The Turkish Grammar

OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 19/06/20, SPi
The Oxford Turkish Grammar

The Oxford Turkish

Grammar
G E R JA N VA N S C HA A I K
1
1
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© Gerjan van Schaaik 2020
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First Edition published in 2020
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Short contents
Detailed contents vii

Preface xxiii
Acknowledgements xxv
Abbreviations and symbols xxvii
Conventions xxix
1. Introduction 1
PA RT I . SP E L L I N G A N D P R O N U N C IAT IO N
2. The alphabet 9
3. On stress 14
4. Phonological variation 18
5. Morphological variation 29
PA RT I I . T H E N OU N P H R A SE
6. Nouns 45
7. Pronouns 64
8. Adjectives 86
9. Functions of the noun phrase 98
PA RT I I I . A DJ U N C T S A N D M O D I F I E R S
10. Spatial orientations 113

11. Counting and quantities 125
12. Times and dates 150
13. Postpositions 163
14. Adverbs and their like 174
PA RT I V. V E R B S
15. Infinitival forms 199

16. Imperative forms 201
17. On negation 205
vi Short contents
18. Indirect imperative forms 207

19. Optative forms 210
20. Present, past, and future 215
21. Abilitative forms 233
22. Necessity and hypothesis 239
PA RT V. SE N T E N C E S T RU C T U R E
23. Simple sentences 255

24. Projections 271
25. On plurality 304
26. Sundry particles 329
27. Clause linking 339
28. Postpositional complements 376
29. Ordering patterns 387
PA RT V I . WO R D F O R M AT IO N
30. Formation of verbs 397

31. Formation of adjectives and nouns 443
PA RT V I I . N OM I NA L I Z AT IO N S
32. Relative clauses 495

33. Subordination and embedding 553
PA RT V I I I . C OM P L E X SE N T E N C E S
34. Stacking embedded sentences 647

35. Sentential complements 651
36. Postposition-like constructions 677
37. Verbal complexes 686
Glossary of grammatical terms 723

Selected bibliography 727
Index of suffixes and combinations 731
Index of inflections 735
Index of derivations 737
Index of subjects 739
Detailed contents
Preface xxiii
Acknowledgements xxv
Abbreviations and symbols xxvii
Conventions xxix
1. Introduction 1
1.1 On Turks, Turkey, Turkic peoples, and their languages 1
1.2 Basic linguistic terminology 4
PA RT I . SP E L L I N G A N D P R O N U N C IAT IO N
2. The alphabet 9
2.1 Letters and sounds 9
2.2 Particulars 11
3. On stress 14
3.1 Primary stress 14
3.2 Secondary stress 15
4. Phonological variation 18
4.1 Vowel reduction 18
4.2 Short or long 20
4.3 Contraction 23
4.4 Expansion 24
4.5 Soft or hard 25
4.6 Consonant assimilation 27
5. Morphological variation 29
5.1 Vowel harmony 29
5.1.1 Twofold vowel harmony 29
5.1.2 Fourfold vowel harmony 30
5.2 Variation in word stems 30
5.2.1 Consonantal variation: voiceless—voiced 30
5.2.2 Consonantal variation: k / g—zero 31
5.2.3 Stem variation: short—long 32
5.2.4 Consonantal variation: doubling 34
5.2.5 Glottal stop 35
5.2.6 Variation in verb stems 35
5.2.7 Grammatical rules 35
5.3 Variation in suffixes 36
5.3.1 Buffer sound 36
5.3.2 Consonants 36
5.3.3 Overview 37
viii Detailed contents
5.4 Morphemes versus syllables 38

5.4.1 Morphemes: hyphens 38
5.4.2 Syllables: dashes 38
5.4.3 More basic structures 40
5.4.4 On hyphenating 41
5.4.5 Comparison 42
PA RT I I . T H E N OU N P H R A SE
6. Nouns 45
6.1 Dictionary form and textual form 45
6.2 Nominal suffix sequences 46
6.3 Plural forms 47
6.4 Possessive forms 49
6.5 Case markers 50
6.5.1 Nominative 50
6.5.2 Genitive 51
6.5.3 Dative 52
6.5.4 Accusative 52
6.5.5 Locative 52
6.5.6 Ablative 53
6.5.7 Instrumental 53
6.6 Combinations 54
6.7 Speaking of case marking 55
6.7.1 Genitive 55
6.7.2 Dative 56
6.7.3 Accusative 56
6.7.4 Locative 57
6.7.5 Ablative 57
6.7.6 Instrumental 62
6.8 Case-marked proper names 62
7. Pronouns 64
7.1 Interrogative pronouns 64
7.2 Personal pronouns 67
7.3 Demonstrative pronouns 67
7.4 Some points of interest 68
7.4.1 Question word ne68
7.4.2 Echo questions 69
7.4.3 Plural of pronouns 70
7.4.4 Deviant pronominal forms 70
7.4.5 Pronominal stem forms 70
7.4.6 Double forms 70
7.4.7 Proximity and remoteness 71
7.4.8 Scolding and calling names 72
7.4.9 Expressing affection and respect 72
7.4.10 Modes of address 74
7.5 Indefinite pronouns 75
7.6 Reflexive pronouns 78
Detailed contents ix
7.7 Reciprocal pronouns 80

7.7.1 Standard form 80
7.7.2 Pluralizing 81
7.7.3 Individualizing 82
7.7.4 Reciprocal postpositional complements 82
7.8 Genitive + –ki(n)83
8. Adjectives 86
8.1 Properties 86
8.2 Comparable positions 87
8.2.1 Indefinite article 87
8.2.2 Demonstrative pronoun 87
8.2.3 Possessive pronoun 87
8.2.4 Demonstrative and possessive combined 88
8.2.5 Reflexive pronoun 88
8.2.6 Indefinite quantity 88
8.2.7 Numbers 88
8.3 Word order in the noun phrase 89
8.4 Comparative and superlative 89
8.5 Adverbs applied to adjectives 90
8.6 Locative + –ki(n)91
8.7 Adjectives used as nouns 92
8.8 Adjectives with complements 93
8.8.1 Dative complement 93
8.8.2 Ablative complement 94
8.8.3 Instrumental complement 95
8.8.4 Adverbial complement 97
9. Functions of the noun phrase 98
9.1 Noun phrases in nominal sentences 98
9.2 Noun phrases in verbal sentences 99
9.2.1 Subject 99
9.2.2 Objects 100
9.2.3 Direct object 100
9.2.4 Dative object 104
9.2.5 Locative object 106
9.2.6 Ablative object 106
9.2.7 Instrumental object 106
9.2.8 Homonymy 107
9.3 Noun phrases in genitive-possessive constructions 109
9.4 Noun phrases in existential sentences 110
PA RT I I I . A DJ U N C T S A N D M O D I F I E R S
10. Spatial orientations 113

10.1 Deictic pronouns: where, here, and there114
10.2 Orientations with the genitive-possessive construction 115
10.2.1 Place nouns 115
10.2.2 Metaphoric usage 117
10.2.3 Adjectival usage 118
x Detailed contents
1 0.3 From noun to locative postposition 119

10.4 From postposition to adverbial phrase 122
11. Counting and quantities 125
11.1 Cardinal numbers 125
11.1.1 The basics 125
11.1.2 Arithmetic 127
11.2 Ordinal numbers 129
11.3 Distributive numbers 130
11.4 Special formations 131
11.4.1 Adverbial usage 131
11.4.2 Nominal usage 132
11.4.3 Possessive numbers 133
11.4.4 Derived nouns 133
11.4.5 Derived adjectives 133
11.4.6 Multiplicity 134
11.4.7 Distributive adjectives 134
11.4.8 School classes 135
11.4.9 Game numbers 135
11.5 Quantities 135
11.5.1 Absolute quantity 135
11.5.2 Units 139
11.5.3 Relative quantity 139
11.5.4 Quantifying adjectives 140
11.6 Fractions 141
11.7 Partitive constructions 142
11.7.1 A part is equal to one 142
11.7.2 A part is greater than one 144
11.7.3 Non-numerical part 145
11.7.4 Inferrable whole 146
11.7.5 Indefinite quantifiers 146
11.8 On age 146
12. Times and dates 150
12.1 The clock 150
12.1.1 The basics 150
12.1.2 Location in time 151
12.2 Days, months, years, centuries 152
12.2.1 Temporal expressions 152
12.2.2 Sequence 154
12.2.3 Calendar 154
12.2.4 Seasons 155
12.3 Dates 155
12.4 Special forms 156
12.5 Combinations 156
12.5.1 Daily periods and the clock 156
12.5.2 Today’s day 157
12.5.3 Today’s date 158
1 2.6 Temporal phrase + –ki(n)159
12.7 More on –ki(n)160
Detailed contents xi
13. Postpositions 163

13.1 Direction 163
13.2 Time 164
13.3 Other postpositions 166
13.4.1 Postposition or noun? 169
13.4.2 Postposition or adverb? 171
13.4.3 Other deviant postpositions 171
13.4.4 Adjective or postposition? 172
13.4.5 Forms with baş ‘head’ 172
14. Adverbs and their like 174
14.1 Levels of usage 174
14.2 Adverbs for place 177
14.2.1 Directions 177
14.2.2 Targets 178
14.3 Indeterminate adverbials 179
14.4 The formation of adverbial phrases 181
14.4.1 Adjective as adverb 181
14.4.2 Lexical adverb 182
14.4.3 Formation by –CE182
14.4.4 Reduplication 183
14.4.5 Formation by –(y)E186
14.4.6 Result adverbial 187
14.4.7 Quality adverbial 188
14.4.8 Circumstance adverbial 189
14.4.9 Secondary predicate 189
14.5 With or without instrument, company, or transportation 190
14.6 A peculiar suffix ordering 192
14.6.1 Reverse order 1: possessive plus adjectival –lI / –sIz192
14.6.2 Reverse order 2: possessive plus –lEr193
14.6.3 Reverse order 3: possessive plus –lIk194
14.6.4 Reverse order 4: possessive plus –CE194
PA RT I V. V E R B S
15. Infinitival forms 199

15.1 The full infinitive: –mEk199
15.2 The short infinitive: –mE199
16. Imperative forms 201
16.1 Short and sweet requests 201
16.2 Polite requests 201
16.3 Compelling requests: –sEnE and –sEnIzE202
16.4 Paraphrased requests 203
16.5 Other forms 204
17. On negation 205
17.1 Verbal negation: –mE205
17.2 Other forms of negation 206
xii Detailed contents
18. Indirect imperative forms 207

18.1 Third person: –sIn and –sIn-lEr207
18.2 Questioned forms 208
18.3 A special form 209
19. Optative forms 210
19.1 First person: –(y)E-yIm and –(y)E-lIm210
19.2 Second person: –(y)E-sIn and –(y)E-sInIz211
19.3 Third person: –(y)E and –(y)E-lEr212
20. Present, past, and future 215
20.1 Present-1: –(I)yor215
20.2 Future: –(y)EcEK217
20.3 Past-1: –mIş218
20.4 Past-2: –TI218
20.5 Present-2: –(I/E)r and –mE-z219
20.6 Present-3: –mEk-tE221
20.7 More on infinitives 222
20.7.1 Bare infinitives 223
20.7.2 Case-marked infinitives 223
20.7.3 Transitions 224
20.7.4 Purpose by dative 224
20.7.5 Other environments 225
20.7.6 Idiomatic forms 226
20.8 Meaning and interpretation 227
20.8.1 Present-1 227
20.8.2 Present-2 228
20.8.3 Past-1 / Past-2 232
21. Abilitative forms 233
21.1 Being able and being allowed233
21.1.1 Basic forms 233
21.1.2 A specious contradiction 234
21.1.3 Modality types 235
21.1.4 Optative of abilitative 235
21.2 Other forms with bilmek236
21.2.1 Expertise 236
21.2.2 Durative 237
21.2.3 Adjectival forms 237
22. Necessity and hypothesis 239
22.1 Necessity: Need to, must, have to, and need not239
22.1.1 Subjective modality 239
22.1.2 Other forms expressing modality 242
22.1.3 Objective modality 243
22.1.4 Modal adjectives 245
22.1.5 Collocations 246
22.1.6 Modal verbs 246
22.1.7 Enforcement 247
22.1.8 Obligation 248
Detailed contents xiii
22.1.9 Negational forms 249

22.1.10 Injunctions 251
22.2 Hypothesis: If…251
PA RT V. SE N T E N C E S T RU C T U R E
23. Simple sentences 255

23.1 Nominal sentences 255
23.1.1 Noun phrase 255
23.1.2 Negation 256
23.1.3 Interrogative 256
23.1.4 Constituent order 257
23.1.5 On transparency 257
23.1.6 Embedded clauses 259
23.2 Existential sentences: to be and to have260
23.2.1 Presence and absence 260
23.2.2 Possession: genitive 262
23.2.3 Possession: locative 262
23.2.4 Tail constructions 263
23.2.5 Personal presence 264
23.3 Verbal sentences 266
23.3.1 Verbal predicate 266
23.3.2 Constituent order 268
24. Projections 271
24.1 Past 271
24.1.1 Nominal sentences 271
24.1.2 Existential sentences 272
24.1.3 Verbal sentences 273
24.1.4 Indirect imperatives 275
24.2 Reportative and inferential 277
24.2.1 Scope 277
24.2.2 Meanings 279
24.2.3 Irrealis 281
24.2.4 Optative 282
24.2.5 Indirect imperative 283
24.3 Hypothetical affairs 283
24.4 Suffix combinations: tense and projection 286
24.5 Suffix combinations: tense and multiple projections 286
24.6 Suffix combinations with a fixed meaning 289
24.6.1 Rhetorical questions 289
24.6.2 Hypothetical past 289
24.6.3 Questioned hypothesis 290
24.7 Assumptions and statements of general validity 290
24.7.1 General validity 291
24.7.2 Emphasis and positivity 293
24.7.3 Assumptions and expectations 297
24.7.4 Special constructions 298
xiv Detailed contents
24.8 Meaning and interpretation in projections 301

24.8.1 Present-1 + Past 301
24.8.2 Present-2 + Past 301
25. On plurality 304
25.1 Agreement / concord 304
25.2 Postponed suffixation 307
25.3 The order of –lEr308
25.3.1 Types of statement 309
25.3.2 Property attribution 310
25.3.3 Class inclusion 314
25.3.4 Intermezzo 318
25.3.5 Identifying statements 319
25.3.6 Summary 325
26. Sundry particles 329
26.1 Joining things 329
26.2 Choosing things 330
26.3 Other small fry 333
26.3.1 Particles bile / dahi333
26.3.2 Particles da / de334
26.3.3 Particle ise335
26.3.4 Particle ya335
26.3.5 Particle yoksa335
26.3.6 Particle değil336
26.3.7 Conjunction bilemedin337
26.3.8 Initial hem de337
27. Clause linking 339
27.1 Coordination 339
27.1.1 Simple conjunctions 339
27.1.2 Suffix –(y)Ip341
27.1.3 Combination V–(y)Ip + V–(y)Ip341
27.1.4 Combination V1–(y)Ip + V2342
27.1.5 More applications 343
27.1.6 Alternatives 344
27.2 Conditions 346
27.2.1 Realis 346
27.2.2 Irrealis 347
27.2.3 Contrastive conditionals 348
27.2.4 Projection 350
27.2.5 Evocation 350
27.3 Simultaneous events 351
27.3.1 Suffix –(y)ken351
27.3.2 Suffix –(y)ErEk355
27.3.3 Means–Purpose relation 356
27.3.4 Means–Result relation 356
27.3.5 Adversative 357
27.4 Other temporal aspects 357
27.4.1 Suffix –(y)ElI357
Detailed contents xv
27.4.2 Suffix –(y)IncE358

27.4.3 Combination V-(I/E)r V-mEz359
27.4.4 Momentaneous actions 360
27.4.5 Combination –TIK + possessive + –TE361
27.4.6 Suffix –mEdEn362
27.4.7 Suffix –mEksIzIn363
27.4.8 Suffix –mEktEnsE364
27.4.9 Substitution 365
27.4.10 Renunciation 365
27.4.11 Inchoative 366
27.5 Reason and degree 366
27.5.1 Reason / cause 366
27.5.2 Conjunction diye367
27.5.3 Combination –TIK + possessive + –TEn367
27.5.4 Combination –TIK + possessive + için367
27.5.5 Concessive 368
27.5.6 Contrastive 369
27.5.7 Suffix –TIkçE370
27.5.8 Proportion 371
27.5.9 Combination –TIğInce371
27.5.10 Degree 372
27.6 Similative constructions 372
27.6.1 Suffix –CEsInE372
27.6.2 Negational forms 373
27.6.3 Complex forms 374
27.6.4 Purpose / intention 374
27.6.5 Pronominal forms 375
28. Postpositional complements 376
28.1 Person-bound adjuncts 376
28.2 Temporal phrases 377
28.3 Purpose phrases 378
28.3.1 Purpose / intention 378
28.3.2 Conjunction diye379
28.3.3 Suffix combination –mE-mE-cEsInE380
2 8.4 Phrases specifying circumstance or detail 380
28.5 Postpositions in predicate position 382
28.6 Postpositions used attributively? 385
29. Ordering patterns 387
29.1 Suffix order in nouns and verbs 387
29.1.1 Nouns 387
29.1.2 Verbs 387
2 9.2 Word order in noun phrases 388
29.3 Constituent order in main clauses 388
29.3.1 Nominal sentences 388
29.3.2 Existential sentences 388
29.3.3 Verbal sentences 388
2 9.4 The order of dependent clauses 389
29.5 Special constituent orders 390
xvi Detailed contents
PA RT V I . WO R D F O R M AT IO N
30. Formation of verbs 397

30.1 With auxiliary verbs 397
30.1.1 Auxiliary etmek397
30.1.2 Auxiliary olmak398
30.1.3 Auxiliary çıkmak399
30.2 With nouns 400
30.2.1 Suffix –lE400
30.2.2 Suffix –lEn400
30.2.3 Suffix –lEş401
30.2.4 Unproductive formations 402
30.2.5 Equal stems 402
30.3 Causatives 402
30.3.1 Suffix –TIr, –t, –Ir, –It, –Er403
30.3.2 Ditransitives 405
30.3.3 Subject to object 406
30.3.4 Double causatives 406
30.4 Passives 407
30.4.1 Suffix –(I)n, –Il, –n-Il407
30.4.2 Passive of transitive 408
30.4.3 Passive of causative 409
30.4.4 Passive of intransitive 410
30.4.5 Uncontrolled process / event 412
30.4.6 Pseudo-passives 412
30.4.7 Objects of passives 412
30.4.8 Agent phrases 414
30.5 Reflexives 416
30.5.1 Unproductive formation 416
30.5.2 Ambiguity 417
30.5.3 Disambiguation 419
30.6 Summarizing 419
30.7 Unproductive formations 420
30.7.1 Orphaned verb stems 420
30.7.2 Reciprocal –(I)ş421
30.7.3 Collective –(I)ş422
30.7.4 Intensifying –(I)ş422
30.7.5 Deceptive formations 422
30.8 Combinations and constraints 423
30.8.1 Reciprocal + causative 423
30.8.2 Causative + passive 425
30.8.3 Passive + causative 426
30.9 Imperative and optative of causative and passive verbs 427
30.9.1 Causative + imperative / optative 427
30.9.2 Passive + imperative / optative 428
30.9.3 Reflexive + imperative / optative 429
30.9.4 Causative + passive + imperative / optative 430
30.10 Verbal couplings with –(y)Ip430
30.10.1 Consecutive actions 430
30.10.2 Compound verbs 431
Detailed contents xvii
30.10.3 Lexicalization 432

30.10.4 Intensification / finalization 433
30.11 Fixed word combinations 434
30.11.1 Totality 1: –TI + personal suffix + gitti434
30.11.2 Totality 2: –mIş gitmişti + personal suffix 435
30.11.3 Totality 3: –TI + personal suffix + attı436
30.11.4 Totality 4: –TI geçti436
30.11.5 Idiomatic formations 437
30.11.6 Inclination 1: –(y)EcEK + possessive + gel-437
30.11.7 Inclination 2: –(y)EsI + possessive + gel-438
30.11.8 Inclination 3: –(y)EcEK + possessive + tut-440
31. Formation of adjectives and nouns 443
31.1 Adjectives 443
31.1.1 Suffix -sIz443
31.1.2 Suffix –lI444
31.1.3 Suffix –lIk (1)446
31.1.4 Suffix –sEl447
31.1.5 Suffix –î448
31.1.6 Suffix –(I)msI (1)449
31.1.7 Suffix –(y)IcI449
31.1.8 Participles 449
31.1.9 Suffix –I450
31.1.10 Suffix –CE451
31.1.11 Suffix –CIk (1)451
31.1.12 Suffix –(I)mtrak452
31.1.13 Suffix –(I)msI (2)452
31.1.14 Reduplication 1: doubling the adjective 452
31.1.15 Reduplication 2: N1-lI N2-lI453
31.1.16 Reduplication 3: N1-sIz N2-sIz454
31.1.17 Reduplication 4: N1-lI N2-sIz455
31.1.18 Syllable reduplication 456
31.1.19 M-reduplication 456
31.2 Nouns 457
31.2.1 Suffix –CI457
31.2.2 Suffix –lIk (2)458
31.2.3 Suffix –CIk (2)459
31.2.4 Suffix –CEğIz460
31.2.5 Suffix –lIk (3)460
31.2.6 Suffix –lIk (4)461
31.2.7 Suffix –lEr462
31.2.8 Suffix –(y)IcI (2)462
31.3 Other formations 463
31.3.1 Verb to noun 464
31.3.2 Verb to adjective 465
31.3.3 Verb to noun / adjective 466
31.3.4 Sentence to noun / adjective 467
31.4 Compounds 467
31.4.1 Nominal compounds without a formal element 469
xviii Detailed contents
31.4.2 Nominal compounds with a formal element 470

31.4.3 Noun phrase as complement 471
31.4.4 Recursion 472
31.4.5 Productivity and lexical storage 475
31.4.6 Order of formation rules 476
31.5.1 Nationality and language 477
31.5.2 Names of countries and regions 477
31.5.3 Proper names in compounds 478
31.5.4 Summarizing 479
31.6 Ezafe-forms479
31.7 Forms in –mE480
31.7.1 Derived nouns 481
31.7.2 Derived adjectives 483
31.8 Forms in –(y)Iş484
31.8.1 Pure nouns 485
31.8.2 Addition of complements 487
3 1.9 Forms in –mE-lIk, –mEk-lIk, –mIş-lIk, and –mEz-lIk489
31.9.1 Purpose adjectives 489
31.9.2 Fact / circumstance 491
31.9.3 Abstract nouns 491
PA RT V I I . N OM I NA L I Z AT IO N S
32. Relative clauses 495

32.1 The subject participle –(y)En496
32.1.1 Verbal relative clauses 496
32.1.2 Existential relative clauses 497
32.1.3 Nominal relative clauses 497
32.1.4 Passives and reflexive participles 500
32.1.5 Impersonal passives 501
32.2 The Başı-Bozuk construction 502
32.2.1 Adjectival clause 502
32.2.2 Existential clause 504
32.2.3 Relative clause 504
32.2.4 Adverbial clause 506
32.3 The Focus-Locus construction 508
32.3.1 Possessive absent 508
32.3.2 Possessive present 510
32.3.3 Internal make-up 513
32.3.4 Comparable structures 515
32.4 The object participle –TIK516
32.4.1 Direct objects 517
32.4.2 Dative objects 518
32.4.3 Locative objects 518
32.4.4 Ablative objects 518
32.4.5 Instrumental objects 518
32.4.6 Relativization of the second object 519
32.4.7 Syntactic differences 521
Detailed contents xix
32.4.8 Possessive objects 522

32.4.9 Embedded objects 523
32.4.10 Embedded subjects 525
32.5 Relativization of adverbial phrases 526
32.6 Temporal aspects 528
32.6.1 Imperfect(ive) 528
32.6.2 Perfect(ive) 529
32.6.3 Similarities and differences 529
32.6.4 Future 530
32.6.5 Regularity / duration 531
32.6.6 No necessitative 532
32.7 Independently used participles 532
32.7.1 Subject participles 533
32.7.2 Possessive subject participles 537
32.7.3 Subject participles plus ablative 537
32.7.4 Object participles 538
32.8 Pseudo-relative clauses 540
32.9 Complex structures 541
32.10 Lexicalized participles 542
32.10.1 Nouns in –(y)EcEK542
32.10.2 Nouns in –mIş543
32.10.3 Nouns in –(I/E)r544
32.10.4 Adjectives in –(y)EcEK544
32.10.5 Adjectives in –(I/E)r and –mE-z545
32.10.6 Adjectives in –mIş547
32.10.7 Adjectives compared 549
32.10.8 Nouns in –mIş-lIk550
32.10.9 Nouns in –mEz-lIk550
33. Subordination and embedding 553
33.1 Subordination with the particle ki554
33.1.1 Prelude to direct speech 554
33.1.2 Topical ki555
33.1.3 Conjunction indicating effect or result 556
33.1.4 Intensification 558
33.1.5 Purpose and intention 560
33.1.6 Comment clauses 560
33.1.7 Remainders 562
33.1.8 An atypical structure 562
33.2 Sentential predicates 562
33.2.1 Infinitive 563
33.2.2 Predicate 563
33.2.3 Verb or noun 564
33.2.4 Verbal constructs 564
33.3 Sentential subjects 565
33.3.1 Impersonal 565
33.3.2 Personal 565
33.3.3 Ambiguity 567
33.3.4 Passive 568
33.3.5 Always suffix –mE569
xx Detailed contents
33.4 Direct and indirect speech 570

33.4.1 Direct speech 570
33.4.2 Indirect speech 573
33.4.3 Non-future 574
33.4.4 Remote past 574
33.4.5 Whether or not 574
33.4.6 Other functions 576
33.4.7 Simplification 1: direct speech plus verb 578
33.4.8 Simplification 2: optative / indirect imperative plus istemek580
33.4.9 Simplification 3: söyle plus indirect imperative 582
33.4.10 Indirect commands 582
33.5 Sentential direct objects 583
33.5.1 Transitive verbs 583
33.5.2 Nominal and existential embedding 584
33.5.3 Form differences 586
33.5.4 Suffix selection 587
33.5.5 Unique type of complement 589
33.5.6 Summary 591
33.5.7 Fact or object 591
33.5.8 Act–fact test 593
33.5.9 Subordination and negation 594
33.5.10 Different subjects 595
33.6 Secondary predicates and raising 596
33.6.1 Secondary predicates 596
33.6.2 Raising 597
33.6.3 Other verbs, similar forms 600
33.6.4 Direct speech complement 601
33.6.5 Some peculiarities 601
33.7 More on –mE602
33.8 More on complementation 603
33.8.1 Group 1: Proposition—Fact 606
33.8.2 Group 2: Predication—Act-2 608
33.8.3 Group 3: Predication—Act-1 609
33.8.4 Group 4: Act-1 versus Act-2 611
33.8.5 Group 5: Fact versus Act-2 621
33.8.6 Group 6: Fact versus Act-1 625
33.8.7 Group 7: Fact versus Act-2 versus Act-1 626
33.9 Overview of complementation 628
33.9.1 Type of complement 629
33.9.2 Number of arguments 629
33.9.3 Control 629
33.9.4 Modality 629
33.9.5 Overview 630
33.9.6 Homonymy 630
33.10 Stacking of passive embeddings 631
33.10.1 Verb 1: başlamak631
33.10.2 Verb 2: çalışmak634
33.10.3 Verb 3: istemek635
33.10.4 Verb 4: beklemek636
Detailed contents xxi
33.11 Other types of embedding 637

33.11.1 Simultaneity 637
33.11.2 Temporal aspects 637
33.11.3 Reason / degree 638
33.11.4 Comparative expressions 638
33.11.5 Postpositional embeddings 639
33.11.6 Quantifying embeddings 640
33.12 Cleft sentences: object participles as subject 642
PA RT V I I I . C OM P L E X SE N T E N C E S
34. Stacking embedded sentences 647

35. Sentential complements 651
35.1 Complements of adjectives 651
35.2 Complements of nouns and nominal compounds 652
35.3 Complements of possibilities and probabilities 657
35.3.1 Modal adjectives 657
35.3.2 Subordination 659
35.3.3 Modal nouns 659
35.3.4 Alternatives 660
35.3.5 Other modal nouns 661
35.4 Complements of must, may, and being forbidden661
35.5 Complements of postpositions 663
35.6 A special case: gibi665
35.6.1 Notion like665
35.6.2 Notions as if and such as668
35.6.3 Different subjects 671
35.6.4 Independent gibi674
36. Postposition-like constructions 677
36.1 Adverbial phrases 677
36.2 Expressions for moments, periods, and duration 681
36.3 Person-bound postpositions in predicate position 683
36.3.1 Mental state 683
36.3.2 Intention / decision / obligation 684
36.3.3 Mental content 684
37. Verbal complexes 686
37.1 The basic functions of olmak686
37.1.1 Olmak ‘to become’ 686
37.1.2 Olmak ‘to happen’ 687
37.1.3 Olmak as auxiliary (1) 688
37.1.4 Olmak as auxiliary (2) 689
37.1.5 Optatives of olmak692
37.1.6 Constructions with oluş and olmayış693
37.2 The aspectual functions of olmak696
37.2.1 Foregrounding 696
37.2.2 Hypothesis 699
37.2.3 Assumption 699
xxii Detailed contents
37.2.4 Conclusion / deduction 699

37.2.5 Result 700
37.2.6 Expectation 700
37.2.7 Possibility 701
37.2.8 Desirability 701
37.2.9 Hypotheses 706
37.2.10 Interruption 707
37.2.11 Decrease 707
37.2.12 Increase 708
37.3 Other aspectual forms 708
37.3.1 Continuity 708
37.3.2 Transition 709
37.3.3 Brevity / speed 710
37.3.4 Completion 711
37.3.5 Propinquity 712
37.3.6 Lexicalized forms 712
37.3.7 Negation 713
37.3.8 Passives 714
37.3.9 Special formations 715
3 7.4 Verbal negation with değil716
37.5 Verbal negation with yok717
37.5.1 Finite forms 718
37.5.2 Infinitival forms 719
37.6 The combination yok değil720

Index of inflections 735
Index of derivations 737
Index of subjects 739
Exercises to accompany the different parts are available for download at the volume’s
companion website: www.oup.co.uk/companion/Turkishgrammar
Preface
The world doesn’t need another book outlining Turkish inflection and conjugation for
beginners. Instead, it sorely needs one that deals with the finer points of grammar and
vocabulary. A modern, state-of-the-art book dealing with that wealth of nuances generally
skipped, details usually glossed over, and phenomena that have so far escaped the attention
of grammarians or have never before been explored. A practical book as well, brimming
with examples taken from real life. A source of information for the advanced aficionado
and the serious scholar, as well as a trustworthy guide for those wishing to attain a good
command of contemporary Turkish at any level.
This is that book. Relying on sound scientific research, an extensive corpus of real-life data
and over twenty years of feedback in university classrooms in Turkey and elsewhere, this
book aims to present the most complete, up-to-date, and practically useful survey of the
Turkish language ever compiled. The point of departure is the fundamental observation
that actual conversations tend to consist of loosely connected, compact, and meaningful
chunks built on noun phrases, rather than fully fledged sentences.
In keeping with this innovative and realistic approach, the first two parts of the eight-part
work are—apart from dealing with indispensable elementaries like (minimal) terminology,
the Turkish alphabet and pronunciation, and vowel harmony—geared towards providing
the beginning learner with the building blocks for an effective communicative competence.
Main points are the structure of noun phrases, existential, nominal, and verbal sentences,
and their adjuncts and modifiers. The material presented is suitable for use in fluency
courses right from the start.
Together, the first five parts of the book provide for a basic knowledge of Turkish. This
could be achieved in about three months.
Part VI deals with the ways in which complex Turkish words are constructed, and con-
stitutes a bridge to the advanced matter treated in parts VII and VIII.
These latter parts deal with advanced topics such as relative clauses, subordination,
embedded clauses, clausal complements, and the finer points of the verbal system.
Together with the highly segmented table of contents, a subject index and thematic and
alphabetic indexes on morphology guarantee transparency and efficient lookup.
This book reveals a lot of new content. For instance, the usual analysis of Turkish constitu-
ent order in terms of SOV is abandoned in favour of a more generalized pragmatic
approach based on the notions Topic and Focus. Among other things, this does away with
lots of unnatural just-so rules to explain away the many exceptions to SOV order. This
‘alternative’ analysis is directly applicable to a certain type of relative clause for which hith-
erto no adequate explanation could be found in the linguistic literature.
Many of the aspects of Turkish grammar presented here are well-established and trans-
parent. Yet any grammar is a work in progress. There are always aspects that have so far
been overlooked, underestimated, overly simplified, or downright misrepresented. In these
cases, the reader is invited to reflect critically upon the proposed analyses and is handed
the tools that enable him or her to do so.
xxiv Preface
One such tool is thorough discussion and explanation of the phenomenon at hand.
Another is ample illustration by means of the uniquely rich array of real-life examples
drawn from a large corpus of highly diverse scientific, literary, and media texts, and structured
conversational praxis.
Aspects of Turkish grammar not or only partly dealt with elsewhere include:
• thorough treatment of syllable structure explaining how loanwords are adapted into
Turkish (section 5.4);
• behaviour of pronouns in invective (section 7.4);
• reclassification of verbal objects in terms of case marking (section 9.2);
• re-categorization (noun to locative postposition; postposition to adjective)

(sections 10.3–4);
• exhaustive treatment of numbers, quantifiers, and measure phrases, as well as of dates
and times (chapters 11, 12);
• special combinations of suffixes in kinship terms (section 14.6);
• extensive treatment of the indirect imperative and optative (highly relevant for

day-to-day conversational purposes) (chapters 18, 19);
• the peculiarities of adverbs, combinations of postpositions and locative adverbs
(chapter 13);
• formation of causatives and passives by means of introduction and reduction of argu-
ments (sections 30.3–4);
• deverbal nouns, lexicalization in compounds (section 31.4);
• stacking of passives (section 33.10);
• the pivotal role of the subject participle in all sorts of relative constructions, the
Başı-Bozuk and Focus-Locus constructions (sections 32.2–3);
• relativization on possessive, dative, locative, and ablative objects, instrumentals, and
adverbial adjuncts (sections 32.4–5);
• independently used participles and pseudo-clauses (section 32.7);
• clausal complements and recursion (chapter 33);
• aspectual verb forms (sections 37.2–3);
• double negation (sections 37.4–6).
The Oxford Turkish Grammar is aimed at everyone interested in the Turkish language. Its
multi-pronged approach (descriptive, explanatory, systematic, comprehensive) ensures that
it can be used both as a ‘learners’ grammar’ for an undergraduate or postgraduate student
audience and as a reference grammar by scholars interested in details not available in other
publications. The general public and scholars alike welcome any new grammar on Turkish
to highlight new insights and approaches to teaching, and above all, to identify new and
improved explanations about particular grammatical features. Turkish is, after all, an
interesting language with some special properties that render it somewhat baffling at first
to speakers of unrelated languages such as English.
Gerjan van Schaaik

Leiden, 2019
Acknowledgements
Since the publication of its forerunner in Dutch, for well over a decade many of my stu-
dents at Leiden University have contributed to the final version of this book by asking
questions and making comments.
I owe them a great deal of thanks, not least because time and again their comments
strengthened my conviction that I was on the right track with the adopted approach to
presenting and explaining grammatical material.
The expertise of my colleagues Drs Mehmet Emin Yıldırım and Drs Erhan Gürer was
truly indispensable when it came to judging the grammaticality of certain examples as
found in the literature and in cases where interpretational issues were at hand. Çok
teşekkürler!
In addition, there are a number of others to whom I owe a lot. First of all, I am grateful to
Prof Dr Hendrik Boeschoten, retired professor of Turcology at the Johannes Gutenberg
University in Mainz, who critically read the manuscript at an earlier stage. Also the very
useful comments of Prof Dr Elisabetta Ragagnin, working at the University of Göttingen at
the time, have found their way into the eventual result. Thank you very very much!
Also many thanks to Drs Jeroen Janssen, who showed the imperfections of spelling
and grammar checkers by taking upon himself the painstaking labour of detecting and
eliminating all inconsistencies, spelling errors, and other typographical vermin these
electronic devices leave unnoticed and which would otherwise have remained so until the
author saw the result in print. At various stages the manuscript has benefited enormously
from our discussions and his suggestions for improvement.
The anonymous reviewers also deserve a fair amount of gratitude, for their comments
and critical insight have at various places led to a substantial revision, both of the content
and of the presentation of the linguistic facts.
Dr Rik Smits took care of many a critical question about content and linguistic back-
ground, and spoke encouraging words whenever I had found another little topic that
needed incorporating in an ever-growing text: ‘Right,’ he used to say, ‘it will certainly
improve the quality.’ I thank him a lot as well, but let the reader be judge.
Abbreviations and symbols
1 first person
2 second person
3 third person
A adjective
AA active-active
abl ablative
acc accusative
adj adjective
AP active-passive
art article
CM compound marker
dat dative
dem demonstrative
FF false friend
gen genitive
INF infinitive
ins instrumental
IPA International Phonetic Association
loc locative
N noun
nom nominative
num numeral
Oc object control
Op object participle
PA passive-active
pers person
plur / pl plural
poss possessive
poss3s possessive 3rd-person singular
PP passive-passive
pron pronoun
Sc subject control
Se embedded subject
sfx suffix
sing / sg singular
Sm subject of matrix verb
s.o. someone
SOV subject-object-verb
Sp subject participle
s.t. something
T cardinal number
TDK Turkish Language Society
V verb
X unknown category
Z adverb
xxviii Abbreviations and symbols
h aspiration
x unproductive formation
∀
y palatalization
v-like sound between two rounded vowels

: vowel lengthening
! stressed syllable
. unstressed syllable
- syllable boundary
= relation between stem and derivative suffix
* i) secondary stress position (when between brackets)
ii) ungrammatical or nonexistent structure (before a word)
iii) word features in other groups (after a word)
iv) further reading available in the Selected Bibliography (when attached to a chapter or heading)
Conventions
In the body text suffixes are represented in archetypical notation, which always begins with
a dash, e.g. –lEr, –(y)Im, –(s)I(n), –tIk.
Turkish words are represented in several ways, depending on the purpose of their repre-
sentation: orthography, sound value, or morphological structure.
First, in the sections dealing with the alphabet, the sounds of Turkish which also occur in
English are represented accordingly. For the reader who is familiar with the phonetic
alphabet of the International Phonetic Association (IPA), all sound values of Turkish letters
are given in square brackets. However, Turkish letters for which there is no equivalent in
the English alphabet are mainly represented by a combination of letters in square brackets:
e.g. şişe ‘bottle’ is phonetically represented as [shishe], çiçek ‘flower’ as [tshitshek], and
çocuk ‘child’ as [tshodzhuk].
Secondly, Turkish words in the body text and in examples with the translation on the
next line(s) are always in italics.
A syllable boundary is indicated by a dash, as in şi–şe ‘bottle’ and gar–son ‘waiter’.
Aspiration is indicated by an elevated h, as in para [ pha–ra ] ‘money’.
Palatalization is indicated by an elevated y, as in gerçek [ gyєr–tshєky ] ‘real’.
Vowel lengthening is indicated by a colon, as in ma:vi ‘blue’.
Stress is indicated either by bold print, e.g. garson! ‘waiter!’, or by an accentuated vowel,
as in fotoğraf [ fo–to:–ráf ] ‘photo’ and oğul [ o:–úl ] ‘son’.
Stress patterns are given in brackets and are composed of an exclamation mark for a
stressed syllable, dots for unstressed syllables, and an asterisk indicating the secondary
stress position, e.g. İzmir ( ! . ) ‘Izmir’ and İzmir’de ( * . ! ) ‘in Izmir’.
The symbol ∀ stands for the v-like sound between two rounded vowels, as in soğuk ‘cold’
and tavuk ‘chicken’.
Thirdly, a word stem of Turkish can be expanded by one or more suffixes, as in ev-ler-
de, literally: ‘house-s-in’ or ‘in the houses’. Conversely, ‘articulated’ words such as evlerde
can be segmented in terms of stem plus suffixes. For the sake of transparency, the mor-
phological make-up of the bulk of Turkish words is made visible by segmenting them by
means of hyphens (-). In the body text, however, an exception is made for infinitives: these
are represented as they are listed in most dictionaries, and hence, the equivalents of ‘to
begin’ and ‘to laugh’ are represented as başlamak and gülmek respectively, and not as
başla-mak and gül-mek. Another exception is made for verb forms in which a derivational
suffix is present: the relation between stem and derivative suffix is indicated by the equals
symbol (=), but only when this is relevant. In this way the relation becomes clear between
başla-mak ‘to begin’ on the one hand, and the derived forms başla=t-mak ‘to make begin /
start’ and başla=n-mak ‘to be begun / be started’ on the other. Likewise, gül-mek ‘to laugh’
is the basis for the derivations gül=dür-mek ‘to make laugh’ and gül=dür=ül-mek ‘to be
made to laugh’.
xxx Conventions
An asterisk fulfils three functions in the main run of text, depending on its position: i)
between brackets it indicates the secondary stress position; ii) before a word it marks an
ungrammatical or nonexistent structure; and iii) after a word it signals that the word features
in other groups as well.
In the heading of a chapter or section, the asterisk * is intended to refer the reader to the
section Selected Bibliography, which lists relevant background literature.
1
Introduction
This chapter presents in section 1.1 some information on Turkey, where Turkish is the
dominant language and the majority of the population is Turkish. Since the fall of
the Ottoman Empire in 1923 the language has undergone a series of dramatic changes, in
fact language reform, which was inspired by an ideological motivation to free it from for
eign influences. Mainly, words and grammatical elements from Persian and Arabic were
replaced by ‘pure’ Turkish forms. Furthermore, in this section it is specified how Turkish
fits in the family of Turkic languages and what these languages have in common. Section 1.2
provides a basic inventory of linguistic notions intended to facilitate an uncomplicated
way of explaining the grammatical facts of Turkish.
1.1 On Turks, Turkey, Turkic peoples, and their languages *
The official language of the Turkish Republic (Türkiye Cumhuriyeti) is called Türkçe in
Turkish and is the standardized form of a dialect was originally spoken and written in the
former capital of the Ottoman Empire, Istanbul. It is estimated that Turkish is nowadays
the mother tongue of about 85–90 per cent of the population, the size of which was around
70 million in 2005, rising to 78 million in 2015, and likely to exceed 83 million in 2020.
Other languages in Turkey currently learned as a first language are predominantly
Kurdish (Kurmandji and Zaza), Caucasian languages, and languages of Semitic origin
(particularly forms of Arabic). Outside Turkey proper, Turkish is spoken on Cyprus (around
twenty per cent of the population) and there are rather sizeable groups of speakers on the
Balkan Peninsula (around 1 million speakers in Bulgaria) and in northwestern Europe
(more than 3 million).
In the eleventh century Asia Minor was invaded by Turkic tribes belonging to the Oghuz
group and these people brought along Islam as their creed, a nomadic economy, and a lan
guage from the East. Once these tribes had settled and mixed with the local population
on whom they imposed their language and culture, a political military power came into
existence—first with Bursa but after 1453 with Istanbul as its centre. This power was called
the Ottoman Empire, so named after its founder Othman. Long before the siege and conquest
of Constantinople, now Istanbul, the empire had enlarged its territory in several directions
(for instance, it included large swathes of the Balkan peninsula and Greece) and by the
end of the thirteenth century the language spoken by the Ottoman Turks had become the
language of the administration and of the local literature.
The Ottoman language followed its own course of development but was further influ
enced by Arabic and Persian, particularly after the second half of the fifteenth century. Not
only were words for new concepts copied from these languages, but also entire grammat
ical structures, which were as a matter of fact Fremdkörper for Turkic languages. At the
same time, however, the language of the illiterate masses, known as Türki or Türkçe, was
to a much lesser degree influenced by foreign elements. Compared to the administrative
and legal language, Ottoman, this vernacular must have had a much more ‘natural’
The Oxford Turkish Grammar. Gerjan van Schaaik, Oxford University Press (2020). © Gerjan van Schaaik.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
2 Introduction
development since its introduction in the region. Thus, after some 700 years in the region
which is now Turkey, both linguistic varieties can be considered the forerunners of modern
standard Turkish.
After the First World War the Ottoman Empire came to an end—the sultan was deposed,
the caliphate was abolished, and in 1923 the Turkish Republic was founded. This not only
led to great political and economical reforms, but also initiatives were taken to modernize
the language. Turkish of before 1928–9 is usually referred to as Ottoman (Osmanlıca),
because during these years the Arabic script was replaced by a Latin alphabet in order to
create a writing system based on scientific principles. This reform was one of the first
attempts to modernize the language and to eliminate the gap between officialese and the
language of the people—ninety per cent of whom was illiterate and without education.
Already in the mid-nineteenth century it was claimed that the Arabic system was not suit
able for the representation of the sounds of Turkish. One of the problems with Ottoman
texts indeed originates from the fact that the spelling gives no clue to the pronunciation of
vowels, for the simple reason that these were not written. A comparable imperfect spelling
system is that of English, which in many cases gives no clue either for how a word should
be pronounced. Rather than adapting the Arabic alphabet to local usage, as the Uyghurs
did in 1937 and 1983 for their own language, the decision was made on political and ideo
logical grounds to break with the past and to opt for a series of radical changes. Not only
was a new alphabet introduced, but the language was also to be purified from Persian and
Arabic elements, which were replaced with ‘real’ Turkish (Öztürkçe) equivalents. Such
words were not only en masse fabricated, but also copied from dialects and other languages
related to Turkish. This ideology-inspired movement, since 1932 under the directorate of
Türk Dil Kurumu (TDK—Turkish Language Society), is known as the Language Reform
and can be regarded as a great success, supported by better forms of education and
undoubtedly by the influence of modern mass media. This, however, has consequences, of
which the following are the most important. First, the Ottoman language is nowadays a
‘foreign’ language, and second, the gap between modern standard Turkish and related lan
guages in countries of the former Soviet Union has become much wider than was already
the case as the result of a thousand years of separate development—even to the point that
mutual intelligibility is extremely low and sometimes out of the question.
Back in the eleventh century, the Oghuz Turks flooding Anatolia came from the East.
Before these migrations took place, there were several Türk tribal confederations on the
central steppes of Eurasia and it is assumed that these peoples belonged to one ethnic group
speaking a common language, Ancient Turkic. The difference between Turkish and Turkic is
of the same order as that between German and Germanic. Thus, Turkish is the language of
the country called Turkey and German is the national language of the country known as
Germany. On the other hand, Germanic is the name for a group of languages (Dutch,
English, German, Swedish, Gothic, et cetera) which are all historically related within the
Indo-European language family.
The term Turkic works the same way: it designates a large family of languages which
have in the course of more than ten centuries developed from Ancient Turkic, the language
which presumably existed around the sixth century in the era of the great Turkic confeder
ations. At a certain point the political unity of the tribal relations ceased to exist, and at
different moments and for different reasons, the ancestors of the later Turkic peoples
started to wander to all quarters of the Eurasian world.
In the course of time several languages came into existence which can now be grouped
in four main branches: Oghuz, Kipchak, Siberian, and Karluk. The languages of the Oghuz
1.1 On Turks, Turkey, Turkic peoples, and their languages 3
and Kipchak groups are found in the west: those of the Oghuz group eventually ended up
in Iran and Anatolia and those of the Kipchak group north of the Black Sea and the Caspian
Sea. The Siberian group is represented in the northeast and the Karluk group in the southeast
(Turkestan). Nowadays there are several written Turkic languages, which are geographically
distributed as follows.
Oghuz (southwest): Turkish, Gagauz, Azeri, Turkmen

Kipchak (northwest): Kazakh, Karakalpak, Noghay, Kirghiz, Tartar, Bashkir,
Crimean Tatar, Kumyk, Karachay, Balkar, Karaim
Karluk (southeast): Uzbek, Uyghur
Siberian (northeast): Yakut, Altai, Khakas, Tuvan, Shor, Tofa
In addition, there is Chuvash, a language which is regarded as the sole representative of the
Oghur group (also known as Bulghar or West Turkic), a branch which possibly split off before
the beginning of the Common Era. At present this language is spoken in the autonomous
Chuvash Republic (within the Russian Federation) in the Volga region. It forms, as it were,
an enclave in the Kipchak area. Furthermore, Khalaj is spoken in Central Iran, and this
language is regarded as the sole remaining member of the Arghu group and forms an
enclave within the Oghuz group.
Apart from Turkish, Gagauz (Moldavia), and Uyghur (Xinjiang—Western China), all
these languages are mainly in use on the territory of the former Soviet Union. Around 1992
in all newly formed republics the Cyrillic alphabet, as adopted after the Russian Revolution
of 1917, was replaced by a Latin-based alphabet.
All Turkic languages are thus genetically related and despite their different and long
developmental circumstances, it is small wonder that they still have a great number of
structural features in common. Examples are: 1) Agglutination. A common trait of Turkic
languages is that words are inflected by agglutination. This entails that a whole series of
suffixes can be added to nouns and verbs in order to specify factors such as number,
possession, case, tense, and person. The following sentence of Turkish might serve as
an example: Bahçe-ler-imiz-de-ydi-k (= garden-‘s’-‘our’-‘in’-‘were’-‘we’) ‘We were in our
gardens’; 2) Vowel harmony. This implies that a language has two types of vowel, each
applicable in a specific domain. Compare the aforementioned Bahçe-ler-imiz-de-ydi-k ‘We
were in our gardens’ with Balkon-lar-ımız-da-ydı-k (= balcony-‘s’-‘our’-‘on’-‘were’-‘we’)
‘We were on our balconies’.
These phenomena are found in many other languages of the Eurasian continent as
well, and in the past this has led to attempts to establish a genetic relationship between
Turkic, Mongolian, and Tungusic languages (and in an extended fashion even to Japanese
and Korean). This resulted in the Altaic Hypothesis: the idea that a great many languages
were historically related. Some scholars were even prepared to draw the Uralic languages
(Finnish, Hungarian, et cetera) into the picture in order to formulate a yet greater and
older Uralic-Altaic language family. Supporters of these theories have collected a vast
number of etymologies, but opponents maintain their stance that the relationships pro
posed are predominantly based on typological similarities (such as vowel harmony and
agglutination) and that similarities in word forms can be accounted for by language contact
over many centuries in areas with a homogenous culture. The only firm evidence and positive
proof of language, indispensable for comparative studies concerning genetic relationships,
are the oldest Turkic runic inscriptions of the Orkhon valley, dating back to the eighth
century ad, and Mongolian texts produced some six hundred years later. It is therefore
4 Introduction
hard to construct hypothetical earlier stages of both languages without a fair amount
of speculation.
This book aims at a description of the most important aspects of modern standard
Turkish, and hence it does not go into historical aspects of the language. This does not
imply, however, that older forms are totally under-exposed: although the language reform
was carried out with unremitting enthusiasm and has been very successful, it cannot be
denied that there was a transitional period during which older forms existed side by side
with newer forms. Moreover, it seems that among contemporary Turkish authors a revival
of interest in older language use can be observed.
1.2 Basic linguistic terminology
Alphabet is a set of symbols (letters) denoting sounds of speech, particular to one or more
languages. The leading principle is that each sound should be represented by one letter, but
in languages with a long writing tradition (e.g. English, French) quite a number of aberra
tions can be found, sometimes to a degree that the way a word is spelt gives no clue to its
present pronunciation. Turkish has a relatively new alphabet (since 1928) which is very
accurate: knowing the sound value of the individual letters plus the application of a small
number of rules gives a reliable prediction of how a word sounds.
Sounds can be categorized as vowels and consonants. When a vowel is being produced, the
air stream leaves the mouth (and nose) more or less freely, whereas consonants undergo
various degrees of obstruction of the parts of the throat and mouth. The position and shape
of the tongue determine whether a front vowel (e, i, ö, ü) or back vowel (a, ı, o, u) is pro
duced. This distinction is highly relevant for Turkish. Another important distinction for
consonants is: voiced (b, c, d, g, j, l, m, n, r, v, y, z) – voiceless (ç, f, k, p, s, ş, t).
Words are made up of sounds, but they can also be divided into so-called morphological
units. Morphology is that aspect of grammar which is concerned with the shape of words:
word forms. In Turkish ‘house’ is ev and ‘house-s’ ev-ler. The parts ev ‘house’ and –ler,
which indicates plurality, are called morphemes. These are the building blocks for larger
structures. So, ‘my house-s’ is ev-ler-im and ‘in my houses’ is ev-ler-im-de. The first part of
such a structure, here ev ‘house’, is also referred to as a root and the other morphemes are
known as suffixes.
Lexical Classes. A sentence, be it in English or Turkish, consists of words. In a language

such as Turkish words are often made up of a root plus one or more suffixes. Such roots can
be grouped in terms of the type of entity they denote, and, accordingly, in terms of their
grammatical properties. Generally speaking, the following distinctions are relevant.
Noun. A noun denotes a thing. This can be concrete, e.g. table, ship, coffee, moon, cow, and
abstract, e.g. love, hunger, fear, hope, despair.
Adjective. This type of word denotes properties of things, e.g. nice, beautiful, deep, high,
cheap. Adjectives can be used to specify a noun attributively, as in a new bike, and in most
cases also predicatively, as in: This bike is new.
Verb. A verb provides the means to express that something happens, occurs, is being done,
takes place, et cetera. In other words, verbs express facts, actions, and situations, but also states
and states of mind. For instance, walk, sit, sleep, eat, drink, stand, lay, want, fear, think.
1.2 Basic linguistic terminology 5
Adverb. An adverb is an independent or derivable word which gives extra information

about an adjective or a verb, as in very nice, extremely expensive, dirt cheap, and walk fast,
sing well, dance wildly, devour ferociously.
Preposition and Postposition. Prepositions hardly have a meaning of their own but in
combination with a noun, a preposition adds meaning. For instance, to the city, on the
table, of the book, from Oxford to Reading, under the chair, between these cities. A post
position is a similar word, which is, however, placed not before but after a noun. Examples
in English are: three days ago, the whole week through, all year round. Turkish has no
prepositions, it has only postpositions, for example Hasan gibi ‘like Hasan’ and Semra ile
‘with Semra’.
Article. In English there are two types of article: definite and indefinite. The definite article
is the, as in the car and the indefinite article, a (or an) as in a car and an apple. Turkish has
no definite article. Instead, there is only the indefinite article bir.
Particle. This is a very short word that cannot be inflected: it takes no suffixes. Usually it
reinforces the meaning of the word it follows.
Exclamation. These are words and short phrases with an emotional load, for instance:
Hurrah!, Wow!, Oh, my God!, Look out!, Christ!, Oops!
For Turkish the following grammatical distinctions are also of fundamental importance.
Suffix. A grammatical element that is attached to the end of and adds some meaning to a
word is called a suffix, and they occur in English as well, for instance the plural –s in
house-s; –ness (forming a noun) in happiness and –ly (forming an adverb) in quickly.
Attached elements that precede a word to alter its meaning are called prefixes, but
these do not occur in Turkish. English examples are: mis-understand, non-sense, and
un-known.
Case marking is a grammatical means to indicate what function a word group has in a
sentence. Except for the possessive form in s, as in John’s, (this is) your-s, and the like,
English has lost it case markers.
These distinctions are all relevant because they predict what kind of variation in form can
be expected for a certain type of word. Grammatically speaking, with nouns other things
can be done than with verbs. In Turkish, nouns can be combined with an article and an
adjective, can be put in the plural, can be made possessive, and can get a case marker. In this
way a noun phrase is formed. But one cannot, for instance, apply tense to a noun. This is
only possible for verbs, which have a system of their own, leading to a variety of forms.
Each of the lexical categories, noun and verb, has its own specific properties.
Syntactic units. Apart from lexical classes, it is also important to distinguish between the
different parts that can make up a sentence. The syntactic units that a Turkish sentence can
consist of are: predicate, subject, direct object, other types of object, and adverbial phrase.
Predicates are generally formed by both a verb and a noun phrase. All other units are based
on noun phrases.
Predicate. The predicate of a sentence gives information about ‘what is the case’. This can be
conveyed by a verb (e.g. Mary sleeps), an adjective (Ali is ill), or a noun phrase (e.g. Fatma is
a lawyer or The dog was in the garden).
6 Introduction
Subject. This indicates who or what is primarily involved in the action or situation
described, e.g. Fatma sleeps, The book is on the table, The kite hung in a tree, That boy has a
headache, The teacher is ill.
Object. Verbs that have a subject only are called intransitive. Examples are: to sleep, to
stand, to lie, to work, to laze about. Verbs indicating that some action has an effect or impact
on something or somebody other than the subject are referred to as transitive. The second
entity involved is called the object, as in Peter wrote this book, May eats ice cream, John reads
no newspapers, Cyril is drinking a large cup of hot tea, or as in Milou believes in fairies,
Richard is married to Emma, Mia argued with her brother.
Nota bene. In the linguistic literature the notions of Direct Object, Indirect Object and
Oblique Object are quite popular. The first notion is used to label the underlined phrase in
Thom wants ice cream and the second that in John gave the book to Mary. The Oblique
Object, then, is mostly defined as ‘an object which is not a direct or indirect object’.
In this book, however, these notions play no role because for Turkish a grammatical
object (save the Direct Object) is labelled after the case marker it is to be expressed with.
In this way, there are, apart from Direct Objects, also Dative, Locative, Ablative, and
Instrumental Objects.
Adverbial. This word stands for Adverbial Phrase, which fulfils the same function as an
adverb. An adverbial may be based on an adverb (which is lexically given, e.g. tomorrow, or
which can easily be derived from an adjective, e.g. quick-ly), or on a noun phrase. With an
adverbial all sorts of extra information can be given, as in: Charles quickly rewrote his essay
once more; Mary very rarely eats ice cream; Today Peter drinks no coffee; Cyril quite often has
his tea in the garden; The quick brown dog jumps over the lazy fox.
PART I
SPEL L ING A N D PRONU NCIAT ION
This part comprises four chapters. Chapter 2 deals with the alphabet and the relation
between spelling and the rules of pronunciation. Chapter 3 discusses the position of stress
in words. In order to clarify the apparent enormous variation in the forms certain suffixes
can take, chapter 4 addresses variation in sound caused by several phonological processes,
and chapter 5 goes into certain word properties that result in morphological variation.
2
The alphabet *
This chapter presents the Latin-based alphabet of Turkish, which differs from that of
English in the extra letters ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, and ü, whereas it lacks q, w, and x. A detailed account
is given of vowels, of consonants not present in the English alphabet, and of consonants
shared by both languages. The notions front and back for vowels are introduced, as well as
voiced versus voiceless for consonants. All this is the topic of section 2.1. Next, in section 2.2
attention is given to particulars such as aspiration of voiceless plosives and other phenom-
ena. The most conspicuous letters for which the phonological environment determines
their sound value are r and ğ; the former being pronounced with a kind of rustling at the
end of a word, and the latter functioning either as a lengthening marker or as a symbol
representing the y-sound. This chapter ends with the Turkish telephone alphabet.
2.1 Letters and sounds
The Turkish alphabet has since 1928 been based on the Latin alphabet and comprises capital
and lowercase letters. The order of the letters, as used in dictionaries and the like, is as
follows:
a b c ç d e f g ğ h ı i j k l m n o ö p r s ş t u ü v y z
Most of these letters occur in the English alphabet as well, but some do not: ç, ğ, ı, ö, ş, ü.
Yet others found in English are not part of the Turkish alphabet proper, but they do occur
in foreign words: q, w, x.
An important difference from the spelling system of English is that the Turkish system is
based on the principle one letter—one sound, that is, each letter represents just one sound.
Sounds are represented by letters and these can be divided into two groups:
Vowels: a e ı i o ö u ü
Consonants: b c ç d f g ğ h j k l m n p r s ş t v y z
As will be explained in further detail in section 5.1, vowels can be grouped into front vowels
(e, i, ö, ü) and back vowels (a, ı, o, u). Another distinction that is relevant in the grammar of
Turkish (see section 5.2) is the distinction between voiced consonants (b, c, d, g, j, l, m, n, r,
v, y, z) and voiceless consonants (ç, f, k, p, s, ş, t). For the properties of h, see section 4.5.
Vowels are generally speaking pronounced in a short and clear way. The sound values of
Turkish vowels are below represented by IPA symbols in square brackets and as exemplified
by a number of English words. Note that the Turkish sounds are best approximated by
pronouncing the corresponding vowels in the English words quickly.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
10 The alphabet
a bak look [ɑ] as in: dock, block, mock, etc.

e et meat [ɛ] as in: vet, pet, method, etc.
ı sadık faithful [ə] as in: fillet, millet, the, etc.
i bit flee [i] as in: flee, to be, meat, read, etc.
o bol abundant [ɔ] as in: jolly, folly, molly, etc.
ö dön go back [œ] see next paragraph
u Rum Turkish Greek [u] as in: cool, full, bull, etc.
ü dün yesterday [ʏ] see next paragraph
The letters ö and ü represent sounds which are not easily found in English. The sound
represented by ö comes close to the vowel in the words the and first; however, the
Turkish sound is pronounced with the lips not pursed (unrounded) and the tongue
moved forward. When this is compared to the short and clear o, which is pronounced
with unrounded lips and the tongue positioned in the back of the mouth, it can be seen
that the sounds o and ö differ in tongue position only. Similarly, the u is produced with
rounded lips and the tongue withdrawn, whereas the ü is made with rounded lips and
the tongue moved forward.
This way of comparing the sounds of two languages can be applied to consonants as well.
Thus, starting out with the letters that are different in Turkish there are:
ç çok much / many [tʃ] as in: chock-full

c Cuma Friday [dʒ] as in: manager
g garson waiter [ɡ] as in: garage
j jeton telephone token [ʒ] as in: beige
ş şişe bottle [ʃ] as in: show
v var there is [w] as in: wall
y yok there is not [y] as in: yolk
In what follows, the sound corresponding to y is phonetically represented by [y], ş by [sh],

j by [zh], ç by [tsh], and c by [dzh].
Other consonants are pronounced as in English. However, there is an important
difference in that not all consonants of Turkish are aspirated, as will be explained in
the next paragraph.
b bak look [b] as in: ball

d dal branch [d] as in: down
f fal fate / destiny [f] as in: fall
h hap pill [h] as in: house (see section 4.5)
k kalk get up [q] as in: cold (see section 4.5)
kil clay [k] as in: keel
l loş dim [ɬ] as in: low (see section 4.5)
lif fibre [l] as in: leaf
m mal goods / cattle [m] as in: mouse
n ne what? [n] as in: not
p pis dirty [p] as in: peace
r radyo radio [r] as in: radio
s salı Tuesday [s] as in: salt
2.2 Particulars 11
t taş stone [t] as in: tone

z az little / few [z] as in: zeal
2.2 Particulars
The consonants p, t, ç, k are aspirated in syllable-initial position (for syllable structure, see 5.4).
This means that the consonant is followed by a light ‘puff ’, as is the case in English.
Aspiration is clearly audible before a stressed vowel. In the following examples the second
syllable is stressed. Aspiration is indicated by an elevated h, as in:
para → [ pha–ra ] money

kapı → [ kha–phı ] door
tütün → [ thü–thün ] tobacco
tepe → [ the–phe ] hill
çiçek → [ tshhi–tshhek ] flower
Two letters, r and ğ, deserve somewhat more attention. The letter r stands for a ‘rolling r’
(as in Scottish or Spanish) at the beginning of a syllable, but at the end of a word it is
sounded with an extra rustle in the form of an h-like sound; that is, the final r receives
strong aspiration. In this way, there is a clear audible difference between the r in the first
two words and the r in the second pair of words.
resim → [ re–sim ] photo

para → [ pha–ra ] money
var → [ varh ] there is
dur → [ durh ] stop
In Standard Turkish, which is based on the dialect of Istanbul, the letter ğ does not actually
represent a sound when surrounded by back vowels.
When the ğ follows a back vowel (or, more precisely, when it is stands at the end of a
syllable), it indicates that the preceding sound is longer than normal. In the following
examples lengthening of vowels is marked by a column, the stressed syllable by an accen-
tuation mark, and the syllables are separated by a dash.
-ağa- ağaç → [ a:–átsh ] tree

-ağı- ağız → [ a:–íz ] mouth
-ağo- sağol → [ sa:–ól ] thanks
-ağu- ağustos → [ a:–us–tós ] august
-ığa- ışığa → [ ı–shı:–á ] to the light
-ığı- çığlığı → [ tshhı:–lı:–í ] her cry
-oğa- soğan → [ so:–án ] onion
-oğu- oğul → [ o:–úl ] son
-oğo- moğol → [ mo:–ól ] Mongol
12 The alphabet
-uğa- çocuğa → [ tshho–dzhu:–á ] for the child

-uğu- uğur → [ u:–úr ] good luck
When written between two identical vowels, the ğ indicates that the second vowel is a
continuation of the first one; it signals lengthening:
ağaç → [ a:tsh ] tree

çığlığı → [ tshhı:–lı: ] her cry
moğol → [ mo:l ] Mongol
çocuğu → [ tshho–dzhu: ] his child
The letter ğ can occur only at the end of a syllable and this follows from how words are split
up in terms of syllables (see section 5.4), as in the uninflected forms doğru [do:–rú] ‘right,
correct’, buğday [bu:–dáy] ‘wheat’, and fotoğraf [fo–to:–ráf] ‘photo’. Words ending in ğ,
when followed by a suffix, retain their syllabic structure, as in: dağ [da:] ‘mountain’ → dağ-
ım [da:– ím] ‘my mountain’ and dağ-lar [da:–lár] ‘mountains’; yağ [ya:] ‘oil, fat’ → yağ-ın [ya:–
ín] ‘your fat’ and yağ-lı [ya:–lí] ‘oily, greasy’. Also, words with two stems (see section 5.2.3)
show clearly that the syllable boundary in inflected forms is indicated by the letter ğ.
Compare: ağız [a:–íz] ‘mouth’ → ağz-ı [a:–zí] ‘her mouth’ and ağız-lar [a:–ız–lár] ‘mouths’;
oğul [o:–úl] ‘son’ → oğl-u [o:–lú] ‘his son’ and oğul-lar [o:–ul–lár] ‘sons’.
Also, in words ending in a front vowel plus ğ, the vowel is lengthened. This occurs in a
limited number of words only:
çiğ → [ tshhi: ] raw / uncooked

iğ → [ i: ] spindle
yeğ → [ ye: ] better / preferred
tebliğ → [ te–bli: ] communiqué / statement
Although such words seem to end in a vowel because of the inaudible letter ğ, this letter
does count as a consonant when a suffix follows. This is the case in, for instance, dağ-a [da:-a]
‘to the mountain’ (see section 6.5.3) and tebliğ-i [tebli:-i] ‘the statement’ (see section 6.5.4).
Between o and u or between ö en ü, the ğ signals either that the two vowels are fused into a
diphthong [ou] / [öü] or that the transition between first and second vowel is realized as a
very light bilabial consonant [∀], as represented by the h in Chihuahua. In both cases the
first vowel is somewhat lengthened, as indicated by a column in:
-oğu-
oğul → [ o:–úl / o:–∀úl ] son
soğuk → [ so:–úk / so:–∀úk ] (the) cold
doğu → [ do:–ú / do:–∀ú ] (the) East
-öğü-
göğüs → [ gö:–üs / gö:–∀üs ] chest / breast
söğüş → [ sö:–üsh / sö:–∀üsh ] salad of tomato and cucumber
söğüt → [ sö:–üt / sö:–∀üt ] willow
2.2 Particulars 13
The ∀−sound resembles the sound v between two vowels and this explains why tavuk
‘chicken’ and soğuk ‘cold’ are occasionally written as tağuk and sovuk.
In its function of lengthening mark, the ğ is typically found between two e’s or ü’s and in
verb forms expressing future for the first person singular / plural:
küçüğü → [ khü–tshü:–ü ] the smaller one

büyüğü → [ bü–yü:–ü ] the bigger one
gideceğim → [ gi–de–dzhé:m ] I will go
bulacağım → [ bu–la–dzhá:m ] I will find
gideceğiz → [ gi–de–dzhé:z ] we will go
bulacağız → [ bu–la–dzhá:z ] we will find
In other environments, that is, ğ after a front vowel, the sound represented resembles the y
in English yoke and Turkish yok ‘there is not’.
eğer → [ e:–ér / e–yer ] if (see section 4.1)

diğer → [ di:–ér / di–yér ] other
değil → [ de:l / de–yíl ] not (see section 4.1)
iğrenç → [ i:–réntsh / iy–réntsh ] appalling
öğle → [ ö:–lé / öy–lé ] noon
düğme → [ dü:–mé / düy–mé ] node / button
Concluding this section, a few remarks are in place with regard to how words are spelt out.
Vowels are named after their sounds. The letters a, i, and u occur with a circumflex accent
and are called şapkalı a, şapkalı i, and şapkalı u. For their occurrence, see sections 4.2 and
4.5. Consonants, too, are named after their sounds, but get an additional ‘eh’, like a sheep’s
bleat. In this way the names for b, c, ç, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, ş, t, v, y, z are: beh, dzjeh,
tsjeh, deh, feh, geh, heh, zjeh, keh, leh, meh, neh, peh, reh, seh, sjeh, teh, weh, jeh, and zeh
respectively. The letter ğ is called yumuşak geh (soft g), but as has been shown, this is a mis-
nomer, because there is no g-sound involved, let alone a soft one.
In telephone calls and other circumstances in which letters should be understood in
an unambiguous way, the telephone alphabet is used. As a matter of fact, several variants
are in use: Adana (Ankara), Balıkesir (Bursa), Ceyhan (Cide), Çanakkale (Çorum, Çankırı),
Diyarbakır (Denizli), Edirne, Fethiye (Fatih, Fatsa), Giresun, Hatay (Hakkari, Hopa), Isparta
(Irmak), İstanbul (İzmir), Jandarma (Japonya, Jale), Kayseri (Kastamonu), Lüleburgaz,
Malatya (Manisa), Nevşehir (Nazilli), Ordu, Ödemiş, Polatlı (Pamukkale, Pazar), Quebec,
Rize, Samsun (Sivas, Sinop), Şile (Şirvan, Şarköy), Trabzon (Tokat), Urfa (Uşak), Üsküp
(Ünye), Van, dabıl v (= w), Yozgat, Zonguldak.
3
On stress *
This chapter explains the difference between syllables with primary stress (section 3.1) and
syllables which receive secondary or tertiary stress (section 3.2). These notions are relevant
because words may consist of many syllables, thereby in principle offering an equal number
of candidates for primary stress. In uninflected words primary stress can fall on any syl-
lable; per word there is a fixed stress-bearing syllable, but as soon as inflectional elements
kick in, this may change. Many inflectional suffixes attract stress and this gives the general
impression that the stress position shifts with every addition, but on the other hand, some
word stems with non-final stress retain their primary stress position when inflected. The
chapter ends by pointing out that for some words, meaning depends on the stress position.
3.1 Primary stress
A conventional notion is that a Turkish word is stressed in the final syllable, unless it is an
exception to this rule. But a more precise picture can be given as follows.
Words in Turkish vary in length from one syllable to more than ten (for syllabification,
see section 5.4). Now, there is always one syllable in a sequence that is more prominent
than the others. This prominence is generally referred to as primary stress and other, less,
or ‘lesser’, stressed syllables have secondary or tertiary stress. Making a general statement
about the position of primary stress is not easy, as long as uninflected words are taken into
account, because in principle any syllable may be more prominent than others.
In disyllabic word stems (uninflected, that is) the stress may fall on the first as well as on
the second syllable. Patterns of this kind are highly frequent.
bira (!.) beer

çanta (!.) bag
hangi (!.) which
İzmir (!.) Izmir
masa (!.) table
nasıl (!.) how
radyo (!.) radio
Samsun (!.) Samsun
baba (.!) father
balık (.!) fish
garaj (.!) garage
para (.!) money
perde (.!) curtain
şişe (.!) bottle
ufak (.!) small
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
In word stems of three syllables there are more possibilities:
Ankara (!..) Ankara

Sirkeci (!..) the name of a district in Istanbul
domates (.!.) tomatoes
İstanbul (.!.) Istanbul
Radikal (..!) the name of a newspaper
Üsküdar (..!) the name of a district in Istanbul
In brief, whatever general rule one might want to set up for the position of stress in
uninflected words, there is too much variation to generalize. What it boils down to is that
the stress position must be learned by rote, although a good dictionary may be of great
help. The only word category for which the stress position can more or less be predicted is
that of place names. Names the first syllable of which ends in a vowel and names with four
syllables are stressed on the second syllable.
E-dir-ne (.!.)
İ-stan-bul (.!.)
A-mas-ya (.!.)
E-la-zığ (.!.)
Si-lif-ke (.!.)
Es-ki-şe-hir (.!..)
Or-ta-hi-sar (.!..)
Ko-ca-e-li (.!..)
Kı-rık-ka-le (.!..)
Kas-ta-mo-nu (.!..)
Os-ma-ni-ye (.!..)
Gü-müş-ha-ne (.!..)
Other place names bear stress on the first syllable.
Ak-sa-ray (!..)
Sir-ke-ci (!..)
Mar-ma-ris (!..)
Kon-ya (!.)
Iğ-dır (!.)
Bit-lis (!.)
3.2 Secondary stress
Words to which a suffix is attached are less problematic. A clear tendency is that the last
suffix attached attracts the primary stress.
çanta-da (..!) in the bag

İzmir-de (..!) in Izmir
16 On stress
masa-da (..!) on the table

radyo-dan (..!) via the radio
para-nın (..!) of the money
baba-lar (..!) fathers
balık-lar-ın (...!) of the fish
garaj-lar-da (...!) in the garages
Ankara-da (...!) in Ankara
İstanbul-da (...!) in Istanbul
Üsküdar-da (...!) in Üsküdar
As can be expected, when a stress-attracting suffix is applied the primary stress of the
uninflected word shifts to secondary stress, particularly when the two stress positions are
relatively distant from each other. In the following examples, the secondary stress is
indicated in italic print and by an asterisk between the brackets.
İzmir-de (*.!) in Izmir

masa-da (*.!) on the table
radyo-dan (*.!) via the radio
balık-lar-ın (.*.!) of the fish
garaj-lar-da (.*.!) in the garages
Ankara-da (*..!) in Ankara
İstanbul-da (.*.!) in Istanbul
Üsküdar-da (..*!) in Üsküdar
In word stems with final stress, this position ‘moves’, along with the suffix attached. More
specifically:
zeytin (.!) olive / olives

zeytin-lik (.*!) olive grove
zeytin-lik-ler (.*.!) olive groves
zeytin-lik-ler-imiz (.*...!) our olive groves
zeytin-lik-ler-imiz-de (.*....!) at our olive groves
Some word stems with non-final stress retain their primary stress position when inflected.
Here is an example:
lokanta (.!.) (small) restaurant

lokanta-cı (.!..) restaurateur, restaurant operator
lokanta-cı-lar (.!...) restaurateurs
lokanta-cı-lar-ımız ( . ! . . . . .) our restaurant operators
lokanta-cı-lar-ımız-a (.!......) for our restaurant operators
There are five very common suffixes which position the primary stress on their preceding
syllable. An example is the verbal suffix for negation, –mE. Compare:
Bul-acak. (..!) He will find.

Bul-ma-yacak. (!..*) She will not find.
This negational suffix will be discussed in chapter 17 and section 20.1. Other suffixes
positioning the stress on the preceding syllable are the question particle mI (see sections
23.1–23.3), the conditional suffix –sE (irrealis, see section 22.2), personal suffixes of
Type 1 (see section 20.1), the suffix –TIr (see section 24.7), and the suffix –(y)ken (see
section 27.3).
In a few cases the meaning of a word depends on the stress position:
yalnız (!.) but / only

yalnız (.!) alone
artık (!.) henceforth
artık (.!) remains / leftover
çokluk (!.) often
çokluk (.!) plural / abundance
A similar distinction is found with proper names resembling nouns and adjectives:
sirkeci (..!) maker or seller of vinegar

Sirkeci (!..) certain quarter in Istanbul
bebek (.!) baby
Bebek (!.) certain quarter in Istanbul
mısır (.!) maize
Mısır (!.) Egypt
barış (.!) peace
Barış (!.) male name
zafer (.!) victory
Zafer (!.) male name
bahar (.!) spring
Bahar (!.) female name
şirin (.!) sweet / charming
Şirin (!.) female name
deniz (.!) sea
Deniz (!.) unisex name
şafak (.!) dawn / morning twilight
Şafak (!.) unisex name
4
Phonological variation *
As has been indicated in chapter 2, Turkish has an alphabet the letters of which (with the
exception of the ğ) have been assigned just one sound. Such a system is often referred to as
a ‘phonetic alphabet’ by the layman, but this betokens a serious misunderstanding. For lin-
guists, particularly for those who do fieldwork such as recording and describing exotic
languages in remote areas, special notational systems bearing this name were designed as
early as the second half of the nineteenth century. Using the symbols of the phonetic alpha-
bet (as published by the International Phonetic Association) almost every single sound of
speech can be recorded on paper.
Such a symbolic system is very extensive and much more comprehensive than necessary
for an alphabet for everyday usage. Linguists want to be able to ‘catch’ the slightest variation
in sounds of speech, whereas an alphabet should consist only of letters that stand for relevant
differences between speech sounds. As has been indicated, the Turkish alphabet is organ-
ized according to the principle ‘one letter—one sound’ and this type of alphabet is called a
phonological alphabet. In other words, in using such an alphabet neither so-called free vari-
ation nor predictable variation in how words sound are taken into account, because the task
of the linguistic branch of phonology is to set up rules that describe the aforementioned
variation in an adequate and systematic manner. To give an example of free variation, it
does not matter whether the word rarely is pronounced in the Scottish way with a ‘rolling r’,
the American way with a ‘single flap r’, or burred, as the French pronounce it. In all these
cases only one letter is needed for that sound—because the speaker is free to choose.
Likewise, there is no need to represent the sound [ŋ] in ‘king’ as ng in words such as
‘bank’, because n becomes [ŋ] under the influence of its neighbouring k, and hence, its
occurrence is fully predictable.
In Turkish, too, there is a lot of sound variation, which is, however, not reflected by the
spelling, because of its predictability. In what follows it will be explained which systematic
variation can be expected. How and why certain vowels are pronounced in a less articulated
fashion is explained in section 4.1; when differences in vowel length can be expected will be
shown in section 4.2; the effects of rapid speech are elucidated in section 4.3; how foreign
consonant clusters are adapted to the Turkish sound system is the topic of section 4.4; and
finally, the difference between so-called soft and hard consonants is explained in section 4.5
and the fusion between certain consonants in section 4.6.
4.1 Vowel reduction
Although the pronunciation of stressed vowels is generally speaking short and clear, this is not
the case if the final vowel in a word stem is an a or e immediately preceding a stressed
vowel or when it is followed by a stressed vowel at a considerable distance. Note that the e here
stands for the short and clear vowel as heard in the English word pet, which is phonetically
represented as [є].
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
4.1 Vowel reduction 19
A strongly ‘under-stressed’ a is, as it were, reduced to a sound which is comparable to

the two vowels in murmured; and sometimes it is even reduced to the undotted ı. The letter
e in a non-stressed position is hardly pronounced as [є], but rather as the dotted i heard in
least or beef. The reason for this variation is that a and e are so-called open vowels and ı and
i are closed. This signifies that the aperture of the mouth is much larger for the former pair
of sounds than for the latter. A side effect is that while making ı and i the position of the
tongue is higher than it is during the production of a and e; this is the reason why this
process (of assimilation) is sometimes referred to as vowel raising.
In this way the second vowel in words spelt as anlayabilir ‘she can understand (it)’ and
söyleyebilir ‘he can say (it)’ can be heard as ı and i respectively. This phenomenon of vowel
reduction is also observable in gideceğim ‘I will go’ and alacağım ‘I will take’ and their
negated counterparts. Compare:
anlayabilir → [ an–lı–ya–bi–lir ] (....!)

söyleyebilir → [ söy–li–yє–bi–lir ] (....!)
gideceğim → [ gi–di–dzhє:m ] (..!)
alacağım → [ a–lı–dzha:m ] (..!)
gitmeyeceğim → [ git–mi–yє–dzhє:m ] (!..*)
almayacağım → [ al–mı–ya–dzha:m ] (!..*)
Of course, in rapid speech there are even more reduction phenomena observable; the latter
two examples can even be heard as gitmicem and almıcam.
Since the effect of stress position on the quality of vowels is predictable, the official spelling
system of Turkish does not take such sound variation into account. In many a text, how-
ever, forms such as isti-yecek and başlı-yacak are found instead of iste-yecek (< iste- ‘to want /
require’) and başla-yacak (< başla- ‘to begin’).
Verb stems ending in a or e exhibit this sound reduction too, when they precede the
suffix for the tense form Present-1 –(I)yor (see section 20.1). In such cases the official spell-
ing does prescribe that the vowel reduction be represented in writing. Although isti-yor
and başlı-yor may duly be expected, their variants iste-yor and başla-yor are often seen in
texts as well.
In verbs such as söyle- ‘to say / sing’ and özle- ‘to miss / long for’, which are both stems with
a so-called rounded front vowel in the first syllable, a similar phenomenon occurs in com-
bination with the tense form Present-1 –(I)yor (see section 20.1). Because this suffix bears
stress, the reduction is so strong that the (underlying) e (notably [є]) between two rounded
vowels (ö and o) has developed, via the ‘weaker’ sound i, into the much more marked ü. In
this case the spelling does reflect this quality:
söyle + yor → söylü-yor

özle + yor → özlü-yor
The sounds [є] and [i] are situated at both ends of the continuum defined as the opposition
open–closed. The implication is that in principle a whole series of sounds can be found
between these two extremes. Naturally, the same holds for the pairs [a]–[ı], [ö]–[ü], and
[o]–[u].
20 Phonological variation
About halfway between the vowels [є] and [i] a sound can be found that can be
termed ‘half open’ or ‘half closed’, and this vowel is phonetically represented by [e].
Compare the vowels in less [lєs], lace [les], and lease [lis]. This ‘in-between-sound’ can
also be heard in Turkish and forms, as it were, the ninth ‘real’ vowel, although there is
no separate letter to represent it. As a matter of fact, there is no need for representation,
because this sound has disappeared in certain words of standard Turkish. In historical
times the pronunciation of yemek ‘to eat’, demek ‘to say’, and gece ‘night’ came close to
[jemєk], [demєk], and [gedzhє], but nowadays these words sound more or less as
[jïmєk], [dïmєk], and [gïdzhє], in which the [ï] (as in pit) represents a sound between
the [e] of bait and the [i] of peat.
On the other hand, in most cases the spelling does give an indication of this sound [e],
or more precisely, of where it can be expected on the basis of reduction processes. The letter
combination eğ (as discussed in chapter 2) gives such an indication. For instance:
eğmek → [ e–mєk ] to bend

değişmek → [ de-yish-mєk ] to change
değil → [ de:l ] [ de–yil ] not
eğer → [ e:–єr ] [ e:–yєr] if
değmez → [ dey–mєz] it is not worth
fesleğen → [ fєs–le–yєn ] basil
The letter combination ey, similarly, shows that [e] and not [є] is to be expected. In the final
four examples of the following series the stress falls on the syllable containing [e].
beyaz → [ be–yaz ] white

meydan → [ mey–dan ] square
peygamber → [ pey–gam–bєr ] prophet
şeytan → [ shey–tan ] devil
meyve → [ mey–vє ] fruit
heyet → [ he–yєt ] delegation / committee
eyer → [ e–yєr ] saddle
eylem → [ ey–lєm ] action / verb
şey → [ shey ] thing
epey → [ є–pey ] rather long (time)
güney → [ gü–ney ] south / southern
kuzey → [ ku–zey ] north / northern
4.2 Short or long
As has been said in the discussion on the Turkish alphabet, vowels are normally pro-
nounced short and clearly. In this section a number of cases will be introduced in which
certain sounds (both vowels and consonants) are audibly long.
Six categories of long vowels can be distinguished and only in a limited number of
cases is vowel length indicated by the spelling. If necessary, a good dictionary might
give solace.
4.2 Short or long 21
First, there is a large group of words copied from Arabic and Persian containing one or
more long vowels which are not reflected in the spelling. In the following examples vowel
length is indicated by a colon, which is normally not written.
ma:vi blue [a:]

Cuma: Friday
itfa:iye fire department
edebiya:t literature
mi:de stomach [i:]
tahri:k instigation / moving / driving
i:tiraz objection
arzu: wish / desire / longing [u:]
su:ret copy
memnu:n happy / satisfied / contented
te:sir influence / effect [e:]
te:min acquisition
te:diye payment
Many words have more than one long vowel:
i:lâ:n announcement
te:yi:t confirmation
te:li:f hakkı copyright
me:zu:n graduate
me:mu:r civil servant / functionary
peşi:na:t down payment
te:mi:na:t guarantee / assurance
In educated speech the final vowel is lengthened (‘stretched’, as it were) in a number of

words of foreign origin, when followed by a suffix beginning with a vowel. Hence, oppositions
can be heard such as zaman ‘time’—zama:nında ‘at the right time’; cevap ‘answer’—ceva:bı
‘her answer’, and hayat ‘life’—haya:tım ‘my life; my love / my darling’. Words of this category
must be learned by rote.
Secondly, for the letter ğ it was shown that this is used to indicate lengthening of the
preceding vowel. In terms of long–short the following contrastive pairs exist:
aç open / switch on – ağaç [ a:tsh ] tree

da also – dağ [ da: ] mountain
ur tumour / cyst – uğur [ u:r ] good luck
az little – ağız [ a:ız / a:z ] mouth
Thirdly, in a limited number of words a circumflex (see also section 4.5) is used to indicate
a long vowel.
nar pomegranate – nâr [ na:r ] (hell)fire

adil justice – âdil [ a:dil ] just
kar snow – kâr [ kya:r ] profit (see section 4.5)
Other examples are adjectives derived from nouns (see section 31.1.5):
asker-i his soldier – asker-î military

tarih-i its date – tarih-î historical
beden-i his / her body – beden-î bodily
Also the following adjectives are of a derived nature: resmî ‘official’, millî national’, zatî
‘personally’, ilahî ‘divine’. Nowadays the circumflex is not often written, and hence, certain
doublets occur: adalet—adâlet ‘justice’, tabut—tâbût ‘coffin’, musiki—mûsiki ‘traditional
Turkish music’, galip—gâlip ‘conqueror’.
Fourth, many Turkish words of Arabic origin contain a long vowel, as indicated in the
spelling by a doubled letter.
saat hour / clock / watch

inşaat construction (site)
taahhütlü registered (mail)
Suudi Saudi
fiil verb
tabii of course
fiilen real / de facto
yem sanayii fodder industry
şuur consciousness
zatürree pneumonia
Some of these words are pronounced in Arabic with an uvular consonant (a throaty sound
spelled ayn) and others with a so-called glottal stop. The latter sound is the audible hiatus
in, for instance, the pronunciation of bottle in a London accent, which can phonetically be
represented as [ˈbɔʔᵊɫ ̩].
Both these sounds ended up in Turkish loanwords as a glottal stop and with the intro-
duction of the Latin-based alphabet in 1928 it became customary to indicate this stop by an
apostrophe. Hence, at the time one wrote sa’at, Su’udi, and fi’il, but this sound gradually
disappeared over time to the effect that adjacent vowels are not pronounced separately any
more, but instead, as one long vowel. Nowadays the apostrophe is no longer applied for this
purpose and one reads saat ‘hour; clock’, Suudi ‘Saudi’ and fiil ‘verb’.
The apostrophe was also used after consonants in certain words of Arabic origin, for
instance san’at ‘art; craft, trade, skill’ and mes’ele ‘problem, question, matter, issue’, which in
modern orthography appear as sanat and mesele respectively.
From French the following words were copied into Turkish, and they contain a glottal stop,
a long vowel, or a buffer consonant [y]:
zoolog [ zo’olog ] [ zo:log ] zoologist

koordinatör coordinator
kooperatif cooperation
nükleer nuclear
reel faiz effective interest
lineer linear
4.3 Contraction 23
The two e’s in the sequence represented by ‘eer’ of the last three examples sound quite
differently. The first one is pronounced as in şey ‘thing’, but the second one as in et ‘meat, flesh’.
Also, a light y-sound can be heard between them, as in eğer ‘if ’: [e-y-єr].
Fifthly, in exclamations often more than two vowels are written:
Güzeeel! Great!
Yooo(k)! Noooo!
Çoook! Veeery much!
Eee(h)? So what?
Uskumruuu! Mackerels!
Some exclamations have a long vowel, as indicated by a colon (normally not written):
Ma:şallah! Wonderful! / Magnificent!

A:ferin! Bravo! / Well done!
Sixthly, comparing the modern spelling of postane ‘post office’, hastane ‘hospital’, eczane
‘pharmacist, drug store’ with their actual pronunciation shows that the h in the older forms
postahane, hastahane, and eczahane has dropped (contraction – see section 4.3). The result
is that the two a’s surrounding the h have merged into one long a: [posta:nє], [hasta:nє],
[ez:a:nє] (see also section 4.6).
For consonants there are considerably fewer cases of confusion. Yet the distinction between
single and double consonants is clearly audible.
el-i his / her hand

elli fifty
batı the West / west / western
Bat-tı. It sank / has sunk.
Bit-ti mi? Has she gone?
Bit-ti-m mi? Have I gone?
4.3 Contraction
In rapid speech, people sometimes ‘drop’ a syllable, particularly if it is not stressed. In this
way such words are, as it were, contracted to a shorter form. The word for ‘newspaper’ and
its derivatives are often to be heard as follows:
gazete [ gas-tє ] newspaper

gazetelerde [ gas-ti-ler-dє ] in the newspapers
gazeteci [ gas-ti-dzh-i ] journalist
gazeteciler [ gas-ti-dzhi-lєr ] journalists
The letter z is pronounced as s and this is just the result of its adaptation to the voiceless
sound t that follows.
Also in several verb forms expressing the optative (see chapter 19), which all have a very
high frequency in daily usage, an unstressed syllable is often dropped. Thus:
Başla-ya-yım. [ başlıyım ] Let me start / I’d better start.

Söyle-ye-yim. [ söyliyim ] Let me say / I’d say.
Ne yap-a-yım? [ na:pım ] What shall / should I do?
Ne yap-a-lım? [ na:palım ] What can / could we do about it?
The frequently used negation particle değil ‘not’ has at least four spoken variants:
değil [ deyíl / deyl / diyíl / di:l ]
Although the phenomena touched upon in the previous three sections can be attested at a
large scale, it is impossible within the scope of this book to give an exhaustive listing of all
cases. The explanations and illustrations that are presented here serve merely the purpose
of indicating what can be expected when it comes to matching the differences between a
phonological spelling and a pronunciation which seems to actually deviate to a certain
extent, especially in spontaneous speech. The best remedy, however, is to listen with atten-
tion to how Turkish is being spoken in daily life.
4.4 Expansion
Certain combinations of consonants do not occur at the beginning or end of a word in

older Turkish. Because words are ‘borrowed’ or copied from other languages in situations
of language contact, for certain consonant clusters these words are adapted to the typical
Turkish word structure (see section 5.4) by inserting a vowel. In this way, the word is, as it
were, expanded. There is, however, a tendency for native speakers, especially educated
people, to adopt the foreign pronunciation for imported words. In the following examples
loanwords are represented in the official spelling, together with a (deviating) pronunciation
that can be heard at times.
Greek
sgombros mackerel → uskumru
skamni chair → iskemle
skara grill → ızgara
French
station station → istasyon
statistique statistics → istatistik
frein brake → fren [firєn]
sport sport → spor [ispor / sipor]
train train → tren [tirєn]
classeur folder → klâsör [kilâsör]
Italian
scala quay, pier → iskele
brisiola cutlet → pirzola
4.5 Soft or hard 25
German
Schlepp cargo boat → şilep
Schnitzel schnitzel → şnitsel [şinitzєl]
Groschen groschen → kuruş
English
express → ekspres [eksip(i)res]
club → klüp [kulüp]
sandwich → sandöviç
stress → stres [sit(i)rєs]
sweater → süveter
Slavic
kral king → kral [kıral]
A number of words of Arabic and Persian origin with two final consonants have undergone
the same adaptation: vowel insertion lends the word a structure of Turkish.
Arabic
ism name → isim & ism-
qism part → kısım & kısm-
aql intelligence → akıl & akl-
umr life → ömür & ömr-
fikr idea → fikir & fikr-
Persian
šehr city → şehir & şehr-
When a suffix starting with a vowel is attached the (original) short stem is used. For details,
see section 5.2.
4.5 Soft or hard
In chapter 2 it was shown that a distinction can be made between front vowels and back
vowels in Turkish. Here they are again:
Front vowels: e i ö ü
Back vowels: a ı o u
These terms are derived from the position of the tongue in the mouth during the produc-
tion of these sounds. Now, when a consonant produced in the back of the mouth is pre-
ceded or followed by a vowel, that vowel then naturally influences the quality of the
consonant. Sounds such as g, k, and h originate from the back of the mouth, but they sound
much ‘softer’ in the environment of front vowels. This change is called palatalization. The
(bony) front part of the roof of the mouth is called the palate and the (fleshy) back part the
velum. Hence, consonants produced in the front part are called palatal consonants and
those from the back part are called velar consonants. The effect of a front vowel on g is that
it sounds as if a slight y-like sound follows, as indicated by an elevated y in the examples

below.
gel → [ gyєl ] come

git → [ gyit ] go
gül → [ gyül ] laugh
gör → [ györ ] see
The k also is subject to this phenomenon. Contrasting words with exclusively front or back
vowels makes this fully clear. Compare the following word pairs:
salak → [ sa–lak ] stupid

bebek → [ bє–bєky ] baby
alçak → [ al–tshak ] low
gerçek → [ gyєr–tshєky ] real
It can easily be observed that words as a whole are pronounced either in the front part of
the mouth or in the back part. Yet there are many words of foreign, especially Arabic, origin
having a palatal k. This type of sound is pronounced farther to the front of the mouth. That
a sound is palatal despite a back vowel following it, is indicated by a circumflex over that
vowel. Examples are:
dükkân → [ dük–kyan ] shop

kâğıt → [ kya:t ] [ kya–ıt ] paper
kâfi → [ kya–fi ] enough
kâr → [ kya:r ] profit (see section 4.2)
mahkûm → [ mah–kyum ] convict(ed)
sükût → [ sü–kyut ] silence
The sound h will also be influenced by a front or back vowel, but only when it follows a
vowel in a syllable (for syllabification, see section 5.4). In initial position it is voiced and
produced as [h], which sounds like the h between two vowels in English words:
ha–va air; (the) weather

her–hal–de by all means / in any case
hı–yar cucumber / gherkin
hiç–bir not a single
hor–la–mak to snore
hör–güç the hump of a camel
huy–suz bad-tempered
hü–kü–met government
In syllable-final position the h is voiceless and is pronounced as a fricative guttural

consonant [x]. That is, the place of articulation is the same as of the h in word-initial
position, but the throat is somewhat ‘narrowed’, to the effect that the escaping air
4.6 Consonant assimilation 27
undergoes friction. In this way, it resembles in a way the Scottish pronunciation of the
final sound in loch.
kah–ve coffee
ıh–la–mur lime tree
soh–bet chat
ruh spirit
After a front vowel the palatalized variant of h occurs as [Χ], a much softer sound resembling
the consonant in German ich ‘I’.
şeh–ri–ye vermicelli
ih–ti–mal possibility
şöh–ret fame
Tüh sana! You wretch!
Another consonant that is sensitive to the opposition front–back, leading to the variation
hard–soft, is the l. The following words all contain, besides a palatal g or k, a very soft l–sound:
güzel → [ gyü–zєly ] nice

gelmek → [ gyєly–mєky ] to come
leke → [ lyє–kyє ] stain
When palatalization of the l is not predictable by the absence of surrounding front v owels,
the soft l is sometimes, but certainly not always, indicated in the spelling by a circumflex.
This is never the case when the l occurs word-finally. Examples are:
lâzım → [ lya–zım ] necessary

lâstik → [ lyas–tiky ] tyre
rol → [ roly ] role
Radikal → [ ra–di–kaly ] a Turkish newspaper
4.6 Consonant assimilation
The previous sections have dealt with a number of phenomena which show that certain
vowels adapt to their environment. This type of adaptation is called assimilation and con
sonants may also adapt to their environment. A clear example is the n, which can be heard
as an m when followed by a b or a p—both consonants that are produced with the lips
closed. Because the adaptation of n to m is highly predictable, the spelling does not reflect
this type of assimilation. It occurs in Turkish and foreign words. Thus:
İstanbul → [ istambul ] Istanbul

sonbahar → [ sombahar ] springtime
tonbalığı → [ tombalı: ] tuna fish
kayınpeder → [ kayımpєdєr ] father-in-law
The consonants c [dzh] en ç [tsh] are simplified to [zh] and [sh] respectively, when they
precede d or t, l and n. This can be exemplified by:
vicdan → [ vizh–dan ] conscience

meclis → [ mєzh–lis ] parliament
ecnebi → [ єzh–nє–bi ] foreign(er)
açlık → [ ash–lık ] hunger
içti → [ ish–ti ] she drank
The combination cz is realized as [z:], and çs after a consonant becomes [s:], as in:
eczane → [ є–z:a:–nє ] pharmacy / chemists

tecziye → [ tє–z:i–yє ] punishment
bilinçsiz → [ bi–lin–s:iz ] unconscious
sevinçsiz → [ sє–vin–s:iz ] joyless
A z followed by ç, f, h, k, p, s, t becomes voiceless itself, thus z → [s]:
buzçözer → [ bus–tshö–zєr ] defroster

hazfetmek → [ has–fєt–mєk ] to remove
gazhane → [ gas–ha–nє ] gasworks
bozkır → [ bos–kır ] prairie / steppe
tozpembe → [ tos–pєm–bє ] light rose
faizsiz → [ fa–is–siz ] interest-free
düztaban → [ düs–ta–ban ] flat foot
5
Morphological variation *
The principles of twofold vowel harmony and fourfold vowel harmony (section 5.1) form,
together with a number of consonant assimilations, the core of what at first sight looks like
an enormous variation in suffixes. Since this apparent proliferation is largely predictable, it
can neatly be reduced by adopting archetypical notations. For instance, the four variants of
the dative suffix: –ye, –ya, –e, and –a can be covered by –(y)E, and similarly, rather than
spelling out –te, –ta, –de, and –da for the locative all the time, it is more economical to use
the notation –TE. Another important issue is the question how to deal with variable word
stems (section 5.2). Only five noun classes exhibit stem variation: a dictionary form and an
alternative stem, the latter being employed when a vowel follows by suffixation. How the
underlying process of resyllabification works is set out in section 5.4.
5.1 Vowel harmony
In chapters 1 and 2 it was briefly indicated that a distinction should be made between front
vowels and back vowels. Once again:
Front vowels: e i ö ü
Back vowels: a ı o u
Turkish is a language which can form words by attaching one or more suffixes to a word
stem (roughly speaking, this holds for nouns, adjectives, and verbs). Suffixes consist of one
or two syllables and the vowels in these syllables take a form that depends on the last vowel
in the stem. This phenomenon is referred to as vowel harmony and furthermore, within
that system, twofold and fourfold vowel harmony can be distinguished.
5.1.1 Twofold vowel harmony
Twofold vowel harmony applies when a suffix comes in two forms. The vowel in that suffix
is realized as an e if the preceding vowel is a front vowel, and as an a if preceded by a back
vowel.
The plural form of nouns, for instance, is either –ler or –lar, as can be shown by:
kitap book
kitap-lar books
şişe bottle
şişe-ler bottles
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
30 Morphological variation
In what follows the (predictable) variation between e and a will be written with a capital
letter E. The plural suffix can hence be represented by –lEr.
5.1.2 Fourfold vowel harmony
Fourfold vowel harmony works in principle in the same way, although there is no twofold,
but only fourfold, variation in vowel quality. For example, the suffix expressing that an
object is ‘definite’ (see section 6.5.4) has a fourfold vowel. A consonant-final word takes this
suffix directly; when a noun is vowel-final, then a buffer sound y (see section 5.3.1) is
attached first.
bakkal-ı the grocer (word is consonant-final)

ev-i the house
vapur-u the ferry
müdür-ü the director
araba-yı the car (word is vowel-final)
gazete-yi the newspaper
kutu-yu the box; the can
köprü-yü the bridge
The (predictable) vowel variation ı, i, u, ü will be represented in a generalized fashion; by

the capital letter I and the likewise predictable occurrence of the buffer sound y (after a
vowel) will be represented in brackets. The suffix exemplified here is the accusative suffix
and will henceforth be referred to as –(y)I (for details, see section 9.2.3).
Yet there are a number of very common words in contemporary Turkish that evade the
rules of vowel harmony. Mostly, they are of foreign origin (Arabic, Persian, French).
Examples are (all accusative forms):
saat-i the watch / the clock / the hour

rol-ü the role
Radikal-i the Radikal (newspaper)
hal-i the situation / the state
5.2 Variation in word stems *
Turkish words change not only because of the addition of suffixes; some words stems
appear in two forms: one stem form is exclusively used when a suffix beginning with a
vowel follows. There are five sorts of stem alternation.
5.2.1 Consonantal variation: voiceless—voiced
A second stem is found among noun stems that end in the (voiceless) p, t, or ç, nouns that
have a final k or g, and among a number of words that entered the language through Persian
and Arabic. To start off with the first of these, compare the following forms:
kitap book
kitap-lar books
kitab-ım my book
armut pear
armut-lar pears
armud-um my pear
ağaç tree → [ a:tsh ]
ağaç-lar trees → [ a:tshlár ]
ağac-ım my tree → [ a:dzhím ]
We can say that there are two stem forms; one that ends in p, t, or ç (all voiceless) and one
ending in b, d, or c (all voiced consonants). The voiced stem forms are used when followed
by a suffix that begins with a vowel and in all other cases the unvoiced stem forms are used.
However, within each category of consonants there are many words that do not have a
voiced counterpart. Consider:
top ball
top-u his ball
sepet basket
sepet-i his basket
haç crucifix / cross
haç-ı his crucifix
5.2.2 Consonantal variation: k / g—zero
The second type of noun shows a similar variation in stem form. These nouns end in the
consonant k or g:
yatak bed
yatağ-ı her bed → [ yata: ] [ yata:í ]
katalog catalogue
kataloğ-u her catalogue → [ katalo:ú ] [ katalo:∀ú ]
Also in this case it is obvious that there are two stem forms; one ending in a (voiceless) k or
(voiced) g and a stem that does not contain either of these sounds (as indicated in square
brackets). The forms without k or g, (they have ğ instead, occur when the stem is followed
by a suffix that starts with a vowel. In all other cases the stem with k or g will be used. The
category of words ending in k or g also contains many words that do not follow this pattern
of consonant alternation:
ak (egg) white
ak-ı its egg white
hukuk the right
hukuk-u her right
lig league
lig-i his league
A noun with two stem forms, comparable to the examples above, is the Persian word for
‘colour’, and it has a stem form ending in k (voiceless) and one in g (voiced). However, not
all words ending in nk have two stems, as follows from the second example here.
renk colour
reng-i her colour
tank tank (military vehicle)
tank-ı his tank
5.2.3 Stem variation: short—long
Furthermore, there are words which have two stems: a short stem and a long one. This
group can be split into a group of ‘indigenous’ words and a set of words copied from Arabic
or Persian, which have been adapted to the sound system of Turkish (see section 4.4).
Words of the first subgroup are applied in constructions expressing ‘inalienable posses-
sion’. A car or a sheep can be alienated by selling, stealing, or giving it away, but normally
speaking one does not do anything like that to a father or a mother, or to a forehead or a
nose. Thus, the latter four words exemplify the notion of inalienable possession. Here are
some examples of Turkish words, in which every second form represents the possessive
third person singular (see section 6.4):
oğul son
oğl-u her son
alın forehead
aln-ı her forehead
koyun bosom
koyn-u her bosom
A peculiarity of the words by means of which inalienable possession can be expressed is

that the shorter stem is exclusively used when a possessive suffix follows. Possessive forms
other than the third person singular are: oğl-um ‘my son’; oğl-un ‘your son’; oğl-umuz ‘our
son’; oğl-unuz ‘your son’, as can be demonstrated by:
Ben, baba-m-ın tek oğl-u-yum.

I am my father’s only son.
Oğl-un söyle-di.
Your son said it / so.
But when a case marker is to follow, it attaches to the longer stem, as in the following
examples, based on the genitive (–(n)In), dative (–(y)E), and accusative suffix (–(y)I) (see
sections 6.5.2–6.5.4).
Baba yok-sa anne-yle ilgilen-mek oğul-un vazife-si-dir.

If there is no father, taking care of the mother is the duty of the son.
Hırsızlık baba-dan oğul-a geç-er.
Theft descends from father to son.
(Baba ve oğul)-u ev-e gönder-di-ler. (see section 26.1)
They sent the father and the son home.
It goes without saying that body parts are also to be regarded as inalienable. That is why
burun (‘nose’) is the word stem when a case marker follows and burn- is the stem form for
possessive suffixes. Compare:
Üstelik tanıdık bir burun-a benzi-yor-du.

Furthermore, it looked like a familiar nose.
Burn-u oldukça uzun-du.
His nose was rather long.
Likewise, the shorter stem forms of omuz ‘shoulder’, göğüs ‘chest’, and boyun ‘neck’ are used
to attach possessive suffixes and the longer stem form takes case markers.
Pamuk koy-un; biraz omuz-a, biraz da göğüs-e.

