
below:
(i) The subject of one of the following types of clause:
A main clause:
(49) Bunu belki siz bilebilirsiniz.
‘Perhaps you may know this.’
A finite subordinate clause:
(50) [Herkes görsün diye] kartı masanın üstünde bırakıyorum.
‘I’m leaving the card on the table [so that everyone will see it].’
An adverbial clause (for exceptions see 26.2.1):
 The noun phrase 155

(51) [Ahmet gelince] ona sorabiliriz.

‘[When Ahmet comes] we can ask him.’
A conditional clause:
(52) [Ahmet gelirse] ona sorabiliriz.
‘[If Ahmet comes] we can ask him.’
A relative clause of the type where the verb in the relative clause is marked with -(y)An
and contains a subject ([Link] (ii–a)):
(53) [kapısı açık duran] bir oda
‘a room, the door of which is/was open’
(ii) A subject complement:
(a) in nominal sentences ([Link]):
(54) Hakan’ın karısı mimarmiş.
‘Apparently Hakan’s wife is an architect.’
(b) in small clauses (24.5):
(55) Bence [bu resim sanat eseri] sayılmaz.
‘In my opinion this picture can’t be considered a work of art.’
(56) [Tanju’yu arkadaş] sayıyorduk o zamanlar.
‘In those days we regarded Tanju as a friend.’
(iii) A non-definite (i.e. indefinite (22.2) or categorial (22.3)) direct object:
(57) Bu konuda kitap(lar) okumuş.
‘It seems he has read books on this subject.’
(58) Bana da ver bir çay.
‘Give me too a (glass of) tea.’
Note that indefinite direct objects sometimes have to, or may, take accusative case
marking (see [Link]).
(iv) The complement of certain postpositions:
(a) The bare postpositions gibi ‘like’, için ‘for’, ile/-(y)lA ‘with’, kadar ‘as …as’
(17.2.1):
(59) O adam para için her şeyi yapar.
‘That man would do anything for money.’
(b) Possessive-marked postpositions denoting spatial relations, such as iç-in-de
‘in(side)’, alt-ın-da ‘under’, arka-sın-da ‘behind’. The non-case-marked form (as
opposed to the genitive-marked form) occurs where the complement is non-
specific or the postposition is used in a metaphorical or non-spatial sense (see
[Link]):
(60) Ellerim çamur içinde kalmıştı.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 156

‘My hands were covered in mud.’

(c) Other possessive-marked postpositions, such as boyunca ‘all along’,
‘throughout’, yüzünden ‘on account of’ (for list see 17.3.2):
(61) Yol boyunca konuştu.
‘He talked all the way.’
(v) An adverbial, especially of time or distance (see also 16.1.4):
(62) O gün siz yoktunuz.
‘You were not there that day.’

[Link] The accusative case marker

The sole function of the accusative case marker is to indicate the direct object of a
transitive verb. However, as seen in the previous section, some direct objects are left in
the non-case-marked form. The rules for the use and omission of accusative case marking
are as follows:
(i) The use of the accusative suffix is obligatory where the direct object is definite:
(63) Bütün arkadaşlarımızı çağıralım.
‘Let’s invite all our friends.’
(ii) Accusative case marking is also necessary where a non-definite direct object
precedes the verb but does not occupy the immediately pre-verbal position:
(64) Birçok şeyi şu raflara koyabiliriz. (Indefinite)
‘A lot of things we can put on these shelves.’
(65) Patlıcanı her gün yiyebilirim. (Categorial)
‘I could eat aubergines every day.’
(iii) An indefinite direct object which is in the immediately pre-verbal position must still
take the accusative suffix in the following crcumstances:
(a) If the direct object is marked with a possessive suffix:
(66) Bir arkadaş-ım-ı getireceğim.
a [Link]-ACC
‘I’m going to bring a friend of mine.’
The only exception to this rule is where a 3rd person possessive suffix is functioning as
the marker of a -(s)I compound. Thus the indefinite direct object in (67) is non-case-
marked:
(67) Her yemekten sonra bir Türk kahve-si içer.
a Turk coffee-NC
‘After every meal s/he has a (cup of) Turkish coffee.’
(b) If the direct object is an indefinite or plural generic (see 22.4.3).
 The noun phrase 157

(c) If the direct object refers to a member or members of a previously mentioned

or implied group:
(68) Paketin içindekiler eksik çıktı. İki kitabı göndermemişler galiba.
‘The contents of the parcel are incomplete. I think they’ve failed to send two
[of the] books.’
(69) Salon kalabalıktı. Kapıya yakın duran bir adamı tanıdım.
‘The room was crowded. I recognized a man standing near the door.’
For an explanation of other factors that can trigger accusative marking of indefinite direct
objects see 22.2.1.

[Link] The dative case marker

The functions that may be performed by a noun phrase marked with the dative case suffix
are listed below.
(i) An adverbial indicating one of the following:
(a) The recipient or beneficiary of an action:
(70) Çocuğa doğru dürüst bakamıyor.
‘S/he can’t look after the child properly.’
(71) Aysel’e anahtar verdim.
‘I’ve given Aysel a key/keys.’
(b) The destination or target of an action:
(72) Beni Paris’e gönderdiler.
‘They sent me to Paris.’
(73) Bu koltuk oturma odasına konacak.
‘This armchair is to be put in the sitting-room.’
(c) The price at which something is sold or offered for sale:
(74) Bu bisikleti iki yüz milyona almıştım.
‘I bought this bicycle for 200 million [lira].’
(d) Purpose:
This kind of dative-marked noun phrase is almost always a -mAK clause
(26.3.12):
(75) [Seni görmey]-e geldim.
‘I‘ve come to see you.’
(ii) The oblique object ([Link]) of many verbs of emotion, e.g. sevin- ‘be pleased
(about)’, üzül- ‘be sorry (about)’, kız- ‘be angry (with/about)’, can-ı sıkıl- ‘be annoyed
(about)’, and certain other verbs, e.g. benze- ‘resemble’, uy- ‘conform (to)’, ‘comply
(with)’, inan- ‘believe’, güven- ‘trust’:
(76) [Ayşe’nin geleceğin]-e sevindik.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 158

‘We’re glad Ayşe’s going to come.’

(77) Annemin isteğine uymadım.
‘I didn’t comply with my mother’s wish.’
(iii) The complement of:
(a) Certain bare postpositions, e.g. doğru ‘towards’, göre ‘according to’, kadar
‘until’ (see 17.2.2):
(78) Saat ikiye kadar çalıştık.
‘We worked until two o’clock.’
(b) Certain adjectives, e.g. yakın ‘near’, uygun ‘suitable (for)’ (see 15.5):
(79) Okula yakın bir ev arıyorlar.
‘They’re looking for a house near the school.’
(iv) The ‘causee’ of a causative construction based on a transitive verb, i.e. the person
who is made or allowed to perform the action (13.2.1):
(80) Filiz bütün ev işlerini kocasına yaptırıyor.
‘Filiz makes her husband do all the housework.’

[Link] The locative case marker

The locative suffix expresses physical or abstract location. A noun phrase in the locative
case can function as one of the following:
(i) A time or place adverbial:
(81) O günlerde Selim çok sigara içiyordu.
‘At that time Selim was smoking a lot.’
(82) İnsanlar artık komşularını bile tanımıyorlar büyük kentlerde.
‘People don‘t even know their neighbours nowadays in big cities.’
(ii) The oblique object ([Link]) of a small number of verbs, such as karar kıl- ‘decide
(on)’, ısrar et- ‘insist (on)’:
(83) [Hepsini denemek]-te ısrar etti.
‘She insisted on trying them all.’
(iii) A subject complement:
(a) In linking sentences ([Link]):
(84) Anahtar yerinde değil.
‘The key is not in its place.’
(b) In small clauses (24.5):
(85) [Onu İstanbulda] sanıyordum.
‘I thought he was in Istanbul.’
 The noun phrase 159

(iv) The locational constituent of an existential sentence:

(86) Köyde elektrik var mıydı?
‘Was there electricity in the village?’
(v) Within a larger noun phrase, a compound adjectival modifier expressing metaphorical
‘location’ in some kind of attribute (size, shape, colour, name, age, etc; see 15.3.2):
(87) otuz metre derin-liğ-in-de bir kuyu
thirty metre [Link]-NC-LOC a well
‘a well thirty metres deep’

[Link] The ablative case marker

The ablative case marker indicates that a noun phrase is functioning as one of the
following:
(i) An adverbial associated with concepts such as departure, separation, source, or
cause:
(88) Ali odadan çıktı.
‘Ali left the room.’
(89) Zavallı bunu yorgunluktan yapmıştır.
‘The poor thing must have done this out of tiredness.’
In association with the verb geç- ‘pass’ an ablative noun phrase indicates a place or space
through which someone/something travels:
(90) Gelirken şehir merkezinden geçtiniz mi?
‘Did you go through the city centre on your way here?’
This usage is very frequent with the possessive-marked spatial postpositions (see [Link]
(iii)).
(ii) The oblique object ([Link]) of certain verbs of emotion, especially those which
reflect the concepts of aversion, e.g. kork- ‘be afraid (of)’, iğren- ‘be disgusted (by)’,
nefret et- ‘hate’, bık- ‘get fed up (with)’, hoşlan-‘like’:
(91) O adamdan nefret ediyorum.
‘I hate that man.’
(92) Gürcan yağmurlu havalardan hoşlanır.
‘Gürcan likes wet weather.’
Certain other verbs, notably vazgeç- ‘give up’, faydalan-/yararlan- ‘benefit (from)’ and
oluş- ‘consist (of)’ also take ablative-marked objects:
(93) Zerrin [tenis oynamak]-tan vazgeçti.
‘Zerrin gave up [playing tennis].’
(iii) The complement of:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 160

(a) Certain bare postpositions, e.g. önce ‘before’, sonra ‘after’, başka ‘apart
from’, dolayı ‘because of’ (see 17.2.3):
(94) Okuldan sonra genellikle futbol oynuyor.
‘After school he usually plays football.’
(b) Certain adjectives, e.g. memnun ‘pleased (with)’ (see 15.5):
(95) Hayatın-dan memnun görünüyor.
‘She seems content with life.’
(iv) Within a larger noun phrase, a modifier expressing
(a) The material from which something is made:
(96) Padişahın {som altından bir taht}-ı vardı.
‘The king had a throne of solid gold.’
(b) An entity, set or category of which the head constituent expresses a part or
member (see partitive constructions, 14.5 below):
(97) {Çikolatalı pasta-dan iki dilim} yedi.
chocolate cake-ABL two slice
‘He ate two slices of the chocolate cake.’
(v) A subject complement with partitive meaning:
(a) In nominal sentences ([Link]):
(98) Osman {yakın arkadaşlarımdan (biri)} değildir.
‘Osman is not among/(one of) my close friends.’
(b) In small clauses (24.5):
(99) {Memleketin en iyi ressamlarından (biri)} sayılır.
‘S/he is regarded as among/(one of) the best painters in the country.’
(100) Ahmet Vefik Paşa’yı {ilk Türk milliyetçilerinden (biri)} addetmek
mümkün.
‘It is possible to regard Ahmet Vefik Paşa as among/(one of) the first Turkish
nationalists.’
(vi) In adjectival or adverbial structures expressing comparison (see 15.4.2, 16.9), the
modifier that expresses the object of comparison:
(101) Mustafa’nın evi bundan (daha) büyük.
‘Mustafa’s house is bigger than this.’
 The noun phrase 161

[Link] The genitive case marker

The basic functrion of the genitive case marker is to mark a noun phrase as denoting the
possessor of some item expressed by another constituent. An important secondary
function is to mark the subject of certain kinds of non-finite subordinate clause.
(i) As the expression of a possessor, a genitive-marked noun phrase can function as:
(a) The modifier in a genitive-possessive construction (a composite noun phrase
whose head is marked by a possessive suffix, see 14.4 below):
(102) {Bu çocuğun annesi} nerede?
‘Where is this child’s mother?’
(103) {Ayten’in iki kız kardeşi} var.
‘Ayten has two sisters.’
(b) A subject complement in nominal sentences ([Link]):
(104) Fotoğraf makinesi benim değil, babamın.
‘The camera’s not mine, it’s my father’s.’
(c) A subject complement in small clauses (24.5):
(105) [Bu odayı artık Fatma’nın] sayıyorum.
‘I now regard [this room as Fatma’s].’
(ii) The types of non-finite subordinate clause in which an overt subject is genitive
marked are:
(a) most non-finite noun clauses marked with -mA, -DIK or -(y)AcAK (see
Chapter 24, especially 24.4.6):
(106) [Turgut-un gel-me-sin]-i istiyorum.
Turgut-GEN [Link]-ACC
‘I want [Turgut to come].’
(107) [Bunun bir roman olduğun]-u söylemişti.
‘He said [this was a novel].’
(b) those types of relative clause whose verb is suffixed with -DIK or -(y)AcAK
plus a possessive suffix (see [Link]):
(108) [Siz-in söyle-dik-ler-iniz]-i beğendim.
you-GEN [Link]-ACC
‘I liked [what you said].’
(109) [Anne-n-in getir-eceğ-i] pasta yetecek mi?
[Link]-GEN [Link] cake
‘Will the cake [your mother’s going to bring] be enough?’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 162

14.4 THE GENITIVE-POSSESSIVE CONSTRUCTION

The genitive-possessive construction is a composite noun phrase constructed of two noun

phrases marked as follows:
(noun phrase+genitive)+(noun phrase+possessive)
The first noun phrase, which carries genitive case marking, is the modifier and
indicates the possessor. The second noun phrase, which carries possessive marking, is the
head of the composite noun phrase and indicates the entity which is possessed:
Ali-nin oğl-u ‘Ali’s son’
Ali-GEN [Link]
oda-nın kapı-sı ‘the door of the room’
room-GEN [Link]

The possessive suffix on the head has to agree in terms of grammatical person with the
possessor-modifier, as illustrated below:
ben-im ev-im ‘my house’
I-GEN [Link]
Fatma-nın ev-i ‘Fatma’s house’
Fatma-GEN [Link]

It is the possessive-marked head of the genitive-possessive construction that is the bearer

of any case marking needed to indicate the relation of this composite noun phrase to other
sentence constituents:
(110) Bu haber-i {Ali-nin oğl-un}-dan al-dı-m.
this news-ACC Ali-GEN [Link]-ABL get-PF-1SG
‘I heard this news from {Ali’s son}.’
A genitive-possessive construction can itself function as the possessor constituent in a
larger genitive-possessive construction:
(111) {{Ayten-in anne-sin}-in ism-in}-i biliyor musun?
Ayten-GEN [Link]-GEN [Link]-ACC
‘Do you know Ayten’s mother’s name?’
Where the possessed entity is singular and the possessor is plural, the 3rd person singular
suffix is often used on the head, in order to avoid ambiguity with the parallel construction
in which the entity possessed is plural:
(112) {Çocuk-lar-ın öğretmen-i} İngiliz.
child-PL-GEN [Link]
‘The children’s teacher is English.’
 The noun phrase 163

(113) {Çocukların öğretmen-ler-i} İngiliz.

[Link]/-[Link]
(a) ‘The children’s teachers are English.’
(b) ‘The children’s teacher is English.’
Whereas sentences on the pattern of (112) clearly express the singularity of the possessed
entity, the ambiguity of (113) shows that the plurality of an entity possessed by a plural
possessor cannot be unambiguously articulated. However, (113a) represents the more
typical sense in which this pattern is used.
One function of the genitive-possessive construction is to resolve ambiguities of the
kind noted above in 14.3.2, where Arkadaşlarına soralım (46) was shown to be capable
of four different readings. (114) demonstrates how the addition of a genitive-marked
pronoun modifier, combined in (c) with the use of singular possessive marking,
eliminates these ambiguities:
(114)
(a) {Sen-in arkadaş-lar-ın}-a soralım.
you-GEN [Link]-DAT.
‘Let’s ask your friends.’
(b) {O-nun arkadaş-lar-ın}-a soralım.
s/he-GEN [Link]-DAT
‘Let’s ask his/her friends.’
(c) {Onlar-ın arkadaş-ın}-a soralım.
they-GEN [Link]-DAT
‘Let’s ask their friend.’
(d) {Onlar-ın arkadaş-ların}-a soralım.
they-GEN [Link]-DAT
‘Let’s ask their friends.’
In informal styles, the head of a genitive-possessive construction is often left without
possessive marking, particularly when the genitive-marked modifier is a 1st or 2nd
person pronoun:
(115) Burası {biz-im ev}-den daha sıcak. (cf. (86) in Chapter 18)
here we-GEN house-ABL more warm
‘It’s warmer here than [in] our house.’
(116) Nerede {senin çocuklar}?
‘Where are your children?’
Such constructions occur only in contexts which fulfil the conditions governing the use of
genitive-marked pronouns (see 18.1.5, [Link]). Note also that the omission of
possessive marking on the head is not permissible in possessive existential sentences
([Link]). Thus the possessive suffix on araba in (117) is obligatory:
(117) {Siz-in araba-nız} var mı?
you-GEN [Link] existent INT
‘Do you have a car?’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 164

Apart from expressing possession, the genitive-possessive construction also articulates

the relationship between different specimens of the same type. In this kind of genitive-
possessive construction the genitive-marked noun phrase expresses either a particular
specimen or specimens of the type, as in (118), or the type itself, as in (119). The nominal
in the head position is usually a pronominalized determiner or adjectival (18.4):
(118) Bu araba {benimkinin tam aynısı} değil.
‘This car is not quite the same as mine.’
(119) {Bisikletin motorlusun}-a motosiklet denir.
‘The motorized version of a bicycle is called a motorcycle.’
A further use of the genitive-possessive construction is to express a partitive relation
(14.5.3).

14.5 PARTITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

There are three composite noun-phrase constructions that are used to express part of a
whole, or to select one or more items from a type or set.
Modifier+Head
(i) (noun phrase+ablative)+(bare noun phrase)
şu elma-dan birkaç kilo
‘a few kilos of these apples’
(ii) (noun phrase+ablative)+(noun phrase+3rd person singular
possessive)
erkek öğrenciler-den bir tane-si
‘one of the male students’
(iii) (noun phrase+genitive)+(noun phrase+3rd person singular
possessive)
hesabımdaki para-nın büyük kısm-ı
‘most of the money in my account’

In each construction it is the genitive- or ablative-marked modifier constituent which

expresses the whole or set, and the head constituent which expresses the part or the
selected item(s). The head noun phrase is always indefinite (except in the case of one
subtype of the bare-headed partitive; see 14.5.1 (i)), while the modifier noun phrase is
definite, or sometimes generic.
 The noun phrase 165

14.5.1 THE BARE-HEADED PARTITIVE CONSTRUCTION WITH

ABLATIVE-MARKED MODIFIER
Structurally, the distinguishing characteristic of this construction is that the bare noun
phrase functioning as the head must itself be headed by one of the following: a proper
name, a common noun, or the enumerator tane (15.8). There are three subtypes:
(i) Partitives in which the head noun phrase is a proper name.
These differ from all other kinds of partitive constructions in that the head noun phrase
is definite. The function of the ablative-marked modifier noun phrase here is to provide
additional, descriptive information about the person or place identified by the proper
name:
(120) Bugünkü konuğumuz, {ülke-miz-in genç şair-ler-in-den Küçük
[Link]-GEN young poet-PL-
[Link]-ABL
İskender}.
‘Our guest today is Küçük İskender, [one] of our country’s young poets.’
(121) {Batı Afrika ülkelerinden Sierra Leone}-de on yıldan beri iç savas var.
‘In Sierra Leone, a country in West Africa, there has been civil war for ten years.’
This type of partitive construction occurs also in the question used to ask the day of
the week:
(122) Bugün {günlerden ne}?
‘What day is it today?’
(ii) Partitives in which the (bare) head noun phrase is itself headed by a common noun,
and in which the meaning of the head noun phrase is relatively independent of the
modifier noun phrase.
The modifier noun phrase here may, as in type (i), have a descriptive rather than a
truly partitive function:
(123) Rehberimiz, {Abdülhamit dönemi mimari eserlerinden bir mescid}-e
dikkat çekti.
‘Our guide drew attention to a small mosque, [one] of the architectural works of
Abdülhamit’s reign.’
However, it may also identify the individual(s) expressed by the head as belonging to a
specific set:
(124) {Bu yılkı misafirlerimizden yirmi otuz aile} şimdiden gelecek yıl için
rezervasyon yaptılar.
‘{Twenty or thirty families from among our guests this year} have already made
reservations for next year.’
Where the noun phrase defining the set has been mentioned in the immediately preceding
context, the ablative-marked modifier is usually one of the possessive-marked
postpositions iç- or ara- ‘among’ ([Link]):
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 166

(125) Bu yıl bol misafirimiz oldu. {İçlerinden yirmi otuz aile} de şimdiden
gelecek yıl için rezervasyon yaptılar.
‘This year we had a lot of guests. {From among them, twenty or thirty families}
have already made reservations for next year.’
The forms with iç-/ara- are also preferred where the set is referred to in the 1st or 2nd
person:
(126) {İçimizden/Aramızdan birkaç kişi} geziden memnun kalmadı.
‘{Several of our number} were not satisfied with the tour.’
(iii) Partitive constructions in which the noun heading the head noun phrase is either the
enumerator tane (15.8) or a word expressing a concept such as measure (e.g. metre
‘metre’, dilim ‘slice’, şişe ‘bottle’), membership of a category (e.g. örnek ‘example’), or
identity (e.g. kopya ‘copy’):
(127) {Küçüklerden on tane] yeter mi?
‘Will {ten of the little ones} be enough?’
(128) {Şu kırmızı çiçekli kumaştan on metre} alalım.
‘Let’s buy {ten metres of that material with red flowers on it}.’
In this third subtype of bare-headed partitives, the meaning of the head noun phrase is
highly dependent on that of the modifier, just as it is in the -sI-marked constructions
described in the next section. The item(s) expressed by the head noun phrase in examples
such as (127) and (128) are not individuated; the emphasis is purely on quantification,
and the referents are almost invariably non-human.
In this type of partitive construction it is even possible for the head noun phrase to be
omitted altogether. The ablative-marked noun phrase then simply indicates some or any
undefined quantity of the substance or set of entities referred to:
(129) {Şu kırmızı çiçekli kumaştan} alalım.
‘Let’s buy {[some] of that material with red flowers on it}.’
(130) {Bunlardan} bizde de var.
‘We’ve got {[some] of these}, too.’

14.5.2 THE -(s)I-MARKED PARTITIVE CONSTRUCTION WITH

ABLATIVE-MARKED MODIFIER
In this type of partitive construction there is a close semantic dependency of the head
upon the modifier, indicated not only by the possessive suffix but also by the fact that the
head noun phrase does not contain a semantically autonomous noun. The head noun
phrase usually consists of one of the following items:
(i) a numeral (suffixed with -(s)I)
(ii) kaç-ı ‘how many of or birkaç-ı ‘a few of’, ‘several of’
(iii) a numeral, kaç or birkaç followed by tane-si
(iv) bazı-sı/kimi-si/bir kısm-ı/bir bölüm-ü ‘some of’
(v) birçoğ-u ‘many of’
 The noun phrase 167

(vi) hangi-si (or hangiler-i if a plural referent is intended) ‘which of’

(vii) hiçbir-i ‘none of’
(viii) a pronominalized adjectival (18.4 (i)), such as en akıllılar-ı ‘the most
intelligent (ones)’.
The function of this construction is to pick out one or more items from a distinct set:
(131) {Komşularımızdan bazısı} televizyonlarını çok açıyorlar.
‘Some of our neighbours turn their televisions on very loud.’
Under the same conditions as explained in 14.5.1 (ii), the modifier may be expressed by
the ablative-marked form of a postposition based on iç- or ara-. For examples see (65),
(69) in Chapter 19.
In the case of heads based upon tane, the choice between this construction and the
bare-headed version described in (iii) of the previous section offers a distinction of
meaning:
(132)
(a) Bana {küçüklerden iki tane} lazım.
‘I need [two of th e sma ll ones
(b) {Küçüklerden iki tanesi} bana lazım.
‘I need [two of the small ones}.’
In (132a) the ablative-marked modifier noun phrase is understood generically, i.e as
referring to a type of thing rather than to a discrete set. The head noun phrase denotes
simply a certain or approximate number of items of the type specified (‘small ones’). In
(132b), on the other hand, the presence of -(s)I on the head noun phrase imparts a definite
meaning to the modifier noun phrase, making it refer to a particular set of ‘small ones’.
When they are in the direct object role, -(s)I-marked partitives obligatorily take
accusative case marking:
(133) {Bu ilaç-lar-dan hangi-ler-in}-i alıyorsun?
these medicine-PL-ABL [Link]-ACC
‘{Which (ones) of these medicines} are you taking?’

14.5.3 THE -(s)I-MARKED PARTITIVE CONSTRUCTION WITH

GENITIVE-MARKED MODIFIER
The third way of expressing a partitive relation is by means of the genitivepossessive
construction (14.4). In many cases this is interchangeable with the -(s)I-marked partitive
construction with ablative-marked modifier (14.5.2):
(134) {Komşularımızın bazısı} televizyonlarını çok açıyorlar.
‘Some of our neighbours turn their televisions up very loud.’
(135) {Bu ilaçların hangilerin}-i alıyorsun?
‘{Which (ones) of these medicines} are you taking?’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 168

The partitive uses of the genitive-possessive construction include, however, another type
of relation which cannot be expressed using an ablative-marked modifier. These are
relations of proportion or totality, often involving one of the following items as the head:
(i) yarı-sı ‘half (of)’
(ii) büyük kısm-ı/büyük bölüm-ü ‘the majority of’, ‘most of’
(iii) çoğ-u ‘most of’
(iv) hep-si ‘all of’
(v) tüm-ü/bütün-ü ‘the whole of’, ‘all of’
(vi) her bir-i ‘every one of’
(vii) her followed by a numeral suffixed with -(s)I.
(136) {Dergilerin hepsin}-i Aysel’e geri verdim.
‘I‘ve given all (of) the magazines back to Aysel.’
(137) {Öğrencilerin her birin}-in ayrı bir mazereti vardı.
‘{Every one of the students} had a different excuse.’
Fractions, being a precise kind of proportional relation, are expressed by an extended
genitive-possessive construction (see 15.7.1).

14.5.4 OTHER FEATURES OF PARTITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS

It is possible for an adverbial to intervene between the two constituents of any type of
partitive construction:
(138) {Güney Amerika ülkelerinden en çok Arjantin}’le ticaret yapıyoruz.
‘Among the South American countries we do business mostly with Argentina.’
(139) {O kitaplardan bugün pek azı} kaldı.
‘Very few of those books are left today.’
It is also possible for two separate heads to share a single partitive modifier ([Link]
(iii)):
(140) Hafta sonlarında {çocuklarından bazen biri, bazen iki tanesi} geliyor.
‘At the weekends sometimes one, sometimes two of his/her children come.’

14.6 STRESS IN NOUN PHRASES

In a noun phrase that contains an adjective, stress falls on the adjective unless it is itself
modified (e.g. by en ‘most’ or daha ‘more’, see 15.4):
(141) {esKİ bir ev}
‘an old house’
(142) {EN eski ev}
‘the oldest house’
 The noun phrase 169

If a noun phrase contains one of the quantifiers birtakım ‘some’, ‘a number of’, biraz ‘a
little’ and bir miktar ‘some’, ‘a certain amount of’ (15.6.1 (ii)), but no adjectives, stress
falls on the noun:
(143) bir miktar şeKER
‘some sugar’
If a noun phrase contains any of the other indefinite determiners in 15.6.1 (other than bir
‘a(n)’), a definite determiner (15.6.2) or a numeral (15.7), this constituent is stressed:
(144) {[sorusu olan] HER öğrenci}
‘every student who has a question’
Note that these rules apply to noun phrases in isolation. When a noun phrase is uttered
inside a sentence it may not be stressed at all, or it may be stressed on a different syllable.
For the properties of sentence stress see Chapters 5 and 23.
 15
ADJECTIVAL CONSTRUCTIONS,
DETERMINERS AND NUMERALS

Adjectivals are words or constructions that modify noun phrases. Simple adjectivals
consist of a single word, i.e. an adjective (see 7.1.1 (iii)):
(1) küçük evler
‘small houses’
(2) beyaz elbisem
‘my white dress’
Complex adjectivals vary in their degree of complexity. They range from structures
consisting of a noun phrase marked with a suffix such as -lI or -ki to relative clauses, (as
in (4)), which have a sentence-like structure:
(3) bahçedeki ağaç
‘the tree in the garden’
(4) [manzarası olan] bir ev
‘a house which has a view’
After a brief survey of the functions of adjectivals (15.1), and an overview of the ways in
which adjectives can be formed in Turkish (15.2), section 15.3 examines the structure of
complex adjectivals (except for relative clauses, for which see Chapter 25). The next two
sections look at how adjectivals can be modified (e.g. çok güzel ‘very nice’, daha küçük
‘smaller’) or complemented (e.g. buraya uygun ‘suitable for here’).
In 15.6–15.8 we present other classes functionally related to adjectivals, namely
determiners (e.g. bir ‘a(n), bu ‘this’), numerals, the enumerator tane and measure terms.
15.9 explains how these items interact with adjectivals within the noun phrase.

15.1 FUNCTIONS OF ADJECTIVALS

Adjectivals express qualities that are ascribed to entities. In Turkish, as in other

languages, they can be used attributively, that is as a modifier of a noun phrase, or
predicatively, as the subject complement in a linking sentence ([Link]) or small clause
(24.5).
(i) The attributive function:
In Turkish attributive adjectivals, whether simple or complex, always precede the
noun they qualify:
yüksek ağaç ‘tall tree’
 Adjectival constructions, determiners and numerals 171

şekerli kahve ‘coffee with sugar’

beş yatak odalı ev ‘five-bedroomed house’
yedi yaşında bir çocuk ‘a seven-year-old child’
evin önündeki arabalar ‘the cars in front of the house’

(ii) The predicative function:

Predicative adjectivals, on the other hand, function as subject complements and
therefore normally follow the noun phrase expressing the entity that they describe:
As subject complement in linking sentences ([Link]):
(5) Ağaç yüksek.
tree tall
‘The tree is tall.’
(6) Çocuk yedi yaş-ın-da.
child seven age-NC-LOC
‘The child is seven years old.’
As subject complement in small clauses (24.5):
(7) [Ev beş yatak oda-lı] say-ıl-ır.
house five bed room-ADJ consider-PASS-AOR
‘The house can be considered five-bedroomed.’
(8) [Selim-i zengin] say-mı-yor-um.
Selim-ACC rich regard-NEG-IMPF-1SG
‘I don’t regard Selim as rich.’
However, in accordance with the general principles affecting word order in the sentence,
it is possible for a predicative adjective to precede the subject noun phrase; see 23.3.2,
e.g. example (57).

15.2 ADJECTIVES

From the point of view of form we can divide adjectives into two main groups, according
to whether or not they contain a productive derivational suffix (7.2). Adjectives such as
düşmanca ‘hostile’, başarılı ‘successful’, or bilimsel ‘scientific’ are derived by means of
a productive suffix (in this case -CA, -lI or -sAl), and therefore have a predictable
semantic relationship with an item from another word class (in this case the nouns
düşman ‘enemy’, başarı ‘success’ and bilim ‘science’).
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 172

15.2.1 FORMING ADJECTIVES BY MEANS OF DERIVATIONAL

SUFFIXES
There are many suffixes which productively derive adjectives from nominal stems
(principally from nouns) or from verb stems. The most commonly occurring suffixes that
derive adjectives from nominal stems are -CA, -CI, -lI, -lIk, -sAl and -sIz (see [Link]):
(9) yaz-lık ev
summer-ADJ house
‘holiday home’
-(y)IcI and -(s)Al are the most commonly occurring suffixes deriving adjectives from verb
stems (see [Link]):
(10) gör-sel sanat-lar
see-ADJ art-PL
‘visual arts’

15.2.2 INTENSIVE FORMS

Some adjectives have intensive forms produced by reduplication of the initial syllable:
yeni ‘new’ → yepyeni ‘brand new’
başka ‘different’ → bambaşka ‘completely different’

A full explanation of this process is given in 9.1, and a list of the adjectives (and adverbs)
thus formed is provided in Appendix 1.

15.3 COMPLEX ADJECTIVALS

15.3.1 ADJECTIVE+NOUN
Adjectivals on this pattern are formed from a limited range of adjectivenoun
combinations. The nouns include boy ‘size’, beden ‘size’ (of clothing), biçim ‘form’,
‘kind’, tarz ‘style’:
(11) küçük boy kitaplar
‘small-format books’
(12) eski tarz mobilya
‘old-style furniture’
The noun marka ‘make’, ‘brand’ can be preceded in this type of structure by a brand
name instead of an adjective:
(13) Opel marka bir araba
 Adjectival constructions, determiners and numerals 173

‘an Opel car’

15.3.2 LOCATIVE-MARKED NOUN PHRASE

This type of adjectival phrase expresses qualities such as age, size, shape, colour, or style.
The noun phrase to which locative case marking is attached is either a -(s)I compound or
has the form Adjective+Noun. Where used attributively, this type of adjectival occurs
only in indefinite noun phrases (22.2):
(14) dört yaş-ın-da bir çocuk
four age-NC-LOC
‘a four-year-old child’
(15) geniş çapta bir arama
‘a wide-ranging search’

15.3.3 ABLATIVE-MARKED NOUN PHRASE

Adjectivals on this pattern express the material from which something is made:
(16) som altından bir taht
‘a throne of solid gold’
(17) gazete kağıdından torbalar
‘bags made from newspaper’

15.3.4 NOUN PHRASE MARKED WITH -lI

In addition to its function of forming derived adjectives from nouns, -lI is highly
productive in forming adjectivals from noun phrases. This suffix means ‘possessing’,
‘characterized by’, or ‘provided with’ whatever is expressed by the stem (see [Link]).
(18) sarı saç-lı kız
yellow hair-ADJ
‘blonde-haired girl’
(19) uzun boy-lu adamlar
long stature-ADJ
‘tall men’
If the head of the noun phrase to which -lI is suffixed is a -(s)I compound, the compound
marker has to be deleted. Thus from yatak oda-sı ‘bedroom’ adjectival phrases such as
beş yatak oda-lı ‘five-bedroomed’ are derived.

15.3.5 NOUN PHRASE MARKED WITH -lI

Adjectivals of this type are formed from quantitative expressions of the form
numeral+noun, and according to the meaning of this noun can express weight, length,
capacity, duration, price, etc.:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 174

(20) beş metrelik bir kablo

‘a five-metre cable’
(21) iki litrelik bir kova
‘a two-litre bucket’
When the noun to which -lIk is attached is kişi ‘person’, the adjectival usually has the
meaning ‘sufficient/suitable for…people’:
(22) Otobüste sadece iki kişilik yer kalmış.
‘It seems there are only two seats left on the bus.’ (lit. ‘space for two people’)
Where -lIk is attached directly to a numerical expression, it denotes value or price (in
Turkish lira, if not otherwise specified):
(23) Demet beş yüz milyonluk bir fotoğraf makinesi almış.
‘Apparently Demet has bought a five-hundred-million (-lira) camera.’

15.3.6 LOCATIVE-MARKED NOUN PHRASE+-ki

This is an extremely productive construction (see 8.1.4), creating an attributive adjectival
phrase from a locational expression (which without -ki could function only adverbially or
predicatively). Adjectival phrases formed on this pattern are used predominantly in noun
phrases that have definite status (22.1), sometimes also in those that are indefinite but
specific (22.2.1):
(24) {Bahçe-de-ki (bazı) ağaç-lar} yapraklarını dökmeye başladı.
garden-LOC-ADJ (some) tree-PL
‘{The/Some trees in the garden} have begun to shed their leaves.’
This construction occurs also with possessive-marked postpositions (17.3) that include
the locative case marker:
(25) Arka-mız-da-ki (bir) araba bizi geçmek istiyor.
[Link]-LOC-ADJ (a) car
‘The/A car behind us wants to overtake us.’
(26) Benim hakkımdaki fikriniz yanlış.
‘Your opinion of me is wrong.’

15.3.7 TEMPORAL ADVERBIAL+-ki

Any adverbial expressing location (as opposed to duration) in time ([Link]) can
similarly be converted into a defining adjectival phrase by the addition of -ki (8.1.4):
(27) Bu sabahki gazetede okudum.
‘I read (it) in this morning’s paper.’
(28) Mehmet’in o günkü halini çok iyi hatırlıyorum.
‘I well remember the state Mehmet was in that day.’
 Adjectival constructions, determiners and numerals 175

15.3.8 NOUN PHRASE+diye

The word diye is the -(y)A converbial form (26.3.8) of the verb de- ‘say’. Aside from its
wide range of functions as a subordinator marking noun clauses (24.3.1) and adverbial
clauses (26.1.1), diye has an adjectival function (not found in more formal registers) of
indicating what something is called. Adjectivals constructed with diye are used
exclusively in indefinite noun phrases (22.2):
(29) Bizim mahallede Güneş Gıda diye bir market var.
‘In our neighbourhood there’s a self-service shop called Güneş Gıda.’
(30) Mehmet diye bir oğlu daha var.
‘S/he’s got another son, called Mehmet.’

15.3.9 RELATIVE CLAUSE

Relative clauses are the most complex form of adjectival, having a sentence-like structure
with a participle as their verb. These are fully discussed in Chapter 25.
(31) [Arka-mız-dan gel-en] araba bizi geçmek istiyor.
[Link]-ABL come-PART car
‘The car [that’s following us] wants to overtake us.’

15.3.10 POSSESSIVE-MARKED NOUN PHRASE+ADJECTIVE

(TRUNCATED RELATIVE CLAUSE)
This type of adjectival construction tends to occur with non-specific noun phrases (see
[Link] for details):
(32) [sap-lar-ı kopuk] birkaç çanta (cf. Chapter 25, (80)–(82))
[Link] broken [Link] bag
‘a few bags with broken handles’

15.4 MODIFICATION OF ADJECTIVES

Adjectives can be modified by a preceding adverbial of degree (16.5) in order to indicate

the intensity of the attribute denoted by the adjective. Most adverbials of degree, such as
çok ‘very’ or biraz ‘a little’, relate to abstract notions of quantity, but two of them (daha
‘more’ and en ‘most’), express respectively a comparative or superlative degree.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 176

15.4.1 GENERAL MODIFICATION

[Link] By simple adverbials of degree

Simple adverbials of quantity and degree (listed in 16.5), such as çok ‘very’, ‘too’ and
biraz ‘a little’, ‘a bit’, ‘rather’, occur as modifiers of adjectives:
(33) çok temiz
‘very clean’
(34) biraz aptal
‘a bit stupid’

[Link] By complex adverbials

The other means of general modification of adjectives is a phrase or clause headed by the
postposition kadar ‘as…as’ (17.2.1 (iv)). This may be a postpositional phrase:
(35) Filiz’in evi kadar temiz
‘as clean as Filiz’s house’
Alternatively, it may be an adverbial clause (26.3.13):
(36) [inan-ıl-a-ma-yacak kadar] temiz
believe-PASS-PSB-NEG-CV
‘unbelievably clean’
(37) [bekle-diğ-imiz kadar] temiz
[Link]
‘as clean [as we expect(ed)]’

15.4.2 COMPARATIVES
The comparative form of an adjective is formed by the adverb daha ‘more’. daha
precedes the adjectival constituent, and can itself be modified by the degree adverbs çok
‘much’ and biraz ‘a little’:
(38) (çok) daha rahat
‘(much) more comfortable’
(39) (biraz) daha güzel
‘(a little) prettier’
daha usually takes an ablative-marked complement:
(40) bu araba-dan daha geniş bir araba
this car-ABL more spacious a car
‘a more spacious car than this one’
(41) hepimizden daha hevesli bir üye
 Adjectival constructions, determiners and numerals 177

‘a member more enthusiastic than any of us’

Alternatively, it can be used with a phrase of comparison containing kıyasla, oranla or
nazaran ‘compared with’:
(42) Semra’ya kıyasla daha becerikli
‘more efficient than Semra’
The complement of daha can be a non-finite noun clause (24.4):
(43) [Beni son gördüğünüz]-den daha iyiyim.
‘I’m better than [when you last saw me].’
The complement of daha can be omitted when the person or object to which someone or
something is compared is obvious from the context:
(44) Size (bu evden) daha uygun bir ev düşünemiyorum.
‘I cannot think of a more suitable house for you (than this house).’
Alternatively, daha can be omitted if an ablative complement is present:
(45) Bu makine öbüründen ucuz.
‘This machine is cheaper than the other one.’
The clitic dA ([Link], [Link] (iiib)) inserted between the ablative complement and the
adjective in the above type of construction has the sense of ‘even’:
(46) Bu makine öbüründen de ucuz.
‘This machine is even cheaper than the other one.’
daha can modify an adjective which is the head of a genitive-possessive construction
(14.4) or is otherwise being used pronominally (18.4):
(47) bu resm-in daha güzel-i
this picture-GEN more [Link]
‘a nicer [version] of this picture’
(48) bu resimden daha güzel-i
‘a picture nicer than this one’
To express the notion less, Turkish uses the phrase daha az:
(49) bizimkinden daha az gürültülü bir sokak
‘a street less noisy than ours’
Note that az used without a preceding daha in a comparative construction is a colloquial
and shortened form of biraz ‘a little’, and expresses ‘a little more’ (not ‘less’). The same
meaning is conveyed by az daha:
(50) bundan az (daha) büyük bir araba
‘a car slightly bigger than this one’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 178

15.4.3 SUPERLATIVES
The superlative form of an adjective defines the entity or set expressed by the following
noun as the one which possesses (within a larger set of such entities) the highest degree
of the attribute denoted by the adjective. The superlative form of an adjective is formed in
Turkish by placing the adverbial en ‘most’ before it:
(51) en ilginç düşünce
‘the most interesting idea’
(52) en küçük bardaklar
‘the smallest glasses’
Superlative adjectival constructions can be modified by one of the following:
(i) A locative expression with or without -ki:
(53) listedeki en başarılı çocuk
‘the most successful child on the list’
(54) [yarışmaya katılanlar] arasında/içinde en başarılı çocuk
‘the most successful child among the ones [who entered the competition]’
(ii) A genitive-marked noun phrase (forming a genitive-possessive construction (14.4)
with the noun phrase that is qualified by the superlative adjective):
(55) bu ilac-ın en iyi taraf-ı
this medicine-GEN most good [Link]
‘the best thing about this medicine’
In the case of a few verbs of emotion such as sev- ‘like’, beğen- ‘admire’ and kork- ‘fear’,
en can modify the verb in a relative clause directly (rather than modifying an adverb of
degree such as çok ‘much’ which in turn modifies a verb; see 16.9):
(56) [(benim) en sevdiğim] tiyatro oyuncusu
‘the actor [I like the most]’
En can modify an adjective which is the head of a genitive-possessive construction
(14.4):
(57) bu resim-ler-in en güzel-i
these picture-PL-GEN most [Link]
‘the most beautiful of these pictures’

15.5 COMPLEMENTATION OF ADJECTIVES

Certain adjectives, in at least some of their senses, require a noun phrase complement to
complete their meaning. The case marking required on the complement is fixed for any
given adjective. Some common examples of complement-taking adjectives are given
below.
(i) Non-case-marked complement:
 Adjectival constructions, determiners and numerals 179

(58) Su dolu kova-lar

water full bucket-PL
‘buckets full of water’
(ii) Dative-marked complement:
(59) ödüle layık bir öğrenci
‘a student worthy of a prize’
(60) bu odaya uygun bir tablo
‘a picture suitable for this room’
(iii) Ablative-marked complement:
(61) öğrencilerinden memnun bir öğretmen
‘a teacher pleased with his/her students’
(iv) Instrumental-marked complement:
(62) karla kaplı sokaklar
‘streets covered in snow’
(63) güvenlikle ilgili bir konu
‘a matter relating to security’

15.6 DETERMINERS

The class of determiners in Turkish (see 14.1.2) consists of the items listed below. Many
of these items also occur, either in the same form or with the addition of the 3rd person
possessive suffix, as pronouns (18.4).
Determiners fall into two classes, indefinite and definite, according to the referential
status they impart (see Chapter 22) to the noun phrase in which they occur.

15.6.1 INDEFINITE DETERMINERS

(i) Indefinite article:
bir ‘a(n)’

Note that in bir, and the items in the following list which contain bir (except biraz), the
final ‘r’ is colloquially omitted before a consonant (e.g. bi kadın ‘a woman’).
(ii) Quantifiers:
birkaç (tane) ‘a few’, ‘several’
birtakım ‘some’, ‘a number of’
birçok ‘many’, ‘a lot of’
biraz ‘a little’
bir miktar ‘some’, ‘a certain amount of’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 180

bazı/kimi/bir kısım ‘some’, ‘certain’

bu kadar/şu kadar/o kadar ‘this much’, ‘that much’, ‘so much’
çok ‘a lot of’, ‘(too) many’, ‘(too) much’
çoğu ‘most’
az ‘not much’, ‘not enough’
fazla ‘too much’, ‘too many’
hiçbir ‘no’, ‘any’ (see 20.5.2)
herhangi bir ‘any’ (see 20.5.2)

For the combinability of quantifying determiners with noun phrases denoting discrete or
non-discrete entities, see 14.2. Several of the quantifiers cannot be used in a plural-
marked noun phrase (see [Link]). Bazı and kimi, by contrast, are almost always used
with plural marking on the head noun.
The quantifiers bu kadar/şu kadar/o kadar are derived from the demonstratives (15.6.2
(i)), and share the same differentiation in meaning (explained in 18.2).
(iii) Interrogatives:
kaç (tane) ‘how many’ ([Link])
ne kadar ‘how much’ ([Link])

(iv) Markers of similarity and otherness:

böyle/şöyle/öyle (bir) ‘such (a)’
başka (bir) ‘(an)other’

The forms böyle/şöyle/öyle are derived from the demonstratives (15.6.2 (i)), and share the
same differentiation in meaning (explained in 18.2).

15.6.2 DEFINITE DETERMINERS

(i) Demonstratives:
bu ‘this/these’
şu ‘this/that/these/those’
o ‘that/those’

For the pronominal use of the demonstratives see 18.2, where the semantic differences
between the three forms are also explained.
(ii) Universal quantifiers:
her ‘every’
bütün/tüm ‘all’, ‘the whole (of)’
 Adjectival constructions, determiners and numerals 181

(iii) Interrogatives:
hangi ‘which’ ([Link])

(iv) Markers of identity or (exclusive) otherness:

aynı ‘the same’

öteki/öbür/ diğer ‘the other’

(v) Ordinal numerals (15.7.2) and the related items ilk ‘first’ and son ‘last’
Noun phrases with definite determiners obligatorily have accusative case marking
when functioning as direct objects (see 22.1 (iii)).

15.7 NUMERALS

15.7.1 CARDINAL NUMERALS

The cardinal numerals of Turkish are the following:
sıfır ‘zero’ yirmi ‘twenty’ milyar ‘billion’
bir ‘one’ otuz ‘thirty’ trilyon ‘trillion’
iki ‘two’ kırk ‘forty’ katrilyon ‘quadrillion’
üç ‘three’ elli ‘fifty’ (=billion billion)
dört ‘four’ altmış ‘sixty’
beş ‘five’ yetmiş ‘seventy’
altı ‘six’ seksen ‘eighty’
yedi ‘seven’ doksan ‘ninety’
sekiz ‘eight’ yüz ‘(one) hundred’
dokuz ‘nine’ bin ‘(one) thousand’
on ‘ten’ milyon ‘million’

The numerals from one to nine follow higher numerals to form the numerals from 11 to
99, and these follow any other higher numerals:
on iki ‘twelve’
yetmiş üç ‘seventy-three’
yüz kırk beş ‘one hundred and forty-five’
bin yüz doksan dokuz ‘one thousand one hundred and ninety-nine’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 182

When the numerals from yüz ‘(one) hundred’ to katrilyon ‘quadrillion’ are in their
multiple forms, they are preceded by lower numerals:
üç yüz ‘three hundred’
kırk iki bin ‘forty-two thousand’
dokuz milyon altı yüz altmış bin ‘nine million six hundred and sixty thousand’
yüz ‘hundred’ and bin ‘thousand’ are not preceded by bir when they indicate ‘one
hundred’ and ‘one thousand’ (thus yüz ‘one hundred’, bin ‘one thousand’), but milyon,
milyar, trilyon and katrilyon are (i.e. bir milyon ‘one million’, etc.).
Turkish has three different words for half. yarım behaves just like a cardinal numeral,
and is used only when referring to one half of an entity on its own: yarım bardak ‘half a
glass’, yarım portakal ‘half an orange’. The concept and a half is expressed by the word
buçuk, e.g. iki buçuk ‘two and a half’. The expression, yarı ‘half’ is (i) a noun used as the
head of a partitive construction (see 14.5.3) and (ii) an adverb of degree (16.5). çeyrek ‘a
quarter’ is the only numeral which needs a conjunction: üç ve bir çeyrek ‘three and a
quarter’. Note that a construction without the conjunction (and bir) indicates a totally
different numeral: üç çeyrek ‘three-quarters’.
‘Quarter’ can also be expressed as dörtte bir (‘one out of four’). This structure, which
contains the locative suffix -DA, is one of the means for expressing fractions: (3/4) dörtte
üç ‘three-quarters’, (2/3) ‘üçte iki ‘two-thirds’. The other way of expressing fractions is
by using the expression bölü ‘divided by’: (2/5) iki bölü beş ‘two-fifths/two over five’.
Decimals are expressed by the whole number followed by virgül ‘comma’ or by a
fraction: (3,32) üç virgül otuz iki, ‘three point three two’, (5,6) beş onda altı ‘five [and]
six-tenths’. yüzde expresses per cent: yüzde beş (%5) ‘five per cent’. These structures are
used as the heads of genitive-possessive constructions (14.4) when expressing either the
full number or the entity or set of which the fraction is a part:
(64) yirmi-nin sekiz-de yedi-si
twenty-GEN eight-LOC [Link]
‘seven-eighths of twenty’
(65) para-mız-ın yüz-de doksan beş-i/%95’i
[Link]-GEN hundred-LOC ninety [Link]
‘95% of our money’
When fractions follow whole numbers they are expressed without conjunctions: üç onda
dokuz ‘three [and] nine-tenths’. Conjunctions are also not used when two numerals are
juxtaposed to give an approximation: bir iki dükkan ‘one or two shops’ (cf. 28.1).
It should be noted that, unlike determiners, numerals can occur in noun phrases that
have either indefinite or definite status. They can be combined with some determiners
(see 15.9.1). In general, a noun phrase containing a numeral cannot have plural marking
(see [Link]).

15.7.2 ORDINAL NUMERALS

Ordinal numerals are formed by the suffix -(I)ncI ([Link]), e.g. altıncı ‘sixth’, yüzbeşinci
‘one hundred and fifth’:
(66) ikinci öneri
 Adjectival constructions, determiners and numerals 183

‘the second proposal’

When ordinal numerals are used in titles they are written with a full stop following the
numeral, e.g. 7. (=yedinci ‘seventh’):
(67) 18. Uluslararası Tıp Kongresi
‘The 18th International Conference on Medicine’
Streets which are named numerically are expressed in ordinal numerals: 10. Sokak
(=Onuncu Sokak) ‘10th Street’, 4. Cadde (=Dördüncü Cadde) ‘4th Avenue’. İlk is
another term for birinci ‘first’ (see 15.6.2):
(68) soldan ilk ev
‘the first house on the left’

15.7.3 DISTRIBUTIVE NUMERALS

Distributive numerals are formed by the suffix -(ş)Ar ([Link]): altışar ‘six each’, onar
‘ten each’, seksen ikişer ‘eighty-two each’. When added to numbers exceeding a thousand
and denoting round numbers (such as two thousand, five million, seven billion, etc.) the
suffix is attached to the first numeral: sekizer bin ‘eight thousand each’, onar milyon ‘ten
million each’. For multiples of a hundred, -(ş)Ar can be attached either to the first
numeral, or to yüz:
(69) üçer yüz/üç yüzer
‘three hundred each’
The presence of a distributive numeral requires at least one plural noun phrase in the
clause:
(70) Ahmet çocuklara ikişer hediye verdi.
‘Ahmet gave the children two gifts each.’
(71) Ahmet’le Mehmet Semra’ya ikişer hediye verdiler.
‘Ahmet and Mehmet each gave Semra two gifts.’
Distributive numerals are also used in pairs to form manner adverbials (16.4.3), e.g. üçer
üçer ‘in threes’, beşer onar ‘in fives and tens’.

15.8 THE ENUMERATOR tane AND MEASURE/TYPE TERMS

Cardinal numerals are often used with the enumerator tane (or ( adet)), usually when
modifying nouns denoting discrete, non-human entities:
(72) on tane tabak
‘ten plates’
Measure terms such as şişe ‘bottle’, bardak ‘glass’, avuç ‘handful’, metre ‘metre’, etc.,
and type terms such as çeşit/tür ‘kind’, tip ‘type’ are used in the same way:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 184

(73) sekiz bardak su

‘eight glasses [of] water’
Tane and measure terms can also be used with distributive numerals:
(74) ikişer tane araba
‘two cars each’
Most of these terms can combine with the 3rd person singular possessive marker -(s)I
(8.1.2) and function as heads of genitive-possessive constructions (14.4):
(75) Limon-un tane-si 20 peni.
lemon-GEN [Link]
‘The lemons are 20p each.’
(76) İpeğin metresi ne kadar?
‘How much is the silk per metre?’
The possessive-suffixed forms also occur as pronominals (18.4 (iii)):
(77) Çok pahalı bir ilaç. Şişesi 100 sterlin.
‘It’s a very expensive medicine. [It’s] £100 per bottle.’
Dolusu ‘…ful’ can also be used as a measure term when compounded with a preceding
noun:
(78) iki oda dolusu eski gazete
‘two roomfuls of old newspapers’
The adverbials yaklaşık olarak, aşağı yukarı ‘approximately’, hemen hemen ‘almost’ can
occur before any numerical expression:
(79) Aşağı yukarı 100 sayfa okudum.
‘I’ve read about 100 pages.’

15.9 THE POSITION OF DETERMINERS AND NUMERALS WITHIN

THE NOUN PHRASE

The position of a determiner within the noun phrase depends both on the type of
determiner involved and the type of adjectival construction(s) that are also present.

15.9.1 NUMERALS WITH DETERMINERS

The cardinal numerals follow most determiners:
(80) aynı üç konuşmacı
‘the same three speakers’
(81) bu yedi (tane) iskemle
‘these seven chairs’
 Adjectival constructions, determiners and numerals 185

The combination her+numeral, with or without the addition of the clitic dA ([Link]) to
the noun phrase head, is equivalent to ‘all’+numeral in English:
(82) Her dört daireyi (de) beğendik.
‘We liked all four flat.’
Even if her is not present, placing dA after a noun phrase containing a numeral modifer
has the effect of giving the phrase definite reference (cf. 18.4 (ii), 22.1):
(83) (Her) iki çocuk da uyumuş.
‘Both children had gone to sleep.’

15.9.2 DETERMINERS OR NUMERALS WITH ADJECTIVES

Definite determiners and numerals normally precede adjectives:
(84) o küçük dolap
‘that small cupboard’
(85) aynı tatsız yemekler
‘the same tasteless food’
(86) üç tarihi şehir
‘(the) three historic cities’
However, if the superlative marker en is present (15.4.3), the position of a numeral is
after the adjective:
(87)
(a) dört başarılı öğrenci
‘(the) four successful students’
(b) en başarılı dört öğrenci
‘the four most successful students’
The indefinite article bir usually follows the adjective, but can precede it:
(88) genç bir adam/bir genç adam
‘a young man’
(89) açık bir pencere/bir açık pencere
‘an open window’
There is a subtle difference in meaning between the two word orders with the indefinite
article. Because modification within nominal phrases in Turkish operates from left to
right, placing the adjectival to the left of bir has the effect of making the sequence
{adjectival+head} be perceived as a semantic unit. Thus in (88) the form bir genç adam
denotes a member of the class ‘young man’, whereas the form genç bir adam denotes a
young member of the class ‘man’. This latter order, which is much the more common,
gives more prominence to the adjective.
Where bir means ‘one’ (usually in relation to an already mentioned set), it always
precedes an adjective, is pronounced as [ ] or ↓ [bi] and receives stress:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 186

(90) Burada ekonomik ve toplumsal sorunlarımızı konuşuyoruz. BİR önemli

toplumsal sorunumuz da ailenin dağılmasıdır.
‘We’re talking about our economic and social problems here. One major social
problem that we’ve got is the dispersal of the family.’
An adjective that is itself modified (15.4.1) has to precede bir, whether bir is being used
in the article or the numeral function:
(91) çok önemli bir/BİR sorun
‘a/one very important problem’
Indefinite determiners normally precede an adjective, but birkaç, birçok, bazı and kimi
can sometimes follow it:
(92) birkaç kırık iskemle/kırık birkaç iskemle
‘a few broken chairs’

15.9.3 DETERMINERS OR NUMERALS WITH COMPLEX

ADJECTIVALS FORMED WITH -DAn, -lI OR -lIk
The situation with these adjectivals (15.3.3, 15.3.4, 15.3.5) is similar to that with simple
adjectives, but here the post-adjectival position is more freely available, not only to all
indefinite determiners but also to cardinal and ordinal numerals plus ilk and son.
(93) birtakım ceviz ağac-ın-dan sehpa-lar/ceviz ağacından birtakım sehpalar
some walnut wood-NC-ABL [Link]-PL
‘some small tables made of walnut wood’
(94) ilk yüzme havuzlu villa/yüzme havuzlu ilk villa
‘the first house with a swimming pool’
(95) on tane üçer dörder metrelik heykel/üçer dörder metrelik on tane heykel
‘ten statues, each three or four metres [high]’
As with adjectives (15.9.2), if a -lI adjectival is modified by the superlative marker en, a
numeral can only follow, not precede:
(96) en yüksek tirajlı beş Türk gazetesi
‘the five Turkish newspapers with the highest circulation’

15.9.4 DETERMINERS OR NUMERALS WITH LOCATIVE-

MARKED COMPLEX ADJECTIVALS
Locative-marked complex adjectivals (15.3.2) can occur with definite determiners only if
-ki is added (15.9.5). Other determiners or numerals are usually placed after the
adjectival:
(97) Turhan Kural adında bir yazar
‘a writer by the name of Turhan Kural’
(98) orta büyüklükte dört patates
 Adjectival constructions, determiners and numerals 187

‘four medium-sized potatoes’

15.9.5 DETERMINERS OR NUMERALS WITH ADJECTIVALS

FORMED WITH -ki
In general, determiners and numerals have to follow -ki adjectivals (15.3.6, 15.3.7):
(99) gazetedeki öbür resim
‘the other picture in the paper’
(100) romandaki her önemli kişi
‘every important character in the novel’
If a determiner or numeral is placed before a locative+-ki construction, it is usually
understood as modifying the immediately following locative-marked noun phrase rather
than the larger one, of which the -ki adjectival is a part:
(101) öbür gazetedeki resim
‘the picture in the other paper’
(102) her romandaki önemli kişi
‘the important character in every novel’
However, bütün/tüm ‘all’ and the demonstratives form exceptions to this general pattern.
In the case of bütün/tüm, the determiner is understood as modifying the larger noun
phrase, regardless of its position:
(103) bütün çekmecedeki para/çekmecedeki bütün para
‘all the money in the drawer’
(104) bütün yedi yaşındaki çocuklar/yedi yaşındaki bütün çocuklar
‘all (the) seven-year-old children’
Placing a demonstrative before a locative+-ki adjectival creates a potential ambiguity as
to whether the determiner forms part of the smaller or the larger noun phrase:
(105) bu masadaki kitaplar
(i) ‘the books on this table’
(ii) (=masadaki bu kitaplar) ‘these books on the table’
In (i) bu is understood to modify masa ‘table’ and in (ii) to modify kitaplar ‘books’.
In practice any potential ambiguity is usually eliminated by the way in which the
words are uttered. If the demonstrative is intended as a modifier of the large noun phrase,
it is unstressed and sometimes followed by a very slight pause. If, on the other hand, it is
intended as a modifier of the noun closest to it, it is slightly stressed.

15.9.6 DETERMINERS OR NUMERALS WITH RELATIVE CLAUSES

Relative clauses (Chapter 25) behave rather similarly to -ki adjectivals in the way they
interact with determiners and numerals. The position following the relative clause is the
standard one for all these items:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 188

(106) [Jale’nin sevdiği] iki yer

‘two places [Jale likes]’
(107) [Korkut’u o halde gör-müş olan] bütün arkadaşlarımız
‘all our friends [who have/had seen Korkut in that state]’
However, under certain conditions the determiner or numeral can optionally precede the
relative clause:
(i) If the relative clause consists only of a verb (participle):
(108) birkaç (tane) [oynayan] çocuk/[oynayan] birkaç (tane) çocuk
‘a few children [playing]’
(109) şu [gördüğünüz] kalabalık/[gördüğünüz] şu kalabalık
‘this crowd [that you see]’
(ii) If the relative clause is of the type marked by -(y)An ([Link]), and does not contain,
apart from its verb, any constituent other than a one-word, non-case-marked adverbial, as
in (110), or a categorial direct object ([Link], 22.3), as in (111):
(110) her [hızlı akan] nehir/[hızlı akan] her nehir
‘every [swiftly-flowing] river’
(111) kimi [ün yap-an] oyuncular/[ün yap-an] kimi oyuncular
some fame make-PART actor-PL
‘some actors [who become famous]’
(iii) Demonstratives can be placed before any kind of relative clause, but if this contains a
noun phrase (other than a categorial direct object) there is potential ambiguity of the kind
noted for demonstratives preceding -ki adjectivals (15.9.5):
(112) o çocuğun yaptığı resim
(a) [o çocuğ-un yap-tığ-ı] resim
that child [Link] picture
‘the picture [(which) that child painted]’
(b) o [çocuğun yaptığı] resim (=[çocuğun yaptığı] o resim)
‘that picture [(which) the child painted]’
As explained in the case of -ki constructions, the ambiguity is in practice usually
eliminated by the manner of utterance.
 16
ADVERBIAL CONSTRUCTIONS

Adverbs (7.1.1 (iv)) are words that modify verbs, nominal predicates, adjectives, other
adverbials, or whole sentences. ‘Adverbial’ is a broader term used to cover all types of
sentence constituent that perform the function of an adverb. Adverbials vary widely in
structure (16.1), from single words (e.g. herhalde ‘probably’, bugün ‘today’) through
noun phrases, with or without suffixes (e.g. bu sabah ‘this morning’, iki gündür ‘for two
days’), and postpositional phrases (e.g.…rağmen ‘in spite of…’) to adverbial clauses
(e.g. yanlışımı anlayınca ‘upon realizing my mistake’). The functions of adverbials are
reviewed in 16.2. The following sections focus in turn on the various semantic roles that
adverbial constructions play in the sentence, and are organized as follows: modal
adverbials (16.3), adverbials of time (16.4.1), place (16.4.2), manner (16.4.3), quantity or
degree (16.5) and respect (16.6), exclusive adverbials (16.7) and particularizing
adverbials (16.8). Section 6.9 describes the modification of adverbs.
Postpositional phrases, which form a major type of relatively complex adverbials, are
treated separately in Chapter 17. Adverbial clauses form the subject of Chapter 26,
except for conditional clauses, which are discussed in Chapter 27.

16.1 TYPES OF ADVERBIAL CONSTRUCTION

16.1.1 SIMPLE ADVERBS

These are words whose sole or primary grammatical function is adverbial. Examples are
şimdi ‘now’, ancak ‘only’, çabuk ‘quickly’, maalesef ‘unfortunately’.

16.1.2 ADJECTIVES USED AS ADVERBS

Many lexical items whose primary function is adjectival (e.g. güzel ‘beautiful’, kolay
‘easy’, yeni ‘new’) can be made to function adverbially simply by placing them in the
immediately preverbal position (for further examples see 23.2.1 (iii)).
(1) Özdemir o şarkıyı güzel söyledi.
‘Özdemir sang that song well.’
If there is a categorial direct object (22.3) the adverbial has to precede it:
(2) Özdemir güzel şarkı söyler.
‘Özdemir sings (songs) well.’
(3) Ben zor dikiş dikiyorum.
‘I sew [only] with difficulty.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 190

Not all adjectives can be used adverbially, even if their meaning is appropriate to the
description of actions. With the exception of formations with -lI and -sIz ([Link]), most
derived adjectives (15.2.1) can modify verbs only indirectly, either by modifying a
locative-marked noun phrase such as bir biçimde/bir şekilde ‘in a…manner’, or by
standing as complement to olarak (16.1.9):
(4) Erkeksi bir biçimde konuşur.
‘S/he talks in a masculine way.’
(5) Bu sorunu bilimsel olarak araştırmalıyız.
‘We must investigate this problem scientifically.’
The same restriction applies to adjectives of foreign origin:
(6) Başkan demokratik bir şekilde seçilmemişti.
‘The chairman had not been democratically elected.’

16.1.3 DOUBLED FORMS

Certain adverbials are formed by the reduplicated use of a noun, adjective or adverb (see
9.3). This is not a fully productive process, and the usage and/or meaning of such forms
may be more restricted than the simple form. Thus kolay kolay ‘easily’ is used only in
negative sentences, and yavaş yavaş always means ‘slowly’ or ‘gradually’, whereas the
adjective yavaş can mean ‘quiet’ or ‘gentle’ in addition to ‘slow’.
(7) Kimse buradan kolay kolay kaçamaz.
‘No one could easily escape from here.’
The temporal adverbials sabah sabah and akşam akşam, meaning approximately ‘so early
in the morning’ and ‘so late at night’ respectively, are used with the implication that the
performance of the action at the time in question is socially unacceptable.
(8) Sabah sabah ne diye bu kadar gürültü yapıyorsunuz?
‘Why are you making such a noise at this unearthly hour?’

16.1.4 NOUN PHRASES WITHOUT CASE MARKING

Non-case-marked noun phrases are used for certain types of time location ([Link]),
duration of time ([Link]) and expressions of distance:
(9) Beş kilometre yürümüşüz.
‘We seem to have walked five kilometres.’

16.1.5 NOUN PHRASES WITH OBLIQUE CASE MARKING

Noun phrases with dative, locative or ablative marking occur in a wide range of adverbial
functions, discussed in 13.1.3, [Link]–5.
(10) Berna koca-sın-dan ayrıl-mış-tı.
 Adverbial constructions 191

Berna [Link]-ABL [Link]

‘Berna had separated from her husband.’

16.1.6 NOUN OR ADJECTIVE SUFFIXED WITH -CA

For an overview of the functions of the unstressable suffix -CA (and its colloquial
alternative -CAK (iii)) see [Link]. Here we illustrate the various adverbial meanings
which -CA formations can express.
(i) Manner:
(11) Yavaş-ça Jale’nin koluna dokundu.
gentle-ADV
‘S/he gently touched Jale’s arm.’
(12) Osman çocukça davranıyor.
‘Osman is behaving childishly.’
(13) Şarkıyı Fransızca söyledi.
‘She sang the song in French.’
(ii) Long duration:
(14) Bu mektubu haftalarca beklemiştik.
‘We had waited weeks for this letter.’
(iii) The collective or institutional agent of a passive verb ([Link]):
(15) Yunus Emre [Türk halkınca sevilen] bir şairdir.
‘Yunus Emre is a poet [loved by the Turkish people].’
(iv) Collective involvement in an action or state:
(16) Onlar herşeyi ailece yaparlar.
‘They do everything as a family.’
(v) The respect in which a description is applicable:
(17) Babası dünyaca meşhur bir ressamdı.
‘His/Her father was a world-famous painter.’
(vi) The viewpoint of a person:
(18) Bence endişelenecek bir şey yok.
‘In my view there’s nothing to worry about.’

16.1.7 NOUN PHRASE SUFFIXED WITH -DIr

This type of adverbial structure occurs only with noun phrases denoting a period of time
(see [Link] (iiib)).
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 192

16.1.8 POSTPOSITIONAL PHRASES

Postpositional phrases form the subject of Chapter 17. Their most characteristic function
is adverbial (see 17.4.1):
(19) Evdeki durumdan dolayı Filiz gelemeyebilir.
‘Because of the situation at home Filiz may not be able to come.’

16.1.9 CONSTRUCTIONS WITH olarak

Olarak, the converbial form of ol- ‘be’ formed with -(y)ArAk (26.3.8), has been
lexicalized as a marker of certain types of adverbial phrase:
(i) It produces adverbials from adjectives, generally from derived adjectives (cf.
16.1.2).
(20) Raporu yazılı olarak sunmuşlardı.
‘They had submitted the report in writing.’
(ii) Following a noun phrase, it forms an adverbial indicating:
(a) Status or classification:
(21) Bunu sana avukat olarak değil, arkadaş olarak söylüyorum.
‘I’m saying this to you not as a lawyer but as a friend.’
(22) Şimdilik bu sandığı masa olarak kullanıyoruz.
‘For the moment we’re using this chest as a table.’
(23) Meyva olarak ne var?
‘What is there in the way of fruit?’
(b) Collective involvement in an action or state (see -CA, 16.1.6 (iv)):
(24) Aile olarak müziğe meraklılar.
‘As a family, they’re interested in music.’
Where the group involved is expressed by a noun phrase containing a numeral modifier,
olarak may be omitted (see 12.2.1, example (58)):
(25) Biz üç arkadaş (olarak) konuşuyoruz.
‘We are chatting as a group of three friends.’

16.1.10 CONSTRUCTIONS WITH olmak üzere

olmak üzere, another converbial form of ol- ‘be’ (cf. 26.3.2, 26.3.12) is used to produce
two kinds of adverbial:
(i) A construction indicating the internal composition of a set or group, in quantitative
or proportional terms. The quantitative or proportional expression is marked with a 3rd
person possessive suffix. This usage is rather formal.
 Adverbial constructions 193

(26) Biz-im koğuş-ta bazı-sı ağır ol-mak üzere on beş kadar hasta
we-GEN ward-LOC [Link] serious be-CV 15 about patient yat-ıyor-du.
[Link]
‘In our ward there were about fifteen patients, some of them in a serious
condition.’
(ii) A construction introduced by başta ‘at the head’, indicating the entity/entities to
which a statement chiefly applies (see 16.8).

16.1.11 ADVERBIAL CLAUSES

Adverbial clauses are the most complex kinds of adverbial construction. Some types of
adverbial meaning, such as reason, purpose, condition and concession, are expressed
predominantly by means of adverbial clauses. For detailed discussion see Chapters 26
and 27.

16.2 SYNTACTIC FUNCTIONS OF ADVERBIALS

Adverbials play a modifying role within a sentence or clause. In broad terms what is
modified is either (i) the sentence or clause as a whole, (ii) a verb, (iii) an adjective, or
(iv) another adverb. Each of these patterns is illustrated below:
(i) Adverbial modifying the sentence or a clause as a whole:
(27) Telefon numaram sizde vardır herhalde.
‘I expect you’ve got my telephone number.’
(ii) Adverbial modifying a verb (in the main clause or a subordinate clause, 13.1.3):
(28) [Hızlı yürüseydik] 19.10’daki trene yetişebilirdik.
‘[If we had walked fast] we co uld have caught the 19.10 train.’
(iii) Adverbial modifying an adjective (15.4):
(29) Bu oda bana oldukça karanlık geldi.
‘This room seems to me quite dark.’
(iv) Adverbial modifying another adverb (16.9):
(30) Çocuğa fazla sert davranıyor
‘S/he treats the child too harshly.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 194

16.3 MODAL ADVERBIALS

Modal adverbials express the speaker’s stance towards the statement that is being made.
Some of them, such as yanılmıyorsam ‘if I’m not mistaken’, doğrusunu isterseniz ‘to tell
you the truth’, have the structure of a conditional clause (Chapter 27).
Modal adverbials fall into a number of functional groups:
(i) Adverbials indicating the speaker’s degree of commitment to the truth of a
statement:
gerçekten/hakikaten ‘really’
sahiden ‘really’

muhakkak/ mutlaka ‘definitely’

kesinlikle/kesin (olarak) ‘definitely’

belli ki ‘clearly’, ‘it’s clear that…’
anlaşılan ‘evidently’
dikkat edilirse ‘it will be noted that…’
aslın a bakılı rsa ‘the truth of the matter is that…’
herhalde ‘probably’, ‘presumably’, ‘I expect’
bakarsın ‘it might just happen that’
büyük bir ihtimalle/ büyük bir olasılıkla ‘in all probability’
yanılmıyorsam ‘if I’m not mistaken’
galiba/sanırım ‘I think’

zannedersem ‘I think’

zannediyorum ‘I think’

belki ‘perhaps’
‘allegedly’, ‘supposedly’

bence (see 16.1.6) ‘I think’, ‘in my opinion’

bana kalırsa ‘my own view would be that…’

(31) [Herkesin para katkısında bulunması] isteniyor anlaşılan.

‘Evidently everyone is expected [to make a financial contribution].’
(32) Sanırım Necla’nın sınavı bugün olacaktı.
‘ I think Necla’s exam was going to be today.’
For the affinity of certain of this group of modal adverbials, such as muhakkak, herhalde,
belki, with the aorist form of the verb and the generalizing modality marker -DIr, see the
 Adverbial constructions 195

discussion of assumptions (modalized statements) in [Link]. For modal adverbs used in

questions see 19.5.
(ii) Adverbials indicating the speaker’s attitude towards the situation described by a
statement:
inşallah ‘God willing’, ‘hopefully’, ‘I hope’
umarım ‘I hope’
Allahtan/bereket versin ‘fortunately’
çok şükür ‘thank goodness’, ‘fortunately’
iyi ki ‘it’s good (that…)’, ‘thank goodness’
maalesef/ne yazık ki ‘unfortunately’
tabii (ki)/doğal olarak ‘of course’, ‘naturally’

(33) Ambülans çabuk geldi çok şükür.

‘Fortunately the ambulance came quickly.’
(iii) Politeness strategies:
This type of modal adverbial is used in order to mitigate the chance of a remark
causing offence.
doğrusu/doğrusunu isterseniz, ‘to be honest’, ‘to tell you the truth’
affedersiniz ‘if you’ll pardon the expression’
deyim yerindeyse ‘if the expression is acceptable’,
‘if I can put it that way’

(34) Doğrusunu isterseniz ben hiçbir zaman Osman’ı o mevkiye layık

görmemiştim.
‘To be honest, I had never regarded Osman as worthy of that office.’
(iv) The modal adverb meğer(se):
meğer (or meğerse) can be added to a sentence evidentially marked by -mIş or -(y)mIş
in order to indicate that the statement expresses a revision of the speaker’s earlier belief
about a situation in the light of new information, new observation or new experience. The
nearest English equivalent is usually ‘it turns/turned out that…’.
(35) Anahtar palto-m-un ceb-in-de-ymiş
key [Link]-GEN [Link] meğerse.
[Link]
‘It turned out that the key was in the pocket of my coat.’

16.4 CIRCUMSTANTIAL ADVERBIALS

In comparison with the class of modal adverbials, which consists of a limited range of
expressions, the class of circumstantial adverbials is open. In addition to an inventory of
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 196

fixed items, such as şimdi ‘now’, ileri ‘forward’, çabuk ‘quickly’, it includes a large
range of grammatical strategies which can be freely used in the formation of more
complex constructions.
In terms of their semantic functions, circumstantial adverbials express concepts such
as time, place, manner, reason, purpose, condition and concession. Detailed discussion is
here confined to the expression of time, place and manner. For the other categories the
reader is generally referred to other chapters in which more complex adverbial structures
are discussed.

16.4.1 TIME ADVERBIALS

In the following sections we look at the means by which various kinds of temporal
relations are expressed: location in time ([Link]), duration ([Link]) and frequency
([Link]). For the wide range of adverbial clauses which perform temporal functions see
[Link], 26.1.6 and 26.3.16.

[Link] Location in time

Temporal location is the time at which or within which an event happens or a state holds.
In Turkish this is often, but by no means always, expressed by locative case marking. We
first describe how clock time and dates are expressed in Turkish, and then proceed to
consider more general aspects of the subject.

Clock time
The use of the word saat ‘hour’ is optional in all expressions of clock time, and if used
must precede the numeral indicating the hour. Locations on the hour are expressed with
the locative suffix on the numeral:
(saat) altı-da ‘at six (o’clock)’
(hour) six-LOC

For the half-hours, buçuk ‘and a half’ follows the numeral, and it is to this word that the
locative suffix is attached:
(saat) on buçukta ‘at half-past ten’

An exception is that for ‘half-past twelve’ the word yarım ‘half’ is used:
(saat) yarımda ‘at half-past twelve’

For time locations less than thirty minutes after the hour, the word geçe (the -(y)A
converb (26.3.8) of geç- ‘pass’) follows the number of minutes, which in turn follows the
accusative-marked form of the hour numeral:
(saat) ikiyi beş geçe ‘at five past two’
 Adverbial constructions 197

For time locations less than thirty minutes before the hour, the word kala (the -(y)A
converb (26.3.8) of kal- ‘be left’) follows the number of minutes, which in this case
follows the dative-marked form of the hour numeral:
(saat) dörd-e yirmi kala ‘at twenty to four’
(hour) four-DAT twenty to

The word çeyrek ‘quarter’ is used for ‘quarter past’ and ‘quarter to’:
(saat) yediyi çeyrek geçe ‘at quarter past seven’
(saat) on ikiye çeyrek kala ‘at quarter to twelve’

As an alternative to all of the above, the conventions of the twenty-four hour clock may
be used, with the locative suffix attached to the minute figure:
(saat) yirmi otuzda ‘at 20.30’

Days of the week

The name of the day may either be used on its own or made into a -(s)I compound (10.2)
with gün ‘day’. Case marking is generally not used when expressing time location with
respect to a certain day of the week:
(36) Çarşamba (gün-ü) Konya’ya gidiyorum.
Wednesday (day-NC)
‘I’m going to Konya on Wednesday.’
If reference is being made to future time, dative case marking is often added in colloquial
usage. (Note that locative case marking is not used at all with days of the week.)
(37) Çarşamba-ya Konya’ya gidiyorum.
Wednesday-DAT
‘I’m going to Konya on Wednesday.’

Dates
Time location involving dates always requires the locative suffix. In the expression of
time location in a certain year, the number expressing the year may be compounded with
yıl (or sene) ‘year’. Years are expressed just like simple numerals:
(38)
(a) bin dokuz yüz doksan beşte (written 1995’te)
(b) bin dokuz yüz doksan beş yılında (written 1995 yılında) ‘in 1995’
Similarly, in the expression of location in a certain month, the name of the month may be
compounded with ay ‘month’:
(39) şubat-ta/şubat ay-ın-da
February-LOC/February month-NC-LOC
‘in February’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 198

Time location on an exact date is expressed by placing the cardinal number before the
name of the month, and adding the locative suffix to the latter. (Note that, in the case of
an exact date, the name of the month is written with an initial capital.)
(40) on yedi haziranda (written 17 Haziran’da)
‘on the 17th of June’
If the year is expressed as well, this follows the name of the month, and the locative
suffix appears on the year.
(41) sekiz kasım bin dokuz yüz seksen dörtte (written 8 Kasım 1984’te) ‘on the
8th of November 1984’
A more informal way of expressing the date of an event is to use a genitive-possessive
construction (14.4):
(42) haziran-ın/haziran ay-ın-ın on yedi-sin-de
June-GEN/June month-NC-GEN [Link]-LOC
‘on the 17th of June’
The year can be incorporated with the name of a month in one of two ways:
(i) as a -(s)I compound:
(43) bin dokuz yüz seksen dört kasımında ‘in November 1984’
(ii) in a genitive-possessive construction:
(44)
(a) bin dokuz yüz seksen dördün kasımında
(b) bin dokuz yüz seksen dördün kasım ayında
(c) bin dokuz yüz seksen dört yılının kasım ayında ‘in November 1984’
If the exact date is specified in an expression of the type exemplified in (44), this is
usually done by combining a genitive-possessive construction with the pattern
exemplified in (40) above:
(45)
(a) bin dokuz yüz seksen dördün sekiz kasımında
(b) bin dokuz yüz seksen dört yılının se kiz kasımında
‘on the 8th of November 1984’
Other less precise expressions of calendar time are illustrated below:
eylül/eylülün başında ‘at the beginning of September’
nisanın ortasında ‘in the middle of April’
ekim/ekimin sonunda ‘at the end of October’
ay başında/sonunda ‘at the beginning/end of the month’
ayın ortasında ‘in the middle of the month’
 Adverbial constructions 199

ayın birinde ‘on the first (day) of the month’

bin sekiz yüz otuzlarda ‘in the 1830s’
(written 1830’larda)
bin sekiz yüz otuzlu yıllarda ‘in the 1830s’
(written 1830’lu yıllarda)

Seasons of the year

Yaz ‘summer’ and kış ‘winter’ have special forms for expressing location: yazın ‘in
summer’, kışın ‘in winter’ ([Link]). İlkbahar (or bahar) ‘spring’ and sonbahar ‘autumn’,
on the other hand, take the locative case marker:
(46) Kışın başlayan yağmurlar ilkbaharda da sürdü.
‘The rain that began in the winter continued in the spring, too.’
Other phrases expressing location in time:
(i) The following adverbials express time locations in terms of their relation to the
moment of speech (present, past, future):
(a) Present:
şimdi ‘now’
şu anda ‘at the moment’, ‘at this moment’
şu sıra(lar)da ‘at the moment’
bu günlerde ‘at the moment’
↓şimdilerde ‘at the moment’, ‘these days’
bugün ‘today’

(b) Past:
dün ‘yesterday’
dün sabah ‘yesterday morning’
dün akşam ‘yesterday evening/night’
dün gece ‘last night’
evvelsi gün ‘the day before yesterday’
evvelki (hafta/ay/yıl) ‘the (week/month/year) before last’
önceki (hafta/ay/yıl) ‘last (week/month/year)’, ‘the
(week/month/year) before last’
geçen gün ‘the other day’
geçenlerde ‘a few days ago’
geçen/geçtiğimiz (hafta/ay/yıl) ‘last (week/month/year)’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 200

…önce/ evvel ‘(amount of time) ago’

demin ‘a few moments ago’, ‘just now’

son zamanlarda ‘recently’
eskiden ‘in the past’, ‘formerly’

bir zaman(lar)/ bir vakitler ‘in the past’, ‘formerly’

zamanında/ vaktiyle ‘in the past’, ‘formerly’

(c) Future:
akşama ‘this evening’, ‘in the evening’
yarın ‘tomorrow’
yarın sabah ‘tomorrow morning’
yarın akşam ‘tomorrow evening’
öbürsü gün ‘the day after tomorrow’
haftaya ‘next week’
gelecek/önümüzdeki (hafta/ay/yıl) ‘next (week/month/year)’
seneye ‘next year’
…sonra ‘in (amount of time from now)’
yakında/biraz sonra ‘soon’

(ii) The following adverbials express time locations without reference to how they relate
to the moment of speech:
(a) Parts of the day:
sabah/↓sabahleyin ‘in the morning’, ‘this morning’
öğleyin/öğle zamanı ‘at midday’
öğleden sonra ‘in the afternoon’ ‘this afternoon’
akşam üstü/üzeri ‘in the early evening’
akşam/↓akşamleyin ‘in the evening’
gece/↓geceleyin ‘at night’, ‘in/during the night’

(b) More general expressions:

önce/ evvela ‘first’, ‘at first’

ilkönce ‘first of all’

…önce/ evvel ‘(amount of time) before/ago’

(bir) önceki(gün/hafta/ay/yıl) ‘the previous

 Adverbial constructions 201

(day/week/month/year)’
sonra ‘then’, ‘later’
daha sonra ‘later (on)’
…sonra ‘(amount of time) later’
sonraki/ertesi (gün/hafta/ay/yıl) ‘the next (day/week/month/year)’
çok geçmeden ‘before long’
o zaman ‘then’
o zamanlar ‘at that time’
o sırada ‘at that point’
bu arada ‘meanwhile’
bir ara ‘at one point’

Expressions referring to present time

As shown in list (i) (a) above, there are several expressions that refer to a time location
which includes the moment of speech, and can be translated by ‘at the moment’.
However, they differ in the range of time they express. Şu anda is the only one that can
be focused on the actual moment of speech:
(47) Şu anda bir şey duyamıyorum, ama demin bir cızırtı vardı.
‘At the moment I can’t hear anything, but just now there was a crackling sound.’
The other three expressions refer to a much broader period of days or even weeks,
extending both backwards and forwards from the moment of speech:
(48) Korkut bu günlerde/şu sırada tezini bitirmeye çalışıyor.
‘Korkut is trying to finish his thesis at the moment.’
As for the adverb şimdi ‘now’, this does not always refer to present time.
It can refer to the very near future:
(49) Şimdi gelirim.
‘I’ll be back in a moment.’
It can also refer to the immediate past, in which usage it receives stress (cf. 23.3.1):
(50) Ahmet Bey ŞİMdi çıktı.
‘Ahmet Bey has just left.’

Synonymous with şimdi in this usage are henüz and yeni, both of which can refer also
to a relative immediate past, as in (51) below. All three of these adverbs are commonly
reinforced by the modifier daha ‘only’ ([Link] (vc)):
(51) O sırada buraya daha yeNİ taşınmıştık.
‘At that time we had only just moved here.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 202

önce ‘before’ and sonra ‘after’:

As shown in the above lists, önce and sonra as adverbials have a number of different
usages. (For their functions as postpositions see 17.2.3 (vi)–(vii).)
(i) Used without modifiers, önce means ‘first’ or ‘at first’ and sonra ‘then’ or ‘later’:
(52) Önce bütün kitabı gözden geçir, sonra [önemli gördüğün]
bölümlere geri dön.
‘First look over the whole book, then go back to the sections
[you consider important].’
(ii) Both önce and sonra can be preceded by a noun phrase indicating an amount of time.
The adverbial phrases thus formed can have as their reference points either the moment
of speech or any other time location established in the preceding discourse:
(53)
(a) Yirmi yıl önce burası tarlaydı.
‘Twenty years ago this was a field.’
(b) Filiz Hanım yalnız yaşıyor du. Kocası yirmi yıl önce ölmüştü.
‘Filiz Hanım lived alone. Her husband had died twenty years before.’
(54)
(a) Beş gün sonra sınavım var.
‘I’ve got an exam in five days’ time/five days from now.’
(b) Beş gün sonra sınava girdim.
‘Five days later I took the/an exam.’
(iii) When placed in the immediately pre-verbal position, sonra can mean ‘(only) later’,
‘not until afterwards’. In this usage it often takes ablative case marking:
(55) [Coşkun’un evli olduğun]-u sonra(dan) öğrendim.
‘It was (only) later that I found out [that Coşkun was married].’

Case marking (8.1.3) and its absence in expressing location in time

(i) No case marking:
The following nouns denoting parts of the day usually remain non-case-marked when
they are used in the singular form to express location in time: sabah ‘morning’, akşam
‘evening’, gece ‘night’. If used without a determiner (15.6), these words are understood
as referring either to the day of the speech situation, or the previous night, or to another
day on which attention is already focused.
(56) Gece yağmur yağmıştı, yerler ıslaktı.
‘It had rained during the night, [so] the ground was wet.’
This applies also to noun phrases in which the singular form of sabah ‘morning’, akşam
‘evening’, gece ‘night’, gün ‘day’, hafta ‘week’, ay ‘month’, yil/ sene ‘year’ is
preceded by one of the following determiners/adjectives or by an ordinal numeral: bir
 Adverbial constructions 203

‘a(n)’, bu ‘this’, o ‘that’, geçen ‘last’, gelecek ‘next’, önceki ‘the previous’, ‘last’, sonraki
‘the next’, ertesi ‘the next’, ilk ‘the first’, son ‘the last’:
(57) Bu sabah bir öğrencim telefon etti.
‘A student of mine rang this morning.’
(58) Gelecek hafta boş vaktin var mı?
‘Do you have any free time next week?’
(ii) Dative case:
Where location in time is concerned, dative case marking (i.e. -(y)A) always produces
(relative) future reference. This is a colloquial usage; the standard equivalents are also
shown in (59); see also (36), (37).
(59) [Akşama/Akşam/O akşam misafirlerimiz olacağı için] yemek yapmakla
meşguldük.
‘[As we were expecting guests that evening] we were busy cooking.’
(iii) Locative case:
Apart from dates and clock time (hours and half-hours), locative case marking (i.e. -
DA) occurs in noun phrases of which the head is the plural-marked form of one of any of
the time nouns listed in (i) above, e.g. son aylarda ‘in the last (few) months’, o yıllarda
‘in those years’. It also occurs in noun phrases of which the head is any other noun or
noun compound denoting a period of time, e.g. Osmanlı döneminde ‘in the Ottoman
period’, çocukluğumda ‘in my childhood’.
When locative case marking occurs in a quantified time expression, it indicates the
time within which a task is (to be) performed, or within which a certain number of
occurrences of an event are observed. The postposition içinde ([Link]) is often used
instead of simple locative case marking in such expressions:
(60) Üç haftada/Üç hafta içinde bu kavşakta iki defa kaza oldu.
‘In the space of three weeks there have twice been accidents at this junction.’
(iv) Ablative case:
Expressions of time location that include ablative case marking (i.e. -DAn) without
any following postposition usually emphasize the earliness of the time referred to. Fixed
expressions of this kind include erkenden ‘early’, önceden ‘beforehand’, şimdiden
‘already’, sabahtan ‘(already) in the morning’, akşamdan ‘(already) the evening before’,
çoktan ‘long ago’, ‘long since’:
(61) Ben şimdi-den üşüyorum.
now-ABL
‘I’m already feeling cold.’
(62) Nermin’ler sabahtan g elmişler.
‘Apparently Nermin and her friends have been here since this morning.’
In the adverbial sonradan ‘after the event’, ‘(only) afterwards’, the ablative case marking
has the opposite effect of drawing attention to the lateness of the occurrence of an event
(see (55) above).
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 204

Recurrent time locations

To express the regular occurrence of an event on a certain day of the week, or at a certain
time of day, -lAr-I is added to the name of the day, or to any of the following expressions:
sabah ‘morning’, öğleden sonra ‘in the afternoon’, akşam ‘evening’, gece ‘night’:
(63) Pazartesileri/Pazartesi günleri Taksim’deki ofisimizde çalışıyorum.
‘On Mondays I work at our office in Taksim.’