Put some gauze dressing on; a few on the shoulder and a few on the chest.
Anne-m yaklaş-tı ve el-in-i omz-um-a koy-du.
My mother came near and put her hand on my shoulder.
Göğs-ü, boyn-u altın, kol-lar-ı bilezik dolu.
Her chest and neck are full of gold and her arms of bracelets.
For the group of copied (‘borrowed’) words the difference between alienable and inalienable
possession is irrelevant, because this type of word always requires the short stem to be used
in combination with a vowel-initial suffix. This can be shown by the following examples, the
second form of which is the possessive third person singular:
şehir city
şehr-i his city
ömür life
ömr-ü his life
akıl intelligence / reason / sense
akl-ı his intelligence
Hence, the accusative forms equal the possessive forms for the third person singular. The
dative forms too are based on the short stem, as follows from: şehr-e ‘to the city’; bir ömr-e bedel
(price of a life) ‘very precious’; akl-a karşı tez-ler ‘arguments that oppose common sense’.
There are several linguists who believe that the relation between the shorter and the
longer stem forms can be described in terms of a ‘deletion phenomenon’, but others
think, conversely, that the longer stem could be explained by assuming that the shorter
form is basic and that the final vowel in the longer (secondary) stem can be predicted by
application of the rules of vowel harmony (see section 5.1). That this is not a realistic
proposition follows from the observation that there are a number of so-called disharmonic
word stems (a very small number, for that matter, and mostly to be found in older texts).
The following examples represent the dictionary forms and the accusative marked forms
respectively.
nakil transportation / transfer

nakl-i the transportation
zulüm injustice / suppression
zulm-ü the injustice
lütuf favour
lütf-ü the favour
There are words with a similar structure to that of the ones presented above, having one
stem form only. Compare:
zehir poison → zehir-i the poison (acc.)

satır line → satır-ı the line (acc.)
koyun sheep → koyun-u the sheep (acc.)
A combination of a disharmonic vowel (e.g. the accusative forms saat-i ‘the clock’, rol-ü ‘the
role’, see section 5.1) and the p–b alternation discussed in section 5.2.1 can be found in harp
‘war’ → harb-i and kalp ‘heart’ → kalb-i.
5.2.4 Consonantal variation: doubling
The second subgroup of nouns with a short and a long stem comprises a limited number of
words of Arabic origin. The long stem of such nouns has a doubled final consonant.
Frequently used nouns of this kind can be exemplified by:
af amnesty
aff-ı his amnesty
hak right
hakk-ı her right
his feeling
hiss-i her feeling
hat connection / line
hatt-ı his line
zam rise in prices or wages
zamm-ı its rise
5.2.5 Glottal stop
A final group of Turkish nouns with consonant variation are copied Arabic nouns contain-
ing the uvular sound ayn. In Turkish this sound evolved into a glottal stop, which is the
technical term for the interruption of the air flow in the throat. This short pause, with no air
being released at all, is often heard when a syllable-final t comes before a consonant, as in:
Lat-via, wit-ness, Scot-land. The glottal stop is also widely used before a stressed vowel to
add emphasis, as in: go over [go’ovə] and reentry [riː’entri]. The stop, counting as a conson
ant, was, after the abolition of the Arabic-based writing system for Turkish, at first repre-
sented by an apostrophe, but eventually this was dropped altogether. Several stages of
development are represented in the following examples, with the first two columns forms
reflecting the presence of the glottal stop, which is entirely absent in the third column.
mevzu subject matter

mevzu’-u → mevzu-u → mevzu-su its subject matter
mevzu’-un → mevzu-un → mevzu-nun of the subject matter
cami mosque
cami’-i → cami-i → cami-si his mosque
cami’-in → cami-in → cami-nin of the mosque
Furthermore, there are a few infrequently used disyllabic words in which the glottal
stop has been retained in, among other things, the possessive form: nevi ‘sort, kind, variety’
(→ nev’-i), tabı ‘nature, character; printing, edition’ (→ tab’ı), defi ‘repulsion’ (→ def ’i), and
cemi ‘plural; addition, sum, total’ (→ cem’i).
5.2.6 Variation in verb stems
Finally, the t–d variation occurs in a small number of verbs. The most important are gitmek
‘to go’ and the auxiliary verb etmek.
git go → gid-er she goes

telefon et call → telefon ed-er he calls
5.2.7 Grammatical rules
Summarizing the foregoing, it can be said that Turkish has nouns (and a few verbs) with a
variable final consonant. This implies that such words always have two stems. One stem is
used to name things (physical objects and abstract notions) and hence they are listed under
that form in dictionaries. The other stem is used only when a vowel-initial suffix is attached.
A special category comprises nouns denoting inalienable possession, because their short
stem is used only for possessive suffixes, not for case suffixes.
By way of a conclusion, it should be emphasized that there is no watertight way of
describing the form variation in terms of grammatical rules (see also section 6.1), despite
several brave attempts made by various linguists. Those attempts have mostly led to very
general rules with a great number of exceptions, to which, in turn, lists of exceptions to
exceptions had to be formulated. Because the form variation is in essence highly unpredict-
able, the best way to look at certain regularities is regarding them as tendencies rather than
as rules. At the same time, the student should keep in mind that the different stem forms
must therefore just be learned by rote.
5.3 Variation in suffixes
Not only may word stems have an alternative form used under specific circumstances, but
also suffixes come in different shapes, each depending on what is called the phonological
environment. This means that there are two factors which determine the eventual shape of
the suffix: the quality of the final vowel and that of the final consonant.
5.3.1 Buffer sound
Words in Turkish end in a vowel or a consonant. Some suffixes require a ‘buffer sound’
directly after a word that ends in a vowel, and their form depends on the type of suffix. The
suffix expressing direction (see section 6.5.3) has four shapes.
bahçe-ye into the garden

banka-ya to the bank
deniz-e to the sea(side)
bakkal-a to the grocer’s
The variation in e and a can be explained in terms of vowel harmony and the occurrence of
the buffer sound y by the fact that a vowel-initial suffix cannot follow a vowel directly.
Henceforth, for the suffix introduced here the archetypical notation –(y)E will be used.
Other suffixes of this type are the genitive (see section 6.5.2) and the verbal suffixes that
will be discussed in chapter 15.
5.3.2 Consonants
In Turkish there are five suffixes that start with a t or a d and the choice of one depends on
whether the preceding word ends in a voiceless or a voiced consonant. According to these
two parameters, consonants can be subdivided as follows:
voiced: b c d g ğ j l m n r v y z (ğ is included !)

voiceless: ç f h k p s ş t (h only if syllable-final)
The suffix by means of which the idea of location can be expressed (see section 6.5.5) occurs
in four forms: –de, –da, –te, –ta. A word ending in a vowel or a voiced consonant takes one
5.3 Variation in suffixes 37
of the first varieties (–de or –da) and otherwise (the word final consonant is voiceless) a
suffix from the second series follows: –te or –ta.
ev-de in the house / at home

bakkal-da at the grocer’s
ekmek-te in the bread
uçak-ta in the aircraft
Since the variation in forms is (again) entirely predictable because of the opposition voiced
– voiceless on the one hand and the application of vowel harmony on the other, the suffix
for location will be represented as –TE. Likewise, in section 6.5.6 the suffix –TEn will be
discussed, which expresses among other things ‘direction from which’. Also the verbal
suffix –TI, which is one of the forms to express the notion of ‘past tense’ (see section 20.4)
is represented in this way.
5.3.3 Overview
Concluding this section about morphological variation, it should be noted that the k–ğ
alternation (see section 5.2.2) also occurs in certain suffixes that are followed by another,
vowel-initial suffix. A single example will suffice here, based on the verbal stems git- ‘to go’,
bul- ‘to find’, yürü- ‘to walk’, and ara- ‘to search’. In the following summary they are
exemplified by means of the suffix for future tense, as in gid-ecek-sin ‘you will go’ and
gid-eceğ-im ‘I will go’.
The future tense form has eight different variants, the forms of which depend on three
factors. First, the opposition front vowel—back vowel (1,3,5,7—2,4,6,8); second, the question
is relevant whether the suffix follows a vowel (3,4,7,8) or a consonant (1,2,5,6); and, third,
the eventual shape of the suffix depends on whether a vowel-initial suffix (5,6,7,8) follows
or not (1,2,3,4). This can schematically be represented as follows.
Stem ends in Harmony Suffix starts with

gid-ecek-sin consonant front vowel vowel (1)
bul-acak-sın consonant back vowel vowel (2)
yürü-yecek-sin vowel front vowel consonant (3)
ara-yacak-sın vowel back vowel consonant (4)
gid-eceğ-im consonant front vowel vowel (5)
bul-acağ-ım consonant back vowel vowel (6)
yürü-yeceğ-im vowel front vowel consonant (7)
ara-yacağ-ım vowel back vowel consonant (8)
The future-tense suffix will be written as –(y)EcEK. This entails that the front vowel e is
realized in (1,3,5,7) and the back vowel a in (2,4,6,8). The buffer sound y comes after a stem
ending in a vowel (3,4,7,8), a k occurs before a consonant (1,2,3,4), and a ğ occurs before a
vowel (5,6,7,8). Forms of the future tense will be discussed in section 20.2.
5.4 Morphemes versus syllables
In the previous sections examples have been presented of word stems to which one or more
suffixes were attached. The linguistic cover term for word stems and suffixes is morpheme,
being the smallest meaningful elements by which a word is built up.
Words can be split up in several ways: letter by letter, stem plus suffixes (also known as
morpheme by morpheme), and by dividing the word on the basis of its syllables. How words
are built up in terms of morphemes is an interesting matter for the analysis of grammatical
structures, but knowledge of the syllable structure is indispensable for a correct hyphen
ation of words that do not fit the pattern. This section goes into the general structure of
Turkish syllables and shows how they relate to a division in terms of morphemes.
5.4.1 Morphemes: hyphens
Morphemes listed in a dictionary (lexicon) are often referred to as lexemes and the mean-
ingful elements which account for a part of the grammar rules for inflection (declension of
nouns and conjugation of verbs) or for derivation (word formation) are called suffixes. In
order to indicate how words are built up in terms of stems and suffixes, morphemes will
in this book be separated by hyphens (-).
Aslında deprem çoktan-dır beyin-ler-imiz-de-ydi.

actually quake since.long.ago brains-plur-our-in-past
Actually, we have been aware of the earthquake since long ago.
Türk-leş-tir-il-eme-yecek-ler-den-mi-siniz?
Turk-become-make-be.made-not.be.able-will-plur-of-question-you.are
Are you one of those who cannot be made Turk (be Turkicized)?
In these examples the morphemes are ‘connected’ by hyphens and on the second line
(below the lexemes and suffixes) a sort of word-by-word translation is represented, resem-
bling the practice adhered to in linguistic works (this method, however, is not generally
adopted here). In this way it becomes clear that aslında ‘actually’, deprem ‘earthquake’, çok-
tan ‘since long’, beyin ‘brain(s)’, and Türk ‘Turk’ are to be found in the lexicon and that the
rest are suffixes, being part of the grammatical domain. From a grammatical-historical
point of view also aslında and çoktan can be analysed as asl-ın-da and çok-tan, but owing to
the fact that the overall meaning of these words cannot be derived from the parts they
consist of, it can be assumed that they are dictionary forms.
5.4.2 Syllables: dashes
A word form such as beyin-ler-imiz-de-ydi ‘(it) was in our brains’ is made up from a word
stem (beyin) and four suffixes. The hyphens solely serve the purpose of indicating that
meaning is added with every individual suffix. In a text, however, everything is, normally
speaking, written together. Hence for the examples represented in section 5.4.1 a normal
text would contain a sentence of four words, Aslında deprem çoktandır beyinlerimizdeydi,
and one of two words, Türkleştirilemeyeceklerden misiniz?
However, there are several exceptions. Apart from ezafe-forms (see section 31.6) in older
types of text (for instance, nam-ı diğer ‘alias’) and telephone numbers, hyphens are only
applied to accomodate a word which doesn’t fit on the line. In Turkish, the position at
which a hyphen may be inserted is not a morpheme boundary (as indicated in the examples
given) but a syllable boundary. In order to be able to determine the correct position in a
word for hyphenation, one should be able to split a word in terms of syllables, and therefore,
this requires insight into the syllable structure of Turkish words. In what follows, syllables
are separated by a dash (—).
The core of a Turkish syllable is a vowel, as indicated by V. A vowel can be preceded and
followed by a consonant, as indicated by C. Hence, the basic syllable types are V, CV, VC,
and CVC, and most words are structured in terms of these combinations of vowels and
consonants. Examples of monosyllabic words are:
v o he / she / it; that (1)

cv su water (2)
vc at horse (3)
cvc top ball; cannon (4)
Disyllabic words can be exemplified as follows:
v.cv a–da island (1) + (2)

v.vc a–it belonging (to) (1) + (3)
v.cvc a–dam man (1) + (4)
cv.v du–a prayer (2) + (1)
cv.cv de–de grandfather (2) + (2)
cv.vc şa–ir poet (2) + (3)
cv.cvc su–lar waters (2) + (4)
*vc.v (3) + (1)
vc.cv at–la by horse (3) + (2)
*vc.vc (3) + (3)
vc.cvc in–san man (3) + (4)
*cvc.v (4) + (1)
cvc.cv top–çu cannoneer, gunner (4) + (2)
*cvc.vc (4) + (3)
cvc.cvc top–lar cannons; guns (4) + (4)
These examples make it clear that certain, theoretically speaking possible combinations of
syllables do not occur (as indicated with asterisks). This phenomenon can be explained by
assuming that words are structured according to the principles of minimal complexity and
increasing complexity. This implies that V should be used at the beginning of a word only and
that the remainder of the word should be built up in terms of CV and CVC. If a certain
syllable structure arises (by suffixation) which does not comply with these principles, the
word must be resyllabified; it should be restructured on the basis of permissible syllables
and combinations thereof in order to meet the aforementioned requirements. This explains
why the starred combinations presented so far are restructured: *VC.V → V.CV, *VC.VC →
V.CVC, *CVC.V → CV.CV, and *CVC.VC → CV.CVC. Particularly after suffixation, such
restructurings take place. For instance, adding the dative suffix to the word for ‘horse’ leads to
the morphological form at+a with the non-permissible structure *VC.V. Hence, this leads to
the restructured form a–ta with the pattern V.CV. And when the accusative suffix or a pos-
sessive suffix third person singular is added to, for example, top ‘cannon’, the outcome is top-u
‘(his) cannon’ with the initial structure *CVC.V, which is thereupon subject to restructuring
into final to–pu (CV.CV). This mechanism is applied to other non-permissible structures as
well. This can be schematized as:
at + a *vc.v → v.cv a–ta for the horse

at + ın *vc.vc → v.cvc a–tın from the horse
top + u cvc.v → cv.cv to–pu his cannon
top + un *cvc.vc → cv.cvc to–pun from the cannon
5.4.3 More basic structures
In the Turcological literature the structures CVCC (as in kurt ‘worm’ and halk ‘people,
populace’) and CCVCC (as in prens ‘prince’ and flört ‘flirt’) are often regarded as basic
structures as well, but as a matter of fact these can be analysed in terms of smaller units.
Besides the four basic types of (1)–(4), the syllables CCV and VCC occur, albeit with
certain constraints on the consonant adjacent to the vowel (that is, the second C in CCV
and the first consonant in VCC). This consonant can be only l, r, or s, and also an n in VCC.
This can be exemplified as follows.
ccv gri grey (5)

kli–ma air conditioner
vcc alt underside (6)
üst upper side
These constraints are also in force for derived syllables with yet larger consonant clusters.
Such clusters are found predominantly in words of foreign origin and do not play a role in
the hyphenation of inflected word forms.
c+ccv stra–te–ji strategy C + (5)

ccv+c blok block (5) + C
kral king
spor sports
c+ccv+c stron–si–yum strontium C + (5) + C
c+vcc dört four C + (6)
dost friend
halk people
cc+vcc flört flirt C + C + (6)
branş branch
The extensions with C which have been discussed on the basis of CCV (5) and VCC (6) can
be summarized thus: a syllable is based on a vowel (V) which ‘attracts’ as many consonants
(C) as possible on the proviso that the consonant neighbouring the vowel is permissible
(l, r, and s for CCV and l, r, s, and n for VCC).
The mechanism of resyllabification also explains why certain native speakers of Turkish
insert a vowel at the beginning of a foreign word (see section 4.4), particularly in words
starting with CC: they do this because the word starts with a consonant cluster which does
not match with one of the basic Turkish types. In this way one reads and hears kral ‘king’
with CCVC being restructured as kı–ral with CV–CVC and spor ‘sports’ as sı–por and also
ekspres ‘express’ with VC–CCCVC as ek–si–pres with C–CV–CCVC or even as ek–si–pi–res
with VC–CV–CV–CVC.
5.4.4 On hyphenating
When it comes to words that do not fit on the line, they should be hyphenated in the light of
the requirement of minimal complexity and increasing complexity. When a word (longer
than three letters) begins with a vowel (V), one syllable can already be set aside. The remainder
must be divided into CV and CVC. For at+arak ‘throwing’ the division a–ta–rak (V–CV–CVC)
is required and not *a–tar–ak (V–CVC–VC) or *at–ar–ak (VC–VC–VC). The morphological
word araba+lar+ımız ‘our cars’ follows the pattern a–ra–ba–la–rı–mız (V–CV–CV–CV–CV–
CVC) and not, for instance, *ar–ab–al–ar–ım–ız (VC–VC–VC–VC–VC–VC). Similarly,
the word bekle+yecek ‘will wait’ must be split up into the syllables be–kle–ye–cek (CV–CCV–
CV–CVC) and not as *bek–ley–e–cek (CVC–CVC–V–CVC). Note that the syllable CCV
is permitted because the second C is an l. For getir+ecek+miş+iz ‘they say we will bring’ the
correct structure is ge–ti–re–cek–mi–şiz (CV–CV–CV–CVC–CV–CVC).
In compounds in which the internal word boundary (as indicated by ‘=’) falls before or
after a consonant or just between two consonants, this word boundary is dissolved, as it
were, when the entire word is divided into syllables.
yayın=ev+i publishing house → ya–yı–ne–vi

hasta=bakıcı nurse’s aide → has–ta–ba–kı–cı
kayın=peder father-in-law → ka–yın–pe–der
But the word boundary is preserved if it occurs between two vowels. As a corollary, the
process of syllabification starts anew.
baba=anne+ler+imiz our grandmothers → ba–ba=an–ne–le–ri–miz

hava=alan+ın+a to the airport → ha–va=a–la–nı–na
Returning to the longer types of structure in the beginning of this section, no other division
can be expected than:
beyin+ler+imiz+de+ydi
be–yin–le–ri–miz–dey–di
CV–CVC–CV–CV–CVC–CVC–CV
Türk+leş+tir+il+eme+yecek+ler+den+mi+siniz?
Türk–leş–ti–ri–le–me–ye–cek–ler–den–mi–si–niz
CVCC–CVC–CV–CV–CV–CV–CV–CVC–CVC–CVC–CV–CV–CVC
In case of doubt, ask any native speaker of Turkish older than three years of age to say the
word in question aloud or even shout it. It is predictable that for arabalarımız ‘our car(t)s’
only the syllables a–ra–ba–la–rı–mız will be heard and nothing else.
5.4.5 Comparison
The position where a word consisting of a stem plus a series of suffixes must be broken off
to fit on the line is determined by a syllable boundary and not by a morpheme boundary
(‘where the next suffix begins’). That syllable boundary can be determined by splitting one
or two suffixes in such a way that two permissible syllables are formed. The hyphenation
point, then, is at the syllable boundary.
Certain audible assimilation phenomena (adaptation from one sound to another) over
word boundaries can easily be understood when one realizes that syllable boundaries are
the determining factor in how a sound stream is split up. This can be shown by: ‘she said
(dedi): yesterday (dün) towards the evening (akşam üstü) suddenly (ansızın) the rain
(yağmur) burst out (bastırdı)’.
Dün akşam üstü yağmur ansızın bastır-dı de-di.

Dü–nak–şa–müs–tü–yağ–mu–ran–sı–zın–bas–tır–dı–de–di.
PART II
T HE NOUN PH R ASE
The noun phrase is an important building block in the construction of a sentence. In

chapter 6 we will look at the use of noun suffixes for plural, possession, and case marking; in
chapter 7 pronouns of all types are introduced; chapter 8 covers adjectives and goes into the
word order of the noun phrase; and, finally, chapter 9 explains what functions the noun
phrase fulfils in different types of sentence.
6
Nouns
This chapter elaborates on the difference between the two possible stem forms nouns may
have, and argues that linguistic rules which derive one stem from the other do not work.
A plausible explanation is based on statistical information and is further motivated by
the huge number of exceptions generated by attempts to apply such rules. As a way out, in
section 6.1 a case is put forward for just memorizing nouns with two stems. Next, the types
of suffix that may be added to nominal stems is discussed in section 6.2, together with the
order in which they must appear. Sections on nominal inflection instantiating these types
follow (6.3–6.7), the subjects being plural, possessive, and case markers. Since the six case
markers fulfil several non-related functions in the sentence, a relatively large amount of
space is given to this topic. A short section (6.8) on the spelling of proper names in relation
to suffixation concludes this chapter.
6.1 Dictionary form and textual form
In section 5.2 it was shown that some Turkish nouns have a final consonant that changes
under certain circumstances and that these nouns actually have two stems.
One of the stems can always be found in the dictionary and a good and reliable diction-
ary also indicates whether a certain word forms an exception to the rule. In dictionaries of
the highest quality it is even indicated if a noun has a second stem. The representatives of
each category could be listed as follows:
ağaç (c-) tree

armut (d-) pear
kitap (b-) book
yatak (ğ-) bed
katalog (ğ-) catalogue
renk (ng-) colour
şehir (hr-) city
ömür (mr-) life
koyun (yn-) bosom
af (ff-) mercy, pardon
hak (kk-) right
his (ss-) feeling
hat (tt-) line
mevzu (‘-) subject matter
cami (‘-) mosque
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
46 Nouns
In the best dictionaries, in square brackets it is indicated that the second stem of ağaç
‘tree’ is ağac-, that armut ‘pear’ also occurs as armud-, and that kitap ‘book’ has the variant
kitab-. Similarly, besides the dictionary forms yatak ‘bed’, katalog ‘catalogue’, renk ‘colour’
the textual forms yatağ-, kataloğ-, and reng- can be expected. The situation is not different
with any of the other categories: besides şehir ‘city’, ömür ‘life’, alın ‘forehead’, and koyun
‘bosom’ the stems şehr-, ömr-, aln-, and koyn- can be found in texts, as well as the couples
af and aff- ‘mercy, pardon’, hak and hakk- ‘right’, his and hiss- ‘feeling’, hat and hatt- ‘line’,
mevzu – mevzu- ‘subject matter’, and cami – cami- ‘mosque’.
In order to account for these phenomena linguists have tried to set up grammatical rules
that define the circumstances plus the effects, but such rules are unfortunately not water-
tight. This is not a matter of the competence of the specialists involved, but rather is caused
by the great number of exceptions.
Ignoring possible exceptions, two rules could easily be set up covering this variation in
form. In principle, there are two groups: nouns ending in the voiceless consonants p, t, or ç
and nouns ending in k or g.
Rule 1 states that:
Nouns ending in p, t, ç (voiceless)

change this consonant to b, d, c (voiced)
before a suffix that begins with a vowel.
Rule 2 states that:
Nouns ending in k, g
change this consonant to ğ, ğ (no real sound)
before a suffix that begins with a vowel.
In order to give an impression of how many exceptions can be found to these rules, inspec-
tion of a word list containing around thirty thousand words reveals that of all nouns ending
in p only 75% follow the rule formulated above. For nouns ending in ç the percentage is
90%, but for words ending in t, only 37%. For the other categories, to which belong şehir
(hr-) ‘city’, his (ss-) ‘feeling’, cami (‘-) ‘mosque’, such rules cannot be set up because these
nouns belong to what is called ‘closed’ word classes. This means that no new words will be
placed into any of these groups.
For the word classes for which Rule 1 and Rule 2 have been formulated (these are ‘open’
word classes) the situation is different. The rules are productive, which means that they
should be applied to new words formed in Turkish or to words which are copied from
another language. As an example, manyak ‘maniac’ has a second stem manyağ-, which is
used in the accusative form manyağ-ı.
6.2 Nominal suffix sequences
Turkish is a so-called agglutinative language, which means that a whole series of suffixes
may follow a word stem. Tentatively, these suffixes can be grouped as suffixes for number,
possession, and case marking.
6.3 Plural forms 47
In the first slot in the suffix sequence the suffix for plural can be put; the second slot is
reserved for suffixes expressing possession, and in the third slot any of the six case markers
can be placed. Schematically this gives:
stem + (plural suffix) + (possessive suffix) + (case marker)
The order of the suffixes is strict but not every slot needs to be filled. This optionality is
indicated by the parentheses. One or more slots may remain empty, and thus the number of
possible combinations of suffixes is rather large (for details, see section 6.6):
stem + – + – + – (1)
stem + – + possessive suffix – (2)
stem + – + – + case marker (3)
stem + – + possessive suffix + case marker (4)
The singular form ev ‘house’ (1) can be expanded to, for instance, ev-im ‘my house’ (2),
ev-de ‘in the house’ (3), and ev-im-de ‘in my house’ (4).
stem + plural suffix – – (5)

stem + plural suffix + possessive suffix – (6)
stem + plural suffix + – + case marker (7)
stem + plural suffix + possessive suffix + case marker (8)
The plural form ev-ler ‘houses’ (5) can be expanded likewise and this yields ev-ler-im ‘my
houses’ (6), ev-ler-de ‘in the houses’ (7), and ev-ler-im-de ‘in my houses’ (8).
6.3 Plural forms
The form in which nouns are presented in section 6.1 is the form to be found in dictionaries
and is always the singular. The plural is formed by attaching the suffix –lEr (glossed as
‘plur’). Words in which the final vowel is a front vowel take –ler and words with a back
vowel receive –lar. For example:
şişe-ler bottles (front vowel)

deniz-ler seas
göl-ler lakes
müdür-ler directors
kitap-lar books (back vowel)
ışık-lar lights
kilo-lar kilos
bavul-lar suitcases
Not only real nouns but also adjectives which are used ‘substantively’, as if they were a noun
themselves, can take a plural suffix. There is a semantic shift towards a collective meaning
(see also sections 8.7 and 31.2.7):
48 Nouns
genç young
genç-ler the young, young people
hasta sick
hasta-lar the sick, patients
Whenever a noun is modified by a quantifier, the plural suffix is not attached (for more
details, see section 11.5).
Despite the theoretical difference between mass nouns (for substances) and count nouns
(for things), nouns of either kind can take a plural suffix. For mass nouns the meaning
shifts towards a sortal interpretation or an interpretation in terms of quantities, units, or
portions:
peynir-ler cheeses, sorts of cheese

bira-lar beers (glasses of beer); sorts of beer
şarap-lar wines, sorts of wine
su-lar waters
hava-lar the weather (types)
Belçika bira-lar-ı-yla, Hollanda ise peynir-ler-i-yle meşhur-dur.

Belgium is famous for its beers, the Netherlands for its cheese.
Pilav-lar, çorba-lar, tas kebap-lar-ı, kek-ler pişir-iyor-um.
I make all kinds of pilaf, soup, meat and vegetable stew, cake.
Güneşli gün-ler-le kapalı hava-lar birbir-in-i izli-yor-du.
Sunny days and cloudy weather followed each other.
Examples of quantities and portions are:
Garson, masa-lar-a sabah-ın ilk çay-lar-ın-ı dağıt-ıyor-du.

The waiter served the first (glasses of) tea of the morning to the tables.
Üçüncü bira-lar gel-diğ-in-de Recep esne-me-ye başla-dı.
When the third round of beer arrived, Recep started to yawn.
Siz de gel-in, bira-lar ben-den.
You come too, the beer is on me.
Bir süre hiç konuş-madan çorba-lar-ın-ı iç-ti-ler.
For some time they ate their soup without saying a word.
Yarım saat kadar sonra, ısmarla-dığ-ım sebze-ler gel-di.
After about half an hour the vegetables I had ordered came.
As a matter of fact, the application of the plural suffix has an individualizing effect. Besides
an interpretation in terms of sorts, quantities, units, or portions it is in certain cases possible
to think of moments of acts. Here:
Bu süreç-te sancı-lar yaşan-abil-ir, kırgınlık-lar ol-abil-ir.

During this process one can experience moments of pain and fatigue.
6.4 Possessive forms 49
Tüm isyan-lar içinde acımasızlık-lar var-dır.

In the course of all these rebellions there are merciless acts.
Herkes akıllı değil, o yüz-den tarih yiğitlik-ler-le dolu.
Not everyone is clever, that’s why history is full of acts of courage.
Certain fixed expressions, for instance wishes, always take a plural suffix, although a plural
interpretation does not make much sense.
İyi akşam-lar. Good evening.

İyi gece-ler. Good night.
İyi uyku-lar. Sleep well.
İyi ders-ler. Have a nice class.
İyi yolculuk-lar. Have a nice trip.
İyi sene-ler. Happy New Year.
Mutlu yıl-lar. Happy New Year.
Acil şifa-lar dile-r-iz. We wish you a speedy recovery.
Proper names with a plural suffix denote the person and his family:
Aliye’ler Aliye and her family

Hasan’lar Hasan and his family
Personal pronouns with the suffix combination –(n)In plus –ki express aside from things
also relatives (for more detail, see section 7.8):
sen-in-ki-ler those (things) of you (sg); your (sg) family / relatives

siz-in-ki-ler those (things) of you (pl); your (pl) family / relatives
biz-im-ki-ler those of us; ours, our people
How the plural suffix –lEr may follow words to which a possessive suffix has been attached
will be explained in section 14.6.2.
6.4 Possessive forms
The second slot in the suffix model presented in section 6.2 can be filled by possessive
suffixes. There are two variants: one for words ending in a vowel and one for words that end
in a consonant. In their abbreviated form these possessive suffixes can best be represented
as: –(I)m, –(I)n, –(s)I(n), –(I)mIz, –(I)nIz, –lErI(n). Examples are:
After a vowel: After a consonant:

araba-m my car bavul-um my suitcase
araba-n your car bavul-un your suitcase
araba-sı her car bavul-u his suitcase
araba-mız our car bavul-umuz our suitcase
araba-nız your car bavul-unuz your suitcase
araba-ları their car bavul-ları their suitcase
50 Nouns
The suffix in the first column above does not start with a vowel (I), but in the second
column this vowel is realized as u. Other formations include:
şehr-in your city

gömleğ-im my shirt
ağac-ı his tree
toprağ-ımız our soil
ölü-sü his corpse
müdür-ünüz your boss
The shortened representation of these suffixes for the third person singular and plural are
–(s)I(n) and –lErI(n) respectively. Both forms contain a so-called pronominal n, which
occurs when yet another suffix follows. Compare:
bahçe-si his garden

bahçe-sin-de in his garden
bahçe-leri their garden
bahçe-lerin-de in their garden
In comparable circumstances this pronominal n must be attached to a nominal compound

containing the element –(s)I(n): when for instance the locative case marker (the one indi-
cating place) follows, çay bahçe-si ‘tea garden’ will have the form çay bahçe-sin-de ‘in the tea
garden’ (see section 31.4.2).
For the sake of brevity, the possessive suffix third person singular is at various places
glossed in this book as ‘poss3s’.
6.5 Case markers *
The dictionary form discussed in section 6.1 is often called the nominative form. This is the
uninflected form. On this form a noun can take certain case markers. These will be dis-
cussed one by one briefly in sections 6.5.1–6.5.7 and in further detail in section 6.7.
6.5.1 Nominative
The nominative, as we have seen, is the uninflected form of a noun as it is listed in a dic-
tionary. This form is also used for naming something. Think of the question ‘What is this?’
and the form of the answer is always the nominative. As for the function of this word form
in a sentence, one could say that the grammatical subject is usually expressed in the nom
inative. And the subject is generally associated with the doer in a sentence such as The cat is
sleeping on the balcony; or in other sentence types the subject is the one a certain statement
applies to, for instance, That man is crazy. A condition, though, is that they are the subject
of a main clause in Turkish. When, for instance, Kedi uyuyor ‘The cat is sleeping’ is part of
some other statement, for instance, Aliye says that the cat is sleeping, in Turkish a so-called
embedded clause (the underlined part) is used and the embedded subject (‘the cat’) will
then be expressed with the genitive case marker. More about this in section 33.4.
6.5 Case markers 51
Furthermore, the nominative form is used for direct objects as well, but only if they are
indefinite. Definite direct objects (that is, objects the referent of which can be identified on
the basis of the context and / or situation) get the accusative case marker, which will be
discussed shortly (after genitive and dative). Indefinite direct objects occur in two variants:
one with and one without the word bir. This word has a function comparable with the
indefinite article in English – a /an. Compare:
Aliye bir gazete al-dı. Aliye bought a newspaper.

Aliye gazete oku-yor. Aliye is reading the / a / Ø newspaper(s).
In the first example bir indicates that the thing purchased is a single newspaper. But in the
second sentence the quantity is not specified. It could be the case that Aliye reads one
newspaper, but also two or three or a whole series of newspapers published over a week.
What is being brought to the fore by the second example is that gazete oku- is a statement
about Aliye’s occupation of the moment, newspaper-reading, rather than that it informs us
about the number of newspapers involved.
It seems that this is an example of ‘object-incorporation’: the apparent indefinite direct
object is tightly knit to the verb because between noun and verb no adverbs or other material
can be placed. This type of construction is very productive in Turkish. Here it is not a matter
of ‘fixed expressions’ but of formations that can be made whenever they are needed as long
as differences between the newspaper, a newspaper, and newspapers are irrelevant.
Other domains where the nominative form is used are that of verbal derivations (e.g.
telefon etmek ‘to telephone’—see section 30.1) and that of nominal compounds (e.g. çay
bardağ-ı ‘tea glass’—see section 31.4).
6.5.2 Genitive
The genitive case marker, –(n)In, is stressed and indicates that there is a relation of
‘owner–owned’ or ‘possession’ between two nouns. The notion of ‘possession’ shouldn’t be
taken too literally, but should rather be seen as the name of a grammatical device. Saying
John’s books one does not necessarily mean to say that this person is the owner of some
books. With John’s books one may refer to a variety of things: books he possesses, writes,
sells, buys, designs, publishes, distributes, and so forth. It works the same in Turkish. After
vowels the form is –nIn, as can be shown by:
araba-nın the car’s, of the car

aile-nin the family’s, of the family
ordu-nun the army’s, of the army
öykü-nün of the story
And after consonants –In:
vatan-ın the motherland’s, of the motherland

ev-in of the house
bavul-un the suitcase’s, of the suitcase
müdür-ün the director’s, of the director
52 Nouns
6.5.3 Dative
The dative is a case marker by means of which, among other things, the sense of direction
can be expressed, but it also functions as the marker required for so-called dative objects.
These are grammatical objects which always require the dative marker, as used in dependency
with certain verbs.
In section 9.2.4 these matters will be discussed in more detail. For the time being it is
sufficient to realize that this case marker is often used with verbs denoting some motion or
movement. This suffix is stressed and its form is represented by –(y)E. Examples are:
bahçe-ye into the garden (after a vowel)

banka-ya to the bank
deniz-e to the sea (after a consonant)
bakkal-a to the grocer’s (store)
6.5.4 Accusative
The accusative case marker is used to indicate that some word or phrase is, grammatically
speaking, definite. That is the case if the thing that word or phrase refers to, called the ref-
erent, is identifiable in terms of the context or situation. English uses a definite article, as
in: Put the car in the garage!, Can you give me the newspaper please?, and Do you see the
man over there?
In Turkish things work quite similarly. Many verbs take a direct object which gets the
accusative suffix if that object is definite (see section 9.2.3). Thus the stressed suffix is –(y)I.
araba-yı the car (after a vowel)

gazete-yi the newspaper
köprü-yü the bridge
kutu-yu the box; the can
bakkal-ı the grocer’s shop (after a consonant)
ev-i the house
müdür-ü the director
vapur-u the ferry
Note that only direct objects get the accusative case marker if definite. Other types of object
and also subjects may be definite. This is, however, not explicitly marked.
6.5.5 Locative
The locative is the case marker that indicates a place, or more precisely, where something is
located in space or time. A small number of verbs require a so-called locative object (see
section 9.2.5).
We can represent the locative suffix abstractly as –TE and this suffix, too, is stressed. Its
usage can be exemplified by:
6.5 Case markers 53
ev-de in the house, at home

bakkal-da at the grocer’s
ekmek-te in the bread
uçak-ta on the aeroplane
The examples given here all express space; for temporal expressions the reader is referred to
sections 12.1–12.3 and for similar expressions based on a verb form to section 27.4.5.
6.5.6 Ablative
The ablative is the case marker which usually expresses where something comes from or
originates from. In other words, it gives an answer to the question ‘whence?’ Also, certain
verbs (not many, though) require a so-called ablative object (see section 9.2.6). The form of
this case marker resembles that of the locative and it can be written as –TEn. In addition,
this suffix is stressed. Some examples are:
ev-den from the house, out of the house

bakkal-dan from the grocer’s
ekmek-ten out of the bread, from the bread
uçak-tan from the aeroplane, out of the aeroplane
6.5.7 Instrumental
The instrumental is a case marker by means of which four clearly distinct functions can be
expressed (additional meanings will be discussed in section 6.7.6). Firstly, it may denote an
instrument or tool which is used to carry out a certain task or action; and secondly, it may
be used to indicate the company of a person or organization with whom a certain task or
action is performed. This function is also referred to as the comitative. Thirdly, this suffix is
the pre-eminent way for the expression of the means of transportation. Furthermore, this
case marker often corresponds to the usage of ‘with’, but in some cases it is not really clear
which of the descriptions given here would apply. One might think of sentences such as:
What will you do with the house, sell or rent? The fourth function of this suffix is that of
attribution, as in the adverbial phrase in She came down the stairs with a beer can in her
hand. This will be discussed in section 28.4.
This case marker is obligatory for certain verbal objects (see section 9.2.7). Its form is
–(y)lE but it bears no stress. The stress always falls on the preceding syllable. Examples are:
ev-le [évle] with the house

çekiç-le [çekíçle] with a hammer (instrument)
bakkal-la [bak:ál:a] with the grocer (company)
vapur-la [vapúrla] by ferry (transportation)
kutu-yla [kutújla] with the can
gazete-yle [gastéjle] with the newspaper (instrument)
54 Nouns
Aliye’yle [alijéjle] with Aliye (company)

araba-yla [arabájla] by car (transportation)
The y in the second series of examples can be explained with the help of noting that ile
‘with’ (see section 13.3) is stressed on the second syllable. This postposition (it occurs after a
word—as a preposition occurs before a word), has in time developed into an attached form
(suffix), thereby subjecting itself to the rules of vowel harmony. Hence, the y is just a rem-
nant of the old i and is only to be found after a vowel.
Fossilized forms of an ancient instrumental case marker are found in, for instance,
yaz-ın ‘in (the) summer’, kış-ın ‘in (the) winter’, ansız-ın ‘all of a sudden’, and ilk-in ‘firstly’.
6.6 Combinations
In this section it will further be illustrated how the general model for suffix chains works.
A number of combinations will be spelt out, which are predicted to be possible according
to this model. In principle all possible combinations could be represented but this would
take up a disproportionate amount of space owing to the immense number of theoretical
possibilities. Recall that there is a singular and a plural form of a noun, and that this consti-
tutes two forms. Now, adding all possessive forms to both the singular and the plural of
that noun, the number of possible possessive forms must be multiplied by two. On the
same basis, including the case markers for any of the forms produced so far this results in a
total number of 112 forms for one single noun, which would in the present format of this
book take up more than two pages. Therefore, taking only singular and plural forms, the
possessive of the second person plural (‘your’) and the dative and locative as case markers,
the result is still 12 combinations. These are:
Singular Examples
root ev (the) house
root + – + poss. +– ev-iniz your house
root + – +– + case ev-e to the house
root + – + poss. + case ev-iniz-e to your house
root + – +– + case ev-de in the house
root + – + poss. + case ev-iniz-de in your house
Plural Examples
root + plural at-lar (the) horses
root + plural + poss. – at-lar-ınız your horses
root + plural +– + case at-lar-a to the horses
root + plural + poss. + case at-lar-ınız-a to your horses
root + plural +– + case at-lar-da on the horses
root + plural + poss. + case at-lar-ınız-da on your horses
Seemingly this is all very simple and straightforward, and this is because this overview
shows what happens to ‘regular’ nouns. Examples of a noun with a changeable final con
sonant and a noun from which a vowel ’drops’ are:
Singular Plural
kitap the book kitap-lar the books
kitab-ınız your book kitap-lar-ınız your books
kitab-a for the book kitap-lar-a for the books
kitab-ınız-a for your book kitap-lar-ınız-a for your books
kitap-ta in the book kitap-lar-da in the books
kitab-ınız-da in your book kitap-lar-ınız-da in your books
şehir the city şehir-ler the cities
şehr-iniz your city şehir-ler-iniz your cities
şehr-e to the city şehir-ler-e to the cities
şehr-iniz-e to your city şehir-ler-iniz-e to your cities
şehir-de in the city şehir-ler-de in the cities
şehr-iniz-de in your city şehir-ler-iniz-de in your cities
6.7 Speaking of case marking
In section 6.5 the basic meanings of Turkish case markers were briefly discussed and it was
pointed out, among other things, that some verbs require an object with a certain case
marker (see section 9.2). This section will touch upon a number of points related to other
properties of case marking.
6.7.1 Genitive
This case marker is applied as a binder between two nouns to express a so-called ‘possessive
relation’. As will be explained in more detail in section 9.3, the first noun takes the genitive
and the second one a possessive (personal) suffix, leading to the so-called genitive-possessive
construction. In anticipation of this, consider the following:
Hasan’ın araba-sı Hasan’s car / the car of Hasan

Ali’nin kitab-ı Ali’s book / the book of Ali
A second application of the genitive is marking the subject in relative object clauses (see
section 32.4) and in embedded sentences (see section 33.3), in which they are part of a
genitive-possessive construction. Typical examples are:
Aliye, (Erol’un yaz-dığ-ı kitab)-ı henüz oku-ma-dı.

Aliye hasn’t yet read the book that Erol has written.
Aliye, (kedi-nin mutfak-ta uyu-duğ-un)-u söyle-di.
Aliye said that the cat is / was sleeping in the kitchen.
Furthermore, the genitive is found in constructions and expressions such as:
şeytan-ın ta kendi-si the devil in person (see section 7.6)

56 Nouns
and in fractions and partitive constructions as well:
kitap-lar-ın hangi-si which of the books (see section 7.1)

insan-lar-ın çoğ-u most people (see section 7.5)
hasta-lar-ın çok az-ı very few (of the) patients (see section 7.5)
ekmeğ-in yarı-sı half of the bread (see section 11.6)
arkadaş-lar-ım-ın bir-i one of my friends (see section 11.7)
şart-lar-ım-ın biri-si one of my conditions (see section 11.7)
Pronouns (see chapter 7) also get the genitive marker attached when they are followed by
postpositions such as: ile ‘with’, için ‘for’, gibi ‘like’, and kadar ‘as big as’ (see section 13.3).
It should be noted that a word ending in –In is not always to be considered some sort of
genitive form. For instance, yaz-ın ‘in (the) summer’, kış-ın ‘in (the) winter’, ansız-ın ‘all of a
sudden’, and ilk-in ‘firstly’ are fossilized forms of an ancient instrumental case marker.
6.7.2 Dative
Except for direction and in dative objects, this case marker is used in adverbs denoting a
period themselves:
akşama (< akşam-a) until tonight, towards the evening

yarına (< yarın-a) until tomorrow, by tomorrow
İş sözleşme-si haftaya sona er-iyor.

The employment contract ends next week / in a week.
The price for which some article can be purchased and the fee for which some job is done
are expressed using dative marking as well:
Bun-lar-ı kaç-a al-dı-n? – Dörd-er milyon-a. (see section 11.4.7)

For how much did you buy these? – Four for a million.
Boyacı-lar gün-de elli milyon-a çalış-ıyor-lar.
The shoeshine boys work for fifty million a day.
Furthermore, there are adjectives that require a complement plus case marker. These will
be explained in section 8.8.1. Here is an example based on âşık ‘in love (with)’, which takes
a dative complement.:
Ali Ayşe’ye âşık.

Ali is in love with Ayşe.
Also, the postpositions doğru, dek, kadar (sections 13.1, 13.2), and göre, rağmen, karşı,
karşın, nispetle, kıyasla, dair, and oranla (section 13.3) require the dative.
6.7.3 Accusative
In this section there is actually not much to report on, because the accusative is applied to
(definite) verbal objects and only with one postposition: aşkın ‘more than, longer than’ (see
section 13.2). Further explanations of the usage of the accusative will be presented in con-
nection with the treatment of the notion of direct object in section 9.2.3.
6.7.4 Locative
This case marker indicates a place or point in space or time. Examples were presented in
section 6.5.5 for simple noun phrases. Furthermore, the locative is used to express tense
(Present-3) in constructions such as the formal way of saying ‘We are eating’: Yemek
yemek-te-yiz (see section 20.6) and also as the equivalent of ‘when’, as in Ev-e gel-diğ-im-de . . .
‘When I came home . . .’ (see section 27.4.5).
The sense of ‘during, while’, usually expressed by a preposition in English, is the result of
combining a noun that is derived from a verb with a locative:
alışveriş-te while shopping

ilk bakış-ta at the first glance
2000 yıl-ın-a geçiş-te in the transition into the year 2000
açılış-ta during the opening
bir sıçrayış-ta in one jump
Certain properties can be expressed by adding the locative to cardinal numbers, abstract
nouns, property nouns, et cetera, with much of the effect of adjectives.
Kendi-si o zaman yirmi-sin-de genç bir hanım-dı.

She was then a young lady of twenty.
Kibrit kutu-su büyüklüğ-ün-de bir radyo-su var-dı.
He had a radio the size of a match box.
Kül reng-in-de bir öğle son-u-ydu.
It was an ash-grey late afternoon.
Yabancı dil-de kitap-lar-ınız var mı?
Do you have books in a foreign language?
There are no (real) postpositions requiring the locative case marker, but there do exist
numerous constructions resembling case-governing postpositions. These are described in
detail in chapter 36. In section 9.2.5 a number of verbs that take a locative object are listed.
Lastly, despite their appearance, a small number of lexical adjectives should not be taken
as locative expressions: sözde ‘so-called, supposedly’, gözde ‘favourite, much liked’, sahanda
‘in a frying pan’, as in sahanda yumurta ‘fried egg’.
6.7.5 Ablative
By means of this case marker many shades of meaning can be expressed, for example:
point of departure, source, the path along which, via, cause, and reason and also, the abla-
tive is used in partitive constructions and in expressions indicating the material some-
thing is made of. Furthermore, there are numerous adjectives and postpositions which
take a complement in the ablative, just as there are verbs requiring an object with this
case marker.
58 Nouns
The idea of point of departure can be illustrated by the first four examples:
Şimdi nere-den gel-iyor-sun, okul-dan mı?

Where are you coming from, from school?
Hızlı tren beş saat-te İstanbul’dan Ankara’ya gid-er.
The high-speed train travels in five hours from Istanbul to Ankara.
Kırk yıl-dan fazla bir zaman geç-ti. (see section 8.4)
More than forty years have passed.
Son-dan üçüncü-ydü.
She was third but last.
Perhaps this idea also underlies certain instructions on packs and wrappings:
Bura-dan aç-ınız.
Open here.
Bura-dan yırt-ınız.
Tear along this line.
The source from which something originates is marked with the ablative as well:
Nere-den bilgi al-abil-ir-im?

Where can I get information?
Radyo-dan müzik ses-i gel-iyor-du.
From the radio there came the sound of music.
Yaşlı bir adam-dan satın al-dı-m on-u.
I bought it from an old man.
Evet, ben bu kırmızı tarağ-ı bakkal-dan al-dı-m.
Yes, I bought this red comb at the grocer’s.
Examples illustrating the notion of path and via are:
Savaş-ın ilân ed-il-diğ-in-i radyo-dan duy-du-k.

It was on the radio that we heard that war had been declared.
Bura-ya gel-ir-ken Bulgaristan’dan geç-ti-k.
On our way here we travelled via Bulgaria.
Niye hep arka-m-dan koş-uyor-sun?
Why are you running behind me all the time?
Giriş yan taraf-tan-dır.
Entry from the side(street).
Bütün gün pencere-den dışarı bak-ıyor-du.
All day she was looking out of the window.
Prices can be indicated not only by the dative (see section 6.7.2), but also by the ablative:
Bu gibi şey-ler Hong Kong’da kilo-su 1200 dolar-dan satıl-ıyor-du.

Such things were sold in Hong Kong for 1,200 dollars per kilogram.
Petrol-ün varil-in-i 17 dolar-dan al-ıyor-uz.
We buy crude oil for seventeen dollars a barrel.
Also in partitive constructions the ablative occurs frequently, witness:
Bu iki kız-dan bir-i gel-me-di. (see section 11.7)

One of these two girls didn’t show up.
Çorba-dan kaşığ-ın-ı doldur-du ve üfle-me-ye başla-dı.
He took a spoonful of the soup and started blowing.
Şu yemek-ten bir porsiyon ver-sene.
Give me a portion of that food there.
Çorba-dan bir kaşık bile iç-eme-di-m.
I couldn’t even eat a spoonful of that soup.
Another application of the ablative is found in descriptions of the material some object is
made of. Besides the constructions discussed in section 31.4.1 (for instance, altın bilezik
‘golden bracelet’), this can be done by attaching the ablative marker to a noun. This is done
in, for instance: tahta-dan bir yatak ‘a wooden bed’, bakır-dan bir tablo ‘a copper tableau’,
and tunç-tan bir teneke ‘a bronze cask’. This type of construction comes close in structure
and meaning to partitive constructions, and this is also the case for her yaş-tan ‘of every
age’, her renk-ten çiçek ‘flowers of every colour’, as well as in:
Geçmiş-ler-de, her görüş-ten, her ırk-tan, her millet-ten birçok lider öldürül-dü.
At various times in the past quite a number of leaders have been assassinated; of every
opinion, of every race, and of every nation.
Cause and reason (see also section 27.5.3) can also be expressed by attachment of the
ablative.
Sıcaklık-tan eri-r gibi sokak-lar . . .

Streets that seem(ed) to melt because of the heat . . .
Açlık-tan öl-en-leri-n sayı-sı yüksek-ti.
The number of people dying from hunger was high.
Sabırsızlık-tan yer-im-de dur-amı-yor-um.
I can’t stay in my seat from impatience.
The notion of anteriority forms the basis of the following examples:
Fasulye pişir-mek için akşam-dan ıslat-mak gerek-ir.

In order to cook beans, you must soak them the night before.
60 Nouns
Yarın erken-den yol-a çık-acak.

Tomorrow he leaves before daybreak.
Yorgun ol-duğ-un-dan tavuk-lar gibi ilk akşam-dan yatağ-a gir-er,
şafak sök-er-ken de fabrika-ya yollan-ır.
Because he is tired he goes, as hens do, to bed at the first twilight,
and sets off at daybreak to the factory.
Cahit, doğuş-tan matematik yeteneğ-i ol-an birisi-ydi.
Cahit was someone who had a congenital talent for maths.
Lastly, certain constructions require expression of the ablative case marker anyway.
Certain adverbs (see chapter 14) have been formed by means of the ablative marker, but
this element has no meaning any more. For example: birden ‘all of a sudden’, yeniden ‘once
more’, çoktan ‘for a long time’, ezberden ‘by rote’, candan ‘sincere(ly); cordial(ly)’, kökten
‘deeply rooted’, yavaştan ‘gradually, little by little’.
Adjectives requiring a complement in the ablative (see section 31.7.2) are, among other
things, sorumlu ‘responsible (for)’ and memnun ‘content (with)’, as in:
Ama ben herkes-e herşey-den sorumlu-yum.

But to everyone I am responsible for everything.
Certain postpositions require a complement with the ablative. The reader is referred to the
corresponding chapters and sections: başka (sections 13.3, 35.5); beri (sections 13.2, 28.1),
bu yana and itibaren (section 13.2), ziyade (section 13.3), dolayı and ötürü (sections 13.3,
28.1), gayri (section 13.3), sonra and önce (sections 13.2, 28.2).
Many verbs have an object which must be expressed by the ablative marker (for
details, see section 9.2.6). For some verbs such an object can be related to the notion
of source, as in korkmak ‘to be afraid (of)’, usanmak ‘to be(come) fed up (with)’, and
onur duymak ‘to be proud (of)’, whereas for other verbs it is far less clear how a common
meaning could be formulated. One thing is sure, whether an object must be expressed
in the ablative is difficult if not impossible to predict, save for a small number of verbs.
For example, the discourse topic of verbs such as konuşmak ‘to speak’, söz etmek / bahset-
mek ‘to talk’, lâf açmak / konu açmak ‘to start a conversation / bring up’ is marked by
the ablative:
Ne zaman on-a gid-er-sen, hep mesleğ-in-den konuş-ur.

Whenever you go to see him, he only talks about his profession.
Konu futbol-dan aç=ıl-ır-sa, ben yok ol-uyor-um.
When they bring up football, I’m out of it!
Next, there is a group of constructions in which the ablative marker denotes a point or area
of (physical) contact on which some action is carried out. Typical adjectives and verbs
are sakat ‘disabled, handicapped’, sakatlanmak ‘to become disabled / handicapped’, yaralı
‘injured, wounded’, yaralanmak ‘to get injured / wounded’, and ameliyat olmak ‘to undergo
an operation’. The noun referring to the body part involved takes the ablative.
Kafa-dan sakat.
He is cracked / nutty / touched in the head.
Omz-un-dan sakatlan-dığ-ı için oyna-yama-dı.

Because she was handicapped in her shoulder she could not play.
Bu sırada kendi-si de ayağ-ın-dan yaralı-ydı.
This time he himself was wounded in his foot.
Sol ayağ-ın-dan yaralan-dığ-ı için topallı-yor-du.
Because he was injured in his left leg he walked with a limp.
El-in-den ameliyat ol-du.
She was operated on her hand.
Diz-in-den ameliyat ol-ma-sı gerek-iyor-du.
He had to be operated on his knee.
The verbs öpmek ‘to kiss’ and ısırmak ‘to bite’ go with the accusative for the object and with
the ablative for the noun denoting the point of contact.
Ben-i iki yanağ-ım-dan öp-tü.

He kissed me on both cheeks.
Yan-ın-a koş-tu ve on-u aln-ın-dan öp-tü.
She ran up to him and kissed him on the forehead.
Sonra kız-ın-ı kısaca (iki yanağ-ı ile saç-ın)-dan öp-tü.
Then she kissed her daughter quickly on her cheeks and her hair.
Hasan, Aliye’yi yanağ-ın-dan ısır-dı.
Hasan has bitten Aliye in her cheek.
Also the verbs tutmak ‘to hold / get hold of / grab / grip’ and vurmak ‘to shoot / hit’ exhibit
similar linguistic behaviour: the object goes in the accusative and the noun referring to the
body part in the ablative:
Omuz-lar-ım-dan tut-up hafifçe içeri doğru it-ti ben-i.

She grabbed me by the shoulder and pushed me gently inside.
El-i tüfeğ-in-i namlu-sun-dan tut-up hava-da daire-ler çiz-di.
He (his hand) held his rifle by the barrel and swung it around in the air.
Balığ-ı kuyruğ-un-dan tut-up deniz-e at-tı.
She took the fish by its tail and cast it into the sea.
Beyn-im-den vur-ul-muş-tu-m.
I was shot / hit in the brain.
Düşman-ı kalb-in-den vur-du-nuz.
You have hit the enemy in the heart.
Ayı-yı tam aln-ın-dan vur-du.
He shot the bear right through its forehead.
However, with ısırmak ‘to bite’, the noun referring to the body part involved is to be put in
the accusative, if it belongs to the person carrying out the action. Compare:
62 Nouns
Aliye dudak-lar-ın-ı ısır-dı.

Aliye bit her (own) lip (lips).
Aliye on-u dudak-lar-ın-dan ısır-dı.
Aliye bit him on his lips.
6.7.6 Instrumental
To the basic meanings of this case marker, instrument, company, and means of transporta-
tion, as was shown in section 6.5.7, four other meanings can be added.
Firstly, two nouns can be linked by –(y)lE: Ali’yle Hasan ‘Ali and Hasan’; tuz-la biber
‘pepper and salt’, ekmek-le peynir ‘bread and cheese’ (not: ‘cheese sandwich’ → peynir-li
ekmek, see section 31.1.2). Secondly, beraber / birlikte ‘together’ form adverbial phrases
which require a noun phrase in the instrumental as the complement:
O akşam, yeni arkadaş-lar-ımız-la beraber yemek ye-di-k.

That evening we had dinner together with our new friends.
Mutfak-ta davetli-ler-le beraber-di-m.
I was in the kitchen with the (invited) guests.
Dört arkadaş-ım-la birlikte bir ev kirala-dı-k.
With four friends of mine we rented a house together.
Thirdly, there are adverbs (see chapter 14) which are based on the inclusion of the instru-
mental marker. For instance: geceyle ‘by night’, şafakla ‘at dawn’, vaktiyle ‘in due time; once
upon a time’, yığınla ‘in heaps’, tam anlamıyla ‘in the full sense of the word’, dikkatle
‘cautiously, attentively’, gururla ‘with pride’, kolaylıkla ‘easily’.
Fourthly, some adjectives having much in common with postpositions are çevrili
‘surrounded (by)’, ilgili ‘in connection (with); related (to)’, sınırlı ‘restricted (to)’. These will
be exemplified in section 13.4.4. The sentential complements (with instrumental) such
adjectives take are discussed in section 35.1.
6.8 Case-marked proper names
According to the rules of Turkish orthography, proper names (names of persons, institu-
tions, places, countries, points of the compass, and the like) must in writing be separated by
an apostrophe ( ’ ) from their following plural and case suffixes. This is done for the sake of
easy recognition, and hence, inflected names occur in newspapers as İznik’te ‘in Iznik’ and
Ankara’ya ‘to Ankara’, so that the reader can easily determine that these words are about the
cities of Iznik and Ankara. Also, on the basis of a form such as Hollanda ‘the Netherlands’, it
can be deduced that this word is not the dative form of the word ‘Holland’, since the
intended case-marked form would be Hollanda’ya ‘to / for the Netherlands’. Apparently,
this rule does not always hold for possessive suffixes. Usually one encounters in the literature
forms such as İstanbulumuz’da ‘in our Istanbul’ and yarının Ankarası ‘Ankara of tomorrow’,
but also things like o günlerin Ankara’sında ‘in Ankara of those days’. Nor is this rule applied
to derived formations; one finds for instance Ankaralılar ‘inhabitants of Ankara’ and
6.8 Case-marked proper names 63
İstanbulumuz ‘our Istanbul’. In day-to-day practice, however, forms such as Ankaralılar

occur side by side with Ankara’lılar, as well as İstanbulumuz and İstanbul'umuz.
In the body text no hyphen is used in words with an apostrophe, because this symbol
indicates where the first suffix begins, and thus, Ankara’da is represented as such, but
Ankaralılar is witten as Ankara-lı-lar; İstanbulumuz as İstanbul-umuz; Ankara’lılar as
Ankara’lı-lar; İstanbul'umuz as such; and İstanbul'umuzda as İstanbul'umuz-da.
In words denoting a language the apostrophe is not used: Türkçe ‘Turkish’, Hollandaca
‘Dutch’, Almanca ‘German’, and Rusca ‘Russian’. This runs contrary to words denoting
inhabitants, e.g. Romalı’lar ‘Romans’, Hollandalı’lar ‘Dutch (people)’. Also certain expres-
sions for periods require the apostrophe, as in: 1930’lar-da ‘in the thirties’ and 1962-1963’ler-de
‘in the years 1962–3’. Abbreviations always require an apostrophe: SSK’li-ler ‘members of
the insurance company SSK (Sosyal Sigortalar Kurumu)’.
As a rule of the Turkish spelling system, the pronominal n in nominal compounds belongs
obviously to the domain of suffixes, witness: Türk Polisi’ne ‘to the Turkish police’; Dışişleri
Bakanlığı’ndan ‘from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’; and Sağlık Merkezi’nde ‘in the health
centre’.
7
Pronouns
A general classification of pronouns includes interrogative (e.g. what, why), personal (e.g. we,
they), demonstrative (e.g. this, those), indefinite (e.g. something, someone), reflexive (e.g.
himself ), and reciprocal (e.g. each other) pronouns. The function of a pronoun in a sentence
is that of grammatical subject or object, and therefore, all pronouns can be inflected. The
typical form of a subject in a main clause is the nominative (see section 9.2.1) whereas it
takes the genitive in embedded sentences (see section 33.3). Case markers indicating that a
pronoun fulfils the role of object (see sections 9.2.3–9.2.7) are dative, accusative, locative,
ablative, and instrumental. This will be discussed in sections 7.1–7.7. The usage of the geni-
tive case marker combined with pronouns will be further discussed in section 9.3.
7.1 Interrogative pronouns
The case-marked forms of the interrogative pronouns kim ‘who’ and ne ‘what’ are:
nom. gen. dat. acc. loc. abl. ins.

kim kim-in kim-e kim-i kim-de kim-den kim-in-le
ne ney-in ney-e ney-i — ne-den ne-yle
Inflected forms of kim ‘who’ and ne ‘what’ are used in sentences as subject and object:
Kim gel-di? Who came / arrived?

O kim? Who is she?
Kim o? Who’s there (at the door)?
Bu çanta kim-in? Whose bag is this?
Kim-e söyle-di-n? To whom did you tell (it)?
Kim-i gör-dü-n ora-da? Whom have you seen there?
Suç kim-de peki? Who is to be blamed, then?
Kim-den duy-du-n? From whom have you heard this?
Kim-in-le görüş-tü-n? With whom did you talk?
Ne ol-du? What happened?
Ne yap-tı-n? What have you done?
Bu şaka ney-in ne-si? What kind of joke is this? (this joke is what of what?)
Bu ney-e yara-r? What is this good for?
Ney-i bekli-yor-sun? What do you expect?
Ekmek ne-den yapıl-ır? What is bread made of?
Ne-yle aç-a-yım bun-u? With what am I supposed to open this?
The word ne is also used in a number of other ways. Firstly, in exclamations by means of
which a certain quality is emphasized, for instance:
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
7.1 Interrogative pronouns 65
Ne güzel burası!
How beautiful (it is) here!
Ne ayıp!
What a shame! / How disgraceful!
Sus Şafak, ne aptal şey-sin!
Shut up Şafak, what a stupid woman (thing) you are!
Küçük kız-ınız ne sevimli şey!
—Ban-a çek-ti. Ne ses-i de var!
What a sweet thing is your little daughter!
—She takes after me. What a voice she has!
Secondly, in questions aiming at the clarification of identity, quality, or kind and the like,
to the noun following ne the suffix –(s)I(n) is attached. This can be shown by:
Anne, ne tatlı-sı var?—Çilek dondurma-sı var!

Mother, what kind of dessert have you?—Strawberry ice cream!
Dün ne cenaze-si var-dı?
What funeral took place yesterday?
Ne paha-sın-a olursa olsun, bu iki genc-e yardım et-meli-ydi-m.
I had to help these two youngsters, cost what it may.
Ne bilgi-sin-i öğren-iyor-lar-dı?
What knowledge have they acquired (learned)?
Also, surprise and (light forms of) irritation can be expressed by this type of construction,
as is the case in the following dialogue fragments.
Bu kedi-yi gör-dü-n mü?—Ne kedi-si?

Did you see that cat?—Which cat? / What cat?
Saat kaç bil-iyor mu-sun?—Dokuz falan ol-malı.
Ne dokuz-u . . . Tam on buçuk!
Do you know what time it is?—It must be nine or so.
Come off it! (what) Nine . . . It’s half past ten exactly!
A more abstract way of enquiring about some quality, but then in terms of sort / kind, is
achieved by combinations such as ne tür, ne biçim, ne cins, ne menem / ne mene, as in:
Söyle bakalım, ne tür bir iş-te çalış-mak iste-r-di-n?

Just tell me, in what kind of job do you want to work?
Sen ne biçim kadın-sın?
What kind of woman are you?
Bu ne cins bir kuş?
What type of bird is this?
66 Pronouns
Bazı insan-lar-ın yüz-ün-e bak-mak

onlar-ın ne mene adam-lar ol-duğ-un-u anla-ma-ya yet-er.
Looking some people in the face is enough to see what kind of people they are.
Furthermore, ne occurs as a negational element (see section 26.2). For instance:
İngilizce bil-mi-yor, ne para-sı var, ne de pasaport-u.

He knows no English, and has neither money nor passport.
Alay ve aşağılanma ne artır-abil-ir, ne de eksilt-ebil-ir-im.
I can neither increase or decrease (the number of) mockeries and humiliations.
Other question words (interrogatives) occur in adverbial phrases and none of the ones in
the following series of examples can be inflected. There are question words for reason or
purpose, manner, and place.
neden (.!) why

niye (!.) why
niçin (!.) why
nasıl (!.) how
nereye (!..) where to; whither
nerede (!..) where
nereden (!..) where from; whence
nereli (!..) originating from
The words nasıl ‘how’, nerede ‘where’, nereden ‘from where’, and nereli ‘from where’ in the
sense of ‘born in which place’ are inflected for the grammatical category of person; and they
take the personal suffixes that will be explained in section 20.1. In order to get an impression
of how this type of inflection works for question words, consider the following examples.
Nasıl-sın? How are you (sing.) (doing)?

Nasıl-sınız? How are you (plur. / polite) (doing)?
Nerede-sin? Where are you (sing.)?
Nerede-siniz? Where are you (plur. / polite)?
Nereden-sin? Where are you (sing.) (coming) from?
Nereden-siniz? Where are you (plur. / polite) (coming) from?
Nereli-sin? Where are you (sing.) from?
Nereli-siniz? Where are you (plur. / polite) from?
The question word hangi ‘which’ ( ! . ) is often used in combination with a noun and may
occur without a noun if inflected for possession:
hangi kitap which book?

kitap-lar-ın hangi-si which of the books?
hangi-miz who of us?
hangi-niz who of you?
7.3 Demonstrative pronouns 67
hangi-si(n) which (one)?

hangi-leri(n) which (ones)?
Used as a free possessive form, this question word can function as the subject of a sentence
and furthermore, it can occur with all case markers. In that case, the possessive third person
always takes the pronominal n (see section 6.4), except with the instrumental.
hangi-sin-in of which one? (gen.)

hangi-lerin-in of which ones?
hangi-sin-e for / to which one? (dat.)
hangi-lerin-e for / to which ones?
hangi-sin-i which one? (acc.)
hangi-lerin-i which ones?
hangi-sin-de at / in which one? (loc.)
hangi-lerin-de at / in which ones?
hangi-sin-den from which one? (abl.)
hangi-lerin-den from which ones?
hangi-si-yle with which one? (ins.)
hangi-leri-yle with which ones?
7.2 Personal pronouns
Case-marked personal pronouns can be tabulated as follows:

ben I ben-im ban-a ben-i ben-de ben-den ben-im-le
sen you sen-in san-a sen-i sen-de sen-den sen-in-le
o she / he on-un on-a on-u on-da on-dan on-un-la
biz we biz-im biz-e biz-i biz-de biz-den biz-im-le
siz you siz-in siz-e siz-i siz-de siz-den siz-in-le
onlar they onlar-ın onlar-a onlar-ı onlar-da onlar-dan onlar-la
The forms in the column ‘gen.’ are known as possessive pronouns.
7.3 Demonstrative pronouns *
The demonstrative pronouns bu ‘this’, şu ‘this / that’, o ‘that’ have the independently used plural
forms bun-lar, şun-lar, on-lar. In their singular forms they have the following case markings:

bu bun-un bun-a bun-u bun-da bun-dan bun-un-la
şu şun-un şun-a şun-u şun-da şun-dan şun-un-la
o on-un on-a on-u on-da on-dan on-un-la
68 Pronouns
Combined with ile ‘with’ these demonstratives have developed into words that function as
adjectives and adverbs: böyle ‘such / in this way’, şöyle ‘such / in this way / as follows’, öyle
‘such / in that manner’. There are a number of derived forms and these can be found in a
good dictionary. The form böyleleri(n) means ‘such people’ and şöyleleri(n) is used to attract
attention to what is going to be said. For example:
Biz-im işyer-ler-imiz-de, patron-lar-ımız böylelerin-i zaten iş-e al-ma-z.

At the places where we work, our bosses do not employ such people anyway.
Ayrıca bir de şöyleleri var.
Moreover, there is also the following.
7.4 Some points of interest
This section goes into the question as to how echo questions are formed, how several
special applications of pronouns can be explained, and how they are used in scolding and
calling names. The final subsection, however, shows which means are available to express
affection and respect.
7.4.1 Question word ne
The stem of the question word ne ‘what’ (see section 7.1) is ney- in the genitive (ney-in),
dative (ney-e), and accusative (ney-i), but not for the ablative (ne-den). The locative form of
ne does not exist. The y in the instrumental (ne-yle) is a remnant of the postposition ile
‘with’ (see the last paragraph of section 6.5.7). Also the possessive forms are based on the
stem ney-, of which the shorter stem form ne- is the colloquial variant.
A possessive form combined with var / yok does not only express possession or availabil-
ity of something, as is the case in the next three examples, but in addition to this, such
constructions may refer to a physical or mental state: ‘What’s wrong / the matter / up with
X?’ and ‘What has come over X?’
Eyvah, ney-im var ney-im yok, hepsin-i al-dı-lar,

mal, davar, tohum, oğul, koca.
Ah me, they took everything I have;
cattle, goats and sheep, seeds, my son, and my husband.
Ney-im var-sa ver-e-yim.
I give whatever I have.
Kaybedecek ney-i var-dı ki?
What did she have to lose?
In the following examples a physical or mental state is being referred to:
Bugün sen-in ney-in var ya?

What’s wrong with you today?
Ne-n / Ney-in var, Ali? Ne yap-tı-m san-a?

What is the matter with you, Ali? What did I do to you?
Siz-e ne oldu? Ney-iniz var? Anlat-ın ban-a.
What happened to you? What is the matter with you? Tell me.
On-a göre ne-ler-in-i bil-mi-yor-um sen-in!
According to him, I don’t know all that’s wrong with you!
The dative form of the shorter possessive of ne ‘what’, thus neme, nene, nesine, nemize,
nenize, nelerine, is frequently found in combination with lâzım / gerek ‘necessary’ (see
section 22.1.3).
The speaker expresses a certain degree of indifference in the next two examples:
İşte böyle-yim ben; iş-im-i yap-ar-ım, geri-si ne-m-e lazım.

Well, this is how I am: I do my job and the rest doesn’t concern me.
Siz-in ne-niz-e lazım ?
What is it to you? / Does it concern you?
The notion of need or necessity can also be worded in this way:
Bun-lar-la kafa yor-mak ne-n-e gerek?

Why would you rack your brains over these things?
Öyle-yse daha ne-ler; daha fazla köpek ne-miz-e lâzım?
In that case it’s absurd; what need do we have of more dogs?
This construction is also applied as the introduction to an opposite opinion:
Ne-m-e lazım, biz-im polis Kâzım iyi-dir,

aldır-ma-z, duy-sa da duy-ma-z.
I still think our police officer Kazim is okay,
he doesn’t mind whether he hears it or not.
Forms for the third person are often used in rhetorical questions, as is shown by:
Canım, köpek on-un ne-sin-e lazım!

Darling, what are we supposed to do with a dog? / What do we need a dog for?
Tabii, sokak hayvan-lar-ı öl-sün, tedavi ne-lerin-e gerek!
Surely, let the stray animals die, what on earth do they need treatment for!
7.4.2 Echo questions
The question words kim ‘who’ and ne ‘what’ can be followed by the question particle mi in
so-called echo questions. The question words kim ‘who’ and ne ‘what’ are then emphasized.
70 Pronouns
Ne mi yap-tı-m?
What I have done, (is what) you’re asking?
Kim mi gel-di?
Who came, (is what) you’re asking?
7.4.3 Plural of pronouns
The pronouns biz ‘we’ and siz ‘you’ can be made plural by adding the suffix –lEr. This gives
these pronouns a sense of completeness: ‘all of us’ and ‘all of you’, as in:
Biz-ler Türkiye’de barış isti-yor-uz.

We all want peace in Turkey.
O da siz-ler gibi aç, zavallı, ne yap-sın?
She, too, is like all of you hungry and miserable, what can she do?
The meaning of the question words kim ‘who’ and ne ‘what’ expanded by the plural suffix
shifts towards ‘who all’ and ‘what all’. Here are some examples:
Kim-ler gel-di?
Who have all come?
Ne-ler al-dı-n?
What have you all bought?
7.4.4 Deviant pronominal forms
The genitive of ben ‘I’ and biz ‘we’ is ben-im and biz-im (see also section 7.4.6). The datives
of ben ‘I’ and sen ‘you’ are bana and sana, in the examples represented as ban-a and san-a
respectively. The instrumental is formed on the basis of the genitive, as in: ben-im-le ‘with
me’, sen-in-le ‘with you’, et cetera, but this rule does not apply to onlar ‘they’: its instrumen-
tal form is onlar-la ‘with them’.
7.4.5 Pronominal stem forms
The stem of the personal pronoun o ‘she / he / it’ is on, and this forms the base to which
case markers and the plural suffix are attached: e.g. on-a ‘for him / her’ and on-lar ‘they’.
A similar stem form also underlies the inflected forms of the demonstratives bu ‘this’, şu
‘that’, and o ‘that’. The instrumental of this word group is again based on the genitive, for
example bun-un-la ‘with this’.
7.4.6 Double forms
The instrumental of kim ‘who’ sometimes includes the genitive (kim-in-le ‘with whom?’),
but sometimes it does not (kim-le ‘with whom?’): this is up to the speaker. A similar shorter
form also exists for some personal pronouns: ben-le ‘with me’, sen-le ‘with you’, biz-le ‘with
us’, and siz-le ‘with you’. The pronoun o ‘she / he / it; that’ does not always take the full form:
besides on-un-la ‘with him / her; with that’ the form onla is in also use. The pronoun onlar
‘they’ never takes the genitive marker before the instrumental: onlar-la ‘with them’.
7.4.7 Proximity and remoteness
The difference between bu, şu, and o of section 7.3 is related to ‘distance from the speaker’.
Proximity is always expressed by bu, remoteness by o, and şu is ‘somewhere in between’.
Another difference is that şu is often used to attract someone’s attention, for instance Şuna
bak! ‘Look at that person / thing!’ Secondly, with o and bu reference can be made to some-
thing which has already been mentioned or pointed at, whereas with şu reference can be
made to something that awaits further specification. Compare:
En zekâlı çocuk bu / o.
The smartest child is this one (here) / that one (there).
Söyle-mek iste-diğ-im şu.
What I want to say is this / the following.
Şun-u da al-acak-sın: ekmek, soğan ve tuz.
You should also buy the following: bread, onions, and salt.
The relatively small difference in distance between bu and şu comes nicely to the fore in the
expressions şu veya bu and şu ya da bu, which are both Turkish equivalents of ‘some X or
other’. These can be exemplified by:
Şu veya bu biçim-de hepsin-in Baba İlyas’la ilişki-ler-i var.

In this form or some other everyone has a relation to Baba Ilyas.
Şu ya da bu neden-le ban-a tokat at-ma-dığ-ı gün geç-mi-yor.
Not a single day passes when she doesn’t beat me for some reason or other.
Furthermore, şu occurs in genitive-possessive constructions, and sometimes these bespeak

a certain prejudice or condescending opinion of the speaker.
Sen ve sen-in şu meşhur dil teori-ler-in. İyi, anlat bakalım.

You and your famous language theories. All right, tell me.
Siz-in şu acil sorun-unuz ne-ymiş bakalım?
And what might that urgent problem of yours be?
Hele on-un şu sürekli alaycı sırıtış-ın-dan öyle nefret ed-er-di-m ki!
Above all I hated this continuous derisive grinning of hers / his so much!
Yet many constructions show a more or less neutral attitude in the speaker:
İyi bir adam sen-in şu baba-n.

He’s a good fellow, that father of yours.
72 Pronouns
Bir gece uykudan uyan-ıp, karı, de-miş, ver ben-im şu tüfeğ-im-i.

One night he wakes up and says: Woman, give me that rifle of mine.
Biz-im şu sessiz köşe-miz-i nasıl bul-du-nuz?
How have you found this quiet out-of-the-way place of ours?
7.4.8 Scolding and calling names
The forms seni and sizi are used not only as direct object, but also as the first and last words
in expressions meant to hurt someone’s feeling or for offending that person. Grammatically
speaking, this is done as follows. The word seni must in any case be used last: Korkak seni!
‘Coward! / Chicken!’; Geri zekâlı seni! / Gerzek seni! ‘You moron / imbecile / idiot!’; Koca
bencil seni! ‘Big egoist!’; Pis domuz seni! ‘Filthy swine!’ On top of this, such a tirade can be
introduced by seni too: Ah, seni salak seni! ‘Ah, you fool!’; Seni itoğlu it seni! ‘Dirty dog!’
Longer characterizations of the person addressed are of course possible in several ways:
Seni gidi ırz düşman-ı, seni! Zındık seni!

You miserable rapist! Heathen / pagan!
Seni renksiz suratlı orospu çocuğ-u seni!
You bastard / son of a bitch, with your colourless mug!
Another word used in expressions of abuse is sizi, as in: Sizi gidi sizi! ‘You scoundrel!’, Sizi
serseri sizi! ‘Rascal! / Drifter!’ When more than one person is being addressed, the p lural
suffix is applied to the qualifications involved, as in:
Sizi düzenbaz-lar sizi, köftehor-lar sizi!

You bunch of frauds, you beggars!
Utanmaz sefil-ler sizi!
You bunch of shameless nitwits!
Sizi gidi hergele-ler, ırz düşman-lar-ı sizi!
Efendi-ler-iniz-in kıç-ın-ı yala-r, ancak yoksul-lar-a tepeden bak-ıyor-sunuz!
You bunch of pricks, you rapists!
You kiss (lick) your bosses’ arses, but (you) look down on the paupers.
7.4.9 Expressing affection and respect
The possessive suffix first person singular (–(I)m) is used not only to mark alienable and
inalienable possession, as in ev-im ‘my house’ and baba-m ‘my father’ respectively, but also
to express affection or respect, when used in addressing a person. For such vocative expres-
sions, not all kinship words that are normally used in addressing a person can be expanded
by this possessive suffix. For instance, abi ‘older brother’, abla / bacı ‘older sister’, amca
‘uncle’, teyze ‘aunt’, baba ‘father’, anne ‘mother’ do not take the possessive suffix for this pur-
pose. They take a so-called diminutive suffix (see section 31.2.3), as in abi-ciğ-im ‘dear
brother’, abla-cığ-ım ‘dear sister’, anne-ciğ-im ‘dear mother’, and baba-cığ-ım ‘dear father’.
However, oğul ‘son’ and kız ‘daughter’ do take the possessive suffix first person singular. In
this way, oğl-um means ‘sonny, dear son’ and kız-ım ‘dear / darling daughter’. Other expres-
sions of affection are based on, for instance, yavru ‘young animal’, can ‘soul’, dost ‘friend’,
kardeş ‘sibling’, as in:
‘Pek iyi değil-im, yavru-m, haydi hemen ev-e gid-e-lim’ de-di.

‘I am not very well, kid, let’s go home right now,’ said she.
A can-ım, söyle!
What is it, honey?
Evet, dost-um, bu sonuc-a var-mak için-di.
Surely, my friend, it was to achieve this result.
Kardeş-im Mehmet, bil-iyor-um ki çok kızgın-sın.
Dear colleague (brother) Mehmet, I know that you are very angry.
Examples of metaphorical expressions to address one’s beloved are: hayat-ım ‘my life’,
aşk-ım ‘my love’, bir tane-m ‘my only one’, güzel-im ‘my beauty’, tatlı-m ‘my sweetie’, sevgili-m
‘my darling’, iki göz-üm ‘my two eyes’, şeker-im ‘my candy’.
Showing respect is done by adding the possessive suffix to titles and ranks of education,
court and army:
‘Evet Hoca-m’ de-di-m.

‘Yes, professor,’ I said.
Ben söyle-ye-yim, öğretmen-im, ben söyle-ye-yim.
May I say (it), teacher, may I say (it)?
Zafer siz-in-dir kral-ım.
The victory is yours, my king.
Aman kraliçe-m sus-un lütfen, bir kaza ol-du.
Heavens, my queen, please be quiet, there was an accident.
Paşa-m, önce bir soru sor-a-yım siz-e.
General, let me first ask you a question.
Valla çavuş-um, ben bu düşünce-yi beğen-mi-yor-um!
Truly, sergeant, I don’t like this idea.
Nasıl-sınız, yüzbaşı-m?
How are you, captain?
‘Komutan-ım vurul-acak-sınız, içeri gir-meli-siniz’ de-di.
‘Commander, you will be shot, you must come inside,’ he said.
Ban-a ‘kardeş-im’ mi di-yor-sunuz hemşire-m?
Are you saying ‘colleague’ to me, nurse?
Lastly, a word of caution regarding the form babam, which is a vocative expression used
after an imperative or interjection when addressing an intimate friend, for example:
Anlat babam, ne ol-du?

Now tell me what happened, man!
74 Pronouns
Hey babam hey, taş-ı sık-sa-m suy-un-u çıkar-ır-dı-m !

Hey man, I was very, very strong. (If I pressed a stone, I would bring out its juice.)
7.4.10 Modes of address
The attention of a man can be drawn by saying Beyefendi ‘sir’ and that of a woman by saying
Hanımefendi ‘Madam’. Now, if one knows the first name of the person one wants to address
or make reference to, it is customary to have that name followed by hanım ‘Ms; Mrs;
madam’ or bey ‘Mr; sir’, as in:
Orhan Bey, siz-e bir şey sor-abil-ir mi-yim, Müjgan Hanım siz-in karı-nız mı?
Mr Orhan, can I ask you something, is Mrs Müjgan your spouse?
Müjgan Hanım-ın koca-sı Orhan Bey savaş-ta öl-müş diye bir haber al-dı-k.
We got a message that Mrs Müjgan’s husband Orhan died in the war.
Also, when the vocative expression is based on someone’s profession or function, the words
bey and hanım are usually applied.
Avukat bey / hanım, siz gayet doğru söylü-yor-sunuz. (see section 25.1)

Mr / Madam Solicitor, you say it very right.
Ne-ler yap-acak-sınız, yargıç bey?
What are you going to do, Your Honour (Mr Judge)?
Polis bey, araba-da içki ol-duğ-un-u inan-ın bil-mi-yor-du-m!
Constable, believe me, I did not know there was liquor in the car!
Ben siz-e en baştan anlat-a-yım, memur bey.
Let me tell you from the very beginning, sir.
Bakın, doktor hanım, biz köylü çocuğ-u-yuz.
Look, madam doctor, we are farmers’ children.
Önce müdür bey konuş-tu.
First the director spoke.
In combination with a last name the words bay ‘Mr; sir’ and bayan ‘Ms; Mrs; madam’ are
used, and these are placed before the name, as in:
Pekâlâ, Bayan Öztürk’ün koca-sı Murat siz mi-siniz?

All right, are you Mrs Öztürk’s husband Murat?
Arnavutluk sorun-un-da da Bay Danef anlayış göster-miş-tir.
Also with regard to the Albanian question, Mr Danef was forgiving.
Bay ve Bayan Demirbaş nasıl-lar?
How are Mr and Mrs Demirbaş?
Quite similarly, bay and bayan can also be combined with the name of someone’s profession
or function, for instance: avukat ‘solicitor’, komiser ‘inspector’, savcı ‘prosecutor’, yargıç
‘judge’, and doktor ‘doctor’, and these expressions stand for ‘mister / madam so-and-so’.
An alternative token of respect is the use of sayın ‘esteemed, estimable’, which precedes
the last name of the person addressed or referred to. For instance:
Kimse de ‘Ya bir de sayın Erbakan’a sor-a-lım’ de-me-di.

And no one said: ‘Or, let us just ask the honourable member Erbakan as well’.
Sayın Eğitim Bakan-ı Amerika’dan dön-düğ-ün-de kendi-si-yle görüş-eceğ-im.
I will see the Minister of Education when she comes back from America.
Sayın Karabulut, siz ne di-yecek-siniz efendim?
Dear Karabulut, what would you say to this?
Sayın konuk-lar!
Dear guests!
7.5 Indefinite pronouns
The word someone may refer to an arbitrary person (any one) or to a particular or
specific person (‘a certain person’). In Turkish this works the same way. The word kimse
can be interpreted in different ways, depending on the type of sentence in which it
is used.
Bir kimse gel-ir-se . . .

If anyone comes . . .
Anla-mış bir kimse gibi . . .
Like someone who has understood . . .
In a negative sentence kimse has the meaning of no one:
(Bir) Kimse yok mu?

Anyone here? / Is there no one?
Kimse birşey de-me-di.
No one (of the group) said anything.
The word for something / nothing also has this property:
Aliye birşey söyle-di.

Aliye said something.
Ali birşey de-me-di.
Ali said nothing.
In the following example kimse ‘someone’ and birşey ‘something’ must be interpreted as
negated items, as no one and nothing, although negation itself sits in the verb.
Sonra gör-ür-sün ne olacak, ama sakın kimse-ye birşey söyle-me!

Later you’ll see what will happen, but really, don’t say a word, not to anyone!
76 Pronouns
Stronger negative expressions are based on the diminutive form bir şey-cik ‘a little thing’
(see section 31.2.3) and they occur in combination with a negated predicate.
Öğle-den beri bir şeycik tut-ama-dı-m.

I haven’t been able to catch the smallest thing since noon.
Hepsin-i söyle-yeceğ-im, bir şeyciğ-i sakla-ma-yacağ-ım!
I will tell you all, I will not hide a single little thing.
On-a diyecek bir şeyciğ-im yok.
I have nothing at all to say to her.
Yarın-a bir şeyciğ-in kal-ma-yacak.
By tomorrow you will be totally fine.
Besides kimse ‘someone / no one’ there are the words birisi(n) and biri(n), both used with
the same meaning, particularly when reference is made not to an ‘arbitrary someone’, but
rather to a person who can (possibly) be further specified. So, it is not about ‘someone, no
matter who’ or ‘someone, whoever he may be’, but rather, about a specific person. Examples
of usage are:
Biz-de Andon isimli birisi yok, bura-da öyle birisi yok.

Among us there is no one of the name Andon, there is no such person here.
Kapı açıl-dı, birisi sor-du ‘Ev-de-ler mi?’.
Sonra birin-in ayak ses-ler-i duyul-du.
The door opened and someone asked: ‘Are they home?’
Then someone’s footsteps were heard.
Before a case marker the pronominal n is realized, except with the instrumental:
Bahçe-de birisin-i gör-dü-m.

I saw someone in the garden.
Ben-i başka birisi-yle karıştır-dı-nız.
You confused me with someone else.
Also the plural form, birileri(n) ‘people’, exists:
Ama kitap-lar-ı birilerin-e ver-ir-sin.

But the books you should give away to (other) people.
Siz hep birilerin-i çek-miş-siniz ve şimdi birileri siz-i çek-iyor.
You have attracted people all the time, and now they attract you.
Hep-imiz birilerin-den etkilen-ir-iz.
We all are influenced by certain people.
Yalnız bir kuş birilerin-e seslen-iyor,
ama on-a yanıt verecek birileri yok.
A lonely bird says something to some people,
but there are no people who will give him a reply.
The words beriki(n) ‘this one, the nearer one’ and öteki(n) ‘that one, the further one’ are
excellent means to formulate an opposition, as in:
Görünüş-e göre siz ne berikin-i sev-di-niz, ne de ötekin-i.

As it appears, you didn’t love this one, or the other one.
Other indefinite pronouns are hepsi(n) ‘all, everything’ and kimi(n) / kimisi(n) ‘some’. They
take all case markers and plural possessive forms.
hepsi(n) all, everything

hep-imiz we all
hep-iniz you all
kimi(n) / kimisi(n) some
kimi-miz some of us
kimi-niz some of you
kimi-leri(n) some of them
These inflected forms can be compared to those discussed in section 7.1: hangi-miz ‘who of
us?’ and hangi-niz ‘who of you?’
The notion of ‘some’ is also often expressed by bazı. This word is used as an adjective in
for instance bazı insan-lar ‘some people’, but it is used independently as well and then it can
take a possessive suffix. This can be demonstrated using the following examples.
Bazı-lar da on-u hatırlı-yor-lar-dı, biz-e resim-ler-i göster-di.

Some remembered him, he showed us the pictures.
Öyleyse bazı-lar-ımız yanlış tahmin et-miş-iz.
In that case some of us have apparently made a wrong estimation.
Şirket bazı-lar-ınız-ı mahkeme-ye ver-ecek!
The company will take some of you to court!
Bazı-ların-ın ana-ları, baba-ları da yan-ların-da ol-ur.
Some of them have their father and mother at their side.
In addition to this, there are pronouns denoting indefinite quantities, for instance some, few,
many, all, and the like. In Turkish there are an adjectival construction (see section 8.2.6) and
a genitive-possessive construction (see section 11.7.5). Examples are:
az insan few people

çok az insan very few people
pek az insan extremely few people
çok insan a lot of people
pek çok insan an awful lot of people
birçok insan very many people
birkaç insan a few / couple of people
bazı insan-lar some people
tüm insan-lar all people
çoğu insan-lar most people
78 Pronouns
insan-lar-ın çok az-ı very few people

insan-lar-ın birçoğ-u very many people
insan-lar-ın birkaç-ı a few / couple of people
insan-lar-ın bazı-lar-ı some people
insan-lar-ın tüm-ü / hepsi all people
insan-lar-ın (pek) çoğ-u most people
7.6 Reflexive pronouns
The word kendi means ‘own’ and can be applied as an adjective, as will further be explained
in section 8.2.5. Adding a possessive suffix to kendi makes it the Turkish equivalent of ‘self ’.
In this way the following reflexive pronouns have come into existence:
kendi-m myself
kendi-n yourself
kendi-si(n) himself / herself / itself
kendi-miz ourselves
kendi-niz yourself / yourselves
kendi-leri(n) themselves
The words kendi-si and kendi-leri (and derived forms) are quite often used in place of the
regular personal pronouns o ‘she; he’ and onlar ‘they’, as in:
Hasan’la görüş-ecek-ti-m—Kendi-si daha gel-me-di, efendim.

I had an appointment with Hasan—He hasn’t arrived yet, sir.
Kendi-leri daha önce Anadolu'da ben-im-le birlikte çalış-tı-lar.
They cooperated with me before in Anatolia.
Returning to reflexive usage, all these forms can take a case marker, as in:
Kendi-m-i tut-amı-yor-du-m.
I couldn’t control myself. / I couldn’t keep a straight face.
Sen kendi-n-i bir şey san-ıyor-sun.
You think you are really someone. / You really fancy yourself.
Kendi-miz-e bir parça toprak satın al-dı-k.
We bought a piece of land for ourselves.
Kendi-niz-i fazla zorla-ma-yın!
Do not overstrain yourself!
These pronouns can take case markers, as follows from:
kendi-sin-in of himself / herself

kendi-sin-e / kendin-e to himself / herself
kendi-sin-i / kendin-i himself / herself
kendi-sin-de on himself / herself
7.6 Reflexive pronouns 79
kendi-sin-den from himself / herself

kendi-si-yle with himself / herself
The accusative form kendi-sin-i has an alternative in kendin-i, and the dative form kendi-
sin-e in kendin-e, as in:
Kendi-sin-i / kendin-i bura-da ev-de hissed-er.

He feels at home here.
Kendin-e bir fincan kahve daha doldur-du.
She poured herself another cup of coffee.
With emphasis on the subject, a corresponding kendi-form is placed before the verb.
Ben her iş-im-i kendi-m yap-ar-ım.

I (always) do everything myself.
Sen bu para-lar-ı kendi-n mi kazan-dı-n?
Did you earn that money yourself?
Şair şiir-ler-in-i kendi-si oku-du.
The poet read his poems himself.
Biz ülke-miz-i kend-imiz savun-acağ-ız!
We will defend our country ourselves!
Arkadaş-lar-ınız-ı kendi-niz seç-er-siniz . . .
You choose your friends yourself . . .
Reflexive forms get extra emphasis by doubling the kendi-form:
Hoca-mız kendi kendi-sin-e ( / kendin-e) ‘Yan-dı-k!’ de-di.

Our teacher said to himself: ‘We’re out (of the game)!’
Üstelik kendi kendi-miz-i de bil-iyor-uz.
And besides we know ourselves.
Kendi kendi-sin-in en iyi müşteri-si ol-du.
He became his own best customer.
Kendi kendi-si-yle konuş-uyor-muş gibi . . .
As if she was talking to herself . . .
An interesting construction is based on –(n)In ta kendi-si ‘self / in person’. The word kendi-
si occurs as subject, object, and predicate. In the latter function it can take markers typical
of predicates.
Subay mubay değil, general-in ta kendi-si gel-di.

Not an officer or so came, (but) the general in person, no less.
Bütün bun-lar, yabancılaşma-nın ta kendi-sin-i göster-iyor.
All this shows estrangement itself.
80 Pronouns
Bu elektrik akım-ı aşk-ın ta kendi-si.

This electric current is love itself.
Mefisto, şeytan-ın ta kendi-si-dir.
Mefisto, that is the devil in person.
Gör-düğ-üm bir sanrı değil, gerçeğ-in ta kendi-si-ydi.
What I saw was no hallucination, it was reality itself.
Güzelliğ-in ta kendi-si-ydi-m.
I was no less than beauty itself.
Sen ben-im düşsel sevgi-m-in ta kendi-si-ydi-n.
You were my imaginary love in person.
There is also a verbal suffix with reflexive meaning. For instance, besides the transitive
yıka-mak (-i) ‘to wash’, the intransitive and reflexive verb yıka-n-mak ‘to wash oneself ’
exists. Such forms are discussed in section 30.5.
7.7 Reciprocal pronouns
The word stem birbir is the core for several expressions of reciprocity. In its neutral form it
manifests itself as case-marked forms of birbir-i(n), but the possessive form birbir-imiz plus
case marker, the plural birbir-ler-i(n), or the bare birbir-i as the complement of a postpos
ition are not uncommon either.
7.7.1 Standard form
Whatever one can do to oneself, two or more people can do that to each other. This is usu-
ally indicated by an appropriate pronoun. Turkish has the pronouns birbir-i(n), birbir-imiz,
birbir-iniz, and birbir-leri(n). These are in fact all based on birbir-, to which a possessive
suffix has been attached. These forms are called reciprocal pronouns and are often used as
verbal object and thus carrying a corresponding case marker.
Hepsi de şaşkın şaşkın göz-ler-le birbir-in-e bak-ıyor-du.

All looked with amazement in their eyes at one another.
Yeni sorun-lar çık-ıyor-du, toplantı-lar birbir-in-i izli-yor-du.
All sorts of new problems came up and there were meetings in quick succession.
Böylece birbir-in-de bir güvenlik duygu-sun-u kışkırt-ır.
In this way they provoke a feeling of trust in one another.
İki-sin-in işlev-i birbir-in-den pek farklı değil-dir.
Their two functions are not very different from each other’s.
Hem de birbir-in-den çok uzak ada-lar-ız.
Moreover, we are islands very far apart from each other.
Herkes birbir-i-yle öpüş-tü, herkes-in el-in-de yan-an bir mum var-dı.
All kissed one another, everyone had a burning candle in his hand.
7.7 Reciprocal pronouns 81
Also the forms birbir-imiz and birbir-iniz can get a case marker:
Aşk mektup-lar-ı yaz-ar-dı-k birbir-imiz-e.

We used to write love letters to each other.
San-ır-ım birbir-imiz-i aynı anda gör-dük.
I think we saw each other at the same moment.
Hiçbir zaman yeterince konuş-ma-dı-k birbir-imiz-le.
We never talked enough with each other.
Vakt-i birbir-iniz-le kavga ed-erek geçir-iyor-sunuz.
You spend the time by fighting with each other.
Sev-iyor siz-i, siz de on-dan hoşlan-ıyor-sunuz,
ama bil-mi-yor-um, neden kaç-ıyor-sunuz birbir-iniz-den?
He loves you, you too like him very much,
but I don’t know, why do you shun each other?
These words are often applied as the left-hand members of a genitive-possessive

construction:
İki-si de, birbir-in-in el-in-i masa-ya yatır-ma-ya çalış-ıyor-du.

And both tried to push each other’s hand on to the table.
Birbir-imiz-in göz-ler-in-e uzun uzun bak-tı-k.
We looked into each other’s eyes for a very long time.
Birbir-iniz-in kıymet-in-i bil-in ha!
Do know each other’s value!
Reciprocal pronouns may form the complement of a small number of postpositions. As

will become clear in section 13.3, such a complement takes a certain case marker. As we see:
Birbir-iniz-e karşı dürüst ol-un.

Be honest with one another.
Kader böyle iste-r, çünkü birbir-leri için doğ-muş-lar-dır.
Destiny wants it this way, because they are born for each other.
Birbir-imiz-den başka sevecek kimse-miz yok-tu.
We had no one to love save each other.
7.7.2 Pluralizing
Besides the form birbir-i(n) that seems to contain a possessive suffix third person singular,
there is the form birbir-leri(n) with a possessive suffix third person plural. The former
pronoun is used when only two individuals are involved in an action directed towards
each other, but for three or more things or persons interacting as groups with one another
the latter form is applied. In colloquial speech, however, this distinction is less clear-cut.
Examples of birbir-leri(n) are:
82 Pronouns
Birbir-lerin-i sev-mi-yor-lar, birbir-lerin-den nefret bile et-mi-yor-lar-dı.

They didn’t like each other (and) they didn’t even loathe each other.
Nihayet birbir-leri-yle konuş-ma-ya başla-dı-lar.
In the end they began talking to each other.
Altı ay sonra dön-dü ve birbir-lerin-de büyük değişiklik-ler gör-dü-ler.
Six months later she returned and they saw great changes in each other.
Onlar-a göre insan-lar ve şempanze-ler birbir-lerin-in en yakın akraba-lar-ı-dır.
According to them humans and chimps are each other’s closest relatives.
Birbir-lerin-den başka hiç kimse-ye güven-me-di-ler.
They didn’t trust anyone apart from each other.
Yörünge-leri birbir-lerin-e göre az ya da çok farklı ol-acağ-ın-dan,
birbir-lerin-den farklı hız-lar-da hareket ed-er-ler.
Because their orbits will differ little or much relative to each other,
they move with different velocities from each other.
7.7.3 Individualizing
The forms birbir-imiz and birbir-iniz may contain the plural suffix –lEr as well and this has
an individualizing effect.
Elbette birbir-ler-imiz-e benze-yeceğ-iz zamanla.

We will indeed all resemble one another in time.
Ama hep-imiz yap-tı-k bun-u, birbir-ler-imiz-e sarıl-dı-k.
But we all did this, we all embraced one another.
Neden birbir-ler-iniz-le anlaş-amı-yor-sunuz?
Why can’t you all agree with one another?
Hani siz birbir-ler-iniz-e düşman-dı-nız.
So you were all enemies for one another.
7.7.4 Reciprocal postpositional complements
Furthermore, there are genitive-possessive constructions the possessive parts of which are
formed by a word denoting some place, area, or space. These are discussed in section 10.2.2.
The fragments in bold print are based on a noun plus possessive suffix plus case marker.
Düş-en ağaç-lar birbir-in-in üzer-in-de uzan-ıyor-du.

The fallen trees lay over each other.
Taksi-den in-er-ken birbir-imiz-in üst-ün-e yıkıl-ıyor-du-k.
When we got off the taxi we fell on top of each other.
7.8 Genitive + –ki(n) 83
In section 10.3 it will be shown how such place nouns develop into postpositions. The frag-
ments in bold print in the sentences below are to be regarded as adverbial phrases consist-
ing of a postposition and a complement birbir-i. Some of these can be translated in terms of
‘each other’, others are best rendered along the lines of ‘one . . . the other’.
Kafatas-lar-ı birbir-i üzerine diz-di-ler.

They have put the skulls one over the other.
Bütün aslan gibi insan-lar birbir-i ardına öl-üyor-du.
All healthy people died one after the other.
Fıçı-lar ta yukarı-lar-a kadar birbir-i üstüne dizil-di.
The drums were piled all the way up, one on top of the other.
Murat politik açıdan birbir-i ardından hata-lar yap-ma-ya başla-dı.
From a political angle Murat began piling one mistake on another.
Sonra, erkek-ler birbir-i arkasından ayağ-a kalk-ıp dışarı çık-tı-lar.
Then the men rose to their feet and went out one after another.
There exists also a verbal suffix with reciprocal meaning. For instance, apart from the tran-
sitive öp-mek (-i) ‘to kiss’, there is the intransitive and reciprocal öp-üş-mek ‘to kiss each
other’. Such forms will be discussed in section 30.7.2.
7.8 Genitive + –ki(n)
Words with the genitive can take the invariable suffix –ki(n) and this makes the word defin
ite and changes it into a substantive. The product thus obtained can be applied as subject,
object, and predicate. Examples are:
Hasan’ın-ki daha güzel. Hasan’s is more beautiful.

Bu, Hasan’ın-ki değil. This is not Hasan’s
Hasan’ın-kin-i gör-dü-n mü? Have you seen Hasan’s?
Arkadaş-lar-ımız-ın-kin-i de koru-mak gerek-ir.
We also have to protect the one that belongs to our friends.
Onlar, siz-in roman yazar-lar-ınız-ın-kin-den farklı değil-di pek.
They were not much different from those of your novel writers.
Possessive pronouns too take this suffix and turn into substantives. Here they are:
ben-im-ki (the one which is) mine

sen-in-ki (the one which is) yours
on-un-ki (the one which is) his / hers
biz-im-ki (the one which is) ours
siz-in-ki (the one which is) yours
onlar-ın-ki (the one which is) theirs
84 Pronouns
By addition of –ki(n) a noun is formed, which can take the plural and case suffixes, e.g.
Singular Plural
ben-im-ki ben-im-ki-ler (nom.)
ben-im-kin-in ben-im-ki-ler-in (gen.)
ben-im-kin-e ben-im-ki-ler-e (dat.)
ben-im-kin-i ben-im-ki-ler-i (acc.)
ben-im-kin-de ben-im-ki-ler-de (loc.)
ben-im-kin-den ben-im-ki-ler-den (abl.)
ben-im-ki-yle ben-im-ki-ler-le (ins.)
This type of construction can further be illustrated by the following text examples:
Bul-du-n mu, sen-in-kin-i?

Have you found yours?
On-un felaket-i, sen-in-kin-den aşağı değil-di.
His distress / tragedy was not less than yours.
Biz-im-kin-i neden kullan-ma-ya-lım?
Why shouldn’t we use ours?
As has been advanced in section 6.3, this type of construction allows for reference to
persons and things. Compare:
Biz-im-ki-ler-den bir-i yaralan-dı.

One of (the people belonging to) us was injured.
Şimdi anlı-yor-um ki, tek yap-tık-ları evlilik-lerin-de-ki çatlak-lar-ı
sakla-mak-mış, tıpkı biz-im-ki-ler-i sakla-ma-ya çalış-tık-ları gibi.
Now I understand, the only thing they apparently did was hiding the cracks
in their marriage, precisely as they tried to hide those in ours.
A similar construction with the suffix –ki(n) can be formed with a noun phrase in the loca-
tive (see section 8.6) and in temporal expressions (see section 12.6).
Possessive pronouns with –ki(n) can be expanded by the suffix –(s)I(n), by means of
which the pronoun gets more emphasis, particularly when put in predicate position.
Duvar-a iyi bak: resm-in, alt-ın-da ben-im-ki-si.

Get a good look at the wall; your photo (and) below it that one of mine.
Sızlan-ıp dur-ma, belki de sen-in-ki-sin-i kurtar-dı-m.
Don’t complain all the time, perhaps I have rescued yours.
Neşeli bir ev-dir biz-im-ki-si.
It is surely a cheerful house, that one of ours.
7.8 Genitive + –ki(n) 85
Bu ev-ler-den hangi-si on-un-ki-si?

Which of these houses is his / hers?
Ben-im görev-im siz-in-ki-si kadar ağır değil-di.
My function was not as heavy as yours.
Onlar-ın-ki-si ilk varlıklı toplum-du.
Theirs was the first wealthy society / community.
8
Adjectives
Most adjectives can be used attributively and predicatively. After a short introduction on
these functions, this chapter investigates which other parts of speech can occupy the syn-
tactic position of an attributively used adjective (section 8.2). The results lead to further
explorations concerning the structure—read word order—of the noun phrase (section 8.3).
Not only bare adjectives are discussed, but also the degrees of comparison (section 8.4) and
other means of modifying the property expressed by an adjective (section 8.5). A particular
adjectival construction is formed by adding the suffix –ki(n) to a noun case marked for
locative (section 8.6). In the final sections it is explained that not all adjectives are equal in
Turkish; some adjectives can be used independently, that is, as a noun, but others cannot
(section 8.7). There are also adjectives which take a complement, for they do not make
much sense without one (section 8.8).
8.1 Properties
The primary function of an adjective is that of ascribing a property to some person or

object. This can be achieved in two ways. Firstly, by putting an adjective before a noun. This
is the attributive usage of adjectives. Secondly, by using an adjective as a predicate, and this is
called predicative usage. Examples of the first possibility are:
zengin adam the rich man

zengin insan-lar rich people
zengin bir adam a rich man
These examples show that the noun can be put in the plural (–lEr) and that it can be
preceded by an indefinite article (bir). Nominal sentences such as those in the following
examples will be discussed in further detail in section 23.1. For the time being it is sufficient
to realize that the adjectives zengin ‘rich’ and ilginç ‘interesting’ are placed in predicate
position.
Adam zengin.
The man is rich.
Film ilginç.
The film is interesting.
Word groups as represented in the first three examples (but not in the fourth and the fifth)
are commonly referred to as noun phrases and structures of this type can fulfil—as will be
set forth in chapter 9—the grammatical role of subject and object in verbal sentences.
In the sections that follow the position of adjectives in noun phrases will be investigated.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
8.2 Comparable positions 87
8.2 Comparable positions
In the previous section it was shown that a noun can be preceded by an adjective and by an
indefinite article. In order to be able to set up an exhaustive account of the structure of the
noun phrase (an account comparable to the model presented for the order of suffixes in
section 6.2), first the question should be answered of how the linguistic material presented
in the previous chapters (such as pronouns, demonstratives, and adverbs) can be combined
with nouns, and second, how the rules for word ordering in noun phrases should be
formulated.
8.2.1 Indefinite article
In Turkish there is only an indefinite article. This is placed immediately before the noun,
even if the whole is specified (or modified) by an adjective (the modifier).
yeni araba the new car

yeni bir araba a new car
This ordering in the adjectival phrase (yeni bir ‘new a’) is critical; when the word bir is
placed before the adjective, the word bir is stressed and its meaning is not a but one. Hence
this yields:
bír yeni araba one new car
8.2.2 Demonstrative pronoun
This type of pronoun, too, precedes the noun, even when specified by an adjective:
bu / o araba this / that car

bu / o yeni araba this / that new car
8.2.3 Possessive pronoun
The genitive forms of personal pronouns are in terms of positioning comparable to adjec-
tives, as in my bicycle. A corollary is that the noun gets a possessive suffix agreeing with the
grammatical person of the antecedent (see section 6.4). For instance:
ben-im araba-m my car

sen-in araba-n your car
on-un araba-sı his / her car
biz-im araba-mız our car
siz-in araba-nız your car
onlar-ın araba-ları (/-sı) their car
88 Adjectives
8.2.4 Demonstrative and possessive combined
A demonstrative pronoun must precede a possessive phrase:
Bu yeni araba-m bozul-du.

This new car of mine broke down.
In addition, a personal pronoun in the genitive can combine with this structure:
Sen-in bu eski arkadaş-ın kim?

Who is this old friend of yours?
For the full treatment of the possessive construction, e.g. Hasan’s car, see section 9.3.
8.2.5 Reflexive pronoun
In possessive constructions the reflexive pronoun may take the position of an adjective and
it may be preceded by a personal pronoun in the genitive.
kendi bisiklet-im my own bicycle

kendi ev-in-de in her own house
kendi ülke-miz-e to our own country
ben-im kendi ülke-m my own country
biz-im kendi savaş-ımız our own war
on-un kendi kız-ı her own daughter
8.2.6 Indefinite quantity
Other words that can replace or combine with an adjective are those denoting an indefinite
quantity (see section 7.5).
az (hasta) insan few (sick) people

birçok (zengin) insan quite a few (rich) people
birkaç (deli) insan a few / some (crazy) people
bazı (fakir) insan-lar some (poor) people
tüm (iyi) insan-lar all (good) people
çoğu (yabancı) insan-lar most (foreign) people
8.2.7 Numbers
Cardinal and ordinal numbers precede the adjective.
Bu iki eski arkadaş-ım biz-i yarın ziyaret-e gel-ecek.

These two old friends of mine will visit us tomorrow.
İtalya’nın ikinci büyük ırmağ-ı Tiber bu ova-nın kuzey-in-den geç-er.
Italy’s second big river, the Tiber, passes through the north of this plain.
8.4 Comparative and superlative 89
8.3 Word order in the noun phrase
The results of the survey discussed in the previous section can be summarized as follows:
there are two types of noun phrase to be distinguished and, hence, there are two word-
ordering patterns. In one of these the word bir may occur in its function of indefinite article
and in the other model a demonstrative (being inherently definite). In the following
schemes all categories of words have been realized, but the reader should keep in mind that
the parentheses indicate that the corresponding word category is optional and that it may
be left out.
The word order in an indefinite noun phrase is as follows:
(poss. pron.) (adj.) (art.) noun-(poss. sfx.)

ben-im yeni bir araba-m
I-gen new a car-poss
‘a new car of mine’
The word order in a definite noun phrase can be represented by:
(poss. pron.) (dem.) (num.) (adj.) noun-(poss. sfx.)

ben-im bu iki yeni araba-m
I-gen this two new car-poss
‘these two new cars of mine’
It goes without saying that these patterns exclude each other: a noun phrase is either defin
ite or indefinite.
From this it follows that cardinal numbers, personal pronouns, and demonstratives are
not really comparable to adjectives. On the one hand this is so because they, unlike adjec-
tives, do not denote a property, and on the other hand, because comparison rests mostly
upon cases in which the position of a cardinal number, personal pronoun, or demonstra-
tive is related to the noun only and is therefore not based on possible combinations. In the
following examples words from different categories are put in the same position, but that
does not imply that they can be classified as adjectives. Only the first example contains an
adjective.
yeni kitab-ım the new book of mine / my new book

ben-im kitab-ım my book
bu kitab-ım this book of mine
iki kitab-ım two books of mine
8.4 Comparative and superlative
Most adjectives can take a comparative and superlative form. In Turkish this works as fol-
lows. For example, with yeni ‘new’ two combinations can be made:
daha yeni newer (comparative)

en yeni newest (superlative)
90 Adjectives
Both forms can be applied as normal adjectives, although the comparative may occur in a
definite as well as in an indefinite noun phrase. The superlative form of the adjective occurs
only in definite noun phrases.
daha yeni bir araba a newer car

daha yeni araba-m my newer car
en yeni araba the newest car
To a noun phrase containing the comparative form an adverbial phrase (or adjunct) can be
added, the so-called standard. The noun phrase expressing that standard will receive the
ablative case marker and the word daha may be left out in such constructions.
Bir ay-dan (daha) uzun bir süre için kal-dı.