[Link] Duration
(i) The duration of an activity may be expressed by a non-case-marked noun phrase:
(64) Birkaç dakika bekledik.
‘We waited for a few minutes.’
(ii) Alternatively, an adverbial of quantity (16.5) may be used:
(65) Misafirler az oturdular.
The guests didn’t stay long.’
(iii) To present a situation as having started some time ago/before, and still continuing (at
the moment of speech or at some reference point in the past), one of the following is
used:
(a) the postposition beri (17.2.3 (ii))
(b) the suffix -DIr (8.3.3) attached to the noun phrase denoting the period:
(66) Üç yıldır/üç yıldan beri burada çalışıyorum.
‘I’ve been working here for three years.’
The rules governing the tense/aspect marking of a predicate modified by a -DIr adverbial
are the same as those applying to predicates modified by beri phrases (see 17.2.3 (ii)).
(iv) Expressions of intended duration of stay, modifying a verb of motion, are
constructed in one of two ways:
(a) with the postposition için ‘for’ (17.2.1 (ii))
(b) by attaching the suffix -lIğInA to the expression of duration:
(67) Birkaç gün için/Birkaç günlüğüne Fransa’ya gidiyorum.
‘I’m going to France for a fex days.’

[Link] Frequency
The principal adverbials expressing general notions of frequency are:
hep/her zaman ‘always’, ‘all the time’
sık sık ‘often’, ‘frequently’
çok defa ‘many times’, ‘often’
 Adverbial constructions 205

genellikle ‘usually’, ‘generally’

bazen ‘sometimes’
kimi zaman ‘sometimes’
kâh…kâh ‘sometimes…sometimes’
arada bir/arasıra ‘occasionally’
arada sırada ‘occasionally’
zaman zaman ‘from time to time’
seyrek ‘seldom’
hiç ‘never’, ‘ever’
hiçbir zaman ‘never’, ‘ever’

asla/ katiyen ‘never’

pek ‘very often’ (only with negative verb)

Of these expressions, hiç, hiçbir zaman, asla, Katiyen and pek are discussed in 20.5.
Quantified frequency is expressed with locative marking of the noun expressing the
relevant time unit (day, week, etc.), followed usually by bir ‘once’, otherwise by a
numeral or quantifier followed by kez, defa, or kere, all meaning ‘time’ in the sense of
‘instance of repetition’:
(68) Şükran’la [ayda bir görüşmey]-e çalışıyoruz.
‘Şükran and I try [to get together once a month].’
(69) Artık makine yılda dört beş kez/defa/kere arızalanıyor.
‘The machine is now breaking down four or f ive times a year.’

[Link] Other time adverbials

(i) ancak:
As a temporal adverb, ancak (see also 16.7) means ‘only just [in time for something]’,
and is placed immediately before the predicate:
(70) Uçağa ancak yetiştik.
‘We only just caught the plane.’
For ancak as an adversative connective see [Link].
(ii) artık:
This indicates that a turning point has been reached.
(a) In affirmative sentences it is usually equivalent to ‘now’, but it is a ‘now’ that
expresses the climax of some development in the past:
(71) Artık Türkçe’yi güzel konuşuyorsun.
‘You now speak Turkish very well.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 206

(b) With a negative predicate it means ‘no longer’, ‘any more’:

(72) İstanbul’da evimiz yok artık.
‘We no longer have a flat in Istanbul.’
(iii) bir an once:
This is an informal expression meaning ‘as soon as possible’:
(73) Evi bir an önce satmak istiyoruz.
‘We want to sell the house as soon as possible.’
A synonym not restricted to colloquial styles is en kısa zamanda ‘in the shortest
[possible] time’.
(iv) bir daha:
Literally ‘once more’, this expression is used in the sense of ‘again’. It is used mostly
in negative sentences, and is indeed the only means of expressing ‘again’ with a negative
predicate:
(74) O adamı bir daha görmek istemem.
‘I don’t ever want to see that man again.’

In affirmative sentences ‘again’ is usually expressed by gene, yine, tekrar or yeniden,

this last having sometimes the meaning of ‘all over again’:
(75) Binayı yıkıp yeniden yapacaklarmış.
‘Apparently they’re going to pull the building down and rebuild it.’
(v) daha:
This is an adverb with several meanings/functions. For its comparative function see
15.4.2, 16.9
(a) With an affirmative predicate daha means ‘still’:
(76) Süleyman daha uyuyor.
‘Süleyman is still asleep.’
(b) With a negative predicate it means ‘yet’, and in this function is synonymous
with henüz, which is slightly more formal:
(77) Daha/Henüz hazır değilim.
‘I’m not ready yet.’
(c) Placed before an adverbial expressing a time location prior to the moment of
speech, daha emphasizes either the closeness or the distance of that time:
(78) Bu sorun daha iki yıl once vardı.
‘This problem already existed two years ago.’
(vi) hâlâ:
This conveys the notion ‘still’ more emphatically than daha:
(79) Yılmaz hâlâ aynı yerde çalışıyor.
 Adverbial constructions 207

‘Yılmaz is still working in the same place.’

(vii) hazır:
As an adverb, hazır (primarily an adjective meaning ‘ready’, ‘present’) is used almost
exclusively in converbial clauses marked by -(y)ken (26.2.3 (ii), 26.3.16 (iii)). It
expresses the idea that the state of affairs described by the subordinate clause provides an
opportunity for the performance of the action specified in the superordinate clause:
(80) [Hazır Ali buradayken] bilgisayar sorunumuzu ona soralım.
‘[Now that Ali is here], let’s ask him about our computer problem.’

(viii) hemen, derhal:

These mean ‘immediately’, ‘at once’:
(81) Bardakları hemen yıka.
‘Wash the glasses immediately.’
(ix) neredeyse:
This conveys that an event is expected imminently:
(82) Misafirler neredeyse gelir.
‘The guests will be arriving at any moment.’

16.4.2 PLACE ADVERBIALS

In general terms, location in, on, or at a place is expressed by locative case marking of a
noun phrase ([Link] (i), 13.1.3):
(83) Selim’in Berlin-de kızkardeşi varmış.
Berlin-LOC
‘Apparently Selim has a sister in Berlin.’
Movement to, into or on to a place is expressed by dative case marking of a noun phrase
([Link] (i), 13.1.3):
(84) Artık ev-e gidiyorum.
house-DAT
‘I’m going home now.’
Movement away from or out of a place is expressed by ablative case marking of a noun
phrase ([Link] (i), 13.1.3):
(85) Arkadaşımı havaalanın-dan alacağım.
airport-ABL
‘I’m going to collect my friend from the airport.’
Other spatial relationships are expressed by the set of possessive-marked postpositions
designated as group 1 in 17.3.1. iç-POSS-OBL and üst- POSS-OBL are often used in
preference to simple case marking of the noun phrase where the difference between the
concepts of on and in is felt to be important.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 208

The attachment of the above case markers to the locative pronouns bura-, şura- and
ora- (18.3.1) produces forms meaning ‘here’ and ‘there’:
(86) Bak, şurada yeni bir leke var.
‘Look, there’s a new mark here.’
(87) Oraya ne zaman gidiyorsunuz?
‘When are you going there?’

Directional adverbials
The following adverbs, whether in their bare form or with dative case marking, express
directional movement:
içeri ‘inside’
diçarı ‘outside’
yukarı ‘up’
aşağı ‘down’
ileri ‘forward’
geri ‘back’

(88) İçeri(ye) girelim mi?

‘Shall we go in?’
(89) Yukarı(ya) çıktılar.
They went up(stairs).’
Locative and ablative case marking also occurs. The final vowel of içeri, dişarı, yukarı
and ileri is usually dropped when the locative or ablative suffix is added:
(90) Annem aşağıda oturuyor.
‘My mother lives downstairs.’
(91) İçer(i)den güzel yemek kokuları geliyord.
‘Nice smells of food were coming from inside.’
The word öte ‘far side’ is used adverbially only with locative, dative or ablative case
marking:
(92) Makinalar çalışırken ötede durmak lazım.
‘When the machines are working one has to stand away.’
The locative, dative and ablative forms of her yer ‘everywhere’ function as universal
place adverbials:
(93) Artık her yerde McDonalds var.
There are McDonald’s everywhere now.’
 Adverbial constructions 209

16.4.3 MANNER ADVERBIALS

The following are some of the most common means of expressing the manner in which
an action is performed:
(i) A simple adverb, an adjective placed in the immediately preverbal position, or a
doubled form (discussed in 16.1.1–3).
(ii) A noun or adjective suffixed with -CA (see 16.1.6 (i)).
(iii) One of the demonstrative adverbials böyle ‘like this’, şöyle ‘like this’, öyle ‘like
that’. (These are derived from the demonstrative pronouns bu, şu and o (18.2), and are
differentiated from each other in similar ways. They also function as adverbials of degree
(16.5) and as determiners (15.6.1 (iv)).)
(94) Kalemi şöyle tut.
‘Hold the pen like this.’
(95) [Mustafa’nın öyle konuşması] hoş olmadı.
‘It was unpleasant [that Mustafa talked like that]?
(iv) A noun phrase marked with the comitative/instrumental marker -(y)lA/ile (8.1.4), the
uses of which are explained in 17.2.1 (iii):
(96) Ömer okula ablasıyla gidiyor.
‘Ömer goes to school with his elder sister.’
(v) A postpositional phrase headed by gibi:
(97) Öğretmen gibi konuşuyorsun.
‘You’re talking like a teacher.’
(vi) Several types of adverbial clause (see 26.1.5, 26.3.8).

16.4.4 OTHER TYPES OF CIRCUMSTANTIAL ADVERBIAL

The range of adverbial relationships that can be expressed by postpositional phrases and
adverbial clauses is extremely wide. Here we present an overview of the principal means
available in Turkish for expressing four more circumstantial categories that are expressed
mainly by postpositional phrases (Chapter 17) or adverbial clauses (Chapters 26 and 27).

Reason (or cause)

(i) Ablative case marking:
There are not many contexts in which this alone (without a post-position) is used to
express cause. For examples see (43b) in Chapter 13 and (89) in Chapter 14.
(ii) A number of postpositions, all meaning approximately ‘because of’, ‘as a result
of’: the bare postpositions dolayı, ötürü, taking ablative-marked complements (17.2.3)
and the possessive-marked post-positions sayesinde, nedeniyle, yüzünden (17.3.2,
[Link] (viii)).
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 210

(iii) A finite adverbial clause marked with the subordinator diye ([Link]), or a non-
finite adverbial clause marked with -DIğI için, -DIğIndAn, etc., meaning ‘because’
(26.3.14).
Examples (i) and (iii) above are strategies for presenting two situations/ events in a
cause-result sequence.
(iv) A number of discourse connectives, all meaning ‘because of this’ or ‘as a result’,
such as onun için, dolayısıyla, bu nedenle, bu yüzden (28.3.6).
(v) The discourse connective çünkü ‘because’ presents an explanation for a situation
already stated (28.3.6), i.e. in a result-cause sequence.

Purpose
(i) The bare postposition için ‘for’ (17.2.1 (ii)).
(ii) The possessive-marked postposition uğruna ‘for the sake of’ (17.3.2, [Link]
(ix)).
(iii) A finite adverbial clause containing the subordinator diye ([Link]) or ki
([Link]) and having optative marking on the verb.
(iv) A non-finite adverbial clause marked with -mAk için, -mAsI için, -mAyA or -
mAk üzere (26.3.12).

Condition
(i) A conditional clause marked with -sA or -(y)sA (Chapter 27).
(ii) A finite adverbial clause marked with -DI mI (27.6.2).
(iii) A non-finite adverbial clause marked with -DIğI takdirde or -mAsI
durumunda/halinde (27.6.1).
(iv) The discourse connectives o halde/öyleyse ‘in that case’ (28.3.9 (ii)).

Concession
(i) The bare postpositions rağmen/karşın ‘in spite of’, taking ablative-marked
complements (17.2.3).
(ii) Non-finite adverbial clauses marked with -DIğI halde, -mAsInA
rağmen/karşın , -mAk lA birlikte/beraber (26.3.3).
(iii) The discourse connectives bununla birlikte/beraber, buna rağmen/ karşın, all
meaning ‘in spite of this’, ‘nevertheless’ ([Link]).

16.5 ADVERBIALS OF QUANTITY OR DEGREE

The adverbials in this category differ from circumstantial adverbials in that they can
modify adjectives and other adverbials as well as verbs. Some of them, (en, gayet, son
derece, oldukça) in fact, either cannot modify verbs at all, or are very restricted in the
extent to which they can do this.
çok ‘much’, ‘very’, ‘too (much)’
 Adverbial constructions 211

daha ‘more’
en ‘most’
pek ‘very’, ‘much’

(bir) hayli ‘very’

fazla(sıyla) ‘too (much)’, ‘excessively’

aşırı (derece de) ‘excessivley’

gayet ‘extremely’

son derece ‘extremely’

yarı ‘half’

epey(i), epeyce ‘quite’

oldukça ‘quite’, ‘fairly’

az ‘not much’
biraz ‘a little’, ‘a bit’, ‘rather’
böyle(sine)/şöyle(sine)/öyle(sine) ‘such’, ‘so’
bu/şu/o kadar/derece/denli ‘such’, ‘so’, ‘so much’
ne kadar ‘how much’, ‘how’

The following examples illustrate the different kinds of modification performed by this
type of adverbial:
(98) Bu dersi biraz zor buldum. (Biraz modifies adjective)
‘I found this lesson rather difficult.’
(99) Bu dersi biraz zor yaptım. (Biraz modifies adverbial)
‘I did this lesson with some difficulty.’
(100) [Bu dersi yaparken] biraz zorlandım. (Biraz modifies verb)
‘I struggled a bit while [doing this lesson].’
Further examples may be found above in 16.2 (ii)–(iv).
As seen in [Link], with verbs expressing a process that extends over time, adverbials
of quantity express temporal duration:
(101) Meksika’da az kaldık.
‘We didn’t stay long in Mexico.’
Pek and o kadar have a particular affinity with negative sentences. Their uses are
discussed in [Link]–3.
Other types of adverbials of quantity/degree are:
(i) Postpositional phrases with kadar following a non-case-marked (or genitive)
complement (17.2.1 (iv)).
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 212

(ii) Non-finite clauses marked by -(y)AcAk kadar/derecede or -DIğI/ -(y)AcAğI

kadar (26.3.13).

16.6 ADVERBIALS OF RESPECT

A number of strategies are available for indicating the respect in which, or point of view
from which, a statement is regarded as applicable:
(i) The suffix -CA (16.1.6 (v)) is in restricted use for this purpose:
(102) Kağan yaşça küçük ama vücutça büyüktü.
‘Kağan was small in terms of age, but big in terms of physical size.’
(ii) A variety of expressions and constructions incorporating the nouns bakım ‘view’, açı
‘angle’ or yön ‘direction’ are in much more common use:
(103) Bir bakıma [Ali’nin geç gelmesi] iyi oldu.
‘In a way it was good [that Ali was late].’
(104) O yönden/O açıdan en büyük başarılarımızda n biriydi.
‘From that point of view it was one of our gratest achievements.’
The forms açısından and bakımından are possessive-marked postpositions (see 17.3.2
and example (88) there).
(iii) The bare postposition yana (with ablative-marked complement, 17.2.3 (viii)) can
be used in the same sense as açısından and bakımından, but is far less common.

16.7 EXCLUSIVE ADVERBIALS

The following are all used in the sense of ‘only’: yalnız, ancak, sade(ce), sırf, salt, bir
(tek). They restrict the applicability of what is being said to the focused constituent of a
sentence (23.3.1). An exclusive adverbial is usually placed immediately before the
focused constituent, which is typically either a noun phrase or a circumstantial adverbial.
(105) Mektubu yalnız/bir tek Mustafa’YA göstermiştim.
‘I had shown the letter only to Mustafa.’
(106) Ancak/yalnız/sadece iKİ defa geldiler.
‘They came only twice.’
(107) Sırf [üstünlüğünü kanıtlaMAK] amacıyla yapıyor bunları.
‘He’s doing all this [merely in an effort to prove his superiority].’
bir, tek and bir tek are used mainly with pronouns or proper nouns, where no possibility
of ambiguity with the determiner or numeral senses of bir (‘a(n)’, ‘one’,) or the adjectival
sense of tek ‘single’ arises. It is confined to informal styles:
(108) Bunun sırrını bir (tek) SEN biliyorsun.
‘Only you know the secret of this.’
 Adverbial constructions 213

16.8 PARTICULARIZING ADVERBIALS

This small class of adverbials has a function somewhat similar to that of the exclusive
adverbials, but are less absolute in their restrictive effect. The main items are daha çok
‘mainly’, en çok ‘mostly’, asıl ‘really’ and özel-likle/ bilhassa ‘especially’,
‘particularly’:
(109) Buraya daha çok üniVERsite öğrencileri geliyor.
‘It’s mainly university students who come here.’
(110) En çok/Özellikle AKdeniz ülkelerinde yetişir zeytin ağacı.
The olive tree grows mostly/particularly in Mediterranean countries’.

For özellikle/ bilhassa as conjunction/discourse connectives see 28.3.5 (iii).

asıl as a particularizing adverbial is quite colloquial:
(111) Bunu asıl senin AMcan iyi yapar.
‘It’s your uncle who would really make a good job of this.’
Another type of particularizing adverbial comprises those formed with the construction
başta…olmak üzere ‘particularly’, ‘above all’ (16.1.10). Here the identification of the
particularized individual or group precedes the mention of the larger set of which it forms
a part, and the particularized constituent is not focused:
(112) Başta kamu işçi-ler-i olmak üzere bütün işçi-ler sıkıntı-da.
head-LOC [Link] worker-PL-NC ADV all worker-PL hardship-LOC
‘All manual workers, especially the public sector workers, are suffering.’

16.9 MODIFICATION OF ADVERBS

The only kinds of adverbials that can be modified are adjectives functioning as adverbs
(16.1.2), and the quantitative adverbs çok ‘much’, fazla ‘(too) much’, az ‘little’ and daha
‘more’ (16.5). Note that while fazla on its own (at least in affirmative sentences) means
‘too much’, daha çok and daha fazla are synonymous, meaning ‘more’ (see (113)).
Modification of adverbs occurs in exactly the same way as modification of adjectives
(see 15.4). Some examples are:
(113) Sen bu konu üzerinde (benden) daha çok/fazla çalıştın
‘You have worked more (than me) on this topic.’
(114) [Bu sorunu en iyi anlayan] kişi sizsiniz.
‘You are the person [who understands this problem best].’
(115) Nazlı [şaşılacak kadar] hızlı yürür.
‘Nazlı walks amazingly fast.’
See also (30) and (99) above.
 17
POSTPOSITIONAL PHRASES

Turkish has no prepositions, but a large number of postpositions, which follow their
complements. Turkish postpositions fall into two main categories: bare postpositions
(17.2), which carry no suffixes, and possessive-marked postpositions (17.3), which are
marked by a possessive suffix agreeing with the complement, and an oblique (dative,
locative or ablative) case marker. After discussing all these types of postposition, and
the principal members of each class, in 17.4 we consider the syntactic functions that
postpositional phrases can perform.

17.1 STRUCTURE OF THE POSTPOSITIONAL PHRASE

A postpositional phrase consists of a noun phrase followed by a postposition. The

postposition is the head of the phrase, and the noun phrase is its complement. In each of
the examples below the postposition is shown in bold:
(1) sen-in için
you-GEN for
‘for you’
(2) çıkış kapı-sın-a doğru
exit gate-NC-DAT towards
‘towards the exit’
(3) ev-imiz-in arka-sın-da
[Link]-GEN [Link]-LOC
‘behind our house’
(4) ben-im yer-im-e
I-GEN [Link]-DAT
‘instead of me’
Turkish postpositions may be classified according to the way in which they relate
syntactically to their complements. There are two major subdivisions: bare postpositions,
exemplified in (1) and (2) above and discussed in 17.2, and possessive-marked
postpositions, exemplified in (3) and (4) above and discussed in 17.3.

17.2 BARE POSTPOSITIONS

Bare postpositions are invariable in form. They fall into distinct groups according to what
case marking they require on their complements.
 Postpositional phrases 215

17.2.1 POSTPOSITIONS TAKING NON-CASE-MARKED OR

GENITIVE COMPLEMENT
There are four items in this group:
gibi ‘like’
için ‘for’
-(y)lA/ile ‘with’, ‘by’
kadar ‘as…as’

In general the complements of these postpositions are left in the non-case-marked form:
(5) bizler gibi
‘like us’
(6) başka bir kalemle
‘with another pen’
(7) Atatürk kadar ünlü
‘as famous as Atatürk’
The only exception to this rule is that if the complement is one of the pronouns ben ‘I’,
sen ‘you’, biz ‘we’, siz ‘you’, bu ‘this’, şu ‘this’/‘that’, o ‘that’, kim ‘who’ it normally
takes genitive case marking:
(8) sizin için
‘for you’
This does not, however, apply to the plural-marked forms of these pronouns, bizler,
sizler, bunlar, şunlar, onlar, kimler, which remain in the non-case-marked form, as seen
in (5) above.
The eight pronominal forms which require genitive case marking with için, gibi, kadar
and -(y)lA/ile display the same property in respect of the possessive-marked postpositions
discussed in 17.3. We shall refer to them as genitive-attracting pronouns, a term which
should be understood as excluding their plural-marked forms.
The usage of these four postpositions is discussed and/or illustrated individually
below.
(i) gibi ‘like’:
(9) Fatma senin gibi çok çalışıyor.
‘Fatma works very hard, like you.’
(10) [Seninki gibi bir çanta almay]-ı düşünüyordum.
‘I was thinking of [buying a bag like yours].’
Note that the demonstrative pronouns bu/şu/o (18.2) can combine with gibi with or
without genitive marking. These combinations are roughly synonymous with the
determiners böyle/şöyle/öyle ‘such’ (15.6.1 (iv)):
(11) O gibi/Onun gibi/Öyle adamlar insanı kolaylıkla aldatabiliyorlar.
‘Men like that can easily fool people.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 216

Combinations of gibi with the demonstratives can also be pronominalized by means of

3rd person possessive marking (cf. 18.4). In this case the demonstrative is genitive-
marked:
(12) Bu-nun gibi-ler-i bence daha güzel.
this-GEN [Link]
‘I think the ones like this are nicer.’
For ne gibi ‘what kind of’ see [Link].
(ii) için ‘for’:
(13) Selim benim için bir şey bıraktı mı?
‘Did Selim leave anything for me?’
The phrases bunun için, onun için often have the causal meaning ‘because of this/that’,
‘so’ (see 28.3.6 (ii)):
(14) Dün sürekli yağmur yağdı, onun için hiç sokağa çıkmadık.
‘Yesterday it rained continually, so we didn’t go out at all.’
With certain complements, such as is ‘work’ and para ‘money’, a phrase headed by için
can express purpose:
(15) Ferit is için Arjantin’e gitmişti.
‘Ferit had gone to Argentina on business.’
(iii) -(y)lA/ile ‘with’, ‘by’:
This postposition is also known as the comitative/instrumental marker (8.1.4). As a
postposition -(y)lA/ile has four main meanings, the first two comitative and the other two
instrumental:
(a) in the company of a person or persons:
(16) Ercan baloya kiminle gitmiş?
‘Who did Ercan go to the ball with?’
(b) in a manner characterized by some quality:
(17) Size memnuniyetle yardım ederim.
‘I’ll help you with pleasure.’
(c) using an instrument:
(18) Mehmet ekmeği keskin bir bıçakla kesti.
‘Mehmet cut the bread with a sharp knife.’
(d) using a means of transport or communication:
(19) Jale işe arabayla gidiyor.
‘Jale goes to work by car.’
(20) Sonucu size mektupla bildiririz.
‘We will inform you of the result by letter.’
 Postpositional phrases 217

For the use of -(y)lA/ile as a complement marker see [Link], and for its use as a
conjunction (‘and’) see [Link] (ii); for subjects conjoined by—(y)lA/ile see [Link],
[Link].
(iv) kadar ‘as…as’:
This postposition has a comparative function, with two meanings:
(a) the same degree of a certain quality
In this meaning the phrase that kadar forms with its complement modifies an
adjective or adverb:
(21) Senin kadar akıllı bir insan tanımıyorum.
‘I don’t know anyone as clever as you.’
(22) Bugün Demet kadar hızlı koşabildim.
‘Today I was able to run as fast as Demet.’
(b) the same quantity of occurrence or performance
In this meaning the postpositional phrase modifies a verb:
(23) Hülya Yücel kadar öksürmüyordu.
‘Hülya was not coughing as much as Yücel.’
Note that the demonstrative pronouns bu/şu/o (18.2) combine with kadar without genitive
marking to form quantifier determiners (15.6.1) and adverbials of quantity or degree
(16.5).

17.2.2 POSTPOSITIONS TAKING DATIVE COMPLEMENTS

(i) doğru ‘towards’:
This postposition can have either temporal or spatial meaning:
(24) Akşam-a doğru kar yağmaya başladı.
evening-DAT towards
‘Towards evening it began to snow.’
(25) Kızlar denize doğru koşuyordu.
‘The girls were running towards the sea.’
(ii) göre ‘according to’:
This postposition expresses the following types of relation:
(a) conformity
(26) Hava raporuna göre öğleden sonra yağmur yağacakmış.
‘According to the weather forecast it’s going to rain this afternoon.’
(b) comparison
(27) Ötekine göre bu otelin pek bir konforu yok.
‘This hotel has few comforts compared with the other.’
(c) appropriateness
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 218

(28) Bu oda tam sana göre.

‘This room is just right for you.’
(iii) kadar ‘until’, ‘as far as’:
When used with a dative-marked complement, kadar (and its much less used synonym
dek) has either temporal or spatial meaning, in both cases involving a terminal point:
Temporal:
(29) Saat bire kadar beklerim.
‘I’ll wait until one o’clock.’
(30) Cumaya kadar biter.
‘It will be finished by Friday.’
(31) Beş dakikaya kadar gelirim.
‘I’ll be back within five minutes.’
Spatial:
(32) Van’a kadar gidemedik.
‘We weren’t able to get as far as Van.’
For kadar with a non-case-marked or genitive complement see 17.2.1 (iv).
(iv) karşı ‘against’, ‘towards’:
This postposition expresses the following types of relation:
(a) opposition
(33) Sana karşı değiller.
‘They’re not against you.’
(b) attitude
(34) Tarık Bey’e karşı büyük saygım var.
‘I have great respect for Tarık Bey.’
(c) proximity (in certain more or less fixed temporal expressions)
(35) Sabaha karşı fırtın a dindi.
‘Towards morning the storm died down.’
(v) rağmen/karşın ‘in spite of’:
(36) Şebnem hastalığına rağmen çalışmaya devam ediyor.
‘Şebnem is carrying on working in spite of her illness.’
For gelince ‘as for’ see [Link].

17.2.3 POSTPOSITIONS TAKING ABLATIVE COMPLEMENTS

(i) baska/ gayrı ‘apart from’, ‘other than’:

(37) Bundan başka bir şey var mı?
 Postpositional phrases 219

‘Is there anything other than this?’

(ii) beri ‘since’, ‘for’:
Postpositional phrases headed by beri always have temporal meaning. They express
the duration, prior to a given reference point, of a state of affairs or a process which, at
the point of time referred to, is/was still continuing. When beri has the sense of ‘since’,
the complement noun phrase expresses the time at which the state or process began:
(38) Pazartesiden beri hasta-yım.
Monday-ABL since ill-1SG
‘I’ve been ill since Monday.’
(39) Mehmet ekim baş-ın-dan beri yurtdışın-da-ydı.
Mehmet October beginning-NC-ABL since [Link]
‘Mehmet had been abroad since the beginning of October.’
(40) Koray 1995’ten beri Kanada’da yaşıyor.
‘Koray has been living in Canada since 1995.’
When beri has the sense of ‘for’, the complement noun phrase expresses the amount of
time that has/had elapsed since the start of the process or the onset of the state:
(41) Üç günden beri hastayım.
‘I’ve been ill for three days.’
(42) Koray birkaç yıldan beri Kanada’da yaşamaktaydı.
‘Koray had been living in Canada for several years.’
If (as in the above examples) the postpositional phrase headed by beri modifies the main
predicate of the sentence, this predicate is usually presented in the form which expresses
the state or process as ongoing at the reference point (see the discussion of imperfective
aspect in 21.3.1–2). It can therefore be a nominal predicate, as in (38), (39), (41), or a
verbal predicate with progressive aspect (-(I)yor, -mAktA), as in (40), (42). However,
when beri has the sense of ‘since’, a quantified or negative predicate is often expressed
with perfective aspect (-DI, -mIş):
(43) O zamandan beri arabamı üç defa değiştirdim.
‘I’ve changed my car three times since then.’
(44) Yıllardan beri kendine yeni pabuç almamıştı/almıyordu.
‘S/he hadn’t bought herself/himself any new shoes for years.’
In the case of a negative predicate there can be a clear difference in meaning between the
perfective and imperfective versions of the same sentence:
(45)
(a) Toplantı-dan beri konuş-ma-mış-lar.
meeting-ABL since speak-NEG-EV/PF-3PL
‘Apparently they haven’t spoken since the meeting.’
(b) Toplantı-dan beri konuş-mu-yor-lar-mış.
meeting-ABL since [Link]
‘Apparently they haven’t been speaking since the meeting.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 220

(iii) bu yana ‘since’:

This item is synonymous with beri in its ‘since’ meaning, except that the temporal
reference point is usually the present moment, not a point of time in the past. Thus bu
yana could be substituted for beri in (38) but not normally in (39). It is considerably less
common than beri in informal speech.
(iv) dolayı ‘because of’:
This postposition has a synonym ötürü, which is less frequently used.
(46) Üzüntüsünden dolayı Ayşe o akşamki toplantımıza katılamadı.
‘Because of her distressed state Ayşe wasn’t able to join our gathering that
evening.’
(v) itibaren ‘from’, ‘with effect from’:
This is a temporal postposition indicating the time at which some planned or
anticipated state of affairs or process is or was due or expected to begin.
(47) Bu tarife, 1.10.2003 tarihinden itibaren geçerlidir.
‘This timetable is effective from 1.10.2003.’

(vi) önce/ evvel ‘before’:

(48) Onlar benden önce gelmişler.
‘They arrived before me.’
(vii) sonra ‘after’:
(49) Her yemekten sonra mutlaka bir fincan Türk kahvesi içer.
‘S/he invariably drinks a cup of Turkish coffee after every meal.’
önce and sonra differ from other postpositions in that they can be modified by an
immediately preceding adverbial, either an adverbial of quantity such as çok ‘much’ or
biraz ‘a little’ (16.5), or an expression denoting a period of time, such as beş dakika ‘five
minutes’ or bir yıl ‘a year’:
(50) Yemekten biraz sonra Ahmet işine döndü.
‘A little while after lunch Ahmet returned to his work.’
(51) Onlar benden beş dakika önce gelmişler.
‘Apparently they arrived five minutes before me.’
For the (non-postpositional) adverbial functions of önce and sonra see [Link]. For
adverbial clauses formed with the subordinators -mAdAn önce and -DIktAn sonra see
26.3.16 (vi).
(viii) yana ‘as regards’, ‘in favour of’:
(52) Berna akrabadan yana şanslı sayılır.
‘Berna can be considered fortunate as regards relatives.’
(53) İdam cezasından yana değilim.
‘I’m not in favour of capital punishment.’
 Postpositional phrases 221

17.3 POSSESSIVE-MARKED POSTPOSITIONS

Possessive-marked postpositions are derived from nouns, and have the form
noun+POSS+OBL. To the nominal stem (e.g. arka ‘back’, yer ‘place’) is added (a) a
possessive suffix which shows person agreement with the complement noun phrase, and
(b) an oblique case marker (dative, locative or ablative) or, in a few cases, the adverbial
suffix -CA or the instrumental marker -(y)lA. In this chapter we use the abbreviation OBL
to cover all of these suffixes.
A striking difference between postpositional phrases with bare and possessive-marked
postpositions respectively is that the complement of a possessive-marked postposition is
often not overtly expressed (see 18.1.5). This happens in cases where the possessive
suffix is sufficient to identify the complement, in other words where its overt expression
would take the form of a personal pronoun:
(54) (O-nun) ön-ün-de beş kişi vardı.
s/he-GEN [Link]-LOC
‘There were five people in front of him/her.’
Possessive-marked postpositions can be divided into two groups, which differ in respect
of (i) whether, or under what circumstances, their complements take genitive case
marking, and (ii) whether their own case marking is variable or fixed.

17.3.1 GROUP 1: SPATIAL RELATIONS

The postpositions in this group express spatial relations. Dative, locative or ablative case
marking is selected according to the type of spatial meaning to be expressed. The nouns
upon which this group is based are shown below, together with the postpositional
meaning that they generate. Note that in their postpositional usages these nouns denote
not only a particular part of a physical object but also a space situated in relation to that
object. Thus ön- can mean ‘the space in front’, üst- ‘the space above’, yan- ‘the space
beside’, etc.
ön ‘front’ ‘in front of’
arka ‘back’ ‘behind’
iç ‘interior’ ‘inside’, ‘in’
diç ‘exterior’ ‘outside’
üst ‘top’ ‘on top of’, ‘above’, ‘on’
alt ‘bottom’ ‘under’, ‘underneath’, ‘below’
yan ‘side’ ‘beside’, ‘next to’
karşı ‘opposite side’ ‘opposite’
ara ‘space’ ‘between’, ‘among’
etraf/çevre ‘surroundings’ ‘around’
öte ‘far side’ ‘beyond’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 222

[Link] Group 1 possessive-marked postpositions with genitive

complements
The postpositions in this group usually form a genitive-possessive construction (14.4)
with their complement noun phrase.
(i) As in the case of noun phrases in general ([Link] (i)), dative case marking is
required where the postpositional phrase expresses the destination or target of an action:
(55) Küçük kız (ben-im) yan-ım-a geldi.
I-GEN [Link]-DAT
‘The little girl came over to me.’
(56) Bu tabloyu kanepenin üstüne asalım.
‘Let’s hang this picture above the sofa.’
(ii) Location requires locative case marking ([Link]):
(57) Dolab-ın arka-sın-da bir şey var mı?
cupboard-GEN [Link]-LOC
‘Is there anything behind the cupboard?’
(iii) Motion from, out of or through a space requires ablative case marking ([Link] (i)):
(58) Kanepe-nin alt-ın-dan bir fare çıktı.
sofa-GEN [Link]-ABL
‘A mouse ran out from under the sofa.’
(59) Arabayla parkın içinden geçilmez.
‘One can’t go through the park by car.’

[Link] Group 1 possessive-marked postpositions with non-case-marked

complements
There are various contexts which require the complement of a group 1 possessive-marked
postposition to be left in the non-case-marked form rather than being given genitive case
marking. These are all contexts in which the complement is 3rd person, and even if it is
plural (as in (67) and (68) below), the possessive marking on the postposition is always
3rd person singular.
(i) Contexts where the postposition is used in a non-physical sense, or with a
metaphorical meaning. (60)–(62) show various such uses of içinde ‘in’:
(60) Bütün bunları iki saat içinde mi yaptınız? (cf. (60) in Chapter 16)
‘Did you do all these in two hours?’
(61) Ter içinde kalmıştım.
‘I was covered in sweat.’
(62) Seyhan korku içinde kapıya hafifçe vurdu.
‘In a state of fear, Seyhan gently knocked on the door.’
Metaphorical uses of altın(d)a ‘under’ are also common:
(63) Bütün okullar Bakanlık’ın denetimi altına alındı.
 Postpositional phrases 223

‘All schools were brought under the control of th e Ministry.’

(64) Hep babasının etkisi altında yaşadı.
‘He lived constantly under the influence of his father.’
(ii) Contexts where the complement is non-specific:
Non-specific indefinite complement (22.2.1):
(65) Bu hesapları bir kağıt üstünde yapmak daha kolay olacak.
‘It will be easier to do these calculations on a piece of paper.’
Categorial complement (22.3):
(66) Sanık ne zaman yargıç önüne çıkar acaba?
‘I wonder when the accused person will appear before a judge?’
Generic complement (22.4.2):
(67) Genellikle kardeşler arasında kuvvetli bir daya nışma
‘There is usually a strong solidarity between siblings.’
The two conditions described in (i) and (ii) above often occur together.
For example, the complements of içinde in (61) and (62) are categorial, and the use of
arasında in (67) is non-spatial.

[Link] Particular features of individual postpositions in Group 1

(i) iç+POSS+OBL can also be used in the non-physical sense of ‘among’, i.e. expressing
inclusion in a set or group. In this particular sense it is interchangeable with
ara+POSS+OBL:
(68) Ali’nin giysileri içinde/arasında işine yarayacak bir şey bulabilirsin.
‘You may find something among Ali’s clothes to fit your needs.’
For the partitive use of iç+POSS+ABL/ara+POSS+ABL see 14.5.1 (ii), 14.5.2, 18.4 (vi),
[Link]–5.
(ii) Some speakers use the form içeri+POSS+OBL (e.g. içerisinde) in preference to
iç+POSS+OBL (e.g. içinde). (For içeri in adverbial uses without possessive affixation
see 16.4.2.)
(iii) Üst has a synonym üzer-, which does not occur as a bare noun. It is
interchangeable with üst in the postpositional function, but nowadays its usage is mainly
confined to non-physical senses, as exemplified in (70) and (71).

(69) Masanın üstünde/ üzerinde bir şey yok.

‘There’s nothing on the table.’

The dative forms üstüne/ üzerine, with a non-case-marked complement, can mean ‘on’
in the metaphorical sense of ‘on the subject of’:
(70) Gençlerde uyuşturucu kullanımı üstüne/üzerine araştırma yapıyor.
‘S/he’s doing research on the use of drugs among young people.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 224

Üzerine also means ‘on’, ‘upon’ in a temporal sense, expressing a sequential and causal
relation between two events. In this usage also, the complement is left in the non-case-
marked form (unless it is one of the genitive-attracting pronouns):
(71) Kocasının ölümü üzerine kendi memleketine döndü.
‘On her husband’s death she went back to her own country.’
For bunun üzerine as a temporal discourse connective see 28.3.8.
(iv) In addition to its literal meaning of ‘beside’, yan+POSS+OBL has a number of
metaphorical senses. Most of these still belong to the realm of physical space, and require
any definite or specific complements to be genitive-marked:
(72) Babalarının yanında sigara içmezler.
‘They don’t smoke in their father’s presence.’
(73) Çocuk daha çok anneannesinin yanında kalıyor.
‘The child lives mainly with his grandmother.’
(74) Yanımda beş kişi çalışıyor.
‘I‘ve got five people working for me.’
In the abstract sense of ‘in comparison with’, yan+POSS+LOC may or may not have a
genitive-marked complement:
(75) [Ali’nin yaptıkları](-nın) yanında bunlar pek parlak değil.
‘Compared with the ones Ali made/makes, these are not very wonderful.’
(v) In its sense of ‘between’, ara+POSS+OBL can take two or more conjoined
complements. In the case of two complements, they are conjoined by -(y)lA/ile ([Link]
(ii)):
(76) Benim odamla onunki arasında kalın bir duvar vardı.
‘There was a thick wall between my room and his.’
In informal speech the second of the conjoined complements may be given genitive
marking:
(77) Ahmet’le çocuklar(ın) arasında bir sorun mu var?
‘Is there some problem between Ahmet and the children?’
If one of the complements conjoined by ara+POSS+OBL is a personal pronoun, it
usually occurs as the second item, and if it is one of the genitive-attracting pronouns it
must be genitive-marked:
(78) baba-sı-yla (biz-im) ara-mız-da
[Link]-CONJ we-GEN [Link]-LOC
‘between his/her father and us/me’
In informal speech, some speakers may use a pronoun as the first of the two conjoined
complements:
(79) bizimle babası arasında
‘between us and his/her father’
 Postpositional phrases 225

As the examples above illustrate, ara- is marked with the same person as the second of
the two complements (unlike the person marking of predicates with subjects conjoined by
-(y)lA/ile, see [Link] (ii)).
Where the pronoun is singular, the person marking on ara- is also singular:
(80) Ayşe-yle sen-in ara-n-da
Ayşe-CONJ you-GEN [Link]-LOC
‘between Ayşe and you’
Where the pronoun is 3rd person plural, the person marking on ara- may be (3rd person)
singular or plural:
(81) Ayşe’yle onlar(ın) arasında/aralarında
‘between Ayşe and them’
If there are more than two complements, the last two have to be conjoined by ve (not by -
(y)lA/ile; see [Link] (ii)):
(82) Babası, amcası ve bizim aramızda eski bir dostluk vardı.
‘There was a longstanding friendship between his father, his uncle and us.’
In the case of conjoined complements which are proper names of places, the use of an
overt conjunction is optional, whether there are two or more complements:
(83) Diyarbakır ile Urfa arasında/Diyarbakır-Urfa arasında otobüs işletiyordu.
‘He ran a bus service between Diyarbakır and Urfa.’
(84) Diyarbakır, Urfa, Gaziantep arasında otobüs işletiyordu.
‘He ran a bus service between Diyarbakır, Urfa [and] Gaziantep.’

17.3.2 GROUP 2: ABSTRACT RELATIONS

Group 2 of the possessive-marked postpositions differ from those in group 1 in several
ways:
(i) Whereas the group 1 postpositions, at least in their literal senses, denote relations of
physical space, the items in group 2 are mostly concerned with abstract relations.
(ii) There is not always a clear connection between the meaning of the noun upon
which the postposition is based and the meaning of the post-position, which may have
evolved over time.
(iii) The case marking of these postpositions is fixed, not variable as in group 1. In
some instances the adverbial suffix -CA or the instrumental marker -(y)lA/ile replaces the
case marker.
(iv) With the exception of the genitive-attracting pronouns (17.2.1), the complements
of these postpositions are almost always left in the non-case-marked form. (For further
exceptions see [Link].)
(v) Where a 3rd person plural complement is overtly expressed, the possessive marker
on the postposition is always 3rd person singular:
(85) Çocuk-lar saye-sin-de alışveriş işleri pek sorun olmuyor.
child-PL [Link]-LOC
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 226

‘Thanks to the children, shopping is not really a problem.’

A list of the most common group 2 possessive-marked postpositions is given below.
Because they are used mainly with 3rd person complements, they are shown here for
convenience with the 3rd person singular possessive suffix. The examples with genitive-
marked complements that appear immediately below the list include some with 1st and
2nd person possessive marking.
açı ‘angle’ açı-sın-dan ‘from the point of view of’, ‘in terms of’
ad ‘name’ ad-ın-a ‘in the name of, ‘on behalf of’
aracılık ‘mediation’ aracılığ-ı-yla ‘through (the mediation of)’
bakım ‘aspect’ bakım-ın-dan ‘from the point of view of’, ‘in terms of’
boy ‘length’ boy-un-ca ‘all along’, ‘throughout’
gerek ‘requirement’ gereğ-in-ce ‘in accordance with’
hak ‘right’ hakk-ın-da ‘about’

itibar ‘respect’ itibar-i-yla ‘in respect of, ‘in terms of’

konu ‘subject’ konu-sun-da ‘on the subject of’, ‘about’

neden ‘reason’ neden-i-yle ‘because of’
saye (obs.) ‘shadow’ saye-sin-de ‘thanks to’
sıra ‘time’ sıra-sın-de ‘at the time of’
süre ‘period’ süre-sin-ce ‘during the period of’
taraf ‘side’ taraf-ın-dan ‘by’ (an agent)
uğ(u)r ‘good luck’ uğr-un-a ‘for the sake of’

vasita ‘mediation’ vasita-si-yla ‘through (the mediation of)’

yer ‘place’ yer-in-e ‘instead of’

yol ‘way’ yol-u-yla ‘by’,’by means of’
yüz ‘reason’ yüz-ün-den ‘because of’

Examples with genitive complements (genitive-attracting pronouns):

(86) Ömer ben-im hakk-ım-da neler söyledi?
I-GEN [Link]-LOC
‘What did Ömer say about me?’
(87) Bütün bunları siz-in saye-niz-de yapabildik.
you- GEN [Link]-LOC
‘It is thanks to you that we have been able to do all this.’
Examples with non-case-marked complements:
(88) Sağlık açısından/bakımından bukadar çikolata yemek doğru değil.
‘From the health point of view it’s not good to eat so much chocolate.’
 Postpositional phrases 227

(89) Türkiye’deki depremler konusunda bir kitap yazmış.

‘S/he’s written a book about earthquakes in Turkey.’

[Link] Particular features of individual postpositions in Group 2

(i) aracılığıyla and the synonymous vasitasıyla are unusual among the group 2
postpositions in that their complements are often genitive-marked. This is a matter of
speakers’ personal preference:
(90) Onlar Timur(’un) aracılığıyla/Timur(’un) vasıtasıyla tanışmışlar.
‘Apparently they first met through Timur.’
(ii) Unlike the other group 2 postpositions, boyunca can refer to a spatial dimension:
(91) Sahil boyunca küçük köyler vardı.
‘All along the coast there were small villages.’
Alternatively it can have temporal reference:
(92) Konferans boyunca fısıldaşmaya devam ettiler.
‘They continued to whisper to each other throughout the lecture.’

(iii) While in the sense of ‘in respect of’, ‘in terms of’, itibariyla has largely been
replaced by açısından and bakımından, it also occurs in some formal registers as a
synonym of itibaren (see 17.2.3).
(iv) gereğince is used only in legalistic language:
(93) Kanunun ilgili maddesi gereğince bir sözleşme hazırlanır.
‘A contract is drawn up in accordance with the relevant article of the law.’
(v) konusunda is not used with complements referring to human beings, except in the
context of an organized exposition such as a book, an article or a lecture. Thus, for
example, yabancı öğrenciler ‘foreign students’ could be substituted for depremler
‘earthquakes’ in (89) above.
(vi) süresince (and its obsolescent synonym ( müddetince) differ from the temporal
usage of boyunca (see (ii)) in that they do not emphasize the long duration of an activity
or state:
(94) Yokluğum süresince komşum her gün uğrayıp kediye yiyecek verdi.
‘During my absence my neighbour came in every day and fed the cat.’
(vii) tarafından is used to express the agent of a passive verb (see 13.2.2).
(viii) In the expression of causality, yüzünden is used only when speaking of causes
that have undesirable results:
(95) Sıcak havalar yüzünden son zamanlarda işler yavaş gidiyor.
‘Because of the hot weather there has been slow progress recently.’
Causes that have desirable results can be expressed by sayesinde:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 228

(96) Sıcak havalar sayesinde denize bol bol girebildik.

‘Because of (thanks to) the hot weather we’ve been able to swim in the sea a lot.’
Nedeniyle is neutral in terms of the desirability of the outcome, but is restricted to
relatively formal registers.
(97) Yazların sıcaklığı nedeniyle bu bölgede muz ve hurma yetişmektedir.
‘On account of the hot summers, bananas and dates grow in this region.’
(ix) uğruna ‘for the sake of’ is used only with inanimate complements:
(98) Güzellik uğruna bu kadar sıkıntıya katlanmaya değer mi?
‘Is it worth suffering so much for the sake of beauty?’

17.4 SYNTACTIC FUNCTIONS OF THE POSTPOSITIONAL PHRASE

The range of syntactic functions that can be performed by a postpositional phrase

depends upon the postposition that heads it. There are three possible functions: (i)
adverbial, (ii) adjectival, (iii) predicative.

17.4.1 ADVERBIAL FUNCTION

The most characteristic function of a Turkish postpositional phrase is adverbial, either at
the level of the sentence or within the verb phrase, and the great majority of examples
already given in this chapter fall into this category. There are no postpositions that cannot
head a postpositional phrase with adverbial function. Postpositional phrases headed by
kadar (with non-case-marked or genitive complement), can also modify adjectives and
adverbs (see (21) and (22) above, also [Link]).

17.4.2 ADJECTIVAL FUNCTION

Among the bare postpositions, the following can head postpositional phrases that
function adjectivally within a noun phrase: gibi, kadar (with non-case-marked or genitive
complement), göre, başka:
(99) senin kadar bir çocuk
‘a child of the same size/age as you’
(100) tam anneme göre bir şapka
‘a hat just right for my mother’
For other examples see (10), (11) and (37) above. Note that başka also occurs as an
adjective meaning ‘other’, different’.
Postpositional phrases headed by önce and sonra, in common with other temporal
adverbial phrases, can be converted from adverbial to adjectival function by the addition
of -ki (see 15.3.7):
(101) bahçe-nin yağmur-dan önce-ki hal-i
 Postpositional phrases 229

garden-GEN rain-ABL before-ADJ [Link]

‘the state of the garden before the rain’
Postpositional phrases headed by possessive-marked postpositions can be used
adjectivally only if the postposition has locative case marking, and again the addition of -
ki is necessary to effect the conversion from adverbial to adjectival function (15.3.6):
(102) Harun-la ara-mız-da-ki gerginlik
Harun-CONJ [Link]-LOC-ADJ tension
‘the tension between Harun and me/us’
(103) sendikacılık tarihi konusundaki araştırmalarınız
‘your research on (the subject of) the history of trade unionism’

17.4.3 PREDICATIVE FUNCTION

Some types of postpositional phrase can be the subject complement in a linking sentence
([Link]). All the bare postpositions whose phrases are used adjectivally can also occur
in predicates. So also can için, karşı, yana, and the locative-marked forms of the
possessive-marked postpositions:
(104) Bu çiçekler sizin içinmiş.
‘Apparently these flowers are for you.’
For further examples see (28), (33) and (53) above.
In the case of the possessive-marked postpositions, it is only those that are locative-
marked that can function predicatively:
(105) Can’ın arabası evin önünde.
‘Can’s car is in front of the house.’
The addition of -ki is not required unless pronominalization is intended (18.5):
(106) Can’ın arabası evin önündeki.
‘Can’s car is the one in front of the house.’
 18
PRONOUNS

Pronouns are expressions that are used when referring to persons, things or states of
affairs that have previously been mentioned, whose referents are obvious from the
context or whose content is only partially specified, such as:
(1) Onlar eşyalarını daha toplamamış.
‘They haven’t packed their luggage yet.’
(2) Şuradakinden de bir tane istiyorum.
‘I also want one of the kind over there.’
(3) Kapıda birisi var.
‘There’s someone at the door.’
This chapter describes personal pronouns such as ben ‘I’, kendim ‘myself’, birbir- ‘each
other’ (18.1), and the conditions under which they are used (18.1.5), demonstrative
pronouns such as bu ‘this (one)’ (18.2), locative pronouns such as şurada ‘here’, ‘over
there’ (18.3), pronouns formed by the suffix -(s)I, such as iyisi ‘a nice(r) one’, bazısı
‘some (of them)’ (18.4), pronouns formed by the suffix -ki, such as benimki ‘mine’, öteki
‘the other (one)’ (18.5), pronominal quantifiers such as herkes ‘everyone’, bir şey
‘something’, and other pronominal expressions (18.6).
Interrogative pronouns (e.g. kim ‘who’, nerede ‘where’) are discussed in 19.2, and
pronominal quantifiers which interact with negation (e.g. kimse ‘no one’, ‘anyone’) are
discussed in 20.5. Another type of pronominal construction, headless relative clauses, is
discussed in 25.3.

18.1 PERSONAL PRONOUNS

18.1.1 SIMPLE PERSONAL PRONOUNS

The simple personal pronouns of Turkish are:
ben ‘I’ biz ‘we’
sen ‘you’ (familiar) siz ‘you’ (plural), (formal singular)
o ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’ onlar ‘they’

biz:
biz ‘we’, which is the 1st person plural form, may also refer to the 1st person singular,
either in very formal contexts where the speaker wishes to express his/her humble status
as compared to the addressee(s), or ironically in imitation of such a stance:
 Pronouns 231

(4) Efendim, biz sizin kadar bilemeyiz bu konuları tabii ki.

‘Naturally, I cannot know these subjects as well as you [do].’
siz and sen:
The 2nd person form siz is used in the following circumstances:
(i) To indicate the plurality of the 2nd person (i.e. ‘you both/all’)
(ii) When addressing a person with whom one is on formal terms (in which case
both parties normally address each other as siz).
(iii) When one is addressing a person who is taken to be of higher rank or status.
(5) Siz şu sıralarda sinemaya gittiniz mi?
(a) ‘Have you (both/all) been to the cinema lately?’
(b) ‘Have you (=formal, singular) been to the cinema lately?’
Children are almost always addressed as sen; older people are generally addressed as siz,
and new acquaintances most commonly address each other as siz. Speakers who normally
address each other as sen may, in a formal situation (such as a committee meeting), adopt
the conventional formality of siz. However, the choice between siz and sen varies among
speakers, since the notion of formality depends largely on the social background of the
persons involved and, to some degree, on the speakers’ attitude towards the norms of
social hierarchy.
bizler and sizler:
biz ‘we’ and siz ‘you’ can combine with the plural suffix. Using bizler and sizler
instead of biz and siz has only a marginally different effect, and is confined to the
following circumstances:
(i) Where the speaker wishes to individuate the members of a group, especially in
cases where the speaker wants to indicate that the action was carried out, or the event
experienced, individually, not as a group:
(6) Bizler kırık not alınca çok üzülürdük.
‘We (each of us) would be sad when we (each of us) got a bad mark.’
(ii) For referring to multiple groups of persons:
(7) Sizler, Ankara’lı ve İstanbul’lular, Türkiye’nin geri kalanını
tanımıyorsunuz.
‘You, people from Ankara and Istanbul, don’t know the rest of Turkey.’
(iii) When talking to a person with whom one uses the formal siz, to indicate that one is
referring to a group that that person belongs to (e.g. his/her family or friends, etc.), and
not to that person alone:
(8) Sizler nasılsınız?
‘How are you (both/all)?’
o and onlar:
For the use of these forms as resumptive pronouns in relative clauses intro-
duced by ki, see 25.6.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 232

The inflection of simple personal pronouns

Pronouns, like other noun phrases, can be inflected for case, e.g. beni ‘me’, onları ‘them’,
size ‘to you’, sende ‘on you’. The dative form of the 1st and 2nd persons singular is
irregular, the stem vowel becoming ‘a’: bana ‘to me’, sana ‘to you’. Another irregularity
concerns the 3rd person singular pronoun o. The case markers and the plural suffix do not
attach directly to o, but do so only through the mediation of the consonant ‘n’: ondan
‘from him/her/it’, onlar ‘they’, etc. (6.2). The genitive case marker of the 1st person
forms is -Im: benim ‘my’, bizim ‘our’. For the combination of simple personal pronouns
with the comitative/instrumental marker -(y)lA see 8.1.4.

18.1.2 kendi
The word kendi has five functions, one adjectival and the rest pronominal. It usually
refers to human beings but in its adjectival function ([Link]) and in its emphatic
function ([Link] (ii)) it may refer to inanimate (usually abstract) concepts.
(9) Plan-ın kendi-sin-de bir sorun var.
plan-GEN [Link]-LOC
‘There is a problem with the plan itself.’
Kendi (in its bare or inflected forms) can be followed by the noun phrase which is its
antecedent (i.e. the expression the pronoun refers to):
(10) Kendi fikriydi Ahmet’in mobilyaları değiştirmek.
‘It was Ahmet’s own idea to change the furniture.’
(11) Kendinizi anlatmadınız siz hiç.
‘You haven’t talked about yourself at all.’

[Link] Bare form kendi

In its bare form, kendi functions as an adjectival modifier of a possessive-marked noun
phrase, and means ‘own’ (as in ‘his own’, ‘our own’). In this usage kendi is not inflected
for person or case. The possessive-marked noun phrase modified by kendi may form part
of a genitive-possessive construction (14.4) in which the genitive-marked constituent is
the antecedent:
(12) Hırsızlığı (Erol’un) kendi şirket-in-den biri yapmış.
Erol-GEN own [Link]-ABL
‘It was apparently someone from Erol’s own company who committed the
burglary.’
(13) Erken emeklilik, (ben-im) kendi isteğ-im-di.
I-GEN own [Link]
‘It was my own wish [to take early retirement].’
When the possessive-marked noun phrase is in the 3rd person (e.g. anahtarlarını ‘his/her
own keys’ below), and does not have a genitive-marked modifier, kendi can refer to any
 Pronouns 233

3rd person in the same clause, but it is most commonly understood as referring to the
subject:
(14) Semra Elif’e kendi anahtar-lar-ın-ı vermiş.
own [Link]-ACC
‘Semra gave Elif her own keys.’
The more likely intended meaning of (14) is that Semra gave Elif Semra’s own keys;
however, another possible meaning would be that she gave Elif Elif’s own keys.
The antecedent of adjectival kendi can denote an inanimate entity:
(15) Bu karışıklık, sorun-un kendi özellik-ler-in-den kaynaklanıyor.
problem-GEN own [Link]-ABL
‘This confusion is a result of the very properties of the problem.’
(16) Bu, evin kendi rengi.
‘This is the original colour of the house.’

[Link] Inflected kendi-: emphatic, reflexive, simple pronominal and

resumptive usages
The pronoun kendi- can be inflected for person, in which case it combines with the
possessive suffixes described in 8.1.2:
(17) kendim 1st person singular kendimiz 1st person plural
kendin 2nd person singular kendiniz 2nd person plural,
(familiar) or formal singular
kendi(si) 3rd person singular kendileri 3rd person plural

Note that in the case of the 3rd person, the person marker -(s)I is sometimes omitted.
The forms above can be further inflected for case, e.g. kendi-m-den ‘from myself’,
kendi-niz-i ‘(you) yourself/yourselves’ (formal/plural accusative), etc. Note that ‘n’ has to
be attached to the 3rd person forms kendi, kendisi and kendileri when these are inflected
for case, e.g. kendine/kendi-sine ‘to him/her(self)’, kendilerinde ‘on them(selves)’ (6.2,
8.1.3).
(i) Emphatic usage of inflected kendi-:
Kendi- inflected for person (i.e. the forms in (17)) can be used for purposes of
emphasizing the subject pronoun of a main clause, as in I myself, they themselves, etc. In
such emphatic constructions kendi- can be used with or without a pronoun matching it in
person, but in all cases a matching person marker on the predicate is obligatory:
(18) Evde (ben) kendim oturacağım için bu renkleri seçtim.
I [Link]
‘I chose these colours because I will be living in the house myself.’
(19) (O) kendi(si) istemiş sınava girmeyi.
‘S/he herself/himself wanted to take an exam.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 234

The 3rd person forms kendisi and kendileri can have any type of noun phrase with a
human referent (not only personal pronouns) as their antecedent’, such as müdürler
‘directors’ and Erol below:
(20) Müdür-ler kendi-leri atıyorlar muavinlerini.
director-PL [Link]
‘Directors appoint their deputies themselves.’
(21) Arabayı Erol kendisi yıkayacak.
‘Erol is going to wash the car himself.’
In the 3rd person the antecedent may be given genitive marking:
(22) Arabayı Erol’un kendi-si yıkayacak.
Erol-GEN/[Link]
‘Erol is going to wash the car himself.’
On the other hand, the 1st and 2nd person pronouns as antecedents of emphatic kendi-
can be genitive-marked only in noun clauses and relative clauses (see (27) and (28)
below).
The form kendisi can be replaced by kendi. Where the antecedent is non-case-marked,
this produces no difference of formality:
(23) Arabayı Erol/o kendi yıkayacak.
Erol/he self
However, where the antecedent is genitive-marked, the use of kendi is informal:
(24) Arabayı Erol-un kendi yıkayacak.
Erol-GEN self
Unlike the 1st and 2nd person emphatic forms, which, in main clauses, occur only as
subjects, the 3rd person emphatic forms kendisi and kendileri can function as objects and
adverbials. In these cases, the antecedent (o, onlar or any appropriate noun phrase)
appears in the genitive form:
(25) Meclis’e belli bir saatte gidersen Başbakan-ın kendi-sin-i bile
prime minister-GEN [Link]-ACC
görebilirsin.
‘If you go to parliament at a certain time you will be able to see
the Prime Minister himself/herself.’
(26) Sonuçları onlar-ın kendi-lerin-den öğrenebilirsin.
they-GEN [Link]-ABL
‘You can find out the results from them in person.’
An emphatic construction with kendi- can be the subject of a noun clause (Chapter 24) or
relative clause (Chapter 25). When it is the subject of a relative clause, the verb usually
agrees with it (as in (27a)), but some speakers use 3rd person singular possessive marking
on the verb (as in (27b)):
 Pronouns 235

(27)
(a) [(ben-im) kendi-m-in bile anla-ya-ma-dığ-ım] bir yazı
I-GEN [Link]-GEN even [Link]
(b) [(ben-im) kend-im-in bile anla-ya-ma-dığ-ı] bir yazı
I-GEN [Link]-GEN even [Link]
‘an article that even I couldn’t understand myself’
When an emphatic construction with kendi- functions as the subject of a noun clause, the
verb agrees with it. The antecedent (siz ‘you’ below) usually has genitive marking, but it
may also be non-case-marked (28a). Kendiniz can also be used on its own in its non-case-
marked form (28b):
(28)
(a) [(Siz-(in)) kendi-niz oraya git-me-niz] gerekiyor.
you(-GEN) [Link] there [Link]
‘You should go there yourself.’
(b) [Oraya kendi-niz git-me-niz] gerekiyor.
‘You should go there yourself.’
(ii) Reflexive usage of inflected kendi-:
kendi- is the standard means for expressing reflexivity (see also the reflexive voice
suffix, [Link] and reflexive constructions, [Link]). Reflexive sentences are sentences
where the subject is also the recipient of the action, as in George likes himself. In its
usage as a reflexive pronoun, kendi- is inflected for person and case.
(29) Kendi-n-den başkasına güvenemiyor musun?
[Link]-ABL
‘Can’t you trust anyone but yourself?’
The antecedent of reflexive kendi- is usually the subject of its own clause:
(30) Semra aday olarak kendi-sin-i/kendin-i one sürecekmiş.
‘Apparently Semra is going put herself forward as a candidate.’
(31) [Siz-in kendi-niz-i eleştir-me-niz] ne kadar kolay-mış!
you-GEN [Link]-ACC [Link] how [Link]
‘How easy you seem to find it to criticize yourself!’
This can be indicated simply by placing the appropriate person marker on the predicate:
(32) Kendi-m-e bakamıyor-um.
[Link]-DAT-1SG
‘I can’t take care of myself.’
A 3rd person antecedent whose identity is clear from previous mention similarly does not
have to be expressed within the clause by an overt noun phrase:
(33) Ninem çok yaşlı. Artık kendine bakamıyor.
‘My granny’s very old. She can’t take care of herself any longer.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 236

The antecedent can also be a constituent other than the subject:

(34) Sanki bana kendi-m-i anlatıyorlardı.
I(DAT) [Link]-ACC
‘[It was] as if they were talking to me about myself.’
In the absence of an antecedent within the same clause, reflexive kendi-may refer to a
person indicated in the superordinate clause:
(35) [Kendimize araba almak] istiyoruz.
‘We want to buy a car for ourselves.’
There are also cases where there is no antecedent in the sentence, yet a reflexive can still
be used because the person to whom it refers is understood to be the subject of a non-
person-marked verb, such as almak below:
(36) Bu durum-da [kendi-niz-e araba al-mak] çok zor olacak.
this situation-LOC [Link]-DAT car buy-VN very difficult be-FUT
‘Under these circumstances it is going to be very difficult [for you] to buy a car
for yourself.’
There is a slight difference in the reflexive usage of the two 3rd person forms kendi and
kendisi. The antecedent of kendi is more likely to be within the same clause, indicated
either by a noun phrase or by person marking on the verb:
(37)
(a) Erol [Ziya’nın kendin-e bir araba al-dığ-ın]-ı san-ıyor.
Erol Ziya-GEN self-DAT a car [Link]-ACC think-IMPF
‘Erol thinks Ziya bought a car for himself.’
(b) Erol [kendine bir araba aldığın]- ı sanıyor.
‘Erol thinks he bought a car for himself.’
In (37a) Ziya is by far the most probable antecedent for kendi. In (37b), where the subject
of the subordinate clause is not expressed by an overt noun phrase (hence the antecedent
is the possessive marker), the most likely referent is Erol.
The 3rd person form kendisi, on the other hand, can refer either to an antecedent in its
own clause, in which case it is used as a reflexive, or (much more freely than kendi) to an
antecedent in the superordinate clause, in which case it is used as a simple personal
pronoun (see (iii) below).
(38) Erol [Ziya’nın kendi-sin-e bir araba al-ma-sın]-ı söyle-di.
Erol Ziya-GEN self/s/[Link]-DAT a car [Link]-ACC tell-PF
(i) ‘Erol told Ziya to buy a car for himself.’
(ii) ‘Erol told Ziya to buy him a car.’ (him=Erol or someone else)
(iii) Third person simple pronominal usage of inflected kendi-:
The 3rd person form kendisi can be used as a simple personal pronoun corresponding
to he or she. In the contexts below, where the antecedent is a person mentioned in the
preceding sentence, kendisi is interchangeable with, but slightly more formal than, o.
 Pronouns 237

(39) Ahmet hala uyuyor. Kendisi/o bu günlerde çok yorgun.

‘Ahmet is still asleep. He’s very tired at the moment.’
(40) A.—Kulüpteki arkadaşların nasıl?
‘How are your friends at the club?’
B.—Bilmem, kendi-lerin-i/onlar-ı çoktandır görmedim.
s/[Link]-ACC/they-ACC
‘I don’t know. I haven’t seen them for a long time.’
kendisi and o are also interchangeable where the pronoun occurs in a subordinate clause
and refers to a person mentioned in the main clause or in the preceding sentence:
(41) Ahmet [kendisine/ona hediye vermeyenler]-i sevmiyor.
‘Ahmet doesn’t like people who don’t give him gifts.’ (him= Ahmet/someone
else)
Such sentences are therefore always potentially ambiguous where more than one possible
antecedent is available.
kendileri can also be used with 3rd person singular reference as a deferential substitute
for kendisi. In sentences with this usage of kendileri, all references to the person in
question are made in the plural form. Note that in this usage kendileri cannot be replaced
by onlar.
(42) Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı bugün yurda dönüyorlar. Kendi-leri
s/[Link]
gezi-lerin-den çok verimli sonuçlarla dön-dük-lerin-i ifade et-ti-ler.
[Link]-ABL [Link]-ACC say-PF-3PL
‘The president is returning home today. S/he stated that s/he was returning from
his/her visit with very beneficial results.’
(iv) Usage of 3rd person kendi- as a resumptive pronoun:
The 3rd person form of kendi- (but not o) can optionally be used as a resumptive
pronoun in relative clauses with -DIK and -(y)AcAK where it refers to the head of the
relative clause (see [Link] (ii)):
(43) [(Kendi-lerin-i) defalarca aradığımız] yetkili-ler telefonlarımıza cevap
vermediler.
s/[Link]-ACC [Link]-PL
The persons in charge, whom we have rung many times, have not responded to
our calls.’

18.1.3 kendi kendi

Kendi kendi-, which is obligatorily inflected for person and case, is an emphatic version
of kendi- in its reflexive usage, and occurs in the same contexts:
(44) (Kendi) kendimden nefret ediyorum.
‘I hate myself.’
The omission of -(s)i in the 3rd person occurs in less formal contexts.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 238

When kendi kendi- is in the dative case, it expresses the performance of some action
alone or unaided:
(45) Ahmet kendi kendi-sin-e/kendin-e yurt dışına çıkamaz.
own [Link]-DAT
‘Ahmet cannot go abroad on his own.’
(46) Bu ütüler bir süre sonra kendi kendi(leri)ne kapanıyor.
‘These irons switch themselves off after a while.’
As a result, there is a clear difference between a dative-marked kendi- and a dative-
marked kendi kendi-:
(47)
(a) Biz kendimize yemek pişiriyoruz.
‘We are cooking a meal for ourselves.’
(b) Biz kendi kendimize yemek pişiriyoruz.
‘We are cooking a meal by ourselves.’

18.1.4 THE RECIPROCAL PRONOUN birbir- ‘EACH OTHER’, ‘ONE

ANOTHER’
The pronoun birbir- is used in contexts where two parties act mutually (as is the case
with the reciprocal suffix, [Link], [Link]). Birbir- is obligatorily inflected for person by
combining with the plural possessive suffixes (8.1.2) and with -(s)i(n) used as a 3rd
person plural suffix:
birbirimiz (1st person plural)
birbiriniz (2nd person plural)
birbiri/birbirleri (3rd person plural)

These forms can be further inflected for case, e.g. birbirinizi (2nd person plural
accusative), birbirimizden (1st person plural ablative), etc. As in the case of kendi-, an ‘n’
appears before case suffixes in the 3rd person forms, as in birbirinden, birbirlerine, etc.
(see 6.2).
birbiri and birbirleri are interchangeable when referring to two persons who are
involved in a mutual activity:
(48) Ayşe’yle Semra birbir-in-den/birbir-lerin-den hiç hoşlanmıyor(lar).
each [Link]-ABL/each [Link]-ABL
‘Ayşe and Semra don’t like each other at all.’
When referring to interacting groups, again both forms can be used, but here birbirleri is
the neutral form while birbiri is colloquial.
(49) Almanya ve Brezilya takımları birbirlerinden haklı olarak korkuyorlar.
‘The German and Brazilian teams are justifiably scared of each other.’
 Pronouns 239

When the antecedent of a reciprocal pronoun is the subject of that clause, it does not
necessarily have to be expressed by an overt noun phrase. It may be omitted in
accordance with the principles explained in 18.1.5:
(50) (Siz) birbirinizle çok iyi anlaşıyorsunuz.
‘You get along very well with each other.’
(51) Birbir-lerin-i iki yıldır gör-mü-yor-lar.
[Link]-ACC two years see-NEG-IMPF-3PL
‘They haven’t seen each other for two years.’
The antecedent of a reciprocal pronoun can also be a constituent other than the subject:
(52) Biz-i birbir-imiz-e şikayet et-ti-n.
we-ACC [Link]-DAT complain-PF-2SG
‘You complained to us about each other.’
(53) Size birbirinizden hiç söz etmedim.
‘I never talked to you about one another.’
The only context in which a reciprocal pronoun can function as the subject of a clause is
a noun clause (Chapter 24) or a relative clause (Chapter 25). In these cases it is inflected
for genitive case and its antecedent is in the superordinate clause:
(54) (Siz) [birbirinizin yarışmayı kazanmasın]-ı mı istiyorsunuz?
‘Do you want each other to win the competition?’
(55) (Biz) [birbir-imiz-in sev-diğ-i] renkleri sev-mi-yor-uz.
we each [Link]-GEN [Link] colours like-
NEG-IMPF-1PL
‘We each don’t like the colours that the other(s) like(s).’
Note that the verb of a subordinate clause with birbir- as its subject is marked for 3rd
person.
If there is no person in the superordinate clause either, birbir- may refer to persons
who have been mentioned previously or who are salient in the context of the utterance:
(56) Amaç birbirimizi görmekti.
‘The (=our) aim was to see each other.’
If there is an antecedent, it does not have to precede birbir-. It can come after it in the
sentence as long as the general constraints on word order are not violated (see Chapter
23):
(57) Birbirlerine çok düşkün Ayşe’yle Semra.
‘Ayşe and Semra are very attached to each other.’

18.1.5 THE OMISSION AND USAGE OF PERSONAL PRONOUNS

In this section we discuss the omission and usage of subject pronouns, and of genitive-
marked modifiers of possessive constructions, both of which occur in association with
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 240

person markers (on the predicate or possessed constituent). For the omission and usage of
object pronouns see 28.4.2–3.
Note that the 3rd person pronouns o(nun) and onlar(ın) do not occur nearly as
frequently as ben(im), sen(in), biz(im) and siz(in) to express a grammatical subject or a
genitive-marked modifier. This is because a 1st or 2nd person pronoun is the only noun
phrase that can be used to refer to the speaker (and his/her associates) and the hearer(s)
(and any associated people) in any particular speech situation. For a 3rd person referent,
on the other hand, a personal pronoun will often not provide sufficient identification, and
a more explicit noun phrase (such as Mehmet or şu büyük ağaç ‘that big tree’) has to be
used instead. O or onlar can be used only where an unambiguously identifiable referent is
available. This will usually be as a result of immediately previous mention:
(58) Bugün Zeliha ve Hakan’la karşılaştım. Onlar taşınıyorlarmış.
‘Today I ran into Zeliha and Hakan. It seems they’re moving.’
(i) Omission of subject pronouns in finite clauses:
In Turkish, main clause predicates are obligatorily marked for person, (12.2.1) and
subject pronouns are not necessary. In the 3rd person singular person marking is effected
by the absence of a person suffix (except for the optative/imperative -sIn, see 8.4, groups
3 and 4).
(59) O zaman öğrenci-ydi-k.
then [Link]-1PL
‘We were students then.’
(60) Paris-e gid-ecek-miş.
Paris-DAT [Link]
‘Apparently s/he’s going to go to Paris.’
(61) Öğleden sonra biz-e gel-sin.
afternoon we-DAT come-OPT.3SG
‘Let him/her come round to us this afternoon.’
(ii) Omission of subject pronouns in non-finite clauses:
Subjects of noun clauses, relative clauses formed with -DIK/-(y)AcAK and some types
of adverbial clause are indicated by the appropriate possessive marker (8.1.2) on the
predicate. The use of personal pronouns referring to the subject is therefore not normally
required in these clauses either:
(62) [Ev-e dön-me-m] zor olmadı.
home-DAT [Link]
‘It wasn’t difficult [for me to return home].’
(63) [Ev-e git-tiğ-im]-de kapılar açıktı.
home-DAT [Link]-LOC
‘[When I arrived home] the doors were open.’
Subject pronouns can or must be omitted also in those types of adverbial clause whose
predicates do not have person marking (see 26.2.2).
(iii) Omission of genitive-marked pronouns as modifiers of possessive noun phrases:
 Pronouns 241

Like personal pronouns expressing subjects, genitive-marked personal pronouns

expressing possessors, such as benim ‘my’, sizin ‘your’, are also normally omitted where
matching possessive markers are present:
(64) Yeni palto-m-u gördün mü?
new [Link]-ACC
‘Have you seen my new coat?’
A genitive-marked pronoun cannot be used as modifier of a possessive-marked noun
phrase where the person to whom the pronoun refers is also the subject of the clause.
Thus in (65) it would not be possible to use the pronoun benim to modify anahtarlarım:
(65) Anahtar-lar-ım-ı kaybet-ti-m.
[Link]-ACC lose-PF-1SG
‘I’ve lost my keys.’Z

[Link] Conditions under which personal pronouns are used

(i) Usage of subject pronouns in finite clauses:
A subject pronoun is used in the following circumstances:
(a) Where a subject contrasts with that of the preceding sentence:
(66) Zeki bugün sokağa çıkmayacakmış. Sen bir yere gitmeyi düşünüyor
muydun?
‘It seems Zeki won’t be going out today. Were you thinking of going
anywhere?’
(b) Where the subject is focused (see 23.3):
(67) Bu sabah çocukları BEN giydirdim.
‘It was I who got the children dressed this morning.’
(68) SEN de çok güzel şarkı söylersin.
‘You sing very nicely, too.’
(c) Where a 1st or 2nd person subject is one of a set of people actually or
potentially involved in some action or situation:
(69) A.—Bu filmi seyretmek isteyen var mı?
‘Does anyone want to watch this film?’
B.—Ben isterim.
‘I do.’
(70) O gün sen, Ayten ve Yavuz sınava girmiştiniz.
‘That day you, Ayten and Yavuz had had an exam.’
(See also [Link].)
(d) Where a 3rd person subject is an entity that was introduced in a non-subject
role in the previous sentence:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 242

(71) Kitabı Zerrin’e verdim. O ne zamandır onu okumak istiyordu.

‘I gave the book to Zerrin. She had been wanting to read it for ages.’
(For another example see (58) above.)
(e) Where, despite the continuance of the same subject, there is a shift from a
statement about a specific event to a generalization ([Link]) about the person
involved:
(72) Zeki anahtarlarını kaybetmiş. O zaten oldum olasıdağır.
‘Zeki has lost his keys. He has always been such a disorganized person.’
(73) Bilet almayı unuttum. Ben böyle şeyleri unuturum hep…
‘I’ve forgotten to buy a ticket. I always seem to forget such things.’
(f) In the opening sentence of a conversation, or a sentence in which the speaker
introduces a new topic of discussion:
(74) Ayşe, ben şimdi çıkıyorum.
‘Ayşe, I’m going out now.’
(75) Siz herkesin konuştuğu şu İran filmini gördünüz mü?
‘Have you seen this Iranian film that everyone’s talking about?’
(ii) Usage of subject pronouns in non-finite clauses:
A subject pronoun is used in a noun clause or relative clause in the following
circumstances:
(a) where it contrasts with the subject of the superordinate clause, the previous
clause or a clause with an identical function:
(76) [Zeki’nin uçağa yetişmesi] [benim yetişmem]-den daha kolay.
‘It is easier for Zeki to catch the flight than [for me (to catch it)].’
(77) [Benim yazdığım] mektubu almışlar. [Senin yazdığın] mektup daha
ellerine geçmemiş.
‘They’ve received the letter [that I wrote]. The letter [that you wrote] evidently
hasn’t reached them yet.’
(b) where the subject is focused:
(78) Yemeğin hazırlığına katılmış olmadığım için [bulaşıkları beNİM
yıkamam] kararlaştırıldı.
‘As I had taken no part in the preparation of the meal, it was decided [that I
should do the washing-up].’
(c) where there is a shift of sentence topic (23.3.3) from the entity performing or
undergoing an action (e.g. Zeki in (79) below) to the action itself (here kaza
geçirmesi means ‘his having an accident’):
(79) [Zeki’nin kaza geçirdiğin]i duydum. [Onun kaza geçirmesi] bütün
planları altlüst edecek.
 Pronouns 243

‘I’ve heard [that Zeki has had an accident]. [His having an accident] will upset
all the plans.’
(d) in the opening sentence of a conversation, or a sentence in which the speaker
introduces a new topic of discussion:
(80) Ayşe, [benim şimdi çıkmam] gerekiyor.
‘Ayşe, I’ve got to go out now.’
(81) [Sizlerin yazın Amerika’ya gideceğiniz] doğru mu?
‘Is it true [that you will be going to America in the summer]?
(iii) Usage of genitive-marked pronouns as modifiers of possessive noun phrases:
The referent of a 3rd person genitive-marked pronoun is always someone/ something
other than the subject of the clause. For example, in both of the examples below onun
‘his/her’ indicates a person other than Semra:
(82) Semra on-un anahtar-lar-ın-ı kaybet-miş.
Semra s/he-GEN [Link]-ACC lose-PF/EV
‘Apparently Semra lost his/her keys.’
(83) Semra Elif’e onun anahtarlarını vermiş. (cf. (15))
‘Semra gave Elif her/his keys.’ (her/his=Elif or any person other than Semra)
If it is intended that the possessive-marked noun phrase refer to the subject within the
same clause (i.e. Semra in (84)), then onun is omitted. In such cases the possessive suffix
can refer to any 3rd person in the clause or to some previously mentioned person:
(84) Semra anahtarlarını kaybetmiş.
‘Apparently Semra lost her keys.’ (most likely intended meaning: her=Semra)
(85) Semra Elif’e anahtarlarını vermiş. (cf. (15))
‘Apparently Semra gave Elif her/his keys.’ (most likely intended meanings:
her=Semra or Elif)
A genitive-marked pronoun is used in the following circumstances:
(a) when the possessed entity is compared with something else:
(86) Burası bizim evimizden daha sıcak.
‘It’s warmer here than [in] our house.’
(87) Zeki’nin arabası evin önündeymiş. SeNİN arabanı garaja soktum.
‘Zeki’s car is in front of the house. I put your car in the garage.’
(b) when the possessor is focused:
(88) Ahmet bugün çok sevinçli. Öğretmen en çok oNUN yazısın beğenmiş.
‘Ahmet is very happy today. It seems the teacher liked his essay best.’
(c) in the opening sentence of a conversation, or a sentence in which the speaker
introduces a new topic of discussion:
(89) Ayşe, benim anahtarım nerede?
‘Ayşe, where’s my key?’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 244

(90) Bizim başka bir haberimiz daha var.

‘We’ve got another piece of news, too.’

18.2 DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS: bu, ‘THIS (ONE)’ şu

‘THIS/THAT (ONE)’, o ‘THAT (ONE)’

The demonstrative pronouns are derived from the demonstrative determiners (15.6.2 (i)):
bu ‘this (one)’ bunlar ‘these’
şu ‘this (one)’, ‘that (one)’ şunlar ‘these’, ‘those’
o ‘that (one)’ onlar ‘those’

Note that the plural forms contain ‘n’ before the plural suffix. Similarly, when singular
demonstrative pronouns are inflected for case, the case markers are preceded by ‘n’, as in
bunda ‘on/in this one’, şunu ‘that one (ACC)’, ona ‘to that one’ (6.2, 8.1.3).
The difference between bu, şu and o is, from one point of view, a gradation in
proximity. Bu refers to closer objects and o refers to ones that are furthest away.
However, a major difference between şu and the others is that while bu and o usually
refer to objects mentioned before, the referent of şu is almost always something to which
the speaker is drawing attention for the first time. şu is therefore usually accompanied by
an ostensive gesture, either a look in the direction of the item in question or pointing to it.
In the following examples the usage of şu implies that the referent, e.g. a particular
bowl, has not been under discussion before this point, whereas in the case of bu there is
no such implication.
(91) Meyvaları şuna koyalım.
‘Let’s put the fruit in this one.’
(92) Meyvaları buna koyalım.
‘Let’s put the fruit in this one.’
Similarly, the referent of şu can be a statement that the speaker is about to make. In the
examples below, bu and şu are not interchangeable; bu stands for a statement that has just
been made, whereas the referent of şu is to follow.
(93) On dakika sonra dükkanlar kapanıyor ve evde kahve yok. En önemli sorun
bu.
‘The shops close in ten minutes and there’s no coffee in the house. This is the
most urgent problem.’
(94) En önemli sorun şu: on dakika sonra dükkanlar kapanıyor ve evde kahve
yok.
‘The most urgent problem is this: the shops close in ten minutes and there’s no
coffee in the house.’
O is used when a concrete item referred to is not within the visual field of the speaker or
the addressee(s), but has been previously mentioned. Both o and bu can be used when an
object, which is in the context, is topicalized (23.3.3).
 Pronouns 245

(95) Adamın şapkasının rengini hatırlıyor musun? İşte o/bu, filmde çok önemli
bir ayrıntıydı.
‘Do you remember the colour of the man’s hat? Now that was a very significant
detail in the film.’
Şu ki and o ki can occur following a headless relative clause:
(96) Dediğim şu ki, bu tip boyalar ancak diç yüzeylerde kullanılabiliyor.
‘What I’m saying is, these types of paint can only be used on exterior surfaces.’
(lit. ‘…is this, that these types…’)
(97) Görünen o ki, dünyanın iklimi değişiyor.
‘It seems that the world’s climate is changing.’

18.3 LOCATIVE AND DIRECTIONAL PRONOUNS

18.3.1 LOCATIVE PRONOUNS: bura- ‘HERE’, şura- ‘HERE’, ‘OVER

THERE’ AND ora- ‘THERE’
Locative pronouns are derived from bu, şu and o, and display similar differentiating
characteristics in terms of their reference (18.2).
Like the question word nere- ‘where’ ([Link]), bura- ‘here’, şura- ‘here’, ‘over
there’ and ora- ‘there’ cannot be used in their bare form. They must have either a case
suffix or a possessive suffix (or both), and either of these may be preceded by the plural
suffix: buraya ‘(to) here’, oradan ‘from there’, şuran ‘this part of you’, şuramın ‘of this
part of me’, buralarda ‘around here’ (see [Link] (viii)). The oblique-case-marked forms
without possessive suffixes function adverbially (16.4.2).
The forms burası ‘this place’, şurası ‘this place’, ‘that place over there’ and orası ‘that
place (already mentioned)’ are formed with the 3rd person possessive suffix -(s)I (8.1.2).
Like their interrogative counterpart neresi ‘what place’ ([Link]), they function as
subjects:
(98) Burası çok kalabalık.
‘[It] is very crowded here.’
(99) Şurası dinlenmek için ideal bir yer.
‘That (place over there) is an ideal place to rest.’
The accusative and genitive forms burasını(n), şurasını(n) and orasını(n) can be used
instead of burayı/buranın, şurayı/şuranın and orayı/oranın:
(100) Bura-sın-ı çok sevdim; bura-da kalalım.
[Link]-ACC here-LOC
‘I like [it] here; let’s stay here.’
Bura-, şura- and ora- can also occur with the 1st and 2nd person possessive markers:
(101) Şuranıza bir düğme daha lazım.
‘You need another button here (=on this part of you).’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 246

Additionally, they can be modified by a genitive-marked noun phrase:

(102) Filmin orası çok önemliydi.
‘That part of the film was very important.’

18.3.2 DIRECTIONAL PRONOUNS

Directional pronouns are formed by the attachment of the 3rd person possessive marker -
(s)I to directional adverbials of place, such as dışarı ‘outside’ and aşağı ‘down’ (16.4.2):
(103) Aşağısı çok dağınık.
‘It’s very untidy downstairs.’
When these forms are used as direct objects, accusative case marking is obligatory but
the possessive marker may be omitted:
(104) Alıcılar içeri-yi/içeri-sin-i görmedi.
inside-ACC/[Link]-ACC
‘The buyers haven’t seen inside yet.’
The form ötesi ‘the far side’ is usually used with a modifier:
(105) Köyün ötesinde bir dere var.
‘There is a stream beyond the village.’
The usage of beri (and forms derived from it, e.g. beriki ‘the other (one) (nearby)’) is
confined to provincial dialects. For öteki ‘the other (one)’, see 18.5.

18.4 PRONOMINALIZED ADJECTIVALS, NUMERALS AND

DETERMINERS

The possessive markers (8.1.2) are the main device used for creating pronouns from a
range of other grammatical forms. The pronouns are listed here in the 3rd person singular
possessive form, which is by far the most common form they are used in, although forms
containing 1st, 2nd and 3rd person plural possessive markers are also possible. Note that
in all of the forms below an accusative case marker is obligatory when they are used as
direct objects, see [Link].
The possessive suffixes create pronominals from:
(i) Adjectives ((15.2); see also last section of 14.4): eskisi ‘the old one’, çirkini ‘an
uglier version’:
(106) Çamaşır makinası bozulmuş. Yeni-sin-i almamız lazım.
[Link]-ACC
‘The washing machine has broken down. We have to get a new one.’
Simple adjectives can be used with any of the possessive suffixes, including the 1st and
2nd person singular forms:
 Pronouns 247

(107) Kızkardeşin senin şişmanın.

‘Your sister is a plumper version of you.’
(ii) Numerals (15.7) (with or without the enumerator tane or measure terms (15.8); see
also 14.5.2–3): ikisi ‘two (of them)’, beş tanesi ‘five (of them)’, üç bardağı ‘three glasses
(of it)’. (Numerals cannot be used with the 3rd person plural possessive suffix.)
(108) Bütün kalemler kayboldu sanmıştım ama ikisi/iki tanesi burada.
‘I thought all the pencils were lost, but two (of them) are here.’
Note that the addition of her ‘every’ and/or the clitic dA ([Link]) to pronominalized
numerical expressions makes them definite. Thus, for example, her ikisi and (her) ikisi de
mean ‘both (of them)’ (cf. 15.9.1).
(iii) The enumerator tane and measure terms (15.8): tanesi ‘each one (of …)’, şişesi ‘a
bottle (of…)’. (These cannot be used with any of the other possessive suffixes.)
(109) Kilosunu on milyon liradan satacaklar.
‘They’re going to sell it for ten million liras a kilogram.’
Expressions consisting of a numeral followed by the enumerator tane or a measure term
can be used pronominally without the addition of a possessive suffix. This usage is
generally confined to inanimate referents:
(110) Çamaşır makinası bozulmuş. Yeni bir tane almamız lazım.
‘The washing machine has broken down. We must get a new one.’
(111) İki kilo versene.
‘Give me two kilograms.’
(iv) Indefinite and definite determiners (15.6.1–2, 14.5.2–3): aynısı ‘the same (one)’,
başkası ‘another (one)’, bazısı ‘some (of them)’, birçoğu ‘many (of them)’, bir
bölümü/bir kısmı ‘some (of it/them)’, biri(si) ‘someone’, ‘one (of them)’, birkaçı ‘a few
(of them)’, bütünü ‘all of it’, çoğu ‘most (of them)’, ‘most people’, diğeri ‘the other
(one)’, hangisi ‘which (one)’, herhangi biri(si) ‘any (one)’, hiçbiri(si) ‘none (of them)’
(see also 20.5.2), ilki ‘the first (one)’, kaçı ‘how many (of them)’, kimisi ‘some (of
them)’, ne kadarı ‘how much (of it)’, öbürü/↓öbürkisi/ötekisi ‘the other (one)’, sonuncusu
‘the last (one)’, böylesi ‘this kind’, ‘this way’. (Of these determiners, birkaç, çok, hiçbir,
kaç and ne kadar (except when this latter is used with adjectives ([Link] (ii)) cannot be
used with the 3rd person plural possessive suffix. aynı can be used with any of the
possessive suffixes, including the 1st and 2nd person singular forms.)
(112) Aynısını istiyorum.
‘I want [one of] the same.’
(113) Bazılarımız senin gibi düşünmüyor.
‘Some of us wouldn’t agree with you.’
(v) The adverbial hep ‘always’: hepsi ‘all (of it/them)’. (hep cannot be used with the 3rd
person plural possessive suffix.)
(114) Hepsini katılımcılara mı vereceksiniz?
‘Are you going to give all of it/them to the participants?’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 248

(vi) Complex adjectivals formed by the attachment (to a verb stem) of the participial
suffix -(y)An ([Link]) or one of its compound verb forms (25.4.1) -mAz olan, -mIş
(olan) or (less commonly) -(y)AcAk (olan): okunamayanı ‘the illegible one’, anlaşılmaz
olanları ‘the ones which are incomprehensible’, kullanılmışı ‘a used one’:
(115) Boya-n-mış-ların-da hatalar gözükmüyor.
[Link]-LOC
‘The mistakes are not visible on the ones which have been dyed.’
These are a specific kind of relative clause that looks deceptively similar to headless
relative clauses (25.3):
Pronominalized complex adjectival:
(116) Opera sev-me-yen-ler-i Verona’da konaklamayacaklar.
[Link]
‘Those [among them] who don’t like opera won’t be staying (overnight) in
Verona.’
Headless relative clause:
(117) Opera sev-me-yen-ler Verona’da konaklamayacaklar.
like-NEG-PART-PL
‘Those [people] who don’t like opera won’t be staying (overnight) in Verona.’
Pronominalized complex adjectivals can be formed only from participles containing -
(y)An (including compound forms such as -mAz olan and -mIş (olan)). Headless relative
clauses, on the other hand, can be formed with the other participial suffixes (-DIK and -
(y)AcAK) as well. Like other pronominalized adjectivals, pronominalized complex
adjectivals draw attention to a subgroup or a specimen within another group (14.4–5).
Headless relative clauses, by contrast, simply define a group or class without referring to
a larger group of which it is a part.
Pronominalized complex adjectivals can be used in partitive constructions with
ablative modifiers (14.5.2), particularly those formed from iç- and ara- (see [Link]):
(118) İç-lerin-den en zor oku-n-an-ı bana düşmüş.
[Link]-ABL most difficult [Link]
‘I seem to have got the least legible [one] of all.’
(119) Aralarında(n) opera sevmeyenleri Verona’da konaklamayacaklar.
‘Those among them who don’t like opera won’t be staying (overnight) in Verona.’
They can also sometimes be used with genitive modifiers:
(120) onlar-ın çalış-ma-yan-lar-ı
they-GEN [Link]
‘the ones among them who/that don’t work’
A rather unproductive type of pronominalized complex adjectival is one where the
possessive marker does not refer to a subtype within another type but is used in its
standard function of marking the possessed constituent. The unusual aspect of these
constructions is that the genitive noun phrase in such a construction is the direct object of
the verb inside the adjectival. These adjectival constructions are semi-lexicalized, since
 Pronouns 249

they usually contain the verb sev- ‘like’, ‘love’ (hence, seven ‘lover’, ‘admirer’) or other
verbs of emotion such as iste- ‘want’, beğen- ‘admire’, nefret et-‘hate’:
(121) Opera-nın sev-en-i çok. (cf. Operayı seven çok.)
opera-GEN [Link] many
‘[There] are many lovers of opera.’ (‘[There] are many [people] who love opera.’)

18.5 PRONOMINAL EXPRESSIONS WITH -ki

The suffix -ki (8.1.4), which is used for forming attributive adjectives (15.3.6–7), has a
pronominal function when used without a following noun phrase. This usage is possible
only where the type of entity that is being talked about is obvious from the context:
(122) Bahçe-de-ki-ler yapraklarını dökmeye başladı. (cf. Chapter 15 (24))
garden-LOC-PRON-PL
‘The ones in the garden have begun to shed their leaves.’
Note that any case suffixes attached to -ki have to be preceded by ‘n’ (6.2):
(123) Bu sabahkinde okudum. (cf. Chapter 15 (29))
‘I read it in this morning’s (one).’
öteki/↓öbürki ‘the other (one)’ (15.6.2) can also be used pronominally:
(124) Öteki size daha çok uydu galiba.
‘The other one seemed to suit you better.’
In addition, -ki can attach to any genitive-marked noun phrase to form a possessive
pronominal expression. These forms cannot be used as modifiers of noun phrases:
(125) Yeni bir bilgisayar almam gerek. Benimki iyi çalışmıyor.
‘I have to buy a new computer. Mine isn’t working properly.’
(126) Ayşe’nin arabası Ahmet’inkiyle karşılaştırılınca çok yeni duruyor.
‘Ayşe’s car looks very new when compared to Ahmet’s.’

18.6 OTHER PRONOMINAL EXPRESSIONS

18.6.1 PRONOMINAL QUANTIFIERS

The pronominal quantifiers of Turkish are herkes ‘everyone’, her şey ‘everything’, and
bir şey ‘something’, ‘anything’. All of these can be inflected for case and, with the
exception of herkes, for person as well.
(127) Artık otobüslerde herkesten para alıyorlar, genç olsun, yaşlı olsun.
‘Nowadays they charge everyone on buses, whether they are young or old.’
(128) Yanına her şeyini aldın mı?
‘Have you taken everything (that belongs to you) with you?’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 250

bir şey ‘something’, ‘anything’ can be used in the singular or in the plural form ([Link]
(iii)), with both affirmative and negative predicates:
(129) Şu sıralar ilginç bir şey/bir şeyler okumuyor musun?
‘Aren’t you reading anything interesting these days?’
(130) Söyleyecek bir şeyim yok
‘I have nothing to say.’
(131) Sabahtan beri bir şey-ler-im-i arıyorum ama bulamıyorum.
[Link]-ACC
‘I’ve been looking for some things of mine all day.’
The expressions kimse ‘no one’, ‘anyone’, hiç kimse ‘no one’, hiçbiri(si) ‘none (of
them)’, hiçbir şey ‘nothing’ are discussed in 20.5.

18.6.2 insan ‘ONE’

İnsan ‘person, human being’ is used pronominally like the English generic pronoun
‘one’:
(132) İnsan bazen [hiçbir şey bilmediğin]-i sanıyor.
‘Sometimes one thinks [one doesn’t know anything].’
(133) Bazı günler her şey zor geliyor insana.
‘Some days everything seems to be difficult (for one).’

18.6.3 şey
şey, literally ‘thing’, is probably one of the most commonly used expressions in
colloquial Turkish, replacing anything from a word to a whole clause. It is used where the
speaker cannot immediately call to mind the appropriate expression for what s/he intends
to say. What it replaces may or may not follow in the conversation, depending on
whether its referent is clear enough from the context.
(134) Ay arabanın şeyini kırmışlar!
‘Oh God, they’ve broken the car’s thingumajig!’
(135) Şey gibi olmasın ama, sana bir şey sormak istiyorum.
‘I would like to ask you something, without sounding as if… you know…’
(136) Ziya’nın lafları biraz şeysiz kaçtı.
‘Ziya’s words lacked a bit of, how shall I put it…’
It can also be used as a ‘filler’ between sentences, or as a gradual start to a conversation,
sometimes as a means of introducing a topic that the speaker finds difficult or
embarrassing to broach.
(137) Şey…Biraz konuşmamız lazım.
‘Uhmmm…we have to talk a bit.’
 19
QUESTIONS

Questions in Turkish are formed either by the insertion of the question particle mI, which
forms yes/no questions (19.1.1) and alternative questions (19.1.2), or by using a wh-
phrase such as ne zaman ‘when’, kim ‘who’ or hangi ‘which’ (19.2).
(1) Bahçeye ağaç dikecekler mi?
‘Will they plant trees in the garden?’
(2) Otobüs durağı nerede?
‘Where is the bus stop?’
In 19.1.3 and 19.1.4 we describe the various positions that mI can occur in, and the effect
this has on the content of the question. Sentences that contain a stressed phrase in
addition to a mI-phrase (a phrase to which mI is attached) are the topic of 19.1.5. In
19.2.2 we describe the position of whphrases in a sentence. Echo questions, questions
which simultaneously contain mI and a wh-phrase, are discussed in 19.3. 19.4 focuses on
how phrases in subordinate clauses may be questioned, and 19.5 discusses modal
adverbs that are used in questions. Indirect questions (questions in the form of noun
clauses) are discussed in [Link], and speculative conditional questions introduced by ya
in [Link] (vii).

19.1 QUESTIONS WITH mI

The particle mI is an unstressable clitic which forms yes/no questions and alternative
questions. The phonological properties of mI and its location within a predicate are
described in [Link]. Sentence stress usually occurs immediately before mI unless there
are other factors affecting stress in the sentence (19.1.5). The exact position of stress
within a word followed by mI is determined by the internal stress pattern of that word or
phrase (Chapter 4).

19.1.1 YES/NO QUESTIONS

Yes/no questions are formed by inserting mI after a sentence or a phrase, or in some
cases, within a phrase. There are two types of yes/no question: direct questions and tag
questions.

[Link] Direct yes/no questions

In direct yes/no questions, the clitic mI attaches to the predicate when the entirety of a
proposition is questioned:
(3) Kedi-ler iki konserve-yi de bitir-miş-ler mi?
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 252

cat-PL two can-ACC both finish-EV/PF-3PL INT

‘Have the cats finished both tins?’
mI can also attach to a phrase within the sentence, with effects that are described in
19.1.4. A phrase to which mI is attached generally occurs just before the predicate.
However, like other focused phrases (23.3.1), a mI-phrase can also occur in other
positions, as long as it is not placed after the predicate:
(4) Zehra Londra-ya eylül-de mi gid-ecek?
Zehra London-DAT September-LOC INT go-FUT
‘Is Zehra going to London in SEPTEMBER?’
(5) Zehra eylülde mi Londra’ya gidecek?
‘Is Zehra going to London in SEPTEMBER?’
The intonation of questions with mI usually comprises a high rise just before mI,
followed by falling intonation (5.1), whether mI is placed at the end of the sentence or
not:

(6) Saatini ileri alDIN mı?

‘Have you put your watch forward?’

(7) BabasıNI mı özlemiş Hasan?

‘Is Hasan missing his father?’
There are, however, cases where questions with mI do not end with falling intonation.
These are:
(i) questions where mI is used for expressing surprise or disbelief (19.1.4 (iii))
(ii) questions where mI occurs with a wh-phrase (echo questions, 19.3)
(iii) questions where mI occurs with another stressed phrase (19.1.5).

[Link] Tag questions

A tag question is a question that is annexed to a statement and is used to seek
confirmation of that statement. There are two forms of tag question:
(i) değil mi, which is a combination of the negative particle değil ‘not’ (20.2) and
mI, and is most often pronounced ( or in informal
registers)
 Questions 253

(ii) öyle mi, which is a combination of the demonstrative adverbial öyle ‘like that’
(16.4.3) and mI, and can also be pronounced
Both forms can be tagged to affirmative or negative predicates which are verbal or
nominal.
(8) Tiyatroya gitmeden önce yer ayır-t-ma-mış-tı-n, değil mi?
reserve-CAUS-NEG-EV/[Link]-2SG not INT
‘You hadn’t reserved seats before going to the theatre, had you?’
(9) Esra Handan-ın abla-sı-ymış, öyle mi?
Handan-GEN [Link] thus INT
‘So Esra is Handan’s elder sister, is that right?’
Questions with değil mi are unmarked tag questions, corresponding to ‘isn’t it’, ‘can
you’, etc. in English. This question type is used when the speaker seeks corroboration of
a statement that s/he believes to be true.
(10) Cemal bugün okul-a git-me-di, değil mi?
Cemal today school-DAT go-NEG-PF not INT
‘Cemal didn’t go to school today, did he?’
Tag questions with öyle mi follow a much more tentative assertion, embodying
information newly acquired by the speaker, or information that contradicts the speaker’s
previous assumption. öyle mi can also be used with the discourse connective demek ‘so’,
which expresses an inference (28.3.7).
(11) (Demek) Cemal bugün okula gitmedi, öyle mi?
‘So Cemal didn’t go to school today then?’
In (10) the speaker assumes that Cemal hasn’t gone to school. In (11), on the other hand,
the speaker voices surprise at the possibility of Cemal not having gone to school,
implying an expectation that he would have done so.
öyle mi can be used on its own as a response to new information, especially where this
has come as a surprise:
(12) A.– Bu yaz çok yağmur yağacakmış.
‘Apparently there is going to be a lot of rain this summer.’
B.– Öyle mi?
‘Really?’
Since the phrase değil is the standard form for negating the linking type of nominal
sentence (20.2 and [Link]) the sequence değil+mi is potentially ambiguous between a
direct yes/no question with a negative nominal predicate (13), and a tag question
following an affirmative nominal predicate (14). In the spoken language these two
sentences have different intonation patterns. A direct yes/no question has one intonational
phrase: a high rise followed by a fall (5.1):
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 254

(13) Tiyatroya gitmeden önce yer ayırtmak lazım deĞİL mi?

necessary not INT
‘Isn’t it necessary to reserve seats before going to the theatre?’
A sentence containing a tag question has two intonational phrases, sometimes separated
by a pause before değil. The first intonational phrase has a slight rise followed by a fall
(the pattern for statements), and the second one, consisting just of the tag question, has a
high rise followed by a fall:

(14) Tiyatroya gitmeden önce yer ayırtMAK lazım, deĞİL mi?

necessary not INT
‘It’s necessary to reserve seats before going to the theatre, isn’t it?’
In the written language the ambiguity is resolved by using a comma before a tag question.
öyle and değil mi can be used together as a reinforced form of değil mi (i.e. öyle değil
mi). These questions are only minimally different from tag questions with değil mi.

19.1.2 ALTERNATIVE QUESTIONS

These are questions which present two (or more) alternatives, equivalent to questions
with ‘or’ in English. The particle mI is placed after each of the alternatives presented,
which can optionally be connected by yoksa ‘or’ ([Link]). The types of phrases mI can
attach to are described in 19.1.3.
Where they are predicates, the second may simply be the negation of the first, as in
(15)–(17):
(15) Cemal okula git-ti mi, (yoksa) git-me-di mi?
go-PF INT (or) go-NEG-PF INT
‘Did Cemal go to school or not?’
(16) Bu hastanede ameliyathane var mı, (yoksa) yok mu?
existent INT (or) non-existent INT
‘Is there an operating theatre in this hospital or not?’
(17) Ankara-ya mı İstanbul-a mı gitmek istiyorsun?
Ankara-DAT INT Istanbul-DAT INT
‘Do you want to go to Ankara or to Istanbul?’
In alternative questions, each alternative has a high rise followed by a fall, sometimes
with a rise in the juncture point between the two alternatives:
 Questions 255

(18) Tosca-yı VERdi mi yazmıştı (yoksa) PucCİni mi?

Tosca-ACC Verdi INT compose-EV/[Link] (or) Puccini INT
‘Did Verdi or Puccini compose Tosca?’

19.1.3 POSITIONS FOR mI OTHER THAN THE END OF THE

SENTENCE
In addition to attaching to predicates, mI can attach to subjects, objects and adverbials:
(19) Yalnız başına burada kitap mı okuyordun?
book INT
‘Were you reading a book here all alone?’
(20) Kedi-den mi korkuyorsun yoksa?
cat-ABL INT
‘Are you afraid of cats, then?’
The position of the particle mI in a noun phrase is fixed: it attaches to the head of the
phrase even when what is being questioned is one of the modifying constituents of that
phrase. This is illustrated in (21):
(21)
(a) {İki orta yaşlı adAM} mı çal-mış araba-yı?
two middle aged man INT steal-EV/PF car-ACC
‘Did two middle-aged MEN steal the car?’
(b) {İKİ orta yaşlı adam} mı çalmış arabayı?
‘Did TWO middle-aged men steal the car?’
It is the location of stress that indicates whether it is the entire noun phrase, as in (21a), or
some particular part of it, as in (21b), that is questioned.
The unmarked position for mI in other types of phrases and constructions is at the end
of that particular phrase or construction. This applies to postpositional phrases, genitive-
possessive constructions and partitive constructions, as well as to compound verbs with
free auxiliaries ([Link]) and nominal-verb compounds (13.3.2):
(22) {Murat-ın ev-i} mi satılmış?
Murat-GEN [Link] INT
‘Has Murat’s house been sold?’
However, it can also attach to the non-head constituents in these phrases:
(23) {Murat’ ın mı evi} satılmış?
‘Is it Murat’s house that has been sold?’
(24) Sen şimdi o filmi gör-müş mü ol-du-n? (also ‘görmüş oldun mu’)
see-EV/PF INT be-PF-2SG
‘Do you consider yourself as having seen that film now?’
(25) Sana yardım mı et-ti o adam? (also ‘yardım etti mi’)
help INT make-PF
‘Did that man help you?’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 256

It can also attach to the modifier in an adjectival or adverbial phrase:

(26) Çok mu güzel bir kız, bu sözünü ettiğin?
very INT beautiful a girl
‘Is she a really pretty girl, this one you’re talking about?’
(27) Umduğundan daha da mı hızlı yüzdün?
‘Did you swim even faster than you expected?’
In addition, mI can attach to subordinate clauses (12.3) or to the constituents inside them:
(28)
(a) Aynur [Zehra-yla buluş-tuk-tan sonra] mı çocuk-lar-ı
Aynur Zehra-COM [Link] before INT child-PL-ACC okul-dan al-dı?
school-ABL [Link]-PF
‘Was it [after meeting Zehra] that Aynur picked up the children?’
(b) Aynur [Zehra’yla mı buluşmadan önce] çocukları okuldan aldı?
‘Was it [before meeting Zehra] that Aynur picked up the children?’

19.1.4 THE EFFECT OF PLACING mI AFTER A PARTICULAR

PHRASE
The placement of mI after a particular phrase serves three different purposes. One of
these is to narrow down the questioned part of a proposition and thus to question only a
particular phrase within a sentence. Alternatively, mI can be placed after a particular
phrase to question the whole proposition. Finally, it can be used as an expression of
surprise at a situation which has just come to the attention of the speaker.
(i) Using mI for questioning a specific part of a proposition:
One of the reasons why mI is inserted after a phrase is to focus on a particular part of a
proposition, thereby making it the specific target of the question. This generally implies
that the information in the remainder of the sentence is already assumed by the speaker.
(29) Ahmet mi para-lar-ı ev-de unut-muş?
Ahmet INT money-PL-ACC house-LOC forget-EV/PF
‘Was it Ahmet who left the money at home?’
(30) Banka-ya sabah-leyin mi gid-ecek-sin?
bank-DAT morning-ADV INT go-FUT-2SG
‘Will you be going to the bank in the morning?’
The intonation of these sentences is a high rise followed by a fall (5.1), which is typical
of direct yes/no questions ([Link]):

(31) Kitabı AhmeT’E mi verdin?

‘Is it to Ahmet that you have given the book?’
 Questions 257

(ii) Using mI immediately before the predicate to question the whole proposition:
Placing mI after a particular phrase can also serve the purpose of questioning the
whole proposition:

(32) Nermin okul-a mı git-miş?

Nermin school-DAT INT go-EV/PF
‘Has Nermin gone to school?’
As noted in [Link], questioning the whole proposition is also done by means of placing
mI after the predicate:
(33) Nermin okula gitmiş mi?
However, although both of these questions involve the whole proposition, they cannot be
used in the same context. The difference between them is that questions that have the
structure of (32) are used when the speaker has an assumption about the situation s/he is
asking about, usually because there are non-linguistic clues (visual, or perceptible by
other senses) available to him/her. Those like (33), on the other hand, are out-of-the-blue
questions, where the speaker has no assumptions about the situation. For example, a
speaker can use (34a) upon seeing that the addressee is wearing a coat, a context which is
totally unsuitable for (34b). (34b), on the other hand, is used in contexts where a speaker
simply wants to know if the addressee will be going out that day or not, a context in
which (34a) cannot be used.
(34)
(a) Sokağa mı çıkıyorsun?
(b) Sokağa çıkıyor musun?
‘Are you going out?’
The same phenomenon occurs in existential sentences as well:
(35) Bir sıkıntın mı var?
‘Are you worried about something?’
(36) Bir sıkıntın var mı?
‘Do you have any troubles?’
(iii) Using mI as an expression of surprise or disbelief:
mI can be placed after a particular constituent within a clause to highlight surprise or
disbelief. In this case, the constituent just before mI is not the target of the question.
Instead, the validity of the whole proposition is questioned. Such sentences have an
intonation pattern similar to wh-questions (19.2), which is a slight rise followed by a fall-
rise, but they usually start with a higher pitch than wh-questions. The phrase that mI is
attached to usually occurs just before the predicate:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 258

(37) Kitabı AhmeT’E mi verdin?

‘You GAVE the BOOK to AHMET?’

19.1.5 YES/NO QUESTIONS CONTAINING A(NOTHER) STRESSED

PHRASE
Although stress normally falls on the constituent immediately preceding the particle mI,
there are cases where another constituent is stressed. In such questions mI attaches to the
predicate, and the whole proposition is questioned:

(38) Peki, sen hiç oPEra-ya git-ti-n mi?

[Link] you ever opera-DAT go-PF-2SG INT
‘Well then, have you ever been to the OPERA?’
Highlighting a particular constituent by stressing it in such sentences can serve to contrast
it with another (previously mentioned) constituent. For example, (38) can be uttered after
someone has mentioned that they have never been to the theatre.
The intonation pattern of these sentences, namely a fall after the stressed phrase,
followed by another fall and then rising intonation at the end (see 5.1), is somewhat
similar to that of wh-questions (19.2) and mI questions expressing disbelief (19.1.4 (iii)).
A recent development is that this pattern is becoming quite commonly used in unmarked
yes/no questions as well.

19.2 WH-QUESTIONS

Wh-questions are formed by using a question phrase (a wh-phrase) such as kim ‘who’,
nerede ‘where’, etc. The wh-phrases in Turkish are the following:
kim ‘who’
ne ‘what’
hangi ‘which’
nere ‘where’
hani ‘where’ (informal)
ne zaman ‘when’
kaç ‘how many’, ‘what time’
 Questions 259

ne kadar ‘how much’

nasıl ‘how’
niye ‘why’
neden ‘why’
niçin ‘why’

Wh-phrases are normally stressed, whether they are in the main clause or a subordinate
clause. The only exception to this is when they occur with another stressed constituent
(19.2.3). The intonation pattern of wh-questions is a slight rise followed by a fall-rise
(5.1).

(39) HANgi tablo-yu müze-ye bağışla-mak ist-iyor-sun?

which painting-ACC museum-DAT donate-VN want-IMPF-2SG
‘Which painting do you want to donate to the museum?’

(40) Ev-e NE zaman gid-ecek-sin?

home-DAT when go-FUT-2SG
‘When will you be going home?’

19.2.1 WH-PHRASES

[Link] kim ‘who’

kim is used in questions where the target of the question is a person. It can combine with
all the inflectional suffixes that attach to nouns (8.1, 14.3) and usually occurs in the
positions occupied by the corresponding noun phrases (Chapter 23):
(41) Resimleri kim değerlendirecek?
‘Who will evaluate the paintings?’
(42) Şule’nin babası kimdi?
‘Who was Şule’s father?’
kim obligatorily has accusative case marking when it functions as a direct object (see
22.1):
(43) Nuri kim-i görmüş?
who-ACC
‘Who(m) did Nuri see?’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 260

kim can have plural marking when the speaker knows or assumes that more than one
person or type of person is involved:
(44) En çok kim-ler-in çocuk-lar-ı okulda başarılı oluyormuş?
who-PL-GEN [Link]
‘Whose children (the children of what type of people) are the most successful at
school?’
When kim combines with the comitative/instrumental marker -(y)lA/ile, the result is
kiminle ‘with whom’ (8.1.4). However, kimle is also used in informal speech:
(45) En çok kim-(in)-le şakalaşmayı seviyorsun?
who-(GEN)-COM
‘Who do you most like to fool around with?’

[Link] ne ‘what’
ne is used in questions where the target is an inanimate object, a substance, or an abstract
concept. It can combine with all the inflectional suffixes that attach to nouns (8.1, 14.3),
and it occurs in the positions occupied by noun phrases (Chapter 14):
(46) Bu kutunun içinde ne-ler var?
what-PL
‘What’s in this box?’
(47) Serap Almanya’ya ne-yle gidiyor?
what-INS
‘How (=by what means) is Serap going to Germany?’
ne is also used when the modifier in a nominal compound is the target of a question:
(48) O adam ne doktor-u?
that man what doctor-NC
‘What is the specialization of that doctor?’ (lit. ‘What sort of doctor is that man?’)
When used as a direct object, the non-case-marked ne indicates that the speaker has no
preconceptions about the answer, whereas the accusativecase-marked neyi implies that
the speaker expects the answer to fall within a specified set of items, usually concrete
objects:
(49) Ne istiyorsun?
‘What do you want?’
(50) Neyi istiyorsun?
‘What do you want?’
The first question is a general inquiry about what the addressee wants, or expects to
happen. The second question, on the other hand, would be asked in a situation where the
speaker has a number of items in mind and expects the answer to refer to one of those
items.
 Questions 261

neli, nesiz
ne can combine with the suffixes -lI ‘with’ and -sIz ‘without’ (15.2.1) to form adjectives:
(51) Ne-li dondurma sev-er-sin?
what-ADJ [Link] like-AOR-2SG
‘What kind of ice cream do you like?’
It can also combine with the suffix -CI ([Link]), most typically in its occupational sense,
and much less commonly as denoting an ideology:
(52) Baba-sı ne-ci?
[Link] what-DER
‘What is the occupation/ideology of his/her father?’

nesi, neyi
nesi is the more commonly used 3rd person possessive form of ne, and neyi (6.2 (iii)) is
slightly dated:

(53) Akdeniz-in ne-si/ ney-i insanları çekiyor?

Mediterranean-GEN [Link]
‘What is it about the Mediterranean that attracts people?’
ne and the idiom ne biçim ‘what kind of…’ can also be use in exclamations (12.4 (iv)).

[Link] nere- ‘where’

The word nere- is used in its bare form only in non-standard dialects of Turkish. In
standard Turkish it is always inflected. Nere- occurs in the positions occupied by noun
phrases (Chapter 23), and it can combine with all the inflectional suffixes that attach to
nouns (8.1, 14.3):

(54) Elbise-ler-in-i nere-den al-dı-n? (usually pronounced [ ])

[Link]-ACC where-ABL buy-PF-2SG
‘Where did you buy your clothes from?’
(55) En çok nere-ler-i görmek istiyorsun?
where-PL-ACC
‘What places do you most want to see?’
(56) İğne-yi nere-n-den yap-acak-lar?
injection-ACC [Link]-ABL make-FUT-3PL
‘On what part of you? (lit. ‘Where on you?’) are they going to do the injection?’

nerede, neresi
nerede (usually pronounced [ ]) is used when inquiring about the location of a
person or object:
(57) Patagonya nere-de?
where-LOC
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 262

‘Where is Patagonia?’
neresi is the form used when inquiring about a place itself, as opposed to the location of a
particular object or person:
(58) Bura-sı nere-si?
[Link] [Link]
‘Where are we?’ (lit. ‘What place is this?’)
neresi seeks as an answer a property or a characteristic that describes a location, rather
than the whereabouts of a place. For example the response to a question like (59) would
be a remark which contains a characteristic of Patagonia, such as Arjantin’in güneyinde
yarı kurak bir plato ‘[It is] a semiarid plateau in southern Argentina’:
(59) Patagonya nere-si?
[Link]
‘What and where is Patagonia?’
The response to (57), on the other hand, is Arjantin’de ‘In Argentina’.

[Link] hangi ‘which’

hangi ‘which’ (15.6.2 (iii)) modifies a noun phrase:
(60) Ahmet hangi doktora güveniyor?
‘Which doctor does Ahmet trust?’
A noun phrase containing hangi is always marked with the accusative case when it is the
direct object:
(61) Hangi kitab-ı satın alacaksın?
which book-ACC
‘Which book will you buy?’
Like most determiners, hangi can be pronominalized (18.4) by the addition of a
possessive suffix:
(62) Kazanan hangisiydi?
‘Which of them (was the one who) won?’
(63) Hangi-ler-iniz-den para istediler?
[Link]-ABL
‘From which (ones) of you did they ask for money?’
hangi can be used with an ablative- or genitive-marked modifier (14.5.2 and 14.5.3),
including the ablative-marked forms of iç- or ara- ‘among’ ([Link]):
(64) (Asistanlardan) hangisi bugün görevli?
‘Which one (of the assistants) is on duty today?’
(65) İçinizden/aranızdan hangisi bu işte gönüllü olarak çalışmak istiyor (sunuz)?
‘Which one among you would like to work as a volunteer?’
 Questions 263

For the agreement of a predicate with a subject containing a pronominalized determiner,

see [Link].

[Link] kaç ‘how many’

kaç (15.6.1) is used for inquiring about the number of entities denoted by a noun phrase.
It occupies the position of a numeral in a noun phrase (see 15.9.2) and can be used with
the enumerator tane and measure terms such as avuç ‘(a) handful (of)’ (15.8), and is
followed by a noun without plural marking ([Link] (ii)).
(66) Günde kaç (tane) çay içiyorsun?
‘How many [cups of] tea do you drink a day?’
(67) Okula bu yıl kaç kişi alacaksınız?
‘How many people will you admit to the school this year?’
As a pronoun (suffixed with a possessive marker, see 18.4 (iv)) it can occur with
modifiers, which are usually ablative-marked, but can also be genitive-marked (14.5.2–
3):
(68) Öğrencilerden kaçı derse girmemiş?
‘How many of the students appear to have been absent?’
As in the case of hangi above, the modifier in the partitive construction can be an
ablative-marked phrase based on iç- or ara- ‘among’ ([Link]):
(69) İçinizden kaçı araba kullanmayı biliyor?
‘How many of you know how to drive?’
kaç is also used when asking about clock time:
(70) Saat kaç?
‘What time is it?’
(71) Kaçla kaç arasında arayayım seni?
‘Between what [times] should I call you?’
In questions about a person’s age, kaç is the modifier in a -sI compound (10.2, 15.3.2)
(72) O çocuk kaç yaşında?
‘How old is that child?’

[Link] ne kadar ‘how much’

ne kadar ‘how much’ is used for asking about the following:
(i) The quantity of a particular (usually uncountable) inanimate entity:
(73) Muhallebiye ne kadar şeker koyulur?
‘How much sugar is used in milk pudding?’
(74) Bundan ne kadar istiyorsun?
‘How much of this do you want?’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 264

(ii) The degree to which a particular adjective or adverb is applicable:

(75) Yeni bürosü acaba ne kadar büyük?
‘How big, I wonder, is his/her new office?’
(76) Bu araba ne kadar hızlı gider?
‘How fast does this car go?’
(iii) The price of an item:
(77) Bu elbise ne kadar?
‘How much is this dress?’
(iv) The quantity of time or space involved in a particular action, in which case it is used
adverbially:
(78) Bu sabah ne kadar koştun?
‘How long/how much did you run this morning?’
(79) Ameliyat ne kadar sürecek?
‘How long will the operation last?’
ne kadar is usually used with zaman ‘time’ as the complement of temporal postpositions
such as içinde/ zarfinda ‘within’, önce ‘before’ and sonra ‘after’ (16.4.1), when
inquiring about the amount of time associated with a particular event:
(80) Yemeğin altını, kaynadıktan ne kadar (zaman) sonra kapatıyorsunuz?
‘How long after the food comes to the boil do you turn off the heat?’
(81) Ne kadar (zaman)dır Londra’da oturuyorsunuz?
‘How long have you been living in London?’
With the addition of a 3rd person possessive suffix, the pronominalized form ne kadarı
(18.4 (iv)) can be used with a genitive-marked modifier (14.5.3):
(82) İş-in ne kadar-ın-ı Zeynep’e bırakacaksın?
job-GEN [Link]-ACC
‘How much of the job will you leave to Zeynep?’
Sentences with ne kadar can also be used as exclamations (12.4 (iv)).

[Link] ne zaman ‘when’

ne zaman is used for questioning the time of an event.
(83) Ne zaman eve gidiyorsun?
‘When are you going home?’
It also occurs in postpositional phrases where the complement is a time expression:
(84) Ne zamandan beri sigara içiyorsun?
‘Since when have you been smoking?’
(85) Ne zamana kadar bekleyeyim?
 Questions 265

‘When shall I wait till?’

[Link] neden, niye, niçin ‘why’

neden, niye, and niçin (pronounced [ ] or [ ] occur in questions which

seek the reason or motive for an action or state of affairs:
(86) Kedilere niye/niçin/neden doğru dürüst yemek vermiyorsun?
‘Why aren’t you feeding the cats properly?’

[Link] nasıl ‘how’

nasıl ‘how’ is used in questions which inquire about the manner in which an action is
performed:
(87) Semra’nın evine nasıl gidiliyor?
‘How does one go to Semra’s house?’
(88) Bunu bana nasıl yapabildin?
‘How could you do this to me?’
It can occur as a subject complement in linking sentences ([Link]):
(89) Nasılsın?
‘How are you?’
It can also occur as a determiner, often with a following bir. In this usage, it can be
replaced by ne gibi ‘what kind of’:
(90) Nasıl/ne gibi bir eve taşınmak istiyorsunuz?
‘What kind of house do you want to move to?’
nasıl appears with ol- ‘be’ and dA in a number of phrases such as nasıl oldu da/nasıl
olmuş da ‘how come’, ‘how was it that’, nasıl oluyor da ‘how is it that’:
(91) Nasıl oldu da bu kadar az çalışarak üniversiteyi bitirebildi?
‘How come s/he worked so little and still managed to finish university?’
nasıl can also occur in exclamations (12.4 (iv)).

19.2.2 THE POSITION OF WH-PHRASES IN A SENTENCE

The most common position for a wh-phrase is immediately before the predicate:
(92) Semra’lar artık nere-de otur-uyor?
where-LOC live-IMPF
‘Where do Semra and her family live now?’
(93) Parti-de kim-ler var-dı?
party-LOC who-PL [Link]
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 266

‘Who was there at the party?’

Another frequently used position for wh-phrases is the position that their answers would
occupy in the corresponding affirmative sentences:
(94) Kim onlar-ı okul-dan kaç-ar-ken gör-müş?
who they-ACC school-ABL [Link]-AOR-CV see-EV/PF
‘Who saw them running away from school?’
(95) Bu boya-lar-dan hangi-sin-i yan-da-ki dükkan-dan al-dı-n?
this paint-PL-ABL [Link]-ACC [Link]-LOC-ADJ
shop-ABL buy-PF-2SG
‘Which of these paints did you buy from the shop next door?’
In informal speech a wh-phrase can be placed in other positions, as long as it is before the
predicate:
(96) Erol’un kim doktor olduğunu söyledi?
‘Who said Erol was a doctor?’
Unlike other wh-phrases, those corresponding to non-case-marked direct objects and
oblique objects have a fixed position. These occur immediately before the predicate (see
23.2.1):
(97) Bugün hastalara öğle yemeğinde ne ver-di-ler?
what give-PF-3PL
‘What did they give the patients today for lunch?’
(98) Necla ne-den korkuyor?
what-ABL fear-IMPF
‘What is Necla scared of?’
Note that where neden means ‘why’ it can be in any position before the predicate.
The most common place for a wh-phrase that is a subject complement is at the end of
the sentence, which is the unmarked position for predicates of linking sentences
([Link]):
(99) Soru-lar-ı dağıt-acak ol-an kişi kim-di?
question-PL-ACC distribute-FUT be-PART person [Link]
‘Who was the person that was supposed to distribute the questions?’
However, it can also occur at the beginning of a sentence:
(100) Ne-dir bana sormak istediğin soru?
what-GM
‘What is the question you wanted to ask me?’

19.2.3 WH-PHRASES AND STRESSED PHRASES

In a wh-question it is possible for a phrase other than the wh-phrase to be stressed. This
happens when the speaker wants the addressee to focus on a particular phrase in the
question. In such cases the stressed phrase precedes the wh-phrase.
 Questions 267

(101) Çocuk-lar ev-de değil-se süt-Ü kim iç-ti?

child-PL home-LOC [Link] milk-ACC who drink-PF
‘If the children aren’t at home, then who drank the MILK?’
(102) DuvarlaRI ne zaman boyayacaklar?
‘When will they paint the WALLS?’

19.2.4 MULTIPLE WH-PHRASES

In the event of two wh-phrases occurring in the same sentence, they appear in the order in
which their corresponding responses would appear in an unmarked sentence (23.1). In
such cases, the first question word has stress, and the sentence can have either the same
intonation pattern as whquestions (i.e. rising intonation at the end), or it may have falling
intonation at the end:

(103) KİM kime neyi verdi?

‘WHO gave what to whom?’

19.3 ECHO QUESTIONS

An echo question follows a question which has just been uttered, either because the initial
question is unexpected and has come as a surprise, or because part of the initial question
has not been heard or understood properly. Echo questions may also be used for inquiring
about the validity of a question which has already been asked. Depending on the form of
the initial question, they may contain a wh-phrase and the interrogative particle mI. The
interrogative particle immediately follows a stressed wh-phrase, and the intonation is that
of wh-questions, a slight rise followed by a fall-rise:

(104) NEreye mi gidiyorum?

(i) ‘Are you asking me where I’m going?’
(ii) ‘Where am I GOING?’
If the wh-phrase is the subject complement, it occurs at the end and is not stressed. In
these questions, stress falls on the phrase that mI is attached to.
(105) HülYA mı kim?
‘Are you asking who Hülya is?/Who is HÜLYA?’
Echo questions following a statement have the same structure as ordinary wh-questions
but are higher in pitch and do not contain a fall in intonation:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 268

(106) Nereye gidiyorsun?

(i) ‘Where did you say you were going?’
(ii) ‘You’re going WHERE?’

19.4 QUESTIONING PARTS OF SUBORDINATE CLAUSES

The constituents of all types of subordinate clauses can be questioned, just like those of
main clauses:
(107) Zehra [sen-in kim-i ara-dığ-ın]-ı sanıyormuş?
you-GEN who-ACC [Link]-ACC
‘Who did Zehra think you were looking for?’
In (107) a constituent of a noun clause (Chapter 24) has been questioned. (108) shows the
questioning of a constituent of a relative clause (Chapter 25):
(108) [Nere-ye gid-en göçmen-ler] kolay kolay geri dönmüyorlar?
where-DAT go-PART immigrant-PL
‘(The) (im)migrants going where don’t easily return to their homeland?’
Finally, (109) exemplifies the questioning of a constituent of an adverbial clause (Chapter
26):
(109) [Para-n-ı nere-de bul-a-ma-yınca] telaşa kapıldın?
[Link]-ACC where-LOC find-PSB-NEG-CV
‘Where was it that when you couldn’t find your money [there] you got worried?’

19.5 MODAL ADVERBS USED IN QUESTIONS

19.5.1 hani
hani is an interjection which means ‘show me’ or ‘present me with’:
(110) Hani çocukların kırdıkları vazo?
‘So where is the vase that the children broke?’
Questions with hani do not target the location of a particular object or person but seek
confirmation of the presence of an entity of which both speech participants are aware.
hani resembles the rhetorical usage of questions with ‘where’ in which the speaker does
not actually ask for the whereabouts of a particular object but asks to be presented with it.
(111) Hani benim payım?
‘So where’s my share, then?’
 Questions 269

(112) Semra’ya aldığın hediye hani?

‘So where’s the present you bought for Semra?’
Hani can be used in combination with the inflected forms of nere- Hani and nere- are
usually adjacent:
(113) Semra’ya aldığın hediye hani nerede?
‘So where’s the present you bought for Semra?’
Constructions with hani at the beginning of a sentence and nere- at the end are also
acceptable:
(114) Hani bana vereceğin para nerede?
‘So where is the money you were going to give me?’
Hani can also be used with other wh-phrases, in order to question the validity of a
statement or to show disbelief:
(115) Hani ne zaman yaptın dersini?
‘When did you do your homework, then?’
(116) Hani kim görmüş çocukların camlara taş attığını?
‘So who saw the children throw stones at the windows, then?’
For the discourse-connective function of hani see 28.3.12.

19.5.2 Acaba
acaba indicates doubt or curiosity, and is roughly equivalent to ‘I wonder (if)’ in English.
It can be used in wh-questions and yes/no questions, both verbal and nominal. It is
generally placed either at the beginning or the end of a sentence, but can also occur in
other positions (23.2.2).
(117) Acaba misafirler saat kaçta gelecek?
‘I wonder what time the guests will arrive.’
(118) Semra’ya hediye alsam mı acaba?
‘I wonder if I should buy a present for Semra.’
For the usage of acaba with deliberative -sA see [Link].

19.5.3 yoksa
yoksa as an inferential connective (28.3.7) is typically used in yes/no questions. It
indicates a sudden realization on the speaker’s part that the situation might be different
from what s/he expected:
(119) Yoksa çocuklara daha yemek vermedin mi?
‘Haven’t you fed the children yet, then?’
(120) Eski halılarını satıyor musun yoksa?
‘Are you selling your old carpets, then?’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 270

yoksa generally occurs at the beginning or at the end of a sentence, but it can occur in
other positions as well (23.2.2), except when it is used for connecting alternative
questions (19.1.2).

19.5.4 bakalım
bakalım ‘let’s see’ is an expression of anticipation, usually indicating the speaker’s
curiosity about a prospective event. Except where it is used in commands, it occurs in
sentences that contain either a wh-phrase or the question particle mI, but these sentences
are not real questions, as they do not seek a response.
(121) Bakalım doktorlardan hangisi o hastayı ameliyat edecek.
‘Let’s see which (one) of the doctors will operate on that patient.’
(122) Dersini zamanında bitirebilecek misin bakalım.
‘Let’s see if you can finish your homework on time.’

19.6 RHETORICAL QUESTION FORMS IN NARRATIVE

In an informal narrative context, particularly in spoken narrative, yes/no questions

containing an aorist or optative negative verb form (i.e. -mAz, -mAyA- or -mAsIn) are
used to present an event or action as almost unbelievably perverse or outrageous:
(123) Yepyeni şemsiyemi takside unut-ma-ya-yım mı?
forget-NEG-OPT-1SG INT
‘Would you believe it, I left my brand new umbrella in the taxi!’
(124) Bunun üzerine Turgut elindeki bardağı duvara doğru fırlat-ma-sın mı?
hurl-NEG-OPT.3SG INT
‘Then, would you believe it, Turgut hurled the glass in his hand against the wall.’
 20
NEGATION

This chapter discusses the means of negating clauses in Turkish, and particular
expressions which interact with negation. Sections 20.1–20.3 describe the conditions in
which the markers of negation, -mA, değil and yok, are used. In 20.4 we discuss the
negative connective ne…ne…‘neither… nor…’, and in 20.5 expressions that occur
mainly in negative sentences, such as hiç ‘never’, ‘ever’, ‘at all’, kimse ‘no one’,
‘anyone’, hiçbir şey ‘nothing’, ‘anything’, asla ‘never’, etc. Section 20.6 focuses on the
usage of negative expressions in subordinate clauses.

20.1 -mA

The negative marker -mA (8.2.2) is an unstressable suffix. Its interaction with stress and
intonation are discussed in 4.3.2 and 5.2.1. For the irregular combination of -mA with
other suffixes see 8.2.3, and for converbial suffixes containing -mA see [Link].

20.1.1 NEGATING CLAUSES WITH SIMPLE VERBS

-mA is the primary means used for negating verbal sentences and subordinate clauses.
(1) Ağaçları kes-me-yecek-ler.
[Link]-NEG-FUT-3PL
‘They won’t cut down the trees.’
(2) Ahmet [Zeki’yi gör-me-yeceğ-in]-i iddia ediyordu.
[Link]-ACC
‘Ahmet was claiming that he wouldn’t see Zeki.’
(3) [Ayşe-nin durumu bil-me-diğ-in]-i hiç bir zaman düşün-me-di-m.
[Link]-ACC think-NEG-PF-1SG
‘I never thought that Ayşe didn’t know about the situation.’
In sentences with small clauses (24.5) the negation marker usually occurs once and can
be either on the main clause verb or on the verb of the subordinate clause.
(4) [Zeki’yi Fransızca konuşuyor] addet-mi-yor-lar.
consider-NEG-IMPF-3PL
‘They don’t consider Zeki a speaker of French.’
(5) [Zeki’yi Fransızca konuş-mu-yor] addediyorlar.
speak-NEG-IMPF
‘They consider Zeki unable to speak French.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 272

Where the main clause verb is bil- ‘think’ and the sentence contains a small clause, the
negation marker is obligatorily on the verb of the subordinate (small) clause:
(6) [Nuran’ı daha ehliyetini almadı] biliyordum.
‘I was under the impression that Nuran hadn’t got her driving licence yet’

20.1.2 NEGATING CLAUSES WITH COMPOUND VERB FORMS

In compound verbs formed with free auxiliaries ([Link]) the negative marker can be on
either the lexical verb or the auxiliary verb. When it is on the lexical verb it negates the
predicate, and this position of -mA indicates the non-performance of the action.
(7) İyi ki bakkal yiyecekleri eve yollayabiliyor. Bu yağmurda sokağa çık-ma-mış
ol-du-k.
[Link]-NEG-PF be-PF-1PL
‘Fortunately, the grocer can do home deliveries of food. We avoided having to go
out in this rain.’ (lit. ‘We ended up not having gone out…’)
(8) Yakında bu kıyıdan denize girilemez olacak.
‘Soon it will be impossible to bathe in the sea along this shore.’
(lit. ‘…going into the sea will be not be able to be done…’)
The occurrence of the negative marker with a compound verb containing bulun- is rare
but possible.
(9) O telaş içinde hastanın ateşine bakmamış bulundum.
‘In the confusion I neglected to take the patient’s temperature.’
The negative marker can also occur on the auxiliary verb ol- (but not bulun-). Placing the
negative marker on the auxiliary verb expresses a denial that a particular action is/was
fully performed:
(10) Bir yıl Çin’de kalmakla Çince öğren-miş ol-maz-sın.
learn-PF [Link]-2SG
‘You won’t have learnt Chinese by staying in China for one year.’
The frequently used form -mIş olmadı indicates that the action has only been partially
realized, usually because some component of the full meaning of the verb is considered
by the speaker unfulfilled:
(11) Sokağa çıkalım diye tutturdun ama bir blok yürümekle sokağa çık-mış ol-
ma-dı-k.
[Link]-PF be-NEG-PF-1PL
‘You keep saying we should go out, but walking one block doesn’t count as
having gone out.’ (lit. ‘…by walking one block we didn’t end up having gone
out’)
Putting the negative marker on both verbs (as in the second of the two compound verbs
below) is a means for denying the non-performance of an action:
(12) Böylesi daha iyi. Hem onları fazla meşgul et-me-miş ol-ur-uz
 Negation 273

occupied make-NEG-PF be-AOR-1PL

hem de ziyaretlerine git-me-miş ol-ma-yız.
go-NEG-PF be-NEG-1PL
‘It’s better this way. We won’t have taken up too much of their time, and on the
other hand we won’t have neglected to visit them.’ (lit. ‘…we will not have not
paid them a visit’).
For the combination of -mA with compound verbs containing bound auxiliaries, see 8.2.3
(in particular -(y)Iver and -(y)Abil; see also -yA).

20.1.3 -(y)Ip…-mA ‘WHETHER/IF…(OR NOT)’

-(y)Ip…-mA constructions correspond to ‘whether/if…(or not)’ in English. They are non-
finite noun clauses (24.4) which contain two identical verbs, the first one affixed with the
conjunctive suffix -(y)Ip ([Link], 28.2), and the second one affixed with the negative
marker and one of the subordinating suffixes (-DIK, -(y)AcAK, -mA, -mAK or -(y)Iş, see
8.5). These constructions express affirmative and negative alternatives for the same
situation. -(y)Ip…-mA constructions occur particularly commonly as objects of verbs of
cognition such as bil- ‘know’, anla- ‘understand’ and fark et- ‘notice’ ([Link]) or of the
verbs söyle- ‘say’, sor- ‘ask’:
(13) [Çocukları tatile götür-üp götür-me-mey]-e henüz take-CONJ take-NEG-
VN-DAT
karar ver-me-di-ler.
decide-NEG-PF-3PL
‘They haven’t yet decided [whether or not to take the children on holiday].’
(14) Ahmet [Nuran’a Noel hediyesi alıp almayacağın]-ı bilmiyor.
‘Ahmet doesn’t know [whether or not he will buy Nuran a Christmas present].’
(15) Elif [kalıp kalmayacağın]-ı söyledi mi?
‘Has Elif said [whether or not she’ll be staying]?’
When used in sentences with nominal predicates, -(y)Ip…-mA constructions usually
occur as the complement of the postposition konusunda ‘about’ (17.3.2):
(16) Osman [bu yaz tatile çıkıp çıkmama] konusunda tereddütlüymüş.
‘Apparently Osman is hesitating about [whether to go on holiday this summer].’

20.2 değil

20.2.1 NEGATING NOMINAL SENTENCES

değil ‘not’ (pronounced [deil] or [di:l]) is primarily the means of negating the linking
type of nominal sentence ([Link]). It can combine with the suffixes that occur in
nominal predicates, namely the copular markers (8.3.2), -DIr (8.3.3), the person markers
belonging to group 2 (8.4) and the converbial marker -(y)ken ([Link]):
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 274

(17) Nejat gençliğinde bu kadar inatçı değil-di.

stubborn [Link]
‘Nejat wasn’t so stubborn when he was young.’
(18) Bu yaptığın çocukluk değil(-dir) de nedie?
childishness not-GM
‘This behaviour of yours is nothing but childish.’ (lit. ‘If this behaviour of yours
is not childishness what is it?’)
(19) [Evde değil-sin] sandık.
not-2SG
‘We thought [you weren’t at home].’
(20) [Anneleri ev-de değil-ken] çok daha derli toplu oluyorlar.
home-LOC not-CV
‘They are much tidier [when their mother isn’t at home].’

20.2.2 NEGATING VERBAL SENTENCES

değil can also be used for negating verbal sentences. In this case the verb is typically
conjugated with the imperfective marker -Iyor, less commonly with the future marker -
(y)AcAK or the perfective marker -mIş (see 8.2.3):
(21) Her yere taksiyle gid-iyor değil-im.
go-IMPF not-1SG
‘It’s not the case that I go everywhere by taxi.’
However, negating a verbal sentence with değil is different from negating it with -mA as
in (22):
(22) Her yere taksiyle git-mi-yor-um.
go-NEG-IMPF-1SG
‘I don’t go everywhere by taxi.’
While negating a sentence with -mA simply asserts a state of affairs, negating a verbal
sentence with değil repudiates an assumption which has either been overtly expressed or
which the speaker attributes to the hearer. In the case of (21), the assumption is that the
speaker regularly takes a taxi.
değil can also occur with negated verb forms. Such sentences are affirmative as a
result of being doubly negated:
(23) Bu sınavlarda neden bu kadar güçlük çekildiğini anla-mı-yor değil-im.
understand-NEG-IMPF not-1SG
‘I DO understand why [people] have so much difficulty with these exams.’ (lit.
‘It’s not the case that I don’t understand…’)
(24) Herhalde böyle önemli bir konuda ona akıl danışmayacak değiliz.
‘We will naturally ask for his/her opinion on a matter as important as this.’ (lit.
‘It’s not the case that we won’t ask for his/her opinion on such an important
matter.’)
 Negation 275

A verb inflected with the perfective marker -DI can be followed by değil only if it also
has a negative marker. In this case any person marking has to attach to the verb instead of
to değil:
(25) Olanları gör-me-di-m değil, ama tam hatırlayamıyorum.
see-NEG-PF-1SG not
‘It’s not that I didn’t see what went on; it’s just that I can’t quite remember.’

20.2.3 değil IN ELLIPTICAL SENTENCES

değil can be used as a means of ellipsis (28.4.2), by replacing a particular part of a
sentence. It replaces a (verbal) negative predicate in sentences which contain an identical
(but affirmative) predicate. For example, a sentence such as (26) can be paraphrased as
(27):
(26) Elma yemiyorum, armut yiyorum.
‘I’m not eating apples, I’m eating pears.’
(27) Elma değil, armut yi-yor-um.
apple not pear eat-IMPF-1SG
‘I’m eating pears, not apples.’
The part that contains değil can also follow the main assertion:
(28) Armut yiyorum, elma değil.
In addition to replacing a predicate, değil can also replace a noun and its determiner
(together with the predicate):
(29) Büyük değil, küçük bir elma iste-miş-ti-m.
big not small a(n) apple [Link]-1SG
‘I had asked for a small apple, not [a] big [one].’
Alternatively, değil can be used in a function semantically equivalent to şöyle dursun and
bir yana ([Link]), for contrasting or comparing two events or entities in terms of the
scale of their improbability, in a similar way to ‘let alone’ in English. In these sentences
değil precedes the constituent whose actualization is regarded as less probable, and this
constituent usually precedes that to which it is contrasted. The intonation peak of such
sentences is the contrasted constituent, which is almost always followed by bile ‘even’
([Link] (iv)). The constituent to which something is contrasted is also stressed. Usually
değil receives secondary stress:
(30) Değil sinema ya gitmek, televizYON bile seyred-ecek
not cinema-DAT GO-INF television even watch-PART zaman-ım yok.
[Link] non-existent
‘I don’t even have time to watch TV, let alone go to the cinema.’
(31) Ahmet değil saksafon, ısLIK bile çalamaz.
‘Ahmet can’t even whistle, let alone play the saxophone.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 276

20.3 yok

The negative existential expression yok ‘non-existent’ is the negated form of var
‘existent’ ([Link]):
(32) Evde bir tane bile fazla ampul yok.
‘There isn’t even one spare light bulb in the house.’
(33) Çorbanın tuzu yok.
‘The soup doesn’t have any salt [in it].’
yok can also be used in a double negative construction with değil:
(34) Maaşımdan şikayetim yok değil ama idare ediyorum işte.
‘I’m not without complaints about my salary, but I get by all the same.’
In colloquial speech, yok is commonly used as the negative response to a question,
instead of hayır ‘no’:
(35) A.- Bugün sinemaya gidecek misin?
‘Will you be going to the cinema today?’
B.- Yok (gitmeyeceğim).
‘No (I won’t).’
See [Link] and 28.3.5 (ii) for the usages of yok as a connective.
Where a negative linking sentence includes a locative-marked expression, yok and
değil are interchangeable (cf. [Link], (19)–(20)):
(36) Semra parti-de değil-di/yok-tu.
party-LOC [Link]/[Link]
‘Semra wasn’t at the party.’
Note that when yok is used, the position of the locative noun phrase (partide ‘at the
party’) is not fixed in the sentence, whereas when değil is used the locative-marked noun
phrase has to immediately precede it.

20.4 THE NEGATIVE CONNECTIVE ne…ne ‘NEITHER…NOR’

ne…ne is a negative connective where each ne attaches to a phrase (either simple or

complex). The last ne conjunct can be emphasized by using de:
(37) Ne yabancılar ne (de) mahalle halkı otobüs turlarından memnunlar.
‘Neither the foreigners nor the locals are happy with the coach tours.’
(38) Görüşmeler hakkında ne hükümetten, ne iş adamlarından, ne (de) işçi
sendikalarından bir bilgi alamadık.
‘We weren’t able to get any information about the negotiations from either the
government, the businessmen or the trade unions.’
 Negation 277

Sentences containing ne…ne can have either affirmative or negative predicates, but in
each case they have a separate intonation contour and stress pattern. When the predicate
is affirmative the first ne receives secondary stress, there is a rise in intonation after the
first conjunct, and primary stress falls on the constituent before the predicate:

(39) Bu filmden ne kadınlar ne erkekLER hoşlandılar.

‘Neither the women nor the men liked this film.’
If the predicate is negative, all of the ne conjuncts have an identical intonation contour,
where both ne and the stressable syllable within the conjunct receive secondary stress,
and primary stress falls on the predicate (on the syllable before the negative marker):

(40) Bu filmden ne kadınlar ne erkekler hoşLANmadılar.

‘Neither the women nor the men liked this film.’
The second conjunct can be placed after the predicate, but only when the predicate is
affirmative:
(41) Bu sandviççide ne çay var, ne de kahve.
‘There is neither tea nor coffee in this sandwich shop.’
(42) Ne yiyecek bulabildim ne (de) içecek.
‘I couldn’t find either food or drink.’
The ne…ne connective can conjoin pairs of any type of phrase, such as adverbial phrases,
adjectival phrases, verb phrases, etc. It can also conjoin clauses:
(43) Ne tamir işleriyle uğraşır, ne yemek pişirmesini bilir, ne (de) çocuklarla
ilgilenir.
‘S/he neither does any repair jobs, nor knows how to cook, nor takes care of the
children.’
(44) O kitaba sadece şöyle bir göz gezdirdim, yani ne okudum ne okumadım.
‘I just glanced at that book, I mean I neither read [it] nor didn’t read [it].’

20.5 EXPRESSIONS INTERACTING WITH NEGATION

There are a number of expressions which are very restricted in their ability to occur with
affirmative predicates. They can occur in all types of negative sentence, and some can
also occur in affirmative questions. These expressions are:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 278

hiç ‘never’, ‘ever’, ‘at all’

hiçbir (+ noun phrase) ‘no/any…’
hiçbiri(si) ‘none/any (of)…’
hiçbir şey ‘nothing’, ‘anything’
hiçbir yer ‘nowhere’, ‘anywhere’
hiçbir zaman ‘never’, ‘ever’
hiçbir koşulda, hiçbir koşul/ şart altında, hiçbir durumda ‘under no/any circumstances’
kimse/hiç kimse/hiçbir kimse ‘no one’, ‘anyone’

Note that the negative meanings shown in the above list, such as ‘never’ and ‘no one’, are
produced only by a combination of one of the expressions shown above with one of the
markers of negation (-mA, değil or yok). This is illustrated in the following pair of
examples:
(45) Evde kimse var mı?
[Link]/anyone existent INT
‘Is there anyone in the house?’
(46) Evde kimse yok mu?
[Link]/anyone [Link] INT
‘Isn’t there anyone/Is there no one in the house?’
There are also certain other expressions which interact with negation. These are artık
‘any more’, bir daha ‘once more’, ‘again’, daha/henüz ‘yet’ (see [Link]).

20.5.1 hiç ‘NEVER’, ‘EVER’, ‘AT ALL’

hiç is an adverb that is subject to different conditions depending on whether the sentence
in which it occurs is a question or not. A sentence which is not a question and which
contains hiç must also contain one of the markers of negation (-mA, değil or yok), and hiç
intensifies this negative element:
(47) Bu adam hiç uyanık değil.
[Link] clever not
‘This man isn’t clever at all.’
(48) Trende yer yok-muş hiç.
place [Link] [Link]
‘It seems there aren’t any seats [left] at all on the train.’
hiç also occurs in yes/no questions with or without negative marking:
(49) Hiç sabah güneşin doğuşunu seyret-ti-n mi?
ever watch-PF-2SG
‘Have you ever watched the sun rise?’
(50) Hiç bin-me-di-n mi uçağa?
 Negation 279

ever board-NEG-PF-2SG
‘Haven’t you ever/Have you never been on a plane?’

20.5.2 hiçbir ‘NO’, ‘ANY’, AND EXPRESSIONS CONTAINING hiçbir

AND herhangi bir ‘NO’, ‘ANY’
Hiçbir functions as a determiner in noun phrases (15.6.1):
(51) Hiçbir çocuk arkadaşından ayrılmak istemez.
‘No child would want to be separated from his/her friend(s).’
It also occurs in the following:
(i) the pronominalized form hiçbiri(si) ‘none [of]’, ‘any [of]’ (14.5.2–3, 18.4)
(ii) the composite expressions hiçbir şey ‘nothing’, ‘anything’, hiçbir yer
‘nowhere’, ‘anywhere’, hiçbir zaman ‘never’, ‘ever’, which incorporate the noun
phrases şey ‘thing’, yer ‘place’ and zaman ‘time’
(iii) the adverbials hiçbir koşulda, hiçbir koşul/şart altında, hiçbir durumda
‘under no/any circumstances’.
All the forms that hiçbir appears in are found mainly in sentences containing one of the
markers of negation (-mA, değil or yok):
(52) Hiçbir yere gitmeyin.
‘Don’t go anywhere.’
(53) Yolculardan hiçbiri(si) yerini vermek istemedi.
‘None of the passengers wanted to surrender their seats.’
(54) Hiçbir zaman mutlu değil miydi?
‘Wasn’t s/he ever happy?’
(55) Dolapta hiçbir şey yok.
‘There’s nothing in the fridge.’
In informal speech some speakers use expressions containing hiçbir in affirmative
questions as well. But the more common alternative, which is also the only way of
expressing any in affirmative sentences that are not questions, such as (57), is herhangi
bir ‘any’ (15.6.1, 18.4 (iv)):
(56) Herhangi bir yerde su var mı?/Hiçbir yerde su var mı?
‘Is there [any] water anywhere?’
(57) Artık bunlardan herhangi birini alıp gidelim.
‘Let’s just take any one of these and go.’

20.5.3 (hiç) kimse ‘NO ONE’, ‘ANYONE’

Like hiç, kimse and its reinforced form hiç kimse are subject to different conditions
depending on whether the sentence in which they occur is a question or not. A sentence
which is not a question and which contains (hiç) kimse must also contain one of the
markers of negation (-mA, değil or yok):
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 280

(58) (Hiç) kimseyi içeri almıyorlarmış.

‘They aren’t letting anyone in.’
(59) Bugün (hiç) kimse evinde değil.
‘No one is at home today.’
In affirmative questions the simple form kimse is preferred:
(60) İçeride kimse var mı?
‘Is there anyone inside?’
hiçbir kimse can be used as a further reinforcement of hiç kimse:
(61) Partiye hiç(bir) kimse gelmedi.
‘(Absolutely) No one came to the party.’
Colloquially, the plural suffix is sometimes added to (hiç) kimse, producing a slightly
intensified meaning (see [Link] (v)):
(62) Beni artık (hiç) kimseler sevmiyor.
‘No one loves me any more.’
An even more informal alternative is (hiç) kimsecik(ler) (for -CIK see [Link]).
When (hiç) kimse is the subject, the predicate has 3rd person singular marking.
Similarly, when kimseler or kimsecikler expresses the subject, the non-specific reference
of these pronouns precludes plural marking of the predicate (see [Link] (iv)).
(63) Bu günlerde dükkanına kimse(ler) uğramıyor.
‘No one has been going to his/her shop recently.’
Note that kimse and the forms containing it have accusative case marking when
functioning as the direct object:
(64) Bu günlerde kimseyi/kimseleri görmüyorum.
‘I haven’t been seeing anyone recently.’

20.5.4 MODIFIERS OF NEGATION MARKERS

Apart from hiç (20.5.1), which intensifies the meaning of a negation marker, the
following adverbials also modify the markers -mA, değil and yok: artık ‘no longer’, ‘any
more’ ([Link] (iib)), asla ‘never’, katiyen ‘never’, pek ‘very’ and o kadar ‘so’,
‘such’, ‘all that’.

[Link] asla ‘never’, katiyen ‘never’

Both of these adverbs reinforce the meaning of a negative marker. However, unlike hiç,
these express a determination on the part of the subject that the event described shall
never occur. asla and katiyen occur only in sentences that contain one of the markers
of negation (-mA, değil or yok):
 Negation 281

(65) Karısından asla özür dilemez.

‘He never apologizes/will never apologize to his wife.’
(66) Onu bir daha katiyen görmeyecek misin?
‘Will you never see him/her again?’

[Link] pek ‘much’, ‘very’

When pek, which is an adverb of degree (16.5), modifies one of the markers of negation
(-mA, değil or yok), its function is not to intensify, but rather to reduce the absoluteness of
the negative meaning:
(67) Odam pek büyük değil.
‘My room’s not very big.’
(68) O konuşmadan pek bir şey hatırlamıyorum.
‘I don’t remember much about that lecture.’
pek can also occur in affirmative sentences, but only where either (a) it modifies one of
the determiners çok ‘much’ or az ‘little’, or (b) the sentence expresses an exclamation
(12.4).

[Link] o kadar ‘so’, ‘such’, ‘all that’

The degree adverb o kadar (16.5) has a particular function in negative sentences, where
the quantity or degree it refers to may not have been explicitly specified in the preceding
discourse, but is simply implied to be considerable:
(69) Aslında dondurmayı o kadar sevmiyorum.
‘Actually I’m not all that keen on ice cream.’
(70) Onlar o kadar varlıklı değillermiş.
‘It seems they’re not so very wealthy.’

20.6 EXPRESSIONS INTERACTING WITH NEGATION IN

SUBORDINATE CLAUSES

20.6.1 EXPRESSIONS INTERACTING WITH NEGATION IN NOUN

CLAUSES
When one of the expressions listed in 20.5 occurs in a noun clause (Chapter 24), the verb
of the clause can be either affirmative or negative. The verb of a noun clause containing
one of these expressions can be affirmative only if the main clause predicate has negative
marking (i.e. -mA, değil or yok):
(71) [Kimse-nin bu kitab-ı oku-duğ-un]-u san-m-ıyor-um.
[Link]-GEN this book-ACC [Link]-ACC think-NEG-IMPF-1SG
‘I don’t think anyone has read this book.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 282

(72) [Hiçbir şeyin denize atılması] doğru değil.

‘It isn’t right for anything at all to be thrown into the sea.’
(73) [Hasan’ın sana yardım için hiçbir şey yaptığı] yok.
‘Hasan does absolutely nothing to help you.’
The verb of a noun clause containing hiç ‘never’, ‘ever’, ‘at all’ (20.5.1) and (hiç)kimse
‘no one’, ‘anyone’ (20.5.3) can be affirmative also in questions:
(74) [Kimsenin kapıyı çaldığın]-ı duydun mu?
‘Did you hear [anyone ring the door bell]?

20.6.2 EXPRESSIONS INTERACTING WITH NEGATION IN

RELATIVE CLAUSES AND ADVERBIAL CLAUSES
When a relative clause (Chapter 25) or an adverbial clause (Chapter 26) contains one of
the expressions listed in 20.5, the verb of that clause is obligatorily negative:
(75) [Ortalıkta hiç iz bırakmayan] hırsız, yandaki evi de soymuş.
‘It seems that the burglar, [who hasn’t left any traces], has also burgled the house
next door.’
(76) Necla [kocasından hiç haber alamayınca] tutuklandığını sanmış.
‘[When Necla didn’t hear from her husband at all], she thought he had been
arrested.’
One exception is clauses with -(y)Ip, which have to be left without negative marking if
the verb in the superordinate clause is negative:
(77) Onunla hiçbir zaman görüşüp konuşamadık.
‘We never managed to see each other and talk.’
See 28.2 for details.
 21
TENSE, ASPECT AND MODALITY

Tense, aspect and modality are grammatical categories mainly affecting the verbal
constituent of a clause, although adverbials may also contribute to their expression.
Tense (21.2) expresses the temporal location of the situation being talked about,
indicating whether this is before, at, or after a particular reference point (usually, but not
always, the moment of speech).
(1)
(a) Okul-lar pazartesi açıl-dı.
school-PL Monday open-PF
‘The schools started on Monday.’
(b) Okul-lar pazartesi açıl-acak.
-FUT
‘The schools will start on Monday.’
Aspect (21.3) indicates whether the situation is presented as completed, ongoing, or part
of a recurring pattern.
(2)
(a) Ahmet bir elma ye-di.
an apple eat-PF
‘Ahmet ate an apple.’
(b) Ahmet bir elma yi-yor-du.
-[Link]
‘Ahmet was eating an apple.’
(c) Ahmet sabahları bir elma ye-r-di.
-[Link]
‘In the mornings Ahmet used to eat an apple.’
Modality (21.4) is a complex category, being concerned with possibility and necessity,
with the speaker’s degree of commitment to the factuality of a statement, and with the
speaker’s desire for something to happen or not happen.
(3)
(a) Sevil bu konu-yu araştır-abil-ir.
this matter-ACC investigate-PSB-AOR
‘Sevil can/could/may look into this matter.’
(b) Sevil bu konuyu araştır-mış-tır.
-PF-GM
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 284

‘Presumably Sevil has looked into this matter.’

(c) Sevil bu konuyu araştır-sın.
-OPT.3SG
‘I want Sevil to look into this matter.’
In Appendix 2 we present an inventory of all the Turkish suffixes that contribute to the
expression of tense, aspect and modality. As in most languages, there is considerable
overlap between the articulation of the three categories.

21.1 THE EXPRESSION OF TENSE, ASPECT AND MODALITY IN

TURKISH

In Turkish tense, aspect and modality are marked by a combination of suffixes from the
following categories:
(i) Verbal tense/aspect/modality suffixes (8.2.3)
(ii) Copular markers and -DIr (8.3).
The copular markers are restricted in the range of tense/aspect/modality meanings they
cover. In order to make available in nominal sentences ([Link]) the full range of
tense/aspect/modality specification, the copular/ auxiliary verb ol- is used as the carrier of
suffixes of position 3 (see [Link]).
In verbal sentences the use of compound verb forms containing free auxiliaries
([Link]) makes possible combinations of tense/aspect/modality marking that cannot be
achieved on a single verb stem, and thus constitutes an integral part of the overall system
for the expression of these categories. The role of compound verb forms is discussed in
21.5.
It is important to note that in Turkish tense, aspect and modality are only fully
articulated in finite verb forms. For discussion of the extent to which tense, aspect and
modality can be marked in the non-finite verb forms used in subordinate clauses see
[Link]–2, 24.4.7, 25.4.1, and 26.2.3.

21.2 TENSE

In this book we use the term ‘tense’ in the strict sense of the grammatical marking of
location in time.
In Turkish the primary tense differentiation is between past and non-past. The suffixes
involved in the expression of present and future tense (-(I)yor, -mAktA and -(y)AcAK) are
markers of relative tense. This means that the expression of absolute present and future
tense is dependent on the absence of any other tense marker, such as the past copula -
(y)DI, which would indicate a reference point other than the moment of speech.
 Tense, aspect and modality 285

21.2.1 PAST TENSE

The markers of past tense in Turkish are the verbal suffixes -DI and -mIş and the copular
marker -(y)DI (with its relatively uncommon alternant idi).
(i) -DI and -mIş:
These suffixes express both past tense and perfective aspect (21.3), that is to say they
express past events that are viewed as a completed whole.
(4) Ev-i sat-tı-nız mı?
house-ACC sell-PF-2PL INT
‘Did/Have you sold the house?’
(5) Kerem’in babası ona biraz para ver-miş.
give-EV/PF
‘Apparently Kerem’s father gave/has given him some money.’
For the use of -DI and -mIş to express the completion of entry into a state, and thus the
existence of that state of affairs at the moment of speech, see 21.3.3.
(ii) -(y)DI:
The past copula expresses past tense and imperfective aspect (21.3), that is to say it
presents a situation as it was at some time in the past. This can be a state of affairs, as in
the nominal sentences (6) and (7), or it can be an event which was ongoing (8) or
anticipated (9) at the time referred to.
(6) Bodrum-da-ydı-k.
-[Link]-1PL
‘We were in Bodrum.’
(7) Evde hiç para yok-tu.
[Link]
‘There was absolutely no money in the house.’
(8) Ayten bir bankada çalış-ıyor-du.
[Link]
‘Ayten was working in a bank.’
(9) Yeni bir öğretmenimiz ol-acak-tı.
[Link]
‘We were going to have a new teacher.’
The suffixes -DI and -mIş and the copular marker -(y)DI differ not only in terms of aspect
but also in terms of their precise tense values. Except for contexts in which it is not a
tense marker at all but a marker of counter-factual modality ([Link], 27.2.3), the past
copula -(y)DI expresses past tense in absolute terms; that is, it locates a situation in a time
prior to the moment of speech. -mIş, by contrast, is a marker of relative past tense. When
followed by -(y)DI or by the auxiliary verb ol-, it can refer to a time that is prior to any
reference point established by the context:
(10) [Dön-düğ-üm-de] herkes yat-mış-tı.
[Link]-LOC everyone [Link]
‘[When I came back] everyone had gone to bed.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 286

It is quite possible for this ref erence point to be after the moment of speech, i.e. in the
future:
(11) İnşallah [ben dön-ünce-ye kadar] uyu-muş ol-acak-sın.
[Link] I return-CV-DAT until sleep-PF AUX-FUT-2SG
‘I hope you will have gone to sleep [by the time I get back].’
As for -DI, its primary function in terms of tense is the same as that of -(y)DI, but in
colloquial usage it can combine with -(y)DI in the sequence -DIydI, in which context
(only) it acquires the relative tense value typical of -mIş. (For the position of a person
marker in -DIydI forms see 8.4.)
(12) Ben sana bu sabah ↓söyle-di-ydi-m/↓söyle-di-m-di.
I you-DAT this morning [Link]-1SG/[Link]
‘I (had) told you this morning.’
It should be noted that forms in -mIştI and -DIydI do not always locate an event prior to a
specific reference point in the past. Sometimes, as in (12), the combination of two past
tense markers simply serves to indicate that the situation being talked about is located in
a past time that is quite separate from the speech context.

21.2.2 PRESENT TENSE

Turkish has no marker of present tense as such. In verbal sentences, present tense is
indicated by a combination of
(i) a marker of progressive aspect (21.3.2), usually -(I)yor, less commonly -
mAktA, and
(ii) the absence of the past copular marker -(y)DI.
Progressive aspect, which presents a situation as ongoing at a particular point in time, is
equivalent in tense terms to ‘relative present’. (13) is the non-past version of (8) above:
(13) Ayten bir bankada çalış-ıyor.
‘Ayten works/is working in a bank.’
In nominal sentences without ol- ([Link]), present tense is indicated simply by the
absence of the past copula. (14) and (15) are the non-past versions of (6) and (7) above.
(14) Bodrum’da-yız.
-1PL
‘We’re in Bodrum.’
(15) Evde hiç para yok.
‘There’s absolutely no money in the house.’
For the use of past tense perfective forms to express (entry into) a state ongoing at the
moment of utterance see 21.3.3.
 Tense, aspect and modality 287

21.2.3 FUTURE TENSE

(i) Among the verbal suffixes, the only explicit marker of future tense is -(y)AcAK:
(16) Herkes bu roman-a bayıl-acak.
everyone this novel-DAT love-FUT
‘Everyone will love this novel.’
In nominal sentences the auxiliary ol- ([Link]) serves as the bearer of -(y)AcAK:
(17) [Geldiğiniz zaman] anahtar kapıcıda olacak.
‘The key will be with the caretaker when you arrive.’
Like -mIş, -(y)AcAK expresses tense in relative rather than absolute terms. When
combined with the past copula, it locates an event or state at a time subsequent to some
past reference point established by the discourse context. The future time to which the -
(y)AcAK component of -(y)AcAktI refers may or may not be future in relation to the
moment of speech:
(18) Geçen/Önümüzdeki yıl yeni bir öğretmen-imiz ol-acak-tı.
last/next year new a [Link] [Link]
‘Last year/Next year we were going to have a new teacher.’
(ii) The imperfective aspect marker -(I)yor is regularly used with future reference when
talking about events that are scheduled or fixed:
(19) Yarın Londra’ya gidiyoruz.
‘We’re going to London tomorrow.’
(20) Konser kaçta başlı-yor?
‘What time does the concert start?’
The use of -(I)yor for the expression of planned future events indicates a strong
confidence on the speaker’s part that events will indeed run according to the schedule.
The use of -(y)AcAK in such contexts would suggest a more independent prediction, or
would be used in the case of a schedule’s breaking down. For example, (21) is more
likely than (20) in the case of a concert that had not started at the scheduled time:
(21) Konser kaçta başlayacak?
‘What time is the concert going to start?’
As in its other functions, -(I)yor in its future tense function is actually a marker of relative
tense and, in the context of a narrative, the combination -(I)yordu expresses a scheduled
event anticipated at some reference point in the past:
(22) Füsun telaşlıydı. Birkaç gün sonra annesi geliyordu.
‘Füsun was agitated. Her mother was coming in a few days’ time.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 288

(iii) The aorist form of the verb often has future time reference, but any tense component
of its meaning is conditioned by its primary function as a marker of various kinds of
modality (see [Link], [Link]–6).
(iv) The construction -mAk üzere ‘on the point of…ing’ can be used to express action
that is or was imminent:
(23) [Sen telefon et-tiğ-in sıra-da] sokağ-a çık-mak üzere-ydi-m.
you [Link] time-LOC street-DAT
[Link]-VN [Link]-1SG
‘I was on the point of going out [when you rang].’
For the converbial uses of -mAk üzere see 26.3.2, 26.3.12.

21.3 ASPECT

Aspect is that part of the grammar of a language which expresses the temporal viewpoint
from which a situation is presented. It may be viewed ‘from the outside’, as a completed
whole, with both its starting point and its endpoint visible. This is called perfective
aspect. Alternatively it may be viewed ‘from the inside’, as being incomplete and
ongoing at the time in question. This internal perspective, known as imperfective aspect,
is also the typical viewpoint for the presentation of static situations (states).
At another level, imperfective forms are used for presenting any kind of situation
(event or state) as occurring habitually, or as a general rule or pattern. In habitual
statements it is the recurring pattern of events, rather than any individual event or state,
that is presented as ongoing at the time in question.

21.3.1 PERFECTIVE AND IMPERFECTIVE

The distinction between perfective and imperfective applies mainly to sentences in the
past tense. In Turkish, perfective aspect is expressed by the verbal suffixes -DI and -mIş,
and imperfective aspect is expressed by the verbal suffixes -(I)yor, -mAktA and -(A/I)r,
and by the past copular marker -(y)DI.
Perfective:
(24)
(a) Geçen hafta her gün iki saat çalış-tı-m.
work-PF-1SG
‘Last week I worked for two hours every day.’
(b) İki saat çalış-mış-ım.
work-EV/PF-1SG
‘I seem to have worked for two hours.’
Imperfective:
(25)
 Tense, aspect and modality 289

(a) Saat ikide çalış-ıyor-du-m.

[Link]-1SG
‘At two o’clock I was working.’
(b) Saat ikide ofis-te-ydi-m.
[Link]-1SG
‘At two o’clock I was at the office.’
(c) Genellikle iki saat çalış-ır-dı-m
[Link]-1SG
‘I would usually work for two hours.’
The forms -mIştI and -DIydI (21.2.1) combine elements of perfectivity and
imperfectivity. They express the state ensuing upon the completion of an action or event.

21.3.2 SUBDIVISIONS OF IMPERFECTIVE: PROGRESSIVE AND

HABITUAL
Within imperfective aspect there is a further distinction between progressive and
habitual, which applies in both past and non-past contexts. Progressive aspect views a
specific situation as incomplete. This situation may be dynamic (an event) or static (a
state). In either case it is presented as being ongoing, or continuing, at the temporal
reference point. Habitual aspect, on the other hand, indicates that a situation is incomplete
in a different way: not at the level of any specific occurrence but in the sense that it is
part of a recurrent pattern, which is shown as ongoing at the temporal reference point.
Of the three imperfective markers noted above, -(I)yor occurs with both progressive
and habitual meaning, while -mAktA generally expresses progressive aspect but can occur
with habitual meaning in relatively formal contexts. The difference between -(I)yor and -
mAktA is largely stylistic, with -(I)yor being less formal and therefore much the more
common in conversation. However, -mAktA may occur in relatively informal speech
where a speaker wishes to emphasize the intensity of the ongoing event.
The range of aspectual meanings of -(I)yor and -mAktA in present-tense sentences is
illustrated below:
Progressive: (event)
(26)
A. -Şu an-da ne yap-ıyor-sunuz?
this moment-LOC what do-IMPF-2PL
‘What are you doing at the moment?’
B. -Yemek yi-yor-uz.
meal eat-IMPF-1PL
‘We’re having dinner.’
(27) Bugün aile yapı-sı hız-la değiş-mekte-dir.
today family structure-NC speed-INS change-IMPF-GM
‘Today the structure of the family is changing rapidly.’
Progressive: (state)
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 290

(28) Sen Ömer-i ben-den daha iyi tanı-yor-sun

you Ömer-ACC I-ABL more well know-IMPF-2SG
‘You know Ömer better than me.’
(29) Çizgi-nin üst taraf-ın-da birkaç beyaz nokta gör-ül-mekte-dir.
line-GEN upper [Link]-LOC several white spot
see-PASS-IMPF-GM
‘Several white spots can be seen above the line.’
Habitual:
(30) Fatma genellikle Ankara-ya otobüs-le gid-iyor.
Fatma usually Ankara-DAT bus-INS go-IMPF
‘Fatma usually goes to Ankara by bus.’
(31) Türkiye artık televizyon ihraç et-mekte-dir.
Turkey now television export AUX-IMPF-GM
‘Now Turkey exports/is exporting televisions.’
A precisely similar range of meanings is seen in past-tense sentences with -(I)yordu and -
mAktAydI:
(32) Saat ikide çalış-ıyor-du-m. (Progressive: event)
-[Link]-1SG
‘At two o’clock I was working.’
(33) Sen Ömer’i benden daha iyi tanı-yor-du-n. (Progressive: state)
-[Link]-2SG
‘You knew Ömer better than me.’
(34) Genellikle yazın bu rakam art-makta-ydı. (Habitual)
-[Link]
‘This figure would usually increase in the summer.’
The aorist forms -(A/I)r/-mAz never express progressive aspect. In past habituals -
(A/I)rdI/-mAzdI are often interchangeable with -(I)yordu or -mAktAydI (or their negative
forms):
(35)
(a) O zamanlarda Mehmet çok sigara iç-iyor-du.
-[Link]
‘At that time Mehmet was smoking a lot.’
(b) O zamanlarda Mehmet çok sigara iç-er-di.
-[Link]
‘At that time Mehmet smoked/used to smoke a lot/Mehmet was a heavy
smoker.’
The difference in meaning between the two past habitual forms -(I)yordu and -(A/I)rdI
reflects the ‘general rule’/’observed facts’ dichotomy between the aorist and other finite
forms, discussed in [Link]. -(A/I)rdI usually refers to a long-term pattern of behaviour,
which in the case of a human subject is viewed as an inherent characteristic of that
person. -(A/I)rdI is potentially ambiguous between the past habitual meaning seen in
 Tense, aspect and modality 291

(35b) and the counterfactual meaning ‘would have…’ ([Link]), which occurs most
typically in the main clause of certain types of conditional sentence.

21.3.3 EVENTS AND STATES

There is a close interaction between aspect marking and the event/state distinction.
Although both events and states can be presented from an imperfective viewpoint,
perfective aspect occurs only in the expression of events. A number of Turkish verbs,
particularly those expressing a bodily posture or a psychological state (perception,
cognition or emotion) have a dynamic (event) meaning when used in a perfective form,
and a stative (state) meaning when used in a progressive form. Some examples are given
below.
Event State
dur- ‘stop’ ‘stand’
otur- ‘sit down’ ‘be sitting’
yat- ‘lie down’, ‘go to bed’ ‘lie’, ‘be in bed’
uyu- ‘fall asleep’ ‘be asleep’
tanı- ‘recognize’ ‘know’

The effect of aspect marking on the meaning of these verbs is illustrated below:
(36)
(a) Tülay yan-ım-a otur-du. (Event)
Tülay [Link]-DAT sit-PF
‘Tülay sat down beside me.’
(b) Yemek-te Tülay yan-ım-da otur-uyor-du. (State)
dinner-LOC Tülay [Link]-LOC [Link]
‘Tülay was sitting beside me at dinner.’
In the case of psychological verbs, such as sevin- ‘be glad’ (and some others, such as üşü-
‘(begin to) feel cold’), there is often a high degree of interchangeability between a
perfective -DI or -mIş (expressing entry into a state) and a progressive -(I)yor (expressing
the state itself):
(37)
(a) [Mehmet-in gel-eceğ-in]-e sevin-di-m. (Entry into state)
Mehmet-GEN [Link]-DAT [Link]-PF-1SG
‘I was/I’m glad [to hear] that Mehmet’s coming.’
(b) [Mehmet’in geleceğin]-e sevin-iyor-um. (State)
-IMPF-1SG
‘I’m glad Mehmet’s coming.’
(38)
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 292

(a) Anla-dı-n mı? (Entry into state)

-PF-2SG INT
‘Have you understood?’/‘Do you understand?’
(b) Anlı-yor mu-sun? (State)
-IMPF INT-2SG
‘Do you understand?’
In the case of some of the verbs that have this dual event/state quality, in particular those
involving physical states, it is possible for perfective forms to indicate not just entry into
the state (of sleep, sitting, etc.) but the maintenance of that state over a period of time:
(39) Sekiz saat uyumuşum.
‘I seem to have slept for eight hours.’
(40) Bütün gün evde oturduk.
‘We sat at home all day.’
Turkish also has a small class of verbs which can directly express only the entry into a
state. The existence of the state at some particular time is expressed by a perfective form.
The most important verbs in this class are acık- ‘get hungry’, susa- ‘get thirsty’, yorul-
‘get tired’, bık- ‘get tired (of)/bored (with)’, kız- ‘get angry’, kal- ‘be left’:
(41) Susa-dı-m.
[Link]-PF-1SG
‘I’m thirsty’

21.3.4 ASPECT IN NOMINAL SENTENCES

Aspectual marking in nominal sentences requires the presence of the copular verb ol-
([Link]) to act as the bearer of one of the aspectual suffixes discussed in 21.3.1. Two
particular forms are aspectually significant: oldu (contrasting with -(y)DI/idi and vardı)
and oluyor.

[Link] The distinction between oldu and -(y)DI/idi or vardı

In its copular functions the verb ol- can have either dynamic or stative meaning, a
distinction that generally corresponds to the distinction between ‘become’ and ‘be’ in
English. The past copular marker -(y)DI/idi, on the other hand, being a marker of
imperfectivity, can only express states (‘be’). This means that the distinction between
oldu and -(y)DI/idi often corresponds to that between ‘became’ and ‘was’:
(42) 1994’te Ahmet derneğin başkanı oldu.
‘In 1994 Ahmet became president of the society.’
(43) 1994’te Ahmet derneğin başkanıydı.
‘In 1994 Ahmet was president of the society.’
However, there are certain kinds of nominal sentence in which oldu does not express a
change of state (as ‘become’ does), but rather the outcome of some kind of process of
evaluation or ranking.
 Tense, aspect and modality 293

(44) Geçen hafta-ki toplantı çok sıkıcı ol-du.

last week-ADJ meeting very boring be-PF
‘Last week’s meeting was very boring.’
This usage of oldu often involves a sequential ordering item such as ilk ‘first’, son(uncu)
‘last’, ondan sonraki ‘the next’, or an ordinal numeral (15.7.2):
(45) Gürkan [bana bu olay-dan bahsed-en] üçüncü kişi ol-du.
Gürkan I(DAT) this incident-ABL mention-PART third person be-PF
‘Gürkan was the third person [to mention this incident to me].’
The superlative marker en ‘most’ (15.4.3) is another typical element of these evaluative
sentences:
(46) [En beğenilen] tablo bu oldu.
‘The picture [that was most admired] was this one.’
In existential sentences oldu expresses the event of coming into existence rather than the
(past) state of existing.
(47) Partide [seni soran]lar oldu.
There were people [asking after you] at the party.’ (See 25.3.)
(48) Fatma’nın bir kızı oldu.
‘Fatma (has) had a daughter.’
The same aspectual distinction applies to olmuş and -(y)mIş/imiş.

[Link] Habitual aspect in nominal sentences

Habitual aspect in nominal sentences is marked by oluyor in non-past contexts and by
oluyordu or olurdu in past contexts. The pairs of sentences below illustrate the difference
between a single state that obtains/obtained at some particular moment, and a habitually
recurring state:
(49)
(a) Şu anda ev-de-yim.
home-LOC-1SG
‘At the moment I’m at home.’
(b) Bu saatte ev-de ol-uyor-um.
home-LOC be-IMPF-1SG
‘I’m [usually] at home at this time [of day].’
(50)
(a) Ögrenciler o gün neşeli-ydi-ler.
[Link]-3PL
‘The students were cheerful that day.’
(b) Öğrenciler neşeli ol-uyor-lar-dı/ol-ur-lar-dı.
cheerful [Link]/[Link]
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 294

‘The students were (usually/always) cheerful.’

(51)
(a) Bu akşam film var.
There’s a film this evening.’
(b) Bazı akşamlar film oluyor.
‘Some evenings there’s a film.’

[Link] Other meanings of oluyor

The copular form oluyor is sometimes used in sentences expressing an identification or
classification, and has the effect of making a statement sound less abrupt or less
categorical. This is a stylistic refinement which is in decreasing use:
(52) Halil benim dayızadem (oluyor).
‘Halil is my cousin.’ (son of my maternal uncle)
(53) En ucuzu bu (oluyor) galiba.
‘This one seems to be the cheapest.’
In some instances of this optional usage of oluyor an element of habituality can be
detected.
(54) Ortak dilimiz Fransızcaydı/Fransızca oluyordu.
‘Our common language was French.’
Another optional usage of oluyor occurs where a speaker wants to
emphasize the ongoing, subjective experience of a situation, process or
activity.
(55) Anne babaları arasındaki bu gerginlik, çocuklar için zor (oluyor) tabii.
‘This tension between their parents is, of course, hard for the children.’