She stayed for a period longer than a month.
Saray-dan (daha) güzel bir ev-de otur-uyor-du.
She lived in a house (yet) more beautiful than a palace.
The comparative form is also applicable to words denoting an indefinite quantity, e.g.
çok much / many

daha çok more
en çok most
fazla (too) much
daha fazla (yet) more
en fazla most
az little / few
daha az less
en az least, at least
The words daha and en are also used in the sense of ‘yet more’ and ‘most’ in sentences
without an adjective.
daha ileri-de much further on; yet more ahead

daha sev-diğ-im içki the drink I like even more
sıra-nın en baş-ın-da at the very beginning of the queue
en sev-diğ-im yemek the food I like most
8.5 Adverbs applied to adjectives
Expressions of quantity, as discussed in the previous section, can be applied as adverbs to

adjectives, including their comparative and superlative forms. This can be illustrated as follows:
pahalı expensive
çok pahalı very expensive
daha çok pahalı much more expensive
en çok pahalı most expensive
8.6 Locative + –ki(n) 91
güzel nice
az güzel less nice
daha az güzel even less nice
en az güzel least nice
It may appear that in the next examples forms are represented of what the Germans call
Spielerei (playing tricks), but the comparative itself can be modified by a word indicating to
which degree the property is compared.
güzel beautiful
daha güzel more beautiful
biraz daha güzel a little more beautiful
çok daha güzel much more beautiful
The words az ‘little / few ‘and çok ‘much / many’ may be used to denote indefinite quantities
(see section 7.5). They precede the noun and can be further specified (modified) by adverbs
such as: oldukça ‘rather; fairly’; son derece ‘in the highest degree’; mümkün olduğunca ‘as X
as possible’; olabildiğince ‘as X as possible’; and yetirince ‘sufficient’.
8.6 Locative + –ki(n)
In section 7.8 it was shown that a noun in the genitive can be expanded by the suffix –ki(n).
Similarly, a noun phrase in the locative can also get this suffix and this results in a construc-
tion which functions as if it were an adjective. This follows from:
Bahçe-de-ki köpek kim-in?

Whose is the dog in the garden?
Mutfak-ta-ki tüp-ü al-sana!
Take the gas cylinder that is in the kitchen.
Ankara plaj-ın-da-ki bir otel-de kal-ıyor.
She stays in a hotel at Ankara beach.
Mahalle-miz-de-ki bir öğretmen-in kız-ı-ydı.
It was the daughter of a teacher in our neighbourhood.
Such locative phrases can also be used independently, as singular or plural nouns. Like the
nouns above, independent forms are always to be interpreted as definite.
Mutfak-ta-ki boş mu? Is the one in the kitchen empty?

Mutfak-ta-kin-i al-sana! Take the one in the kitchen.
Mutfak-ta-ki-ler-i al-sana! Take those in the kitchen.
As is the case with constructions based on the genitive plus –ki(n) (see section 7.8), p
lural
forms can be interpreted in terms of things, as well as in terms of persons:
92 Adjectives
El-in-de-ki-ler-in değer-i sıfır.

The value of what is in his hand is nil.
Üst-ümüz-de-ki-ler-i çıkar-dı-k.
We took off all we had on.
Yan-ınız-da-ki-ler da kim?
And who are all the people you’ve brought along?
Bu yaş-ta-ki-ler-in oran-ı düş-tü.
The number of people of this age has dropped.
Bun-lar, ekonomik açıdan daha aşağı seviye-de-ki-ler için-dir.
All this is for those (people) who are at a yet lower economic level.
Öncelikle kan banka-sın-da-ki-ler-le mukayese edil-iyor.
First, a comparison is performed with those in the blood bank.
8.7 Adjectives used as nouns *
An adjective in Turkish can be used not only attributively (as in: Burada zengin bir adam
oturuyor ‘Here lives a rich man’) and predicatively (as in: Bu adam çok zengin ‘This man is
very rich’), but also independently, as a noun.
From a grammatical viewpoint the distinction between nouns and adjectives in Turkish
is not that great: in fact the divide lies between nouns/adjectives and verbs. Both systems
have their own typical sets of inflectional and derivational suffixes and combinations
thereof. However, the difference between nouns and adjectives in regard to their primary
function remains important: nouns are there for the denotation of things and adjectives are
the names of properties. Now, a thing can also be referred to on the basis of some of its
properties. This explains why adjectives can be used as nouns, and also why nominal suf-
fixes can be found on adjectives. In this way the following can be found:
genç young
genç-ler the young, young people
hasta sick
hasta-lar the sick, patients
zengin rich
zengin-ler the rich
A word characterizing the flexibility and ease with which words can be used for a certain
purpose is şey ‘thing’. It is also used to express something the appropriate name of which is
not known or remembered. Here are some textual examples:
Heyecan-la karı-sın-a dön-dü: Biraz şey ed-eme-z mi-sin, sevgili-m?

Excited, he addressed his wife: Can’t you do a little what-d’you-call-it, my dear?
Ban-a derhal biraz şey getir.
Bring me, immediately, some what-d’you-call-it.
İçeri-ye git-tiğ-in-de müdür-ümüz biraz şey, tuhaf bir şey yap-ıyor-du.

Upon entering our boss acted a little what-d’you-call-it, he did something weird.
O zaman biraz şey gibi görün-me-z mi-yim?
Then don’t I look a bit what-d’you-call-it?
When an adjective is used independently, a suffix third person singular is required if the
adjective is referential.
Ne o, bir yeni-si mi var?

What is that, is there a new one?
Ücret-im eski-sin-in iki kat-ı-ydı.
My fee was twice as much as the previous one.
En genç-ler-i aşağı yukarı yirmi yaşında-ydı.
The youngest ones were about twenty years old.
Ben böyle-sin-i hiç gör-me-di-m.
I have never seen such a one.
Also, the meaning of an adjective may broaden when it is used as a noun. For instance, as
an adjective açık means ‘open’, but there is a shift towards ‘hole’ and ‘deficit’ when used as a
noun. Compare:
Şey-iniz-i açık mı bırak-tı-nız, dönüş uçuş-unuz-u?

Your whatchacallit, did you leave it open, your return flight?
Üretim artık açığ-ı kapat-ama-yacak-tır.
Production will not be able to close the hole / gap anymore.
Biz-de şu anda bir işçi açığ-ı var.
With us, there is now a shortage of workers.
8.8 Adjectives with complements
An adjective denotes some property that can be attributed to a noun. Not necessarily to the
noun itself, of course, but rather to the item that noun refers to. Most adjectives can be used
both attributively as well as predicatively, as in: a happy man and the man is happy respect
ively. Now, certain adjectives often make more sense when accompanied by an extra phrase.
For instance, saying Mary is afraid, usually evokes the question Of what? The requested
information can also be provided by means of a complement. Turkish has four types of
adjective taking a complement, three of which take a case marker.
8.8.1 Dative complement
The most important adjectives taking a complement in the dative are: ait ‘belonging (to)’,
âşık ‘in love (with)’, aykırı ‘in contradiction (to)’, bağlı ‘dependent (on)’, çevrili ‘surrounded
94 Adjectives
(by)’, eşit ‘equal (to)’, hazır ‘ready (to)’, hevesli ‘enthusiastic (for)’, lâyık ‘worth’, lâzım ‘neces-
sary’, mecbur ‘obliged (to)’, memnun ‘content (with)’, sadık ‘loyal / faithful (to)’, uygun ‘suited
(for)’, yakın ‘close to’, yönelik ‘directed (to)’, ihtiyaç ‘in need (of)’. Such adjectives can be
exemplified as follows:
Bu evrak-lar kim-e ait?

Whose are these documents (papers)?
Ayşe Ali’ye âşık.
Ayşe is in love with Ali.
Ban-a lâzım değil.
I don’t need it / this / that.
Bu, insan hak-ların-a aykırı-dır.
This is in contradiction to the human rights (principles).
Böyle bir dostluğ-a lâyık değil-sin.
You are unworthy of such a friendship.
Böyle davran-mak karakter-im-e uygun değil.
It doesn’t suit my nature to behave like this.
The sentential complements this type of adjective may take will be discussed in section 35.1.
8.8.2 Ablative complement
There are several adjectives which can take different types of complement, depending on
the meaning to be expressed. With a dative complement, memnun means ‘(to be) glad
(that)’ and pertains to something that happens, but with an ablative complement it stands
for ‘(to be) happy / content (with)’ and is about its reason or cause. Examples of a dative
complement are:
Sen-i bir kez daha gör-düğ-üm-e öyle memnun-um ki!

I am so glad to see you one more time!
Ban-a anlat-tığ-ın-a memnun-du-m.
I was glad you / he / she told me.
Usage of the ablative can be exemplified by:
Babaanne-m de durum-dan memnun değil.

My grandma is not happy with the situation either.
Ben Türk vatandaşlığ-ım-dan memnun-du-m.
I was content with my Turkish citizenship.
Anne-leri yeniden iki oğl-un-u birden yan-ın-da gör-mek-ten memnun-du.
Their mother was again happy to suddenly see her two sons near her.
In the latter example the word group iki oğl-un-u . . . gör-mek should not be understood as a
concrete event but rather as its abstraction: ‘the-seeing-her-two-sons’.
Although the next example has the appearance of memnun plus the complement in the
instrumental, as a matter of fact this structure is an adverbial phrase expressing a simultan
eous event. For a discussion of this type of construction, see section 27.3.3.
Dede-sin-in iştah ile ye-diğ-in-i gör-mek-le memnun ol-du.

He became happy when he saw his grandfather eating with appetite.
Another adjective that can take different types of complement is sorumlu. With an ablative
complement it means ‘responsible, answerable’, as can be shown by:
Kim-ler ne-ler-den sorumlu?

Who are responsible for what?
Sanayici-ler emekçi sınıf-ın-dan sorumlu-dur !
The industrialists are surely answerable for the working class / the proletariat!
Again, there are constructions with a verbal fragment that should not be understood as a
concrete event, but rather as its abstraction. What the following examples are about is ‘not
becoming westernized’ and ‘that which he has done’.
Onlar Türkiye’nin Batılılaş-ma-ma-sın-dan sorumlu-dur-lar.

They are responsible for Turkey’s not-becoming-westernized.
Yap-tığ-ın-dan sorumlu değil-dir.
She is not answerable for what she / he has done.
Secondly, with a complement ending in –mEk-lE the meaning of sorumlu is ‘responsible’ in

the sense of ‘having an obligation’. This is the case in:
Ülke-yi yönet-mek-le sorumlu ol-an politikacı-lar-ımız da öyle düşün-üyor-lar.

Our politicians, too, responsible for governing the country, are thinking that way.
Zavallı bu halk, üstelik her türlü vergi ver-mek(-le)
ve ruhban sınıf-ın-ı besle-mek-le sorumlu-ydu.
They deserve pity, this people, on top of everything they had the obligation to pay
all kinds of taxes and to feed the clerical class.
8.8.3 Instrumental complement
A very special case forms the adjective dolu ‘full, filled (with)’, which is derived from dol-
mak (-le) ‘to become filled (with)’. It takes two types of complement. The noun denoting
the ‘filling’ (the complement) has no referring function and it solely serves the purpose of
indicating what ‘kind of stuff ’ that filling consists of—the noun is used non-referentially.
There are two ways of expressing the meaning of ‘full’: with and without the instrumental
case marker.
Mari, on-a yemek dolu bir tabak uzat-tı.

Mari passed him a plate full of food.
96 Adjectives
Bu kum dolu, çakıl dolu toprak-lar çok gübre iste-r.

These terrains full of sand and gravel require a lot of manure.
Kâbus dolu bir uyku-ya dal-dı-m.
I fell asleep, a sleep full of nightmares.
Kaçak-lar, korku dolu an-lar yaşa-dı-lar.
The fugitives went through fearful moments.
Nilgün, pişmanlık dolu bir ses-le konuş-tu.
Nilgün spoke with a voice full of remorse.
The complement of dolu, the filling, can further be specified by an adjective:
Bir dakika sonra el-in-de sıcak süt dolu bir bardak-la geri dön-dü.
A minute later he came back with a glass of hot milk in his hand.
El-in-de-ki kızgın yağ dolu tava-yı yer-e düşür-dü.
She dropped the pan full of hot oil she had in her hand.
Güzel kokulu su dolu ibrik-ler getir-di-ler.
They brought in some ewers with lovely-smelling water.
Nevertheless, examples can be found in which the complement takes the instrumental case
marker. This occurs predominantly when some material is involved:
Başıbozuk nişancı-lar, su-yla dolu bir hendeğ-in iç-in-de çömelmiş bekli-yor-lar-dı.

The bashi-bazouk snipers waited on their haunches in a ditch filled with water.
Bir-i gümüş, diğer-i altın-la dolu iki küçük sandık al-dı.
He took two small boxes, one filled with silver, the other one with gold.
Bazıları yan-lar-ın-a bayıltıcı gaz-la dolu o sprey-ler-den al-dı-lar.
Some people took those sprays along which are filled with anaesthetic gas.
Mısır ekmek-lerin-i pişirmek için yağ-la dolu tava-yı da soba-nın üstüne yerleştir-di.
For baking the corn loaves he placed the pan filled with oil on top of the stove as well.
But the instrumental case marker must in any case be attached after a complement with a
plural suffix. The meaning broadens to ‘all sorts of ’.
Bir hademe tatsız sandviç-ler-le dolu bir tepsi-yi dolaştır-dı.

A servant circulated a tray full of all kinds of tasteless sandwiches.
Beş dakika sonra dükkân-lar-la dolu bir yer-e var-dı.
Five minutes later he arrived in a place full of shops.
Haksızlık-lar-la dolu bir dünya-da yaşı-yor-uz.
We live in a world full of all kinds of injustice.
Güzel anı-lar-la dolu birkaç gün geç-ti.
A few days passed full of nice / sweet memories.
Kötü anı-lar-la dolu köy-ü arka-sın-da bırak-tı.

She left the village with all sorts of bad memories behind her.
8.8.4 Adverbial complement
Whereas English has adjectives taking a complement that is introduced by a preposition,

the complement of a Turkish adjective can be an adverb (see section 14.4.3). Thus:
sayı-ca az / çok numerically few / many

para-ca yoksul deprived of money
su-ca zengin rich in water
şeker-ce zengin rich in sugar
silah-ça fakir poor in arms / weapons
dünya-ca meşhur world-famous
Dünyaca ünlü Bolşoy Opera ve Bale-si, Mayıs’ta Bolu’da bir gösteri sun-acak.
The world-famous Bolshoi Opera and Ballet will give a performance in Bolu in May.
Vücud-unuz-u su sel-i-yle temizle-mek yerine
yap-acağ-ınız tüm iş, suca zengin gıda-lar-ı yemek-tir.
Instead of cleaning your body with a flood of water,
eating food containing plenty of water is all you have to do.
9
Functions of the noun phrase
Noun phrases can grosso modo fulfil only four grammatical functions or syntactic roles in a
sentence: subject, object, adverbial phrase, and predicate. There are three types of sentence:
nominal, verbal, and existential sentences, and this distinction is based on the way negation
is realized. Noun phrases use a particle, değil, but verbs have a negational suffix, –mE, and in
an existential sentence negation is realized by a special word, yok. In a nominal sentence the
predicate is a noun phrase (section 9.1), in a verbal sentence it is a verb (section 9.2), and in
an existential sentence it is either var ‘there is’ or yok ‘there is not’ (section 9.4).
In a verbal sentence one or more objects may occur, depending on the type of verb,
transitive or intransitive. Other sentence types do not allow for objects, but all types must
have a subject, while one or more adverbial phrases are optional. All this forms the main
topic of this chapter. On top of that, how noun phrases form genitive-possessive construc-
tions is explained in section 9.3.
9.1 Noun phrases in nominal sentences
Starting out with the latter type of sentence, instead of ‘A is B’, a speaker of Turkish would
say ‘A B’: in this language there is no linking verb between the A and the B. Noun phrases
can be used as predicate (B) and, in principle, all types of noun phrase discussed so far
qualify for this. These are noun phrases based on nouns, pronouns, question words, per-
sonal pronouns, demonstratives, and adjectives. Some simple examples are:
Bu ne? What is this?

O adam kim? Who is this man?
Bu araba kim-in? Whose is this car?
O ceket sen-in mi? Is that jacket yours?
Hasan nasıl? How is Hasan doing?
Arkadaş-ın nereli? Where is your friend from?
Resim çeken çocuk bu. This is the child who took the pictures.
O büyük ev kendi-sin-in. That big house is her / his own.
Bu, yeni bir araba değil. This is not a new car.
Bu kadın çok zengin. This woman is very rich.
Bu, en yeni kitab-ı. This is her latest book.
Bu, o adam-ın kardeş-i. This is that man’s brother.
In these sentences the predicate is represented in bold print. All these sentences have a
grammatical subject about which the predicate tells us something. Another function of the
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
noun phrase is, therefore, that of subject. Noun phrases based on nouns and their com
binations with personal pronouns, demonstratives, and adjectives qualify for this role. The
sentences represented so far will be used to demonstrate this. This time, their subjects
appear in bold print.

Bu araba kim-in? Whose is this car?
Hasan nasıl? How is Hasan doing?
Arkadaş-ın nereli? Where is your friend from?
Resim çeken çocuk bu. This is the child who made the pictures.
Bu, yeni bir araba değil. This is not a new car.
Bu, o adam-ın kardeş-i. This is that man’s brother.
This brief explanation suffices for the time being, because the two functions which are
relevant for an understanding of nominal sentences have now been introduced. For a
discussion of these matters, see section 23.1.
9.2 Noun phrases in verbal sentences *
In verbal sentences in Turkish there is always a subject and this subject is mostly based on a
noun phrase. Some verbs take only a subject to get the message across but there are other
verbs that must take one or more noun phrases as object. Verbs with only a subject are
called intransitive and verbs with one or more objects are referred to as transitive.
Intransitive verbs, then, have no object, and transitive verbs take one, two, and in a limited
number of cases, even three objects. For instance, ‘sleep’ is intransitive (no object), whereas
‘read’ and ‘give’ are transitive, taking one and (potentially) two objects respectively. Turkish
examples illustrating all this are:
Ayşe uyu-yor. Ayşe sleeps.

Aliye kitap oku-yor. Aliye reads a book.
Hasan Fatma’ya çiçek ver-iyor. Hasan gives flowers to Fatma.
9.2.1 Subject
In these sentences Ayşe, Aliye, and Hasan are the grammatical subject of the sentence in which
they occur. In the introduction to this chapter it was stated that the subject of a verbal or nom
inal sentence is formed by a noun phrase. Proper names and genitive-possessive constructions
(for the internal structure, see section 9.3) can be added to this. This can be shown by:
100 Functions of the noun phrase
(Fatma’nın araba-sı) yepyeni. Fatma’s car is brand new.

(Ben-im ev-im) büyük değil. My house is not big.
(Ali’nin kardeş-i) uyu-yor. Ali’s sibling sleeps.
9.2.2 Objects
In what follows, objects of Turkish sentences are named after the case marker by which
they can be characterized. In this way objects can be divided into dative object, locative
object, ablative object, and instrumental object. In only two cases is this practice not
applied, because noun phrases in the nominative can be used as subject, as well as indefinite
object. And hence, a name such as ‘nominative object’ could be confusing and erroneous
in case it (being nominative) could stand for a subject, not able to be an object at the
same time.
The second case concerns noun phrases ending in the genitive. This case marker never
occurs as an object marker for any verb, and this explains why there are no genitive objects.
As for the direct object, Turkish has two types of direct object, indefinite and definite, and
they can easily be distinguished from each other. In its role as indefinite object a singular
noun occurs in its bare form (X) or preceded by the indefinite article (bir X) and as a plural
noun as such (X-lEr). A definite direct object always carries the accusative marker: X-(y)I
and X-lEr-(y)I.
In principle one could also speak of an accusative object, but in this book the traditional
name of ‘direct object’ is preferred, because the accusative is not always attached it; only if it
is definite.
9.2.3 Direct object
For Turkish the working definition is used that a direct object is the noun phrase that may
take the accusative for certain verbs. Whether a given verb has some object is not the question;
it must have one, because that object is part of its meaning description.
When one says ‘John writes’, then it is obvious that this John writes ‘something’, be it
newspaper articles, poetry, travel books, or long-winded letters to his great-grandmother.
This ‘something’ can indeed be instantiated by any noun phrase, and such noun phrases are
called ‘direct objects’. As indicated above, a Turkish direct object can take the accusative.
According to the rules of grammar this is obligatory if the person or thing the direct object
refers to is identifiable on the basis of the context or situation. The direct object is then said
to be definite. In Turkish, definiteness is expressed by the accusative and in English, by the
definite article the.
Kitab-ı oku-du-n mu? Have you read the book?

Kapı-yı kapat-ır mı-sın? Will you please close the door?
The type of noun phrase under scrutiny here cannot be called ‘accusative object’ because
this case marker does not occur if the direct object is indefinite. In other words, when talking
about arbitrary persons or things, direct objects remain uninflected for case (its form, then,
is the nominative). This was briefly touched upon in section 6.5.1 and illustrated by:
Aliye bir gazete al-dı. Aliye has bought a newspaper.
In this example gazete ‘newspaper’ has no case marker and is preceded by the word bir,
serving as the indefinite article of Turkish. In analogy to this, the next example shows again
that reference is not made to a particular but to an arbitrary (‘whichever’) window available
at the moment of speaking:
Bir pencere aç-ar mı-sın? Can you please open a window?
The definite and indefinite objects in these examples are referential expressions. But defin
iteness is not the decisive factor.
In connection with this, consider a construction in which a noun (but not a fully-fledged
noun phrase) is strongly bound to a verb. The verb and the noun functioning as the object
form one unit, and no other grammatical elements can be placed between them.
Aliye gazete oku-yor. Aliye reads the / a newspaper // newspapers.

Hasan da şiir yaz-ıyor. And Hasan writes a poem / poems / poetry.
The technical term for the usage of such nouns is non-referential, because they have no
referring function whatsoever. They serve only to further specify the activity indicated by
the verb. What Aliye and Hasan are doing is specified in the following manner: ‘newspaper-
reading’ and ‘poetry-writing’ respectively; forms similar to English combinations such as
windsurfing, heartbreaking, lovemaking, house-building.
Combined usage of the word bir and the accusative suffix is possible as well in Turkish.
In such cases one speaks of a specific object, that is, the referent of the object (a person or
thing) is presented as grammatically indefinite but at the same time it is for the speaker
not really an arbitrary person or thing. In English such tricks can be performed, as in: ‘a
Mr John has phoned’ and ‘a certain John was looking for you’. In Turkish this is:
Bir kitab-ı arı-yor-um. I’m looking for a certain book.

Bir şişko-yu gör-dü-m ki . . . I’ve seen a fatso, well, . . .
Ne de-di-n? What did you say?
Ney-i de-di-n? You said what?
Noun phrases referring to something the definiteness (identifiability) of which is a given,

always receive the accusative when applied as direct object. This is the case with proper
names. Unless there are several Toms, Dicks, and Harries in one’s circle of friends and
acquaintances, the person referred to by just saying his name is usually easily identified.
Also words denoting unique entities, such as the Queen, the President, or the Prime Minister,
as well as the names of celestial bodies (the sun, the moon) or natural phenomena (the
weather, the air, the atmosphere) are to be interpreted as definite. Situational definiteness,
too, makes the use of the accusative necessary, as is the case in Don’t spit on the floor! and
Can you open the window? Furthermore, noun phrases beginning with a demonstrative or
possessive pronoun (this book or your book), as well as personal pronouns and indepen
dently used demonstratives, are always to be interpreted as definite.
Contextual and situational information mostly guarantees the identifiability of the thing
referred to by the direct object. Examples are:
Bir İngiliz savaş gemi-si İzmir körfez-in-e gir-erek gemi-yi batır-dı.

An English warship entered the Gulf of Izmir and sank the ship.
Belediye iki okul-u birleştir-me-ye karar ver-di.
The municipality decided to merge the two schools.
Examples of situational definiteness can be provided by:
Yaşlı kadın-lar yer-i süpür-üyor-lar ve ortalığ-ı düzelt-iyor-lar-dı.

Old women were sweeping the floor and putting the place in order.
Kapı-yı aç-ar mı-sınız?
Can you open the door?
The fate of proper names, unique entities, celestial bodies, and natural phenomena in the
role of direct object can be demonstrated by:
Ana-m, baba-m, Türkiye’yi sev-iyor-lar.

My father and my mother, (they) love Turkey.
Yeni cumhurbaşkanın-ı hedef al-dı-lar.
They are out for the new president. / They are after the new president.
İki gün önce Pakistan cumhurbaşkanın-ı Antalya’ya götür-dü-m, de-di.
Two days ago I took the Pakistani president to Antalya, she said.
En ön-de-ki bulut-lar güneş-i ört-me-ye başla-dı.
The clouds most in front began to cover the sun.
Tam anlamıyla açmış leylak-lar havay-ı güzel bir koku ile doldur-du.
The lilacs, which were totally open, filled the air with a lovely scent.
As was indicated, a direct object with a demonstrative pronoun gets the accusative:
Bu kitab-ı imzala-ma-dı-nız!
You haven’t signed this book!
Banka bir süre sonra o para-yı da öde-di.
A while later the bank paid out that money too.
Also for a possessive noun phrase, definiteness is a given:
Ben-im araba-m-ı takip ed-in, de-di.

You follow my car, said she.
Siz de ev-iniz-i yenile-mek için kol-lar-ı sıva-malı-sınız.
In order to renovate your house you too need to roll up your sleeves.
Dört güneş panel-i al-dı-k, üç-ün-ü onar-dı-m.

We got four solar panels; I have repaired three of them.
Pronouns used independently give the same picture:
Ben-i ilgilendir-me-z!
That doesn’t concern me! / I am not interested!
Bun-u iste-mi-yor-um.
I don’t want this.
In the following examples the direct object is specific, because the decisive factor here is
not the indefinite article bir, but the presence of the possessive suffix.
Bu olay-da biz de bir adam-ımız-ı kaybet-ti-k.

We too have lost a man (of ours) in this event.
Polis-ler gel-ip bir arkadaş-ım-ı al-ıp götür-dü-ler.
Police officers came and (they) took a friend of mine away.
A number of frequently used verbs that have a direct object in their meaning description
are listed below. If the object is definite, this is signalled by the accusative case marker, as
indicated between the parentheses.
açmak (-i) to open

beğenmek (-i) to like
bilmek (-i) to know
çağırmak (-i) to call
düşünmek (-i) to think
giymek (-i) to wear (clothing)
içmek (-i) to drink / smoke / eat (soup)
istemek (-i) to want / demand
işitmek (-i) to hear
kapatmak (-i) to close / switch off
kırmak (-i) to break
seçmek (-i) to choose
sevmek (-i) to love
tartmak (-i) to weigh
tüketmek (-i) to use / consume
unutmak (-i) to forget
yapmak (-i) to do / make / build
yemek (-i) to eat
yitirmek (-i) to lose
yormak (-i) to tire
temiz tutmak (-i) to keep clean
terk etmek (-i) to leave someone / abandon
Some Turkish verbs have a second object which is, like the first object, part of the meaning
description. This does not imply that the second object must always be actually expressed;
in many a case it can easily be left out or, put linguistically, left unspecified. Yet on the basis
of the verb’s meaning description it is fully clear that the second object is a real part of the
verb. For if one ‘ties something’ that can then only happen ‘to something’, because that is
contained in the meaning of the verb ‘to tie’.
This second object usually gets a dative suffix (but this depends on the verb in question—
it may be indicated in a dictionary) and, as a matter of consequence, this object will be
referred to as dative-object.
bağlamak (-i, -e) to tie (to) / fasten (to)

anlatmak (-i, -e) to tell (to) / explain (to)
demek (-i, -e) to say (to)
eklemek (-i, -e) to add (to)
göndermek (-i, -e) to send (to)
koymak (-i, -e) to place (on, in)
atmak (-i, -e) to throw (in, on, at)
öğretmek (-i, -e) to teach (to)
sormak (-i, -e) to ask
takmak (-i, -e) to fix (to) / put (on)
satmak (-i, -e) to sell (to)
Furthermore, there are other object types, too, which can occur in combination with a
direct object. These are second objects requiring a locative, ablative, or instrumental case
marker, which, similarly to the previous series of examples, correspond to what could be
called a ’prepositional object’ in English.
barındırmak (-i, -de) to accommodate (in)

almak (-i, -den) to buy (from)
tutmak (-i, -den) to hold (by)
uzaklaştırmak (-i, -den) to remove (from)
ödünç almak (-i, -den) to borrow (from)
tehdit etmek (-i, -le) to threaten (with)
tanıştırmak (-i, -le) to introduce (to)
karşılaştırmak (-i, -le) to put face to face (with)
9.2.4 Dative object
There are verbs in Turkish that take a noun phrase as their sole object; albeit never with the
accusative marker but always with the dative case marker. Verbs the sole object of which is
a dative object cannot have a second object. This type of constraint is valid for locative,
ablative, and instrumental objects as well (see sections 9.2.5–9.2.7).
First of all, a group of verbs could be isolated which have a ‘hidden’ direct object of sorts.
This concerns derived verbs having an object unspecified for definiteness and verbs which
are formed on the basis of a noun plus the auxiliary verb etmek (see section 30.1).
ad takmak (-e) to give a nickname (to)

suç atmak (-e) to blame
bahşiş vermek (-e) to leave a tip (to)

arzu duymak (-e) to desire
itiraz etmek (-e) to object (against)
telefon etmek (-e) to make a telephone call (to)
The second group consists of verbs which have in common that they have something to do
with ‘motion.’ And the direction involved in motion is usually expressed by a dative marker.
Members of this group are:
binmek (-e) to board / get in / get on

girmek (-e) to enter
rastlamak (-e) to run (into)
ulaşmak (-e) to reach (to)
dalmak (-e) to dive (in)
taşınmak (-e) to move house (to)
varmak (-e) to arrive (in, at, on)
oturmak (-e) to sit down (on)
erişmek (-e) to reach
sapmak (-e) to (make a) turn (to, into)
yetişmek (-e) to reach / be in time (for)
uğramak (-e) to stop by (at)
In the third group of verbs requiring a dative object the aspect of motion and direction is
less clear or even totally absent:
başlamak (-e) to begin

benzemek (-e) to resemble
bakmak (-e) to look at / look after
katılmak (-e) to join (with) / agree with
sığmak (-e) to fit (in)
yapışmak (-e) to stick (to)
This is also the case in the last group of verbs belonging to this category, but here it could
with a certain amount of caution be stipulated that what the verbs have in common is that
they express a certain mental state.
kızmak (-e) to get angry (with)

üzülmek (-e) to regret / feel sad / be sorry
küsmek (-e) to be angry (with) / be offended (by)
aldırmak (-e) to mind / pay attention (to)
alışmak (-e) to get used (to)
sevinmek (-e) to feel happy (with)
inanmak (-e) to believe (in)
şaşmak (-e) to be astonished (about)
yalvarmak (-e) to beg
9.2.5 Locative object
Verbs requiring a locative object are not very numerous and they never have a second object.
oturmak (-de) to live (in) / sit (on, in)

aldanmak (-de) to be mistaken (in)
ısrar etmek (-de) to persist (in)
barınmak (-de) to hide (in)
tereddüt etmek (-de) to hesitate (to)
9.2.6 Ablative object
As is the case with verbs requiring a dative or locative object, verbs with an ablative object,
too, cannot have a second object. Roughly speaking, there are two groups to be distin-
guished: a group of verbs denoting a mental state for which the source, reason, or cause is
expressed by means of the ablative object, and a group about which no generalizations can
be made other than saying that they all take ablative objects.
korkmak (-den) to be afraid (of)

utanmak (-den) to be ashamed (of)
usanmak (-den) to be(come) fed up (with)
tiksinmek (-den) to be revolted (by)
iğrenmek (-den) to be disgusted (with)
çekinmek (-den) to be shy / shun away (from)
bıkmak (-den) to be(come) fed up (with)
onur duymak (-den) to be proud (of)
şüphe etmek (-den) to doubt
nefret etmek (-den) to hate
inmek (-den) to get off
bahsetmek (-den) to talk (about)
şikâyet etmek (-den) to complain (about)
intikam almak (-den) to take revenge
kâr etmek (-den) to make a profit
randevu almak (-den) to make an appointment (with)
9.2.7 Instrumental object
Verbs with an instrumental object do not have a second object either. For one group it can
be said that ‘some person(s)’ is / are involved but for the second group no generalizing
statements can be made.
tanışmak (-le) to get to know (someone)

sohbet etmek (-le) to have a chat (with)
buluşmak (-le) to meet / have a meeting (with)
arkadaş olmak (-le) to get befriended (with)

nişanlanmak (-le) to get engaged (with)
evlenmek (-le) to marry (to)
kavga etmek (-le) to quarrel (with)
bağlantı kurmak (-le) to set up a connection (to)
zorluk çekmek (-le) to have trouble (with)
geçinmek (-le) to live (on) / make a living (on)
övünmek (-le) to be proud (of)
sonuçlanmak (-le) to result (in)
ilgilenmek (-le) to be interested (in)
9.2.8 Homonymy
The classification presented so far is exclusively based on the case marker required by a
verb for its object. But there is more.
Some verbs are homonymous: they have the same form (and pronunciation), but they
differ in meaning and also, they may exhibit different grammatical behaviour. In order to
resolve issues of this kind the role of a good dictionary can never be appreciated enough.
Thus, a dictionary can inform us that durmak means not only ‘to stop’, but also ‘to stand / lay’.
Compare:
O zaman hepsi birden dur-du-lar.

Then they all stopped suddenly.
Boş şişe masa-da dur-uyor-du.
The empty bottle was standing on the table.
Yemek kitab-ı masa-da açık dur-uyor-du.
The cookery book lay open on the table.
The objects of homonymous verbs take different case markers. For instance, yaşamak (-de)
‘to live, reside’ requires a locative object, whereas yaşamak (-i) ‘to experience, go through’
can take only a direct object:
Ekrem-ler bugün İzmir’de yaşı-yor.

Ekrem and his family live in Izmir nowadays.
Yoğun bir ‘deja vu’ duygu-su yaşa-dı-lar.
They experienced an intense sensation of déjà vu.
Certain verbs can take a dative object as well as a locative object, but this is to express a
difference in meaning. The difference between yatmak (-e) ‘to lie down’ and yatmak (-de)
‘to lie’ can be illustrated by:
Hastane-ye yat-tı-m, ameliyat, tedavi bir ay sür-dü.

I was hospitalized, the operation and the treatment took a month.
Bir buçuk ay hastane-de yat-tı-m, bir ay da ev-de raporlu.

One and a half months I was in hospital, and lay at home for another month.
Also oturmak (-e) ‘to sit down’ and oturmak (-de) ‘to sit’ differ in terms of dynamism:
Yaşlı bir kadın-ın yan-ın-a otur-du-m.

I sat down beside an old woman.
Yaşlı bir kadın-ın yan-ın-da otur-du-m.
I sat / was seated beside an old woman.
Moreover, oturmak (-de) also means ‘to live, reside’:
Hasan iki sene-den beri Ankara’da otur-uyor.

Hasan has been living in Ankara for two years.
Furthermore, there are verbs that can be used with or without an object. For example, in
the sense of ‘to move’ and ‘to dance’ the verb oynamak is intransitive and hence used with-
out an object:
Sağ el-in-in orta parmağ-ı oynu-yor-du.

The middle finger of her right hand was moving.
Bu kadın düğün-ümüz-de oyna-dı.
This woman has danced at our wedding party.
With a direct object the meaning of ‘to play’ is conveyed:
İbo Abi-m en iyi oyun-u oyna-dı ve kazan-dı.

My brother Ibo played the best game and won.
Bu general, o anda önemli bir rol oyna-ma-dı.
This general played, at that moment, no important role.
An instrumental object adds another shade of meaning:
Ateş-le oynu-yor-uz de-di Newton.

We are playing with fire, said Newton.
As will become clear in sections 33.5 and 33.8, verbs can also be classified in terms of the
type of complement (that is, a sentence as object) they take. Here is an example, based on
düşünmek (-i), the meaning of which depends on the type of its complement.
Ankara’ya git-me-yi düşün-üyor-um. (to think of)

I’m thinking of going to Ankara.
Bun-un için kader-in asır-larca çalış-ma-sın-ı bir düşün. (to imagine)
Imagine how fate has worked on this for centuries.
9.3 Noun phrases in genitive-possessive constructions 109
Ali’nin Ankara’ya git-tiğ-in-i düşün-üyor-um. (to believe)

I think / believe that Ali goes / went / has gone to Ankara.
9.3 Noun phrases in genitive-possessive constructions
This construction takes its name from the fact that two nouns are linked by means of the
genitive suffix. The items referred to in this type of construction often have a possessive rela-
tion, but as has been explained in sections 6.5.2 and 6.7.1, the notion of ‘possession’ must
not be taken too literally—it should be understood in a strict grammatical sense only.
The first noun (or rather, noun phrase) in a genitive-possessive construction bears the
genitive case marker and the second noun (phrase) gets a possessive suffix that agrees in
person and number with the first noun phrase. Examples are:
Bu adam-ın araba-sı bozul-du.

The car of this man / this man’s car broke down.
Kadın-ın ev-i yepyeni.
The house of the woman is brand new.
The phrases adam-ın (man-gen) ‘of the man’ and kadın-ın (woman-gen) ‘of the woman’ are
known as possessor and araba-sı (car-poss3s) ‘his car’ and ev-i (house-poss3s) ‘her house’ as
possessed.
In analogy to this, genitive-possessive constructions can be formed with question words,
demonstratives, and naturally, also with personal and indefinite pronouns. Here is a small
selection:
kim-in arkadaş-ı the friend of whom?

ney-in resm-i (yaparsın) of what (are you making) a painting?
bun-un fiyat-ı (ne kadar) (what is) the price of this?
ben-im araba-m my car
on-un kitab-ı his / her book
bir kimse-nin ev-i someone’s house
birşey-in değer-i the value of something
hep-imiz-in görev-i the duty of all of us
The process of linking nouns is recursive. This implies that a genitive-possessive structure
can take another genitive, again to be combined with a noun plus a possessive suffix. This
can be repeated and may lead to longer and longer structures, for which there is no theor
etical upper limit.
O, (((Ali’nin baba-sın)-ın konuşma-sın)-ın ancak yarı-sın)-ı duy-abil-miş-ti.

She had been able to hear only half of the conversation of Ali’s father.
The genitive-possessive construction is also the preeminent way of expressing the notion of
‘to have’. The only word that should be added is var ‘there is / are / exist(s)’ or its antonym
yok (see also section 23.2). This gives structures like:
Komşu-m-un yeni bir araba-sı var.

My neighbour has a new car.
On-un para-sı yok.
He has no money.
The genitive part may be left out:
Çok sevimli bir kız-ı var.

She has a very nice daughter.
Telefon-um yok.
I don’t have a telephone.
9.4 Noun phrases in existential sentences
Sentences based on the predicates var ‘there is / are; there exist(s)’ or its negational coun-
terpart yok ‘there is / are not; there doesn’t / don’t exist’ are called ‘existential sentences’. This
type of sentence also has a grammatical subject (‘that which exists or does not exist’) and
may contain all sorts of adverbial phrases.
A small number of examples will suffice here, since the full treatment will be given in
section 23.2.
Kuvvetli yağmur-lar-dan sonra çoğu yol-lar-da hasar var.

After the heavy rains most roads are damaged.
Bu akşam Salih’ler-de toplantı var.
Tonight there is a meeting at Salih’s (and his family’s).
Yazın bu köy-ler-de su yok.
In the summer there is no water in these villages.
Engin Mağaza-lar-ın-da ‘yok’ yok!
In Engin-shops there is no ‘not present / not available’ for an answer.
Ara-ların-da tek bekâr yok!
Among them there is not a single bachelor!
Kanun-lar-ımız-da yeterli düzenleme-ler var.
In our laws there are sufficient regulations.
Görünürde kimsecik-ler yok.
There is no one in sight at all.
PART III
A DJ U NC T S A N D MODI F I E R S
An important anchor point in daily life is one’s sense of location (Where am I?) and how
this relates to other spatial localities. This is set out in chapter 10. The skill of counting is
covered in chapter 11, and this can be regarded as an absolute condition for specifying
quantities and age. For orientation in time, as well, counting is indispensable: the clock
is discussed in chapter 12, together with expressions for time periods. Postpositions, in
chapter 13, are the core material for postpositional phrases, and their linguistic behaviour is
comparable to that of adverbial phrases, treated in chapter 14.
10
Spatial orientations
In the previous chapter objects were discussed that are more or less obligatory with a verb,
because they are an essential part of the verb’s meaning. The qualification ‘more or less’
should be understood in the sense that an object is not always specified, so it may seem that
it has been left out. And this is what often happens when the nature of the object is obvious.
For instance, if one says ‘Tie your laces!’, it goes without saying that this relates to ‘something
with shoes’, that is, ‘Tie your laces together,’ rather than that we think first of something like
‘door handle’ or ‘lamp post’.
It can be observed also that with motion verbs, leaving out an object is quite common,
since in most circumstances specifications of the point of departure or destination are
irrelevant. Unless there is a deviation from a general expectation with respect to the ‘from
where’ and ‘to where’, such specifications are left out. And a general expectation is what
language users have on the basis of knowledge of their language and experience. Saying
‘John is writing a book’ implies that ‘John’ carries out his activities at a certain place, at
certain intervals, and for a certain duration, and most likely for a reason or purpose as well.
Such a statement is in the first place meant to provide information about the man’s activities,
other than what can be taken for granted. The first question that would pop up as a response
to this statement is most probably something along the lines of ‘What kind of book?’ or
‘How many has he published?’ Only when it becomes worthwhile to report on matters such
as place, time, or reason—because they deviate from what is expected—will such information
be specified.
Phrases specifying this kind of information are called adverbial phrases or adjuncts and
in Turkish the most common adverbial phrases specify direction or destination, place,
source, or point of departure. Although it is evident that there are always (inherently) a point
of departure and a destination involved in using the verbs in the following examples, a state-
ment may contain zero, one, or two adverbial phrases.
Ali dön-dü. Ali went back / returned.

Ali İstanbul’a dön-dü. Ali went back to Istanbul.
Ali Ankara’dan dön-dü. Ali came back from Ankara.
Ali İzmir’den Bingöl’e dön-dü. Ali returned from Izmir to Bingöl.
Analogously, many sentences can be made that specify the place pertaining to some activity
or the activity’s duration. As can be expected, such specifications are presented by means of
a locative phrase (a noun phrase ending in a locative) and a temporal phrase.
Ali iki yıl İzmir’de çalış-tı. Ali worked in Izmir for two years.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
114 Spatial orientations
10.1 Deictic pronouns: where, here, and there
For the notions to here, here, and from here there are special forms in Turkish, so-called
deictic pronouns, which are derived from the demonstratives bu, şu, and o. The question
word ne ‘what’ also has such a derived form and is thus used in the sense of where. These
forms occur predominantly with the dative, locative, or ablative case marker. Here is the
whole set:
dative locative ablative

nere-ye nere-de nere-den to where where from where
bura-ya bura-da bura-dan to here here from here
şura-ya şura-da şura-dan to there there from there
ora-ya ora-da ora-dan to there there from there
The word şu is used for something which is close to the speaker and visible, whereas o is
used to refer to something farther away and mostly invisible.
These forms can be used only as adverbial phrases to specify direction, place, and point of
departure. The locative forms can be illustrated as follows:
Bura-da ne arı-yor-sun? What do you want here?

Kırmızı-da bura-da dur-unuz! At red lights stop here!
However, when some ‘place itself ’ is being referred to, instead of a case marker the suffix
–(s)I(n) must be used. The forms burası and orası, then, have the meaning ‘this place’ and
‘that place’ and these word forms can be applied as subject or predicate.
Bura-sı nasıl? How is it here?

Bura-sı nere-si? Where are we?
Banyo-muz bura-sı. Our bathroom is (this) here.
Ankara'yı çok sev-iyor-um ama ora-sı ben-im için yeni değil.
I like Ankara a lot but that place is not new to me.
Ora-sı cadı-lar-la meşhur-du.
That place was famous for its witches.
The stems in –ra / –re function as nouns; they can get the plural suffix and this shifts their
meaning to ‘whereabouts, hereabouts, thereabouts’.
dative locative ablative

nere-ler-e nere-ler-de nere-ler-den
bura-lar-a bura-lar-da bura-lar-dan
şura-lar-a şura-lar-da şura-lar-dan
ora-lar-a ora-lar-da ora-lar-dan
Plural expressions for place words occur without case markers as well, for instance:
Yağmur mevsim-in-de bura-lar-ı koca bir bataklık ol-ur.

In the rainy season all places here become a huge swamp.
10.2 genitive-possessive construction orientations 115
Keçi dağ-a bak-arak, kendi kendin-e: ‘Ora-lar-ı ne güzel-dir!’ de-di.

Looking at the mountain, the goat said to himself: ‘How beautiful it is over there!’
The nominal character of the forms in –ra / –re is borne out by the fact that they take pos-
sessive suffixes. The following examples are typical:
Nere-niz ağrı-yor? Where does it hurt you?

En çok nere-n kaşın-ıyor? Where does it itch most?
Bura-m şura-m! Here and there!
Not surprisingly, the locative forms can take the suffix –ki (see section 7.3), as in:
Bura-da-ki en büyük çocuk sen-sin.

The oldest child here is you.
Ora-da-ki masa bomboş, hiç kimse yok.
That table there is altogether unoccupied, there is no one.
Anlaşılan bura-lar-da-ki yol-lar-ı gayet iyi bil-iyor!
It appears that she knows the roads in this area very well!
Ora-lar-da-ki zorluk-lar-ı bil-iyor-sun.
You are acquainted with the difficulties in those regions.
10.2 Orientations with the genitive-possessive construction
Turkish has no prepositions. Whereas English uses small words such as in, on, at, by, before,
after, et cetera, to indicate where in time or space something is located, Turkish has quite
other means at its disposal to achieve the same aim: there is a set of nouns which can be
used to denote some space or area relative to some physical object. In this way, the idea
behind on is visualized as ‘upper part’, and this can be linked to, for instance, ‘table’ in the
form of ‘the table’s upper part’. That’s the way it is done in Turkish.
10.2.1 Place nouns
The locative expressions of the previous section can only give a rough or approximate indi-
cation of the place where someone or something is to be found. For a sentence like the fol-
lowing, the suffix –de can be translated by ‘on’, because ‘on the table’ is the normal place to
put a book and not, for instance, ‘under the table’. In Turkish this is:
Kitap masa-da. The book is on the table.
In other cases another preposition might be used in English, depending on which one
comes closest to what is most obvious.
At ağaç-ta. The horse is by the tree.

Kuş ağaç-ta. The bird sits in the tree.
Ali ev-de. Ali is at home.
Normally speaking, horses are not to be found in a tree, but by a tree or under a tree and by
default, so to speak, birds are usually seen in a tree and not on or under it. Nonetheless, all
these indications are utterly vague, and hence, saying that someone is ‘at home’ does not
specify whether the person in question is in, on, inside, or outside the house. The same
holds for the locative suffix in Turkish.
However, more precise expressions can be made when words are used that denote a
space or a spatial area themselves. In Turkish such words occur very frequently and are
used in the genitive-possessive constructions that have been discussed in section 9.3. If it
must be said that ‘the book is on the table’ (and not somewhere in its vicinity), the noun üst
‘top, upper part’ is applied, as in:
Kitap masa-nın üst-ün-de. The book is on the table.
Such an expression for location can be literally translated by ‘on top of the table’. Other
place nouns used in such expressions are alt ‘underside, lower part’, ön ‘front (part)’, arka
‘back (part)’, yan ‘side’, iç ‘inner side’, dış ‘outside / outer side’, ara ‘space in between’, orta
‘middle’, and karşı ‘place opposite’ (for its usage as a postposition, see section 13.3). These
place nouns can be exemplified as follows:
masa-nın üst-ün-de on the table

masa-nın alt-ın-da under the table
ev-in ön-ün-de in front of the house
ev-in arka-sın-da behind the house
ev-in yan-ın-da next to the house
ev-in iç-in-de in(side) the house
ev-in dış-ın-da outside the house
ev-in karşı-sın-da opposite the house
ev-ler-in ara-sın-da between the houses
With verbs expressing motion the dative suffix is required and not the locative:
Masa-nın üst-ün-e otur-du. She sat down on the table.

Masa-nın alt-ın-a gir-di. He went under the table.
Ev-in ön-ün-e çık-tı. She came out in front of the house.
Ev-in arka-sın-a saklan-dı. He hid behind the house.
Ev-in yan-ın-a git-ti. He went to the side of the house.
Ev-in iç-in-e bak-tı. She looked into the house.
Ev-in dış-ın-a fırla-dı. He dashed out of the house.
Ev-in karşı-sın-a geç-ti. She went across from the house.
Oda-nın orta-sın-a büyük bir dolap koy-du-lar.
In the middle of the room they put a big cupboard / wardrobe.
As can be expected, motion ‘from somewhere’ is expressed by the ablative suffix, as in:
Köprü-nün alt-ın-dan gel-di. He emerged from under the bridge.

Bu ev-in ön-ün-den geç-ti-k. We passed in front of the house.
Ülke-nin dış-ın-dan gel-di. He came from abroad.
10.2 genitive-possessive construction orientations 117
Ev-imiz ile fabrika ara-sın-dan yeni bir yol geç-ti.

Between our house and the factory a new road has been built.
The spatial nouns discussed and exemplified here in genitive-possessive constructions can
each also take a possessive suffix, rendering it a personal construction. The entire construc-
tion is in fact still a genitive-possessive construction, but the noun bearing the genitive is
usually omitted. This can be shown by:
Arka-n-dan kapı-yı kapat! Close the door behind you!

İç-im-de bir şey hisset-ti-m. I felt something inside me.
Alt-ın-da yeni bir araba var. He has a new car (‘under himself ’).
Ön-ün-e bak! Look in front of you!
Karşı-nız-da kim otur-uyor? Who lives opposite you?
Ara-ların-da tek yabancı yok! Among them is not a single foreigner.
Ara-nız-da bir şey ol-du mu?
Did something happen between you?
Adam-lar ara-ların-da alçak ses-le konuş-uyor-lar-dı.
Among themselves the men were talking in low voices.
The idea of immediate vicinity is often expressed by a possessive form of yan ‘side’ or ard / peş
‘behind, after’, supported by the word sıra, which also has meanings such as ‘turn / row /
moment’. Common examples are: yan-ım sıra ‘right beside me’, ard-ım sıra ‘directly behind
me’, at-lar-ın-ın yan-ı sıra ‘next to his horses’, and kız-ın peş-i sıra ‘immediately after /
behind the girl’.
10.2.2 Metaphoric usage
Some examples in the previous section show that these place words should not always be
taken too literally. For instance, arka ‘back side’ is frequently used in the sense of ‘back’
proper and also, when üst ‘top side’ is used the outer area of the human body is meant.
Birbir-lerin-e arka-lar-ın-ı dön-dü-ler; küsüş-müş-ler-di.

They turned their backs on each other; apparently they were angry with each other.
Birbir-lerin-in üst-ün-den pislik ve yaprak kırıntı-lar-ı ayıkla-dı-lar.
They picked each other’s skin / hair / clothing clean of dirt and leaf crumbs.
Üst-ün-e birşey-ler giy, zira dışarıda çok soğuk!
Put something on, because it is much too cold outside.
On the other hand, for genitive-possessive constructions the possessive part of which is
based on a place noun, only a spatial interpretation is possible, as in:
Düş-en ağaç-lar birbir-in-in üzer-in-de uzan-ıyor-du.

The fallen trees lay all over each other.
Kapı-nın ön-ün-de birbir-in-in ard-ın-a park ed-il-miş siyah iki otomobil-i gör-dü.
He saw two black cars which were parked behind each other in front of the door.
Taksi-den in-er-ken birbir-imiz-in üst-ün-e yıkıl-ıyor-du-k.
When we got out of the taxi we collapsed on top of each other.
Korku içinde birbir-lerin-in arka-sın-a saklan-dı-lar.
In fear they hid behind each other.
Gece birbir-lerin-in yan-ın-dan geç-en gemi-ler-di.
It was the ships passing each other in the night.
Birbir-iniz-in arka-sın-dan konuş-arak, birbir-iniz-i lânetle-yerek,
birbir-iniz-in düşman-ı ol-du-nuz.
Each talking behind the other’s back and each cursing the other,
you have each become the other’s enemy.
10.2.3 Adjectival usage
It should be noted that words such as alt ‘underside, lower part’, ön ‘front (part)’, arka ‘back
(part)’, yan ‘side’, iç ‘inner side’, dış ‘out(er) side’, karşı ‘place opposite’, ara ‘in between
(place)’, and orta ‘middle’ can also be applied as adjectives. This can be illustrated by the
following examples in which nouns are modified by these place words.
üst kat top floor

üst kaliteli with the highest quality
alt çene lower jaw
altyapı infrastructure
ön sıra front row
arka koltuk back seat
yan kapı side door
iç deniz inner sea
dış duvar outer wall
dış pazar foreign market
karşı teklif counter-proposal
karşı yaka the opposite shore
ara tatil a non-planned holiday
ara istasyon a station somewhere on the way
orta öğretim secondary education
Orta Asya Central Asia
Some expressions belonging to this type of structure are always written together:
arkabölge hinterland
önyargı prejudice
yancümle subordinate clause
içmimar interior decorator
10.3 From noun to locative postposition 119
10.3 From noun to locative postposition *
In the previous sections constructions have been discussed which are based on two nouns,
the first of which is in the genitive, while the second one, a noun denoting a space or area
itself, has a possessive suffix. For an approximate indication of direction, place, and source /
origin a case marker follows: dative (–(y)E), locative (–TE), and ablative (–TEn).
Unlike languages a reader might be somewhat more familiar with (English, Russian,
German, et cetera), Turkish does not have prepositions (small words such as in, on, at, by,
for, et cetera) at its disposal. Instead of prepositions Turkish has case markers and so-called
postpositions. They come in two sorts: uninflected forms (see chapters 13 and 28) which are
taken from the lexicon (dictionary) and postposition-like constructions (see also chap-
ter 36) of which it can be said that ‘in the long run’ they might be ‘on their way’ to develop
into real (lexical) postpositions.
In addition to nouns denoting ‘place’, in the present section it will be shown how such
words can be used not in a literal sense (referring to some area or space), but in a meta-
phorical sense. The most important feature of the Turkish construction is the absence of
the genitive case marker and the locative case marker on the place noun. In English and
comparable languages the postposition-like construction is usually translated as a prepos-
ition. In the following examples, words in bold print signal metaphorical usage, whereas
their hyphenated counterparts should be taken literally.
üstünde ‘on, above’:

Ara-dığ-ın kitap masa-nın üst-ün-de.
The book you are looking for is on the table.
Masa üstünde, rakı şişe-si ve bir kadeh, bir bıçak ve başlanmış bir ekmek.
On the table are a rakı bottle and a glass, a knife, and a partly eaten loaf of bread.
Parti-ler üstünde dernek-ler . . .
Societies which stand above the parties . . .
altında ‘under’:
Bu kavga-dan sonra bir süre park-lar-da, ağaç-lar-ın alt-ın-da yat-ıyor-du-m.
After that quarrel I slept in parks for a while, under the trees.
Yabancı-lar-ın bakış-ları altında ezil-erek kahve-yi terk et-ti-m.
Crushed under the glances of the foreigners I left the café.
önünde ‘in front of ’:

Ev-lerin-in ön-ün-de büyük bir bahçe var-dı.
In front of their house was a big garden.
Kanun önünde herkes nasıl muamele görme hakk-ın-a sahip-se, . . .
No matter how everyone has the right by law to be treated, . . .
arkasında ‘behind’:
Arka-sın-da da bir orman başla-dı.
And behind it a forest began.
Pek çok kadın hâlâ kafes arkasında, gökyüz-ün-ün reng-in-i ancak

pencere-ler-in aralığ-ın-dan gör-ebil-iyor-lar-dı.
Quite a lot of women were still sitting behind the wooden latticework and
could see the colour of the sky only through the chinks of the windows.
yanında ‘beside, next to’:

O kadar iş-leri var ki, mümkünse bilgisayar-ın yan-ın-da yat-ar-lar.
They have so much work, that, if possible, they sleep next to their computer.
Alman akl-ı yanında sen-in akl-ın kaç fenik ed-er?
Comparing your brains with German cleverness, how much is yours worth?
içinde ‘in, inside; within’:

Kutu-nun iç-in-de enjektör ve tüp var-dı.
In the box there was an injector and a small tube.
Birkaç saat içinde ora-ya var-acak-tı-k.
We would arrive there within a few hours.
Okul-lar-ın mali sıkıntı içinde ol-duk-ların-ı herkes bil-iyor.
That schools have financial problems everyone knows.
dışında ‘outside; except’:

İş-im-in dış-ın-da başka hiçbir şey-den keyif al-ama-m.
Except for (outside) my work, I cannot enjoy anything else.
İstanbul’a ne zaman yetiş-eceğ-iniz dışında bir sorun yok.
Apart from the moment you arrive in Istanbul, there is no problem.
karşısında ‘opposite’:
Postacı, bakkal-ın karşı-sın-da-ki ev-e doğru hızlı ilerle-di.
The postman passed quickly towards the house opposite the grocery store.
Bu gerçek karşısında çaresiz kal-dı-m.
I stood powerless (helpless) facing this reality.
arasında ‘between; through; among’:

Diş-ler-in-in ara-sın-da havyar tane-leri görün-üyor-du.
Between her teeth small pieces of caviar were visible.
El-in-i seyrek saç-lar-ın-ın ara-sın-da gezdir-di.
He ran his hand through his thin hair.
2025 yıl-ın-da nüfus 80-85 milyon arasında ol-acak.
In the year 2025 the population will number between 80 and 85 million.
Genç-ler arasında çeteleşme var.
Among the young there is the formation of gangs.
ortasında ‘in the middle of ’:

Avlu-nun orta-sın-da suy-u kuru-muş bir havuz var-dı.
In the middle of the courtyard there was a dried-up pond.
10.3 From noun to locative postposition 121
Sonra gece-nin tam orta-sın-da uyan-ıver-miş-ti-m.

Then I had woken up quickly in the middle of the night.
Çöl ortasında susuz kalmış gibi-ydi-m.
I was like someone who ended up without water in the middle of a desert.
Lastly, a number of similar words have not been presented yet:
peşinde ‘after; at the rear, behind’:

Karşı kaldırım-a geç-ti, ben de peş-in-de.
She crossed the street and I followed.
Kimse Ali’nin peş-in-den git-me-ye cesaret ed-emi-yor-du.
No-one had the courage to chase Ali.
Niye hep boş hayal-ler peşinde koş-uyor-sun?
Why do you pursue idle dreams all the time?
Kahve-ye çık-ma-m, kumar oyna-ma-m, ne de avrat peşinde koş-ma-m!
I don’t go to the pubs, I don’t gamble, and neither do I chase women!
ardında ‘after; behind’:

Karanlık ağaç-lar-ın ard-ın-da görün-en sokak lâmba-sın-ın ışığ-ın-da . . .
In the light of the lamp post, which was visible behind the dark trees, . . .
Rüzgâr, su ve çamur-un döv-düğ-ü cam-lar ardında otur-an-lar ne mutlu!
How happy those must be who sit behind windows scourged by wind, rain,
and mud.
etraf ‘surroundings’ / etrafında ‘around’:

Bardak-lar ve tabak-lar dolu masa-nın etraf-ın-da çılgınca bir hora başla-dı
ve bütün ev sarsıl-dı.
Around the table, loaded with glasses and plates, they started a crazy
hora (dance) and the whole house was shaking.
Tüken-mek üzere ol-an umut-lar, hürriyet ve bağımsızlık ideal-i etrafında
bir inanc-a dönüş-müştür.
All hope, being at the verge of vanishing, changed entirely in a belief (centred)
around the ideal of freedom and independence.
üzerinde ‘above, at, on, over, by; more than’:

O kadar nakit ben-im üzer-im-de yok.
I don’t have that much cash on me.
Koyu bir grilik şehr-in üzer-in-de öylece asılı kal-mıştır sanki.
It was as if a dark grey substance just stayed over the city, hanging there.
Büyük bir yol üzerinde bir meyhane aç-tı.
She opened a restaurant on a main road.
Son olarak bu konu üzerinde bir dur-a-lım.
Finally, let’s discuss this topic for a moment.
Üç milyon dolar üzerinde bir gelir-i sağla-mıştır.

She ensured she’d receive an income of more than three million dollars.
kenar ‘edge, border, margin’ / kenarında ‘alongside’:

Kent-in kenar-ın-da bir alan-ı inşa ed-ecek-ler.
They will build on a plot of land on the outskirts of the town.
Araba-lar yol kenarında tampon tampon-a sıralan-mış-lar-dı.
The cars were bumper to bumper, lined up alongside the road.
hiza ‘line, level’:

Baş-ı ancak göğs-üm-ün hiza-sın-a gel-ebil-en bir kadın-dı.
She was a woman whose head did not reach higher than to my chest.
Saç-lar-ı omuz hizasında, simsiyah ve düz-dü.
Her hair was at shoulder-length, pitch black, and straight.
10.4 From postposition to adverbial phrase
A noun denoting a geographical location (region, area, building, et cetera) does not require
a genitive case marker either, and an expression based on such a noun forms a very general
reference to some place. These constructions are generally used as if they were adjectives or
adverbials, for instance:
yer altında underground

yer üstünde above ground
su altında underwater
su üstünde above water
deniz altında submarine
deniz üstünde at sea
okul içinde in school
okul dışında out of school
yurt içinde domestic
yurt dışında foreign
ev içinde indoor
ev dışında outdoor
These can be exemplified as follows:
Metro, onyedi-si yer üstünde olmak üzere yirmi adet istasyon yer al-acak.
The subway will have twenty stations, seventeen of them above the ground.
Yer altında-ki laboratuvar-a bir ekip yolla-dı.
He sent a team to the laboratory under the ground.
Pire-ler sıcak hava-lar-da ortaya çık-ar ama ev içinde yaşa-yan hayvan-lar-da
ve kapalı mekân-lar-da tüm yıl boyunca görün-ebil-ir-ler.
Fleas appear in warm weather but can be found (seen) throughout the year
in closed spaces and on animals which live indoors.
10.4 From postposition to adverbial phrase 123
Günlük yaşam-da ev dışında yemek yeme olanak-ları . . .

The possibilities for eating outdoors in daily life . . .
For a number of word combinations an adjectival equivalent is not available in English. In

the translations which follow a definite article is used, but nonetheless, they stand for a very
vague description in Turkish.
İki yan-da duvar içinde iki kubbe-nin ara-sın-a çık-an merdiven-ler var-dır.
Inside the walls there are stairs going up between two domes.
Fatma’nın bütün dünya-sı bu; dört duvar dışında arkadaş-ı yok.
This is Fatma’s whole world: outside the four walls she has no friends.
Gemlik’ten Adapazarı–İznik yol-un-a gir-ince, yol üzerinde sırala-n-an eski
Osmanlı köy-lerin-i kaçır-ma-yın.
When you enter the motorway from Adapazarı to Iznik at Gemlik,
you shouldn’t miss out on the old Ottoman villages situated along the road.
Yol üzerinde bol bol KFOR ve UN araç-ların-ı gör-üyor-sunuz.
On the way you see many KFOR- and UN-vehicles.
Erzak-ı yol üzerinde bekleş-en insan-lar-a dağıt-tı.
He handed the provisions out to the people waiting alongside the road.
Nerede gömül-dü?
– Köy dışında-ki mezarlığ-a, rahmetli karı-sın-ın yan-ın-a.
Where has he been buried?
– At the cemetery outside the village, next to his late wife.
Fenerbahçe, o zamanlar şehir dışında-ydı ve sonra biz ora-ya yerleş-ti-k.
At the time, Fenerbahçe was still far out of town and later we moved there.
Sonra da orman içinde-ki uzak bir açıklığ-a kaç-tı-lar.
And then they ran to a far-off clearing in the forest.
Küçük çocuk-lar kırmızı başlık-lar-la buz üstünde kay-ıyor-lar-dı.
The small children with their red hats were sliding on the ice.
Gündüz-leri deniz üstünde-yim.
During the daytime I am always at sea.
From a linguistic point of view it could be said that the left-hand member of these word
combinations is non-referential. This means that the noun in question does not refer to any
particular entity, previously mentioned in the context or available within the given situation
or setting. But things may be different in other circumstances. Whereas deniz ‘sea’ does not
refer to ‘any sea in particular’ in the last example, the word deniz is referential in the following
examples. Therefore the genitive case marker occurs in a genuine genitive-possessive
construction.
Satıcı-lar-ın bağırtı-ları cam gibi sessiz yat-an deniz-in üst-ün-de akis-ler

yap-ma-ya başla-dı.
The shouting of the vendors began to form all kinds of echoes over the sea,
which lay soundless and smooth as glass.
Gövde-sin-in dört-te üç-ü deniz-in üst-ün-de,

ip geril-di, titre-di, sonra kop-tu.
Three quarters of its body was above the sea,
the line stood tight, trembled, and then snapped.
With su ‘water’ such differences can also be observed:
Işığ-ı yak-ıp tepsi-yi musluğ-a götür-dü-m,

suy-un alt-ın-da ters çevir-di-m fotoğraf-lar-ı.
I switched on the light (and) took the basin to the tap
and turned the photos under the water.
Co-60 bir havuz-un iç-in-de dört metre suy-un alt-ın-da sakla-n-ıyor.
Cobalt-60 is kept in a basin four metres under water.
In the following examples too, reference is made to a previously mentioned location.
Bu, köy-ün dış-ın-da tenha bir ev-di.

This was an abandoned house outside the village.
Şehr-in dış-ın-da bir villa-sı var-dı.
Outside the city she had a villa.
Ora-ya in-en yol-un üzer-in-de-ki dükkân-lar-a Malta çarşı-sı de-n-ir-di.
The shops on the road coming out there were called the Maltese Market.
O zaman bu, Fatih’e gid-en yol-un üzer-in-de bulun-an San Ahmet’in kahve-si idi.
At the time this was Saint Ahmet’s coffee house, along the road to Fatih.
Even if the indefinite article bir ‘a’ is placed before yol ‘road’, the genitive case marker is
required when it is obvious that the road in question is not an arbitrary one, but one men-
tioned before or one which is further specified by additional information. Consider:
Şehr-in kuzey-in-e doğru tırman-an bir yol-un üzer-in-de bir dizi kooperatif
ev-leri inşa ed-il-miştir.
Alongside a road climbing to the north of the city the housing corporation
has built a row of houses.
Sağ ve sol-u sık ağaç-lar-la dolu bir yol-un üzer-in-de yürü-r-ken . . .
Strolling on a road with a thick growth of trees left and right . . .
11
Counting and quantities
For relatively simple activities such as counting, determining a ranking order, or distributing
some quantity in equal portions, handling the numbers in Turkish is really straightforward.
There are cardinal (section 11.1), ordinal (section 11.2), and distributive numbers (section 11.3).
These numbers behave like nouns in that they can take a plural or possessive suffix, or a case
marker, and combinations thereof. These properties find ample employment and thus receive
due attention in a sizeable section (section 11.4). Next comes a section that goes into the intri-
cacies of quantification: in section 11.5 absolute quantities are opposed to relative quantities,
and many examples are given of adverbs indicating indefinite quantities, nouns functioning as
containers, and measurement units. In section 11.6 it is the treatment of numerical fractions
that forms the upbeat to a section in which partitive constructions are discussed (section 11.7).
This chapter is concluded by section 11.8, in which several expressions for age are explored.
11.1 Cardinal numbers
Numbers which are used for counting (e.g. one, two, three) are called cardinal numbers,
and the skill of counting in Turkish is one of the easiest things to accomplish.
11.1.1 The basics
With the cardinal numbers listed below any integer can be produced that gives an answer
to the questions kaç ‘how many’ and ne kadar ‘how much/how many’.
sıfır 0
bir 1 on 10
iki 2 yirmi 20
üç 3 otuz 30
dört (d-) 4 kırk 40
beş 5 elli 50
altı 6 altmış 60
yedi 7 yetmiş 70
sekiz 8 seksen 80
dokuz 9 doksan 90
yüz 100
bin 1.000
on bin 10.000
yüz bin 100.000
milyon 1.000.000
milyar 1.000.000.000 (9 × 0) billion; 1,000 millions
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
126 Counting and quantities
Because of years and years of high inflation in Turkey, the need for cardinal numbers far
exceeding the billion has arisen.
trilyon 1.000.000.000.000 (12 × 0) 1,000 billion; trillion (US)

katrilyon 1.000.000.000.000.000 (15 × 0) 1,000 trillion (US)
Note that in Turkish numbers dots are written to separate the thousands.
Multiples of ten plus units are formed by adding the unit number to the tenfold. The numbers
11–19 are usually written together and compositional numbers greater than 20 are written
separately.
onbir 11 altmış üç 63
onyedi 17 yetmiş dört 74
yirmi iki 22 seksen beş 85
elli beş 55 doksan bir 91
Multiples of a hundred are expressed as ‘unit + yüz + tenfold’:
111 yüz onbir

167 yüz altmış yedi
559 beş yüz elli dokuz
Numbers greater than a thousand, bin, follow the same pattern:
1001 bin bir

5.546 beş bin beş yüz kırk altı
75.352 yetmiş beş bin üç yüz elli iki
457.248 dört yüz elli yedi bin iki yüz kırk sekiz
Numbers over a million are formed likewise:
1.560.000 bir milyon beş yüz altmış bin

365.444.770 üç yüz altmış beş milyon dört yüz kırk dört bin yedi yüz yetmiş
There are two words to express the notion of ‘half ’: yarım ‘a half ’ and X buçuk ‘X and a half ’
and these will be discussed in section 11.6. The word for ‘quarter’ is çeyrek. Some simple
examples are:
Yarım saat sonra iş-in-i bitir-di.

He finished his work after half an hour.
Aradan bir buçuk yıl geç-ti.
In the meantime one and a half years have passed.
Belki bir çeyrek saat bekle-di.
She waited for perhaps a quarter of an hour.
11.1 Cardinal numbers 127
11.1.2 Arithmetic
According to school books arithmetic is done as follows:
Dokuz artı üç eşit-tir oniki. Nine plus three equals twelve.

Dokuz eksi üç eşit-tir altı. Nine minus three equals six.
Dört çarpı iki eşit-tir sekiz. Four times two equals eight.
Dokuz bölü üç eşit-tir üç. Nine divided by three equals three.
Colloquial alternatives are:
Üç artı iki, beş ed-er. Three and two make five.

Üç eksi iki, bir ed-er. Three minus two is one.
Üç kere (çarpı) iki, altı ed-er. Three times two is six.
Sekiz bölü iki, dört ed-er. Eight divided by two makes four.
Cardinal numbers can take case markers, as in the following arithmetic expressions:
Kendi-si de çoktan kafa-yı bul-muş-tu, iki kere iki-yi bile hesapla-yama-z-dı.

She was tipsy long since and could not even calculate two times two.
Ban-a kalan yalnızca iki-yle iki-yi topla-mak ol-du.
What was left for me was only adding two and two.
Also in specifications for time and duration (see also chapters 12 and 13.2) case markers occur:
Kasaba-nın saat kule-si iki-yi çal-ıyor.

The bell tower of the town strikes two.
Bura-da iki-den yedi-ye kadar üç kişi çalış-ıyor.
Three people are at work here, from two to seven.
The names of digits follow the cardinal numbers from zero to nine.
On bölü üç problem-in-i çöz-er-ken,

elde edil-en üç virgül üç-e daha birçok üç-ler ekle-mek iste-di.
In solving the problem of ‘ten divided by three’, he wanted to add
another lot of threes to the result obtained, (being) three point three.
In reading out numbers the whole number is often split up into smaller fragments. The
usual format for telephone numbers is:
357.28.14 üç yüz elli yedi—yirmi sekiz—ondört

020 – 418.27.53 sıfır yirmi—dört yüz onsekiz—yirmi yedi—elli üç
Relevant content words are: sayı ‘number’, as in: tam sayı ‘whole number’, çift sayı ‘even
number’ and tek sayı ‘odd number’. The word sayı means ‘quantity’ as well, as in: insan
sayı-sı ‘number of people’ and Türk aile-ler-in sayı-sı ‘the number of Turkish families’,
whereas miktar ‘quantity’ is used for non-countable things: büyük bir miktar tuz ‘a large
quantity of salt’ and doğalgaz miktar-ı ‘quantity of natural gas’. In Toplum ve Bilim’in 25/26
nolu Bahar-Yaz 1984 sayı-sın-da ‘in the summer—spring issue of 1984, volume 25/26 of
Society and Science’ the meaning of sayı is rather ‘edition, issue’.
The abbreviation nolu stands for numaralı ‘numbered’, as in: 169 nolu otobüs saat-ler-i
‘departure times of bus 169’, 116a nolu oda-da ‘in room 116a’, and 0-312-4685300 numaralı
telefon ‘telephone 0-312-4685300’.
The word for digit in the sense of symbol is rakam, as in: altı rakam-ı ‘the numeral six’,
beş rakam-lı bir sayı / numara / gelir ‘a figure / number / income of five digits’. Also, rakam
is used in the sense of ‘result’ and ‘value’, as in: üç aylık rakam-lar ‘quarterly figures’, 2015
yıl-ı rakam-ı ‘the figures for 2015’, and 28 milyar dolar ihracat rakam-ı ‘export of 28 billion
dollars’. The equivalent of ‘mark, grade’ is not, as in: coğrafya not-u ‘mark for geography’.
Furthermore, şifre / kod ‘secret code; cipher’ is noteworthy:
Çanta-nın üç rakam-lı bir şifre kilid-i var-dı.

The bag had a combination lock with three digits.
Altı rakamlı kod-u tuşla-dı.
She entered the cipher code with six digits.
A not exact numeric quantity can be expressed in several ways. Firstly, the adverbial phrase
aşağı yukarı ‘about, approximately; more or less’ is placed before the number. Compare:
Mektub-un-da ne ol-duğ-un-u aşağı yukarı bil-iyor-um.

I know more or less what is in his letter.
En genç-ler-i aşağı yukarı yirmi yaşında-ydı.
The youngest were about twenty years of age.
Şamandıra aşağı yukarı gemi-den yirmi beş metre kadar uzak-ta-ydı.
The buoy was about twenty-five metres away from the ship.
Secondly, the word küsur means ‘remainder / what is left / -odd’ and is placed after the
number, as in the following examples:
Refika-nız hasta mı?—Yirmi küsur yıl-dan beri.

Is your wife ill?—For twenty-odd years.
Gölcük’te de son bir buçuk yıl-da altmış küsur deprem ol-muş.
In the last year and a half there were some sixty earthquakes in Gölcük.
Thirdly, the adverb yaklaşık ‘approximately’ precedes a number and the postposition-like
dolayında ‘around; about; in the surroundings of ’ (see section 36.1.3) must follow a number.
Yaklaşık yüz metre daha alçak ol-an deniz düzey-i MÖ 4000 dolayında
bugünkü düzey-in-e çık-mış-tı.
The sea level, which was almost a hundred metres lower,
has risen from around 4000 bc until today’s level.
11.2 Ordinal numbers 129
Fourthly, the adverb tahminen ‘approximately, roughly’ must be placed before the number:
Güneş-in tahminen 6000 derece sıcaklığ-ı var.

The sun has a temperature of about 6000 degrees.
Fifthly, approximations of age and the like are best expressed by special constructions.
The reader is referred to section 11.8.
11.2 Ordinal numbers
Ordinal numbers are formed by adding the suffix –(I)ncI to cardinals:
bir-inci 1st on-uncu 10th

iki-nci 2nd yirmi-nci 20th
üç-üncü 3rd otuz-uncu 30th
dörd-üncü 4th kırk-ıncı 40th
beş-inci 5th elli-nci 50th
altı-ncı 6th altmış-ıncı 60th
yedi-nci 7th yetmiş-inci 70th
sekiz-inci 8th seksen-inci 80th
dokuz-uncu 9th doksan-ıncı 90th
yüz-üncü 100th
bin-inci 1,000th
milyon-uncu 1,000,000th
milyar-ıncı 1,000,000,000th
Ordinal numbers are written in full or abbreviated by adding a dot to the number. This
practice is followed for Roman numbers as well, but not for dates (see section 12.3).
19. yüzyıl / asır the nineteenth century

II. Dünya Savaş-ı the Second World War
I. Murat Murat the First
The word ilk ‘first’ is used when it can be contrasted with ‘last’, but not with an ordinal
number, for instance ‘second’ or ‘third’.
Bu iş-i ilk defa tecrübe et-mi-yor-du.

It was not the first time that he did / tested that.
İsmet Paşa’nın Ankara’ya birinci defa geliş-in-de, on-un-la konuş-muş.
When Ismet Pasha came to Ankara for the first time he spoke with him.
From the latter sentence it can be inferred that Ismet Pasha surely had travelled to Ankara
for a second time. The word for ‘last’ is sonuncu, which can be illustrated by:
Sen ne ilk-i-sin, ne de son-uncu-su ol-acak-sın.

You’re not the first, nor will you be the last one.
The question word for ‘how many-eth’ is kaçıncı and the notion of ‘umpteenth’ is expressed
by filânıncı, bilmem kaçıncı, or kimbilir kaçıncı, as in:
Kaçıncı içki-n bu?

This is your drink number what?
Terli yüz-ün-ü bilmem kaçıncı defa sil-iyor-du.
He wiped his sweaty face for the umpteenth time.
Ev-in-i kimbilir kaçıncı kere ara-dı, uzun uzun çaldır-ıp kapat-tı telefon-u.
She rang her house for the umpteenth time, let it ring for a very long time, and rang off.
11.3 Distributive numbers
Turkish has a special number form for ‘so many each’ and this form is called distributive.
The suffix is –(ş)Er with ş occurring after a vowel, but also in yarım-şar ‘half each’.
bir-er 1 each on-ar 10 each

iki-şer 2 each yirmi-şer 20 each
üç-er 3 each otuz-ar 30 each
dörd-er 4 each kırk-ar 40 each
beş-er 5 each elli-şer 50 each
altı-şar 6 each altmış-ar 60 each
yedi-şer 7 each yetmiş-er 70 each
sekiz-er 8 each seksen-er 80 each
dokuz-ar 9 each doksan-ar 90 each
yüz-er 100 each
bin-er 1,000 each
Examples of usage are:
On polis en az yedi-şer, en çok altmış beş-er yıl hapis ceza-sın-a çarptır-ıl-dı.

Ten constables are each sentenced to a minimum of 7 and a maximum of 65 years in gaol.
Tavuk-lar, piliç-ler, hatta horoz bile bir-er köşe-ye büzül-müş-ler-di.
The hens, chicks, and even the cock were each crouched in a corner.
Sanne ile ben de el-imiz-de bir-er mum tut-uyor-du-k.
Sanne and I were each holding a candle in our hand.
İki-niz de bir-er melek-siniz.
Each of you two is an angel.
The words yarım ‘half ’, buçuk ‘and a half ’, and çeyrek ‘quarter’ have a special distributive form:
yarım half – yarım-şar half each

X buçuk X and a half – X buçuk-ar X and a half each
çeyrek quarter – çeyrek-er a quarter each
These can further be exemplified by:
Onlar-la da iki hafta-da bir yarım-şar saat muhabbet ed-iyor-um.

With them I have a chat once every two weeks, of half an hour each time.
Bar-a gid-ip iki yarım-şar litrelik-le geri dön-dü.
He went up to the bar and came back with two glasses of half a litre each.
Diğer iki sanık onbir buçuk-ar yıl hapis ceza-lar-ın-a çarptırıl-dı.
The other two suspects were sentenced to eleven and a half years’ prison each.
Kısacası, üç tane iki buçuk-ar kiloluk safra-yı at-tı-m.
In brief, I threw overboard three pieces of ballast of two and a half kilos each.
Faiz oran-lar-ı bu yıl üç kez daha çeyrek-er puan artır-ıl-dı.
Interest rates have been raised three times this year by a quarter point each time.
Reduplicated distributive numbers are used as adverbial expressions (see also section 14.4.4).
Işık-lar bir-er bir-er sön-dü.

The lights went out one by one.
Basamak-lar-ı iki-şer iki-şer atla-dı.
She took two steps at a time on the stairs.
Üç-er üç-er sıra-ya dizil-di-ler.
They lined up three by three.
11.4 Special formations
Cardinal numbers are not only used for counting proper, but are applied in adverbial
expressions, behave like nouns in that they are put in the plural, and take possessive suf-
fixes as well as case markers. Furthermore, numbers are the material from which to derive
new nouns and adjectives usable in, for instance, card games. A special subsection is
devoted to numbers of foreign origin as used in backgammon.
11.4.1 Adverbial usage
The word bir functions not only as a numeral, ‘one’, and as an indefinite article, but also as
an adverbial phrase: ‘once; if only’. In this way a comparison can be made between:
1930 yıl-ın-da Türkiye’de bir tane üniversite var-dı.

In 1930 there was one university in Turkey.
Boğaziçi 1971’den önce özel bir üniversite idi.
The Bosphorus University was a private university before 1971.
Bu göz-ler ne-ler gör-dü, bir bil-se-niz . . .
What these eyes have (not) seen, if you only knew . . .
Preceding a numeral, bir means ‘another, one more’, as in:
Bir beş dakika geç-iyor, sonra on, yirmi dakika.

Another five minutes pass, then ten, twenty minutes.
Bu onbeş kişi-nin dışında bir üç kişi ekli-yor-uz.
Apart from these fifteen people, we add another three persons.
11.4.2 Nominal usage
Cardinal numbers can take the plural suffix and such forms are applied in several ways.
First, added to cardinal numbers each ten times as large as its predecessor, beginning with
one (1), the plural gives the names for decimal units: bir-ler ‘units’, on-lar ‘tens’, yüz-ler
‘hundreds’, bin-ler ‘thousands’, on bin-ler ‘ten thousands’, et cetera.
Yirmi-nin üzer-in-de-ki sayı-lar için,

önce on-lar hane-sin-i, sonra bir-ler hane-sin-i koy-uyor-uz.
For the numbers larger than twenty
we first place the digit for the tens and then that for the units.
Secondly, the plural form of a cardinal number can abstractly be represented as X-lEr
‘X-some’. Examples are: iki-ler ‘pair, couple, set of two’, üç-ler ‘threesome, set of three’,
dört-ler ‘set of four’, et cetera. This form is popular as a denotation for small groups of
people, as in:
O zaman Üç-ler Meclis-i’nden sonra Yedi-ler Meclis-i gel-di.

After the Council of Three the Council of Seven came then.
Bun-lar da Dört-ler Komisyon-u’nca kararlaştır-ıl-dı.
And all this has been decided by the Committee of Four.
The form –TEn sonra will be discussed in section 13.2 and the suffix –CE in sections 14.4.3
and 30.4.8.
Forms such as X-lEr are very popular in names of companies and firms. Here is a short
selection for the numbers one to ten, as found on the Internet:
Birler Çelik Sanayi ve Ticaret steel industry and trade

İkiler Elektrik Sanayi electrical industry
Üçler Oto Servis motorcar service station
Dörtler Kebap Salonu kebab restaurant
Beşler Sucuk Fabrikası sausage factory
Altılar davası trial of the six officers (1922)
Yediler Türbesi a certain tomb / shrine devoted to seven martyrs
Sekizler Metal Şirketi metal firm
Dokuzlar Bakliyat firm dealing in legumes
Onlar İnşaat building firm
11.4.3 Possessive numbers
Cardinal numbers can get a possessive suffix of the first and second person plural: iki-miz
‘we two / the two of us’, üç-ünüz ‘you three / the three of you’.
Çalışma oda-sın-da dörd-ümüz toplan-dı-k.

The four of us came together in the study.
Beş-imiz birden kaç-ar-sak, bun-un da hiç yarar-ı ol-ma-z.
If the five of us ran away all of a sudden, it would be futile / useless.
With bir ‘one’ the expressions bir-imiz ‘one / one of us’ and bir-iniz ‘one / one of you’ are
formed. Their negative counterparts are discussed in section 25.1.
11.4.4 Derived nouns
A small number of semantically related nouns are derived from cardinal numbers. These are
sometimes referred to as collectives: ikiz ‘twins’, üçüz ‘triplets’, dördüz ‘quads, quadruplets’,
and also beşiz ‘quins, quintuplets’. A nice example is:
Bazıları ikiz doğur-acak, hatta üçüz.

Some will give birth to twins, even to triplets.
Sekiz yaşında-ki tek yumurta ikiz-ler-i bir sel gibi oda-ya gir-iyor-du.
The eight-year-old identical twins entered the room like a torrent.
11.4.5 Derived adjectives
Furthermore, cardinal numbers have led to the formation of words denoting the size of a
group, for instance, a group of performers of music: ikili ‘pair, duo’, üçlü ‘trio’, dörtlü ‘quartet’,
beşli ‘quintet’, altılı ‘sextet’, yedili ‘septet’, sekizli ‘octet’. Examples are:
Bu üçlü 1990 yıl-ın-da bir kuartet ve 1993’te de bir beşli haline gel-ir.
This trio becomes a quartet in 1990 and a quintet in 1993.
Her yön-den toplan-an bisiklet-ler her iki yön-e dağıl-ıyor-lar,
bazen ikili, bazen dörtlü beşli topluluk-lar olarak gezinti-ye çık-ıyor-lar.
The bicycles that come from every direction disperse in the two directions,
they take a tour in groups of two, sometimes four or five people.
A different kind of meaning can be attached to these words when it comes to playing
cards: birli ‘the ace’, ikili ‘the two’, üçlü ‘the three’, dörtlü ‘the four’, beşli ‘the five’, altılı
‘the six’, yedili ‘the seven’, sekizli ‘the eight’, dokuzlu ‘the nine’, onlu ‘the ten’. These words
can be combined with any of the four suits. Expressions such as kupa-nın dörtlü-sü ‘four
of hearts’, sineğ-in altılı-sı ‘six of clubs’, maça-nın sekizli-si ‘eight of spades’, karo-nun
üçlü-sü ‘three of diamonds’ are used side by side with compounds such as: kupa dörd-ü
‘four of hearts’, sinek altı-sı ‘six of clubs’, maça sekiz-i ‘eight of spades’, karo üç-ü ‘three
of diamonds’.
For the sake of completeness, the other card names are: bacak, vale, oğlan ‘jack, knave’;
kız, dam ‘queen’; papaz ‘king’; and as, birli, bey ‘ace’.
11.4.6 Multiplicity
By means of the fourfold suffix –lI a small number of adjectives have been derived from
collective numbers (see section 11.4.4). Such adjectives express a manifold quantity.
Gör-dük-ler-im-in bazı-lar-ı el-ler-in-de çift küre-ler, üçüz-lü asa-lar tut-uyor-lar.

Some of those I see hold double orbs and threefold sceptres in their hands.
Abdülhamit’in kullan-dığ-ı tumturaklı ve dördüz-lü Arapça terkip-ler-i
(örneğin: Taht-ı muallâ-yı saltanat-ı Osmaniye)
bugünkü gazete okur-lar-ı pek sök-eme-yecek-ler-dir.
The pompous and fourfold Arabic compounds which Abdülhamit was using
(for instance: the superior throne of the Ottoman sultanate)
cannot be deciphered very well by newspaper readers nowadays.
The structure of Taht-ı muallâ-yı saltanat-ı Osmaniye (throne-I superior-I sultanate-I

Ottoman) ‘the superior throne of the Ottoman sultanate’ will be discussed in
section 31.6.
11.4.7 Distributive adjectives
The fourfold suffix –lI, by means of which adjectives can be derived (for details, see
section 31.1.2), can also be combined with distributive numbers:
Tam zaman-da iki-şer-li kol halinde dört uçak hedef bölge-sin-e gel-di-ler.
Right on time four aircraft, in fighting units of two each, arrived in the target area.
Bu yüzden oda-lar üç-er-li grup-lar-a ayrıl-dı.
For this reason the rooms were divided in groups of three people.
Onlar-ı garaj-ın ön-ün-de dörd-er-li sıra-yla diz-meli-siniz.
You must line them up in front of the garage in rows of four.
Beş-er-li yedi-şer-li grup-lar halinde-ydi-ler.
They were (gathered) in groups of five or seven each.
An alternative is the fourfold –lIk, which forms adjectives as well (see section 31.1.3):
Birdenbire kop-an beş-er-lik, altı-şar-lık aksırık yaylım-lar-ı gibi-ydi.

These were like volleys of five–six sneezes each, breaking out suddenly.
Tente-nin alt-ın-da yirmi-şer-lik grup-lar halinde yüz adet sandalye dizilen-di.
Under the awning a hundred chairs were arranged in rows of twenty each.
11.5 Quantities 135
11.4.8 School classes
A school class can be specified by an ordinal number plus sınıf ‘class’, but also by a bare
cardinal number. In both cases the school type is often mentioned. Compare:
İlkokul / ortaokul dörd-üncü sınıf-ta-ydı-m.

I was in the fourth grade of the primary / middle school.
İlkokul üç-ten beri çalış-ıyor-um.
I have been working since the third grade of primary school.
Büyük oğlan orta üç-e, küçük ise lise iki-ye gid-iyor.
The oldest boy goes to the third grade of the middle school,
and the youngest to the second of the secondary school.
11.4.9 Game numbers
Tavla is the Turkish name for the game also known as backgammon, as tric trac in Europe,
and as shesh-besh in the Middle East. A player rolls two dice and the result is called out
using a mixture of Turkish and, for the greater part, Persian cardinal numbers 1-6: yek, dü,
se, çehar, penc, şeş. With unequal results the largest number is mentioned first, as in: iki bir
‘2-1’, se yek ‘3-1’, seba i dü ‘3-2’, cehar ı yek ‘4-1’, cehar i dü ‘4-2’, cehar ü se ‘4-3’, penc ü yek / beş
bir ‘5-1’, penc i dü ‘5-2’, penc ü se ‘5-3’, beş dört ‘5-4’, şeş yek ‘6-1’, şeş i dü ‘6-2’, şeş ü se ‘6-3’, şeş
cehar / altı dört ‘6-4’, and şeş beş ‘6-5’.
When equal numbers are thrown, the following expressions are in use: hep yek ‘1-1’, dü
bara ‘2-2’, dü se ‘3-3’, dört cehar ‘4-4’, dü beş ‘5-5’, dü şeş ‘6-6’.
11.5 Quantities
There are several ways to express a quantity: numbers, adjectives, nouns denoting some
shape, unit, or container, and also measure words. Within these categories there is quite a
lot of form variation.
11.5.1 Absolute quantity
An absolute quantity is expressed by a number (such as on ‘ten’), by a related (derived)

word (such as on-larca ‘(by) tens’), or by a so-called indefinite quantity (çok ‘many, much’
and az ‘few, little’) followed by a noun. Also, certain nouns referring to some shape or content
can be used as units of quantity, as in ‘a pool of water’, ‘a shoal of fish’, and ‘a bottle of milk’.
In Turkish the noun takes no plural suffix after a cardinal number. Whether there are
one, two, or five houses, it makes no difference for the expression of the noun ev ‘house’; in
all cases the plural suffix is absent.
bir ev one house

iki ev two houses
beş ev five houses
Group names as occurring in fairy tales and names of restaurants, firms, and the like are an
exception to this rule:
Üç Silahşor-lar the three musketeers

Yedi Cüce-ler the seven dwarfs
Kırk Harami-ler the forty robbers
Yedi Dev-ler masal kitab-ı the fairy tale book ‘The Seven Giants’
Üç Kardeş-ler Kebap Salon-u kebab house ‘The Three Brethren’
Konya’da-ki Üç Kız-lar Türbe-si the tomb of the Three Girls in Konya
Dört Kardeş-ler Düğün Saray-ı wedding saloon ‘The Four Brothers’
A vague indication of quantity can be given by the suffix combination –lErcE (first syllable
stressed) to a cardinal number. The noun quantified remains in the singular.
on-larca sefer tens of times

yüz-lerce insan hundreds of people
bin-lerce çocuk thousands of children
on bin-lerce yıl tens of thousands of years
yüz bin-lerce dolar hundreds of thousands of dollars
milyon-larca millions
This form can of course be expanded by a possessive suffix, as in:
Böyle anı-lar-ın yüz-lerce-si var ben-de.

I have hundreds of such memories.
Dikenli topak-lar, bin-lerce-si bir arada, yuvarlan-ma-ya başla-r.
The thorny balls, thousands of them at the same time, start to roll.
Pembe renkli bu Peugeot 204’ü bin-lerce-si arasından tanı-r-dı-m.
I recognised this pink Peugeot 204 out of thousands.
Yıl-lar-dır, bin-lerce-sin-i dinle-miş-ti-m.
For years I have listened to thousands of them.
İzmit ve İstanbul’da bin-lerce-sin-i gör-düğ-ümüz enkaz yığın-ların-ın aynı-sı.
They are the same as the heaps of rubble of which we saw thousands in Izmit and Istanbul.
Bin-lerce-miz gibi, aile-leri tarafından evlendir-il-miş iki genc-iz.
Like thousands, we are two youngsters married off by their families.
The combination –lErcE is also used with nouns denoting a period and this produces an
expression for duration. Hence, what can be expected are forms such as:
saat-lerce for hours (and hours)

gün-lerce for days (and days)
hafta-larca for weeks (and weeks)
ay-larca for months (and months)
sene-lerce for years (and years)
yüzyıl-larca for centuries on end
11.5 Quantities 137
There are also expressions for an indefinite quantity and it makes no difference whether the
noun qualified is countable or not; the noun remains in the singular.
çok şarap much wine

az şeker little sugar
çok insan many people
birkaç kitap a few books
birçok insan quite some people
birçok ülke quite a number of countries
Also, when measure words are applied, cardinal numbers require no plural suffix. It would,
according to the rules of English, be necessary to put the quantifying (measure) word in the
plural, but not the noun which is quantified (measured).
dört dilim ekmek four slices of bread

iki demet maydanoz two bunches of parsley
beş diş sarımsak five cloves of garlic
üç baş soğan three onions
iki porsiyon köfte two portions of meatballs
bir sürü insan a lot (flock) of people
Other measure words are tane ‘pieces’, adet ‘pieces’, tek ‘single’, and duble ‘double’ (the latter
two words are used for liquor), these are in the singular after a cardinal number, as is the
noun being quantified:
Tepsi-de üç tane çay fincan-ı var-dı.

On the tray there were three teacups.
İyice benze-yen yeni çekil-miş üç adet vesikalık fotoğraf getir-in.
Bring three recently taken passport photos showing a good likeness.
Beyefendi-ye bir duble rakı, ban-a da bir tek!
A double rakı for the gentleman and a single one for me!
After words such as çift ‘pair’ and grup ‘group’, too, the noun remains in the singular:
Karanlık-ta bir çift göz gör-dü.

In the darkness he saw a pair of eyes.
Ertesi gün bir grup yabancı araştırmacı gel-di.
The day after a group of foreign researchers arrived.
But after takım ‘group, team, set, bunch’ the noun follows in its plural form:
On-dan sonra bir takım ışık-lar belir-iyor-du.

Then a bunch of lights appeared.
Words denoting objects that may function as containers, so-called container words, can be
used as quantifiers as well. Again, quantifier and quantified remain in the singular.
dört fincan un four cups of flour

iki bardak su two glasses of water
üç çorba kaşığ-ı tuz three soupspoons of salt
bir çay kaşığ-ı şeker a teaspoonful of sugar
Even if the quantified consists of countable objects, the singular form applies:
Tüfek-ler, tabanca-lar, ayrıca sandık sandık mermi bul-du-k.

We found rifles and hand guns and furthermore crates and crates of bullets.
Oda-m-a bir sepet çiçek gönder-di-ler.
They have sent a basket of flowers to my room.
This type of constructions consist of two nouns and both nouns can be specified (modified)
by an adjective. This can be shown by:
iki ufak bardak soğuk su two small glasses of cold water

bir iri kadeh şarap an enormous glass of wine
üç şişe kırmızı şarap three bottles of red wine
üç büyük şişe beyaz şarap three big bottles of white wine
Independent usage of the word dolu ‘full’ is the basis for constructions such as:
Koca bir tabak dolu-su köfte indir-me-ye başla-dı.

He began to devour a gigantic dish full of meatballs.
O anda bir avuç dolu-su para say-ıyor-du.
At that moment he was counting a handful of money.
The word avuç ‘handful’ is also used in a figurative sense:
Sadece bir avuç insan seyret-me-ye gel-di.

There were only a handful of people that came to watch.
In sections 6.7.2 and 9.3 it was shown that information about prices is obtained in two ways:
Bun-lar-ı kaç-a al-dı-n?

For how much have you bought these?
Bun-un fiyat-ı ne kadar?
What is the price of this?
If one wants to find out what the cost is per piece, one could for instance ask:
Karpuz-un tane-si ne kadar?

How much are the melons a piece?
But in enquiring the price per unit of measurement, the genitive-possessive construction
(see sections 6.7.1 and 9.3) must be used:
11.5 Quantities 139
Patates-in kilo-su ne kadar?

How much are the potatoes per kilo?
Bu kumaş-ın metre-si kaça?
How much is that cloth per metre?
Elma suy-un-un litre-si üç Türk lira-sı.
Apple juice costs three lira per litre.
11.5.2 Units
Units such as kilo, metre, and litre are of course often used to specify quantities as well,
although they remain singular after a cardinal number.
Ban-a beş kilo patates ver-in, lütfen.

Give me five kilos of potatoes, please.
Bu kumaş-tan iki buçuk metre isti-yor-um.
I want two and a half metres of this cloth.
Yarım litre şarap-tan sarhoş ol-du.
He got drunk on half a litre of wine.
The units metre, gram, and litre have standard prefixes to indicate smaller and greater parts:
milimetre ‘millimetre’; santim / santimetre ‘centimetre’; desimetre ‘decimetre’; hektometre
‘hectometre’; kilometre ‘kilometre’; miligram ‘milligram’; santigram ‘centigram’; desigram
‘decigram’; hektogram ‘hectogram’; kilo / kilogram ‘kilogram’; mililitre ‘millilitre’; santilitre
‘centilitre’; desilitre ‘decilitre’; hektolitre ‘hectolitre’.
Area measures and measures of volume are based on kare ‘square’ and küp ‘cubic’:
Oda-sı altı metre kare cam bir bölme-den ibaret-ti.

His room consisted of a glass dividing wall of six square metres.
Bir hektar arazi-yi sula-mak için beş bin metre küp su gerek-ir.
In order to water a hectare of land, 5,000 cubic metres of water are needed.
11.5.3 Relative quantity
For relative quantities it can be said that one quantity is compared to another one. For the
expression of a relative quantity the words az ‘less’ and fazla ‘more’ allow for a so-called
standard (see section 8.4)
Bun-lar-ın %92’si, yani altı milyon-dan fazla çocuğ-umuz aşıla-n-mıştır.

Ninety-two per cent of these, or more than 6 million of our children, were inoculated.
Hafta-da yirmi saat-ten az çalış-an-lar bu yüzde-ye dahil değil-dir.
Those working less than twenty hours per week are not included in this percentage.
Aradan kırk yıl-dan fazla bir zaman geçmiş.

In the meantime more than forty years have passed.
Bu rakam, Avrupa Birliğ-i-nin bütçe-sin-in yarı-sın-dan az-dır.
This sum is less than half the budget of the European Union.
A multitude is expressed in a genitive-possessive construction based on misil ‘equal amount’

or kat ‘multiple’:
Vakıf üniversite-leri bun-un üç misl-i gibi rakam-lar ödü-yor-lar.

Private universities pay sums three times as great.
Kalabalık mı-ydı-lar?—Belki siz-in iki misl-iniz kadar.
Were they many?—Perhaps as many as twice your number.
Para iki misl-in-e çık-malı, bir şey anla-ya-sınız.
The money should be doubled, that’s what you have to understand.
Ücret-im, eski-sin-in iki kat-ı-ydı.
My salary was twice the old one.
Bun-un iki kat-ın-dan fazla kazan-ıyor-um.
I earn more than two times as much (as this).
When the antecedent (standard) of the multitude is known, it need not be expressed (but it
can—including its genitive—be imagined).
Baba-sı (bun-un) üç kat-ın-ı isti-yor-du.

Her father wanted three times as much.
Birden her şey-in fiyat-ı (eski-sin-in) iki kat-ın-a çık-mış-tı.
Suddenly everything was twice the (old) price.
11.5.4 Quantifying adjectives
A special way of expressing a quantity in Turkish is based on the suffix –lIk. This suffix
expresses notions such as ‘in the value of / in the size of / for the duration of ’, and ‘in the
age of ’. Other interpretations are possible as well, depending on the noun ending in –lIk.
See also sections 31.1.3, 31.2.5, 31.2.6, and 31.9. By way of an introduction, here are a few
common examples of usage:
elli lira-lık benzin for fifty liras’ worth of petrol

iki kişi-lik bir oda a room for two persons
elli-lik bir banknot a bank note of fifty
iki kilo-luk bir şey something weighing two kilos
dört yüz sayfa-lık bir kitap a book of 400 pages
yetmiş-lik bir rakı a seventy-centilitre bottle of raki
üç saat-lik bir seyahat a three hours’ journey
altı ay-lık bir süre a period of six months
11.6 Fractions 141
bir gün-lük bir iş a day’s work

iki hafta-lık bir tatil a two weeks’ holiday
üç hafta-lık bir köpek yavru-su a three-weeks-old puppy
seksen-lik bir karı koca a couple in their eighties
11.6 Fractions
As has been indicated in section 11.1.1, for the notion of ‘half ’ there are two expressions in
Turkish: yarım ‘a half ’ and X buçuk ‘and a half ’. The word yarım is an adjective and is used
in expressions such as:
yarım ekmek half a (loaf of) bread

yarım metre half a metre
The word buçuk is used in combination with cardinal numbers and in temporal expres-
sions, but ‘half of something’ is expressed with yarı:
bir buçuk ekmek one and a half (loaves of) bread

iki buçuk metre two and a half metres
ekmeğ-in yarı-sı half of the bread
gece yarı-sı midnight
The word yarı ‘half ’ is also used as an adverb, as in:
Uşak yarı anla-dı, yarı anla-ma-dı.

The servant understood half, half he did not understand.
Yarı pişmiş et ye-mek sağlığ-a zararlı ol-abil-ir.
Eating underdone (half-cooked) meat may be harmful to one’s health.
The word çeyrek means ‘quarter’, as in:
çeyrek ekmek a quarter (of a loaf of) bread

üç çeyrek asır three quarters of a century
The words yarım, buçuk and çeyrek are also used in temporal expressions (see section 12.1.1):
Saat yarım. It is half past twelve.

Saat bir buçuk. It is half past one.
Üç-e çeyrek var. It is a quarter to three.
Bir-i çeyrek geç-iyor. It is a quarter past one.
Other fractions are formed according to the model ‘this out of that’, as in:
üç-te bir one out of three; a third

üç-te iki two out of three; two thirds
beş-te üç three out of five; three fifths

on-da yedi seven out of ten; seven tenths
yirmi-de onüç thirteen twentieths
yüz-de bir a hundredth; one per cent
yüz-de on ten hundredths; ten per cent
bin-de bir one in thousand; a thousandth
bin-de doksan dokuz ninety-nine per thousand
The word for ‘per cent’ is yüzde and ‘permillage’ is binde. Both precede their numerator.
Fransız şarab-ı ithalât-ı yüzde yirmi oran-ın-da düş-tü.

The import of French wine has sunk by twenty per cent.
Yetişme şans-lar-ı bin-de bir-e in-miş-ti.
The chance of getting there in time has dropped to one in a thousand.
A percentage may be contained in a genitive-possessive construction (see section 11.5.3).
Nüfus-un yüzde yetmiş-i şehir-ler-de yaşa-mak-ta-dır.

Seventy per cent of the population lives in (the) cities.
There is also a decimal way of expressing fractions and the words sıfır ‘zero, nought, nil’
and virgül ‘comma’ are indispensable in this system. Note that in Turkish a comma is used
to separate the base from the fraction.
0,01 sıfır virgül sıfır bir

13,75 onüç virgül yetmiş beş
The number sıfır is also used in the sense of ‘none’:
sıfır zam no price increase (at all)

sıfır puan nil points; no points
11.7 Partitive constructions *
Whereas fractions are usually related to sheer percentages, partitive constructions (also
known as part-whole constructions) express the notion of ‘X out of Y’, in which X (the part)
and Y (the whole) are quantities. This notion can be expressed in several ways in Turkish:
the ‘part’ can be expressed not only by a number (five out of ten) but also by a noun denot-
ing some quantity (two glasses of that wine), and in other types of expression the ‘whole’
can be left out if its referent is known (one member (of the group)).
11.7.1 A part is equal to one
One popular partitive construction is formed by having a plural noun follow by the suffix
for the ablative (–TEn) or genitive (–(n)In) and the word bir-i, which is in fact nothing else
but the cardinal number bir plus the possessive suffix –(s)I(n). The following examples are
in priciple equivalent.
en iyi öğrenci-ler-den bir-i one of the best students

çocuk-lar-ım-ın bir-i one of my children
The plural suffix does not occur in combination with a cardinal number:
dört firma-dan bir-i one of the four firms
Also, the word biri-si(n) (see section 7.5) can be applied in this type of construction:
Ben-im şart-lar-ım-dan biri-si bu-ydu.

This was one of my provisions.
The word tek ‘one, single’ occurs also in such partitive constructions, as in:
Ayakkabı-m-ın tek-i ayağ-ım-dan fırla-yıp çık-tı.

One shoe of mine flew off my foot.
Oda-da-ki-ler-den tek-i bile on-un yaz-dık-lar-ın-ın bir satır-ın-ı okumuş değil-ler-di.
Not even a single person of those who were in the room had read one line of what
she had written.
Yıl-lar sonra bile bu sözcük-ler-in bir tek-in-i unut-ma-mış-tı.
Even after years he had not forgotten a single one of these words.
Apart from cardinal numbers and the like, adjectives may occur which are modified by an
adverb. This can be shown by:
Bu dosya format-ların-dan en çok kullanıl-an-ı MP3 dosya format-ı.

The most used one of these file formats is the MP3 (file format).
İç-lerin-den en önemli-si 1868 yıl-ın-da İstanbul’da kurul-muş olan ve
Fransızca öğretim yap-an Galatasaray Lise-si ol-muştur.
The most important thereof is Galatasaray Lisesi, which gives education
in French and was founded in 1868 in Istanbul.
Herhalde söyle-dik-ler-in-den pek az-ın-ı anla-yabil-iyor-du.
She could probably understand very little of all the things he said.
A certain degree of vagueness can be expressed by a singular noun (X) in the genitive
followed by bir-i(n), which stands for the cardinal bir ‘one’ plus –(s)I(n). Thus, this
construction is the equivalent of ‘some X or other’, as it occurs in jokes and anecdotes.
When followed by a case marker (save the instrumental), the pronominal n occurs:
gün-ün bir-in-de on a day / one day

budala-nın bir-i some fool / some imbecile
Sen akılsız-ın bir-i-sin!
You are someone without brains!
Köylü-nün bir-i, eşeğ-in-e ot yükle-miş, kasaba-ya gid-iyor-du.

A farmer has loaded his donkey with hay and goes to town.
Adam-ın bir-i eczane-ye gid-ip ‘Siz-de sinek ilac-ı var mı?’ de-miş.
A man goes into a pharmacy and says: ‘Do you have something for flies?’
The same semantic effect is obtained by the word tek, meaning ‘single’, which is predomin
antly used in expressions with a negative connotation.
Sen, ben-im göz-üm-de hiç şüphesiz hödüğ-ün tek-i-sin.

In my eyes you are undoubtedly a boor.
Karı-sı alçağ-ın tek-i-dir.
His wife is surely a bitch.
Gerçekten de aptal-ın tek-i-ydi-m ben, besbelli!
I was really a fool, that’s obvious!
This way of characterizing people is extremely popular, even in literature, witness things
such as huysuz-un tek-i ‘miserable sod’; tembel-in tek-i ‘lazybones’; korkağ-ın tek-i ‘coward,
chicken’; deli-nin tek-i ‘lunatic, nutcase’; cıvığ-ın tek-i ‘silly person, wet blanket’.
11.7.2 A part is greater than one
The pattern shown in the previous secion is also applied for ‘two of the’, et cetera. This
requires, of course, the possessive suffix third person singular (see section 6.4) after the
cardinal number. For ‘two’ this gives iki-si and for ‘three’ it leads to üç-ü.
However, for iki-si there is a difference as to whether the ablative or genitive is being
used for the word preceding it. The ablative construction gives the meaning of ‘two of the’,
whereas the meaning shifts to ‘both’ for the genitive-possessive construction. Compare:
bun-lar-dan iki-si two of these

bun-lar-ın iki-si these two, the two of them here
on-lar-dan iki-si two of those
on-lar-ın iki-si those two, the two of them there
kız-lar-dan iki-si two of the girls
kız-lar-ın iki-si both girls, the two girls
Büyük kız-lar-ın-dan iki-si evlen-di.
Two of her oldest daughters are married.
Şeyma’nın kız-lar-ın-ın iki-si de üniversite-de oku-yor-lar-dı.
Also, both daughters of Şeyma were students at the university.
When the noun is preceded by a cardinal number or followed by a cardinal number greater
than two, the ablative and genitive-possessive constructions are completely synonymous.
Kavga ed-en iki kişi-den iki-si de her zaman hatalı-dır.

Of two quarrelling people there are always two persons at fault.
Onüç öğretmen-in iki-si hasta ol-du.
Two of the thirteen teachers were ill.
Her bin kişi-den üç-ün-de tip-1 diyabet hastalığ-ı var.
Out of every thousand people three have Type 1 diabetes.
Çocuk-lar-ın üç-ü kız, bir-i de erkek-ti.
Of the children, three were girls and one was a boy.
In contrast with the constructions above, in enumerations the ‘part’ precedes the ‘whole’:
Altı-sı çocuk oniki kişi hayat-ın-ı kaybet-ti.

Twelve people, six of whom were children, lost their lives.
In case of a multiple ‘part-whole’ construction olmak üzere is used:
Yirmi beş yaralı, iki-si çocuk üç-ü kadın olmak üzere ondört ölü var-dı.
There were twenty-five injured and fourteen casualties, of which two were children
and three women.
Üç-ü Japonyalı, yedi-si Türk olmak üzere on kişilik bir grup var.
There is a group of ten men, three of whom are Japanese and seven Turks.
The words fazla ‘more’ and az ‘less’ can also form partitive constructions:
Amerika’da yetişkin-ler-in üç-te bir-in-den fazla-sı şişman.

In America more than one out of three adults is obese (too fat).
Bun-un da hemen hemen yarı-sın-dan fazla-sın-ı kız-lar oluştur-uyor.
Of this (number) girls make up almost more than fifty per cent (half).
Et, yiyecek liste-lerin-in yüz-de 20’sin-den az-ın-ı oluştur-uyor.
Meat occurs in less than twenty per cent of (what is offered on) the menus.
11.7.3 Non-numerical part
Measure words and container words can take the place of cardinal numbers:
Bu çorba-dan bir porsiyon ver-sene!

Give me a portion of that soup!
Bun-dan tam üç tabak ye-di-m.
I have eaten three whole plates of this.
Ben-im bardağ-ım-a da sürahi-yle gel-en şarap-tan biraz dök-tü.
Also into my glass she poured a little of the wine, that passed by in a carafe.
11.7.4 Inferrable whole
In some cases only the ‘part’ and not the ‘whole’ is given, because the latter can be inferred
from the context or situation:
İki-si de genç-ti, yalnız bir-i ötekin-den oldukça küçük-tü.

Both were young; however, one (of them) was much smaller than the other.
Her bir-i ötekin-den daha korkunç.
Every single one is more frightful than the next.
Bir bacağ-ı ötekin-den kısa-ydı.
One leg (of it / him / her) was shorter than the other.
11.7.5 Indefinite quantifiers
Lastly, there are the indefinite constructions touched upon in section 8.2.6. In these
expressions quantities are specified by a word resembling an adjective and there are
genitive-possessive constructions with such words figuring as ‘head’. Compare:
az insan few people

çok az insan very few people
pek az insan extremely few people
çok insan a lot of people
pek çok insan an awful lot of people
birçok insan very many people
birkaç insan a few / couple of people
bazı insan-lar some people
tüm insan-lar all people
çoğu insan-lar most people
insan-lar-ın birçoğ-u very many people
insan-lar-ın birkaç-ı a few / couple of people
insan-lar-ın bazı-lar-ı some people
insan-lar-ın tüm-ü / hepsi all people
insan-lar-ın (pek) çoğ-u most people
Usage of the genitive-possessive construction implies contextually known referents.
11.8 On age
The final two examples of section 11.5.4 make clear that the suffix –lIk can be used in expres-
sions of age. A number of different types of application must be distinguished. First, the
combination of a cardinal number and a noun denoting a period (i.e. gün ‘day’, hafta ‘week’,
ay ‘month’, yıl / sene ‘year’, asır / yüzyıl ‘century’) leads to an expression of age. Examples are:
11.8 On age 147
Üç hafta-lık bir köpek yavru-su var.

She has a three-week- old puppy.
İlkönce 620 yıl-lık bir ağaç kes-ti-ler.
First of all they felled a 620-year-old tree.
Mağara-da 2000 yıl-lık bir amfora bul-du-lar.
In the cave they found a 2,000-year-old amphora.
Ara-ların-da yarım asır-lık düşmanlık var-dı.
Between them was an enmity half a century old.
With the suffix –lIk a somewhat vaguer indication of age can be given by attaching the
suffix to a cardinal number which denotes a multiple of ten, as in:
otuz-luk bir kadın a woman in her thirties

altmış-lık bir adam a sixty-year-old man / a sexagenarian
kırk-lık bir kız a girl in her forties
seksen-lik bir karı koca an octogenarian couple
Such constructions are different from those with X yıllık, where X stands for numbers
other than multiples of ten. In the latter type of construction duration and not age is the
key notion.
Ayşe ben-im yirmi yıllık arkadaş-ım.

I have been friends with Ayşe for twenty years.
Cahit on-un Erkek Lise-si’nden yetmiş beş yıllık arkadaş-ı.
Cahit and he have been friends for seventy-five years, since the boys’ secondary school.
Exact age is expressed by a possessive suffix plus locative after a cardinal number.
O zaman onbeş-in-de-yken . . .
As he was fifteen years of age at that time . . .
Çünkü artık otuz sekiz-im-de-ydi-m.
Because I was already thirty-eight.
Şimdi kırk yedi-n-de-sin.
You are forty-seven now.
Yirmi-sin-de yakışıklı, otuz-un-da güçlü, kırk-ın-da zengin ol-ma-yan
hiçbir zaman yakışıklı, güçlü ve zengin ol-ama-z.
Someone who isn’t handsome when he’s twenty, strong when he’s thirty,
and rich when he’s forty, will never be handsome, strong, and rich.
Daha kırk-ın-a gel-me-di-n!
Peygamber-imiz altmış-ın-da yeniden evlen-me-di mi?
You are not even forty!
Didn’t our prophet get married again at the age of sixty?
When the age of people is compared the word yaş ‘age’ is used. The standard of comparison
is expressed in the ablative, as in the following examples:
Nuri ben-den iki yaş büyük, Yasemin bir yaş küçük-tü.

Nuri was two year older than me, Yasemin one year younger.
Koca-sın-dan onbeş yaş kadar küçük-tür.
She surely is some fifteen years younger than her husband.
Furthermore, there are constructions based on yaş ‘age’ followed by a possessive suffix plus
locative case marker. There are three subtypes. First, there is a simple type of expression,
based on the singular form X yaş-ı(n). This can be exemplified by:
Kaç yaş-ın-da? Kırk yaş-ın-da mı? Elli-sin-de mi? Bil-in-me-z.

How old is she? Is she forty? Fifty? No one knows.
Baba-sı şu anda seksen beş yaş-ın-da.
At the moment his father is eighty-five years old.
Kırk yaş-ın-a gir-ince yirmi yaş-ın-da bir parça-yla kaç-tı.
When he turned forty he ran off with a twenty-year-old ‘nice bit of skirt’.
Secondly, the notions ‘around X / about X / X-ish / X or thereabouts / X or so’ are expressed
by the plural form X yaş-ları(n) plus a case marker, possibly ‘supported’ by appropriate
adverbs or numbers.
Baba-sı şu anda seksen beş yaş-ların-da.

His father is now eighty-five or so.
Elli yaş-lar-ın-da falan ol-malı.
She must be around fifty.
Çocuk-lar-ım 1960’lar-ın son-u 1970’ler-in baş-ın-da 8-10 yaş-lar-ın-da-ydı-lar.
In the late sixties and early seventies my children were nine years old or so.
Altmış yaş-ların-a gir-diğ-i zaman hastalan-dı, yatağ-a düş-tü.
When he was sixty or so, he fell ill and got bedridden.
Thirdly, a number of word combinations clearly show that yaşlarında as a whole behaves
like a + space postposition. Besides expressions such as orta yaşlarında ‘middle-aged’, daha
olgun yaşlarında ‘at a ripe age’, genç yaşlarında ‘at an early age’, okul yaşlarında ‘at school age’,
küçük yaşların-dan beri ‘ever since childhood’, and çocuk yaşlarında-yken ‘as a child / in
childhood’, the following free formations also support the idea that yaşlarında has much in
common with postpositions:
Fatma yaşlarında bir kadın-la nişanlan-dı.

He is engaged to a woman of Fatma’s age.
Kadın-ın dayı-m yaşlarında-ki oğl-u müzik dinle-me-ye kalk-tı.
The woman’s son, who was the same age as my uncle, began to listen to the music.
11.8 On age 149
The occurrence of –ki (see section 8.6) reveals that the fragment in question can be
regarded as an adjectival phrase. Compare the corresponding translation in the following
example:
O yıl Fatma otuz üç yaşlarında-ki Ragıp Bey’le evlen-di.

That year Fatma got married to the 33-year-old Mr Ragip.
Lastly, there is a construction in which the fourfold suffix –lI (for an exhaustive treatment,
see section 31.1.2) is placed after a cardinal number. This is then followed by yaş-lar plus
possessive + case marker. The whole expresses the same shade of meaning as the suffix –lIk
mentioned in the beginning of section 11.8 (see also section 31.1.3).
O zaman seksen-li yaş-lar-ım-da-ydı-m.

I was in my eighties then.
Yirmi-li yaş-lar-ın-ın son-un-da-sın.
You are in your late twenties.
Otuz-lu yaş-lar-ın-a doğru artık ciddi bir yazar ol-ma-ya karar ver-di.
He decided to become an important author before his thirtieth.
Kırk-lı yaş-lar-ın-ın baş-lar-ın-da, esmer bir kadın-dı.
She was a swarthy woman somewhere in her early forties.
12
Times and dates
A thorough treatment of adverbial phrases should include expressions of time and data.
It is for that reason that this chapter starts out with the clock in section 12.1. Next are
notions related to periods such as days, months, years, and centuries, whether or not
combined with expressions specifying the beginning, middle, or end of some period
(section 12.2). Other notions in the scope of the current topic are next and last, after and
before, names of the days, months, seasons, and the formulation of dates (sections 12.3 and
12.4). Not surprisingly, many of these forms can be combined to make larger units and a
peculiarity is that certain combinations are exclusively formed by compounding
(section 12.5). Sections 12.6 and 12.7 are on the suffix –ki(n). Quite similarly to genitive
and locative phrases, phrases based on a temporal noun can also take this suffix. The final
section discusses a property that –ki(n) shares with the possessive space + – (s)I(n), namely
anaphoric and cataphoric reference.
12.1 The clock
Telling the time is not possible without knowledge of numbers—although just a limited
number of them is sufficient for this purpose. This explains the relative order of this chap-
ter. The Turkish clock is not very complicated, but there are two questions that should not
be confused: What time is it? (see section 12.1.1) and At what time? (see section 12.2.2).
12.1.1 The basics
The question What time is it? can be asked and answered as follows:
Saat kaç? What time is it?

Saat-in(iz) kaç? What time does your watch show?
And telling the time is equally simple:
Saat yarım. It is half past twelve.

Saat bir. It is one o’clock.
Saat iki. It is two o’clock.
Saat onüç. It is one o’clock in the afternoon.
Saat yirmi iki. It is ten o’clock in the evening.
Hemen hemen saat beş. It is almost five o’clock.
Tam saat üç. It is exactly three o’clock.
Saat dörd-e gel-iyor. It is getting towards four.
Saat dokuz ol-muş / ol-du. It is already nine o’clock.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
12.1 The clock 151
For the half hours the word buçuk ‘and a half ’ is used:
Saat bir buçuk. It is half past one.

Saat beş buçuk. It is half (past) five.
Tam saat dört buçuk. It is exactly half past four.
Half- and quarter-hours go as follows:
(Saat) bir-e on (dakika) var. It is ten (minutes) to one.

(Saat) bir-e çeyrek var. It is a quarter to one.
(Saat) bir-e yirmi beş var. It is twenty-five to one.
(Saat) bir-i on (dakika) geç-iyor. It is ten (minutes) past one.
(Saat) bir-i çeyrek geç-iyor. It is a quarter past one.
(Saat) bir-i yirmi beş geç-iyor. It is twenty-five past one.
12.1.2 Location in time
The question word ‘When?’ is Ne zaman? and ‘At what time?’ is expressed as Saat kaç-ta?
The temporal phrase gets the locative:
Ne zaman? When?
Saat kaç-ta? At what time?
Saat yarım-da. At half past twelve.
Saat bir-de. At one o’clock.
Saat iki-de. At two o’clock.
Saat onüç-te. At one o’clock in the afternoon.
Saat yirmi iki-de. At ten o’clock in the evening.
Tam saat üç-te. At three o’clock sharp.
Saat bir buçuk-ta. At half past one.
Saat beş buçuk-ta. At half past five.
Tam saat dört buçuk-ta. At half past four sharp.
The words kala and geçe are used in a temporal phrase which indicates a moment between
the whole and half-hour.
(Saat) dörd-e on (dakika) kala. At ten (minutes) to four.

(Saat) dörd-e çeyrek kala. At a quarter to four.
(Saat) dörd-e yirmi beş kala. At twenty-five to four.
(Saat) dörd-ü on (dakika) geçe. At ten (minutes) past four.
(Saat) dörd-ü çeyrek geçe. At a quarter past four.
(Saat) dörd-ü yirmi beş geçe. At twenty-five past four.
Specifications for the moment of the day are possible with sabah ‘morning’, öğle ‘noon’,
akşam ‘afternoon, early evening’, and gece ‘night’. Such expressions may serve as answers to
Saat kaç? ‘What time is it?’ and Saat kaç-ta? ‘At what time? / When?’
152 Times and dates
Saat öğle-den sonra dört-tü. It was four o’clock in the afternoon.

Sabah saat beş-e gel-iyor-du. It was towards five in the morning.
Gece saat iki-ye doğru dön-dü. He returned by two in the night.
Akşam saat yedi-den sonra gel-di. She came in the evening after seven o’clock.
Less accurate indications of time can be rendered by using the plural suffix in an expression
for time, as in the following example.
Gece saat oniki-ler-e kadar yemek ye-n-iyor, üç-ler-e kadar otur-ul-uyor-du.

They were eating until about midnight and they were sitting up till three o’clock.
Bugünlerde, nadiren gece yarı-sın-dan önce gel-ir,
bazen de sabah-ın beş-ler-in-e kadar dışarıda kal-ır-dı.
Recently he rarely came before midnight,
and sometimes he stayed outside until towards five o’clock in the morning.
12.2 Days, months, years, centuries
There is a very large number of expressions in which words figure denoting a period. These
expressions are all used as adverbial phrases and they vary in complexity from ‘single word’
and ‘simple noun phrase’ to derivation, compound construction, and genitive-possessive
construction.
12.2.1 Temporal expressions
In this and following sections words and word groups will be presented that can be used as
adverbial phrases expressing time. Related words and phrases are grouped together, so that
no further explanation will be necessary.
gün day
iş gün-ler-i (on) work days
bayram gün-ler-i (on) holidays
sabah morning
akşam evening
gece night
bu sabah this morning
bu akşam this evening
bu gece tonight
sabah-leyin in the morning
akşam-leyin in the evening
gece-leyin at night
sabah-ları in the morning
akşam-ları in the evening
gece-leri at night
12.2 Days, months, years, centuries 153
öğle noon, midday

öğleyin / öğlende around noon
öğle-den önce before noon, in the morning
öğle-den sonra after noon, in the afternoon
öğle-den öncesi / sonrası the period before noon
öğle-den önce-leri in the morning
öğle-den sonra-ları in the afternoon
bugün today
dün yesterday
dün akşam yesterday evening
önceki gün the day before yesterday
geçen gün three days ago
yarın (akşam) tomorrow (evening)
öbür gün the day after tomorrow
gündüz in daytime
gece in the night
gece gündüz day and night
bir gün / gece önceden a day / night before
hafta week
ay month
yıl / sene year
yüzyıl / asır century
bu hafta this week
bu ay this month
bu yıl / sene this year
bu yüzyıl / asır this century
The notions beginning, middle, and end combine with, for instance, asır ‘century’ as follows:
yirminci asr-ın baş-ın-da in the beginning of the twentieth century

yirminci asr-ın baş-lar-ın-da in the first years of the twentieth century
yirminci asr-ın orta-sın-da mid-twentieth century
yirminci asr-ın orta-lar-ın-da in the middle period of the twentieth century
yirminci asr-ın son-un-da at the end of the twentieth century
yirminci asr-ın son-lar-ın-da in the final years of the twentieth century
With, for instance, yüzyıl ‘century’ the notions yarı ‘half ’ and çeyrek ‘quarter’ are combined
as follows:
onuncu yüzyıl-ın ilk yarı-sın-da in the first half of the tenth century
onuncu yüzyıl-ın son yarı-sın-da in the second half of the tenth century
10. yüzyıl-ın ilk çeyreğ-in-de in the first quarter of the tenth century
10. yüzyıl-ın ikinci çeyreğ-in-de in the second quarter of the tenth century
10. yüzyıl-ın üçüncü çeyreğ-in-de in the third quarter of the tenth century
10. yüzyıl-ın son çeyreğ-in-de in the last quarter of the tenth century
154 Times and dates
12.2.2 Sequence
The notions of next and last are expressed by geçen and gelecek.
geçen / gelecek hafta last / next week

ön-ümüz-de-ki hafta next week
geçen / gelecek ay last / next month
geçen yıl / sene last year
gelecek yıl / sene next year
The equivalents of after and ago are sonra and önce.
bir hafta önce a week ago

iki hafta önce two weeks ago
üç hafta sonra after three weeks, in three weeks
beş yıl / sene sonra after five years, in five years
12.2.3 Calendar
The days of the week and the months each have a name which is always written with a
capital letter.
Pazar gün-ü Sunday

Pazartesi gün-ü Monday
Salı gün-ü Tuesday
Çarşamba gün-ü Wednesday
Perşembe gün-ü Thursday
Cuma gün-ü Friday
Cumartesi gün-ü Saturday
Pazar gün-leri on Sundays
Pazartesi gün-leri on Mondays
Salı gün-leri on Tuesdays
Çarşamba gün-leri on Wednesdays
Perşembe gün-leri on Thursdays
Cuma ve Cumartesi gün-leri on Fridays and Saturdays
Ocak ay-ı January
Şubat ay-ı February
Mart ay-ı March
Nisan ay-ı April
Mayıs ay-ı May
Haziran ay-ı June
Temmuz ay-ı July
Ağustos ay-ı August
Eylül ay-ı September
Ekim ay-ı October
Kasım ay-ı November
Aralık ay-ı December
12.3 Dates 155
When a case marker follows the pronominal n is required:
bir Salı gün-ün-de on a Tuesday

Cuma gün-ler-in-de on Fridays
Haziran ay-ın-da in (the month of) June
Nisan baş-ın-da/ son-un-da in the beginning / at the end of April
12.2.4 Seasons
Names of seasons are written with a small letter:
ilkbahar spring
yaz summer
sonbahar / güz autumn
kış winter
ilkbahar-da in spring
yaz-da in summer
sonbahar-da in autumn
kış-ta in winter
yazın (!.) in (every) summer
kışın (!.) in (every) winter
baharın (.!.) in (every) the spring
güzün (!.) in (every) autumn
Note that these words are ancient formations resembling the genitive forms. Compare the
adverbial usage of baharın ‘in the spring’ with the genitive bahar-ın ‘of the spring’ .
Baharın ve güzün onbin-lerce kuş güney-e göç ed-er.

In spring and autumn tens of thousands of birds migrate to the south.
Kırlangıç-lar bahar-ın müjdeci-si-dir.
Swallows are the heralds of spring.
12.3 Dates
Ocak ay-ın-da in January

22 Ocak ay-ın-da on the 22nd January
24 Kasım-da on the 24th November
1999’da in 1999
1973 yıl-ı / sene-si the year 1973
1963 yıl-ın-da / sene-sin-de in the year 1963
19. yüzyıl / asır the nineteenth century
19. yüzyıl-da / asır-da in the nineteenth century
Historical dates are expressed by M.Ö. (milat-tan önce ‘bc’) and M.S. (milat-tan sonra ‘ad’),
as well as by means of İ.Ö (İsa’dan önce ‘bc’) and İ.S (İsa’dan sonra ‘ad’):
156 Times and dates
M.Ö. 1800 yıl-ların-da in the 19th century bc

M.S. VII.-IX. yüzyıl-lar-da in the 7th–9th centuries ad
İ.S. 340 yıl-ın-dan kalma dating back to the year ad 340
İ.Ö. 190 yıl-ın-dan sonra after the year 190 bc
İ.S. 800 yıl-ın-dan önce before the year ad 800
12.4 Special forms
Perşembe gün-ü Thursday

Cuma gün-ler-i on Fridays
Haziran gün-ler-i (on) days in June
dünya şampiyona-sı gün-ler-i (on) days during the world championship
yaz gün-ler-i summer days
7 Mayıs 1988 gün-ü 7 May 1988
22-23 Temmuz gün-ler-i 22 and 23 July
Pazartesi sabah-ı (on) Monday morning
bir Temmuz sabah-ı (on) a morning in July
ilkbahar sabah-ı (on) a spring morning
soğuk bir Şubat akşam-ı (on) a cold evening in February
Eylül gece-ler-i September evenings
kış gece-ler-i winter evenings
9-10-1928 gece-si(nde) (in) the night of 9–10–1928
Yılbaşı gece-si New Year ‘s Eve
Noel gece-si Christmas Eve
Mart ay-ı the month of March
Şubat ay-lar-ın-da always in February
Haziran-Temmuz ay-lar-ı the months June and July
kış ay-lar-ı winter months
1996 sene-sin-de in the year 1996
1993–1998 yıl-lar-ı the years 1993 to 1998
1998 ve 2004 yıl-lar-ı ara-sın-da between (the years) 1998 and 2004
1950’li yıl-lar-da in the fifties
1990’lar-da in the nineties
12.5 Combinations
This section explains how shorter stretches of time can be pinpointed in the background of a
larger period, for instance It is four o’clock in the night and Today is Thursday, the first of June.
12.5.1 Daily periods and the clock
In section 12.1 it was explained how a simple answer can be given to the question Saat kaç?
‘What is the time?’ Now, when it needs to be specified whether the time in the answer is in
the morning, afternoon, evening, or night, a genitive-possessive construction is applied
according to the model ‘the hour is morning-gen two-poss3s’.
12.5 Combinations 157
Saat sabah-ın iki-si-ydi.

It was two o’clock in the morning.
Şimdi saat akşam-ın dörd-ü ol-muş.
It had just turned four in the afternoon.
Saat akşam-ın altı-sın-ı biraz geç-iyor-du.
It was shortly after six in the afternoon / evening.
Saat gece-nin dörd-ün-ü geç-miş-ti.
It was after four at night.
Saat gece-nin on buçuğ-u ol-malı-ydı.
It must have been half past ten in the evening.
However, in answer to questions such as Ne zaman? ‘When?’ or Saat kaç-ta? ‘At what time?’,
a genitive-possessive construction is applied as well: but this time it is one which includes
the word saat.
Semra sabah-ın saat sekiz buçuğ-un-da balıkçı dükkan-ın-da-ydı.

Semra was at the fishmonger’s at half past eight in the morning.
Sabah-ın saat üç-ün-e kadar bekle-di-m.
I was waiting until three o’clock in the morning.
Sanık sabah-ın saat beş-in-de hâlâ Bayan Cansen’in ev-in-de-ydi.
The suspect was, at five in the morning, still in the house of Mrs Cansen.
On-u ev-in-de, ancak akşam-ın saat sekiz-in-de bul-du-m.
I found him in his home, only at eight in the evening.
Postacı, öğle-den sonra saat iki-yle beş ara-sın-da gel-ir.
The postman (always) comes between two and five in the afternoon.
Doktor, sabah-ın saat iki-si-yle beş ara-sın-da gel-di.
The doctor came between two and five in the morning.
Sometimes the word saat is left out, as in: sabah-ın iki-sin-de ‘at two (o’clock) in the morn-
ing’, gece-nin onbir-in-de ‘at eleven in the night’, and also in:
Daha akşam-ın dörd-ün-de, lâmba-yı yak-mak gerek-iyor-du.

It was only four in the afternoon and it was necessary to light the lamp.
12.5.2 Today’s day
The question ‘Which day is today?’ is asked as Bugün günlerden ne?
Bugün günlerden Cumartesi.

Today is Saturday.
Günlerden 13 Haziran Cuma-ydı.
It was Friday the thirteenth of June.
158 Times and dates
Günlerden bir Pazar sabah-ı, pastacı Salih çırağ-ın-ı yan-ın-a çağır-dı.

On a Sunday morning pastrycook Salih put his apprentice on the carpet.
Günlerden bir gün iç-imiz-den bir-i şöyle söyledi . . .
One day someone from among us said it this way . . .
Similar expressions are in use for ay ‘month’ and mevsim ‘season’:
Bugün ay-lar-dan, gün-ler-den ne?

What month and day is it today?
Ay-lar-dan Haziran-dı, ama ora-da kış mevsim-i-ydi.
It was June, but over there it was winter.
Mevsim-ler-den de ilkbahar-dı o sıra.
And it was springtime, then.
12.5.3 Today’s date
Today’s date is questioned by means of ay-ın kaç-ı ‘the how many-eth of the month’.
Bugün ay-ın kaç-ı? Şey, Ekim’in onaltı-sı!

What date is today? Whatsit, October sixteenth!
Ay-ın kaç-ı-ydı? – Yirmi yedi-si-ydi.
What was the date? It was the twenty-seventh.
On the other hand, the word tarih, too, is frequently used: it means not only ‘date’ but also
‘history’, as in kent-in tarih-i ‘history of the city’. In the sense of ‘date’ it is used as in:
Hangi tarih-i uygun gör-ür-sünüz, yani hangi tarih-ler uy-mu-yor?

What date do you think is suitable, in other words, what dates do not match?
Bugün-ün tarih-in-i de at-ın.
And put today’s date there as well.
Gazete-nin baş sayfa-sın-ı çevir-di, gün-ün tarih-in-e bak-tı.
She turned to the front page of the newspaper and looked at the date.
Pul hangi tarih-te damgala-n-mış?
On what date has this stamp been postmarked?
The word hangi ‘which’ can be found in combinations with saat ‘hour’, as in:
Gün-ün hangi saat-i ol-duğ-un-u bil-iyor mu-sun? diye sor-du.

She asked ‘Do you know what hour / time of the day it is / was?’
Gece-nin bil-me-m hangi saat-in-de-ydi.
It was at I knew not what hour of the evening / night.
12.6 Temporal phrase + –ki(n) 159
Of course, expressions such as bu yıl-ın hangi mevsim-in-de ‘in what season of that year’
and 1963 yıl-ın-ın hangi ay-ın-da ‘in what month in 1963’ are not uncommon.
12.6 Temporal phrase + –ki(n)
In section 7.8 it was stated that a noun phrase with a genitive case marker can be expanded
by the suffix –ki(n), which turns it into a kind of noun, for instance sen-in-ki ‘yours’ and
Hasan’ın-ki ‘the one of Hasan; Hasan’s’.
In contrast, a noun phrase in the locative (see section 8.6) produces with this suffix a
kind of adjective, which can, of course, be used independently as well, as in: mutfak-ta-ki
köpek ‘the dog in the kitchen’ and Bahçe-de-kin-i al! ‘Take the one in the garden!’. The same
applies to temporal phrases. All non-compositional temporal words in section 12.2.1 can be
expanded by –ki(n). Thus:
bu yıl-ki proje this year’s project

o sene-ki kampanya the campaign in that year
bu ay-ki köşe-miz-de in our column of this month
geçen ay-ki toplantı last month’s meeting
geçen gece-ki konser the concert of the night before
o akşam-ki parti-de at the party that evening
bu sabah-ki konuşma-lar the talks this morning
bu hafta-ki sayı-mız-da in our issue this week
ertesi sabah-ki tren-le by train a day after
yarın-ki gazete-ler-de in tomorrow’s newspapers
Pazar akşam-ki şarkı the song of Sunday evening
Also, sonra and önce can be expanded by –ki (see section 13.4) and used as an adjective.
sonra-ki bir görüşme için for a subsequent interview

bir önce-ki toplantı-da at an earlier / previous meeting
This type of ki-construction, too, can be used independently, and it takes the plural and
case suffixes. Here is a nice selection:
Dün gece-kin-e gid-e-lim.

Let’s go to the one (pub, restaurant, cinema, et cetera) from last night.
On-dan sonra-ki-ler tamamen profesyonel değil-ler-di.
Those who came after that were not entirely professional.
In two temporal nouns the suffix –ki(n) has become vowel-harmonic: dün-kü gazete ‘yes-
terday’s newspaper’, bugün-kü TV program-ı ‘today’s TV-programme’.
Independently used as nouns, such structures in –ki(n) take the plural and case suffixes.
Dün-kün-ü biz ye-di-k.

It is us who ate that from yesterday.
160 Times and dates
Yeni bir olay mı, yoksa dün-kün-ün devam-ı mı?

Is it a new event, or a continuation of yesterday’s (event)?
Yarın tut-acağ-ım balık bugün-kün-den büyük ol-acak.
The fish I will catch tomorrow will be bigger than today’s.
Dün yaşa-yan-lar bugün ol-an-lar-ı bil-eme-z-ler,
ama bugün yaşa-yan-lar dün ol-an-lar-ı bil-ir-ler
ve yarın, bugün-kü-ler dün-kü-ler gibi ol-acak-lar-dır.
Those who lived yesterday cannot know what is happening today,
but those who live today can know what happened yesterday,
and tomorrow those of today will be like those of yesterday.
Also the usage of the following temporal expressions is typical:
Son dönem-ler-de her zaman-kin-den daha fazla tartış-ıl-ıyor.

Lately there is much more discussion than ever.
Bugün yaşlan-mış ol-an insan-ın bir zaman-lar-ki o yeni doğ-muş bebek ile
aynı kişi ol-duğ-un-dan emin ol-mak pek mümkün değil-dir.
It is not really possible to be sure that the man who now has recently come of age
is the same person as that newborn baby of one time.
Osmanlı şiir-i şimdi-kin-den daha fazla özgürlükçü.
Ottoman poetry is advocating freedom much more than that of today.
Gelecek sene-ki Türkiye bu sene-kin-den daha iyi ve beş sene sonra-ki Türkiye
bugün-kü Türkiye’den çok daha iyi ol-acak-tır.
Turkey of next year will be better than that of this year and after five years Turkey
will be much better than today’s Turkey.
Note that indications of time on the clock or calendar (hours, data, years, et cetera) when
used adjectivally are based on the locative construction (see section 8.6).
Saat 20.00’de-ki tren-le gel-di-m.

I came by the eight o’clock train.
10 Ekim’de-ki olay-lar-ı hatırla-mı-yor mu-sun?
Don’t you remember the events of 10 October?
1806 yıl-ın-da-ki savaş sonra-sın-da prens Danimarka’ya kaç-tı.
After the war of 1806 the prince fled to Denmark.
İngiliz-ler çekil-ince Hint aşağı yukarı onbirinci asır-da-ki durum-un-a dön-dü.
As the English withdrew, India returned more or less to its state of the eleventh century.
12.7 More on –ki(n)
The constructions with –ki(n) discussed in sections 7.8, 8.6, and 12.6 can all be used fully
independently, as if they were nouns. Only those based on a locative (section 8.6) or temporal
phrase (section 12.6) can be applied as an adjective, as in:
12.7 More on –ki(n) 161
Arka taraf-lar-da-ki bir masa-ya otur-du-m.

I sat down at a table in the rear quarters.
Ön-üm-de-ki masa-da, buruşuk beş milyon liralık banknot dur-uyor-du.
On the table in front of me lay the crumpled five-million-lira note.
Geçen hafta-ki olay-ı hatırla-ma-dı.
She didn’t remember last week’s incident.
When it is used independently, there are considerable differences as regards the reference
function of the suffix –ki(n). In many cases this element makes reference to a known entity,
the antecedent, which has been mentioned or otherwise pointed at in the preceding con-
versation. In the following examples it is clear what the element –ki(n) refers to, because
the antecedent is explicitly present in the sentence.
Başka-ların-ın model-in-i kullan-ıyor-uz ya, biz-im-kin-i neden kullan-ma-ya-lım?

We are using the model of others, why don’t we use ours?
Yüz-ü neredeyse anne-m-in-ki kadar beyaz.
Her face is almost as white as my mother’s.
Sonra, burn-u tıpatıp bu iki-sin-in-kin-e benze-yen bir üçüncü kişi daha gel-di.
Later, a third person came whose nose looked exactly like the (nose) of these two.
In other cases only the context or situation provides a possible referent, as can be observed
in all three types of ki-construction.
Bir kız-ın-kin-i ilk kez o kadar yakın-dan gör-dü-m. (genitive)

I saw a girl’s (X) for the first time from so close by.
İç-in-de-kin-i çıkar-ıp kendi-m yi-yeceğ-im. (locative)
I will take out what is in it and eat it myself.
Bu akşam-kin-i de beraber seyred-er-iz. (temporal)
Tonight’s (X) we see together.
There are, of course, circumstances in which the referent is not given by context or situ
ation; in such cases a clue may be found in the sentence, or otherwise some umbrella term
or hypernym can be thought up to resolve the puzzle. Consider:
Onlar-ın-ki bir aşk evliliğ-i-ydi.

Theirs (their X) was a marriage arising out of love.
Siz-in-ki bir saplantı-dan farksız.
Yours (your X) is not different from an idée fixe.
In the first example the X stands for ‘marriage’, as can be derived from aşk evliliği ‘love mar-
riage’, and for the latter example one could argue that saplantı ‘obsession, idea, idée fixe’ falls
under an umbrella term which covers notions such as ‘idea, plan, thought’ and the like.
A number of adjectives derived from a verbal form (see section 32.6.5), particularly andırır
‘resembling’ (< andırmak ‘to remind one / resemble’) and benzer ‘resembling’ (< benzemek
‘to resemble’), can take an object containing the suffix –ki(n). Examples are:
162 Times and dates
Aydan, koca-sın-ın-kin-i andırır bir cıyaklama-yla uyan-dı.

Aydan woke up with a screech which resembled that of her husband.
Mahalle-ye de ardiye-ler-de-kin-i andırır bir koku yayıl-mış-tı.
Through the neighbourhood a smell spread reminding one of that of warehouses.
Ben de siz-in-kin-e benzer bir acı-yı yaşa-dı-m, Süreyya Hanım.
I too experienced a grief that resembles yours, Ms / Mrs Süreyya.
But also constructions based on a locative or temporal phrase are abundant:
O tuhaf düş-te-kin-e benzer bir durum-du bu.

This was a situation that was like the one in that strange dream.
Konsol-da, ATM terminal-ler-in-de-kin-e benzer bir tuş takım-ı var-dı.
On the console was a keyboard similar to the one at ATM terminals.
Bu sabah-kin-e benzer bir olay-ın yeniden yaşanıl-ama-yacağ-ı açık-tı.
It was obvious that one cannot go again through an incident like
that of this morning.
Lokanta-dan çık-tığ-ımız gece-kin-e benzer bir tedirginlik duy-muş-tu-m.
I felt a tension like the one I had on the night we left the restaurant.
An interesting observation can be made here; the referent is not to be found at the ‘left-
hand side’ of –ki(n), that is to say that the referent is known, but is to be found after the
adjective, as indicated by bold print.
Given these facts, one could say that the suffix –ki(n) functions as an anticipatory relator,
comparable to the anticipatory possessive, which will be discussed in sections 23.1.6 and
28.4. This type of reference is known in linguistics as cataphoric reference, as opposed to
anaphoric reference (to some antecedent).
Also in comparative phrases based on a temporal expression, the element –ki(n) is of
anticipatory nature, witness:
Tavan sabah-kin-den de kasvetli bir gri-ye dön-müş-tü.

The ceiling had become a more depressing grey than (the grey) in the morning.
Her akşam-kin-den birkaç bira fazla iç-ti-m de ondan.
I drank a few more beers than during other evenings, that’s why.
Baş-ı ateş gibi yan-ıyor, gece-kin-den daha sık öksür-üyor-du.
His head was like fire, and he coughed more often than in the night.
13
Postpositions
Postpositions play a very important role in the syntax of Turkish. These are words belonging
to the category of function words and quite unlike content words, they do not denote persons
or things. Postpositions are regarded as lexical items conveying some kind of abstract
meaning relevant for their complement. In this way they are comparable to prepositions of,
for instance, English. Postpositions, however, always come after the word they relate to and
most postpositions require the complement to take a fixed case marker, thereby excluding
the accusative. A postposition plus its complement is called a postpositional phrase and
it functions mostly as an adverbial phrase. There are various constructions of this kind
expressing spatial relations such as direction and location (section 13.1). Another small
group expresses temporal relations (section 13.2) such as beginning, duration, end, and also
excess, but what is more, a sizeable series of notions can be expressed by one particular
postposition only: instrument, company, means of transportation, quality, quantity, inclu-
sion, exclusion, difference, and the like (section 13.3). Section 13.4 is on the nominal and
adjectival properties of some postpositions.
13.1 Direction
The following postpositions express direction and require the dative marker:
İzmir’e doğru towards Izmir

ban-a doğru in my direction
İstanbul’a dek until Istanbul
Ankara’ya kadar until Ankara
bura-ya kadar until here
The postposition yana, which requires the ablative case marker, has several meanings: com-
bined with a noun or personal pronoun it expresses direction or location.
Baş-ın-ı ben-den yana çevir-di.

He turned his head in my direction.
Medrese-den yana olan avlu-da küçük bir çocuk düş-tü yer-e.
On the square next to the madrassa a small child has fallen.
However, combined with bu it forms the complex postposition bu yana ‘since, as of ’, which
requires the dative, as in:
1999 ’dan bu yana biz-de çalış-ıyor.

He has been working with us since 1999.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
164 Postpositions
On yıl-dan bu yana bura-da-yım.

I have been here for ten years.
Another meaning of yana is ‘to be for’ as opposed to ‘to be against’ (see section 35.1).
13.2 Time
Many temporal expressions, too, are formed by means of a postposition and a case marker.
The following examples denote duration and a certain limitation (see also section 13.1). To
the complement noun phrase the dative case marker is attached.
Bakalım, hafta-ya kadar belki problem-i çöz-er-im.

I wonder, maybe I can solve the problem within a week.
Ne zaman-a kadar kal-ıyor-sun?
Until when will you stay?
Gece saat yirmi iki-den sabah beş-e kadar çalış-tı-m.
I have worked from ten o’clock in the evening until five in the morning.
In the last example the ablative represents, as it were, a starting point. Also other post
positions are used this way. Compare:
çok-tan beri since long ago

1997 ’den bu yana since 1997
yarın-dan itibaren as of tomorrow
öğle-den sonra after 12.00 a.m., in the afternoon
kahvaltı-dan önce before breakfast
gel-me-den önce before coming
yat-ma-dan önce before going to bed
The latter four constructions can be specified for the time elapsed:
öğle-den iki saat sonra two hours after noon

savaş-tan iki yıl sonra two years after the war
ders-ten bir saat önce one hour before class
ders-ten biraz önce shortly before class
on-dan sonra after that, afterwards, then
on-dan biraz sonra a short while after that
The words sonra and önce used without a noun phrase expressing a starting point are also
used in the sense of ‘later’ and ‘earlier’ respectively.
önce earlier
daha önce yet earlier; much earlier
biraz önce just a while ago
13.2 Time 165
sonra later
daha sonra yet later; much later
biraz sonra shortly
And in combination with a word denoting a period, the words sonra and önce get the mean-
ing of ‘after’ and ‘ago’.
iki ay önce two months ago

beş yıl sonra after five years, five years later
hafta-larca önce weeks ago
sene-lerce sonra after years and years
kısa bir müddet sonra a short while later, after a short while
uzun bir zaman sonra after a long time; much much later
The concept of ‘in advance’ is expressed by means of the format temporal expression plus
–TEn önce, as in the following examples:
Siz-e telefon-da da söyle-di-m; dört hafta-dan önce vize al-ma-nız imkânsız.

I told you over the phone, you can’t get a visa four weeks in advance.
Doktor-lar üç ay-dan önce-ye randevu ver-mi-yor-lar-mış.
They say that doctors don’t give appointments further than three months in advance.
Attached to a temporal noun, the suffix –TIr (not to be confused with –TIr in section 24.7)
adds the meaning of ‘since’ with a strong emphasis on duration. In this way the result can
be compared to the postposition bu yana.
Birkaç gün-dür, belki de bir hafta-dır tıraş ol-ma-dı.

For a few days, maybe for a week he has not shaved.
Yaklaşık yedi ay-dır en yakın arkadaş-ı çok hasta.
For about seven months his best friend has been very ill.
Son ziyaret-imiz-den bu yana ne kadar boy at-mış-sınız!
How much you have grown since our last visit!
Bura-ya yerleş-tiğ-imiz-den bu yana çok üzgün ve mutsuz-du-m!
Since we came to live here I have been very sad and unhappy.
The notion of duration is also clearly expressed by the verbal suffix –(y)En combined with
–(y)E (dative) and dek / değin ‘until’ or kadar ‘until’:
Göz-den yit-en-e dek otobüs-ün ard-ın-dan bak-tı.

She watched the bus driving off until it went out of sight.
Çık-an-a kadar bekle-di-m on-u.
I waited until he came out.
Ben üç say-an-a dek karı-lar orta-dan kaybol-sun.
I count up to three and then the women must be gone.
166 Postpositions
Asansör zemin kat-a in-en-e dek konuş-ma-dı-k.

We didn’t speak until the lift had come to the ground floor.
The notion of more than or longer than in combination with an expression for duration is
expressed by aşkın, the sole postposition requiring the accusative for its complement.
Bu aile yüz yıl-ı aşkın bir süre-dir ticaret-le uğraş-mak-ta-dır.

This family has been engaged in commerce for a period of more than a hundred years.
Baba-sı otuz yıl-ı aşkın kamu hizmet-i gör-dü.
Her father did more than thirty years of public service.
Kabul, yarım saat-i aşkın sür-dü.
The reception lasted more than half an hour.
Also, quantities can be specified by the postposition aşkın:
Onbeş milyon-u aşkın nüfus-u-yla İstanbul’un en büyük ticaret merkez-i . . .

The largest trade centre of Istanbul with its population of over fifteen million, . . .
13.3 Other postpositions
The postposition gibi has many possibilities and this will be separately treated in sec-
tion 35.6. The other postpositions to be discussed in this chapter are used to produce
different adverbial phrases when used in combination with a noun phrase. In this way,
with ile ‘with’ expressions can be formed for instrument, company and means of transpor-
tation (see section 6.5.7) and with için ‘for’ adverbial phrases can be made expressing a
beneficiary.
Ordinary noun phrases do not get a case marker.
Ahmet ile with Ahmet

Hasan için for Hasan
Also quality and quantity can be specified by certain postpositions, for instance:
Semra gibi like Semra

Fransa kadar as big as France
Note that personal pronouns get the genitive for ile, için, gibi, and kadar.
on-un ile with her / him

sen-in için for you
ben-im gibi like me
sen-in kadar as tall as you
The demonstratives bu ‘this’ and o ‘that’ produce adverbs expressing a reason when com-
bined with için:
bunun için for this reason, therefore

onun için for that reason, therefore
13.3 Other postpositions 167
The notions of inclusive and exclusive are based on a postposition that does not require any
case marker
sen dahil including you

iyi niyet-ler hariç apart from good intentions
The ablative is used with başka ‘except / apart from’ and dolayı / ötürü ‘because of ’:
sen-den başka except you

futbol-dan başka except football
grev-den dolayı because of the strike
tadilat-tan dolayı due to renovation
büyük başarı-dan ötürü due to great success
bu neden-den ötürü for this reason
With bu ‘this’ and o ‘that’ this forms adverbials based on başka, dolayı, and ötürü:
bundan başka moreover, in addition

bundan dolayı because of this
bundan ötürü because of this
ondan başka besides, moreover
ondan dolayı because of that
ondan ötürü because of that
The notion of ‘other than, different from / except’ is also expressed by the postposition
gayri, which requires the ablative for the noun phrase or infinitive of a verb.
Bun-dan gayri her şey önem-in-i yitir-di.

Contrary to this/ Apart from this, everything has lost its importance.
Ara-ların-da Türkçe-den gayri bir dil-le konuş-tu-lar.
Among themselves they spoke a language other than Turkish.
Nil’in kaynağ-ın-dan gayri her şey-i gör-dü.
He has seen everything except the springs of the river Nile.
Allah sakla-sın de-mek-ten gayri el-imiz-den ne gel-ir?
What else can we do than say ‘May God protect us’?
An infinitive as in the latter sentence can also occur with başka:
Onlar-ın hikaye-lerin-i dinle-mek-ten başka yapacak çok iş-i var-dı.

He had much work to do apart from listening to their stories.
The postposition ziyade means ‘more this than that / rather such than so’ and ‘not so much
x as y’. Its complement takes the ablative. Some examples are:
Bu, toplum sağlığ-ın-a fayda-dan ziyade zarar getir-ir.

For public health this brings more harm than benefit.
Fakat bir doktor-dan ziyade bir artist-e benzi-yor-du.
But he resembled not so much a doctor as an artist.
168 Postpositions
The combination of daha (see section 8.4) and ziyade produces an adverbial phrase meaning
‘more / rather / all the more’.
Bir ay galiba, belki daha ziyade.

A month, I think, perhaps more (than that).
İş-ten hoşlan-ma-yan bir adam-dı. Daha ziyade uyu-ma-yı sev-er-di.
He was a man who didn’t like work. He loved sleeping all the more.
The dative is required for the following postpositions. Again, with some demonstratives an
adverbial phrase can be formed:
ban-a göre fit for me; in my opinion

on-a göre according to him / her
on-a göre fitting him / her
iş-in-e rağmen despite his work
Erol’a nispetle compared to Erol
önce-ki yıl-a kıyasla in comparison to the year before
yaşam-a dair bir fikir an idea concerning life
herhangi bir şey-e oranla in comparison to whatever
With demonstratives certain fixed expressions have come into existence:
buna göre in accordance with this

buna rağmen nonetheless
ona rağmen despite him / her; nonetheless
onlara oranla in relation to that / them
The postposition karşın is synonymous with rağmen, and both postpositions require the
dative case marker. The former should not be confused with the postposition karşı ‘towards /
to / for / opposite / against / contrary (to)’, which takes a dative complement as well, nor with
the noun karşı ‘other side’ which is also used as an adjective ‘opposite’ (see section 10.2).
The differences can be illustrated by the following.
Bil-iyor-sun, san-a karşı daima iyi ol-ma-ya çalış-tı-m.

You know, I have always tried to be good to you.
Final-in-de Hollanda Pakistan'a karşı oyna-yacak.
In the finals the Netherlands will play against Pakistan.
Bu kız-lar bun-a karşın / rağmen evlen-mek-le çok ilgilen-ir.
Nevertheless these girls are very much interested in getting married.
Her şey-e karşın / rağmen kal-malı-lar-dı biraz.
Despite everything they should have stayed a little longer.
For sentential complements of these postpositions, see section 35.5.

13.4 Some points of interest *
In sections 10.3 and 10.4 it was argued that the second word in, for instance, ev içinde
‘indoor(s)’ has much in common with a postposition. This can be opposed to the locative
phrase ev-in iç-in-de ‘in the house’, the second part of which is based on a ‘space’ noun. This
shift from noun to postposition has a mirror image: certain words, usually categorized by
grammarians as postpositions, show linguistic behaviour which has much in common with
that of nouns or adjectives.
13.4.1 Postposition or noun?
One aspect of the meaning of sonra and önce has been underexposed in their treatment in
section 13.2, this being that their status as postposition is in many a case doubtful. Only
when they are used in combination with a noun phrase that carries the ablative suffix do
they share structure and usage with other postpositions.
A peculiarity, however, is that both sonra and önce themselves can be modified by words
denoting a period. In this way, the grammatical behaviour of sonra and önce resembles that
of ordinary nouns preceded by an adjective.
That the items under scrutiny indeed exhibit nominal properties is corroborated by the
fact that they can in principle take case markers:
1637 ’den önce-nin Descartes’ı . . .

Descartes of before 1637 . . .
Koca-n öğle-den sonra-yı ben-im-le telefon-da geçir-di.
Your husband has spent the afternoon with me on the phone.
Toplantı bir gece sonra-ya ertele-n-di.
The meeting has been postponed until the evening after.
The forms önceden ‘first, in the beginning’ and sonradan ‘next, subsequently’ are lexical-
ized—they have become dictionary forms.
Furthermore, the nominal nature of sonra and önce is also shown by the fact that they
can take the possessive suffix –(s)I(n) and that they occur as the heads of nominal com-
pounds (see section 31.4). Their meaning shifts then to period. Typical examples are:
sonra-sı için for (the period) after; for later

önce-leri in preceding periods / times
sonra-ları in periods after it
okul sonra-sı the period after school
ameliyat sonra-sı post-operative period
seçim önce-si the pre-election period
1990 önce-si the era of before 1990
evlilik önce-si(n-de) (in) the premarital period
Sonra-sı malum.
What happened afterwards is well-known.
170 Postpositions
Sonra daha önce-lerin-i hatırla-yacak-sın, de-di.

Later you will remember all that was before, he said.
Hikâye, onbeş yıl önce-sin-in hikâye-si-ydi.
The story was a story of fifteen years ago / before / earlier.
Combination of possessive suffix and case marking can neatly be exemplified by:
Rektör, olay-lar-ın önce-sin-i, sonra-sın-ı ve neden-ler-in-i birazdan açıkla-yacak.

The rector will shortly explain the before and after of the events, and their causes.
Also, sonra and önce can be expanded by –ki (see section 12.6) and used as adjectives.
sonra-ki gün-ler-de on the days after / following

bir önce-ki toplantı-da at an earlier / previous meeting
Sonraki and önceki can be further specified in various ways:
Biraz sonra-ki bir toplantı-da buluş-tu-lar.

They met at a meeting a short while later.
Bir hafta önce-ki görüşme-de konuş-tu-k.
We discussed it during the talk a week earlier.
Siz de mi az önce-ki tren-le gel-di-niz?
Did you too arrive by the train which pulled in just a while ago?
Sometimes a starting point (see section 13.2) is supplied:
Biz-den önce-ki ev sahib-i . . .

The one who owned the house before we did . . .
Baudelaire’den sonra-ki şair-ler . . .
Poets in the era after Baudelaire . . .
Bun-dan iki sene önce-ki adam değil-di, artık.
He was not the man any more that he had been two years before (this point in time).
On-dan sonra-ki-ler tamamen profesyonel değil-di.
Those who came afterwards were not entirely professional.
As shown in section 13.2, sonra and önce are also often used as ‘ordinary’ adverbs:
yemek-ten (yarım saat) önce (half an hour) before dinner

savaş-tan (iki yıl) sonra (two years) after the war
That sonra and önce can figure as complements of a postposition is not surprising. Here are
some examples.
altı sene önce-ye kadar until six years ago

ölüm-ün-den sonra-ya kadar until after his / her death
Toplantı (gece yarı-sın-dan çok sonra-ya) kadar sür-dü.

The meeting lasted until long after midnight.
13.4.2 Postposition or adverb?
The word kadar also has other properties than those of pure postpositions. The combinations
ne kadar, bu kadar, and o kadar do not only denote concrete quantities, but also the degree
of some property can be expressed by each of these combinations.
Nasıl bu kadar emin ol-abil-iyor-sunuz?

How can you be so sure about it?
Ne kadar da berbat görün-üyor-sun!
And how dreadful / lousy you look!
Kuşku-lar-ım o kadar da yersiz-miş.
My doubts turned out to be so very unfounded!
In the latter example o kadar is used as an adverbial and expresses a certain degree of yersiz
‘unfounded’, and its meaning comes close to that of nasıl da ‘how very (much)’, as in:
On-a nasıl da bağlı-ymış-ız!—Çok!

How very much we are bound to it / him, aren’t we!—Too much!
Bu tepe-den nasıl da buğulu görün-üyor.
How very foggy it looks from this hilltop.
Yalnız kal-ma-yı nasıl da isti-yor-um!
How very much I want to be (stay) on my own!
That kadar has nominal properties is shown by the occurrence of possessive suffixes and
case markers. Some examples are:
Ama bu kadar-ı da şimdilik ban-a yeter.

But this much (of it) is enough for me for the time being.
Siz-e ancak bu kadar-ın-ı söyle-yeceğ-im.
I am going to tell you only this much (about it).
Bu suy-un ne kadar-ın-ın deniz-e ulaş-tığ-ın-ı ölç=ül-me-miştir.
How much of this water reaches the sea has not been measured.
13.4.3 Other deviant postpositions
Another postposition with nominal properties is gibi, which will be discussed in full detail
in section 35.6. This word plus its complement can be used as an independent noun or as
an adjective. The latter property also holds for göre. Here are some simple examples:
172 Postpositions
On-un gibi bir adam nere-den bul-ur-uz?

Where do we find a man like him?
Bu, tam san-a göre bir iş.
This is exactly a job suitable for you.
On-un gibi-si yok-tur.
There is no one like her.
Polis, biz-im gibi-ler için kendi-sin-i fazla yor-mu-yor.
The police do not tire themselves out for people like us.
Furthermore, it should be noted that the postposition için is very frequently used in adver-
bial phrases expressing reason or cause. Such expressions are based not on nominal phrases
but only on adjuncts based on a verb. For more detail, see sections 27.5.4 and 35.5.
13.4.4 Adjective or postposition?
Lastly, it should be noted that there are adjectives which, in a grammatical sense, behave
like postpositions: çevrili ‘surrounded (by)’, ilgili ‘in connection (with)’, sınırlı ‘limited (to)’.
These forms take the instrumental case marker:
Bun-un-la ilgili yarın akşam-ki maç iptal ed-il-di.

In connection to this, tomorrow evening’s match has been cancelled.
Ürün-leri şişe ve bardak-la sınırlı-dır.
Their products are limited to bottles and glasses.
Üç taraf-ı deniz-le çevrili bir ülke-yiz.
We are a country three sides of which are bordered by sea.
The sentential complement such adjectives can take is described in section 35.1.
13.4.5 Forms with baş ‘head’
A special case of postposition-like formations is formed by expressions based on başına,

başında and başından. With başına the idea of direction is expressed, as in the following
examples:
Alacakaranlık-ta kalk-ıp iş-im-in başına gid-iyor-um.

I rise before daybreak and go to my job.
Masa-nın başına otur-up pencere-den dışarı bak-tı.
She sat down at the table and looked through the window.
A locative expression can be formed by means of başında:
At-lar-ı sula-mak için bir çeşme başında mola ver-di-ler.

They took a break at a well as to drench the horses.
Yeni kaz=ıl-mış bir mezar-ın başında-yız.

We are standing by a newly dug grave.
Tezgâh-ın başında-ki delikanlı hemen bir paket aspirin ver-di.
The young man behind the counter immediately produced a box of aspirin.
The beginning of a period, event, or physical space can be indicated by başında, as can be
illustrated by the following examples.
ay başında at the beginning of the month

sokak başında at the corner of the street
(her) saat başında every hour / on the hour
film-in baş-ın-da at the beginning of the film
1990 ’lar-ın başında in the beginning of the nineties
Kuyrukluyıldız Mart ay-ı başında kuzeybatı-da gör=ül-ebil-iyor-du.
The comet could be seen at the beginning of March in the northwest.
Demet’in ev-in-e gid-en sokağ-ın başında buluş-acak-lar-dı.
They agreed to meet at the beginning of the street that runs to Demet’s house.
The usage of başından can be illustrated by:
Aralık ay-ın-ın başından Mart ay-ın-ın son-un-a kadar . . .

From the beginning of December until the end of March . . .
By the plural form başlarında a period can be thought of as being subdivided in several
smaller periods, thereby giving the expression a greater degree of vagueness.
Benz, üç tekerli ilk araba-sın-ı 1885 başlarında yap-mış-tı.

Benz has made his first three-wheeler car some time early 1885.
General, Birinci Dünya Savaş-ı başlarında birkaç defa Saraybosna'ya git-ti.
In the early stages of World War I the general went a few times to Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Süperiletkenliğ-in keşf-i yüzyıl-ımız-ın baş-lar-ın-da ol-du.
The discovery of superconductivity took place in the early years of our century.
Combined with a noun denoting a group of people, başında means ‘at the top, as a chief /
leader’: hükümet-in başında ‘in the leadership of the government’, M. bu grub-un başında-ydı.
‘M. was the leader of this group’.
Together with yalnız ‘alone’ or tek ‘single, sole, only’ the word baş ‘head’ plus possessive and
dative suffixes forms an expression meaning ‘alone, by oneself ’: yalnız baş-ım-a / baş-ın-a /
baş-ımız-a / baş-ınız-a / baş-ların-a.
Hıçkırık-lar ara-sın-da: İşte, yalnız baş-ımız-a bırakıl-dı-k !

In between the sobs (she said): Look, we have been left alone !
Akşam-ları ve hafta son-ların-ı genellikle ev-im-de, tek baş-ım-a geçir-ir-im.
The evenings and weekends I usually spend in my house, by myself.
14
Adverbs and their like
In chapters 10–13 constructions known as adverbial phrases have been used without much
of an explanation. Adverbial phrases have been represented which relate an action or
occurrence to some place, moment, duration, reason, cause, or instrument. Many of those
phrases are formed on the basis of a noun phrase, which can be accompanied by a case
marker, postposition, or a combination of these elements, according to the specific gram-
matical requirements. In this way examples were presented such as İstanbul’a ‘to Istanbul’,
Ankara’dan ‘from Ankara’, İzmir’de ‘in Izmir’, iki yıl ‘(for) two years’, bu akşam ‘this evening’,
Ahmet ile ‘with Ahmet’, as well as, for instance, sen-in için ‘for you’.
A classification in terms of what these constructions express is of course only one option,
since other ways of categorizing are equally feasible. For instance, by looking at the way
adverbial phrases can be formed. There is one more criterion, namely, the way in which
they are used in a sentence. This will be elucidated in section 14.1 and in section 14.2 adverbs
of place are discussed. Next, in section 14.3 a short overview will be presented of ‘indeter-
minate’ adverbial expressions and in section 14.4 the two standard ways of forming an
adverbial phrase will be introduced, together with a series of more specific formation rules.
14.1 Levels of usage
The adverbial expressions dealt with so far all give extra information about something that
has to do with an action or event, as expressed by the verb of the sentence.
Other adverbial phrases express, for instance, direction, time, manner, speed, or duration
and they may be based on a single word:
düz straight ahead

sola (!..) to the left
sağa (!..) to the right
doğru (eve) (!.) straight (home)
çabukça (.!.) quickly, fast
sonra (!.) afterwards, later
önce (!.) first
önceden (..!) beforehand
ilkönce (!..) first of all
şimdi (!.) a while ago, now, shortly
şimdiden (..!) as of now
şimdilik (..!) for now, for the time being
bugünlük (..!) for today
eskiden (..!) formerly, long ago
evvelce (.!.) in the past
günlerce (.!.) days long, for days on end
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
14.1 Levels of usage 175
demin (!.) a short while ago

geçenlerde (...!) recently
erken (!.) early
geç late
bu arada meanwhile
daima (!..) always
hiç ever / never (with negation)
asla (!.) never
katiyen (.!.) never
o zaman(da) (back) then; at the / that time
o zamanlar(da) at the time, then; in those days
her zaman always, all the time
hiçbir zaman never
zamanla (.!.) in due time
ara sıra (...!) once in a while
haftada bir once a week
her beş günde bir every five days
ikide bir every now and then
bazen (!.) sometimes
kimileyin (.!..) sometimes
sık sık often
derken (!.) just then
demin (!.) just now, a second ago
hep all the time
sürekli (..!) continuously
gece gündüz day and night
yakında (..!) presently, soon
derhal (!.) immediately
halen (!.) still
daha (.!) still / not any more (with negation)
artık (!.) as of now / not any more (with negation)
henüz (!.) a while ago / not yet (with negation)
gittikçe (.!.) gradually
epey (.!) rather, fairly, pretty, quite
oldukça (.!.) rather, fairly, pretty, quite
tamamen (.!.) fully
böylelikle (..!.) thus, in this way
böylece (!..) thus, in this way
öylelikle (!..) thus, in that way
tek başına alone (see section 13.4.5)
beraber (.!.) together
evcek, evce (!.) with the whole family
There are also adverbial phrases that tell us something about the attitude of the speaker
towards what he or she is saying. Such phrases reveal his or her opinion with respect to the
content or truth value of the sentence, or specify a certain expectation with regards to the
176 Adverbs and their like
probability of occurrence of some action or event. It is not possible here to list all the
possible distinctions and refinements for such a classification, but a few examples might
make it clear that this type of adverbial phrase is being used on another level than those
discussed in the previous section. The following examples all convey subjective information
in the background of which the rest of the sentence should be interpreted.
acaba (!..) I wonder

galiba (!..) as I assume
bence (!..) in my opinion
bizce (!..) in our opinion
kanımca (.!..) in my opinion
meselâ (..!) for example
örneğin (..!) for example
doğrusu (!..) more correctly
açıkçası (.!..) frankly (speaking)
kısacası (.!..) in brief
anîden (!..) suddenly
ansızın (.!.) suddenly
beklenmedik (.!..) unexpectedly
muhtemelen (..!.) probably, likely
belki (!.) maybe, perhaps
gerçekten (!..) really, truthfully
aslında (!..) in fact
mutlaka (!..) definitely
maalesef (!..) unfortunately
hakikaten (.!..) really
meğer(se) (.!.) apparently
genellikle (..!.) in general
genelde (..!) in general
oysa (!.) yet, however, nevertheless
tabii (ki) (.!.) naturally, of course
haksızca (.!.) unjustly
keşke (!.) I wish it were
rastgele (!..) accidentally
elbette (!..) indeed
sonunda (..!) finally
nihayet (..!) finally
sebepsizce (..!.) groundless, without a reason
üstelik (..!) moreover
hiç olmazsa (..!.) at least
bari (!.) at least
neyse (!.) well
gelgelelim (!...) but, however
halbuki (.!.) but, however
mademki (.!.) but, nevertheless
nitekim (!..) thus
bakarsın (.!.) you will see that
14.2 Adverbs for place 177
Most forms presented here are ready-to-use, so to speak. Other forms are made according
to certain formation rules and in section 14.4 the most common ways of making adverbial
expressions will be introduced.
14.2 Adverbs for place
The type of place adverbial to be discussed in this section has two exponents. It is shown
how basic directional notions such as upward, downward, forward, backward are used in
expressions for direction (where to), place (where), and source (from where). Secondly, it
will be examined how these words function as the complement of the postpositions doğru
and kadar. The result is a construction expressing some target.
14.2.1 Directions
As was discussed in section 10.1, a number of adverbial phrases denoting place are based
on the deictic elements bura- ‘here’, şura- ‘there (visible) and ‘ora- ‘there’. For the sake of
convenience nere- ‘where’ will be included as well. Based on, for instance, bura- forms are
derived such as bura-ya ‘to here, hither’, bura-da ‘here’, bura-dan ‘from here’, and also
Bura-sı nasıl? ‘What is this place like? How is this place?’.
A second group of this kind of place-expression consists of the relative place indicators
aşağı ‘under; down’, yukarı ‘up, above’, içeri ‘inside’, dışarı ‘outside’, ileri ‘farther’, and geri
‘back’. In fact these are all nouns which, like the aforementioned word stems, can take the
possessive suffix –(s)I(n) and also the case markers –(y)E, –TE, and –TEn.
When one imagines a road in a rough mountainous landscape and when at the same
time one keeps in mind that these words are place indicators (similar to alt ‘underside /
part’, üst ‘upper side / part’, et cetera—see sections 10.2 and 10.3), then the following examples
will be easy to understand. As a matter of fact, aşağı and yukarı could also be conceived of
as ‘(the) place below / under somewhere’ and ‘(the) place over / above somewhere’. In the
first series of examples yukarı is grammatically not related to anything particular (what
exactly is ‘up’ or ‘above’ must be inferred from the context or situation), but in the second
series of examples yukarı is used as a noun and related to yol ‘road’.
yukarı-ya upwards
yukarı-da up, above
yukarı-dan from above
yol-un yukarı-sın-a to somewhere above the road
yol-un yukarı-sın-da (at) somewhere above the road
yol-un yukarı-sın-dan from somewhere above the road
Such combinations can also be made with the other place words:
yol-un çok daha geri-sin-de much further back on the road

zaman-ın ileri-sin-de further ahead in time
Peru’nun başkent-i ekvator-un iki derece aşağı-sın-da bulun-uyor.
The capital of Peru is located at two degrees below the equator.
Burn-un-un uc-un-dan ileri-sin-i gör-mü-yor-sun.

You don’t look (see) any further than the tip of your nose.
These place nouns can also be applied in their bare (uninflected) form as an adverbial
expression, particularly in combinations with verbs of motion.
Kendi-si merdiven-den aşağı in-er-ken, ‘Hadi, şeker-im, yukarı gel!’ de-di.

Coming down the stairs she said ‘Hey, sweetie, why don’t you come up?’
Yol-u incele-dikten sonra avcı-lar biraz ileri yürü-dü-ler.
After having checked the road the hunters walked on somewhat further.
Aln-ın-da-ki leke-ler geri gel-di.
The spots on your forehead have come back.
In these examples aşağı, yukarı, ileri, and geri are used as adverbs to the verbs in- ‘to
descend’, gel- ‘to come’, and yürü- ‘to walk’ and what is expressed with these adverbs is
nothing more than a general direction. This becomes entirely different when a dative suffix
(–(y)E) is added: it is not a mere (vague, unspecified) direction, but it is expressed that the
motion is carried out to a certain point in space. This can be exemplified by:
Merdiven-den aşağı-ya in-di-m.

Via the stairs I went down. (and got downstairs, indeed)
Merdiven-den yukarı-ya çık-tı.
She went up via the stairs. (and indeed she arrived upstairs)
Compare also:
Aşağı-ya bak-tı-m, yürü-yen merdiven-ler-in ön-ün-de dur-uyor.

I was looking (at something) below and there she stands by the escalators.
Aşağı bak-mak baş-ım-ı döndür-üyor.
Looking down (in general) gives me vertigo.
14.2.2 Targets
With the postpositions doğru and kadar (see section 13.1) the picture becomes even more
interesting. Recall that these postpositions require the dative when used in the sense of
‘direction’ and ‘until’. Applied to the aforementioned place indicators the overall meaning
shifts for doğru from ‘direction’ to ‘until a certain point’ and for kadar from ‘until’ to ‘all the
way to’. In both cases the emphasis is on the distance being covered.
Aşağı-ya doğru in-er-se-n, kilise-nin bahçe-sin-e var-ır-sın.

Walking down as far as a certain point, you will get to the churchyard.
Ceket-im-i yukarı-ya doğru düğmele-di-m.
I have buttoned up my jacket (all the way) to the top.
14.3 Indeterminate adverbials 179
Yukarı-ya kadar çık-ma-ya-yım, acele-m var!

I am not going all the way up, I’m in a hurry!
Uzun bir basamak in-er, böylece aşağı-ya kadar gel-ir-di-m.
I descended a long flight of stairs, and that’s how I got all the way down.
Combinations without the dative such as yukarı doğru and aşağı doğru are hardly to be
found and can be formally translated as ‘in an upward direction’ and ‘in a downward direc-
tion’, but it is common practice to leave out doğru without loss of meaning:
At, baş-ın-ı yukarı (doğru) kaldır-dı ve kişne-di.

The horse raised his head and neighed.
14.3 Indeterminate adverbials
Words such as ‘somewhere’, ‘ever’, ‘someone’, and ‘something’ as well as their negative coun-
terparts ‘nowhere’, ‘never’, ‘no one’, and ‘nothing’ are indeterminate, because they do not
refer to any specific person or thing; what they refer to cannot be established, and it remains
vague and indefinable.
In Turkish the word hiç plays a crucial role in expressions of this kind. In questions
based on a verb hiç fulfils the function of adverb in the sense of ‘ever’. A bare hiç as a
response to such questions means ‘never’, as in:
—Amerika’ya hiç git-ti-niz mi?

—Hiç!
—Have you ever been to America?
—Never!
Used as an adverb in negative sentences, hiç means ‘never’ or ‘not at all’. Compare:
Hele sinema-ya hiç git-me-z.

To the cinema in particular, she never goes (there) at all.
Can-ım hiç git-mek iste-mi-yor.
I (my soul) don’t want to go at all.
Hiç güzel değil-dir!
It is not nice / beautiful at all!
Placed before a noun, hiç can be interpreted as ‘any’, as is shown by the following examples:
Hiç haber var mı, Fırat’tan?

Is there any news from Fırat?
Sen-in hiç Adviye adında bir tanıdığ-ın var mı?
Do you have any acquaintance by the name of Adviye?
Ban-a hiç fayda-sı yok.
For me it hasn’t any use.
Bu mektup-lar-ı, hiç şüphesiz kendi-si yaz-ma-dı.

Without any doubt, she has not written these letters herself.
Furthermore, the combination hiçbir (also written separately: hiç bir) is found in many a
negated construction. Here is a brief, contrastive selection, based on bir şey ‘something’—
hiçbir şey ‘nothing’; bir yerlere ‘to somewhere’—hiçbir yere ‘to nowhere’; bir kimse ‘some-
one’—hiçbir kimse ‘no one’; and bir zamanlar ‘ever; once (upon a time)’—hiçbir zaman
‘never’.
—Bir şey söyle-di-n mi?

—Hiçbir şey söyle-me-di-m tabii!
—Did you say anything?
—I haven’t said anything, of course!
—Biz bir yerler-e gid-e-lim.
—Karar-ım-ı ver-di-m, hiçbir yer-e git-me-yeceğ-im.
—Let us go somewhere.
—I have decided, I will go nowhere. / . . . I won’t go anywhere.
Bu yasa-ya karşı ol-an bir kimse var mı?
Is there anyone who is against this law?
Bu yasa-ya karşı ol-an hiçbir kimse yok-tur.
There is not anyone who is against this law.
Büyükbaba-m bir zamanlar Moskova’ya git-miş.
Once upon a time my granddad went to Moscow.
Büyükanne-m bun-u hiçbir zaman anla-ma-dı.
My grandma never understood that.
The suffix –lEr after bir X gives a higher degree of vagueness, as in:
Hala bir şey-ler bir kimse-ler-den bekli-yor-lar.

They still expect all kinds of things from people.
Bun-lar ban-a bir zaman-lar-ki bir şey-ler-i hatırlat-ıyor-du.
All this made me remember all kinds of things of bygone days.
Also in adverbial phrases of manner, purpose, or reason the word hiçbir is often found:
Bundan sonra ben-i hiçbir şekil-de rahatsız et-me-yecek-sin!

After that you will in no way disturb me!
Ama hiçbir amac-a hizmet et-me-z.
But it serves not a single purpose.
Hiçbir sebep-le ve hiçbir ihtiyaç için halk-tan para iste-me-yecek-ler.
They won’t demand money from the people, neither for any reason nor out of any need.
Lastly, hiç can be used as a substantive in the sense of ‘nothing’ and ‘no one’ in combination
with a case marker or a possessive suffix.
Hiç-i hiç-e vur-sa-n yine hiç çık-ar.

If you strike with nothing on nothing, still nothing will come out.
Ben kendi aklıselim-im-i koru-mak amac-ı-yla hiç-i seç-ti-m.
I have chosen nothing so as to protect my common sense.
Hiçbir-imiz oruç tut-ma-dı-k.
None of us has kept the fast.
Hiçbir-iniz bil-me-z-siniz.
None of you knows (it).
14.4 The formation of adverbial phrases
Apart from the application of a case-marked noun phrase or a noun phrase plus a postpos
ition as an adverbial phrase, as suggested, there are two sorts of ready-to-use words and
expressions in the lexicon. This will be discussed in sections 14.4.1 and 14.4.2.
Moreover, there are four ways of forming an adverbial phrase by means of suffixation of
a nominal or verbal stem. Furthermore, the mechanism of reduplication plays an important
role, as well as the word olarak ‘in the quality / function of ’. These types of formation are
the topic of sections 14.4.3–14.4.9.
14.4.1 Adjective as adverb
Many adjectives can, just like that, be applied as adverbial phrases in combination with a
verb. Here is a short selection:
Bütün hayvan-lar çıplak gez-meli-dir.

All animals must go about naked.
Sen-in-le açık konuş-acağ-ım.
I will speak with you frankly.
Sen de iyi çalış-tı-n, bun-u bil-iyor-um.
You too have worked well, I know that.
A certain degree of what is expressed by the adjective can be specified by words such as az
‘few, little’, çok ‘many, much’, pek ‘very’, et cetera.
Zaman çok çabuk geç-ti.

Time passed very quickly.
O çekic-i pek sıkı tut-uyor-sunuz.
You are holding that hammer far too tight.
Kalb-i büyük ihtimalle on-un-kin-den daha az hızlı çarp-ıyor-du.
Her heart was in all probability beating more slowly than his.
The combination az çok ‘more or less’ has the same effect:

Genç erkek-ler ve kadın-lar bun-u az çok farklı biçim-ler-de yap-ar-lar.

Young men and women do this in more or less different ways.
14.4.2 Lexical adverb
A second method is drawing from the lexical stock of ready-to-use adverbs and adverbial
phrases. This pertains to constructions expressing direction, time, manner, speed, or duration,
as mentioned in sections 14.1–14.3.
In addition to this there are many ready-made adverbs of Arabic origin, all ending in
–en (–an). However, this is not a productive suffix of Turkish, although leaving it out from
some of such words reveals a sort of ‘stem’ which can also be discerned in other Turkish
words. Examples of these adverbs are:
acilen (.!.) urgently / without delay

nadiren (!..) rarely
cidden (!.) seriously
resmen (!.) officially / formally
esasen (.!.) essentially / to tell the truth / anyhow
hakikaten (.!..) truly, really
tahminen (.!.) approximately / roughly
tesadüfen (.!..) by chance / coincidentally
The first four words are related to adjectives: acil ‘urgent / swift / quick’; nadir ‘rare /
uncommon’; ciddî ‘serious / earnest’; resmî ‘official / formal’ (see section 31.1.5), and the
others are based on nouns: esas ‘base / foundation’; hakikat ‘truth / reality’; tahmin ‘guess /
estimation’; tesadüf ‘chance / event / accident’.
14.4.3 Formation by –CE
This suffix is unstressed and has four variants: after vowels and voiced consonants –ca and
–ce occur and after voiceless consonants, –ça and –çe. This suffix combines with nouns and
adjectives and with personal pronouns and demonstratives, as in:
ben-ce in my opinion / the way I see it

biz-ce in our opinion / the way we see it
gün-lerce days long
ay-larca for months on end
yıl-larca / sene-lerce for years on end
bun-ca / şun-ca / on-ca this / that / so many, this / that / so much
evvel-ce in the past
haksız-ca unjustly
çabuk-ça quickly, fast
yavaş-ça slowly
güzel-ce rather nice, fairly beautiful
iyi-ce pretty good, fairly good
erkek-çe in a manly way

kadın-ca in a feminine fashion
çocuk-ça in a childish way
hayvan-ca beastly, bestial
köpek-çe doggish, (acting) like a dog
Adverbial phrases based on a noun denoting a group of people or an institution are often
used in passive sentences (for details, see section 30.4.8).
hükümet-çe on the part of the government

İstanbul Belediyesi’nce by the municipality of Istanbul
The word nece is used to ask what language is being used:
Nece konuş-uyor-sunuz?
What language are you speaking?
Müfettiş yer-in-den fırla-yarak,
‘Bu memur nece anır-ıyor, Türkçe mi?’ diye bağır-dı.
The inspector jumped up from his place and shouted:
‘In what language is this employee braying, is that Turkish?’
The names of languages are also formed this way. One takes a noun denoting a nationality
or country, adds the suffix –CE, and the result is a word for the corresponding language.
Such a word can be used as a noun but also as an adjective.
In this way, Türkçe means ‘Turkish, in Turkish, in the Turkish way’, as in:
Türkçe pek kolay değil.

Turkish is not that easy.
Türkçe bir kitap isti-yor-um.
I want a book in Turkish.
Hep Türkçe konuş-uyor-lar.
They speak Turkish all the time.
In a similar way the following examples are formed: Almanca ‘(in) German’, İngilizce
‘(in) English’, Fransızca ‘(in) French’, Rusça ‘(in) Russian’, Farsça ‘(in) Persian’, Arapça
‘(in) Arabic’, Hollandaca ‘(in) Dutch’. Another nice application is found in: Tarzanca ‘speaking
with simple words and gestures, in the manner of Tarzan and Jane’.
Other equivalents for the adjectives ‘Turkish’, ‘English’, and the like will be discussed in
sections 31.1.2, 31.5.1–31.5.3, and summarized in section 31.5.4.
14.4.4 Reduplication
A second way of creating adverbial phrases is by reduplicating a noun or adjective.

The effect is that the meaning is reinforced.
koca koca lokma-lar very very big morsels

pırıl pırıl bir dere a very clear stream
üzgün üzgün very very sad
In combination with a verb a reduplicated adjective has the function of adverbial modifier.
It specifies the degree of the property specified and reinforces its meaning.
ağır ağır ak-an su very slowly flowing water

pırıl pırıl parla-yan shining clearly
Acı acı gül-üyor-du. She laughed pretty sourly.
Uzun uzun bakış-tı-k. We looked at each other for a long time.
Kısa kısa anlat-tı. He told us in brief.
Tatlı tatlı bak-tı. He looked very friendly.
Şaşkın şaşkın bak-tı. She looked dumbfounded.
Uslu uslu otur-uyor. He sits very quietly.
Also, lexical adverbs are reduplicated to express a reinforced meaning, as follows from:
rahat rahat very much at leisure, relaxed

çabuk çabuk as quick as lightning
tekrar tekrar over and over again
daha daha much more, yet more
sık sık very often
yavaş yavaş very slowly, gradually
güzel güzel one more beautiful than another
yeni yeni ever newer and newer
Paired adverbials may also consist of unequal elements and are mostly lexicalized:
arada sırada now and then, from time to time

aşağı yukarı more or less, approximately
doğru dürüst properly, genuine, real
yorgun argın dead tired, exhausted
derli toplu tidy; well organized
Some reduplicated forms are lexicalized, for instance hemen hemen ‘almost’, buram buram
‘in great quantities; in clouds’, ağır ağır ‘slowly’, tane tane ‘clearly, distinctly’.
Beşinci ile altıncı baskı arasında hemen hemen hiç fark yok.
There is almost no difference at all between the fifth and sixth printings.
Bir araba dur-muş, derhal ter-den buram buram tüt-en beygir-ler-i çöz-üyor-lar-dı.
A coach halted and immediately they unharnessed the horses, steaming with sweat.
Ateş ağır ağır sön-üyor-du.
The fire slowly went out.
Yaşlı adam ağır ağır, tane tane konuş-ma-ya başla-dı.
The old man began to speak slowly, pronouncing his words distinctly.
The reduplicated forms of the question words ne-ler ‘what things’ and kim-ler ‘which persons’
express their meaning in a much stronger way, as is shown by:
Dile-diğ-im gibi hareket ed-ebil-se-m, ne-ler ne-ler yap-ar-dı-m.

If I had been able to act as I wished, what things couldn’t I have done.
Sağcı-lar liste-sin-den seçme-ler: Darwin, Freud, Wagner daha kim-ler kim-ler.
A choice from the list of right-wing people: Darwin, Freud, Wagner and who else.
Even nouns can be reduplicated and the result in such a case is an adverbial phrase. Their
meanings are transparent:
yer yer here and there, locally

kapı kapı from door to door
zaman zaman from time to time
şehir şehir from city to city
sokak sokak from street to street / street after street
kat kat in layers, layer after layer
sıra sıra in rows
arka arka after one another
alev alev in flames, ablaze
kadeh kadeh üstüne one glass after another
yudum yudum sip after sip
Also with the words tane ‘piece’ and tek ‘single’ and with distributive numbers (see section 11.3)
reduplicative forms can be built.
tane tane piece by piece

tek tek piece by piece / one by one
bir-er bir-er one by one
iki-şer iki-şer two by two
Kadın bütün kutu-lar-ı tek tek aç-ıp bardak arı-yor-du.
The woman opened all the boxes one by one and was looking for glasses.
Merdiven-den basamak-lar-ı ikişer ikişer çık-tı-m.
I ascended the stairs taking two steps at a time.
In colloquial speech falan filan ‘and the like(s) / and so on’ is rather popular:
Sağlık Merkez-i’nde temel atma tören-i var falan filan.

At the Health Centre they will lay the first stone, and so on.
A special type of reduplication (so-called m-reduplication) is formed by repeating a noun

and replacing the first letter of the second noun by an m. This is of course not possible with
words starting with an m. The overall meaning of such a doublet is ‘and things like that /
and the like’. This rule applies to both inflected and derived words.
‘Manyak, de-di karı-m otomobil-de, ev-e dön-er-ken; nereden bul-du-n bu karı-yı?

Doktor moktor değil o, şarlatan!
‘Idiot!’ said my wife in the car when we were driving home; ‘where did you
find that woman? She is no doctor or anything like that, she’s a charlatan.’
San-ıyor-um, ara sıra biraz oku-mak dışında ders mers yap-ma-mış-tı-k.
I believe that apart from reading a bit once in a while, we had no lessons or anything.
Köfte möfte iste-mi-yor-um ben.
I do not want kofta (meat balls) or stuff like that.
Sevgi yaş-a maş-a bak-mı-yor.
Love is blind to age and things like that.
İbo Abi-m yara-lı mara-lı ama, cevap hazır.
My brother Ibo might be injured and all that, but he has his answers ready.
14.4.5 Formation by –(y)E
There are adverbial phrases based on a reduplicated verb stem plus –(y)E. This type of
adverbial (of manner) tells us something about the subject of the sentence.
koş-a koş-a running

bil-e bil-e knowingly, consciously
sev-e sev-e with pleasure, enjoying
ağla-ya ağla-ya crying and sobbing
salla-ya salla-ya swaying
gid-e gid-e little by little, gradually
isteme-ye isteme-ye unwanted, unwillingly
Gerek-ir-se san-a seve seve yardımcı ol-ur-um.
If necessary I’ll help you, with pleasure.
Yumruğ-un-u masa-ya vura vura içki dilen-ir-di.
He always asked for drinks by pounding his fist a few times on the table.
Adverbial phrases can also be formed by reduplicating a verb stem and expanding both
parts with the suffix –(y)Ip. This type of formation will be discussed in greater detail in sec-
tion 27.1.3. Here is a taste of what can be expected:
Di-yor-um ya, ara-yıp ara-yıp bul-uyor-lar işte.

I’m telling you, by searching they find it, hey.
Sen niye dön-üp dön-üp arka-n-a bak-ıyor-sun?
Why are you looking back all the time?
Other forms of reduplication will be discussed in section 31.1.14.

Apart from the formations discussed so far, the suffix –(y)E can also be applied to two
different verb stems. Some of these formations are of a strong idiomatic nature.
ıklaya sıklaya with great difficulty

ezile büzüle with great shyness / embarrassment
ıkına sıkına very shy
ite kaka with pushing and shoving
utana sıkıla bashfully, embarrassed
bağışa çağrışa with a lot of shouting
tıka basa as full as possible
Examples extracted from texts are:
Çamur-lar-a bata çıka güçlük-le yürü-yor-um.

Sinking in the mire (mud) I’m hardly making any progress.
‘Ne düşün-üyor-sun, bakalım?’—Deniz ezile büzüle ‘Bağışla-yın!’ de-di.
‘So, what are you thinking?’—Deniz said in a shy way ‘Forgive me!’
Surat-ı pasta-ya bulan-mış çocuk-lar düşe kalka,
güle ağlaya masa-lar-ın ara-sın-da koş-ar-lar.
The children, with (crumbs of) cake all over their faces, are falling and getting back up,
laughing and crying, running between the tables.
But-ların-a bir-er kocaman tavuskuşu tüy-ü takalı bu genç kız-lar
hoplaya zıplaya yürü-me-ye zorlan-mış-lar.
These young girls, each with an enormous peacock’s feather at her
bottom, were forced to cavort around.
Kız ağz-ın-ı tıka basa şeker-le dol-dur-duğ-u sıra-da . . .
As the young girl had stuffed her mouth with sugar . . .
Tıka basa yi-yor-um, kilo al-ıyor-um kalıb-ım-a sığ-mı-yor-um.
I always eat my fill, put on weight, and do not fit in my skin (form) anymore.
Sandık-lar tıka basa dolu ol-duğ-u için, halı-lar duvar-lar-a as-ıl-mış-tı.
Because the cases were full to the brim, the carpets had been hung on the wall.
14.4.6 Result adverbial
A verb stem can combine with the suffix –(y)EsIyE to form an adverbial expression indicat-
ing the result of the action or event described by the verb. How –(y)EsIyE is used can be
illustrated by:
Ben o kadın-a çıldır-asıya âşık ol-muş-tu-m.

I was so much in love with that woman that it drove me crazy.
On-u öl-esiye sev-er, on-suz bir yaşam düşün-eme-z-di-m.
I loved her so much that I could not imagine a life without her.
Her zaman ol-duğ-u gibi, susa-yınca iç-er, acık-ınca doy-asıya ye-r-di.
As always, when he was thirsty he drank and when he got hungry he ate to the full.
İki saat karşılıklı otur-mak ve iki saat susuş-mak-tan öl-esiye kork-uyor-du-m.

I was scared to death for us to sit and face each other for two hours and say nothing.
Ama bil-iyor mu-sunuz çok can-ım sıkıl-ıyor, öl-esiye sıkıl-ıyor.
But do you happen to know that I’m very bored, I am bored to death!
Kıy-asıya bir çatışma başla-dı.
A life-and-death struggle began.
Göz-ün-den yaş gel-esiye gül-dü.
He laughed till he cried.
On-u kan çık-asıya döv-dü-ler.
They beat him until it bled.
Forms such as doyasıya ‘to repletion, as much as one wants, abundantly’, ölesiye ‘desperately,
extremely, intensely, until one dies’, and kıyasıya ‘mercilessly, cruelly, murderous, savage’
are all lexicalized. These constructions are comparable with those in –(y)EnE dek / değin
(see section 13.2). The word veresiye is also lexicalized. It means ‘on credit’, as in:
Duvar-da yaz-ıyor, ‘Veresiye-miz yok-tur’.

It is written on the wall ‘We don’t give credit’.
Müşteri-ler-in yarı-sı ver-esiye çay iç-iyor-du.
Half of the clients drank tea on credit.
14.4.7 Quality adverbial
The word olarak specifies a quality, function, capacity, or role and is combined with noun
phrases and adjectives. This follows from:
sürekli olarak permanently

son olarak finally, lastly
öğrenci olarak as a student
yabancı olarak as a foreigner
davetli olarak as an invited person
The question words ne ‘what’ and kim ‘who’ occur with olarak as well:
O, kendi-sin-i ne olarak gör-sün?

How / as what / in which quality should she see herself?
Peki, ama ora-da kendi-m-i kim olarak tanıt-acağ-ım?
All right, but how / as what will I introduce myself there?
Such a quality can be the result of some action or process and in such cases the verb appears in
the form of the past participle in –mIş (for ‘tenses’, see section 32.6). Constructions with parti-
ciples are often translated in terms of ‘to be’ and ‘to have’. Here are some simple examples:
Um-ar-ım rahatla-mış olarak dön-er-sin.

I hope you will return (being) rested / relaxed.
Öğrenci-ler okul-a ödev-lerin-i yap-mış olarak ve zamanında gel-meli-dir-ler.
The students must come to school on time with their homework finished.
(Literally: . . . having made their homework.)
Ertesi gün, saç-lar-ı siyah-a boyan-mış olarak mahkeme-ye çık-tı.
The day after, he appeared in court, his hair dyed black.
14.4.8 Circumstance adverbial
The fourth group of constructions, expressing circumstance or location, is formed by a noun

phrase in the nominative or locative plus the suffix –(y)ken (for more on this suffix, see
section 27.3.1).
çocuk-ken as a child, being a child

hasta-yken being ill
hava güzel-ken the weather being nice
bura-da-yken being here
tatil-de-yken being on holiday
ofis-te-yken being in the office
14.4.9 Secondary predicate
There are constructions resembling an adverbial phrase because of the occurrence of a bare
adjective before the verbal predicate. These adjectives, however, are secondary predicates, to
be discussed in section 33.6. By way of a taster, here are a few examples:
Onlar-ı dümdüz yap-tı.

He made them totally flat.
Kapı-yı açık bırak-tı-n.
You have left the door open.
The following example, however, contains çabuk ‘quickly’, which is an adverbial phrase that
is not about the coffee, but which specifies the ‘way of drinking’.
Kahve-m-i çabuk iç-ti-m.

I drank my coffee quickly.
This is in contrast with the next example, in which the secondary predicate sütlü ‘with milk’
does tell us something about the coffee.
Kahve-m-i sütlü iç-er-im.

I drink my coffee with milk.
Unlike phrases cannot be linked. This explains why Sütlü kahve-m-i çabuk iç-ti-m ‘I quickly
drank my coffee with milk’ is grammatically correct, but Kahve-m-i çabuk ve sütlü iç-ti-m is
not. The latter is comparable to ‘I drank my coffee quickly and with milk’.
14.5 With or without instrument, company, or transportation
Apart from adverbial phrases specifying place, direction, and point of departure (see sections
6.7 and 10.1) and those of reason and cause (see section 6.7.5), there are phrases specifying
instrument, company, or means of transportation. For these purposes the unstressed
instrumental suffix –(y)lE (see section 6.7.6) or the postposition ile (see section 13.3) must
be used.
Ali, şişe-yi bir çakmak-la / tornavida-yla / açacak ile aç-tı.

Ali opened the bottle with a cigarette lighter / screwdriver / opener.
Komşu-muz-la / Ayşe’yle / Ali ile çay iç-ip sohbet et-ti-k.
We had a tea and a chat with our neighbour / Ayşe / Ali.
Bu kez vapur-la / araba-yla / otobüs ile gel-di-m.
This time I came by boat / car / coach.
Attached to a pronoun (interrogative, personal, or demonstrative), the instrumental suffix

is preceded by a genitive ending: kim-in-le ‘with whom’, ben-im-le ‘with me’, sen-in-le ‘with
you’, on-un-la ‘with him / her’, biz-im-le ‘with us’, and siz-in-le ‘with you’, and also bun-un-la
‘with this’ and on-un-la ‘with that’. Note that onlar ‘they’ never takes a genitive with the
instrumental case marker anyhow: onlar-la ‘with them’.
In colloquial speech, however, the genitive is often dropped in kim-le ‘with whom’ and in
personal pronouns, first and second person singular and plural: ben-le, sen-le, biz-le, siz-le.
Also, plural forms do not require a genitive: besides bun-lar-la ‘with these’ and on-lar-la
‘with those’, there are forms such as biz-ler-le ‘with all of us’ and siz-ler-le ‘with all of you’.
The negational counterpart of these expressions is formed by the so-called privative
suffix –sIz (see also section 31.1.2), to be placed directly after the pronoun: ben-siz ‘without
me’, sen-siz ‘without you’, on-suz ‘without him / her’, biz-siz ‘without us’, siz-siz ‘without you’,
and onlar-sız ‘without them’.
Ben sen-siz yaşa-yama-m! de-miş-sin on-a.

‘I can’t live without you’ you said to him / her.
Siz biz-siz yap-ama-z-sınız.
You can’t do it without us.
The suffix –sIz is applicable to demonstratives as well:
O kadar alış-tı-m ki artık bun-suz yap-ama-m.

I am so used to it that I can’t do without it any more.
Bun-lar-sız medeni hayat durala-yacak-tır.
Without these (people / things) civilized life will grind to a halt.
14.5 With or without instrument, COMPANY, OR TRANSPORTATION 191
For constructions designating transportation a type of negation is available other than the
one sketched here. Consider the following sentence.
Ora-ya araba-sız nasıl gid-er-sin?

How do you get there with no car?
This sentence is not a negated counterpart of something like araba-yla gitmek ‘to travel by
car’, but it only indicates that there is no car available for the person addressed. Saying that
one does not travel by a particular means of transportation, but in some other way, is car-
ried out by applying the negation particle değil (see chapter 26).
Araba-yla değil, tramvay-la / yürü-yerek gel-di-m.

I came not by car, (but) by tram / on foot.
The suffix –sIz is used in adverbial phrases and therefore they can be contrasted with
adverbials in –lE. However, it cannot be used to express whether something is acciden-
tally present or not. This might explain why this suffix cannot be added to a word
already fitted out with a plural or a possessive suffix. In other words, an adverbial phrase
such as ‘without my bicycle’ to be combined with, for instance, ‘I can’t go to the market’
must be formed in an alternative way. And this is how it works: with olmadan ‘without
(being)’.
Silah-ım olmadan kendi-m-i koru-yama-z-dı-m.

Without my weapon I could not defend myself.
Giysi-ler-im olmadan telefon-a nasıl gid-er-im?
How can I come to the telephone without my clothes on?
O biz-im herhangi bir-imiz olmadan ol-abil-ir,
ama biz hiçbir-imiz on-suz ol-ama-yız.
He can do without any one of us,
but no one of us can do without him.
These differences clearly illustrate that derivations like silah-sız ‘unarmed’, gürültü-süz
‘silent’, and ümit-siz ‘hopeless’ express a property in a general sense, as is the case with their
counterparts in –lI, namely silah-lı ‘armed’, gürültü-lü ‘noisy’, and ümit-li ‘hopeful’, and that
olmadan signals the absence of something tangible. This can be also shown by:
El-in-de bir tüfek bile olmadan nasıl gir-miş-ti o kurt in-in-e!

How could he enter that wolf ’s lair without even a rifle in his hand?
Belirli bir neden-i olmadan birbir-imiz-e dargın-dı-k.
Without a clear reason we were unfriendly to one another.
Nihayet sev-diğ-i kadın-la hiçbir sorun olmadan birlikte ol-abil-ecek-ti.
At last he’d be able to be without any problems, together with the woman he loved.
For verbal constructions based on ‘with’ the reader is referred to sections 27.3.3 (–mEklE)
and 27.3.2 (–(y)ErEk) and for constructions in ‘without’ to sections 27.4.6 (–mEdEn) and
27.4.7 (–mEksIzIn).
14.6 A peculiar suffix ordering
In section 6.2 it was stated that inflectional suffixes for nouns follow a fixed order according
to the pattern: plural—possession—case marking.
There is a category of nouns for which the suffix order apparently deviates from this
fixed order. Five construction types are involved, three of which are adverbial construc-
tions. And four of these five types are related to kinship terms, which include: abla ‘elder
sister’, abi / ağabey ‘elder brother’, anne ‘mother’, baba ‘father’, dayı ‘uncle (brother of
mother)’, amca ‘uncle (brother of father)’, teyze ‘aunt (sister of mother)’, yenge ‘wife of uncle,
sister-in-law’, dede ‘grandfather’, nine ‘grandmother’, enişte ‘husband of aunt, brother-in-
law’, koca ‘husband’, and karı ‘wife’.
In words of this type the possessive suffix first and second person singular (‘my’ and
‘your’) can be followed by a suffix of the set –lI, –sIz, –lEr, –lIk, and –CE. These construc-
tions can be illustrated as follows.
14.6.1 Reverse order 1: possessive plus adjectival –lI / –sIz
By combining nouns with the suffixes –lI and –sIz adjectives (see sections 31.1.1 and 31.1.2)
can be made of the meanings ‘(supplied) with’ and ‘without / not (supplied) with’ respect
ively. In this way şeker-li çay means ‘tea with sugar’ and bahçe-li bir ev is ‘a house with a
garden’ and also, ‘tea without sugar’ is expressed as şeker-siz çay and ‘a house without a
garden’ as bahçe-siz bir ev. As indicated, in words designating some family relationship
these suffixes are placed not directly after the stem but after the possessive suffix first and
second person singular. This can be shown by:
Anne-m-li selfie-miz ol-sun de-di-k.

We said, ‘It should be a selfie of us with my mother in it’.
Karı-m-sız yılbaşı gerçek gibi gel-mi-yor-du.
New Year without my wife was unreal (not real).
Hep iki-ye ayır-dı-m galiba yaşam-ım-ı:
Baba-m-lı yıl-lar-ım ve baba-m-sız yıl-lar.
I thought I always divided my life into two periods:
my years with my father and the years without my father.
Adverbial phrases can also be formed with –sIz:
Ben her gün-üm-ü kız-ım-sız ve oğl-um-suz yaşı-yor-um.

I live every day without my daughter and without my son.
Gece-leri abla-m-sız uyu-yamı-yor-um, uyku-m gel-mi-yor.
I can’t sleep at night without my sister; I’m not sleepy.
In order to create its counterpart expressing ‘with’ (in the sense of company), it is not the der
ivational suffix –lI that is being used, but the case marker –lE or the postposition ile. Compare:
İzmir’e oğl-um-suz dön-me-yeceğ-im.

I won’t return to Izmir without my son.
İzmir’e oğl-um-la / oğl-um ile dön-eceğ-im.
I will return to Izmir with my son.
Thus, for kinship terms there are two pairs of suffixes available. First, adjectives are formed
with –lI and –sIz; and, secondly, adverbial phrases are formed with –lE / ile and –sIz. For the
expression of someone’s absence, the adverbial phrase can also be made with olmadan.
Anne-m, baba-m olmadan İstanbul’a git-mek iste-me-di.

My mother didn’t want to go to Istanbul without my father.
Baba-m olmadan ev-de misafir ağırla-ma-ya alışık değil-di-k.
At home we were not used to receiving guests without my father being present.
Amca-m olmadan böyle bir yolculuğ-u yap-mak-tan rahatsız ol-muş-tu.
By making such a journey without my uncle she felt ill at ease.
14.6.2 Reverse order 2: possessive plus –lEr
Another construction in which a special suffix can be placed after a possessive suffix in
words denoting some kinship is formed with –lEr. This resembles the plural suffix as dis-
cussed in section 6.3, but is not identical, since it adds some meaning to kinship terms. In
forms such as Aliye’ler and Hasan’lar the suffix –lEr means ‘family, relatives’ in the sense of
‘parents’, ‘siblings’, ‘children’, and the like.
Nouns designating such a family relationship attach –lEr with this meaning after the
possessive suffixes –(I)m ‘my’ or –(I)n ‘your’. Compare baba-lar-ım ‘my fathers’ and anne-
ler-im ‘my mothers’ with:
Anne-n-ler, baba-n-lar nasıl-lar, yavru-m?

How are your (maternal and paternal) grandparents, my child?
Pazar sabah-ı abla-m-lar gel-di-ler.
On Sunday morning my elder sister and her family came.
Babaanne-m-ler İstanbul’da otur-uyor-lar.
The relatives of my paternal grandmother live in Istanbul.
A variant of the suffix –lEr in the sense of ‘family’ is the invariable –giller. Applied to proper
names it denotes a collective of people:
Çok iyi bir halk, şu Ozan-giller.

Those are very good folk, the members of the Ozan family.
Asır-larca birlikte yaşa-dı-k, biz Hamza-giller-le.
We have been living together for ages, we and the Hamzas.
This suffix can also follow a possessive suffix:
Dayı-m-giller-in selam-ı var di-yor.

He says: ‘Regards from my uncle and so on.’
İzmit’e yakın Bahçecik var, babaanne-m-giller oralı-dır.
Near Izmit is Bahçecik; the relatives of my father’s mother are from there.
Biologists use this suffix to designate a species, as in: insan ‘man’ > insan-giller ‘hominoids’;
maymun ‘ape’ > maymun-giller ‘primates’; sazan ‘carp’ > sazan-giller ‘carps, cypriniformes’;
kedi ‘cat’ > kedi-giller ‘felidae’; bakla ‘bean’ > bakla-giller ‘legume family’.
14.6.3 Reverse order 3: possessive plus –lIk
The suffix –lIk has a number of meanings, or, more accurately, there are a considerable
number of homophonous suffixes which express different meanings with words of different
lexical categories. These suffixes are dealt with in sections 11.5.4, 31.1.3, 31.2.5–31.2.6, and 31.9.
One of these formations produces an adjective on the basis of a noun and its general
meaning is ‘destined for; suitable for’. Combined with words denoting a relative, the suffix
–lIk has a somewhat broader meaning, for it characterizes the relative in terms of a certain
appreciation for a certain thing: ‘really something for X’.
Zaten tam abla-m-lık araba, kırmızı renk-ler-e hassasiyet-i var.

Besides it’s really a car for my sister, she has a sensitivity to red colours.
Tam abi-n-lik bir şarkı . . .
Entirely a song for your brother . . .
Tam yenge-m-lik ve sen-lik ol-muş, dayı-cığ-ım.
It has become all what aunty and you like, dear uncle.
Hatta sen burası tam abla-n-lık de-di-n.
You even said that this here is really a place for your sister.
Ben-ce ben-lik değil de baba-n-lık ol-abil-ir.
I think it’s nothing for me, but it could be something to the taste of your father.
14.6.4 Reverse order 4: possessive plus –CE
Also with the suffix –CE, as discussed in section 14.4.3, several types of adverbial phrase
can be made. Attached to nouns denoting a family relationship, this suffix can be inter-
preted as ‘according to’ and as ‘by’. Application of this suffix is much wider than that of
the ones discussed in the preceding sections. Not only does it follow all possessive suf-
fixes (first, second, and third person singular and plural), but the type of noun is not
restricted to words denoting a relationship between family members. The sense of
‘according to’ is very common:
Doktor-lar ameliyat yap-a-lım di-yor ama gerek yok ben-ce ve anne-m-ce.

The doctors say ‘Let’s operate!’, but there’s no need, in my view and mother’s view.
Bu da biz-im kız-ımız, abi-m-ce ism-i Luba, ben-ce Goldy.

And that is our girl, according to my brother her name is Luba,
and in my opinion it’s Goldy.
In the following examples the adverbial phrases are more or less lexicalized:
Kanı-m-ca sebep-ler daha başka.

In my opinion the reasons are yet more different.
Kanaat-imiz-ce politik bir karar-dır.
In our view this is a political decision.
Fikr-iniz-ce harekât uzun sür-ecek mi?
Will the military campaign take long, in your opinion?
Siz-in akl-ınız-ca yat-ıyor.
You think (‘according to your mind’) that she sleeps.
In combination with a so-called passive verb (see section 30.4.8) the meaning of –CE is ‘by’:
Bun-lar, ‘Yenilik-ler’ başlığ-ı altında İsmail abi-sin-ce özet olarak yaz=ıl-mış-tı.

These have been described briefly by his brother Ismail. under the heading
‘Novelties’.
1971 yıl-ın-da dede-miz-ce yap=tır=ıl-mış beş katlı bina var.
There is a five-storey building that grandfather had built in 1971.
Osmanlı ordu-su Bulgar ordu-sun-ca hiç sıkış=tır=ıl-madan Çatalca’ya çekil-ir.
The Ottoman army withdraws to Çatalca, not being cornered by the Bulgarian army.
Bu metin, bir İtalyan gazete-sin-ce yayınla=n-dı.
This text was published by an Italian newspaper.
PART IV
VERBS
Verbs are the linchpin of a verbal sentence, as they form its predicate. Chapter 15 starts out
with the infinitive, the form one finds in most dictionaries. Chapters 16–19 are on forms
which play an extremely important role in daily life, since they are suitable for giving a
command or issuing a request. Chapter 20 is entirely on descriptions in terms of past,
present, and future. This part is concluded with chapter 21 on a verb form by means of which
‘being able / allowed’ are expressed, and by chapter 22 which deals with the expression of
necessity and hypothesis.
15
Infinitival forms
In this relatively short chapter an overview is presented of the main characteristics of

infinitival verb forms. First of all, it is the form in which verbs are included in most diction-
aries and word lists: the full infinitive (section 15.1). Secondly, the infinitive form is built up
by a verb stem plus a suffix and application of this suffix is required whenever the verb
(plus complements) is used as the object of some other verb, the main verb. Depending on
the type of main verb, the infinitive behaves like a noun: the short infinitive (section 15.2)
can take a case marker. Apart from its syntactic role as object, an uninflected infinitival
verb form is used as subject or predicate.
15.1 The full infinitive: –mEk
Adding the suffix –mEk to a verb stem gives the infinitive and in this form the verb is listed
in most dictionaries. The infinitival form of the verb is required when a verb is the object of
another verb, as for instance in:
Erkan git-mek iste-di.

Erkan wanted to go.
Fatma çık-mak iste-di.
Fatma wanted to go out.
The dependent verb (the object) can of course take its own object:
Çay iç-mek iste-di.

She wanted to drink tea.
Ev-e git-mek iste-di.
He wanted to go home.
Biz-e gel-mek iste-di-ler.
They wanted to come to us.
Bura-da çalış-mak iste-me-di.
He didn’t want to work here.
15.2 The short infinitive: –mE
Verbs such as başlamak ‘to begin’, çalışmak in the sense of ‘to attempt / try’, and gitmek in
the sense of ‘to be on one’s way’ all require the dative form of the infinitive for their verbal
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
200 Infinitival forms
object (see sections 20.7.4 and 33.8.3). This dative form is nowadays mostly spelt as –meye
or –maya, but in older texts often still as –meğe and –mağa.
İngilizce konuş-ma-ya başla-dı.

He began talking in English.
Önce sağırlaş-ma-ya başla-dı.
First she began to grow deaf.
Rahatsız ol-ma-ya başla-dı.
She began to feel uncomfortable / unwell.
Kapı-yı aç-ma-ya çalış-tı.
She tried to open the door.
Alışveriş yap-ma-ya gid-iyor-um.
I’m going to do some shopping now.
Bir gazete al-ma-ya gid-iyor-du.
He was on his way to buy a newspaper.
Verbs such as düşünmek ‘to think’, öğrenmek ‘to learn’, unutmak ‘to forget’, and the like
require the accusative form of the infinitive (see sections 33.5.1 and 33.8.3). This form is
mostly spelt as –meyi or –mayı, but in older texts as –meği or –mağı. Examples are:
Ne yap-ma-yı düşün-üyor-sun?
What do you think of doing?
Önce öğren-me-yi öğren-sin-ler.
First they must learn how to learn.
San-a söyle-me-yi unut-tu-m.
I forgot to tell you.
Köy-e kadar kaç-ma-yı başar-dı.
She succeeded in fleeing to the village.
Oyun oyna-ma-yı sev-iyor-lar.
They love playing games.
Plaj-a git-me-yi tercih ed-er-im.
I prefer to go to the beach.
Furthermore, the infinitive occurs as predicate (see section 33.2) and as subject in statements
of general validity, as for instance in prohibitions (see section 33.3). This can be shown by:
Amac-ımız onlar-ı yen-mek-tir.

Our aim is to conquer them.
İlan yapıştır-mak yasak-tır.
No billposting.
In section 20.7 some special functions of the combination infinitive plus case marker will
be discussed.
16
Imperative forms
In order to get something done by another person a verb form known as imperative can be
used, and this form is often the core of commands, orders, and instructions. There are
four different types of imperative expression in Turkish, to make someone do something
or to prevent a person from doing something. The smallest unit of a verb is its stem and it
is this stem that is most frequently used as the imperative (section 16.1). There are other
means as well, all based on a stem plus a suffix: a polite request is issued in two ways,
depending on whether one or more persons are being addressed (section 16.2). A third
form is the compelling request, being applied as encouragement or to convey a certain
degree of impatience (section 16.3). A paraphrased request is formed by using, for instance,
an affirmative of negated present-tense form or by a verb form expressing possibility
(section 16.4). However, instructions can also be given in a declarative form expressing
present or future (section 16.5).
16.1 Short and sweet requests
The shortest form equals the verb stem and these forms are used to issue commands.
çık get out / come out

sus shut up
dur stop
bak look
gel come
git go
iç drink
ver give
yürü walk / move on
bırak leave that
başla begin
otur sit down
anlat speak / tell me
16.2 Polite requests
There are two forms for the polite imperative: one which takes the fourfold suffix –(y)In for
the singular and one taking the suffix –(y)InIz for the plural. Some examples are:
bak-ın look here, please

gid-in please, go
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
202 Imperative forms
vur-un shoot; strike

gör-ün see
başla-yın begin
dene-yin try
oku-yun read
yürü-yün walk
bak-ınız look
gid-iniz go
vur-unuz shoot; strike
gör-ünüz see
başla-yınız begin
dene-yinız try
oku-yunuz read
yürü-yünüz walk
The stress in these verb forms is on the first syllable of the suffix. That is why the vowel in the
stem of yemek ‘to eat’ is reduced (see section 4.1), and is reflected in the orthography.
ye eat
yi-yin please, eat (singular)
yi-yiniz please, eat (plural)
Note that the stem of demek ‘to say’ is appearently not sensitive to vowel reduction.
The imperative forms are:
de say
de-yin please, say (singular)
de-yiniz please, say (plural)
Onlar-a bey di-yeme-z-siniz, hain de-yiniz!
You may not say sir to them, say traitor!
The polite form is also used to express prohibitions, which are often formed with a negated
verb stem. Negation will be treated in chapter 17.
Sefer esnasında şoför-le konuş-ma-yınız.