21.4 MODALITY

Unlike tense and aspect, modality is not related to the concept of time. It is concerned
with whether a situation is presented as a directly known fact, or in some other way. A
main clause that is marked by one of the following tense/aspect/modality suffixes is
modally neutral, that is to say it is presented as reflecting a fact directly known to the
speaker:
(i) in verbal sentences: -DI, -(I)yor, -mAktA
(ii) in nominal sentences: no marker or -(y)DI.
Modalized utterances are of various kinds. They may present:
(i) a generalization, general rule, or statement of principle: -(A/I)r/ -mAz, -DIr
([Link])
 Tense, aspect and modality 295

(ii) an assumption or hypothesis: -(A/I)r/-mAz, -DIr, olacak, olmalı ([Link]–4)

(iii) a statement concerning the possibility or necessity of the occurrence of an
event or state: -(y)Abil/-(y)AmA, -mAlI (21.4.2)
(iv) a statement based upon knowledge acquired indirectly: -mIş, -(y)mIş (21.4.3)
(v) an expression of desire or willingness for an event or state to occur:
imperative, optative, conditional and aorist forms (21.4.4).
The suffixes -mIş and -(y)AcAK have modal force in some contexts but not in others. In
the case of -mIş this is grammatically determined: -mIş becomes purely a tense/aspect
marker when followed by -(y)DI, -DIr or ol-. By contrast, whether -(y)AcAK is to be
understood as marking (unmodally) future tense or (modally) an assumption or an
instruction depends on the speech context in a more general way.

21.4.1 GENERALIZATIONS AND HYPOTHESES

The Turkish system of modality marking allows f or a distinction to be made between
(neutral) statements that reflect the direct experience, knowledge or observation of the
speaker, and (modal) statements that make assertions of a more general, theoretical
nature, or express assumptions or hypotheses. The grammatical markers that express
these types of modality are predominantly the aorist forms -(A/I)r/-mAz in verbal
sentences and the generalizing modality marker -DIr in nominal sentences.

[Link] Statements of permanent or generalized validity

Verbal sentences with aorist

In reviewing the types of generalization that are expressed by the aorist, we shall
compare statements expressed in this form with the corresponding statements marked
with the imperfective marker -(I)yor. In its habitual aspect sense (21.3.2), -(I)yor
expresses a different kind of generalization from the aorist, one that refers to a state of
affairs which has been directly observed or experienced by the speaker, without implying
that it has the status of a rule or principle.
There are four main types of generalization expressed by the aorist:
(i) Scientific and moral axioms:
(56) İki, iki daha dört ed-er.
two two more four make-AOR
‘Two and two make four.’
(57) Para mutluluk getir-mez.
money happiness [Link]
‘Money doesn’t bring happiness.’
In contrast with (57), which claims to be a universal truth, (58) reflects the speaker’s own
experience or observation from life.
(58) Para mutluluk getir-mi-yor.
-NEG-IMPF
‘Money doesn’t bring happiness.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 296

(ii) Normative or prescriptive statements:

The use of the aorist is standard in text types ranging from constitutions to recipes,
that lay down a procedure that is to be followed. However, such statements are usually
capable of either a descriptive or a prescriptive reading:
(59) Başbakan, Cumhurbaşkanı tarafından görevlendirilir.
‘The Prime Minister is appointed by the President.’
(60) Burada musluk suyu içilmez.
‘One doesn’t drink the tap water here.’ (lit. ‘the tap water is not drunk’)
The corresponding form with -(I)yor, on the other hand, is more descriptive:
(61) Burada musluk suyu içilmiyor.
‘Here people do not drink the tap water.’ (lit. ‘the tap water is not drunk’)
The passive of the negative aorist form is regularly used in public notices expressing
prohibitions:
(62) Girilmez ‘No entry’
Park yapılmaz ‘No parking’
(iii) Generic statements about the characteristic qualities or behaviour of a class:
(63) Kaplumbağa yavaş yürür.
‘A tortoise walks slowly.’
(64) Amerika’lılar çok süt içer.
‘(The) Americans drink a lot of milk.’
The substitution of -(I)yor for the aorist in sentences like (63), where the subject is bare,
changes the reference of this noun phrase from generic to specific (see 22.7). Thus in (65)
kaplumbağa refers to a specific tortoise:
(65) Kaplumbağa yavaş yürüyor.
‘The tortoise walks/is walking slowly.’
In (66) the plural-marked Amerika’lılar could retain its generic reading (see 22.7), but
could also refer to a specific group of Americans:
(66) Amerika’lılar çok süt içiyor.
‘The Americans are drinking/drink a lot of milk.’
(iv) Statements about the characteristic qualities or behaviour of an individual:
(67) Ali sigara iç-mez.
-[Link]
‘Ali doesn’t smoke.’
(68) Ali sigara iç-mi-yor.
-[Link]
‘Ali doesn’t smoke.’
 Tense, aspect and modality 297

(67) could be paraphrased as ‘Ali is a non-smoker’. Its counterpart (68) merely describes
Ali’s observed habitual behaviour. This difference in meaning is underlined by the fact
that an adverbial restricting the time span to which the statement applies, such as bu
günlerde ‘at the moment’ ([Link]), would be possible only with içmiyor:
(69) Ali bu günlerde sigara iç-mi-yor.
‘Ali’s not smoking at the moment.’

Nominal sentences with -DIr

One of the functions of the generalizing modality marker -DIr in a nominal sentence is to
define or classify a subject, or to ascribe certain permanent qualities or inherent
characteristics to it. However, this usage of -DIr is nowadays largely confined to formal
language.
(70) Antropoloji, [insan topluluklarını inceleyen] bir bilim(dir).
‘Anthropology is a science which studies human communities.’
Where a generalization ascribes a certain quality to an entire class, and the subject
complement is adjectival, the informal counterpart of -DIr is not the absence of a marker,
as above, but olur or oluyor (cf. [Link] for oluyor as a marker of habitual aspect). These
forms give the statement a less absolute, more modest tone than -DIr. Like other -(I)yor
forms, oluyor conveys the idea that the utterance reflects the speaker’s own experience:
(71) Çocuklar bencil ol-ur/ol-uyor.
be-AOR/be-IMPF
‘Children are selfish.’

[Link] The use of -DIr in formal writing

In academic and other formal writing, and in official announcements made orally (for
example on radio and television), the use of -DIr is by no means confined to nominal
sentences. -DIr is also regularly affixed to the following finite verbal forms: -mIş, -
(y)AcAK, -mAlI , -mAktA.
(72) Osmanlı Türkleri de bu kültüre katkıda bulunmuşlardır.
‘And the Ottoman Turks contributed to this culture.’
(73) Bu teknik, [[yüzeysel yapıları farklı olan] eserlerin karşılaştırılmasın]-ı
kolaylaştıracaktır.
‘This technique will facilitate the comparison of works [which have different
surface structures].’
In terms of their tense/aspect values, the following correspondences hold:
-mIştIr -DI past tense, perfective aspect
-(y)AcAktIr -(y)AcAK future tense
-mAktAdIr -(I)yor, -mAktA present tense, progressive or habitual aspect
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 298

It should be noted that the -mIş component of -mIştIr has no (evidential) modality value
of its own; it is purely past/perfective. The modal function of -DIr in these verbal
sentences is to indicate that a claim of some significance is being made, and that this is
based on some well-founded authority which gives it a kind of permanence that
transcends the explicit tense marking of its content.

[Link] Hypothetical and counterfactual situations

Hypothetical and counterfactual situations imply the fulfilment of some condition
(27.2.3–6):
(74) Koşma, düşersin.
‘Don’t run; you’ll fall over.’ (i.e. Don’t run; if you do…)
(75) Senden iyi mühendis olur.
‘You would make a good engineer.’ (lit. ‘From you [a] good engineer would
come into existence.’)
Counterfactual situations differ from hypotheticals in that the condition upon which they
depend is known to be unrealizable. They are expressed by -(A/I)rdI/-mAzdI or -
(y)AcAktI:
(76) Ben bu reng-i seç-mez-di-m.
I this colour-ACC [Link]-1SG
‘I wouldn’t have chosen this colour.’
-(y)AcAktI is an option only where reference is to a pre-planned or scheduled event:
(77) [O konser-e git-mek] hoş ol-ur-du/ol-acak-tı.
that concert-DAT go-VN nice [Link]/[Link]
‘It would have been nice [to go to that concert].’
In counterfactual utterances the past copula -(y)DI is as much a marker of modality as of
tense, and the reference is not always to past time ([Link]).

[Link] Assumptions
In Turkish the principal markers of non-factual probability judgements are the aorist and
-DIr. Assumptions expressed with these forms are usually also marked by a modal
adverbial (16.3) such as kesinlikle ‘definitely’, herhalde ‘probably’, ‘presumably’, ‘I
expect’, or belki ‘perhaps’, which expresses the strength of the speaker’s confidence in
the soundness of the assumption. Where no modal adverbial is used the utterance will
usually be understood as having the medium strength of an assumption marked by
herhalde. It is important to note that assumptions do not have to be grammatically
marked in Turkish. The non-factual modality of such utterances is often indicated simply
by the presence of a modal adverbial. We include within the category of assumptions
expressions of hope marked by the modal adverbial umarım ‘I hope’ or inşallah ‘God
willing’, ‘hopefully’.
(i) Verbal sentences with -(A/I)r/-mAz:
 Tense, aspect and modality 299

Assumptions expressed with the aorist always have future time reference, and denote
events that are not envisaged as planned or predetermined:
(78) Mehmet geç gel-ir.
late come-AOR
‘Mehmet will (probably) be late.’
(79) Umarım Semra vazonun yokluğunu farket-mez.
[Link]
‘I hope Semra won’t notice the absence of the vase.’
(ii) Nominal and verbal sentences with -DIr:
A striking feature of assumptions expressed with -DIr is that in this type of utterance -
DIr is attached not only to 3rd person but also to 1st and 2nd person predicates (see
8.3.3).
(80) İnşallah hasta değil-im-dir.
hopefully ill not-1SG-GM
‘I hope I’m not ill.’
(81) Herhalde bir yerlerde karşılaş-mış-ız-dır.
-PF-1PL-GM
‘We have probably met somewhere or other.’
(82) Mutlaka bugün telefon ed-ecek-ler-dir.
-FUT-3PL-GM
‘They will definitely ring today.’
-(y)AcAKtIr expresses the assumption that the predicted action is planned or otherwise
predetermined. (82) therefore expresses greater confidence in the realization of the
prediction than if the aorist had been used.
(iii) Probability statements with olsa gerek:
This construction (the conditional form of the copular/auxiliary verb ol-followed by
gerek ‘necessary’) is used mostly in the 3rd person:
(83) En iyisi bu olsa gerek.
‘This one is probably the best.’
olsa gerek occurs also in compound verb forms (21.5).
(iv) Non-future predictions with olacak:
The future form of ol- can be used with present tense reference to make a confident
statement about an entity that is not within sight at the moment of speech, but is near
enough for the prediction to be immediately verified:
(84)
A. -Zarflar nerede?
‘Where are the envelopes?’
B. -İkinci çekmecede olacaklar.
‘They’ll be in the second drawer.’
For the occurrence of this usage of olacak in compound verb forms, see 21.5.1.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 300

(v) Assumptive use of olması gerek/lazım:

The construction -mA-POSS gerek/lazım is one of the means of expressing objective
necessity, as explained in [Link]. The 3rd person form with the copular/auxiliary ol- as
the verb can have the secondary function of expressing a strong assumption based upon
knowledge of other relevant facts. The time reference is either present or, where there is a
preceding verb form with -mIş, past:
(85) Bu saatte [Ali’nin işte olması] lazım.
‘Ali must be at work at this hour.’ (I know his hours of work.)
(86) [Herkesin afişi görmüş olması] gerek.
‘Everyone must have seen the notice.’ (It was in an obvious place.)
(vi) Deductions with olmalı:
The obligative form (see below, [Link]) of the copular/auxiliary verb ol-expresses an
inference drawn about a past or present event or state from strong circumstantial
evidence. In nominal sentences the time reference is present tense:
(87) Kapı açık, evde olmalılar.
‘The door’s open; they must be at home.’
For the use of olmalı following the -mIş or -(I)yor form of another verb, see 21.5.1–2.

21.4.2 POSSIBILITY AND NECESSITY

The concepts of possibility and necessity differ from other types of modality in having
objective components that are independent of the speaker’s perception or attitude. Ahmet
can swim two kilometres and The card has to be inserted slowly are examples
respectively of objective possibility and objective necessity.

[Link] The expression of possibility

The suffixes which mark possibility and impossibility are the verbal suffixes -(y)Abil and
-(y)AmA (the latter incorporating the negative marker -mA). The markers of possibility
and impossibility enter into a wide range of combinations with the markers of tense,
aspect, and other types of modality. Non-finite verb forms can also be marked for
(im)possibility:
(88) konuş-abil-mek
talk-PSB-VN
‘to be able to talk’
(89) gör-e-me-yen-ler
see-PSB-NEG-PART-PL
‘those unable to see’
Where -(y)Abil is added to the negative stem of a verb, it denotes the possibility of the
action not occurring, or the freedom of the subject not to perform it:
(90) söyle-me-yebil-mek
 Tense, aspect and modality 301

say-NEG-PSB-VN
‘to be able not to say’

Objective possibility and the question of actualization

Objective possibility denotes either the ability of a person to perform a certain action, or
the absence of any impediment to the occurrence of an event. In statements of objective
possibility the choice of tense/aspect/ modality marking (following -(y)Abil/-(y)AmA)
determin es whet her possibility or impossibility is understood as actualized (taking
effect) or not.
Statements with aorist marking simply assert that the possibility of something
happening exists or does not exist, leaving the question of actualization open. Aorist-
marked (im)possibility statements fall into one or other of the categories of modalized
statement typically expressed by the aorist:
(i) Statements of generalized validity ([Link]):
(91) Kaplumbağa hızlı yürü-ye-mez. (cf. (63))
[Link]
‘A tortoise can’t walk fast.’
(ii) Hypothetical statements ([Link]):
(92) Masayı şuraya koyabiliriz.
‘We can/could put the table here.’ (If we so decide(d).)
The combination of aorist -(y)Abilir or -(y)AmA(z) with the past copular marker -(y)DI
produces counterfactual meaning, i.e. implies that an action envisaged as having been
possible at some time in the past was not actualized:
(93) Daha uygun bir saat seçebilirdiniz.
‘You could have chosen a more convenient time.’ (Implies that you didn’t.)
(iii) Assumptions and conjectures with future time reference ([Link] (i)):
(94) Belki bunca zamandan sonra birbirimizi tanı-ya-ma-yız.
recognize-PSB-NEG-1PL
‘Maybe we won’t be able to recognize each other after all this time.’
In contrast to possibility statements with aorist marking, those marked with -DI, -mIş, -
(I)yor or -mAktA (with or without a following -(y)DI) always imply the actualization of
the possibility or impossibility:
(95) Geçen yıl Bodrum’a dört defa gid-ebil-di-k.
go-PSB-PF-1PL
‘Last year we were able to go to Bodrum four times.’ (Implies that we did this.)
(96) Filiz o gün oğluyla konuş-a-ma-mış-tı.
[Link]
‘Filiz hadn’t been able to talk to her son that day.’ (Implies that she had not
talked to him.)
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 302

In future contexts the question of actualization does not arise. The combination of
(im)possibility marking with the future marker -(y)AcAK simply indicates that a
possibility (or the lack of it) is or was regarded as certain to occur at some time in the
future:
(97) Yeni evimizden işime bisikletle gidemeyeceğim.
‘From our new house I shan’t be able to go to work by bicycle.’
The form -(y)Abiliyor can additionally be used to express the fact that a situation tends to
occur from time to time:
(98) Plastik parçalar zamanla aşınabiliyor.
‘The parts made of plastic can/tend to erode with time.’

Speaker-generated possibility
Speaker-generated possibility (as distinct from objective possibility) is of two types:
permissive and speculative.
(i) Permissive possibility:
The granting of permission by the speaker to the hearer(s) or to a third party is
expressed by -(y)Abilir:
(99) Bilgisayarımı [ne zaman istersen] kullan-abil-ir-sin.
use-PSB-AOR-2SG
‘You can use my computer [whenever you like].’ (I give you permission to do
so.)
Prohibition is expressed by -(y)AmAz:
(100) Burada otur-a-maz-sınız.
[Link]-2PL
‘You can’t sit here.’ (I/We don’t allow it.)
Requests for permission are expressed with the 1st person interrogative of the above
forms:
(101) Bir şey sorabilir miyim?
‘Can/May I ask something?’
(ii) Speculative possibility:
A statement of speculative possibility expresses a judgement about the possibility of
some event occurring. It is usually expressed with -(y)Abilir:
(102) Bugün yağmur yağabilir.
‘It may/could rain today.’
Occasionally, speculative possibility is expressed with -(y)AbileceK. The use of this form
effectively neutralizes the distinction between objective and speculative possibility, and
gives a greater sense of authority to a statement about the possible occurrence of a future
event:
 Tense, aspect and modality 303

(103) Bu evler birkaç yıl sonra yıkılabilecek.

‘These houses may be demolished in a few years’ time.’
Speculations with -(y)Abilir can be expressed about negative or (objectively) impossible
situations as well as positive ones:
(104) Yağmur yağ-ma-yabil-ir.
NEG-PSB-AOR
‘It may not rain.’/‘It’s possible (that) it won’t rain.’
(105) Coşkun’u ikna ed-e-me-yebil-ir-im.
AUX-PSB-NEG-PSB-AOR-1SG
‘I may not be able to persuade Coşkun.’
With verbs in general the negative possibility aorist form -(y)AmAz does not occur with
speculative meaning. However, in the case of the copular/ auxiliary ol- ‘be’, this form can
be used to negate a speculative possibility on the basis of other known facts:
(106) Osman Ankara’da olamaz.
‘Osman can’t be in Ankara.’ (e.g. because I saw him in London an hour ago)
(107) Sen bu ceketimi daha önce gör-müş ol-a-maz-sın.
see-PF [Link]-2SG
‘You can’t have seen this jacket of mine before.’ (e.g. because I have only just
bought it)

Ambiguity of -(y)Abilir
In sentences expressing events in which human agency is involved, the sequence -
(y)Abilir is potentially ambiguous between objective, speculative and permissive
readings:
(108) Ahmet tez-in-i bu oda-da yaz-abil-ir.
[Link]-ACC this room-LOC write-PSB-AOR
(a) ‘Ahmet can/could write his thesis in this room.’ (There is nothing to prevent
him from doing this.) (objective)
(b) ‘Ahmet can write his thesis in this room.’ (I permit him to use the room for
this purpose.) (permissive)
(c) ‘Ahmet may write his thesis in this room.’ (I consider it possible that he will
decide to do so/Perhaps he will do so.) (speculative)

The expression of possibility in subordinate clauses formed with -DIK/ -(y)AcAK

As explained elsewhere in this book, certain types of subordinate clause in Turkish
involve a choice between -DIK and -(y)AcAK as the verbal marker:
(i) noun clauses expressing indirect statements and questions (24.4.3)
(ii) certain types of relative clause ([Link])
(iii) certain types of adverbial clause (26.2, 26.3).
The distinction in meaning between these two forms is generally one of tense, with -DIK
expressing relative present or relative past, and -(y)AcAK relative future. However, where
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 304

one of these suffixes is combined with a possibility marker, the -DIK/-(y)AcAK

distinction often involves modality as much as tense. The combinations -(y)AbildiK and -
(y)AmAdIK always express actualized possibility/impossibility:
(109) [Selim-in neden bun-u anla-ya-ma-dığ-ın]-ı bilmiyordum.
Selim-GEN why this-ACC [Link]-ACC
‘I didn’t know [why Selim couldn’t understand this].’ (Implies that he did not
understand it.)
By contrast, the combinations -(y)AbileceK and -(y)AmAyAcAK have a number of
different modal values in subordinate clauses:
(i) An objective possibility (or impossibility) that is expected to be actualized at some
(relative) future time. This usage is equivalent to -(y)AbileceK in finite clauses:
(110) [Toplantıya katıl-a-ma-yacağ-ım]-ı söyledim.
[Link]-ACC
‘I said [I wouldn’t be able to attend the meeting].’
(111) Kartı [herkesin gör-ebil-eceğ-i] bir yere koymuştu.
[Link]
‘S/he had put the card in a place where everyone would be able to see it.’
(ii) Two of the kinds of objective possibility that are articulated by the aorist
combinations -(y)Abilir and -(y)AmA(z) in finite clauses, in which the question of
actualization is unresolved:
Generalizations:
(112) [Yaşlıların gençleri kıskanabileceklerin]-i herkes bilir.
‘Everyone knows [that the old can be jealous of the young].’
Hypothetical situations:
(113) [O çocuğun yapamayacağı] hiçbir şey yok.
‘There is nothing [that boy couldn’t do].’ (If he set his mind to it)
(iii) Counterfactual situations (expressed in finite clauses by -(y)Abilirdi and -
(y)AmAzdI):
(114) Osman [Ali’ye yardım edebileceği halde] hiçbir şey yapmadı.
[‘Although Osman could have helped Ali], he did nothing.’
(iv) Permissive possibility and its denial:
(115) Özdemir’e [bilgisayarımı kullanabileceğin]-i söyledim. (cf. 99))
‘I told Özdemir [that he could use my computer].’
(v) The affirmative form -(y)AbileceK (attached to a positive or negative stem) can
express speculative possibility:
(116) [Başkanlık konusunda Coşkun’u ikna edemeyebileceğim için] başka kişiler
üzerinde de durmamız gerekiyor. (cf. (105))
 Tense, aspect and modality 305

‘[As I may not be able to persuade Coşkun about the chairmanship,] we have to
consider other people too.’
As in the case of aorist impossibility forms in finite clauses, the subordinate impossibility
combination -(y)AmAyAcAK can be used in a speculative context only when attached to
the copula/auxiliary ol-:
(117) [Osman’ın Ankara’da olamayacağın]-ı biliyordum. (cf. (106))
‘I knew [that Osman couldn’t be in Ankara].’

[Link] The expression of necessity/obligation

The grammatical marker of necessity (or obligation) in Turkish is the suffix -mAlI.
(118)
(a) Ankara-ya git-meli-yim.
Ankara-DAT go-OBLG-1SG
‘I must go to Ankara.’
Necessity is also regularly expressed by lexical means. This involves articulating the
action that is considered necessary as a non-finite noun clause (24.4.1–2), which is then
treated in one of the following ways:
(i) As the subject of a nominal sentence with gerek/lazım ‘necessary’ or şart
‘essential’ as the complement:
(118)
(b) [Ankara-ya git-me-m] lazım/gerek/şart.
Ankara-DAT [Link] necessary/essential
‘I have to go to Ankara.’/’It’s essential for me to go to
Ankara.’ (lit. ‘[My going to Ankara] is necessary/essential.’)
(ii) As the subject of a verbal sentence with gerek- ‘be necessary’ as the predicate:
(118)
(c) [Ankara’ya git-me-m] gerek-iyor.
[Link] [Link]-IMPF
‘I have to go to Ankara.’ (lit. ‘[My going to Ankara] is necessary.’)

(iii) As the modifier in a -(s)I compound of which the head is zor/ mecburiyet
‘compulsion’ or durum ‘situation’:
(118)
(d) [Ankara’ya git-mek] zor-un-da-yım/durum-un-da-yım.
go-VN compulsion-NC-LOC-1SG/ situation-NC-LOC-
1SG
‘I have to/am obliged to go to Ankara.’ (lit. ‘I am in the compulsion/situation
of [going to Ankara].’)
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 306

Note that zorunda also has an obsolescent synonym mecburiyetinde (from mecburiyet
‘obligation’). The use of durumunda in this construction is slightly more formal than
zorunda, and is not favoured by all speakers.
All four versions of the statement in (118) refer to an obligation that is presented as
existing at the moment of speech but not (yet) fulfilled. In many contexts they could be
used interchangeably. However, apart from the fact that the constructions with şart and
zorunda express a stronger, more unavoidable obligation than those with gerek, lazım or
gerek-, there is a more fundamental difference between -mAlI (118a), on the one hand,
and all the lexicalized constructions (118b–d) on the other. -mAlI expresses an obligation
perceived or imposed by the speaker (speaker-generated), while the lexicalized
constructions present an objective obligation, that is, one arising from external factors
operating independently of the speaker. The difference corresponds roughly to that
between ‘must’ and ‘have to’ in English.
In addition to the personalized forms illustrated in (118), objective necessity can also
be expressed impersonally, with a -mAk clause ([Link]) as the subject of lazım or gerek-
:
(119) [Burasını da doldurmak] gerekiyo mu?
‘Is it necessary to/Does one have to fill in this part as well?’

Speaker-generated obligation: -mAlI

A sentence marked with -mAlI that has a 1st person subject expresses an action which the
speaker feels obliged (often morally obliged) to perform (but has not yet done so):
(120) Mustafa’ya yardım etmeliyiz.
‘We must help Mustafa.’
Where the subject is 2nd or 3rd person the utterance is tantamount to the speaker’s
imposing an obligation on that other person or persons:
(121) Önce annene sormalısın.
‘You must first ask your mother.’
Sometimes the 3rd person singular form is used with impersonal meaning:
(122) Bence bu sorunu bir an önce halletmeli.
‘If you ask me, this problem ought to be solved as soon as possible.’ (lit. ‘one
ought to solve…’)
The affixation of -mAlI to a negative stem expresses an obligation not to behave in a
certain way:
(123) [Beni gördüğün]-ü hiç kimseye söyle-me-meli-sin.
tell-NEG-OBLG-2SG
‘You mustn’t tell anyone [that you saw me].’
The addition of the past copular marker -(y)DI to -mAlI produces one of two possible
meanings:
 Tense, aspect and modality 307

(i) In the great majority of cases it gives a counterfactual reading (cf. [Link]). In
other words, it indicates that an obligation perceived by the speaker was not fulfilled at
the time that it obtained.
(124) O para-yı geri ver-meli-ydi-n.
that money-ACC back [Link]-2SG
‘You ought to have given that money back.’ (But you didn’t.)
(ii) In the context of a narrative, -mAlIydI sometimes projects an obligation on to an actor
at a particular juncture in the narrative. The outcome of this obligation is unknown at this
point in the story, i.e. the question of actualization remains open:
(125) Hüseyin artık karar vermeliydi. Herkesi bu kadar oyalaması ayıptı.
‘Hüseyin must now take a decision. It was disgraceful for him to keep everyone
waiting so long.’
Deductions expressed with olmalı (discussed above in [Link] (vi)) constitute a quite
different kind of speaker-generated necessity.

Objective necessity and its actualization

As in the case of objective possibility, the choice of grammatical marking for the
predicate not only indicates tense and aspect, but also distinguishes between statements
or questions which imply the actualization (fulfilment) of the obligation and those which
do not carry such an implication.

Non-actualized obligation
The means of expressing a non-actualized obligation existing at the moment of speech
were discussed above in connection with (118). In a narrative context, an obligation that
arose in the past can similarly be presented without indicating whether the obligation was
fulfilled or not. This is done by adding the past copular marker to any of the structures
exemplified in (118), as in (126), where the listener/reader is not informed at this stage
whether or not the narrator actually went on to say something:
(126) Herkes bana bakıyordu. Artık bir şey söylemem gerekiyordu/söylemek
zorundaydım.
‘Everyone was looking at me. Now I had to say something.’
The forms lazımdı and gerekiyordu can also be used counterfactually, like -mAlIydI,
discussed above:
(127) Dünkü toplantıda bu konuyu konuşmamız gerekiyordu.
‘We were supposed to discuss this at yesterday’s meeting.’ (But we didn’t.)

Actualized obligation
The suffixes -DI, -mIş and -(y)AcAK imply the actualization of an obligation (because of
its unavoidable nature). The suffix -(I)yor, on the other hand, is ambiguous with regard to
actuality. The constructions that occur with actualizing meaning are:
(i) -mA-POSS gerek-
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 308

(ii) -mA-POSS lazım gel-

(iii) -mAk zorunda kal-
Examples of actualized obligation using the above forms are given below:
(i) A specific event in the past:
(128)
(a) [Zeki-ye yüz dolar ver-me-m] gerek-ti.
Zeki-DAT hundred dollar [Link] [Link]-PF
(b) [Zeki-ye yüz dolar ver-mek] zor-un-da kal-dı-m.
give-VN compulsion-NC-LOC [Link]-PF-1SG
‘I had to give Zeki a hundred dollars.’ (And therefore I did.)
(ii) Recurrent obligation:
The only forms which unambiguously imply the actualization of a recurring obligation
are -mAk zorunda kalıyor(du):
(129) Her ay Zeki’ye yüz dolar ver-mek zor-un-da kal-ıyor-um/
-IMPF-1SG/
kal-ıyor-du-m.
-[Link]-1SG
‘I have/had to give Zeki a hundred dollars a month.’ (And therefore I do/did.)
The use of vermem gerekiyor(du) would be equally grammatical in (129), but would
make the sentence ambiguous as to whether the obligation was fulfilled or avoided. (See
(118c), (126) and (127) above for sentences where gerekiyor(du) has been given a non-
actualized or even (in the case of (127)) a counterfactual interpretation.)
(iii) Firmly expected future (or relative future) obligation:
Actualization is not an issue in future contexts, because of their inherent
unknowability. The marking of an obligational expression with -(y)AcAK simply
indicates that the obligation itself is or was regarded as certain to occur at some time in
the future:
(130) Yakında yeni bir televizyon al-ma-mız gerek-ecek(-ti).
[Link] [Link]-FUT-
[Link]
‘Soon we shall (would) have to buy a new television.’

The expression of necessity in subordinate clauses

In subordinate clauses necessity and obligation can be expressed only by using one of the
constructions with gerek- (or lazim gel-), zorunda kal- or (for obligations that are in
existence at the time on which attention is focused) zorunda ol-. The distinctions between
objective and speaker-generated, and between actualized and non-actualized, necessity
are neutralized in these non-finite constructions.
(131)
(a) Adam [gitmesi gerek-tiğ-in]-i söyledi.
 Tense, aspect and modality 309

[Link]-ACC
(b) Adam [gitmek zor-un-da ol-duğ-un]-u söyledi.
compulsion-NC-LOC [Link]-AC
‘The man said [he had to go].’
For the omission of genitive marking on the subject of a noun clause such as that in (131)
see 24.4.6 (iii).

21.4.3 EVIDENTIALLY MARKED STATEMENTS WITH -mIş OR -

(y)mIş
Another major category of speaker-generated modality consists of statements based upon
knowledge acquired indirectly. This is called evidential modality, and is marked in
Turkish by the verbal suffix -mIş, which (as explained in 21.2.1 and 21.3.1) also marks
relative past tense and perfective aspect, and the copular suffix -(y)mIş, which is purely a
marker of evidential modality. The source of the indirect knowledge upon which these
statements are based is usually either a statement made by someone else (in speech or in
writing) or a resultant state (e.g. a flat tyre as an indicator of the tyre having burst). In the
case of -(y)mIş the modality marker sometimes simply indicates that the statement
expresses a new discovery on the part of the speaker, which has not yet been fully
assimilated to his/her existing stock of knowledge.
For the use of the modal adverbial meğer(se) in evidentially marked statements see
16.3 (iv).

[Link] Information-based evidential statements

When speakers are transmitting information that they have received verbally from any
other source (oral or written), they give their statement evidential marking. Use of
evidential marking is not a matter of choice in Turkish. Failure to use it when making a
statement about a situation of which one has no direct knowledge is a breach of
conversational conventions, because it suggests that a different kind of knowledge
(personal experience or observation) is involved. The English equivalents of -mIş/ -(y)mIş
in this usage are expressions like ‘apparently’, ‘it seems’, ‘I gather’.
The way in which the verbal suffix -mIş replaces -DI in the verbal transmission of
information is illustrated in (132), which represents three separate, consecutive
encounters between the individuals involved:
(132)
(a) (Ali, to Gül): Bahçe-ye bir meşe ağac-ı dik-ti-m.
garden-DAT an oak tree-NC plant-PF-1SG
‘I’ve planted an oak tree in the garden.’
(b) (Gül, to Orhan): Ali bahçe-sin-e bir meşe ağacı dik-miş.
[Link]-DAT -EV/PF
‘Ali has apparently planted an oak tree in his garden.’
(c) (Orhan, to Ali): Sen bir meşe ağacı dik-miş-sin, bana
-EV/PF-2SG
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 310

göstersene.
‘I’ve heard you’ve planted an oak tree; why don’t you
show it to me?’
(133a) could be from a newspaper report:
(133)
(a) İki tarafın temsilcileri Hilton Oteli’nde bir araya geldiler.
‘Representatives of the two sides met at the Hilton Hotel.’
(b) (Ahmet, having read this news, relaying it to Gürkan:)
İki tarafın temsilcileri Hilton Oteli’nde bir araya gelmişler.
If the information received and transmitted by a speaker is anything other than a
completed, past-tense event, the evidential copular marker -(y)mIş is used. Unlike the
verbal suffix -mIş, the copular -(y)mIş has no tense or aspect content. The aspectual
meaning of a sentence with -(y)mIş is identical with that of the same sentence without
evidential marking. However, the fact that not more than one copular marker may appear
together on one verb gives rise to an ambiguity of tense reference (non-past/past) in -
(y)mIş sentences, which can be resolved only by a time adverbial or by the discourse
context:
(134)
(a) (Ayşe, to Çiğdem): Annem biraz rahatsız.
‘My mother is not very well.’
(b) (Çiğdem, to Nesrin): Ayşe’nin annesi biraz rahatsı-mış.
[Link]
‘It seems Ayşe’s mother is not very well’
(135)
(a) (Ayşe, to Çiğdem): O gün annem biraz rahatsızdı.
‘My mother was not very well that day.’
(b) (Çiğdem, to Nesrin): O gün Ayşe’nin annesi biraz rahatsızmış.
‘Apparently Ayşe’s mother was not very well that
day.’
The information-based evidential is relatively uncommon in the 1st and 2nd persons. In
1st person utterances it may express information that the speaker has acquired from
others about what s/he did when too young to remember, or while asleep or unconscious:
(136) [Bir yaş-ın-da-yken] kalp ameliyat-ı ol-muş-um.
one age-NC-LOC-CV heart operation-NC [Link]-1SG
‘I had a heart operation [when I was a year old].’
Alternatively, it may express what the speaker presents as a view of him/her held by other
people:
(137) Sözde inatçı-ymış-ım.
supposedly [Link]-1SG
 Tense, aspect and modality 311

‘I am supposedly obstinate.’
An information-based 2nd person evidential utterance presents to the hearer some
information about himself/herself that the speaker has acquired from another source.
(138) Siz babamla tanışıyormuşsunuz galiba.
‘I believe you know/knew my father.’

[Link] Result-based evidential statements

Another use of the verbal suffix -mIş is to express the occurrence of an event that the
speaker did not witness but is able to infer from its result, to which s/he has direct access.
For example, any comment on a manufactured item which refers to something that was
evidently done or not done during the course of its production requires to be expressed in
this form. The same applies to the reporting of an accidental event such as a burst or
breakage, which the speaker did not witness but whose result s/he has encountered.
(139) (Commenting on a painting)
Ressam iki figürün a rasını boş bırakmış.
‘The painter has left the space between the two figures empty.’
(140) (On finding one’s glasses are not in one’s bag/pocket)
Gözlüğümü yanıma almamışım.
‘I seem not to have brought my glasses with me.’

[Link] Use of the evidential copula to express a newly discovered state

of affairs
Another use of the evidential copula -(y)mIş is to indicate that the state of affairs
described is a new discovery as far as the speaker is concerned. There is often an element
of surprise.
(141) (On opening the fridge)
Aaa, yiyecek hiçbir şey yokmuş.
‘Oh, there’s absolutely nothing to eat.
(142) (First comment to a friend after meeting his sister)
Kardeşin pek tatlıymış.
‘Your sister is lovely.’

[Link] Evidentiality in questions

The function of an evidential marker in a question differs from its function in a statement
in one fundamental respect. Here it is not the speaker’s own knowledge but the hearer’s
that is being marked as indirect. If the speaker anticipates that, in answering his/her
question, the hearer will be passing on information gained indirectly, or presenting a new
discovery, s/he will recognize this by marking the question evidentially:
(143) (Addressed to someone reading the financial page of the newspaper)
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 312

Bugün dolar ne kadarmış?

‘How much does it say the dollar is today?’
(144) (Addressed to someone who has gone into the kitchen)
Fasulye olmuş mu?
‘Do the beans seem to be done?’

21.4.4 VOLITIONAL UTTERANCES

Volitional utterances are not statements, but expressions of the speaker’s (or in
interrogative forms the hearer’s) will or desire in relation to the situation expressed.

[Link] Wishes: -sA(ydI)

Apart from being used adverbially to express conditions (Chapter 27), the verb forms -
sA/-sAydI express wishes.
(i) 1st person forms of -sA can express a fully realizable wish to perform some action:
(145) Bu akşam güzel bir film seyret-se-k.
watch-COND-1PL
‘It would be nice to watch a good film this evening.’
(ii) -sA can also express wishes whose fulfilment is beyond the speaker’s control, and
may be actually impossible. These correspond to constructions with ‘if only’ in English,
and are optionally marked by the particle keşke ‘if only’, or by the adverbial bir ‘once’
(which, if present, usually occupies the immediately pre-verbal position).
(146) Keşke daha çok param olsa.
‘If only I had more money.’
(147) Bu soğuklar (bir) bitse artık…
‘If only this cold weather would come to an end…’
(iii) -sAydI (or its informal alternative (-(y)AydI, see [Link]), again often combined with
keşke, expresses a counterfactual wish or regret, usually but not always relating to past
time:
(148) Keşke Hülya’ya söylemeseydin.
‘If only you hadn’t told Hülya.’
Wishes expressed by -sAydI/(-(y)AydI can have a reproachful, quasi-
obligative tone:
(149) [Madem uykun vardı], misafir çağırmasaydın/çağırmayaydın.
‘[Since you were sleepy], you would have done better not to invite guests.’

[Link] Commands
(i) Basic commands: no marker or -(y)In(Iz) (See 8.4, group 4.)
These standard imperative forms express straightforward commands.
 Tense, aspect and modality 313

(150) Bu para-yı baba-n(ız)-a ver(-in).

this money-ACC father-2SG/[Link]-DAT give(IMP)(-2PL)
‘Give this money to your father.’
The longer 2nd person plural form -(y)InIz is used mainly for formal public commands:
(151) Lütfen kemerlerinizi bağlayınız.
‘Please fasten your seatbelts.’
In ordinary social situations -(y)In is the standard plural/polite imperative.
(ii) 3rd person instructions: -sIn(lAr):
The 3rd person imperative forms (8.4, group 4) express instructions for something to
be done by someone other than the hearer.
(152) Çocuklar burada kalsın(lar).
‘Let the children stay here.’/‘I want the children to stay here.’/’See to it that the
children stay here.’
If the speaker is only interested in getting an action done (or preventing its being done) a
passive form may be used:
(153) Artık bura-ya afiş as-ıl-ma-sın.
[Link] here-DAT notice hang-PASS-NEG[-IMP]-3SG
‘Let no notices be put up here from now on.’/‘I don’t want any notices put up
from now on.’/‘See to it that no notices are put up here from now on.’
When a 3rd person imperative form is used in a question, the speaker is consulting the
hearer as to whether s/he wishes a certain action to be performed or a situation to occur:
(154) Çocuklar burada mı kalsın(lar)?
‘Should the children stay here?’/‘Do you want the children to stay here?’/‘Do you
think it would be best for the children to stay here?’
(iii) Persuasive commands: ↓-sAnA, ↓-sAnIzA (8.4, group 4):
Utterances with ↓-sAn(Iz)A are not so much commands but pointers to, or reminders
of, something that needs to be done. They often express a certain impatience on the part
of the speaker that the action indicated, the desirability of which is obvious to him/her,
has not been performed by the hearer(s) of their own accord.
Forms with ↓-sAn(Iz)A are rarely used in sequence, i.e. a single utterance would
normally not contain more than one of them.
(155) Artık yatsan(ız)a, uyukluyorsunuz.
‘Why don’t you go to bed now, you’re nodding off.’
(iv) Imperative use of the future marker -(y)AcAK:
Aside from its main function of expressing an expectation about future events on the
factual plane, -(y)AcAK can also express the other kind of expectation, i.e. an action that
someone in a position of authority or power expects others to perform:
(156) Oraya bir daha gitmeyeceksin, anladın mı?
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 314

‘You’re not going to go there again, do you understand?’

This type of volitional modality can be projected into the past:
(157) Bütün bunlar at-ıl-acak-tı.
all these [Link]
‘All these were supposed to be thrown away.’

[Link] Suggestions: first person optative forms -(y)AyIm, -(y)Allm

The 1st person singular optative -(y)AyIm expresses an action that the speaker proposes to
perform. It often accompanies the actual performance of the action.
(158) Sana yardım edeyim.
‘Let me help you.’
The 1st person plural form -(y)AlIm expresses action that the speaker proposes for
performance jointly with the hearer(s) and/or other people.
(159) Biraz konuşalım.
‘Let’s have a bit of a chat.’
(160) Hediyeleri Mehmet’e göster-me-ye-lim.
show-NEG-OPT-1PL
‘Let’s not show Mehmet the presents.’
In questions, both of the above forms become consultative, asking the hearer(s) whether
or how they would like the proposed action to be performed:
(161) Sana yardım edeyim mi?
‘Shall I help you?’
(162) Şu tabakları nereye koyalım?
‘Where shall/should we put these plates?’
(163) Hediyeleri Mehmet’e göstermeyelim mi?
‘Should we not show the presents to Mehmet?’/‘Don’t you want us to show the
presents to Mehmet?’

[Link] Deliberation about possible action: questions with -sAm, -s Ak

When a finite verb with the conditional suffix -sA, marked for 1st person, is used in a
question, it has consultative force. The difference between questions with the conditional
suffix and questions with the optative forms discussed in [Link] is that in the case of the
conditional forms the speaker regards the decision to be taken as more problematical.
S/he is not clear in his/her own mind about the desirability of the proposed action, or the
form that it should take, and s/he does not expect the hearer to be able to provide a simple
answer. Because of this uncertainty, questions with -sAm/-sAk are usually marked with
the modal adverbial acaba ‘I wonder’ (19.5.2):
(164) Bu konuda kime danışsam acaba?
 Tense, aspect and modality 315

‘I wonder who I should consult about this?’

(165) Acaba başka bir yere mi gitsek?
‘I wonder if we should go somewhere else?’

[Link] Requests and offers: second person aorist interrogative

Requests and offers are identical in form.
Requests:
(166) Ben-im-le hastane-ye gel-ir mi-sin?
I-GEN-COM hospital-DAT come-AOR INT-2SG
‘Would you [please] come with me to the hospital?’
The addition of the possibility suffix -(y)Abil makes the request more tentative:
(167) Bana biraz yardım edebilir misiniz?
‘Could you [please] give me a bit of help?’
Offers:
(168) Çay içer misiniz?
‘Will you have/Would you like some tea?’
Offers cast as a negative question are more persuasive in tone:
(169) Otur-maz mı-sınız?
[Link] INT-2PL
‘Won’t you sit down?’

[Link] Expression of commitment: first person aorist

The 1st person (usually singular) of the aorist is used to express a commitment or
promise entered into at the moment of, and by the act of, the utterance itself. This may
well be a response to a request (also expressed in the aorist, as explained in [Link]):
(170)
A.-Benimle evlenir misin?
‘Will you marry me?’
B.-Evlenirim
‘Yes, I will.’
In some contexts, ambiguity between the modality of commitment and the modality of
probability ([Link]) may undermine the degree of confidence inspired by a 1st person
aorist utterance. The modally neutral -(y)AcAK form in (171b), presenting the promised
action as a matter of future fact, may carry more conviction, because it indicates a pre-
existing plan on the part of the speaker, and also suggests that s/he has checked its
practicability.
(171)
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 316

(a) Akşama kadar dönerim. (Promise)

‘I’ll be back by this evening.’
(b) Akşama kadar döneceğim. (Statement of plan/firm prediction)
‘I’m going to be back by this evening.’
(172) Hiç kimseye söyle-me-m. (Promise)
tell[-AOR].NEG-1SG
‘I won’t tell anyone at all.’

21.5 TENSE, ASPECT AND MODALITY IN COMPOUND VERB

FORMS

Compound verb forms consisting of a lexical verb followed by the auxiliary ol- (or
bulun-, see [Link]) provide within a single verbal complex two verb stems which are
separately (and nearly always differently) marked for tense, aspect and/or modality. The
lexical verb is marked for relative tense or for aspect, as follows:
PERFECTIVE/RELATIVE PAST -mIş
RELATIVE FUTURE -(y)AcAK
PROGRESSIVE -(I)yor
HABITUAL -(A/I)r or -mAz

The auxiliary form that follows adds a further dimension of tense or aspect, or some kind
of modality:
oldu past tense, perfective aspect
olmuş (relative) past tense, perfective aspect, evidential modality
oluyor habitual aspect
olacak (i) (relative) future tense
(ii) non-fact modality (assumption)
(iii) volitional modality (command)
olur non-fact modality (assumption or hypothesis)
olsa gerek non-fact modality (probability)
olmalı non-fact modality (deduction)
olabilir non-fact modality (speculative possibility)
olsa volitional modality (wish)
olayım/olalım volitional modality (1st person)
olsun volitional modality (3rd person)

The number of possible combinations that can occur in compound verb forms is
extremely large, and we do not attempt to offer an exhaustive list. The table below shows,
 Tense, aspect and modality 317

for each finite form of ol-, which suffixes commonly occur on the lexical verb preceding
it.
-mIş, -(y)AcAk, -(A/I)r, -mAz oldu
-(A/I)r, -mAz olmuş
-mIş, -(y)AcAk oluyor
-mIş, -(I)yor olacak
-mIş olur
-mIş, -(I)yor olsa gerek
-mIş, -(I)yor olmalı
-mIş, -(I)yor olabilir
-(I)yor olsa
-mIş olayım/olalım
-mIş olsun

21.5.1 COMPOUND FORMS IN WHICH THE LEXICAL VERB IS

MARKED WITH -mIş
-mIş is the most frequently occurring marker of the lexical verb in compound verb forms.
In general terms it presents an event as being completed prior to some reference point.
The auxiliary form oluyor signals a habitually recurring reference point:
(173) Genellikle saat yediye kadar dükkanı kapatmış oluyoruz.
‘We have usually shut the shop by seven o’clock.’
olacak indicates that the reference point is in the future:
(174) O zamana kadar herkes gitmiş olacak.
‘Everyone will have gone by then.’
In the case of modal forms expressing assumptions, such as olsa gerek ([Link] (iii)),
olmalı ([Link] (vi)) and olabilir ([Link]), the reference point is usually the moment of
speech:
-mIş olsa gerek
(175) [Bahçeyi bu hale getirmek için] aylarca uğraşmış olsan gerek.
‘You must have worked for months [to get the garden looking like this].’
-mIş olmalı
(176) Kayseri’yi görmüş olmalıyım ama hiç hatırlamıyorum.
‘I must have seen Kayseri, but I don’t remember [it] at all.’
-mIş olabilir
(177) Ayşe bu fotoğrafı Hatice’ye göstermiş olabilir.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 318

‘Ayşe may have shown this photograph to Hatice.’

In some occurrences of the -mIş olacak combination, olacak can have one of the modal
values noted elsewhere in this chapter:
(i) Non-future prediction ([Link] (iv)):
This usage is rather rare.
(178)
A.-Turgut bana selam vermedi.
‘Turgut didn’t say hello to me.’
B.-Seni o kıyafette tanımamış olacak.
‘He won’t have recognized you in that outfit.’
(ii) Volitional modality (expectation) ([Link] (iv)):
(179) Akşama kadar bütün bu gazeteler paketlenmiş olacak.
‘All these newspapers are to be (lit. are to have been) parcelled up by this
evening.’
Compounds formed with -mIş olur present a hypothetical situation, such as one
dependent upon the fulfilment of a condition:
(180) [Daha geç bir saatte gitsek] sokaklar boşalmış olur.
‘[If we went later in the day] the streets would be less crowded.’ (lit. ‘would have
emptied’)
With olmalı an obligative reading is possible in addition to the assumptive one noted
above:
(181) 6.30’a kadar yola çıkmış olmalıyız.
‘We must be on the road (lit. must have set out) by 6.30.’
The optative forms olayım/olalım and the 3rd person imperative olsun(lar) can combine
with -mIş to express the suggestion or (in a noun clause, 24.2, 24.3) the wish that an
action be completed by a certain time:
(182) [Bu akşama kadar bu odayı bitirmiş olalım] istiyoruz.
‘We want [to have finished this room by this evening].’

[Link] The resultative usage of compound verb forms with -mIş

A further element of meaning that is present in some instances of compound forms with -
mIş is that the event is presented as happening as the result (intentional or not) of the
performance of some other act. This meaning is always present in the combination -mIş
oldu, which expresses, as a completed event, entry into the state of having done
something (a concept difficult to express in English, cf. 21.3.3):
(183) Dördüncü bölümün bitmesiyle kitabın yarısı yazılmış oldu.
‘With the completion of the fourth chapter, half of the book has been written.’
 Tense, aspect and modality 319

The resultative function of -mIş can occur also with oluyor, olacak and olur:
(184) Bu tür davranışlarla onu küçük düşürmüş oluyorsun.
‘You humiliate him/her by this kind of behaviour.’
(You are habitually in the state of having humiliated him/her.)
(185) [Beni bu yükten kurtarmakla] bana büyük bir iyilik yapmış olacaksınız.
‘You will have done me a great favour [by ridding me of this burden].’
With resultative -mIş, oluyor does not always express habitual aspect. It can simply mark
(relative) present tense, imparting a sense that the impact of the completion of the event
is/was very much current at the reference point. Thus -mIş oluyor is virtually
synonymous with -mIş oldu in all instances where the reference point is the moment of
speech, as in (183) above:
(186) Bu bölümün bitmesiyle kitabın yarısı yazılmış oluyor.
‘With the completion of this chapter, half of the book has been written.’
Finally, resultative -mIş can occur with the optative/imperative forms of ol-. (187) could
be an explanation given retrospectively for the purchase of a large number of different
perfumes:
(187) [Bu kokuların her birini birer defa denemiş olayım] demiştim.
‘I thought [I would like to have tried each of these perfumes once].’

21.5.2 COMPOUND FORMS IN WHICH THE LEXICAL VERB IS

MARKED WITH -(I)yor
These forms indicate that an event is/was/will be ongoing at some reference point.
-(I)yor olacak marks the reference point as being in the future:
(188) Saat altıda çalışıyor olacağım.
‘I shall be working at six o’clock.’
Combinations of -(I)yor with olsa gerek, olmalı, and olabilir express assumptions or
conjectures about a situation current at the moment of speech:
(189) Çok gürültü var, yukarıda birisi matkap kullanıyor olmalı/olsa gerek.
‘There’s such a noise; someone upstairs must be using a drill.’
(190) Ali’nin patronu onu sevmiyor olabilir.
‘It’s possible Ali’s boss doesn’t like him.’
-(I)yor olsa articulates a counterfactual wish about the present state of affairs:
(191) Keşke sıcak bir ülkede yaşıyor olsam.
‘If only I were living in a hot country.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 320

21.5.3 COMPOUND FORMS IN WHICH THE LEXICAL VERB IS

MARKED WITH -(y)AcAk
This pattern is in very restricted use in main clauses, although it is highly productive in
conditional clauses ([Link], 27.2.6) and in relative clauses (25.4.1). The combination -
(y)AcAk oldu expresses an action that a person decided (somewhat hesitantly) to perform.
It is nearly always followed by a statement expressing or implying the reversal of that
decision:
(192) Bir şey söyleyecek oldum, ama tam o anda kapı çaldı.
‘I was about to say something, but just at that moment the door (bell) rang.’
Compounds with -(y)AcAk oluyor give the same kind of situation a habitual context:
(193) Bazen bir şey söyleyecek oluyorum ama bir türlü çıkmıyor.
‘Sometimes I get almost to the point of saying something, but it just doesn’t come
out.’

21.5.4 COMPOUND FORMS IN WHICH THE LEXICAL VERB IS

MARKED WITH -(A/I)r OR -mAz
Aorist marking of the lexical verb is restricted to compounds in which the auxiliary has
perfective marking (the modally neutral -DI or evidential -mIş).
(i) -(A/I)r oldu/olmuş:
The affirmative aorist form followed by oldu/olmuş expresses the fact that an event
began or has begun to happen recurrently, or as a matter of habit:
(194) Son zamanlarda sık sık tiyatroya gider olduk.
‘Recently we have started going to the theatre a lot.’
(ii) -mAz oldu/olmuş:
The negative aorist form with oldu/olmuş expresses the fact that a formerly recurrent
event (has) ceased to happen:
(195) O olaydan sonra Hakan bir süre bize uğramaz oldu.
‘After that incident Hakan stopped calling on us for a while.’

21.5.5 THE ADDITION OF THE PAST COPULA -(y)DI TO

COMPOUND VERB FORMS
The past copula -(y)DI (21.2.1 (ii)) can be added to the auxiliary component of any
compound verb form. It has one of two functions:
(i) In most cases it provides a reference point in absolute past time (time prior to the
moment of speech) for the relative tense or aspect marked on the lexical verb:
(196) Genellikle saat yediye kadar dükkanı kapatmış oluyorduk.
‘We had usually shut the shop by seven o’clock.’
 Tense, aspect and modality 321

(ii) The other function of -(y)DI is to indicate counterfactuality. This occurs only with the
modal forms olur ([Link]), olabilir ([Link]), olmalı ([Link]) and olsa ([Link]).
olmalıydı expresses an unfulfilled obligation ([Link]). The reference is not
necessarily to a past time:
(197) Bu saatte çalışıyor olmalıydım.
‘I should/ought to be working at this time of day.’
In the case of the aorist there can be ambiguity between past and counter-factual
meaning. For example, (198) could be understood as expressing either a habitual state of
affairs in the past, or a state of affairs that did not occur but would have if some condition
had been fulfilled:
(198) Saat dörde kadar mektuplar postalanmış olurdu.
‘By four o’clock the letters would have been posted.’
 22
DEFINITENESS, SPECIFICITY AND
GENERIC REFERENCE

This chapter deals with the referential function of noun phrases. Speakers can use noun
phrases with specific or non-specific reference, and if they are referring to specific
entities they can use various means to indicate whether or not they expect their hearers to
be able to identify the person(s) or thing(s) they are talking about. In Turkish the
referential status of a noun phrase depends on one or more of the following factors:
(i) what kind of determiners, if any, are present (15.6)
(ii) the use or non-use of accusative marking on direct objects ([Link])
(iii) word order (22.5)
(iv) sentence stress (22.6)
(v) the tense, aspect and modality of the predicate (22.7)
Four referential statuses can be identified in Turkish, and these are explained in detail in
the successive sections of this chapter. Both definite (22.1) and indefinite (22.2) noun
phrases are always marked for number:
(1) {Çocuk-lar} {araba}-yı yıkadılar.
child-PL car-ACC
[Link] [Link]
‘{The children} washed {the car}.’
(2) {Bir oda}-da {birtakım kutu-lar} vardı.
a room-LOC some box-PL
[Link] [Link]
‘There were {some boxes} in a room.’
This is in contrast to the second non-definite status that exists in Turkish, namely
categorial (22.3), in which the distinction between singular and plural is neutralized and
the noun phrase indicates merely the ‘kind’ to which reference is being made:
(3) Sen daha {çocuk}sun.
‘You’re still {a child}.’
The fourth referential status, generic reference (22.4), involves the use of a noun phrase
in a generalizing function, to refer to an entire class of entities, or to a(ny) typical
member of that class:
(4) Eskiden {çocuk}, büyüklerine s aygı gösterirdi.
‘In the past, {a child} showed respect to his/her elders.’
 Definiteness, specificity and generic reference 323

Specificity is a category that overlaps the boundary between definite and indefinite. All
definites are specific, but, as explained in 22.2, indefinites may be either specific or non-
specific. All categorial noun phrases are non-specific, as (in a somewhat different sense)
are all noun phrases used generically.

22.1 DEFINITE STATUS

A noun phrase marked as definite refers to a specific entity or entities that the speaker
assumes to be unambiguously identifiable by the hearer. In Turkish the minimal
requirements for a noun phrase to be interpreted as definite are:
(i) the absence of an indefinite determiner (15.6.1)
(ii) accusative case marking where the noun phrase is functioning as direct object.
In (5) all three of the noun phrases are definite:
(5) {Garson} {temiz tabak-lar}-ı {masa}-ya koydu.
waiter clean plate-PL-ACC table-DAT
‘The waiter put the clean plates down on the table.’
The following classes of noun phrase are inherently definite:
(i) The proper names of people, places and institutions:
(6) Osman’ı dün gördük.
‘We saw Osman yesterday.’
(7) Ankara’yı severim.
‘I like Ankara.’
(8) Anıtlar Yüksek Kurulu’nu bundan sorumlu tutuyorum.
‘I hold the High Commission on Monuments responsible for this.’
(ii) Most pronouns, specifically:
(a) The simple personal pronouns (18.1.1):
(9) Murat seni seviyor.
‘Murat loves you.’
(b) The demonstrative pronouns (18.2):
(10) Şunları da yıkamamız lâzım.
‘We’ve got to wash these, too.’
(c) The pronominal quantifiers herkes ‘everyone’ and her şey ‘everything’ (18.6.1):
(11) Ömer herkesi sinirlendirdi.
‘Ömer got on everyone’s nerves.’
(d) The interrogative kim(ler) ‘who’ ([Link]), and the expression kimse (ler) ‘no one’,
‘anyone’ (20.5.3):
(12) Kim-ler-i görüyorsunuz?
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 324

who-PL-ACC
‘Who do you see (nowadays)?’
(13) Pek kimseyi görmüyorum.
‘I don’t see anyone much.’
(e) öbürü/öteki ‘the other (one)’, and their plural forms öbürleri/ötekiler (18.4–5):
(14) Bir anahtar burada, öbürünü gördün mü?
‘One key is here; have you seen the other(one)?’
(iii) A noun phrase that includes one of the definite determiners (15.6.2):
(15) Bana {bu oda}-yı ver-di-ler.
I(DAT) this room-ACC give-PF-3PL
‘They have given me {this room}.’
(16) Siz {hangi kitab}-ı daha yararlı buldunuz?
‘{Which book} did you find more useful?’

22.2 INDEFINITE STATUS

If a noun phrase includes bir (‘a(n’) or any of the other indefinite determiners (15.6.1) it
is unambiguously indefinite. A noun phrase that includes a cardinal or distributive
numeral is also interpreted as indefinite unless (i) a definite determiner (15.6.2) is also
present, or (ii) the noun phrase is followed by the clitic dA (see 15.9.1). Finally, noun
phrases that include neither a determiner nor a numeral but are marked with the plural
suffix -lAr have indefinite status in some contexts but not in others. They are
unambiguously indefinite where they occur as non-case-marked direct objects, as in
(17c). Otherwise, their referential status (definite, indefinite or generic) is determined by
the word order (22.5), stress pattern (22.6) or modality (22.7) of the sentence.
(17)
(a) Çekmece-de bir defter bul-du-k.
drawer-LOC a notebook find-PF-1PL
‘We found a notebook in the drawer.’
(b) Çekmecede dört (tane) defter bulduk.
four ENUM notebook
‘We found four notebooks in the drawer.’
(c) Çekmecede defter-ler bulduk.
notebook-PL
‘We found notebooks in the drawer.’
(d) Çekmecede birtakım defter-ler bulduk.
some notebook-PL
‘We found some notebooks in the drawer.’
Note that şey ‘thing’ and yer ‘place’ do not occur in the plural-marked form as indefinites
unless preceded by either an adjective or a determiner. See also [Link].
 Definiteness, specificity and generic reference 325

As indefinite noun phrases always express new information, they very often occupy
the immediately preverbal position (see 23.3.1). If they are non-case-marked direct
objects, as in (17), they are obligatorily placed in this position (see 23.2.3, and exceptions
noted in 23.2.1).

22.2.1 SPECIFIC AND NON-SPECIFIC INDEFINITES

A noun phrase marked as indefinite can perform one of two referential functions:
(i) It can refer to a specific entity (or set of entities) known to the speaker, which is
being introduced into the discourse as a new item, and which is assumed not to be
familiar to, or not to be identifiable by, the hearer:
(18) Dün sokakta {çok eski bir arkadaşım}-la karşılaştım.
‘Yesterday I bumped into {a very old friend of mine} in the street.’
(19) Yarınki toplantıya {birkaç kişi} gelemeyecekmiş.
‘It seems {several people} are not going to be able to get to the meeting
tomorrow.’
(ii) It can denote a non-specific entity (or set of entities), whose identity is unknown or
unknowable to the speaker. Non-specific indefinites occur mainly in clauses expressing a
future or hypothetical event, or in negative statements or questions.
(20) [{Daha büyük bir araba} almay]-ı düşünüyoruz.
‘We’re thinking of [buying {a larger car}].’
(21) {Yeni bir şey} söyle-me-di.
new a thing say-NEG-PF
‘He didn’t say {anything new}.’
The distinction between specific and non-specific indefinites is reflected in certain
features of Turkish grammar.
(a) In direct objects the use of plural marking without a determiner is largely
confined to specific indefinites. Thus the plural-marked indefinite form in (22)
refers to specific shirts that have been purchased:
(22) Dün Korkut-a yeni gömlek-ler al-dı-k.
yesterday Korkut-DAT new shirt-PL buy-PF-1PL
‘Yesterday we bought (some) new shirts for Korkut.’
If the predicate were changed in such a way that the shirts lost their specificity, the
categorial form (without plural marking, see 22.3) would be preferred to the indefinite
form:
(23)
(a) Korkut’a yeni gömlek almamız lazım.
‘We need to get a new shirt/(some) new shirts for Korkut.’
(b) Korkut’a yeni gömlek almadık.
‘We didn’t buy Korkut [any] new shirts.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 326

(c) Korkut’a yeni gömlek aldın mı?

‘Did you buy Korkut [a] new shirt/[any] new shirts?’
(b) The omission of olan in relative clauses whose verb is of the form -mIş olan
or -(y)AcAk olan is preferred where the relativized constituent is a non-specific
noun phrase (see [Link] for details):
(24)
(a) {[Masaya bırakılmış] bir not} yeterli olurdu.
‘{A note [left on the table]} would have been enough.’
(b) {[Masaya bırakılmış olan] bir not}-ta kaloriferler, çöplerin toplanması,
pencerelerin kilitlenmesi gibi konularda bilgiler vardı.
‘In {a note [that had been left on the table]} there was information about the
central heating, rubbish collection, locking of windows, etc.’
In (24a) no note has been left; the subject noun phrase therefore represents a purely
hypothetical entity. This noun phrase is thus non-specific, and olan is omitted from the
relative clause modifying it. In (24b), on the other hand, the factual and affirmative past
tense predicate vardı indicates that a specific note is being described.
(c) In a limited range of contexts, where there is ambiguity between a specific and
a non-specific interpretation of a direct object, the use of accusative marking
favours the specific reading:
With verbs such as iste- ‘want’ and ara- ‘look for’:
(25)
(a) {Gürcistan folkloruyla ilgili bir kitap} arıyorum.
‘I’m looking for {a book about Georgian folklore}.’
(b) {Gürcistan folkloruyla ilgili bir kitab}-ı arıyorum.
‘I’m looking for {a book about Georgian folklore}.’
(25a) implies that the speaker would be interested in any book about Georgian folklore
that might be available. (25b), on the other hand, where the object is given accusative
marking, implies that the speaker has a specific title in mind.
A recurrent pattern of events:
(26)
(a) Bazen masaya {bir örtü} yayardık.
‘Sometimes we would spread {a cloth} on the table.’
(b) Bazen masaya {[sarı çiçeklerle işlenmiş] bir örtü}-(yü) yayardık.
‘Sometimes we would spread on the table {a cloth [embroidered with yellow
flowers]}.’
(c) Bazen masaya {[Ayşe-nin biz-e Meksika-dan getir-diğ-i]
Ayşe-GEN we-DAT Mexico-ABL [Link]
bir örtü}-(yü) yayardık
a cloth-ACC.
 Definiteness, specificity and generic reference 327

‘Sometimes we would spread on the table {a cloth [that Ayşe had brought us
from Mexico]}.’
The three sentences in (26) show a gradation from total ambiguity with regard to
specificity in (a) to unambiguous specificity in (c). In (a) the speaker has not provided the
cloth with any descriptors at all. The likelihood of accusative marking being used here is
extremely small. In (b) the cloth is given quite a detailed description, and it seems likely
that one specific tablecloth is intended. In (c) the specificity of the cloth is virtually
assured through its linkage to the action of a specific individual. However, although
accusative marking is much more acceptable in (b) and (c) than in (a), it is important to
note that the non-case-marked version of these sentences is also perfectly acceptable, and
if used it would not force a non-specific reading. In other words, accusative marking is
not a requirement for giving the direct object in such sentences a specific reading, but if
used it does lend weight to that interpretation.
A conjecture about the future:
(27)
(a) Program-da {bazı değişiklik-ler} yap-ma-mız
programme-LOC some change-PL [Link]
gerek-ebil-ir.
[Link]-PSB-AOR
‘It may be necessary for us to make {some changes} to the programme.’
(b) Programda {[şu anda akılda olmayan] bazı değişiklik-ler}(-i)
some change-PL(-ACC)
yapmamız gerekebilir.
‘It may be necessary for us to make {some changes} to the programme [that
are currently unpredictable].’
(c) Programda {[yetkililerin istediği] bazı değişiklikler}(-i) yapmamız
gerekebilir.
‘It may be necessary for us to make {some changes} to the programme [that
are required by the authorities].’
(27a–c) are modalized statements about a hypothetical possibility ([Link]), and in such
a context it would be very difficult to understand the indefinite direct object in anything
but a non-specific sense. (27) shows, then, that accusative marking is not necessarily
linked to specificity, but can simply be a function of the complexity of the noun phrase
itself. The kind of complex modification provided by a relative clause, in particular,
considerably increases the tendency towards the use of accusative marking.
As explained in [Link], certain types of indefinite direct object (notably those
occurring to the left of the verb but not in the immediately preverbal position, and those
marked for possession) obligatorily take accusative marking. It should be noted that this
grammatically conditioned accusative marking is quite independent of the specific/non-
specific distinction. The direct objects in (28) and (29) both have a non-specific
interpretation.
(28) {Birçok şey}-i şu raflara koyabiliriz.
‘{A lot of things} we can put on these shelves.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 328

(29) İsterse Ahmet {bir arkadaşın}-ı getirebilir.

‘Ahmet can bring {a friend (of his)} if he wants.’

22.3 CATEGORIAL STATUS

A categorial noun phrase is not marked for number. It denotes an unspecified quantity, or
number of items of a certain kind, or an unspecified quantity of a certain substance. Note
that, unlike generic noun phrases (22.4), categorial noun phrases do not refer to a class of
entities as a whole, or to a typical member of a class. Categorial noun phrases are used in
contexts where distinctions of number or quantity are simply irrelevant:
(30) Şu anda konuşamayacağım, müşteri var.
‘I can’t talk now; I’ve got customers/a customer.’
(31) O gün kar yağmıştı.
‘Snow had fallen on that day.’
The formal characteristics of noun phrases used with categorial status are that:
(i) They cannot be modified by any determiners.
(ii) They cannot be plural-marked.
(iii) When functioning as subject they have to occupy the immediately preverbal
position (see 23.2.1).
(iv) When functioning as direct object, they do not receive accusative case
marking unless topicalized (see 23.3.3).
There are certain contexts in which the use of the categorial form is regularly preferred to
a number-marked form:
(i) A subject complement expressing the gender, nationality, occupation or social
status of a person or persons:
(32) Oğlumun bütün öğretmenleri kadın.
‘All of my son’s teachers are women.’
(33) Biz [onları Türk] sanıyorduk. (See 24.5.)
‘We thought [they were Turks].’
Note that if the subject complement is a plural-marked noun phrase, as in (34b), it
acquires definite status:
(34)
(a) Onlar dokTOR-muş(-lar).
[Link](-3PL)
‘Apparently they’re doctors.’
(b) Onlar doktor-LAR-mış.
doctor-PL-E [Link]
‘Apparently they’re the doctors.’
 Definiteness, specificity and generic reference 329

In (34a) the suffix -lar is the group 2 person marker (3rd person plural) (8.4), affixed to
the evidential copular suffix -(y)mIş (8.3.2). It refers to the plurality of the subject onlar.
In (34b), on the other hand, -lar is the nominal plural marker (8.1.1) affixed to the noun
phrase doktor.
(ii) The subject of an interrogative or negative existential sentence ([Link]):
(35) Kardeşiniz var mı?
‘Have you any brothers or sisters?’
(36) Bizim apartmanımızda hiç çocuk yok.
‘There are no children at all in our block of flats.’
(iii) The non-specific subject or direct object of an interrogative or negative verbal
sentence:
(37) Misafir mi gelecek?
‘Are you expecting guests?’ (lit. ‘Are guest(s) going to come?’)
(38) Amerika’lılar oraya asker göndermemişti.
‘The Americans had not sent (any) troops there.’
(iv) The direct object of sentences in which attention is focused on an action or activity
rather than on the entity/entities affected or produced by it:
(39) Ne güzel şarkı söylü-yor-sun!
how beautiful song sing-IMPF-2SG
‘How beautifully you sing!’
(40) Ayşe bütün gün kitap okuyor.
‘Ayşe reads books all day.’
Many verbal expressions of the form bare noun+verb, where the bare noun is the direct
object, have been lexicalized as expressions that will be found in dictionaries. Some other
examples are: ders çalış- ‘study’, ‘do one’s homework’, yemek ye- ‘eat’, ‘have a meal’,
and sigara iç- ‘smoke’. The fact that these lexicalized expressions exist does not in any
way prevent the same noun being used with the same verb but with a different referential
status. For example, the direct object noun phrase o şarkıyı below is definite, referring to
a specific song that the speaker assumes the hearer can identify.
(41) O şarkı-yı ne güzel söyledin!
that song-ACC
‘How beautifully you sang that song!’
In (42), on the other hand, iki sigara is indefinite; the identity of the cigarettes in question
is not of interest:
(42) Bugün yalnız iki sigara içtim.
‘I have smoked only two cigarettes today.’
(v) The subject of a sentence in which attention is focused on an action, or the impact of
that action, rather than on the identity of the person or thing doing it:
(43) Geçen kış evimize hırsız girdi.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 330

‘Last winter our house was burgled.’ (lit. ‘[a] burglar/burglar[s] got into our
house’)
(44) Tatildeyken beni arı soktu.
‘While on holiday I was stung by a bee.’ (lit. ‘[a] bee/bee[s] stung me’)
Outside the types of context identified in (i)–(v) above, the choice between categorial and
indefinite reference depends on how much importance the speaker attaches to the number
aspect of the entity s/he is talking about.
(45)
(a) Dayım bize hediye getirmişti.
‘My uncle had brought us a present/presents.’
(b) Dayım bize bir hediye getirmişti.
‘My uncle had brought us a present
(c) Dayım bize hediyeler getirmişti.
‘My uncle had brought us presents.’
In (a) attention is focused on the uncle’s action rather than on the present(s) brought. (b)
and (c), on the other hand, suggest that the speaker is going to go on to say something
more about the actual present(s).

22.4 GENERIC REFERENCE

A noun phrase is said to have generic reference when it refers not to any specific entity or
entities but to an entire class, or to a typical member of that class. In Turkish, generic
reference can be effected by both singular and plural noun phrases.

22.4.1 GENERIC REFERENCE BY SINGULAR NOUN PHRASES

[Link] The bare generic

The bare generic is a noun phrase without either bir or plural marking, which is used with
generic reference. Among the different forms of generic reference, the bare generic
evokes most strongly the idea of the ‘class’ as a single whole, as opposed to the class
viewed as a collection of separate individuals. It is the form used for the expression of
laws of nature (46), definitions and classifications (47), and proverbs (48). In general it
produces a more absolute, unqualified axiom than the other forms.
(46) Kuş uçar.
‘Birds fly/A bird flies.’
(47) Balina memeli bir hayvan-dır.
whale mammal an animal-GM
‘The whale is a mammal.’
(48) Dert gitmez, değişir.
‘Problems don’t go away, they change.’
 Definiteness, specificity and generic reference 331

(49) Hırsız pencereden girer.

‘Burglars/a burglar come(s) in through windows/a window’.
The use of insan ‘human being’ in the sense of the English generic pronoun ‘one’ (see
18.6.2) is a special instance of the bare generic:
(50) Para sıkıntısı insan-a üzüntü ver-ir.
money problem person-DAT distress give-AOR
‘Money problems cause one distress.’

[Link] The indefinite generic

The indefinite generic is a noun phrase marked with bir that has generic reference. It
expresses a typical member of a class. It occurs mainly in the following contexts:
(i) A noun phrase that includes adjectival modifiers (Chapter 15):
(51) {Akıllı bir insan} borçlanmaktan kaçınır.
‘{A wise person} avoids getting into debt.’
(52) {[Yurtdışında okumak isteyen] bir öğrenci}, iyi İngilizce öğrenmeli.
‘{A student [who wants to study abroad]} must learn English well.’
Because generics are inherently non-specific, the adjectival can be a relative clause with
olan omitted (see 22.2.1, [Link]):
(53) {[Elli yaşını geçmiş] bir insan}-ın bu memlekette iş bulması kolay değil.
‘It’s not easy for {a person over fifty} to find work in this country.’
(ii) A noun phrase that includes one of the indefinite determiners herhangi bir ‘any’ or
böyle bir/şöyle bir/öyle bir ‘such a’ (15.6.1):
(54) {Herhangi bir anne} bu sorunu tanır.
‘{Any mother} would recognize this problem.’
(55) {Öyle bir okul}-da okumak zor.
‘It’s hard to study in {such a school}’
(iii) A noun phrase followed by bile ‘even’ (see [Link]):
(56) Bunu {bir çocuk} bile anlayabilir.
‘Even {a child} could understand this.’

22.4.2 GENERIC REFERENCE BY PLURAL NOUN PHRASES

The plural generic, consisting of a plural-marked noun phrase, is closer in meaning to the
indefinite generic than to the bare generic, in that it also generalizes from individual to
class rather than vice versa. It makes reference to the collectivity of individuals that are
seen as constituting a class. In comparison with the bare generic, the plural generic makes
a less absolute kind of generalization, hinting at the possibility that it will not apply
equally to all members of the class.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 332

The plural generic could be substituted for the indefinite generic in all the examples
given in 22.4.1, with the exception of (54) (because herhangi has to be followed by bir
and a singular noun phrase). The plural equivalents of (51) and (55) are given below:
(57) {Akıllı insanlar} borçlanmaktan kaçınır.
‘{Wise people} avoid getting into debt.’
(58) {Öyle okullar}-da okumak zor.
‘It’s hard to study in {such schools}.’
The plural generic is the form preferred for making generalizations about classes of
human beings:
(59) İtalyanlar konuşkandır.
‘(The) Italians are talkative.’
(60) Kimse politikacılara güvenmez.
‘No one trusts politicians.’
The ‘individuation’ conveyed by the plural generic makes it appropriate for the
expression of quite modest or homely generalizations based upon the speaker’s personal
observation or experience:
(61) Kalorifersiz evler nispeten ucuz oluyor.
‘Flats without central heating are relatively cheap.’
(62) Bugün gençler [yemek yapmasın]-ı bilmiyorlar.
‘Young people today don’t know [how to cook].’

22.4.3 GENERIC NOUN PHRASES AS DIRECT OBJECTS

Bare generics are usually non-case-marked in the direct object function:
(63) Sen çocuk sevmezsin.
‘You don’t like children.’
(64) Ayten şapka seviyor.
‘Ayten loves hats.’
In sentences where a direct object with no determiner has accusative marking, the
referential status of the noun phrase is usually definite:
(65) Ayten şapkayı seviyor.
‘Ayten loves the hat.’
However, such noun phrases can also be open to a generic interpretation:
(66) Ayten şapkayı başkalarında seviyor, ama [saçları güzel olduğu için] kendisi
pek giymiyor.
‘Ayten likes hats on other people, but [because she has beautiful hair] she herself
doesn’t wear [them] much.’
A bare generic direct object is particularly likely to be accusative-marked where (a) it
denotes animate beings, and (b) the subject of the sentence is itself a bare generic:
 Definiteness, specificity and generic reference 333

(67) Kedi köpeği kovar.

‘A cat drives away/can drive away a dog.’
(68) Mühendis mimarı kıskanır.
‘The/An engineer is usually jealous of the/an architect.’
Two other types of bare generic also have to be accusative-marked when they are direct
objects:
(i) -sI compounds (10.2) whose modifier constituent is a noun of nationality:
(69) Arkadaşım Türk kahvesini sevmiyor.
‘My friend doesn’t like Turkish coffee.’
(ii) Noun phrases expressing entities regarded as social ‘institutions’:
(70) Kızın ailesi [okulu önemsemiyor] görünüyor.
‘The girl’s family appears [not to regard school as important].’
Indefinite and plural generics occurring as direct objects are obligatorily accusative-
marked:
(71) Ahmet o anda [koşuya hazırlanan] bir atleti andırıyordu.
‘At that moment Ahmet looked like {an athlete [preparing for a race]}.’
(72) Ali doktorları sevmez.
‘Ali doesn’t like doctors.’

22.5 THE EFFECT OF WORD ORDER ON REFERENTIAL STATUS

In the case of a subject noun phrase, its position in the sentence can have a determining
effect on its referential status. In (73), where the noun phrase is not plural-marked, the
difference in word order gives a categorial reading in (a) and a definite reading in (b).
This is because a categorial subject has to occupy the immediately preverbal position
(23.2.1 (v)), whereas the usual position for a definite subject is at the beginning of the
sentence (23.1). While it is possible for a definite subject to be placed in the immediately
preverbal position for purposes of emphasis or contrast (23.3), the likelihood of (a) being
uttered with the meaning of ‘It was the burglar (not anyone else) who got in through
here’ is small.
(73)
(a) Buradan hırsız girmiş. (cf. (43))
‘A burglar/Burglars got in through here.’
(b) Hırsız buradan girmiş.
‘The burglar got in through here.’
In (74) the subject noun phrase has plural marking, which gives the possibility of an
indefinite or (contrastive) definite reading in (a), but exclusively a definite reading in (b).
As explained in 23.2.1, a plural-marked indefinite subject without determiner has to
occupy the immediately preverbal position.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 334

(74)
(a) Arka sıra-lar-da öğrenci-ler otur-acak.
back row-PL-LOC student-PL sit-FUT
(i) ‘Students will sit in the back rows.’
(ii) ‘It’s the students who will sit in the back rows.’
(b) Öğrenciler arka sıralarda oturacak.
‘The students will sit in the back rows.’

22.6 THE EFFECT OF STRESS ON REFERENTIAL STATUS

In a sentence that consists only of a plural-marked subject noun phrase and a verb,
differential stress patterns determine the referential status of the noun phrase. It is
understood as indefinite if it bears sentence stress itself, as in (a) below, and as definite if
the stress is on the verb, as in (b).
(75)
(a) RaporLAR yazıldı.
‘Reports were written.’
(b) Raporlar yazılDI.
‘The reports were written.’

22.7 THE EFFECT OF TENSE, ASPECT AND MODALITY ON

REFERENTIAL STATUS

The tense/aspect/modality of the predicate is the most important indicator of whether a

subject noun phrase has definite or generic reference. A bare generic subject noun phrase
almost always occurs with one of the predicate types identified in [Link] as expressing
permanent or generalized validity, namely verbal predicates containing the aorist suffix -
(A/I)r/-mAz, and nominal predicates, optionally marked by -DIr. A generic interpretation
is often not possible with finite verb forms that express perfective aspect (21.3.1) or
(definite) future tense, i.e. -DI, -mIş and -(y)AcAK. The contrast between (76a) and (76b)
below shows that only in the case of predicates that can be applied holistically to an
entire class of entities is the use of one of these forms compatible with a generic
interpretation:
(76)
(a) Bilgisayar hepimizin işini kolaylaştırdı.
‘The computer has made things easier for all of us.’
(b) Bilgisayar Kenan’ın odasına kondu.
‘The computer was put in Kenan’s room.’
 Definiteness, specificity and generic reference 335

(76a) is capable of either a generic or a definite reading (computers in general, or a

particular computer), while (76b) must refer to a specific computer, because ‘putting’ is
an action that can only be performed on individual entities, not on an entire class.
(77) below has the aorist marking characteristic of sentences which make generalized
statements about behaviour or qualities regarded as typical of a class of entities, and
translation (i) expresses this generic interpretation. However, since the aorist is used
equally to express the characteristic behaviour or qualities of an individual ([Link]),
(77) can also be understood as a statement about a particular cat (translation (ii)):
(77) Kedi süt içer.
(i) ‘Cats drink milk.’/‘A cat drinks milk.’
(ii) ‘The cat drinks milk.’
The substitution of -(I)yor for the aorist in (78) eliminates altogether the possibility of a
generic reading. Kedi here has to have definite reference to a specific cat.
(78) Kedi süt içiyor.
(i) ‘The cat is drinking (some) milk.’
(ii) ‘The cat drinks milk.’
However, there are contexts in which -(I)yor is readily compatible with a generic subject.
As shown above in (61)–(62), this usage is particularly common in statements with plural
generic subjects, for which only a limited degree of generality is claimed, and which
reflect the speaker’s own experience rather than a universal law.
(79)
(a) {Bu makineler} iyi kesmiyor.
‘{These machines} don’t cut well.’
(b) {Bu tür makineler} iyi kesmiyor.
‘{This kind of machine} doesn’t cut well.’
(79a) is ambiguous between a generic interpretation (‘machines of this kind’) and a
definite one (referring to a specific set of machines known to both speaker and hearer).
The replacement of the simple demonstrative by the explicitly generic modifier bu tür
‘this kind (of)’ eliminates the ambiguity. Other explicitly generic modifiers derived from
the demonstratives are bu/o gibi ‘this/that kind of’ and böyle/şöyle/öyle (bir) (see [Link]
(ii) and examples (55) and (58)). These modifiers occur only with plural and indefinite
generics.
(80) illustrates the effect of the generalizing modality marker -DIr on the referential
status of a noun phrase in a nominal sentence. The noun phrase hanımelinin is in a
possessor/modifier role in this sentence, but the same effect would be observable in a
subject.
(80)
(a) Hanımeli-nin koku-su çok güzel.
honeysuckle-GEN [Link] very beautiful
‘The smell of (the) honeysuckle is lovely.’
(b) Hanımelinin kokusu çok güzel-dir.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 336

-GM
‘The smell of honeysuckle is lovely.’
(c) Hanımelinin kokusu çok güzel-di.
-[Link]
‘The smell of the honeysuckle was lovely.’
(a) is ambiguous between a generic reading (honeysuckle plants in general) and a definite
one (referring to a particular honeysuckle plant). The addition of -DIr in (b) forces the
generalized reading. (c), on the other hand, shows that, just as in verbal sentences
perfective aspect is usually incompatible with generic reference, so in nominal sentences
past tense marking usually excludes the generic interpretation. The latter would be
possible only in the case of a change in the situation of an entire class of entities over
time, as in (81):
(81) 1920’lerde otomobil yaygın değildi.
‘Cars were not common in the 1920s.’
 23
WORD ORDER

In Turkish word order is variable. Changing the order of the constituents in a sentence is
used as a means of distinguishing new information from background information and of
making a certain constituent prominent in the discourse. Shifting the position of sentence
stress also serves a similar purpose. Hence variations in word order, together with the
position of sentence stress, affect the meaning of a sentence. Although there are many
possible arrangements for the stressed and unstressed constituents in a sentence, here we
discuss only the most common patterns of word order variation.
Which particular syllable receives stress within a constituent that requires to be
stressed is determined by the rules of word stress explained in Chapter 4.
23.1 gives an overview of the unmarked order of sentence constituents, and 23.2
explores this topic in more detail. Variations in word order are discussed in 23.3. Section
23.4 looks at constituents that are dislocated from phrases and from subordinate clauses.

23.1 UNMARKED SENTENCES: WORD ORDER AND STRESS

Major constituents can occur in any order in Turkish, but the unmarked order is subject
(—object)—predicate (SOV) in verbal sentences and subject—predicate in nominal
sentences. The term unmarked order refers to the ordering of constituents in the
opening sentence of a dialogue or discourse, where no information is presupposed.
(1) Terzi elbise-m-i bitir-miş.
SUBJECT OBJECT PREDICATE
dressmaker [Link]-ACC finish-EV/PF
‘Apparently the dressmaker has finished my dress.’
(2) Hava çok soğuk.
SUBJECT PREDICATE
weather verycold
‘The weather is very cold.’
Utterances in the unmarked order have no particular part which is more prominent than
the others. The main properties of an unmarked sentence are given below:
(i) The predicate is at the end.
(ii) The subject is at the beginning.
(iii) A non-case-marked direct object, or any indefinite constituent with the
occasional exception of an animate subject, occurs immediately before the verb.
(iv) An oblique object is placed immediately before the verb.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 338

(v) Modal adverbials occur either at the very beginning of the sentence, or after
the subject.
(vi) Sentence stress falls on the constituent before the predicate in verbal and
affirmative existential sentences, on the subject complement in affirmative linking
sentences, on değil in negative linking sentences and on yok in negative
existential sentences.
In this chapter (and occasionally elsewhere in this book) stress is indicated by capital
letters. Bold type and/or italics do not indicate stress.

23.1.1 VERBAL SENTENCES

The unmarked order in verbal sentences is:

SUBJECT/MODAL ADVERBIAL—ACCUSATIVE-MARKED DIRECT OBJECT—

OTHER ADVERBIALS—OBLIQUE OBJECT/NON-CASE-MARKED DIRECT
OBJECT—VERB
(3) Çocuk-lar belki akşam televizyon-da film seyred-er-ler.
child-PL perhaps evening television-LOC film watch-AOR-3PL
‘The children will perhaps watch a film on television tonight.’
In unmarked verbal sentences, sentence stress falls on the constituent immediately before
the predicate:
(4) Erol bu sabah otobüste Sema-YA rastla-dı.
Sema-DAT [Link]-PF
‘Erol came across Sema on the bus this morning.’
There are two instances where a sentence is unmarked, yet stress falls on a constituent
other than the one immediately before the predicate:
(i) When there are clitics and other unstressable items (4.3.2):
(5) Ev-e GİT-me-di-m.
house-DAT go-NEG-PF-1SG
‘I didn’t go home.’
(ii) When there are certain adverbs of degree (16.5), such as en ‘most’, daha ‘more’ and
çok ‘very’:
(6) ÇOK yavaş kitap okurum.
very slowly book read-AOR-1SG
‘I read books very slowly.’
 Word order 339

23.1.2 NOMINAL SENTENCES

[Link] Linking sentences

In linking sentences ([Link]), the predicate is placed at the end and the subject at the
beginning. Sentence stress falls on the part of the predicate which is before the copular
marker (müdür ‘director’ in (7), and the possessive suffix -ü in (8)).
(7) Rezan bu banka-da müDÜR-dü.
this bank-LOC [Link]
‘Rezan was a director at this bank.’
(8) Rezan bu banka-nın müdür-Ü-ydü.
this bank-GEN [Link]
‘Rezan was the director of this bank.’
Stress falls on the nominal predicate irrespective of whether there is an overt copular
marker or not:
(9) Rezan on yıldır piLOT.
‘Rezan has been a pilot for 10 years.’
When there is an adjective modifying the nominal predicate, stress falls on the adjective:
(10) Rezan iYİ bir pilot.
‘Rezan is a good pilot.’

[Link] Existential sentences

In existential sentences ([Link]) the initial position is occupied by a locative or genitive
noun phrase. The subject occupies the position immediately before the predicate. Stress
falls on the subject if the sentence is affirmative, and on the predicate if it is negative.
(11) Bu köy-de çoktandır genetik bir hastaLIK var-mış.
this village-LOC [Link] genetic a disease [Link]
‘There has been a genetic disease in this village for a long time.’
(12) Hasan-ın imza yetki-si YOK.
Hasan-GEN signature [Link] non-existent
‘Hasan does not have authorization to sign.’

23.2 THE UNMARKED ORDER OF MAJOR CONSTITUENTS

23.2.1 THE IMMEDIATELY PREVERBAL POSITION

There are certain types of constituent that obligatorily occupy the position immediately
before the verb. The only items that can come between such phrases and the predicate are
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 340

the question particle mI, adverbial clitics such as bile ‘even’, dA ‘also’, etc. (Chapter 11),
and (in the case of (iv)–(vi) below) adverbial expressions such as çok ‘very much’ and
wh-phrases. The types of phrase in question are:
(i) Subject complements ([Link]):
(13) Meral çabucak hasta oldu.
‘Meral quickly became ill.’
(ii) Small clauses (24.5):
(14) Ben [Meral-i hasta] sanıyordum.
‘I thought Meral [was] ill.’
(iii) Adjectives used adverbially (16.1.2):
(15) Bu yemek odası takımı mutfakta iğreti duruyor.
‘This dining room set looks out of place in the kitchen.’
(16) Nilgün problemleri yavaş çözer.
‘Nilgün solves (the) problems slowly.’
(iv) Non-case-marked direct objects (which may be indefinite (22.2) or categorial (22.3)
noun phrases):
(17) Dün bana başka bir telefon numarası vermiştin.
‘Yesterday you gave me a different telephone number.’
(v) Categorial subjects:
(18) Elimi cam kesti.
‘Some glass cut my hand.’
(vi) Plural-marked indefinite subjects without a determiner:
(19) Yukarıya yeni kiracılar taşınmış.
‘New tenants have apparently moved in upstairs.’
There are certain other types of phrase that also tend to occur in the immediately
preverbal position:
(i) Oblique objects, unless there is also an adverb:
(20) İnsanların çoğu ölümden korkar.
‘Most people fear death.’
(21) Sen babama hep kızardın
‘You always got angry with my father.’
(ii) Adverbial clauses of manner (26.3.8):
(22) Neslihan elbiselerini [üstüne denemeden] alır.
‘Neslihan buys her clothes [without trying them on].’
(iii) Case-marked indefinite noun phrases:
 Word order 341

(23) Dün sokakta bir hırsız-ı kovala-mış-lar.

a thief-ACC chase-EV/PF-3PL
‘Apparently they chased a thief in the street yesterday.’
(24) Müdür resmi evrakları bir sekreter-e verdi.
a secretary-DAT give-PF
‘The director gave the official documents to a secretary.’
(iv) Indefinite animate and inanimate subjects:
(25) Sabah eve bir adam geldi.
‘A man came to the house this morning.’
(26) Dolabın arkasına bir şey düşmüş.
‘Something seems to have fallen down behind the cupboard.’