Do not speak to the driver during the ride.
Yer-ler-e tükür-me-yiniz.
Do not spit on the ground.
Dışarı sark-ma-yınız.
Do not hang out of the windows.
16.3 Compelling requests: –sEnE and –sEnIzE
Another imperative form frequently used to urge someone to do something is made by

the suffix –sEnE for the second person singular and –sEnIzE for the plural. Such forms are
16.4 Paraphrased requests 203
used as encouragement but to a certain degree they may also express impatience, when
previous attempts to get something done have failed.
dur-sana hey, stop, I told you

gel-sene do come here
iç-sene well drink, finally
ver-senize give here
bak-sanıza hey you, look here
anlat-sanıza why don’t you tell us / me?
Ne bekli-yor-sun, git-sene! What are you waiting for, go away!
Şu kedi-yi orta-dan kaldır-sana! Hey, get this cat out the way!
Hey, ayak-lar-ın-ı topla-sana! Hey you there, pull your legs in!
Ban-a şu şey-i ver-sene! Give me that thing, will you!
Haydi Murat, başla-sana! Hey Murat, have you started yet?
Sıkı tut ip-i, bırak-ma-sana! Hold the rope, don’t let it go, right!
Göz-ler-im-e bir bak-sanıza! Look into my eyes!
Bütün bun-lar-ı anla-sanıza! Why don’t you finally understand all this?
Fakat imzala-sanıza! But then do sign that thing!
Düşün-senize, bu çok eğlenceli. Think of it, this is very amusing.
Zevkli bir iş-iniz var, de-senize! You have a pleasant job, you may say so!
Normal görün-me-ye çalış-sanıza. Why don’t you try to look normal?
Ya inan-amı-yor-um, ne bak-ıyor-sunuz, tehlike bitmiş di-yor-um siz-e,
televizyon söyle-di, duy-mu-yor mu-sunuz, ya dinle-senize, adam yakalan-dı!
Unbelievable hey, what are you looking at, the danger is over I tell you,
the TV said so, don’t you hear me, why don’t you just listen, the man was caught!
16.4 Paraphrased requests
The most elegant way of requesting something, and this form is understandably very
frequently used in daily life, is attaching the suffix sequence –(I/E)r mI-sIn or its plural
counterpart –(I/E)r mI-sInIz to a verb stem. This results in a question. Examples are:
Garson bey, bak-ar mı-sınız? Waiter!

Şun-u kaldır-ır mı-sınız, lütfen! Can you take this away, please?
Bir gazete ver-ir mi-siniz? A newspaper, please.
Kapı-yı kapat-ır mı-sın? Would you mind closing the door?
İki tane bilet ver-ir mi-siniz? Please, give me two tickets!
Şimdi gel-ir mi-sin? Can you come now, please?
The choice between the vowels in the first part of this suffix will be explained in
section 20.5. Also its negational counterpart, –mE-z mIsIn(Iz), is used to formulate a
request:
Biz-e bodrum-dan taze şarap getir-me-z mi-sin?

Won’t you fetch us some fresh wine from the cellar?
204 Imperative forms
Ben-im-le dans et-mek iste-me-z mi-sin?

Won’t you dance with me?
Another way to paraphrase a request is based on –(y)Ebil-ir mI-sIn(Iz), which contains the
element –(y)Ebil ‘to be able’.
Siz-e zahmet, şu bardak-lar-ı doldur-abil-ir mi-siniz?

(For you it’s an effort,) Would you mind filling those glasses?
O dört bin dirhem-den biraz-ın-ı ban-a ödünç ver-ebil-ir mi-siniz?
Can / Will you lend me a little of those four thousand drachmae?
Its negational counterpart goes with –(y)EmE-z mI-sIn(Iz).
Baba-m-dan iste-yeme-z mi-sin?

Can’t you ask (it from) my father?
Ban-a bir kurşun kalem-le bir dosya kâğıd-ı bul-ama-z mı-sın?
Can’t you find me a pencil and a sheet of paper?
The combinations –(y)Ebil-ir mI-sIn(Iz) and –(y)EmE-z mIsIn(Iz) are discussed in

section 21.1.
16.5 Other forms
Instructions can also be given in the declarative form (see sections 20.1 and 20.2).
Examples are:
Üçüncü kat-a çık-ıyor-sunuz. (Present-1)

You go up to the third floor.
Sonunda sol-a sap-acak-sınız. (Future)
At the end you turn left.
Sonra da bun-lar-ı her zaman-ki yol-lar-la dağıt-ır-sınız! (Present-2)
And then you must distribute them through the usual channels!
Examples with a negative verb form are:
Rektör ban-a şöyle emret-ti: Ben anlat-ıyor-um, siz dinli-yor-sunuz.

Ağz-ınız-ı sırf kurnazca soru-lar için aç-ıyor-sunuz.
Onayla-mı-yor, kına-mı-yor, öğüt ver-mi-yor-sunuz.
The rector ordered thus: I do the talking, you listen.
You open your mouth solely for smart questions.
You do not approve, condemn, (or) give advice.
Siz şimdi ev-e git-me-yecek-siniz; ben-im-le öğretmen oda-sın-a gel-ecek-siniz.
You do not go home now, you come with me to the teachers’ room.
17
On negation
This chapter is intended as a mere announcement that there are three types of negation in
Turkish. Each of these types has its own specific domain. Firstly, to a verbal stem various
(verbal) suffixes can be attached. Verbal negation goes by suffixation, and the negational
suffix is added directly to the verb stem (section 17.1). Other forms of negation are briefly
introduced in section 17.2. The second type of negation is found in nominal sentences: they
make use of the particle değil ‘not’. The third type of negation occurs in existential expres-
sions: the notion ‘there is’ is expressed by var and its negational counterpart is yok ‘there is
not’. Furthermore, to a limited extent intrinsic negation is expressed in adverbial phrases by
olmadan ‘without’ or by a noun expanded by the privative suffix –sIz ‘without’. Also the
particle ne . . . ne ‘neither . . . nor’ has a negative meaning.
17.1 Verbal negation: –mE
As is the case with nouns, also verb stems can be followed by a whole series of suffixes.
These are placed in a certain, prescribed order and this will be explained in chapter 20. The
first suffix in this series is that for negation. Whereas the imperative forms of chapter 16 are
all used in commands, instructions, and requests to make people do certain things, there is
always the possibility to use a command, instruction or request to stop, prevent, keep, dissuade,
or restrain someone from doing something. For this purpose Turkish employs a negational
suffix, –mE, and this is placed directly after the verb stem. Combined with various imperative
forms this gives:
iç-me don’t drink

iç-me-yin you (sing.) mustn’t drink
iç-me-yiniz you (plur.) mustn’t drink
iç-me-sene hey, don’t drink!
iç-me-senize hey, don’t drink!
bak-ma do not look
bak-ma-yın do not look
bak-ma-yınız do not look
bak-ma-sana do not look
bak-ma-sanıza do not look
In the chapters to follow positive and negated verb stems will be the basis for further
expansion by a variety of suffixes.
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206 On negation
17.2 Other forms of negation
For a sentence with a noun or adjective as its predicate the negational particle değil ‘not’ is
used. This type of negation, nominal negation, will be discussed in section 23.1.2. Some
simple examples are:
Bu kadın İngiliz değil.

This woman is not English / an Englishwoman.
Selma öğretmen değil, bankacı.
Selma is not a teacher, (but) a banker.
A third type of negation is existential negation. In Turkish the notion of ‘there is / are’ is
expressed by var, which has the negational counterpart yok. These forms will be explained
in section 23.2. A simple example is an idiom to characterize someone who is very quiet, as
can be shown by:
Ağz-ı var, dil-i yok.

His mouth exists, (but) his tongue does not exist.
Other types of negation can be formed by the suffix –sIz (see sections 14.5 and 31.1.1) and by
olmadan ‘without’ (see section 14.5), as in:
Sen-siz yap-tı-m.
I did (it) without you.
Birisin-in yardım-ı olmadan bu mümkün değil.
Without someone’s help this is not possible.
In section 26.2 negational constructions based on ne . . . ne de will be discussed, for instance:
Ne zaman-ım ne de isteğ-im var.

I have neither time nor inclination.
Finally, verbal negation with the non-verbal değil or yok is discussed in sections 37.4–37.6.
18
Indirect imperative forms
The imperative forms of the previous chapter are all used in a direct communication
between two conversational partners. An element particularly conspicuous in day-to-day
conversation is the frequent occurrence of another verb form, the indirect imperative, by
means of which the desirability or advisability of some state of affairs is expressed. This
form is often compared to the so-called subjunctive in other languages. However, the func-
tion of the indirect imperative in Turkish is quite different: a command or order is issued
that relates to a third person singular or to a third person plural (section 18.1). Such forms
can be negated or questioned, as well as negated and questioned at the same time
(section 18.2). And what is more, the projectional suffix for the past is applicable as well
(section 18.3). In most cases the person to whom the indirect command is directed is not
present while this statement of desirability is made.
18.1 Third person: –sIn and –sIn-lEr
For the third person singular the suffix is –sIn and for the plural it is –sIn-lEr.
Hasan derhal bura-ya gel-sin. Hasan should come here immediately.

Ali o kadar iç-me-sin. Ali must not drink that much.
Biraz fazla çalış-sın-lar. They should work a little bit harder.
Bekle-sin-ler! Let them wait! / They must wait!
Another way of putting this type of ‘wish form’ in English is to use ‘he ought to . . .’ or the
more old fashioned ‘May he . . .’.
Fazla çalış-ma-sın. May he not work too hard.

Kendi-si sor-sun. She ought to ask it herself.
Ben-den iste-me-sin. He can’t expect that from me.
In conversational Turkish this type of expression is very common. This shouldn’t be a big
surprise as long as it is realized that a wish underlies this form, but the form as such is
mostly interpreted as an order. Some nice figures of speech, all based on the auxiliary verb
ol-, here to be interpreted as ‘to be’, are found in the following examples.
Ne kadar ol-sun? How much should it be?

Yarım kilo ol-sun. Half a kilo.
Kahve-niz nasıl ol-sun? How do you want your coffee?
Az şekerli ol-sun. With a little sugar.
Kahve-niz şekerli mi ol-sun? Do you want your coffee with sugar?
Yok, sade ol-sun! No, black!
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208 Indirect imperative forms
Ban-a bir bira ver, soğuk ol-sun. Give me a beer, but it must be cold.
Ol-sun ya! Let it be! / May it be so!!
Also many fossilized expressions and proverbs are based on this form. For example:
Afiyet ol-sun. Enjoy your meal. / Bon appétit.

Geçmiş ol-sun. Get well soon.
Baş-ınız sağ ol-sun. My condolences.
Kolay gel-sin. May it be easy for you.
Alacağ-ın ol-sun da, vereceğ-in ol-ma-sın.
Hopefully you’ll have money coming to you and not going from you.
Dost-un düşman-lar-ın-dan çok ol-sun.
May your friends be more numerous than your foes.
Bir el-in-in ver-diğ-in-i öbür el-in gör-me-sin.
Let your one hand not know what the other is doing.
Onlar sevin-me-sin-ler de kim-ler sevin-sin-ler?
If they shouldn’t be glad, who would?
Followed by diye this construction expresses a purpose (see section 28.3.2):
Daha fazla rahatsız et-me-sin-ler diye git-ti-m.

I went away so that they wouldn’t bother too much.
With demek ‘to say’, the indirect imperative third person expresses a strong opinion:
‘Başkâtip bey gel-sin di-yor-um’ de-di.

He said: ‘I feel that mister head clerk should come.’
Bu sefer, komisyon-a git-sin-ler di-yor.
This time he says that they should go to the commission.
Forms containing the suffix –sIn can be combined with forms of istemek ‘to want’, resulting
in colloquial direct speech forms (see section 33.4.8).
18.2 Questioned forms
Indirect imperative forms can be questioned; not only by means of a question word, as in
Nasıl olsun? ‘How much should it be?’, but also with the question particle mI. This is in fact an
ordinary suffix, which can take personal suffixes (see section 23.1.3) and projectional suffixes
(see chapter 24). However, according to the rules of Turkish orthography this suffix is to be
written separately from the preceding word, and hence, it lives under the name of ‘particle’.
If the question is being asked whether some action or event should take place (in terms
of desirability, that is), the particle is placed after the verb form.
Hasan gel-sin mi?

Should Hasan come?
18.3 A special form 209
Fatma çalış-ma-sın mı?

Should Fatma not work? / Is Fatma not supposed to work?
Onlar da ora-da bekle-sin-ler mi?
Are they supposed to wait there too?
Aman efendim, çocuk-lar-ımız İngilizce öğren-me-sin-ler mi?
For goodness sake, sir, are our children not supposed to learn English?
But other matters, too, can be emphasized and the question particle is put accordingly:
Kendi-si mi sor-sun? Should he ask it himself ?

Sade mi ol-sun? Must the coffee be black?
Bira-nız soğuk mu ol-sun? You want your beer cold?
The position of the question particle will be discussed in detail in chapter 26.
18.3 A special form
As will be explained in section 24.1.4, there exists a form that relates to the past. A few
examples should suffice here:
Cehennem-e kadar git-sin-di.

(I) wish she had gone to hell.
Anne-si bu gibi konu-lar-da niçin yalan söyle-sin-di?
Why would his mother have had to lie about such topics?
Negated forms are exemplified in:
Yatalak ol-sun-du isterse de yer-in-den kalk-ama-sın-dı.

Wish he had become bedridden and that he could not get up from his place.
Kara haber-i on-lar-dan duy-ma-sın-dı kadın.
Wish she had not heard the bad news from them, that woman.
19
Optative forms *
The optative (also referred to as subjunctive by some) plays a dominant role in day-to-day
conversations and expresses a state of affairs which is, in the opinion of the speaker, desirable.
There are forms for all six grammatical persons. For the first person singular and plural
(section 19.1) there are an affirmative and a negative form, and combined with the question
particle, the sum total is four forms per grammatical person. Typically, such declarative
forms are used to state something that is judged as desirable by the speaker, but the ques-
tion forms clearly serve as a proposal, with an invitation to comment on it. For the second
person singular and plural (section 19.2) there are only affirmative and negated forms, but
questioned forms are nonexistent. Although there is also an optative suffix for the third
person singular and plural (section 19.3), it is obsolete and its usage is now mainly limited
to adverbial doublets.
19.1 First person: –(y)E-yIm and –(y)E-lIm
For the first person singular and plural there are optative forms which express readiness
or willingness (voluntative). The most frequent personal forms are –(y)E-yIm for the first
person singular and –(y)E-lIm for the first person plural. With a negational suffix the
opposite of the affirmative is expressed. Singular forms are:
anlat-a-yım let me tell (you)

ver-e-yim let me give
gid-e-yim let me go
sor-a-yım let me ask
anlat-ma-ya-yım let me not tell (you)
ver-me-ye-yim let me not give
git-me-ye-yim let me not go
sor-ma-ya-yım let me not ask
In combination with a question particle the entire construction acquires the flavour of a
proposal to which the speaker wants a response. This holds for the negative forms too.
anlat-a-yım mı? shall I tell (you)?

ver-e-yim mi? shall I give (it)?
gid-e-yim mi? shall I go?
sor-a-yım mı? shall I ask?
anlat-ma-ya-yım mı? shall I not tell (you)?
ver-me-ye-yim mi? shall I not give (it)?
git-me-ye-yim mi? shall I not go?
sor-ma-ya-yım mı? shall I not ask?
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19.2 Second person: –(y)E-sIn and –(y)E-sInIz 211
The first person plural takes –(y)E-lIm and has the same variety in forms:
anlat-a-lım let us tell (you)

ver-e-lim let us give
gid-e-lim let us go
sor-a-lım let us ask
anlat-ma-ya-lım let us not tell (you)
ver-me-ye-lim let us not give
git-me-ye-lim let us not go
sor-ma-ya-lım let us not ask
anlat-a-lım mı? shall we tell?
ver-e-lim mi? shall we give?
gid-e-lim mi? shall we go?
sor-a-lım mı? shall we ask?
anlat-ma-ya-lım mı? shall we not tell (you)?
ver-me-ye-lim mi? shall we not give?
git-me-ye-lim mi? shall we not go?
sor-ma-ya-lım mı? shall we not ask?
An interesting combination of imperative and optative, bil bakalım and bil-in bakalım, is
used to urge someone to have a guess at something:
Bil bakalım, baş-ların-a ne gel-di?

Guess what happened to them!
Bil bakalım damat kim: kuzen-im!
And who do you think the groom is: my cousin!
Bazan ‘Bil-in bakalım tatlı ne var bu akşam?’ de-r-di Nesibe Hala.
Sometimes aunt Nesibe said ‘Guess what we have for dessert tonight!’
Bil-in bakalım ne ol-muş? Karı-sı on-u bırak-ıp kaç-mış.
Do you know what happened? His wife left him and ran off.
Constructions ending in –(y)E-yIm and –(y)E-lIm can be applied as the complement of

istemek ‘to want’, thereby producing colloquial direct speech forms (see section 33.4.8).
19.2 Second person: –(y)E-sIn and –(y)E-sInIz
There are similar forms for the second persons singular and plural, clearly expressing the
desirability of something: –(y)E-sIn and –(y)E-sInIz. The first syllable of these suffixes is
stressed, except when they are added to a negative stem. Besides fixed expressions, there
are numerous free formations to be found in the literature:
Çok yaşa-ya-sın(ız)!
Live long!
212 Optative forms
Sağ ol-a-sın(ız)!
Thanks a lot! / Be healthy!
Şun-u da bil-e-sin.
You ought to know the following as well.
Ama neden? Böyle bir şey yap-ma-yı neden iste-ye-siniz?
But why? Why would you want to do such a thing?
Ben-i kim anla-yabil-di ki, sen anla-yabil-e-sin?
Who was ever able to understand me actually; such that you would be (able)?
Negative forms have a shape that is to be expected:
Uc-un-u kaçır-ma-ya-sın.
Here’s hoping you don’t let go of the other end.
Pişman ol-ma-ya-sın.
Hope you won’t regret it.
Peki, ama şimdi neden büyük, çok büyük bir jest yap-ma-ya-sınız ki?
Good, but why wouldn’t you make a big, very big gesture now?
Çok fazla bir şey-ler um-ma-ya-sınız! Bun-lar kara gün-ler.
You shouldn’t expect too much. These are hard times.
These forms also occur in adverbial purpose phrases with diye and için (see section 28.3).
Sen-i bura-ya bu yüzden getir-di-m, kendi-n gör-e-sin diye.

I brought you here for this reason, so that you can see it yourself.
Tüm bu anlat-tık-lar-ım doğru-dur, bun-lar-ı siz-e eğlen-e-siniz için anlat-ma-dı-m.
Everything I said is true, I did not tell you all this for your enjoyment.
Kaç-ma-ya-sın diye sen-i ahır-a kapa-yacağ-ım.
Lest you should run away I will lock you up in the stable / shed.
Ev-in-de rahat yaşa-yabil-e-sin diye bura-sın-ı biraz düzen-e sok-mak isti-yor-um.
For you to live comfy in your house, I want to bring some order to this place here.
19.3 Third person: –(y)E and –(y)E-lEr
The suffix –(y)E also occurs for the third person mainly in adverbial doublets, as düş-e kalk-a
‘falling and rising’, gül-e ağla-ya ‘laughing and crying’ and gide gide ‘gradually; more and
more’ (see section 14.4.5), and in frozen expressions, e.g. gitgide ‘more and more’ and kolay
gele ‘Don’t work too hard!’.
In older texts such structures were more frequently used, including those for the plural.
Yörük-ler, eski yürü-dük-leri yer-den yürü-ye-ler, köy-ler-i çiğne-me-ye-ler!

May the Yuruks travel via the places they used to go by and not tread the villages
underfoot.
19.3 Third person: –(y)E and –(y)E-lEr 213
Ol-ma-ya ki, yedi deniz öte-sin-de gid-e-ler, bela-ların-ı başka-sın-dan bul-a-lar!

They could perhaps get to the other side of the seven seas and get into trouble from
something else.
The next example is an old recipe that might do much to help a woman to get pregnant:
Bun-lar-ı bir ince bez-e bağla-ya, şarab-la bir kab-a koy-a, kaynat-a,
tâ ki suy-u gid-e, sonra bir şişe-ye koy-a ve vaktinde bir bez-le istimal ed-e,
avrat hamile ol-a.
These must be bound into a thin cloth, placed in a bowl with wine, boiled until
all the water is gone, then put in a bottle and used with a cloth when the time has
come, so that the wife gets pregnant.
In modern times the usage is more restricted to forms of olmak. Thus, in colloquial speech
there are a small number of fixed expressions based on ola. For instance: Geçmiş ola! ‘May
you recover soon!’ A variant of these is based on olsun, as in: Geçmiş olsun. Other examples
are: Hayır ola! ‘What is the matter?’, Pazar ola! ‘May you do good business!’ Uğurlar ola!
‘Have a safe trip!’ and Tanrı yardımcı-n ola! ‘May God be your helper’. The following
constructions were extracted from literary texts:
Ban-a anlat-tık-lar-ı da, dile-r-im, gerçek ol-a!

May all that she told me, I wish, be true!
Azrail kulis-te bekli-yor, haber-in ol-a!
Azrael (the Angel of Death) is waiting in the wings, for your information!
Allah ver-e de, bu, yalnızca ayaktakım-ın-ın dil-i ol-a!
God grant that this is only the language of the rabble.
Furthermore, the combination ol-a ki exists and literally means ‘may it be that’. This is
based on the stem ol- which is, among other things, used to express ‘to be’ (see section 37.1).
The second part is the particle ki, which introduces a subordinate clause (see section 33.1.3).
Its negated counterpart ol-ma-ya ki ‘may it not be (the case) that’ also occurs. There are
three types of application.
First, if preceded by the adverb sakın ‘I do hope / mind that’, the verb in the subordinate
sentence has an imperative or optative form.
Sakın ol-a ki yemin-in-i boz-ma-ya-sın, sırr-ım-ı kimse-ye söyle-me-ye-sin.

I do hope you don’t break your oath; you shouldn’t tell my secret to anyone.
Sakın ol-a ki,
biz-e ney-in doğru, ney-in yanlış ol-duğ-un-u öğret-me-ye kalk-ma-yın.
It is to be hoped that you don’t try to impart to us what’s right and what’s wrong.
Eğer on-un-la karşılaş-ır-sa-n, sakın ol-a ki gör-düğ-ün-ü kimse-ye söyle-me.
If you run in to him, mind that you don’t tell anyone that you saw him.
Sakın ol-ma-ya ki bu ad-ı kimse-ye söyle-me-ye-sin.
It is hopefully not the case that you are not supposed to say this name to anyone.
214 Optative forms
Sakın ol-ma-ya ki siz iyi-ler-in-i yi-ye-siniz de

misafir-ler-e daha fena-sın-ı ver-e-siniz.
I hope it won’t be that you eat the good ones
and give the bad ones to the guests.
Secondly, ol-a ki may occur as a predicate, preceded by ne ‘what’, kim ‘who’, or nasıl bir şey
‘what kind of thing’, with a new meaning ‘what / who / how may that be’. For instance:
‘Ekmeğ-in iç-in-de-ki bu sert cisim de ne ol-a ki?’ de-di belli belirsiz.

‘And what may that hard thing in the bread be?’ he said indistinctly.
Ana-m kendi kendin-e söylen-di: ‘Şimdi bura-da yabancı kim ol-a ki?’
My mother mumbled to herself: ‘And who would be the stranger here?’
Organik ol-ma-yan gıda nasıl bir şey ol-a ki?
What may that be, food which is not organic?
Thirdly, when a sentence begins with ol-a ki, a certain degree of probability (possibly,
perhaps, maybe, etc.) is expressed. Examples are:
Ol-a ki ev-e biri gel-se bile, dikkat-in-i çek-me şans-ım hiç yok-tu.
Even if someone came to the house, I had no chance to draw his attention.
Ol-a ki, geliş-iniz tamamen beklenmedik değil-dir.
Your visit is probably not entirely unexpected.
Ama ol-a ki bir kere yap-tı-n, ziyan-ı yok, fakat bun-u âdet ed-in-me.
But perhaps you’ve done it once; no harm done, but don’t make it your habit.
The negative ol-ma-ya ki expresses a wish or hope:
Sakın ol-ma-ya ki sen iyi-ler-in-i yi-ye-sin de on-lar-a daha fena-sın-ı ver-e-sin.

I do hope it doesn’t happen that you eat the good ones and give the bad ones to them.
Ol-ma-ya ki bir şey duy-a-yım!
I hope I won’t hear a thing!
All these suffixes in –(y)E can take a projectional ending for the past, as will further be
discussed in section 24.1.4.
20
Present, past, and future *
As is the case with nouns (see section 6.2), suffixes in a verbal sequence can only be placed
in one particular order. Using the categories stem, negation, abilitative, tense (past, present,
future), projection, and personal suffix, the following order of verbal suffixes can be set up.
stem + (neg) + (abilitative) + (tense) + (projection) + (personal suffix)
The brackets in this formula indicate that the item in question is optional. This implies that
leaving out all suffix categories still yields the stem form, which is used as the imperative.
The verbal negational suffix has been discussed in the previous chapter; the suffixes for the
abilitative and tense forms will be discussed in the next five chapters, as well as the personal
suffixes. The notion of projection will be discussed in chapter 24.
The three tense forms to be explained in this chapter have in common that they all
receive the same personal suffixes. Another feature they share is that they are related to the
so-called moment of speaking in the same way.
Generally speaking, one could say that there are tense forms for past, present, and future.
Because Turkish has a multifaceted verbal system which can only be understood if studied
from within, this division is not entirely accurate, but it is sufficiently precise to serve as an
introduction to the Turkish tense system. There are two past and three present tense forms
and one future tense. Although the notion of tense is used here, it should be taken with a
grain of salt, for many verb forms are opposed along the lines of future versus non-future,
completed versus ongoing action, or with versus without temporal reference. Thus, Present-1
is typical for a non-completed action, Future for actions not yet begun, Past-1 denotes
completed actions not witnessed by the speaker, whereas using Past-2 makes the speaker
witness. Present-2 is a non-tense, since it does not relate to any moment in time, and
Present-3 is predominantly used in formal speech.
Present, past, and future will be discussed in sections 20.1–20.6, in section 20.7 the place
of the infinitives in –mEk and –mE among tense forms will be presented, and the final
section goes into matters of meaning and interpretation.
20.1 Present-1: –(I)yor
A non-completed or on-going action is expressed by the suffix –(I)yor. In grammar books

this tense is often referred to as imperfect(ive). As follows from the following examples,
there is a fourfold vowel after a stem which ends in a consonant.
iç-iyor he drinks, he is drinking

çık-ıyor he is going out
koş-uyor she runs, she is running
gül-üyor she laughs, she is laughing
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
216 Present, past, and future
After a stem ending in one of the vowels u, ü, ı, and i the suffix –yor follows, as in:
uyu-yor she sleeps, she is sleeping

yürü-yor he walks, he is walking
tanı-yor she knows
eri-yor it melts, it dissolves
In other stems ending in a vowel the occurrence of vowel reduction may be expected (see
section 4.1) and this phenomenon is mostly not reflected in the spelling because the effects
are fully predictable on the basis of the sounds forming the environment. In two cases the
practice deviates from the rule. In polysyllabic stems ending in e which is preceded by ö
rounding to ü occurs, an effect which is reflected in the spelling. Examples are:
söyle → söylü-yor he says

özle → özlü-yor she misses, she longs
önle → önlü-yor he avoids
düşle → düşlü-yor she is fantasizing
bütünle → bütünlü-yor he completes
çözümle → çözümlü-yor she analyses
Similar phenomena can be observed with a stem-final a after the rounded vowel o, so that
stem-final a is heard and spelt as u:
oyna → oynu-yor he is playing

boya → boyu-yor she paints
okşa → okşu-yor he caresses, strokes
dola → dolu-yor she winds
otla → otlu-yor he is grazing; he is freeloading
topla → toplu-yor she collects
For other stems ending in e and also for stems ending in a, the vowel reduction to i and ı
respectively is reflected in the spelling. Hence, besides di-yor (< de-) ‘he says’ and yi-yor
(<ye-) ‘she eats’, two series exemplify this process:
bekle → bekli-yor she waits, she is waiting

iste → isti-yor she wants
anla → anlı-yor he understands
başla → başlı-yor he begins
As has been said in section 4.1, variants such as iste-yor and başla-yor often occur in writing.
The personal suffixes to be attached are of Type 1: –(y)Im, –sIn, –Ø, –(y)Iz, –sInIz, and –lEr.
The expected combinations are:
yürü -yor-um I walk, I am walking

tanı -yor-sun you know
uyu -yor she sleeps
anlı -yor-uz we understand
20.2 Future: –(y)EcEK 217
bekli -yor-sunuz you are waiting

isti -yor-lar they want
With a negated verb stem the effects of vowel reduction (see section 4.1) are so strong that
this is reflected in the orthography. As a result there is seemingly a separate negational suf-
fix for the non-completed tense form; –mI instead of –mE. Thus, the following forms can
be attested:
gel -mi -yor he is not coming

al -mı -yor she is not taking (it)
gör -mü -yor he is not seeing (it)
dur -mu -yor she does not stop
20.2 Future: –(y)EcEK
The future tense is expressed by means of the suffix –(y)EcEK. The meaning of this suffix is
not sheer future but it also denotes an intention, volition, or planned action. Again there are
eight variants: the y occurs after a stem ending in a vowel, the E adapts to the last vowel in
the stem (front or back vowel) and if a suffix with an initial vowel follows, the K stands for
a ğ, otherwise for a k. A mixed paradigm, which includes personal suffixes of Type 1, can be
represented as follows.
yürü -yeceğ -im I will walk

bul -acak -sın you will find (it)
ara -yacak he will call
bekle -yeceğ -iz we will wait
var -acak -sınız you will arrive
yürü -yecek -ler they will walk
Negation of the future tense is fully regular, at least in the spelling. When it comes to the
actual pronunciation, a considerable vowel reduction from e to i and from a to ı may be
expected because the stress falls on the syllable before the negational suffix.
yürü -me -yeceğ -im I do not intend to walk

bul -ma -yacak -sın you will not find (it)
ara -ma -yacak he is not going to call
bekle -me -yeceğ -iz we won’t wait
var -ma -yacak -sınız you will not arrive
yürü -me -yecek -ler they are not going to walk
In older texts a way of spelling can be found which reflects the effects of this vowel reduc-
tion precisely, for instance:
Akşam üst-ü gel-mi-yecek mi-sin?

Will you not come in the late afternoon?
On-u bir daha gör-mi-yecek-siniz.
You won’t see her again.
Bul-mı-yacak-lar.
They will not find (it).
Artık akşam üst-ler-i deniz-e çık-mı-yacağ-ız.
We will no longer go to the sea in the late afternoons.
20.3 Past-1: –mIş
The third suffix to be introduced here is –mIş. This suffix has four variants, as indicated by
the capital I. It denotes a simple past tense, as in ‘he went’ or ‘he has gone’, but its most
striking feature is that it is used when the action or event described does not rest upon
‘direct observation’, meaning that the information was obtained through other means.
In other words, in saying ‘Ali went home’, Turkish distinguishes between a form which
reflects a direct observation by the speaker and a form which represents information from
another source: Ali ev-e git-ti versus Ali ev-e git-miş.
In English this difference is mostly not expressed as such, but on the other hand, there
are ample means of adding this shade of meaning by an adverbial phrase, as, for instance,
by ‘they say / it seems / apparently / one says’.
Personal suffixes that go with this suffix are of Type 1.
al-mış-ım I seem to have taken

al-mış-sın you seem to have taken
al-mış he seems to have taken
al-mış-ız we seem to have taken
al-mış-sınız you seem to have taken
al-mış-lar they seem to have taken
The negated forms are entirely as can be expected:
anla-ma-mış-ım apparently, I haven’t understood

anla-ma-mış-sın apparently, you haven’t understood
anla-ma-mış apparently, he hasn’t understood
anla-ma-mış-ız apparently, we haven’t understood
anla-ma-mış-sınız apparently, you haven’t understood
anla-ma-mış-lar apparently, they haven’t understood
In case information is conveyed through another person’s words, the form in –mIş is
usually referred to as reportative, quotative, or second-hand information. Another term is
inferential or evidential; signalling that what is being said is inferred from certain circum-
stances or indications. For instance, given that the lights in Ali’s office are switched off and
the door locked, one could infer that Ali ev-e git-miş ‘Obviously, Ali went home’.
Also, mirative is the linguistic term for the expression of surprise by means of this suffix,
as in Ooh, kim gel-miş! ‘Well, look who’s there!’
20.4 Past-2: –TI
In section 5.3.2 it was pointed out that there are suffixes with multiple variation. The suffix
–TI expresses a past tense as well, and like the suffix for Past-1 it denotes a completed event
20.5 Present-2: –(I/E)r and –mE-z 219
(perfect(ive)). Furthermore, it conveys the sense of direct observation. It has eight different
variants; after a vowel or a voiced consonant (b, c, d, g, j, l, m, n, r, v, y, z) and after stems
ending in ğ the T is realized as d and in all other cases as t. The I is realized as i, ı, u, or ü
according to the final vowel in the stem. The whole variation is shown by:
gel-di came, has come

ara-dı called, has called
oku-du read, has read
gül-dü laughed, has laughed
iç-ti drank, has drunk
çık-tı went out, has gone out
sus-tu became silent, remained silent
düş-tü has fallen
The personal suffixes this suffix takes are much different from those of Type 1 and they are
classified as Type 2: –m, –n, –Ø, –k, –nIz, –lEr.
çalış-tı-m I have worked

çalış-tı-n you have worked
çalış-tı she has worked
çalış-tı-k we have worked
çalış-tı-nız you have worked
çalış-tı-lar they have worked
Negation is regular and signified with the combinations –me-di and –ma-dı.
çalış-ma-dı-m I have not worked

çalış-ma-dı-n you have not worked
çalış-ma-dı she has not worked
çalış-ma-dı-k we have not worked
çalış-ma-dı-nız you have not worked
çalış-ma-dı-lar they have not worked
bekle-me-di-m I have not waited
bekle-me-di-n you have not waited
bekle-me-di she has not waited
bekle-me-di-k we have not waited
bekle-me-di-niz you have not waited
bekle-me-di-ler they have not waited
20.5 Present-2: –(I/E)r and –mE-z
Besides verbal suffixes which position, as it were, some action or event on a time axis, there
is in Turkish a verbal suffix that can be regarded as ‘timeless’ or ‘tenseless’. For this suffix, in
most grammar books referred to as aorist, there is no direct translation available in English,
and it is usually translated with a simple present tense.
In principle, there are three variants, being –r and the stressed –Ir and –Er. As a rule, –r
is attached to all verb stems ending in a vowel, leading to the following forms:
anla-r he understands
bekle-r she waits
de-r he says
ye-r she eats
Disyllabic verb stems (they end in a consonant, by the way—those ending in a vowel are
captured by the rule presented above) require –Ir, as do thirteen monosyllabic stems:
çalış-ır he works
konuş-ur she speaks
getir-ir he gets, he fetches
götür-ür she brings
The thirteen monosyllabic verbs getting –Ir are:
al-ır he takes
bil-ir he knows
bul-ur she finds
dur-ur she stops
gel-ir she comes
gör-ür she sees
kal-ır he stays
ol-ur it happens, it occurs
öl-ür he dies
san-ır he thinks that
var-ır she arrives
ver-ir she gives
vur-ur he shoots
All other verbs (all monosyllabic) take the form –Er. Examples of such verb stems are:
çek-er he pulls
iç-er she drinks
dön-er he turns
düş-er she falls
yap-ar she makes
çık-ar he comes out
koş-ar she runs
duy-ar he hears / feels
As personal suffixes those of Type 1 are to be used; these are the ones that are also applic
able to –(I)yor, –(y)EcEK, and –mIş. For git- ‘go’ and al- ‘take’ this results in:
20.6 Present-3: –mEk-tE 221
gid-er-im I go
gid-er-sin you go
gid-er she goes
gid-er-iz we go
gid-er-siniz you go
gid-er-ler they go
al-ır-ım I take
al-ır-sın you take
al-ır he takes
al-ır-ız we take
al-ır-sınız you take
al-ır-lar they take
The negated forms are based on the stressed suffix combination –mE-z, which in turn takes
personal suffixes of Type 1. Two forms in the following paradigm are somewhat different
because the z drops in the first person singular and plural, as indicated by –Ø. First person
plural forms take the stress on the verb stem. The verbs git- ‘go’ and al- ‘take’ have the fol-
lowing negated forms:
git-me-Ø-m (.!) I do not go ( no z ! )

git-me-z-sin (.!.) you do not go
git-me-z (.!) she does not go
git-me-Ø-yiz (!..) we do not go ( no z ! )
git-me-z-siniz (.!..) you do not go
git-me-z-ler (.!.) they do not go
al-ma-Ø-m (.!) I do not take ( no z ! )
al-ma-z-sın (.!.) you do not take
al-ma-z (.!) he does not take
al-ma-Ø-yız (!..) we do not take ( no z ! )
al-ma-z-sınız (.!..) you do not take
al-ma-z-lar (.!.) they do not take
Several aspects of meaning for these forms will be discussed in section 20.8.
20.6 Present-3: –mEk-tE
Particularly on radio and TV and in newspapers, official publications, speeches, and in the
language of civil servants and authorities who address the public orally, the present (non-
completed) tense is formed by the infinitive plus the locative case marker.
In this way, formulating ‘We are now in the garden of the Topkapı Palace’ as Şu anda
Topkapı Saray-ın-ın bahçe-sin-de bulun-mak-ta-yız sounds more official than . . . bahçe-sin-
de bulun-uyor-uz ‘We find ourselves now in the garden . . .’ or than the everyday . . . bahçe-
sin-de-yiz ‘We are now in the garden . . .’. In fact these constructions are equivalent in
meaning (synonymous) but different in style.
The infinitive plus locative construction can be compared with the English ‘to be in . . .’
and it takes personal suffixes of Type 1.
oku-mak-ta-yım I am reading
oku-mak-ta-sın you are reading
oku-mak-ta (s)e is reading
oku-mak-ta-yız we are reading
oku-mak-ta-sınız you are reading
oku-mak-ta-lar they are reading
This style figure can further be illustrated by the following text fragments, all showing that
this construction expresses an ongoing action or event.
Başbakanlık Müsteşar-ı Yamoğlu: Türkiye’de değişik etnik grup-lar yaşa-mak-ta.

The permanent secretary of the prime minister’s office, (Mr) Yamoğlu (said):
‘In Turkey different ethnic groups are living.’
Saat şu anda 12:20 ve Ulusal Açık Radyo-yu dinle-mek-te-siniz.
It is now 12:20 and you are listening to the National Free Radio.
Dışarıda iki adam bir araba-dan kuzu et-i çıkar-mak-ta-lar.
Outside two men are unloading lamb meat from a car.
In colloquial speech such forms can also be found:
Yardımcı editör olarak çalış-mak-ta-yım.

I am working as an assistant editor.
Dünya-nın en büyük günah-ın-ı işle-mek-te-siniz.
You are (now) committing the greatest sin in the world.
Kesinlikle kabul et-me-mek-te-yim.
This I can absolutely not accept / tolerate.
This construction is also found in sentences such as ‘He saw that she was sawing’. For more
detail, see section 32.6.
20.7 More on infinitives
In section 15.1 the full infinitive (–mEk) was introduced and in section 15.2 the short infini-
tive (–mE). Both infinitival forms can in principle be expanded by a case marker. However,
in practice case markers are not equally distributed: the full infinitive takes the locative,
ablative, and instrumental, whereas the short infinitive takes the genitive, dative, and
accusative case markers. As for dative and accusative marked infinitives, two spelling vari-
ants occur, for instance modern –meye / –mayı, whereas older texts show forms which
were apparently based on the full infinitive: –meğe / –mağı.
20.7.1 Bare infinitives
In chapter 15 it was briefly indicated that the infinitival form of a verb can be applied not
only as the predicate of a sentence (e.g. Amac-ımız onlar-ı yen-mek-tir ‘Our aim is to
conquer them’—see section 33.2), but also as the subject of a sentence (e.g. İlan yapıştır-
mak yasak-tır ‘Bill posting prohibited’—see section 33.3). Infinitives in –mEk also occur
as direct object of iste- ‘to want’ (e.g. Fazla çalış-mak iste-me-di ‘He didn’t want to work
too much’).
20.7.2 Case-marked infinitives
Apart from ‘bare’ infinitives in –mEk, such as referred to in the previous subsection, there
are variants expanded by a case marker, mostly used in a verbal environment.
Only the short infinitive can take a genitive, as in:
İnternet üzerinden yasa-lar-ı çiğne-me-nin sayısız yol-u var.

Via the Internet there are innumerable ways of violating the laws.
As is the case with iste- ‘to want’, several hundreds of verbs take an object, and the type of
object varies between direct, dative, locative, ablative, and instrumental object. The latter
three object types require the full infinitive in –mEk, whereas direct object and dative
object always take the short infinitive in –mE. This kind of verbal object will, together with
two other types, be discussed exhaustively in section 33.8.
Constructions in –mE are rather numerous and will amply be illustrated in Groups 3, 4,
6, and 7, as discussed in sections 33.8.3, 33.8.4, 33.8.6, and 33.8.7. Here is a taste of such
objects.
Kız, biraz bekle-me-ye karar ver-di. (–mE + dat)

The girl decided to wait for a while.
Bir daha evlen-me-yi düşün-me-miş. (–mE + acc)
He has not considered marrying once more.
Masa-ya bak-tı, silah-ı al-mak-ta tereddüt ed-iyor-du. (–mEk + loc)
He looked at the table and hesitated to take the weapon.
Kendi-si olay-lar-ı anla-ma-ya çalış-mak-tan vazgeç-ti. (–mEk + abl)
He refrained from attempting to understand what had happened.
Ama hükümet ne yap-ıyor? (–mEk + ins)
Biz daha önce-ki dönem-in vergi-ler-in-i öde-mek-le uğraş-ır-ken,
bir de daha kazan-ma-dığ-ımız para-dan vergi al-ma-ya çalış-ıyor.
But what does the government do?
While we are still busy paying the taxes of the previous term,
they try to collect the taxes on the money we haven’t earned yet.
20.7.3 Transitions
Case-marked infinitives are also applied to describe an event that begins or comes to an
end; –mE-yE başlamak means ‘to begin’ and –mEk-tEn çıkmak means ‘to come to an end /
cease’. Examples are:
Bir lokanta-da çalış-ma-ya başla-dı.

He began to work in a restaurant.
İlk fotoğraf-lar, iniş-ten birkaç saat sonra gel-me-ye başla-dı.
The first pictures began to come in a few hours after the landing (of the craft).
Aksettir-mi-yor-sa, aksettir-mek-ten çık-mış-sa raf-a kaldırıl-ır.
If she does not transmit (info), if she has ceased to transmit, it will be forgotten.
Gerek-en çaba-yı düşün-ünce o basit harf-ler basit görün-mek-ten çık-tı.
Thinking of the effort required, those simple letters don’t look simple anymore.
Sebep, şimdi kendin-i savun-mak-tan çık-ıp
saldırı niteliğ-in-i al-mış ol-ma-sı-ydı.
The reason was that he now no longer defended himself
and that he had taken on a quality of aggression.
Forms based on the infinitival olmak ‘to be / become / happen / occur’ (see section 37.1) are
rather common as well, as can be shown by the following examples.
Bu arada biz-im hayat-ımız-da da önemli değişiklik-ler ol-ma-ya başla-mış-tı.

In the meantime important changes had begun to take place in our lives.
Belli ki biz-im-ki-ler daha zeki ol-ma-ya başla-mış-lar-dı.
It is obvious that the ones belonging to us have begun to become smarter.
Artık eğlenceli ol-mak-tan çık-tı.
It is not amusing any more. / It has stopped being amusing.
İtalya bir konfederasyon ol-mak-tan çık-tı.
Italy was no longer a confederation. / Italy ceased to be a confederation.
Sen de uzun süredir komünist ol-mak-tan çık-tı-n.
You too have for a long time been no communist any more.
20.7.4 Purpose by dative
A special group of constructions with a dative object describes the purpose of the action, as
expressed by, for instance, a verb of movement, as in the next three examples.
Satış için siz-e yardım et-me-ye gel-di-m.

I came to help you with the sales.
Baston-un-u al-arak, hemen on-un kapı-sın-ı çal-ma-ya git-ti.
He took his cane and went straight to his door to knock on it.
Yıldız, arkadaş-lar-ın-ın yan-ın-a oyna-ma-ya dön-dü.

Yildiz went back in order to play with her friends.
Kahve-m-i bitir-di-m, şimdi dinlen-me-ye çekil-ebil-ir-im.
I finished my coffee, now I can retreat in order to rest.
Ne-ler ol-duğ-un-u sor-ma-ya çekin-iyor-du-m.
I was shy of asking what was going on.
İki hastabakıcı on-u döv-me-ye kalk-ıyor.
Two nurses try to beat him up.
Bırak şimdi, ban-a öğüt ver-me-ye kalk-ma.
Never mind and don’t try to give me any advice.
Adverbial purpose phrases based on diye and on the postpositions için and üzere will be
treated in section 28.3. Also, the notion of purpose is clearly in the background in the fol-
lowing constructions with bakmak (-e) ‘to make sure / see to it / care’ and kalmak (-e) ‘to
leave (to) / remain’.
İyi ve kafalı insan-lar-ın saygı-sın-ı elde et-me-ye bak-ar-dı-m.

I made sure that I got the respect of good and smart people.
Ama borç al-ma-ma-ya bak-ar-ım ben.
But I see to it not to get into debt.
Sen yorul-ma-ma-ya bak.
You take care not to exhaust yourself.
İş, ancak derhal altı yüz bin lira bul-ma-ya kal-ıyor-du.
The job was left to find six hundred thousand lira immediately.
Lise yıl-lar-ım-da her yıl matematik-ten bütünle-me-ye kal-dı-m.
In my secondary school years I failed maths every year.
Ben seslen-me-ye kal-madan onlar bir yan sokağ-a sap-ıp gid-iyor-lar-dı.
No sooner had I spoken than they had entered a side street and were gone.
20.7.5 Other environments
Certain nouns and adjectives require the dative for a verbal complement. Examples are:
Ama cevap ver-me-ye cesaret-i yok-tu.

But he had not the courage to give an answer.
Sen-in ban-a karış-ma-ya ne hakk-ın var?
What right do you have to interfere with me?
Konuş-ma-ya ne lüzum var-dı?
What need was there to talk?
Söv-me-ye gerek var mı?
Is it necessary to swear?
Certain verbs also get an infinitival complement in the dative, as can be shown by:
Hadi ban-a yardım et, di-yor, anne-n-i güzelleştir-me-ye yardım et!

‘Come on, help me,’ she says, ‘help your mother to make it beautiful!’
Ne birbir-imiz-in yan-ın-da otur-ma-ya ne de konuş-ma-ya cesaret ed-ebil-di-k.
We had dared not to sit next to each other or to speak.
Ev-i yak-ma-ya ne zaman karar ver-di-m?
When did I decide to set fire to the house?
The Turkish equivalent of ‘What do you say to . . .’ is often nothing more than a proposal or
a directive, as might be the case in the following examples.
Birlikte köpeğ-i gez-me-ye çıkar-ma-ya ne de-r-siniz?

What do you say to walking the dog together?
Araba-da bekle-me-ye ne de-r-sin?
What about waiting in the car?
20.7.6 Idiomatic forms
The form –mEyE gör- is an alternative spelling for the combination –mEyEgör-, which
will be discussed in section 37.3.4. For readers who can’t wait, here’s a taste of what’s
in store:
Birin-e beyaz önlük giydir-meye gör, kendin-i Tanrı san-ıyor.

Make someone put on a white apron and he thinks he’s God.
Bir kadın-a bak-mayagör, hemen dayak yi-yecek-sin.
No sooner do you look at a woman than you’ll get a thrashing straight away.
Negated forms such as –mEyE gel-me-z and –mEyE gel-mi-yor produce expressions along
the lines of ‘it is inappropriate / undesirable’, ‘one can / must / may not’. These constructions
all have the form of the third person singular, but are meant as impersonal (see section 22.1.1)
and can accordingly be translated in terms of ‘one’.
Bun-lar-ın hepsi böyle-dir, güven-me-ye gel-me-z, insan-ı yarı yolda bırak-ır-lar.

They are all like that, one can’t trust them, they leave you in the lurch.
Öyle lüks lokanta-lar-da yemek ye-me-ye gel-me-z!
It is inappropriate to eat in such luxurious restaurants.
Bu köylü-ler-i korkut-maya gel-me-z.
One must / should / may not frighten these villagers.
On-un-la şakalaş-maya gel-me-z.
It is inappropriate to joke with her / him.
Her ne ise, sen-i de pek şımart-maya gel-me-z.
They / we should not spoil you too much anyway.
İş-i uzat-maya gel-me-z.

One should / must not let this thing drag on (unnecessarily).
Böyle olay-lar-da zaman kaybet-meye gel-me-z-di.
At such events there was no time to lose.
Fakat böyle iş-ler-de de gecik-meye gel-mi-yor.
But one may not be late in this kind of business / affair.
Sen-i iki dakika yalnız bırak-maya gel-mi-yor galiba.
Surely, I can’t leave you alone for two minutes.
20.8 Meaning and interpretation
The verb forms presented in this chapter might need some extra clarification as regards their
meaning and usage, because the labels attached to them do not always speak for themselves.
20.8.1 Present-1
A distinction was made between three tense forms being labelled ‘present’. The form
Present-3 hardly needs any further explanation since it has been extensively discussed in
section 20.6. Hence, this section will concentrate on Present-1 and Present-2. With –(I)yor
it is explicitly stated that the action or event involved is not completed. This means that the
action has begun, but not yet terminated. As a meaning description incomplete, not com-
pleted, or imperfect(ive) is usually sufficient. If the action is related to the past, a corre
sponding projectional suffix (see section 24.1) is attached. Compare:
Sen-i ara-yacağ-ım, şu anda tıraş ol-uyor-um.

I’ll call you back, I am shaving right now.
Kapı-yı aç-ama-dı-m, tıraş ol-uyor-du-m.
I couldn’t open the door, I was shaving.
But the occurrence of the projectional suffix for the past is not an absolute condition:
mostly it can be inferred from the context that the whole state of affairs relates to the past.
This usage is called historical present.
Tam sigara-m-ı yak-mış-ken oğl-um-un ses-in-i duy-uyor-um

ve karı-m-ın araba-sın-ın kapı-sı kapan-ıyor: ÇAT!
The moment I had lit my cigarette I hear my son’s voice and the door of
my wife’s car slams shut: BANG!
As is the case in English, in Turkish too a present-tense form can thus be used in a past-
tense context to present the state of affairs in a very topical way—as if the state of affairs was
related to the situation ‘here and now’. Likewise, it is not surprising either that the suffix
–(I)yor can be used to make reference to the future. In this way one can say that it occurs
with a certain degree of determination:
Yarın gel-iyor-um!
I come tomorrow.
20.8.2 Present-2
The form that has been introduced as –(I/E)r is in fact a tenseless suffix. This entails that an
action, event, or situation described by a verb taking this suffix cannot be related to the
temporal axis ‘past-present-future’.
This suffix has a de-topicalizing effect on what is described by the verb and its occurrence
is related to the more general nature of the action or event. Thus, it is an excellent means to
describe actions or events which occur repetitively (repetitive), habitually (habitual), or fre-
quently ( frequentative), but also to ‘suit the action to the word’ (performative), to give char-
acterizations (to make subjective and generic statements), also to ‘water the wine’ (concessive),
to describe a possible result of a hypothetical state of affairs (conditional), to give instruc-
tions and directions (directive), and to be applied in questions the answers of which are
already known (rhetorical questions). These applications will be elucidated one by one.
Habitual. In the following four example pairs a habit is contrasted with topicality: The
negative forms of Present-2 are stronger expressions than those for Present-1.
Kevork Türkçe konuş-ur. Kevork (usually) speaks Turkish.

Kevork Türkçe konuş-uyor. Kevork speaks Turkish (now).
Demet saksafon çal-ma-z mı? Didn’t Demet play the saxophone?
Demet saksafon çal-ıyor mu? Is Demet playing the saxophone now?
Bil-me-m, vallahi! I really don’t know, I swear!
Bil-mi-yor-um. I don’t (quite) know.
İste-me-m. I definitely don’t want it.
İste-mi-yor-um. I’d rather not . . .
The expression of a regularity or habit may be supported (but not necessarily) by an appro-
priate adverb. Compare:
Abla-m et ye-me-z, sigara ve içki de iç-me-z.

—Hayret, şey yap-ar mı, spor?
My sister eats no meat and doesn’t drink or smoke either.
—Wow, does she do, er, sports?
Dede-m, akşam yemeğ-in-den sonra koca bir havana puro-su yak-ar.
After dinner my grandfather always lights a huge Havana cigar.
Kız kardeş-im de o zamanlar-da doğu Türkiye’de öğretmenlik yap-ar-dı.
At the time my younger sister used to work as a teacher in East Turkey.
Abi-m hep kitap oku-r.
My brother reads books all the time.
Ufak lokanta-sın-a sık sık gid-er-di-m.
I used to go to the restaurant ‘Ufak’ quite often.
Ara sıra gel-ir-di, öğle yemeğ-in-e.
Once in a while she came for lunch.
Performative. So-called performative verbs lead to a statement that functions as an action

(for instance, ‘I apologize’) and they take the suffix –(I/E)r. However, pure descriptive
statements allow for other verb endings as well. The next four examples are performative,
whereas the final two examples are descriptive: not the speaker but someone else is the
subject of these sentences.
Siz-e çok teşekkür ed-er-im.

I thank you very much.
Hep-iniz-i tebrik ed-er-im!
All of you, congratulations!
Saygı-lar-ım-ı sun-ar-ım . . .
Respectfully yours . . .
Bura-lar-da bir iskele var-dı, yemin ed-er-im!—Nerede peki?
There was a landing place somewhere here, I swear it.—Where then?
Ben-i sonsuz defa tebrik ed-iyor-du.
He congratulated me an infinite number of times.
Daha fazla haber al-ma-yacağ-ın-ı anla-yan anne-m adam-a teşekkür ed-iyor-du.
My mom, understanding that she wouldn’t get more information, thanked the man.
Subjective statements are utterances by means of which something is said on the basis of a
personal judgement, opinion, or estimation. The examples speak for themselves.
Sen anla-ma-z-sın.
You don’t / won’t understand.
Hoca-mız bilgisayar-dan anla-ma-z.
Our teacher doesn’t understand computers.
Ben-ce bu mesele-ler acele-ye gel-me-z.
In my opinion such matters should not be rushed through.
Her fırsat-ta sağ-a sol-a laf at-ar.
On every occasion she makes some remark or other, right and left.
Daha önce-ydi, san-ır-ım 1939’da ol-du.
It was earlier, I think it happened in 1939.
Yanlış mı, doğru mu, gör-ür-sün.
Whether is it right or wrong, you will see later.
‘Üst-ünüz-ü değiştir-in, üş-ür-sünüz’ de-di-m.
‘Change your clothes, otherwise you’ll freeze,’ I said.
Aman doktor bey, duy-ar-lar, gör-ür-ler, kapı açık.
For heaven’s sake, doctor, they might hear and see it, the door is open!
Generic statements are meant as utterances with general validity. For instance:
Kadın-lar sade bal değil, zehir tesir-i de yap-ar-lar. (Halide Edip Adıvar)
Women act not only like pure honey but also like poison.
Türk-ü, gerçek olarak, Türk-ten başka-sı sev-eme-z. (Nihal Atsız)
In reality no one can love a Turk but a Turk.
Tanrı zar at-ma-z. (Albert Einstein)

God does not throw dice.
Biz-de, iki artı iki dört ed-er.
For us, two times two makes four.
Cumhurbaşkanı üç ay-da bir sağlık rapor-u al-ır.
The president gets a medical check-up every three months.
Anadolu insan-ı romantik yap-ar.
Anatolia makes one romantic.
Proverbs also belong to the class of generic statements. Here is a small selection.
Havla-yan köpek ısır-ma-z.

A barking dog does not bite.
Yol sor-mak-la bul-un-ur.
You find the way by asking.
Laf laf-ı aç-ar.
One word evokes another.
Ayran-ım ekşi-dir di-yen ol-ma-z.
No one is disloyal to himself.
(Literally: There is no one who says: ‘My ayran is sour.’)
Baca eğri de olsa duman-ı doğru çık-ar.
A person good by nature remains good even in the worst thinkable circumstances.
(Literally: Even if the smoke stack is crooked, his smoke raises straight up.)
The suffix –TIr in a nominal sentence forms a statement of general validity (see section 24.7):
Dört çarpı iki eşit-tir sekiz.

Four times two equals eight.
Concessive. This concerns a statement that should be seen in the light of a certain condi-
tion, such as the conditional clause in (If I were you,) I would do this-or-that. Both in
Turkish and in English, such conditional statements need not be expressed when they are
obvious on the basis of the context or situation. Other concessive constructions are dis-
cussed in sections 27.2.3, 27.5.5, and 27.5.6. The usage of Present-2 in concessive construc-
tions can be exemplified by:
(Yorgun-sa-n,) ben gid-er-im bakkal-a.

(If you are tired,) then I’ll go to the grocer’s.
(Öyle-yse,) yap-ma-m.
If that is the case, I won’t do it.
Çok yorgun-um.—Ben gid-er-im, bakkal-a.
I am very tired.—Then I’ll go to the grocer’s.
Marangoz-u ara-ya-yım mı?—Olur, ben yap-ma-m.

Shall I phone the carpenter?—Okay, then I won’t do it.
In this way it is also possible to refer to some future action or event by means of –(I/E)r.
Typically, a certain degree of vagueness is implied.
Yarın gel-ir-im! I’ll come tomorrow (perhaps).

Yarın gel-iyor-um! I’ll come tomorrow (certainly).
Directive. When instructions and directions are given, the suffix –(I/E)r is also used:
Polis izin ver-ir-se o yol-dan gid-er-siniz.

If the police give permission, you go via that road.
Pişmiş fasulye-ler-i pencere-nin ön-ün-e kalorifer-in üst-ün-e koy-ar-sınız.
You place the cooked beans in front of the window on top of the radiator.
Rhetorical questions. The suffix –(I/E)r is also applied as a rhetorical tool: a question is
being asked to which the answer is already known or even irrelevant. Two areas of applica-
tion can be distinguished.
First, questions in the first and third person singular and plural need not be answered.
Anla-r mı-yız?—Anla-r-ız! Do we understand?—Sure, we do!

Peki, biz geri kal-ır mı-yız? Okay, must we stay behind? (No!)
Bütün bun-lar-ı bil-me-z mi-yiz? Don’t we know all this? (Sure, we do!)
Çin yemeğ-i sev-me-z mi-yiz? And we don’t like Chinese food?
Biz-e yardım ed-er mi? And he would help us?
Fatma kitap oku-r mu? And you think Fatma reads books?
Böyle birşey ol-ur mu? Is this possible? / That’s impossible.
Eveeet, başla-ma-dan önce bir kahve iç-er mi-yiz?
Yes, surely we drink a cup of coffee before we start?
Bil-me-z mi-yim?—Tabii, bil-iyor-sun, Leyloş!
Wouldn’t I know?—Of course you know (it), Leyloş!
Sen ben-i ne kadar iyi tanı-yor-sun, değil mi?—Tanı-ma-z mı-yım?
You know me very well, don’t you?—Wouldn’t I know you? / Surely I do!
Secondly, for the second person singular and plural the suffix –(I/E)r yields a polite ques-
tion or request (see section 16.4):
Çay iç-er mi-sin? Would you like a cup of tea?

Balık ye-r mi-siniz? Do you eat fish? / Would you like fish?
Bir bira iç-me-z mi-sin? Won’t you take a beer? (You should.)
Otur-ma-z mı-sın? Won’t you sit for a while? (Sit down.)
The answer to a polite question or request is actually not relevant, for what is being said
could also be expressed by the imperative form (section 16.1) of the verb.
Biraz kay-ar mı-sın? Could you move over a little?

Kapı-yı kapat-ır mı-sın? Could you close the door?
Bun-u kaldır-ır mı-sınız? Can you take this away?
İki tane bira ver-ir mi-siniz? Can I have two beers, please?
Bir çatal ver-me-z mi-siniz? Don’t I get a fork?
The question form combined with the projectional suffix –(y)TI (see section 24.1) produces
a very polite way of asking something. The intentions are obvious: the underlying idea
behind the following example is ‘Take another beer (I’d be happy to sell you one more)’ and
the next one just means ‘Do sit down!’
Bira al-ır mı-ydı-nız?

Would you like to have another beer?
Şöyle otur-ma-z mı-ydı-nız?
Won’t you sit down?
20.8.3 Past-1 / Past-2
The past tense forms –TI and –mIş are used in Turkish in cases where a present tense could
be used in English. A present-tense form is often used if the verb expresses an event which
is evaluated on the basis of the state or situation obtained, rather than its course or
duration.
Kış gel-di / gel-miş.

It is winter (‘winter has come’).
Mevsim bit-miş, kış gel-miş-ti.
The season was over, it was winter (‘winter had come’).
Ne kadar sevin-di-m bil-eme-z-sin.
You haven’t got the least idea how glad / happy I am.
Bahane-ler-in-den bık-tı-m.
I am sick (and tired) of his excuses / stories.
Sen-in bit-me-yen dırdır-ın-dan bık-tı-m usan-dı-m artık!
I am fed up with your moaning all the time!
De-sene, on-dan bık-tı-n.
Just say it, you have had enough of him / her.
21
Abilitative forms *
This chapter discusses mainly a number of different environments in which the stem
bil- ‘know’ is found. First, as will be explained in section 21.1, bil- forms a complex suffix
expressing ability in the sense of possibility or permission. Since the special negated
abilitative suffix is its counterpart, many grammarians speak of a potential conflict, in
that neither suffix can follow a negated stem. However, examples drawn from a text
corpus reveal that if one can do something, one might also be able not to do that thing,
and similarly, one might also not be able not to do something. Secondly, the abilita-
tive forms are contrasted in section 21.2 with other applications of bil-. For instance,
the notion of ‘knowing how to’ is expressed by an inflected infinitival complement of
bil-, but a full infinitive preceding the negative stem bil-me- stands for duration
or continuity.
21.1 Being able and being allowed
The abilitative suffix expresses the notions of can, be able, and may in Turkish. In the formula
of chapter 20 the position of this suffix is:
21.1.1 Basic forms
The abilitative suffix is –(y)Ebil- and its negational counterpart is –(y)EmE-, and they are
placed directly after the verb stem. This forms a new (extended) stem which cannot be used
as an imperative, but it allows for the attachment of all other verbal suffixes. In other words,
the abilitative verb can be related to past, present, and future, and to a person, as expressed
by its personal suffix.
gör-ebil be able to see / may see

al-abil be able to take / may take
yürü-yebil be able to walk / may walk
anla-yabil be able to understand
Daha önce gid-ebil-di-m. I could have gone earlier.
Şimdi gel-ebil-iyor-um. I can come now.
Sonra gid-ebil-eceğ-im. I will be able to go later.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
234 Abilitative forms
A more neutral way of indicating that something is possible or allowed is based on the
‘tenseless’ suffix –(I/E)r, as in:
O zaman her yer-e gid-ebil-ir-siniz, her yer-e çekin-meden gir-ebil-ir-siniz.

Then you may / can go everywhere and without hesitation enter every place.
Daha ne iste-yebil-ir-iz?
What more can / may we ask for?
The corresponding negative forms are:
gör-eme not be able to see / may not see

al-ama not be able to take / may not take
yürü-yeme not be able to walk / may not walk
anla-yama not be able to understand
The first vowel of the negation suffix is stressed. That explains the reduction phenomena
(see section 4.1) in the vowels of suffixes for tense and person that may follow the extended
(abilitative) stem.
Daha önce gid-eme-di-m. I was not able to go earlier.

Şimdi gid-emi-yor-um. I can’t go now.
Sonra gid-eme-yeceğ-im. I won’t be able to go later.
21.1.2 A specious contradiction
The form –(y)Ebil- and its negational counterpart –(y)EmE seem to exclude each other,
because they oppose ‘to be able’ and ‘not to be able’. However, there is a possibility of com-
bining the regular negation suffix –mE with –(y)Ebil- in order to express that ‘one is able
NOT to do something’. For instance:
İste-me-z-se-n, yap-ma-yabil-ir-im.
If you don’t want (it), then I can also NOT do it.
Sevgili-niz bekle-diğ-iniz cevab-ı o an ver-me-yebil-ir.
It may be that your beloved does NOT give you that moment the answer you expect.
Even –(y)EmE- can be combined with –(y)Ebil-, as in:
Araba-nız-ın kapı-sın-ı kilitle-me-diğ-iniz-i bir türlü hatırla-yama-yabil-ir-siniz.

It may be the case that you can’t remember at all that you haven’t locked your car.
Eğer Ay çok alçak-sa, on-u çıplak gözle bul-ama-yabil-ir-siniz.
If the moon is very low, you may not be able to find it with the naked eye.
Bu yüzden o gün tren-e bin-eme-yebil-ir-di.
For that reason she might not have been able to board the train that day.
21.1 Being able and being allowed 235
And is it surprising, then, that –(y)EmE- after –mE can be found too, though rarely?
Belki san-a aptalca gel-ecek ama, ben-im için ne iyi bir dost ol-duğ-un-u
kendi-sin-e söyle-me-yeme-diğ-im için kendi-m-i bir türlü affed-emi-yor-um.
Perhaps it seems stupid to you, but because I am NOT able NOT to tell him
what a good friend he is to me, I cannot forgive myself in one way or another.
21.1.3 Modality types
In many a Turkish sentence with a form in –(y)Ebil- no conclusion can be drawn on whether
the underlying idea is based on permission (‘may’) or possibility (‘can’). The interpretation
mostly depends on the situation in which a question or statement is uttered. Compare:
Bura-da sigara iç-ebil-ir mi-yim?

—Tabii, iç-ebil-ir-sin! / —Olmaz, şurada bir duman detektör-ü var ya.
May / can I smoke here?
—Of course you may / can! / —You can’t, there’s a smoke detector.
For a ‘paraphrased request’ (see section 16.4), the notions of ‘may’ and ‘can’ do not play an
essential role, although the translation might suggest otherwise. By way of reminder:
Pencere-yi aç-ar mı-sın?

Can you open the window?
Finally, it should be mentioned that ‘possible’ can also be expressed by the adjective
mümkün, which is exclusively used as a predicate (see section 35.3.1).
Salı için bir bilet isti-yor-um, mümkün mü?

I want a ticket for Tuesday, is that possible?
21.1.4 Optative of abilitative
Apart from tense suffixes the optative suffix –(y)E (see chapter 19) may well follow the abili-
tative suffixes –(y)Ebil- and –(y)EmE-.
Siz-in şövalye-ler-iniz-le ora-da-ki kabile-ler-i önce çıkar-acağ-ız ki,

şehir-ler-i ve tarla-lar-ı yak-ma-ya başla-yabil-e-siniz.
With your knights we will first evacuate the tribes there,
so that you can commence the burning of the cities and the fields.
Dile-r-im vicdan azap-lar-ın-dan kurtul-ama-ya-sınız.
I wish for you not to escape the qualms of conscience.
‘Bun-u neden yap-ama-ya-sın ve neden gid-eme-ye-sin?’ de-di.
‘Why wouldn’t you be able to do this and why wouldn’t you be able to go?’ said he.
21.2 Other forms with bilmek
A very frequently used form is a combination of the abilitative and the suffix –(I/E)r which
has been discussed in section 20.5. This can be demonstrated by:
Birşey sor-abil-ir mi-yim?

May / can I ask something?
Şimdi gel-ebil-ir mi-sin?
Can you come now?
Apart from the meaning ‘to know’, bilmek has also found usage in the sense of ‘to regard /
consider’. It takes a direct object and is accompanied by an adjective. Such constructions
are further discussed in section 33.6.3:
Sen-i deli bil-iyor-um.

I think you are crazy.
But there are a few more domains where bilmek is used with an abilitative meaning, as will
be shown in the following three subsections.
21.2.1 Expertise
As an independent verb bilmek (-i) has the meaning of ‘to know’ and as such it is part of a
construction which resembles the one in –mE-yI bil-mek. It conveys the meaning of ‘can’ in
the sense of ‘know how to’. The examples will further illustrate this meaning.
Küçüklük-ten beri ‘hayır’ de-me-yi bil-eme-di-ler.

Since childhood they haven’t been able to say ‘no’.
Hayat-ın küçük zevk-ler-i-yle mutlu ol-ma-yı bil-ir.
She knows how to be happy with the smaller joys in life.
Siz-ler at sür-me-yi bil-iyor-sunuz, ben de tank sür-me-yi bil-iyor-um.
You know how to ride a horse and I know how to drive a tank.
Hangi-niz araba kullan-ma-yı bil-iyor? Ben bil-iyor-um ama, ehliyet-im yok.
Which of you can drive a car? I can, but I don’t have a licence.
Yarala-ma-ma-yı bil-en birisin-i arı-yor-uz hep-imiz.
We are all looking for someone who is able not to hurt anyone.
Whereas the abilitative forms, ‘(not) to be able’ are related to an external cause (outside the
person in question), for the form under discussion one could say that it is related to an
internal cause (‘not knowing how to’). This contrast can be summarized as follows.
Yüz-ebil-ir-im. I can / may swim.

Yüz-eme-m. I can’t / may not swim.
21.2 Other forms with bilmek 237
Yüz-me-yi bil-iyor-um. I know how to swim.

Yüz-me-yi bil-mi-yor-um. I don’t know how to swim. / I can’t swim.
The impersonal construction ‘it may be (the case) that’ is dealt with in section 37.2.7.
21.2.2 Durative
Another construction that has some elements in common with the two foregoing suffixes
is the combination –mEk bil-me-. Its meaning is, however, entirely unrelated, because it
expresses the durative or continuous nature of the event or state described by the verb.
Vakit geç-mek bil-me-di.

Time didn’t know how to pass.
Gün bit-mek bil-me-miş-ti.
There came no end to that day.
Akşam ol-mak bil-me-di.
The evening wouldn’t come nearer.
Yağmur bütün gün kesil-mek bil-me-di.
The rain didn’t relent the entire day.
Bir konuk-lar-ı ol-du mu, ağz-ı kapan-mak bil-mi-yor-du.
Once his guests arrived, his mouth wouldn’t shut.
İstanbul’da-ki kriz masa-sın-ın telefon-ları sus-mak bil-mi-yor-du.
The telephones of the crisis desk in Istanbul never stopped ringing.
Sen tembel tembel yat-ar uyan-mak bil-me-z-sin.
You always lie sleeping lazily and you never know how to get up.
21.2.3 Adjectival forms
The participle construction –mEk bil-me-yen ‘who doesn’t know how to’ (for participles
in –(y)En, see section 32.1) is used adjectivally:
kapan-mak bil-me-yen bir yara a wound that doesn’t close

doy-mak bil-me-yen bir arzu an insatiable desire
din-mek bil-me-yen göz yaş-lar-ı (her / his / their) unrelenting flow of tears
bit-ip tüken-mek bil-me-yen yol-lar roads to which there was no end
Yüz-ü kaybol-mak bil-me-yen kırmızı leke-ler-le dol-muş-tu.
Her face was full of red blotches that wouldn’t go away.
Babaanne-m-in dudak-ların-da da bit-mek bil-me-yen bir dua.
And on the lips of my grandmother was a neverending prayer.
A variant is –mEk bil-me-z (see section 32.10.5):
bit-mek bil-me-z bir yol an endless road

tükenmek bil-me-z bir enerji an inexhaustible energy
doy-mak bil-me-z bir canavar an insatiable monster
yenil-mek bil-me-z kahraman-lar invincible heroes
Bu yorul-mak bil-me-z, çalışkan adam baba-sı-ydı.
That indefatigable and industrious man was his father.
Bu bit-mek tüken-mek bil-me-z ayrıntı-lar o kadar can sıkıcı ki!
Those endless details are so boring!
Not surprisingly, negative forms such as –mE-mEk bil- do not occur, other than in environ
ments where bilmek ‘to know’ is compared with its negated counterpart, as in:
‘Çoğu zaman bil-me-mek bil-mek-ten daha iyi ol-ur’ de-di.

‘Mostly not knowing is better than knowing,’ he said.
22
Necessity and hypothesis
The suffixes which are the topic of the present chapter are modal suffixes and they will be
discussed here because they take up the same position as the tense markers for past, present,
and future. Another reason for this approach is that they can be followed by a projectional
suffix and a personal suffix. The general structure of a verb is:
As was pointed out, this chapter is motivated by the fact that the notions of necessity and
hypothesis are each expressed by a suffix which is morphotactically equivalent to those for
tense. On the other hand, necessity and related notions such as obligation and compulsion
can also be expressed by adjectival predicates and in section 22.1 quite a lot of space is
reserved for the discussion of all the ins and outs of such analytic devices.
In section 22.2 the suffix –sE is discussed, which forms the irrealis, by means of which
actions or events are represented as an assumption, supposition, or hypothesis.
22.1 Necessity: Need to, must, have to, and need not
As has been shown in chapter 21, there is in Turkish no separate verb to express the notions
of ‘can / be able to’ and ‘may / be allowed to’. Nor is this the case for ‘to need’, ‘need not’, ‘to
be necessary’, and ‘must’. In a number of cases ‘must / need to’ can be expressed by means of
a suffix in Turkish, in most other cases a descriptive formulation is used.
22.1.1 Subjective modality
By the twofold suffix –mElI the type of necessity is expressed which rests upon the judgement
of the speaker (leading to a subjective statement) that the content of his statement arises
from a moral obligation based on an agreement, certain rules, or a convention. Several
translations are therefore possible: ‘need’, ‘be necessary / needed’, ‘should’, ‘have to’, ‘ought’,
et cetera. The stress in –mElI falls on the second syllable and this suffix takes personal suffixes
of Type 1. Here are some examples:
git-meli-yim I must / should go / ought to go

git-meli-sin you must / should go / ought to go
git-meli she must / should go / ought to go
git-meli-yiz we must / should go / ought to go
git-meli-siniz you must / should go / ought to go
git-meli-ler they must / should go / ought to go
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
240 Necessity and hypothesis
al-ma-malı-yım I ought not to take

al-ma-malı-sın you ought not to take
al-ma-malı he ought not to take
al-ma-malı-yız we ought not to take
al-ma-malı-sınız you ought not to take
al-ma-malı-lar they ought not to take
Two main types can be distinguished for these constructions: impersonal and personal
expressions with –mElI. Impersonal constructions do not have a grammatical subject and
can be formed on the basis of an active or passive (see section 30.4) verb stem. In translations
there is mostly a dummy subject: one or you. Some examples are:
Mümkün olduğu kadar süratli oku-malı. (active)

One should read as fast as possible.
Evet ama, bir insan-ı sev-mek için ilkin on-u tanı-mak gerek-ir.
—Tam tersine söyle-meli; bir insan-ı tanı-yabil-mek için ilkin on-u sev-mek gerek.
Yes, but in order to love a person you must first know him.
—You’d say the exact opposite: to be able to know a person you must first love him.
Bil-meli ki . . .
You / one should know, that . . .
Düşün-meli ki . . .
You / one should think / consider that . . .
İtiraf et-meli ki . . .
You / one should admit that . . .
Unut-ul-ma-malı ki . . . (passive)
One should not forget that . . .
(Literally: It should not be forgotten that . . .)
Ancak belirt-il-meli ki . . .
One should make clear that . . .
(Literally: It should be made clear that . . .)
Bil-in-meli-dir ki, 45 santigrat derece-nin altında bir yanık yara-sı oluş-ma-z.
It must be known / it is common sense that below 45 degrees Celsius no burns occur.
Bilgisayar-ın kendi-sin-in bir amaç değil, bir araç ol-duğ-u unut-ul-ma-malı-dır.
It should not be forgotten that the computer is not an end in itself but only a means.
In a number of the examples represented here the verb plus ki (see section 33.1) introduces
a sentence which is in fact the direct object of that which should be ‘known’, ‘thought /
considered’, ‘admitted’, ‘not forgotten’, and ‘made clear’. As follows from the last example,
the suffix –TIr (see section 24.7) is placed after –mElI for extra emphasis: Unut-ul-ma-malı-
dır ki . . . ‘One should definitely not forget that . . . ’.
Personal constructions do have a grammatical subject, and again the verb can be active
as well as passive.
22.1 Necessity: Need to, must, have to, and need not 241
Bütün dünya bun-u bil-meli. (active)

The whole world should know this.
Herkes bil-meli, söyle-diğ-in-e çok sevin-di-m.
Everyone should know this; I am very glad that you have said it.
Bir adam hadd-in-i bil-meli.
A man should know his limits.
Ne olursa olsun, gül-me-meli-ydi-m.
I shouldn’t have laughed anyway.
Türkiye daha iyi idare ed-il-meli-dir. (passive)
Turkey should be governed in a better way.
İşsiz üniversite mezun-ları bilgi teknoloji-si sektör-ün-de çalış-mak için
yeniden eğit-il-meli-dir.
Jobless graduates from a university should be retrained in order to work
in information technology.
Bu grup-ta-ki hasta-lar-da fazla vakit kaybed-il-me-meli-dir.
For the patients in this group one (really) shouldn’t waste too much time.
Negation and interrogative forms are regular:
Niçin ev-de kal-malı-yız?

Why should / must we stay home? / Why do we have to stay home?
Git-meli mi-yim?
Should / must I go?
Ben bak-ma-malı-ydı-m.
I shouldn’t have looked / I ought not have looked.
Randevu-muz-a geç kal-ma-malı-yız.
We should / may / ought not to be late for our appointment.
The latter example shows that especially in negated forms an interpretation in terms of
‘may not’ is often very possible. The form ol-malı (see also section 37.2.4) is often used to
express an inference or conclusion, as in:
Çocuk üç yaş-ın-dan büyük ol-malı-ydı.

The child must have been older than three.
The combination of the suffixes –(y)Ebil- and –mElI form expressions in which the
idea of necessity is somewhat mitigated. Compare: he must apologize and he should
(actually) apologize. In this way, the semantics of this combination comes close to the
notion of hypothesis, in the sense that non-factual states of affairs are being expressed.
In a number of cases the most straightforward way to translate –(y)Ebil-meli is ‘to be
able to’.
Sigara-m için ateş iste-yebil-meli-yim!

I should be able / permitted to ask for a light for my cigarette.
Kaliteli ürün-ü ucuz-a hazır bulundur-abil-meli-siniz.
You should (be able to) have this quality product in stock for a low price.
Bu kadın-lar, çocuk doğur-duktan sonra bir yıl parasız izin al-abil-meli-dir.
These women should (really), after giving birth, have the possibility of taking
a year’s unpaid leave.
Elbette bun-u yap-abil-ir-im, hiç kimse bun-un aksi-n-i iddia ed-eme-meli-dir.
Of course I can do that, and no one would be able to claim the opposite.
22.1.2 Other forms expressing modality
Besides the suffix –mElI, which comes directly after a verb stem, there is a plethora of con-
structions expressing the notion of necessity.
First, in a number of cases the verb forms discussed in chapters 18, 19, and 20 can be
applied. By way of a reminder, consider the following. The imperative for the third person
(see section 18.1) can be used to issue an (indirect) order.
Ne iste-r-se iste-sin, kendi-si yap-sın!

Whatever she wants, she should / must do it herself.
Hasan’la Ayşe derhal bura-ya gel-sin-ler.
Hasan and Ayşe must come here immediately.
The interrogative optative form of the first person (see section 19.1) can also be regarded as
a means of informing whether something must / should be done.
Çay yap-a-yım mı?

Shall / can I make some tea (for you)?
Radyo-yu aç-ma-ya-yım mı?
Shall / must I not switch on the radio?
Forms in –(I)yor (see section 20.1) and –(y)EcEK (see section 20.2) can be used as well for the
purpose of issuing prohibitions and orders. This pertains particularly to forms of the second
person, but in the sense of ‘must’ and ‘have to’ forms for the first person are no exception.
İki tane çorba ver-iyor-sun!

(You must) give (me now) two soups!
İlac-ı yemek-ten sonra al-acak-sınız.
You must take the medicine after a meal.
Birazdan ev-e gid-e-yim, bir mektup yaz-acağ-ım.
I’d better go home in a moment, I want to / have to / must write a letter.
Secondly, in the discussion on so-called embeddings (a sentence is, as it were, embedded in

another one) in sections 33.5.3 and 33.5.4 it will be explained how the notion of ‘have to /
must’ is expressed in indirect speech. Here’s a taste of what’s in store.
Okul bit-ince derhal ev-e dön-me-n-i söyle-miş-ti-m san-a.

And I had told you that you had to come home immediately after school.
Anne-si, Ayşe’nin hemen ev-e dön-me-sin-i söyle-di.
Her mother said that Ayşe had to return home straightaway.
22.1.3 Objective modality
The words lâzım and gerek are very common in all kinds of expressions for the notion of
necessity, not least because of a great number of derivational forms. In contrast to a moral
obligation as expressed by –mElI, the constructions in this section convey the idea of
necessity as imposed from an external source: necessity, requirement, force, or obligation.
This is often referred to as objective modality.
First, preceded by a verb in the infinitive (–mEk) the words lâzım and gerek form an
impersonal construction. Some simple examples are:
Saygı göster-mek gerek.

You / one must show respect.
İyi düşün-mek gerek, böyle bir adım at-ma-dan önce.
One / you should think well before taking such a step.
Bu malzeme-ler-i geri gönder-mek lâzım, tabii.
These materials must be sent back, of course.
Tabii, on-a dikkat et-mek lâzım.
Surely, one / you must pay attention to it.
Secondly, a personal construction is created by adding the suffix –mE plus a possessive
suffix (see section 33.3.2) to a verb stem, in analogy to the final two examples of sec-
tion 22.1.2. It should be noted that the subject, which is often left out in such a construction
(as indicated in parentheses), gets the genitive case marker.
Şimdi ben-im git-me-m gerek, son tren saat 00.30 ’da kalk-ar.
I must go now, that last train leaves at half past twelve.
Ben-ce, her şey-den önce (sen-in) sigara-yı ve içki-yi bırak-ma-n lâzım.
In my opinion, you must first of all stop smoking and drinking.
Aliye’nin biraz kilo ver-me-si gerek.
Aliye should slim down a little.
(biz-im) Bun-lar-ı kabul et-me-miz lâzım.
We must accept (all) this.
Dikkatli ol-ma-nız gerek.

You must be careful / cautious.
Önce bir izin kâğıd-ı al-ma-ları lâzım.
First they must go and get a permission for absence.
The word git-me means ‘(the act of) going’ and hence, taken literally, ben-im git-me-m gerek
can be interpreted as ‘my-going-is-needed’; içki-yi bırak-ma-n lâzım as ‘your-abstaining-
from-drinking-is-necessary’; Aliye’nin biraz kilo ver-me-si gerek as ‘Aliye-her-slimming-
a-little-is-needed’, and Dikkatli ol-ma-nız gerek ‘your-being-careful-is-needed’.
Thirdly, with negated verb forms gerek and lâzım do not change:
Köpek-ler-den kork-ma-mak gerek.

One / You must not be afraid of dogs.
Biz-i gör-me-me-leri lâzım.
They must / should not see us.
(Literally: It is necessary that they don’t see us.)
Fourthly, in the examples presented so far gerek and lâzım are both translated by ‘must’ or
‘should’, but in many a case also ‘is required’ or ‘is needed’ would be in place. An interpretation
along the lines of ‘is needed’ is, however, the sole one possible for constructions in which
gerek and lâzım have a dative complement.
Sen ban-a lâzım-sın.

I need you.
Ban-a biraz daha vakit gerek.
I need some more time.
Biz-e şu lâzım, bu lâzım, acil ihtiyaç-lar-ımız şun-lar: . . .
We need this and that, what we have an urgent need for is the following: . . .
Siz-e neşeli, hareketli bir hayat lâzım.
You need a pleasant and active life.
The negation of lâzım is formed by değil (note that the combination gerek değil is nonexist-
ent). An example is:
Oğl-um, hiçbir şey al-ma, lâzım değil.

My son, don’t buy anything at all, it’s not necessary / needed.
Fifthly, in the foregoing the words lâzım and gerek were presented as if they were synonym
ous, although the latter example makes clear that these two items are not in all cases fully
exchangeable. This becomes all the more transparent when one realizes that lâzım ‘necessary’
can in fact only be used as an adjective, that lüzum ‘necessity (to)’ is the corresponding noun,
and that gerek can be used as an adjective and as a noun as well. This also explains why lâzım
cannot be combined with var and yok, whereas such combinations do exist for lüzum and gerek
(both in their meaning of ‘necessity’). Their complements always take the dative case marker.
Yalan-a gerek yok.

Lies we don’t need. / You need not lie. / There’s no need for lies.
Zaten ne gerek var ki bun-a?
What does one need that for anyway?
There are verbal constructions that can be characterized as impersonal, owing to the
absence of a grammatical subject. The following will illustrate this.
Abart-ma-ya gerek yok.

There is no need to exaggerate. // We / you / one need not exaggerate.
Bil-me-m, siz-e anlat-ma-ya gerek var mı?
I don’t know, is there a need to tell you?
Bun-lar-ı on-un-la paylaş-ma-ya ne gerek var?
What need is there to share this with him / her?
Konuş-ma-ya ne lüzum var-dı?
What need was there to talk?
Birşey söyle-me-ye lüzum yok-tu, zaten.
Moreover, there was no need to say anything.
As can be expected, personal constructions of this shape are formed according to: verb
stem + –mE + possessive suffix.
Siz-e birşey-ler söyle-me-m-e gerek yok.

I need not tell you anything. / It is not necessary to tell you things.
Ama ben, nereden bil-e-yim? Hem bil-me-m-e ne lüzum var-dı?
But how am I to know that? And why would I need to know that?
22.1.4 Modal adjectives
Whereas lâzım and gerek ‘(it) is necessary / needed’ can be used as a predicate only, the
corresponding adjectival forms can be applied in a noun phrase as well. The words gerekli
and lüzumlu bear the meaning ‘necessary, needed’ and correspondingly gereksiz and
lüzumsuz mean ‘unnecessary, not needed’. Here are some examples.
Anlat-mak zor, iki şehr-i de iyi bil-mek gerekli / lüzumlu.

It is difficult to explain; it is necessary to get to know both cities well.
Bütün bun-lar lüks değil, gerekli / lüzumlu bir şey-dir.
All this is no luxury, it is a necessity.
Ban-a gereksiz / lüzumsuz vakit kayb-ı gibi gel-iyor.
It appears to me as a needless loss of time.
Negation is formed according to the expected pattern: by değil.

Bura-da otur-up bekle-mek gerekli değil, gid-e-lim artık.

It is not necessary to sit and wait here, let’s go then.
It should be noted that gerekli and gereksiz are the basic forms from which gerekli-lik ‘some-
thing which is necessary’ and gereksiz-lik ‘something which is not necessary’ have been
derived. The derivational word lüzumsuzluk occurs sporadically, but the theoretically pos-
sible form lüzumlu-luk is nonexistent.
22.1.5 Collocations
Lüzum and gerek are used as nouns in combination with the verb kalmak. The affirmative
form can be interpreted as ‘still needed’ and the negated form as ‘not needed any more’.
Kendi-niz-den utan-ma-nız-a gerek kal-acak mı?

Will there (still) be any need for you to feel ashamed of yourself?
On-un için bir oda ayır-ma-ya gerek kal-ma-dı.
There was no need any more to make a room reservation for her.
Combined with görmek, the meaning of lüzum / gerek is ‘to consider necessary’.
Amac-ım-ı onlar-a aç-ma-ya gerek gör-me-di-m.

I saw no need to unfold my intentions (purpose) to them.
Biz onlar-ı kurtar-mak için buna gerek gör-üyor-uz.
In order to save / salvage them, we regard this as a necessity.
Cevap ver-me-ye gerek gör-meden oda-dan çık-tı.
Without seeing a need to give an answer, he left the room.
Combined with gelmek, the word lâzım (but not gerek) forms just another expression for ‘to
be needed / necessary’.
Lâzım gel-ir-se, çayır-ı da, tarla-yı da sat-ar-ım.

If need be, I will sell the grassland and the ploughland.
Sayın başbakan lâzım gel-en şey-ler-i söyle-miş-ti.
The prime minister said the things that had to be said.
22.1.6 Modal verbs
The verb stem gerek- ‘must, be needed, necessary’ can be expanded by the temporal suffixes
–(y)EcEK, –(I)yor, and –(I/E)r (but not by –TI, –sE, or –mElI). Forms such as gerek-ti and
gerek-se can be analysed in terms of the projectional suffixes (to be discussed in chapter 24)
added to the noun gerek.
When used as a verb, gerek- is impersonal (it takes no personal suffixes) and occurs mostly
with verbal complements (e.g. the personal and impersonal constructions already discussed)
and hardly with any noun phrases.
Sabırlı ol-mak gerek-ecek.

It will be necessary to be patient.
Böyle ol-ma-sı gerek-iyor.
It must be so.
Üç yıl hapis yat-ma-sı gerek-iyor-du.
She had to go to prison for three years.
Örnek ver-mek gerek-ir-se . . .
If an example is needed . . .
Yalnız bir ziyaret değil, bir barışma gerek-iyor-du.
Not only a visit was needed, but also a reconciliation.
Participles (see sections 32.1 and 32.4) of gerek- are rather numerous. Simple examples are:
Ne yap-mak gerek-tiğ-in-i bil-mi-yor-um.

I don’t know what must be done.
Bu, kesinlikle yap-ıl-ma-ma-sı gerek-en bir şey.
This is something that should absolutely not be done.
Ben söyle-me-m, gerek-en-ler-i söyle-di-m.
I won’t say (it), I have said all that was needed to be said.
Another type of derived forms are adverbial expressions in gerektiğinde ‘if / when neces-
sary’, gerekirse ‘if needed’, and gerekirken ‘while needed’. For example:
Köpeğ-i ben-im gezdir-me-m gerek-ir-ken, köpek ben-i gezdir-iyor.

Whereas I am supposed to walk the dog, the dog walks me.
22.1.7 Enforcement
The notion of enforcing, compelling, and the like is expressed by means of zorunda. This
word is used as predicate and takes projectional and personal suffixes. Popular expressions
are based on zorunda kalmak ‘to be forced / compelled’ and zorunda bırakmak ‘to leave no
choice / enforce’. These constructions take infinitival complements in –mEk.
Göçebe bir hayat yaşa-mak zorunda-yız.

We are compelled to live the life of nomads.
Biraz daha bekle-mek zorunda kal-acağ-ız.
We will have to wait a little longer.
Böylece, Millî Meclis de İstanbul’da toplan-ma-mak zorunda kal-ır.

In this way the National Assembly is forced not to hold meetings in Istanbul.
Asker-ler-i, kendi aile-lerin-e ateş et-mek zorunda bırak-ma-mak için
kendi memleket-lerin-den çok uzak-lar-a gönder-iyor-lar.
They send the soldiers to places far away from their native region, so as not to
force them to shoot at their own families.
22.1.8 Obligation
The notion of external obligation is expressed by mecbur ‘to be obliged’ and by mecbur
kalmak ‘to be obliged’. Both constructions take complements with the dative case marker.
İlave et-me-ye mecbur-um ki . . .

I have to add (to this) that . . .
Nereye git-se-niz yan-ınız-da ol-ma-ya mecbur-um.
Wherever you go, I am obliged to stay at your side.
Daha iyi ve daha çok çalış-ma-ya mecbur-sunuz.
You must / have the obligation to work better and harder.
Zaten buna mecbur değil-im, efendim.
Moreover, I have no obligation to do so, sir.
Bun-lar Rodop dağ-ların-a sığın-ma-ya mecbur kal-dı-lar.
These people had to hide in the Rodope Mountains.
A related word is the adjective mecburî ‘obligatory, mandatory, compulsory’:
Yurd-umuz-da ilköğretim mecburî-dir.

In our native country basic education is compulsory.
O dönem-de askerlik ödev-i Hıristiyan-lar için de mecburî ol-muş-tu.
In that period military service became compulsory for Christians too.
The usage of the noun mecburiyet ‘compulsion, obligation, duty’ and its derivative form
mecburiyetinde plus personal suffix ‘to be obliged’ can be illustrated as follows:
Deve sürücü-lerin-in otuz gün-de bir eş-leri-yle cinsel ilişki-de bulun-mak

mecburiyet-leri var.
The camel drivers have the duty to have sexual intercourse with their
women every thirty days.
Bu rakam-lar-ı 30’a, 40’a, 50’ye çıkar-mak mecburiyetinde-yiz.
We have to raise these figures to 30, 40, and 50.
22.1.9 Negational forms
A negated complement of predicates such as gerek, lâzım, gerekli, and lüzumlu does not
change the aspect of ‘must, have to’, et cetera.
Bun-u yap-ma-ma-n gerek.

You mustn’t / shouldn’t do it.
Köpek-ler-den kork-ma-mak lâzım.
You shouldn’t be afraid of dogs.
Bu iki şey-i karıştır-ma-mak gerekli-dir.
You (really) shouldn’t / mustn’t confuse these two things.
Note that gereksiz and lüzumsuz are never combined with a negated complement, owing to
the fact that they have negative semantics themselves. Correct usage is shown by:
Artık geriye bak-mak gereksiz.

It is not necessary any more to look back. / There is no need to look back any more.
Daha fazla-sın-ı oku-mak gereksiz.
It is not necessary to read more (of it).
Both gereksiz olur and lüzumsuz olur have the meaning of ‘unnecessary / not needed’.
Daha fazla detay-a in-mek gereksiz olur kanısında-yım.

In my opinion there is no need to go into the details too deeply.
Önce de de-diğ-im gibi bun-lar-ı bura-da anlat-ma-m çok lüzumsuz olur.
That I tell all this here, just as I said it before, is very superfluous.
Together with a negated complement the meaning of gereksiz olur is ‘inappropriate /

unsuitable / not right’ etc.
Toplantı-ya katıl-ma-mak çok gereksiz olur, bence.

I think it is no good not to go to the meeting.
Also various forms of gerekmek and mecbur (but not of zorunda) can take a negated com-
plement in order to express what should not happen.
Unut-ma-mak gerek-ir ki . . .

One should not forget that . . . / It is necessary not to forget that . . .
Bu nokta-da açıklığ-ı, netliğ-i kaybet-me-me-ye mecbur-uz.
On this point we are obliged not to lose openness and transparency.
Now, when the predicate expressing ‘to need / be necessary / must’, et cetera is made
negative, then the meaning shifts to ‘need not’. The adjectives lâzım ‘to be needed / need’
(but not gerek), as well as gerekli ‘needed’ and gereksiz ‘not needed’ can also be negated. This
is done by değil.
Bu ban-a lâzım değil.

I don’t need that.
Çocuk sahib-i ol-mak için izin, ruhsat filan lâzım değil.
A permit or a licence, or something like that, is not needed to have children.
Fenerbahçe’ye Hamit gibi adam lâzım değil. Daha kaliteli adam lâzım.
Fenerbahçe needs no people like Hamit. There is a need for better men.
Ban-a bir öykü anlat, gerçek ol-ma-sı gerekli değil.
Just tell me some story, it need not be true.
Şimdi anlı-yor-um ki bu gereksiz değil.
Now I understand that this is not needless / not unnecessary.
As was said in section 22.1.3, gerek / lüzum ‘necessity’ can be negated by addition of yok.
Also in these cases, a translation in terms of ‘not needed’ is possible.
Bun-a gerek yok.

That is not necessary.
Onlar-a bir şey söyle-me-ye gerek yok.
No need to say anything to them.
An interpretation as ‘need not’ is particularly clear in the negated forms of gerekmek.
Okul-da oku-mak için sınav-a gir-mek gerek-mi-yor.

To register at that school you need not take an entrance exam.
Biz-i yakala-mak için fazla koş-ma-ları gerek-me-yecek-ti.
In order to arrest us it wouldn’t be necessary for them to run too fast.
Anla-ma-m, gör-me-m bile gerek-me-z.
I don’t get it, I need not even see it.
Bil-mek gerek-mi-yor.
Needless to know. / Useless to know.
Mutlaka öyle ol-ma-sı gerek-me-z.
That is not necessarily so.
For zorunda and mecbur negation is done with değil.
Kimse-ye hesap ver-mek zorunda değil-im.

I don’t have to answer to anyone.
Geri ver-mek zorunda değil-sin.
You need not give it back.
22.2 Hypothesis: If . . . 251
Bun-a mecbur değil-im.

I need not do that. / I have no obligation to do that.
Bun-u kabul et-me-ye mecbur değil-siniz.
You don’t have to / need not accept this / agree with this.
22.1.10 Injunctions
As will be set out in section 37.5.2, an order or command can be expressed by an infinitival

verb form plus the word var ‘there is’ and a prohibition (‘one can / may / should not’) by an
infinitival verb form plus the word yok. Here is a taste of these constructions.
Ama beter-in beter-i şu-dur: Sus-mak var-dı.

But the very worst is this: You / One had to shut up!
Artık tuz ye-mek yok.
I / You / She / He / One may eat no salt any more. / ‘Using salt is forbidden’.
22.2 Hypothesis: If . . .
By means of the suffix –sE the hypothetical character of an action or event is expressed.
These are not factual events, but actions or events which are being presented as assump-
tions, suppositions, or hypotheses. This form is often referred to as the irrealis and such a
construction serves solely as the background for a second state of affairs. The suffix –sE is
followed by personal suffixes of Type 2. Here is the full paradigm:
git-se-m suppose I go; if I go

git-se-n suppose you go; if you go
git-se suppose she goes; if she goes
git-se-k suppose we go; if we go
git-se-niz suppose you go; if you go
git-se-ler suppose they go; if they go
Examples are:
Aşağı tükür-se-m sakal, yukarı tükür-se-m bıyık.

If I spit down it is in my beard, if I spit up it is in my moustache.
Ne yan-a git-se-m yaka-m-ı bırak-mı-yor.
Whatever way I (might) go, she does not leave me in peace.
Bak, bun-u ben bil-me-m, bir general-e sor-sa-n daha iyi ed-er-sin.
Look, I don’t know that, you would do better if you ask a general.
Ne yap-sa, ne söyle-se direniş sür-üyor.
Whatever he does or says, the opposition goes on.
Başka bir gezegen-de ol-sa-k, bu çok daha rahat yapıl-ır-dı.
If we were on another planet, this would go (be done) much more easily.
Şu anda ses-im iyi değil; zaten söyle de-se-niz de söyle-yeme-m.

I am not in good voice now; anyway, if you say ‘sing!’, then I can’t do it.
Ben-i kepaze ed-iyor de-se-niz daha doğru ol-ur.
It is more correct if you say ‘she disgraces me’.
Hiç söyle-me-se-ler daha iyi!
It is better if they don’t say anything at all!
Two typical modes of usage, both very frequent in everyday speech, will be elucidated here.
First, the question particle and the first person (singular and plural) can be combined with
the suffix –sE. In terms of its meaning this combination resembles that of the optative (see
chapter 19), but the present form is much more compelling.
Yoksa bura-dan kaç-sa-m mı? What if I ran away from here?

Telefon et-se-m mi? What if I phoned (him / her / them)?
Ver-se-m mi, acaba? And if I gave it, then what?
Ye-se-k mi? What if we ate something?
Gid-ip bak-sa-k mı? Why don’t we go and have a look?
Adam başı 75 bin de-se-k mi? What if we said 75 grand a person?
Birlikte yürü-se-k mi? What if we walk up together?
Secondly, the form in –sE is colloquially used to express a wish for which normally the
optative would be used (see chapter 19). In the present construction a verb in –sE is preceded
by the word bir, and unlike the constructions just discussed, they can be formed for all
grammatical persons.
Ah, ne yap-ma-m gerek-tiğ-in-i bir bil-se-m!

Ah, I wish I knew what to do!
Ah, nasıl sarhoş ol-mak isti-yor-um, bir bil-se-n!
Ah, I really feel like getting drunk, if you only knew!
Ah, ne yap-ma-sı gerek-tiğ-in-i bir bil-se!
Ah, if only he knew what to do!
Ah, bir bil-se-niz ne mükemmel bir Rusça konuş-uyor!
Ah, if only you knew what beautiful Russian he speaks!
Yemek-ten sonra bir git-se-k!
What if we went after dinner!
Bir gör-se-niz nasıl sarıl-ıyor-lar-dı birbir-lerin-e.
You should have seen how they embraced each other.
Ben-i bir dinle-se-n!
If only you would listen to me!
Hakk-ınız-da söylen-en-ler-i bir duy-sa-ydı-nız!
You should have heard all that is being said about you!
The similar projectional suffix –(y)sE will be discussed in section 24.3.

PART V
SE N T E NC E ST RU CT U R E
Parts I–IV were intended to pave the way to a good understanding of the structure of three
types of sentence: nominal, existential, and verbal sentences. Their properties will be sum-
marized in chapter 23, and in chapter 24 it will be shown how these types can be made
subject to several kinds of suffixes: past, reportative / inferential, and hypothesis.
Chapter 25 is on plurality, with three burning questions: when is agreement / concord
required? when can one decide to postpone suffixation? and how can the role of the plural
suffix be explored? Chapter 26 goes into the question of how noun phrases are joined
(linked) by particles and chapter 27 is on clause linking. The complements a postposition
can take are discussed in chapter 28. In chapter 29 it is made clear that the order of suffixes
in nouns and verbs is strict, and that such an ordering holds for words in noun phrases as
well. Constituent order in main clauses, however, seems to have a considerable degree of
variation.
23
Simple sentences
Embroidering on the distinction made in chapter 18 on negation, this chapter discusses the
full spectrum of simple sentences. These are based on a nominal, existential, or verbal
predicate. Nominal sentences have a predicate based on a noun, a pronoun, a demonstra-
tive, or a genitive-possessive construction. These will be dealt with in section 23.1.
Existential sentences are based on two predicates only: var ‘there is’ and its negational
counterpart yok. Such structures are essential when it comes to expressing availability or
possession; see section 23.2. The final section, 23.3, is on verbal predicates, showing that
there are two ordering patterns for the relative positions of the question particle and per-
sonal endings. Furthermore, negated and questioned forms, as well as combinations thereof
are discussed for all these types of predicate. For each of these types what properties they
have will be investigated, and how they are built up in terms of the ordering of subject,
object(s), adverbial phrases, and predicate.
23.1 Nominal sentences
Simple nominal sentences have only a subject and a predicate and a noun phrase fulfils the
function of predicate. This can be negated, questioned, and negated and questioned at the
same time.
23.1.1 Noun phrase
The predicate of a nominal sentence is formed by a noun phrase. This can be based on a
noun or an adjective. In chapter 9 it was briefly indicated how such sentences are built up.
In the first example the predicate is based on the adjective zengin ‘rich’, itself further
modified by çok ‘very’. In the second series of examples the core of the noun phrase is a
noun, in the third series the predicate is formed by a possessive construction, and the
fourth series is based on nouns in the locative.

Bu, yeni bir araba. This is a new car.
Hasan öğretmen. Hasan is a teacher.
Ali Türkçe öğretmen-i. Ali is a teacher of Turkish.
Ali, o adam-ın kardeş-i. Ali is a brother of this man.
Aliye öğretmen-imiz. Aliye is our teacher.
Fatma şu anda İzmir’de. Fatma is now in Izmir.
Çocuk-lar bahçe-de. The children are in the garden.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
256 Simple sentences
Like nouns, question words, possessive pronouns, and demonstratives, all in inflected
form, can also function as predicates.
Rusça öğretmen-imiz bu. Our Russian teacher is this person (here).

Bu araba kim-in? Whose car is this?
Bu kitap-lar ben-im değil. These books are not mine.
Hasan nasıl? How is Hasan (doing)?
Arkadaş-ın nereli? Where does your friend come from?
Grammatically speaking, the sentences represented here are all forms of the third person
singular. Since Turkish has no auxiliary verb for ‘to be’ that can be applied to this type of
sentence, constructions along the lines of ‘I am such-and-such’ and ‘You are this-or-that’
are structured by adding a personal suffix of Type 1. Note that this type of personal suffix
also serves in the verbal forms of sections 20.1–20.3 and 20.5. Compare:
Öğretmen-im. I am a teacher.
Zengin-sin. You are rich.
Hollandalı-yız. We are Dutch.
Nasıl-sınız? And how are you doing?
Onlar İngiliz. They are English.
The third person plural suffix –lEr is not applied in qualifications such as the last example.
For such matters, see sections 25.1 and 25.3.
23.1.2 Negation
A nominal sentence is negated by the particle değil ‘not’. This particle can be inflected for
person; the personal suffix follows değil.
Ben zengin değil-im. I am not rich.

Sen öğretmen değil-sin. You are not a teacher.
Jan Hollandalı değil. Jan is not a Dutchman.
Otobüs-te değil-iz. We are not in the bus.
İyi değil-siniz. You are not well.
Onlar da Türk değil. They, too, are not Turkish.
23.1.3 Interrogative
The interrogative form of nominal sentences is made by placing the question particle mI
after the predicate and, if need be, this is followed by a personal suffix. This leads to:
Ben zengin mi-yim? Am I rich?

Sen öğretmen mi-sin? Are you a teacher?
Jan Hollandalı mı? Is Jan a Dutchman?
Otobüs-te mi-yiz? Are we in a bus?
İyi mi-siniz? Are you OK?
Onlar da Türk mü? Are they Turks too?
Combined with the negational particle, the question particle gives:
Ben zengin değil mi-yim? Aren’t I rich?

Sen öğretmen değil mi-sin? Aren’t you a teacher?
Jan Hollandalı değil mi? Isn’t Jan Dutch?
Otobüs-te değil mi-yiz? Aren’t we in the bus?
İyi değil mi-siniz? Aren’t you well?
Onlar da Türk değil mi? Aren’t they Turks too?
23.1.4 Constituent order
The general pattern for the constituent order in nominal sentences is:
(adverbial phrases) + subject + (adverbial phrases) + predicate
in which:
subject = noun phrase

adverbial phrase = noun phrase
predicate = noun phrase + (negation) + (question) + (person)
Here are a few more examples to illustrate this pattern:
Henüz pek başarılı değil-iz. We are not very successful yet.

Neden biz de böyle değil-iz? Why aren’t we also like this / that?
Hep-imiz insan değil mi-yiz? Aren’t we all human beings?
Biz sen-in aile-n değil mi-yiz? Aren’t we your family?
Farkında değil mi-siniz? Aren’t you aware of it?
Aç değil mi-sin? Aren’t you hungry?
23.1.5 On transparency
Two other constructions must be discussed. These follow the pattern described in the pre-
vious section, although they are not always transparent at first glance. They consist of com-
binations of a possessive and a personal suffix and combinations of a case marker and a
personal suffix.
According to the model of section 6.2, noun phrases have the following general shape:
stem + (plural suffix) + (possessive suffix) + (case marker)
When a noun phrase is applied as a predicate in a nominal sentence, a number of other

suffixes can follow. These endings are suffixes for negation, question, and person. This
extended model can be represented thus:
predicate = stem + (plural suffix) + (possessive suffix) + (case marker)

+ (negation) + (question particle) + (personal suffix)
Now, combining a noun stem, for instance dost ‘friend’, with only a possessive and a
personal suffix, the following structures are the result. In these examples the suffix –TIr (see
section 24.7.1) is spelt out as –dur.
dost-um-sun you are my friend

dost-um-(dur) he is my friend
dost-um-sunuz you are my friend
dost-un-um I am your friend
dost-un-(dur) he is your friend
dost-u-yum I am his / her friend
dost-u-sun you are his / her friend
dost-u-(dur) she is his / her friend
dost-u-sunuz you are his / her friend
dost-umuz-sun you are our friend
dost-umuz-(dur) he is our friend
dost-umuz-sunuz you are our friend
dost-unuz-um I am your friend
dost-unuz-(dur) she is your friend
dost-unuz-uz we are your friend
The following examples were found in literary texts:
Bu gece misafir-im-sin. Tonight you are my guest.

Bu gece konuğ-unuz-uz. Tonight we are your guests.
Ben sen-in tek oğl-un-um. I am your only son.
Siz biz-im herşey-imiz-siniz. You are everything to us.
Ben komşu-nuz-um. I am your neighbour.
Ben siz-in çocuğ-unuz-um. I am your child.
Biricik çocuğ-umuz-sun. You are our only child.
The second type of construction that should be discussed here is based on a noun phrase
with a case marker followed by a personal suffix. Some examples have been given before,
but are repeated here for the sake of convenience:
Fatma şu anda İzmir’de.
Fatma is now in Izmir.
Otobüs-te-yiz.
We are on the bus.
In these examples the predicate is based on a noun phrase in the locative Also a noun
phrase in the ablative can be used as a predicate and be followed by a personal suffix. Such
an expression would be Nere-den-sin? ‘Where do you come from?’ (see section 7.1), to
which an appropriate answer would be İstanbul’dan-ım ‘From Istanbul’.
In case an adjective or a noun, rather than a place name, is the basis of such a construc-
tion, the plural suffix preceding the ablative is obligatory and the meaning of the whole
shifts to ‘belong to’. Compare:
Rüzgâr Kule-si, antik çağ-dan sağlam kal-an ender bina-lar-dan(-dır).

The Rüzgar tower is one of the few buildings that remains entirely intact
from the classical period.
Aslında sen de, o yurtsever-ler-den-sin.
In fact, you too belong to those patriots.
Personal pronouns in the role of predicate are also included in this system:
Ben de onlar-dan-ım.
I too belong to them.
Sen biz-ler-den-sin.
You belong to us.
Tanı-r mı-yım sen-i ben, kim-ler-den-sin?
Do I know you, where do you belong to? / Whose are you?
For the verbal counterpart of this construction, see section 31.7.3.
23.1.6 Embedded clauses
The final paragraph of this section goes into the question of how a nominal sentence con-
taining a subject with a possessive suffix can be used (‘embedded’) as an adjectival phrase
in another sentence. Assuming that some kız ‘girl’ is given in a certain situation, the follow-
ing example of a nominal sentence is grammatically correct:
Bir bacağ-ı alçılı.

Her one leg is in a plaster cast.
Although there is no noun phrase with a genitive (this would have been kız-ın ‘of the girl’)
in this sentence, it is obvious to whom that bir bacağ-ı (a leg-poss3s) relates, because its
antecedent (in this case kız ‘girl’) is given.
Interestingly, short sentences of this type can be used as adjectival and adverbial phrases
as well, even without antecedents. In the next example the sentence bir bacağı alçılı is
applied as an adverbial phrase:
Ora-da bir bacağ-ı alçılı bir kız otur-uyor-du.

There sat a girl with one leg in a plaster cast.
In such cases the suffix –i attached to bacak ‘leg’can be related to bir kız ‘a girl’, which is to
be found further on in the sentence. This suffix can be interpreted as the possessive for the
third person singular and is called the anticipatory possessive. For a detailed discussion of
this matter, see section 28.4.
A second application of a noun phrase with a subject marked with a possessive suffix is
the adverbial phrase. Assuming adam ‘man’ as given this time, then the following sentence
is grammatically correct as well:
El-ler-i hava-da.
His hands are in the air (raised, hands up).
Used as an adverbial phrase, this sentence can be placed as follows (see also
section 32.2.4).
Adam, el-ler-i hava-da araba-nın yan-ın-da dur-uyor-du.

The man stood with his hands in the air beside the car.
Adam, araba-nın yan-ın-da dur-uyor-du, el-ler-i hava-da.
The man stood beside the car with his hands in the air.
Yet another domain in which such small sentences are applied is that of specification of
circumstance or detail. The format is an adverbial phrase with the postposition ile ‘with’ or
the related instrumental case marker –(y)lE. This will be discussed at length in section 28.4,
and the following is meant solely as an appetizer:
Adam, araba-nın yan-ın-da el-in-de silah-ı-yla dur-uyor-du.

The man stood beside the car with his weapon in hand.
23.2 Existential sentences: to be and to have
Existential sentences are about existence or availability: ‘there is or there is not’. In simple
existential sentences of Turkish this is expressed by either var ‘there is / are’ or by yok ‘there
is / are not’. Both these words occupy the position of the predicate.
23.2.1 Presence and absence
As has been indicated, existential sentences denote the existence, presence, or availability
of something or other. The core words in such expressions are the words var ‘there is / are’
and its negational counterpart yok ‘there is / are not’. These words are used as predicates,
that is, an existential sentence usually ends with either of these words, but they can also be
followed by a question particle or an adverbial phrase. Constituent ordering in existential
sentences can now be summarized as follows:
23.2 Existential sentences: to be and to have 261
(adverbials) + subject + var / yok + (question particle) + (adverbials)
Adverbial phrases for time and place are of course not uncommon: yet, if something exists,
it must be somewhere in space and time and hence the usual adverbial phrases are of that
kind. Adverbials of this type precede the subject of the sentence, the word that refers to
what actually exists, is present or available. Consider:
Dava-da yedi erkek sanık var.

In the court case there are seven male suspects.
Siz-de on-larca komik hikâye var.
In your group, there are dozens of nice stories.
Okul-lar-da ciddî bir uyuşturucu problem-i var.
In the schools there is a serious drugs problem.
Bu akşam bütün otel-ler-de sıkı bir güvenlik kontrol-ü var.
Tonight there is an intensive security check in all hotels.
In negative sentences the same ordering is encountered:
Başka bir alternatif yok. There is no other alternative.

Bu konu-da hiç şüphe yok. On this point there is no doubt at all.
Biz-im bakkal-ımız-da ‘yok’ yok. Our grocer does not sell ‘no’.
If the adverbial phrase bears emphasis or if it contains new information, it must be placed
before var or yok.
Bu ilke bütün memleket-ler-de var.

This principle exists in all countries.
Koca-ya karşı özveri ve içtenlik yalnız onlar-da var-dı.
The sacrifice and sincerity with regard to the husband was found only in them.
Kendin-i beğenmişlik ve şımarıklık on-da yok-tu.
Arrogance and spoiltness were not present in her.
Çoluğ-um çocuğ-um da bura-da yok.
My wife and children too aren’t here.
In the next example the emphasis is on the fragment starting after the comma and ending
with the postposition sayesinde ‘thanks to’.
Ney-imiz var-sa, Atatürk’ün kur-duğ-u cumhuriyet-in nimet-ler-i sayesinde var.

Whatever we have, it is thanks to the blessings of the republic Ataturk founded.
In case the subject, or the thing or object the place an adverbial or temporal adverbial
phrase refers to, is obvious or self-evident, the corresponding noun phrase is often placed
after the predicate. Particularly in colloquial language this is rather common:
Yok, böyle bir şey. It doesn’t exist, something like that.

İki tane kazan var, ora-da. There are two kettles, over there.
Bak-ın, bir çare yok, şu anda. Look, there’s no solution, right now.
23.2.2 Possession: genitive
In section 9.3 the fact was touched upon that genitive-possessive constructions combined
with var or yok are the Turkish equivalent of ‘to have’ in the sense of ‘to possess’. This can be
illustrated by:
Komşu-m-un yeni bir araba-sı var. My neighbour has a new car.

On-un para-sı yok. He has no money.
Bun-un hiçbir mana-sı yok. This makes no sense.
The genitive-marked noun phrase can also be left out when the antecedent is known or can
be inferred on the basis of the context or situation.
Vücud-um-la bir sorun-um yok. I have no problems with my body.

Çok sevimli bir kız-ı var. She has a very sweet daughter.
Telefon-un yok mu? You have no telephone?
O kadar para-nız var mı? Have you got so much money?
Possessive forms of var and yok combined mean: ‘possessions, belongings, things’:
Bütün var-ım-ı yoğ-um-u sat-ıp ye-di-m, bir şey-im kal-ma-dı.

I have sold and consumed all my possessions and there’s nothing left.
Bütün var-ın yoğ-un sırt-ın-da-ki elbise.
Your only belongings are the clothes on your body (back).
Yan-ın-da—bütün var-ı yoğ-u ol-an—bir keman-ı var-dı.
He had a violin with him, which was all he possessed.
Sonra hamal tut-tu, var-ımız-ı yoğ-umuz-u al-dı götür-dü, biz-i yoksul bırak-tı.
Then he hired a porter, took all our things away, and left us behind impoverished.
23.2.3 Possession: locative
An alternative to the genitive-possessive construction just mentioned is a locative phrase in

combination with var and yok.
Madam Döviz’le evlenmiş, çünkü Madam Döviz’de para var çok.

He is married to madam Dough, because madam Dough has money, a lot!
Babacık dön-en-e kadar el-ler-in-i çırp, çünkü baba-da para var ama anne-de yok.
Clap your hands until Daddy comes back, because Pa has money but Ma hasn’t.
This construction is rather popular for ‘possessors’ based on a pronoun. As is the case in
the last two examples given, the locative component can be left out.
Otobüs-ü kaçır-sa-n da ben-de araba var.

In case you miss the bus, I have a car.
Bu ikinci kapı demir-den-dir, fakat ben-de anahtar-ı var.
This second door is made of iron, but I have a key (to it).
Ben-im para-ya çok ihtiyac-ım var-dı ama sen-de metelik yok-tu.
I had a great need for money, but you had not a red penny.
Öyle ise sen-de kabahat yok!
If that is the case, you are not to blame (you have no guilt).
In the following examples the locative components fall in Focus position by directly
preceding var or yok. These locative phrases bear emphasis or contain new information and
cannot therefore be left out.
Kehanet güc-ü ben-de yok, sen-de var!

I have not the power of soothsaying, you have it.
O şey ne-ydi, neden onlar-da var-dı da ben-de yok-tu, sahiden anla-yama-dı-m.
What was that thing, why did they have it and not I? I really don’t understand it.
Adres-i ben-de yok; telefon-u sen-de var mı?
Her address I have not; do you have her phone number?
Çünkü ben-de ol-ma-yan sen-de var.
Because what I don’t have, you do have it.
Other emphasized elements also directly precede var and yok:
Bu his, ben-de de var-dı.

That feeling, I too had it.
O korku ben-de çoktan var! Fakat ban-a hiç inan-maz-lar!
That fear, I have it a long time. But they don’t believe me at all.
23.2.4 Tail constructions
A noun phrase in the genitive can be placed at the end of the entire sentence, as is also the
case with adverbial phrases for time and place. Compare:
Yeni arkadaş-ın-ın ağz-ı var dil-i yok, sanki.

Her new boyfriend does have a mouth but no tongue, it seems.
Bu ev-in dış-ın-da bir hayat-ı yok, neredeyse.
Outside this house she has no life, nearly.
Para-m yok, ben-im.

Money I don’t have.
Sigorta-ları maalesef yok, onlar-ın.
Insurance they don’t have, unfortunately.
Interrogative sentences are formed with the question particle mI following var or yok:
Ban-a biraz para-n var mı?

Do you have some money for me?
Mutfak-ta süt yok mu?
Is there no milk in the kitchen?
When a request is turned down or an order disobeyed, the combination var mı is often
used rhetorically in colloquial speech to give extra emphasis.
Şun-u yap-sana!
—Yap-mı-yor-um işte, var mı?!
You just do that!
—I do not do that, you hear me!
Çekil-sene be! [offensive]
—Çekil-mi-yor-um, var mı?!
Bugger off!
—I won’t, really!
23.2.5 Personal presence
When ‘existence’ is related to a person (speaker or hearer), then ben ‘I’, sen ‘you’, biz ‘we’ or
siz ‘you’ figure as the subject of the existential construction and a personal suffix of Type 1 is
added to var and yok. The stem yok and not yoğ- is used for such constructions.
Bütün ev-de bir ben var-ım. In the entire house there’s only me.
Düşün-üyor-um, öyle-yse var-ım. I think so I exist.
İyi ki var-sın! How good it is that I have you!
Her yer-de sen var-sın şimdi. You are all over the place now.
Karşı-m-da siz var-sınız. Now I have you in front of me.
Şu an-da ben yok-um, on-un için. At this moment I am not here for him.
Yarın-dan sonra yok-um artık. After tomorrow I am gone.
Ben bu mesele-de yok-um. I have nothing to do with this.
Bir ara ortalarda yok-tu-n. You weren’t around for some time.
Siz yok-tu-nuz, ikinci dönem. You were absent in the second term.
Biz bugün var-ız yarın yok-uz, siz daha genç-siniz.
Today we exist (and) tomorrow we don’t (any more), (but) you are (still) young.
The third person plural does not require a personal suffix on var or yok.
Parti-de onlar da var.

They too are at the party.
Sonra onlar da yok.
Later they too weren’t there (any more).
Also these constructions can take an adverbial phrase after var or yok:
Yalnız değil-sin ben var-ım yan-ın-da.

You are not alone, I am with you.
Question forms of these sentence types actually occur only sporadically. In two applications
var mı-sın is preceded by a dative complement:
Bahs-e var mı-sın?

—Var-ım!
You want to bet?
—Yes!
Bu konu-da ben-im-le iddia-ya var mı-sın?
Do you want to bet with me on this?
Secondly, the question var mısın, yok musun? means ‘are you in or out?’, as in:
Nasıl bir iş-e karış-tı-n böyle?

—Her zaman-kin-den daha beter bir iş değil. Var mısın, yok musun?
İş ne?
—Biraz gözetleme, adam kaçırma, belki de devriye nöbet-i falan.
With what kind of work are you involved?
— It’s not work that is worse than I’ve done at any other time. Are you in or out?
What work is it?
—Bit of spying, abducting people, and perhaps patrolling, that sort of thing.
Bura-m-a kadar bu iş-e bat-tı-m. Bu iş-te var mısın, yok musun? de-di.
Ben ‘yok-um’ de-mek-le kal-ma-dı-m.
He said: I’ve sunk this far with this work. Would you join this business?
I couldn’t say ‘I won’t’. / I couldn’t say ‘no’ any more.
Thirdly, the exclamations sen yok musun (sen)! and siz yok musunuz (siz)! are said to
someone who has certain vices or who has done something wrong. It is difficult to find an
appropriate translation for these expressions, and sometimes this is not even necessary,
particularly if some other qualification is already present in the sentence. The response yok
mu-yum in the first example is actually an occasional construction. Here you go:
Ne kâfir şey-sin, sen yok musun sen!

—Yok mu-yum?
What an infidel / devil you are!
—Am I?
Kadın kız-ıp ses-in-i yükselt-ti:

Sen yok musun sen! Ah, san-a ne de-di-m?
The woman got angry and raised her voice:
You’re a pain in the neck! What did I tell you?
Kendi göz-ler-im-le gör-üp sonra da sen-in söz-ler-in-e mi inan-a-yım?
Uğursuz berber, hele sen yok musun! Tanrı-m, çıldır-ası-m gel-iyor.
Am I supposed to believe your words after I saw it with my own eyes?
You evil ‘beard coiffeur’! My God, I feel like getting very angry.
Murat gülümse-yerek, Ah, siz yok musunuz! de-di ve parmağ-ı ile on-u tehdit et-ti.
Murat said smilingly ‘Ah, you rascal!’ and raised his finger to threaten her.
There remains a short remark about two words which resemble inflected forms of var and
yok, but which have a different meaning. There is a verb varmak ‘to arrive’ that has the
indirect imperative form varsın ‘may he arrive’, as often used in the expression varsın gelsin
‘may she arrive and let her come’. Examples are:
Onlar da var-sın iste-dik-lerin-i söyle-sin-ler.

They too should come and say what they want.
Var-sın gel-sin karakış . . . Ben sen-i tanı-yalı hiç üşü-me-di-m ki!
Let the dead of winter come . . . I haven’t been cold at all since I’ve known you!
The adjective yoksun ‘depleted, deprived’ takes a complement with the ablative, as in:
Bu mutluluk-tan yoksun.
She is deprived of this happiness.
23.3 Verbal sentences
In verbal sentences the position of the predicate is taken by a verb form. This may vary
from a bare stem, as used as an imperative, to a form based on a verb stem expanded by a
negational suffix, an abilitative suffix, a tense form, and a personal suffix. The question par-
ticle should not be forgotten as a possible element in this expansion. Especially, the relation
between this particle and the personal markers attracts special attention in connection to
(word-internal) suffix ordering. More on this in section 23.3.1.
Constituent ordering in verbal sentences is treated in section 23.3.2.
23.3.1 Verbal predicate
A verbal sentence is a sentence that has a verb form fulfilling the role of the predicate.
In chapter 20 it was shown how a verb form can be built up as a stem plus a number of
suffixes. Regarding a negated verb stem extended with a suffix denoting a possibility (‘can’
or ‘may’), then other suffixes that follow are to be characterized as inflectional elements.
These are, of course, suffixes for the tenses past, present, and future as the first category,
projectional suffixes as the second category, and the sequence can be concluded with
personal suffixes as the third category.
Apart from what has been said in sections 18.2 and 19.1, one particular suffix has largely
remained undiscussed: that of the interrogative form. The question form for verbs is
expressed as mI, as is the case in nominal and existential sentences. It is placed directly
after the tense form and before a personal suffix of Type 1. Thus, the future tense can be
illustrated as follows:
yürü-yecek mi-yim? will I walk?

bul-acak mı-sın? will you find (it)?
ara-yacak mı? will she call?
bekle-yecek mi-yiz? are we going to wait?
var-acak mı-sınız? will you arrive?
yürü-yecek-ler mi? are they going to walk?
For the Present-1 (imperfect / imperfective) the same picture emerges:
bil-mi-yor mu-yum? don’t I know that?

tanı-yor mu-sun? do you know him / her?
dur-mu-yor mu? doesn’t he stop?
al-mı-yor mu-yuz? don’t we take it?
anlı-yor mu-sunuz? do you understand?
uyu-yor-lar mı? are they sleeping?
The past tense of indirect observation (Past-1) also follows this pattern:
al-ma-mış mı-yım? didn’t I take it?

al-ma-mış mı-sın? didn’t you take it?
al-ma-mış mı? didn’t she take it?
al-ma-mış mı-yız? didn’t we take it?
al-ma-mış mı-sınız? didn’t you take it?
al-ma-mış-lar mı? didn’t they take it?
That the formation of interrogative sentences based on a verb is highly regular also follows
from the question forms of the affirmative and negative forms of the tenseless Present-2. It
should be noted that the question form for the first person singular and plural contains
–mE-z, unlike for instance the affirmative forms git-me-m ‘I do not go’ and git-me-yiz ‘we
do not go’. The whole series is:
al-ır mı-yım? do I take?

al-ır mı-sın? do you take?
al-ır mı? does she take?
al-ır mı-yız? do we take?
al-ır mı-sınız? do you take?
al-ır-lar mı? do they take?
git-me-z mi-yim? don’t I go?
git-me-z mi-sin? don’t you go?
git-me-z mi? doesn’t he go?

git-me-z mi-yiz? don’t we go?
git-me-z mi-siniz? don’t you go?
git-me-z-ler mi? don’t they go?
The sole verb form that deviates from this regular question form is based on Past-2. The
question particle does not follow the past-tense suffix but the personal suffix:
çalış-tı-m mı? have I worked?

çalış-tı-n mı? have you worked?
çalış-tı mı? has he worked?
çalış-tı-k mı? have we worked?
çalış-tı-nız mı? have you worked?
çalış-tı-lar mı? have they worked?
This is the case with the negated forms as well:
çalış-ma-dı-m mı? haven’t I worked?

çalış-ma-dı-n mı? haven’t you worked?
çalış-ma-dı mı? hasn’t she worked?
çalış-ma-dı-k mı? haven’t we worked?
çalış-ma-dı-nız mı? haven’t you worked?
çalış-ma-dı-lar mı? haven’t they worked?
This ordering, ‘personal suffix + question particle’, is also found in the forms of the indirect
imperative as discussed in 18.2, as for instance, Gel-sin mi? ‘Should she come?’ and Bekle-
sin-ler mi? ‘Must they wait?’. Likewise, optative forms of 19.1, such as Sor-a-yım mı? ‘Shall
I ask?’ and Gid-e-lim mi? ‘Shall we go?’ follow this pattern.
These orderings are also found in certain forms taken from Anatolian dialects. Such
forms are rather popular among big city youngsters and are used in the literature to add
some local colour. In addition to colloquial forms such as gidecem instead of gid-eceğ-im
(see section 4.3) and gidiyom instead of gid-iyor-um for the first person singular, for the
second person singular gidecen instead of gid-ecek-sin can be heard, and gidiyon in lieu of
gid-iyor-sun. The question forms that go with these dialectal variants are gidecen mi? and
gidiyon mu? The alternative for gidelim is gidek, which is questioned as gidek mi?
23.3.2 Constituent order
The general pattern for the ordering of noun phrases in verbal sentences is:
(adverbials) + subject + (adverbials) + (direct object) + predicate
In this scheme the constituents subject, adverbials, and direct object are formed by noun
phrases. The predicate is formed on the basis of a verb.
This simple model can further be specified according to the structure of the predicate.
Because the place of the question particle is related to the tense form expressed on the
verbs, two orderings within the predicate can be distinguished: pattern A and pattern B.
The predicates of pattern A comprise the tense forms Present-1, Future, Past-1, Present-2,
and Present-3. Here is an example of each.
Yarın İzmir’e git-mek isti-yor-um. (Present-1)

Tomorrow I want to travel to Izmir.
Hasan bu akşam biz-e gel-ecek mi? (Future)
Will Hasan come to us tonight?
Uzun süre İstanbul’da otur-muş-sunuz. (Past-1)
They say you lived in Istanbul for a long time.
Tiyatro-ya hiç gid-er mi? (Present-2)
Does she ever go to the theatre?
Ben-im-kin-i iç-mek-te-sin şu anda. (Present-3)
You are currently drinking mine.
The tense forms Past-2 and Irrealis (Hypothesis) follow to pattern B. For instance:
Güzel bir bahçe parti-si ver-di-k. (Past-2)

We threw a nice garden party.
Aliye yeni bir araba al-ma-dı.
Aliye has not bought a new car.
Dün yemeğ-e çık-ma-dı-nız mı?
Didn’t you go out yesterday for dinner?
Birazdan ye-se-k mi? (Irrealis)
What if we were to eat shortly?
With extended stem = verb stem + (negation) + (abilitative) the order of the constituents can
be schematized as follows:
Pattern A: Predicate = Extended Stem + (Tense-1) + (Question) + (Person)

Tense-1 = –(I)yor Present-1
–(y)EcEK Future
–mIş Past-1
–(I/E)r / –mE-z Present-2
–mEk-tE Present-3
Pattern B: Predicate = Extended Stem + (Tense-2) + (Person) + (Question)
Tense-2 = –TI Past-2
–sE Irrealis
The model that was presented at the beginning of this section is valid for a so-called
unmarked sentence. This implies that there are other orderings as well.
The rules for constituent ordering in terms of adverbial phrases, subject, direct object,
and other objects (see chapter 9), are not easy to formulate because these constituents can
in principle be placed in any position in the sentence, preferably preceding the predicate.
A Turkish verbal sentence is as a matter of fact organized in terms of what is relatively
speaking the newest or most salient information that should be conveyed within a statement
(in the form of a sentence). More on these matters in chapter 29.
The most important thing at this stage is to keep in mind that the verbal predicate comes
last in the sentence and what the internal ordering is for the verbal suffixes, the question
particle, and the personal suffixes.
24
Projections
Tense is typically a trait of verbs and the suffixes associated with it cannot be applied to
members of other lexical categories. But still it is possible to imagine something expressed
by a nominal sentence to have been the case in the past. So what to do if one does not want
to say ‘This woman is rich’ but ‘This woman was rich’?
Turkish has a small number of suffixes which can be applied to all types of sentence
in order to create a certain projection. The first section deals with projection in the past,
–(y)TI, and interestingly, application to a tensed verbal predicate leads to compound tenses.
This suffix is called a ‘projectional suffix’ for the past and it will be dealt with in detail in
section 24.1. Next, the suffix associated with indirect observation (reported past, inference)
is –(y)mIş and is introduced in section 24.2. Thirdly, there is also a suffix which deals with
hypothetical statements and this suffix –(y)sE is discussed in section 24.3.
The suffixes –(y)TI, –(y)mIş and –(y)sE are in older texts based on the element i and are
written separately: idi, imiş, and ise. All these forms are referred to as a copula (‘linking
verb’) in certain grammar books since they, roughly speaking, correspond to forms of ‘to
be’. Yet other books include personal suffixes such as –(y)Im ‘I am’ and –sIn ‘you are’, et cet-
era as well in this notion, but the viewpoint of the present work is that this notion is superflu-
ous for Turkish because this language can obviously do without a ‘linking verb’. No further
mention of it will be made.
24.1 Past
As can be expected, Turkish has a special suffix to relate nominal and existential sentences to
the past. Moreover, it can be applied to verbal forms as well and this yields complex or com-
positional tenses. The form of this suffix is –(y)TI, and it should be emphasized that contrary
to the resembling suffix –TI, which was introduced in section 20.4, the present suffix bears
no stress. When –(y)TI is used, the stress always falls on the syllable that precedes it.
24.1.1 Nominal sentences
Applying the unstressed suffix –(y)TI to a number of nominal sentences yields:
Bu kadın çok zengin-di. This woman was very rich.

Hasan öğretmen-di. Hasan was a teacher.
Bu, yeni bir araba-ydı. It was a new car.
Ali Türkçe öğretmen-i-ydi. Ali was a teacher of Turkish.
Çocuk-lar bahçe-de-ydi. The children were in the garden.
O ne-ydi? What was that?
O adam kim-di? Who was this man?
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
272 Projections
Bu araba kim-in-di? Whose car was that?

Arkadaş-ın nereli-ydi? Where did your friend come from?
That this suffix must be placed after the full predicate follows from the following examples,
in which the stress is on the second syllable of değil.
Bu kadın çok zengin değil-di. This woman wasn’t very rich.

Hasan öğretmen değil-di. Hasan wasn’t a teacher.
Bu, yeni bir araba değil-di. This was not a new car.
Ali Türkçe öğretmen-i değil-di. Ali wasn’t a teacher of Turkish.
Çocuk-lar bahçe-de değil-di. The children were not in the garden.
The question particle mI comes after the predicate in the nominal sentence and is in turn
followed by the projectional suffix for the past. The stress shifts now to the syllable preced-
ing the question particle.
Bu kadın çok zengín mi-ydi? Was that woman very rich?

Hasan öğretmén mi-ydi? Was Hasan a teacher?
Bu, yeni bir arabá mı-ydı? Was that a new car?
Ali Türkçe öğretmen-í mi-ydi? Was Ali a teacher of Turkish?
Çocuk-lar bahçe-dé mi-ydi? Were the children in the garden?
A combination of negation and question particles gives the following picture:
Bu kadın zengin değil mi-ydi? Wasn’t that woman rich?

Hasan öğretmen değil mi-ydi? Wasn’t Hasan a teacher?
Bu, yeni bir araba değil mi-ydi? Wasn’t that a new car?
Ali Türkçe öğretmen-i değil mi-ydi? Wasn’t Ali a teacher of Turkish?
Çocuk-lar bahçe-de değil mi-ydi? Weren’t the children in the garden?
Finally, personal suffixes of Type 2 can be added:
Ben zengin değil mi-ydi-m? Wasn’t I rich?

Sen öğretmen değil mi-ydi-n? Weren’t you a teacher?
Jan Hollandalı değil mi-ydi? Wasn’t Jan a Dutchman?
Otobüs-te değil mi-ydi-k? Weren’t we in the bus?
İyi değil mi-ydi-niz? Weren’t you (doing) well?
Onlar da Türk değil-ler mi-ydi? Weren’t they too Turks?
The suffix under discussion is called a projectional suffix because it relates or projects the
entire sentence to the temporal axis ‘past-present-future’.
24.1.2 Existential sentences
Secondly, this projectional suffix can be applied to existential sentences. Again, a variety
of forms and combinations can be expected with respect to simultaneous application of
–(y)TI and the question particle.
24.1 Past 273
Başka bir alternatif yok. There’s no other alternative.

Başka bir alternatif yok mu? Is there no other alternative?
Başka bir alternatif yok-tu. There was no other alternative.
Başka bir alternatif yok mu-ydu? Was there no other alternative?
Ban-a biraz para-n var mı-ydı? Would you have some money for me?
Ban-a biraz para-n yok mu-ydu? Wouldn’t you have some money for me?
24.1.3 Verbal sentences
Thirdly, the suffix –(y)TI can be added to verb forms already inflected for tense and this
leads to a true explosion of possible combinations. A representative selection would be:
Bebek iç-iyor. The baby is drinking.

Bebek iç-iyor-du. The baby was drinking.
Bebek iç-mi-yor-du. The baby wasn’t drinking.
Bebek iç-iyor mu-ydu? Was the baby drinking?
Bebek iç-mi-yor mu-ydu? Wasn’t the baby drinking?
For the future tense the following combinations can be expected:
yürü-yecek-ti-m I was going to walk

bul-acak-tı-n you would find
ara-yacak-tı she was going to call
bekle-yecek-ti-k we would wait
var-acak-tı-nız you were going to arrive
yürü-yecek-ler-di they would walk
When the projectional suffix –(y)TI is combined with the suffix for Past-1, being –mIş, the
latter’s meaning is reduced to ‘past’ only (without the aspect ‘it seems’ or ‘they say’), to the
effect that this results in a compositional tense denoting an action or event completed in
the past (also referred to as ‘perfect(ive)’ or ‘pluperfect’). Consider:
al-mış-tı-m I had taken

al-mış-tı-n you had taken
al-mış-tı he had taken
al-mış-tı-k we had taken
al-mış-tı-nız you had taken
al-mış-lar-dı they had taken
Combination with Past-2 (–TI) is possible as well:
al-dı-ydı-m I had taken

al-dı-ydı-n you had taken
al-dı-ydı she had taken
al-dı-ydı-k we had taken
al-dı-ydı-nız you had taken
al-dı-ydı-lar they had taken
274 Projections
This suffix can be combined with Present-2 (–(I/E)r):
gid-er-di-m I went / used to go

gid-er-di-n you went / used to go
gid-er-di she went / used to go
gid-er-di-k we went / used to go
gid-er-di-niz you went / used to go
gid-er-ler-di they went / used to go
git-me-z-di-m I didn’t go / use to go
git-me-z-di-n you didn’t go / use to go
git-me-z-di he didn’t go / use to go
git-me-z-di-k we didn’t go / use to go
git-me-z-di-niz you didn’t go / use to go
git-me-z-ler-di they didn’t go / use to go
Present-3 takes the projectional suffix –(y)TI as well:
oku-mak-ta-ydı-m I was reading

oku-mak-ta-ydı-n you were reading
oku-mak-ta-ydı she was reading
oku-mak-ta-ydı-k we were reading
oku-mak-ta-ydı-nız you were reading
oku-mak-ta-ydı-lar they were reading
The forms for necessity (–mElI) can be represented as:
git-meli-ydi-m I had to go
git-meli-ydi-n you had to go
git-meli-ydi he had to go
git-meli-ydi-k we had to go
git-meli-ydi-niz you had to go
git-meli-ydi-ler they had to go
al-ma-malı-ydı-m I didn’t have to take
al-ma-malı-ydı-n you didn’t have to take
al-ma-malı-ydı she didn’t have to take
al-ma-malı-ydı-k we didn’t have to take
al-ma-malı-ydı-nız you didn’t have to take
al-ma-malı-ydı-lar they didn’t have to take
For hypothesis (–sE) the paradigm is as follows (for aspects of meaning, see section 24.5):
git-se-ydi-m if I had gone; had I only gone

git-se-ydi-n if you had gone; had you only gone
git-se-ydi if he had gone; had he only gone
git-se-ydi-k if we had gone; had we only gone
git-se-ydi-niz if you had gone; had you only gone
git-se-ler-di / -ydi-ler if they had gone; had they only gone
24.1 Past 275
git-me-se-ydi-m if I had not gone

git-me-se-ydi-n if you had not gone
git-me-se-ydi if she had not gone
git-me-se-ydi-k if we had not gone
git-me-se-ydi-niz if you had not gone
git-me-se-ler-di/-ydi-ler if they had not gone
24.1.4 Indirect imperatives
In chapters 18 and 19 a number of forms expressing wishes and desires have been intro-
duced, which now need some more elucidation in connection to projectional suffixes.
The indirect imperative forms –sIn and –sIn-lEr (third person singular and plural—see
sections 18.1 and 18.2) can be combined with the projectional suffix –(y)TI. Whereas Erol
gel-sin means ‘Erol must / should come’, Erol gel-sin-di then means ‘Erol should have come’.
Other examples are:
Bir iki gün bekle-sin-di, sonra karakol-a başvur-ur-du.

He should have waited a couple of days and then have gone to the police.
Ha öl-sün-dü, ha yaşa-sın-dı, ne değiş-ir-di ki, on-un için?
What would have changed for him, whether he would die or live?
Neden ben-im-le oyna-ma- sın-dı ki!
Why would she not have had (the obligation) to dance with me?
Ne ol-acak-sa ol-sun-du artık!
Whatever is going to happen should have happened long ago.
Examples of plural forms are:
Böyle bir yer-de niçin vitamin sat-sın-lar-dı?

Why would they sell vitamins in such a place?
Onlar ev iş-ler-i-yle çok fazla uğraş-ma-sın-lar-dı.
They shouldn’t have been concerned too much with housekeeping.
Furthermore, the optative suffixes –(y)E-yIm, –(y)E-sIn, –(y)E, –(y)E-lIm, and –(y)E-sInIz
(see chapter 19) also have a counterpart signalling the past. The general shape is: –(y)E-ydI,
to which a personal suffix of Type 2 can be attached.
Ben de siz-in-le gel-e-ydi-m, mutlaka ikna ed-er-di-m on-u.

I wish I had come with you, I would surely have convinced him.
Adam ol-a-ydı-n da kız-ın-ı bu hal-e düşür-me-ye-ydi-n!
I wish you’d been a man, so that you wouldn’t have brought your daughter in this
situation.
Ah keşke gel-e-ydi, keşke gel-e-ydi.
I wish that she had come, had she only come.
276 Projections
Öyle ol-acağ-ın-ı bil-e-ydi-k.

If only we had known that it would go that way.
Bari şapka-lar-ınız-ı da çıkar-a-ydı-nız!
If only you had taken off your hats!
Artık bunu yap-mak-tan vazgeç-e-ydi-ler, başka hile-ler düz-me-ye-ydi-ler.
I wish they had decided not to do this and hadn’t thought up other tricks.
Negative forms follow the regular pattern:
Şu son şişe-yi iç-me-ye-ydi-m keşke.

I wish I hadn’t finished that last bottle.
Keşke yalnız başıma ol-sa-ydı-m da sen ben-i rahatsız et-me-ye-ydi-n.
I wish I had been on my own and that you hadn’t disturbed me.
Hiç öyle bir şey ol-ma-ya-ydı.
I wish that a thing like this hadn’t happened..
Keşke kabul ve imza et-me-ye-ydi-k.
We shouldn’t have accepted and signed this.
Sakın on-u başka birin-e benzet-me-ye-ydi-niz.
It is to be hoped that you have not mistaken her for someone else.
Lâkin ben sakat doğ-muş i-se-m kabahat kim-de?
Ben-de mi, ana-m-da, baba-m-da mı?
Keşke dünya-ya getir-me-ye-ydi-ler!
If I am born disabled, who is to blame?
Is it me, my mother, my father?
If only they hadn’t put me in this world!
The following fragment is from a fairy tale about a sheep that is complaining about his
enemies: it nicely shows how all these desiderative forms can be applied simultaneously.
Birinci-si, keşke ömr-üm-de sen-i gör-me-ye-ydi-m;

ikinci-si, gör-dü-m, bari göz-ler-in kör ol-sa-ydı;
üçüncü-sü, dile-r-im, bütün kurt-lar veba-ya tutul-sun da geber-sin.
Firstly, I wish had never seen you in my life;
secondly, I did see you, then at least you should have been blind;
thirdly, I wish that all wolves will get the plague and perish.
Special forms based on olmak and participles will be dealt with in sections 37.1.5 and 37.2.8.
For instance:
Bari iyi bir-in-i seç-miş ol-a-ydı-nız.

I wish you had chosen a good one.
Ama neden kardeş-in-e zarar verecek bir şey yap-mış ol-sun-du ki?
But why would he have done something harmful to his brother?
24.2 Reportative and inferential
By means of the suffix –(y)mIş it is indicated that what the speaker or writer says or writes
has the extra meaning of ‘it seems that’ or ‘they say that’. The content can be characterized,
as it were, as second-hand information because the speaker or writer does not vouch for
the truth of what he or she says or writes.
24.2.1 Scope
When an action, event, or situation is not observed by the speaker—in section 20.3 this was
referred to by the term second hand information—this is grammatically expressed in
Turkish by the unstressed suffix –(y)mIş. It can be translated in several ways: ‘they say / it is
said / one says / it seems / apparently’, et cetera. The technical term for this suffix is reporta-
tive or inferential and how these terms relate to their actual usage will be explained in
sections 24.2.2–24.2.4.
As for its usage, it should be emphasized that this suffix can be applied to all types of
sentence and that it relates the entire sentence content to the present, in contrast to the
verbal and stressed suffix –mIş (Past-1, see section 20.3). The application of the projectional
suffix –(y)mIş will be represented schematically.
Nominal sentences:
Bu kadın çok zengin-miş. Apparently, this woman is very rich.

Çocuk-lar bahçe-de-ymiş. Seemingly, the kids are in the garden.
O ne-ymiş? What do they say that is?
O adam kim-miş? Who do they say this man is?
Bu araba kim-in-miş? Whose car does it seem to be?
Nereli-ymiş? Where might he be from?
Negation, question particle, and combinations thereof:
Bu kadın pek zengin değil-miş. This woman doesn’t seem to be so rich.

Çocuk-lar bura-da değil-miş. The children are apparently not here.
Bu kadın çok zengín mi-ymiş? Does one say this woman is rich?
Çocuk-lar ora-dá mı-ymış? Do the children seem to be there?
Çok zengin değil mi-ymiş? Do they say she is not very rich?
Çocuk-lar bura-da değil mi-ymiş? Are the kids not here, as they should be?
Personal suffixes:
Zengin değil mi-ymiş-im? Do people say I am not rich?

Öğretmen değil mi-ymiş-sin? Do they say you are no teacher?
Alman değil mi-ymiş? Is she apparently not German?
Fakir değil mi-ymiş-iz? Do they say we are not poor?
İyi değil mi-ymiş-siniz? Does it seem you are not well?
Türk değil-ler mi-ymiş? Do they appear not to be Turks?
278 Projections
Existential sentences:
Başka bir alternatif var-mış. There seems to be another alternative.

Para-sı yok mu-ymuş? She seems to have no money?
Verbal sentences: inflected verbs are combined with the projectional –(y)mIş.
Present-1 (–(I)yor):
İç-iyor-muş. She seems to be drinking.

İç-mi-yor-muş. She seems to be not drinking.
İç-iyor mu-ymuş? Does he seem to drink?
İç-mi-yor mu-ymuş? Do they say he doesn’t drink?
Future (–(y)EcEK):
yürü -yecek -miş-im it seems I’m going to walk

bul -acak -mış-sın apparently you will find (it)
ara -yacak -mış she will call, as they say
bekle -yecek -miş-iz we will apparently wait
var -acak -mış-sınız you seem to be going to arrive
yürü -yecek -ler-miş apparently they will walk
Past-1: The combination –mIş plus –(y)mIş does occur, albeit not very frequently. The first
suffix in this combination has the meaning past, whereas the second suffix conveys the
aspect of ‘second-hand information’. The first suffix, –mIş, is stressed.
ver-miş-miş-im I seem to have given

ver-miş-miş-sin you seem to have given
ver-miş-miş he seems to have given
ver-miş-miş-iz we seem to have given
ver-miş-miş-siniz you seem to have given
ver-miş-ler-miş they seem to have given
anla-ma-mış-mış-ım I don’t seem to have understood
anla-ma-mış-mış-sın you don’t seem to have understood
anla-ma-mış-mış she doesn’t seem to have understood
anla-ma-mış-mış-ız we don’t seem to have understood
anla-ma-mış-mış-sınız you don’t seem to have understood
anla-ma-mış-lar-mış they don’t seem to have understood
Past-2: The combination of the verbal suffix –TI and –(y)mIş does not exist.
Present-2 (–(I/E)r):
gid-er-miş-im apparently, I go
gid-er-miş-sin apparently, you go
gid-er-miş apparently, she goes
gid-er-miş-iz apparently, we go
gid-er-miş-siniz apparently, you go
gid-er-ler-miş apparently, they go
git-me-z-miş-im apparently, I don’t go
git-me-z-miş-sin apparently, you don’t go
git-me-z-miş apparently, he doesn’t go
git-me-z-miş-iz apparently, we don’t go
git-me-z-miş-siniz apparently, you don’t go
git-me-z-ler-miş apparently, they don’t go
Present-3 (–mEk-tE):
oku-mak-ta-ymış-ım I seem to be reading

oku-mak-ta-ymış-sın you seem to be reading
oku-mak-ta-ymış she seems to be reading
oku-mak-ta-ymış-ız we seem to be reading
oku-mak-ta-ymış-sınız you seem to be reading
oku-mak-ta-ymış-lar they seem to be reading
Necessity (–meli):
git-meli-ymiş-im it seems I must go

git-meli-ymiş-sin it seems you must go
git-meli-ymiş it seems he must go
git-meli-ymiş-iz it seems we must go
git-meli-ymiş-siniz it seems you must go
git-meli-ler-miş it seems they must go
al-ma-malı-ymış-ım it seems I need / must not take
al-ma-malı-ymış-sın it seems you need / must not take
al-ma-malı-ymış it seems she need / must not take
al-ma-malı-ymış-ız it seems we need / must not take
al-ma-malı-ymış-sınız it seems you need / must not take
al-ma-malı-lar-mış it seems they need / must not take
24.2.2 Meanings
This section goes into the different meaning aspects of the projectional suffix –(y)mIş. In
the linguistic literature this suffix is known as a reportative and inferential suffix. The first
label actually covers best how its meaning was portrayed in the first paragraph: an action,
event, or situation is described which is not observed by the speaker. Indeed, the following
sentences report on some state of affairs, as it were.
Patron-umuz-a göre geçen sene çok kâr yap-mış-ız.

According to the boss we made a lot of profit last year.
Hasan Bey Fransızca öğretmen-i-ymiş.
They say that Mr Hasan is a French teacher.
280 Projections
Ertesi gün ev-ler-imiz-e dön-ecek-miş-iz.

The day after, they said, we would return to our houses.
As for the second characterization, inferential, the suffix –(y)mIş is often used to indicate
that what is being said is an inference or conclusion and not a second-hand statement.
For instance:
Çok yorul-muş-sun, şu ana kadar ağz-ın-dan pek şey çık-ma-dı.

You must be very tired, you haven’t said a thing up to now.
Eyvah, para-m-ı ceb-im-e sok-ma-mış-ım.
My God, apparently I haven’t put my money in my pocket.
Ben neden böyle-ymiş-im?
Why am I the way I apparently am?
This suffix is also used to express astonishment or surprise:
Bu hıyar yazar –miş ek-i hakkında ne de-miş!

And do you know what this stupid writer says about the suffix –miş!
Ooooh, kim gel-miş!
Oh, and look who’s here!
As has been said, the combination –mIş plus –(y)mIş is rarely found. On the one hand,
this form is used in fairy tales and stories and reinforces the idea of indirect information,
as in:
Prens de o gel-ince-ye kadar bekle-miş-miş.

And the prince waited until she had arrived.
Tören-e çağrıl-ma-dığ-ı için kötü yürekli üvey anne-si öç al-ma-ya gel-miş-miş.
Because she was not invited to the feast, her wicked stepmother had come
to take revenge.
On the other hand, this form signals that the speaker wants to refute a certain assertion:
Baskın yap-mış-mış-ım ev-ler-in-e, gözdağı ver-miş-miş-im!

I was said to unexpectedly have paid a visit to their house and intimidated them.
Karı-sı, git-me-me-si için uyar-mış-mış kapıcı-yı ama, o dinle-me-miş-miş.
His wife was said to have warned the janitor not to go, but they say he didn’t
listen to her.
Interrogative sentences with –EcEK-mIş are rhetorical questions: the answer is known and
is the opposite of what is stated. In the following examples an external hypothesis underlies
the rhetorical nature of the statement (‘they say’).
Ban-a ne, niye gül-ecek-miş-im? (I am not)

What is it to me, why am I supposed to laugh?
Ne konuş-acak-mış-sın ben-im-le? de-di. (nothing)
She said: ‘What would you have to discuss with me?’
Neden ben-im çete-m-in reis-i ol-mak iste-me-yecek-miş-im sanki? (I want to)
Why wouldn’t I want to become boss of my own gang?
Neden on-un ev-in-de kal-ama-yacak-mış-ım? (it would)
Why wouldn’t it be possible for me to stay in her house?
Aaaa, ne biçim söz öyle? Ne diye öl-ecek-miş-siniz? İyileş-iyor-sunuz!
Ah, what nonsense. Why would you die? You are getting well.
24.2.3 Irrealis
A hypothesis formed with –sE can be followed by –(y)mIş. On the one hand the suffix
–(y)mIş gives the whole a shade of ‘they say that / as it seems’, et cetera, but on the other
hand, the subordinate clause in –sE presents the unfulfilled condition for what is being said
in the main clause.
Arabacı hemen dur-ma-sa-ymış beygir-ler üst-üm-den geç-ecek-miş.

It seems that if the coachman hadn’t stopped immediately, the horses would have
run me down.
Eğer biz-e kal-sa-ymış, hiç evlen-eme-yecek-miş, çünkü erkek-ler-in
bulun-duğ-u ortam-a kendi-sin-i sok-mu-yor-muş-uz.
Had it been up to us, she wouldn’t be able to get married at all, because we
do not let her mix in circles where men are around.
Amca-m o kadar küçük ol-ma-sa-ymış, her şey-i bugün gibi hatırla-r-mış.
If my uncle had not been so young then, he would have remembered everything
as if it were today.
Dede-si on-u o kadar şımart-ma-sa-ymış, ziyan ol-up git-me-z-miş.
Had his grandfather not spoiled him so much, he would not have gone down
the drain and left the place.
If a sentence starts with keşke ‘if only’, a strong wish is being expressed.
Keşke siz-i yıl-lar önce-si tanı-sa-ymış-ım, efendim.

If only I had known you years ago, sir / madam.
Keşke yap-ma-sa-ymış-ım.
I wish I hadn’t done it.
Keşke ban-a üzerinde çalış-abil-eceğ-im bir şey-ler bırak-sa-ymış-sın!
You would better have left me a few things that I could have worked on.
282 Projections
24.2.4 Optative
Also in the domain of optatives, the suffix –(y)mIş appears to be applicable. There are only
forms of the first and third person singular and plural.
Allah yardımcı-n ol-sun sen-in. Ben ne yap-a-yım-mış?

May Allah help you. What am I supposed (as they say) to do?
Çok gezevelik et-meden gid-e-yim-miş.
I should just go without too much idle talking.
Ben de kızdır-ma-ya-yım-mış, huy-un-a gid-e-yim-miş!
And let me not make him angry, I’d better go easy on him.
The following twelve sentences form a continuous text fragment, in which a nervous hospital
patient is parroting a nurse who tries to calm him down while preparing him for surgery.
The application of –(y)mIş signals that what is being echoed has a strong flavour of subjective
judgement. The relevant parts are in bold print.
—Saat dokuz-da ameliyat-ınız var.

—Your surgery is at nine o’clock.
—Bir bardak çay iç-e-ydi-m.
—I wish I had drunk a glass of tea.
—Ol-maz.
—Impossible. / Not allowed.
—İdam mahkûm-ların-ın son isteğ-i yerine getiril-ir halbuki.
—Yet they always carry out the last wish of people sentenced to death.
—Şimdi, sakin ol-ma-ya çalış-a-lım biraz.
—Now, let us try to be calm a little bit.
Arka-m-da-ki yastık-lar-ı düzelt-iyor-du.
She was fluffing up the pillows behind me.
Sakin ol-ma-ya çalış-a-lım-mış.
Now it is: ‘Let us try to be calm!’
Biz! Biz kim-iz?
We! Who are we?
Biz kim-iz? di-ye sor-du-m.
‘Who are you referring to by that word “we”?’, I asked.
Şaşır-dı.
She was confused.
—Yani siz.
—That is to say, you.
—O zaman siz de-yin. Ameliyat-ı ben tek başıma ol-uyor-um.
—Say ‘you’ then instead of ‘we’. I undergo the operation on my own.
Lastly, the combination –(y)E-(y)mIş is extremely rare and its meaning is the same as that
of the combination –(y)E-(y)TI, as described in section 24.1.4. For instance:
Taban-lar-ım-ın alt-ın-ı öp-e-ymiş! Bok-um-u yi-ye-ymiş! Serseri!

He should have kissed my soles! Eaten my shit! The loafer!
Keşke ben asker-e git-me-ye-ymiş-im di-yor-um.
Ah, if only I hadn’t joined the military, I say.
24.2.5 Indirect imperative
Other forms are –sIn-(y)mIş and –sIn-lEr-mIş, of the indirect imperative for the third per-
son, as in the following examples:
Yat-malı-ymış-ım da sarhoşluğ-um geç-sin-miş.

I obviously have to lie down for my drunkenness to pass.
İstasyon-da-ki personel, hela mı temizle-sin-miş, bilet mi kes-sin-miş!
The staff on the station, are they supposed to clean loos and sell tickets?
Çocuk-ların-ın sokak-lar-da nasıl dilen-dik-lerin-i herkes gör-sün-müş!
Everyone should see how their children are begging in the streets.
Her şey-i nereden bil-sin-ler-miş?
How are they supposed to know everything?
Niçin böyle geç dön-üyor-muş, sakın bir yerde takıl-ıp kal-mış ol-ma-sın-mış.
Why is he coming back so late, hopefully he hasn’t got caught up somewhere.
24.3 Hypothetical affairs
The third suffix in this series of projectional suffixes is –(y)sE and this is used to present an
action, event, or situation as a hypothesis. This type of construction concerns a hypothesis which
can be factual: the action, event, or situation may actually occur in the past, present, or future. In
other words, the use of this suffix indicates that the actual statement is true or false. This form is
often referred to as realis and is in stark contrast to the verbal suffix –sE of chapter 22.2.
The suffix –(y)sE is not stressed and can be applied to all types of sentence. However, it
cannot be combined with the question particle—this would have no meaning at all, but it
may co-occur with the negational particle değil and personal suffixes following it. Also the
combination of verbal –sE and the projectional –(y)sE does not exist.
Hypothetical states of affairs are usually introduced in English by words such as ‘if / in
case / suppose that / assuming that / if it is so that’, depending on the context. The suffix –(y)sE
takes personal suffixes of Type 2. For instance:
Nominal sentences:
Bu kadın çok zengin-se . . . Suppose this woman is very rich . . .

Çocuk-lar bahçe-de-yse . . . If the children are in the garden . . .
Bu araba patron-umuz-un-sa . . . Assume this car is our boss’s . . .
284 Projections
Negation:
Bu kadın pek zengin değil-se . . . If this woman is not very rich . . .

Çocuk-lar bura-da değil-se . . . Suppose the children are not here . . .
Araba patron-umuz-un değil-se . . . Assume the car is not our boss’s . . .
Personal suffixes:
Zengin-se-m . . . if I am rich . . .
Zengin-se-n . . . if you are rich . . .
Zengin-se . . . if she is rich . . .
Zengin-se-k . . . if we are rich . . .
Zengin-se-niz . . . if you are rich . . .
Zengin-ler-se . . . if they are rich . . .
Zengin değil-se-m . . . if I am not rich . . .
Zengin değil-se-n . . . if you are not rich . . .
Zengin değil-se . . . if he is not rich . . .
Zengin değil-se-k . . . if we are not rich . . .
Zengin değil-se-niz . . . if you are not rich . . .
Zengin değil-ler-se . . . if they are not rich . . .
Existential sentences:
Başka bir alternatif var-sa . . . In case there is another alternative . . .

Para-sı yok-sa . . . Suppose she has no money . . .
Verbal sentences: almost all combinations are possible.
Present-1: –(I)yor
İç-iyor-sa . . . Assuming she is drinking . . .

İç-mi-yor-sa . . . Assuming she is not drinking . . .
Future: –(y)EcEK
yürü -yecek -se-m if I am going to walk

bul -acak -sa-n if you will find (it)
ara -yacak -sa if she will call
bekle -yecek -se-k if we are going to wait
var -acak -sa-nız if you arrive
yürü -yecek -ler-se if they will walk
Past-1: –mIş
ver-miş-se-m if it appears that I have given

ver-miş-se-n if it appears that you have given
ver-miş-se if it appears that she has given
ver-miş-se-k if it appears that we have given

ver-miş-se-niz if it appears that you have given
ver-miş-ler-se if it appears that they have given
Past-2: –TI
git-ti-yse-m if I have gone

git-ti-yse-n if you have gone
git-ti-yse if he has gone
git-ti-yse-k if we have gone
git-ti-yse-niz if you have gone
git-ti-ler-se if they have gone
Present-2: –(I/E)r
gid-er-se-m if it is the case that I go

gid-er-se-n if it is the case that you go
gid-er-se if it is the case that she goes
gid-er-se-k if it is the case that we go
gid-er-se-niz if it is the case that you go
gid-er-ler-se if it is the case that they go
git-me-z-se-m if I do not go
git-me-z-se-n if you do not go
git-me-z-se if he does not go
git-me-z-se-k if we do not go
git-me-z-se-niz if you do not go
git-me-z-ler-se if they do not go
Present-3: –mEk-tE
oku-mak-ta-ysa-m suppose that I am reading

oku-mak-ta-ysa-n suppose that you are reading
oku-mak-ta-ysa suppose that she is reading
oku-mak-ta-ysa-k suppose that we are reading
oku-mak-ta-ysa-nız suppose that you are reading
oku-mak-ta-lar-sa suppose that they are reading
Necessity: –mElI
git-meli-yse-m if I must go
git-meli-yse-n if you must go
git-meli-yse if he must go
git-meli-yse-k if we must go
git-meli-yse-niz if you must go
git-meli-ler-se if they must go
286 Projections
al-ma-malı-ysa-m if I must not take

al-ma-malı-ysa-n if you must not take
al-ma-malı-ysa if she must not take
al-ma-malı-ysa-k if we must not take
al-ma-malı-ysa-nız if you must not take
al-ma-malı-lar-sa if they must not take
24.4 Suffix combinations: tense and projection
Although the combinations –mIş-TI and –TI-yTI have theoretically the same meaning, it
should be noted that the former combination is the more common one. Furthermore, the
forms gel-di-ydi-m, gel-di-yse-m, et cetera have the variants gel-di-m-di, gel-di-m-se, et cet-
era. In addition, the latter forms are not very frequently used.
Verbal combinations –TI-ymIş and –sE-ysE do not exist and it is easy to see why. The
first form is superfluous, because saying ‘it seems that’ in the past can be done by direct
application of the verbal –mIş.
Also, the combination –sE-ysE is impossible on semantic grounds. What is expressed by
the verbal suffix –sE is technically called irrealis and designates a state of affairs which is
sheerly hypothetical: If this would be / have been the case . . . then that. This implies that the
speaker starts out with the idea that the action, event, or situation described by the verb has
definitely not taken place in the past, does not take place in the present, and will not take
place in the future and this forms the basis for so-called counterfactual statements (see also
section 37.2.8).
The projectional suffix –(y)sE, in contrast, lacks this semantic aspect. What is expressed
by these realis forms of section 24.3 relates to a state of affairs that may or might actually
occur, and is often presented as a conditional action, event, or situation for a second state of
affairs: If this is the case . . . then that. More on these matters in section 24.8.2.
24.5 Suffix combinations: tense and multiple projections
There are two projectional suffixes which can be simultaneously attached to a verb form
containing a basic tense. The suffixes –(y)TI and –(y)mIş can each be expanded by –(y)sE.
Next, a personal suffix may follow.
However, this type of combination does not exist for all basic tense forms. That is why
Past-2 (–TI) and Necessity (–mElI) are entirely excluded and why the possibilities are, as it
were, limited for Present-2 (–(I/E)r) and Present-3 (–mEk-tE): only –(y)TI-(y)sE can be
attached.
For each basic tense some examples of the combinations –(y)TI-(y)sE and –(y)mIş-(y)sE
will be given, well distributed over several grammatical persons.
Present-1: –(I)yor → –(I)yor-(y)TI-(y)sE + person

→ –(I)yor-(y)mIş-(y)sE + person
Sabah böyle ol-acağ-ın-ı bil-iyor-du-ysa-n, gece neden o kadar çok iç-ti-n?
If you knew the morning to be like this, why did you drink so much last night?
24.5 Suffix combinations: tense and multiple projections 287
Bura-da-ki yaşam-ı kendi ev-in-de-kin-den çok daha iyi geç-iyor-muş-sa da,

o yine ev-in-e dön-mek isti-yor-muş.
Although his life here passes a thousand times better than in his own house,
yet apparently he wanted to return home.
Modern insan-lar 50.000 yıl önce-sin-den başla-yarak Batı Avrupa’ya
göç ed-iyor-lar-dı-ysa, aslında nereden gel-miş-ler-di?
If modern people were migrating to Western Europe beginning 50,000 years ago,
where did they actually come from?
Future: –(y)EcEK → –(y)EcEK-(y)TI-(y)sE + person
→ –(y)EcEK-(y)mIş-(y)sE + person
Şayet bu tüfek ateş et-mi-yecek-ti-yse, on-u duvar-a asma-nın ne mâna-sı var-dı?
If by chance this rifle wouldn’t fire, what was the purpose of having it hanging
on the wall?
Nereden başla-yacak-lar-dı-ysa, o konum-da başla-yacak-lar-dır.
Wherever they would like to start, they will surely start at that location.
Past-1: –mIş → –mIş-(y)TI-(y)sE + person
→ –mIş-(y)mIş-(y)sE + person
Bu gibi sebep-ler-i daha önce de ileri sür-müş-tü-yse-niz de
Londra antlaşma-sın-ı yine imzala-dı-nız.
Although you have advanced similar reasons earlier,
yet you have signed the London Treaty.
Genç adam-ın tepki-sin-i gör-müş-tü-yse de bir şey söyle-me-di.
Even though he had seen the reaction of the young man, he said nothing.
The combination –mIş-(y)mIş-(y)sE does not exist. But for the third person plural there are
two special doublets: –mIş-(y)TI-lEr-(y)TI and –mIş-lEr-(y)TI-(y)sE.
Yükleme-yi ancak bitir-miş-ti-ler-di ki, Okinawa’ya yaklaş-mak-ta ol-an

bir tayfun-un yol üzerinde bulun-duğ-u haber-i al-ın-dı.
They had just finished loading when they received the message
that a typhoon was under way approaching Okinawa.
Misyoner-ler-in çoğ-u imzalanma-sın-dan yana tavır koy-muş-lar-dı-ysa da,
100 kişi da Lozan Antlaşma-sın-a Hayır! kampanya-sın-a katıl-dı-lar.
Even though the majority of missionaries took a position for signing,
a hundred people participated in the campaign No to the Treaty of Lausanne!
Present-2: –(I/E)r → –(I/E)r-(y)TI-(y)sE + person
→ –mE-z-(y)TI-(y)sE + person
The application of combinations of this type is confined to stems expressing ability and
possibility (see section 21.1). These combinations are not found frequently.
288 Projections
Tek bir hareket-le onlar-ın örtü-lerin-i parçala-yabil-ir-di-yse de

böyle bir şey-i yap-ma-ma-yı tercih et-ti.
And even if he could have torn their covers to pieces in a single movement,
he preferred not to do such a thing.
Aradan geçmiş-e git-mek Semra’yı korkut-muş-tu,
eğer herhangi bir şey on-u korkut-abil-ir-di-yse.
Meanwhile going (back) to the past had frightened Semra,
if anything could frighten her (it was doing so).
On-a karşı bir sevgi hisset-tiğ-i söylen-eme-z-di-yse de
yaratığ-ın kan-ın-ı el-in-de gör-mek de iste-mez-di.
Although it could not be said that she felt affection towards him,
she didn’t want to see the blood of this creature on her hands.
Present-3: –mEktE → –mEktE-(y)TI-(y)sE + person
Beden-i yiyecek bir şey-ler için inle-mek-te-ydi-yse de, Toru bir ses çıkar-ma-dı.
Though his tummy was rumbling for something to eat, Toru didn’t make a sound.
Instead of a direct attachment of –(y)TI-ysE to a basic tense form, the auxiliary i-di-yse is an
alternative.
Adam-ı makbul say-ma-yacak i-di-yse-niz, seçim-i niye yap-tı-nız?

If you wouldn’t regard the man as acceptable, why have you made that choice?
Biraz paslan-mış i-di-yse de, büyük bir kısm-ı hâlâ pırıl pırıl parlı-yor-du.
Even if it was a little rusty, a large part still shone brightly.
Tahmin et-me-miş i-di-yse-n, tavşan silindir şapka-sın-dan çık-ma-ya devam ed-ecek.
In case you hadn’t guessed, the rabbit will continue to come out of the hat.
Eğer birin-e teşekkür et-mek isti-yor i-di-yse-niz, bu ben ol-malı-ydı-m.
If you wanted to thank someone, it should have been me.
Büyük devlet-ler 1912’de Osmanlı ilgi-sin-i kabul et-mek-te i-di-yse de, Avusturya
ve İtalya büsbütün bağımsız bir Arnavutluk iste-me-ye koyul-muş-lar-dı.
Even if in 1912 the Great Powers acknowledged the Ottoman interest / concern,
Austria and Italy gradually began to demand an entirely independent Albania.
Nonverbal constructions are always shaped by the auxiliary form i-di-yse, but negated
forms are based on değil-di-yse (< değil-(y)TI-(y)sE).
Neandertal-lar biz-e sanat-ların-dan eğer var i-di-yse fazla bir şey bırak-ma-dı-lar.
Neanderthal people have not left us with much of their art, if there was any at all.
Sen-in için önemli i-di-yse, Yasin’i niye terk et-ti-n?
If it was important for you, why (then) have you left Yasin ?
Sen bu taç-ı giy-me-den önce ne i-di-yse-n, giy-dik-ten sonra yine o-sun.
What you were before putting on this crown is what you are afterwards as well.
24.6 Suffix combinations with a fixed meaning 289
Hiçbir zaman güzel değil-di-yse-m bile bugün güzel ol-acağ-ım!

Even if I never was pretty, today I will be good-looking.
Eğer bu bir hayalet değil-di-yse, gör-düğ-ün ne-ydi?
If this was not an apparition, what was it then that you saw?
24.6 Suffix combinations with a fixed meaning
Three different suffix combinations have more or less conventionalized meanings. First, the
combination –mE-mIş mI is used to form rhetorical questions; second, a hypothetical state
of affairs in the past can be expressed by a realis form (e.g. –TI-ysE) and by an irrealis form
(–sE-ydI); and third, there is the possibility to question an hypothetical form in order to
present a proposal: ‘What if we . . .?’.
24.6.1 Rhetorical questions
The suffix combination –mE-mIş mI can also be regarded as the basis for rhetorical questions.
They primarily pertain to the first and third persons.
Hiç düşün-me-miş mi-yim bun-u?

And I wouldn’t have thought of it at all?
Evlen-mek iste-me-diğ-in-i söyle-me-miş mi peki?
She hasn’t said that she does / did not want to marry, then?
Application of the projectional suffix –(y)TI is possible:
Ben siz-e de-me-miş mi-ydi-m?

Hadn’t I told you so!
Bill Gates, 1981’de ‘640 kb herkes için yeterli ol-malı’ de-me-miş mi-ydi?
Hadn’t Bill Gates said in 1981: ‘640 kb must be sufficient for everyone’?
24.6.2 Hypothetical past
The combination –mIş-sE discussed in section 24.3 (not to be confused with –sE-ymIş
as discussed in section 24.2.3) presents an event in the past as a hypothesis. Compare:
Bun-u da anla-ma-mış-sa-k. (realis)

If they say we do not understand this either.
/ If, apparently / as it seems, we did not understand this either.
Araba hemen dur-ma-sa-ymış . . . (irrealis)
Had the car not stopped immediately . . .
290 Projections
Similarly, the difference between forms such as git-se-ydi-m and git-ti-yse-m can be
explained on the basis of the following examples.
Ali git-se-ydi! Had Ali only gone! (irrealis)

Ali git-me-se-ydi! I wish Ali hadn’t gone!
Ali git-ti-yse . . . If (it is true that) Ali has gone . . . (realis)
Ali git-me-di-yse . . . If (it is true that) Ali hasn’t gone . . .
In the first example it is expressed that Ali did not go and in the second one that he did go.
In both cases the actual result of the action (going or not going) is not desired. Whether
something is desired or not is totally irrelevant in the third and fourth examples. The only
factor playing a role here is the truth of what is being presented as a condition for the state
of affairs described in the main clause. How conditional sentences of this type of precede
the main clause will be discussed in section 27.2
24.6.3 Questioned hypothesis
Another combination which is at first glance not very transparent consists of the verbal
suffix –sE (‘hypothesis’, see section 22.2) and the question particle. Although intuitively one
might argue that it is meaningless to ‘question’ a hypothesis, one should keep in mind that
the Turkish combination is a conventionalized form strongly comparable in usage to the
optative. With the questioned optative, the speaker tries to elicit a response to his proposal.
This aspect is absent in the questioned form of –sE. Compare:
Telefon ed-e-yim mi? Shall I phone (him / her / them)?

Telefon et-se-m mi? What if I phoned (him / her / them)?
Telefon ed-e-yim! Let me phone (him / her / them)?
Yi-ye-lim mi? Shall we eat?
Ye-se-k mi? What if we ate?
Yi-ye-lim! Let us eat!
24.7 Assumptions and statements of general validity
With respect to its placement and sentence types to which it can be applied, there is
another suffix which has a lot in common with the projectional suffixes discussed in
sections 24.1–24.3. This suffix, –TIr, is sometimes referred to as the emphatic suffix and it
can be added to the end of every type of sentence, even after a personal suffix. It is used in
several ways: 1) for statements of general validity; 2) to give emphasis to what is being said
or lend some positiveness or certainty to a statement; 3) to express that a statement is based
on an assumption or a certain probability; and lastly, 4) it occurs in a number of special
constructions.
As for the distribution of this suffix, it can be attached to nominal sentences and to
verbal sentences ending in one of the following tense markers: –(y)EcEK, –(I)yor, –mIş,
–mEktE, –mElI en –mEk.
24.7.1 General validity
In section 20.8.2 it was explained how statements with general validity are shaped by using the
suffix –(I/E)r (see section 20.5) in verb-based sentences. In addition to this there is a restricted
number of possibilities to couple the suffix –TIr with a verb form for the third person.
In formal language use (newspapers, speeches on radio and TV, lectures, scientific articles,
et cetera) forms in –TIr are quite frequent.
Hangi hükümet gel-ir-se bu konu-nun üzer-in-e eğil-ecek-tir.

Whatever government there will be, they will tackle this problem.
Hegel, işte böylesine kavramsal bir felsefe geliştir-miş-tir.
Hegel, now, has developed such a conceptual philosophy.
Şimdi siz-e sor-a-yım: kaç kişi-yi aforoz et-miş-tir-ler?
Let me ask you then, how many people have they excommunicated?
Bun-lar, Osmanlı şiir-in-de ziyadesiyle görül-mek-te-dir-ler.
These can be seen much more frequently in Ottoman poetry.
Demirel şöyle konuş-tu: Yavaş yavaş Türkiye, gündem-in-i değiştir-meli-dir.
Demirel said it this way: little by little Turkey should start to change its agenda.
Arkeolog-lar-ın en yakıcı sorun-lar-ın-dan bir-i buluntu-lar-ı tarihle-mek-tir.
One of the burning issues for archaeologists is dating their finds.
The semantic effect of –TIr in these examples is in fact nil – it is a matter of sheer style,
because –(y)EcEK-TIr stands for –(y)EcEK; –mIş-TIr is equivalent to –TI; –mEktE-TIr is
equal to –mEktE and –(I)yor; –mElI-TIr to –mElI; and –mEk-TIr stands for –mEk.
Statements with general validity can of course also be formed on the basis of a nominal
predicate. For instance, by ascribing some property:
Merkür ve Plüton’dan bile büyük-tür.

It is even bigger than Mercury and Pluto.
Alışkanlık, insan-ın en büyük dost-u-dur.
The force of habit is man’s biggest friend.
Kafes-te yetiştir-il-en köpek-ler böyle-dir.
Dogs raised in kennels just are like this.
In such cases the occurrence of –TIr implies that the state described is of a permanent and
not of a temporal nature. For instance:
Ben-im efendi-m hep hasta-dır.

My master is sickly / sick all the time.
Compare:
Kavak ağaç-lar-ı büyük-tür.

Poplars are tall.
292 Projections
Bu kavak ağaç-lar-ı büyük.

These poplars are tall.
Here ‘tall’ in the first example is a permanent property of trees called ‘poplars’ and in the
second example it tells us something about the actual size of some concrete exemplars.
Arithmetic statements also hold ‘in general’. Compare:
Biz-de, iki artı iki dört ed-er.

With us, two and two makes four.
Dört çarpı iki eşit-tir sekiz.
Four times two equals eight.
An important notion for this type of construction is the difference between so-called
identifying and classifying statements with general validity. This can be exemplified by:
Bu bölge-nin tipik hayvan-ı deve-dir.

The animal typical of this area is the camel.
Gergedan bir hayvan-dır.
A rhino is an animal.
The former statement is identifying—it could be an answer to the question ‘Which animal
would fit in the aforementioned area?’ The latter statement, however, is an answer to the
question ‘What is (exactly) a rhino?’
The difference between the two mechanisms also underlies differences in placement
of –TIr in constructions for the third person plural, in both affirmative and negated
sentences. The next sentence is an identifying statement, comparing ‘a group of people
living somewhere’ to ‘a group of people coming from some place’. The result is that the
two groups should be understood as one and the same group of people.
Gecekondu-lar-da otur-an-lar,
bir iş tut-mak için kırsal bölge-ler-den gel-en insan-lar-dır.
Those who live in a slum area
are (the) people coming from the countryside in order to find work.
Such identifying statements can be negated, witness:
Sağlıklı beslen-en insan-lar ille de sağlıklı konuş-an insan-lar değil-ler-dir.

People who eat healthily are not necessarily
those who talk about health / being healthy.
In an identifying construction the suffix order for the plural is –lEr-TIr, but in classifying
constructions the order is the reverse: –TIr-lEr. In the following example the property of
‘being human’ is the first matter of importance, and the statement is not about individuals.
Bu ikiayaklı insansı maymun-lar yalnızca hareket şekil-leri-yle insan-dır-lar.

These bipedal apes are human only based on their way of moving.
Müzik-le ilgi-si ol-ma-yan yaratık-lar insan değil-dir-ler.

Creatures who have no affection for music are not human.
The next examples neatly illustrate this contrast in suffix order (see section 25.3):
Köpekbalık-lar-ı çok zeki değil-dir-ler.

Sharks are not very intelligent.
Bun-lar-dan kimi-leri şun-lar-dır: Yunanistan, Sırbistan, Karadağ, Arnavutluk.
Some of these are: Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, and Albania.
24.7.2 Emphasis and positivity
These notions are shades of meaning by means of which the speaker or writer is able to give
his statement a subjective load. For this purpose there are verbal constructions with
–(y)EcEK, –mIş, and –mElI. These can be illustrated by:
Bir gün dön-er-se, ben söyle-dik-ler-im-i derhal geri al-acağ-ım-dır.

If she ever returns I will certainly take back all I have said.
Adverbials can be applied for ‘support’:
Baba-m da bu konu-yu on-un-la konuş-mak iste-yecek-tir mutlaka.

And my father will surely wish to discuss this (topic) with her.
Placement of the suffix third person plural is ‘free’ for –(y)EcEK. Compare:
Teknopark’da yer al-mak iste-yen şirket-ler kendi bina-ların-ı inşa ed-ecek-ler-dir.

Companies wanting a seat at Technopark will certainly build their own buildings.
Büyük devlet-ler de bun-u böyle anla-yacak ve açıkla-yacak-tır-lar.
Big countries, too, will definitely understand and interpret it this way.
Examples of how –mIş is being used in this context are provided by:
Hiçbir politikacı-dan bir şey iste-me-miş-im-dir.

I never expected (demanded) anything from any politician.
Bence hiçbir şey yap-ma-mış-sınız-dır.
In my opinion you really have done nothing at all.
However, for –mIş the position of the suffix for the third person plural is relevant for the
interpretation. In the first example which follows –TIr signals emphasis only, but in the
second example its position is just a matter of the formal style, as discussed in section 24.7.1.
Türk millet-in-i böl-müş-ler-dir.

They surely have divided the Turkish nation / people.
294 Projections
Türk millet-in-i böl-müş-tür-ler. (read: böl-dü-ler)

They have divided the Turkish nation / people.
In connection with this it should be noted that forms such as böl-dü-dür(-ler) and böl-dü-
ler(-dir), being based on –TI (Past-2), do not exist.
Constructions with –mElI are predominantly found for the third person singular and
plural, but rarely for the first person plural. For the other grammatical persons this
construction is not customary. Compare:
İki kere dikkatli olun-malı-dır ben-ce.

One should be twice as careful, in my opinion.
Durum-umuz-un pek parlak sayıl-ama-yacağ-ın-ı kabul et-meli-yiz-dir.
We really have to accept that our situation cannot be regarded as very bright.
The suffix –TIr has no ‘alternative’ ordering with –lEr (third person plural):
Öğretmen-ler okul-a hazırlıklı ol-arak erken gel-meli-dir-ler.

The teachers should really, prepared and all, come to school early.
Devlet-e karşı ödev-ler-i ol-duğ-un-u unut-ma-malı-dır-lar.
They surely shouldn’t forget that they have obligations towards the state.
Nominal predicates can of course be emphasized as well:
Türkiye’nin bun-lar-ı düzelt-me-si lâzım-dır de-di.

He said: ‘Turkey must simply sort these things out’.
Hükümet çok önemli bir kurum-dur, ama herşey değil-dir.
(It is true that) the government is an important institution, but not everything.
Kuyrukluyıldız-lar, güneş-ten yeter-ince uzak ol-duk-ları sürece,
bir kuyruğ-a sahip değil-ler-dir.
Comets, as long as they are far enough from the sun, surely have no tail.
Statements which are, subjectively speaking, irrefutable can also be regarded as belonging
to this category.
Türkiye ben-im öz memleket-im-dir.

(The fact is that) Turkey is my own country.
Tozlu da eski gibi görün-üyor, ama yepyeni-dir.
It looks dusty and old, but it is definitely brand-new.
All types of grammatical person occur in these constructions:
Öyle-yim-dir kardeş!
That’s the way I am, brother!
Bu iş-in hile-ler-in-i bil-ir-im, üstelik inatçı-yım-dır da.
I know the tricks of the trade and moreover, I am stubborn / obstinate.
Öyle-sin-dir sen!
That’s the way you are!
Ya kadın-sın-dır ya erkek!—Ya solcu-sun-dur ya da sağcı!
You’re either a woman or a man!—You’re either a leftist or right-wing!
Sen akıllı-sın-dır Semra, bütün dünya-yı dolaş-tı-n, tecrübe sahib-i ol-du-n,
sen söyle, sen kendi-n-i kandır-abil-ir mi-sin?
You are clever, Semra, you have travelled the whole world, you have gained
experience, now tell me, are you capable of fooling yourself?
Bir şey-i yap-abil-iyor-sa-nız başarılı-sınız-dır,
yap-amı-yor-sa-nız başarısız-sınız-dır, mazeret ne ol-ur-sa ol-sun.
If you are capable of doing something, you are really successful,
and if you aren’t, you are surely unsuccessful, whatever the excuse may be.
Ne yap-ar-sınız ki, gerici insan-lar yaradılıştan böyle-dir-ler.
What can you do; reactionary people are that way by nature.
Besides possessive and personal forms, also case markers (save dative and accusative) occur
in nominal predicates followed by –TIr. In such constructions the effect is solely emphatic.
Here are some samples:
O siz-ler-in ol-duğ-u kadar ben-im-dir de. (genitive)

This is mine as much as it is yours.
Bu fabrika siz-in-dir sevgili çalış-an-lar, işçi kardeş-ler-im.
This factory is yours, dear workers, my brother labourers.
Ankara’nın en büyük otel-i onlar-ın-dır.
The biggest hotel in Ankara is theirs.
Şeytan para-nın bulun-duğ-u yer-de-dir. (locative)
The devil is where the money is.
Akıl yaş-ta değil, baş-ta-dır.
Intelligence doesn’t go by age.
(Literally: Wisdom (is) not in the age, (it is) in the head).
Sen çök-me-miş-sin ve ben de ayak-ta-yım-dır.
Apparently you didn’t collapse and I too kept my footing.
Ne zaman iste-n-me-se-n hep ora-da-sın-dır.
You are always present whenever you are not wanted.
Boyuna bu tuzağ-a düş-me tehlike-si içinde-yiz-dir.
We are constantly in danger of falling into this trap.
Tanrı’dan dil-iyor-um ki, on-un-la evlen-ecek köylü-nün iki (ablative)
bacağ-ı da tahta-dan-dır ve sırt-ın-da da koca bir kambur-u var-dır.
I pray to God that the peasant who will marry her has two wooden legs
and a very large hump on his back.
296 Projections
Onlar biz-den-dir de-di-k.

We said: They belong to us.
Türkiye, ilk Kızıldeniz dalış-ın-ı gerçekleştir-en-ler-den-dir.
Turkey belongs to those (countries) which first achieved diving in the Red Sea.
Meryem Ana-mız ve Tanrı sen-in-le-dir. (instrumental)
Our Mother Mary and God are with you.
As a means of indicating emphasis the suffix –TIr is extremely popular in debates,

discussions, disputes, quarrels, and speeches, all being modes of speech in which sometimes
a fair deal of rhetoric is applied.
Bu bir ırkçılık ve şovenizm değil-se ne-dir?

If this isn’t discrimination and chauvinism, what is it then?
Demirel şöyle devam et-ti: ‘Ara-dığ-ımız ne-dir? Ara-dığ-ımız bu ülke-nin
her insan-ın-a ekmek-tir, bu ülke-nin her insan-ın-a okul-dur ve bu
ülke-nin her insan-ın-a sağlık hizmet-i-dir.’
Demirel continued as follows: ‘What is it that we demand?
What we want for everyone in this country is bread, education, and health care.’
Avrupa’da böyle-yken Türkiye’de durum nasıl-dır?
And if that is the case in Europe, what would the situation be in Turkey?
The predicate in existential sentences can of course be emphasized, as in:
Penisilin-in birtakım yan etki-ler-i var-dır, Silibinin-in ise hiçbir yan etki-si yok-tur.
Penicillin has certain side effects, but Silibinine has none.
De-dik-ler-in-de bir doğruluk pay-ı var-dır mutlaka.
There’s absolutely a grain of truth in what they say.
The form nedir following a question expresses suspicion, as in:
Bura-nın hava-sın-dan mı, suy-un-dan mı nedir?

Is it by chance because of the local air or maybe its water?
Hızır Reis de hâlâ gemi-ye gel-me-di mi nedir?
And has skipper Hızır by chance not arrived at the boat?
Esrar kelime-sin-i duy-duğ-un-dan mı nedir,
Ayva yavaş yavaş kımıldan-ma-ya başla-mış-tı.
Was it perhaps because she heard the word hashish,
(that) Ayva slowly began to move?
Garson-lar-dan bir-i, fazla heyecanlan-dığ-ı için mi nedir,
el-in-de-ki büyük porselen tabak-la yer-e yuvarlan-dı.
One of the waiters, was it perhaps because he was too excited,
fell on to the ground with a large porcelain plate in his hands.
24.7.3 Assumptions and expectations
Following a personal suffix of a tensed verb, the suffix –TIr conveys not only the idea of
certainty, but also of an assumption: ‘It will be the case that . . .’. These forms are found with
–(I)yor and –mIş for all grammatical persons.
Ama, herhalde çok acı çek-iyor-sun-dur!—Yanıl-ıyor-sun, Aliye.

But you must be suffering a lot!—You are wrong, Aliye.
Artık her kelime-yi bil-iyor-uz-dur, öğrenil-ecek bir kelime kal-ma-mış.
Probably we know every word, there’s no word left to be learned.
Bu bardak 250 mililitre al-ıyor-dur, bir litre-den fazla iç-miş-sin-dir bence.
This glass surely takes 250 ml; I think you must have drunk more than one litre.
Anne-si uyu-ma-mış on-u bekli-yor-dur.
Her mother is probably waiting for her, not having slept.
Siz büyü-yüp, başka bir şehir-de, yeni bir hayat-a başla-mış-sınız-dır.
You must have grown up and started a new life in another city.
In section 24.7.1 an example of –mEk-tE plus –TIr was given that belongs to the category of
statements of general validity. Yet often some doubt may arise between certainty and prob-
ability. This is the case in the following example:
Gün geç-tikçe Türkiye’yi de unut-mak-ta-dır-lar.

As time goes by they will surely / probably forget Turkey.
A separate category is formed by sentences in which some hope or expectation is expressed

by the addition of an adverbial phrase.
Deneme uçuş-lar-ı yapıl-acak-tır herhalde.

They will probably perform test flights.
Sen bütün eşya-lar-ı da teslim ed-ecek-sin-dir herhalde?
You will in any case transfer all these things?
Çok yorgun görün-mek-te-dir ve herhalde fazla uyanık kal-ama-yacak-tır.
She looks very tired and will most likely not be able to stay awake for long.
Irmağ-ın öbür tarafında-ki ev-de-ler-dir, ora-da ne yap-ıyor-lar-dır acaba?
They must be in the house across the river, and just what do you think they’re
up to (what are they doing), one wonders?
İnşallah sen-i askerî okul-a ver-mek-le yanlış bir iş yap-mı-yor-um-dur.
It is to be hoped that I don’t do something wrong by sending you to the military school.
Gör-müş-üm-dür, ama dikkat-im-i çek-me-miş-tir herhalde.
I might have seen it, but probably it didn’t attract my attention.
Merdiven-in-i sor-madan al-dı-m, kız-ma-mış-sın-dır inşallah.
I took your ladder without asking, you’re not angry, I hope.
298 Projections
Sen, insan iste-diğ-i şey-i yap-abil-ir diye düşün-üyor-sun-dur belki.

You think perhaps that everyone can do whatever he wants.
Nominal sentences follow this pattern too:
Um-ar-ım ben de san-a hâlâ ulaşabilir durum-da-yım-dır.

I hope that I will still be able to reach you.
Nasıl-sınız, iyi-siniz-dir inşallah?
How do you do, all well I hope?
Pazar ol-duğ-un-dan-dır belki de.
It is because there’s a market, perhaps.
Belki sen de uyuşturucu iş-in-de-sin-dir.
Maybe you too are in the drugs trade / business.
De-dik-ler-in-de bir doğruluk pay-ı var-dır mutlaka.
In what they say is surely a grain of truth.
With the combination –mEk-tE + person + –TIr there seems to exist yet another category
of construction by means of which something is stated against a certain expectation: ‘first
you most likely think this way, but in fact it is that way’.
Biz-den bin-lerce ışık yıl-ı ötede-ki bir yıldız-a bak-tığ-ım-da,

bun-dan bin-lerce yıl önce ‘çak-mış bir şimşeğ-i’ gör-mek-te-yim-dir.
When I look at a star which is thousands of light years away from us,
I see in fact a ‘light that flashed’ thousands of years ago.
Biz aslında Samanyolu’nun merkez-in-e doğru bak-mak-ta-yız-dır.
In fact we are looking in the direction of the centre of the Milky Way.
Siz-in-le ben tembel, uyuşuk, bezgin bir yaşam sür-mek-te-yiz-dir.
Actually, you and I are living a lazy, sleepy, and lethargic life.
Göz-ler-iniz-in bak-abil-eceğ-i başka bir doğrultu ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı bil-mek-te-siniz-dir.
You really know that there is no other direction in which your eyes can see.
24.7.4 Special constructions
There are four environments with –TIr that deserve some special attention. First, the
combination: question particle + personal suffix + –TIr is only to be found in verbal
constructions in –mIş and in nominal predicates.
Eğitim ver-me-m için izin ver-di-ler-se, kendi-m-i kanıtla-ma-mış mı-yım-dır?

If they allow my teaching, then haven’t I proven myself?
Sen titiz mi-sin-dir?
Are you really very careful?
İlk göz atış-ta, solak mı-dır yoksa sağlak mı-dır, ayırt et-me-yi öğren-di-m.
I have learned to discern at first glance whether he is left- or right-handed.
Sponsor kaybet-miş mi-yiz-dir?
Have we really lost some sponsors then?
Fakat eğer yanlış bir şey-e inan-ıyor-sa-nız, mutlu mu-sunuz-dur?
But if you believe in something wrong, are you then really happy?
Erkek kardeş-ler-i de bu kadar aptal ve zalim mi-dir-ler?
Are her brothers really that stupid and heartless / cruel?
Secondly, the form –mEz-dIr seems to consist of the negational counterpart of –(I/E)r plus
the suffix –TIr. This is, however, no more than just an appearance. Whereas –(I/E)r is used
in verbal sentences to mark statements of general validity, as was advanced in section 24.7.1,
for negated sentences of this sort the combination –mE-z would suffice.
Now, constructions ending in –mEz to which –TIr has been added are mostly based on
lexicalized deverbal adjectives and nouns. Each category is represented by two examples.
Here you are:
Azerbaycan-Türkiye dostluk ve kardeşliğ-i sarsılmaz-dır ve ebedi-dir.

The friendship and fraternity between A. and T. is unfaltering and eternal.
Onlar aynı zaman-da, totaliter yönetim-ler için de vazgeçilmez-dir-ler.
At the same time they are essential / indispensable for totalitarian regimes.
Batı’nın öteden beri kurtul-ama-dığ-ı bir çıkmaz-dır bu.
This is a deadlock which the West has not been able to overcome for a long time.
Çünkü ışık hız-ı bütün evren-de bir değişmez-dir.
For the speed of light is a constant (invariable) all over the universe.
A similar word is tartışmalı ‘disputable, debatable, contestable’, in which not the verbal
suffix –mElI ‘to have to’ must be discerned, but rather, the noun tartışma ‘discussion, dispute’,
which is the basis for the adjective tartışma=lı ‘disputable’. An example is:
Spor ol-up ol-ma-dığ-ı ise tartışmalı-dır.

Whether it is (a) sport is disputable.
Thirdly, there are a number of constructions with –TIr by means of which the sudden
occurrence of some phenomenon or state is expressed, or the duration or intensity thereof.
These constructions are formed by bir followed by a noun or a verb plus a verb denoting a
transition of state, such as almak, başlamak, gitmek, tutturmak, kopmak, çökmek, and dolmak.
Here are some examples:
İhtiyar-ı bir gülme-dir al-dı.

The old man was overcome by a fit of laughter.
İki-sin-i de korkunç bir titreme-dir al-mış-tı.
Both were overcome by a terrible fit of shivering.
300 Projections
Bir karışıklık, bir koşuşma-dır başla-dı.

There arose a confusion, a rush.
Ara-mız-da ateşli bir tartışma-dır başla-mış-tı.
A fierce dispute had started between us.
Evet, bir koordinasyonsuzluk-tur gid-iyor ama bun-un çare-si de
herhalde sıkıyönetim ilan et-mek değil.
Surely, there’s a total lack of co-ordination, but the solution to it
is probably not the declaration of martial law.
Genç kız bir ağlamak-tır tuttur-du.
The young girl suddenly had an intense crying fit.
Haydi sen de, bir bilmiyorum-dur tuttur-du-n diye bağır-dı-m.
‘Come on’, I shouted, because you persisted in ‘I do not know’.
Bir alkış ve kahkaha-dır kop-tu.
There was a burst of applause and there were roars of laughter.
Bu daha zor-du—bütün grub-un üst-ün-e bir sessizlik-tir çök-tü.
This was harder—suddenly a profound silence fell over the whole group.
Çevre-den biri göç et-ti mi, iç-lerin-e bir üzünç-tür çök-üyor-du.
If someone left the circle, they got very depressed.
Bekleme salon-un-a bir heyecan hava-sı-dır dol-muş-tu.
In the waiting room there was all of a sudden a tense atmosphere.
Fourthly, the combination mI-dIr ne-dir expresses some presupposition which is questioned
for verification, as can be shown by the following:
O deli mi-dir ne-dir?

Is he nuts or what? / Is she by chance nuts?
Bulgar mı-dır ne-dir bun-lar?
Are they Bulgarians or what?
Mulhavs mu-dur ne-dir, ora-ya gid-eceğ-in-e ben-im-le Paris’e gel!
Was it Mulhouse or what, instead of going there come with me to Paris!
Birden sıcak-tan soğuğ-a geçiş-ten mi-dir ne-dir,
belki de yorgunluk-tan-dır belki de dağ soğuğ-u-dur.
Is it by chance because of the sudden change from hot to cold weather,
perhaps it is because of fatigue and maybe it is the mountain cold.
İçinde barın-dır-dığ-ı sırr-ın ver-diğ-i suçluluk duygu-sun-dan mı-dır ne-dir;
Oktay da ideal bir eş ol-muş-tu doğrusu.
Was it by chance because of the feeling of guilt that the secret he sheltered gave
him; Oktay had become an ideal husband, honestly speaking.
24.8 Meaning and interpretation in projections
In addition to section 20.8 some extra clarification will be given here as regards meaning
and usage in projectional forms. The only combinations to be discussed here are those of
Present-1 and Past on the one hand, and those of Present-2 and Past on the other.
Interpretations as subjective, generic, concessive, and directive statements can only be
made by means of the suffix Present-2, since it creates a form which is in principle ‘tenseless’
and thus neutral, thereby giving the greatest power of expression.
24.8.1 Present-1 + Past
The interpretation of this tense suffix combined with the projectional suffix for the past
is straightforward. By the form –(I)yor + –(y)TI an ongoing action or event is expressed.
This can be illustrated by comparing the following sentences.
Sen-i ara-yacağ-ım, şu anda tıraş ol-uyor-um.

I’ll call you back, I am shaving right now.
Kapı-yı aç-ama-dı-m, tıraş ol-uyor-du-m.
I couldn’t open the door, I was shaving.
24.8.2 Present-2 + Past
The form that has been introduced as –(I/E)r is in fact a tenseless suffix and all intepretations
represented in section 20.8.2 can be related to the past.
Habitual. The following examples express a habit, as perceived in the past.
Kevork Türkçe konuş-ur-du.

Kevork used to speak Turkish.
Demet saksafon hep çal-ma-z mı-ydı?
Didn’t Demet play the saxophone all the time?
Abla-m sık sık et ye-me-z-di, sigara ve içki de hiç iç-me-z-di.
My sister often ate no meat and she did not drink or smoke at all.
Dede-m, hemen kahvaltı-dan sonra akşam-dan kalma puro-sun-u yak-ar-dı.
Right after breakfast, grandpa used to light his left-over cigar from the night before.
Kız kardeş-im de o zamanlar-da doğu Türkiye’de öğretmenlik yap-ar-dı.
At the time my younger sister used to work as a teacher in East Turkey.
Ara sıra gel-ir-di, öğle yemeğ-in-e.
Once in a while she came for lunch.
302 Projections
Conditionals. There are two types of conditional clauses: irrealis and realis. The former is
based on the verbal suffix –sE, as discussed in section 22.2, and the latter is formed by the
projectional suffix –(y)sE, of section 24.3.
The irrealis expresses an entirely hypothetical state of affairs which can be pictured by
formulating some condition linked to some result or consequence, something along the
lines of If I were you (but I am not), then I would do this and that (so I don’t do anything). In
Turkish this corresponds to:
Herkes görev-in-i yap-sa sorun kal-ma-z.

If everyone would do his duty, there would be no problem any more.
Ne iste-se-n ver-eceğ-im.
Whatever you might want, I’ll give it.
Sebeb-in-i bil-me-se de gel-ecek-tir.
Also if he may not know the reason for it, he will certainly come.
Bil-diğ-in-i bil-me-se bile, on-un bil-diğ-i bir şey var.
Even if he doesn’t realize that he knows it, there is something he knows.
All such verbs occur with the projectional suffix for the past attached to it, as in:
Sen-in yer-in-de ol-sa-ydı-m, böyle bir şey yap-ma-z-dı-m.

If I were you (if I were in your place), I wouldn’t do such a thing.
Para-sı yeterli ol-sa-ydı, hemen bir araba al-ır-dı.
If he had enough money, he’d buy a car immediately.
Bil-se-ydi, söyle-r-di.
If she had known, she would have told it.
Bil-miş ol-sa-ydı-m, git-me-z-di-m.
If I had known, I wouldn’t have gone.
Sen sor-ma-sa-ydı-n bun-lar-ı bile anlat-ma-z-dı-k.
If you hadn’t asked, we wouldn’t even have said these things.
In Turkish, the sentence describing some result has a verb ending in –(I/E)r plus –(y)TI,
whereas in English, forms such as would are applied. Clearly, condition and outcome are by
default purely hypothetical, in the sense that neither of the two can be tested for their truth
value.
By contrast, using the realis implies that some state of affairs can explicitly be assumed to
be true or false. Conditional clauses of this type require the projectional suffix –(y)sE to be
applied, and it can in principle combine with all tense markers. Here is a brief selection:
Ali, kahveci-ye tembihle-miş, ne iç-er-se-m, ne ye-r-se-m para al-mı-yor.

Ali had instructed the café manager, whatever I drink or eat, he takes no money.
Bun-u söyle-mi-yor-sa-k, sebeb-i var.
If we don’t want to say that, there’s a reason for it.
Kurt-lar-la bir ol-up ulu-ma-z-sa-n kurt-lar-a yem ol-ur-su-n.

If you don’t howl along with the wolves, you become food for the wolves.
Siz de propaganda yap-acak-sa-nız gel-me-yin!
If you intend to make propaganda, (then) do not come!
Rhetorical questions. As has been advanced in section 20.8.2, the suffix –(I/E)r is also
applied as a rhetorical tool and a construction formed for this purpose can also take the
projectional suffix for the past. Compare:
Anla-r mı-yız?—Anla-r-ız! Do we understand?—Sure, we do!

Anla-r mı-ydı-k?—Anla-dı-k! Did we understand?—Sure, we did!
Biz-e yardım et-me-z-ler mi? And don’t they help us?
Biz-e yardım et-me-z mi-ydi-ler? And didn’t they help us?
Böyle birşey ol-ur mu? Is this possible? / That’s impossible.
Böyle birşey ol-ur mu-ydu? Was this possible? / That was impossible.
Polite question or request. For the second person singular and plural the suffix –(I/E)r
yields a polite question or request (see section 16.4). Combined with the projectional suffix
–(y)TI, such a question produces a extremely polite way of asking something. The intentions
are obvious: the underlying idea behind the first example is ‘Take another beer (I’d be
happy to sell you one more)’, and the second example just means ‘Please, sit down! (and
don’t just stand around)’.
Bira al-ır mı-ydı-nız?

Would you like to have another beer?
Şöyle otur-ma-z mı-ydı-nız?
Won’t you sit down?
25
On plurality
Certain pronouns exhibit inherent plurality and a corollary of this property is that multiple
subjects require agreement (or concord): the expression of plurality on the predicate. Hence
it takes a personal marker agreeing in person and number with that subject (section 25.1).
Similar phenomena play a role in postponed suffixation (section 25.2), that is, the suffixes
for person and number in a clause occuring solely in the final clause of a sentence. In sec-
tion 25.3 a special problem is posed by the question of what exactly determines the position
where the personal marker for the third person plural should be placed.
25.1 Agreement / concord
If two linguistic elements have at least one grammatical feature in common, there is
agreement or concord between these two elements. In, for instance, ben gid-iyor-um ‘I go’,
such a feature is the grammatical notion ‘first person singular’; in biz gid-iyor-uz ‘we go’
it is ‘first person plural’ and what both parts of Ali gid-iyor-Ø ‘Ali goes’ have in common
is ‘third person singular’. That’s why it is said that the verb form agrees in person with the
subject.
As for the occurrence and placement of the personal suffix –lEr, this suffix looks very much
like an outsider in this respect. In general it is attached only when the subject of the
sentence is a person (some people include other beings than humans, such as dogs, horses,
and other domestic animals), but its application is optional for human subjects. Hence, in
the following examples the suffix –lEr is not applied to pahalı ‘expensive’, predicating over
ev-ler ‘the houses’, whereas this suffix is optional for bahçe-de ‘in the garden’, the predicate
of çocuk-lar ‘the children’. Compare:
Ev-ler büyük. Pahalı ama.

The houses are big. But (they are) expensive.
Çocuk-lar nerede?—Çocuk-lar bahçe-de.
Where are the children?—The children are in the garden.
Çocuk-lar nerede?—Çocuk-lar bahçe-de-ler.
Where are the children?—The children are in the garden.
Placement is compulsory if the sentence lacks an overt subject that is to be understood

as human.
Çocuk-lar nerede?—Bahçe-de-ler.
Where are the children?—They are in the garden.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
25.1 Agreement / concord 305
In interrogative sentences of the nominal type, the suffix –lEr is placed directly after the
predicate and not after the question particle. Compare:
Bahçe-de mi-sin? Are you in the garden?

Bahçe-de-ler mi? Are they in the garden?
Bahçe-de değil-sin. You are not in the garden.
Bahçe-de değil-ler. They are not in the garden.
Bahçe-de değil mi-sin? Aren’t you in the garden?
Bahçe-de değil-ler mi? Aren’t they in the garden?
As has been stated, the relationship between plurality of the subject and plural marking
of the predicate is called agreement. But there’s more to say about it. The occurrence of the
suffix –lEr in the predicate of sentences such as Çocuk-lar bahçe-de(-ler) ‘The children are
in the garden’ is optional. The same condition holds for verbal sentences with a human
subject: Çocuk-lar oynu-yor(-lar) ‘The children are playing’, but not when that subject is left
unexpressed, as in: Oynu-yor-lar ‘They are playing’.
Now, agreement also occurs when a subject can be understood as plural because it is the
result of a coordination (see section 26.1) of two (or more) noun phrases. In such cases
the verb requires agreement, as in:
Dün akşam arkadaş-lar-ım-la ben sinema-ya git-ti-k.

Yesterday evening I went to the cinema with my friends.
Sen ve ben birbir-imiz-e hiç mi hiç benze-mi-yor-uz.
You and I (we) do not resemble each other at all.
Ya sen ya Aliye ya da Ahmet bulaşık-lar-ı yıka-yacak-sınız.
Either you or Aliye or Ahmet is going to do the washing up.
Ne sen ne de kardeş-in sinema-ya gid-eme-yecek-siniz bu akşam.
Neither you nor your sister can go to the movies tonight.
The predicate takes the form of the third person plural, if one wants to show respect
or express oneself in terms of extreme politeness in addressing one or more persons, as in:
Beyefendi / Hanımefendi ne iç-er-ler?

What would you like to drink, sir / madam?
Buyur-sun-lar, bey-ler!
Give your orders, gentlemen!
In talking about a ‘third person’ respectfully, this phenomenon occurs as well:
Melek Hanım-la konuş-abil-ir mi-yim, lütfen?—Şimdi çık-tı-lar, efendim.

Can I talk to Ms / Mrs Melek, please?—She just left, sir.
Paşa baba-nız çiftlik-te-ler mi, efendim?
Is your father the pasha at the farm, sir?
306 On plurality
Because of their intrinsic plurality, cardinal numbers greater than one which are expanded
with a possessive suffix (see section 11.4.3) require a plural predicate, as in:
Beş-imiz aynı okul-a gid-iyor-uz.

The five of us go to the same school.
Üç köylü, bir de ben, biz dörd-ümüz otobüs-ten in-di-k.
Three peasants, and me too, we four got off the bus.
Siz üç-ünüz otel-in ilk müşteri-ler-in-den-di-niz.

You, you three belonged to the first guests (clients) of the hotel.
With indefinite pronouns in the role of (plural) subject there is a certain degree of variation
in the application of agreement. Hep-imiz ‘we all’ and hep-iniz ‘you all’ require a plural
predicate, as do hiçbir-imiz ‘none of us’ and hiçbir-iniz ‘none of you’, but hiçbir-i(n) ‘none of
them’ always takes a singular predicate. Compare:
Hep-imiz plaj-a git-ti-k.

We have all been to the beach.
Hiçbir-iniz anla-yama-yacak-sınız.
None of you will be able to understand.
(Onlar-ın) hiçbir-i çare bul-ama-mış.
None of them could apparently find a way out (remedy, cure).
Expressions for ‘they all’ are onlar-ın hepsi(n) and onlar-ın tüm-ü(n). When applied as
subject, there is no plural agreement: the verb form is that of the third person singular.
Şimdi onlar-ın hepsi ban-a küfür ed-iyor.

Next / now they are all cursing at me.
İnsan-lar daha iyi bir durum-a geç-ti-ler-se,
niçin onlar-ın tüm-ü de iyileş-eme-sin?
If these people were to end up in a better situation,
why wouldn’t they all be able to get well again?
Its negational counterpart is onlar-ın hiçbiri(n):
Onlar-ın hiçbir-i Türk uyruklu değil.

None of them is of Turkish origin.
For indefinite pronouns bazı-lar-ımız ‘some of us’, bazı-lar-ınız ‘some of you’, kim-imiz
‘some of us’, and kim-iniz ‘some of you’, the plural suffix on the predicate is optional. Hence
constructions with and without this suffix are found:
Hep-imiz arı-yor-uz—bazı-lar-ımız bul-uyor-(uz), bazı-lar-ımız bul-amı-yor-(uz).

We are all searching—some of us do find it, others don’t.
25.2 Postponed suffixation 307
Kim-iniz aile-sin-i, kim-iniz arkadaş-lar-ın-ı, kim-iniz iş-in-i ihmal et-ti-(niz),

ama gece gündüz çalış-ıp kitab-ı çevir-di-(niz).
Some of you neglected your family, some your friends, some of you your work
but (you) worked day and night and translated the book.
25.2 Postponed suffixation
Agreement may be left unexpressed in the first of two consecutive sentences and is therefore
invisible. This phenomenon is called postponed suffixation or suspended inflection, and is
indicated by –Ø in the following examples:
Politika-dan konuş-mak-tan çekin-ir-Ø, yalnız at-lar-dan bahsed-er-di-k.

We avoided talking about politics; we talked only about horses and the like.
The first clause contains the ‘incomplete’ verb form çekin-ir, which, looking at the verb
of the second clause, is obviously to be interpreted as çekin-ir-di-k.
This phenomenon is often seen when the subjects of two or more independent (coordinate)
sentences are identical. There are two types of elision: one in which a personal suffix is
left out and one in which the projectional suffix –(y)TI is also absent. Examples of the
first type are:
İhtiyaç duy-ar-sa-k elbette gid-er-Ø, danış-ır-ız.

When we feel the need, we indeed go and ask advice.
Okul-unuz-u çok yakından tanı-yor-Ø ve ben-im gibi okul-u çok sevi-yor-sunuz.
You will in no time be familiar with your school and, like me, like it very much.
Meğer sen eşya-lar-ım-ı topla-mış-Ø, nota-lar-ı da bavul-a koy-muş-sun.
Apparently you collected my things and put the musical scores, too, in the suitcase.
Bu yapıt-ı ile on-u daha çok anla-yacak-Ø, daha çok sev-ecek-ler-dir.
With this art of his they’ll surely understand him better and love him yet more.
The second type can be exemplified by:
Kendisin-e teşekkür-ler-im-i sun-ar-Ø, sağlık dile-r-di-m.

I gave her my thanks and I wished her well (good health).
Sadaka dağıt-mı-yor-Ø, sadece vazife-m-i yap-ıyor-du-m.
I gave no alms, I only did my duty / job.
İş-imiz-e alış-mış-Ø, otomatikleş-miş-ti-k.
We’ve got used to our work, we have become zombies / robots / automatons.
Ben yenge-m-e yanaş-acak-Ø, on-u güldür-ecek-Ø ve yumuşat-acak-tı-m.
I would walk up to my aunt, make her laugh, and make her heart melt.
308 On plurality
The next example shows that also the suffix –(y)ken can be postponed:
Berber müşteri-ler-i tıraş ed-er-Ø, saç kes-er-Ø ve kaba şaka-lar yap-ar-ken,

ben yan-ın-da dur-up kendi-sin-i izle-di-m.
While the barber shaved his clients, gave them a haircut, and was joking coarsely,
I stood beside him and watched how he was doing all that.
In section 26.1 it will be shown that postponed suffixation is also found in coordinate noun
phrases.
25.3 The order of –lEr*
As for the position of –lEr in verbal forms, in simple forms this suffix is placed directly
after the tense suffix. Projectional suffixes are preferably attached to such forms, as in:
gid-ecek-ler-di, gid-ecek-ler-se, gid-ecek-ler-miş. An alternative ordering which occurs fre-
quently is only found for the past tense in –TI, so besides gid-ecek-ler-di, gid-ecek-ti-ler is also
quite common, as well as gid-iyor-lar-dı besides gid-iyor-du-lar, git-mez-ler-di and git–mez-di-
ler, et cetera. In all other cases alternative ordering is highly unusual. The only forms regularly
encountered are: gid-iyor-sa-lar, git-miş-se-ler, git-ti-ydi-ler, git-se-ydi-ler, and git-miş-ti-ler.
The suffix –lEr is not only used to express the plural of a noun, but it also signals the
congruence between subject and predicate. In çocuk-lar ‘children’ and onlar ‘they’ in the
following examples–lEr can be regarded as the plural marker, but in the predicates of
the answers to the questions it shows congruence with the covert subject onlar ‘they’.
Çocuk-lar nerede?—(onlar) Bahçe-de-ler mi?

Where are the children?—Are they in the garden?
(onlar) Bahçe-de-ler. / (onlar) Bahçe-de değil-ler.
They are in the garden. / They are not in the garden.
If the predicate is based on a noun while a projectional or a negational suffix is applied,

an interesting phenomenon can be observed with –lEr. Its meaning is entirely dependent
on its position. In other words, there is a difference in meaning between the following
pairs. Compare:
misafer-se-ler if they are guest(s)

misafir-ler-se if they are the guests
hasta-ydı-lar they were sick
hasta-lar-dı it was the sick / the patients
doktor değil-ler they are no doctors
doktor-lar değil they are not the doctors
What exactly is the role of the suffix –lEr? When does it stand for just ‘plural’ as opposed to
‘singular’, and when does it indicate agreement—’third person plural’? In order to be able
25.3 The order of –lEr 309
to answer these questions it is necessary to clarify the different ways in which certain
constructions produce a certain effect. So, first of all there will be a little bit of theory.
25.3.1 Types of statement
When someone asks What are John and Mary doing for a living? and the answer is some-
thing along the lines of John and Mary are vicars / teachers / students / trainees / voluntary
workers, the words forming the predicate are a very general denotation of some profession,
occupation, (social) status or position. In the same vein an answer can be given to a
question like What kind of people are John and Mary?, for instance John and Mary are
dominant / sociable / poor / rich.
This type of statement is based on property attribution. The subject of this kind of statement
can be definite (e.g. John is happy, John and Mary are happy, The teacher is happy, and
The teachers are happy) and indefinite (e.g. A teacher is not always happy and Teachers
are not always happy). Turkish examples are: Ali öğrenci ve baba-sı öğretmen ‘Ali is a
student and his father is a teacher’ and also Fatma hasta ‘Fatma is ill’ and Çok mutlu-yum
‘I am very happy’.
The second type of statement which is relevant here has a somewhat different structure.
If you would ask What is a bluebillgurgle? an answer like A gurgle is a fairy-tale animal or
Gurgles are fairy-tale animals can be expected. This tells us as much as whatever gurgle
you take—be it a bluebill-, potbelly-, or runningnosegurgle, they all belong to the class
of fairy-tale creatures. In other words, such a statement has a classifying effect: a single
exemplar referred to as a ‘gurgle’ belongs to a larger group of entities (class), the individuals
of which are called ‘fairy-tale animal’. The two examples given both have an indefinite
subject (A gurgle and Gurgles), but definite subjects are possible as well in this type of
statement: This gurgle is an imaginary animal and These gurgles are imaginary animals.
Another factor relevant to this type of expression is whether the predicate is modified.
How this works can be illustrated by John and Mary are both teachers, always ready for a
joke. The predicate is here in the plural (hence, teachers) and furthermore, it is modified
by a relative clause: (who are) always ready for a joke. The effect is twofold: the notion of
‘teacher’ is individualized and pertains to both ‘John’ and ‘Mary’ (it follows that ‘John is a
teacher and Mary, too, is a teacher’) and the statement is classifying because it is characterized
by the addition of ‘always ready for a joke’. Another way to bring about this effect is by using an
indefinite article in the singular: John is a teacher, always ready for a joke. Turkish examples are:
Gergedan vahşi bir hayvan-dır ‘A rhino is a wild animal’ and Fil-ler ve deniz kaplumbağa-lar-ı
evcil hayvan-lar değil-dir ‘Elephants and sea turtles are not domestic animals’.
The third type of statement is when a definite article is used for the predicate: there is
not only an individualizing effect because of the plural form, but at the same time also
an identifying effect, as in: John is the teacher, who is always ready for a joke with a singu-
lar subject and John and Mary are the teachers, who are always ready for a joke for a
plural subject. Questions related to such statements are then What sort of teachers are
John and Mary? (classification) and Who are John and Mary? (identification). But there
is another condition that should be satisfied for an identifying statement: the subject
must be definite. Turkish examples are: Bun-u iste-yen-ler onlar değil ‘It is not they who
310 On plurality
demand this’ and Okul-lar-ı yönet-en-ler bu insan-lar-dı ‘Those who ran the schools
were these people’.
The relation between various notions and type of statement can be represented as:
+def sing The man is Ø teacher Property attribution

+def plur The men are Ø teachers
–def sing A teacher is Ø rich
–def plur Ø Teachers are Ø rich
–def sing A gurgle is a big animal Classification
–def plur Ø Gurgles are Ø big animals
+def sing This gurgle is a big animal
+def plur These gurgles are Ø big animals
+def sing This gurgle is the animal I saw here Identification
+def plur These gurgles are the animals I saw here
How does this work in Turkish? This will be explored by looking at predicate types, using
the division introduced above. The first matter of importance is the question of what effect
can be expected from a certain predicate structure: how do the possible suffix orderings
relate to types of statement—property attribution, classifying, or identifying statement. The
question is also, reversely, how one of these effects can be achieved.
The constructions to be surveyed are all built up according to the following structure:
Subject Predicate + (–lEr) + (projection) + (person)
Negated sentences make use of the particle değil ‘not’, possibly followed by a plural marker,
as well as by a projectional and a personal suffix:
Subject Predicate + (–lEr) değil + (–lEr) + (projection) + (person)
The subjects of all examples are to be understood as plural: they consist of either a noun
plus plural suffix (Noun-lEr), an intrinsically plural pronoun (biz ‘we’, siz ‘you’, onlar ‘they’),
a plural marker pronoun (biz-ler ‘we all’, siz-ler ‘you all’), or an inherently plural noun
phrase. e.g. onlar-ın iki-si ‘both of them’, altı yedi çocuk ‘six or seven children’, başka kimileri
‘some other people’, ilk grup ‘the first group’, birçok kişi ‘many people’, Mine ve ben ‘Mine
and I’, birçoğ-unuz ‘many of you’.
Predicates are all based on a noun, pronoun, or adjective and these will be exemplified in
terms of increasing complexity, as indicated at the beginning of each paragraph.
Each subsection will be concluded by sentences based on a nominal negation which
shows the typical position of –lEr.
25.3.2 Property attribution
In a simplified fashion, property attribution can be illustrated by: They are bankers but
we are happy.
25.3.2.1 Noun/Adj–Ø–Ø–person
A bare noun or adjective used as predicate leads to a statement which expresses property
attribution. Subjects do not necessarily have a plural marking.
Biz-ler de insan-ız.
We too are human(s).
Biz insan-ız, bu dünya-ya hayvan gibi çalış-ma-ya gel-me-di-k.
We are human, we did not come to this world to work like a beast / beasts.
Onlar siz-den daha genç-ler.
They are younger than you.
Önce şun-u söyle-ye-yim, onlar doğru insan-lar.
Let me first say this, they are honest people.
(onlar) Şimdi mutlu-lar, ev-ler-i ve okul-lar-ı var.
At the moment they are happy, they have houses and schools.
The agreement marker third person plural may be omitted if the subject is present,
as in:
Onlar daha çok toy–Ø.