23.2.2 SUBJECTS AND MODAL ADVERBS

In most cases, the position of modal adverbs and subjects is interchangeable:
(27) Meğer Hasan çoktan tıbbı bitirmişmiş.
[Link] Hasan
‘It turns out that Hasan completed his medical studies a long time ago.’
(28) Necla galiba artık bankada değil.
Necla [Link]
‘I don’t think Necla is with the bank any more.’
In existential sentences the modal adverb usually precedes the subject or the possessive-
marked noun phrase within the subject:
(29) Biz-de sahiden video yok.
we-LOC really
‘We really don’t have a video player.’
(30) Biz-im gerçekten video-muz yok.
we-GEN really [Link]
‘We really don’t have a video player.’

23.2.3 OBJECTS
Non-case-marked direct objects and oblique objects occur in the immediately preverbal
position when they precede the predicate. The only exception to this is when they are
followed by certain clitics or adverbials (see 23.2.1):
(31) Bir çay da bana ver.
‘Give me a (glass of) tea, too.’
(32) Ahmet’ten mektup mu aldın?
‘Have you had a letter from Ahmet?’
Definite and other accusative-marked direct objects usually occur near the beginning of
the sentence, following the subject noun phrase and/or modal adverbial, if present:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 342

(33) (Ahmet herhalde) bütün para-yı bir haftada bitirir.

‘(Ahmet)/[He] would (probably) get through all the money in a week.’
(34) (Öğretmen) {[dersi baltalayan] öğrencilerden birkaç tanesin}-i idareye
bildirdi.
‘(The teacher)/[S/he] reported several of the students [who had disrupted the
class] to the authorities.’
In sentences which contain both an accusative-marked direct object and an oblique
object, the former has to precede the latter:
(35) Hasta anne-sin-i ye-mey-e zorla-dı.
sick [Link]-ACC eat-VN-DAT force-PF
‘S/he forced his/her sick mother to eat.’
Otherwise there are generally no clear-cut rules determining the ordering of two or more
case-marked noun phrases (objects or adverbials) in relation to one another, where all or
both are definite. The general principle is that the more predictable a constituent is (e.g.
from previous mention or from presence in the speech context) the earlier in the sentence
it is likely to appear.
(36) Ahmet öğrenci-ler-e sınav kağıt-ların-ı verdi.
student-PL-DAT exam [Link]-ACC
‘Ahmet gave the students their exam papers.’
(37) Şu masa-yı yandaki oda-ya götür.
table-ACC room-DAT
‘Take this table into the room next door.’
If a sentence has two accusative-marked or two dative-marked noun phrases (because
there are two clauses in the sentence), then each noun phrase occupies its unmarked
position within its own clause (see also [Link] (38)):
(38) Ahmet sen-i [ben-i tanı-mı-yor] san-dı.
you-ACC I-ACC know-NEG-IMPF think-PF
‘Ahmet thought you didn’t know me.’
(39) Doktor-a [hasta-ya bak-ma-sın]-ı söyle-di.
doctor-DAT patient-DAT [Link]-ACC tell-PF
‘S/he told the doctor [to check the patient].’

23.2.4 ADVERBIAL PHRASES

Adverbial phrases of time generally precede those expressing location, which in turn
precede those expressing manner:
(40) Ben şimdi derslerimi aşağıda bilgisayar-la veriyorum.
now downstairs computer-INS
‘Now I’m giving my lectures downstairs with a computer.’
Adverbials expressing reason or purpose often occur at the beginning of the sentence, and
can precede the subject:
 Word order 343

(41) [Mehmet borcunu ödemediği için] Ali bu yıl kendi borçlarını zor
ödeyecek.
‘[Because Mehmet hasn’t paid his debt] Ali will pay his own debts with great
difficulty this year.’
(42) [Bozulmasın diye] annem köfteyi buzdolabına koymuştu.
‘My mother had put the meatballs in the fridge [so that they wouldn’t go off].’
Most adverbials of time may also precede the subject:
(43) Dün annem doktora gitti.
‘Yesterday my mother went to the doctor.’
(44) Hafta sonları çocuklar burada olmuyor.
‘The children are not here at the weekends.’
Where two adverbials of time or place occur together, the one with the broader meaning
precedes the other:
(45) Her gün 14.30-da uçak kalkıyormuş.
every day 14.30-LOC
‘It seems a plane goes at 14.30 every day.’

23.3 WORD ORDER VARIATIONS

The major constituents of a sentence can appear in any order, provided that none is
indefinite. For example, a sentence containing a subject, a direct object (with an
accusative case marker) and a verb has six possible orders (with the further possibility of
inserting adverbials at the beginning, the end or between constituents):
(46)

(a) Ali ev-i sat-tı.

Ali house-ACC sell-PF
‘Ali sold the house.’
(b) Evi Ali sattı.
(c) Ali sattı evi.
(d) Evi sattı Ali.
(e) Sattı Ali evi.
(f) Sattı evi Ali.
Although these sentences are equally grammatical, they are used in different contexts.
For example, (b) and (c) are interchangeable if Ali is stressed, a strategy which guides the
hearer to focus his/her attention on Ali, and indicates that it was Ali who sold the house.
(e) and (f) emphasize the selling of the house, as a verb which is at the beginning of a
sentence obligatorily carries stress. On the other hand, (b) and (d) are more or less
interchangeable if evi ‘the house (ACC)’ bears stress. These sentences are used in
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 344

circumstances when the emphasis is placed on this constituent, e.g. to draw attention to
the fact that it is the house and not some other building that Ali sold. This interpretation
applies to (a) as well if evi ‘the house’ bears stress. These are a few of the possible
interpretations of (a)–(f).
Changing the order in which constituents appear in unmarked sentences, i.e.
scrambling them, has three general purposes:
(i) Emphasizing a particular constituent:
This strategy, which is called focusing, is used to highlight the information provided
by the constituent in question. This may be because it is new information, i.e. refers to
something that has not previously been mentioned, or because the speaker wishes to
contrast this item of information with another (perhaps previously mentioned).
(ii) De-emphasizing a particular constituent or constituents:
Some of the constituents in a sentence may have relatively less informative value than
others, generally as a result of having been mentioned earlier, or simply because they are
uttered as an afterthought. Such pieces of information are described as backgrounded.
(iii) Making a particular constituent the pivot of the information in a sentence:
A particular constituent may act as the information centre in terms of signalling what
the sentence is about. This is called a topic.
Placing (or not placing) sentence stress on a constituent plays as important a role in
determining its information value as scrambling does. For example, focused constituents
are almost always stressed, while backgrounded constituents never are. Those signalling
topics usually take secondary stress (see 5.2.2).
In many cases the acoustic quality of stress in sentences with scrambled order is
different from the stress of unmarked sentences. In particular, a focused constituent
usually gets heavy stress, with an accent higher in pitch than the stressed constituent of an
unmarked sentence. However, we do not attempt to indicate such differences in this book.
The following conditions apply to scrambled constituents:
(i) Focused phrases bear heavy stress.
(ii) Focused phrases appear in the area preceding the predicate, either
immediately to the left of the predicate or in their unmarked position.
(iii) Backgrounded information follows the predicate and is never stressed.
(iv) Topics (sometimes followed by topic shifters) usually occur at the beginning
of a sentence.
(v) The predicate is obligatorily stressed (and focused) if it is at the beginning of a
sentence.
(vi) Certain semantic properties of noun phrases, such as definiteness, specificity
and animacy, also affect word order, as discussed in 22.5, 23.2.1 and 23.3.3.

23.3.1 THE POSITION OF FOCUSED CONSTITUENTS: THE

PREVERBAL AREA
All types of constituents can be focused. Focused constituents can occur in any position
before the predicate, but their most typical position in verbal sentences is immediately in
front of the verb. They bear heavy stress wherever they may occur:
(47) Fatma çiçek-ler-i BUgün sula-yacak.
 Word order 345

Fatma flower-PL-ACC today water-FUT

‘Fatma will water the plants TODAY.’
(48) Bazı günler ön bahçe-de çocuk-LAR oynu-yor.
some day-PL front garden-LOC child-PL play-IMPF
‘Some days CHILDREN play in the front garden.’
A less common strategy for focusing a constituent is to place stress on it in its unmarked
position:
(49) BUgün çiçekleri sulayacaksın.
‘You will water the plants TODAY.’
The most typical strategy for focusing a constituent in an existential sentence is to place
stress on it in its unmarked position:
(50) Ahmet’İN iki arabası var.
‘AHMET has two cars.’
In linking sentences the preferred strategy is to place the focused constituent just before
the predicate:
(51) Ahmet’in babası HER gün hasta.
‘Ahmet’s father is ill EVERY DAY.’
Focused constituents can be used with focus-sensitive adverbials and connectives such as
ancak ‘only’, dA ‘also’ and bile ‘even’ (see 16.7, [Link]).
(52) Ancak öZEL izin-le gir-il-ebil-iyor-muş kulis-e.
only special permit-INS [Link] [Link]-DAT
‘One can only go back stage by special permit.’
(53) KomşuLAR da bazı günler ön bahçede oturuyor.
‘Some days the neighbours too sit in the front garden.’
Like any other constituent, predicates can be focused by placing stress on them. When
stressed, they can occupy any position, including their unmarked sentence-final position:
(54) Onlar-ın hep-si öğretMEN. (Cevapları tabii ki bilecekler.)
they-GEN [Link] teacher
‘They are all TEACHERS. (Of course they’ll know the answers.)’
(55) Ama ben bütün mektupları dün yırtTIM.
‘But I TORE UP all the letters yesterday.’

23.3.2 THE POSITION OF BACKGROUND INFORMATION: THE

POSTVERBAL AREA
The area following the predicate, generally referred to as the postverbal area, is the site
for information which is backgrounded, information which is assumed to be shared by the
speaker and the hearer, or which has only just been mentioned in the discourse. Placing
constituents here also has the effect of rendering another constituent more prominent,
sometimes leaving this latter as the only phrase before the predicate. Note that the
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 346

strategy of backgrounding is restricted to spoken and informal written Turkish. In formal

written styles constituents are not normally placed after the predicate.
(56) Hiç seyahat-e GİT-me-miş yalnız başına daha önce.
never trip-DAT go-NEG-EV/PF alone before
‘Apparently s/he’s never been on holiday alone before.’
(57) GüZEL-miş bu ev.
[Link] this house
‘It’s nice, this house.’
The relative positioning of the constituents in the postverbal area is insignificant. More
than one constituent can follow the predicate, and these can occur in any order. If all the
constituents in a sentence follow the predicate then the predicate is obligatorily stressed.
The sentences below are informationally identical:
(58)
(a) Bitir-Dİ Fatma üniversite-yi bu yıl.
finish-PF Fatma university-ACC this year
‘Fatma FINISHED university this year.’
(b) BitirDİ üniversite-yi bu yıl Fatma.
(c) BitirDİ bu yıl Fatma üniversite-yi.
No constituent occurring in the postverbal area can bear stress; as a result, the postverbal
area cannot host stress-requiring elements such as wh-phrases (19.2.1) or mI-phrases
(19.1). (Note that mI-phrases can appear after the predicate in alternative questions, in
cases where the second mention of a shared verb is omitted; see example (18) in 19.1.2.)
The types of constituents that are most commonly backgrounded are definite noun
phrases and adverbials. However, it is possible for a non-definite noun phrase to be
placed in the postverbal position if it refers to an entity or category that has been
mentioned (or implied) in the immediately preceding discourse:
(59) Ayşe senin arkadaşlarınla ne kadar rahat konuşuyordu.
Üniversiteye girdiği yıl bil-mi-yor-du hiç İngilizce.
[Link] any English
‘How fluently Ayşe was talking to your friends. She didn’t know
any English the year she entered university.’
(60) Bana da getir bir kahve.
I(DAT) too bring a coffee
‘Bring me a coffee, too.’
(61) Var-mış siz-in bakkal-da kopya kağıd-ı!
[Link] you-GEN grocer-LOC carbon paper-NC
‘Your grocer DOES sell carbon paper!’
Backgrounding can also take place within a noun clause:
(62) [(…) Piyano çal-dığ-ın-ı Ayşe-nin] bil-mi-yor-du-m.
piano [Link]-ACC Ayşe-GEN [Link]-1SG
‘I didn’t know [Ayşe played the piano].’
 Word order 347

23.3.3 THE TOPIC POSITION

The initial position in a sentence is often used to indicate what the sentence is ‘about’, in
other words its topic. As explained in 23.1, in unmarked sentences it is usually the subject
(if overtly expressed) that occupies the topic position. However, through scrambling it is
possible to topicalize any constituent except those that obligatorily occur in the
immediately preverbal position (see 23.2.1). In some of the translations in this section
passivization has been used in order to reflect the informational effect of topicalizing a
non-subject constituent.
(63) Erol-a sonunda Spor Birliği bir maDALya ver-di.
Erol-DAT finally sports association a medal give-PF
‘Erol was finally awarded a medal by the Sports Association.’
Where a non-definite direct object is topicalized, it has to be given accusative marking if
it is no longer in the immediately preverbal position (see [Link] (ii)).
(64) Suluboya-yı ancak usTA bir ressam böyle kullan-abil-ir.
watercolour-ACC only [Link] a painter [Link] use-PSB-AOR
‘Watercolours can only be used like this by a highly skilled painter.’
An indefinite noun phrase can be topicalized only if it refers to a member or members of
a group or category that has been mentioned or implied in the preceding discourse:
(65) Misafirlerin çoğu bahçeye çıkmıştı. Birkaç çocuk orada babamla
konuşuyordu.
‘Most of the guests had gone out into the garden. Several children were talking to
my father out there.’
(66) Bir tane de bana ver.
‘Give me one, too.’
Noun phrases with categorial status (22.3) cannot be topicalized as subjects. This means
that subject noun phrases that occur in the topic position without plural marking and
without a determiner are always interpreted as definite (see 22.5) or generic (see 22.7).
It should be noted that not all sentences in Turkish have overtly expressed topics. The
continuation of a subject-topic from one sentence to another is signalled by the absence
of a noun phrase referring to the subject in the second and subsequent sentences in the
sequence (see 18.1.5).
Topicalization can also take place within a noun clause:
(67) Ayşe [yaprağ-ı annesi (…) sar-ıyor] san-dı.
Ayşe [Link]-ACC [Link] stuff-IMPF think-PF
‘Ayşe thought the vine leaves were being stuffed by her mother.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 348

[Link] Topic shifters

There are a number of markers in Turkish which signal a change of topic: the clitics dA
and -(y)sA/ise and the postposition gelince ‘as for…’ (the -(y)IncA converbial form of
gel- ‘come’, i.e. ‘when one comes to…’). -(y)sA/ise and gelince are placed immediately
after the new topic at the beginning of a sentence. The position of a dA marked topic is
somewhat less rigid, and although as a topic shifter dA most commonly appears after the
first constituent in a sentence, it can also occur in other positions.
(i) The clitic dA is the least emphatic marker of topic shift. It signals a continuity or
connection between two events or situations, and is usually equivalent to ‘and’ or ‘so’ in
English (see also [Link] (iiia)).
(68) Kimse Semra’ya gel dememiş, o da evDE oturacakmış.
‘No one asked Semra to come, so she’ll be staying at home.’
A non-focused subject combined with dA may occur in the post-verbal position:
(69) Derslerini yapmamışlar. Onları UYARDIM ben de.
‘It seems they haven’t done their homework. So I’ve warned them’.
For other functions of dA, see [Link] (iiib), 28.3.2 and [Link].
(ii) The clitic -(y)sA/ise sends a stronger signal, indicating that a significantly different
point is going to be made about the new topic. This may be a direct contrast with what
has been said about the previous topic:
(70) Sen hep kolayına kaçıyorsun, bense her işi en iyi şekilde yapmaya
çalışıyorum.
‘You always take the easy way out, whereas I try to do everything in the best way
possible.’
Alternatively, it may be a rather striking, perhaps even surprising, further development of
the same theme:
(71) Kağıtları ancak toparlayabildim. Kitaplarsa hala kutularda duruyor.
‘I have only managed to tidy up the papers. As for the books, they are still in their
boxes.’
(72) Ahmet Semra’yı hiç aramıyormuş. Semra’nınsa buna hiç aldırdğı yok (see
[Link] (i).
‘Apparently Ahmet doesn’t call Semra any more. Semra, for her part, couldn’t
care less.’
(iii) gelince phrases correspond to ‘as for…’ constructions in English. They have dative-
marked complements which act as antecedent to an obligatory pronoun later in the
sentence. This construction occurs less frequently than topics marked with dA or -(y)sA,
and signals that the speaker wishes to draw particular attention to the statement that is
about to be made.
(73) Hayri ve Faruk bugün babalarına hediye alacaklarını söylediler.
 Word order 349

Ahmet’e gelince, o nasıl olsa çok düşünceli-dir. Al-mış-tır bile.

Ahmet-DAT [Link] he anyway very thoughtful-GM
Buy-PF-GM already
‘Hayri and Faruk said they would be buying their father a present/presents today.
As for Ahmet, well, he’s very considerate in any case. He will have bought [one]
already.’
All topic-shift markers, with the topics that they mark, form intonational phrases ending
in a slight rise (5.1 (iii)). There is usually a short pause after gelince; this may also occur
after -(y)sA, but is not normally heard after dA.

23.4 DISLOCATED CONSTITUENTS

In addition to the possibility of placing any major constituent after the predicate, some
constituents can cross the boundaries of the phrase or the clause of which they are part.

23.4.1 DISLOCATED ADJECTIVAL PHRASES

Adjectival phrases which are parts of indefinite noun phrases can be placed in the
position following the predicate. This usually occurs where the modifying phrase is
added as an afterthought. In the examples below the unmarked position for the dislocated
phrase is indicated by (…).
(74) Burada (…) bir elbise-m var-dı eteğ-i sökük.
here a [Link] [Link] [Link] unstitched
‘I had a dress here, with its hemline unstitched.’
(75) Bütün zeytinyağlı-lar-da (…) şeker var-dır bir iki kaşık.
all [Link]-PL-LOC sugar existent-GM one two spoonful
‘All cold vegetable dishes have sugar in them, [just] one or two spoonfuls.’

23.4.2 DISLOCATED CONSTITUENTS OF NOUN CLAUSES

Mostly subjects, but also other constituents of a noun clause can be dislocated and placed
at the end of the sentence:
(76) [(…) Piyano çal-dığ-ın]-ı bil-mi-yor-du-m Ayşe’nin.
piano [Link]-ACC [Link]-1SG Ayşe-GEN
‘I didn’t know [Ayşe played the piano].’
(77) [Zerrin’in (…)(…) gör-me-sin]-i iste-mi-yor-du-m
Zerrin-GEN [Link]-ACC [Link]-1SG hediye-sin-
i şimdiden.
present [Link]-ACC yet
‘I didn’t want [Zerrin to see her present yet].’
Alternatively, constituents of a noun clause can be placed at the beginning of a sentence
for topicalization:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 350

(78) Yaprağ-ı Ayşe [herhangi biri-nin (…) sar-abil-eceğ-in-e] [Link]-ACC

Ayşe anyone-GEN [Link]-DAT inan-mı-yor-du.
[Link] ‘Ayşe didn’t believe [that (just) anyone could stuff
vine leaves].’
 24
NOUN CLAUSES

Noun clauses are clausal noun phrases. They are subordinate clauses that perform within
the larger sentence (within the main clause or another subordinate clause) the same
functions as noun phrases, i.e. those of subject, object, etc. (see Chapter 14). Structurally
they may be one of two types:
(i) finite (i.e. identical in structure to a full sentence, see 12.3):
(1) [Üniversite-ye gid-e-yim] isti-yor.
university-DAT go-OPT-1SG want-IMPF
‘S/he wants [me to go to university].’
(ii) non-finite (i.e. with their verbal constituent marked by one of the subordinating
suffixes -mAK, -mA, -DIK, -(y)AcAK or -(y)Iş, see 12.3):
(2) [Konu-yu iyice anla-mak] gerek.
topic-ACC thoroughly understand-VN necessary
‘One has to understand the topic thoroughly.’
Within the finite category a further division exists: bare finite noun clauses (24.2) are
simply juxtaposed to, or inserted within, the superordinate clause, as in (1) above, while
finite noun clauses with a subordinator (24.3; see also 12.3) are linked to their
superordinate clause by a preceding ki or a following diye or gibi:
(3) [Sen Londra-da-sı n diye] bil-iyor-du-m.
You London-LOC-2SG SUB [Link]-1SG
‘I thought [you were in London].’
In 24.4 we present a detailed account of the wide range of non-finite noun clause patterns
and functions in Turkish. 24.5 is devoted to the special kind of noun clause known as a
small clause, the subject of which is also a constituent of the superordinate clause. The
chapter concludes with a brief discussion of noun clauses as modifiers in noun
compounds (24.6).
In the interests of clarity we have confined both the discussion and the examples in
this chapter to sentences in which the noun clause is embedded directly in the main
clause. However, it should be borne in mind that all types of noun clause, with the
exception of those formed with ki (24.3.2), regularly occur embedded in other clauses
which are themselves subordinate to the main clause (see 12.3).
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 352

24.1 FINITE AND NON-FINITE NOUN CLAUSES

The subordinating suffix that is attached to the predicate of non-finite noun clauses gives
them a much more recognizably nominal structure than a finite noun clause can have. In
all noun clauses marked with -DIK or -(y)AcAK, and in most that are marked with -mA or
-(y)Iş, the subject is indicated by a possessive suffix attached to the verbal noun. The
subject may also be referred to more explicitly by a genitive-marked noun phrase, which
gives the noun clause the overall structure of a genitive-possessive construction. (For
omission of genitive marking on the subject see 24.4.6.)
(4) [(Sen-in) piyano çal-dığ-ın]-ı bilmiyordum.
you-GEN piano [Link]-ACC
‘I didn’t know [you played the piano].’
(5) [(Sen-in) piyano çal-ma-n]-ı beklediler.
you-GEN piano [Link]-ACC
‘They expected [you to play the piano].’
Non-finite noun clauses have the same kind of mobility within the sentence as noun
phrases (see 23.3). Some types of finite noun clause, on the other hand (especially the
bare type and those formed with ki), are considerably more restricted in the positions that
they can occupy in relation to the main predicate.
In general terms the non-finite types of noun clause are more universally acceptable
than their finite equivalents (where these indeed exist). Except for the presentation of
direct speech (24.2.1 (i)), and the use of ki clauses with cognitive verbs ([Link]), the use
of finite noun clauses is largely confined to informal styles of speech and writing.

24.2 BARE FINITE NOUN CLAUSES (FINITE NOUN CLAUSES

WITHOUT A SUBORDINATOR)

These occur as subjects or objects of the verbs de- ‘say’, iste- ‘want’, and verbs of
cognition.

24.2.1 SUBJECT OR OBJECT OF THE VERB de

de- ‘say’ occurs only with finite noun clauses. It can be used not only to express a spoken
utterance but also for the expression of unspoken thoughts. Here we shall discuss three
different uses of de-.
(i) The most straightforward use of de- is in representations of direct speech, where the
speaker claims to present the exact words spoken in another context by himself/herself or
someone else. It should be noted that de-, whether in a finite form or a non-finite one
such as diye (24.3.1), is the only verb that can be used for this purpose. The quotation
itself occupies the immediately preverbal position.
 Noun clauses 353

(6) O gün Suzan “Artık dayan-a-m-ıyor-um” de-miş-ti bana.

that day Suzan now bear-PSB-NEG-IMPF-1SG [Link] I(DAT)
‘That day Suzan had said to me “I can’t bear [it] any longer”.’
(7) Bana genellikle “Sen küçüksün, gelemezsin” de-n-iyor-du.
[Link]
‘I was usually told “You’re too young; you can’t come”.’
(ii) The second use of de- differs only slightly from the first. Here the subordinate clause
is not claimed to present the exact words uttered by a specific person on a specific
occasion, but rather to encapsulate the gist of a more generalized utterance, attributed to
unspecified people. Quotation marks are not found with this usage of de-.
(8) [New York ağustosta çekilmez] di-yor-lar.
say-IMPF-3PL
‘People say [New York is unbearable in August].’
(iii) The use of de- to express thoughts rather than utterances is very common in informal
registers. Although the context may imply that the thought is articulated in speech,
quotation marks are not used, because the emphasis is on the substance of the thought
rather than on a particular utterance of it.
(9) [Tören bir saat sürer] diyelim.
‘Let’s suppose [the ceremony will last an hour].’
Where the verb in the subordinate clause is marked with one of the optative forms -sIn, -
(y)AyIm, -(y)AlI m or the conditional -sA, the thought is also a desire for something to
happen (see 21.4.4).
(10) [Herkes kendi yiyeceklerini kendi getirsin] diyorum ben.
‘I think [everyone should bring their own food].’
(11) [Bu belirsizlik bit-se artık] di-yor-du-k.
this uncertainty end-OPT now [Link]-1PL
‘[If only this uncertainty would end], we thought.’
Note that the verb söyle-, the other verb in Turkish which means ‘say’, contrasts with de-
in terms of the type of noun clause that can be used with it. Söyle- can only be used with
non-finite clauses (see [Link] and [Link]); moreover, it always denotes a spoken
utterance.

24.2.2 INTERROGATIVE SENTENCE AS SUBJECT OR OBJECT OF

A VERB OF COGNITION
A finite question clause can be the subject or object of a verb of cognition such as bil-
‘know’, anla- ‘understand’. The main verb is usually negative or interrogative:
(12) [Çocuğ-un baba-sı kim] bil-in-iyor mu?
child-GEN [Link] who know-PASS-IMPF INT
‘Is it known [who the child’s father is]?’
(13) [Ertan’ı neden bu kadar beğeniyorsun] anlayamıyorum.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 354

‘I can’t understand [why you admire Ertan so much].’

For the use of finite statements as the objects of certain cognition verbs see 24.5. A
number of fixed forms such as sanırım ‘I think’, umarım ‘I hope’, bakarsın ‘you’ll see’
are modal adverbials (16.3).

24.2.3 SUBJECT OR OBJECT OF THE VERB iste

A sentence whose main verb is iste- ‘want’ can also have a finite noun clause as its
subject or object, although here the verb in the subordinate clause is always suffixed with
one of the optative forms -sIn, -(y)AyIm or-(y)AlIm ([Link]–3).
(14) [Birer birer gir-e-lim] iste-n-iyor-muş.
[Link] [Link]-OPT-1PL [Link]
‘Apparently they want [us to go in one by one].’
(15) [Her taraf mermerle kaplansın] istiyor.
‘He wants [everywhere to be covered in marble].’

24.3 FINITE NOUN CLAUSES WITH A SUBORDINATOR

The subordinators that mark certain types of finite noun clauses are diye, gibi and ki.

24.3.1 CLAUSES FORMED WITH diye

The subordinator diye is the -(y)A converbial form of the verb de- ‘say’ (26.3.8), and its
functions are quite clearly derived from the various meanings of de- discussed in 24.2.1.
diye is of very common occurrence in the formation of both noun and adverbial clauses
(26.1.1). It always stands at the end of its clause. Noun clauses with diye function as
subject or object of the following classes of verbs:
(i) Verbs of communication other than de
(ii) Verbs of cognition and perception
(iii) Verbs of emotion.
(i) Verbs of communication other than de-:
Where a piece of direct speech is presented as the subject or object of a main verb
other than de-, such as sor- ‘ask’, bağır- ‘shout’ or yaz- ‘write’, diye has to intervene
between the quotation and this main verb:
(16) “Akşam-a gel-ecek mi-sin?” diye sor-du anne-m bana.
evening-DAT come-FUT INT-2SG SUB ask-PF [Link] I(DAT)
‘“Will you be coming back tonight?” my mother asked me.’
As the object of konuş- ‘talk’, a diye clause expresses action that has been agreed upon by
two or more people; this need not be treated as a quotation:
(17) [Herkes bir yemek yapıp getirsin diye] konuşmuştuk.
 Noun clauses 355

‘We had agreed [that everyone should make and bring one dish].’
(ii) Verbs of cognition and perception:
The principal verbs of cognition and perception that occur with diye-marked objects
are: bil- (in this context meaning not ‘know’ but ‘think’ (= suppose)), düşün- ‘think’ (=
speculate, be of the opinion that), bekle-‘expect’, duy- ‘hear’, işit- ‘hear’, oku- ‘read’.
(18) [Bir torununuz olmuş diye] duydum.
‘I heard [that you have had a grandchild].’
See also example (3).
(iii) Verbs of emotion:
All verbs of emotion that take an oblique object ([Link]) can alternatively have a
clausal object which is marked by diye:
(19) Teoman [memur onu azarladı diye] çok sinirlenmişti.
‘Teoman was very annoyed [that the official had reprimanded him].’
In the case of kork- ‘be afraid’, the verb in the subordinate clause receives the conditional
suffix -(y)sA:
(20) Meral, [Turgut onu Selim’le gör-ür-se diye] kork-uyor-du.
[Link] SUB [Link]
‘Meral was afraid [that Turgut would see her with Selim].’

24.3.2 CLAUSES FORMED WITH ki

Unlike other noun clauses in Turkish, which can be placed either before or after the main
predicate, ki clauses obligatorily follow the main predicate:
(21) Sanıyorum [ki iş-in-i bırak-mak isti-yor].
[Link] that [Link]-ACC leave-VN want-IMPF
‘I think [(that) s/he wants to leave his/her job].’
The use of a ki clause rather than either of the other types of finite noun clause has the
effect of highlighting the main predicate, thus drawing attention to the status of what is
about to be uttered: an obvious fact, a surmise on the part of the speaker, a desire, etc.
(For the stress-related properties of ki see [Link].) Note that the main predicate preceding
a ki clause is rarely cast in an interrogative or negative form.
Speakers also use ki structures as an organizational device to gain time for articulating
the substantive content of their communication. Although of common occurrence, ki
clauses are perceived as marked structures, and therefore do not normally occur
repeatedly within a single utterance or paragraph.

[Link] Subject or object of the verb de

 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 356

The use of de- ‘say’ followed by a ki clause is an alternative to the type of structure
discussed in 24.2.1, where de- immediately follows the clause expressing the utterance or
thought. ki clauses occur in all the three functions of de- identified in 24.2.1:
(i) Representations of direct speech (cf. (6) and (7)):
(22) O gün Suzan bana de-miş-ti ki: “Artık dayan-a-m-ıyor-um”.
that day Suzan I(DAT) [Link] SUB now bear-PSB-NEG-IMPF-1SG
‘That day Suzan had said to me “I can’t bear [it] any longer”.’
(23) Bana genellikle deniyordu ki: “Sen küçüksün, gelemezsin”.
‘I was usually told “You’re too young; you can’t come”.’
(ii) Generalized sayings (cf. (8)):
(24) Diyorlar [ki New York ağustosta çekilmez].
‘People say [(that) New York is unbearable in August].’
(iii) Thoughts and wishes (cf. (10)):
(25) Ben diyorum [ki herkes kendi yiyeceklerini kendi getirsin].
‘I think [(that) everyone should bring their own food].’
There is no difference in formality between the two alternative structures with de-.
Sentences in which de- is used to express thoughts rather than utterances are less likely to
be structured with a ki clause unless, as in (25), they can be construed as containing both
speech and thought elements simultaneously.

[Link] Subject or object of a verb of perception or cognition

ki clauses can occur with all verbs of perception, and also with verbs such as inan-
‘believe’, san- ‘think’, iddia et- ‘claim’, kabul et- ‘accept’, tahmin et- ‘guess’, ‘imagine’,
which express an attitude towards the truth of a proposition.
(26) Anlaşılıyor [ki Fransızca’ya olan talep iyice azalmış].
‘It’s clear [that the demand for French has considerably declined].’
(27) Bir gün duyduk [ki adam taşınıp gitmiş].
‘One day we heard [that the man had moved away].’
In constructions of this kind the demonstrative adverbial öyle ‘like that’ (16.4.3 (iii)) is
sometimes inserted before the main verb:
(28) (Öyle) sanıyorum [ki arkadaşlarımızın çoğu ağustosta gelemeyecekler].
‘I imagine [that most of our friends won’t be able to come in August].’
This öyle is seen in the lexicalized expression öyle gel- ‘seem (to someone)’, which is
always used in combination with the dative-marked form of a personal pronoun:
(29) Bana öyle gel-iyor [ki Ömer’le ablasının araları pek iyi değil]. I(DAT) seem-
IMPF SUB
‘It seems to me [that Ömer and his sister don’t get on very well].’
 Noun clauses 357

This construction is identical in meaning to…gibi gel- constructions (24.3.3).

Where a ki clause expresses a discovery made on performing a certain action, the verb
of perception itself may be omitted:
(30) Kapıyı açtım [ki içerisi insan dolu].
‘I opened the door [and saw] [that the place was full of people].’

[Link] Subject or object of the verb iste

As in the case of bare finite noun clauses with iste- (24.2.3), the verb in a ki clause which
is dependent on the verb iste- ‘want’ is always suffixed with one of the optative forms -
sIn, -(y)AyIm or -(y)AlIm ([Link]–3).
(31) İsteniyormuş [ki birer birer girelim]. (cf. (14))
‘Apparently what they want is [for us to go in one by one].’
(32) Aslında istiyor [ki her taraf mermerle kaplansın]. (c. (15))
‘Actually what he wants is [for everywhere to be covered in marble].’

[Link] Subject of adjectival predicates

In sentences like (33) and (34) the ki clause is technically the subject of a linking
sentence ([Link]), of which the predicate is the adjective at the beginning of the
sentence (tabii ‘natural’, belli ‘clear, ‘obvious’).
(33) Tabii [ki ben hiç öyle bir şey kastetmemiştim].
‘Of course I had meant nothing of the sort.’
(34) Belli [ki birbirini çekemiyorlar].
‘It’s obvious [that they can’t stand each other].’
However, the combinations of adjectives such as tabii and belli with ki have become
frozen forms which really function more as modal adverbials (16.3).

24.3.3 CLAUSES FORMED WITH gibi

The role of gibi as a subordinator is derived from its primary function as a postposition
meaning ‘like’ (17.2.1). As a subordinator it occurs mainly in adverbial clauses (26.1.5),
but when it stands between a finite subordinate clause and a main verb which is gel- it
marks a noun clause.
The informal idiom gibi gel-, combined with the dative-marked form of a personal
pronoun or of any noun phrase referring to (a) human being(s), means ‘seem (to
someone)’ (just like öyle gel- with a ki clause, [Link]). The finite noun clause
immediately preceding gibi is the subject of the sentence.
(35) [Meryem yeni işine pek ısınamadı] gibi gel-iyor bana.
seem-IMPF I(DAT)
‘It seems to me [that Meryem is not very happy in her new job].’
(36) Sana [bu işi büyütüyorum] gibi gelebilir.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 358

‘It may seem to you [that I’m making too much fuss about this].’
An even more informal variant of this construction, occurring only in the first person and
giving a rather more tentative meaning, is gibime gel- (used in lieu of bana…gibi gel-):
(37) [O çocukta bir tuhaflık var] gibi-m-e gel-iyor.
[Link]-DAT gel-IMPF
‘I have a feeling [there’s something odd about that child].’
Note that other verbs meaning ‘seem’, such as gibi dur-/gibi görün-/gibi gözük-, behave
differently from gibi gel- (see 24.5).

24.4 NON-FINITE NOUN CLAUSES

In the following sections we describe in turn the functions of noun clauses formed with
each of the following subordinating suffixes: -mAK, -mA, -DIK, -(y)AcAK, -(y)Iş.

24.4.1 CLAUSES FORMED WITH -mAK

The verb form suffixed with the subordinator -mAK (8.5.2), often called the infinitive, is
the ‘citation’ form of the verb, used when talking about a verb as a lexical item:
(38) Öyle bir hareket için ‘sıyrılmak’ fiilini kullanırız.
‘We use the verb sıyrılmak for such an action.’
Noun clauses formed with -mAK are used primarily (i) for talking about an activity,
action or state in general terms, or (ii) with main verbs that express a subject’s behaviour
or attitude towards an action or activity that s/he her/himself performs or may perform.
The crucial difference beween -mAK clauses and those with -mA is that -mA clauses in
the majority of cases contain their own subject (see 24.4.2), whereas -mAK clauses do
not. A -mAK clause usually has an understood subject, which is indicated by a noun
phrase or person marker occurring in the superordinate clause (see [Link] for details).
For example, in (39) the subject of the -mAK clause is indicated by the 1st person
marking on the main verb:
(39) [Sokağa çık-mak] isti-yor-um.
[Link]-mAK want-IMPF-1SG
‘I want [to go out].’
The subject of a -mA clause, on the other hand, cannot be the same as the subject of the
superordinate clause:
(40) [Sokağa çık-ma-n]-ı isti-yor-um
[Link]-ACC want-IMPF-1SG
‘I want [you to go out].’
In the following sections we review the functions of -mAK constructions with and
without case marking.
 Noun clauses 359

[Link] The non-case-marked form -mAk

Like all non-case-marked noun phrases ([Link]), a noun clause containing -mAk without
the addition of any case suffixes can function as subject (41), subject complement (42), or
direct object (43) within the clause in which it is embedded. The only verb which
regularly takes a -mAk clause as its direct object is iste- ‘want’ (43). Other transitive
verbs require the accusative-marked form -mAyI ([Link]).
(41) [Türkçe öğrenmek] zor.
‘[Learning Turkish] is difficult.’/‘It’s difficult [to learn Turkish].’
(42) Hayattaki en büyük nimetlerden biri [sevilmek]-tir.
‘One of the greatest blessings in life is [to be loved].’
The question of what is understood to be the subject of the -mAk clause depends on
whether the main clause (or another clause in which the -mAk clause is embedded) is
verbal or nominal.
(i) Where the superordinate clause is verbal, the subject of the -mAk clause can be one
of the following constituents of this superordinate clause:
(a) the subject:
(43) Sen [nereye gitmek] istiyorsun?
‘Where do you want [to go]?’
For another example see (39) above, and for passive -mAk clauses which are the subject
of their superordinate clause see [Link].
(b) the direct object:
(44) [Bütün gün müze gezmek] bizi çok yormuştu.
‘[Going round museums all day] had worn us out.’
(c) the oblique object:
(45) [Ev taşımak] Nevin’e çok kolay geldi.
‘[Moving house] came very easily to Nevin.
(ii) Where a -mAk clause forms part of a nominal sentence, the subject of the -mAk clause
may or may not be identifiable:
(a) If the -mAk clause is the subject of the sentence, the subject of the noun clause may
be made explicit by the use of a postpositional phrase with için ‘for’ in the main clause:
(46) [Kimseye bir şey söylememek] kolay olmayacak benim için.
‘[Not telling anyone anything] is not going to be easy for me.’
In the absence of an için phrase, the subject of the noun clause may be inferable from the
context. In (47) it is the speaker:
(47) [Sizinle konuşmak] hoş oldu.
‘It’s been nice [talking to you].’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 360

In (48), on the other hand, it is either the addressee or some third party:
(48) [Bütün gece oturmak] çok zor olmuştur.
‘It must have been very hard [sitting up all night].’
A -mak clause that is the subject of a sentence can also denote an activity, action or state
in the abstract, without relation to any particular subject:
(49) [Bir çocuğa öyle bir şey söylememek] lazım.
‘One shouldn’t say such a thing to a child.’
For the use of -mAk clauses in impersonal obligative expressions such as that in (49) see
[Link], and example (119) in that chapter.
(b) If the -mAk clause is the subject complement, and the subject of the sentence is
marked with a possessive suffix, the subject of the noun clause will be understood to be
the person referred to by that suffix:
(50) Amac-ım, [beş yıl içinde zengin ol-mak]-tı.
[Link] five years within rich [Link]
‘My aim was [to get rich in five years].’
Where, in a sentence of this type, the main clause subject has no possessive marking, the
subject of the noun clause may be inferable from the context:
(51) Amaç, [beş yıl içinde zengin olmak]-tı.
‘The aim was [to get rich in five years].’
In some cases, as in (42) above, the noun clause has no identifiable subject, and is
understood to be applicable to human beings in general.

[Link] The accusative-marked form -mAyI

This form (sometimes spelt -mAğI, see [Link]) occurs where the noun clause is the direct
object of any transitive verb (although with iste- ‘want’ it is formal and much less
common than -mAk).
(52) Şükrü [yemek yap-may]-ı bil-iyor mu?
Şükrü food make-VN-ACC know-IMPF INT
‘Does Şükrü know [how to cook]?’
(53) [Bu yaz İtalya’ya gitmey]-i düşünüyoruz.
‘We’re thinking of [going to Italy this summer].’
In informal usage with a small number of main verbs, notably bil- ‘know (how)’, öğren-
‘learn’ and sev- ‘like’, the noun clause is sometimes marked with -mAsInI rather than -
mAyI, with no change in meaning. The 3rd person possessive suffix has no obvious
referent in such sentences.
(54) Şükrü [yemek yap-ma-sın]-ı bil-iyor mu?
Şükrü food [Link]-ACC know-IMPF INT
‘Does Şükrü know [how to cook]?’
 Noun clauses 361

(55) Ahmet [araba kullanmasın]ı sever.

‘Ahmet likes [driving].’

[Link] The oblique case-marked forms: -mAyA, -mAktA (-mAdA) and -

mAktAn
(i) These forms occur where the verb in the main clause is one that requires an oblique
object ([Link]). The dative-marked form -mAyA is sometimes spelt -mAğA ([Link]).
Verbs such as başla- ‘begin’, karar ver-‘decide’, devam et- ‘continue’, çalış- ‘try’ require
the dative case:
(56) [Her gün beş sayfa yaz-may]-a çalış-ıyor-um.
every day five page write-VN-DAT try-IMPF-1SG
‘I try [to write five pages every day].’
Some verbs such as zorla- ‘force’, ikna et- ‘persuade’ require a human direct object in
addition to the oblique object:
(57) Beni [konuşmay]-a zorlama!
‘Don’t force me [to talk]!’
Verbs such as diren-/diret-/ısrar et- ‘insist (on)’ and yarar gör- ‘see benefit/ point (in)’
require the locative case:
(58) Demet [otobüs-le git-mek]-te diren-iyor.
Demet bus-INS go-VN-LOC [Link]-IMPF
‘Demet is insisting on [going by bus].’
Some speakers use the form -mAdA in the same function as -mAktA.
Verbs such as vazgeç- ‘stop’, ‘decide not (to)’, kork- ‘be afraid (of/to)’, çekin- ‘be
reluctant (to)’, kaçın- ‘avoid’, nefret et- ‘hate’ take an ablative-marked object:
(59) [Sigara iç-mek]-ten vazgeç-meli-siniz.
cigarette smoke-ABL [Link]-OBLG-2SG/PL
‘You must give up [smoking].’
A few verbs take as their oblique object a -mAk clause marked with the
comitative/instrumental marker -(y)lA, such as övün- ‘boast (of)’, suçla-‘accuse [s.o.]
(of)’:
(60) Ayten’i [eski bilgisayarını bana vermek]-le suçluyorlar.
‘They are accusing Ayten of [giving her old computer to me].’

(ii) Locative marking occurs also in existential sentences with fayda/ yarar ‘benefit’,
‘point’, ‘use’ as the subject. As with non-case-marked -mAk ([Link]), the subject of the
noun clause in these constructions may be entirely unspecified, as in (61), or may be
implied in the context, as in (62).
(61) [Yaşlıları dinlemek]-te fayda var.
‘There is benefit in [listening to old people].’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 362

(62) [Babana bir kere daha sormak]-ta yarar var.

‘It’s worth [asking your father once more].’
However, the negative versions of such sentences are more often cast as a possessive
existential with the genitive-marked form of -mA (see [Link] (ii)).
(iii) Ablative case marking also occurs where the noun clause expresses an object of
comparison ([Link] (iv)):
(63) [Evi kendim temizlemek], [başkasına temizletmek]-ten daha kolay geliyor.
‘I find it easier [to clean the house myself] than [to get someone else to clean
[it]].’

[Link] Passive -mAk clauses as subjects

When a passive -mAk clause is the subject of the superordinate clause, the verb of the
superordinate clause, usually iste- ‘want’, ‘try’ or çalış- ‘try’, is obligatorily passive. In
these sentences the subject of the -mAk clause (e.g. toplantı in (64), biz in (65)) behaves
as if it is also the subject of the main clause.
(64) [Toplantı [müdür gel-meden] başla-t-ıl-mak] iste-n-di. (cf.
Toplantıyı…başlatmak istediler.)
meeting director come-CV start-CAUS-PASS-VN want-PASS-PF
‘An attempt was made [to start the meeting [before the director arrived]].’
The majority of these clauses have 3rd person subjects, but other persons may also be
used. Note that agent phrases (containing tarafından or -CA ‘by’, [Link]) can occur in
these constructions:
(65) Biz [yürüyüş sırasında önce polis, sonra düzenleyici-ler tarafından we
demonstration during first police then organizer-PL by dur-dur-ul-mak] iste-n-di-
k.
stop-CAUS-PASS-VN want-PASS-PF-1PL
‘During the demonstration attempts were made to stop us, first by the police, then
by the organizers.’
When the verb of the -mAk clause is intransitive (as in the case of git- ‘go’ below), the
whole sentence becomes an impersonal passive construction ([Link]):
(66) [Deprem bölgesine gid-il-mey]-e çalış-ıl-ıyor.
go-PASS-VN-DAT try-PASS-IMPF
‘People are trying [to reach the earthquake area].’

24.4.2 CLAUSES FORMED WITH -mA

In general terms noun clauses formed with -mA are less abstract in meaning than those
formed with -mAK. One result of this is that many -mA verbal nouns have become
lexicalized as ordinary nouns with concrete meanings (see [Link]). When -mA is used as
a productive inflectional suffix, by far the most common pattern is for it to be followed
 Noun clauses 363

by a possessive suffix referring to the subject of the noun clause ([Link]). However,
there are two types of -mA clause in which possessive suffixes do not occur, and we deal
with these first.

[Link] -mA without possessive suffixes

(i) The plural form -mAlAr
This is a not very common pattern, used to form the subject of a sentence describing
repeated instances of an action or activity performed or undergone by unspecified
subjects:
(67) O sıralarda [sabahın köründe polis tarafından uyan-dır-ıl-ma-lar], [karakola
götür-ül-me-ler], [gözaltına al-ın-ma-lar]
[Link]-CAUS-PASS-VN-PL take-PASS-VN-PL detain-PASS-VN-PL günlük
olaylardandı.
‘At that time [being woken up by the police in the early hours of the morning,
being taken to the police station, and being detained in custody] were daily
occurrences.’
(ii) The genitive-marked form -mAnIn
This form behaves exactly as if it were the genitive-marked form of -mAK. Like -mAK
it is either used to denote an activity, action or state in general terms, or it can have an
implied subject inferable from the speech context. These genitive-marked noun clauses
occur as modifiers in genitive-possessive constructions where the possessive-marked
noun phrase is an abstract noun such as anlam ‘meaning’, ‘sense’, fayda/yarar
‘benefit’, zarar ‘harm’, neden/ sebep ‘reason’, amaç ‘purpose’:
(68) Ben-ce {[Ali-yi çağır-ma]-nın anlam}-ı yok.
I-ADV Ali-ACC summon-VN-GEN [Link] non-existent
‘I don’t think there’s any point in [asking Ali to come].’
(69) {[Sigarayı bırak-ma]-nın fayda-sın}-ı ilk günlerde görmeyebilirsin.
‘You may not experience the benefit of [giving up smoking] in the first few days.’
For similar constructions with possessive-marked -mA clauses see [Link].

[Link] -mA with possessive suffixes

A noun clause with possessive-marked -mA as its verbal constituent denotes an action,
activity or state that is predicated of a certain subject. This subject may be more explicitly
referred to by a genitive-marked noun phrase, which if present usually stands at the
beginning of the clause:
(sizin) bu evi beğenmeniz ‘your liking this house’
Can’ın erken gelmesi ‘Can’s coming early’
kapının güzel kapatılmamsı ‘the door not being shut properly’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 364

In contrast to sentences containing noun clauses marked with -DIK or -(y)AcAK (24.4.3),
which are to do with factual perception, knowledge or communication, sentences
constructed with -mA clauses deal with states and events in terms of description or
evaluation, of causation processes in which they are involved, or of people’s attitudes
towards them or attempts to bring them about.
Below we describe the typical functions that -mA clauses can have in different
grammatical roles within the sentence.
(i) As subject:
(a) Description/evaluation:
(70) [Fatma Hanım-ın üç kat merdiven çık-ma-sı] çok zor.
-GEN three storey stairs [Link] very difficult
‘It’s very difficult [for Fatma Hanım to go up three flights of stairs].’
Subject -mA clauses are one of the major means in Turkish of expressing necessity or
obligation (see [Link]):
(71) [8.30’ta havalimanında olmamız] gerekiyor.
‘We have to be at the airport at 8.30.’
The sequence olması gerek/lazım can also express an assumption (see [Link]).
(b) Causation:
(72) [Ayla’nın işten hep geç ve yorgun gelmesi] evde gerginlik yaratıyordu.
‘[The fact that Ayla always got back from work late and tired] was creating
tension in the house.’
(c) Desired action or state:
A fuller treatment of this type is given in (iiia) below, dealing with -mA clauses as
direct objects. Where the -mA clause is the subject, the main predicate is usually
the passivized form of iste- ‘want’:
(73) [Herkes-in birer hikaye anlat-ma-sı] iste-n-iyor-muş.
everyone-GEN [Link] story [Link] [Link]
‘It seems they want [everyone to tell a story].’
(d) Indirect commands, requests and recommendations:
These are the passivized versions of the type of sentence discussed in (iii)(b)
below:
(74) [Bu ürünün elde yıkanması] tavsiye edilir.
‘It is recommended [that this product be washed by hand].’
(ii) As subject complement:
All of the functions performed by -mA clauses as subjects can also be performed when
they are in the subject complement role ([Link]):
(75) Önemli olan [sizin bu evi beğenmeniz].
‘The important thing is [that you (should) like this house].’
 Noun clauses 365

(76) Bizim ricamız [toplantının haftaya ertelenmesi] olacak.

‘Our request is (lit. will be) [that the meeting be postponed to next week].’
(iii) With accusative case marking as direct object:
Like all noun phrases marked for possession, possessive-marked -mA clauses always
take accusative case marking when they are in the direct object role (see [Link]).
(a) Desired action or state:
In sentences expressing a desire for something to happen, the -mA clause is
usually the object of the verb iste- ‘want’:
(77) [Bu tablo-nun şura-ya as-ıl-ma-sın]-ı isti-yor-uz.
this picture-GEN here-DAT [Link]-ACC want-IMPF-
1PL
‘We want [this picture to be hung here].’
Other volitional verbs that can take a -mA clause as their direct object are bekle- ‘expect’
and dile- ‘(express the) wish (that)’. For the distinction between this construction and -
mAk iste-, see 24.4.1, examples (39) and (40).
(b) Indirect commands, requests and recommendations:
These are sentences in which the -mA clause is the direct object of a verb that
expresses an attempt to secure the performance of an action by others. The
principal main verbs involved are söyle- ‘tell’, emret-‘order’, iste- ‘ask’, rica et-
‘request’, and tavsiye et- ‘recommend’, ‘advise’.
(78) Otel müdürü [oda-yı hemen boşalt-ma-ların]-ı söyle-di.
hotel manager room-ACC immediately [Link]-ACC say-PF
‘The hotel manager told [them to vacate the room immediately].’
Often, as in (78), the addressee of this type of utterance is not explicitly mentioned, and is
assumed to be identical with the subject of the noun clause. It is, however, possible for a
different addressee to be named:
(79) Ceyda anne-m-e [herkes-in kalın giysiler-le gel-me-sin]-i söyle-miş.
Ceyda [Link]-DAT everyone-GEN thick clothes-COM come-VN-
[Link]-ACC say-EV/PF
‘Ceyda told my mother [that everyone was to come with warm clothes].’
In the case of iste- and rica et-, the addressee is expressed (if at all) by an ablative-
marked noun phrase:
(80) [Turgut biz-den [taşınacağı gün kendisine yardım
we-ABL help
et-me-miz]-i istedi.
[Link]-ACC
‘Turgut has asked us [to help him on the day he moves].’
(c) Causation:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 366

A process that facilitates or obstructs the occurrence of the situation expressed by

the noun clause has as its main predicate a verb such as sağla- ‘ensure’,
kolaylaştır- ‘make (it) easy (for)’, zorlaştır- ‘make (it) difficult (for)’, engelle-
‘hinder’, önle- ‘prevent’.
(81) İlkbahardaki yağmurlar [mahsulün bol olmasın]-ı sağladı.
‘The spring rains have ensured [that the harvest is plentiful].’
(d) Object of verbs expressing attitude:
Some of the most commonly occurring verbs in this category are beğen- ‘like’,
‘approve of’, kına- ‘deplore’, affet-/bağışla- ‘forgive’, hoş gör- ‘condone’:
(82) [Kocasının kendisine yalan söylemesin]-i affedemiyordu.
‘She couldn’t forgive [her husband’s lying to her].’
(e) For -mA clauses as objects of verbs of cognition and perception see [Link].
(iv) As oblique object:
(a) Emotional attitude:
A -mA clause marked for dative or ablative case or with the instrumental marker
can function as the oblique object of a verb of emotion (see [Link], also
[Link]).
(83) Mehmet, [Ali-nin kendisini çağır-ma-ma-sın]-a gücendi.
Ali-GEN [Link]-DAT
‘Mehmet was offended by [Ali’s not inviting him].’
(84) [Tülay’ın sürekli kendisinden söz etmesin]-den sıkılıyorum.
‘I get bored by [Tülay talking about herself all the time].’
(b) Causation:
Dative-marked -mA clauses occur as oblique objects of verbs such as neden/
sebep ol- ‘cause’, yol aç- ‘cause’, yardım et- ‘help’, müsaade et-/izin ver-
‘allow’:
(85) Sıcak havalar, [meyvalar-ın erken olgunlaşmasın]-a yol açtı bu yıl.
‘The hot weather has caused [the fruit to ripen early] this year.’
(86) Çocuklar [burayı toplamanız]-a yardım etsinler.
‘The children should help [you to clear up in here].’
(87) Ev sahibimiz [kedi ya da köpek beslememiz]-e izin vermiyordu.
‘Our landlady didn’t allow [us to have a cat or dog].’
(v) With genitive marking:
Possessive-marked -mA clauses with genitive case marking on the verbal noun occur
in the same kinds of structures as clauses with -mAnIn ([Link]). If a possessive suffix is
added to the verbal noun in a sentence such as (68) above the noun clause acquires a
specific subject:
(88) Ben-ce {[Ali-yi çağır-ma-mız]-ın anlam}-ı yok
I-ADV Ali-ACC [Link]-GEN [Link] non-existent
 Noun clauses 367

‘I don’t think there’s any point in [us asking Ali to come].’

24.4.3 CLAUSES FORMED WITH -DIK OR -(y)AcAK

The subordinating suffixes -DIK and -(y)AcAK are obligatorily followed by a possessive
suffix referring to the subject of the noun clause. -DIK and -(y)AcAK alternate with each
other on the basis of the tense component of their meanings: -DIK refers to a time
simultaneous with, or earlier than, that referred to by the superordinate predicate, while -
(y)AcAK refers to a time later than that referred to by the superordinate predicate. In other
words, -DIK expresses relative present or relative past tense and -(y)AcAK relative future
tense (21.2):
(89)
(a) [Orhan-ın bir şey yap-ma-dığ-ı] belliydi.
Orhan-GEN anything [Link]
‘It was obvious [that Orhan wasn’t doing/hadn’t done anything].’
(b) [Orhan-ın bir şey yap-ma-yacağ-ı] belliydi.
Orhan-GEN anything [Link]
‘It was obvious [that Orhan wouldn’t do/wasn’t going to do anything].’
The fact that noun clauses with -DIK and -(y)AcAK are marked for tense points to the
crucial difference between them and (possessive-marked) -mA clauses. -DIK/-(y)AcAK
clauses are used almost exclusively in sentences that have to do with the factual status of
an event or state (the truth or otherwise of its occurrence or of some aspect of its
occurrence (who, what, where, etc)). The main or superordinate predicate in such
sentences, if nominal, as in (89), expresses concepts such as truth or falsehood, certainty
or uncertainty. If verbal, it is typically a verb expressing some cognitive process
(knowledge, understanding, belief, opinion, etc.) or communication (saying, asking, etc.).
The types of sentence in which -DIK/-(y)AcAK clauses occur are thus principally those
known as indirect statements and indirect questions. In both types the noun clause can
occur either as subject, as direct object (with obligatory accusative case marking) or as
oblique object.

[Link] Indirect statements

In an indirect statement, the content of the noun clause would, if formulated as an
independent sentence, constitute a statement. The sentence as a whole may, however,
take the form of either a statement or a question:
(i) With the noun clause as subject:
The superordinate predicate may be either nominal, as in (90a), or verbal, as in (90b):
(90)
(a) [Ayşe-nin ameliyat ol-duğ-u] doğru mu?
Ayşe-GEN operation [Link] true INT
‘Is it true [that Ayşe has had an operation]?’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 368

(b) [Ayşe-nin ameliyat ol-duğ-u] söyle-n-iyor. (cf. Ayşe ameliyat

say-PASS-IMPF
olmuş.)
‘It is (being) said [that Ayşe has had an operation].’
The verbal predicate of a sentence with a -DIK/-(y)AcAK clause as its subject is the
passivized form of a verb such as those listed in (ii) below.
(ii) With the noun clause as direct object:
This occurs with main verbs such as bil- ‘know’, ‘think’, anla- ‘understand’, ‘realize’,
san- ‘think’, düşün- ‘think’, söyle- ‘say’, yaz- ‘write’, duy-/işit-‘hear’, öğren- ‘learn’:
(91) O gün Suzan bana [artık dayan-a-ma-yacağ-ın]-ı söylemişti.
[Link]-ACC
(cf. (6) and (22) above)
‘That day Suzan had told me [that she couldn’t bear [it] any longer].’
Where the noun clause is the object of bil- ‘know’, ‘think’, the factual status of its content
depends on the position of stress within the sentence. When stress is placed on the main
verb bil-, it means ‘know’, and the content of the noun clause expresses an established
fact:
(92) [Sen-in abla-n-ın yanında ol-duğ-un]-u biL-İyor-du-m.
you-GEN [Link]-GEN with [Link]-ACC know-IMPF-
[Link]-1SG
‘I knew [you were with your sister].’
When, on the other hand, stress is placed within the noun clause, bil- is interchangeable
with san- ‘think’, and the noun clause expresses a supposition that may turn out (or have
turned out) to be false:
(93) [Senin ABlanın yanında olduğun]-u biliyordum/sanıyordum.
‘I thought [you were with your sister].’
(iii) With the noun clause as oblique object:
This occurs with inan- ‘believe’ (dative marking) and emin ol- ‘be sure’ (ablative
marking):
(94) [Bize o kadar büyük bir para ver-ecek-lerin]-e inanmamıştım.
[Link]-DAT
‘I never believed [that they would give us such a large amount of money].’
A -DIK/-(y)AcAK clause also occurs with ablative marking as the oblique object of
existential possessive expressions ([Link]) with haber ‘knowledge (of)’, ‘awareness
(of’) as subject:
(95) [Ahmet-in evlen-diğ-in]-den haber-im yok-tu.
Ahmet-GEN [Link]-ABL [Link] non-existent-
[Link]
‘I had no idea [that Ahmet had got married].’
 Noun clauses 369

(iv) With genitive marking on the noun clause:

This occurs with the expressions farkında/ayırdında/bilincinde ol- ‘be aware that’,
where the noun clause becomes the possessor constituent in a genitive-possessive
construction (14.4):
(96) [Bu iş-in iki günde bit-me-yebil-eceğ-i]-nin fark-ın-da-yım.
[Link]-GEN [Link]-LOC-1SG
‘I am aware [that this job may not be finished in two days].’

[Link] Indirect questions

Indirect questions are distinguished from indirect statements by the fact that the content
of the noun clause would, if converted into an independent sentence, express a question.
The structures by which the various types of questions in simple sentences (or main
clauses) are expressed in Turkish are explained in Chapter 19. The corresponding
structures for questions expressed indirectly in -DIK/-(y)AcAK clauses are as follows:
(i) ‘Whether (or not)’ questions are expressed using the -(y)Ip…-mA construction
(20.1.3):
(97) Annem bana [akşama gelip gelmeyeceğim]-i sordu.
‘My mother asked me [if I would be coming back that night (or not)].’
In terms of simple-sentence equivalents, these correspond both to yes/no questions
(compare (97) with the direct-speech version in (16) above) and to the kind of alternative
questions in which the alternative presented is simply the negation of the predicate (=‘or
not’) (19.1.2).
(ii) Alternative questions involving an alternative which is not simply the negation of
the predicate are expressed in a manner exactly parallel to that in simple sentences
(19.1.2), with the interrogative particle mI placed after each of the alternative items. (98)
contains the non-finite equivalent of example (18) in Chapter 19:
(98) [Tosca’yı Verdi’nin mi, (yoksa) Puccini’nin mi yazdığın]-ı bilmiyorum.
‘I don’t know [whether it was Verdi or Puccini who composed Tosca].’
(iii) Wh-questions are expressed simply by including the appropriate whphrase (19.2) in
the noun clause:
(99) [Çocuğ-un baba-sı-nın kim ol-duğ-u] bil-in-iyor mu? (cf. (12) above)
child-GEN [Link]-GEN who [Link] knowPASS-IMPF
INT
‘Is it known [who the child’s father is]?’
(100) [Ertan’ı neden bu kadar beğendiğin]-i anlayamıyorum. (cf. (13) above)
‘I can’t understand [why you admire Ertan so much].’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 370

[Link] Other functions of -DIK/-(y)AcAK clauses

(i) Clauses with -DIK (not -(y)AcAK) also occur as the subject of sentences which
comment on the frequency of a certain event or situation. The main verb here is usually
ol- ‘occur’, görül- ‘be seen’, or duyul- ‘be heard’.
(101) O günlerde [akşamları birlikte çay içtiğimiz] çok olurdu.
‘In those days it was common [for us to have tea together in the evenings].’
(102) [Gökhan’ın içkiyi fazla kaçırdığı] hiç görülmemişti.
‘Gökhan had never been known [to have had too much to drink].’
Colloquially, this type of utterance can also be cast in the form of an interrogative or
negative existential sentence:
(103) [Ahmet-i gör-düğ-ün] var mı bu günlerde?
Ahmet-ACC [Link] existent INT recently
‘Have you seen anything of Ahmet recently?’
(ii) Although -DIK/-(y)AcAK clauses cannot, in general, be used to express evaluations or
descriptions of events (cf. [Link]), the specific combination of -DIK with iyi ol- ‘be
good’ does occur:
(104) [Bunu konuşmamız/konuştuğumuz] iyi oldu.
‘It’s good [that we have talked about this].’
(iii) Another use of genitive-marked -DIK clauses is in genitive-possessive constructions
of which the head is a unit of time:
(105) [Adana-ya gel-diğ-im]-in ikinci gün-ü Turhan’la görüştük.
Adana-DAT [Link]-GEN second [Link]
‘Turhan and I met on the second day after [my arrival in Adana].’

24.4.4 CLAUSES FORMED WITH -(y)Iş

While productive as a derivational suffix forming abstract or semi-abstract nouns
([Link]), as a subordinator -(y)Iş is more restricted in its functions than any of the other
suffixes discussed in this chapter. It is almost always used to refer to an action or state
predicated of a particular subject (indicated, as usual, by the affixation of a possessive
suffix). It therefore cannot be used in any of the functions of -mAK. It also cannot be used
in sentences that bear upon the factual status of a proposition, nor in those that express a
volitional stance (desire, command, request, permission, etc.) towards a situation. It is
therefore excluded from most of the contexts in which -DIK/-(y)AcAK or -mA are used.
The verbal noun formed with -(y)Iş has two functions that are not shared by any of the
other forms discussed in this chapter. It can express (i) the manner in which an action is
performed, or (ii) a single instance of an event or action. In both of these functions -(y)Iş
forms can have a status that is more noun-like than the other verbal nouns. This is
illustrated in (106), where sokuluş ‘manner of snuggling up’, while remaining sufficiently
 Noun clauses 371

verb-like to retain its oblique object insana ‘to one’, is preceded by the sequence hoş bir
(ADJ bir) ‘a nice’, which occurs only in noun phrases.
(106) [O kedinin insana hoş bir sokuluşu] vardı.
‘That cat had a nice way of snuggling up to one.’
Similarly, in the single instance reading, -(y)Iş clauses, unlike those formed with -mA or -
DIK/-(y)AcAK, are countable:
(107) [Zehra’yı her gör-üş-ün]-ü ayrı bir zevkle hatırlıyordu.
every [Link]-ACC
‘S/he remembered with a separate pleasure each occasion on which s/he had seen
Zehra.’
(108) [Türkiye’ye ikinci ve üçüncü gidişlerimiz] 1982’de oldu.
‘Our second and third visits to Turkey took place in 1982.’

24.4.5 OVERLAPPING USES OF -mA, -DIK/-(y)AcAK AND -(y)Iş

[Link] As direct object of verbs of perception or cognition

All noun clause types capable of taking possessive suffixes can occur as objects of verbs
of perception such as gör- ‘see’, duy- ‘hear’, anla- ‘understand’, hatırla- ‘remember’, and
unut- ‘forget’. However, the choice of subordinator in these cases has a clear effect on the
meaning. While the use of -DIK/-(y)AcAK expresses the perception of a situation merely
as a fact, the use of -mA or -(y)Iş expresses rather the perception of an inherent quality of
the event or state. We illustrate this with two contrasting examples:
(109)
(a) [Çocuğ-un ağaç-tan düş-tüğ-ün]-ü gör-dü-m.
(b) [Çocuğ-un ağaç-tan düş-me-sin]-i gör-dü-m.
(c) [Çocuğ-un ağaç-tan düş-üş-ün]-ü gör-dü-m.
child-GEN tree-ABL [Link]-ACC see-PF-1SG
All of the sentences in (109) could be translated ‘I saw the child fall from the tree’.
However, (a) is also open to the interpretation ‘I saw that the child had fallen from the
tree’, where the fact is perceived only after the event has taken place; (b) and (c), on the
other hand, tell us that the speaker witnessed the process of the child’s fall. In a sense,
therefore, both -mA and -(y)Iş in such contexts evoke more the idea of how something
happens than the fact that it happens. Indeed, neither (109b) nor (109c) could be used in a
context in which the fact of the child’s fall had not already been established.
(110)
(a) Hakan [anne-sin-i sev-me-diğ-imiz]-i anlı-yor-du.
Hakan [Link]-ACC [Link]-ACC understand-
[Link]
‘Hakan was aware [that we didn’t like his mother].’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 372

(b) Hakan [annesini sev-me-me-miz]-i anlıyordu.

(c) Hakan [annesini sev-me-yiş-imiz]-i anlıyordu.
‘Hakan understood [our not liking his mother].’
In (110) the (a) sentence states Hakan’s understanding of a situation at the factual level,
whereas the (b) and (c) versions relate his understanding to the situation itself, implying
that he understood why the speaker and others felt this way.

[Link] As oblique object of verbs of emotion

The semantic contrasts noted in [Link] are neutralized where the noun clause is the
object of a verb of emotion, such as sevin- ‘be glad’ or üzül- ‘be sorry’. The -DIK/-
(y)AcAK forms are fully interchangeable with -mA in such contexts, as shown below:
(111) Hepimiz [çocuğ-un öyle bir suç işle-me-sin]-e üzüldük.
Hepimiz [çocuğ-un öyle bir suç işle-diğ-in]-e üzüldük.
boy-GEN such a crime [Link]-DAT
‘We were all distressed [that the boy had committed such a crime].’
(112) [Hediyelerini beğen-me-me-miz]-den korkuyorlardı galiba.
[Hediyelerini beğen-me-yeceğ-imiz]-den korkuyorlardı galiba.
[Link]-ABL
‘I think they were afraid [we wouldn’t like their present].’
-(y)Iş clauses also can express the object of a verb of emotion, provided (as always in the
case of this suffix) that the situation is one that is actualized, i.e. has happened or is
ongoing at the moment of speech. The use of -(y)Iş also tends to be avoided with
affirmative transitive verbs (such as işle- in (111)), unless the sense of manner is
intended. (113) is an example with a negativized transitive verb, where all three forms
would be acceptable (cf. (83) for the -mA version):
(113) Mehmet, [Ali-nin kendisini çağır-ma-yış-ın]-a gücendi.
Ali-GEN [Link]-DAT
‘Mehmet was offended by [Ali’s not inviting him].’

24.4.6 OMISSION OF GENITIVE MARKING ON THE SUBJECT OF

CLAUSES FORMED WITH POSSESSIVE-MARKED -mA OR -DIK/-
(y)AcAK
There are certain exceptions to the rule (24.1) that a noun phrase expressing the subject of
a non-finite noun clause receives genitive case marking. In this section we discuss four
types of subject that do not normally receive case marking.
(i) A noun phrase with categorial status (22.3):
This is the only type of noun clause subject where the addition of the genitive suffix
affects the meaning of the sentence, by changing the referential status of the subject from
categorial to definite:
 Noun clauses 373

(114)
(a) [Buraya araba çarptığın]-ı tahmin ediyorum.
‘I guess [a car bumped here].’
(b) [Buraya araba-nın çarptığın]-ı tahmin ediyorum.
car-GEN
‘I guess [the car bumped here].’
(115)
(a) [Çocuğa para verilmesi] yanlış olur.
‘It would be wrong [for the child to be given money].’
(b) [Paranın çocuğa verilmesi] yanlış olur.
‘It would be wrong [for the child to be given the money].’
In types (ii)–(iv) below, on the other hand, genitive case marking, while unusual in (ii)
and (iii), could be added without any effect on the meaning.
(ii) The subject of an existential clause:
(116) [Filiz’in odasında yeşil perdeler ol-duğ-un]-u hatırlıyorum.
‘I remember [that there were green curtains in Filiz’s room].’
(iii) A possessive-marked -mA clause which is the subject of a -DIK/ -(y)AcAK clause
expressing necessity:
(117) {Ahmet’in gelmesi [gerektiğin]}-i düşünüyorum.
‘I think Ahmet ought to come.’
(iv) The indefinite subject of a passive verb in a noun clause which is itself the subject of
an expression of necessity or desire:
(118) [Bir şey(-in) yap-ıl-ma-sı] lazım.
something(-GEN) [Link] necessary
‘Something has got to be done.’
(119) [Bu konuda bir iki sayfa(nın) yaz-ıl-ma-sı] iste-n-iyor-muş.
[Link] want- [Link]
‘Apparently they want [a few pages to be written on this subject].’

24.4.7 THE USE OF AUXILIARY ol- IN NON-FINITE NOUN

CLAUSES
As in the case of other types of non-finite subordinate clause (relative clauses 25.4.1,
adverbial clauses 26.2.3) the auxiliary verb ol- is widely used in all types of non-finite
noun clauses to add components of tense and aspect to the meaning of the clause. Where
the auxiliary ol- is used, the lexical verb in the noun clause receives one of the tense/
aspect suffixes shown below, and the subordinating suffix is shifted on to the auxiliary.
PERFECTIVE/PAST -mIş
FUTURE -(y)AcAK
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 374

PROGRESSIVE/HABITUAL -mAktA and -(I)yor

HABITUAL -(A/I)r/-mAz

(For a full discussion of tense and aspect in Turkish see 21.2–3. For compound verb
forms with ol- in finite clauses see 21.5.)
By far the most common tense/aspect suffix to be used in non-finite noun clauses is -
mIş. The inclusion of -mIş in a noun clause conveys that the event in question is
envisaged as having been completed prior to a reference point specified or implied
elsewhere in the sentence:
(120) [Çocukluğunda Atatürk’ü gör-müş ol-mak] kendisi için bir gurur
see-PF AUX-VN
kaynağı idi.
‘[To have seen Atatürk in his/her childhood] was a source of pride for him/her.’
(121) [Yarın akşama kadar kitapların yarısını gözden geçirmiş olacağımız]-ı
tahmin ediyoruz.
‘We estimate [that we shall have gone through half of the books by tomorrow
evening].’
The use of -(I)yor or -mAktA in the noun clause can have one of two meanings:
(i) The situation in question is presented or envisaged as ongoing at the given
reference point:
(122) [Filiz’in bu saatte çalış-ıyor ol-ma-sı] lazım.
work-IMPF [Link]
(a) ‘Filiz should/ought to be working at this hour.’ (Obligation, [Link])
(b) ‘Filiz must be working at this hour.’ (Assumption, [Link])
(123) [Toplantının devam etmekte olduğun]-u söylediler.
‘They said [the meeting was [still] going on].’
(124) [Tam o sırada Dekan’la görüşüyor olacağımız]-ı tahmin ediyordum.
‘I reckoned [that we would be talking to the Dean at exactly that time].’
(ii) The situation is presented as occurring recurrently in a timespan that includes the
reference point:
(125) [Tülay’ın hafta sonları Ankara’ya gidiyor olduğun]-u sanıyorum.
‘I think [Tülay goes to Ankara at the weekends].’
It should be noted that the combination -(I)yor olduK- is in declining use. Many speakers
would use the simple form gittiğini in (125).
The use of -mAktA olduK- in a context of habituality is formal (cf. 21.3.2):
(126) [Bazı denetim işlerinin düzenli yapılmamakta olduğu] belliydi.
‘It was clear [that some checks were not being carried out regularly].’
Compound forms with ol- can be used to resolve the temporal ambiguity inherent in the
subordinator -DIK (24.4.3):
 Noun clauses 375

(127)
(a) [Ali’nin bu kitabı okuduğun]-u sanıyorum.
‘I think [Ali has read/is reading this book].’
(b) [Ali’nin bu kitabı okuyor/okumakta olduğun]-u sanıyorum.
‘I think [Ali is reading this book].’
(c) [Ali’nin bu kitabı okumuş olduğun]-u sanıyorum.
‘I think Ali [has read this book].’
-(y)AcAk ol- is rare in noun clauses, but -(A/I)r/-mAz olduK- is the equivalent of -(A/I)r/-
mAz oldu in finite clauses (21.5.4):
(128) [Koray’la Hakan’ın görüşmez oldukların]-ı işittim.
‘I’ve heard that Koray and Hakan have stopped seeing each other.’

24.5 SMALL CLAUSES

Small clauses are a variant kind of finite noun clause. They are unusual in that one of
their constituents, the subject, is also a constituent (subject or object) of the main clause.
The contexts in which small clauses occur are sentences where the main predicate is one
of the types of transitive verb described below, or an intransitive verb meaning ‘seem’,
‘appear’.

24.5.1 SMALL CLAUSES OCCURRING WITH MAIN CLAUSE

TRANSITIVE VERBS
The types of transitive verb which take small clauses are the following:
(i) verbs of perception/cognition:
(a) san-/ zannet- ‘think’, bil- ‘think’
(b) say-/addet-/ farzet- ‘consider’
(c) bul- ‘find’, gör-, ‘find’, iste- ‘want’
(129) Biz [sen-i okul-u bitir-di-(n)] added-iyor-uz.
we you-ACC school-acc finish-PF(-2SG) consider-IMPF-1PL
‘We thought [you had left].’
(130) [Delikanlı-yı yakışıklı] buldum.
‘I found [the young man handsome].’
(ii) verbs expressing an act performed on an object which is or may be subject to a
process of change; in this case the predicate of the small clause is an adjective expressing
the state of the object at the time when the action is performed, e.g. ye- ‘eat’, iç- ‘drink’,
kaldır- ‘put [s.t.] away’, as- ‘hang’, bırak- ‘leave [s.t.]’
(131) Tülin [çayını soğuk] içiyor.
‘Tülin drinks [her tea cold].’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 376

(iii) verbs expressing an action which gives someone or something status or quality,
expressed by a noun, e.g. yap-, ‘make’, seç- ‘elect’, boya- ‘paint’
(132) [Mehmet’i başkan] seçtik.
‘We elected [Mehmet (as) chairman].’
When the main clause verb is transitive, the subject of a small clause (italicized in (129)–
(132)) functions as the direct object of the main clause, marked with the accusative case.
The verbs in (ia) and (ib) can occur with small clauses with nominal or verbal predicates.
The verbs in (ic), (ii) and (iii) occur only with small clauses with nominal predicates.
The subordinator diye (24.3) can be used after a small clause when the main clause
verb is bil- ‘think’. Note that the verbs in (ia) (in the case of bil‘think’, only for some
speakers) can also have finite complements (see 24.2):
(133) Biz [sen git-ti-n] san-dı-k.
we you go-PF-2SG think-PF-1PL
‘We thought [you had left].’

24.5.2 SMALL CLAUSES OCCURRING WITH MAIN CLAUSE

INTRANSITIVE VERBS
When the main clause verb is intransitive (either in its root form or through
passivization), the subject of the small clause (in bold italics immediately below) also
functions as the subject of the main predicate.
(134) [Mehmet iyi] görün-üyor-du.
Mehmet fine [Link]
‘Mehmet was looking fine.’
(135) [Biz kurs-u tamamla-dı-(k)] addediliyoruz.
we course-ACC complete-PF(-1PL) consider-PASS-IMPF-1PL
‘We are considered [to have completed the course].’
Small clauses occurring with benze- ‘look as if’ as the main clause verb are idiosyncratic
in that their own verb cannot be inflected for person. A further peculiarity of benze- is
that it requires dative marking of the small clause predicate:
(136) [(Sen) güneş-te fazla kal-mış]-a benzi-yor-sun
(you) sun-LOC [Link] stay-PF-DAT look-IMPF-2SG
‘You look [as if you stayed too long in the sun].’

24.5.3 TENSE/ASPECT AND PERSON MARKING

Tense/aspect marking
The verbal predicate of a small clause is marked with one of the suffixes -mIş, -(I)yor, -
(y)AcAK, -(A/I)r and -DI (see (135) and (136) above). Small clauses do not contain
copular markers or -DIr, except when the main clause predicate is san-/ zannet- ‘think’,
in which case it may be marked with a past copula.
 Noun clauses 377

Person marking
The occurrence of person marking on the predicate of a small clause depends on (a) the
predicate of the main clause, and, (b) whether the small clause has a verbal or nominal
predicate. The main clause predicates which allow person marking in the small clause
when this latter has a verbal predicate are the ones in (ia) and (ib):
(137) Biz [sen-i git-ti-(n)] sandık.
we you-ACC go-PF(-2SG)
‘We thought [you had left].’
The optionality of person marking applies to the passive forms of these verbs as well; see
(135).
When the small clause has a nominal predicate, it can have person marking only if the
main clause predicate is san-/ zannet- ‘think’ and, for some speakers, bil- ‘think’:
(138) Onlar [bizi farkında değil(iz)] sanıyorlar.
‘They think we aren’t aware [of the situation].’
In sentences with small clauses, the main clause predicate is obligatorily inflected for
person, except where the main verb is one of the following: the passive forms of san-/
zannet- ‘think’ (i.e. sanıl-/ zannedil- ‘thought [to be]’, gibi dur-/gibi görün-/gibi gözük-
‘seem’, ‘appear’. With these verbs, person marking may be attached either to the main
verb or to the small clause predicate:
(139)
(a) [Siz hayat-ınız-dan memnun] gibi dur-uyor-sunuz.
you [Link]-ABL happy like seem-IMPF-2PL
‘You seem [to be happy with your life].’
(b) [Siz hayatınızdan memnun-sunuz] gibi dur-uyor.
happy-2PL like seem-IMPF
‘It seems that you are happy with your life.’
Note that gibi gel- ‘seem’ (24.3.3) cannot be used with person marking on the main verb,
i.e. could not be used in a sentence like (139a).

24.6 NOUN CLAUSES AS MODIFIERS IN -(s)l COMPOUNDS

Finite and non-finite noun clauses can function as modifiers in -(s)I compounds (10.2). In
these compounds not only does the modifier, in this case the noun clause, make more
particular the meaning of the head noun, it also provides the content of the head noun.
The nouns that occur most commonly as the heads of these complex -(s)I compounds
generally denote one of the following:
(i) an utterance, e.g. soru ‘question’, komut ‘order’, iddia ‘claim’
(ii) a belief or perception, e.g. düşünce ‘thought’, inanç ‘belief’, beklenti
‘expectation’, duygu ‘feeling’, kaygı ‘anxiety’, umut/ ümit ‘hope’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 378

(iii) a state of affairs, e.g. sorun/ mesele ‘problem’, konu ‘issue’

(iv) a desire, e.g. istek/ arzu ‘wish’, ‘desire’, özlem/hasret ‘longing’
(v) possibility or necessity, e.g. olasilik/ ihtimal ‘possibility’, gereksinim/
ihtiyaç ‘need’, zorunluk/ mecburiyet
(vi) a pattern of behaviour, e.g. alışkanlık ‘habit’, eğilim ‘tendency’, gelenek
‘tradition’
(vii) time, e.g. zaman/vakit ‘time (general)’, saat ‘time (by the clock)’.
Head nouns in categories (i)–(iii) above can be modified by either a finite or a non-finite
noun clause. (140)–(142) contain -(s)I compounds with finite-clause modifiers. These are
generally more informal than their non-finite counterparts.
(140) Nuri Bey, emekli olduktan sonra [ben artık hiçbir işe yaramıyorum]
kaygı-sın-a kapıldı.
anxiety-NC-DAT
‘After he retired, Nuri Bey began to feel that he lacked purpose.’ (lit. ‘started
feeling [an] “I’m no use any more” anxiety.’)
(141) Herkesin kafasında [seçim-ler ne zaman yap-ıl-acak] soru-su var.
election-PL when make-PASS-FUT question-NC existent
‘The question on everybody’s mind is: when are the elections going to be held?’
(lit. ‘On everybody’s mind is the question “When will the elections be held?”’)
(142) [“Saat altıda hazır ol-un”] komut-un-u aldık.
ready be-IMP.2PL order-NC-ACC
‘We received the order “Be ready at six o’clock”.’
The finite noun clauses in the above three examples are a statement (140), a question
(141) and a command (142). Their non-finite counterparts will therefore be respectively
an indirect statement ([Link]), an indirect question ([Link]) and an indirect command
([Link] (iiib)):
(143) Nuri Bey, emekli olduktan sonra [artık hiç bir işe yaramadığı] kaygısına
kapıldı.
‘After he retired, Nuri Bey began to feel that he lacked purpose.’ (lit. ‘started
feeling [an] anxiety [that he was no use any more]’)
(144) Herkesin kafasında [seçimlerin ne zaman yapılacağı] sorusu var.
‘The question on everybody’s mind is when the elections are going to be held.’
(lit. ‘On everybody’s mind is the question of [when the elections will be held].’)
(145) [Saat altıda hazır olma] komutun-u aldık.
‘We received the order [to be ready at six o’clock].’
Where the head noun of the -(s)I compound falls into one of the categories listed (iv)–
(vii) above, a finite noun clause modifer is usually not possible, although with category
(iv) a finite clause with optative or conditional marking may occur colloquially:
(146) İçimde [Ahmet-i gör-ebil-se-m] özlem-i depreşti.
Ahmet-ACC see-PSB-COND-1SG longing-NC
‘The longing [that I might be able to see Ahmet] overwhelmed me again.’
 Noun clauses 379

Otherwise, the form that a clausal modifier takes with one of these heads is a non-finite
clause with -mA or -mAk. It should be noted that -mA is generally preferred to -mAk in
noun clauses that function as modifiers of compounds.
(147) Aysel [oğlunu Amerika’da okutma(k)] isteğ ini yenemiyordu.
‘Aysel couldn’t overcome the/her desire [to get her son educated in America].’
(148) Öğleden sonra [kardeşimin gelme(k)/gelmesi] ihtimali var.
‘In the afternoon there’s a possibility [that my brother/sister will come].’
(149) [Başkalarından saygı bekleme(k)] alışkanlığı insanı düş kırıklığına
uğratır.
‘The habit of [expecting respect from others] leads to disappointment.’
(150) [Bu yanlış uygulamayı düzeltmemiz] zamanı geldi.
‘The time has come for [us to correct this wrong practice].’
In this type of compound, person marking of the -mA verbal noun is possible only with
highly impersonal heads such as olasılık/ ihtimal ‘possibility’ or zaman/vakit ‘time’
(see (148), (150). In other cases, person marking can attach only to the head:
(151) [Başkalarından saygı bekleme(k)] alışkanlığımız bizi düş kırıklığına
uğratıyor.
‘Our habit of [expecting respect from others] causes us disappointment.’
 25
RELATIVE CLAUSES

Relative clauses are complex adjectival constructions that modify noun phrases. The most
typical type of relative clause is non-finite (12.3), and contains one of the participle
suffixes -(y)An, -DIK, or -(y)AcAK, corresponding to the relative pronouns ‘who’,
‘which’, ‘that’, ‘whom’, ‘whose’, ‘where’, etc. in English. Finite relative clauses,
incorporating the subordinator ki ([Link]), also occur, but the range of this type is quite
limited. For this reason, the whole of this chapter, with the exception of the last section
(25.6), is devoted to non-finite relative clauses. With the exception of ki clauses, all
relative clauses precede the noun phrase they modify, in the same way that adjectives
precede the noun they modify:
(1) küçük kız
‘the little girl’
(2) oyuncak-lar-ın-ı kır-an (küçük) kız
[Link]-ACC break-PART little girl
‘the (little) girl who breaks/has broken her toys’
(3) her gün okul-da gör-düğ-üm kız
every day school-LOC [Link] girl
‘the girl whom I see at school every day’
(4) anne-si-yle tanış-acağ-ım kız
[Link]-COM [Link] girl
‘the girl whose mother I’m going to meet’
(5) baş-ın-da şapka ol-an kız
[Link]-LOC hat be-PART-girl
‘the girl who has a hat on her head’
Section 25.1 describes the principles of relativization and the function of the participle
suffixes. Section 25.2 discusses the distinction between restrictive and non-restrictive
relative clauses, and 25.3 deals with headless relative clauses. 25.4 examines the
expression of tense and aspect in relative clauses, and the conditions under which olan
(where this is the relevant participial form) may be omitted. For the ordering of a non-
finite relative clause with respect to other adjectivals and determiners in the noun phrase
see 15.3.9.