They are still very green / inexperienced / immature.
25.3.2.2 Negation-1
Negated forms follow the pattern Noun/Adj–Ø değil–Ø–person:
Mutlu değil-iz, de-miş-tim bu gün on-a, evet, hiç mutlu değil-iz artık.
We are not happy, I’d said that day to her, yes, we are not happy at all any more.
Omission of the agreement marker is possible with an overt subject. Compare:
İşte bun-a boyun eğ-en genç-ler var-sa, demek ki gerçekten onlar mutlu değil–Ø.
Look, if there are youngsters submitting to this, it means they are really not happy.
Zengin dünyalı-lar varlıklı–Ø, bilgili–Ø; ama (onlar) mutlu değil-ler.
Rich earthlings are wealthy and well-informed, but (they are) not happy.
25.3.2.3 Noun/Adj–Ø–projection–person
In combination with the projectional suffix –(y)TI an interpretation in terms of property
attribution is possible as well. Compare:
Lise-de öğrenci-ydi-k.
We were pupils / students at the secondary school.
Güzin’le aynı okul-da öğretmen-di-k.
Güzin and I were teachers at the same school.
312 On plurality
For the third person plural there is the opposition –(y)TI-Ø / –(y)TI-lEr in agreement.
Onlar genç-ti-Ø, yaşlı-ydı-Ø, işçi-ydi-Ø, öğrenci-ydi-Ø, eğitimci-ydi-Ø.

They were young and old, workers, students, and educationalist.
Türkçe öğretmen-i Lütfi de, öteki öğretmen-ler de aynı okul-da öğretmen-di-ler.
Both the teacher of Turkish Lütfi and the others were teachers at the same school.
Onlar-ın iki-si de öğretmen-di-ler.
Both of them, too, were teachers.
A similar opposition is –(y)mIş-Ø / –(y)mIş-lEr.
Onlar genç-miş-Ø de sen genç-ler-in iş-in-den anla-maz-mış-sın!

They are young and you seem not to understand the concerns of young people.
Onlar-dan sanki insan-mış-lar gibi söz ed-iyor-sun.
You talk about them as if they were people.
‘Bun-lar da pek genç-miş-ler, ayol!’ de-di biri-si.
‘These too are very young, hey’, said one of them (women).
The opposition –(y)sE-Ø / –(y)sE-lEr also exists.
Onlar erkek-se–Ø, de-di, biz de kadın-ız.

If they are males / men, he said, then we are females / women.
Niye böyle yap-ıyor-lar, erkek-se-ler, 50 kişi-nin ol-ma-dığ-ı yer-de yap-sın-lar.
Why do they do it so; if they are men, let them do it where there are not fifty people.
25.3.2.4 Negation 2: Noun/Adj–Ø değil–projection–person
Baba-m olmadan ev-de misafir ağırla-ma-ya alışık değil-di-k.

Without my father being around we were not used to receiving guests at home.
Mehmet’le ben sanki oda-da değil-miş-iz gibi davran-mış-tı.
She behaved as if Mehmet and I were not in the room.
Biz-ler sen-in için önemli değil-se-k, bence biz-den ayrıl-malı-sın.
If we are not important to you, I think you should leave us.
The third-person plural suffix is to be placed as an agreement marker at the end:
Etrafına bakın-dığ-ın-da abla-sın-ı ve abi-sin-i gör-dü ama onlar mutlu değil-di-Ø.

When he looked around he saw his sister and brother but they were not happy.
Ama onlar mutlu değil-miş-Ø, dolayısıyla kendi-si de mutlu değil-miş-Ø.
But they seem not happy and therefore she seems to be not happy herself.
Onlar mutlu değil-se-Ø, biz-ler-in mutlu ol-ma-sı mümkün değil-Ø.
If they are not happy, it is not possible that any of us is happy.
(onlar) Aslında hiç de kork-muş değil-di-ler.

Actually, they hadn’t been scared at all.
Gümüş çatal-ı-yla istiridye-ler-in iç-in-i sıyır-ıp,
birbir-i arkasından yut-ar-ken: Fena değil-miş-ler, de-di.
While he was scraping the oysters empty with a silver fork, and swallowing
them one after another, he said: ‘I can acknowledge that they are not bad!’
Küçük-ler, mutlu değil-se-ler bile, oyalan-ıyor-lar-dı bura-da.
The small ones, even when not happy, were enjoying themselves here.
25.3.2.5 Negation 3: Noun/Adj–Ø değil–lEr–projection–person
(onlar) İnsan-dı-lar ama aynı zaman-da insan değil-ler-di.

They were humans but at the same time they were not human.
Bun-lar insan-a benzi-yor-du, fakat insan değil-ler-di.
These looked like humans, but they weren’t human.
Hem Zeno hem de karısı Eli artık genç değil-ler-di ve çocuk-lar-ı yok-tu.
Zeno and his wife Eli were not young any more and they had no children.
Erol’a göre orada yaşa-yan-lar insan değil-ler-miş.
According to Erol those who live there are not human / human beings.
Zaten diğer arkadaş-lar da çok genç değil-ler-miş.
Anyway, the other friends, too, were not very young.
Onlar dürüst insan değil-ler-se ortaklık-lar-da böyle haksızlık-lar devamlı ol-uyor.
If they’re dishonest, then such acts of injustice happen all the time in these firms.
Fazla kilolu-lar-ın hele genç değil-ler-se ağır spor yap-ma-ları çok sakıncalı-dır.
It is very problematic that overweight people do heavy sports, especially when they are
not young.
The agreement marker third person plural is optional for overt subjects. Compare:
Çadır-a gel-en-ler-in hiçbir-i tanıdık değil-ler-di-Ø.

None of those who came to the tent was well-known / familiar.
Neyse ki onlar tanıdık değil-ler-di-ler.
Fortunately, they were not acquainted.
Oysa onlar bu ihtişamlı gösteriş-ten ferdi olarak memnun değil-ler-di-ler.
However, with this magnificent show they were not content as individuals.
Onlar-ın tercih-i bu-ysa, hızlı bir ticaret alan-ı içinde değil-ler-se-ler, sorun yok.
If their preference is this, (and) if they are not in a fast trade, (then) no problem.
If the subject is not present, the agreement marker third person plural is obligatory:
Birbir-lerin-den ayrı da değil-ler-di-ler.

They were not different from each other.
314 On plurality
Yani bu kaydedil-diğ-in-de bu kadar çok profesyonel değil-ler-miş-ler.

Thus, when this was recorded, they were not that professional.
25.3.3 Class inclusion
Classifying statements can be exemplified by: He is a rich banker but We are poor teachers.
Such constructions of Turkish are usually based on a noun as predicate which is modified
by an adjective. This noun phrase is indefinite, which is indicated either by the article bir or
by its absence while the noun is in the plural. This leads to two systems, an indefinite class
of expressions which is based on a singular predicate (Noun–Ø) and one based on a plural
predicate (N-lEr).
25.3.3.1 Noun–Ø–Ø–person
As can be expected, subjects are pronouns (overt and covert) and noun phrases marked
with the plural suffix.
Sen gerçekten iyi kalpli bir insan-sın.

You are really a good-hearted person.
Ben-im göz-üm-de ezil-miş değil, güçlü bir insan-sınız.
In my eyes you are not crushed, you are a strong person.
Negated statements of this kind follow the pattern: Noun–Ø değil–Ø–person.
Sen iyi kalpli bir insan değil-sin.

You are not a good-hearted person.
Siz ezil-miş bir insan değil-siniz.
You are not a crushed person.
25.3.3.2 Noun–Ø–projection–person
Combination with the suffixes –(y)TI, –(y)mIş, and –(y)sE is possible for several grammatical
persons. The predicates in the second and third examples are to be interpreted as plural.
(siz) Eskiden delicesine titiz ve meraklı bir insan-dı-nız.

You were a madly choosy and curious person.
(onlar) Oniki ile onbeş yaş arası altı yedi çocuk-tu-lar.
They were six or seven children of between twelve and fifteen years old.
Duy-duğ-um-a göre siz iyi insan-mış-sınız.
According to what I have heard, you are good people.
(siz) Namuslu bir insan-sa-nız, siz-e yardım ed-er-im.
If you are an honourable person, I will help you.
The sentence below consists of two clauses: the first one is a statement based on property
attribution and the second one is a classifying statement because of the adjectival phrase.
(siz) O zamanlar çocuk-tu-nuz, sevimli bir öğrenci-ydi-niz.

At the time when you were still a child, you were a sweet pupil.
Negated constructions are formed according to: Noun–Ø değil–projection–person.
(siz) Pek titiz bir insan değil-di-niz.

You were not a very choosy person.
Siz görün-düğ-ünüz gibi bir insan değil-miş-siniz, demek?
Is that to say that you are apparently not the person you seem?
(siz) Dikkatli de değil-se-niz, bileğ-iniz-e kadar çamur-a gömül-üyor-sunuz.
If you are not cautious, you sink up to your ankles in the mud.
Since the foregoing series of examples were all based on a singular predicate (marked by
the preceding indefinite article bir), the subjects were accordingly singular and hence, the
occurrence of a plural marker could not be expected. Nevertheless, for an exhaustive
description of classifying constructions a more or less full account was presented, which
can be used for comparison with plural constructions.
Constructions of the indefinite plural class have a predicate symbolized by Noun-lEr.
25.3.3.3 Noun–lEr–Ø–person
The subjects of these constructions are all plural.
Biz Kürt-ler vatansız insan-lar-ız. Biz Kürt-ler dilsiz insan-lar-ız.

Çünkü biz-ler kültürsüz, yeteneksiz kişi-ler-iz.
We Kurds are people with no fatherland. We Kurds are people with no language.
For we are all persons without culture, without talents / abilities.
Belli ki siz kötü insan-lar-sınız, sizi gidi haydut-lar, yalancı-lar!
It is obvious that you are bad people, you bandits, liars!
Çoban-dan on adım mesafe-de Eli dur-du: Merhaba, çoban, biz iyi adam-lar-ız.
Eli halted ten steps from the herder: ‘Hullo herder, we are good folk’.
Onlar da zengin adam-lar-Ø, milyoner herif-ler-Ø.
They too are rich men, millionaires.
The suffix –lEr cannot be used at the same time for the expression of plurality of a noun
and for congruence of a third person plural. For this reason it can occur in classifying
constructions only once, as is the case in the next example.
Kon-ar-lar mı, göç-er-ler mi, ne yap-ar-lar-sa yap-sın-lar, adam-lar iyi adam-lar-Ø.

If they stay or move on, whatever they do, the men are good people.
25.3.3.4 Noun–lEr–projection–person
Indefinite predicates not marked by bir do have the plural marker –lEr.
Biz-ler, gaz kaçak-ların-ı kibrit alev-i-yle kontrol ed-en insan-lar-dı-k.

We were all the kind of people who checked gas leaks with the flame of a match.
316 On plurality
Siz-ler, bun-lar-ın ters-in-e nitelikli insan-lar-dı-nız.

You were all people with qualities incompatible with these.
(siz-ler) Ne güzel çocuk-lar-dı-nız.
What beautiful children you were!
There is a nice contrast between the clauses of the following sentence: the first clause contains
a classifying statement and the second one is based on property attribution.
Siz, gözü pek insan-lar-dı-nız; düşman-lar-ınız taşkın ve korkak-tı-lar.

You were courageous people, your enemies were manic and timid.
The next series of examples with –(y)mIş makes clear that the presence of adjectival phrases
leads to a classifying statement.
(biz) Sanki kırk yıllık ahbap-lar-mış-ız gibi sohbet-e dal-dı-k.

We got into a conversation, as if we had been friends for forty years.
Öteki kız anne-sin-e: Biz ne mutsuz insan-lar-mış-ız!
The other girls said to her mum: ‘What unhappy people we seem to be!’
(biz) Onüç yaş-ımız-da-yken ne acayip çocuk-lar-mış-ız.
What strange / weird children we were, when we were thirteen years old!
Siz-ler ne utanmaz, ne kepaze şey-ler-miş-siniz!
What shameless, and what ridiculous and pathetic characters you all are!
The next example is based on –(y)sE and represents a classifying statement because of the
adjective er ‘manly’:
(siz) Er kişi-ler-se-niz, kaç-ma-z-sınız.

If you are real men, you don’t run off.
Projectional suffixes for the third person plural are:
Onlar yanlış yol-da ilerle-miş genç insan-lar-dı-Ø.

They were young people who had continued on the wrong road.
Baba-oğul, gayretli insan-lar-mış-Ø.
It seems that father and son are hardworking people.
Hele bun-u yaz-an-lar 16-18 yaş grub-un-dan genç insan-lar-sa-Ø.
Above all if those who write this are young people in the age group of 16–18 years . . .
The simultaneous occurrence of –lEr as the expression of plurality of a noun and as the marker
of congruence with a third person plural is only possible if these suffixes are separated by the
projection suffixes –(y)TI, –(y)mIş, and –(y)sE.
Bu elçi-ler nasıl insan-lar-dı-lar, kafa-ları nasıl çalış-ıyor-du?

What kind of people were these ambassadors, how did it work in their heads?
Onlar da film-de rol al-mış figüran-lar-dı-lar.

They too were walk-on actors who had roles in the film.
Yıl-larca onlar-a karşı muhabbet besle-di-k,
ama meğer bir-er nankör-ler-miş-ler.
For years we have nourished affection for them,
but it appears each of them is ungrateful.
Ya uzaylı de-dik-ler-imiz biz-den zerre kadar farkı ol-ma-yan insan-lar-sa-lar?
And what if what we call aliens are people not the least bit different from us.
25.3.3.5 N–lEr değil–Ø–person
For negated classifying statements no deviations from the foregoing are to be expected.
Ne de olsa, vahşi-ler değil-iz biz.

Nevertheless, we are no savages.
Ve pratik-ten anlaşıldığı gibi bun-lar iyi insan-lar değil-Ø.
And as is clear from practical experience, these are no good people.
Kadın-lar, baş-ların-dan yararlan-an biricik yaratık-lar değil-ler.
Women are not the only creatures who make use of their heads.
25.3.3.6 N–lEr değil–projection–person
An intrinsically plural subject is found in:
Mine ve ben dedikoducu tip-ler değil-di-k.

Mine and I were not gossiping types.
Birçoğ-unuz insan ölçü-ler-in-e göre bilge, güçlü ya da soylu kişi-ler değil-di-niz.
Many of you were, according to human standards, not wise (learned), powerful, or
noble persons.
The suffix –lEr is optional for marking congruence with the subject. Compare the first three
examples with the next two:
Anne-si-yle baba-sı kötü insan-lar değil-di-Ø.

His father and mother were not bad people.
Bun-lar çok zeki insan-lar değil-di-Ø.
These were not very clever people.
Şöyle devam et-ti: Bu netice-ler, um-duğ-umuz netice-ler değil-di-Ø.
She continued as follows: These results were not the ones we hoped for.
(onlar) Hakikaten fena insan-lar değil-di-ler.
They were truly not bad guys.
Ne kral ne de kraliçe ölüm ya da fırtına boyun eğ-ecek insan-lar değil-di-ler.
King and queen both were not people to bow their heads for death or fate.
318 On plurality
The projectional suffixes –(y)mIş and –(y)sE also can be combined with a plural predicate
for the third person.
Üç-ü de fena adam-lar değil-miş-Ø.

The three of them seem to be no bad men.
Anne-baba-sı önemli kişi-ler değil-miş-Ø, de-di.
His parents are apparently not important people, he said.
Arkadaş-lar-ınız nitelikli insan-lar değil-se-Ø, siz ne yap-abil-ir-siniz?
If your colleagues are not well-qualified people, what can you do?
Eğer bu sektör-de-ki insan-lar iş-lerin-i iyi yap-an insan-lar değil-se-Ø,
eşya-lar-ınız-ın başına her türlü zarar gel-ebilir.
If the people in this branch are not people who work well,
your furniture / belongings may suffer all kinds of damage.
25.3.4 Intermezzo
That the division into categories as proposed has great explanatory power for the
different positions of the suffix –lEr can further be demonstrated by a series of examples
based on hasta. This word is used as an adjective, ‘sick / ill’, and as a noun meaning
‘patient’. Again, a distinction can be made between constructions expressing prop-
erty attribution and those expressing identifying statements. Property attribution is
expressed in:
Şu ya da bu biçim-de hasta-ydı-lar.
In one way or another they were ill.
Ya hasta-ydı-lar ya da sakat.
They were either ill or handicapped / invalid.
Yaşlı Bülent ve torun-u, Süleyman’ın hasta-sı-ydı-lar,
ama ev ziyaret-ler-i ben-im sorumluluğ-um-du.
The old Bülent and his grandson were patients of Süleyman,
but the home visits were my responsibility.
Because of the ordering –lEr-(y)TI the next example can be interpreted only in one way,
namely as an identifying statement. The second example also belongs to this category, since
it is based on a compound formed by akıl ‘mind’ and hasta ‘patient’.
Başka kimileri ziyaretçi-ler-in-i bekle-yen hasta-lar-dı.

Other persons were sick (people) waiting for their visitors.
Alman totalitarizm-in-in sistematik ol-arak ortadan kaldır-dığ-ı ilk grup,
deli diye anıl-an kişi-ler-di, akıl hasta-lar-ı-ydı.
The first group the German totalitarian regime put away systematically
were the people called crazy; (it was) the mentally ill.
That the nominal compound (akıl hasta-lar-ı ‘mentally ill’) reflects identity and not the
attribution of some property may become clearer by comparing it with the compound of
the following example, in which the position of –lEr does mark property attribution.
Görünüşte (çiftlik işçi-si)-ydi-ler.

By their looks they were farmhands.
The distinction between classifying and identifying constructions is not relevant in genitive-
possessive constructions, as can be shown by:
Bun-lar doktor-un (hasta-lar)-ı-ydı.

These were patients of the doctor.
Murat psikolog olarak reçete yaz-ma yetki-si ol-ma-dığ-ı için psikiyatr ol-an
Aylin’e devred-iyor-du. Böylece birçok kişi (onlar-ın) müşterek hasta-ları-ydı.
Because Murat is not qualified as a psychologist to write out prescriptions,
he turned to Aylin, who is a psychiatrist. In this way many people were their
common patients.
25.3.5 Identifying statements
Structures such as You are the one who always misses the boat and This is the man who wants
to marry my sister are identifying statements.
For plural predicates the distinction between an identifying and classifying statement is
in English related to the occurrence of a definite article, as in These gurgles are the animals
I told you about versus These gurgles are Ø animals I told you about.
Because a definite article is lacking in Turkish, deciding on the question of whether a
statement is to be fully interpreted as identifying or classifying depends on the availability
of contextual or situational information. But the analysis is taken in isolation, the borderline
between the two options is very thin, and in what follows this is indicated by (the) in the
translations.
Predicates based on a personal or demonstrative pronoun are in this respect, of course,
unambiguous, because these pronouns are inherently definite.
25.3.5.1 Predicate is pronoun
If the core of the predicate is a personal pronoun, the result is an identifying statement,
regardless of the occurrence of a projectional suffix.
‘Gelecek biz-iz, biz geleceğ-iz’ yazılı pankart-lar taşı-dı-lar.

They carried banners which read ‘The future are we, we are the future’.
Öl-esiye bit-esiye çalış-an biz-di-k, sen değil!
Those who worked themselves to death were us, not you!
O faşist de-dik-leri biz-miş-iz.
Those fascists they are / were talking about seem to be us.
320 On plurality
Erdoğan, ‘Otorite biz-se-k biz zaten izn-i ver-di-k’ de-miş-ti.

Erdoğan said: ‘If we were the authority, we would have given permission anyhow’.
Dün akşam asansör-de-ki adam siz-di-niz, değil mi?
That man yesterday evening in the elevator was you, wasn’t it?
Güya iş-in bozul-ma-sın-a sebep siz-miş-siniz gibi.
As if one would think that you (guys) are the reason that things went awry.
Eğer karşı-m-da-ki göz yanılma-sı değil de gerçekten siz-se-niz, çok sevin-di-m.
If what sits opposite me is no delusion and if it is really you, I am really happy.
The next examples contain a predicate apparently marked for plurality, but this does not
play a role in the present discussion, because biz-ler means ‘we all’ and siz-ler ‘you all’.
Therefore, they are not in opposition with biz ‘we’ and siz ‘you’. Hence, there is no difference
in the types of statement, based on biz-ler and siz-ler.
On-a göre normal ol-ma-yan kendi-si değil, biz-ler-di-k.

According to him, the one not being normal was not he himself, but all of us.
Unut-ma-yın, lüks bir hayat sür-mek iste-yen siz-ler-di-niz!
Don’t forget (that) those who wanted to live a luxury life were all of you!
Bun-u ilk yap-an biz-ler değil-di-k elbette.
Those who did this first were not us, of course.
Bu dağ-lar-da bekle-diğ-im siz-ler değil-di-niz.
It was not you guys I expected in these mountains.
Furthermore, it should be noted that plural forms of biz ‘we’ and siz ‘you’ cannot be
combined with the projection suffixes –(y)mIş and –(y)sE.
Negation is unproblematic: the particle değil follows the pronoun and may be followed by
projectional suffixes. Here is a short selection:
Tek anla-ma-yan biz değil-miş-iz.

As it appears, we are not the only ones not understanding it.
Herhalde kişisel çıkarı için oraya gid-en siz değil-di-niz!
The one who went there in all probability for his personal benefit was not you.
As for the third person (plural), the projection form onlar-dı-lar is possible, but onlar-mış-lar
and onlar-sa-lar are not.
Sanki azap çek-en-i ilâç-la kurtar-an onlar-dı-lar.

As if they were the ones who cured / saved the tormented person with medication.
Negational forms for the third person (plural) are as follows:
Bun-lar onlar değil!

It’s not them.
Yol-dan sendele-yerek gid-en ve ihtar al-ma-yacak-lar-ın-ı um-an-lar da

onlar değil-ler.
Those who went staggering along the road and who hoped that they would
not be cautioned / get a warning, were not them.
Anlaşılan kitapçı-ya tek gid-en onlar değil-di.
Of course, they were not the only people going to a bookshop.
Cezalandırıl-acak ol-an-lar da onlar değil-ler-di.
The ones who were going to be punished were not they.
Bütün o yanlış-lar-ı yap-an onlar değil-ler-miş gibi devam ed-iyor-lar.
They continue as if it is not they who made all these mistakes.
Vatan uğruna savaş-arak ayağ-ın-ı, kol-un-u, göz-ün-ü kaybed-en onlar değil-ler-miş.
Those who lose a leg, arm, or eye fighting for the country are not they.
Bu asılsız ferman-ı hazırla-yan-lar onlar değil-ler-se, o zaman Mervan’dır.
If it is not they who prepared this false imperial order, then it must be Mervan.
Negated nominal sentences often have a modified predicate, particularly in the form of a
relative clause. The relatively large amount of information contained in such clauses makes
them good candidates for an identifying strategy (the referent of the predicate is already
anchored in the discourse), but on the other hand, if one is prepared to take each statement
unbiased (that is, discarding possible information about those referents), in many a case an
interpretation as a classifying statement is possible as well.
Ne de olsa biz yeşil araba-ları-yla köy köy dolaş-an çingene-ler değil-iz ya!
However, we are not (the) Gypsies who wander in their green wagons
from village to village.
Ne yazık ki siz bun-u anla-yacak herif-ler değil-siniz.
Unfortunately, you are not (the) fellows who will understand this.
Ve son defa olarak, beraber aşağı ineceğ-im insan-lar siz-ler değil-siniz.
And for the last time, you are not (the) people together with whom I will descend.
In case the predicate is not based on a pronoun, it consists of a plural-marked noun phrase,
possibly followed by a projectional and personal suffix.
25.3.5.2 Noun–lEr–Ø–person
The examples below are all based on plural-marked subjects and bare predicates:
Yani, sorumlu-lar siz-ler-siniz.

That is to say, those who are responsible are all of you.
Grom’un de-diğ-in-e göre hayat-ın-ı ilk kaybed-en-ler çocuk-lar-Ø.
According to what Grom says, the first who lose their lives are (the) children.
Negation goes according to the model Noun–lEr değil–Ø–person. Also this sequence is
found without a modifier:
Bugün de talep edil-en şey-ler bun-lar değil-Ø tabiî.

The things in demand nowadays are not these, of course.
322 On plurality
Suçlu ol-an-lar çiftçi-ler değil-Ø.

The guilty ones are not the farmers.
Modified predicates can be exemplified by:
Hayranlık-la dinle-miş ol-an-lar aynı insan-lar değil-Ø.

Those who had listened with wondering admiration are not the same people.
Madonna, Sezen Aksu, Aysel Gürel örnek-lerin-i düşün-e-lim;
onlar erkekleş-miş kadın-lar değil-Ø.
Think of Madonna, Sezen Aksu, Aysel Gürel as examples:
they are not (the) women who have become more manly / mannish.
For the third person plural, the suffix –lEr may function as the marker for congruence:
Yeğen veya teyze biz-e anlat-ır; dinle-me-yi ihmal ed-ecek kadın-lar değil-ler.
A niece or aunt will tell you; these are not (the) women one should neglect to listen to.
Erkek-ler artık bildiğ-imiz erkek-ler değil-ler.
The men are not (the) men we knew any more.
25.3.5.3 Noun–lEr–projection–person
Combination with –(y)TI, –(y)mIş and –(y)sE results in constructions which are not very
different from the foregoing examples.
Burada tacir-ler kadın-lar-dı-Ø.

Here the merchants were the women.
Bu sefer gel-en-ler, öğrenci-ler-di-Ø.
Those who came this time were the students.
En büyük dedikoducu erkek-ler-miş-Ø.
The greatest gossipers seem to be the men.
Öl-en-ler daha çok erkek-ler-se-Ø, peki, denge nasıl sağlan-ıyor?
If the people who die are more often the men, okay, how to keep a balance?
As has been indicated at the beginning of this section on identifying statements, when the
predicate is modified by an adjective or a relative clause, the difference between a classifying
and identifying statement is hard to tell. Here are a few more striking examples, in which
this is marked by (the) in the translations.
Söz sahib-i ol-an-lar çoğunlukla yaşlı kadın-lar-dı-Ø.

Those who were able to speak authoritatively were usually (the) elderly women.
Bayram-a karşı çık-an-lar İstanbul’un iyi okul-ların-da oku-yan öğrenci-ler-di-Ø.
Those who protested against the festivity were (the) students who studied
at the better schools of Istanbul.
Balo-ya katıl-ma-yan-lar-sa sınıf-ların-da pek sevil-me-yen öğrenci-ler-di-Ø.

As for those who did not go to the ball, it was (the) pupils who are not very much
loved in their classes.
Projectional suffixes such as –(y)mIş and –(y)sE tip the scales in favour of a classifying
interpretation. For instance:
Hepsi de çok yakışıklı, çok hoş, çok çekici, erkek-ler-miş-Ø.

All (of them) seem to be very handsome, very nice, very attractive men.
Eğer bun-lar namuslu dost-lar-sa-Ø, artık yüreğ-im-e inan-ma-yacağ-ım.
If these are (the) respectable comrades, I won’t believe my gut feelings any more.
Ama eğer saldır-an-lar aşağılık adam-lar-sa-Ø, yardım ed-ebil-ir-sin.
But if those who attack are (the) inferior people, (then) you may help.
If the subject is absent, the agreement marker –lEr is obligatory:
Popüler figür-ler-di-ler artık.

They were from then on popular figures.
Halbuki gene aynı insan-lar-dı-lar; bir günah-ları da yok-tu.
However, they were again (the) same people, and they had not a single fault.
Her şey-in-i ver-miş ve geriye hiçbir şey al-ama-mış kadın-lar-dı-lar bun-lar.
These were (the) women who gave everything and got nothing back at all.
Bir de çok cool çocuk-lar-mış-lar.
Moreover they were (the) very cool kids.
Ya uzaylı de-dik-ler-imiz biz-den zerre kadar farkı ol-ma-yan insan-lar-sa-lar?
And what if what we call aliens are people not the least bit different from us.
(onlar) İnsan-lar-sa-lar, çocuk-lar sık sık yalan-a başvur-abil-ir-ler.
If they are human(s), children may often resort to lies.
Negated forms can be exemplified by:
Halbuki anlamlı ol-an o şey-ler değil-di-Ø.

However, what was meaningful was not those things.
Başkaldır-an-lar bu adam-lar değil-di-Ø.
Those who rebelled were not these men.
Ye-dik-leri karın doyurucu şey-ler değil-di-Ø.
What they have eaten were not ‘stomach-filling’ things.
On-u kızdır-an söylen-en söz-ler değil-di-Ø.
What made her angry were not the words being said.
O zamanlar, deniz manzaralı yer-ler 1 milyon dolar veril-en şey-ler değil-miş-Ø.
At the time, places with a sea view were not things one gave a million dollars for.
324 On plurality
İlgi-miz-i çek-en sadece gece yapıl-an gözlem-ler değil-se-Ø,

gökyüzü gözlemciliğ-in-i bütün gün yap-abil-ir-iz.
If it is not that observations made only by night are what attracts our attention,
we can work at observation of the sky during the whole day.
Biraz önce gir-er-ken bırak-tığ-ım insan-lar değil-di-ler bun-lar.
They were not the people I left behind as I entered a while ago.
Onlar, ufuk-ları dar, basit, gelenekçi insan-lar değil-di-ler.
They were not narrow-minded, simple, traditional people.
Bu iki kadın aslında dışarıdan görün-dük-leri kadar melek insan-lar değil-miş-ler.
These two women are in fact not as angelic as they look like on the outside.
Eğer deprem-ler tanrı tarafından gönderil-en ceza-lar değil-se-ler,
onlar-ı araştır-mak, incele-mek ve hatta anla-mak mümkün ol-abil-ir-di.
If earthquakes are not punishments sent by God, it would then
be possible to investigate them in detail and even to understand them.
Eğer Abesha ve on-un eşanlamlı-sı Apsil aynı ism-in versiyon-lar-ı değil-se-ler,
bu kelime-ler farklı olarak değerlendiril-meli-dir-ler.
If it is not the case that Abesha and its synonym Apsil are variants of the same name,
these words must be evaluated as different.
25.3.5.4 Noun–lEr değil–lEr–projection
The projection suffixes –(y)TI, –(y)mIş and –(y)sE may follow a predicate which is already
doubly marked by –lEr. In this way the identifying construction thus formed is exclusively
related to the third person plural.
Onlar kötü insan-lar değil-ler-di-Ø.

They were not (the) bad guys.
Ama en kötü rüya-lar onlar değil-ler-di.
But the worst dreams were not those.
Aralarında yaşa-dığ-ım insan-lar dost olarak pek güvenilir kimse-ler değil-ler-di.
The people I lived among were not the persons who could fully be trusted as friends.
Siz-ler hep beraber-di-niz, işte Hiram, Erkan ve Tan, bun-lar değil-ler mi-ydi?
You were together all the time, so Hiram, Erkan, and Tan, weren’t they these (people)?
Böylece, patron-a göre Aristides ve Epiphanes iyi adam-lar değil-ler-miş de
iyi-ler yalnız yabancı-lar arasında bulun-abil-ir-miş.
Thus, according to the boss, Aristides and Epiphanes aren’t the right persons
and the right ones can apparently be found among only foreigners.
Siz-in algı-nız-da bun-lar güzel ol-mak için daha da zayıf ol-ma-yı
tercih ed-en kadın-lar değil-ler-se zaten aynı pencere-den bak-mı-yor-uz.
If these are in your perception not the women who prefer to slim down even more
to be(come) beautiful, we anyhow don’t look at things the same way.
If there is no subject then there must be double marking:
Birbir-lerin-den ayrı da değil-ler-di-ler.

They were not different from each other.
Bir ay önce geçir-diğ-im trafik kaza-sın-da bile yan-ım-da değil-ler-di-ler,
ve tek bahane-leri ‘çalış-ıyor-du-k’ ol-du.
Even after a traffic accident I had a month ago they were not with me,
and their only excuse was ‘we were at work’.
25.3.6 Summary
Three types of statement in constructions for the third person plural have been analysed in
relation to the suffix –lEr in its role as plural marker or agreement marker.
Property attribution. In section 25.3.2 it was established that the suffix –lEr is used as an
agreement marker in constructions expressing property attribution. In these constructions
the subject always has a plural referent (marked with –lEr or being inherently plural) and
the core of the predicate is in principle a bare noun or adjective. The core may be followed
by the negational particle değil and by projectional and personal suffixes. The agreement
marker -ler is optional, as indicated by Ø in (1)–(5) when the subject is present; if not, the
placement of –ler is obligatory. Statements expressing property attribution can be divided
into the following categories:
subj adj / noun neg. proj agreement
1. onlar genç / insan – – –Ø / –ler Basic forms
2. onlar genç / insan – –di –Ø / –ler Projection
3. onlar genç / insan değil – –Ø / –ler Negation–1
4. onlar genç / insan değil –di –Ø / –ler Negation–2
5. onlar genç / insan değil–ler–di –Ø / Negation–3
6. – genç / insan değil–ler–di –ler Negation–4
Two questions are to be addressed. First, when must the agreement marker third person
plural be placed, or, when can it be left out? The answer is quite simple. If the sentence con-
tains a subject which is a plural pronoun (e.g. onlar, bunlar), a plural-marked or inherently
plural noun phrase (e.g. adam-lar, Ayşe’le Mehmet) the agreement marker can be left out.
This rule applies to all projectional forms and hence, both Onlar insan-dı-(lar) and İnsan-dı-lar
are to be interpreted as ‘They were human’.
Second, in negated forms there is more variation, since the particle değil takes the p
lural marker
–lEr in two ways, leading to sentences that end in değil-di-ler as in 4. or değil-ler-di as in 5.
Now, this type of opposition is also found in affirmative sentences. Consider the following
examples with predicates based on öğretmen ‘teacher’.
Irak’ta öğretmen-di-ler Türkiye’de bulaşıkçı.
In Iraq they were all teachers (but) in Turkey dishwashers.
326 On plurality
Satranç turnuva-sın-da bu kez satranç tahta-sı başında-ki-ler öğretmen-ler-di.

Each of those who sat this time at the chessboards at the tournament was a teacher.
The first example is taken from a newspaper and is about refugees in Turkey. The sentence
lacks a subject and this accounts for the agreement marker –ler. Also, the singular word
öğretmen ‘teacher’ is to be regarded as a very general denotation of the profession of the
people referred to. In the second example, however, the predicate is based on the plural
form öğretmen-ler. This suffix, known as a ‘plural suffix’, has an individualizing effect which
is, as it were, conveyed to the subject of the sentence, being satranç tahta-sı başında-ki-ler
‘people at the chessboard(s)’, thereby emphasizing that each of them is a teacher. This analysis
can be corroborated by taking the context into account, namely that the event referred to
was Öğretmen-ler Gün-ü Satranç Turnuva-sı ‘Teachers’ Day Chess Tournament’, for which it
is very likely that it is indeed teachers who will play chess with one another.
This analysis has the same explanatory power for negative sentences, as in:
Yani arkadaş-lar-ı doktor ya da öğretmen değil-ler-di.

So none of his friends were doctors or teachers.
Zaten bun-lar de bugün anlaşılan mana-da hoca veya öğretmen değil-di-ler.
Anyway all these people were not hoca or teachers in today’s sense.
Classifying statements. Section 25.3.3 is on constructions expressing class inclusion.

Whereas a statement of property attribution has a relatively simple structure—merely a
subject plus predicate in which the noun cannot be modified, class inclusion is expressed
by a predicate based on an indefinite noun phrase which is modified by either an adjective
or a relative clause.
subj adj art noun neg. proj. agr.

1. o genç bir insan – – – Singular
o genç bir insan değil – –
2. o genç bir insan – –dı –
o genç bir insan değil –di –
3. onlar genç insan–lar – – – Plural
4. onlar genç insan–lar – –dı –Ø / –lar Projection
5. onlar genç insan–lar değil – –Ø / –ler
6. onlar genç insan–lar değil –di –Ø / –ler
The constructions based on a pronominal predicate (indicated as o ‘he/she’ above) are not
relevant for the present analysis.
The occurrence of the agreement marker is dependent on the presence of the subject. If
the sentence contains a subject which is a plural pronoun (e.g. onlar, bunlar), a plural-marked
or inherently plural noun phrase (e.g. adam-lar, Ayşe’le Mehmet), the agreement marker
can be left out. This rule applies to all projectional forms and thus, the sentences Onlar genç
insan-lar-dı-(lar) and Genç insan-lar-dı-lar are equivalent and have the meaning ‘They were
young people’.
Class inclusion is in fact about individuals. As has been shown, there are singular and plural
statements (e.g. A monkey is an animal and Monkeys are animals), but no matter which
construction is used, they both have the same logical extension. The singular one is explicitly
about an individual but by inference it is clear that all monkeys belong to the class of entities
labelled ‘animal’, whereas by the plural construction it can be inferred that what holds for
all monkeys is valid for an individual beast as well. In other words, there is no opposition
between each and all in sentences such as They are young people and They are not young
people: it just means that all or none of the referents are young.
This might explain why the plural suffix does not occur after değil other than as an
agreement marker in present-tense constructions.
Comparing the structure of statements expressing property attribution with that of
classifying constructions, the basic difference is the predicate:
onlar insan-dı-(lar) onlar insan değil-di-(ler) property attribution

onlar insan-lar-dı-(lar) onlar insan-lar değil-di-(ler) classification
When the optional agreement marker is applied in the first construction but left out in the
second one, it is obvious that there might be confusion between Onlar insan-dı-lar ‘They
were human’ with the agreement marker and Onlar insan-lar-dı ‘They were humans’ with
the plural marker.
Identifying statements. Section 25.3.5 is on indentifying statements. The structures which

have been analysed have much in common with those of sections 25.3.2 and 25.3.3, and
they can be represented as follows:
subj adj art noun neg proj agr
2. NP–lEr N–lEr – – –
3. NP–lEr N–lEr – –dI Ø / –ler Projection
2. NP–lEr N–lEr değil – –Ø / –ler Negation–1
NP–lEr N–lEr değil –di –Ø / –ler Classification
4. NP–lEr N–lEr değil–ler–di –Ø
– N–lEr değil–ler–di –ler
There are several types of structures which can a priori be regarded as identifying
statements because of their predicate only. These are constructions the predicate of which is
based on a personal, possessive, or demonstrative pronoun, for instance:
Bu sefer gel-en-ler, öğrenci-ler-imiz-di.

Those who came this time were our students.
Artık onlar arkadaş-lar-ınız değil-ler.
They are not your friends any more.
Yuva-ların-a daha önce saldır-an-lar yine bu çocuk-lar-dı.
The ones who attacked their nests earlier were again these children.
Also in negated identifying statements there are differences with respect to the placement
and the nature of the suffix –lEr. Consider:
328 On plurality
Sanki, bu ayak-lar ben-im değil-di-ler.

As if these feet were not my feet / mine.
El-im-de araba anahtar-lar-ı var-dı ama ben-im değil-ler-di.
I had car keys in my hand but they were not mine.
The feet in the first example are presented as a whole, a collective, as it were, which could
alternatively be expressed by saying ‘As if both feet were not mine’.
The second example, however, allows for a more individual perspective: that the car keys
in hand were not those of the speaker implies that none of these keys were.
Whether it is the individual or the collective that determines the perspective is in some
cases supported by material available in the context.
Az önce çılgınca eğlen-en çocuk-lar, sanki o çocuk-lar değil-di-ler.

As if the children madly having fun a little earlier were not those children.
The explanation of these circumstances was presented by the following:
Hepsi-nin de göz-lerin-e korku-nun donuk görüntü-sü gel-ip otur-muş,

heves-lerin-i yitir-miş-ler-di.
The colourless look of fear had settled in they eyes of all;
they had (all) lost their enthusiasm.
26
Sundry particles
Conjunctions are the particles used for the coordination of nouns (section 26.1), and these
are treated together with the question particle mI. This particle is not only applied to form
choice questions, but it forms yes / no questions as well (section 26.2). The negational particle
değil is used to contrast two or more nouns and combined with the question particle it
is also the core of tag questions. In section 26.3 so-called clitics are discussed, by means
of which emphatic statements and rhetorical questions are formulated. Also, some clause
linkers and devices for topicalization are discussed.
26.1 Joining things
The Turkish expression for ‘supply and demand’ is arz ve talep. The nouns arz ‘demand’ and
talep ‘supply’ are coupled by the conjunction ve ‘and’. Such a conjunction is often used as
the final element in an enumeration like ‘Aliye bought potatoes, vegetables, and fruit’. Now,
in Turkish every separate item (‘potatoes’, ‘vegetables’, ‘fruit’) can be considered a direct object
but also the series of items as a whole. This is, of course, only visible when the direct object is
definite. Consider:
Aliye patates-ler-i, sebze-yi ve meyve-ler-i masa-ya koy-du.

Aliye put the potatoes, vegetables, and fruit on the table.
Aliye (patates, sebze ve meyve)-yi masa-ya koy-du.
Aliye put the potatoes, vegetables, and fruit on the table.
The latter example shows postponement of suffixation (see section 25.2): the accusative case
marker occurs only once. A once-only occurrence of possessive suffixes and / or case mark-
ers is permissible if the preceding nouns have the same syntactic status of subject or
object. In the following examples such words are placed in brackets.
Her gün (baba ve anne)-sin-den kaç-ıyor-du.

Every day he ran away from his father and mother.
(Jambon, peynir ve ekmek)-ten oluşan yemek-lerin-i bitir-di-ler.
They finished their meal, which consisted of ham, cheese, and bread.
Piyasa fiyat-ı, (arz ve taleb)-in karşılaşma-sı-yla belir-ir.
The market price becomes visible where ‘demand and supply’ meet.
Sometimes ile or –(y)lE is used to link two noun phrases:
(Peynir ile ekmek) al-ma-ya gid-iyor-um.

I am going to buy bread and cheese.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
330 Sundry particles
(Ayşe’yle ben) sinema-ya git-ti-k.

Ayşe and I went to see a film.
(Ahmet’le Ayşe) daha gel-me-di-ler.
Ahmet and Ayşe have not yet arrived.
In listings the combination bir de is often applied in the sense of ‘and (also) a(n) / one’:
Bir tane Türk kahve-si, sade, bir çay, iki ayran, bir de maden suyu, lütfen.
One Turkish coffee, black, one tea, two glasses of ayran, and a mineral water, please.
The notion of ‘both . . . as well as’ is expressed by dE . . . dE, hem . . . hem de, and gerek . . . gerek(se).
Here are some examples.
Gerek dünya-da gerek(-se) ülke-miz-de de öyle ol-du.

This is how it happened, in our country as well as in the whole world.
Türkiye’de petrol de gaz da var-dır.
In Turkey there is both oil and gas in the ground.
Üstelik baba-m da anne-m de haklı.
Moreover, both my mum and dad were right.
Hem özel hem de devlet sektör-ün-de . . .
Both in the private, and in the public (state) sector . . .
26.2 Choosing things
Thus, a noun phrase may be composed of several separate nouns. Instead of just listing
them, the question particle can be applied to any one of these nouns in order to render
certain options. In this way one could say:
Çay mı, kahve mi isti-yor-sun?

Do you want tea or coffee?
The question particle can be applied not only in questions providing options as shown
above, but it can also be placed after any noun phrase. As was shown in section 7.4.2, a
question particle can be placed after a question word. In the following example the ques-
tion is asked whether the addressee was going to say ‘You don’t come (along)’ or something
other than that.
Gel-mi-yor-sun mu di-yecek-ti-n?
Were you going to say: ‘You don’t come’?
This can be contrasted with the ‘normal’ order which is used to question the ‘coming’:
Gel-mi-yor mu-sun di-yecek-ti-n.

You were going to say: ‘Don’t you come?’ / ‘Are you not coming?’
26.2 Choosing things 331
Not surprisingly, though, ‘single-sided’ questions are in fact also questions of choice:
Ev-e mi gid-iyor-sun?
Are you going home (or somewhere else)?
Gazete mi al-acak-sın?
Will you buy a newspaper (or something else)?
Particularly in compound verbs based on etmek (see section 30.1.1) the position of the
question particle is relevant for the overall meaning. In the following examples a question
indicating a choice alternates in every sentence pair with a yes / no question. The first type
of question pertains to whether or not the action is carried out, and the second type to
whether there is an alternative for the noun which defines etmek. Compare:
Telefon mu et-ti-ler yoksa? (choice)

Have they by chance made a phone call?
Eskişehir’e telefon et-ti-n mi? (yes / no)
Have you made a / that phone call to Eskişehir?
Ben sen-i rahatsız mı et-ti-m? (choice)
Have I made you feel uncomfortable?
İçki iç-me-si sen-i rahatsız et-ti mi? (yes / no)
Did it disturb you that she uses / used alcohol?
Sohbet mi et-ti-niz? (choice)
Have you had a chat?
Sen de sohbet et-ti-n mi on-un-la? (yes / no)
And have you talked with him?
Biz-e yardım mı ed-ecek-sin sen? (choice)
Are you going to help us, or what?
Peki onlar-a yardım et-ti-n mi? (yes / no)
All right, did you help them?
Contrasting two items can be done by the negational particle değil:
Çay değil kahve isti-yor-um. I don’t want tea, but coffee.

Ev-e değil banka-ya gid-iyor. He isn’t going home, but to the bank.
Meyve değil sebze al-acak. She won’t buy fruit, but vegetables.
Verbs can be contrasted as well, and the negated part may follow the predicate:
Gelecek-te hedef-imiz saldır-mak değil savun-mak ol-malı-dır.

Our target in the future must not be attacking but defending.
The negational particle may come after the predicate as well, as in:
Gelecek-te hedef-imiz savun-mak ol-malı-dır, saldır-mak değil.

Our target in the future must be defending, not attacking.
The particles ya, ya da, ya . . . ya da, veya, yahut, and veyahut present options, too:
Böyle bir suç için beş ya da altı yıl hapis cezası ver-ir-ler.
For such a crime they give you five to six years’ imprisonment.
Bu iş-i Mustafa veya Aliye yap-abil-ir.
This job could be done by Mustafa or Aliye.
Ben-i gör-ünce veyahut gir-diğ-im-i duy-unca ayağ-a fırla-dı.
As she saw me or heard that I had entered, she jumped to her feet.
Hakikat-i bil-me-yen-ler yahut bulanık su-da balık avla-mak iste-yen-ler var-dır.
There are just people who either do not know the truth or who want to fish in
troubled waters.
Predicates can be linked as well by these particles:
Bu iş ya ol-acak ya da ol-ma-yacak.
This will either go entirely well or go entirely wrong.
Particles by means of which an option can be presented are ister . . . ister(se) ‘or’ and ha . . . ha
with the same meaning. The first part is placed before a noun phrase.
Kadın, ister papaz karı-sı ol-sun, ister şeytan karı-sı, hep aynı mahlûk-tur.
A woman, be it a priest’s wife or the devil’s, is one and the same creature.
‘İşte son fiyat-ım, ister al-ın, isterse al-ma-yın’ de-di ve fiyat-ı söyle-di.
‘But this is my final price, whether you buy it or not’, and he named the price.
Ha ol-muş ha ol-ma-mış, aldırış et-me-m.
Whether it happened or not, I don’t care / pay attention (to it).
The negational counterpart of such choices can be expressed by the particles ne . . . ne de
‘neither . . . nor’ and these are used for the exclusion of two or more things. As can be
expected, all types of structures can be preceded by either one of these particles; subjects,
objects, adverbial phrases, verbal and nominal predicates, as well as sentences. This type of
construction allows for affirmative as well as negated verbs.
Fakat çocuk-ta ne ağrı ne de korku var-dır. (subject)

But the child has neither pain nor fear.
Ne sen ne de kardeş-in sinema-ya gid-eme-yecek-siniz bu akşam.
Neither you nor your brother / sister can go to the cinema tonight.
Bir dostu-m-un ne güven-in-i ne de sevgi-sin-i kaybet-mek iste-me-m. (object)
I don’t want to lose a friend of mine’s trust, nor his affection.
Ne kendi nefis-lerin-e ne de başka-ların-a boyun eğ-er-ler-di.
They indulged in neither their own cravings of the flesh nor those of others.
Roman kahraman-ı ne bir adım ileri ne de bir adım geri gid-iyor-du. (adverbial)
The novel’s hero didn’t move a step, neither forwards nor backwards.
Böyle bir balığ-ı ne gör-dü-m ne de işit-ti-m. (predicate)

Such a fish I have neither seen nor heard of.
Kısacası elektron ne dalga ne de parçacık-tır,
aslında her iki niteliğ-i bünye-sin-de bir arada taşı-yan bir kuantum nesne-si-dir.
Briefly, an electron is neither a wave nor a particle, it is a quantum object that
in fact carries both properties in its structure at the same time.
And sentences can be coordinated in this way as well, although the second verbal part is
usually left out:
Dünya sessiz bir kuyu, ne o ben-i duy-uyor ne de ben on-u (duy-uyor-um).

The world is a soundless well, neither does it hear me nor am I hearing it.
Ne onlar ben-i tanı-r, ne de ben onlar-ı (tanı-r-ım).
They do not know me, nor do I know them (I don’t know them either).
Hep aynı şey söyle-di-ler: ne baş-ı var-dı ne de son-u (var-dı), şarkı-nın.
They sang the same thing all the time; there was neither a beginning
nor an end to the song.
26.3 Other small fry
The particles of sections 26.3.1–26.3.4 are called clitics. These are small words which form a
phonological unit with the words they pertain to.
26.3.1 Particles bile / dahi
Other particles are bile ‘even’ and dahi ‘even’ and they are placed after the noun phrase to
which they are related. The stress is always on the preceding syllable. As a fact, all types of
noun phrase qualify for inclusion of these particles. A small selection is:
Hasan bile gel-di. Even Hasan has come.

İlkokul-lar-da bile çete-ler var. Even in primary schools there are gangs.
Anne-m bun-lar-ı duy-mak dahi iste-mi-yor-du.
My mother didn’t even want to hear all this.
Artık ağlayacak güc-üm dahi kal-ma-mış-tı.
I had not even the power to cry any more.
The word hatta ‘moreover; even’ is always placed before the fragment it pertains to:
Hatta para-nın bir kısm-ın-ı ver-me-miş.

It seems he has not paid even a part of the money.
Yirmi beş liradan fazla, hatta bun-un iki kat-ın-dan fazla kazan-ıyor-um, de-di.
He said: I earn more than twenty-five lira, even more than twice as much as that.
26.3.2 Particles da / de
The pair de / da ‘also, too’ is subject to the rules of vowel harmony.
Hasan da gel-ecek-ti. Hasan too would come.

Ben de çorba al-ıyor-um. I too take a soup.
The difference in meaning depending on the position of de / da can be illustrated nicely by

the following sentences:
On-u ben de gör-dü-m. I too saw her.

Ben on-u da gör-dü-m. I saw her too.
On-u ben gör-dü-m de. I also saw her.
Another function this word pair fulfils is that of clause linker. Thus, de / da ‘and’ is often to
be found after a clause ending in verb stem plus –(y)Ip (see section 27.1.2), as in:
Biz-ler şimdi, eşeğ-in-i kaybed-ip de yeniden bul-muş gibi sevin-iyor-uz.

We are all happy now, like one who has lost his donkey and found it again.
Akşam üzeri ol-up da biz-im-ki-ler bir daha görün-me-di-ler.
It was getting on towards evening and our friends didn’t appear any more.
In other environments de / da gives emphasis to the preceding word.
Üstelik, tıpatıp da babaanne-sin-e benzi-yor-du.

Moreover, she looked like her grandmother, and exactly, for that matter.
Ama pes et-mek de yok.
But giving in is not allowed either. (Literally: But there is no giving in either.)
However, the divide presented here between ‘and’ on the one hand, and ‘also, too, as well’ on
the other, is not always clear. In many cases the context determines which translation turns
out to be preferable, even when identical phrases are involved. Compare for instance:
Şimdi de ben siz-e sor-a-yım: Ya siz?

And now let me ask you: What about you?
Herkes bu senaryo-yu izle-mi-yor-du belki. Şimdi de birçok kimse izle-mi-yor.
Perhaps not everyone followed this scenario. Now too many people don’t.
Papirus, şimdi de kullanıl-an en eski yazı yazma materyal-i.
Papyrus is the oldest writing material (still) being used now too.
İki de çay gönder-in biz-e!
And bring us two teas, please! / Bring us also two teas, please!
Böylece bir hexametron-da hece sayı-sı, on iki de ol-abil-ir,
on sekiz de ya da bun-lar arasında bir sayı.
In this way the number of syllables in a hexameter can be twelve as well,
and also eighteen, or a number in between.
26.3.3 Particle ise
The particle ise introduces the subject of the main clause and is often used in its short and
unstressed variant –sE:
Hasan ise, o da gel-ir. As for Hasan, he comes too.

Ücret-i ise, 500 dolar. And the price, that’s 500 dollars.
Ben-se, yeniden yalnız-ım. And I, I’m on my own again.
Sen-se, ben-i hiç sev-me-z-sin. And you, you don’t love me at all.
26.3.4 Particle ya
The particle ya has several meanings. Between clauses it means ‘but’, as in:
Bir şey de-r-ler-di; bil-iyor-du-m ya unut-tu-m.

They used to say one thing: I knew but I forgot.
But at the end of a clause it is used for emphasis in statements and in rhetorical
questions:
Söyle-di-m ya, az önce ora-da-ydı-m.

I told you actually, a while ago I was there.
Gör-üyor-sun ya, di-yor-du, sen artık aile-den bir-i sayıl-ır-sın.
You see (it), don’t you, she said, you are already regarded as one of the family.
Üç küçük çocuğ-u besleyecek bir şey ol-ma-yınca, on-lar-a bak-mak kolay mı ya?
When there is nothing to feed three young children, is it easy to take care of them?
Düğün-ünüz-ün gecikme-si için bir sebep var mı ya?
Is there really a reason for the delay of your wedding feast?
Furthermore, sentence-final ya functions as an introduction or confirmation of information,

as in:
Böyle bir şey-i iki yıl-da giy-ecek değil-im ya!

You know, I certainly won’t ever wear such a thing in two years!
Dünya-nın son-u gel-me-di ya!
It’s not the end of the world, you know!
26.3.5 Particle yoksa
The word yoksa expresses a possible consequence or result (‘if not / otherwise / or else’) or a
possible reason or circumstance (‘possibly / by chance’). As a conjunctive element (for such
elements, see section 26.1) it can stand between two sentences, but also at the beginning
or end of a single sentence. Some examples:
Çabuk ol yoksa tren-i kaçır-ır-ız.

Be quick, otherwise we will miss the train.
Feyza daha gel-me-di yoksa tren-i mi kaçır-dı?
Feyza hasn’t arrived yet; might she by chance have missed the train?
Dinle-mi-yor mu-sun yoksa?
Or aren’t you listening?
Yoksa sen-i dinle-yecek birisin-i bul-ama-dı-n mı?
Or weren’t you able to find someone who would listen to you?
26.3.6 Particle değil
The word değil in sentence-initial position may denote the negation of some statement
made previously, as is the case in the replies given in:
Ben öyle san-ıyor-um ki, siz şakacı bir kimse-siniz.

—Değil, vallahi değil!
I think you are a person given to joking.
—That isn’t so, I swear it, that’s not the case.
Kadın yine, ‘Değil, yavru-m’ di-yor.
The woman says again ‘That isn’t so, my child’.
Such a negation may be followed by the question particle plus ki and this leads to the overall
meaning ‘it isn’t so that . . .’ . In fact this is a tag question, seeking confirmation.
Değil mi ki İstanbul’un en kalabalık köşe-si!

Isn’t that the busiest / most crowded corner of Istanbul!
Değil mi ki bu fedakârlığ-ı on-un için yap-tı-m, bırak!
Isn’t it the case that I have made this sacrifice for her / him? Come off it!
Also when değil mi (pronounced as: [dϵmi]) is the last element in a sentence, its function
is that of a tag question, thereby tacitly seeking some kind of confirmation. Its meaning is
best conveyed by: ‘isn’t it?’, ‘right?’, and the like.
Sen yarın tatil-e çık-acak-sın, değil mi?

You are going on holiday tomorrow, aren’t you?
Ali iki hafta-dır iş-in-e gel-me-di, değil mi?
Ali hasn’t come to s work for two weeks, right?
However, if the word değil in sentence-initial position is related to a phrase which is

contrasted with another phrase or clause, the meaning is ‘let alone’ or ‘not only . . . but also’,
as can be demonstrated by:
Değil topluluk-ta, yalnız başına ev-in-de bile böyle gez-me-z-di.

Not only in company, but even when at home alone he didn’t walk around like that.
Değil 100 bin dolar, 100 sent et-me-z.
It is not even worth a hundred cents, let alone 100,000 dollars.
Değil resm-i, o resim-de-ki kadın bile akl-ın-a kaç hatıra birden getir-iyor.
Not only his photo, but also the woman in the picture bring a lot
of memories at once to life.
26.3.7 Conjunction bilemedin
The conjunction bilemedin / bilemediniz ‘at most’ functions as a kind of interjection and
can be placed between two numbers only:
Köpek dediğin on, bilemedin, onbeş yıl yaşa-r-dı.

That dog of yours (that what you call dog) would live ten, at most fifteen years.
On, bilemedin onbeş dakika-dan fazla bekle-me-ye-lim.
Let’s not wait for longer than ten, at (the very) most fifteen minutes.
Ben de siz-i yirmi dakika, bilemediniz yarım saat kadar rahatsız ed-er-im.
I will disturb you for twenty minutes, half an hour at most.
26.3.8 Initial hem de
The words hem de do not only form the second part in the construction hem . . . hem de
‘both . . . as well as’ (see section 26.1), by they also fulfil the function of introduction to a
certain type of exclamatory sentence. Such sentences convey, in fact, some comment on
a statement made previously. There are two subtypes. Firstly, structures which express
surprise, amazement, astonishment, and the like, and which emphasize some quality, size,
or quantity. Here are some examples.
Peki, ev-de çalış-an kadın-ın aile-ye katkı-sı yok mu-dur?

—Hem de ne katkı!
All right, does the woman who works at home make no contribution to the family, then?
—And what a contribution!
Fırsat-ı kaçır-dı!
—Hem de ne fırsat!
He missed out on the opportunity!
—And what an opportunity!
İşte, içecek de var-dı, hem de nasıl!
Look, there was indeed something to drink, too, you bet / certainly / surely!
The second subtype is a comment in the form of a question which expresses a certain
degree of wonderment or curiosity. This can be exemplified by:
Oğl-u on-a hakaret et-miş, babalık onur-un-u ayaklar altına al-mış-tı.

—Hem de ne için?
His son had insulted him, he trampled on the paternal honour.
—Why would he do that?
Yalnız prens-in on-u her an var güc-ü-yle aşağıla-dığ-ın-ı bil-iyor-um.
—Hem de ne ile?
I know only that the prince humiliated her all the time with all his might.
—I wonder how / with what. / How would he do that?
Yaşlan-ıyor-um diye düşün-dü. Ölümlülüğ-üm-ün soğuk el-in-i hisset-ti-m.
—Hem de nerede?
Yaşlı bir kadın-ın açgözlülüğ-ün-de.
I’m getting old, he thought, I have felt the cold hand of my mortality.
—Where would that be? / How’s that?
In the greed of an old woman.
27
Clause linking
Several actions, events, or situations can occur at the same time or sequentially. There
is often a certain relationship between two states of affairs occurring simultaneously or
sequentially, and this fact can be expressed grammatically by an element that links two
clauses. In Turkish there are quite a number of methods to achieve this and there is a
variety of clause-linking devices.
Simple connectives are treated in section 27.1 and other devices which are abundantly
present are conditional sentences formed by the realis and irrealis constructions (section 27.2).
The remainder of the chapter (sections 27.3 and 27.4) presents an extensive account of
so-called converbs, verbal connectors that signal all sorts of temporal relations.
27.1 Coordination
Coordinating linkers fall into two groups: particles that carry a minimal ‘amount of meaning’
in the sense that they only express some opposition beween two clauses and particles which
connect to clauses in terms of reason, purpose, cause, and the like.
A verbal suffix which fulfils the function of clause linker is –(y)Ip, and it connects clauses
without any indication of tense, number, or person. It has two subtypes, each based on two
adjacent linked verb stems.
27.1.1 Simple conjunctions
The easiest way to link two clauses is by putting them next to each other or by using a word
called a conjunction. Very common are: ve ‘and’, ama ‘but’, and ya ‘or’:
Aliye gazete oku-yor. Kardeş-i de roman oku-yor.

Aliye is reading the newspaper. And her sister a novel.
Fatma alışveriş yap-ma-ya çık-tı ve Ahmet koltuk-ta uyu-yor.
Fatma went shopping and Ahmet is taking a nap on the couch.
Hasan mutfak-ta yemek pişir-iyor ama Ayşe televizyon seyred-iyor.
Hasan is cooking in the kitchen but Ayşe is watching telly.
(Ya) bakkal-a peynir al-ma-ya gid-iyor-sun ya (da) bulaşık yıkı-yor-sun.
Either you go to the grocer’s to get cheese or you wash up the dishes.
The first two examples exhibit a loose relationship between the clauses they contain—the two
states of affairs have nothing to do with each other, other than that they occur simultaneously
or sequentially. But in the third and fourth examples two states of affairs are presented in
terms of a certain contrast.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
340 Clause linking
In certain cases it seems that some words have been left out in a sentence that consists of
two clauses; for instance, in both clauses with a shared element such as a subject or a predicate.
Here are two simple examples.
Fatma ev-den çık-tı ama [o] alışveriş yap-ma-dı.

Fatma went out but did not go shopping.
Kesinlikle kabul [etmeyeceğiz] ve imza et-me-yeceğ-iz.
We will certainly not accept and sign this.
By means of the particle da / de a relation of causality can be expressed or suggested:
Çalış-mış da kazan-mış. She worked, so she earned money.

Şun-u al da ceb-in-e koy. Take this and put it in your pocket.
Oku-du-m da öğren-di-m. I read it and (so) I know it.
Ne ol-du da böyle gecik-ti-n? What happened that you are so late?
Ne iyi et-ti-n de gel-di-n!
How well you did by coming!
Hava sıcak da mont-um-u çıkar-dı-m.
It is hot so I have taken off my jacket.
Önce iş-im-i bitir-e-yim de sinema-ya gid-e-yim.
Let me first finish my work and then go to the cinema.
Clauses can also be linked by means of ama ‘but’, fakat ‘but’, lâkin, ‘but, however’, ancak
‘but, only’, yalnız ‘but, only’, çünkü ‘because’, zira ‘because’, yani ‘thus’:
Sabahleyin gezin-mek isti-yor-du-k, ama müthiş bir yağmur yağ-ıyor-du.

We wanted to go out for a walk this morning but it rained terribly.
Çok iyi bir arkadaş, fakat biraz tembel.
He is a very good friend but a little bit lazy.
Para-yı şimdi al, lâkin iş-i çabuk yap!
Take the money now, but do the job quickly!
Çok çalış-tı, ancak pek başarılı ol-ma-dı.
She has worked hard but has not become very successful.
Başar-abil-ir-sin, yalnız çok çalış-ma-n gerek.
You can succeed but you must work hard for it.
Bu akşam gel-emi-yor-um çünkü çok iş-im var.
I cannot come tonight because I am very busy.
Gel-eme-di-m zira hasta ol-du-m.
I could not come because I was ill.
O kadar para-mız yok-tu, yani ev-i al-ama-dı-k.
We didn’t have that much money, so we could not buy the house.
27.1.2 Suffix –(y)Ip
If two actions are carried out in one go by one and the same person, clauses are linked by
the stressed suffix –(y)Ip.
Hasan ev-e gel-ip hemen yat-tı.

Hasan came home and went to bed straightaway.
Ben hemen mektub-u çanta-m-dan çıkar-ıp on-a uzat-tı-m.
Immediately I took the letter out of my briefcase and gave it to her.
Sıra-mız-ı bekle-yip katlan-ma-mız gerek-iyor.
We must await our turn and cope with it.
The negational combinations –mE-(y)Ip and –EmE-(y)Ip also occur. Instead of two
consecutive events, the entire construction reports that a certain event has not taken place.
Bun-un-la da kal-ma-yıp, baş-ın-ı salla-yarak ürkünç bir ses-le gül-dü.

Not stopping with this, (while) shaking her head, she laughed with a scary sound.
Kendi-m-i tut-ama-yıp, ora-ya doğru koş-ma-ya başla-dı-m.
I couldn’t control myself and began to run in that direction.
The auxiliary form ol-ma-yıp does not have a meaning of its own, but as an auxiliary it
supports a construction equivalent to one with ‘to be’ or ‘to have’ in English.
Disleksi ol-ma-yıp okuma sorun-lar-ı yaşa-yan çocuk-lar da var.

There are also children having reading problems, (while) not dyslexic.
Tekerlek-ler, lâstik ol-ma-yıp dede-ler-imiz-in araba-ların-da-ki
demir çemberli tekerlek-ler-i andır-mak-ta-dır.
The wheels, not being (made of) rubber, remind us of the wheels with iron rims
on the carts of our grandfathers.
Yeteneğ-i ol-ma-yıp da heve-si ol-an-lar-ın çoğ-u bura-da bulun-ur.
The majority of those who have no talent, but who do have enthusiasm, are found here.
Yitir-ecek bir şey-i ol-ma-yıp da sadece kazanç sağla-yacak ol-an kim-dir?
Who is the one who has nothing to lose and has only to make a profit?
27.1.3 Combination V–(y)Ip + V–(y)Ip
Two adjacent verb stems ending in –(y)Ip are possible as well. Two subtypes can be distin-
guished: 1) the two stems differ from each other and 2) the two stems are identical. If the
verb stems are different, there is a regular sequence of actions. For example:
Abla-m bir yer-ler-den bul-up çıkar-ıp, eski bir fotoğraf-ımız-ı biz-e gönder-miş.
My sister has dug up an old photo with us in it from somewhere and has sent it to us.
342 Clause linking
Biz bir nizam sağla-dı-k, ama onlar bun-a uy-ma-yıp gid-ip otobüs-e bin-miş-ler.
We provided a structure, but they didn’t fit in, left, and departed by bus.
El ayak tırnak-ların-ı kes-ti-ler, Dolomit kirec-i-yle diş-ler-in-i temizle-di-ler,
tıraş et-ti-ler, saç-ların-ı kısalt-ıp tara-yıp bir biçim-e sok-tu-lar.
They cut the nails of his fingers and toes, with chalk of the Dolomites they cleaned
his teeth, they shaved him, and by cutting and combing his hair they tidied him up.
Şikâyet et-mek için o Samsun’dan yol-a çık-ıp yürü-yüp gel-di bura-ya.
In order to make a complaint he departed from Samsun and came here on foot.
Üç-ü de gül-erek deprem an-ın-ı hatırla-ma-dık-ların-ı,
çünkü o gece de sarhoş ol-up sız-ıp kal-dık-ların-ı anlat-ıyor.
The three of them tell us laughing that they can’t remember the moment of the
earthquake, because they got drunk and passed out that night.
If two identical verb stems carry the suffix –(y)Ip, such that they form an adverbial phrase
for a third verb, this phrase then expresses a repetitive action, as can be shown by:
Garson-lar gid-ip gid-ip gel-iyor-lar.

The waiters go back and forth time and again.
Çocuk-lar ben-i çok rahatsız ed-iyor-lar, sürekli gel-ip gel-ip kapı-m-ı çal-ıyor-lar.
The children bother me a lot, all the time they come and knock on my door.
Anne-si de yanına gid-iyor, göğs-ün-e vur-up vur-up ağlı-yor-muş.
His mother went up to him and cried, again and again beating her chest.
Ara-yıp ara-yıp bul-muş-lar.
They found it by searching over and over again.
Bazı-lar-ımız sıkıl-ıp domates-ler-i kes-ip kes-ip atıştır-ma-ya bile başla-dı.
Some of us got bored and began constantly cutting up and gobbling the tomatoes.
Herkes dön-üp dön-üp biz-e bak-ıyor-du.
Everyone looked back at us time after time.
Dur-up dur-up yer-e tükür-üyor-du.
He continually stopped and spat on the ground.
27.1.4 Combination V1–(y)Ip + V2
The combination V1–(y)Ip + V2 is also used to express the idea of a certain totality
or finality (see also sections 30.11.1–30.11.5), leading to a resultative construction.
In some languages prepositions can be ‘fused’ with a verb to convey this idea, yielding
a derived verb with a different meaning. In English, for instance, besides the verb
cut, there exist derivations such as cut in, cut out, cut up, cut off, cut away; these are all
verbs with a meaning of their own, but clearly related to one another by the common
element cut.
Turkish does not have this possibility, but this type of variation in meaning can be
obtained by putting two verb forms side by side: the first one consisting of a verbal stem
plus –(y)Ip and the second one being a ‘normal’ verb, inflected for tense and person.
Anne-si nişan ilân-ı olan kısm-ı kes-ip çıkar-mak iste-di.

Her mother wanted to cut out the fragment with the engagement announcement.
Kızarmış öküz içeri-ye getir-il-miş, iste-yen bir parça kes-ip al-abil-iyor-du.
The roasted ox was brought in; whoever wanted some could cut off a piece.
Oğl-un-un el-in-de-ki mektub-u çek-ip al-arak, ‘Ne-ymiş o, bakalım?’ de-di.
She grabbed the letter which her son held in his hand and said ‘What’s that?’
Ben on-u uçurum-un ta dib-in-den çek-ip çıkar-acak kadar güçlü değil-di-m.
I was not strong enough to pull him all the way out from the bottom of the abyss.
Fatma, kol-un-dan tut-up çek-ti ve öl-müş ol-duğ-un-u anla-dı.
Fatma pulled at his arm and understood that he had passed away.
In this way the idea of ‘cut out’ is, as it were, synthesized by means of kes- ‘to cut’ + çıkar-
‘to remove’; that of ‘cut off ’ by kes- ‘to cut’ + al- ‘to take’; ‘snatch away’ by çek- ‘to pull’ + al- ‘to
take’; ‘pull out’ by çek- ‘to pull’ + çıkar- ‘to remove’; and ‘pull at’ by tut- ‘to hold’ + çek- ‘to pull’.
This type of construction denotes, in fact, the result of some action, in English indicated
by a preposition, whereas in Turkish this is formulated in terms of two subsequent actions the
first of which (as a condition) facilitates the second. More on resultatives in section 33.6.
Furthermore, this construction is found in relative clauses (see chapter 32), as in:
(Kök-ün-den sök-üp çıkar-ama-dığ-ı) elma ağac-ı hâlâ ora-da.

That apple tree he wasn’t able to root out is still standing there.
And of course, this construction is applied as sentential object (see chapter 33), as in:
(Biz-i bura-da bırak-ıp gid-eceğ-in)-i um-uyor-du-m.

I was hoping that she / he / you would leave us behind here.
Bun-u duy-unca, (sevinc-im-den oracık-ta düş-üp öl-eceğ-im)-i san-dı-m.
On hearing this, I thought I would die on the spot from joy.
27.1.5 More applications
Connective devices of the type –(y)Ip are numerous in Turkish and belong to the class of
converbs. These converbs are discussed in detail in sections 27.3–27.6.
Besides its function as connective (section 27.1.2), as the core of an adverbial phrase
(section 27.1.3), and as the expression of totality or finality (section 27.1.4), the suffix –(y)Ip
can be applied in a few other ways as well. The main points of interest are:
First, this suffix plays a crucial role in the formulation of choices, as will be discussed in
section 33.4.5.
344 Clause linking
Second, in grammar books it has often been stated that –(y)Ip simply links two verbs with a
common subject and that the (implied) ‘tense and person’ of the first verb can be inferred
from the tense and person marking of the second verb. In many a case this is correct. Thus,
in the first three examples of section 27.1.2 gel-ip can be read as gel-di, and next, çıkar-ıp is
to be taken as çıkar-dı-m, and indeed, bekle-yip of the third example stands for bekle-me-miz.
Examples are:

Hasan came home and went to bed straightaway.
Ben hemen mektub-u çanta-m-dan çıkar-ıp on-a uzat-tı-m.
Immediately I took the letter out of my briefcase and gave it to her.
Sıra-mız-ı bekle-yip katlan-ma-mız gerek-iyor.
We must await our turn and cope with it.
Yet there are numerous instances which run counter to such expectations and for which
the correct interpretation of the suffix –(y)Ip can be determined only on the basis of the
context. See sections 33.5.10. and 33.6.5.
Third, the usage of –(y)Ip in expressions of continuity is treated in section 37.3.1.
27.1.6 Alternatives
In sentences ending in two adjacent verb forms a certain variation can be observed in the
way these verbs are connected. Sentence-final verbs can in principle be placed in three dif-
ferent ways: with and without a connective element. This yields the following patterns:
V1 + V2 and V1–(y)Ip + V2 and V1 + ve + V2. For the sake of simplicity, this will mostly
be exemplified on the basis of Past-2 forms for the third person singular. The reader should
however keep in mind that combinations of other tensed forms and grammatical persons
are very common as well.
A sequence without a connective element can be represented as V1 + V2:
Ben-i bırak-tı, git-ti otur-du.

She let go of me, walked away, and sat down.
Yan-ımız-da-ki masa-ya karı-koca, orta halli bir çift gel-di otur-du.
At the table next to us a middle-class couple came to sit.
With the suffix –(y)Ip the pattern V1–(y)Ip + V2 can be formed, as in:
Civar-da-ki kahve-ler-den bir-in-e gid-ip otur-du-k.

We used to go and sit in one of the cafés in the neighbourhood.
Kafeterya-da genellikle biz-im masa-ya gel-ip otur-uyor öğle yemek-lerin-de.
In the cafeteria she usually comes to sit at our table during lunch.
The connective ve ‘and’ can be applied as well, and this leads to V1 + ve + V2, as in:
Ahmet masa-nın yan-ın-a gel-di ve otur-du.

Ahmet came to the table and sat down.
Biraz bekle-dik-ten sonra kalk-ıp kapı-ya git-ti ve dinle-di.

After waiting a while he got to his feet, went to the door, and listened.
This threefold variation is not common among all verbs. For instance, constructions with
dayamak ‘to lean, rest’ and çömelmek ‘to squat’ as the left-hand member, appear according
to the patterns V1 + V2 and V1–(y)Ip + V2 only. Compare:
Büyük bir kamış küme-sin-e sırt-ın-ı daya-dı otur-du.

He sat down with his back leaning against a big reed stalk.
Mehmet baş-ın-ı tüfeğ-in-e daya-yıp otur-muş-tu.
Mehmet sat with his head leaning on the rifle.
Bak-ın, Halil Bey, bak-ın, nasıl çömel-di otur-uyor.
Look here, Mr Halil, look here how he squats on his haunches.
Ve sonra ortakçı-mız gel-di ve traktör-ün yan-ın-da-ki gölge-ye çömel-ip otur-du.
And then our farm hand came and squatted down in the shade near the tractor.
It should further be noticed that the constructions in –(y)Ip in these examples based on
oturmak ‘to sit down / to be seated’ have much in common with constructions describing
some position or state by means of –mIş (see section 32.10.6).
Oda-sın-a gir-diğ-im-de, dirsek-ler-in-i masa-ya daya-mış,

baş-ın-ı el-ler-in-in ara-sın-a al-mış otur-uyor-du.
When I entered his room, he was sitting with his elbows on the table,
and his head in / between his hands.
Diğer adam da, sırt-ı mermer duvar-a dayalı, yanı başında çömel-miş otur-uyor.
The other man sits on his haunches next to it, resting his back against the marble wall.
In section 27.1.3 it was advanced that a repetitive action can be expressed by doubling
a verb in –(y)Ip. However, instead of doubling it is also possible to apply an appropriate
adverbial expression for frequency:
Bu iş için her hafta İstanbul'dan Ankara'ya gid-ip gel-ir-di.

For this job he went every week to and fro from Istanbul to Ankara.
Bun-lar birçok kez bura-ya gid-ip gel-diğ-im-i gör-müş-ler.
These people have apparently seen quite a number of times that I frequented this place.
Forms of the combination gid-ip gelmek are often used in a metaphorical sense, as in:
Söyle-dik-ler-im-in doğruluğ-un-a inan-mak-la inan-ma-mak arasında

gid-ip gel-diğ-in-i kestir-ebil-iyor-du-m.
I could predict that he would waver between believing and not believing
the truth of what I had said.
Bu kitab-ı yaz-mak-la yaz-ma-mak-la arasında çok gid-ip gel-di-m.
I was often torn between writing and not writing this book.
346 Clause linking
27.2 Conditions
Although the suffixes –(y)sE and –sE have been discussed extensively before (see section 24.3),
this section is meant to show how they are used as linkers and to address the question of
how the main clause is structured. First, realis forms will be discussed, followed by irrealis
forms. Next come their applications in contrastive conditions, projectional forms; and the
final subsection shows how irrealis forms preceded by a question word and followed by
beğenirsin(-iz)? express the fact that the speaker regards rthe event described as something
sensational to a question.
27.2.1 Realis
There is a variety of other means for relating two states of affairs to each other. In the
examples that follow the factor that links two clauses is a matter of condition, and this is
expressed by the suffix –(y)sE, which signals a realis form. A conditional clause can be
introduced by the word eğer ‘if ’.
(Eğer) Erol bu akşam gel-me-z-se, sinema-ya gid-ebil-ir-iz.

If Erol doesn’t come tonight, we can go to the cinema.
Bun-u oku-yamı-yor-sa-n, gözlük tak!
If you can’t read this, put a pair of glasses on!
Bütün bun-lar-ı daha önce anlat-tı-ysa-n . . .
If you have told of all this before . . .
Nominal predicates also take this suffix:
(Eğer) yemek hazır-sa, birazdan yi-ye-lim.

If dinner is ready, let’s have it in a minute.
What is stated by these conditional clauses may be true or false. This is not the case with the
form known as irrealis: with –sE immediately after a bare verb stem, a hypothetical state of
affairs is suggested for which the logical values ‘true’ and ‘false’ are not relevant. Compare
the sentences above with the following:
Hasan gel-se . . . (remains to be seen)

Might Hasan come . . .
Bütün bun-lar-ı daha önce anla-sa-ydı-m . . . (is obviously not the case)
Had I understood all this earlier . . .
Sahici bir psikopat gör-se-niz tanı-yabil-ir mi-siniz? (this is the question)
If you saw a genuine psychopath, would you recognize him?
The realis forms are used to formulate a condition which functions as the background
for a certain action or event. That condition may even have been fulfilled. A nice application
is the combination with an imperative or an optative verb form in the main clause. In
27.2 Conditions 347
the following sentences the verb occurs as a doublet, which conveys a shade of resignation /
acquiescence:
Ne dur-uyor-sun öyle? Gid-er-se-n git, iste-mez-sen palto-n-u çıkar kal.

What are you standing there? If you go, then go, but if you don’t want to,
then take off your coat and stay.
Ya al-ır-lar-sa?—Al-ır-lar-sa al-sın-lar.
And what if they buy?—Then just let them buy (it)!
If the verbal doublet is ‘interrupted’ by some other phrase, a semantically neutral situation
is expressed:
Başka bir şey yap-abil-ir-sem, söyle yap-a-yım.

If there’s something else I can do, tell me, and I’ll do it. (let me do it).
Bun-u biraz daha yakın-a getir, bu iş-i yap-acak-sa-k tam yap-a-lım bari.
Bring it a little nearer; if we do that job, let’s for once do it entirely.
Asıl-acak-sa-k birlikte asıl-a-lım de-di.
‘If we are going to be hanged, let’s be hanged together’, he said.
With question words and doubling of the verb stem a certain indifference in the speaker’s
attitude is being expressed:
Önce saç-ım-ı kes, sonra ne yap-ar-sa-n yap.

First you cut my hair, then you do whatever you like / want / wish.
Nasıl gid-er-se-n git, ama şimşek gibi git.
It doesn’t matter how you go, but be off like greased lightning.
Yurtdışın-da kim hangi propaganda-yı yap-ar-sa yap-sın,
insan-lar yine bu barış ülke-miz-e tatil yap-mak için gel-ecek-ler.
No matter who spreads whatever propaganda abroad, people will
even so come to have a holiday in our peace-loving country.
Ne ver-ir-ler-se ver-sin-ler, gid-iyor-uz.
Whatever they give, we are leaving!
Ne yap-a-yım peki?—Ne yap-ar-sa-n yap-ın.
What am I supposed to do now?—You suit yourself!
İlk hamle-yi nasıl yap-ar-sa-k yap-a-lım siyah bir kare-ye git-mek zorunda-yız.
Regardless of how we make the first move, we have to go to a black square.
27.2.2 Irrealis
The conditional clause expressing the irrelevance of some state of affairs is rendered in
Turkish by the combination –sE dE + –mEsE dE, which corresponds to the English
‘whether . . . or not’. These are of course irrealis forms.
348 Clause linking
İste-se de iste-me-se de, çocuk bakıcılığ-ın-ı öğren-me-si gerek-ti.

Whether she wanted it or not, she had to learn the trade of childcare.
Artık hayat-ı sev-mi-yor mu-sun?—Sev-se-m de sev-me-se-m de, hepsi bir.
Don’t you like life any more?—Whether I like it or not, it’s all the same.
İzin ver-se-niz de ver-me-se-niz de, hemen gid-ip bir doktor çağır-acağ-ım.
Whether you give permission or not, I’ll call at once for a doctor.
Hazır ol-sa-m da ol-ma-sa-m da, bura-da-yım.
Ready or not, I’m here.
27.2.3 Contrastive conditionals
A contrast between two states of affairs can be expressed by –(y)sE dE and is presented in
the form of a concessive conditional clause. There are realis and irrealis forms in these con-
structions. The first kind of construction is based on a verbal stem plus a tense form and
expresses an action or event that actually took place. Here we are:
Taarruz ed-en-ler-e karşı top ateş-i aç-mak emr-in-i al-mış-sa-m da,

bu emr-i yerine getir-mek için hiçbir sebep bul-ama-mış-tı-m.
Although I was given the order to open cannon fire against the attackers,
I have found no reason whatsoever to carry out this order.
Onlar-ın konuşma-ların-a katıl-ma-yı çok iste-di-yse-m de,
ikiyüzlülük ed-eme-yeceğ-im-i anla-yarak yine köşe-m-e çekil-di-m.
Even though I wanted badly to participate in their talks, I retired again
to my corner understanding that I would not be able to be a hypocrite.
Mustafa Kemal Paşa’nın iste-diğ-in-i tehdit-le iste-yeceğ-in-i bil-iyor-sa-m da,
bun-u ben-i tehdit et-mek için söyle-me-diğ-in-e emin-di-m.
Although I knew that Mustafa Kemal Paşa demanded what he wanted with threats,
I was sure that he did not say this to threaten me.
Zorluk çek-ecek-se-k de 2020 yıl-ın-da Türkiye’nin daha iyi bir nokta-ya
gel-eceğ-i ümid-in-i taşı-yor-uz.
Even if we will have great trouble with it, we (nevertheless) cherish hopes that
Turkey will have arrived at a much better point in the year 2020.
Balık ye-r-se de, tavuğ-u daha çok sev-er.
Although she does eat fish, she likes chicken much more.
In case of a nonverbal predicate the auxiliary verb olmak must be used, as can be shown
with the following examples.
Bu evlilik-ten iki çocuğ-u ol-muş-sa da,

eş-i ve çocuk-lar-ı 1534’te-ki salgın sırasında öl-dü-ler.
Although he had two children from this marriage,
his wife and children died during the epidemic of 1534.
27.2 Conditions 349
Patel, Kongre Parti-si’nin başkanlığ-ın-a ilk sıradan aday ol-du-ysa da,

Gandhi’nin ağırlığ-ın-ı koy-ma-sı-yla bir kez daha Nehru seç-il-di.
Although Patel was the first ordinary candidate for the chairmanship of the Congress
Party, because Gandhi exerted his influence Nehru was chosen once more.
Bun-u nasıl yap-mış-lar-dı?
—Bun-a en kolay veril-ecek cevap, ‘çok güç’ ol-acak-sa da,
gerçek cevap, ‘düşün-düğ-ümüz-den çok daha kolay-dır’.
How have they built this?
—Although the easiest answer to give would be ‘It was very hard’,
the real answer is ‘It’s much easier than we think’.
Çığ zaman zaman can ve mal kayıp-ların-a neden ol-uyor-sa da,
su erozyon-u afet-i karşı-sın-da ikinci plan-da kal-mak-ta-dır.
Although avalanches are the cause of loss of life and goods from time to time,
they come in second place to the catastrophe of erosion.
Düşük doz-lar-da bun-un herhangi bir zarar-ı ol-ma-z-sa da,
aşırı yüksek doz-lar-da tehlikeli ol-abil-ir.
Even though it has no harmful effect in small doses,
it can be dangerous in extremely large doses.
Irrealis forms, in –sE dE, can also be used to express that some action or event which has
not taken place is contrasted with what is described by the conditional clause, the latter
state of affairs being purely hypothetical. Here are some examples.
Ben çok çalış-sa-m da bu sınav-ı geç-eme-m.

Even if I worked hard, I wouldn’t pass this exam.
Yakında anahtar-lar-ı teslim et-se-k de, borc-umuz-u öde-yeme-yeceğ-iz.
Even if we handed over the keys soon, we wouldn’t be able to pay our debt.
Bu sinema-dan çık-sa-m da geri dön-mek zorunda-yım.
If I left this cinema I would still have to go back.
Böyle bir şey-i çok sev-diğ-im-i söyle-yeme-se-m de . . .
Although I wouldn’t be able to say that I like something like so very much, . . .
In nonverbal clauses this type of contrast is expressed by means of olsa da:
Ne kadar ağır ol-sa da böyle yaşa-mak savaş-mak-tan iyi-dir.

No matter how hard it is, living so is better than waging war.
Gün-ler, hafta-lar, ay-lar geçmiş olsa da aynı cadde-den geç-iyor-du.
Even if days, weeks, months had passed, still he was on the same road.
İlk deneme-ler başarısız olsa da sonuç tatmin edici-ydi.
Though the first experiments were unsuccessful, yet the result was satisfactory.
Kendi-sin-den oldukça yaşlı olsa da, çok çekici bir kadın-dı.
Although she was a lot older than he himself, she was a very attractive woman.
350 Clause linking
Yardımcı ol-ama-sa da dinle-mek iste-r-di.

Even though he would not be able to be helpful, he was willing to listen.
The combination da olsa / de olsa is a less frequently occurring variant:
Az da olsa, çok memnun-um.

Even if it is little, I’m happy with it.
Kız-mak-ta haklı da ol-sa-m, kızgınlığ-ım-ı ifade et-mek-ten çekin-ir-im.
Even if I have the right to get angry, I’d rather not show my anger.
Biraz geç de olsa, anla-dı-m ki, bütün bun-lar boşuna-ymış.
Even if it was a little late, I understood that all had been in vain.
Başka bir köy-de de olsa, her gün okul-a gid-ebil-di-m.
I could go to school every day, albeit in another village.
Biri-miz-in reng-i esmer, öbür-ü sarışın da olsa, hep-imiz insan-ız.
Even if some of us are dark, others white (blonde), we are all people.
Ne de olsa, bir dünya dil-i değil, Rusça, oysa öğren-mek iste-r-im.
No matter how, it is not a ‘world language’, Russian, yet I want to learn it.
27.2.4 Projection
Irrealis forms can also be projected in the past, as shown in the following examples:
Bu durum-da Türkiye’de ol-sa-ydı-m çoktan öl-müş ol-ur-du-m.

Had I been in this situation in Turkey, I would have been long dead.
Eğitim çok önemli, keşke üniversite-de oku-yabil-se-ydi-m.
Education is very important; I wish I had been able to study at the university.
Suat Hanım’la o hademe gürültü-ye yetiş-me-se-ler-di,
ne yap-ar-dınız, çok merak ed-iyor-um.
If the maid and Mrs Suat hadn’t gone up to the noise,
what would you have done? I am very curious about that.
Onlar başar-ama-sa-lar-dı, ne bir şey düşün-ebil-ir, ne bir şey um-abil-ir-di-niz?
If they hadn’t succeeded, what would you have thought or hoped for?
New York’ta kal-mak zorunda ol-ma-sa-lar-dı, kaç-ar-lar-dı.
Had they not been obliged to stay in New York, they would have run off.
27.2.5 Evocation
Irrealis forms preceded by a question word (ne ‘what’, kim ‘who’, kaç ‘how much / how
many’) and followed by beğenirsin(-iz)? express the fact that the speaker regards rthe event
described as something sensational:
Ban-a ne de-se beğenirsin?

What do you think he said to me? / You know what she said to me?
Kim-i gör-se-m beğenirsiniz?

You know who I saw? / You won’t believe who I saw.
Okul-a yaklaş-mış-tı-k ki, birden ne duy-sa-k beğenirsiniz?
We had come near the school and guess what we suddenly heard!
Çocuk-lar çevre-lerin-e bakın-dık-ları zaman ne gör-se-ler beğenirsiniz?
And do you know what children see when they look around them?
Ne gör-e-yim, biz-im otuz beş kuruşluk karpuz kaç lira ol-sa beğenirsin?
And what do I see—guess what a melon costs that we buy/sell for 35 kuruş?
27.3 Simultaneous events
Two events that take place at the same time or within the same time frame are said to occur
simultaneously. There are five way of linking two such events: two verbal suffixes and three
postpositional constructions with an infinitival complement.
27.3.1 Suffix –(y)ken
Actions and events can happen simultaneously or consecutively in different ways. One
suffix that signals such circumstances is –(y)ken, which is not subject to the rules of vowel
harmony (see section 5.1). Hence, it always occurs in the form presented here or as its
separately written variant iken. The suffix is not stressed and it is impersonal; that is, no
personal suffixes can follow in order to indicate the subject. In the following three examples
the subject remains anonymous because it is not expressed and the clause with –(y)ken
functions as an adverbial phrase.
Daha çocuk-ken, Aliye . . . When she was a child, Aliye . . .

Küçük bir çocuk-ken, Erol . . . When Erol was a small child . . .
Genç bir kadın-ken, Feyza . . . As a young woman, Feyza . . .
Artık emekli-yken, Aliye . . . Already being retired, Aliye . . .
In these examples the subjects of adverbial and main clauses are identical. If this is not the
case, the subject is mentioned explicitly in the adverbial clause by means of a noun (phrase)
or a pronoun in the nominative:
Oğl-umuz bebek-ken . . . When our son was a baby . . .

Ben henüz bebek-ken . . . When I was still a baby . . .
This way of linking is also customary to make reference to place or time. Usually this is
done by placing –(y)ken after a noun phrase which carries the locative case marker. The
meaning is when.
Ben ev-den uzak-ta-yken . . . When I was far away from home . . .

Ben Fransa’da-yken . . . When I was in France . . .
Ben asker-de-yken . . . Being in the military . . .
352 Clause linking
Ben oniki yaş-ım-da-yken . . . When I was twelve . . .

Ben sen-in yaş-ın-da-yken . . . At your age, I . . .
Ben ora-da asistan-ken . . . Being an assistant there, I . . .
Ben-im-le birlik-te-yken . . . When we were together . . .
İkiz-ler-imiz ben henüz okul-da-yken doğ-du.
Our twins were born when I was still at school.
After the negational particle değil this suffix also occurs:
Henüz hiçbir şey belli değil-ken, git-me-ye karar ver-eme-di.

While nothing was clear yet, she could not decide to go.
Kış-ın orta-sın-da, sefer mevsim-i değil-ken, o kale-yi niçin kuşat-mış-lar-dı?
Why have they besieged the castle in the middle of winter,
when this is not the season for campaigning?
And of course, combining with var ‘there is’ and yok ‘there is not’ is possible as well:
1930 yılında Türkiye’nin bir tane üniversite-si var-ken,

bugün sadece Ankara’da on tane üniversite var.
While there was one university in Turkey in 1930,
today there are ten universities in Ankara alone.
Tam ben yok-ken ara-r-sa ne yap-ar-ız?
What do we do, when she calls just when I am not there?
Henüz fırsat-ım var-ken ev-e dön-meli-ydi-m!
I had to return home while I still had the opportunity.
Yasin, hiçbir şey-i yok-ken öl-dü.
Yasin died when she had nothing.
/ Yasin died while there was nothing wrong with her.
For verbs there is again a plethora of combinations and these will be reviewed in the usual
order. The suffix –(y)ken is placed after the tense marker, a reason why its position resembles
that of projectional suffixes.
A pure simultaneity is expressed when a verb is combined with –(I)yor, as in:
O sabah, henüz yatak-ta yat-ıyor-ken, 2000 yıllık bir problem-i çöz-dü.

That morning, while still lying in bed, he has resolved a two-thousand-year-old problem.
Arap-lar köy-ün-de kumandan-ı bekli-yor-ken . . .
While the Arabs were awaiting their commander in his village . . .
This holds for the combination –mEktE-yken as well. For instance:
Biz tam ye-mek-te-yken, Feride el-in-de bir mektup-la içeri gir-di.

Just as we were eating Feride came in with a letter in her hand.
Tek başıma oturmuş bira iç-mek-te-yken sırt-ım kapı-ya dönük-tü.

While I was drinking beer, sitting on my own, my back was turned to the door.
In combination with the future tense suffix, –(y)EcEK, the suffix –(y)ken gets the meaning
of just as, upon, the moment, as can be demonstrated by:
Duş-a gir-ecek-ken ayna-da kendin-i gör-üp durakla-dı.

Upon entering the shower, she saw herself in the mirror and stopped.
Öteki tam cevap ver-ecek-ken tren kalk-tı.
Just as the other was about to answer, the train left.
Mine’ye bir tek söz söylemek için ağz-ım-ı aç-acak-ken . . .
The moment I opened my mouth to say one word to Mine . . .
A contrast is expressed when the combination –(y)EcEK-ken follows a verbal stem ending
in –(y)Ebil-, as in:
Nefis bir komedi ol-abil-ecek-ken . . .

Although it could have become a great comedy . . .
Sanat-a ve insanlığ-a büyük bir hizmet ver-ebil-ecek-ken . . .
Although he would be able to render a great service to the arts and humanity . . .
Combined with the verbal suffix –mIş, the suffix –(y)ken expresses anteriority. Translations
along the lines of as, now, while, and since are appropriate:
Sıra-sı gel-miş-ken . . .
As the time (for it) has come . . .
Hazır fırsat çık-mış-ken bun-u yap-a-lım.
Now that the opportunity crops up, let’s do this.
Ben eski gün-ler-in hatıra-lar-ın-a dal-mış-ken . . .
While I had lost myself in memories of olden times . . .
Giy-miş-ken bir yer-e git-meli-ydi: ‘Ben kasab-a kadar gid-iyor-um’ de-di.
Before he got dressed, he had to go somewhere. He said: ‘I will walk to the butcher’s’.
Karı-sı yatağ-ın-da horla-ma-ya başla-mış-ken . . .
As his wife had begun snoring in bed . . .
With –mIş-ken following a negated verbal stem, the meaning of an incomplete action or
event is conveyed. This can mostly be translated by before or even before.
Ceset daha soğu-ma-mış-ken . . .

Before the corpse had even cooled off . . .
Okul-dan dön-eli daha yarım saat ol-ma-mış-ken . . .
Before even half an hour had passed since she returned from school . . .
354 Clause linking
Daha yarı-ya var-ma-mış-ken . . .

Before they had even come halfway . . .
Marmara deprem-in-in yara-lar-ı henüz sar=ıl-ama-mış-ken,
12 Kasım’da da Bolu-Düzce deprem-i meydana gel-di.
Even before the wounds of the earthquake in the Marmara region could have been
bandaged, on the twelfth of November the quake in Bolu and Düzce took place.
The suffix –(y)ken mostly follows the tenseless –(I/E)r, which has been introduced as
Present-2 in section 20.5.
Ev-e gid-er-ken Lena’ya rastla-dı-m.

On my way home I ran into Lena.
Ben soyun-ur-ken, zil çal-dı.
As / While I was undressing, the door-bell rang.
Tıraş ol-ur-ken ayna-ya bak-tı.
While he was shaving he looked in the mirror.
Ama ben rahat yaşa-r-ken, siz yoksulluk çek-ecek-siniz, işte bu ol-ama-z!
But as I live a good life, you’ll suffer from poverty, look, that shouldn’t be!
Also its negational counterpart, –mE-z, is used on a large scale, as is the compositional
combination –(y)EmE-z, expressing the impossibility of an action or event due to take place.
Mesleğ-im-i uygula-r-ken ya da uygula-ma-z-ken . . .

Whether I work in my profession or not . . .
Bu kaza-lar-ın bir-in-de hiçbir can kayb-ı ol-ma-z-ken . . .
Whereas there were no casualties in one of the accidents . . .
Onlar kendi-lerin-e yardım ed-eme-z-ken, ban-a nasıl ed-er-ler-di?
When they can’t help themselves, how would they help me?
Ülke-miz 1950’de 400 bin ton çimento kullan-ama-z-ken . . .
As our country could not even consume 400.000 tons of concrete in 1950 . . .
The combination –(I/E)r + –(y)ken + –ki forms a kind of adjectival construction which can be
compared to the occurrence of –ki after the genitive (see section 7.8), locative (see section 8.6),
or in a temporal phrase (see section 12.6).
Ses-i şiir oku-r-ken-ki gibi titri-yor-du.

Her voice trembled as when she was reading poetry.
Çocuk-lar-la konuş-ur-ken-ki sevecen ses ton-u-yla.
With the nice tone of voice you/he/she had when speaking with the children.
Aliye’nin, Susam Sokağ-ın-da ön-lerin-den koş-arak geç-er-ken-ki gülüş-ü.
That laughter of Aliye, that laugh when she ran past them in Sesame Street.
Ben de o gün, yani siz-in savcılık-ta ifade ver-diğ-iniz gün,

bakış-lar-ınız-da öyle bir şey hisset-ti-m.
Özellikle de ‘O intihar ed-ecek biri değil-di’ de-r-ken-ki bakış-lar-ınız.
And that day I saw (felt) something in your eyes,
that day when you made your statement at the prosecutor’s office.
Especially the way you looked, saying: ‘He was not a person to commit suicide’.
27.3.2 Suffix –(y)ErEk
The second point of interest of this section is an adverbial phrase which is formed on the
basis of a verbal stem and which specifies an action or event in which the subject of the
main clause is involved. The adverbial phrase is formed by placing –(y)ErEk immediately
after the verb stem. The stress falls on the first syllable. A translation in terms of the English
gerund is often appropriate.
Yürü-yerek bir saat sonra şehr-e ulaş-abil-di.

On foot (walking), he managed to reach the city after an hour.
Bir hayvan diğer hayvan-a bil-erek yalan söyle-r.
One animal lies to the other knowingly.
İhtiyar adam ban-a gül-erek bak-tı ve sigara-sın-ı söndür-dü.
The old man looked, laughing, at me and put out his cigarette.
In a number of cases the adverbial clause plus the main verb can be considered to be the
expression of a (rapid) sequence of events, not seldom related to each other by a certain
degree of causality. An appropriate translation is ‘by’.
Genç kız, tarım ilac-ı iç-erek yaşam-ın-a son ver-di.

The young girl ended her life by taking agricultural poison.
Pilot, uçak düş-me-den önce atla-yarak kurtul-du.
The pilot rescued himself by jumping before the fighter crashed.
Negated forms are also frequently found. Some examples are:
Kulak-lar-ın-ı inan-ama-yarak homurdan-dı ve telefon-u aç-tı.

He couldn’t believe his ears, he mumbled something and picked up the phone.
Bun-u o yap-tı, herkes-in bil-diğ-i şey-i bil-me-yerek!
It was she who did it, not knowing what everybody knew.
Ne yap-acağ-ım-ı kestir-eme-yerek, on-u hatırla-ma-ya çalış-tı-m.
While I couldn’t make out what to do, I tried to remember her.
İste-me-yerek uyu-muş ol-mak-tan duy-duğ-u büyük bir korku-yla uyan-dı.
He awoke with the great fear that he’d fallen asleep unintentionally.
356 Clause linking
Belki de iste-me-yerek siz-i yor-du-m.

Perhaps I have tired you without wanting to.
İste-yerek ya da iste-me-yerek yap-sa-n da böyle şey yap-ıl-ma-z!
Whether you did it deliberately (‘willingly’) or not, such a thing is not done!
The variant –(y)ErEk-tEn expresses, besides simultaneity, a certain degree of causality.

Translations can be given in terms of ‘by’ plus gerund.
Alman-lar da bun-lar-a acı-yaraktan iş ver-miş-ler.

By feeling sorry for them, the Germans gave them jobs.
Bun-lar-ı, Yunan metin-lerin-in asl-ın-a bak-araktan bul-du-m.
I found all this by looking at the original of Greek texts.
Vitrin-ler-e bak-araktan saat-lerce oyalan-dı.
He entertained himself by looking into shop windows for hours on end.
27.3.3 Means–Purpose relation
Another form of simultaneity is expressed by the infinitive (–mEk) plus the instrumental
case marker (–lE).
Omuz-lar-ın-ı silk-mek-le cevap ver-iyor-du.

He answered by shrugging his shoulders.
Köy-de kal-mak-la iyi et-miş-siniz.
You have (as I observe) done well by / with staying in the village.
Nermin, anne-sin-in boyun atkı-sın-ı düzelt-mek-le meşgul-dü.
Nermin was busy with arranging (putting in order) her mother’s shawl.
Niçin onlar-ın buluş-tuk-ların-ı gör-mek-le memnun ve
ayrıl-acak-ların-ı düşün-mek-le acı duy-muş-tu?
Why was she happy when she saw that they met each other and
why had she felt pain when she thought that they would split up?
Negative forms describe some action which is not performed.
Söz konusu şiir-i yayınla-ma-mak-la doğru bir şey yap-ma-dı-k.

By not publishing the poem in question we did not do the right thing.
Şef-leri, bu gibi sorun-lar-a pek ilgi göster-me-mek-le dikkat-i çek-er-di.
Their boss attracted attention by not paying attention to such problems.
27.3.4 Means–Result relation
The combination –mEk suret-i-yle ‘by means of ’ is formed on the basis of suret ‘fashion,
way’ and can be illustrated as follows.
Ora-ya izin al-mak suret-i-yle ancak belli gün-ler git-mek mümkün.

Going there is only possible on certain days by getting permission.
Bu suret-le roket-in yakıt-ı yenilen-erek esas gövde tekrar tekrar kullan-ıl-abil-ir.
In this way the fuselage of the rocket can be used over and over again
by renewing the fuel.
Türkiye, yeni kaynak-lar bul-up yeni metod-lar-dan yararlan-mak suret-i-yle
kendi-sin-i daha ileri-ye götür-mek mecburiyetin-de-dir.
Turkey must take itself yet further forward by seeking new resources and
by using new methods.
27.3.5 Adversative
Forms in –mEk-lE plus birlikte / beraber express ‘although / despite’ and the like.
Dış-tan sakin görün-mek-le beraber, güç an-lar yaşı-yor-du-k.

Although it looked quiet from the outside, we had difficult moments.
Büyük Kırmızı Leke, ne zaman ortaya çık-tığ-ı bilin-me-mek-le birlikte,
1600’ler-in baş-ların-dan bu yana gözlen-mek-te-dir.
Even though it is unknown when the Big Red Spot came into existence,
it has been visible since the beginning of the seventeenth century.
Yavaş ol-mak-la beraber Mehmet gittikçe iyileş-iyor-du.
Although slowly, Mehmet was gradually getting better.
Parlak bir zekâ-sı ol-ma-mak-la birlikte para kazan-ma-sın-ı bil-iyor.
He’s no whiz kid, but he does know how to make money.
27.4 Other temporal aspects
This section will present another series of constructions used as temporal adverbial clauses.
These clauses precede the main clause and are linked by a conjunctive suffix.
27.4.1 Suffix –(y)ElI
The notion of ‘since’ is expressed by the suffix –(y)ElI. A subject is usually absent in this
type of clause, since it follows from the context or situation. Moreover, like the suffixes –(y)
ken in section 27.3.1 and –(y)ErEk in section 27.3.2, the suffix –(y)ElI is not stressed and it is
impersonal; that is, no personal suffixes follow in order to indicate the subject.
Sen Ankara’ya gel-eli kaç sene ol-du?

The date you came to Ankara, how long ago is that?
Kaç yıl ol-du köy-e gel-me-yeli?
How many years have passed since he last came to the village?
358 Clause linking
Öyle uzun zaman ol-muş-tu ki çikolatalı bonbon gör-me-yeli . . .

So much time has passed since I have seen chocolate creams . . .
Görüş-me-yeli nasıl-sın, bakalım?
Well, tell me, how are you doing since the last time we saw each other?
In a variant of this type of adverbial clause the verb has a tense suffix plus a personal suffix
and the whole is followed by the same stem plus –(y)ElI.
Ben bu memleket-e gel-di-m gel-eli, Türk yemeğ-i yi-yeme-di-m.

Ever since I came to this country, I have had no chance to eat Turkish food.
Aile-m Eskişehir’e gel-di gel-eli, ben de rahatla-mış-tı-m.
After my family came out to Eskişehir, I too felt more at ease.
Biz Moskova’dan gel-di-k gel-eli sen çok değiş-ti-n.
You have changed a lot since we came back from Moscow.
Yet another variant is a construction in which the verb stem ending in –(y)ElI is followed
by the postposition beri (see sections 13.2 and 28.1).
Hapishane-ye gir-eli beri tek bir söz söyle-me-di.

Since he entered jail he hasn’t spoken a single word.
Böyle ol-alı beri bir şey ye-me-di-m, bir şey iç-me-di-m, uyu-yama-dı-m.
Since this is so I haven’t eaten or drunk a thing and I couldn’t sleep.
The combined form –(y)ElI-dEn beri also occurs occasionally:
El-i para tut-alı-dan beri Anna’nın ne pinti ol-duğun-u bir bil-se-n.

If you only knew how stingy Anna has become since she’s been saving money.
27.4.2 Suffix –(y)IncE
By means of the verbal suffix –(y)IncE the notion of ‘when’ is expressed, but it should be
noted that it applies only when an action has just been terminated or when a certain
point is reached in the flux of time covering the action or event or when a certain state
sets in. The stress falls on the first syllable of –(y)IncE and no personal suffixes can
follow. Mostly a translation in terms of ‘once / as soon as / when / the moment’ is
appropriate.
Ev-e var-ınca kapı-nın ön-ün-de bir süre bekle-di ve git-ti.

Once he arrived at the house, he waited a while at the door and went away.
Biz-i birlikte gör-ünce çok kız-dı.
As soon as he saw us together, he got very angry.
Eş-im konuş-ma-ya çalış-ınca, ‘Sok şu karı-n-ı araba-ya’ de-di.
When my wife finally tried to say something, she said:
‘Help that wife of yours into the car’.
Beş–altı kişi ol-unca bugün iyi-ydi di-yor-du-k.