25.1 PRINCIPLES OF RELATIVIZATION

The noun of the noun phrase that a relative clause modifies, i.e. the head noun, can have
one of several different relationships with the relative clause. For example, in (2) the
relationship of the target of relativization, the head noun kız ‘girl’, to the relative clause is
 Relative clauses 381

that of subject of the verb kır- ‘break’ (cf. kız oyuncaklarını kırdı ‘the girl broke her
toys’), whereas in (3) it is the direct object of the verb gör- ‘see’ (cf. her gün kızı okulda
görüyorum ‘I see the girl at school every day’). In (4), on the other hand, kız is the
possessor of anne-si ‘her mother’ (cf. the genitive-possessive construction kız-ın anne-si
‘the girl’s mother’). These processes are referred to as ‘relativizing the subject’,
‘relativizing the direct object’, ‘relativizing the possessor’, etc. The participle suffix used
in non-finite relative clauses is selected on the basis of the nature of the relationship of
the head noun to the relative clause in any particular instance.
When relativizing a constituent of a nominal sentence ([Link]) the suppletive form
ol- of the copula ([Link]) is used as the bearer of the participle suffixes:
(6) [ağır yaralı ol-an] hastalar
seriously injured be-PART patients
‘the patients [who are seriously injured]’
(7) [çocukların evde olacağı] bir gün
‘a day [when the children will be at home]’
The construction in (6) corresponds to the nominal sentence Hastalar ağır yaralı ‘The
patients are seriously injured’.
The verb bulun-‘be (found)’ can also be used when relativizing one of the constituents
of a nominal sentence, especially where location is involved:
(8) iç-in-de üç top bulun-an/ol-an kutu (cf. Kutunun içinde üç top var.)
[Link]-LOC three ball be-PART box
‘the box [which has/had three balls inside it]’

25.1.1 MARKERS OF NON-FINITE RELATIVE CLAUSES: THE

PARTICIPLE SUFFIXES

[Link] -(y)An
A non-finite verb form which contains -(y)An does not get inflected for case or person,
except in headless relative clauses (see 25.3). This participle occurs in the following
circumstances:
(i) In clauses where the relativized constituent is the subject of the verb in the relative
clause:
(9) [burada sat-ıl-an] kitap-lar (cf. Kitaplar burada satılıyor.)
here sell-PASS-PART book-PL
‘the books [(which are) sold here]’
(10) [öğretmen ol-an] Haydar (cf. Haydar öğretmen.)
teacher be-PART Haydar
‘Haydar, [who is a teacher]’
(ii) In clauses where the relativized constituent is the possessor (14.4) of some constituent
of the relative clause:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 382

(a) Where this possessor is part of the subject of the verb in the relative clause,
the relative clause begins with a non-case-marked noun phrase marked with a 3rd
person possessive suffix. For example, in (11) below komşumuz ‘our neighbour’,
which is the relativized constituent, is the possessor of araba-sı ‘his/her car’, and
would thus be the modifier in the corresponding genitive-possessive construction
komşumuz-un araba-sı ‘our neighbour’s car’, which is understood to be the
subject of çalın- ‘be stolen’ (cf. Komşumuzun arabası çalındı ‘Our neighbour’s
car has been stolen’).
(11) [araba-sı çal-ın-an] komşu-muz
[Link] steal-PASS-PART [Link]
‘our neighbour [whose car was stolen]’
(12) [rolü büyük olmayan] oyuncu (cf. Oyuncunun rolü büyük değil.)
‘the actor [whose part isn’t big]’/‘the actor [who does not have a big part]’
Note that in the pattern represented in (12), where the verb in the relative clause is ol-
(corresponding to an expression with ‘have’ in English), it is unusual for the possessive-
marked constituent to be preceded by any modifiers. Any adjectival descriptors
associated with this noun, such as büyük ‘big’, are preferably given a predicative role
within the relative clause, which thus corresponds in form to a linking sentence rather
than to an existential one (see [Link]).
(b) Where this possessor is part of some constituent of the relative clause other
than its subject, the relative clause must have a non-definite (i.e. categorial or
indefinite) subject. (Otherwise, if the subject is definite, a -DIK/-(y)AcAK
construction is used; see [Link] (iii). The possessor can be part of any non-
subject constituent, such as:
A direct object:
(13) [koyun-ların-ı kurt kap-an] köylü-ler (cf. Köylülerin koyunlarını kurt
kaptı.)
[Link]-ACC wolf catch-PART villager-PL
‘the villagers [whose sheep were caught by wolves]’ (lit. ‘whose sheep wolves
caught’)
An adverbial:
(14) [çatı-sın-dan birkaç küçük kiremit düş-en] ev [Link]-ABL [Link]
small tile fall-PART house
‘the house [from the roof of which a few small tiles fell]’
A possessive-marked postposition:
(15) [arka-sın-da adam ol-an] çocuk (cf. Çocuğun arkasında adam var.)
[Link]-LOC man be-PART child
‘the child [behind whom there is a man]’
In (13) the relativized constituent köylüler ‘villagers’ is the possessor of koyun ‘sheep’,
and would thus be the modifier in the corresponding genitive-possessive construction
 Relative clauses 383

köylülerin koyunları, which itself functions as the direct object of kap- ‘seize and devour’
(cf. Köylülerin koyunlarını kurt kaptı ‘Wolves devoured the villagers’ sheep’. The non-
definite subject may be modified (e.g. by a determiner and/or adjective, such as birkaç ‘a
few’ and küçük ‘small’ in (14)).
In these constructions the subject of the relative clause (i.e. kiremit ‘tiles’, kurt
‘wolves’, adam ‘man’ in the examples above) is non-definite, and is placed immediately
before the verb (see 23.2.1). The constituent towards which the relativized constituent
stands in a possessor relation (koyunlarını ‘their sheep’ (ACC), çatısından ‘from the roof
of which’, arkasında ‘behind whom’) is positioned at the beginning of the relative clause
and is marked by a 3rd person possessive suffix.
(iii) In clauses where the relativized constituent is a possessed item (a noun phrase
with possessive marking):
-(y)An is used only in cases where the possessed item is part of the subject of the verb
in the relative clause. Otherwise -DIK/-(y)AcAK are used (see [Link] (iv)). For example,
in (16) below, the relativized constituent arabası ‘[Link]’ is the possessed item
in the genitive-possessive construction komşumuz-un araba-sı ‘our neighbour’s car’,
which is itself the subject of çalın- ‘be stolen’ (cf. Komşumuzun arabası çalındı ‘Our
neighbour’s car was stolen’).
(16) [komşu-muz-un çal-ın-an] araba-sı
[Link]-GEN steal-PASS-PART [Link]
‘our neighbour’s car, [which was stolen]’/‘our neighbour’s stolen car’
(17) [oyuncunun büyük olmayan] rolü (cf. Oyuncunun rolü büyük değil.)
‘the actor’s part, [which isn’t/wasn’t big]’
(iv) In clauses where the relativized constituent is a noun phrase expressing the location
of the activity expressed by the relative clause:
In these constructions the relative clause itself contains a subject with categorial status
(22.3), and the verb has passive marking:
(18) [kitap imzala-n-an] yer (cf. O yerde kitap imzalanıyor.)
book sign-PASS-PART place
‘the place [where books are signed]’
(19) [içki iç-il-ebil-ecek (ol-an)] lokantalar (cf. O lokantalarda içki içilebiliyor.)
[Link] drink-PASS-PSB-FUT AUX-PART restaurants
‘restaurants [where alcohol can be drunk]’

[Link] -DIK and -(y)AcAK

These participles have identical structural properties in terms of their role in relative
clauses, but they differ in terms of tense. In very general terms, -(y)AcAK refers to future
situations:
(20) [Fatma’nın yarın gör-eceğ-i] film
Fatma-GEN tomorrow [Link] film
‘the film [that Fatma is going to see/will be seeing tomorrow]’
-DIK, on the other hand, mainly refers to past or ongoing situations:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 384

(21) [Fatma-nın doku-duğ-u] halı

Fatma-GEN [Link] rug
‘the rug [that Fatma is/was weaving/wove/has woven]’
Temporal adverbs (such as dün ‘yesterday’, şu anda ‘at the moment’) are used in
contexts where an explicit differentiation between past and present is necessary. See 25.4
for a more detailed description of the tense and aspectual properties of relative clauses.
Clauses with -DIK and -(y)AcAK have the structure of genitive-possessive
constructions (14.4), i.e. the participle has possessive marking agreeing with the subject,
and the subject, if separately expressed by a noun phrase, as in (20) and (21) above, is in
the genitive case. For the conditions under which the subject of a clause may be omitted
see 18.1.5.
-DIK and -(y)AcAK are used in the following circumstances:
(i) In clauses where the relativized constituent is the direct object of the verb in the
relative clause:
(22) [bil-diğ-im] bir turizm şirketi (cf. Bir turizm şirketi biliyorum.)
[Link] a tourism agency
‘a tourist agency [(that) I know]’
(23) [gönderecekleri] temsilci (cf. Bir temsilci gönderecekler.)
‘the representative [(whom) they will send]’
(ii) In clauses where the relativized constituent is the oblique object or the adverbial
modifier of the verb in the relative clause (see [Link] and 13.1.3):
(24) [benim korktuğum] bazı hayvanlar (cf. Bazı hayvanlardan korkuyorum.)
‘some animals [of which I am/was afraid]’
(25) [Turhan-ın et-i kes-eceğ-i] bıçak (cf. Turhan eti bıçakla kesecek.)
Turhan-GEN meat-ACC [Link] knife
‘the knife [with which Turhan will/would cut the meat]’
In this construction type, where the relativized constituent refers to a human being and is
in the 3rd person (as in the case of birisi ‘someone’ and kişiler ‘people’ in the examples
below), a resumptive pronoun (kendisi in the case of 3rd person singular and kendileri in
the case of 3rd person plural, see [Link] (iv)) can appear in the relative clause. Kendisi
and kendileri carry the case marker or the postposition that the relativized constituent
would be associated with in a corresponding finite clause:
(26) [Erol-un] (kendi-si-yle) konuş-abil-eceğ-i birisi (cf. Erol öyle birisiyle
konuşabilir.)
Erol-GEN [Link]-COM [Link] someone
‘someone [with whom Erol can/could/would be able to talk]’
(27) [(bizim) (kendilerinden) nefret ettiğimiz] kişiler (cf. Biz öyle kişilerden
nefret ediyoruz.)
‘the people [whom we hate/hated]’
(iii) In clauses where the relativized constituent is the possessor (14.4) of some
constituent of the relative clause other than its subject, as exemplified below:
The direct object:
 Relative clauses 385

(28) [usta-nın kapı-sın-ı değiştir-eceğ-i] çamaşır makinası (cf. Usta çamaşır

makinasının kapısını değiştirecek.)
engineer-GEN [Link]-ACC [Link] washing
machine
‘the washing machine [of which the engineer is/was going to change the door]’
An adverbial:
(29) [kız-ın-a piyano ders-i ver-diğ-im] hanım (cf. Bir hanımın kızına piyano
dersi veriyorum.)
[Link] piano lesson-NC [Link] lady
‘the lady [to whose daughter I give/gave piano lessons]’
A possessive-marked postposition:
(30) [ön-ün-den köprü-nün geç-tiğ-i] ev-ler (cf. Köprü evlerin önünden geçiyor.)
[Link]-ABL bridge-GEN [Link] house-PL
‘the houses [in front of which the bridge is situated]’
The crucial difference between this strategy for relativizing a non-subject possessor and
the one with -(y)An described above in [Link] (ii)b is that while the latter permits only
non-definite subjects, the use of -DIK/ -(y)AcAK allows definite subjects, such as usta
‘the engineer’ in (28), ‘I’ in (29) (expressed by the possessive marking on the verb), and
köprü ‘the bridge’ in (30).
In (31), the -(y)An construction parallel to (30), the subject köprü has the non-definite
meaning ‘a bridge/bridges’:
(31) [ön-ün-den köprü geç-en] ev-ler
[Link]-ABL bridge [Link]-PART house-PL
‘the houses [in front of which a bridge is situated]’
As a result of this difference, a relative clause of this type which has a proper noun as its
subject (e.g. Semra below) is only grammatical with the -DIK-/(y)AcAK strategy:
(32) [arkasında Semra-nın oturduğu] çocuk
‘the child [behind whom Semra is/was sitting]’
While a relative clause with a categorial subject has to be expressed with -(y)An (as in
(31), also (13) and (15)), in the case of an indefinite subject (i.e. one in which a numeral
or indefinite determiner is present), either kind of participle is possible:
(33)
(a) [içine birkaç çiçek konmuş olan] bir vazo
(b) [içine birkaç çiçeğin konmuş olduğu] bir vazo
‘a vase [into which a few flowers have/had been put]’
The tendency for the -DIK-/(y)AcAK strategy to be preferred with an indefinite subject
increases with the degree of particularization given to the subject. Below, for example, it
would be almost obligatory:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 386

(34) [içine [Handan’ın bahçesinden toplanmış] birkaç çiçeğin konmuş olduğu] bir
vazo
‘a vase [into which a few flowers [picked from Handan’s garden] had been put]’
(iv) In clauses where the relativized constituent is a possessed item (a noun phrase with
possessive marking):
-DIK/-(y)AcAK are used only in cases where the possessed item is not part of the
subject of the verb in the relative clause. Otherwise -(y)An is used (see [Link] (iii)). (35)
and (36) are examples of this type of -DIK/ -(y)AcAK clause, in which the possessed
constituent is respectively part of a direct object (arabanın sol aynası ‘the left mirror of
the car’) and an oblique object (ev sahibinin köpeği ‘the landlord’s dog’):
(35) [araba-nın kır-dığ-ın] sol ayna-sı (cf. Arabanın sol aynasını kırdın.)
car-GEN [Link] left [Link]
‘the left mirror of the car, [which you broke]’
(36) [ev sahib-in-in kork-tuğ-um] köpeğ-i (cf. Ev sahibinin köpeğinden
korkuyorum.)
landlord-NC-GEN [Link] [Link]
‘the landlord’s dog, [which I’m afraid of]’
(v) Special usages of -DIK/-(y)AcAK:
Where the relativized constituent is the non-definite (i.e. categorial or indefinite)
object of the verb in the relative clause, -(y)AcAK can also appear without any person
marking:
(37) [çayla yiyecek] bir şeyler (cf. Çayla insan bir şeyler yer/yiyebilir.)
‘things [to eat with tea]’
The relativized constituent in this type of construction can also, as in the case of yaş ‘age’
in (38), have an adverbial relation to the relative clause. For an example with zaman
‘time’ see (30) in Chapter 20.
(38) [seni anlayacak] yaş(ta değil) (cf. Bu yaşta seni anlayamaz.)
‘(s/he is not) old enough (lit. ‘at an age’) [to understand you]’
Although it is not overtly marked, the verbs in these constructions express possibility, a
value normally associated with the modality suffix -(y)Abil. The lack of person marking
on the verb indicates that the clause lacks an agent. As a result, those where the
relativized constituent is a direct object can generally be interchanged with clauses where
the verb is in the passive voice:
(39)
(a) [Hasan’a yönelt-ecek] soru (cf. Hasan’a birisi soru yönelt(ebil)ir.)
direct-PART
‘a question/questions [to direct to Hasan]’
(b) [Hasan’a yönelt-il-ecek] soru
direct-PASS-PART
‘a question/questions [to be directed to Hasan]’
 Relative clauses 387

Some -(y)AcAK participles have been lexicalized as nouns or adjectives (e.g. from yak-
‘burn’ yakacak ‘fuel’, see [Link]).
-DIK has a similar lexical usage. When it is used with no other suffix, it is highly
unproductive, and forms nouns or adjectives (e.g. tanıdık bir yüz ‘a familiar face’). Its
negativized form -mAdIk is more productive (e.g. bakmadık ‘unsearched’); see [Link].

[Link] Summary of strategies of relativization

(i) Relativizing subjects -(y)An [Link] (i)
(ii) Relativizing direct objects -DIK/-(y)AcAK [Link] (i), (v)
(iii) Relativizing oblique objects -DIK/-(y)AcAK [Link] (ii)
(iv) Relativizing adverbials -(y)An [Link] (iv)
-DIK/-(y)AcAK [Link] (ii)
(v) Relativizing possessors
(a) which are part of subjects -(y) An ([Link] (ii–a))
(b) which are not part of subjects -(y) An ([Link] (ii–b)
or -DIK/-(y) AcAK ([Link] (iii))
(vi) Relativizing possessed constituents
(a) which are part of subjects -(y) An ([Link] (iii))
(b) which are not part of subjects -DIK/-(y) AcAK ([Link] (iv))

25.1.2 RELATIVE CLAUSES WITH EMBEDDED NOUN CLAUSES

These are constructions where the relativized constituent (e.g. kız ‘girl’ in (40)) is a
constituent of a noun clause (Chapter 24). The choice between -(y)An and -DIK/-(y)AcAK
on the verb of this complex type of relative clause depends on whether the particular
embedded noun clause is the subject of the relative clause or not. If it is, -(y)An is used;
otherwise -DIK/ -(y)AcAK are used. The pattern here thus follows the general pattern
described above (25.1.1):
(40) [[İstanbul-da otur-duğ-u] san-ıl-an] kız
Istanbul-LOC [Link] think-PASS-PART girl
‘the girl [who is/was thought [to be living in Istanbul]]’
In this example, the relativized constituent kız belongs to the noun clause (kızın)
İstanbul’da oturduğu ‘that (the girl) lives/lived in İstanbul’. The noun clause itself is the
subject of the passive verb sanıl- ‘be thought’. Therefore -(y)An is selected.
Similarly, in the examples below the noun clauses herkesin (bir konu) bilmesi
‘everyone’s knowing a subject’ and (misafirlerin) gelmeleri ‘the guests’ arrival’ are each
the subject of the relative clause within which they are embedded:
(41) [[herkesin bilmesi] gereken] bir konu
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 388

‘a subject [which everyone should know about]’

(42) [[gelmeleri] beklenen] misafirler
‘the guests [who are expected [to arrive]]’
In the following example, on the other hand, the noun clause (kızın) İstanbul’da
oturduğun-u ‘that she lives/lived in Istanbul-ACC’ is not the subject of the verb san-
‘think’, but its direct object. Therefore -DIK/-(y)AcAK are selected:
(43) [(ben-im) [İstanbul-da otur-duğ-un]-u san-dığ-ım] kız
I-GEN Istanbul-LOC [Link]-ACC [Link] girl
‘the girl [who [I think/thought lives/lived in Istanbul]]’
The embedded verb in the noun clause takes whatever subordinator (-mA, -mAK, -(y)Iş, -
DIK/-(y)AcAK) may be required by the verb of which it is a complement. Thus -DIK in
otur-duğ-un-u (43) and -(y)AcAK in evlen-eceğ-in-i below, are not participle suffixes but
verbal noun markers:
(44) [Erol-un [evlen-eceğ-in]-i san-dığ-ı] kız
Erol-GEN [Link]-ACC [Link] girl
(i) ‘the girl [Erol thinks/thought [he (= Erol) will/would marry]]’
(ii) ‘the girl [Erol thinks/thought [will/would get married]]’
In the first interpretation of (44) the subject of the noun clause [(Erol’un) evleneceği]
‘that he (= Erol) will marry’ is the same as the subject of the relative clause
[Erol’un…sandığı] ‘(that) Erol thought…’. The two can also be distinct, as in the second
interpretation of (44), where the relativized constituent (kız ‘girl’) is understood to be the
subject of the noun clause, or in (45), where the relative clause has a 1st person singular
subject:
(45) [[Erol’un evleneceğin]-i düşündüğüm] kız
‘the girl [(that) I thought [Erol would marry]]’
In constructions where the noun clause subordinator is -mA, the two clauses always have
separate subjects (see [Link]):
(46) [[al-ma-nız]-ı tavsiye et-tiğ-im] ilaç
[Link]-ACC [Link] medication
‘the medication [that I suggested [you take]]’

25.2 RESTRICTIVE AND NON-RESTRICTIVE RELATIVE CLAUSES

Restrictive relative clauses express a limitation on the reference of the noun they modify,
and thus have an identifying function. For example, the relative clause in yaprakları
dökülen ağaçlar ‘trees that lose their leaves’ limits the reference of ‘trees’ to those that
lose their leaves. Non-restrictive relative clauses, on the other hand, add new information
about referents that are in no need of identification, and thus have a merely descriptive
function. For example, the relative clause in damadıyla hiçbir zaman iyi geçinmemiş olan
 Relative clauses 389

Hayriye Hanım ‘Hayriye Hanım, who had never got on well with her son-in-law’,
provides additional information about Hayriye Hanım, a person whom the hearer is
assumed to be able to identify.
In Turkish the typical usage of a relative clause with a participle suffix is restrictive.
Thus (47) is more likely to be interpreted as ‘the trees (that) I like’ rather than ‘the trees,
which I like so much’.
(47) sev-diğ-im ağaç-lar
[Link] tree-PL
As a result, in the spoken language proper nouns do not often occur as the relativized
constituent of a relative clause, since their referents are not usually in need of
identification. If a proper noun does occur in conversation as the head of a relative clause,
this is again usually with a restrictive meaning. In (48) the usage of bu ‘this’ in the
subsequent mention of the name makes the identifying function explicit:
(48) [Kenan’ın evleneceği] Ayşe, işte bu Ayşe.
‘This is the Ayşe [that Kenan is going to marry].’
However, the non-restrictive usage of relative clauses is quite common in the written
language, where it can be used as a stylistic device to avoid a monotonous succession of
finite clauses:
(49) [Bugün yurda dönen] Cumhurbaşkanı, saat 16’da bir basın toplantısı
düzenleyecek.
‘The president, [who is returning to the country today], will hold a press
conference at 4 p.m.’
The omission of olan from a relative clause containing a compound verb form makes a
non-restrictive interpretation unlikely (see [Link]). On the other hand, finite relative
clauses with ki occur mainly in the non-restrictive function (see 25.6).

25.3 HEADLESS RELATIVE CLAUSES

These are constructions where the head noun that a relative clause modifies is omitted
from the sentence, because the referent of the relative clause is either clear from previous
mention, or is essentially self-identifying. Such clauses correspond to expressions such as
‘the one(s) that’, ‘the person who’, ‘those who’, ‘what’, ‘anything that’, etc. In these
clauses the number and case markers that would otherwise be attached to the noun appear
on the participle itself, as illustrated in the (b) examples below:
(50)
(a) [opera-yı sev-me-yen]-ler-e (şaşıyorum).
opera-ACC like-NEG-PART-PL-DAT
‘(I am surprised) at those [who don’t like opera].’
(b) [operayı sevmeyen] kişi-ler-e…
person-PL-DAT
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 390

‘…at people [who don’t like opera]’

(51)
(a) [Biz-im dik-ecek]-ler-imiz-de (hata var).
we-GEN [Link]-LOC
‘(There is a fault) with the ones [that we shall be making].’
(b) [biz-im dik-eceğ-imiz] elbise-ler-de…
‘…with the dresses [that we shall be making]’
Note that, in the case of -DIK/-(y)AcAK, the marker for plural associated with the omitted
head noun (e.g. elbise-ler ‘dresses’ in (51b)) occurs before the person marker in the
headless relative clause, following the order of nominal inflectional suffixes (8.1).
There is also a highly productive use of headless relative clauses as the subject of an
existential sentence.
(52) Öğleden sonra ara-yan ol-ma-dı. (cf.…arayan birisi olmadı.)
call-PART be-NEG-PF
‘No one called in the afternoon.’ (lit. ‘There was no one who…’.)
(53) Bu konuda bil-diğ-im yok. (cf.…bildiğim bir şey yok.)
[Link] non-existent
‘I don’t know anything about this matter.’ (lit. ‘There is nothing I know.’)
See 18.4 (vi), examples (116)–(117) for a comparison of headless relative clauses and
pronominalized complex adjectivals.

25.4 THE EXPRESSION OF TENSE AND ASPECT IN RELATIVE

CLAUSES

None of the participle suffixes -(y)An, -DIK and -(y)AcAK have a unique time reference.
They attach directly to a verb stem which is uninflected for tense and aspect (8.2.3), and
therefore using any of them on their own may result in ambiguity. For example, yüz-en
kadın (swim-PART woman) can mean ‘the woman who is/was swimming’, or ‘the
woman who swims/ swam/has swum’, and çiz-diğ-im resim ([Link]
picture) can mean ‘the sketch I am/was making/make/made/have made’.
In order to indicate the time location of the situation in a relative clause either time
adverbials are used, or a compound verb form is constructed by means of the auxiliary ol-
([Link]), in order to enable the addition of certain tense and aspect markers (25.4.1).
-(y)An typically refers to non-future situations:
(54) [dün başla-yan] fırtına
yesterday start-PART storm
‘the storm [that started yesterday]’
(55) [iki yıldır süren] kuraklık
‘the drought [that has been going on for two years]’
(56) [şu anda çalan] parça
‘the piece [that is playing at the moment]’
 Relative clauses 391

In informal registers it can also refer to the future:

(57) [Yarın çık-an] gazete-de önemli bir yazı bulun-acak.
tomorrow appear-PART paper-LOC important an article be-FUT
‘There will be an important article in the paper [that comes out tomorrow].’
-DIK also typically refers to non-future situations:
(58) [geçen hafta bitir-diğ-im] roman
last week [Link] novel
‘the novel [I finished last week]’
(59) [şu sırada okuduğum] roman
‘the novel [I am reading at the moment]’
It can also refer to situations which precede or are simultaneous with a future situation
referred to in the superordinate clause:
(60) Sonunda [git-tiğ-in] okul nasıl olsa bir spor akademi-si ol-acak.
[Link] [Link] school in any case a sports academy-NC be-FUT
‘In the end, whatever school [you go to], it will be a sports academy.’
-(y)AcAK refers to future situations. The futurity may be in relation to the time of
utterance:
(61) [yarın oku-yacağ-ım] makale
tomorrow [Link] article
‘the article [that I’m going to read tomorrow]’
Or it may be futurity with respect to any other point in time, which may itself be in the
past:
(62) [Dün oku-yacağ-ım] makale-yi ancak bugün oku-yabil-di-m.
yesterday [Link] article-ACC only today read-PSB-PF-1SG
‘The article [that I was to read yesterday], I managed to read only today.’
(63) [Geçen hafta göreceğim] film Mavi Kadife’ydi.
‘The film [that I was going to see last week] was Blue Velvet.’

25.4.1 THE USE OF AUXILIARY ol- IN RELATIVE CLAUSES

The strategy used for indicating finer specifications of tense and aspect in relative clauses
is to attach the participle suffixes to the auxiliary verb ol-, producing the forms olan,
olduK- and olacaK- (see [Link]). This strategy allows the verb of the relative clause to
combine freely with some of the tense and aspect markers, producing compound forms
such as bak-mış ol-an ‘who has looked’, bak-maz ol-duğ-um ‘that I have stopped looking
at’, etc. However, it should be noted that even this strategy is, at times, insufficient, and
verbs in relative clauses may not express tense and aspect as fully as their finite
counterparts do.
The attachment of the participle suffixes to the auxiliary ol- makes it possible to
express the following tenses and aspects in a relative clause:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 392

PERFECTIVE/PAST: -mIş
FUTURE: -(y)AcAK
PROGRESSIVE/HABITUAL: -mAktA and -(I)yor
HABITUAL: -(A/I)r/-mAz

(i) -mIş olan, -mIş olduK-, -mIş olacaK-:

-mIş, which in some finite clauses marks perfective aspect, relative past tense and
evidential modality (21.4.3), loses its modality value when followed by ol- ([Link],
21.5). In relative clauses, as in other subordinate clauses (cf. 24.4.7, 26.2.3 (i)), it locates
a situation unambiguously in a time period prior to that of another time referred to in the
sentence. For example, one of the readings associated with (64a) below, namely the
imperfective ‘s/he lost the book (that) s/he was reading’, is not a possible interpretation of
(64b), which contains -mIş olduK-.
(64)
(a) [Oku-duğ-u] kitabı kaybetti.
[Link]
‘S/he lost the book [(that) s/he was reading/read/had read].’
(b) [Oku-muş ol-duğ-u] kitabı kaybetti.
read-PF [Link]
‘S/he lost the book [(that) s/he had read].’
The form -mIş olacaK- is equivalent to the finite compound form -mIş olacak (21.5.1).
Thus a relative clause which contains -mIş olacaK- is aspectually different from one that
just contains a -(y)AcAK participle. For example, while (65a) identifies a certain book in
terms of the occurrence of a future event, (65b) identifies it in terms of a future situation
in which that event will already have been completed:
(65)
(a) [yarın bitireceğim] kitap
‘the book [that I’m going to finish tomorrow]’
(b) [yarın bitirmiş olacağım] kitap
the book [that I will have finished tomorrow]’
However, a relative clause with -mIş olan or -mIş olduK- is sometimes just a slightly
more formal variant of a relative clause marked simply by -(y)An or -DIK:
(66) [kızı dün gelen] kadın/[kızı dün gelmiş olan] kadın
‘the woman [whose daughter came yesterday]’
(67) [Sizin dün gördüğünüz/görmüş olduğunuz] filmi ben yarın göreceğim.
‘The film [(that) you saw yesterday] I’m going to see tomorrow.’
(ii) -(y)AcAk olan, -(y)AcAk olduK-:
The suffix -(y)AcAK indicates relative future tense (see 21.5.3).
 Relative clauses 393

The combination of the tense suffix -(y)AcAK with olan is the standard means of
expressing relative future tense in relative clauses that require -(y)An marking. (Compare
the informal alternative strategy exemplified in (57) above.)
(68) [Yarın çık-acak ol-an] gazete-de önemli bir yazı bulun-acak.
tomorrow [Link]-FUT AUX-PART paper-LOC important an article be-FUT
‘There will be an important article in the paper [that’s going to come out
tomorrow].’
(69) [Dün gösterilecek olan] filmde sakıncalı sahneler bulunmuş.
‘It seems that improper scenes were found in the film [that was going to be shown
yesterday].’
Relative clauses with -(y)AcAk olduK- occur rather infrequently. They are identical in
meaning to their counterparts with the participle suffix -(y)AcAK:
(70)
(a) [arkadaş-lar-ın al-acak-ları] televizyon
friend-PL-GEN [Link] television
(b) [arkadaş-lar-ın al-acak ol-duk-ları] televizyon
friend-PL-GEN buy-FUT [Link] television
‘the television [that [our] friends are/were going to buy]’
(iii) -mAktA olan, -mAktA olduK-, and -(I)yor olacaK-:
Both -mAktA and -(I)yor mark imperfective (progressive or habitual) aspect (21.3.2).
In relative clauses -mAkta is more typically used with olan and olduK-, while -(I)yor is
used with olacaK. Although verb forms with -mAktA ol- resolve ambiguities as described
below, they are not favoured in everyday speech.
In the absence of an adverbial expressing frequency (such as her gün ‘every day’)
these forms are understood to have progressive meaning:
(71) [Oku-makta ol-duğ-u] kitabı kaybetti. (cf. (64a) above)
read-IMPF [Link]
‘S/he lost the book [(that) s/he was reading].’
The use of a -mAktA ol- form of participle resolves the ambiguity of -(y)An and -DIK
with regard to perfectivity in favour of the imperfective (progressive) meaning.
Where the relative clause contains a time adverbial that denotes an ongoing situation,
such as şu anda ‘at the/this moment’ or o sırada ‘at that time’, the verb will be
understood as progressive, whether -mAktA olan/olduK- are used or the simple -(y)An or -
DIK participles. The use of -mAktA ol- in such cases is more formal:
(72)
(a) [şu anda Erol-a mektup yaz-makta ol-an] kız
at this moment Erol-DAT letter write-ıMPF AUX-PART girl
(b) [şu anda Erol-a mektup yaz-an] kız
write-PART
‘the girl [who at this moment is writing a letter to Erol]’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 394

(73)
(a) [o sırada seyret-mekte ol-duğ-um] videolar
at that time watch-ıMPF [Link] videos
(b) [o sırada seyret-tiğ-im] videolar
[Link]
‘the videos [I was watching at the time]’
-(I)yor olacaK- marks progressive or habitual aspect in the (relative) future. The
interpretation depends on contextual clues, in particular the type of time adverbial used:
(74) [[Erol geldiği sırada] seyrediyor olacağım] film eskilerden biri olacak(tı).
The film [that I will (would) be watching at the time of Erol’s arrival] will
(would) be one of the old ones.’ (Progressive)
(75) [Yakında her gün görüyor olacağım] terapist acaba bana dayanabilecek mi?
‘I wonder if the therapist [that I will soon be seeing every day] will be able to put
up with me.’ (Habitual)
(iv) -(A/I)r olduK-, -mAz olan, -mAz olduK, -mAz olacaK:
The aorist marker -(A/I)r, which in finite clauses can have aspectual or modal meaning
(21.3.2, 21.4.1), in relative clauses is an aspectual marker with habitual meaning. It
occurs only with olduK-:
(76) [Artık sık sık görüşür olduğumuz] komşularımızı başta hiç sevmemiştik.
‘At first we didn’t like our neighbours, [whom we see quite often now].’
-mAz, the negative counterpart of -(A/I)r, is used with all three forms of the participle, to
express a habitually non-occurring action or state:
(77) Semra [yakında giy-e-mez ol-acağ-ı] giysilerini bu günlerde
soon [Link] [Link]
özellikle giymek istiyor.
‘Semra particularly wants to wear now the clothes [that she will soon not be able
to wear].’

[Link] The omission of olan: truncated relative clauses

olan can be omitted from the forms -mIş olan (25.4.1 (i)) and -(y)AcAk olan (25.4.1 (ii)),
in a way somewhat similar to the omission of ‘who is’, ‘which was’, etc. in some kinds of
relative clause in English:
(78) [kömür-de piş-miş] patlıcan (cf. kömürde pişmiş olan patlıcan)
coal-LOC cook-PF aubergine
‘aubergine [cooked on coal]’
(79) [iki kilometre yüz-ecek] birisi (cf. iki kilometre yüz(ebil)ecek olan birisi)
two kilometre swim-FUT someone
‘someone [attempting/able to swim two kilometres]’
 Relative clauses 395

Note that olan cannot be omitted from relative clauses in which the verb is suffixed with -
mAktA, -(I)yor or -mAz. However, it can be omitted from clauses which have nominal
predicates and relativized possessors:
(80) [kapağ-ı boyalı] bir kutu (cf. kapağı boyalı olan bir kutu)
[Link] painted a box
‘a box with a painted lid’ (lit. ‘whose lid is painted’)
(81) [önü bahçeli] ev (cf. önü bahçeli olan ev)
‘a house/houses with (a) garden(s) in front’
There are semantic differences between a relative clause which contains olan and a
‘truncated’ one where it is omitted. Truncated relative clauses are nearly always of the
restrictive type (see 25.2). Moreover, there is a tendency for the head of a truncated
relative clause to have non-specific reference. It may be a non-specific indefinite noun
phrase (22.2.1), such as bir öğrenci in (82), denoting any member of the class öğrenci
that fits the description provided by the relative clause:
(82) [Notu düşük] bir öğrenci bu sınavı alamaz.
‘A student [who has a low grade] cannot take this exam.’
Alternatively, it can be a generic noun phrase (22.4), such as bebek below, in which the
truncated relative clause narrows down the class ‘baby’ in such a way as to designate
only those that have eaten their food.
(83) [Yemeğ-in-i ye-miş] bebek ağlamaz.
[Link]-ACC eat-PF
‘A baby [that has eaten its food] doesn’t cry.’
However, truncated relative clauses are sometimes used with specific noun phrases
(definite or indefinite) as their head. This occurs mainly where the relative clause
contains -(y)AcAk:
(84) [Sınava girecek] öğrenciler burada.
‘The students [who will be taking the exam] are here.’
Relative clauses which contain olan, on the other hand, may be either restrictive, as in
(85), or non-restrictive, as in (86):
(85) [Yemeğini yemiş olan] bebek ağlamaz.
‘A baby [that has eaten its food] doesn’t cry.’
(86) [Yemeğini yemiş olan] bebek hemen uykuya daldı.
‘The baby, [which had eaten its food,] immediately fell asleep.’

25.5 OTHER COMPLEX ADJECTIVAL CONSTRUCTIONS

The suffixes -(y)IcI and -(A/I)r can also be used in complex adjectival constructions.
Clausal formations with these suffixes are very rare in comparison with participial
relative clauses, see [Link] for examples.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 396

25.6 FINITE RELATIVE CLAUSES WITH ki

Relativization with ki is a quite different strategy for forming relative clauses. In a

reversal of the order in non-finite relative clauses, the relativized constituent precedes ki
and the finite clause (12.3) it introduces. The subordinator ki, here functioning somewhat
like a relative pronoun, is used mostly to form non-restrictive relative clauses, i.e. simply
to add new information about the referent of the head noun (see 25.2). It may also be
used in restrictive relative clauses and parenthetical expressions.

25.6.1 ki IN NON-RESTRICTIVE RELATIVE CLAUSES

The head noun in these constructions almost always functions as the subject of the main
clause. It is also usually 3rd person singular or plural:
(87) Ayşe, [ki şu anda mutfakta yemek pişiriyor,] birazdan ortaya çıkacak.
‘Ayşe, [who is cooking in the kitchen at the moment,] will appear soon.’
(88) Komşu-muz, [ki oldukça tanınmış bir piyanist-miş,]
[Link] RP quite [Link] a [Link]
evinde sık sık oda müziği konserleri düzenliyor.
‘Our neighbour, [who is apparently quite a well-known pianist,] often organizes
chamber music concerts at his home.’
Finite relative clauses with ki are also used for emphatic purposes. In these constructions
the main clause can contain a reiterated subject, identical to the head and followed by bile
‘even’. These constructions may also have 1st or 2nd person pronouns as their head:
(89) Sen [ki herkesin doğum gününü hatırlarsın], sen bile
Semra’nınkini unuttun.
‘Even you, [who remember everyone’s birthday], forgot about Semra’s.’
In certain circumstances a 3rd person head either may or must be reiterated within the ki
clause by a resumptive pronoun:
(i) If the head is the subject of the relative clause, and refers to someone whom the
speaker holds in respect, one of the pronouns kendisi or kendileri ([Link] (iii), (iv)) may
be added:
(90) Komşumuz, [ki kendisi oldukça tanınmış bir piyanist-miş]… (cf. (88))
‘Our neighbour, [who is apparently quite a well-known pianist]…’
The personal pronoun o can also be used instead of kendisi in such cases, but this usage is
less common and it lacks the respectful tone. Where the head refers to more than one
person onlar or kendileri can be used:
(91) Bodrum’da tanıştığımız bir çift, [ki onlar öğretmenmiş]…
‘A couple that we met in Bodrum, [who apparently are teachers] …’
(ii) If the head is not the subject of the relative clause, but instead functions within it as
an object or adverbial, this function is made explicit by an appropriately case-marked 3rd
person pronoun, o/onlar or kendisi/ kendileri, within the ki clause:
 Relative clauses 397

(92) Sınıflarında Gülten diye çok şımarık bir kız vardı, [ki Hülya
ondan/kendisinden nefret ederdi].
‘There was a very self-indulgent girl in their class called Gülten, [whom Hülya
hated].’
(93) Dayımın çocukları, [ki biz onlarla/kendileriyle her yaz buluşurduk], çok
güzel tenis oynuyorlardı.
‘My cousins, [whom we used to meet every summer], were very good at playing
tennis.’

25.6.2 ki IN RESTRICTIVE RELATIVE CLAUSES

ki also has a certain limited usage in forming restrictive relative clauses. In such
constructions (which have a rather literary flavour), the head is usually the subject of the
relative clause, and the verb of this clause is negative and has optative marking. The main
clause is also usually negative:
(94) Bizim okulda hiçbir öğrenci yok [ki Bilge Hanım’dan azar işitmemiş olsun].
‘There is no student in our school [who has not been reprimanded by Bilge
Hanım].’
If the head is not the subject of the main clause a resumptive pronoun has to be used,
such as ona in (95):
(95) Bir ahçı [ki baklava yap-may-ı bil-me-sin,] ben on-a ahçı de-me-m.
a cook RP baklava make-VN-ACC [Link] I s/he-DAT cook call-
[AOR.]NEG-1SG
‘A cook [who can’t make baklava]! I don’t call that a cook.’

25.6.3 COMMENT USAGE OF ki

ki clauses can also be used, in a way somewhat similar to a certain use of ‘which’ in
English, to introduce a comment on, or expansion of, something that has just been said.
The clause introduced by ki usually contains some kind of demonstrative, such as the
pronoun bu ‘this’ (18.2), or the adverbial öyle ‘like that’ (16.4.3), which refers to the
entire situation expressed in the previous clause:
(96) Ziya beni görmek istemiyormuş, [ki bunu daha önce söylemişti].
‘Apparently Ziya doesn’t want to see me, which he said before.’
This kind of ki clause often occurs parenthetically within a sentence, following an
adverbial clause, on the content of which it provides a comment. For example, in (97) ki
follows a conditional clause and in (98) it follows a temporal clause.
(97) [Parası yoksa,] [ki öyle olduğunu tahmin ediyorum,] şirketi kurtaramaz.
‘[If s/he doesn’t have any money,] [which I think is the case,] s/he won’t be able
to save the company.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 398

These ki clauses often do not correspond to relative clauses in English, and they do not
always contain a demonstrative:
(98) [Ahmet’ler gelinceye kadar,] [ki geç gelebilirlermiş,] çıkmayız.
‘We won’t go out [until Ahmet and his friends come] (and apparently they may
be late).’
Following an adverbial clause of time, the demonstrative in the ki clause may either be a
pronoun or a time adverbial such as o zaman ‘then’, reiterating the time expressed by the
adverbial clause:
(99) [Uçağa bindiğimiz zaman,] [ki ona daha iki saat var,] rahatlayacağım.
‘[When we get on the plane] (and that is still two hours away) I shall relax.’
(100) [Buraya taşındığımızda,] [ki ben o zaman sekiz yaşındaydım,] etrafta başka
hiç ev yoktu.
‘[When we moved here] (and I was then eight years old) there were no other
houses in the vicinity.’
See [Link] for other functions of ki.
 26
ADVERBIAL CLAUSES

Adverbial clauses are subordinate clauses that perform an adverbial function (see Chapter
16) within another clause. In Turkish, adverbial clauses can be finite or non-finite (see
12.3), but the non-finite forms are much more numerous and, in general, more widely
used.
Finite adverbial clauses (26.1) are all marked by subordinating conjunctions. Those
which are introduced by the Persian-derived ki or a compound of it are structurally
similar to Indo-European-type adverbial clauses:
(1) Koca-sın-a düşkün ol-malı [ki masa-sın-da o-nun üç tane resm-i var].
[Link]-DAT [Link] be-OBLG SUB [Link]-LOC he-
GEN three ENUM [Link] existe
‘She must be very fond of her husband, [because there are three pictures of him
on her desk.]’
Non-finite adverbial clauses have subordinating suffixes on the verb, and in some cases
the verb is also followed by a postposition or noun phrase (usually with oblique case
marking):
(2) [Masa-sın-da koca-sı-nın üç tane resm-i ol-duğ-un-a göre] on-a düşkün ol-
malı.
[Link]-LOC [Link]-GEN three ENUM [Link]
[Link]-DAT [Link] he-DAT [Link] be-OBLG
‘[Seeing that there are three pictures of her husband on her desk,] she must be
very fond of him.’
The subordinate verb forms that occur in non-finite adverbial clauses are called converbs
(8.5). More information about the structural features of these clauses is given in 26.2.
Section 26.3 is devoted to a discussion of the functions of specific converbs, classified
according to meaning.
Conditional clauses, which are also adverbial in function, have a different structure
from other adverbial clauses and are discussed separately in Chapter 27.

26.1 FINITE ADVERBIAL CLAUSES

These clauses are formed with diye, ki, madem(ki), nasıl ki, (sanki)… -mIş/-(y)mIş gibi
and -DI mI. It should be noted that those formed with ki, madem(ki), nasıl ki and -DI mI
can only modify the main clause of a sentence.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 400

26.1.1 CLAUSES FORMED WITH diye

Diye is itself the -(y)A converbial form (26.3.8) of the verb de- ‘say’. In its function as a
subordinator it marks both noun clauses (24.3.1) and adverbial clauses. It always stands
at the end of its clause:
(3) [Çocukları getir-ir-ler diye] porselen eşyayı ortadan kaldırmıştı.
bring-AOR-3PL SUB
‘[Thinking they would bring the children], she had put the china pieces away.’
Adverbial clauses with diye are used in relatively informal registers to express reason,
purpose, precaution, or understanding, as explained in the following sections. The sense
of ‘saying’ (or, more usually, ‘thinking’, cf. 24.2.1 (iii)) is detectable in all of them,
which gives them a subjective tone not found in their non-finite counterparts.

[Link] Reason
The kind of reason expressed by a diye clause is one which exists in the perception of the
subject of the main verb.
(4) [Kalabalık olacağız diye] bir ekmek daha almıştım.
(i) ‘[As there were going to be a lot of us], I had bought another loaf.’
(ii) ‘[Thinking there were going to be a lot of us], I had bought another loaf.’
As indicated by the second translation above, the speaker may be aware that this
perception is or was incorrect. This element of meaning differentiates reason clauses
expressed with diye from those expressed by non-finite means (26.3.14). A form such as
olacağımız için could not be substituted for olacağız diye in (4) if interpretation (ii) was
intended.

[Link] Purpose
In this meaning the verb in the subordinate clause is always in the optative form ([Link]):
(5) [Kışın üşü-me-ye-lim diye] kalorifer yaptırdık.
‘We’ve had central heating installed [so that we shan’t be cold in winter].’

[Link] Precaution
In this meaning (equivalent to English ‘in case…’) the verb in the subordinate clause
takes the form of an open conditional ([Link]), i.e. aorist + -(y)sA:
(6) [Bir daha görüş-e-mez-se-k diye] anahtarları sana şimdiden
[Link]-1PLSUB veriyorum.
‘[In case we don’t have the chance to see each other again], I’m giving you the
keys now.’
 Adverbial clauses 401

[Link] Understanding
This type of diye clause expresses how the subject of the main clause understands a
situation that is relevant to the performance of the action in the main clause:
(7) Ali o işe [geceleri çalışılmıyor diye] girmişti.
‘Ali had gone into that job [on the understanding that there was no night
working].’
Where the subject is plural, this understanding may represent an agreement made
between the people referred to (cf. diye clauses as object of konuş-, 24.3.1 (i), and non-
finite adverbial clauses with -mAk üzere, 26.3.2).
(8) [[Tülin İstanbul’a gelince] yeniden buluşuruz diye] ayrılmışlar o gün.
‘Apparently they had parted that day [on the understanding that they would meet
again [when Tülin came to Istanbul]].’

26.1.2 CLAUSES FORMED WITH ki

Adverbial clauses formed with ki share two basic structural features with noun clauses
(24.3.2) and relative clauses (25.6) formed with this subordinator: (i) they always follow
the main clause, and (ii) ki itself always stands at the beginning of its clause. (Note that
these characteristics are not shared by clauses formed with madem(ki), nasıl ki and
sanki.)
(9) Kalorifer yaptırdık [ki kışın üşü-me-ye-lim]. (cf.(5))
SUB [Link] [Link]-NEG-OPT-1PL
‘We’ve had central heating installed [so that we shan’t be cold in winter].’
There are three main types of adverbial ki clause, expressing respectively location in
time, purpose, and the basis for a deduction.

[Link] Location in time

In this type of clause ki is equivalent to ‘when’. The verb in the main clause is marked by
-(I)yordu (21.3.2), -mAktAydI (21.3.2) or -mIştI (21.2.1), and the verb in the ki clause is
marked perfectively by -DI . The reversal of the more usual order of time clause followed
by main clause, and the special phonological properties of ki ([Link]; cf. 24.3.2) give
these sentence a much more dramatic quality than equivalent constructions involving
non-finite adverbial clauses of time. This is often reinforced by the use of the adverb tam
‘just’ or (with -mIştI) yeni ‘only just’:
(10) Tam yemeğ-e otur-uyor-du-k [ki bangır bangır kapı vur-ul-du].
just meal-DAT [Link]-1PL SUB violently door knock-PASS-PF
‘We were just sitting down to [our] meal [when there was a violent banging on
the door].’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 402

[Link] Purpose
As in the corresponding construction with diye ([Link]), the verb in purpose clauses
with ki is always in the optative form. Some speakers add diye itself to the end of this
type of ki clause:
(11) Çantamı dolaba koydum [ki kimse al-ma-sın (diye)].
SUB [Link] [Link]
‘I‘ve put my bag in the cupboard, [so that no one will take it].’

[Link] Result
Result clauses introduced by ki follow a main clause in which one of the following
adverbials of quantity/degree is present: öyle ‘so’, ‘such’, öylesine ‘so’, ‘such’, o kadar,
‘so (much)’ (16.5):
(12) Ali’nin odası o kadar dağınıktı [ki oturacak yer bulamadık].
‘Ali’s room was so untidy [that we couldn’t find anywhere to sit down].’
(13) Öylesine şaşırdım [ki ne söyleyeceğimi bilemedim].
‘I was so astonished [that I didn’t know what to say].’
In this type of construction the content of the ki clause can be deleted, leaving an
exclamatory sentence of the pattern o kadar/öyle(sine)…ki (12.4 (iv)).

[Link] Basis for deduction

This type of ki clause follows a deduction expressed by the obligative form of the
auxiliary/copular ol-, olmalı ([Link] (vi), 21.5.1–2). It expresses the evidence upon
which the deduction is based:
(14) Korkut gitmiş olmalı [ki odasında hiçbir şey kalmamış].
‘Korkut must have gone, [because there’s nothing left in his room].’
For another example see (1) above.

26.1.3 CLAUSES FORMED WITH madem(ki)

madem, or its alternative form mademki, expresses the piece of information upon which
the speaker bases the question or modalized utterance (21.4) contained in the main
clause:
(15) [Madem biliyordun] neden söylemedin?
‘[Since you knew], why didn’t you say?’
(16) [Mademki seksen yaşındaki komşum bilgisayar kullanmayı öğrenmiş,] ben
de öğrenebilirim.
‘[Seeing that my eighty-year-old neighbour has learned to use a computer], I can
learn too.’
 Adverbial clauses 403

26.1.4 CLAUSES FORMED WITH nasıl ki

Clauses introduced by nasıl ki express a similarity between the situation described in the
subordinate clause and that described by the superordinate clause. They are synonymous
with one of the types of universal conditional described in 27.5. (17) is a modified
version of (93) in 27.5, with the addition of ki and the deletion of the conditional copular
marker:
(17) [Nasıl ki Hakan akşamları garsonluk yapıyor], sen de derslerine engel
olmayacak bir iş bulabilirsin.
‘[Just as Hakan works in the evenings as a waiter], you too could find a job that
wouldn’t interfere with your academic commitments.’

26.1.5 CLAUSES FORMED WITH (sanki)… -mIş/-(y)mIş gibi

Finite adverbial clauses ending in the postposition gibi (17.3.1) express the manner in
which an event occurs, an action is performed, or a person behaves, either by comparison
with another (imagined) event or action or by suggesting an underlying motivation or
emotion. The verb in the subordinate clause is marked with the evidential perfective
suffix -mIş or the evidential copular marker -(y)mIş. The optional addition of the
subordinating conjunction sanki ‘as if’ at the beginning of the clause provides early
warning to the hearer of the non-factual status of the content of the clause.
(18) Adam [hayalet gör-müş gibi] sapsarı kesil-di.
man ghost see-EV/PF like [Link] become-PF
The man turned very pale, [as if he had seen a ghost].’
(19) Ertan küskün duruyor, [(sanki) biz ona kötü davran-ıyor-muş-uz
gibi]. we he-DAT bad behave-IMPF-
[Link]-1PL
like ‘Ertan is looking resentful, [as if we were treating him badly].’
Where the marker on the verb in the gibi clause is evidential perfective -mIş, person
marking on this verb is optional:
(20) Sen o anda [hayalet gör-müş(-sün) gibi] sapsarı kesil-di-n.
you that moment ghost see-EV/PF(-2SG) like pale become-PF-2SG
‘You went very pale at that moment, [as if you’d seen a ghost].’
This structural variability of -mIş gibi places it in a borderline category between finite
and non-finite (cf. -(A/I)r gibi, 26.3.8 (ii)).
For gibi dur-/gibi görün-/gibi gözük- ‘seem’, ‘appear’ see 24.5.

26.1.6 CLAUSES FORMED WITH -DI mI

Adverbial clauses formed with the perfective -DI form of a verb ([Link]) followed by the
clitic mI ([Link]) have either temporal or conditional function (for the latter see 27.6.2).
In its temporal meaning it is equivalent to ‘as soon as’, and can be used in sentences that
have either future or habitual time reference:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 404

(21) [Köşeyi dön-dü-nüz mü] sinemayı göreceksiniz.

turn-PF-2SG/PL INT
‘[As soon as you turn the corner] you’ll see the cinema.’
(22) [Kapılar açıldı mı] kalabalık içeri dalar.
‘[As soon as the doors open] the crowd surges in.’

26.1.7 CLAUSES FORMED WITH dA

An adverbial clause in which a finite verb is followed by the clitic dA ([Link]) is used to
draw attention to the fact that the action it expresses precedes/preceded that expressed by
the main clause:
(23) [Yemek yeDİM de] geldim.
‘I came [having [already] eaten].’
A subordinate clause marked by dA always precedes the main verb of the sentence, and is
the stressed constituent. For -(y)Ip dA see 28.2 (13).

26.2 NON-FINITE ADVERBIAL CLAUSES: STRUCTURAL

CHARACTERISTICS

The verbal marking of non-finite adverbial clauses takes widely differing forms. In some
cases, e.g. -(y)ArAk, -(y)IncA, a distinctively converbial suffix is added directly to the
verb ([Link]). In other cases (e.g -mAk için, -DIğI zaman) the converbial marker is
composite, consisting of one of the multi-functional subordinators, such as -mAK or -
DIK, followed by a case marker and/or postposition or a nominal form (8.5.1).
The most important structural distinction among converbs is between those that are
marked for person and those that are not. Only those formed with the suffixes -DIK, -
(y)AcAK and -mA can be marked for person. Except in the cases of -DIkçA and -DIktAn
sonra, where person marking does not occur, this marking is obligatory, and is effected
by the possessive suffixes (8.1.2):
(24) çalış-ma-mız için
[Link] for
‘in order for us to work’
(25) telefon et-tiğ-in sıra-da
telephone [Link] time-LOC
‘at the time you ring/rang’
(26) otel-den ayrıl-acağ-ınız zaman
hotel-ABL [Link] time
‘when you are/were about to leave the hotel’
The form -mAdAn önce can optionally occur with person marking where the converb has
a separate subject. This affects the position of stress; see 26.3.16 (vi).
Converbial forms that obligatorily include a possessive suffix are conventionally cited
in the 3rd person singular form, e.g. -mAsI için, -DIğI halde.
 Adverbial clauses 405

26.2.1 GENITIVE CASE MARKING OR ITS ABSENCE IN THE

SUBJECT OF A NON-FINITE ADVERBIAL CLAUSE
The overt subject of most kinds of non-finite adverbial clause is non-case-marked:
(27) [Zehra torununu görmek iste-diğ-i için] Bursa’ya uğradık.
Zehra [Link] S for
‘[Because Zehra wanted to see her grandchild] we stopped off in Bursa.’
In the following types, however, the subject receives genitive case marking:
(i) clauses that have the subordinator -mA:
(28) [Zehra-nın torunu nu gör-ebil-me-si için] ne yapabiliriz?
Zehra-GEN [Link] for
‘What can we do [in order for Zehra to be able to see her grandchild]?’
(ii) clauses formed with -DIğI/-(y)AcAğI gibi expressing manner (26.3.8 (iii)), but not
those expressing addition (26.3.1) or time (26.3.16 (iv)):
It should be noted that the absence of subject case marking differentiates (most)
adverbial clauses with -DIK and -(y)AcAK from relative clauses ([Link]) and most noun
clauses (24.4.3, 24.4.6) formed with the same subordinators.

26.2.2 POSSIBILITY OF THE ADVERBIAL CLAUSE HAVING A

SEPARATE SUBJECT FROM THAT OF THE SUPERORDINATE
CLAUSE
In most converbial constructions there is complete freedom for the subjects of the
subordinate and superordinate clauses to be either the same or different:
(29) Makine [tamir ed-il-dikten sonra] yeniden bozul-du.
machine repair AUX-PASS-CV after again [Link]-PF
‘[After being repaired], the machine broke down again.’
(30) [Makine tamir ed-il-dikten sonra] iş-e yeniden başla-dı-k.
machine repair AUX-PASS-CV after job-DAT again begin-PF-1PL.
‘[After the machine was repaired] we began the job again.’
(31) [Haberi duyduğunuz sırada] burada mıydınız?
‘Were you here [at the time you heard the news]?’
(32) [Haberi duyduğunuz sirada]Filiz burada mıydı?
‘Was Filiz here [at the time you heard the news]?’
There are, however, certain exceptions to this general rule:
(i) Adverbial clauses whose converb includes the subordinator -mAK cannot contain
within them an overtly expressed subject. Their understood subject is, in the majority of
cases, identical with the subject of the superordinate clause:
(33) Çocuk, [dondurma al-mak için] biz-den para iste-di.
child [Link] buy-CV for we-ABL money [Link]-PF
‘The child asked us for money [to buy an ice cream].’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 406

However, in the case of purpose clauses expressed with -mAk için/üzere (26.3.12), some
speakers use a noun phrase occurring in a non-subject role in the superordinate clause as
the understood subject:
(34) Çocuğ-a [dondurma al-mak için] para ver-di-k.
child-DAT [Link] buy-CV for money give-PF-1PL
‘We gave the child money [to buy an ice cream].’
(ii) Converbs formed with -mAsI için, also expressing purpose, are used with a subject
different from that of the superordinate verb. The personmarked converb as in (35) would
therefore be an acceptable alternative in (34) but not in (33):
(35) Çocuğ-a [dondurma al-ma-sı için] para ver-di-k.
‘We gave the child money [for him/her to buy an ice cream].’
(iii) The use of the conjunctive converb -(y)Ip (26.3.5, 28.2) with a subject different from
that of the superordinate clause is possible but relatively unusual.
(iv) The manner converbs -(y)A…-(y)A and -(y)ArAk (26.3.8) similarly do not often
occur with a subject different from that of the superordinate verb. Where they do, it is
usually in contexts where the subject of the adverbial clause is marked by a possessive
suffix referring to the subject of the superordinate clause:
(36) [Palto-su-nun etek-ler-i yer-ler-e sürün-erek] yürüyordu.
[Link]-GE N [Link] ground-PL-DAT trail-CV
‘S/he was walking [with the tail of his/her coat trailing along the ground].’
Where the subject of a non-finite adverbial clause is the same as that of the superordinate
clause, it does not receive separate overt expression (18.1.5):
(37) Ahmet [yeni eve geçtikten sonra] daha rahat olacak.
‘Ahmet will be more comfortable [after moving/after he moves to the new
house].’
Note that where an adverbial clause contains no overt subject there is potential for
ambiguity. Thus in (37) the adverbial clause could also mean ‘…[after we/you/they
move…]’.

26.2.3 TENSE AND ASPECT MARKING IN NON-FINITE

ADVERBIAL CLAUSES
The extent to which tense and aspect are marked in non-finite adverbial clauses varies
from one type to another. For example, such marking is far less usual in clauses of
manner and time than in clauses expressing concession or reason.
Any tense marking in non-finite adverbial clauses is interpreted in the light of the
semantic relationship between the subordinate and superordinate clauses. It may be
relative either to the time of utterance or to some other point in time.
Four different kinds of tense/aspect marking occur:
(i) Adverbial clauses can be marked for relative tense or for aspect by the use of
compound verb forms incorporating the auxiliary ol- ([Link]). (For a full discussion of
 Adverbial clauses 407

tense and aspect in Turkish see 21.2–3. For compound verb forms with ol- in finite
clauses see 21.5.)
(38) Musa [gece geç vakte kadar çalışmış olduğu için] bitki
(Perfective aspect/relative past tense)
‘[Because Musa had worked late into the night] he was exhausted.’
(39) Musa [dün bütün gün çalışıyor olduğu için] bizimle plaja gelemedi.
(Progressive aspect/relative present tense)
‘[Because Musa was working all day yesterday] he couldn’t come to the beach
with us.’
(ii) In the case of -(y)ken ([Link], 26.3.16 (iii)), the converbial suffix incorporates the
copula -(y)- and can therefore be suffixed to a range of tense/ aspect/modality markers in
position 3 on the verb ([Link]), as well as to non-verbal subject complements. -(y)ken is
itself tense/aspect-neutral, and produces converbs whose meaning in terms of relative
tense and aspect is determined by what precedes the suffix.
When suffixed to an aorist-marked stem (less commonly -(I)yor) or to a nominal, a
converb with -(y)ken expresses a situation that is either coterminous with, or temporally
includes, the time of the situation expressed by the superordinate clause. This is by far the
most common function of -(y)ken:
(40) [Çalış-ır-ken] radyoyu hep açık tutarım.
work-AOR-CV
‘I always keep the radio on [while/when (I am) working]’.
(41) [Ahmet Türkiye’deyken] Londra’daki evine hırsız girmiş.
‘Apparently [while Ahmet was in Turkey] his house in London was burgled.’
A converb in which -(y)ken is suffixed to the perfective marker -mIş expresses a situation
that is/was completed prior to the time referred to by the superordinate clause:
(42) [Bunca çaba göstermişken] projeden kolay kolay vazgeçemiyorlar tabii.
‘[Having put in so much effort], they naturally can’t give up the project easily.’
The combination of -(y)ken with -(y)AcAk, on the other hand, marks the verb in the
subordinate clause as referring to a situation that has/had not yet occurred (but is/was
expected or planned to occur) at some time understood from the context. The
superordinate clause often expresses the non-realization of the expectation or plan:
(43) [Deniz otobüsüyle gel-ecek-ler-ken] fırtınadan dolayı arabayla
come-FUT-3PL-CV
gelmek zorunda kaldılar.
[‘Although they were going to (have) come by hydrofoil], because of the storm
they had to come by car.’
(iii) In some converbial forms there is a choice between -DIK and -(y)AcAK, the former
expressing relative past or present, the latter relative future tense:
(44) Sen [cumartesi burada ol-ma-dığ-ın için] Mehmet you Saturday here be-
[Link] for Mehmet-COM tanıs-a-ma-dı-n.
meet-NEG-PSB-PF-2SG
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 408

‘[As you were not here on Saturday] you were not able to meet Mehmet.’
(45) Sen [cumartesi-ler-i burada ol-ma-dığ-ın için] Mehmet’le henüz
Saturday-PL-NC here [Link] for tanısamadı
‘[As you aren’t here on Saturdays] you haven’t been able to meet Mehmet yet.’
(46) [Sen cumartesi burada ol-ma-yacağ-ın için] Mehmet pazar günü
[Link] for
gelmeyi kabul etti.
(i) ‘[As you won’t be here on Saturday] Mehmet has agreed to come on
Sunday.’
(ii) ‘[As you were not going to be here on Saturday] Mehmet agreed to come
on Sunday.’
For the modal differences between -DIK and -(y)AcAK in subordinate clauses expressing
possibility, see [Link].
(iv) In temporal clauses (26.3.16) -(y)AcAK has a much more restricted function than
in other types of non-finite adverbial clause. It is used only in cases where the situation
expressed by the adverbial clause is in the future with respect to the time of the situation
expressed by the superordinate clause:
(47) [Misafir geleceği zaman(lar)] Fatma Hanım çok telaşlanıyor.
‘Fatma Hanım gets very agitated [when guests are going to come].’
In the much more usual case where, of two situations in the future, the one expressed by
the temporal clause either precedes or is contemporaneous with the other, -DIK is used:
(48) [Misafirler geldiği zaman] onlara önce kahve ikram edeceğiz.
‘[When the guests come] we shall first offer them coffee.’
(49) [Misafirler geldiği zaman] çocuklar evde olmayacak.
‘The children will not be at home [when the guests come].’

26.3 NON-FINITE ADVERBIAL CLAUSES: SEMANTIC

CLASSIFICATION

In this section we present specific converbs in fourteen categories determined by

meaning. The categories are arranged alphabetically.

26.3.1 ADDITION
Converbs formed with -mAktAn başka (much less commonly -DIktAn başka) or -mAktAn
gayri mean ‘apart from’, ‘in addition to’. These constructions are based on the
postpositions başka/ gayrı ‘apart from’ (17.2.3). A near synonym is -mAktAn öte
‘beyond’.
(50) Hakan [beni sinirlendirmekten başka] bir de çalışmamı engelliyordu.
‘[Apart from irritating me], Hakan was also hindering my work.’
 Adverbial clauses 409

Where the subject of the adverbial clause is different from that of the superordinate
clause, the form -mAsındAn başka has to be used:
(51) [Hakan’ın çene çalmasından başka] [çocukların koşuşması] da beni deli
ediyordu.
‘[Apart from Hakan ‘s chattering], [the children’s dashing around] was also
driving me mad.’
The construction -DIğI/-(y)AcAğI gibi can be used additively in the sense of ‘not
only…(but also)’. The superordinate clause always includes an additive connective
(28.3.1), such as dA in the example below:
(52) Kayhan [arabasını sat-tığ-ı gibi] evini de ipotek ettirmiş.
[Link] [Link]
‘Not only has Kayhan sold his car, he has also mortgaged his house.’

26.3.2 AGREEMENT
-mAk üzere (see also 26.3.12) is used to express the substance of a planned action agreed
upon by two or more parties:
(53) [Tülin İstanbul’a gelince yeniden buluşmak üzere] ayrılmışla o gün. (cf. (8))
‘Apparently they had parted that day [on the understanding that they would meet
again when Tülin came to Istanbul].’

26.3.3 CONCESSION
The two concessive converbial forms in most frequent use are those marked with -DIğI/-
(y)AcAğI halde ‘although’ and -mAsIna rağmen/karşın ‘in spite of the fact that’, the latter
being based on the postpositions rağmen/karşın ‘in spite of’ (17.2.2):
(54) Osman, [[Ali’ye yardım et-me-si] gerek-tiğ-i halde] help AUX-VN-
[Link] [Link] although hiçbir şey yapmadı.
‘[Although Osman should have helped Ali], he did nothing.’
(55) [Hayatında bazı çok kötü şeyler yap-mış ol-ma-sın-a rağmen]
do-PF [Link]-DAT despite
Şule’yi severim.
‘[Despite the fact that she has done some very bad things in her life], I like Şule.’
Where the subject is the same as that of the superordinate clause, -mAklA birlikte/beraber
is occasionally used, mainly with verbs denoting states rather than events:
(56) [Ahmet bu konuda çok şey bilmekle birlikte] bütün ayrıntıları anlamış değil.
‘[Although Ahmet knows a lot of things on this subject], he doesn’t understand all
the details.’
The converb marker -(y)ken ‘while’, which has a primarily temporal function (26.3.16
(iii)), is sometimes used to draw a contrast between two situations:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 410

(57) [Herkes Nazlı’nın son resimlerine bayıl-ır-ken] ben onları ruhsuz

adore-AOR-CV
buldum.
‘[While everyone [else] was in raptures about Nazlı’s latest paintings], I found
them lifeless.’

26.3.4 CONDITION
Converbs marked with -DIğI takdirde ‘in the event that’ and -mAsI halinde/ durumunda
‘in the case of’ form clauses with conditional meaning equivalent to those formed with
the suffixes -sA/-(y)sA. See 27.6.1 for discussion.
The converb marker -mAk/-mAsI şartıyla ‘on condition that’ expresses the kind of
condition that one party to a transaction may impose on the other:
(58) Biz size [iki ay içinde geri ödemek şartıyla] on milyarlık borç verebiliriz.
‘We can give you a loan of ten billion [lira], [on condition that [you] pay it back
within two months].’

26.3.5 CONJUNCTION
The converbial suffix -(y)Ip has a conjunctive rather than a modifying function, that is to
say it conjoins two clauses that are semantically of equal status in the sentence. Its use is
therefore discussed in 28.2, along with the conjunctive use of -(y)ArAk, a suffix that also
marks adverbial clauses of manner (26.3.8).

26.3.6 DISMISSAL
The suffix -mAsInA is used only in association with a finite form of the same verb. It
indicates that the action expressed by the main verb is regarded as abortive or likely to be
so. The use of -mAsInA is generally triggered by a prompt or enquiry from another
speaker, and the whole construction is usually linked to the following sentence by an
adversative conjunction such as ama, dA or ya (28.3.4):
(59)
A.– Bugün Hüseyin doktora gidecekti galiba.
‘I think Hüseyin was going to go to the doctor today.’
B.– Gitmiş [gitmesine], ama doktor gelmemiş.
‘I gather he did go, but the doctor didn’t come.’
(60)
A.– Fatma’yla konuşacak mısın?
‘Are you going to talk to Fatma?’
B.– [Konuşmasına] konuşacağ ım da, bakalım o dinleyecek mi?
‘Yes, I’m going to talk to her, but let’s see if she’ll listen.’
 Adverbial clauses 411

26.3.7 INFORMATION BASE FOR AN UTTERANCE

The forms -DIğInA/-(y)AcAğInA göre ‘since’, ‘in view of the fact that’ have a function
somewhat similar to that of madem(ki) (26.1.3), in that they express the information upon
which the utterance contained in the main clause is based. The main clause can express
the following types of utterance:
A deduction:
(61) [Ali Antalya’ya gitmek istemediğine göre] başka bir planı var demek.
‘[Since Ali doesn’t want to go to Antalya], that means he’s got some other plan.’
A modalized utterance (21.4):
(62) [Ali Antalya’ya gitmek istemediğine göre] başka bir yer düşünmeliyiz.
‘[In view of the fact that Ali doesn’t want to go to Antalaya], we’ll have to think
of somewhere else.’
A question:
(63) [Bayramda ofis kapalı olacağına göre] sen bu işi nasıl bitireceksin?
‘[As the office will be closed during the public holiday], how are you going to
finish this job?’

26.3.8 MANNER
Converbs expressing the manner of an action may be divided into four groups:
(i) -(y)ArAk and -(y)A…-(y)A express manner directly, in terms of an accompanying
action or state:
(64) Çocuklar [koşarak] içeri girdiler.
‘The children came in [running].’
The construction -(y)A…-(y)A occurs either with identical verb stems or different ones
([Link]). Its use is less widespread than that of -(y)ArAk, and its meaning is more
emphatic, stressing the continuous or repeated nature of the action it expresses. The
forms involving two different verb stems are for the most part lexicalized pairs.
(65) Genç kadın [ağlaya ağlaya] hikaye sini anlattı.
‘The young woman wept continually as she told her story.’ (lit. ‘told her story,
[weeping continually]’)
(66) Adam [ite kaka] öne geçmeye çalışıyordu.
‘[Pushing and shoving], the man was trying to get to the front.’
(ii) The forms -(A/I)r gibi, -(A/I)rcAsInA, -mIş gibi and -mIşçAsInA ‘as if’ express
manner by evoking similarity with another, purely imagined action by the same subject,
or by suggesting an underlying motivation or emotion. These forms produce clauses that
have the same function as the finite gibi clauses discussed in 26.1.5, and like them can be
reinforced by sanki ‘as if’:
(67) [(Sanki) uyku-da gezer gibi] dolaştım birkaç gün.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 412

sleep-LOC [Link]-CV [Link]

‘For several days I wandered around [as if sleepwalking].
(68) [Hiçbir şey anla-ma-mış gibi] konuşuyorsun.
understand-NEG-CV [Link]
‘You’re talking [as if you hadn’t understood a single thing].’
(69) Demet [dediklerimi duymamışçasına] konuşup duruyordu.
‘Demet kept on talking [as if she hadn’t heard a word I said].’
(iii) -DIğI/- (y)AcAğI/-mAsI gibi
(a) The construction -DIğI/-(y)AcAğI gibi expresses manner in terms of
conformity to another known action or psychological state. The subject of this
type of clause takes genitive case marking:
(70) Pastayı [anne-m-in anlat-tığ-ı gibi] yapmaya çalıştım.
[Link]-GEN [Link] as
‘I tried to make the cake [the way my mother had described].’
(b) The construction -mAsI gibi simply draws attention to a similarity between
two situations:
(71) [Turhan’ın kızıp ofisi birbirine katması gibi] Ahmet de düşünmeden istifa
etti.
‘[Just as Turhan became irate and caused havoc in the office], Ahmet resigned
without thinking.’
This structure produces the same meaning as finite clauses introduced by nasıl ki
(26.1.4). For the use of universal conditional clauses with nasıl ‘how’ in the same
function, see 27.5.
(iv) Converbs formed with -mAdAn, -mAksIzIn, both meaning ‘without’, express
manner negatively, in terms of what is not done. Note that the -mA in -mAdAn is the
negative suffix, and generates stress on the preceding syllable (see [Link] (i)):
(72) Çocuklar, [baĞIRmadan] oynayın!
‘Children, play [without shouting]!’
(73) Kemal Bey bütün bir günü [televizyon seyRETmeden] geçirebilmiş.
‘It seems that Kemal Bey has managed to spend a whole day [without watching
television].’
The form -mAksIzIn is rare except in relatively formal registers.

26.3.9 MEANS
The means by which some goal is sought or result achieved can be expressed by -(y)ArAk
(26.3.8 (i)) or more formally by -mAk suretiyle/ yoluyla ‘by (means of)’:
(74) Ayten [her gün yürüyüş yaparak/yapmak suretiyle] kilo verdi.
‘Ayten lost weight [by going for a walk every day].’
 Adverbial clauses 413

The form -mAklA can express a similar meaning at a more generalized level:
(75) Sadece [yürüyüş y ap-makla] kilo ver-il-mez.
simply walk do-CV weight [Link]
‘One can’t lose weight simply [by walking].’
-mAklA also expresses an action by the performance of which a certain result was
produced, whether intentionally or not:
(76) [Öyle söyle-mekle] bana hakaret et-miş ol-uyor-sun.
thus say-CV [Link] insult AUX-PF AUX-IMPF-2SG
‘You insult me [by saying that].’
For the use of compound verb forms with -mIş in the main clause of such sentences see
[Link].

26.3.10 PREFERENCE
Adverbial clauses marked with -mAktAnsA ‘rather than’ are used in sentences expressing
preference:
(77) [Kimsenin beğenmediği bir filmi seyretmektense] evde kalmayı tercih
ederim.
‘I’d prefer to stay at home [rather than watch a film that no one likes].’

26.3.11 PROPORTIONALITY
One of the functions of the converbial suffix -DIkçA is to indicate that one event happens
in proportion to the occurrence of another:
(78) [Çikolata yedikçe] kilo alırsın.
‘[The more chocolate you eat], the more you’ll put on weight.’
For -DIkçA in the sense of ‘whenever’ see 26.3.6 (ix). More formal means of expressing
proportionality are -DIğI nispette, -DIğI oranda and -DIğI ölçüde:
(79) İnsanlar [sağlıklarına dikk at et-tik-leri oran-da] uzun yaşarlar.
[Link] proportion-LOC
‘[The more people take care of their health], the longer they live.

26.3.12 PURPOSE
Where the subject of a non-finite clause expressing purpose is the same as that of the
superordinate clause, the converbial marker -mAk için ‘in order to’ (or its more formal
counterpart -mAk üzere) is used:
(80) [Kışın üşü-me-mek için] kalorifer yaptırdık. (cf. (5), (9)) [Link] [Link]-
NEG-CV for
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 414

‘We’ve had central heating installed [so as not to be cold in winter].’

As explained in 26.2.2 (i), this converb can also be used where the understood subject of
the purpose clause is a noun phrase occurring in a non-subject role in the superordinate
clause. However, where the purpose clause has an overt separate subject, -mAsI için ‘in
order that/for’, ‘so that’ is used:
(81) [Anne-m-in kışın üşü-me-me-si için] acaba ne yapabiliriz?
[Link]-GEN [Link] [Link] for ‘I wonder
what we can do [so that my mother won’t be cold in winter]?’
In same-subject contexts where the superordinate verb is git- ‘go’ or gel-‘come’ -mAk
için is usually replaced by the dative-marked form of -mAk, namely -mAyA (see [Link]):
(82) Ayşe [kızını görmey]-e gitti.
‘Ayşe has gone [to see her daughter].’

26.3.13 QUANTITY OR DEGREE

Like simple adverbials of quantity or degree (16.5), this type of adverbial clause
expresses either (a) the quantity in which an event happens, or (b) the degree to which the
quality expressed by an adjective, or the manner expressed by an adverb, applies.
(i) -(y)AcAk kadar/derecede:
This construction can express the f act that the degree of the event or state in the
superordinate clause is sufficient to produce a certain result (intended or not). The version
with derecede is relatively uncommon and rather formal:
(83) [Komşuları uyutmayacak kadar] gürültü yapıyorlardı.
‘They were making enough noise [to keep the neighbours awake].’
(84) Sevim [hepimizi şaşırt acak derecede] güzel konuştu.
‘Sevim spoke so well [that she surprised us all].’
Some constructions of this type (notably şaşılacak kadar ‘amazingly’ and
inanıl(a)mayacak kadar ‘incredibly’) are semi-lexicalized as modifers of adjectives and
adverbs (for examples see [Link], 16.9)
(ii) -DIğI/-(y)AcAğI kadar:
This construction specifies the quantity or degree of the event or state in the
superordinate clause in terms of commensurability with another event or state:
(85) Burada [istediğin kadar] kalabilirsin.
‘You can stay here [as long as you like].’
(86) Su [herkesin güvenle kullanabileceği kadar] temiz olmalı.
‘The water must be clean [enough for everyone to be able to use it with
confidence].’
 Adverbial clauses 415

26.3.14 REASON
By far the most commonly occurring converbial marker expressing reason or cause is -
DIğI/-(y)AcAğI için ‘because’, ‘as’:
(87) [Bana kızdığın için] öyle söylüyorsun.
‘You’re saying that [because you’re angry with me].’
(88) [Bu para yetmeyeceği için] Gürkan’dan borç isteyeceğim.
‘[As this money won’t be enough] I’m going to ask Gürkan a loan.’
Other forms with more or less identical meaning are: -DIğIndAn/ -(y)AcAğIndAn
(dolayı/ötürü), -mAsIndAn dolayı, -mAsI yüzünden.

26.3.15 SUBSTITUTION
-(y)AcAğInA and -mAk yerine both mean ‘instead of’ (as does the post-position yerine,
17.3 2):
(89) Seni [azarlayacağına] rahatlatmaya çalışmalıydı.
‘[Instead of scolding you] s/he should have tried to reassure you.’
(90) [[Düzenli yemek yerine] durmadan atıştırmak] hiç akıl işi değil.
‘[Eating snacks all the time [instead of having regular meal s]] is not at all
sensible.’

26.3.16 TIME
Temporal clauses specify the time of the situation expressed by the superordinate clause
by reference to how it relates to the time of some other situation (event or state). The
number of converbial forms in this class far exceeds that in any other, permitting a wide
range of temporal relations to be expressed.
(i) -(y)IncA ‘when’ expresses a sequential relation between two events:
(91) [Yağmur yağmaya başlayınca] içeri girdik.
‘[When it began to rain] we went inside.’
Similar in meaning, but confined to rather formal usage, is -mAsI üzerine, which requires
its subject to be different from that of the superordinate clause:
(92) [Meclisin tatile girmesi üzerine] başkentteki faaliyet azaldı.
‘[When parliament went into recess], activity in the capital decreased.’
(ii) Although -DIğIndA and -DIğI zaman ‘when’ are sometimes used interchangeably
with -(y)IncA, their more characteristic function is to indicate that the situation described
by the superordinate clause is/was ongoing at the time of the event expressed by the
adverbial clause:
(93) [Uçaktan indiğimizde/indiğimiz zaman] kar yağ-ıyor-du.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 416

[Link]
‘[When we came out of the plane] it was snowing.’
Virtually synonymous with the above two forms is -DIğI sırada ‘at the time (that…)’.
For the restricted use of future-tense marking in temporal converbs see 26.2.3 (iv).
(iii) -(y)ken ‘while’, ‘as’, ‘when’ is usually attached to the aorist suffix or to a subject
complement, although other tense/aspect markings are possible, as explained in 26.2.3
(ii) above. The combination -(A/I)rken, as also the combination of -(y)ken with a non-
verbal predicate, expresses a situation that is ongoing. The temporal relationship between
the two clauses may be of two kinds, according to whether the predicate of the
superordinate clause is perfective or imperfective:
(a) If the superordinate clause has a perfective predicate, it expresses an event
which takes place (and is completed) during the period of continuance of the
situation in the clause marked by -(y)ken:
(94) [Orman-da dolaş-ır-ken] bir tilki gör-dü-m.
forest-LOC [Link]-AOR-CV a fox see-PF-1SG
‘[While walking in the forest] I saw a fox.’
(95) Ahmet o kitabı [öğrenci-yken] oku-muş.
student- CV read-EV/PF
‘It seems Ahmet read that book [when he was a student].’
(b) If the superordinate clause has an imperfective predicate, it expresses a
situation which is ongoing during the period of continuance of the situation in the
clause marked by -(y)ken:
(96) [Sen ormanda onu ararken] Bahri burada-ydı.
[Link]
‘[While you were looking for him in the forest], Bahri was here.’
(97) [Adana’dayken] Şule ile sık sık görüş-ür-dü-k.
[Link]-1PL
‘[When (I was/we were) in Adana] I/we used to see Şule often.’
(iv) The juxtaposition of the positive and negative aorist stems of the same verb in the
converb -(A/I)r…-mAz gives the meaning ‘as soon as’:
(98) [Su kayna-r kayna-maz] altını kıs.
boil-AOR [Link]
‘[As soon as the water boils] turn down the heat (under it).’
-DIğI gibi (see 26.3.1, 26.3.8) also sometimes occurs in the temporal sense of ‘as soon
as’. Another near synonym is -DIğI anda ‘at the moment that’.
(v) The forms ↓-(y)AlI (beri) and -DIğIndAn beri ‘since’ are the equivalents of
postpositional phrases with beri ‘since’, discussed in 17.2.3, and the tense/aspect marking
of the superordinate clause (if finite) has the same pattern as described there.
(99) [Kocası ↓öl-eli (beri)/öl-düğ-ün-den beri] ablasının yanında
die-CV since/[Link]-ABL since
kal-ıyor.
 Adverbial clauses 417

stay-IMPF
‘She’s been staying with her sister [since her husband died].’
(100) [Çiğdem Almanya’ya taşın-dığ-ın-dan beri] ondan bir haber
[Link]-ABL since
al-a-ma-dı-m.
get-PSB-NEG-PF-1SG
‘[Since Çiğdem moved to Germany] I haven’t heard anything from her.’
Colloquially, greater emphasis can be given to the temporal relationship between the two
situations by doubling the verb in the subordinate clause, and marking the first verb with
-DI and the appropriate person marker. The sequence ↓-DI…-(y)AlI is roughly equivalent
to ‘ever since’:
(101) [O köpeği al-dı-k al-alı] hiç rahat yü zü görmedik.
buy-PF-1PL buy-CV
‘[Ever since we bought that dog] we’ve had no peace.’
(vi) -mAdAn (önce/ evvel) and -DIktAn sonra are the converbial counterparts of the
postpositions once ‘before’ and sonra ‘after’ (17.2.3). As in the case of -mAdAn ‘without’
(26.3.8), the stress in -mAdAn (once) falls on the syllable before -mA:
(102) Sorunlar [ben GELmeden (önce)] başlamış.
‘The problems seem to have started [before I came].’
(103) Sorunlar [sen gittikTEN sonra] başladı.
‘The problems began [after you left].’
Just as in their postpositional function, once and sonra in these converbial constructions
can be modified by an adverbial of quantity (16.5) or an expression denoting a period of
time:
(104) Ali, [babası öldükten iki ay sonra] doğdu.
‘Ali was born [two months after his father died].’
Where the adverbial clause has a separate subject, the person-marked forms -mAsındAn
önce/sonra are sometimes used in stead of the forms shown above. In this case the
subject takes genitive marking (see 26.2.1), and the -mA has no stress-producing effect:
(105)
(a) Bu haber [mektup-lar postaLA-N-madan (önce)] gelmişti.
letter-PL post-PASS-CV (before)
(b) Bu haber [mektup-lar-ın postala-n-ma-sın-DAN önce]
letter-PL-GEN [Link]-ABL before
gelmişti.
‘This news had arrived [before the letters were posted].’
A formal alternative to -mAsındAn sonr a, in contexts where the superordinate clause
expresses a durative situation rather than a single event, is -mAsındAn itibaren ‘from the
time that’, based on the postposition (17.2.3):
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 418

(106) [Yeni sistemin yürürlüğe gir mesinden sonra/itibaren] bu sorunlar

yaşanmayacaktır.
‘[After/From the time that the new system goes into operation], these problems
will not be encountered.’
(vii) The forms -(y)IncAyA kadar/değin/dek and ↓-(y)AnA kadar have two meanings, both
involving a terminal point:
(a) ‘until’
(107) Fatma artık [[ölünceye dek] burada kalmak] istiyordu.
‘Fatma now wanted to stay here [until she died].’
(b) ‘by the time (that…)’
(108) [Bu is bitinceye kadar] hepimiz yaşlanmış olacağız.
‘We shall all have grown old [by the time this work is finished].’
kadar is in much more frequent use in these constructions than değin or dek.
(viii) The converb -DIkçA, in addition to its proportionality meaning (26.3.11), can
mean ‘whenever’:
(109) [Osman’a kaza hakkında bir şeyler soruldukça] kafası daha da karışıyordu
‘[Whenever Osman was asked (things) about the accident], he would become
even more confused.’
‘Whenever’ can also be expressed by a universal conditional construction (27.5).
(ix) The converbial forms -DIğI sürece/(müddetçe mean ‘throughout the time (that)’:
(110) [O evde kaldığım sürece] kimse benimle tek kelime konuşmadı.
‘[Throughout the time I stayed in that house] no one said a word to me.’
 27
CONDITIONAL SENTENCES

From the functional point of view, conditional clauses are a sub-type of adverbial clauses
(Chapter 26). However, their expression in Turkish differs from that of other adverbial
clauses in that the subordinating verb forms they contain are more closely related to finite
verb forms than to converbs. Person marking of the predicate of a conditional clause is
effected not by the use of possessive suffixes but by one of the sets of person markers
used on finite verbs (8.4):
(1) [Şura-da otur-sa-nız]daha rahat ed-er-siniz.
here-LOC sit-COND-2PL more comfortable be-AOR-2PL
‘You’d be more comfortable [if you sat here].’
(2) [Öykü-yü d aha bitir-me-di-niz-se] daha sonra da
story-ACC yet finish-NEG-PF-2SG/[Link] later also oku-yabil-ir-im.
read-PSB-AOR-1SG
‘[If you haven’t finished [writing] the story yet] I can read it later.’
This chapter begins with a brief review of the grammatical marking of conditional
clauses, devoting most attention to the suffixes -sA and -(y)sA and their distribution
(27.1). Since the choice of conditional marker depends upon the function of the
conditional clause in relation to the sentence as a whole, we proceed to discuss three main
functional types of conditional sentence. Predictive conditionals, which express a
predictable relation between two situations, are explained in 27.2. Then in 27.3 we look
at knowable conditions, which usually serve as background for an inference, a question,
or some kind of volitional utterance (e.g. a command or request). Section 27.4 deals with
further uses of -sA and -(y)sA as subordinators, including concessive forms with dA and
bile, and 27.5 discusses universal conditional clauses, which contain a question phrase
in addition to a conditional marker. Finally in 27.6 we review alternative types of
conditional construction which do not involve conditional suffixes.

27.1 THE GRAMMATICAL MARKING OF CONDITIONAL

CLAUSES

27.1.1 THE VERBAL SUFFIX -sA AND THE COPULAR MARKER -

(y)sA (OR ise)
We use the term ‘conditional clause’ to denote the subordinate clause in a conditional
sentence, that is the one corresponding to the ‘if’ clause in an English conditional
sentence. With the exception of the constructions described in 27.6, all conditional
clauses in Turkish are marked in one of two ways:
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 420

(i) The attachment of the suffix -sA (one of the tense/aspect/modality markers
described in [Link]) to a verb:
(3) [Biraz erken gel-se-n] iyi ol-ur.
[Link] early come-COND-2SG good be-AOR
‘It would be good [if you came a bit early].’
(4) [Telefon et-se-ydi-k] belki bekle-r-ler-di.
telephone [Link]-1PL perhaps [Link]
‘[If we had telephoned], perhaps they would have waited.’
(ii) The use of the copular marker -(y)sA, or its free-standing alternate ise, following (a)
one of the position 3 tense/aspect/modality markers ([Link]), (b) a subject complement
([Link]), (c) the negative particle değil, (d) one of the existential expressions var/yok or
(e) one of the copular markers -(y)DI or -(y)mIş. (For a fuller explanation of the
attachment properties of -(y)sA see 8.3.2, 8.4.)
(5) [Yabancı bir dil öğren-ir-se-niz] dünya-nız genişle-r.
foreign a language [Link]-2PL [Link] expand-AOR
‘[If you learn a foreign language] your world will expand.’
(6) [Yorgun-lar-sa] yarın-a bırak-abil-ir-iz.
[Link] tomorrow-DAT leave-PSB-AOR-1PL
‘[If they’re tired] we can leave [it] till tomorrow.’
Note that the attachment of -(y)sA to the past copula -(y)DI in nominal predicates is a
usage accepted by some but not all speakers:
(7) [Para-sı var-dı-ysa] ev-e neden hiç bak-ma-mış?
[Link] [Link] house-DAT why [Link] look-
NEG-EV/PF
‘[If he had money], why did he not look after the house at all?’
The use of the non-suffixed copular form ise is nowadays rare in ordinary conditional
sentences, particularly in those where the conditional clause contains a verb. However, it
is quite often used for purposes of emphasis in the type of concessive clause discussed in
[Link], where the conditional copula is followed by dA. For the use of ise as a topic
shifter see [Link] (ii).
The two conditional suffixes differ not only in the kind of stem to which they can be
attached, but also in their stressability. -sA is a regular stressable suffix (4.3.1), whereas -
(y)sA, like all the copular markers, is unstressable (4.3.2).
(8) [Arabayı sat-SA] hepimiz rahatLArız.
sell-COND
‘[If he sold the car] it would be a relief to all of us.’
(9) [Arabayı sat-AR-sa] hepimiz rahatLArız.
[Link]
‘[If he sells the car] it will be a relief to all of us.’
-sA occurs only in the predictive type of conditional. -(y)sA, on the other hand, occurs in
both predictive and knowable conditional sentences.
 Conditional sentences 421

27.1.2 THE CONDITIONAL CONJUNCTIONS eğer AND şayet

These two conjunctions, both of Persian origin, are grammatically redundant in Turkish
conditional clauses, but are sometimes added for emphasis, or (particularly at the
beginning of a long and complex sentence containing other subordinate clauses) to signal
at an early point the conditionality of what is being said. Of the two, eğer is much the
more common, and is neutral in terms of the type of conditionality it expresses (like ‘if in
English). It therefore appears in all kinds of conditional clauses, but is extremely rare
with -sA, except where this is affixed with -ydI:
(10) [Eğer çocuk yaşa-sa-ydı] çok iyi bir mimar olacaktı.
[Link]
‘[If the boy had lived] he would have been a very good architect.’
In informal styles eğer can occur at the end of its clause:
(11) [Hasan bu mektubu okuduysa eğer], çok kötü olmuştur.
‘[If Hasan has read this letter] he must be feeling terrible.’

The obsolescent şayet is more tentative, meaning something like ‘if by any chance’. It
occurs only with -(y)sA:
(12) [Şayet karşı tarafı düşünebiliyorsanız], Bostancı’da güzel bir ev gördüm
geçen gün.
‘[If by any chance you can contemplate [living on] the other side], I saw a nice
place in Bostancı the other day.’

27.2 PREDICTIVE CONDITIONALS

The predictive type of conditional sentence asserts that if one event takes (or took) place
another will (or would) follow it. The first event is presented as causing or making
possible the second. There are four possible markings for the subordinate clause of a
predictive conditional:
(i) -(y)sA (usually attached to aorist -(A/I)r or -mAz)
(ii) -sA
(iii) -sAydI (-sA+past copula)
(iv) -sAymIş (-sA+evidential copula).
Although there are clear differences in meaning between some of these forms, there are
also areas of overlap. (i) expresses a condition deemed capable of fulfilment, (iii)
expresses a condition known to be incapable of fulfilment, while (ii) and (iv) are
ambiguous in this regard. We shall discuss each form in turn, and the kinds of contexts in
which they occur.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 422

27.2.1 AORIST+-(y)sA
Conditional clauses with the aorist are of two types. The first, which is more obviously
‘predictive’, is called an open conditional. In this type both the condition expressed and
its consequence are in the future. The second type itself embraces two closely related
kinds of statement, generic and habitual. In this type the predictability relates not to the
relationship between a pair of future events but to that in a recurrent pattern of events.
Where the verb in the main clause is also in the aorist form there is potential ambiguity
between the two types:
(13) [Mehmet geç yat-ar-sa] zor kalk-ar.
Mehmet late [Link] difficult [Link]-AOR
(i) ‘[If Mehmet goes to bed late] he’ll have difficulty getting up.’ (Open)
(ii) ‘[If Mehmet goes to bed late] he has difficulty getting up.’ (Habitual)

[Link] Open conditionals

In open conditionals the speaker does not know whether or not the condition will be
fulfilled, but treats it as a real possibility rather than a merely hypothetical one. When the
main clause expresses a statement, its verb is marked by either -(y)AcAK or the aorist. -
(y)AcAK is used if the event is regarded as certain to follow the fulfilment of the
condition, perhaps because of some prior decision (see 21.2.3):
(14) [Kayıt-lar onbeş-i bul-maz-sa] ders aç-ıl-ma-yacak.
registration-PL fifteen-ACC [Link] course open-PASS-
NEG-FUT
‘[If registrations do not reach fifteen], the course will not be run.’
The use of the aorist in the main clause, on the other hand, presents the consequence of
the fulfilment of the condition more as an assumption or probability ([Link]):
(15) [8-de-ki otobüs-e bin-er-se] uçağ-a rahat rahat yetiş-ir.
8-LOC-ADJ bus-DAT [Link] plane-DAT comfortably catch-
AOR
‘[If s/he takes the 8 o’clock bus] s/he’ll catch the plane comfortably.’
Whereas in other predictive conditionals the main clause has to be either a statement or a
question, in open conditionals the main clause can also be a volitional utterance (12.4
(iii), 21.4.4):
(16) [Engin’i görürsen] benden selam söyle.
say [IMP.2SG]
‘[If you see Engin], say hello to him from me.’
(17) [Kezban gelmezse] onu bir daha çağır-ma-ya-lım.
invite-NEG-OPT-1PL
‘[If Kezban doesn’t come], let’s not invite her again.’
 Conditional sentences 423

When an open conditional construction occurs in the course of a narrative, reflecting a

situation that was in the future at that particular point in the story, the past copula -(y)DI
is added to the main clause (but not to the conditional clause):
(18) Hüseyin zor durumdaydı. [Amerika’ya giderse] Jale onunla gitmeyebilirdi.
‘Hüseyin found himself in a difficult situation. [If he went to America], Jale might
not go with him.’

[Link] Generic and habitual conditionals

(i) Generic conditionals:
Generic statements concern the characteristic qualities or behaviour of a class of
entities, and are regularly expressed with the aorist ([Link]). In conditional sentences
there can be ambiguity between a generic and an open predictive reading. In the example
below, kedi ‘cat’ and köpek ‘dog’ are understood generically (see [Link]) in (i), whereas
in (ii) they are understood as referring to a specific cat and dog.
(19) [Kedi-yle köpek bir arada büyüt-ül-ür-ler-se] d övüş-mez-ler.
cat-CONJ dog together [Link] [Link]-
3PL
(i) ‘[If a cat and a dog are brought up together] they don’t fight.’ (Generic)
(ii) ‘[If the cat and the dog are brought up together] they won’t fight’ (Open)
(ii) Habitual conditionals:
While generics generalize about the behaviour or qualities of a whole class, habituals
generalize about the behaviour or qualities of specific entities or groups. Non-past
habituals usually have -(I)yor in the main clause (21.3.2), which entirely disambiguates
them from open predictive conditionals:
(20) [Ahmet evliliklerinin yıldönümünü unutursa] Şebnem çok kızıyor.
‘Şebnem goes in to a temper [if Ahmet forgets their wedding anniversary].’
(21) [Vaktim olursa] okula kadar yürüyorum.
‘[If I have time] I walk to school.’
Where a habitual conditional sentence has past time reference, the main clause receives
past tense marking, whereas the conditional clause does not:
(22) Padişah [bir vezirinden memnun kalmazsa] onu idam et-tir-ir-di.
execution [Link]
‘[If the sultan was not pleased with one of his viziers], he would have him
executed.’
(23) [Sınavdaki puan ortalaması düşük çıkarsa] bir ayarlama yap-ıl-abil-iyor-du.
[Link]
‘[If the average mark in the exam turned out low], an adjustment could be made.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 424

[Link] Compound forms with olursa

Compound verb forms in conditional clauses are generally analogous in terms of their
relative tense and aspect values to their counterparts in finite clauses (see 21.5).
(i) In open conditionals:
The combination -mIş olursa indicates that the event in the conditional clause is
envisaged as being completed before a specified reference point:
(24) [O zaman-a kadar anne-leri gel-me-miş ol-ur-sa]
that time-DAT by [Link] come-NEG-PF [Link]
siz çocuk-lar-la kal-abil-ir mi-siniz?
you child-PL-COM stay-PSB-AOR INT-2SG/PL
‘[If their mother hasn’t come back by then], would you be able to stay with the
children?’
-(I)yor olursa presents the event as being ongoing at a certain reference point:
(25) [Saat 5’te toplantı hala sürüyor olursa] sessizce kalkıp giderim.
‘[If the meeting is still going on at 5 o’clock], I’ll quietly get up and go.’
The combination of -(y)AcAk with olursa has two different functions in open conditions.
Its less common function is analogous to that of the two preceding combinations,
postulating a situation in which an event is about to happen. In such cases the event
expressed by the main clause is envisaged as taking place before the conditional event:
(26) [Ev-in-i sat-acak ol-ur-sa-n] ban-a haber ver.
[Link]-ACC sell-FUT [Link]-2SG I-DAT news give
[IMP.2SG]
‘[If you are [ever] about to sell your house], let me know.’
More commonly, however, -(y)AcAk olursa is used in a sense close to that of the simple
aorist+-(y)sA, but more tentative. In this type of sentence the chronological sequence of
main clause event following conditional event is the same as in sentences with aorist+-
(y)sA:
(27) [Mustafa fikrini sonra değiştirecek olursa] hoş karşılamalıyız
‘[If Mustafa should subsequently change his mind], we must accept (this).’
(ii) In habitual conditionals:
In this type of conditional the functions of -mIş, -(I)yor and -(y)AcAk olursa are fully
transparent. The ‘tentative-making’ function of -(y)AcAk olursa does not occur:
(28) [Yemeği Turgut yapmış olursa] bulaşığı Lale yıkıyordu.
‘[If Turgut had cooked the meal], Lale would do the washing up.’
(29) [Geç vakit çalışıyor olursak] bir yerlerden sıcak yemek getirtiyoruz.
‘[If we’re working late], we get hot food brought in from somewhere.’
(30) [Remziye işten sonra arkadaşlarıyla buluşacak olursa] yanına başka giysiler
alıyor.
 Conditional sentences 425

‘[If Remziye is going to meet up with friends after work], she takes different
clothes with her.’

27.2.2 OPEN AND HABITUAL CONDITIONALS EXPRESSED

WITHOUT AORIST MARKING
Certain kinds of open or habitual conditional clause can be expressed without the use of
the aorist:
(i) Where the conditional clause has a nominal predicate, the conditional copula may
be attached directly to this predicate, without recourse to the copular verb ol-. Thus the
following forms are interchangeable:
olursa -(y)sA/varsa
olmazsa değilse/yoksa

Open conditionals:
(31) Yarın [ev fazlas oğuk ol-maz-sa/değil-se] burada çalış-abil-ir-iz.
tomorrow house too cold [Link]/
[Link] work-PSB-AOR-1PL
‘Tomorrow [if the house is not too cold] we can work here.’
(32) [Başka işim olmazsa/yoksa] gelirim.
‘I’ll come [if I have no other commitments].’
Habitual conditionals:
(33) [Yorgun ol-ur-sa-m/yorgun-sa-m] yemek yap-mı-yor-um.
tired [Link]-1SG/[Link]-1SG food cook-NEG-IMPF-
1SG
‘[If I’m tired] I don’t cook.’
(ii) Where the conditional clause has a verbal predicate marked with -mIş or -(I)yor, the
conditional copula may be attached directly to this predicate, without creating a
compound verb form as described in [Link].
Open conditionals:
(34) [Kırmızı satıl mış olursa/satılmışsa] maviyi alırım
‘[If the red one has been sold], I’ll buy the blue one.’
(35) [Oraya gittiğim zaman çalış ıyor olursa/çalış ıyorsa] bir merhaba deyip
dönerim.
‘[If he’s working when I get there], I’ll just say hello and come back.’
Habitual conditionals:
(36) Her yazdığımızı Mustafa Bey’e sunuyorduk. [Eğer herhangi bir şeyi yanlış
yazmış olursak/yazmışsak] o düzeltiyordu.
‘We would submit everything we wrote to Mustafa Bey. [If we had got anything
wrong] he would correct it.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 426

27.2.3 -sA

[Link] -sA used without past copular marking of the main clause
The distribution and the range of meanings of the verbal suffix -sA in conditional clauses
is somewhat complex. (For its main-clause functions see [Link] and [Link].) The key
to its interpretation in any particular conditional sentence lies in whether or not the main
clause is marked by the past copula -(y)DI. If the main clause does not contain -(y)DI, the
condition expressed in the subordinate clause is understood to be capable of fulfilment,
but is presented more as a hypothetical possibility than as one which the speaker locates
in the ‘real’ future. For this reason the verb in the main clause is almost always in the
aorist form (see also [Link]).
-sA is often used when talking about action that is being considered in a detached or
abstract way (compare the ‘deliberative’ sense of the conditional interrogative in main
clauses, [Link]). (37) could represent an early contribution to a discussion about how to
get to the airport in time for a particular flight:
(37) [9-da-ki otobüs-e bin-se-k] uçağ-a yetiş-ir mi-yiz acaba?
9-LOC-ADJ bus-DAT take-COND-1PL plane-DAT catch-AOR INT-1PL
[Link]
‘Would we, I wonder, catch the plane [if we took the 9 o’clock bus]?’
-sA is also used where the utterance challenges the validity of something that has been
said or assumed, or the appropriateness of an action intended or in progress:
(38) [9’daki otobüse binsek] yetişmez miyiz?
‘Wouldn’t we catch [it] [if we took the 9 o’clock bus]?’
(39) [İğneyi şöyle tut san] dikişler bu kadar göze batmaz.
‘[If you held the needle this way] the stitches wouldn’t be so obvious.’
Another very widespread use of the -sA conditional is to express an evaluation (usually
positive) of a certain possible action, often with the strong implication that the speaker
wants or expects this action to be performed:
(40) [Bugün burada temizlik yap-ıl-sa] iyi ol-ur.
today here cleaning do-PASS-COND good be-AOR
‘It would be good [if some cleaning were done here today].’
This usage is semantically close to the main clause use of -sA to express wishes
([Link]).

[Link] -sA used with past copular marking of the main clause
In sentences where the conditional clause is marked by -sA and the verb in the main
clause contains the past copula -(y)DI, the sentence has counterfactual meaning, that is to
say it expresses a situation that is contrary to the actual state of affairs. Note that in this
modal function as a marker of counterfactuality -(y)DI does not necessarily refer to past
time, as shown in the first example below:
 Conditional sentences 427

(41) [Vakt-im ol-sa] ben de yarın siz-ler-e katıl-ır-dı-m.

[Link] be-COND I also tomorrow you-PL-DAT [Link]-1SG
‘[If I had time] I would join you tomorrow.’ (But I don’t, and therefore I won’t.)
(42) Ali [[çocuğun kötü bir şey yaptığın]-ı bilse] bana söylerdi.
‘[If Ali knew [the child had done something bad]], he would have told me.’
(Therefore I assume that he didn’t know.)
The counterfactual use of -sA occurs mainly with verbs expressing states, such as ol- ‘be’,
‘exist’ or bil- ‘know’. With event verbs, counterfactuality is usually expressed either by -
sAydI (27.2.4) or by compound forms with olsa (27.2.6). However, where the main
clause is of the evaluative kind, noted in [Link], event verbs can also occur in this
pattern. In such utterances the counterfactuality is less absolute than in identical
sentences with -sAydI. The possibility that the desired event might still happen in the
future is not completely excluded.
(43) [Ahmet de gel-se] ne iyi ol-ur-du.
Ahmet too come-COND how nice [Link]
‘How nice it would be/have been [if Ahmet came/had come too].’
(44) [Buraya birkaç ağaç dikilse] çok fark ederdi.
‘It would make/have made a lot of difference [if a few trees were/had been
planted here].’

27.2.4 -sAydI
Conditional clauses marked with -sAydI always have counterfactual meaning, and
therefore always have the past copula in their main clauses.
(45) [9-da-ki otobüs-e bin-se-ydi-n] uçağ-a yetiş-mez-di-n. (cf.(37)– (38))
9-LOC-ADJ bus-DAT [Link]-2SG plane-DAT [Link]-
[Link]-2SG
‘[If you had taken the 9 o’clock bus] you wouldn’t have caught the plane.’
As in the case of -(y)DI in counterfactual main clauses, a conditional clause marked with
-sAydI does not necessarily refer to past time:
(46) [Vaktim olsaydı] ben de yarın sizlere katılırdım. (cf.(41))
‘[If I had had time] I would have joined you tomorrow.’
Although the main clause of a counterfactual conditional is most commonly marked by -
(A/I)rdI (or its negative counterpart -mAzdI), the form -(y)AcAktI is also possible where
reference is being made to a firmly planned action, a scheduled event, or a situation
regarded for some other reason as certain to have resulted if the condition had been
fulfilled:
(47) [Temmuz-da gel-ebil-se-ler-di] biz onlar-ı bir hafta
July-LOC [Link] we they-ACC one week gezdir-ecek-ti-
k.
[Link]-FUT- [Link]-1PL
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 428

‘[If they had been able to come in July], we were going to take them sightseeing
for a week.’

27.2.5 -sAymIş
The form -sAymIş is a combination of -sA and the evidential copula -(y)mIş, the use of
which in main clauses is explained in 21.4.3. A conditional clause marked with -sAymIş
is always followed by a main clause also marked with -(y)mIş:
(48) [Dişçi-ye birkaç ay once git-se-ymiş-im]
dentist-DAT few month earlier [Link]-1SG dis-im-i kurtar-abil-
ecek-mis.
[Link]-ACC [Link]
‘Apparently [if I had gone to the dentist a few months earlier] s/he would have
been able to save my tooth.’
The ambiguity of tense reference which is a feature of all sentences marked with -(y)mIş
is seen in these conditionals also:
(49) [Filiz Türkiye’de olsaymış] nikahınız a gelirmiş.
(i) ‘Filiz says that [if she were in Turkey] she would come to your wedding.’
(ii) ‘Filiz says that [if she had been in Turkey] she would have come to your
wedding.’
It should be noted that because of the impossibility of combining the conditional copula
and the evidential copula on one stem, the only kinds of conditional clauses that can be
evidentially marked are the hypothetical and counterfactual predictives. In other types of
conditional sentences, such as the open conditional in (50), only the main clause can be
evidentially marked:
(50) [Hava kötü olursa] Cemil gelmeyecekmiş.
‘Apparently Cemil’s not going to come [if the weather’s bad].’

27.2.6 COMPOUND FORMS WITH olsa/olsaydı/olsaymış

Compound forms with olsa- are analogous in terms of their relative tense and aspect
values to their counterparts with olursa ([Link]). They can occur in either hypothetical
or counterfactual contexts. The counterfactual versions are differentiated by past copular
marking of the main clause, as in (51b) and (c), and by the interchangeability of olsa and
olsaydı in the conditional clause.
The three sentences below illustrate the combinations with -mIş. (51a) might be
uttered in the course of planning a conference. (51c) could only be uttered after the
conference had ended. (51b) could be used in either situation, but if uttered in the
planning stage this would be as an argument against a decision that had already been
taken.
 Conditional sentences 429

(51)
(a) [Kongre öğle zamanı bit-miş ol-sa]
conference noon end-PF AUX-COND
katılan-lar-ın çoğ-u aynı gün ev-e dön-ebil-ir.
participant-PL-GEN [Link] same day home-DAT return-PSB-AOR
‘[If the conference had ended at noon], most of the participants would be able
to get home the same day.’
(b) [Kongre öğle zamanı bitmiş olsa] katılanların çoğu aynı gün eve dönebil-
ir-di.
[Link]
‘[If the conference had ended at noon], most of the participants would have
been able to get home the same day.’
(c) [Kongre öğle zamanı bit-miş ol-sa-ydı]
AUX-COND- [Link]
katılanların çoğu aynı gün eve dön-ebil-ir-di.
‘[If the conference had ended at noon], most of the participants would have
been able to get home the same day.’
A similar gradation of meaning occurs in the case of sentences with -(I)yor ol-:
(52)
(a) [İstanbul’da oturuyor olsam] her a kşam tiyatro ya da konsere gidebilirim.
‘[If I were living/lived in Istanbul] I would be able to go to a theatre or concert
every evening.’
(b) [İstanbul’da oturuyor olsam] her akşam tiyatro ya da konsere gidebilirdim.
‘[If I were/had been living in Istanbul], I would be/have been able to go to a
theatre or concert every evening.’
(c) [İstanbul’da oturuyor olsaydım] her akşam tiyatro ya da konsere
gidebilirdim.
‘[If I had been living in Istanbul], I would have been able to go to a theatre or
concert every evening.’
The relative-future meaning of -(y)AcAk ol- is seen in the next trio of sentences:
(53)
(a) [Herhangi bir gün gelemeyecek olsam] size önceden bildiririm.
‘[If on any day I were not going to be able to come] I would let you know in
advance.’
(b) [Herhangi bir gün gelemeyecek olsam] size önceden bildirirdim.
‘[If on any day I were not going to be able to come] I would have let you know
in advance.’
(c) [Herhangi bir gün gelemeyecek olsaydım] size önceden bildirirdim.
‘[If on any day I had not been going to be able to come] I would have let you
know in advance.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 430

For some speakers, the form -(y)AcAk olsa has another function, parallel to the ‘tentative’
use of -(y)AcAk olursa ([Link]), in which the event expressed by the conditional clause
is not subsequent to that of the main clause. In this case the tentativeness is compounded
by the hypotheticality of the conditional element olsa:
(54) [[Sözleşme imzalandıktan sonra] arkadaşın çekilecek olsa] sen yanarsın
‘[If your friend were to pull out [after the contract is signed]], you’d be ruined.’
The form -mIş olsaydı is often used synonymously with -sAydI, to express a
counterfactual condition without any ‘relative tense’ component in its meaning:
(55) [Mehmet üniversiteyi kazansaydı/kazanmış olsaydı] babası ona Ankara’da
ev tutacaktı.
‘[If Mehmet had got into university], his father was going to rent a flat for him in
Ankara.’
The evidentially marked olsaymış can occur in all compound forms where the context
requires it (see 27.2.5):
(56) [Ben şapka giy-ecek ol-sa-ymış-ım] o da giy-ecek-miş.
I hat wear-FUT [Link]-1SG s/he also [Link]
‘Apparently s/he would have worn a hat [if I was going to].’

27.3 KNOWABLE CONDITIONS

The potential for fulfilment of the condition expressed by a predictive conditional clause
is ‘unknowable’, in that the condition refers to the unforeseeable future, or to a
hypothetical world, or to an event that is known not to have happened. The knowable
type of condition, on the other hand, is one about whose fulfilment or non-fulfilment
information is in principle available, because it refers either to present or past time, or to
planned or scheduled future events.
The conditional marker in a knowable condition is always the conditional copula,
attached to one of the following:
(a) a position 3 tense/aspect/modality suffix ([Link]) (not the aorist)
(b) any constituent functioning as a subject complement ([Link])
(c) the particle değil
(d) one of the existential expressions var/yok
(e) the past or evidential copula.
Present tense:
(57) [Tanju futbol oyn-uyor-sa] iyileş-miş ol-malı.
Tanju football [Link] [Link]-PF AUX-OBLG
‘[If Tanju is playing football], he must have got better.’
(58) [Meşgul-se-niz] rahatsız etmeyeyim.
[Link]-2SG/PL
‘[If you’re busy] let me not disturb [you].’
 Conditional sentences 431

(59) [Para-sı yok-muş-sa] neden ev almaya kalkmış?

money-POSS.3SG [Link]
‘[If (as is claimed) he has no money], why has he taken it into his head to buy a
flat?’
Past tense:
(60) Fasulye [yarım saat piş-ti-yse] ol-muş-tur artık.
beans half hour [Link] [Link]-PF-GM [Link]
‘[If the beans have cooked for half an hour], they’ll be done by now.’
(61) [Ali o sırada burada idi-yse] neden ondan yardım istemedin?
here [Link]
‘[If Ali was here then], why didn’t you ask him for help?’
(62) Meryem [[bunu Sevgi’nin yaptığın]-ı bil-iyor-du-ysa] bize
[Link]
söylemeliydi.
‘[If Meryem knew [it was Sevgi who did this]], she should have told us.’
Future tense (planned or scheduled events):
(63) [Şükrü g el-me-yecek-se] bir yedek bilet-imiz var demek.
Şükrü [Link] one spare [Link] existent [Link]
‘[If Şükrü’s not going to come], that means we’ve got a spare ticket.’
(64) [Uçak 17.00’de kalkıyorsa] 15.00’te havaalanınd a olmam ız lazım.
‘[If the plane is taking off at 17.00], we have to be the airport at 15.00.’
Some knowable conditions do not imply any knowledge on the part of the speaker as to
whether the reality of the situation fulfils the condition. This is particularly the case
where the condition relates to a present-tense situation:
(65) [Vaktiniz varsa] biraz deniz kenarınd a yürüyelim.
‘[If you have time], let’s go for a little walk along the seashore.’
(66) [Ahmet çalışıyorsa] rahatsız edilmek istemez.
‘[If Ahmet’s working], he won’t want to be disturbed.’
This type of knowable condition has the same kind of relation to the situation in the main
clause (causing or enabling it) as that which is found in predictive conditionals.
In most knowable conditions, however, the relation between the two clauses is
different, and much freer. The conditional clause expresses some information that the
speaker has newly acquired, either from another participant in the conversation or from
some other source within the shared situation of the speech participants. Such a condition
is more or less known to be fulfilled. It is presented as a working assumption, and as the
background to what the speaker says in the main clause. Certain kinds of utterance occur
frequently in the main clause of a knowable condition: an inference, as in (57), (60), (63);
a suggestion, request, or other volitional utterance, as in (58), (65); an expression of
obligation, as in (62), (64); or a question, as in (59), (61). Questions following conditions
that are presented as working assumptions are usually, as in these examples, reproachful
in tone, pointing to an incongruity between the situation assumed in the conditional
clause and some observed behaviour or action.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 432

27.4 FURTHER USES OF -sA AND -(y)sA AS SUBORDINATORS

Subordinate clauses marked with -sA or -(y)sA do not always express conditional
meaning. In this section we look at some other ways in which these suffixes are used.

27.4.1 -sA…-sA
The doubled use of the -sA form of the same verb, with the same person marker, produces
a special kind of concessive conditional clause which restricts the potential applicability
of the main predicate to the constituent immediately preceding it, at the same time
expressing the likelihood of non-occurrence of even this event. The main predicate is
always from the same root as the conditional verbs, and marked for the same person. It is
usually in the aorist form, expressing a generalization ([Link]) or assumption ([Link]).
(67) Sabah-lar-ı [ye-se-m ye-se-m] bir dilim ekmek ye-r-im.
[Link] eat-COND-1SG eat-COND-1SG a slice bread eat-AOR-
1SG
‘[If I eat anything in the mornings], it’s just a slice of bread.’
(68) Bun-u [yap-sa yap-sa] Gürkan yap-ar.
this-ACC do-COND do-COND Gürkan do-AOR
‘[If anyone can do this], it’ll be Gürkan.’
The form olsa olsa has been lexicalized as an adverbial, meaning ‘if anyone’, ‘if
anything’ or ‘if at all’. It can be substituted for the verbal -sA forms in sentences like (67)
and (68), and also has more general application, as in:
(69) Nazan olsa olsa cumartesi sabahı gelebilirmiş.
‘Apparently the only time that Nazan could possibly come would be Saturday
morning.’

27.4.2 -sA AND -(y)sA/ise WITH dA

[Link] -sA with dA

The combination of -sA with the clitic dA ([Link]) in a subordinate clause can have one
of three different functions:
(i) A single occurrence of -sA or -sAydI with dA has the concessive conditional
meaning ‘even if’ (cf. [Link] (iiib)):
(70) Ahmet artık [çalışsa da] sınavı geçemez.
‘By now, [even if Ahmet works] he won’t be able to pass the exam.’
(71) [Beni çağırmasalardı da] gidecektim.
‘I was going to go [even if they hadn’t invited me].’
The clitic bile ‘even’ ([Link], [Link] (iv)) is interchangeable with dA in this function:
(72) Ahmet artık [çalışsa bile] sınav ı geçemez.
 Conditional sentences 433

‘By now, [even if Ahmet works] he won’t be able to pass the exam.’
The position of the clitic is not always after the word containing the -sA suffix. Where
there is a compound verb form the clitic can be placed between the two components of
this:
(73) [Ömer o zamana kadar üniversiteyi bitirmiş de olsa/bitirmiş olsa da]
Ankara’da bir eve ihtiyacı olabilir.
‘[Even if Öme r has finished university by that time], he may need a flat in
Ankara.’
(74) [Borca girecek bile olsam/girecek olsam bile] o arsayı almaya kararlıyım.
[Even if it means going into debt] I am determined to buy that piece of land.’
It can also be placed after a non-verbal focused constituent (23.3.1):
(75) [Bahçemizi de/bile alsalar] biz buradan çıkmayacağız.
‘[Even if they take away our garden], we’re not going to move from here.’
The distinction of meaning between aorist + -(y)sA and -sA noted in the context of
predictive conditionals is neutralized in concessive conditionals, and the combination of -
(A/I)rsA/-mAzsA with dA or bile is quite rare. Thus -sA dA can even occur in sentences
with habitual meaning:
(76) Banu [toplantılarımıza gelse de] pek bir şey söylemiyor.
‘[Even if Banu comes to our meetings] she doesn’t say much.’
(ii) With olur ‘it will be all right’ as the main clause, the combination of -sA and dA
expresses the possibility or acceptability of an alternative course of action:
(77) [Sen gelmesen de] olur.
‘It’s not essential for you to come.’ (lit. ‘It will be all right [if you don’t come].’)
(78) [Raporu pazartesi de versek] olurmuş.
‘Apparently it will be all right [if we hand the report in on Monday].’ (e.g. as
opposed to today)
(iii) dA can mark each of two alternative conditions in a predictive conditional sentence
(‘whether…or’), indicating that the outcome will be the same whichever of them is
fulfilled (cf. 28.3.2):
(79) Ahmet artık [çalışsa da çalışmasa da] sınavı geçeme z. (cf. (72))
‘By now, [whether Ahmet works or not] he won’t be able to pass the exam.’
(80) [Evde de otursam sokağa da çıksam] hep içimde o acı var.
‘[Whether I sit at home or I go out], there is always that pain inside me.’

[Link] -(y)sA/ise with dA

A subordinate predicate marked by the conditional copula -(y)sA can be followed by the
clitic dA to produce a concessive clause, equivalent to an English clause introduced by
‘although’. (For the kinds of constituent to which -(y)sA can attach see 27.1.1 (ii).) The
meaning produced by this construction is factual (not conditional). Note, however, that
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 434

combinations of the aorist-conditional forms -(A/I)rsA/-mAzsA with dA (which are rare),

mean ‘even if’, not ‘although’ (see [Link] (i)).
(81) Banu [toplantılarımıza gel-iyor-sa da] pek bir şey söylemiyor.
[Link]
(cf. (76))
‘[Although Banu comes to our meetings] she doesn’t say much.’
(82) [Mehmet’i birkaç defa sokakta gör-dü-m-se de/gör-dü-yse-m de]
[Link] dA/see- [Link]-1SG dA
konuşmadık.
‘[Although I’ve seen Mehmet in the street a few times], we haven’t talked.’
(83) [Parası varsa da/var ise de] harcamak istemiyor.
‘Although s/he’s got money, s/he doesn’t want to spend [it].’
It is possible for clauses marked with -(y)sA dA to be introduced by (her) ne kadar (see
27.5). Although this adds nothing to the meaning, it enables the speaker to signal at the
beginning of the sentence that the message of the first clause is subsequently going to be
overridden by a conflicting or contrasting statement to come in the main clause:
(84) [Her ne kadar Banu toplantılarımıza geliyorsa da] pek bir şey söylemiyor.
‘Although Banu sometimes comes to our meetings, she doesn’t say much.’
For alternative ways of expressing concessive clauses see 26.3.3.

27.5 UNIVERSAL CONDITIONAL CLAUSES (CONTAINING A

QUESTION PHRASE)

Where a conditional clause contains a question phrase (wh-phrase, see 19.2), its meaning
is equivalent to a clause with ‘whoever’, ‘wherever’, etc. in English. We refer to this type
of conditional clause as universal, because (except where the question phrase is hangi
‘which’) there is no limit to the range of conditions that it encompasses. A striking
feature of these clauses is that -sA occurs interchangeably with various verbal -(y)sA
combinations:
(85) [Kime sor-du-k-sa/sor-sa-k] aynı cevab-ı al-dı-k.
who-DAT [Link]/ask-COND-1PL same answer-ACC get-PF-
1PL
‘[Whoever we asked] we got the same answer.’
(86) Hayriye Hanım [nereye giderse/gitse] köpeğini de yanında götürüyordu.
‘[Wherever Hayriye Hanım went] she took her dog with her too.’
(87) [Bu resimlerden hangisini seçerseniz] hemen çerçeveletiriz.
‘[Whichever of these pictures you choose], we’ll get [it] framed straight away.’
As in the case of -sA with dA ([Link]), in universal conditionals also—sA can occur
with habitual meaning:
(88) Necla [ne zaman sınava girse] heyecan çekiyor.
 Conditional sentences 435

‘[Whenever Necla takes an exam] she gets nervous.’

Occasionally the wh-phrase in the subordinate clause is echoed by a resumptive
pronoun in the main clause:
(89) [Kime sorduksa] hepsin-den aynı cevabı aldık. (cf. (85))
[Link]-ABL
(90) Hayriye Hanı m [nereye giderse] köpeğini de oraya yanında götürüyordu.
(cf. (86))
(91) [Bu resimlerden hangisini seçerseniz] hemen çerçeveletiriz onu. (cf. (87))
If the question phrase is kim ‘who’, ne ‘what’ or nere- ‘where’, the idea of universality
can be reinforced by placing her ‘every’ before this item:
(92) Hayriye Hanım [her nereye giderse] köpeğini de yanında götürüyordu.
Universal conditionals with nasıl ‘how’ are often used in a sense removed from any kind
of conditionality, to express simply a similarity between two situations:
(93) [Nasıl Hakan akşamları garsonluk yapıyorsa] sen de derslerine engel
olmayacak bir is bulabilirsin. (cf. (17) in Chapter 26)
‘[Just as Hakan works in the evenings as a waiter], you too could find a job that
wouldn’t interfere with your academic commitments.’
If, on the other hand, nasıl actually modifies the verb in the subordinate clause, it is
echoed by öyle ‘so’, ‘in that way’ in the main clause:
(94) [Bir baba çocuklarını nasıl severse] Mustafa da köpeklerini öyle seviyor.
‘Mustafa loves his dogs [in the same way that a father loves his children].’

27.5.1 UNIVERSAL CONDITIONAL CONCESSIVES

Many universal conditional constructions express a concessive relation, particularly the
failure (predicted or actual) to achieve an objective in spite of the efforts expressed in the
conditional clause. Two alternative strategies may optionally be used to reinforce this
concessive meaning:
(i) dA may be placed after the conditional verb:
(95) [Bu konuda ne kadar iyi bir kitap yazsan (da)] meşhur olamayacaksın.
‘[However good a book you write on this subject], you won’t become famous.’
(96) Adam [ne söylediyse (de)] karısını suçsuz olduğuna inandıramadı.
‘[Whatever the man said], he couldn’t convince his wife that he was innocent.’
(97) [Kemal bana kaç defa anlatsa (da)] gene anlamayacaktım.
‘[However many times Kemal explained [it] to me] I still wouldn’t have
understood.’
Note that dA is generally not used where the verb in the conditional clause has aorist
marking.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 436

(ii) If the conditional clause is in the form aorist + -(y)sA, the imperative or optative
form of the same verb (in the same grammatical person) may be inserted immediately
after the conditional form. This additional verb form is, strictly speaking, the main clause
that the universal conditional modifies, but in practice it serves to reinforce the meaning
of the universal conditional clause itself.
(98) [Ne kadar konuş-ur-lar-sa] konuş-sun-lar hiçbir zaman
what amount [Link] talk-IMP.3PL anlaşamayacaklar.
‘However long they go on talking, (let them talk;) they’re never going to be able
to agree.’
(99) [Nere-ye gid-er-se-niz] gid-in bu fiyata bu kadar güzel bir kanepe.
where-DAT [Link]-2SG/PL go-IMP.2SG/PL bulamazsınız.
‘(Go) no matter where you go; you won’t find such a fine sofa at this price.’
As noted in [Link], (her) ne kadar in a conditional-marked clause does not always
mean ‘however much/long’, as it has become lexicalized as a general marker of
concessive clauses with -(y)sA dA.

27.6 CONDITIONAL CONSTRUCTIONS WITHOUT CONDITIONAL

SUFFIXES

There are a number of constructions that express the same meaning as aorist + -(y)sA, i.e.
predictive open and habitual conditional clauses ([Link]–2), without the use of either of
the conditional suffixes.

27.6.1 -DIğI takdirde, -mAsI durumunda/halinde

Conditional clauses whose verbs are marked with these forms structurally resemble the
other non-finite adverbial constructions discussed in 26.3. They are characteristic of
relatively formal styles, and approximate to ‘in the event of/that’. Note that in -DIğI
takdirde the subordinator is always -DIK, not -(y)AcAK.
(100) [Aday-lar-dan hiçbir-i çoğunluk
candidate-PL-ABL [Link] majority
sağla-ya-ma-dığ-ı takdirde] ikinci tur-a geç-il-ecek-tir.
[Link] takdirde second round-DAT move-PASS-FUT-
GM
‘[In the event of none of the candidates being able to secure a majority], [the
process] will continue into a second round.’
(101) [Yapılaşma denetim altına alınmaması durumunda/halinde] bölgeleri kısa
zamanda bozulmaktadır.
‘[If building development is not brought under control], coastal regions are
rapidly spoilt.’
 Conditional sentences 437

27.6.2 -DI mI
By contrast, -DI mI (the perfective finite verb form followed by the interrogative clitic) is
a very informal alternative to the aorist conditional. It is used only where the speaker
wishes to impart a rather dramatic tone to a conditional utterance:
(102) [O kağıdı imzaladık mı] artık yakamızı hiç kurtaramayız.
‘[If we once sign that piece of paper] we’ll never be able to escape.’
Subordinate clauses with -dI mI also occur with temporal meaning (26.1.6).
 28
CONJUNCTIONS, CO-ORDINATION AND
DISCOURSE CONNECTION

In Turkish a number of devices are used for co-ordinating phrases and/or sentences:
(i) The juxtaposition of two or more constituents (28.1)
(ii) The subordinating suffixes -(y)Ip and -(y)ArAk (28.2)
(iii) Conjunctions and connectives (28.3).
Certain items may be omitted when two or more phrases or clauses are conjoined. These
are discussed in 28.4.

28.1 THE JUXTAPOSITION OF TWO OR MORE CONSTITUENTS

One of the most common methods of co-ordinating two or more phrases or sentences is
simply to list them without using an overt co-ordinator. Note that Turkish uses simple
juxtaposition in many cases where English uses ‘and’ or ‘or’:
(1) siyah beyaz bir film
‘a black [and] white film’
(2) Öğleyin ekmek peynir yedim.
‘I had bread [and] cheese at lunch time.’
(3) Gece gündüz çalışıyoruz.
‘We’re working night [and] day.’
Apart from semi-lexicalized pairs such as those shown in (1)–(3), and juxtaposed
numeral pairs such as iki üç ‘two [or] three’ (15.7.1), constituents co-ordinated in this
way are often separated by a pause in speech, and at the end of all but the last of the
conjoined items there is rising intonation. In writing, listing in this manner requires a
comma:
(4) güzel, büyük, deniz manzaralı bir oda
‘a beautiful, large room with a view of the sea’
(5) Ziya pabuçlarını, paltosunu giydi, eline şemsiyesini aldı, işe gitti.
‘Ziya put on his shoes [and] coat, picked up his umbrella [and] left for work.’
 Conjunctions, co-ordination and discourse connection 439

28.2 THE SUBORDINATING SUFFIXES -(y)Ip AND -(y)ArAk

-(y)Ip ([Link]) is a regular means of conjoining clauses which are semantically of equal
status with respect to tense/aspect/modality. -(y)ArAk ([Link] and 26.3) can also be used
for the same purpose. These suffixes are attached to all verbs but the last in a series of
conjuncts, in place of all tense/aspect/modality suffixes and all other suffixes following
them:
(6) Sinemaya gidip güzel bir film seyretsek. (cf. Sinemaya gitsek ve…)
‘We should go to the cinema and watch a good film.’
(7) Başbakan İzmir’e gid-erek bazı işadamlarıyl a görüştü.
go-CONJmeet-PF
(cf. İzmir’e gitti ve…)
‘The Prime Minister went to Izmir and met some businessmen.’
In subordinate clauses -(y)Ip and -(y)ArAk replace other subordinating suffixes (8.5) and
any other suffixes that follow them:
(8) [Kendin gel-ip gör-ünce] anlayacaksın. (cf. gelince ve…)
come-CONJ see-CV
‘[When you come and see for yourself], you will understand.’
(9) [Konuyu bil-ip fark ettir-me-diğ-in]-i tahmin ediyorum.
know-CONJ [Link]-ACC
(cf. bildiğini fakat…)
‘I have a feeling [that you know about the matter but you’re not giving it away].’
For the -(y)(I)p…-mA construction that occurs on identical verb stems in noun clauses,
see 20.1.3.
Where the verb in the superordinate clause contains a negative suffix, the verb
containing -(y)Ip is also typically understood to have negative meaning:
(10) Bu havada herhalde evde otur-up televizyon seyret-me-yeceğ-iz!
stay-CONJ watch-NEG-FUT-1PL
(=…evde otur-ma-yacağ-ız ve…)
stay-NEG-FUT-1PL and…
‘We’ll hardly be staying indoors and watching the telly in this weather!’
It is also possible, however, for the verb containing -(y)Ip to have affirmative meaning
despite negative marking of the superordinate verb, as seen in (9) above. If the clitic dA
follows -(y)Ip in such contexts it serves to emphasize an adversative relation between the
two verbs (28.3.45):
(11) Ahmet mesajı bul-up da anla-ma-mış mı acaba?
find-CONJ dA understand-NEG-EV/PF
‘I wonder if Ahmet found the message but didn’t understand [it]?’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 440

The verb containing -(y)Ip can itself be negative-marked only where the superordinate
verb is not:
(12) Bu havada evde otur-ma-yıp yürüyüşe çık-malı-yız.
stay-NEG-CONJ [Link]-OBLG-1PL
‘In this weather we must not stay indoors but go out for a walk.’
Where a verb containing -(y)Ip is followed by dA and is stressed, the clause in which it
occurs is exactly equivalent to a finite subordinate clause marked by dA (26.1.7), i.e. it
emphasizes the fact that the action it expresses precedes/preceded that articulated by the
main clause:
(13) [Yemek yiYIP de] geldim. (cf. (23) in Chapter 26)
‘I came [having [already] eaten].’
Although it is rather unusual, some speakers use -(y)Ip when conjoining clauses with
different subjects, especially when they both have 3rd person subjects:
(14) Tam o saat-te Semra iş-i bırak-ıp Ahmet işbaşı yap-ıyor.
exactly that time-LOC Semra work-ACC leave-CONJ Ahmet [Link] do-
IMPF
‘At exactly that time Semra leaves work and Ahmet goes on duty.’

28.3 CONJUNCTIONS AND DISCOURSE CONNECTIVES

Conjunctions are expressions such as ve ‘and’, fakat ‘but’, and ya da ‘or’, which join
two or more items that have the same syntactic function. These can be phrases,
subordinate clauses or sentences. The conjoining function of discourse connectives, on
the other hand, is minimally to join two sentences. Discourse connectives such as aksine
‘on the contrary’, üstelik ‘moreover’ and sonuç olarak ‘as a result’ can be used for
purposes of forming a cohesive link between concepts expressed by entire groups of
sentences. Another difference between the two classes is that while a conjunction always
joins two (or more) linguistic items, this is not always the case with discourse
connectives, which can sometimes be used on their own if the context presents a situation
(e.g. a recent experience shared by speaker and hearer) to which a cohesive link can be
made.
The various semantic functions of Turkish conjunctions and discourse connectives are
explained below. Some expressions (e.g. yoksa ‘or’, ‘otherwise’) can function both as
conjunctions and as discourse connectives, and some fulfil more than one role even as
discourse connectives. For example, dA has additive, enumerative and adversative
functions, all of which are discussed under different subsections below. Quite a number
of discourse connectives are adverbial in form, for example those such as bununla birlikte
‘in spite of this’, onun için ‘for that reason’, which consist of a postpositional phrase with
a demonstrative pronoun as its complement.
 Conjunctions, co-ordination and discourse connection 441

28.3.1 ADDITIVE
The common characteristic of the items in this group is that they signal the addition of a
new item without changing the direction of the discourse.

[Link] ve, -(y)IA/ile, dA ‘and’, dA ‘too’, bile ‘even’, ve de ‘and what’s

more’, bir de ‘and also’, ya ‘and what…’
(i) ve, a particle borrowed from Arabic, conjoins all types of phrases and clauses, and can
function both as a conjunction and as a discourse connective.
(15) Arapça ve Farsça
‘Arabic and Persian’
(16) [Paris’e gittiğin]-e ve [müzeleri gezdiğin]-e çok seviniyor.
‘S/he is very happy [that s/he went to Paris and visited the museums].’
In its function of conjoining two clauses, ve is often replaced by -(y)Ip or (less
commonly) by -(y)ArAK (28.2).
(ii) The clitic ile and its suffixal counterpart -(y)lA (8.1.4), unlike ve, attach only to
non-case-marked noun phrases and to noun clauses formed with -mAK (24.4.1) and -mA
(24.4.2). They can join only conjuncts, and they cannot occur as discourse connectives.
(17) Arapça’yla Farsça
‘Arabic and Persian’
(18) [Ahmet’in bu kitabı okuması]-yla [okumaması] arasında bir fark olacağını
sanmıyorum.
‘I don’t believe there will be a difference between [Ahmet’s reading this book]
and [his not reading [it]].’
Another difference between ve and -(y)lA/ile is that ve is exclusive, whereas -(y)lA/ile can
be either exclusive or inclusive. Where the conjunction is ve, a plural pronoun (such as
biz ‘we’ below) does not include within its reference the noun phrase conjoined to it:
(19) Zehra ve biz kolay anlaşıyoruz.
‘We and Zehra get along well.’ (We get along well with Zehra.)
-(y)lA/ile, on the other hand, can be either inclusive or exclusive, i.e. the conjoined noun
phrase may or may not denote a member of the group that the plural pronoun refers to:
(20) Zehra’yla biz eve gidiyoruz.
(a) ‘Zehra and I are going home.’
(b) ‘We and Zehra are going home.’ (We are going home with Zehra.)
(See also [Link] and [Link] for subjects conjoined by ve or -(y)lA/ile and 17.2.1 for -
(y)lA as a postposition.)
(iii) In its additive usages, the clitic dA ([Link]) is a discourse connective occurring
in the second conjunct (cf. the usages described in 26.1.7, [Link] (i)). It has different
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 442

functions according to the type of constituent it is attached to. It can be attached either to
a non-focused constituent or to a focused one.
(a) dA attached to a non-focused (i.e. unstressed) constituent A non-focused
constituent to which dA is attached is usually the first constituent in a sentence. In
this case dA has a primarily continuative function, indicating that the events
described in successive sentences are connected, but it may also signal a change
in topic ([Link] (i), as in the case of Semra’ya in (21)). In this usage dA
corresponds to ‘and’:
(21) Sana bugün iki mektup geldi. Semra’ya da bir paKET.
Two letters arrived for you today. And a package for Semra.’
(22) Balığı kızarttım. Biraz sonra da yiyeCEğim.
‘I have fried the fish and will eat it in a few minutes.’
(b) dA attached to a focused ([Link]) constituent
This can be any constituent in the sentence, including the predicate.
In this function dA corresponds to ‘too’, ‘also’:
(23) Kışın ortasında Bodrum’a gitti, deniZE de girdi.
‘S/he went to Bodrum in the middle of winter, and swam in the sea, too.’
(24) Hep İzlanda’ya gitmek isterdi, sonunda gitTİ de.
‘S/he always wanted to go to Iceland, and in the end s/he went, too.’
dA can sometimes attach to the stressed constituent within a phrase:
(25) Bebek ne tatlı. ÇOK da uslu maşallah.
‘The baby is so sweet. And very well-behaved, too!’
See 28.3.2 for enumerating dA…dA, [Link] (i) for the adversative function of dA, 27.4.2
for combinations of dA with the conditional markers -sA and -(y)sA, and 26.1.7 for dA as
a subordinator.
(iv) bile ‘even’, ‘already’ attaches to any constituent that can receive stress:
(26) Nuri, sokaĜA bile çıkmak istemiyor.
‘Nuri doesn’t even want to go out [of the house].’
When bile attaches to a predicate in a finite clause, it can mean ‘even’, but more often
corresponds to ‘already’:
(27) Bazen o pis köpeğı okŞUyor bile.
‘Sometimes s/he even strokes that filthy dog.’
(28) O filmi görDÜM bile.
‘I have already seen that film.’
(v) ve de is an emphatic form of ve, mostly in its function as a sentence co-ordinator, and
is used mainly to highlight the significance of the comment that follows:
(29) 80 yaşında Almanca öğrenmeye başladı ve de bundan çok memnun.
‘S/he has started learning German at 80, and what’s more s/he’s very happy about
it.’
 Conjunctions, co-ordination and discourse connection 443

(vi) bir de can follow or precede the second conjunct. It sometimes signals that the item it
introduces is an afterthought:
(30) Evde tuz kalmamış, bir de süt.
‘We are out of salt…and milk.’
(31) İtalya’ya gitmek istiyorum, İspanya’ya bir de.
‘I want to go to Italy…also to Spain.’
(vii) ya as an additive is a discourse connective which has the sole function of
introducing a speculative question involving a conditional clause. The verb is always
marked with one of the conditional suffixes -sA or -(y)sA (Chapter 27). The sentence may
be left without a main clause, in which case it corresponds to questions expressed with
‘(And) what if…’ in English:
(32) Ya bir kazaya uğradıysa?
‘(And) what if s/he’s had an accident?’
If there is a main clause, it is always in the form of a wh-question (19.2):
(33) Ya [ben evde olmasaydım] seni kim kurtaracaktı?
‘And who would have rescued you [if I hadn’t been at home]?’

[Link] üstelik, üstüne üstlük, hem, hem (de), buna ek olarak, ayrıca,
kaldı ki ‘and (what’s more)’, ‘also’, sonra ‘and then’
These connectives do not merely conjoin two sentences; they also draw attention to the
speaker’s conscious decision to add something to what has already been said. As seen in
the examples below, they are often combined with dA. They can be situated at the
beginning or at the end of the second sentence:
(34) Nota okumayı sevmiyormuş. Üstelik piyanist!
‘S/he doesn’t like reading scores. And she’s a pianist!’
(35) Erken buluşalım. Hem birşeyler de yeriz.
‘Let’s meet early. Then we could have something to eat as well.’

[Link] hatta, dahası ‘even’, ‘indeed’

These discourse connectives introduce a statement that reinforces the previous statement,
usually by making an even more convincing point. They occur at the beginning of the
second conjunct, and are often combined with bile ([Link] (iv)):
(36) [Erol’un Korkut’u sevmediği] belli. Hatta bunu açıkça söylüyor.
‘It’s obvious [that Erol doesn’t like Korkut]. Indeed, he says so quite openly.’
(37) Akşam kursların a gitti. Dahası tatillerde bile ders çalıştı.
‘S/he went to evening classes. S/he even studied in the holidays.’
hatta also occurs as a conjunction:
(38) [Sıcaktan bayılanlar], hatta [ölenler] olmuş.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 444

‘Apparently there were [people who fainted], and even [some who died of the
heat

[Link] şöyle dursun/bir yana/bırak(ın) ‘let alone’

These expressions, which function as conjunctions, occur only in negative sentences, and
are placed at the end of the first conjunct. Their effect is to reinforce the negativity of the
assertion involving the first conjunct by drawing a comparison with the negativity of
another situation regarded as inherently more realizable. The second conjunct almost
always includes bile ‘even’ ([Link] (iv)). Note that if, as in (39), the comparison is
between two clauses (rather than two noun phrases), the first is expressed as a -mAk
clause ([Link]):
(39) Diplomasını almak şöyle dursun/bir yana, tezini bile daha yazmamış.
‘S/he hasn’t even written her thesis yet, let alone received his/her degree.’
For the use of the negative particle değil in a similar function see 20.2.3.

28.3.2 ENUMERATING
dA…dA, hem…hem, gerek…(ve) gerek(se de) ‘both…and’
The items in this group of reduplicated conjunctions emphasize the equal status and
function in an utterance of two or more persons, objects or events. dA is attached to the
end of each of the phrases involved, whereas hem and gerek precede the phrases or
clauses they connect:
(40) Dünya Kupasında Güney Kore de Türki ye de yarı finale kaldı.
‘Both South Korea and Turkey have reached the semi-finals of the World Cup.’
(41) Necla hem Boğaziçi Üniversitesi hem de Bilkent’e girebiliyormuş.
‘Necla has been admitted to both Boğaziçi University and Bilkent.’
In the last occurrence of hem, dA can be used for emphasis, as in (41) above. The last
occurrence of gerek can be replaced by gerekse, gerekse de or ve gerekse de:
(42) Gerek İngiliz takımı, gerekse (de) Fransızlar, bu Dünya Kupası yarışması
na iddialı giriyorlar.
‘Both the English team and the French are entering this World Cup competition
with high hopes.’
Where dA…dA, hem…hem or gerek…(ve) gerek (se de) are used in sentences with a
negative predicate, they are equivalent to ne…ne ‘neither…nor’ (20.4).

28.3.3 ALTERNATIVE
This group of items conjoins phrases, clauses or sentences that express objects, persons,
events or situations presented as alternatives.
 Conjunctions, co-ordination and discourse connection 445

[Link] ya da, veya, (ve) yahut (da), yoksa ‘or’, ya…ya (da)
‘either…or’

Of the various terms expressing ‘or’ in Turkish, ya da, veya and (ve) yahut (da) are
interchangeable in most contexts, both as conjunctions and as discourse connectives:
(43) Evde meyva veya/ya da tatlı var mı?
‘Is there any fruit or any [sort of] sweet in the house?’
When ya da is used as a discourse connective it can be placed after the second conjunct:
(44) Necla sinemaya gitmek istemiyor. Ya da öyle söylüyor./
Öyle söylüyor ya da.
‘Necla doesn’t want to go to the cinema. Or that’s what she says.’
When used as a conjunction, ya da can occur either on its own or with another ya
preceding the first conjunct:
(45) O konuyu (ya) Ahmet’(le) ya da karısıyla konuşabilirsin.
‘You can discuss that matter (either) with Ahmet or with his wife.’
Alternatively, ya…ya can be used to express ‘either…or’.
Note that ya used on its own can function as an additive connective introducing
conditional questions ([Link] (vii), an adversative connective ([Link] (ii) and
[Link]), or a reminding connective (28.3.12).
yoksa as an alternative conjunction occurs only in alternative questions (19.1.2). As a
discourse connective it can introduce a question expressing surprise at an inference drawn
(19.5.3), or it can have the conditional sense of ‘otherwise’ (28.3.9).

[Link] ister…ister, olsun…olsun, ha…ha, ama…ama ‘whether…or’

These reduplicated conjunctions indicate the speaker’s indifference towards the
alternatives mentioned.
(i) ister…ister conjoins imperative or optative verb forms ([Link]–3), or nominal
predicates. Each conjunction is placed before the constituent it conjoins:
(46) İster kal, ister git, yeter ki bugün şu işi bitir. (For yeter ki see 28.3.9.)
‘Whether you stay or leave, make sure you finish off the job today.’
(47) Nazlı ister kursa yazılsın ister yazılmasın, bir şekilde Fransızca öğrenmesi
gerekiyor.
‘Whether she joins a class or not, Nazlı has to learn French somehow.’
(ii) olsun…olsun, which is a combination of the copular verb ol- ‘be’ ([Link]) and the
3rd person optative form (8.4), is used with nominal predicates. Each conjunction is
placed after the constituent it conjoins:
(48) Büyük olsun küçük olsun, evlerin sorunları bitmiyor.
‘Big or small, houses always have problems.’
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 446

ister…ister can occur with olsun…olsun:

(49) İster büyük olsun, ister küçük (olsun), evlerin sorunları bitmiyor.
‘Whether big or small, houses always have problems.’
(iii) ha…ha and ama…ama are both colloquial conjunctions which precede the
constituents they conjoin:
(50) Ha Boğaziçi’ne gitmişsin ha Bilkent’e. İkisi de iyi üniversite.
‘It doesn’t matter whether you go to Boğaziçi or to Bilkent. They are both good
universities.’
(51) Bu tip fırınlard a genellikle ızgara olmuyor, ama yerli ama yabancı.
‘Whether they are made in Turkey (lit. locally) or imported, these ovens don’t
usually have grills.’

28.3.4 ADVERSATIVE
Adversative conjunctions signal a turning of the discourse in a direction contrary to what
has been previously established.

[Link] ama, fakat, ancak, yalnız ‘but’

Fakat and ama are interchangeable. They conjoin clauses whose combined content
expresses some kind of conflict or contradiction:
(52) Semra hep gezmek istiyor ama/fakat zamanı yok. (Conflict)
‘Semra always wants to travel, but she doesn’t have the time.’
(53) Sonbahar geldi ama/fakat ağaçlar hâlâ yeşil. (Contradiction)
‘Autumn is here, but the trees are still green.’
When ama is used as a discourse connective, in other words when the second conjunct is
uttered as a separate statement from the first, ama can also be placed at the end of the
second conjunct:
(54) Kitabı hevesle satın aldım. Okuyamadım ama.
‘I bought the book with great enthusiasm. I haven’t managed to read it, though’
Ama and fakat can also conjoin adjectival construction:
(55) Sıcak ama [bunaltıcı olmayan] bir havası var Ankara’nın.
The weather in Ankara is hot but not suffocating.’
(lit. ‘Ankara has a hot but not suffocating climate.’)
ancak and yalnız (which as adverbials mean ‘only’ (16.7)) are slightly more restricted in
their occurrence as adversative connectives than ama or fakat. They are used mainly to
introduce a sentence expressing inability, failure, obligation, or some other
disadvantageous situation:
 Conjunctions, co-ordination and discourse connection 447

(56) Ahmet aslında çok iyi bir mimar. Ancak/Yalnız aksiliği yüzünden
müşterileri kaçırıyor. (For aslında see [Link].)
‘Ahmet is actually a very good architect. But he loses customers because of his
bad temper.’

[Link] Gene (de)/yine (de) ‘(and) yet’, ‘(and) still’, bununla

birlikte/beraber, buna karşın/rağmen ‘despite this’, ‘nevertheless’
These discourse connectives are more emphatic adversatives than those in [Link]. gene
de/yine de are often used together with ama or fakat (for an example see (68) below).
gene/yine also occur as adverbials meaning ‘again’; the addition of de eliminates
potential ambiguity.
(57) Rusça çok zor bir dilmiş, gene de onu öğrenmeye kararlıyım.
‘Russian is said to be a very difficult language, yet I am determined to learn it.’
(58) Ahmet nezle olmuş. Buna rağmen yüzmek istiyor.
‘Ahmet’s got a cold. Despite this, he wants to go swimming.’

[Link] ne (var) ki/ mamafih, ‘however’

These items are confined to rather formal registers, and highlight the speaker’s conscious
intention to articulate a conflictual or contradictory state of affairs:
(59) İlköğretimi tamamlayanların sayısında önemli bir artış olmuş.
Ne var ki rakamlara ayrıntılı bakıldığında bölgesel farklılaşma da dikkat
çekmektedir.
‘There has evidently been a significant increase in the number of those
completing primary education. However, when one looks at the figures in detail,
one is also struck by regional differentiation.’

[Link] halbuki/oysa (ki), ‘whereas’, ‘however’

The discourse connectives halbuki/oysa (ki) sometimes merely point to a contrast
between two states of affairs:
(60) Sen [bütün duvarların düz beyaz kalmasın]-ı istersin, oysa ben [bazı odalarda
değişik renkler olsun] isterim.
‘You want [all the walls to stay plain white], whereas I want [there to be different
colours in some rooms].’
In this function a sentence with halbuki/oysa (ki) could be paraphrased with -(y)sA
([Link] (ii)). The more distinctive function of halbuki and oysa (ki) is to signal a
contradiction between a factual state of affairs and a belief or claim concerning it. The
connective always appears at the beginning (or end) of the second conjunct, but this may
be the one expressing either the factual or the supposed state of affairs:
(61)
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 448

(a) Necla [evini sattığında] bunalıma girdi. Halbuki/Oysa [bu fikre çoktandır
alıştı] sanıyordum.
‘Necla became very depressed [when she sold her house].
Whereas I thought [she had got used to the idea].’
(b) Necla [evini satma fikrine alıştı] sanıyordum. Halbuki/Oysa [bir alıcı
çıktığın da] bunalıma girdi.
‘I thought [Necla had got used to the idea of selling her house]. However,
[when a buyer appeared] she became very depressed.’

[Link] dA, ya ‘but’, -(y)sA/ise ‘as for’, ‘whereas’

These are conjunctions which contrast a situation presented in the second conjunct to the
situation presented in the first one.
(i) dA is placed after the predicate of the first conjunct, and produces stress on the last
syllable of the predicate, even if this position is not the normally stressable position of
that word ([Link]):
(62) Öğrencilerin hepsinin adlarını bilmiyoR UM da yüzleri tanıyorum
‘I don’t know the names of all the students, but I know their faces.’
(63) Sen GİT de ben gelmeyeceğim.
‘You go, but I’m n ot coming.’
Note that adversative dA does not produce primary stress on -(y)Ip (28.2):
(64) Ahmet mesajı bulup da yanLIŞ anlamış meğerse.
‘It turns out that Ahmet had found the message but misunderstood [it].’
(ii) ya is used in colloquial speech as a contrastive adversative conjunction:
(65) Toplantıya katılırım ya [ne diyeceği m]-i bilemem.
‘Join the meeting I will, but I won’t know [what to say].’
(iii) The contrastive function of -(y)sA/ise ([Link]) is to switch the attention of the
speaker to a new topic; this is explained in [Link] (ii)).

[Link] gerçi/ hoş ‘it’s true that’, ‘admittedly’, ‘actually’, aslında

‘actually’
The function of this group of adversative discourse connectives is concessive. While
marking the statement they introduce as contradictory to what has previously been said,
they also signal that the speaker regards this contradiction as illusory, reparable or
otherwise tolerable. gerçi arouses an expectation that the statement it introduces will be
followed by another introduced by a conflictive adversative (such as ama ‘but’), which
will counterbalance the concession made, and cancel out its effect:
(66) Uludağ’a gidiyorlarmış. Gerçi Ziya kayak yapmayı sevmez ama yine de
gidecekmiş.
They are going to Uludağ. Actually Ziya doesn’t like skiing, but he is still going.’
 Conjunctions, co-ordination and discourse connection 449

hoş is used in the same way as gerçi, but is a slightly dated expression, used only in
colloquial speech. As for the very common expression aslında ‘actually’, this can be used
either in the same way as gerçi or on its own, as in (67), leaving the concession
unrepaired:
(67) [Bakkala gittiğinde] gazete de alır mısın? Aslında birazdan ben de
çıkacağım.
‘Can you buy a paper [when you go to the corner shop]?
Actually I shall be going out soon, too.’

[Link] ki and ya
As adversative connectives, ki and ya complement each other, and have a repudiative
function. Both challenge the previous statement or question, or the presupposition of the
previous speaker, but whereas ki occurs in negative statements and in questions, ya as a
repudiator occurs only in affirmative statements. They both occur after the predicate and
usually at the end of a sentence, placing stress on the preceding syllable, even in those
cases where this position is not the normally stressable syllable of a word ([Link]):
(68) Ahmet gezide fotoğraf çekecekti ama makinasını yanına almaMIŞ ki!
‘Ahmet was supposed to take photographs on the trip, but apparently he hadn’t
taken his camera with him!’
(69) A.– Sana [bu sabunu kullan] demedim mi?
‘Didn’t I tell you [to use this soap]?’
B.– KullanDIM ya!
‘But I did!’
The discourse connective function of ki described here is related to one of its
subordinating functions, in which it introduces clauses expressing purpose ([Link]). For
this reason, repudiative ki can be followed by an optative-marked verb (which would
usually have no counterpart in the English version of the sentence):
(70) A.– Hani alışverişe gidecektin?
‘I thought you were going to go shopping?’
B.– Dükkanlar daha açılmamışTIR ki (gideyim).
‘But the shops won’t be open yet’
For the various other (non-conjunctive) functions of ki and ya see [Link] and [Link].

[Link] peki ‘but’

The most common function of peki is to express the speaker’s agreement with a proposal
or instruction articulated by the addressee. In this usage it means ‘all right’, and can stand
on its own as a complete utterance. As a discourse connective peki is used only in
questions, and indicates that the speaker is not satisfied with the information conveyed in
a previous statement, and requires more information:
(71) A.– Bütün yazı çalışarak geçirmem gerekiyor.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 450

‘I have to spend the whole summer working’.

B.– Peki, sen bu yaz evini satmayacak mıydın?
‘But weren’t you planning to sell your house this summer?’

[Link] yok ‘but’

Yok can be used as an adversative discourse connective in the second of two consecutive
conditional sentences. In each sentence the conditional verb is marked with -(y)sA (27.1–
3), and the two conditions expressed are mutually exclusive. Yok is placed at the
beginning of the second sentence, and may optionally be followed by the conditional
conjunction eğer ‘if’ (27.1.2):
(72) [Mehmet ikiye kadar gelirse] iyi. [Yok (eğer) o saate kadar gelmemişse]
daha fazla bekleyemeyiz.
‘[If Mehmet arrives by two o’clock], that’s fine. [But if he hasn’t come by that
time], we won’t be able to wait any longer.’

28.3.5 EXPANSIVE
This group of conjunctions and connectives are used to signal an expansion of the
speaker’s statement. Expansion may take the form of exemplification, particularization,
analogy, explanation, justification, correction or (in the case of a negative statement)
amplification. Şöyle ki always precedes the comment it introduces; the others, with the
exception of the expansive suffixes in (ii), are likewise often placed at the beginning of
the second conjunct, but in colloquial speech they can also follow the second conjunct or
can occur in some position within it.
(i) örneğin/mesela/sözgelişi/sözgelimi ‘for example’ örneğin and its Arabic synonym
mesela are the most frequently used expressions in the exemplifying group:
(73) Nane bazı şeylerle çok iyi gidiyor, örneğin kuzu etiyle.
‘Mint goes very well with some things. With lamb, for example?
(ii) -(y)DI…-(y)DI, -(y)mIş…-(y)mIş, yok…yok ‘…and the like’, ‘etc.’
In colloquial usage these reduplicative forms perform another kind of exemplifying
function, listing some of the possible items in a set. Two of the connectives in this group
are the copular markers -(y)DI and -(y)mIş (8.3.2). The listed items marked in this
manner usually precede the general term (indicated by italics below) referring to them:
(74) Yanın a kağıttı, kalemdi, sınav için ne gerekliyse al.
‘Take with you all that you need for the exam, paper, pencils and what have you’
(75) Koşmakmış, yüzmekmiş, hiç öyle sporla filan uğraştığı yok.
‘S/he is not interested in sports at all, like running, swimming, etc.’
Reduplicated yok, also an informal way of listing items, is used in a different way. It
allows the speaker to express his/her frustration with a particular situation. Each
statement that follows yok is presented by the speaker as an untenable excuse or an
unrealistic wish. These statements often contain the evidential copula -(y)mIş.
 Conjunctions, co-ordination and discourse connection 451

(76) Hep bir bahanesi var. Yok hava kötüymüş, yok parası yetmezmiş, yok vakti
yokmuş… Yani anlayacağın, bizimle tatile gitmemek için elinden geleni yapıyor.
‘S/he always has an excuse… Either the weather is bad, or s/he doesn’t have
enough money, or s/he doesn’t have time… In short, s/he does whatever s/he can
to avoid going on holiday with us.’
(iii) hele ‘in particular’, ‘above all ‘and özellikle/ bilha ssa ‘particular ‘especially’
single out one of the alternatives within a set:
(77) Nimet Hanım torunlarını çok seviyor. En küçüğe hele bayılıyor.
‘Nimet loves her grandchildren. She particularly adores the youngest one.’
(78) Annem Afrika’yı, özellikle güney Afrika’yı çok seviyor.
‘My mother loves Africa, especially southern Africa.’
(iv) nitekim/nasıl ki ‘just as’, ‘similarly’ expand by way of analogy:
(79) Her yıl okullarımızd a büyük bir öğretmen sıkıntısı yaşanıyor, nitekim
hastanelerimizdeki sağlık personelinin sayısı da yetersiz.
‘Every year there is a great shortage of teachers in our schools, just as the number
of health professionals in our hospitals is insufficient.’
(v) başka bir deyişle ‘in other words’, yani ‘I mean’, ‘in other words’, ‘i.e.’
These explanatory conjunctions/connectives introduce a phrase, clause or sentence in
which the speaker reformulates his/her message in a different way. başka bir deyişle is
used in formal contexts, and is limited to introducing a straightforward paraphrase:
(80) Babıali, başka bir deyişle Osmanlı hükümeti…
‘The Sublime Porte, in other words the Ottoman government…’
yani, on the other hand, which is in much more general use, may introduce any kind of
paraphrase or explanation, including the provision of further information:
(81) Seninle salı günü, yani bu is bittikten sonra görüsebiliriz.
‘You and I can get together on Tuesday, i.e. after this job is finished.’
yani is a very common expression in conversation. It is often used by a speaker who is
trying to express himself/herself more articulately, but has not yet found the appropriate
words to use:
(82) Evden hiç çıkmak istemiyor. Yani…ne bileyim…
‘S/he doesn’t want to leave the house. Well… I don’t know…’
(vi) şöyle ki ‘[the situation is] as follows’
Şöyle ki is used in formal contexts, and generally introduces a sequence of sentences
which as a whole expand on the previous remark of the same speaker.
(vii) bir kere ‘for one thing’, sonra ‘for another thing’, ‘and then (again)’
These discourse connectives introduce statements which expand on the speaker’s
previous statement in terms of providing justification for the attitude or opinion
expressed. If just one justificatory point is made, bir kere is used:
(83) Necla’ya güvenemem. Bir kere doktor değil.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 452

‘I can’t trust Necla. For one thing, she’s not a doctor.’

If a further point is added this is introduced by sonra:
(84) Bence başkanlığı en iyi Osman yapar. Bir kere herkes ona güveniyor, sonra
bilgi ve deneyimi var.
‘In my view Osman would be the best chairman. For one thing everyone trusts
him, for another he has the knowledge and experience.’
(viii) daha doğrusu ‘or rather’
The conjunction/discourse connective daha doğrusu has a corrective function. It is
used when the speaker wants to reformulate a phrase, clause or sentence that s/he has
uttered, and wants the hearer to disregard all or part of the first conjunct:
(85) Yusuf pilavı çok sever. Daha doğrusu annesinin yaptığı pilavı çok sever.
‘Yusuf loves rice, or rather the rice that his mother cooks.’

(ix) aksine, tersine, bilakis ‘on the contrary’

These connectives introduce a statement that amplifies the statement in the first
conjunct, which is always negative:
(86) Erol Semra’yı görmek istemiyor. Λksine, görecek diye ödü kopuyor.
‘Erol doesn’t want to see Semra. On the contrary, he dreads seeing [her].’

28.3.6 CAUSAL
These connectives link two statements that are connected to each other by a causal link.
(i) çünkü/ zira ‘because’
Situated either at the beginning or (çünkü only) at the end of the second conjunct,
these connectives present the cause of an event or state expressed by the first conjunct.
(87) Partiye gelmek istemiyor, çünkü kimseyi tanımıyormuş.
‘S/he doesn’t want to come to the party, because s/he says s/he doesn’t know
anyone.’
(88) Antalya’ya gidemedim. Param yoktu çünkü.
‘I wasn’t able to go to Antalya. Because I didn’t have any money.’

As a strategy for expressing the cause of a situation, the use of çünkü/ zira is mainly
confined to informal registers. In more formal styles the use of a non-finite causal clause
(26.3.14), which places the cause before the result, is generally preferred. Informally also,
adverbial clauses, whether finite (with diye, [Link]) or non-finite, are regularly used for
the expression of reason. The use of a separate sentence introduced by çünkü is preferred
where (a) the reason is added as an afterthought, or (b) the reason is a fact not known to
the hearer, to which the speaker wishes to give as much informational value as to the
resultant event or state.
(ii) bunun için/onun için/bundan dolayı/dolayısıyla/bu nedenle/bu yüzden/sonuç
olarak ‘because of this/that’, ‘as a result’
 Conjunctions, co-ordination and discourse connection 453

This group of discourse connectives presents the result of a state of affairs described in
the preceding sentence(s):
(89) Ahmet’in ehliyeti yok. Dolayısıyla araba kullanamaz.
‘Ahmet doesn’t have a driving licence. As a result he is not allowed to drive.’
For dolayı as a postposition see 17.2.3.

28.3.7 INFERENTIAL
demek (ki) ‘that means’, ‘so’ stands at either the beginning or the end of the sentence in
which it is located, and indicates that this sentence expresses an inference drawn from
what has been said previously:
(90) Görgü şahidi olarak mahkemeye çağırılmışsın. Demek sen de kaza
yerindeydin!
‘I hear you’ve been summoned as an eye witness. So you were at the scene of the
accident as well!’
(91) Orhan artık Amerika’ya iyice alışmış demek ki.
‘So Orhan is well and truly settled in America, it seems.’
For the inferential connective yoksa see 19.5.3.

28.3.8 TEMPORAL
This group of discourse connectives includes önce ‘first’, sonra ‘then’, daha sonra
‘later’, ondan/bundan sonra ‘then’, onun/bunun üzerine ‘upon this/that’, derken ‘just
then’:
(92) Ücretlerinde bir artış olmadı. Onlar da bunun üzerine grev yapmaya karar
verdiler.
‘They got no pay increase, upon which they decided to go on strike.’
The informal connective derken introduces an event that comes as the climax of a process
or series, or a situation that creeps up on someone without their realizing it:
(93) Bütün gün ev baktık. Osmanbey, Şişli, Mecidiyeköy, Beşiktaş’ta dolaşıp
durduk. Derken saat beş olmuş.
‘We spent all day looking at flats. We went round and round Osmanbey, Şişli,
Mecidiyeköy [and] Beşiktaş. And suddenly it was five o’clock.’
For a fuller discussion of temporal adverbials see 16.4.1, and for önce and sonra as
postpositions see 17.2.3.

28.3.9 CONDITIONAL
The discourse connectives in this group express what conditionality, if any, attaches to
one or other of the conjuncts.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 454

(i) yeter ki ‘all that is needed is…’, introducing the second conjunct, expresses a
condition that needs to be fulfilled in order for the state of affairs described in the first
conjunct to be fully realized:
(94) Sana iş bulacağım. Yeter ki sen bulduğum işi beğen.
‘I will find you a job. All that is needed is for you to like the job I find.’
(ii) Other connectives perform the opposite function, of specifying the conditionality (or
lack of it) of the second conjunct. They fall into three groups:
(a) o halde/öyleyse ‘in that case’ and o zaman ‘then’ treat the content of the first
conjunct as a knowable condition (27.3), which is assumed to be fulfilled:
(95) A.– Dükkanlar saat 5’te kapanıyormuş. (cf. Dükkanlar… kapanıyorsa)
‘Apparently the shops close at 5 o’clock.’
B.– O halde bugün alışveriş yapamayacağız.
‘In that case we won’t be able to do any shopping today.’
(b) yoksa, aksi halde/takdirde and sonra ‘otherwise’, by contrast, treat the relation
between the two sentences as a predictive conditional (27.2) in which the second
conjunct predicts what the consequence would be if the state of affairs were other
than what is described in the first conjunct:
(96) Herhalde evde oturmaktan çok sıkıldı. Yoksa bu soğukta sokağa
çıkmazdı.
‘S/he must have got very bored staying indoors. Otherwise s/he would never
have gone outside in this cold weather.’
aksi takdirde is formal. On the other hand, sonra in this usage is very informal, and the
sentence that it marks usually follows a command:
(97) Haydi ceketini giy. Üşürsün sonra.
‘Come on now, put your jacket on. Otherwise you’ll get cold.’
(c) nasılsa/nasıl olsa/zaten ‘in any case’, ‘anyway’
These items indicate that the statement to which they are attached is independent
of any conditionality:
(98) A.– Benim yüzümden boş yere para harcadın diye üzülüyorum.
‘I feel bad about you spending money unnecessarily on my account.’
B.– Yok canım, ben ZAten/NAsılsa yeni bir bavul alacaktım.
That’s nonsense; I was going to buy a new suitcase anyway.’
These items are always stressed. For unstressed zaten see 28.3.11.
(d) The expression ne de olsa ‘after all’ has universal conditional concessive
meaning (27.5.1):
(99) Sevil’in bunu bilmesi gerekir. Ne de olsa fizikçi.
‘Sevil ought to know this. After all, she is a physicist.’
 Conjunctions, co-ordination and discourse connection 455

28.3.10 ORGANIZATIONAL
This class of connectives provides organizational clues as to how an utterance is to be
understood.
(i) işte has a resumptive or summarizing function. It very often co-occurs with one of
the demonstratives (e.g. bu ‘this’) or their derivatives (e.g. böyle ‘like this’), and is used
to link some previously mentioned item to the speaker’s present statement, which may be
a summary of a longer utterance:
(100) Ortalık karmakanşıktı. Yerlerde gazete kağıtları, kitaplar. Bir gün önce de
evde kızkardeşimin doğum gününü kutlamıştık.
Bulaşık bile daha yıkanmamıştı. İşte karışıklı k derk en bundan söz ediyorum.
The house was in a real mess. Newpapers and books strewn around. The previous
day we had celebrated my sister’s birthday in the flat. Even the dishes hadn’t yet
been washed. Now this is what I mean by a mess.’
In the spoken language the cohesive link provided by işte is often to the visual
environment of the speech situation:
(101) İşte cuma akşamları toplandığımız yer burası.
‘This is the place [that I mentioned earlier] where we gather on Friday evenings.’
Another function of işte can be to indicate that the speaker does not wish to continue
discussion of the topic in question:
(102) Gitmek istemiyorum işte.
‘Well, I don’t want to go.’ (As I have already told you)
(ii) The expressions velhasıl/kısacası/özetle/özet olarak ‘in short’ introduce a summary
of what the speaker has been saying, without the resumptive dimension given by işte:
(103) Karısı yemeklerini yapıyor, çamaşırını yıkayıp ütülüyor, telefonlarına
bakıyor, kısacası hayatını kolaylaştırmak için her şeyi yapıyor.
‘His wife cooks his meals, does his washing and ironing, answers the phone for
him, in short does everything to make his life easy.’
özetlersek/özetleyecek olursak ‘to sum up’ are much more formal alternatives, used in
lectures, etc.
(iii) konumuza dönersek/dönecek olursak ‘to return to our topic’ is used to indicate the
end of a digression, or the intention of bringing the discussion back to what the speaker
wants to talk about.
(iv) As an organizational connective the informal expression neyse ‘well anyway’, ‘oh
well’ expresses the speaker’s feeling that discussion (of a certain topic, or in total) has
gone on long enough, and should be concluded:
(104) Sabah erkenden trene yetişmem gerekiyordu. Kalktım, ortalığı topladım. Bu
arada kediler de yemek istiyorlardı. Bir ara kapıya birisi geldi. Meğer
postacıymış. İmza gerektiren bir paket varmış. Neyse, 8.50 trenine yetişebildim.
‘I had to catch an early train. I got up and tidied the house. Meanwhile the cats
were wanting to be fed. Then someone came to the door. It turned out to be the
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 456

postman. There was a packet that had to be signed for. To cut a long story short, I
did manage to catch the 8.50.’
(105) Neyse, ben gitmeliyim artık.
‘Well anyway, I must be going now.’
For another function of neyse see 28.3.13.

28.3.11 CORROBORATIVE
zaten ‘in any case’, ‘well’ occurs at the beginning or end of the second conjunct, and
presents a statement which makes the first conjunct predictable, thus corroborating or
overriding it:
(106) Oraya trenle gidemezsin. Zaten bugün trenler çalışmıyor.
‘You can’t go there by train. In any case, the trains aren’t running today.’
(107) A.– Ben o kadar aç değilim.
‘I’m not all that hungry.’
B.– Sen yemek yemiştin zaten.
‘Well, you had [already] eaten.’
Note that in this usage zaten is unstressed. For stressed zaten see 28.3.9.

28.3.12 REMINDING
The discourse connectives in this group occur in the first of the two conjuncts. They are
used by the speaker to remind the hearer of a person, thing or situation within their shared
knowledge, in order that the speaker may go on to say something on that topic. The
expressions in question are as follows:
(i) for recalling an event or state: (hani)…ya (used with ya placed immediately
after the predicate)
(ii) for recalling people or things: (hani)…var ya/yok mu.
All of these correspond to phrases such as ‘you know’ and ‘remember’ in English:
(108) (Hani) geçen gün okula gitmemiştim ya, meğer okul zaten tatilmiş.
‘Remember I didn’t go to school the other day? Well, it turns out it was a holiday
anyway.’ (For meğer see 16.3 (iv).)
(109) (Hani) şu marangoz İbrahim var ya/yok mu? İşte onun dükkanından söz
ediyorum. (For işte see 28.3.10 (i).)
‘You know İbrahim the joiner? I’m talking about his shop.’

28.3.13 CONSTRUCTIVE
The function of this group of discourse connectives is to present constructive
interpretations of, or responses to, undesirable situations that have been described, or
which are part of the shared knowledge of speaker and hearer(s):
(i) neyse ‘oh well’ has two constructive functions:
 Conjunctions, co-ordination and discourse connection 457

(a) It points to a redeeming feature of a seemingly undesirable state of affairs:

(110) Hafta sonunda hep yağmur yağdı. Neyse, okuduğum romanı
bitirebildim.
‘It rained all weekend. Oh well, I was able to finish the novel I was reading.’
(b) It expresses acceptance or resignation:
(111) Neyse, bizim yapabileceğimiz bir şey yok.
‘Oh well, there’s nothing we can do.’
(ii) hiç olmazsa, hiç değilse, en azından and bari all mean ‘at least’. hiç olmazsa, hiç
değilse and en azından are used interchangeably, and can introduce statements of all
modalities. Bari, on the other hand, can be used only in volitional utterances (21.4.4):
(112) Hiç olmazsa birimiz bileti kullanabildik.
‘One of us was at least able to use the ticket.’
(113) Bari/Hiç olmazsa birimiz bileti kullanabilseydik.
‘I wish one of us could at least have used the ticket.’

28.4 THE EFFECTS OF CO-ORDINATION AND DISCOURSE

CONNECTION

When identical items occur in co-ordinated constructions all but one of them may be
omitted to avoid repetition. This kind of omission is called ellipsis. In Turkish, suffixes
and clitics can be elided (28.4.1) as well as phrases (28.4.2). Ellipsis of noun phrases can
also occur across sentence boundaries when a referent can be identified by the hearer
from previous mention (28.4.3).

28.4.1 THE ELISION OF SUFFIXES AND CLITICS IN

COORDINATED CONSTRUCTIONS
If a series of conjoined phrases or clauses contain certain identical suffixes and/or clitics,
these may be omitted in all of the conjuncts except the last one. For example, in (114) the
copular marker -(y)DI, which appears on giderdi, can be omitted in the first two
predicates, leaving giyer and alır as ‘incomplete’ forms in terms of the meaning
expressed:
(114) Ziya her sabah paltosunu giyer(…), şemsiyesini alır(…) ve işe giderdi.
‘Every morning Ziya would put on his coat, pick up his umbrella and leave for
work.’
This is known as ‘suspended affixation’. Below we explain the most common types of
suspended affixation.
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 458

[Link] Omission of copular markers and person markers

A person marker (8.4) from group 2 can be omitted if it is directly attached to one of the
markers from position 3 on the verb:
(115) Eskiden Kayseri’ye gitmiş(…), hatta orada yaşamışlar.
‘Apparently at one time they went to Kayseri and even lived there.’
If the predicate contains a copular marker (8.3.2) and/or the generalizing modality marker
-DIr (8.3.3) these can only be omitted together with any person marker that is present
(8.4). The conjunct which is ‘incomplete’ can be either a subject complement, as in (116),
or a verb inflected with one of the position 3 suffixes, as in (117):
(116) Öğretmen(…) ve bilim insanı-ymış.
teacher and [Link]
‘Apparently s/he is/was a teacher and a scientist.’
(117) Hem sinema-ya git-miş(…) h em de biraz gez-miş-ti-m.
both cinema-DAT go-PF both also [Link] [Link]-1SG
‘I had both gone to the cinema and walked around a bit.’
In alternative questions (19.1.2) which contain the combination copular marker+person
marker, usually the suffixes in the last conjunct are omitted.
(118) Öğretmen misiniz (yoksa) öğrenci mi(…)?
‘Are you a teacher, or a student?’
Of the position 3 suffixes, those which can occur in suspended affixation constructions
are -(I)yor, -mIş, -(A/I)r, -(y)AcAk, -mAlI and -mAk tA. that in 1st person negative aorist
verb forms (which do not contain an aorist suffix, eg. oyna-ma-m (play-NEG-1SG) ‘I
don’t/won’t play’) suspended affixation is not possible, and these have to occur in their
full form in conjoined constructions.

[Link] Omission of nominal inflectional markers

In noun phrases, the following suffixes can be suspended:
(i) The plural suffix (8.1.1) can be suspended, but only if any other suffixes following
it are also suspended.
(119) bütün kitap(…) ve de fterlerimiz
‘all our books and notebooks’
(ii) Case markers (8.1.3), the comitative/instrumental marker -(y)lA/ile (8.1.4) and the
suffix -sIz ‘without’ ([Link]) can be suspended on their own:
(120) Vapur hem Napoli(…) hem Venedik’e uğruyormuş.
‘Apparently the boat stops at both Naples and Venice.’
(121) kitap(…) ya da deftersiz
‘without books or notebooks’
 Conjunctions, co-ordination and discourse connection 459

(122) öğretmen-ler(…) ve öğrenci-ler-le

teacher-PL and student-PL-COM ‘with (the) students and (the) teachers’
If one of these suffixes occurs with the plural marker and a possessive suffix, all three
can be suspended:
(123) köy(…), kasaba(…) ve kentlerimizden
‘from our villages, small towns and cities’
(iii) -ki can be suspended either on its own or with a preceding locative or genitive
marker:
(124) bilgisayar(…) ve yazıcınınki
‘the one belonging to the computer and printer’

[Link] Omission of other items: -(y)ken, bile, mI, ki

The following are also often omitted from all but the final item in a series of conjuncts:
(i) The adverbial marker -(y)ken (26.3.16 (iii)):
(125) insanlar küçük(…) ve daha konuşmaz-ken
‘when people are small and can’t yet talk’
(ii) The connective bile ‘even’ ([Link] (iv)):
(126) Dersini çalış-mış(…) ve odanı topla-mış-sa-n bile sokağa çıkamazsın.
‘You can’t go out even if you have done your homework and tidied your room.’
(iii) The interrogative marker mI ([Link]):
(127) Gittin(…) ve gördün mü?
‘Have you gone and seen (it)?’
(iv) The subordinator ki ([Link]):
(128) Gördüm (…) ve biliyorum ki…
‘I have seen and know that…’

28.4.2 THE ELISION OF PHRASES IN CO-ORDINATED

CONSTRUCTIONS
The following constituents can be elided when they are in co-ordinated constructions
within the sentence:
(i) Determiners and adjectives:
(129) yeşil bir atkı ya da (…) şapka
‘a green hat or (a green) scarf’
(ii) Adverbs and modifiers of adjectives and adverbs:
(130) yavaşça oturup (…) kalk-
 Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 460

‘sit down (slowly) and get up slowly’

(131) çok şeker ve (…) cana yakın bir çocuk
‘a very sweet and (very) lovable child’
(iii) Postpositions:
(132) karısı (…) ve kendisi için
‘for his wife and (for) himself’
(iv) Verbs and verb phrases (see also 20.2.3).
(133)
(a) Ali odayı (…), Mehmet balkonu temizledi./ Ali odayı temizledi, Mehmet
balkonu (…).
Ali cleaned the room and Mehmet (cleaned) the balcony
(b) Ali odayı temizledi, Mehmet de (…)(…).
Ali cleaned the room, and so [did] Mehmet

[Link] The elision of noun phrases in co-ordinated constructions

Noun phrases in subject, complement and possessor-modifier functions can be elided in
co-ordinated constructions within the sentence:
(i) Subjects (see 18.1.5):
(134) Nuri geldi ve (…) karşıma oturdu.
‘Nuri came and sat opposite me.’
(ii) Complements:
Elision of complement noun phrases occurs regularly where they have identical
referents and case markers:
(135) Semra’yı gördüm ve (…) çok sevdim. (Direct object)
‘I have seen Semra and liked [her] very much.’
(136) Zeki köpekten hem nefret ediyor, hem (…) korkuyor.
(Oblique object)
‘Zeki both hates and fears dogs.’
If the second or subsequent occurrence of a complement requires a different case marker
from that used on its first occurrence, then a pronoun with the appropriate case marker is
usually used. For example, Semra below is in the accusative case when it first occurs, but
since the verb hayran kal-‘admire’ requires a dative-marked noun phrase, the form ona
‘for her’ is likely to be used in the second conjunct:
(137) Semra’yı tanıdı m ve (ona) hayran kaldım.
‘I got to know Semra and became full of admiration for her’
(iii) Genetive and ablative modifiers (see also 14.5.4, example (140)):
(138) Esra’nın anne(si) ve (…) babası
 Conjunctions, co-ordination and discourse connection 461

‘Esra’s mother and father’

28.4.3 The elision of noun phrases in other contexts

Unlike other types of phrase, noun phrases are regularly omitted in contexts other than
co-ordinated constructions, wherever (a) the identity of the referent is unambiguous, and
(b) (in the case of subjects or possessors) no contrast is involved or emphasis required:
(139) Bugün Ayşe’yi gördüm. (…) Sana selam söyledi.
‘I saw Ayşe today. She sent you her love.’
For the conditions governing the omission of subject pronouns, and of genitive-marked
pronouns expressing possessor-modifiers, see 18.1.5.
Direct object noun phrases are are also regularly omitted after their first mention, for
as long as the identity of the referent can still be assumed to be unambiguously
identifiable by the hearer:
(140) Beyaz Kale’yi ilk defa 1990’da okudum ve (…) çok sevdim.
Geçen hafta [Handan (…) bana verince] (…) yeniden okudum.
‘I first read The White Castle in 1990 and liked [it] very much. Last week [when
Handan gave [it] to me] I read [it] again.’
Noun phrase ellipsis also crosses the boundary beween the utterances of different
speakers, and occurs regularly in answers to questions:
(141) A.– Kitabını buldun mu?
‘Have you found your book?’
B.– (…) Aramadım ki.
‘I haven’t looked for [it].’
Another context in which noun phrase ellipsis occurs is where the referent is identified by
non-linguistic means:
(142) A. (pointing at something)—(…) Gördün mü?
‘See?’ (lit. ‘Have you seen [it]?’)
B.– Tabii. Ben (…) yaptım.
‘Sure. I did [it].’
 APPENDIX 1
REDUPLICATED STEMS

List of emphatically reduplicated stems (9.1) starting with a consonant (all stems starting
with a vowel are reduplicated with ‘p’):
başka bambaşka
bayağı basbayağı
bedava besbedava
belli besbelli
beter besbeter
beyaz bembeyaz
boş bombos
bok bombok
buruşuk bumburuşuk
bütün büsbütün
canlı capcanlı, capacanlı
cavlak cascavlak
cıbıldak cıscıbıldak
cıvık cıscıvık
çabuk çarçabuk
çevre çepçevre, çepeçevre
çıplak çırçıplak, çırılçıplak
dar dapdar
daracık dapdaracık
derin depderin
dik dimdik
diri dipdiri
doğru dosdoğru
dolu dopdolu
duru dupduru
 Appendix 1 463

düz dümdüz (adj., adv.) düpedüz (adv.)

düzgün düpdüzgün
genç gepgenç
geniş gepgeniş
gündüz güpegündüz
güzel güpgüzel
kalın kapkalın
kara kapkara
karanlı kapkaranlık
katı kaskatı
kırmızı kıpkırmızı
kısa kıpkısa
kıvrak kıskıvrak
kızıl kıpkızıl
kirli kipkirli
koca koskoca
kocaman koskocaman
kötürüm köskötürüm
koyu kopkoyu
kuru kupkuru
mavi masmavi
mor mosmor
parça paramparça
pembe pespembe
perişan perperişan
sağlam sapasağlam
sar sapsar
sebil sersebil
sefil sersefil
serin sepserin
sıcacık sımsıcacık
sıcak sımsıcak
 Appendix 1 464

sıkı sımsıkı
silik sipsilik
sivri sipsivri
siyah simsiyah
soğuk sopsoğuk
sirin şipşirin
tamam tastamam
taze taptaze
temiz tertemiz
toparlak tostoparlak
yanlış yapyanlış, yapayanlış
yalnız yapayalnız
yassı yamyassı
yaş yamyaş
yeni yepyeni
yeşil yemyeşil
yumru yusyumru
yuvarlak yusyuvarlak
zayıf zapzayıf
 APPENDIX 2:
TENSE/ASPECT/ MODALITY SUFFIXES

The following list shows all the suffixes used in Turkish to express tense, aspect and/or
modality (Chapter 21), together with a brief indication of their meanings. Except where
otherwise shown (by ‘or’ or the use of roman numerals), the various elements of meaning
shown for each suffix are present simultaneously in every usage of that form. For
example, every usage of -DI involves past tense, perfective aspect and factual modality.
Individual occurrences of -(A/I)r/-mAz, on the other hand, while they may be open to
more than one interpretation, may also fall into just one of the three patterns of meaning
shown.

VERBAL TENSE/ASPECT/MODALITY SUFFIXES (8.2.3)

-(y)Abil
Possibility ([Link]):
(1) Hasan Fransızca oku-yabil-iyor.
‘Hasan can read French.’
(2) Yağmur yağ-abil-ir.
‘It may rain.’
-(y)A-mAz
Negative possibility ([Link]):
(3) Oraya gid-e-mez-sin.
‘You can’t go there.’
-DI
Past tense (21.2.1)
Perfective aspect (21.3, 21.3.1)
Neutral modality (direct knowledge) (21.4):
(4) Arabamı sat-tı-m.
‘I sold/have sold my car.’
-mIş
Relative past tense (21.2.1)
Perfective aspect (21.3, 21.3.1)
Evidential modality (indirect knowledge) (21.4.3)
(5) Burada yağmur yağ-mış.
 Appendix 2 466

‘Apparently it rained/It seems to have rained here.’

The modality component of the meaning of -mIş is neutralized when the past copula -
(y)DI is added, or the auxiliary verb ol- follows:
(6) O hafta çok yağmur yağ-mış-tı.
‘It had rained a lot that week.’
-(I)yor
(i) Imperfective aspect (progressive or habitual) (21.3.1–2)
Progressive:
(7) Şu anda Ahmet futbol oyn-uyor.
‘Ahmet is playing football at the moment.’
(8) Sen telefon ettiğinde Ahmet futbol oyn-uyor-du.
‘Ahmet was playing football when you rang.’
Habitual:
(9) Cumartesileri Ahmet futbol oyn-uyor(-du).
‘On Saturdays Ahmet plays (used to play) football.’
(ii) Scheduled future tense:
(10) Yarı n Paris’e gid-iyor-uz.
‘We’re going to Paris tomorrow.’
-mAktA
Imperfective aspect (progressive or habitual) (21.3.1–2)
Progressive:
(11) Şu sıralarda konferansımı hazırla-makta-yım.
‘At the moment I’ m prepari ng my lectur
Habitual:
(12) Cep telefonlarının kullanımı uçağın iletişim sistemini kötü yönde etkile-
mekte-dir.
The use of mobile phones adversely affects the plane’s communication system.’
-(y)AcAK
(i) Relative future tense (21.2.3):
(13) Burada dört ev yap-ıl-acak(-tı).
‘Four houses are/were going to be built here.’
(ii) Non-fact modality (assumption) (ol- only) ([Link]):
(14) Kapı çaldı, Hasan ol-acak.
The door bell rang; that’ll be Hasan.’
(iii) Volitional modality (command) ([Link] (iv)):
 Appendix 2 467

(15) Herkes saat ikide burada ol-acak, anlaşıldı mı?

‘Everyone is to be here at two o’clock; is that clear?’
-(A/I)r/-mAz (Aorist)
(i) Imperfective (habitual) aspect (21.3.2)+generalizing modality ([Link]):
(16) Burada çok yağmur yağ-ar.
‘It rains a lot here.’
(17) Para mutluluk getir-mez.
‘Money doesn’t bring happiness.’
(18) Öğrenciler çok kahve iç-er.
‘(The) students drink a lot of coffee.’
(ii) Hypothetical modality ([Link]):
(19) Sen oradaki havayı beğen-mez-sin.
‘You wouldn’t like the atmosphere there.’
(iii) Future tense+non-fact modality (assumption) ([Link]):
(20) Oradan iki saatte gel-ir-siniz.
‘From there you’ll get here in two hours.’
(iv) Volitional modality ([Link]–6):
(21) Bana yardım ed-er misiniz? (Request)
‘Would you [please] help me?’
(22) Bunu kimseye söyle-me-m. (Promise)
‘I won’t tell anyone about this.’
-mAl
(i) Speaker-generated obligation ([Link]):
(23) Artık git-meli-yim.
‘I must go now.’
(ii) Non-fact modality (deduction) (ol- only) ([Link]):
(24) Bu ceket senin ol-malı.
‘This jacket must be yours.’
-sA
(i) Volitional modality (wish) ([Link]):
(25) Daha büyük b ir arabamız ol-sa.
‘If only we had a bigger car.’
-sAm/-sAk
(ii) (1st person forms only, in questions) volitional modality (deliberation) ([Link]):
(26) Bu akşam ne yap-sa-k acaba?
‘What should we do this evening, I wonder?’
 Appendix 2 468

(zero), -(y)In(Iz), -sIn(lAr) (Imperative)

Volitional modality (command) ([Link] (i), (ii)):
(27) Bu parayı Kaya’ya ver.
‘Give this money to Kaya.’
(28) Düğmeye bas-ın-(ız).
‘Press the button.’
(29) Ayşe bu akşam bana telefon et-sin.
‘I want/Tell Ayşe to ring me this evening.’
-(y)AyIm, -(y)AlI m (Optative, 1st person forms)
Volitional modality (suggestion) ([Link]):
(30) Sana yardım ed-eyim.
‘Let me help you.’
(31) Biraz otur-alım mı?
‘Shall we sit down for a while?’

COPULAR MARKERS (USED IN NOMINAL AND VERBAL

SENTENCES) (8.3.2)

-(y)DI
(i) Past tense (21.2.1):
(32) Herkes bahçe-de-ydi.
‘Everyone was in the garden.’
(33) Eğlen-iyor-du-k.
‘We were having a good time.’
(ii) Counterfactual modality:
(34) Sen bu işi daha güzel yapar-dı-n.
‘You would have done this job better.’
(35) Baştan söyle-se-ydi-n.
‘If only you had said [so] at the start.’
-(y)mIş
Evidential modality (indirectly or newly acquired knowledge) (21.4.3):
(36) Aysel’in babası mühendis-miş.
‘Apparently Aysel’s father is/was an engineer.’
(37) Her yaz Amerika’ya gid-iyor-lar-mış.
‘It seems they go/went to America every summer.’
(38) Burası gerçekten güzel-miş.
This really is a beautiful place.’
 Appendix 2 469

THE GENERALIZING MODALITY MARKER -DIr (8.3.3)

(i) Generalizing modality ([Link]–2):

(39) Demir ağır-dır.
‘Iron is heavy.’
(40) İnsanlar tembel-dir.
‘People are lazy.’
(ii) Non-fact modality (assumption) ([Link]):
(41) Yorgun-sun-dur.
‘You must be tired.’
(42) Toplantı artık bit-miş-tir.
The meeting will have finished by now.’
 GLOSSARY OF GRAMMATICAL TERMS
ablative one of the five case markers (-DAn), often expressing concepts such as from,
out of, through
accusative one of the five case markers (-(y)I), indicating a direct object which is
definite or specific
active (of a verb form or sentence) which expresses the concept of someone or something
performing an action: Peter Smith wrote a book; opposed to passive
addressee the person to whom a speaker is speaking, also called the hearer
adjectival (phrase) any linguistic structure that performs the function of an adjective
adjective a word that ascribes some property, quality or status to the entity denoted by a
noun (e.g. blue, good, democratic, imaginary)
adverb a word that modifies (i.e. further specifies the meaning of) a verb, an adjective,
another adverb, or a whole sentence (e.g. easily, very, now, probably)
adverbial (phrase) any linguistic structure that performs the function of an adverb
adverbial clause a finite or non-finite subordinate clause that performs an adverbial
function in relation to its superordinate clause
affirmative not negative
affricate (consonant) produced by the gradual opening of the vocal tract after complete
closure
agent the item expressing the person(s) or thing(s) that perform the action of the verb;
identical with the subject in an active sentence, but either suppressed or expressed as
an optional constituent in a passive sentence
agreement the requirement for the predicate to be marked for person and number in
accordance with the person and number of the subject
allophone a variant form of pronunciation of a phonological unit
alveolar articulated with the tip or blade of the tongue against the alveolar ridge (the
bony ridged area just behind the upper front teeth)
antecedent a linguistic item (usually a noun phrase) which identifies the person(s) or
thing(s) referred to by a pronoun
aorist a finite verb form marked by the suffix -(A/I)r (or its negative counterpart -z); the
aorist expresses either habitual aspect or various kinds of modality: generalizing,
hypothetical, presumptive (with future time reference) or volitional
aspect the temporal viewpoint from which an event is presented; see perfective and
imperfective
aspirated (of a voiceless consonant) whose articulation is followed by an escape of
breath
attributive (of an adjectival) occurring as part of a noun phrase (e.g. pahalı bir araba
‘an expensive car’); cf. predicative
auxiliary verb a verb that cannot stand on its own, but occurs either suffixed to another
verb (bound auxiliary) or compounded with another verb or a nominal (free auxiliary)
back (of a vowel) articulated with the tongue positioned at the back of the oral cavity
 Glossary of grammatical terms 471

bilabial (consonant) articulated by bringing both lips together

case marker/suffix a nominal inflectional suffix attached to the head of a noun phrase
to indicate the relationship of that noun phrase to other constituents of the sentence ay-
a bak ‘look at the moon’
categorial the status of a noun phrase that is not marked for number (i.e. is
transnumeral), and denotes an unspecified quantity/number from a designated class
of persons or things
causative suffix a suffix that turns an intransitive verb into a transitive one (e.g. öl-
‘die’, öl-dür- ‘kill’) or that expresses the concept of causing, securing or allowing the
performance of the action of the root verb; a clause in which the verb is marked with a
causative suffix
causee in a causative construction, the noun phrase expressing the person (or machine,
etc.) that is made to perform the action expressed by the root verb
clause a syntactic structure that is either grammatically a complete sentence, or resembles
a sentence in having a subject (overt or implied) and a predicate
clitic a linguistic item which (although in most cases written as a separate word) cannot
stand on its own, is dependent on the phrase that it follows (in Turkish), and is
unstressed (e.g. the interrogative particle mI)
comitative expressing the concept (together) with/in the company of
comitative/instrumental marker the suffix -(y)lA or its free-standing counterpart ile
complement a noun phrase that ‘completes’ the meaning of another constituent, e.g. a
verb (as in Filmden hoşlandım ‘I enjoyed the film’), an adjective (as in spora meraklı
‘interested in sport’) or a postposition (o günden beri ‘since that day’); see also
subject complement
complex sentence a sentence which, in addition to its main clause, contains at least one
subordinate clause
compound verb form a composite verb form in which a lexical verb marked for relative
tense or aspect is followed by one of the free auxiliary verbs ol- or bulun-, the
auxiliary verb carrying either supplementary tense/aspect/modality marking or a
subordinating suffix
concessive (of an adverbial clause) expressing a situation that is in apparent contradiction
to the superordinate clause (expressing the concept although); (of a discourse
connective) marking the speaker’s recognition that s/he is making an observation that
appears to contradict what has been said before, but not irreparably (e.g. actually,
admittedly)
conditional clause an adverbial clause expressing the concept if
conjunct one of the items joined by a conjunction
conjunction a word that joins two or more items that have the same syntactic function
(e.g. and, or, but)
connective see discourse connective
constituent any linguistic unit viewed as part of a larger construction
converb the non-finite verb of an adverbial clause
co-ordination the linking of two or more phrases or clauses that are equivalent to each
other in terms of syntactic function (e.g. Londra ve Paris ‘London and Paris’, ucuz
ama iyi bir otel ‘a cheap but good hotel’)
copula forms which express the concept be (see 8.3.1)
 Glossary of grammatical terms 472

copular markers markers that contain the -y- form of the copula: the unstressable
suffixes -(y)DI, -(y)mIş and -(y)sA
counterfactual (of a conditional clauseor a main clause that implies the fulfilment of a
condition) expressing what is known not to have happened, or not to be the case (e.g.
(If you had told me) I would have come)
dative one of the five case markers (-(y)A), often expressing concepts such as to, into,
on to
definite the status of a noun phrase that refers to a specific entity or entities which the
speaker assumes to be unambiguously identifiable by the addressee(s) (e.g. France,
the first house, these plates)
demonstrative a determiner or pronoun that has (literally or figuratively) a ‘pointing’
function (e.g. this, those)
dental articulated with the tip of the tongue against the upper front teeth
denti-alveolar articulated with the tip or blade of the tongue at the junction between the
top teeth and the alveolar ridge
derivation the creation of a new lexical item, by suffixation (e.g. iyileş- ‘get better’,
tuzlu ‘salty’), compounding (e.g. karabiber ‘black pepper, futbol takımı ‘football
team’) or reduplication (simsiyah ‘jet black’)
derivational suffix a suffix which, when added to a stem, produces a new lexical item
whose meaning is connected to that of the stem (e.g. -lAş- ‘become’, -lI ‘having’,
‘characterized by’)
derived (of a word) that contains one or more (usually derivational) suffixes in addition
to the root
determiner a word whose function is to specify the limitation (or lack of limitation) of
the potential referent of a noun phrase (e.g. this city, some daily newspapers, every
university student)
direct object the complement of a transitive verb, as in John is building a boat, I’v e
finished my work
discourse connective a word or phrase which provides a cohesive link between two
sentences or larger pieces of discourse, indicating how the content of what is newly
uttered relates to what has gone before (e.g. what’s more, however, or rather, in
short); sometimes just called a connective
distributive numeral a form of numeral expressing one each, two each, etc.
echo question a question which partly (or in full) repeats a statement just made by
another speaker, e.g. A: John’s bought a crocodile. B: He’s bought what?/John’s
bought a crocodile?
ellipsis (or elision) the omission of a linguistic item that is readily identifiable from the
context, e.g. our in our friends and (…) neighbours) or I’m in Where are you? (…)
Here.
epenthetic vowel a high vowel that appears in the second syllable of certain nouns, only
in the root form or when a suffix beginning with a consonant is added (e.g. resmi
‘his/her picture’, but resim ‘picture’, resimler ‘pictures’)
evidential a type of modal marking (with -mIş or -(y)mIş) which indicates that a
statement is based upon knowledge acquired by the speaker indirectly
existential sentence a nominal sentence which asserts (or, in the negative, denies) the
existence or presence of some entity or entities; there are two types: locative,
 Glossary of grammatical terms 473

expressing the basic notion there is an x (in y), and possessive, expressing the basic
notion x has y (where is and has stand for any form of the verbs be and have
respectively)
finite clause a clause whose predicate is either a finite verb or identical in form to a
nominal sentence
finite verb form a verb form that can occur in a simple sentence or main clause
focused (of a sentence constituent) emphasized by being pronounced with heavy stress
fricative (consonant) produced through friction in the vocal tract resulting from two
organs (e.g. tongue and teeth) coming very close together
front (of a vowel) articulated with the tongue positioned at the front of the oral cavity
generic the status of a noun phrase that (in any given utterance) is used with a
generalizing function, to refer to an entire class of entities, or to a(ny) typical member
of that class (e.g. drugs in Drugs can kill or the tiger in The tiger is a carnivore)
genitive one of the five case markers (-(n)In), marking a noun phrase either as the
possessor of another entity expressed in the sentence, or as the subject of certain types
of subordinate clause
genitive-attracting pronouns a set of pronouns which, when not plural-marked, require
genitive case marking with certain postpositions
genitive-possessive construction a composite noun phrase consisting of a genitive-
marked noun phrase followed by a noun phrase marked with a possessive suffix: ben-
im ad-ım ‘my name’, kitab-ın fiyat-ı ‘the price of the book’
glide a consonant whose articulation does not involve any closure or friction, also called
a semi-vowel
glottal stop consonantal sound produced by the audible release of a complete closure at
the glottis (the aperture in the larynx between the vocal cords)
habitual (of an imperfective verb form) presenting a situation as part of a recurring
pattern
hard palate the hard bony area in the roof of the mouth between the alveolar ridge and
the velum
head (i) the obligatory constituent (cf. modifier) of certain types of phrase: in particular,
the verb in a verb phrase and the constituent furthest to the right in a noun phrase;
(ii) the last constituent of a noun compound
high vowel a vowel produced by raising the tongue above its neutral position
imperative a finite verb form expressing a command
imperfective (of a verb form) expressing a situation from an internal temporal aspect, as
being in some sense incomplete and ongoing (e.g. gidiyordum ‘I was going’, ‘I used to
go’); see progressive and habitual
impersonal passive a form that occurs in Turkish but not in English, namely the passive
form of an intransitive verb (e.g. sevinilir ‘one is pleased’, ‘people are pleased’)
indefinite the status of a noun phrase that either
(i) refers to a specific entity (or set of entities) known to the speaker, but assumed not to
be familiar to, or identifiable by, the addressee(s) (e.g. a tiger in we saw a tiger today)
or (ii) denotes a non-specific entity (or set of entities), whose identity is unknown or
unknowable to the speaker (e.g. a tiger in I’ve never seen a tiger)
indirect command a noun clause whose content would, if converted into an independent
sentence, express a command (e.g. to wait there in They told me to wait there)
 Glossary of grammatical terms 474

indirect question a noun clause whose content would, if converted into an independent
sentence, express a question (e.g. where Louise is in I don’t know where Louise is)
indirect statement a noun clause whose content would, if converted into an independent
sentence, express a statement (e.g. you’re right in I know you’re right)
inflected (of a word) that contains at least one inflectional suffix
inflection alteration of the grammatical form of a word by the addition (to the lexical
form) of one or more inflectional suffixes
inflectional suffix a suffix which changes the grammatical form of a word; in verbs,
inflectional suffixes express categories such as voice, negation, tense, aspect, modality
and person/number; in nominals they express categories such as number, possession
and case
instrumental the concept with denoting use of an instrument, or by denoting use of a
means of transport or communication
intonational phrase a unit of speech (one, or more usually, several words) containing
one primary stress and a single intonation contour
intonation contour one of a number of distinctive patterns of rise and fall in the pitch of
the voice
intransitive verb a verb that either takes no complement (e.g. laugh, walk, sleep), or
takes an oblique object (expressed in English using a preposition, e.g. look
(at/after/for)
labio-dental (consonant) articulated with the lower lip against the upper front teeth
lateral (consonant) produced by air flowing around a complete closure formed in the
mouth
lexical item a linguistic form that one would expect to find as an item in a dictionary of
the language; normally the uninflected form of a word
lexicalized a term applied to an inflected word or phrase which, through usage, has
acquired the status of a lexical item (e.g. diye, olarak, gelince)
lexical verb in a compound verb form the first of the two verbs, and the one that
provides the lexical (dictionary) meaning
linking sentence a nominal sentence expressing the basic notion x is y (or, in the
negative, x is not y (where is stands for any form of the verb be)
locative one of the five case markers (-DA), expressing spatial, temporal or abstract
location (in, on, at)
locative existential see existential sentence
low vowel a vowel produced by lowering the tongue below its neutral position
main clause in a complex sentence, the clause which includes, and is superordinate to,
all the others
mid vowel a vowel produced with the tongue at a level intermediate between high and
low
modal adverbial an adverbial expressing the speaker’s stance towards the utterance that
is being made (e.g. belki ‘perhaps’, maalesef ‘unfortunately’)
modality a grammatical category whose expression is linked with that of tense and
aspect, and which concerns the speaker’s degree of commitment to the truth of a
statement, the speaker’s attitude towards the potential occurrence of an event, or
general notions of possibility or necessity
 Glossary of grammatical terms 475

modifier a non-obligatory constituent of certain types of phrase, which ‘modifies’ (i.e.

makes more specific) the meaning of the head; nouns and noun compounds can be
modified by determiners, numerals and adjectivals (o dört büyük ağaç ‘those four big
trees’), while verbs, adjectives and adverbs can be modified by adverbials (erken gel-
‘come early’, fazla büyük ‘too big’, fazla erken ‘too early’)
nasal (sound) produced while the velum is lowered to allow the audible escape of air
through the nose; in the case of nasal consonants, such as /m/ and /n/, there is complete
closure of the oral cavity
nominal a word belonging to one of the following (related) classes: noun, pronoun,
adjective and adverb
nominal sentence a sentence whose main or only clause either contains no verb or whose
verb is one of the forms of the copula; the two types of nominal sentence are linking
sentences and existential sentences
nominalized forms forms derived from verbs by means of a subordinating suffix (such
as -DIK or -mA), and functioning as nominals
nominal-verb compound a lexical item functioning as a verb, which is formed by the
combination of a nominal with a free auxiliary such as et- or ol- (e.g. mücadele et-
‘fight’, memnun ol- ‘be pleased’)
non-definite indefinite or categorial
non-finite clause a subordinate clause in which the verb is non-finite, i.e. marked with a
subordinating suffix
non-specific see under indefinite; also used as a cover term for categorial and generic
noun a word that denotes a class of things or persons, a member of such a class, a
substance, an abstract concept, or the proper name of a person or place (e.g. table, girl,
water, knowledge, Ahmet, Turkey)
noun clause a finite or non-finite subordinate clause that performs the function of a noun
phrase within its superordinate clause
noun compound a word-like unit which is made up of two nouns (e.g. kız kardeş ‘sister’,
balık lokantası ‘fish restaurant)’ or an adjective and a noun (e.g. ilkbahar ‘spring’); the
majority of noun compounds in Turkish are -(s)I compounds
noun phrase any word or sequence of words that can function as the subject or object in
a sentence (e.g. it, the others, a very loud noise, Mary’s uncle, the car you usually
drive); the head of a noun phrase may be a noun, a noun compound, or a pronoun
number the distinction between singular and plural
object see direct object, oblique object
oblique case markers this term is applied to the dative, locative and ablative case
markers, and sometimes also to the comitative/instrumental marker
oblique object the complement of an intransitive verb, marked in Turkish by one of the
oblique case markers, or by the comitative/instrumental marker: Bun-a çok
sevindim ‘I ‘m v ery ple ased about this’, Mehmet’le alay ettiler They made fun of
Mehmet’
optative a finite verb form expressing the speaker’s (or, in questions, the hearer’s) will or
desire
ordinal numeral a numeral which indicates an ordered position in a series (first, second,
etc.)
palatal (consonant) articulated with the blade of the tongue against the hard palate
 Glossary of grammatical terms 476

palatalization the pronunciation of a consonant as palatal in a front-vowel environment,

or the pronunciation of a back vowel in a relatively fronted position in the
environment of certain palatal consonants
participle the non-finite verb of a relative clause
partitive construction a composite noun phrase (made up of a modifier noun phrase
followed by a head noun phrase) used to express part of a whole, or to select one or
more items from a type or set; the modifier has either ablative or genitive case
marking, and the head may or may not have a 3rd person possessive suffix
passive (a verb form) which expresses that an action is (or was) done rather than that
someone or something does (or did) it (although an agent may optionally be expressed
within the clause): A book was written (by Peter Smith)
perfective (of a verb form) expressing an event from an external temporal aspect, as a
completed whole (e.g. gittim ‘I went’)
person in a grammatical context this term refers to the distinction between 1st person
(referring to the speaker or a group including the speaker), 2nd person (referring to the
addressee(s)), and 3rd person (referring to other entities)
person marker a suffix attached to the predicate to indicate the person of the subject
phonological unit any one of the consonants and vowels that can be distinguished
functionally (i.e. in terms of creating differences of meaning) in a particular language
phrase a syntactic unit (word group) that is less than a clause; the name of a particular
type of phrase indicates either the class of word that constitutes its head (as in verb
phrase, postpositional phrase), or the function of the phrase as a whole within the
sentence (as in adjectival phrase, adverbial phrase), or it may include both of these
meanings (as in noun phrase)
plosive (consonant) produced by the sudden opening of the vocal tract after complete
closure
possessive existential see existential sentence
possessive suffix one of a set of nominal infectional suffixes attached to the head of a
noun phrase; while the 3rd person singular possessive suffix has other additional
functions, the function shared by all possessive suffixes is to indicate the grammatical
person (1st, 2nd, 3rd, singular/plural) of the possessor of the entity denoted by the
noun phrase: evimiz ‘our house’, kapısı ‘his/her/ its door’
post-alveolar (consonant) articulated towards the back of the alveolar ridge (see
alveolar)
postposition a word which, together with the noun phrase complement that it follows,
forms a phrase with an adverbial or adjectival function: bütün bunlardan sonra ‘after
all this’, dolabın üstünde ‘on top of the cupboard’; Turkish postpositions usually
correspond to prepositions in English
predicate in a verbal sentence or subordinate clause, the verb; in a nominal sentence or
non-verbal small clause, the subject complement plus (if present) the copula
predicative occurring as (part of) a nominal predicate, i.e. as a subject complement
primary stress the acoustically most prominent syllable in an intonational phrase
productive (of a suffix) that regularly has a particular meaning and can be used freely
with a particular type of stem
progressive (of an imperfective verb form) expressing an event or state as ongoing at a
specific reference point
 Glossary of grammatical terms 477

pronoun an expression used when referring to persons or things that have previously
been mentioned, whose referents are obvious from the context or whose content is
only partially specified (e.g. he, those, I, herself, someone, anything)
quantifier determiner or pronoun that expresses quantity in non-numerical terms (e.g.
many, much, some, all; someone, everything)
reduplication the repetition of a word or part of a word, as a lexical or grammatical
process (e.g. bambaşka ‘quite different’, birer birer ‘one by one’, rahat rahat
‘comfortably’)
referent the person(s) or thing(s) referred to by a speaker in a particular instance of the
use of a noun phrase
referential status the status of a noun phrase, on any particular occasion of its use, in
terms of the type of reference it makes to entities in the world; see definite, indefinite,
categorial, specific, generic
register a variety of language defined by its use in particular social situations or text
types (e.g. colloquial, formal, legal)
relative clause a finite or non-finite subordinate clause that performs an adjectival or, in
the case of headless relative clauses, a pronominal function within its superordinate
clause
relative tense tense marking that locates an event as prior to, simultaneous with, or
subsequent to, any reference point established by the context
resumptive pronoun a pronoun referring (i) in sentences with certain types of relative
clause, to the head of the noun phrase qualified by the relative clause, and (ii) in the
superordinate clause of a universal conditional clause, to the entity or class defined by
the conditional clause
root the minimal form of a word, not including any suffixes, whether derivational or
inflectional
rounded (of a vowel) produced with the lips in a rounded position
-(s)I compound a noun compound consisting minimally of two juxtaposed nouns, the
second of which (the head) is marked with the 3rd person possessive suffix -(s)I (e.g.
otobüs durağı ‘bus stop’)
simple sentence a sentence consisting of just one clause (a main clause)
small clause a type of finite noun clause whose subject is also the subject or object of
the main clause
specific a term encompassing both definite and one of the two types of indefinite; see
also non-specific
stem any linguistic item to which suffixes can be added, whether a simple root or a
combination of a root plus suffix(es)
stress the high pitch and loudness with which a syllable is uttered relative to others in the
same word or sequence of words
subject in an active sentence or clause, the item expressing the person(s) or thing(s) that
perform the action of the verb: Susan plays tennis, or are described by the predicate:
The children are happy; in a passive sentence or clause, the item expressing the
person(s) or thing(s) that undergo the action of the verb: Susan was beaten in today’s
match
 Glossary of grammatical terms 478

subject complement a noun phrase or adjectival phrase that forms (part of) the
predicate of a linking sentence (e.g. Siz komşumsunuz ‘You are my neighbour’) or of
a small clause (Sizi komşu sayıyorum ‘I consider you a neighbour)
subordinate clause a clause which forms a constituent within a complex sentence; there
are three functional types: noun clauses, relative clauses, and adverbial clauses
subordinating suffix one of a range of suffixes (e.g. -mAK, -(y)An, -(y)ken) that mark a
predicate as non-finite, and thus the clause in which it occurs as a subordinate
clause; apart from -(y)ken and the conditional copula marker -(y)sA, subordinating
suffixes can be attached only to verbal predicates
subordinator any linguistic item that marks a subordinate clause, whether a separate
word such as diye or ki, or a subordinating suffix
suffix a linguistic item that cannot stand on its own, but is added to the right of a root or
stem to form part of the same word; see derivational suffix and inflectional suffix
superordinate clause the clause within which a subordinate clause occurs; this may be
either the main clause of the sentence or another subordinate clause
tap consonant produced by a single rapid contact between the tongue and the roof of the
mouth
tense the grammatical marking of location in time: past, present or future (see also
relative tense)
topic a constituent taken as indicating what the sentence is ‘about’; this usually occurs at
the beginning of the sentence, but if marked by the topic-shifter dA it can occur in
other positions also
topic shifter a linguistic item which marks a change of topic
transitive verb a verb (such as al- ‘take’, iste- ‘want’) that requires to be complemented
by a direct object expressing an entity or entities directly affected by its action; the
direct object can be omitted in Turkish if it is obvious from the context
transnumeral (of a noun phrase) neutral with regard to number
universal conditional clause a Turkish conditional clause that includes a whphrase;
such clauses express the concepts whoever, wherever, etc.
universal quantifier quantifier denoting an entire class (e.g. all, each, everyone)
unmarked order the most neutral order of sentence constituents, found in contexts in
which no information is presupposed, and no constituent is given special emphasis
velar (consonant) articulated with the back of the tongue against the velum
velum the mobile fleshy area at the back of the mouth, behind the hard palate; also
known as the soft palate
verb a word that expresses an action, event, process or state, and which, in Turkish, takes
verbal suffixes, such as the infinitive suffix -mAk or the imperfective suffix -(I)yor:
yaz- ‘write’, düş- ‘fall’, eri‘melt’, görün- ‘seem’
verbal noun the non-finite verb of a noun clause
verbal sentence a sentence whose main or only clause has a finite verb (other than ol- in
its copular function) as its predicate
verb phrase that part of a clause which consists of the verb together with its
complement(s) and any modifying adverbials
voiced consonant a consonant pronounced while the vocal cords are vibrating (e.g. /b/,
/d/, /g/, /z/)
 Glossary of grammatical terms 479

voiceless consonant a consonant pronounced while the vocal cords are not vibrating (e.g.
/p/, /t/, /k/, /s/)
voice suffix collective term for the causative, passive, reflexive and reciprocal suffixes,
which precede all other inflectional suffixes on the verb stem
volitional utterance a type of sentence (distinguished from statements and questions)
which expresses the speaker’s (or in interrogative forms the hearer’s) will or desire
(e.g. Buraya gel! ‘Come here!’ Gidelim mi? ‘Shall we go?’)
wh-phrase a questioning expression used in questions other than yes/no questions or
alternative questions; so named because most of the Engish expressions in this class
(who, where, which, etc.) begin with wh-
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ahmet Cevat [Emre] (1931) Yeni bir Gramer Metodu Hakkınd a Layıha, vol. 1. İstanbul: Devlet
Matbaası.
Akar, D. (1988) ‘Some syntactic properties of Turkish interjections’, in [Link]ç (ed.) Studies on
Turkish linguistics: Proceedings of th e Four th International Conference on Turkish
Linguistics, 265–74. Ankara: METU.
Atalay, B. (1942) Türk Dilinde Ekler ve Kökler üzerine bir Deneme. İstanbul: Matbaai Ebüzziya.
Aygen, G. (2002) ‘Finiteness, case and clausal architecture’. Doctoral dissertation. Harvard
University.
Bainbridge, M. (1980–1987) A Comprehensive Turkish Course (in four stages, each consisting of
five books plus cassettes). SOAS, University of London ms.
Banguoğlu, T. (1974) Türkçenin Grameri. İstanbul: Baha Matbaası.
Bozşahin, C. (2003) ‘Gapping and word order in Turkish’, in A.S Özsoy, [Link], [Link]ğlu-
Demiralp, [Link]ı-Taylan and [Link]-Koç, (eds) Studies in Turkish Linguistics:
Proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Turkish Linguistics, 95–104. İstanbul:
Boğaziçi University Press.
Bussmann, H. (1996) Routledge Dictionary of Language and Linguistics (translated and edited by
[Link] and [Link]). London: Routledge.
Charette, M. (2004) ‘Defining the structure of Turkish words’, in [Link] and [Link] (eds)
SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics 13. London: SOAS.
Charette, M. and Göksel, A.(1998) ‘Licensing constraints and vowel harmony in Turkic
languages,’ in [Link] (ed) Structure and Interpretation: Studies in Phonology, 65–88. Lublin:
Folium.
Crystal, D. (1991) A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics (3rd edition). Oxford: Blackwell.
Demiray, K. (1994) Temel Türkçe Sözlük (3rd edition). İstanbul: İnkılâp Kitabevi.
Demircan, Ö. (1978) Türkiye Türkçesinin Ses Düzeni, Türkiye Türkçesinde Sesler. Ankara: Türk
Dil Kurumu Yayınları.
Demircan, Ö. (2000) Türkçenin Ezgisi. İstanbul: Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi Vakfı Yayınları.
Denwood, A. (2002) ‘K~Ø: Morpho-phonology in Turkish’ in [Link], and [Link] (eds)
SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics 12. London: SOAS.
Deny, J. (1921) Grammaire de langue turque (dialecte osmanli). Paris: Leroux.
Dizdaroğlu, H. (1976) Tümcebilgisi. Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları.
Ediskun, H. (1963) Yeni Türk Dilbilgisi. İstanbul: Remzi Kitabevi.
Ediskun. H. (1985) Türk Dilbilgisi. İstanbul: Remzi Kitabevi.
Elöve, A.U. (1941) Türk Dili Grameri (Osmanlı Lehçesi). İstanbul: Ma Matbaası. [Turkish
translation of Deny 1921, with additional notes.]
Emre, A.C. (1945) Türk Dilbilgisi. Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları.
Erkman-Akerson, F. and Ozil, Ş. (1998) Türkçe’de Niteleme: Sıfat İşlevli Yan Tümceler. İstanbul:
Simurg Yayınları.
Enç, M. (1986) ‘Topic switching and pronominal subjects in Turkish’, in D.I. Slobin and [Link]
(eds) Studies in Turkish Linguistics, 195–208. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Enç, M. (1991) ‘The semantics of specificity’. Linguistic Inquiry 22.1:1–25.
Erdal, M. (1998) ‘On the verbal noun in -(y)Iş’, in Doğan Aksan Armağanı, 53–68. Ankara: Ankara
Üniversitesi Basımevi.
 Bibliography 481

Erdal, M. (2000) ‘Clitics in Turkish’, in A.Göksel and [Link] (eds) Studies on Turkish and
Turkic Languages; Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Turkish Linguistics,
41–55. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Ergin, M. (1989) Türk Dil Bilgisi. İstanbul: Bayrak Basım-Yayın-Tanıtım.
Erguvanlı, E.E. (1984) The Function of Word Order in Turkish Grammar. Berkeley: University of
California Press.
Erguvanlı-Taylan, E. (1986) ‘An odd case in the causative construction in Turkish’. Papers from
the 15th Annual Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
Erguvanlı-Taylan, E. (2000) Structure of Modern Turkish (class notes). Boğaziçi University ms.
von Gabain, A. (1988) Eski Türkçe’nin Grameri (translated by [Link]ın). Ankara: Türk Tarih
Kurumu Basımevi.
Gencan, T.N. (1971) Dilbilgisi (2nd edition). Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları.
Golstein, Bernard (1999) Grammaire du Turc: Ouvrage pratique à l’usag des francophones (2nd
edition). Paris and Montreal: L’Harmattan.
Göknel, Y. (n.d. [1974?]) Modern Türkçe Dilbilgisi. İzmir: Hür Efe Matbaası.
Göksel, A. (1993) ‘Levels of representation and argument structure in Turkish’. Doctoral
dissertation, SOAS, University of London.
Göksel, A. (1998) ‘Linearity, focus and the postverbal position in Turkish’, in [Link] with
É.Á.Csató, [Link], [Link] and [Link] (eds) The Mainz Meeting, 85–106. Wiesbaden:
Harrossowitz Verlag.
Göksel, A. and Özsoy, A.S. (2000) ‘Is there a focus position in Turkish?’, in A.Göksel and
[Link] (eds) Studies on Turkish and Turkic Languages; Proceedings of the Ninth
International Conference on Turkish Linguistics, 219–28. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Göksel, A. and Özsoy, A.S. (2003) ‘dA: a focus/topic associated clitic in Turkish’. Lingua 113,
no.11:1143–67. (Special Issue on Focus in Turkish, edited by A.S.Özsoy and A.Göksel)
Haig, G. (1997) Relative Constructions in Turkish. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Hankamer, J. (1986) ‘Finite state morphology and left to right phonology’. Proceedings of the West
Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics 5:41–52.
Hankamer, J. and Knecht, L. (1976) ‘The role of the subject/non-subject distinction in determining
the choice of relative clause participle in Turkish’. Harvard Studies in Syntax and Semantics,
2:197–219.
Hazai, G. (1978) Kurze Einführung in das Studium der türkischen Sprache. Budapest: Akadémiai
Kiadó.
Hengirmen, M. (1995) Türkçe Dilbilgisi. Ankara: Engin Yayınevi.
Inkelas, S. (1996) ‘The interaction of phrase and word rules in Turkish’. Linguistic Review 13:193–
217.
Inkelas, S. (1999) ‘The exceptional stress-attracting suffixes in Turkish: Representations versus the
grammar’, in [Link], [Link] der Hulst and [Link] (eds) The Prosody-Morphology
Interface, 134–87. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Inkelas, S. and Orgun, O. (1995) ‘Level ordering and economy in the lexical phonology of
Turkish’. Language 71:763–93.
Johanson, L. (1990) ‘Studien zur türkeitürkischen Grammatik’ in [Link] (ed.) Handbuch der
Türkischen Sprachwissenschaft, Teil I: 146–301. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Kabak, B. (2001) ‘Suspended affixation in verbal coordinate constructions in Turkish’. University
of Delaware ms.
Kabak, B. and Vogel, I. (forthcoming) ‘The phonological word and stress assignment in Turkish’.
To appear in Phonology.
Kelepir, M. (2000) ‘To be or not to be faithful’, in A.Göksel and [Link] (eds) Studies on
Turkish and Turkic Languages: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Turkish
Linguistics, 11–18. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
 Bibliography 482

Kelepir, M. (2001) ‘Topics in Turkish syntax: clausal structure and scope’. Doctoral dissertation,
MIT.
Kerslake, C. (1998) ‘Ottoman Turkish’, in [Link] and É.Á.Csató (eds) The Turkic Languages,
179–202. London: Routledge.
Kerslake, C. (2001) ‘Does Turkish prefer events to states?’ Turkic Languages 5:198–215.
Kerslake, C. (2003) ‘A new look at conditional constructions in Turkish’, in A.S.Özsoy, [Link],
[Link]ğlu-Demiralp, [Link]ı-Taylan, [Link]-Koç (eds) Studies in Turkish
Linguistics, 215–26. İstanbul: Boğaziçi University Press.
Kılıçaslan, Y. (2003) ‘Syntax of information structure in Turkish’. Linguistics 42/4:717–65.
Kissling, H.J. (1960) Osmanisch-türkische Grammatik. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz.
Kononov, A.N. (1956) Grammatika Sovremennogo Tureckogo Literaturnogo Jazika. Moskva:
Izdatel’stvo Akademii Nauk SSSR.
Kornfilt, J. (1996) ‘On copular clitic forms in Turkish’, in [Link], [Link], [Link] and
S.Löhken (eds) ZAS Papers in Linguistics 6: 96–114. Berlin: Zentrum für Allgemeine
Sprachwissenschaft.
Kornfilt, J. (1997) Turkish. London: Routledge.
Kural, M. (1994) ‘Scrambling in Turkish’. UCLA ms.
Kural, M. (1997) ‘Postverbal constituents in Turkish and the linear correspondence axiom’.
Linguistic Inquiry 28:498–521.
Lees, R.B. (1961) The phonology of Modern Standard Turkish. Uralic and Altaic Series 6,
Bloomington: Indiana University.
Lewis, G. (1999) The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Lewis, G. (2000) Turkish Grammar (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Matthews, P.H. (1997) The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Moser-Weithmann, B. (2001) Türkische Grammatik. Hamburg: Helmut Buske Verlag.
Nakipoğlu, M. (2002) ‘Case and delimitedness: Meeting the interpretive requirements of the
interfaces’. Paper presented at the 11th International Conference on Turkish Linguistics, August
7–9, 2002, Eastern Mediterranean University, Famagusta/Gazimagusa.
Nash, R. (1973) Turkish Intonation; An Instrumental Study. The Hague: Mouton.
Özbek, N. (2000) ‘Yani, işte, şey, ya: interactional markers of Turkish’, in A.Göksel and
[Link] (eds) Studies on Turkish and Turkic Languages; Proceedings of the Ninth
International Conference on Turkish Linguistics, 393–401. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
Özel, S. (1977) Türkiye Türkçesinde Sözcük Türetme ve Bileştirme. Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu
Yayınları.
Özge, U. (2003) ‘A tune-based account of Turkish information structure’. [Link]. dissertation,
METU, Ankara.
Özsoy, A.S. (1999) Türkçe. İstanbul: Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Yayınları.
Özsoy, A.S. (2002) ‘On “small clauses”, other “bare” verbal complements and feature checking’, in
[Link]ı-Taylan (ed.) The Verb in Turkish, 213–38. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Özsoy, A.S. (2004) Türkçe’nin Yapısı—I; Sesbilim. İstanbul: Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Yayınları.
Öztürk, B. (1999) ‘Turkish as a non-pro-drop language’, in [Link]ıTaylan (ed.) The Verb in
Turkish, 239–59. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
The Redhouse Turkish-English Dictionary (1999). İstanbul: SEV Matbaacılık ve Yayıncılık A.Ş.
Rona, B. (1972) Lectures given on the structure of Modern Turkish at Boğaziçi University,
İstanbul.
van Schaaik, G. (1999) ‘The order of nominalizations in Turkish’. Turkic Languages 3:87–120.
van Schaaik, G. (2000) ‘Higher order compounds in Turkish: some observations’, in A.Göksel and
[Link] (eds) Studies on Turkish and Turkic Languages, Proceedings of the Ninth
International Conference on Turkish Linguistics, 113–120. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.
 Bibliography 483

Schroeder, C. (1997) ‘“Relative” ki-clauses and the structure of spoken Turkish’, in K.İmer and
[Link] (eds) Proceedings of the VIIIth International Conference on Turkish Linguistics,
347–362. Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi Basımevi.
Schroeder, C. (1999) The Turkish Nominal Phrase in Spoken Discourse. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz
Verlag.
Sebüktekin, H. (1971) Turkish-English Contrastive Analysis. The Hague: Mouton.
Sebüktekin, H. (1975) An Outline of English-Turkish Contrastive Phonology: Segmental
Phonemes. İstanbul: Boğaziçi Üniversitesi.
Sebüktekin, H. (1997) Turkish for Foreigners/Yabancılar için Türkçe, vols. 1–2 (2nd edition).
İstanbul: Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Yayınları.
Sezer, E. (1986) ‘An autosegmental analysis of compensatory lengthening in Turkish’, in
[Link] and [Link] (eds) Studies in Compensatory Lengthening, 227–50. Dordrecht: Foris.
Sezer, E. (1978) ‘Eylemlerin çoğul öznelere uyumu’. Genel Dilbilim Dergisi, 25–32. Ankara:
Ankara Dilbilim Çevresi Derneği.
Sezer, E. (2002) ‘Finite inflection in Turkish’, in [Link]ı-Taylan (ed.) The Verb in Turkish,
1–46. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Slobin, D.I. and Aksu, A.A. (1982) ‘Tense, aspect and modality in the use of the Turkish
evidential’, in [Link] (ed.) Tense-Asp ect: Between Semantics and Pragmatics, 185–200.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Swift, L.B. (1963) A Reference Grammar of Modern Turkish. The Hague: Mouton.
Şener, S. and İşsever, S. (2003) ‘The interaction of negation with focus: ne …ne…phrases in
Turkish’. Lingua 113/11:1089–117. (Special Issue on Focus in Turkish, edited by A.S.Özsoy
and A.Göksel.)
Tansu, M. (1963) Durgun Genel Ses Bilgisi ve Türkçe. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basımevi.
Tekin, T. (2000) Orhun Türkçesi Grameri. (Türk Dilleri Araştırmalar Dizisi 9.) Ankara: Yayınları.
Underhill, R. (1976) Turkish Grammar. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Underhill, R. (1986) ‘Bibliography of modern linguistic work on Turkish’, in [Link] and
[Link] (eds), Studies in Turkish Linguistics, 23–51. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Underhill, R. (1988) ‘A lexical account of Turkish accent’, in [Link] (ed.) Studies on Turkish
Linguistics. Ankara: METU Press.
Uygun, D.B. (2000) ‘The question particle and movement in Turkish’. MA dissertation, Boğazici
University, İstanbul.
Zimmer, K. and Orgun, O. (2000) ‘Turkish’ in Handbook of the national Phonetic Association,
154–5. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
 INDEX

This index is arranged according to the Turkish alphabet (for which see pp. xxxviii–
xxxix). The following abbreviations have been used:
adj. adjectival marker
adv. adverbial marker
der. derivational suffix
d.n. de-nominal derivational suffix (i.e. derivational suffix attached to a nominal root)
d.v. de-verbal derivational suffix (i.e. derivational suffix attached to a verbal root)
NP noun phrase
pl. plural
poss. possessive
sg. singular
sub. subordinator

A
-A (d.n.) 57;
(d.v.) 53
Ablative case marker, see -DAn
Ablative-marked NP 179–81, 186–9
as adjectival 194, 209–10
as adverbial 144, 215, 228–9, 233–4, 251
as complement 143, 198–9, 201, 246–9, 416, 422, 425
as object of comparison 181, 240, 417
acaba 308, 362
-(A)C (d.n.) 59;
(d.v.) 53
-(A)cAn (d.v.) 53
Accusative case marker, see -(y)I
Accusative-marked NP 141–2, 175–6, 371–2, 375–7, 383–4
position of 393–4, 400
see also Direct object
Adjectival (construction) Ch. 15 passim
attributive/modifier 163, 191–2
dislocated 402
position within NP 162, 208–12
predicative 121, 191–2
pronominalized 281–4
Adjective 50 Ch. 15 passim
complement of 201
used adverbially 213–14, 391
 Index 485

intensive forms 98–9, 100–1, 193, 539–40

modification of 98–9, 197–201
with noun compound 107–8
pronominalized 185, 199, 2
and reduplication 98–9, 100–1
position within NP 208–9
Adjective-noun compound 103
Adverb 27, 50, 100–1, 213–14
modification of 98, 240
and reduplication 98, 100–1, 214
and word order 389–93
Adverbial 144–5, Ch. 16 passim, 258, Ch. 26 passim
as modifier 144–5, 197–201, 218, 240
and word order 389–93, 394–5
see also Adverb, Adverbial clause, Directional, Distance, Manner, Modal, Place, Purpose,
Reason, Time
Adverbial clause 235–7, Ch. 26 passim
questioning part of 307
Agent (of passive verb) 149–50
Agreement (subject-predicate) 127–35, 266–7, 272
-AğAn/-AgAn (d.v.) 53
-(A/I)cIK, 31, 60; see also -CAK
-(A/I)klA (d.v.) 56
-(A/I)r (d.v.) 54
-(A/I)r (aorist) 80–1, Ch. 21 passim, 339–41, 494, 543–4
in conditional clauses 489–93
-(A/I)rcAsInA 96, 477
-(A/I)rdI 331, 333, 342, 495–6
-(A/I)r gibi 96, 477
-(A/I)r…mAz 97, 482
-(A/I)r ol- 368–9, 433, 455
-(A)K (d.n.) 59;
(d.v.) 53
aksine 527
-(A)l (d.n.) 57, 59;
(d.v.) 53
-(A)lA (d.v.) 57
-(A)m (d.v.) 53
ama 519, 520, 522
ama…ama 518–19
-(A)mAK (d.v.) 53
-(A)n (d.n.) 59
-(A)nAK (d.v.) 53
ancak 231, 239, 520
-ane (d.n.) 59
Animacy 129–31, 146, 150–1, 258, 264, 383, 389, 392, 397
anlaşılan 219
Aorist, see -(A/I)r, -mA(z)
Apostrophe xxxix
Approximations 168–9, 205, 207
 Index 486

-(A)r (d.n.) 57
Arabic xxv–vii, xxxii, xxxix, 10, 12, 15, 17–19, 27, 53, 59, 62–3, 65–6;
see also Loan words
arasında 252, 253–5
arasından (partitive) 187, 283, 300–1
-ArI (d.n.) 59
-Ar(t) (causative) 75, 145, 146
artık 231
asıl 239
asla 322
aslında 522
Aspect 330–8
in compound verb forms 364–9, 431–3, 450–5, 470–3, 492–3, 497–9
habitual 332–4, 336–7, 339, 341–2, 364–5, 367, 431–3, 489, 491, 493–4
imperfective 331–4
in nominal sentences 125–6, 335–8
perfective 331, 334–5
progressive 328–9, 332–5
and referential status 385–7
in subordinate clauses 431–3, 434, 450–5, 470–3
Aspiration 4
Assumptions 343–5
-(A)ş (d.n.) 57
-(A)t (d.n.) 57, 59
Auxiliary verb 156–60;
see also Compound verb forms
-(A)v (d.v.) 54
Axioms (universal truths) 339, 380
-(A)y (d.n.) 59;
(d.v.) 54
aynı 203;
…-sı 282
ayrıca 515
az 166, 199, 202, 237, 240

B
Backgrounded information 396–7, 398–9, 401
bakalım 309
bakarsın 219
bari 533
-baz (d.n.) 59
bazı 165, 202, 209
bazısı, -ları 132–3, 188, 189, 282
ben 46, 133–4, 261
Beneficiary 146–8, 177
beri 229, 247–8, 483
bil
‘know’ 407, 415, 425–6
‘think’ 424–5, 433–4
Bilabialization 4
 Index 487

bile 109, 382, 503, 514

and stress 32, 33, 115–1
bir ‘a(n)’ 164–5, 166–7, 202–3, 209, 372–3, 381
bir ‘one’ 204, 209
bir an önce 231
biraz 164, 166, 197, 202, 237
birbir- 46–7, 154, 271–2
birçoğu 188–9, 282
birçok 164, 166, 202, 209
bir daha 231
bir de 515
biri(si) 188–9, 282
birkaç 164, 166, 202, 209
birkaçı 188–9, 282
bir kere 526
bir şey 166, 285
birtakım 165, 202
biz(ler) 133, 261–3
böyle (adverbial) 235, 237
böyle (bir) (determiner) 203, 381, 386
böylesine 237
bu 46, 203, 278–9;
see also Demonstrative pronouns
buçuk 204, 221
Buffer (consonant) 44, (stem) 158
bu kadar 166, 202, 237
bulun- 158–9, 439
bunun/onun üzerine 253, 528
bura- 233–4, 279–80
bu/şu/o gibi 243, 386
bu yana 248
bu yüzden 236, 527
bütün 203;
…-ü 189

C
-C/-InC (d.v.) 54
-CA (d.n., stressable) 60
-CA (d.n., unstressable) 31, 59–60, 71, 72, 215–6, 235, 238, 255–6
-CAğIz (d.n.) 60
-CAK (d.n.) 60
Case markers/suffixes 70, 173–82, 535
-CAnA (d.n.) 60
-CAsI (d.n.) 61
-CAsInA (d.n.) 31, 61
Categorial NP 169–70, 252, 377–80
as direct object 174, 176, 391, 446
as subject 377–9, 384, 391, 430, 442, 445
and word order 214, 384, 391, 400
Causative 75, 146–9, 155–6
 Index 488

Cause, see Reason adverbials

Causee 146–8, 155, 178
-CI (d.n.) 61
-CIK (d.n.) 26, 60
-CIl (d.n.) 61
Circumflex xxxix
Clitics Ch. 11 passim
and the negative marker 116
and sentence stress 37
and vowel harmony 22, 25
and word stress 31–4
Comitative/instrumental marker, see -(y)lA
Comitative/instrumental-marked NP 143, 144, 154, 243–4, 416
Commands 137, 309, 360–1, 420, 421
Comparison
in adjectivals 198–9
in adverbials 240
object of 181, 417
Complement
of adjective 178, 180, 201
of postposition 175, 178, 180, Ch. 17 passim
of verb 141–4
see also Direct object, Oblique object, Subject complement
Compound verb forms 157–60
and negation 311–12
and tense, aspect, modality 364–9, 431–3, 452–5, 470–1, 492–3, 497–9
stress in 29, 30
see also Nominal-verb compounds
Concession 237
Concessive clauses 474, 504–5, 506–7
Conditional clauses Ch. 27 passim
concessive 502, 503, 506–7
counterfactual 495–9
hypothetical 494, 497–9
as speculative questions 515
without conditional markers 474–5, 507–8
Conditional copula, see -(y)sA
Conditional suffix, see -sA
Conjoined subjects 133–4, 15
Conjunctions 51, 488–9, Ch. 28 passim
Connective, see Discourse connective
Consonants 3–10
alternation of 14–18, 43–4
clusters of 13
deletable 44–5
doubled 17–18
voiced/voiceless 3
Converb 90–7, 467–73, 473–85
Co-ordination Ch. 28 passim
Copula ‘be’ 84–6, 120, 124–6, 335–8
 Index 489

Copular markers 31, 33, 84–6, 120–3, 545

with mI 113
see also -(y)DI, -(y)mIş, -(y)sA
Countability 163–5
Counterfactual situations 342, 346, 350, 353, 359, 368, 369;
see also Conditional clauses

Ç
çeyrek 204–5, 221
çoğu 189, 282
çok
adverb 197, 198 , 237, 239, 240
determiner 166, 202
çünkü 527

D
-DA (d.n.) 61
-DA (locative) 70, 178;
see also Locative-marked NP
dA 110
‘and’ 401, 513–14
‘but’ 521
and definiteness 208, 281
and focus 199, 514
and stress 32–4, 110, 115–16, 511, 513–14, 521
as subordinator 467
‘too’ (additive) 514
with -(y)Ip 511, 521
dA…dA 516–17
subjects conjoined by 133
daha
comparative 190, 198–9, 240
time adverbial 232
daha çok 239
dahası 516
-DAm (d.n.) 61
-DA(n) (d.n.) 57
-DAn (d.n.) 61
-dan (d.n.) 61
-DAn (ablative) 70, 179–81;
see also Ablative-marked NP
-dar (d.n.) 61
-DAş/-Deş (d.n.) 62
Dates 105, 222–3
Dative case marker, see -(y)A
Dative-marked NP 177–8
as adverbial 144, 215, 222, 228, 233–4, 250
as causee 146–7
 Index 490

as complement 121, 142–3, 201, 245, 416, 422–3, 425, 434

Days of the week 105, 186, 222
de- ‘say’ 405–7, 409–10
Decimals 205
Deductions 344, 353, 404, 544
basis for, 465, 475–6
Deference (in 3rd person forms) 128, 269–70
Definite NP 124, 169–70, 175, 185, Ch. 22 passim, 371–2
and stress 385
and tense/aspect/modality 385–7
and topicalization 122
and word order 384, 393–4, 399, 400
değil 121, 313–14, 487
as discourse connective 315–16
in elliptical constructions 315
değil mi 289–90
demek (ki) 528
Demonstrative
adverbials 235
determiners 203, 211, 212
pronouns 46, 71, 243, 245, 278–80, 372
Derivation Ch. 7 passim
Derivational suffixes 44, 48, 52–67
Determiners 50, 163, 201–3
and agreement 131
definite, 190, 203, 372
indefinite 166–7, 190, 202–3, 371, 372, 381
position within NP 207–12
pronominalized 131–3, 282
quantifying 164, 165, 166, 202
-DI (d.v.) 54
-DI (perfective) 79, 541
neutral modality 338
past tense 327–8
perfective aspect 331, 334–6
and referential status 385–7
-DIğI (91–2)…gibi 473, 477, 483;
…halde 474;
…için 480;
… kadar 480;
…-nispette/oranda/ölçüde 479;
…sırada 482;
…takdirde 474, 508;
…zaman 472–3, 481
-DIğIna göre 92, 475–6
-DIğIndA 92, 481
-DIğIndAn beri 92, 483
-DIğIndAn dolayı/ötürü 92, 480–1
-DIK (d.v.) 54
 Index 491

-DIK (sub.) 91–2

in converbs 467–85
interchangeability with -mA and -(y)Iş 428–30
in participles Ch. 25 passim, 442–6
and tense 423, 442–3, 450–2, 472–3
in verbal nouns 423–30
-DIkçA 92, 479, 484–5
↓-DIktAn başka 92, 473
-DIktAn sonra 92, 483–4
-DI mI 466–7, 508
-DIr (adv.) 86, 216, 230
-DIr (causative) 75, 145, 146
-DIr (generalizing modality marker) 86–7, 338–9, 341–2, 343
with mI 113
and referential status 385–7
and stress 31
dışarı 234;
…-sı 280
↓-DI…-(y)AlI 97, 483
↓-DIydI 85, 328
diğer 203;
…-i 282
Direct object 140–2
and case marking 174, 175–6, Ch. 22 passim
omission of 140–1, 537–8
and referential status Ch. 22 passim
and word order 214, Ch. 23 passim, 391, 393–4
Direct speech 405–7, 409–10
Directional adverbials 234
Directional pronouns 280–1
Discourse connective 51, 512–33
Dislocation 402–3
Distance adverbials 175, 215
Distributive numerals 206–7;
see also -(ş) Ar
diye 136
adjectival function 196
in adverbial clauses 462–3
in noun clauses 408–9
Doubling 97, 100–1, 206, 214
dur- see -(y)Adur

E
Echo question 306–7
eğer 488
Elision/Ellipsis 140–1, 315–16, 533–8
Emphasis 98–9, 265–7;
see also Focus
-en (d.n.) 31, 62
 Index 492

en (superlative marker) 99, 190, 200–1, 208, 210, 336

en azından 5
-engiz (d.n.) 62
Epenthetic vowels 18–19
et- 17, 18, 19, 160
Events (versus states) 332–6, 495–6
Evidential copula, see -(y)mIş
Evidential/perfective suffix, see -mIş
Evidential modality 355–8, 497
Exclamations 137–8
Existential sentence 120, 122–4, 126, 450
stress in 389, 390–1
subject of 378, 430
word order in 122, 390–1, 393, 397

F
Fact (neutral modality)
markers of 338
fakat 519
fazla 166, 202, 237, 240
Final devoicing 15
Finite clause 119, 135–7, 405–12, 433–4, 457–60, 462–7
Finite verb forms 73–4, 77–8, 541–6
Focus 395–8
and discourse connectives 503, 513–14
and personal pronouns 274, 276, 277
Fractions 189, 205
Future suffix, see -(y)AcAK

G
-GA/-(A)lgA (d.v.) 54
-GAC (d.v.) 54
galiba 219
-GAn (d.v.) 54
geç- 17
geçe 53, 221
gelince 246, 401–2
-gen (d.n.) 62
Generalizations 338–41, 380–4, 406, 410, 491, 493–4
Generalizing modality marker, see -DIr
Generic reference 176, 185, 188, 252, 380–4, 491
and tense/aspect/modality 385–7
Genitive case marker, see -(n)In
Genitive-marked NP 181–5
as complement of postposition 242–5, 250–6, 257
noun clause 418–19, 423, 425, 427
in partitive constructions 189
as subject 182, 276, 405, 430–1, 443, 468
as subject complement 182
 Index 493

Genitive-possessive construction 182–5, 189, 405, 418–9, 425, 427, 443

in dates 223
in existential sentences 123–4
gerçi 522
gerek 344, 351
gerek- 351–5, 430–1
gerek…(ve) gerek(se de) 516–17
-GI (d.v.) 54
-GIC (d.v.) 54
-GIn (d.v.) 54
-GIr (d.n.) 57
gibi 235, 243, 259, 466;
see also bu/şu/o gibi, -DIğI gibi, -mAsI gibi, ne gibi
gibi dur-/görün-/gözük- 435
gibi gel- 411–12, 435
-gil (d.n.) 62
Glottal stop 10, 12
göre 245, 259;
see also -DIğIna göre

Ğ
ğ (soft ‘g’) 7–8, 14–17, 45

H
Habitual aspect, see Aspect
ha…ha 518–19
hala 232
halbuki 520–1
-(h)ane (d.n.) 62
hangi 300
hangisi, -leri 188–9, 282, 300
hani 307–8, 532
hatta 516
hazır 232
Headless relative clause 283, 449–50
hele 525
hem (de) 515
hemen 232
hemen hemen 207
hem…hem 133, 516–17
henüz 232
hep 230
hepsi 132, 189, 282
her 166, 203
followed by a numeral suffixed with
-(s)I 189, 281
her biri 189
herhalde 219, 343
herhangi bir 202, 320, 381
herhangi biri(si) 282
 Index 494

herkes 285, 372

her ne kadar 505
her şey 285, 372
her yer 234
her zaman 230
hiç 230, 318–19
hiçbir 318–20
hiçbiri(si) 132, 188, 282, 318, 320
hiç olmazsa 533
Hypothetical situations 338–9, 342, 346, 366, 374–6;
see also Conditional clauses

I
-I (d.n.) 62;
(d.v.) 54
-(I)K (d.v.) 54;
(d.n.) 58
-Il (passive) 76, 145
-(I)lI (d.v.) 54
-(I)m (d.v.) 54
-(I)m (1sg. poss.) 69
-(I)mIz (1pl. poss.) 69
-(I)msA (d.n.) 58
-(I)msAr (d.n.) 62
-(I)msI (d.n.) 62
-(I)mtraK (d.n.) 62
-(I)n (d.v.)
forming nouns 55
forming verbs 57
-(I)n (2sg. poss.) 69, 170–1, 184
-(I)n (reflexive) 76, 145
-In (passive) 76, 145
-InC, see -C
-(I)ncI 62, 205–6
-(I)nIz (2sg./pl. poss.) 69
-(I)ntI (d.v.) 55
-(I)r (d.v.) 55
-Ir (causative) 75, 145, 146
-(!)ş (d.v.) 57
-(I)ş (reciprocal) 76–7, 145
-(I)t (d.n.) 63;
(d.v.) 55
-It (causative) 75, 145, 146
-(I)yor (imperfective) 82–3, 331–8, 542
effect on previous vowel 20, 82
and future tense 330
and present tense 328–9
and referential status 386
and stress 30–1
-(I)yordu 331–5, 336–7, 464
 Index 495

-(I)yor gibi
-(I)yor ol- 367–8, 431–2, 454–5, 470–1, 492–3, 498
-(I)z (d.n.) 63

İ
-i (d.n.), see -(v)i
i- (copula) 84
içeri 234, 252
için 230, 243, 414, 527;
see also -DIğI için, -mAk için, -mAsI için
içinde 228, 233, 250, 251, 252
içinden 187, 283, 300–1
-idi 84;
see also -(y)DI iken 84;
see also -(y)ken
ile 70–71;
see also -(y)lA
ilk 206, 336
imiş 84;
see also -(y)mIş
Imperative 90, 360–1
Imperfective, see Aspect
Imperfective suffix, see -(I)yor, -mAktA
Inanimacy 130–1, 146, 150–1, 282, 297, 302, 392
Indefinite NP 185, 252, Ch. 22 passim, 372–7, 446, 456
as direct object 174, 176, 446
and dislocated adjectival 402
with generic reference 381–2, 384, 386
and stress 385
as subject 124, 431, 440–1
and word order 384, 391–2, 395, 400
Indirect statements 424–5
Infinitive, see -mAK (sub.)
Inflection Ch. 8 passim
Inflectional suffixes 44, 48, Ch. 8 passim
insan 286
inşallah 219, 343
Interjections 51
Intonation Ch. 5 passim
in questions Ch. 19 passim
ise (conditional) 84, 488;
see also -(y)sA
ise (connective), see -(y)sA
-istan (d.n.) 62
iste- ‘want’ 375, 407, 411, 413, 415, 417, 420–1
ister…ister 518
işte 530–1
-iye (d.n.) 63
-iyet (d.n.) 63
 Index 496

J
juxtaposition 509–10

K
-k (1pl.) 88
kaç 164, 166, 188, 202, 301
kaçı 188, 282
kadar
‘as…as’ 198, 242, 244, 259;
see also bu kadar, -DIğI kadar, ne kadar, o kadar, şu kadar
‘until’, ‘as far as’ 245–6, 484
kal-, see -(y)Akal
kala 221
kaldı ki 515
-kar (d.n.) 63
karşı 246
kendi (adjectival modifier) 264
kendi- 46–7, 153, 265–70.
kendi kendi- 153–4, 270–1,
see also Resumptive pronoun
keşke 359
-ki, see -ki(n)
ki (sentence-final) 112, 138, 522–3
and stress 32–4, 115–16, 522–3
ki (sub.) 111–12, 136–7
in adverbial clauses 463–5
in comment clauses 459–60
in noun clauses 409–11
in relative clauses 457–60
and stress 32–4
kimi (determiner) 165, 202, 209
kimi(si) (pronoun) 132–3, 282
kim(ler) 71, 296–7, 372
kimse 318–19, 320–1, 323;
…cik(ler) 321
-ki(n) 47, 71–2
adjectival 195–6, 210–11
pronominal 284–5
kişi 166

L
-lA (d.n.) 31, 58, 63
-lAm (d.n.) 63
-lAmA (d.n.) 63
-lAn (d.n.) 58, 145
-lAr (nominal plural marker) 68, 165–9
and bir 166–7
and definite status 378, 385, 386
 Index 497

and generic reference 382, 386

and indefinite status 373, 385
in recurrent time locations 229
and subject complements 378
subjects marked with 129–31
-lAr (3pl.) 32, 34, 87–8, 89, 129–31
-lArI(n) (3pl. poss.) 46–7, 69–70, 171–3, 184
-lAş (d.n.) 58, 145
-lAt (d.n.) 58, 145
lazım, see gerek
-leyin (d.n.) 31, 63, 225
-lI (d.n.) 63–4, 105, 194–5, 209–10
-lIğInA 230
lIK (d.n.) 64–5, 195, 209–10
-lIm (1pl. optative) 89–90
Linking sentence 121, 122–3, 134–5, 192
negation in 121, 290, 313–14, 316
stress in 389
word order in 305, 390, 397–8
see also Subject complement
Loan words 52–3
devoicing in 15
long vowels in 10, 12
prefixation in 67
stress in 27
and vowel harmony 22, 24
vowel sequences in 12
Locative case marker, see -DA
Locative-marked NP 178–9, 215
as adjectival 194, 195–6, 210–11
as adverbial of place 144, 234, 250–1
as adverbial of time 221, 222, 224, 228
as complement 142, 416, 417
Long vowels, see Vowel length

M
-m (1sg.) 88
-mA (d.v.) 55
-mA (negative) 77, 95, 310–13
and clitics 37, 116
irregular combinations 79, 80–1
and stress 32, 37, 95
-mA (sub.) 93–5
in converbs 467–9, 474–5, 477, 479, 481, 484
in expressions of necessity 351, 354–5
interchangeability with -DIK/-(y)AcAK and -(y)Iş 428–30
in verbal nouns 351, 354–5, 413, 418–23, 428–30
-mAC (d.v.) 55
-mAcA (d.v.) 55
-mAdAn 32, 95, 477–8
 Index 498

-mAdAn (önce) 483–4

madem(ki) 136, 462, 465, 475
-mAdIK (d.v.) 55, 446
-mAK (d.v.) 55
-mAK (-mAğ-/-mAy-) (sub.) 93–5
in converbs 467, 469, 473–5, 478–9, 481
in expressions of necessity 351–2, 354–5
in verbal nouns 412–15
-mAk için 94, 469, 479
-mAksIzIn 30, 94, 477–8
-mAktA 83, 341–2, 464, 542–3
in compound verb forms 432, 454
imperfective aspect 331, 332–3
neutral modality 338
present tense 326–7, 328
-mAktAnsA 94, 478
-mAk üzere 94, 330, 469, 473, 479;
see also olmak üzere
-mAk yerine 94, 481
-mAlI 83, 338, 341, 351–3, 544;
see also olmalı
-mAn (d.n.) 65
-mAn (d.v.) 55
Manner adverbials 206, 215, 235, 243, 392, 476–8
-mAsI durumunda/halinde 94, 474, 508
-mAsI gibi 477
-mAsI için 94, 469, 479
-mAsInA 475
-mAsInA rağmen/karşin 95, 237, 474
-mAsIndAn dolayı 94, 481
-mAsI yüzünden 94, 481
-mAyA (purpose) 479
-mAz (d.v.) 55
-mA(z) (negative aorist) 32, 77, 80–1
see also -(A/I)r and -(y)AmAz
-mAzdAn 95
-mAzdI, 81;
see also -(A/I)rdI
-mAz ol- 369, 433, 455
Measure (terms) 163–4, 167, 187, 206–7, 282
meğer(se) 220
mI 112–4, 287–95
in alternative questions 290–1, 426
intensifier 100–1
and intonation 36, 288, 290–1, 293–5
in rhetorical questions 309
and stress 32, 33, 115–16, 287, 295
with wh-phrase 306–7
and word order 399
see also DI mI, Questions
 Index 499

-mIK (d.v.) 55
-mIş (d.v.) 55
-mIş (evidential/perfective) 79–80, 494, 542
evidential modality 220, 355–8
past tense 327–8
perfective aspect 331, 334–5
in relative clauses 374–5, 452–3, 455–7
-mIsçAsInA 96, 477
-mIş gibi 96, 466, 477
-mIş ol- 344, 348, 365–7
in subordinate clauses 431–2, 452–3, 471, 492–4, 497–9
-mIş olan 374–5, 452–3, 455–7
-mIştI 84, 328, 464
-mIştIr 86, 341–2, 343
Modal adverb(ial)s 218–20, 307–9, 343, 362
and word order 389, 392–3
Modality Ch. 21 passim, 338–63
and referential status 385–7
m-reduplication 99–100

N
-n (passive) 76, 145
-n (2sg) 88
-n- (before case suffixes) 46–7
nasıl 28, 303–4, 506
nasıl ki 136, 462, 463, 465, 477
as discourse connective 525
nasılsa/nasıl olsa 529–30
Nationality, nouns of 102–3, 105–6, 378, 383
ne 297–9
Necessity, see Obligation
neden 303
ne de olsa 530
Negation Ch. 20 passim;
see also -mA, değil, yok
ne gibi 304
ne kadar 202, 302–3, 505
ne…ne 133, 317–18, 517
nere- 299–300;
…-si 279–80, 299–300
neredeyse 233
ne (var) ki 520
neyse 531, 533
ne zaman 303;
…ki 136
-(n)In (genitive) 45, 70, 181–2
omission of 430–1
see also Genitive-marked NP
-nIz (2pl.) 88
 Index 500

niçin 28, 303

nitekim 525
niye 303
Nominal 49–50
Nominal predicate 85–6, 120, 434–5
tense/aspect in 125–6
person marking in 87–9, 132
and referential status 385
and stress 390
of subordinate clause 126, 456
Nominal sentence 120–4
aspect in 125–6, 335–8
modality in 125–6;
see also -DIr negation in 313–14, 316,
see also Existential sentence, Linking sentence
Nominal-verb compounds, 17, 18, 19, 29, 160
Non-case-marked NP 173–5, 215
as complement of postposition 242–5, 251–2
as direct object 174, 373, 376, 377, 379, 383, 391
as subject 173–4, 430–1, 468
as subject complement 121, 134–5, 174, 378
as time adverbial 227–8, 229
Non-definite NP, 124, 174, 176, 440–1, 444
and topicalization 400
and word order 399, 400
see also Categorial, Indefinite
Non-finite verb form 73–4, 135;
see also Converb, Participle, Verbal noun
Non-specific NP 175, 197, 252, Ch. 22 passim, 373–7, 456–7;
see also Categorial NP, Generic reference
Noun 49
countable/uncountable 163–5
doubled 100
as head of NP 162
proper 19, 162, 186, 371
Noun clause Ch. 24 passim
questioning part of 307
inside relative clause 447–8
and word order 399, 401, 403
Noun compounds Ch. 10 passim
as head of NP 162–3
stress in 28–9
see also -(s)I compounds Noun phrase Ch. 14 passim
animate/inanimate 129, 130, 131, 383, 389, 392
elision of 537–8
inflection 68–72, 165–82
modification 163, Ch. 15 passim
position of determiners and numerals within 207–12
referential status Ch. 22 passim
 Index 501

stress in 190
and suspended affixation 534–5
see also Non-case-marked NP, Noun clause, Oblique case marking, Plural marking, Possessive
marking
Number 68, 165–7;
see also -lAr, Plural marking
Numerals 50, 204–6, 206–7
and agreement (subject-predicate) 129
and countability 163–5
distributive 206, 207
and -lAr 166–7
ordinal 205–6, 336
position within NP 208–12
pronominalized with -(s)I 188–9, 281
and referential status 372–3

O
o 46
determiner 203, 278
personal pronoun 261
in relative clauses 458–9
see also Demonstrative pronouns, Resumptive pronoun
Object, see Direct object, Oblique object
Obligation 351–5, 366, 430–1
Oblique case marking 215, 249, 416, 461
Oblique object 70, 142–4, 177, 178, 179, 414, 416, 422, 424–5, 429–30
omission of 537
and word order 305, 389, 392–4
Offers 361–2, 362–3
-oğlu 47
o halde 529
o kadar 138, 166, 202, 237–8, 322
ol
auxiliary 157–60, 364–5
copula 84, 439
in nominal sentences 120, 124–6, 329, 335–8
see also Compound verb forms
olacak (non-future predictions) 344, 366
olan 452–5
omission of 374–5, 449, 455–7
olacak 214, 216–17
omission of 129
oldu 335–6
olmak üzere 217, 240
olmali
deductions 344–5, 365, 368, 465
obligation 125, 366, 369
olsa gerek 344, 364, 365, 368
olsa olsa 502
 Index 502

olsun…olsun 518–19
olur 336–7, 341, 364, 366, 367, 369
oluyor 336–8, 341, 364, 365, 367, 368, 369
Onomatopoeic stems 57, 58, 66
Optative 83, 90, 361–2
in noun clauses 406, 407, 411
in purpose clauses 462–3, 464
ora- 233–4, 279–80
oysa (ki) 520–1
o zaman 225, 529

Ö
öbür 203;
…-ü 282, 372
önce 226–7, 248–9, 483–4, 528
öte- 234, 280
öteki 203, 284, 372
öyle (adverbial) 138, 235, 237, 410–11
öyle (bir) (determiner) 203, 243, 381
öyle mi 289–90
öylesine 138, 237
öyleyse 529
özellikle 239, 525

P
Palatalization 4, 10
Participle 90–2, 95, 439–47
Partitive constructions 129, 180, 185–90
Passive 75–6, 149–52, 417–18, 446
Past copula, see -(y)DI
pek 138, 230, 237–8, 322
peki 523
Perfective, see Aspect
Perfective suffix, see -DI, -mIş
Persian xxv–vii, xxxii, xxxix, 7, 10, 12, 15, 53, 59
subordinator ki 111, 136 , 461;
see also Loan words
Person markers 87–90, 534–5
with mI 113–14
Person marking 87–90
in finite predicates 127–35, 273
in non-finite adverbial clauses 274, 467–8
in non-finite noun clauses 273, 443, 418–19, 423, 427–8
in non-finite relative clauses 273, 443, 446
in NPs 170–3
in postpositions 249, 254, 255
in pronouns 265–72
in small clauses 435
Personal pronouns 133–4, 184 , 242, 254, 261–72
omission/use of (expressing subject or possessor) 272–8
 Index 503

simple 261–3, 269–70, 371

as subject complement 134–5
see also kendi-
Place adverbials 177, 178, 179, 233–4, 299–300
Place names 27–8, 30, 105–6, 162, 186, 255, 371
Plural marking
of NP 163, 165–9, Ch. 22 passim
of predicate 127–34
Plural suffix, see -lAr
Possessor, see Genitive-marked NP
Possessive-marked postpositions 249–58
Possessive suffixes 69–70, 170–3
omission of 184
and pronominalization 279–82, 284
and suspended affixation 535
Possibility 125, 345–50, 364, 365, 368, 369, 446
Postposition 51, 91, 92, 94, 236–7 Ch. 17 passim
Postpositional phrase Ch. 17 passim
adjectival 259
adverbial 216, 235, 238, 258
predicative 121, 259–60
Predicate 119, 125–6, 127–34
focused 398, 399
non-finite 126, 135–6
Prefix 28, 67, 98–100
Preverbal position 176, 377, 384, 389, 391–2, 393, 397–8, 400
Prohibitions 347
Pronouns 50, 163, 166–7 Ch. 18 passim, 371–2
agreement with predicate 127, 131–5
antecedent of 263–72
genitive-attracting 71, 242, 255–6
reciprocal 271–2;
see also birbir-reflexive 267–9;
see also kendi
see also Demonstrative pronouns, Personal pronouns, Resumptive pronoun
Proportions 189
Purpose adverbials 177, 236, 243, 258, 462–3, 464, 47

Q
Quantifier
determiner 164, 165, 166, 202, 203
pronominal 285, 372
Questions Ch. 19 passim
alternative 290–1, 312–3, 426
consultative 360, 362
evidential modality in 358
existential, subject of 378
expressing requests 362–3
indirect 407, 426
 Index 504

non-specific direct object in 378

non-specific subject in 378
with -sAm/-sAk (deliberative) 362

R
-rA (d.n.) 31, 65
rağmen 237, 246, 474
Reason adverbials 236, 248, 258, 462, 480–1
Recipient 177
Reciprocal
construction 154, 156
pronoun 271–2
suffix 76–7
Reduplication Ch. 9 passim, 539–40;
see also Doubling
Reflexive
construction 153–4, 156
pronoun 267–9, 270–1
suffix 76
Relative clause Ch. 25 passim
and referential status 374–5, 381, 440–1, 444–5, 456–7
headless 283, 449–50
position within NP 211–12
questioning part of 307
Requests 362–3, 420, 421
Result clauses 464–5
Resumptive pronoun 265, 270, 443, 458–9, 506
Root 12–13, 44–5, 46–7, 52–3
and stress 26–8

S
-sA (d.n.) 59
-sA (conditional) 80, 487–8, 494–9, 505–7
in deliberative questions 362, 544
in wishes 359, 544
-sA dA 502–4
-sAK (d.n.) 65;
(d.v.) 55
-sAl (d.n.) 65;
(d.v.) 55
san- ‘think’ 410, 424–5, 433–5
-sAnA (2sg. imperative) 30, 90, 360–1
-sAnIzA (2pl. imperative) 30, 90, 360–1
sanki 463, 466, 477
-sA…sA 502
-sAydI 496, 497–9
in wishes 359, 544
-sAymIş 497, 499
sen 46, 133, 262
 Index 505

Sentence Ch. 12 passim

complex 135–7
see also Existential sentence, Linking sentence, Nominal sentence, Verbal sentence
Sentence stress Ch. 5 passim, Ch. 23 passim
primary 37–8, 111 , 317, 521
and referential status 385
secondary 38–9, 317
Sentential complement, see Noun clause
-sI (d.n.) 65;
(d.v.) 55
-(s)I (3sg. poss.), see -(s)I(n)
-(s)I compounds 28, 103–8, 163, 172–3, 383, 435–7
in locative-marked adjectivals 194, 301
in time expressions 222, 223
-sIl (d.n.) 65
-sIn (stressable, 3sg. optative and imperative) 32, 89, 90, 544–5;
see also Optative
-sIn (unstressable, 2sg.) 31, 89;
(2sg. optative) 32, 89
-(s)I(n) (3sg. poss.) 46–7, 69–70
on impersonal verbal nouns 415–16
omission of 265, 270
in pronominalized forms 279–84
see also -(s)I compounds
-sInIz (2sg./pl.) 31, 89;
(2sg./pl optative) 32, 8
-sInlAr (3pl. optative and imperative) 89, 90, 360;
see also -sIn (stressable)
-sIz (d.n.) 65–6
siz (ler) 133, 261–3
Small clause 174, 179, 181, 182, 433–5
and negation 310–11
and word order 391
‘Soft g’, see ğ
son 203, 209–10, 336;
…-uncu 336
sonra 226–7, 248–9, 515, 526, 528, 529
sonradan 227
Statements 137
States 332–6, 495
entry into 334–6, 366–7
Stem 27–8, Ch. 6 passim, 52
Stress
and clitics 31–4, 115–16
and -mA 32, 34, 116
in NPs 190
see also Sentence stress, Word stress
Subject 119, 126–35
 Index 506

of adverbial clause 174, 468–70

animate/inanimate 130–1, 392
of existential sentence 122, 124, 378
genitive-marked 182, 272, 276, 405, 430–1, 468
non-case marked 173–4, 267, 430–1
of noun clause 182, 266–7, 272, 405, 413–15, 430–1
referential status of, 378, 379, 384, 391, 392, 400, 430–1, 440–2, 444–5
of relative clause 174, 182 , 266–7, 272, 440–5
of small clause 433–4
and word order 384, Ch. 23 passim, 391, 392, 393
Subject complement 121, 174, 178–9, 191–2, 259–60, 378
noun clause as 413, 415, 420
personal pronoun as 134–5
and word order 391
Subject pronouns, see Personal pronouns
Subordinate clause 135–7
questioning part of 307
Subordinating suffixes 74, 90–7, 487–8
Subordinator 136
Suffixation Ch. 6 passim
Suffixes
A-type 23
consonant alternations in 43–4
derivational Ch. 7 passim, 44
elision of 534–6
I-type 22–3
inflectional Ch. 8 passim, 44
non-harmonic 24–5
order of 48, 66–7, 68, 74, 104, 155–6
stressable 18, 29–31
unstressable 19, 31–2
Syllable structure 12–13
Superlative, see en
Suspended affixation 534–6

Ş
-(ş)Ar (d.n.) 66, 206
şey 286, 373
şöyle (adverbial) 235, 237
şöyle (bir) (determiner) 203, 243, 381, 386
şöyle dursun 516
şöyle ki 524, 526
şu 46, 203, 278–9;
see also Demonstrative pronouns
şu kadar 166, 202, 237
şura- 233–4, 279–80

T
-t (causative) 75, 145, 146
 Index 507

Tag questions 289–90

tane 186, 188, 206–7, 281–2;
…-si 188, 281–2
-tay (d.n.) 66;
(d.v.) 55
Tense Ch. 21 passim, 326–30
in nominal sentences 124–6, 329
in non-finite subordinate clauses 423–4, 431–3, 434, 450–5, 470–3
and referential status 385–7
see also Compound verb forms
-tI (d.n.) 66;
(d.v.) 56
Time adverbials
duration 215, 229–30, 245–6, 247–8, 257, 483, 484, 485
frequency 230–1, 484–5
location 175, 178, 21 5, 221–9, 245, 246, 248–9, 341, 464, 471, 472–3, 481–3
Topic(alization) 396–7, 400–1, 403
and pronouns 276, 278
and subject 122
Topic shifters 401–2, 513–14, 522
Transitivity 145
Transitivizer, see Causative
Transnumeral meaning 169–70
Truncated relative clause 455–7

Ü
üst- 250, 252–3

V
var 122–4, 126, 335, 487
-vari (d.n.) 66
ve 133, 254, 512–13
Verb 51, 73–97, Ch. 13 passim, 140–1, Ch. 21 passim, 541–6
of cognition/perception 159–60, 312–3, 407, 408, 410–11, 424, 428–9, 433
of communication 312–3, 408, 424
of emotion 142–3, 148–9, 177, 179–80, 284, 334, 408–9, 422, 429–30
monosyllabic 75, 80
see also Auxiliary verb, Compound verb forms, Nominal-verb compounds
Verbal noun 90–5, 405, 428
Verbal sentence 120, Ch. l3 passim
negation in 310–12, 314–15
word order in Ch. 23 passim, 389–90
veya 133, 517
-(v)i (d.n.) 66
Vocative form 26
Voice (suffixes) 75–7, 145–56
Volitional utterances 137, 359–63, 364, 366
Vowel harmony Ch. 3 passim
fronting harmony 21–2
 Index 508

rounding harmony 22
Vowel length 12
caused by ‘ğ’ 7–8
caused by ‘h’ 8
occurring under suffixation 19
Vowels 10–12, 12–13, 18–19
alternation of 19–20
deletable 44

W
wh-phrase 296–307, 505–7
wh-questions 36, 296–307
Wishes 137, 359
expressed by finite noun clauses 406, 407, 410, 411
expressed by non-finite noun clauses 413, 415, 417, 420–1
Word order Ch. 23 passim
position of kendi- 263–4
and referential status 384
in wh-questions 304–5
Word stress Ch. 4 passim;
see also Stress

Y
-y- (buffer consonant) 44
-y- (copula) 84–6, 120, 124–5
-y- (as part of stem) 47
and stress 32–4, 114, 115–16, 522–3
-(y)A (d.n.) 66
-(y)A (dative) 70, 177–8;
see also Dative NP
-(y)A (optative) 83;
see also Optative
-(y)A (possibility) 77, 79;
see also -(y)AmA(z)
ya 114–15, 515, 522–3, 532
-(y)Abil 79, 345, 541
-(y)AcAğI (92)
…gibi 473, 477
…halde 474;
…için 480
…kadar 480
…sırada/zaman 472–3, 481–2
-(y)AcAğInA 92, 481
-(y)AcAğInA göre 92, 475–6
-(y)AcAğIndAn dolayı/ötürü 92, 481
-(y)AcAK (d.v.) 56
-(y)AcAK (future) 81–2, 329, 471, 543
imperative usage 361, 366
 Index 509

and modality 338, 366

and stress 92–3
-(y)AcAK (sub.) 92
in converbs 467, 468, 472, 473–85
in participles Ch. 25 passim, 442–7
with possibility marker 349–50
and stress 92–3
and tense 423, 442–3, 450–2, 472
in verbal nouns 423–7, 428–30
-(y)AcAk gibi 96
-(y)AcAk kadar/derecede 92, 480
-(y)AcAk ol- 368, 492–3, 498–9
in relative clauses 374–5, 453–4
-(y)AcAktI 329, 342, 361, 496
-(y)AcAktIr 341–2, 344
ya da 133, 517–518
-(y)Adur 30, 79, 157
-(y)Agel 30, 79, 157
-(y)Akal 30, 79, 157
↓-(y)AlI (beri) 96, 483
-(y)AlIm 545;
see also Optative
-(y)AmA(z), 345, 541
-(y)An (d.v.) 56
-(y)An (participle) 95, 282–4, Ch. 25 passim, 439–442, 446–7
yana 249
↓-(y)AnA kadar 96, 484
yani 525–6
-(y)ArAk 30, 96, 469–70, 475, 476, 478, 510, 512
yarı/yarım 204;
yarısi 189
-(y)AsI, -(y)AsIcA, -(y)AsIyA (d.v.) 56
-(y)at (d.n.) 66
-(y)A…-(y)A 97, 469–70, 476
ya…ya (da) 133, 517–18
-(y)Ayaz 30, 79, 157
-(y)AyIm 545;
see also Optative
-(y)DI 31, 33, 85, 124, 369, 487, 545
counterfactuality 342, 346, 369, 495–6
imperfective aspect 327–8, 331, 335–6
past tense 327–8, 369
and referential status 387
-(y)DI…-(y)DI (connective) 524–5
yeter ki 529
-(y)I (accusative) 70, 175–6;
see also Accusative-marked NP
-(y)IcI (d.v.) 56
-(y)Im (1sg.) 31, 33, 89
 Index 510

-yIm (1sg. optative) 89–90

-(y)In (d.n.) 31, 66
-(y)IncA 96, 481
-(y)In(Iz) (2pl. imperative) 32, 90, 360, 544
-(y)Ip 96, 324, 469, 475, 510–11, 512
-(y)Ip…-mA 312–13, 426
-(y)Iş (d.v.) 56
-(y)Iş (sub.) 76, 95, 427–30
-(y)Iver 30, 79, 157
-(y)Iz (1pl.) 31, 33, 89
-(y)ken 96, 471, 474, 482
and ellipsis 536
and stress 31, 33
-(y)lA/ile (comitative/instrumental marker) 31, 33, 70–1, 535
adverbial/postposition 144, 154, 235, 243–4
conjunction 134, 154, 253–5, 513
oblique object 143, 416
-(y)mIş 85, 124, 220, 336, 355–8, 497, 545
and stress 31, 33–4
-(y)mIş gibi 96, 466
-(y)mIş…-(y)mIş 524–5
yok 122–4, 126, 316, 487
yok (connective) 523–4
yoksa 290–1, 309, 518, 529
yok…yok 524–5
-(y)sA (conditional) 85, 124 , 487–8, 489–94, 500–2, 505–7
and stress 31, 33
-(y)sA dA 504–5
-(y)sA/ise (connective) 111, 401–2, 522
and stress 32–3, 115

Z
-z (aorist), see -mA(z)
zaten 529, 532
-zede (d.n.) 66