As soon as five or six people gathered, we said ‘Today was ok’.
Bun-lar-ı yap-ama-yacağ-ım-ı anla-yınca da ayrıl-dı-m.
The moment I understood I wouldn’t be able to do it, I left.
Following the negational suffix, the meaning shifts to ‘as long as / now / then’, as in:
Gör-me-yince inan-ama-z-sınız!
As long as (if) you don’t see it, you won’t be able to believe it!
Yaz-mak gereğ-i duy-ma-yınca da yaz-ma-m.
As long as (when) I don’t feel the urge to write, I don’t.
Düşünce-ler-in-i sözcük-ler-le açıkla-yama-yınca omuz-lar-ın-ı silk-ti.
When he couldn’t express his feelings in words, he shrugged his shoulders.
Tek başına ve para-n ol-ma-yınca . . .
On your own and not having (‘your money not being’) money . . .
The suffix –(y)IncE can be combined with kadar ‘until’ and dek / değin ‘until; as far as’:
Söğüt koru-sun-a dönüş-ümüz-de Kozma, ban-a kırmızı şarap-la dolu bardağ-ı

ver-di ve de-di ki: Ben on say-ınca-ya kadar nefes al-madan iç-ecek-sin.
On our return to the willow grove, Kozma gave me a glass of red wine and said:
I count to ten and in the meantime you drink this up without taking a breath.
Su karn-ım-a, göğs-üm-e, boyn-um-a yüksel-ince-ye dek yürü-dü-m.
I walked until the water came to my belly, to my chest, and up to my neck.
27.4.3 Combination V-(I/E)r V-mEz
The notion of ‘as soon as’ can also be expressed by adding the suffix –(I/E)r to the verb stem
and then adding the same verb stem plus the negative combination –mE-z. Also, this com-
bination is impersonal; no personal suffixes can follow. The temporal aspect can be inferred
from the main clause.
İstanbul’a gel-ir gel-me-z evlendir-miş-ler-di on-u.

The moment she’d arrived in Istanbul, they had married her off.
Papaz gid-er git-me-z, abla-sı on-a de-di ki . . .
As soon as the priest had left, his sister said to him . . .
Polis ben-i ev-den al-ır al-ma-z . . .
The moment the police picked me up from home . . .
Mektub-u sabah ol-ur ol-ma-z yolla-r-ım.
I will send off the letter first thing in the morning.
Mezun ol-ur ol-ma-z hiç düşün-meden branş olarak astrofiziğ-i seç-miş-ti.
As soon as she finished school, and without giving it a further thought,
she chose astrophysics as her subject.
360 Clause linking
Note that olur olmaz means ‘anyway’ when used as adverbial phrase, as in:
Olur olmaz göz-üm sulanır ol-du.

My eyes had become moist anyway.
The word group ister istemez means ‘inadvertently / unconsciously’ or ‘by itself ’ when used
as an adverbial phrase.
Ertesi sabah uyan-dığ-ın-da el-i ister istemez boğaz-ın-a git-miş.

Upon waking up next morning her hand went to her throat by itself.
On-un bu derin korku-su biz-i de etkili-yor-du, ister istemez.
This profound angst of his inadvertently affected us too.
Komşu-lar da ister istemez iş-e karış-ır-lar-dı.
And the neighbours interfered, naturally.
A much stronger way of expressing the notion of ‘as soon as’ is formed by combining the
past-tense suffix with the question particle: –TI + person + mI. This leads to:
Sabah ol-du mu . . .

Hardly was it morning when . . .
Bayan-lar-ın sayı-sı üç-e çık-tı mı, artık o kompartıman dolmuş sayıl-ır.
Had the number of ladies risen to three, that compartment would already have been
regarded as ‘full’.
Bir şey söyle-me-di mi, Ali ‘Yalan söyle-me-sene!’ diye bağır-dı.
She hadn’t even said anything before Ali shouted ‘Don’t lie to me!’
Ev-de konuk ol-du mu, baba-sı öyle iç-iyor ki . . .
No sooner had the guests arrived, his father drank so much that . . .
İç-in-e bir gir-di-n mi, tıpkı denizaltı.
Once you are inside, it is just like a submarine.
27.4.4 Momentaneous actions
A very rapid sequence of events can also be expressed by the construction –mE + possessive
suffix + –(y)lE and followed by –mE + possessive suffix + bir ol-. The grammatical subject
preceding the first –mE is in the genitive, which makes the whole resemble a possessive
construction. Compare: Ali’nin araba-sı ‘Ali’s car’ with Ali’nin git-me-si ‘Ali’s going / that Ali
goes’. The element ol- signals that the same action or event takes place immediately after
(almost simultaneously with) the first one. Translations can be given in terms of ‘No sooner
does A do B, than she also does C’ or ‘The moment A does B, he also does C’. Here are some
examples:
Kibrit-in parla-ma-sı-yla sön-me-si bir ol-du.

No sooner was the match kindled than it went out (again).
O kız-la evlen-mek iste-diğ-in-i duy-ma-sı-yla

oğl-un-u ev-den kov-ma-sı bir ol-du.
No sooner had she heard that he wanted to marry that girl
than she chased her / his son out of the house.
Telefon-un kapan-ma-sı-yla açıl-ma-sı bir ol-du: ‘Zırrrr!’
The moment the phone was hung up, it rang again: ‘Triiing’.
Ben-i omz-um-dan yakala-ma-sı-yla başka bir yer-e itele-me-si bir ol-du.
She took me by my shoulder and pushed me forthwith to another place.
Forms other than the third person singular are possible as well:
Böyle iki yafta-nın yapış-tır-ıl-dığ-ı muhakkak-tı,

fakat as-ıl-ma-ları-yla beraber yok ed-il-me-leri bir ol-muş-tu.
That the two price tags had been attached in this way was sure,
but by the time they were hung up they had disappeared again.
Ora-ya var-ma-m-la ayrıl-ma-m bir ol-uyor.
I haven’t arrived but I leave again.
27.4.5 Combination –TIK + possessive + –TE
A second way of expressing the notion of ‘when’ in the sense of two simultaneous actions or
events is through the sequence –TIK + possessive + –TE. The suffix –TIK stands for a com-
pleted action or event, the possessive form is related to the subject of the verb, and –TE is the
locative case marker. A subject is often not expressed, but if it occurs it is in the nominative.
In contrast to the suffix –(y)ken (see section 27.3.1), which denotes a continuing state of
affairs, the present combination of suffixes relates to a one-time or at best a short-lasting
action or event. This can be illustrated by the following examples.
Gel-diğ-im-de sezon bit-mek üzere-ydi.

Upon my arrival / When I arrived the season was coming to an end.
Yeniden bak-tığ-ım-da bir şey yok-tu.
When I looked again, there was nothing.
Ev-e dön-düğ-üm-de babaanne-m-i gör-ünce şaş-ır-dı-m.
Coming home and seeing my grandmother, I was surprised.
Doğ-duğ-um-da anne-m onbeş, baba-m-sa yirmi yaş-ın-da-ymış.
When I was born, my mother was fifteen and my father twenty.
Subjects in the nominative can be exemplified by:
Ben bura-ya gel-diğ-im-de, o uyu-yor-du ama çok derinden değil.

When I came here, she was sleeping, but not too deeply.
Belki de ne yitir-dik-lerin-i gör-ecek-ler, sen git-tiğ-in-de.
Perhaps they will see what they have lost, when you left.
362 Clause linking
Variants without a possessive suffix after –TIK are also found, as in the following:
İçeri giril-dik-te, on-un patron-un-a lanet-ler yağdır-dığ-ı duyul-uyor-du.

On entering, one could hear him showering his boss with all kinds of curses.
Aslan-ım, vakt-i gel-dik-te lâzım ol-an herşey san-a söylen-ecek-tir.
Dear friend, when the time is ripe for it, you will surely be told all that is needed.
Regional forms have –(y)En-dE in stead of –TIk-tE, as in:
Baba-m, ana-m izin-e çık-an-da ben-i de götür-ür-ler Türkiye’ye.

When my father and mother go on holiday, they take me too, to Turkey.
Biz-im avrat cahil ama zor-a gel-en-de taşaklı avrat-tır ha!
My wife is ignorant but when she has problems she’s really a woman with balls.
The verbal forms being presented here are nominalized, which means that they have
obtained the properties of a noun, which is signalled in these examples by the possessive
suffix. Various types of nominalization are discussed at length in chapters 32 and 33 (for a
summary, see section 33.9).
27.4.6 Suffix –mEdEn
The notion of anteriority is signalled when the suffix –mEdEn occurs after a verb stem. This
suffix has no stress. The expectation that the action or event being described might occur is
often smouldering at the background, an expectation which, however, does not come true.
Translations such as ‘before / even before’ and ‘without’ are appropriate.
Ne ol-duğ-un-u tam anla-madan tartışma büyü-dü ve . . .

Without my understanding what was going on, the discussion took off and . . .
/ Before I understood what was going on, the discussion took off and . . .
Dayı, bir kelime söyle-meden, on-u oda-sın-a götür-dü.
Even before she had said a word, her uncle sent her to her room.
/ Without saying a word, his uncle sent him to his room.
Film yarı-ya gel-meden uyku-m gel-ir, uyu-r-um.
Even before the film is halfway through I feel sleepy and doze off.
Güneş doğ-madan uyan-dı-m.
I woke up before sunrise.
In the following examples the meaning is ‘without’, rather than ‘before’:
Şemsiye al-madan ev-den çık-ma.

Don’t leave home without taking an umbrella (with you).
Otomobil-in kontağ-ın-ı kapat-madan arkadaş-ın-ı bekle-di.
Without switching off the ignition, he waited for his friend.
Aliye, hiç telaş et-meden cevap ver-di: ‘Nereden bil-e-yim!’

Without getting enraged at all Aliye answered: ‘How am I to know that?’
The aspect of anteriority can be reinforced by önce (see also section 13.2).
Yaz mevsim-i gel-me-den önce bir aylık bir program-la zayıfla-yabil-ecek.

Still, before the summer he can slim down, with a program lasting a month.
Kadeh-in-den bir yudum al-dı,
yut-ma-dan önce ağz-ın-da çalkala-dı.
She took a swig from her glass and
before swallowing it she swished it around in her mouth.
A variant of this form is –mEz-dEn önce, as in:
Bağdat düş-mez-den önce, bura-da-ki her çeşit malzeme kuzey-e taşın-dı.

Before Baghdad fell all sorts of material was moved to the north.
27.4.7 Suffix –mEksIzIn
Whenever a certain action or event does not occur, contrary to expectation, an adverbial
clause is formed by providing a verb stem with the suffix –mEksIzIn (with stress on the first
syllable). The adverbial clause can have a subject and objects.
Çocuk hiç konuş-maksızın el-in-de-ki para-yı uzat-tı.

Without saying a thing, the child passed over the money he had in his hand.
Hiçbir şey söyle-meksizin ev-den fırla-yıp çık-tı.
Without saying a word, he stormed out of the house.
Hiç kimse-yi umursa-maksızın, yüksek ses-le konuş-ma-yı sürdür-dü-ler.
Without being concerned about anyone, they kept on talking loudly.
Hiç arka-sın-a bak-maksızın ev-e doğru git-ti.
He made for the house without even looking back.
Kimse-yle karşılaş-maksızın iki avlu-dan geç-ti.
He passed two courtyards without coming across anyone.
With the stem of the auxiliary verb olmak (see sections 37.1.3–37.1.4) a state of affairs can be
expressed which is normally described by an existential sentence. This is the type of sentence
discussed in section 23.2: ‘there is / are’ and thus, these adverbial expressions are based on
a clause.
inandırıcı kanıt ol-maksızın without convincing evidence

zorlayıcı neden-ler ol-maksızın without compelling reasons
söz konusu ol-maksızın without its being the topic
kimse farkında ol-maksızın without anyone noticing
364 Clause linking
The equivalent of ‘to have’ is formed likewise (see section 9.3):
Kadın-lar-ın gerçek yardım-ı ol-maksızın . . .

Without the women having real help . . .
Patron-un-dan izn-i ol-maksızın . . .
Without having permission given by the boss . . .
Two constructions should be discussed which are at first glance rather similar. The next
example contains a normal embedded existential sentence (in the form of an adverbial
clause ending in –maksızın) with a noun phrase in the locative, whereas Elimde ol-maksızın
in the second example is a fixed expression meaning ‘without being able to control myself ’.
El-im-de bir kitap ol-maksızın dolaş-amı-yor-um.

I cannot travel without having a book (in my hands).
Elimde ol-maksızın gülümse-di-m.
Without being able to control myself, I smiled.
27.4.8 Suffix –mEktEnsE
The verbal suffix –mEktEnsE means ‘instead of ’, but it can often be translated by ‘it is
better / it is preferable / rather / sooner’. This suffix comes at the end of an adverbial clause
and precedes a main clause expressing a wish, desire, preference, or some other subjective
load. Predicates are typically based on tercih etmek / yeğlemek / yeğ tutmak ‘to prefer’, uygun
bulmak / uygun görmek ‘to regard as suitable’, istemek ‘to want / wish’, yeğ ‘it is preferable’,
(daha) iyi ‘it is better’, and the like. Examples are:
Başkaları-yla rekabet-e gir-mektense onlar-la işbirliğ-i yap-ma-yı tercih ed-er.

Instead of going to compete with others, she prefers to cooperate with them.
‘Başkası-yla evlen-mektense, öl-me-yi yeğle-r-im!’ de-di.
‘I’d rather die than marry someone else,’ said she.
Onlar-la birlikte ol-maktansa yalnız kal-ma-yı daha uygun bul-uyor-du-m.
I found it better (more suitable) to stay on my own than to be with them.
Bun-un için onlar-a git-mektense sen-i anne-n-in ev-in-e bırak-mak isti-yor-um.
That is why I prefer to drop you off at your mother’s than go to them.
Neyse on-u hiç gör-me-mektense erken gel-mek yeğ-dir.
It is anyhow better to be early than not to see him at all.
Bir iş-i yarım yap-maktansa hiç yap-ma-mak daha iyi-dir.
It is preferable not to do something at all than to do it in a half-baked way.
Halk tarafından parçala-n-maktansa, zehir al-ır öl-ür-üm.
I would sooner take poison and die than be torn apart by the rabble.
Hiç ol-ma-maktansa, var-sın geç ol-sun.

Let them come, let it get late, this is better than not at all.
Hayat-ı kendin-e uydur-maktansa kendin-i hayat-a uydur-ma-yı öğren-meli-sin.
You should learn how to adapt yourself to life rather than try to adapt life to yourself.
27.4.9 Substitution
The combination –(y)EcEK + possessive suffix + –(y)E means ‘instead of ’, as shown in:
Oku-ma-yıp işçi ol-acağ-ım-a, oku-yup bir meslek öğren-e-yim, daha iyi.

In place of not going to school and becoming a worker, I’d better learn a trade,
that’s better.
Synonymous expressions are based on –(y)EcEK + possessive suffix + yerde:
Teşekkür ed-eceğ-in yerde, öyle mi?

Instead of saying thank you, is that what you mean?
Verb stems take the combination –mEk yerine for the expression of ‘instead of ’, as in:
Ama kader bu, kazan-mak yerine kaybed-ebil-ir-iz de.

But fate is like this: instead of winning we also may lose.
Salon-da bekle-mek yerine, doğrudan çalışma oda-sın-a gir-mek iste-di.
In lieu of waiting in the drawing-room, he wanted to go straight into the study.
27.4.10 Renunciation
A sentence ending in a verb with the infinitive (–mEk) can be linked by means of şöyle
dursun ‘not only / let alone / forget that / apart from’ to a second sentence, which in turn
must end with bile ‘even’.
Yüzüğ-üm-ü bul-mak şöyle dursun, ara-mı-yor-muş bile.

He hasn’t even sought, let alone found my ring.
Olup biten-ler-i denetle-yebil-mek şöyle dursun, anla-yamı-yor-du bile.
Apart from being able to check / inspect what is going on,
he does not even understand a thing of it.
(Literally: . . . he has not even been able to understand.)
Şimdi kendi-sin-i öldür-mek şöyle dursun, bun-u düşün-emi-yor-du bile.
Forget it that she would kill herself now, she could never even give it a thought.
(Literally: . . . she has not even been able to think of it.)
366 Clause linking
27.4.11 Inchoative
The combination –mEk üzere means ‘to be about to’. This complex can be used as a predicate
(see section 28.5), and combined with olan ‘being’ (see also sections 32.1.2–32.1.3) it is placed
in the position of an adjective.
Gel-diğ-im-de sezon bit-mek üzere-ydi.

When I arrived, the season was coming towards its end.
Tüken-mek üzere olan umut-lar! (newspaper headline)
Hope which is about to evaporate!
Doğur-mak üzere olan bir kadın-dı.
It was a woman who was about to give birth.
27.5 Reason and degree
In this section some attention will be paid to adverbial clauses that express reason or cause
and to clauses which pass on information about the quantitative development of some
action or event. A reason, cause, or motive can be expressed in two different ways by means
of an adverbial clause.
27.5.1 Reason / cause
The simplest way to express a causal relationship between two states of affairs is by means
of an expression which denotes a reason itself. The next few examples all start out with a
word group the core of which is formed by a word meaning ‘reason’. Such expressions
end with –TIr ki (see section 33.1.3), which introduces a clause describing a result or
consequence.
Bu nedenle-dir ki . . . It is for this reason that . . .

Bu sebeple-dir ki . . . It is for this reason that . . .
Bu yüzden-dir ki . . . It is for this reason that . . .
Bu sebepten-dir ki . . . It is for this reason that . . .
Ondan-dır ki . . . It is because of that, that . . .
Bundan-dır ki . . . It is because of this, that . . .
Onun için-dir ki . . . It is because of that, that . . .
Bunun için-dir ki . . . It is because of this, that . . .
This pattern is also followed when ‘manner / way’ is to be expressed, as in:
Bu yoldan-dır ki zaman içinde onlar-ı tanı-mak mümkün ol-acak-tır.

In this way it will be possible to recognize them in due time.
Böylelikle-dir ki birçok tatlı zevk, çok geç-meden ağır yükümlülük-ler-e dönüş-tü.
In this way many pleasures soon turned into heavy obligations.
27.5.2 Conjunction diye
Another way to express reason or cause is by forming an adverbial clause with diye, to be
followed by the main clause. Several tense indications are possible, as shown by:
Emin-im, ben Ahmet amca-m öl-dü diye ağla-mı-yor-du-m,

çünkü daha o zaman-lar öl-mek ne-dir bil-eme-yecek yaş-ta-ydı-m.
I am sure of it, I have not cried because my uncle Ahmet passed away,
because at the time I was at an age when one couldn’t know what it is to die.
Hatta yayınev-ler-i şiir kitab-ı bas-mak-tan çekin-iyor-lar, sat-ıl-mı-yor diye.
The publishers are even hesitant to print poetry books, for they don’t sell.
Genç-ti-n, çekici-ydi-n, başka bir erkek-le karşılaş-ıp
yeni bir yaşam kur-acak-sın diye öyle kork-uyor-du-m ki.
You were young, you were attractive, I was so afraid that you would meet
another man and set up a new life.
27.5.3 Combination –TIK + possessive + –TEn
By adding the sequence –TIK + possessive + –TEn to a verb stem a reason or cause can be
expressed as well. The element –TIK stands for a completed action or event, the possessive
agrees with the subject, and –TEn is the ablative case marker.
Ben hâlâ güç yürü-düğ-üm-den kendi-sin-i zorluk-la izle-mek-te-ydi-m.

Because I still walked with difficulty, I could hardly keep pace with him.
Bun-u bil-diğ-im-den erken çık-tı-m, üstelik.
Besides, because I knew this I left early.
Onlar-a güven-me-diğ-im-den değil, bu.
This is not because I do not trust them.
Ora-lar-da çocuğ-u gör-me-diğ-in-den, kapı-ya doğru ilerle-di.
Because she did not see the child anywhere, she walked up to the door.
Arka tekerlek-ler, jet motor-ların-ın arka-sın-a kon-ul-ama-yacağ-ın-dan
gövde-nin alt-ın-a kon-ul-muş-tur.
The rear wheels have been placed under the fuselage,
because they could not be mounted behind the jet engines.
Leon’un ön-ün-de dur-up vitrin-ler-e bak-ıyor. Bir şey al-acağ-ın-dan mı? Değil.
He stops at Leon’s and looks at the windows. Because he’s going to buy
something? No!
27.5.4 Combination –TIK + possessive + için
The fourth way of expressing a reason, cause or motive is achieved by attaching the suffix
sequence –TIK + possessive plus the postposition için. The suffix –TIK does not necessarily
368 Clause linking
stand for a completed action (past) but also for an ongoing one (present). The possessive
indicates the subject of the verb.
Geç kal-dığ-ım için çıkış-tı.

Because I was late, he scolded me.
1949’da doğ-duğ-um için şanslı-yım.
Because I was born in 1949 I am lucky.
Bil-eme-diğ-im için, ‘geç-ebil-ir’, de-di-m.
Because I could not have known, I said: ‘It may blow over’.
Teşekkür-ler, anne-m ol-duğ-un için!
Many thanks, because you are my mother!
Bun-u kendi-m yap-ama-dığ-ım için de üzgün-üm.
I am sorry that I cannot do it myself.
For future events the suffix sequence is –(y)EcEK plus possessive, followed by için:
Tatil-in-i nasıl olsa İstanbul’da geçir-eceğ-i için, kabul et-ti.

Because he was going to spend his holidays in Istanbul anyhow, he agreed.
Hat-lar meşgul ol-acağ-ı için, telefon-lar-ı acil durum-lar dışında kullan-ma-yın.
Because all the lines will be busy, use the telephone in urgent cases only.
Hiçbir şey eski-si gibi ol-ama-yacağ-ı için çok üzül-ür-üm.
Because nothing will be as it used to be (like the old days), I am very sad.
27.5.5 Concessive
Whereas the constructions discussed in sections 27.5.1–27.5.4 present a reason or cause, a

construction in –TIK + possessive + halde leads to a concessive clause, which indicates that
a certain expectation is not met: ‘although / whereas / even though’ etc.
On-u tanı-ma-dığ-ım halde güven-miş-ti-m.

Although I did not know him, I did trust him.
Çoğ-umuz uzak geçmiş-i pek iyi hatırla-yabil-diğ-i halde . . .
Whereas most of us can remember the remote past very well . . .
‘Çocuğ-um hasta, gid-ebil-ir mi-yiz?’ de-diğ-im halde kal-mak zorunda-ydı-k.
Even though I said ‘My child is ill, can we go?’ we had to stay.
Yan-ın-da üç çocuk ol-duğ-u halde . . .
Although she had three children with her . . .
Bir neden ol-ma-dığ-ı halde . . .
Although there was no reason . . .
Cep telefon-u kapalı ol-duğ-u halde, hep on-a bak-ıyor-du.
Even though his mobile phone was switched off, he looked at it all the time.
Dörd-ümüz-ün en fakir-i ol-duğ-um halde . . .

Whereas I am / was the poorest of the four of us . . .
A variant of this construction is –(y)EcEK + possessive suffix + halde, a form which must
not be confused with –(y)EcEK halde (değil) ‘(not) being able to’. Compare:
Yatağ-ım-ın alt-ın-a kolaylık-la saklan-abil-eceğ-im halde,

bun-u bir türlü akıl ed-eme-di-m.
Although I could easily have hidden myself under the bed,
this never crossed my mind (couldn’t think it up).
Cevap ver-ecek halde değil-di.
She was not able to give an answer.
The verbal forms which have been presented in sections 27.5.3–27.5.5 are all nominalized,
which means that they have the properties of a noun, which is signalled in these examples
by the possessive suffix. Various types of nominalization are discussed at length in chapters 32
and 33 (for a summary, see section 33.9).
27.5.6 Contrastive
In another type of concessive construction the conjunction ama / ya is preceded by the core of
the predicate of the first clause (a verb stem, noun, or adjective) to which the combination
–mEsInE plus ama / ya is added. Nonverbal predicates require the use of olmasına plus
ama / ya. The whole construction is based on two sentences which are related to each other
according to: ‘It’s true that A is / does B, but C is / does D’. Other translations are possible in
terms of ‘Although . . ., yet . . .’.
Bu iç-ten gülümseme iç-im-de-ki yabancılaş-ma duygu-lar-ın-ı biraz

dağıt-tı dağıt-masına ama, aynı zaman-da ben-i tuzağ-a düş-ür-dü.
Although that sincere smile has somewhat diverted the feelings of
estrangement in me, yet at the same time it has trapped me.
Demet gid-ip bu para-yla koca bir ayva al-mış-tı al-masına ama,
ev-e gel-en-e dek ayva-yı ısıra ısıra bitir-miş-ti.
It is true that Demet bought an enormous quince with that money,
but by the time she came home she had eaten it up bit by bit.
Anlat-ır-dı-m anlat-masına ya, insan-ın mide-si boş ol-unca dil-i de dön-mü-yor!
Although I told them so, no one gets his tongue around a word as long as his belly is
empty!
Kol saat-i tak-ıyor-lar tak-masına ya, ya sırf süs amac-ı-yla
ya da saat-i hediye ed-en-e ayıp et-me-mek için tak-ıyor-lar.
Although they wear a wristwatch, they put it on merely to show off
or they do it in order not to shame the generous donor of the watch.
Nominal constructions are based on ol-, as in the following examples:
Gerdek gece-miz ol-du ol-masına ya ben gün-lerce başarılı ol-ama-dı-m.

Although our wedding night had passed, I was not able to have success for days on end.
370 Clause linking
Dost ol-muş-lar-dı olmasına ama, on-a kendi adres-in-i kesinlikle ver-me-miş-ti.

Although they had become friends, she had certainly not given her address to her.
In adjectival constructions the adjective must be repeated:
Ben esmer-im esmer ol-masına ama, sen de düpedüz kapkara-sın.

I might be dark, but you are downright pitch-black.
Ayşe suçsuz-du suçsuz ol-masına ama pek de masum sayıl-ma-z-dı.
Ayşe was not guilty indeed, but (she) wasn’t regarded as fully innocent either.
Burası rahat-tır rahat olmasına ya, çok karanlık-tır.
Although it is certainly quiet here, it is (yet) very dark.
Sumru’yla evlen-me-ye meyilli-ydi meyilli olmasına ya biraz kork-uyor-du sanki.
Although he was disposed to marry Sumru, it was as if he was a bit afraid.
27.5.7 Suffix –TIkçE
An adverbial phrase can inform us about the duration, intensity, degree, or frequency of an
action or event by means of the suffix –TIkçE, which is stressed on the first syllable. The
part –TIK stands for both past and present: its interpretation depends on the verb tense in
the main clause. The negated form means ‘as long as . . . not’.
İç-tikçe coş-ar-lar, coş-tukça iç-er-ler.

The more they drink, the more enthusiastic they become;
the more enthusiastic the become, the more they drink.
Fırsat bul-dukça da rapor al-ıyor-du-m.
Whenever I found an opportunity I reported myself ill.
İç-tikçe rahatlı-yor-um.
The more I drink, the more I feel relaxed.
Ye-dikçe de şiş-er-ler.
The more they eat, the fatter they grow.
Aptallığ-ım-ı düşün-dük-çe kulak-lar-ım yan-ıyor-du.
Whenever I pondered my stupidities, I felt my ears burn.
Yaş ilerle-dikçe unutkanlık başla-r, de-r-ler oysa.
This is what they say though: ‘When you grow old, forgetfulness sets in’.
Gün geç-tikçe Türkçe-yi de unut-mak-ta-dır-lar.
But if time passes, they forget Turkish too.
The negative form (–mE-dIkçE) means ‘as long as . . . not’:
Bun-lar-ı Türkiye yap-ma-dıkça devlet reform-u çok zordur.

As long as Turkey does not do this, reforming the state is difficult.
Yüz-ünüz-de ben-im-ki gibi bir leke ol-ma-dıkça anla-yama-z-sınız.

As long as you don’t have a blotch on your face like mine,
you’re not able to understand.
Herkes adam gibi sıra-ya gir-ip bekle-me-dikçe bilgi ver-mi-yor-uz.
As long as not everybody lines up neatly and waits, we don’t give any information.
Baba-m ses çıkar-ma-dıkça anne-m daha fazla sinirlen-iyor-du.
The longer my father kept silent, the more nervous my mother got.
27.5.8 Proportion
The degree or proportion by means of which something can be quantified can be expressed
by –TIK + possessive suffix + oranda, as in the following examples:
Daha sonra da akşam ışığ-ın-ın izin ver-diğ-i oranda birkaç resim çiz-iyor-um.
And later I make a few drawings in as far as the evening light permits.
Manyetik alan güçlü ol-duğ-u oranda etki güçlü-dür.
The stronger the magnetic field, the stronger the effect.
Bir başka deyiş-le, galaksi biz-den uzak ol-duğ-u oranda hızlı uzaklaş-ıyor-du!
In other words, the further a galaxy was away from us, the faster (it) escaped.
(Literally: In other words, the galaxy escapes proportionally fast to the distance to us.)
27.5.9 Combination –TIğInce
In a more abstract manner the notion of ‘degree / extent to which’ can be expressed by the
suffix combination –TIğInce. This form occurs particularly in fixed expressions such as
mümkün olduğunca ‘in so far as possible’ and elinden / elimden geldiğince ‘as good as possible’
and in the form olabildiğince ‘as . . . as possible’, all preceded by an adverbial phrase. In isolated
instances this suffix is combined with other verb stems.
Bun-dan mümkün ol-duğunca kaçın-acağ-ım.

I will avoid this as much / often / well as possible.
Mümkün ol-duğunca çabuk ara-ma-nız-ı iste-di-ler.
They wanted you to call back as soon as possible.
Çünkü ol-abil-diğince çabuk, yeniden uyu-mak isti-yor-du.
For she wanted to go to sleep again as soon as possible.
On-un ol-abil-diğince uzağ-a mı git-me-sin-i isti-yor-sunuz?
Do you want him to go away as far as possible?
El-in-den gel-diğince bun-u değiştir-me-ye çalış-tı.
She has tried to change this as well as possible.
372 Clause linking
Öğrenci ve öğretmen olarak onlar-ın dil-in-i öğren-ebil-diğince öğren-ecek,

kendi dil-in-i öğret-ebil-diğince öğret-ecek-tir.
As students and teachers they will learn others’ language as
well as possible, and teach their own language to others as well as possible.
27.5.10 Degree
Many constructions can be formed with derece ‘degree / extent’. There are simple expressions,
such as:
Sıcaklık en az kırk derece ol-malı-ydı.

The heat must have been at least forty degrees.
İlk eleştiri-ler son derece olumsuz-du.
The first criticism / reviews were extremely negative.
Riva, anne-sin-e bir derece-ye kadar katlan-ır-dı.
To a certain extent Riva agreed with her mother.
But verbal complements (see section 33.11.6) are also possible:
Bu çocuk-lar hastane-de tedavi-yi gerektir-ecek derece-de yanık-lar taşı-yor.

These children are covered in burns, so (severe) that they necessitate treatment
in a hospital.
Ben-im için yeter derece-de güzel ve yakışıklı da değil-siniz.
For me you are not beautiful and handsome enough (to a sufficient degree).
27.6 Similative constructions
There is only one type of construction that qualifies for discussion in this chapter and this is
based on the suffix –CEsInE. With projectional suffixes it has in common that it can be placed
after a wide range of verbal tensed forms, nouns and adjectives. In the final subsection a few
obsolete and highly uncommon forms based on the personal pronouns are presented.
27.6.1 Suffix –CEsInE
In chapter 24 it was shown that a nominal or existential predicate and a tensed verb stem
(for instance –(I/E)r, –(I)yor, or –mIş) can take a projectional suffix. The suffix –CEsInE ‘as
if ’ shares certain properties with these suffixes because it can be added to many similar
structures. The entire construction forms an adverbial expression, indicating how or under
what circumstances something happens or is carried out.
Her şey-i bir çocuk-la konuş-ur-casına tane tane açıkla-mak zorunda kal-ıyor-du.
She had to explain everything to him word by word, as if she was speaking to a child.
Kuş-lar, şarkı söyle-mek yerine can çekiş-iyor-casına boğuk çığlık-lar at-ıyor-lar-dı.

Instead of singing a song, the birds uttered smothered screams as if they were
dying in agony.
Sonra-ki iki gün hiçbir şey ol-ma-mış-çasına geç-ti.
The two days afterwards passed as if nothing had happened.
Yıldırım çarp-mış-çasına ayağ-a fırla-dı.
She jumped to her feet as if lightning had struck.
Hiç yaşa-ma-mış-çasına öl-ür bu kadın.
That woman will die as if she has not lived at all.
Simple adverbial expressions can be formed on the basis of nouns and adjectives:
Terbiyeli bir genç yer-ler-e tükür-me-z, kadın-lar-ın yan-ın-da pis laf-lar et-me-z,
ve garson-u çağır-mak için hayvan-casına masa-ya vur-ma-z.
A well-mannered young man does not spit on the ground, uses no filthy language
with women around, and does not coarsely bang on the table to call the waiter.
Sivrisinek küme-ler-i gölcüğ-ün üst-ün-de deli-cesine raksed-iyor-lar-dı.
Clouds of mosquitoes were dancing madly over the pond.
27.6.2 Negational forms
Structures with the verbal –mE-z (see section 20.5) and the nominal –sIz (see section 31.1.1)
occur rather frequent ly as well. The complex –mE-z-cEsInE can be illustrated by:
İlk bardağ-ı doy-ma-z-casına iç-ti.

He drank the first glass as if he was insatiable.
Hiçbir şey anla-ma-z-casına bak-tı.
She looked as if she didn’t understand a thing.
Lokantacı fiyat-lar-ı gerçekten utan-ma-z-casına yükselt-miş-ti.
The owner of the eatery increased the prices really shamelessly.
Combining a noun ending in –sIz ‘without’ with –cEsInE leads to a reinforced meaning:
Şimdi tabağ-ın-da-ki-ler-i ilgi-siz-cesine yi-yor-du.

Now he was entirely indifferently eating what lay on his plate.
Yani becerik-siz-cesine hareket et-ti-ler.
So they acted really clumsily.
Yoksa birbir-imiz-den son-suz-casına mı ayrıl-ıyor-uz?
Will we be separated from each other as if forever?
On-a adeta umut-suz-casına âşık.
He / she is almost hopelessly in love with him / her.
374 Clause linking
27.6.3 Complex forms
The combination –(y)mIş-çEsInE is based on the projectional suffix –(y)mIş and can be
attached to the tense forms –(I/E)r, –(I)yor and –(y)EcEK:
Ne kadar büyük ol-duğ-un-u göster-mek iste-r-miş-çesine sıçra-dı.

He sprang to his feet as if he wanted to show how tall he was.
Baş-ın-a in-ecek darbe-yi bekli-yor-muş-çasına . . .
As if he was awaiting the blow (that would come) to his head . . .
Hemen yola çık-ıp uzak-lar-a gid-ecek-miş-çesine duygusal-dı.
She was sentimental, as if she was about to depart and go far away.
This suffix can also be combined with var ‘there is / are’ and yok ‘there is / are not’. The
notion of ‘to have’ is expressed in the next example; but the second example is purely
existential (‘to be’).
Sanki hiç kötü niyet-i yok-muş-çasına gülümse-yip baş-ın-ı salla-dı.

As if she had no bad intentions at all, she smiled and nodded her head.
İskele-de yalnız o var-mış-çasına sırt-ın-ı direğ-e yasla-yıp kitap oku-yor-du.
As if he was all alone on the pier, he was leaning against a post reading a book.
Nouns and adjectives, as well as locative phrases, can also be used to form this type of
adverbial construction:
Kapı, sihirli-ymiş-çesine kendiliğinden açıl-mıştır.

The door opened by itself, as if bewitched.
Sanki o yer-in sahib-i-ymiş-çesine hareket ed-iyor.
He behaves as if he is the owner of the place.
İnandırma taktik-lerin-den başka birşey değil-miş-çesine . . .
As if this is / was nothing other than persuasion tactics . . .
Locative noun phrases also occur in this type of constructions, as in:
Otur-muş, büyük bir dehşet iç-in-de-ymiş-çesine ağlı-yor-du.

He sat down and wept as if he was feeling great horror.
Daha çok dalgın, düş-te-ymiş-çesine bak-ıyor-du ban-a.
She looked at me still more absent-mindedly, as if she was in a dream
27.6.4 Purpose / intention
A special case is –CEsInE preceded by the verbal negational suffix –mE and followed by the
nominalizing suffix –mE (see section 22.1.3). The entire construction is used as an adverbial
phrase or clause expressing a purpose or intention (see also sections 20.7.4 and 28.3.3).
Thus, dön-me-me-cesine means ‘in order not to return’. Compare:
Dünya-ya getir-dik-leri yavru-ların-ı bir daha gör-me-me-cesine,

çocuk-ların-ın velâyet-ler-in-i kaybet-miş olan çok anne tanı-r-ım.
I know a lot of mothers who lost guardianship of their children, (on the understanding)
that they would never see again the children they had put into this world.
Yirmi dört saat uyan-ma-ma-casına derin derin uyu-du-m.
I passed into a very deep sleep, and did not wake up for twenty-four hours.
Kapitalizm dön-me-me-cesine yok ol-abil-sin.
Capitalism should be able to disappear in such a way as never to return again.
Bun-lar hafıza-m-da hiç silin-me-me-cesine kal-ır-dı.
All this sits in my memory, never to be erased.
Yok ol-du-lar, tek kişi kal-ma-ma-casına katled-il-di-ler.
They vanished: they were killed, so that not a single person would remain.
Lânetli kitab-ı bir daha aç-ıl-ma-ma-casına kapat-a-lım.
Let us close that damned chapter, so that it will not be opened once more.
27.6.5 Pronominal forms
Based on personal pronouns are the words bencileyin, sencileyin, onculayın, bizcileyin,
sizcileyin, and they express a similarity, for instance bencileyin ‘like me’. These obsolete
forms are found very infrequently. Attributive usage is seen in:
Bu toplum kabul et-me-di ben-i, bencileyin gurbetçi-ler-i.

This society did not accept me; the foreigners / guest workers like me.
Olan biten bencileyin geç anla-yan-lar için bile gayet açık-tı.
The events were very obvious, even for those slow in understanding, like me.
Predicative usage can be illustrated as follows:
Sen de bencileyin, bu kadar garip, bu kadar yoksul-sun.

You too are very strange, very impoverished, as I am.
Ben-im, ben Faust, ben de sencileyin-im !
It is I, I am Faust, I too am like you !
Baş-ın-ı iki yana salla-yarak: Ay oğul, onlar da bencileyin.
Shaking her head (she said): Oh son, they too are like me.
28
Postpositional complements
In the previous chapter sentential complements (adverbial clauses) were introduced, formed
by adding one or more suffixes to a verbal stem.
Adverbial clauses can be formed by means of postpositions as well, taking another clause
as their complement. Certain postpositions govern a case marker, which implies that the
marker is attached to the complement. Compare also the constructions discussed in
chapter 13. In the present type of construction the complement clause is based on a verb
but at the same time this clause has the properties of a noun phrase.
The constructions discussed in section 28.1 share the property that they take the
sequence –TIK + possessive + –TEn, whereas the adverbial clauses explained in section 28.2
are based on a verb stem to which the suffix –TIktEn is attached. In both cases the result is
a temporal ending with a postposition. In section 28.3 purpose clauses will be discussed and
in section 28.4 adverbial phrases specifying some circumstance or detail, so-called small
clauses, will be explained. In section 28.5 it will be shown how postpositions are used as
predicate and this chapter concludes with section 28.6, in which the question is raised
whether certain postpositions can be used attributively.
28.1 Person-bound adjuncts
The notion of ‘since’ is expressed not only by the suffix –(y)ElI, as has been shown in
section 27.4.1, but also by the postposition beri. The postpositional complement may contain
a subject, but when this is absent, its antecedent can be inferred from the main clause, the
context, or the situation.
On-u tanı-dığ-ım-dan beri bu kadar hızlı davran-dığ-ın-ı gör-me-miş-ti-m.

Since I’ve known him, I’ve never seen him running so fast.
İyice yaşlan-dığ-ın-dan beri biraz rahatla-dı sayıl-ır.
After she got pretty old, she became somewhat quieter, one could say.
Şu masa-ya otur-duğ-umuz-dan beri . . .
As of the moment that we sat down at that table over there . . .
Somali sosyalist bir devlet ol-duğ-un-dan beri . . .
Since the time when Somalia became a socialist state . . .
A subject, if any, remains in the nominative, as is shown by:
Sen git-tiğ-in-den beri çok şey ol-du.

Since you left a lot of things have happened.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
28.2 Temporal phrases 377
Apart from için (see section 27.5.4) other postpositions taking similar complements are
dolayı and ötürü ‘because of / on account of / owing to’. Examples are:
On-u yap-tığ-ım-dan dolayı şimdi pişman-ım.

Because of doing that, I am regretful now.
Kendi-sin-i savunma hakk-ın-ı kullan-dığ-ın-dan dolayı cezalandır-ıl-acak-tı!
Because of using his right to defend himself, he was going to be punished!
Türk ol-duğ-um-dan dolayı kalıcı bir iş bul-ama-z-dı-m.
Owing to the fact that I am a Turk, I wasn’t able to find a permanent job.
Vakit geç ol-duğ-un-dan dolayı . . .
Because it was already late . . .
Bun-u yap-ma-ya cesaret-imiz ol-ma-dığ-ın-dan dolayı . . .
By not having the courage to do this, we . . .
İzin ver-il-me-me-sin-den ötürü gel-eme-di-k.
We were not able to come because no permission had been given.
Aile-nin geçmiş-in-i iyi bil-me-diğ-im-den ötürü . . .
Owing to the fact that I did not know well the history of the family . . .
Kişi-ler ancak yaş-ların-dan, meslek-lerin-den ya da erkek veya
kadın ol-uş-ların-dan ötürü birbir-lerin-den ayrıl-ır-lar.
People are separated from each other only on account of their age
or profession or because of the fact that they are male or female.
The verbal forms being presented here are nominalized. This means that they have the
properties of a noun, which is signalled in these examples by the possessive suffix. Such
forms are discussed at length in chapters 32 and 33 (for a summary, see section 33.9).
Nominalized forms such as ol-uş will be discussed in section 37.1.6.
28.2 Temporal phrases
In order to indicate that an action or event as described by the verb in the main clause
occurred after some other action or event, the postposition sonra ‘after’ is used (see
sections 12.2.2 and 13.2). The verbal complement has the form of a complex suffix:
–TIktEn.
Elli gün hastane-de yat-tıktan sonra, dayı çok zayıfla-mış çık-tı.

After fifty days in hospital, Uncle came out very weakened.
Karı-sın-ı on-a tanıt-tıktan sonra, ‘Sen bura-da ne arı-yor-sun?’ de-di.
After introducing his wife to her, he said ‘What are you doing here?’
In section 27.4.6 it has been indicated that anteriority can be expressed by the suffix –mEdEn
plus the postposition önce. Examples are:
Yaz mevsim-i gel-me-den önce bir aylık bir program-la zayıfla-yabil-ecek.

She can still lose weight before the summer with a programme lasting a month.
378 Postpositional complements
Parmağ-ın-ı ağz-ın-a koy-ma-dan önce kokla-yıp ve pantolon-un-a sil-di.

Before he put his finger in his mouth, he sniffed and wiped it on his pants.
28.3 Purpose phrases
Phrases expressing some purpose or intention can be formed by the postposition için, taking
a verbal complement in the full infinitive, by a direct speech clause followed by diye, and by
an adverbial phrase based on the combination –mE-mE-cEsInE.
28.3.1 Purpose / intention
A purpose or intention behind some action or event can be described in several ways by
means of postpositions. The standard way to do so is by combining a verb in its infinitival
form with the postposition için. This gives –mEk için ‘in order to’.
Aile kur-mak için evliliğ-in gerekli ol-duğ-un-u düşün-üyor-um.

I think a marriage is needed to start up a family.
Unutkanlığ-ı yen-mek için pek çok yöntem var.
There are many ways to conquer forgetfulness.
Sırf kızdır-mak için, Fatima aptalca soru-lar sor-ma-ya başla-dı.
Solely to make him angry, Fatima began to ask all sorts of stupid questions.
On-dan kurtul-mak için elinden gelen-i yap-ıyor.
To escape this he does what he can.
Sanki sırf eğlen-mek için çal-ıyor-lar-dı.
They were playing / stealing (as if) for pure pleasure.
By means of the combination –mE + possessive suffix + için an adverbial purpose phrase
can also be related to a person other than the subject of the main clause. Compare:
Önce yıkan-dı-m, ardından giy-me-m için gri renk-te bir okul üniforma-sı ver-di-ler.
First I was washed and afterwards they gave me a grey school uniform
(for me) to put on.
Demir parmaklık-lar arasından gökyüz-ün-ü gör-ebil-me-m için
sandalye-nin üst-ün-e çık-ıyor-um.
In order to be able to see the sky through the iron bars, I climb on a chair.
Ben konuş-madan dinli-yor, tedirgin ol-ma-ma-sı için eş-im-e söz et-mi-yor-du-m.
I listened silently; so as for her not to become nervous, I didn’t speak to my wife.
The combination –mIş ol-mak için expresses that the performance of some action is a goal
in itself. This construction will be further discussed in section 37.2.1. A few examples are
presented here as an appetizer:
Çoğunlukla salt konuş-muş ol-mak için konuş-ur-lar-dı.

Mostly they talked solely for the purpose of having talked (about it).
28.3 Purpose phrases 379
Birşey-ler söyle-miş ol-mak için, köpeğ-i üstüne soru-lar sor-du-m.

In order to have said something I asked questions about her dog.
Also the notion of ‘purpose’ or ‘intention’ can be expressed by –mEk üzere.
Okul-a git-mek üzere çık-tı-m.

I went out in order to go to school.
Geri ver-mek üzere bu kitab-ı san-a ver-di-m.
I gave you that book with the idea that you give it back to me.
Bir gece yarı-sı tren-i ile kent-ten bir daha dön-me-mek üzere uzaklaş-tı-m.
By the midnight train I left the city, never to return again.
A second meaning of –mEk üzere is ‘to be about to’. This complex can be used as a predicate
(see section 28.5), and combined with olan ‘being’ (see also sections 32.1.2–32.1.3), it is
placed in the position of an adjective.
28.3.2 Conjunction diye
Another very popular way of expressing a purpose or intention is by having a sentence

followed by diye. The combination ne diye means ‘why’:
Bun-u ne diye söyle-diğ-in-i kendi-si de bil-mi-yor-du.

For what purpose (why) he said this, he didn’t know himself either.
Formally speaking, the element diye is not a postposition, but rather a particle, related
to demek ‘to say / mention / name’, which is also applied to specify some reason (see
section 27.5.2), and to signal a direct speech complement (see section 33.4.1).
In fact, the constructions in question can be regarded as sentences in direct speech
formed by an indirect imperative (see chapter 18) and followed by diye:
İlerde bir şey ol-ma-sın diye önceden vur-uyor-uz.

We strike in advance so that nothing will happen later on.
Kız-ı daha çok kız-ma-sın diye, anne-si öteki-ler-e sus-ma-ların-ı işaret et-ti.
The mother signalled the others to let it pass, so that her daughter would not get
much angrier.
Gerçekten Luna 10, Amerikalı-lar-ın çok daha gelişmiş uzay arac-ı Surveyor
birinci ol-ma-sın diye apar topar fırlat-ıl-mış-tı.
Luna 10 was in fact launched in a rush, so that the much more sophisticated
American space ship Surveyor would not be the first.
Müjgan Hanım-a yemeğ-e kal-sın-lar diye yalvar-dı-k.
We begged Ms / Mrs Müjgan that they would stay for dinner.
Arka-sın-dan yetiş-me-sin-ler diye âdeta koş-uyor-du.
He was almost running so that they could not follow him.
Also, the first person singular and plural optative forms occur frequently:
Yan-ın-a otur-a-yım diye ben-i kol-um-dan çek-ti.

For me to sit down next to her, she pulled my arm.
Karşı-m-da-kin-i köşe-ye sıkıştır-a-yım diye soru hazırla-mı-yor-um.
I don’t prepare questions in order to corner the personopposite me.
Anne-m öp-e-lim diye yanağ-ın-ı uzat-tı.
My mother proffered her cheek so that we would kiss her.
Akbaba-lar dizil-miş, biri öl-sün de yi-ye-lim diye bekli-yor-lar.
The vultures are lined up and waiting: let someone die, then we’ll eat him up.
Examples of the second person singular and plural are:
Sen akl-ın-ı baş-ın-a topla-ya-sın diye bekle-di-k.

We waited for you to come to your senses.
Tavşan-ım-ı da bırak-mış-tı-m san-a, ben-i unut-ma-ya-sın diye.
And I left my rabbit to you, so that you wouldn’t forget me.
Bun-u anla-ya-sınız diye söylü-yor-um.
I say this so that you (may) understand.
Söyle-ye-siniz diye bekle-r-im, fakat ağz-ınız-dan hep başka söz-ler çık-ar.
I am waiting for you to say it, but all the time other words leave your mouth.
28.3.3 Suffix combination –mE-mE-cEsInE
Finally, in section 27.6.4 it was shown that purpose can be expressed by an adverbial phrase
based on the combination –mE-mE-cEsInE. As a reminder:
Kokteyl son-a er-en-e dek kimse-yi gör-me-me-cesine, dışarıda kal-dı-k.

In order not to see anyone until the end of the cocktail party, we stayed outside.
Kerim iki gün dön-me-me-cesine ev-den ayrıl-dı.
Kerim left the house so as not to return for two days.
28.4 Phrases specifying circumstance or detail
There are several types of adverbial construction. The adverbial phrases represented below
all end in the instrumental marker –(y)lE or its postpositional counterpart ile. These adver-
bial phrases have a complex structure, because the fragment ending in a locative marker
indicates the whereabouts of the other part of that phrase. In this way such constructions
are comparable to existential constructions in var / yok (see section 9.4). In these construc-
tions only the (underscored) locative part of the fragment can be left out.
Birol, tepsi-nin iç-in-de yemeğ-i-yle mutfak-tan çık-tı.

Birol came out of the kitchen with his food on a tray.
28.4 Phrases specifying circumstance or detail 381
Kız-ı, bir tepsi-de iki fincan kahve-yle gir-di.

His daughter entered with two cups of coffee on a tray.
Garson, el-in-de kahve tepsi-si ile içeri gir-di.
The waiter entered with a coffee tray in his hand.
Sonra sırt-ın-da koca çuval-la ezile ezile yola düş-müş.
Then he set out, burdened with an enormous sack on his back.
In section 23.1.6 it was explained that noun phrases the subject of which is marked with an
anticipatory possessive can be applied as adjectival and adverbial phrases. For the latter type
of construction one could say that these specify the circumstances under which something
occurs. For instance:
Adam, el-ler-i hava-da araba-nın yan-ın-da dur-uyor-du.

The man stood with his hands in the air beside the car.
Genç kadın, çocuğ-u kucağ-ın-da, karşı tarafa geç-mek iste-di.
The young woman wanted, with her child on her arm, to cross to the other side.
By the first sentence not only is the information conveyed that ‘there was a man standing
by a car’, but also that ‘he had his hands raised’. The second sentence is about a ‘woman who
wanted to cross the street’, but on top of it, that ‘she has a child on her arm’.
Now, there are many adverbial constructions which show a high degree of resemblance
with the sentences represented above, but which have a slightly different structure, a
fact which leads to a significant difference in meaning and usage. In this type of sen-
tence the right-hand part of the fragment in bold print functions as a predicate over the
first part: it provides an answer to possible questions like Where are his hands? and
also Where is her child? In the type of construction which is about to be introduced, the
locative noun phrase precedes the subject and next, these noun phrases are followed by
the postposition ile ‘with’ or the case marker –(y)lE ‘with’. Compare the last example
above with:
Genç kadın-ın kucağ-ın-da çocuğ-u-yla ayağ-ı kay-ıp sol bacağ-ı kır-ıl-dı.

The young woman slipped, with her child on her arm, and broke her left leg.
The fragment kucağ-ın-da çocuğ-u literally means ‘on her arm (is) her child’ and this could
give an answer to a question like Who sits on her arm? Similarly, with the question What
has he in his hand?, the equivalent of the first sentence could be:
Adam, silah-ı el-in-de araba-nın yan-ın-da dur-uyor-du.

The man stood beside the car with his weapon in his hand.
Adverbial phrases specifying circumstance or detail are quite numerous in Turkish,

particularly those providing information on items to be found on the human body. Here is
a short selection:
Teslim ol-ma-yı redded-ip el-in-de silah-ı-yla öl-müş-tü.

He refused to surrender and died with his weapon in hand.
Tam bu sıra-da karı-sı, sırt-ın-da geceliğ-i-yle oda-ya gir-di.

Precisely at that moment his wife entered the room in her nightgown.
Kürk-ün-e sarın-mış, baş-ın-da şapka-sı-yla çık-tı.
Wrapped up in his fur coat and with his hat on (his head) he went out.
El-in-de üç torba ve omz-un-da çanta-sı-yla çıkış kapı-sın-a yönel-di.
With three sacks in her hand and her handbag on her shoulder she went to the exit.
In fact many things, also presented in their plural form, can be specified for their whereabouts,
as is clearly shown by the following examples:
Avlu-da ayağ-ın-da takunya-lar-la dolaş-ıyor-du.

He walked around the courtyard wearing clogs.
Abla-sı Nur, ayağ-ın-da paten-ler ile bir bank-ta otur-uyor-du.
Her sister Nur sat on a bench with skates on (her feet).
Onlar-dan bir-i ağz-ın-da köpük-ler-le haykır-ma-ya başla-r.
One of them, foaming at the mouth, starts yelling.
Sekiz yiğit, omuz-lar-ın-da nacak-lar-la tırpan-la cephe-ye yönel-di-ler.
Eight heroes went to the front, with hatchets and scythes on their shoulders.
O da göz-ler-in-de yaş-lar-la herkes-i kucakla-dı.
With tears in her eyes, she too embraced everyone.
Kırmızı cüppeli üç yargıç, kol-lar-ın-da dosya-lar ile içeri gir-di-ler.
Three judges in red gowns entered, with all sorts of documents in their arms.
The following examples are of a mixed type:
Feride el-in-de bir mektup-la içeri gir-di.

Feride went in with a letter in her hand.
Bir el-in-de şapka-sı, diğer-in-de mum-la yukarı-ya çık-ıyor-du.
With his hat in one hand and a candle in the other he went upstairs.
Because of the postposition ile and case marker –(y)lE the type of adverbial phrase represented
here differs from the locative-oriented type which was introduced in section 23.1.6 and which
will be further dealt with in section 32.2.4. Examples without the instrumental are:
Nuran, bir ayağ-ı son merdiven-de, ol-duğ-u yer-de dur-du.

Nuran, with one foot on the last step, stopped on the very spot.
Ayağ-a kalk-tı, el-ler-i kalça-sın-da, ban-a alaylı alaylı bak-ıyor-du.
She rose to her feet and, hands on hips, she looked at me mockingly.
28.5 Postpositions in predicate position
In its meaning of ‘to be about to . . .’ the combination –mEk üzere can be regarded as a predicate
and it is not surprising to see it appear in sentence-final position, possibly expanded by
projectional suffixes.
28.5 Postpositions in predicate position 383
Çok güzel ama, ne yazık ki, geç gel-di-n. Yol-a çık-mak üzere-yiz.
Very nice indeed, but what a pity, you are too late. We are about to set off.
Henüz öl-me-di, ama öl-mek üzere, papaz-ı çağır-ma-ya gid-iyor-um.
She is still alive but she is dying; I will go and call a priest.
Ora-da bir genç dul kadın evlen-mek üzere-ydi.
There was a young widow about to get married.
Halk bir panik hava-sın-a gir-mek üzere-ydi.
The public was about to be seized by panic.
Saray-dan sız-an dedikodu-ya göre savaş-a gir-mek üzere-ymiş-iz.
According to rumours percolating from the palace, we are about to enter the war.
Other postpositions can be used as predicates in this way as well, and in this respect
they resemble ordinary content words. In the following examples a postposition plus its
complement is found in predicate position.
Biz-de Avrupalılaş-an iktidar-ın Marksizm’e karşı al-dığ-ı tavır,

bu korku-dan dolayı-dır.
The attitude which our Europeanized government adopted towards Marxism
arises from this fear.
Fakat bun-a yüzde yüz inanıl-ma-dığ-ın-dan dolayı idi.
But this was because it is not fully believed.
Türk şaman-lar-ın-a göre, bun-un gök-le ilgili oluş-un-dan dolayı i-miş.
According to Turkish shamans this is (so) because this has to do with heaven.
The postposition için indicates a cause or purpose, as in:
Yangın her yan-dan başla-dığ-ı için-di.

That was because the fire had begun on all sides.
İki yabancı ol-duğ-umuz için-di.
That was because we were two foreigners.
Kendi-leri-ni daha iyi anla-yabil-mek için değil.
This is not for the sake of their being able to understand themselves better.
Zaten bu balo, muhtaç çocuk-lar-a yardım için-miş.
Anyway, this ball seems to be for aid to (the good of) children in need.
Also for göre ‘according to, as to, in respect of ’ predicative usage can be attested:
Ora-lar-ın fiyat-ı da on-a göre-dir.

The price of those places, too, is in accordance with it.
Refik’in kızkardeş-i aslında san-a göre-ydi!
Refik’s sister would actually match well with you.
Especially in temporal adverbial clauses without a subject of their own, postpositions plus
complements occur rather frequently. In English an impersonal construction along the
lines of ‘It was . . .’ or ‘It came towards . . .’ can often be used.
On-un yan-ın-dan ayrıl-ır-ken akşam ol-mak üzere-ydi.

When I left her, it was towards evening.
Gün ağar-mak üzere-ydi.
It was almost getting light.
Ama, artık güneş de bat-mak üzere-ydi; değirmen de epey uzak.
But the sun was about to set and the mill was still pretty far away.
Mevsim kış i-miş ve sabah ol-mak üzere-ymiş.
It was winter and it was almost morning.
Temporal phrases of this kind end in sonra or önce, both denoting a point in time or a period:
Öğle-den sonra-ydı.
It was in the afternoon.
Gün batım-ın-dan iki saat sonra-ydı.
It was two hours after sunset.
Bu tarih-ten onbeş gün sonra idi.
It was fifteen days after that date.
II. Dünya Savaş-ı’nın bit-me-sin-den iki yıl sonra-ydı.
It was two years after the Second World War had ended.
Düğün-üm-den birkaç hafta önce-ydi.
It was a couple of weeks before my wedding.
Ev-imiz-i sat-madan iki yıl önce-ydi.
It was two years before we sold our house.
Bun-dan yıl-lar önce-ymiş.
It appears to have been years before that.
Comparable constructions are those of section 12.2.2 for ‘later’ and ‘earlier’.
Birkaç yıl sonra-ydı.

It was a few years later.
On-un konuşma-sı bir hafta önce veya bir hafta sonra-ymış.
Her lecture seems to be a week earlier or later.
Üç saat önce-ydi.
It was three hours earlier.
Yıl-lar önce-ydi bu, köşk-te geçir-diğ-im o yaz.
That was years ago, that summer I spent in the köşk.
Yirmi beş küsur yıl önce-ymiş, Şubat orta-sı.
It has been, apparently / as they say, roughly twenty-five years ago, mid-February.
28.6 Postpositions used attributively? 385
Also doğru, indicating direction (see section 13.1) is applied this way:
Öğlen-e doğru-ydu.
It was coming up to noon.
Temmuz sonların-a doğru-ydu.
It was towards the end of July.
Ben-im rota-m doğu-ya doğru-ydu.
My route was eastward.
O zaman yazı sağ-dan sol-a doğru-ydu.
At that time writing was done from right to left.
Also kadar (see section 13.3) can take the position of a predicate, but only when the
complement designates a certain measure, such as size, length, volume, etc.
Baş-ları bu kadar-dı.
Their heads were as big as this.
Uzunluk-ları bir metre kadar-dı.
Their length was a metre at most.
Abdul, Fatma’nın yarı-sı kadar-dı.
Abdul is half the size of Fatma.
Ev-ler üç kat-tan beş kat-a kadar-dı.
The houses varied in size from three to five storeys.
28.6 Postpositions used attributively?
Now it has been shown how certain, but definitely not all, postpositions can be used
predicatively, the reader might wonder whether there is any example of attributive usage of
postpositions. For a very limited number of postpositions one could argue that their position
in a sentence seems to suggest that they, including their complement, convey some property
or other of the indefinite noun phrase they precede. In that way they are comparable to
adjectives. The postpositions in question are: göre, için, doğru, and kadar. There is, however,
one condition that should be taken into account. Each of these postpositions has several,
non-related, meanings and there is only one particular meaning that allows for attributive
usage. Examples are:
göre ‘according to’:

Bu tam san-a göre bir iş ol-ur, zahmetsiz ve zararsız.
This is a job that suits you entirely; effortless and harmless.
Askerlik ban-a göre bir uğraşı değil-di.
The military was not an occupation for me. / The military was not my cup of tea.
için ‘for’ (purpose, beneficiary):

Küçük futbolcu-lar-ın eğitim-i için bir plan-ınız var mı?
Do you have a plan for the training / instruction of the younger football players?
Konuşma-sı, biz siyasetçi-ler için bir ders niteliğ-in-de-ydi.
Her speech had the quality of being a lesson to us politicians.
Git-meden önce, sen-in için bir hediye-m var, toplan-ır-ken rastla-dığ-ım bir şey.
Before going, I have a present for you, a thing I came across while tidying up.
doğru ‘in the direction of ’:

Batı-ya doğru bir hat boyunca gid-ecek ol-ur-sa-nız . . .
If you go along a westbound line . . .
Parlama-sı için, içeri-den dışarı-ya doğru bir enerji akış-ı ol-ma-sı gerek-ir.
For (a star) to shine, there must be a flow of energy from inside to outside.
kadar ‘in the quantity of ’ (size / value):

Üç hafta-dan az zaman-da elli lira kadar bir para koy-du-m kenar-a.
In less than three weeks time I put aside a sum of money worth fifty lira.
Ev-in-in arka-sın-da 150.000 m2 kadar bir alan var-dı.
Behind his house there was an open field of 150,000 square metres.
29
Ordering patterns
After an extensive account of the basics of Turkish grammar, this chapter offers nothing
but ordering principles: section 29.1 is about the morphotactics of nouns and verbs, and
section 29.2 is on word order in noun phrases. How noun phrases, including adverbial and
postpositional phrases, are ordered in main clauses (with nominal, existential, and verbal
predicates) is dealt with in section 29.3. Dependent clauses are the topic of section 29.4,
which also gives an overview of verbal linking suffixes. Section 29.5 shows that constituent
ordering in verbal sentences can better be understood in terms of the pragmatic notions
Topic and Focus than in terms of the traditional distribution subject-object-verb.
29.1 Suffix order in nouns and verbs
Nouns and adjectives used as nouns can be expanded according to the table in section 29.1.1
and verbal suffixes must be arranged according to the model represented in section 29.1.2.
29.1.1 Nouns
stem + (plural) + (possessive) + (case marker)
–lEr –(I)m –(n)In genitive

–(I)n –(y)E dative
–(s)I(n) –(y)I accusative
–(I)mIz –TE locative
–(I)nIz –TEn ablative
–lErI(n) –(y)lE instrumental
Genitive and locative can be continued by: –ki(n) + (plural) + (case marker).
29.1.2 Verbs
stem + (neg.) + (abilitative) + (tense) + (projection) + (person)
–mE –(y)Ebil –(I)yor –(y)TI –(y)Im / –m

–(y)EmE –(y)EcEK –(y)mIş –sIn / –n
–mIş –(y)sE –Ø / –Ø
–TI –(y)Iz / –k
–(I/E)r / –mE-z –sInIz / –nIz
–mEk-tE –lEr / –lEr
–mElI
–sE
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
388 Ordering patterns
29.2 Word order in noun phrases
The indefinite noun phrase has the following internal word order:
(poss. pron.) (adjective) (bir) noun-(possessive sfx.)
and the definite noun phrase follows:
(poss. pron.) (dem.) (card.) (adjective) noun-(possessive sfx.)
The positions in brackets are optional, which means that they need not be filled by a word
from the respective category. In this way, a noun phrase may consist of a single noun, for
instance ev ‘the house’ and hasta ‘the patient’.
29.3 Constituent order in main clauses
In chapter 23 three types of main clause were discussed: nominal, existential, and verbal
sentences. This distinction is based on the lexical category of the predicate. For all sentence
types the following holds: subject / adverbial phrase = noun phrase.
29.3.1 Nominal sentences
The overall structure of a sentence is built up according to the pattern:
(adverbial phrases) + subject + (adverbial phrase) + predicate
Notice that subject and adverbial phrase are based on a noun phrase. Furthermore:
predicate = noun phrase + (negation) + (question) + (person)
Following the model for the predicate of section 29.1.1, this can further be rewritten as:
predicate = stem + plural + poss. + case + negation + question + person
29.3.2 Existential sentences
The constituent order for existential sentences is:
(adverbial phrases) + subject + var / yok + (adverbial phrases)
29.3.3 Verbal sentences
In an unmarked verbal sentence (see section 29.5) the order of constituents is as follows:
(adv. phrases) + subject + (adv. phrases) + (direct object) + predicate

29.4 The order of dependent clauses 389
Owing to alternative placement of the question particle, two patterns for the verbal predicate
can be distinguished, based on tense marking.
A: predicate = extended stem + (tense-1) + (Q part) + (person)
–(I)yor mI –(y)Im
–(y)EcEK –sIn
–mIş –Ø
–(I/E)r –(y)Iz
–mE-z –sInIz
–lEr
B: predicate = extended stem + (tense-2) + (person) + (Q part)

–TI –m mI
–n
–Ø
–k
–nIz
–lEr
The extended stem equals: stem + (negation) + (abilitative).
29.4 The order of dependent clauses
Adverbial clauses can be linked to the main clause by a projectional suffix. These include
–(y)sE ‘if ’ (section 27.2), –(y)ken ‘while’ (section 27.3), and also –(y)mIş-çEsInE ‘as if ’
(section 27.6). These suffixes can follow nominal, existential, and verbal sentences.
Another group of adverbial clauses consists of a tensed verbal stem plus one of the following
suffixes:
–(y)En-E dek / değin ‘until V’ (section 13.2)

–(y)E . . . –(y)E ‘V-ing’ (section 14.4.5)
–(y)EsIyE ‘until V happens’ (section 14.4.6)
–(y)Ip ‘and’ (section 27.1.2)
–sE de . . . –mE-sE de ‘even if . . .’ (section 27.2.2)
–(y)ErEk ‘V-ing’ (section 27.3.2)
–(y)ErEk-tEn ‘by V-ing’ (section 27.3.2)
–mEk-lE ‘by V-ing’ (section 27.3.3)
–(y)ElI ‘since’ (section 27.4.1)
–(y)IncE ‘when, as’ (section 27.4.2)
–(I/E)r . . . –mE-z ‘as soon as’ (section 27.4.3)
–TI mI ‘as soon as’ (section 27.4.3)
–mE-sI-ylE . . . –mE-sI bir ol- ‘upon’ (section 27.4.4)
–TIK + poss. sfx + –TE ‘when’ (section 27.4.5)
–TIktE ‘when’ (section 27.4.5)
–(y)EndE ‘when’ (section 27.4.5)
–mE-dEn ‘without V’ (section 27.4.6)
–mE-dEn önce ‘before V’ (section 27.4.6)
–mEk-sIzIn ‘without V’ (section 27.4.7)
–mEk-tEnsE ‘instead of V’ (section 27.4.8)

–(y)EcEK + poss. sfx + –(y)E ‘instead of V’ (section 27.4.9)
–(y)EcEK + poss. sfx + yerde ‘instead of V’ (section 27.4.9)
–mEk yerine ‘instead of V’ (section 27.4.9)
–mEk şöyle dursun . . . bile ‘not only ..’ (section 27.4.10)
–mEk üzere ‘to be about to V’ (section 27.4.11)
–TIr ki ‘because’ (section 27.5.1)
–TI / –(y)EcEK + diye ‘because’ (section 27.5.2)
–TIK / –(y)EcEK + poss. sfx + –TEn ‘because’ (section 27.5.3)
–TIK / –(y)EcEK + poss. sfx için ‘because’ (section 27.5.4)
–TIK / –(y)EcEK + poss. sfx halde ‘although’ (section 27.5.5)
–TI . . . –mEsInE ‘even if ’ (section 27.5.6)
–TIkçE ‘the more V’ (section 27.5.7)
–mE-dIkçE ‘as long as not’ (section 27.5.7)
–TIK + poss. sfx + oranda ‘the more V’ (section 27.5.8)
–TIğIncE ‘as . . . possible’ (section 27.5.9)
–CEsInE ‘as if ’ (section 27.6.1)
–(y)mIş-çEsInE ‘as if ’ (section 27.6.3)
–mEmECEsInE ‘so as not to’ (section 27.6.4)
The third group comprises verbal clauses which are the complement of a postposition. The
suffix combinations discussed so far are:
–TIğIndEn beri ‘since’ (section 28.1)

–TIğIndEn dolayı / ötürü ‘because of, due to’ (section 28.1)
–TIktEn sonra ‘after’ (section 28.2)
–mEdEn önce ‘before’ (section 28.2)
–mEk için ‘in order to’ (section 28.3.1)
–mE + poss.sfx için ‘in order to’ (section 28.3.1)
–mEk üzere ‘to be about to’ (section 28.3.1)
The internal word order in adverbial clauses is equal to that of main clauses.
29.5 Special constituent orders *
In section 29.3.3 it was indicated that verbal sentences are built up according to the
pattern:
(adverbial phrase) + subject + (adverbial phrase) + (direct object) + predicate
Using S to symbolize the subject, O the direct object, and V the verbal predicate, and omit-
ting adverbial phrases, the constituent order can be represented by SOV. This approach is
approximately what is called, in the linguistic literature, an unmarked sentence. On the
other hand, many other ordering patterns can be observed for verbal sentences. This claim
can be illustrated by a simple example like ‘Yesterday evening Ali went to the cinema’. In
Turkish there are the following variants:
Dün akşam Ali sinemaya gitti. (1)

Ali dün akşam sinemaya gitti. (2)
Ali sinemaya dün akşam gitti. (3)
Dün akşam sinemaya Ali gitti. (4)
However, there are many examples in which the verb is not sentence-final:
Dün akşam sinemaya gitti Ali. (5)

Ali sinemaya gitti dün akşam. (6)
Ali dün akşam gitti sinemaya. (7)
et cetera
All these sentences have the overall meaning ‘Ali went to the cinema yesterday evening’.
Now, when the temporal adverbial phrase dün akşam ‘yesterday evening’ is coded as Z, the
subject Ali as S, sinemaya ‘to the cinema’ as O, the verb as V, and when the positions S and
V are regarded as pivotal, the following grammatical orders arise:
Z S O V (= 1)
S Z O V (= 2)
S O Z V (= 3)
Z O S V (= 4)
Z O V S (= 5)
S O V Z (= 6)
S Z V O (= 7)
This table, intended to provide a clear overview, bears more resemblance to a Swiss holey
cheese than to a summary of the constituent order of Turkish verbal sentences. What it
does reveal is that in relation to S and V any constituent can be found anywhere.
An alternative way of describing the possible variation in constituent order can be

construed on the basis of five positions: Topic X Y Focus V. The verb (V) comes last and
the preverbal position Focus is intended for placement of constituents which are indefinite,
which have emphasis, or which provide new information. A constituent which is ‘given’
(often definite) is usually placed in the position labelled Topic. Adverbial phrases are
distributed over the positions X and Y. However, it is not a requirement that all positions
be occupied.
The notions of Topic and Focus can briefly be illustrated as follows. In the first
sentence below, the fragment in bold print is in Focus position because it contains new
information, namely ‘a nice film’. Once this information has been introduced, that ‘nice
film’ becomes something given in the discourse and hence, reference can be made to the
‘film’ by, for instance, bu ‘this / that’ and this is what happens in the ensuing response to
the first statement. Therefore, the direct object bunu ‘this-acc’ is put in the Topic position.
And ben de ‘I too’ is placed in Focus position, because through de ‘too’ emphasis is given
to ben ‘I’.
Dün akşam güzel bir film gördüm, Türk filmi, Hakkari’de bir mevsim,
Yesterday I saw a nice film, a Turkish film, ‘A Season in Hakkari’.
Bunu ben de gördüm.

That one I saw too.
Certain indefinite constituents are used in a non-referential way and they can only
be placed in the Focus position. Whereas Aliye bir gazete okuyor ‘Aliye is reading a
newspaper’ is about a concrete newspaper (it refers to a freshly delivered issue of, say,
the Komsomolskaya Pravda), with Aliye gazete okuyor ‘Aliye is reading newspaper(s)’ is
conveyed what type of text (its category, so to speak) she reads: one or more newspapers,
but no books or articles.
Differences in type of object were brought up in section 6.5.1. Elaborating on this, Aliye
gazete-yi okuyor ‘Aliye is reading the newspaper (and not something else)’ can be contrasted
with Gazete-yi Aliye okuyor ‘(It is) Aliye (and not someone else who) is reading the newspaper’.
Swapping constituents is possible because of a difference in emphasis (Focus). However, for
sentences like Aliye bir gazete okuyor ‘Aliye is reading a newspaper’ and Aliye gazete okuyor
‘Aliye is reading newspaper(s)’ this swapping is impossible, because both sentences express
what category of text is being read. And this counts as new information. For that reason the
corresponding constituents are placed in Focus position.
Returning to the sentences (1)–(7), the following can be observed. Sentences (1) and (2)
have different Topic constituents: (1) shows what happened dün akşam ‘yesterday evening’,
and (2) is about what Ali was up to. Sentence (3) tells us that dün akşam ‘yesterday
evening’ (and not, for instance, yesterday afternoon) is in Focus position and in (4) the
Focus is on Ali (since it was he and not someone else who went to see a film). An insight
into what is given and what can be regarded as new information can easily be obtained by
formulating simple questions. For instance:
Dün akşam Ali sinemaya gitti. (1) < Dün akşam ne oldu?
Ali dün akşam sinemaya gitti. (2) < Ali ne yaptı?
Ali sinemaya dün akşam gitti. (3) < Ali ne zaman gitti?
Dün akşam sinemaya Ali gitti. (4) < Kim sinemaya gitti?
Now, the claim that the verb always sits in sentence-final position is not rock-hard. In many
a discourse certain matters are so well-known (given) that making reference to them is
hardly worthwhile. In many cases such matters are merely mentioned for safety’s sake and
then only by way of an afterthought. Such structures look like this:
Dün akşam sinemaya gitti Ali.

Ali sinemaya gitti dün akşam.
Ali dün akşam gitti sinemaya.
For the following example it will be shown first how a number of short expressions can be
internally built up according to the canonical order SOV, and secondly, how these utterances
were originally structured. The sentences below follow the SOV-model:
Eve dönerken (Z), karım (S) otomobilde (A) ‘manyak’ (O) dedi (V).
Returning home, my wife said in the car ‘Maniac!’
(Sen (S)) Bu karıyı (O) nereden (A) buldun (V)?

Where have you found this woman?
O, doktor moktor değil, (o) şarlatan!
She is no doctor or anything like it, she’s a charlatan!
The code Z stands for temporal expression, A for place adverbial, S for Subject, O for direct
object, and V for verb. However, the original text has quite a different order:
‘Manyak’ (O), de-di (V) karı-m (S) otomobil-de (A), ev-e dön-er-ken (Z);
‘Nereden (A) bul-du-n (V) bu karı-yı?’ (O)
‘Maniac!’ my wife said, in the car, returning home;
‘Where did you find her, that woman?’
This fragment is, of course, cut out from a greater whole, in which the reader has been
acquainted with a wife (karı), a car (otomobil), a drive to some place (which can be inferred
from ev-e dön-er-ken ‘returning home’), and a woman (karı) who was supposed to act as a
medical doctor (doktor) and not as a charlatan (şarlatan).
The fact that the reader is already acquainted with some dramatis personae means that
their referents are contextually given and this explains why the corresponding constituents
can be placed after the verb. The two focal elements are manyak ‘maniac’ and the question
word nereden ‘(from) where’. In essence, that is what the wife wants to tell and ask her
husband. Schematically:
Z S A O V <=> O V S B Z
O A V <=> B V O
<=> Foc V afterthought
In terms of the model proposed here, Topic X Y Focus V, the orderings O V and A V can be
unified as Focus V, with the positions Topic, X, and Y remaining empty.
Lastly, the internal ordering of adverbial phrases should be discussed. These phrases give
extra information about time, place, instrument, manner, and also cause, reason, and pur-
pose. In general, such phrases do not all occur simultaneously, but when several types do
co-occur, this ordering is followed: Present the information from general to specific. In this
way, in a neutral sentence, a temporal phrase will precede one specifying place:
Dün akşam orman-da uzun bir gezinti yap-tı-k.

Yesterday evening we went for a long walk in the forest.
Phrases specifying instrument or manner are often placed pre-verbally, since such informa-
tion is provided only if there is a special reason to do so and not, as is the case for time and
place adverbials, so as to present a general background. Here is a reminder:
Böyle bir durum-a sadece mizah da zekâ-yla yaklaş-abil-ir-iz.

We can approach such a situation only with humour and intellect.
Yoğurd-u, peynir-i, ayran-ı da avrat kendi el-i-yle yap-ar bu süt-ten.

Also the wife makes the yoghurt, cheese, and ayran with her own hands from this milk.
For phrases describing cause, reason, or purpose it can be said that they are used also to
specify a certain background and that these are usually placed sentence-initially:
Bisiklet-in-i bırak-mak için şirket-in garaj-ın-a gir-di.

In order to park his bike he entered the garage of the company.
Of course, adverbial phrases with emphasis occupy the preverbal focal position.
PART VI
WOR D F OR M AT ION
Now the basic principles of Turkish grammar have been laid out, the time has come to take
a look at how the language acquires new words. Of course, they can be copied from abroad
and if necessary be adapted, but on the other hand, the common way to come by new
words is to produce them by using existing words and suffixes. Chapter 30 shows how this
is realized for verbs, and chapter 31 reveals how adjectives, nouns, and compounds are
made. Special attention is paid to deverbal formations.
30
Formation of verbs
Whereas inflection (and conjugation) are the essentials in the first four parts of this book,
the next two chapters are devoted to derivational issues, or rather, to the question of how
words are made using existing material. Not surprisingly, the grammar of Turkish has plenty
of solutions since derivation is the most important process by means of which a language
enriches its lexicon. In the formation of verbs, primarily auxiliary verbs and nouns are used
to form words for new concepts, as will be shown in section 30.1; and in section 30.2 it is
explained how verbs are derived from a noun plus a suffix; and then in the remaining
sections it will be explained how a verb can be derived from another verb by suffixes. This
includes the four so-called voice suffixes by means of which causative, passive, reflexive, and
reciprocal verbs are formed (sections 30.3–30.5). In addition, many formations which
appear once to have been made on the basis of rules now no longer productive deserve,
of course, the necessary attention (section 30.7). In section 30.8 possible combinations of
voice suffixes are discussed and a special section (section 30.9) deals with forms rarely if
ever discussed in grammars: the indirect imperative of causative and passive verbs. As an
introduction to an account of fixed verb combinations (section 30.11), the structure and
semantics of couplings with –(y)Ip are discussed (section 30.10).
30.1 With auxiliary verbs
An auxiliary verb is a verb that has no meaning of its own; it merely serves to be combined
with a noun to form a verb. There are three sorts: etmek, olmak, and çıkmak occur in idiomatic
expressions.
30.1.1 Auxiliary etmek
A very general way of forming a verb is taking a noun or an adjective and combining it
with the auxiliary verb etmek. There are more than 1,000 of these formations listed in the
Redhouse Çağdaş Türkçe-İngilizce Sözlük. In quite a few cases this verb can be translated by
‘to do’ or ‘to make’. However, there are many other cases as well in which a ready-made verb
in English is available, sometimes even with a somewhat different translation. In the
examples below the sense of ‘to do’ or ‘to make’ is to a certain extent still visible:
deli insane / mad → deli etmek (-i) to drive (someone) wild

belli obvious → belli etmek (-i) to show
hasta ill / sick → hasta etmek (-i) to make ill
kavga fight → kavga etmek (-le) to quarrel
fark difference → fark etmek (-i) to notice / matter
tercüme translation → tercüme etmek (-i) to translate
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
398 Formation of verbs
don underpants → donuna etmek to wet one’s underpants

alt lower part → altına etmek to wet one’s underpants
It is mostly not very appropriate to use ‘to do’ and ‘to make’ for words of Arabic or Persian
origin, so another type of translation should be sought. Clear examples are:
devam continuation → devam etmek (-e) to continue

dikkat attention → dikkat etmek (-e) to pay attention
rica request → rica etmek (-i, -e) to request
tavsiye advice → tavsiye etmek (-e) to recommend
teşekkür gratitude → teşekkür etmek (-e) to thank
cesaret courage → cesaret etmek (-e) to venture / dare
ameliyat operation → ameliyat etmek (-i) to operate
alay mockery → alay etmek (-le) to mock / tease
esir captive → esir etmek (-i) to take captive
For a small number of words it is not the dictionary form but the alternative stem (see
section 5.2) which is the basis for the derivation. Quite unlike the examples above, the
present formations are written as one word. Formation of these new verb forms is not pro
ductive any more, entailing that no new verbs are produced in this way.
kayıt registration → kaydetmek (-i) to register

kayıp loss → kaybetmek (-i) to loose
af pardon → affetmek (-e) to pardon / forgive
keşif discovery → keşfetmek (-i) to discover
nakil transportation → nakletmek (-i) to transport / transfer
his feeling → hissetmek (-i) to feel
ret refusal / rejection → reddetmek (-i) to refuse / reject
katil murderer → katletmek (-i) to murder
Productive formation is found in the following series of examples, all relatively recently
formed with words from French, Italian, and English:
afişe etmek (-i) to advertise / expose

anons etmek (-i) to announce
boykot etmek (-i) to boycott
flört etmek (-le) to flirt
telefon etmek (-e) to make a telephone call
park etmek (-i) to park
nakavt etmek (-i) to knock out
sigorta etmek (-i) to insure
30.1.2 Auxiliary olmak
Another auxiliary verb used in the formation of new verbs is olmak. Often a translation in
terms of ‘to become’ or ‘to get’ is possible, as shown by:
30.1 With auxiliary verbs 399
âşık olmak to fall in love

felç olmak to become paralysed
deli olmak to become mad / crazy
hamile olmak to become pregnant
grip olmak to get the flu
kanser olmak to get cancer
aşı olmak to be vaccinated
defolmak to clear out / go away
leke olmak to become stained
Many such combinations are the passive counterpart (see section 30.4) of active forms in
etmek. Common structures are:
ameliyat etmek / olmak to operate / to be operated

belli etmek / olmak to make visible / to become visible
hasta etmek / olmak to make sick / to become sick
rahatsız etmek / olmak to disturb / to be disturbed
sigorta etmek / olmak to insure / to be insured
şoke etmek / olmak to shock / to be shocked
tıraş etmek / olmak to shave / to be shaven
yasak etmek / olmak to forbid / to be forbidden
Besides, there are active–passive pairs, comparable to the unproductive formations referred
to above:
kahretmek / kahrolmak to curse / to be cursed

kaybetmek / kaybolmak to lose / to be lost
kaydetmek / kaydolmak to record / to be recorded
30.1.3 Auxiliary çıkmak
To a limited extent, çıkmak also functions as an auxiliary. In this case such expressions are
almost idiomatic. Sometimes a translation in terms of ‘to turn out to be’ is appropriate.
aklı çıkmak to worry oneself sick

baskın çıkmak to get the upper hand
çileden çıkmak to become furious
deli çıkmak to become crazy
karşı çıkmak to oppose
boşa çıkmak to turn out to be (for) nothing
doğru çıkmak to come true / prove to be right
haklı çıkmak to be in the right
haksız çıkmak to turn out to be in the wrong
yalan çıkmak to turn out to be a lie / not true / wrong
yanlış çıkmak to turn out to be wrong
30.2 With nouns
With nouns and adjectives new verbs can be made. There are not many productive types of
derivation and the suffixes relevant here are –lE, –lEn, and –lEş.
30.2.1 Suffix –lE
The suffix –lE attached to a noun or an adjective produces a new verb stem, mostly with a
derivable meaning. The majority of these productions yields a transitive verb, that is, a verb
with a direct object. Here you are:
N→V
zehir poison → zehir-le-mek (-i) to poison
vurgu stress / accent → vurgu-la-mak (-i) to emphasize
şişe bottle → şişe-le-mek (-i) to bottle
pompa pump → pompa-la-mak (-i) to pump
imza signature → imza-la-mak (-i) to sign
fırça brush → fırça-la-mak (-i) to brush
faks fax → faks-la-mak (-i) to fax
cevap answer → cevap-la-mak (-i) to answer
bıçak knife → bıçak-la-mak (-i) to stab
kilit lock → kilit-le-mek (-i) to lock
hesap calculation → hesap-la-mak (-i) to calculate
saçma nonsense → saçma-la-mak to talk nonsense
A→V
açık open → açık-la-mak (-i) to explain / state
doğru right / just → doğru-la-mak (-i) to confirm
hazır ready → hazır-la-mak (-i) to prepare
sakat disabled → sakat-la-mak (-i) to disable
temiz clean → temiz-le-mek (-i) to clean
yasak forbidden → yasak-la-mak (-i) to forbid
That not all verb stems ending in –le or –la are the result of this type of derivation becomes
clear if one looks at the meaning of the following series of verbs, the basic forms of which
cannot be obtained by just stripping off the suffix: ağla-mak ‘to cry’; anla-mak (-i) ‘to
understand’; bekle-mek (-i) ‘to wait / expect’; kokla-mak (-i) ‘to have a sniff (at)’; horla-mak
‘to snore’; üfle-mek ‘to blow’; and yokla-mak (-i) ‘to feel / finger / examine’.
30.2.2 Suffix –lEn
Certain intransitive verbs have been formed from nouns with –lEn. These verbs are ‘by
nature’ intransitive. Here is a short selection:
N→V
sınır border / limit → sınır-lan-mak to be limited
değer value → değer-len-mek to gain value
30.2 With nouns 401
ceza punishment → ceza-lan-mak to be punished

çeşit sort → çeşit-len-mek to diversify
ilgi interest → ilgi-len-mek (-le) to be interested (in)
In section 30.8.3 the transitive counterparts of these verbs will be treated.
30.2.3 Suffix –lEş
This suffix can be applied to nouns as well as to adjectives for the derivation of a verb. In
most cases the result is an intransitive verb; a verb without an object. As for their transla-
tion, ‘to become’ is often appropriate but sometimes an entirely different meaning applies,
as is shown by the final four examples.
N→V
aptal stupid → aptal-laş-mak to become stupid
kömür coal → kömür-leş-mek to become coal
çöl desert → çöl-leş-mek to become a desert
Türkçe Turkish (lang.) → Türkçe-leş-mek to be Turkified
Türk Turk → Türk-leş-mek to become a Turk
grup group → grup-laş-mak to form groups
şehir city → şehir-leş-mek to urbanize / citify
A→V
iyi good → iyi-leş-mek to get well / better
sakin calm → sakin-leş-mek to calm down
serin cool → serin-leş-mek to cool off
pinti stingy → pinti-leş-mek to become stingy
pahalı expensive → pahalı-laş-mak to become expensive
N→V
dert problem → dert-leş-mek to discuss problems
mektup letter → mektup-laş-mak to exchange letters
telefon telephone → telefon-laş-mak to call
haber news → haber-leş-mek to communicate
That this suffix is very productive and versatile may become clear on the basis of the next series
of examples, all based on an adjective with a negative element. With the suffix –sIz adjectives
can be derived from nouns. This suffix will be discussed in more detail in section 31.1.1.
A→V
bağımsız independent → bağımsız-laş-mak to become independent
tatsız tasteless → tatsız-laş-mak to become tasteless
sessiz silent / quiet → sessiz-leş-mek to become quiet
geçersiz invalid → geçersiz-leş-mek to become invalid
biçimsiz shapeless → biçimsiz-leş-mek to become shapeless
cansız lifeless → cansız-laş-mak to become lifeless
ölümsüz immortal → ölümsüz-leş-mek to become immortal
ormansız without forest → ormansız-laş-mak to become deforested
30.2.4 Unproductive formations
There are a number of nouns and verbs between which, to a certain extent, exists a seman-
tic relationship. At the same time it is hard to see how a verb derives from the correspond
ing noun, and as a matter of fact this is more interesting for historical linguists than for the
reader who wants to obtain an impression of productive formations. Nonetheless, a number
of examples will be presented for which it could be said that the suffixes are not productive
any more, although there are clear meaning correspondences. The following verbs are all
intransitive.
az little / few → azal-mak to become less

çok much → çoğal-mak to increase / become more
boş empty → boşal-mak to become empty
kör blunt / dull → körel-mek to become dull / blunt
yüksek high → yüksel-mek to rise / ascend
ak white → ağar-mak to turn white
kara black → karar-mak to get dark
sarı yellow → sarar-mak to turn yellow
kan blood → kana-mak to bleed
yaş age → yaşa-mak to live
büyük big → büyü-mek to grow / grow up
soğuk cold → soğu-mak to become cold(er)
30.2.5 Equal stems
Lastly, there is a small number of verbs and nouns that share their stem. The examples
speak for themselves.
kuru dry → kuru-mak to become dry

dik erect → dik-mek (-i) to erect / plant
ekşi sour → ekşi-mek to become sour
eski old → eksi-mek to become old / age
boya paint → boya-mak (-i) to paint
damla drop → damla-mak to drop
tat taste → tat-mak (-i) to taste
gerek necessary → gerek-mek to be necessary
The difference between nominal and adjectival stems, on the one hand, and verb stems, on
the other, can neatly be demonstrated by contrasting a projectional suffix with a (verbal)
past-tense form. Examples are: kuru-ydu ‘it was dry’ versus kuru-du ‘it (has) dried’.
30.3 Causatives *
A causative verb is a verb expressing that there is an external cause of something that
happens. For instance, in Mary made John laugh the subject Mary is the causer and
30.3 Causatives 403
John the causee. In Turkish the relationship between, for instance, laugh and make laugh or
live and let live is signalled by a suffix.
30.3.1 Suffix –TIr, –t, –Ir, –It, –Er
In section 30.2.1 it was shown that the majority of verbs derived from a noun by means
of –lE are transitive, so that they can take a direct object. As a rule, verbs formed with –lEş
are intransitive, thus they never take an object.
However, intransitive verbs in –lEş can be made transitive by adding another suffix,
known as the causative suffix. In order to get an idea of how this works, consider the
following examples:
iyileş-mek to get better

iyileş-tir-mek (-i) to make better
sakinleş-mek to become calm
sakinleş-tir-mek (-i) to calm down / make calm
ölümsüzleş-mek to become immortal
ölümsüzleş-tir-mek (-i) to immortalize / make immortal
ormansızlaş-mak to be(come) deforested
ormansızlaş-tır-mak (-i) to deforest
What can be observed here is that the intransitive verb iyileşmek ‘to get better’ is made
transitive by attaching a suffix: iyileştirmek (-i) ‘to make better’. Whereas the verb iyileş-mek
denotes an uncontrolled process of ‘becoming better’, the form iyileştir-mek is used to
express that there is a controlled action. In other words, ‘to become better’ signifies what is
left to nature to sort out, but ‘to make better’ means that there is someone or something
that causes or tries to cause the desired result: be it a medicine man, a doctor, a quack, the
village wizard, a sorcerer, and with or without the aid of pills and powders.
The general shape of the suffix introduced here is –TIr and it is called the causative suffix.
Less complex examples than the ones presented so far are:
don-mak to freeze → don-dur-mak (-i) to freeze

öl-mek to die → öl-dür-mek (-i) to kill
yapış-mak to stick → yapış-tır-mak (-i) to glue / stick
değiş-mek to change → değiş-tir-mek (-i) to change
dol-mak to become full → dol-dur-mak (-i) to fill
dur-mak to halt / stop → dur-dur-mak (-i) to stop
gül-mek to laugh → gül-dür-mek (-i) to make laugh
Now, there are other suffixes available as well and moreover, a second meaning can be
attributed to a causative form. That meaning is ‘to let’ in the sense of ‘permit / allow / not
prevent’ and the form is called permissive. In this way don=dur-mak stands for ‘to freeze
something’ (causative), but it can also be interpreted as ‘to let freeze’ (permissive). Quite
similarly, öl=dür-mek means ‘to kill’, but also ‘to let die’, i.e. not do anything to prevent
someone from dying. And gül=dür-mek, then, means ‘to make laugh’ and ‘to let laugh’.
Apart from the suffix –TIr there are other suffixes, too, for small groups of words. Verb
stems ending in a vowel and polysyllabic stems ending in r or l always get –t.
başla-mak to begin → başla-t-mak (-i) to begin

bekle-mek to wait → bekle-t-mek (-i) to keep waiting
büyü-mek to grow → büyü-t-mek (-i) to enlarge
yaşa-mak to live → yaşa-t-mak (-i) to keep alive
soğu-mak to become cold → soğu-t-mak (-i) to cool
otur-mak to sit (down) → otur-t-mak (-i) to seat (someone)
şımar-mak to get spoiled → şımar-t-mak (-i) to spoil (someone)
düzel-mek to get better → düzel-t-mek (-i) to put in order
bayıl-mak to faint → bayıl-t-mak (-i) to make someone faint
For other verbs, however, the causative form is more or less unpredictable. Such forms
must be learned by rote, particularly because the meaning relation between basic verb and
causative is not always transparent. There are four relatively small groups of unproductive
formations. First, some twenty verbs add –Ir to form a causative. Here is a small selection:
bat-mak to sink → bat-ır-mak (-i) to sink

bit-mek to end → bit-ir-mek (-i) to finish
doğ-mak to be born → doğ-ur-mak (-i) to give birth / bear
doy-mak to be full up → doy-ur-mak (-i) to fill up / satisfy
duy-mak to hear → duy-ur-mak (-i) to announce
düş-mek to fall → düş-ür-mek (-i) to drop
kaç-mak to run away → kaç-ır-mak (-i) to miss
piş-mek to boil → piş-ir-mek (-i) to make boil / cook
şiş-mek to get swollen → şiş-ir-mek (-i) to make swell
geç-mek to pass → geç-ir-mek (-i) to pass time
Secondly, verbs adding –It are for instance:
kork-mak to fear → kork-ut-mak (-i) to scare / frighten

kok-mak to smell → kok-ut-mak (-i) to make smell
ak-mak to flow → ak-ıt-mak (-i) to make flow
ürk-mek to take fright → ürk-üt-mek (-i) to startle / give a fright
Thirdly, with –Er the following derivations are formed:
çık-mak to go out → çık-ar-mak (-i) to take off

git-mek to go → gid-er-mek (-i) to remove
kop-mak to break → kop-ar-mak (-i) to break off
Fourthly, irregular formations which can be regarded as having a causative meaning are:
kaldır-mak ‘to raise / take away’ (< kalk-mak ‘to rise’); göster-mek ‘to show’ (< gör-mek ‘to see’);
getir-mek ‘to bring’ (< gel-mek ‘to come’); and emzir-mek ‘to nurse / suckle’ (< em-mek ‘to suck’).
The translations provided for the examples presented here are not always fully accurate
owing to lack of printing space. Many causative forms have several meanings and the
reader is referred to a dictionary. The forms represented here merely function to give an
impression of how the mechanism of causative formation works.
30.3 Causatives 405
The differences between verbs and their causative derivations can be illustrated by:
Gemi bat-tı. The ship sank.

Düşman gemi-yi bat=ır-dı. The enemy sank the ship.
Ders saat iki-de bit-ecek. Class finishes at two o’clock.
Kitab-ın-ı ne zaman bit=ir-di? When did she finish her book?
Elma yer-e düş-tü. The apple fell on the ground.
Taş-ı el-in-den düş=ür-dü. He let the stone fall out of his hand.
Kız-ı ev-den kaç-tı. Her daughter ran away from home.
Bu fırsat-ı kaç=ır-ma-yın! Take advantage of the opportunity.
Tencere-de iki parça et piş-iyor-du.
In the pan there were two pieces of meat cooking.
Aliye mutfak-ta yemek piş=ir-iyor-du.
Aliye was in the kitchen cooking dinner.
These causative forms are all derived from an intransitive verb and have become transitive
themselves. An intransitive verb has only one participant (grammatically expressed as the
subject), and a causative verb is transitive and thus has two participants (a subject and an
object). This implies that when a verb is made causative one participant is being introduced:
the causer of some action or event.
This comes clearly to the fore when Gemi battı ‘The ship sank’ is compared with Düşman
gemiyi batırdı. ‘The enemy sank the ship’. In the former sentence the subject is gemi ‘ship’
but in the latter one the subject is düşman ‘enemy’ and gemi ‘ship’ the direct object. The
effect of causativization is that a causer (here: düşman ‘enemy’) is introduced and that the
original subject, the causee, gets the role of direct object (here: gemi ‘ship’).
30.3.2 Ditransitives
Transitive verbs can be made causative as well. Also in this case a new participant, the
causer, is introduced and hence, this gives a ditransitive verb. This can be illustrated on
the basis of yapmak (-i) in the sense of ‘to build’ and giymek (-i) in the sense of ‘to put on
clothes’. Their causatives are formed thus:
yap-mak (-i) to build → yap-tır-mak (-i, -e) to have built

giy-mek (-i) to put on → giy-dir-mek (-i, -e) to put on
Compare:
Ali bir ev yap-tı. Ali has built a house.

Hasan bir ev yap=tır-dı. Hasan had a house built.
Hasan Ali’ye bir ev yap=tır-dı. Hasan made Ali build a house.
The division of roles is as follows. In the first sentence Ali is the grammatical subject and
refers to the person who actually builds a house. In the second example Hasan is the gram-
matical subject and refers to the person who commissioned someone else to build a house.
Who actually performs the ‘act of building’ is not mentioned in the sentence and mostly
not even relevant. Hence, this is the most frequently used type of causative. If it is, accord-
ing to the judgement of the speaker, relevant or worthwhile to mention the actual doer,
then this is done by presenting this participant as a dative object. That is why Ali has the
dative suffix in the third example above.
However, a form such as Ali’ye is ambiguous: it also means ‘for Ali’. As a result, the
sentence Hasan Ali’ye bir ev yap=tır-dı can be interpreted in two ways. If one wishes to
express that Ali is the beneficiary and not the one who has been commissioned to do the
building, the usage of için is more appropriate: Hasan Ali için bir ev yap=tır-dı.
The relation between the three participants for giy-mek (-i) ‘to put on clothes’ and
giy=dir-mek (-i,-e) ‘to put clothes on someone’ is not different. Compare:
Çocuk pijama-sın-ı giy-di.

The child put on his pyjamas.
Çocuğ-a pijama-sın-ı giy=dir-di.
She helped the child into his pyjamas.
In both sentences pijama ‘pyjamas’ is the direct object, whereas çocuk ‘child’ is subject in
the first sentence but dative object in the second one.
Used in the general sense of ‘to dress someone’ giydir-mek (-i) is a verb with direct object
(biz-i ‘us’ in the next example) and has no dative object, as can be shown by:
Aliye biz-i acele-yle giydir-di.

Aliye dressed us quickly.
30.3.3 Subject to object
Verbs with only a dative object (e.g. başlamak (-e) ‘to begin’; oturmak (-e) ‘to sit down’) can
be made causative as well. The causer introduced becomes subject and the original subject
(that of the base verb) becomes direct object.
Galanaki, öykü-sün-ü 1821 Yunan ayaklanma-sı-yla başla=t-ıyor.

Galanaki starts her story with the Greek Revolt of 1821.
Kardeş-i Gazi’yi arka-ya, ben-i de ön-e otur=t-uyor.
He makes his brother Gazi sit down in the back and me in the front.
İnsan-lar-ı da doğru ol-ma-yan şey-ler-e inan=dır-ıyor.
She makes the people believe in things which are not true.
30.3.4 Double causatives
A transitive verb formed through causativization from an intransitive verb can be made
causative again. The result is called a double or secondary causative. The primary causative
is formed by one of the suffixes –t, –It, –Er, –Ir, and –TIr. In the secondary causative –TIr
follows –t or –It, and the suffix –t follows –Er, –Ir, and –TIr.
30.4 Passives 407
kısal-mak to become short(er)

kısal-t-mak (-i) to make short(er) / shorten
kısal-t-tır-mak (-i, -e) to have shortened / make someone shorten
kop-mak to break (intransitive)
kop-ar-mak (-i) to break (transitive)
kop-ar-t-mak (-i, -e) to have broken / make someone break
değiş-mek to change (intransitive)
değiş-tir-mek (-i) to change (transitive)
değiş-tir-t-mek (-i, -e) to have changed / make someone change
dol-mak to become full
dol-dur-mak (-i) to make full / fill
dol-dur-t-mak (-i, -e) to have filled / make someone fill
öl-mek to die
öl-dür-mek (-i) to let die / kill
öl-dür-t-mek (-i, -e) to have killed / make someone kill
Sometimes a secondary causative is formed with a verb which is already transitive. This
results in a stronger or emphasized type of expression, as in:
‘O sen-in mezar-ın mı?’ diye sor-du-m, şaşkınlık-la.

‘Evet! Yap=tır=t-tı-m, hazırla=t-tı-m!’ de-di.
‘Is that your grave?’ I asked with astonishment.
He said: ‘Yes, I had it laid out, I told them to prepare it.’
As has been indicated in the first paragraph of this section, causative verbs can be used in a
permissive sense; ‘to let’ versus ‘to make / have’:
Çocuk-lar-ınız-ı niye sokak-ta oyna=t-ıyor-sunuz, pekâlâ?

Why then do you let your children play in the street?
30.4 Passives *
Whereas with an active verb some state of affairs is presented from the perspective of the
doer, by using a passive verb the same state of affairs can be presented from the perspective
of some other participant. In this way the contrast between The police arrested the demon-
strators and The demonstrators were arrested (by the police) illustrates the effect of choosing
the active form to arrest versus the passive form to be arrested. In Turkish a passive verb is
made by adding a suffix to an active verb stem.
30.4.1 Suffix –(I)n, –Il, –n-Il
In the previous section it was shown how a verb can be made causative by adding a suffix to
the verb stem. The result of this derivation is a new verb with a different but in many cases
predictable meaning: ‘to make / have something done’ or ‘to let something happen’. The
second effect is that at the same time a new participant is being introduced: the causer.
Having a subject only in Ben gül-dü-m ‘I laughed’, in Aliye ben-i gül=dür-du ‘Aliye made me
laugh / Aliye let me laugh’, besides the introduced subject (the causer) Aliye there is the
direct object ben-i ‘me’. The original subject (ben ‘I’) shifts, as it were: in a causative sentence
it gets the status of direct object.
A kind of reverse operation takes place when a transitive verb is made passive. The effect
is again that the meaning changes but also that the number of participants is reduced by
one. A simple example is.
Aliye ev-i sat-tı. Aliye has sold the house.

Ev satıl-dı. The house has been sold.
Roughly speaking, both sentences express more or less the same state of affairs, being that
there is ‘someone who sold’ and that there is ‘something being sold’. Only, the first sentence
(with the active verb stem sat- ‘to sell’) presents this state of affairs from the perspective of
the seller (Aliye) and the second sentence (with the passive verb stem sat=ıl- ‘to be sold’)
presents the state of affairs from the perspective of the object being sold (ev). Whereas ev
‘house’ in the first sentence is the direct object (it has the accusative case marker), ev ‘house’
is the subject in the second sentence. Sentences of the second type are used when one
primarily wants to convey information about ev ‘house’, while the identity of the ‘doer’
(here: the seller) is not relevant or possibly not even known. The choice between an active
and a passive sentence is mostly motivated by the perspective from which one would like to
present some state of affairs.
Now, there are theoretical linguistic reasons to assume that there are two related but
different verbs when active and passive verbs are compared. In the examples presented
here the transitive verb sat-mak ‘to sell’ (having a direct object) should be compared with
its intransitive derivative sat=ıl-mak ‘to be sold’ (having a subject only).
Through this derivational process the noun phrase which would be the subject of sat-
mak ‘to sell’ has apparently disappeared. Hence, the phrase which would be the direct
object of this verb gets the status of subject for the verb sat=ıl-mak ‘to be sold’. Thus, the
number of participants has been reduced by one and the derived verb has then become
intransitive.
30.4.2 Passive of transitive
The formation of passive verbs is productive and goes as follows: a verb ending in a vowel
or l takes the suffix –(I)n and in all other cases the appropriate suffix is –Il.
al-mak (-i) to buy → al-ın-mak to be bought

oku-mak (-i) to read → oku-n-mak to be read
ara-mak (-i) to search → ara-n-mak to be sought
bağla-mak (-i) to connect → bağla-n-mak to be connected
bekle-mek (-i) to wait → bekle-n-mek to be awaited
fırçala-mak (-i) to brush → fırçala-n-mak to be brushed
kirala-mak (-i) to rent → kirala-n-mak to be rented
öde-mek (-i) to pay → öde-n-mek to be paid
aç-mak (-i) to open → aç-ıl-mak to be opened
30.4 Passives 409
as-mak (-i) to hang → as-ıl-mak to be hanged

çöz-mek (-i) to untie → çöz-ül-mek to be untied
dök-mek (-i) to pour → dök-ül-mek to be poured
duy-mak (-i) to hear → duy-ul-mak to be heard
A small number of formations are based on a ‘shorter stem’ (for nouns, see section 5.2.3):
çevir-mek (-i) to translate → çevr-il-mek to be translated

kavur-mak (-i) to roast → kavr-ul-mak to be roasted
devir-mek to turn over → devr-il-mek to be turned over
Again it should be noted that for the active as well as the passive forms more than one
translation is possible. The reader is referred to a dictionary.
30.4.3 Passive of causative
Causative verbs are transitive and they can be made intransitive by attaching a passive suffix
after the causative stem. This leads to the following combinations: –TIr-Il, –t-Il, –Ir-Il, –It-Il,
and –Er-Il. Compare:
don-dur-mak (-i) to freeze (transitive)

don-dur-ul-mak to be frozen
soğu-t-mak (-i) to cool (transitive)
soğu-t-ul-mak to be cooled
otur-t-mak (-i) to seat / give a place
otur-t-ul-mak to be seated / be given a place
bat-ır-mak (-i) to sink (transitive)
bat-ır-ıl-mak to be sunk
kork-ut-mak (-i) to scare / frighten
kork-ut-ul-mak to be scared / frightened
çık-ar-mak (-i) to take off
çık-ar-ıl-mak to be taken off
Of course, passive forms based on irregular causative formations are quite common as well:
kaldır=ıl-mak ‘to be lifted, taken away’; göster=il-mek ‘to be shown’; and getir=il-mek ‘to be
brought’.
As was described in the first paragraph of this section, when a verb is made passive its
(original) subject disappears and this role is taken over by the (original) direct object. The
effect of this in derivations as referred to so far is that although the action is performed
through mediation of a causer, his identity is of no importance nor relevant, and is accord-
ingly not expressed. Some examples are:
Bura-da 1904 sene-sin-de bir hastane yap=tır=ıl-dı.

In 1904 they (impersonal) had a hospital built here.
İki firkateyn hava-ya uç=ur=ul-du, diğer-ler-i de bat=ır=ıl-dı.
Two frigates were blown up and the others were sunk.
In the first example the actual builder, as well as the commissioner, is left unmentioned,
since the most important message is obviously about the object’s being built in a certain
year. Also, in the second example the most crucial thing is what happened to some ships
and not who did it or who was involved in the actions described.
30.4.4 Passive of intransitive
But there is more to it. Intransitive verbs have only a subject and no direct object. Yet in
Turkish it is possible to attach a passive suffix to an intransitive verb stem and the result is
a so-called impersonal verb: a verb with no a subject at all (owing to the mechanism of
participant reduction which remains in force). As a corollary, the second effect is that an
interpretation must be given in terms of ‘one . . .s / it is . . .ed / there is / was . . .ing’.
This interpretation can also be given for transitive verbs with a generic direct object,
such as içki içmek ‘to drink alcoholic beverages’ and also oyun oynamak (-e) ‘to play a trick
on someone’. Examples are:
Gerçi hâlâ konuş-up gül=ün-üyor ve içki iç=il-iyor-du.

Yet there still was chatting and laughing and drinking.
Bu ev-de hiçbir oyun oyna=n-ma-z, pek az gül=ün-ür-dü;
en küçük çocuksu bir sevinc-e bile kötü göz-le bak=ıl-ır-dı.
In this house there was no playing jokes, people hardly laughed,
and they even looked cross at the smallest form of childish pleasure.
Also, verbs with an object other than a direct object can have an impersonal form. The
following two examples exemplify a passive verb with a dative object and an ablative
object respectively:
Bu istasyon-da Halep tren-in-e bin=il-ir.

At this station one boards the train to Aleppo.
Bu yol-dan şelale-nin alt-ın-a in=il-ir.
Via this road you (impersonal) descend to under the waterfall.
Impersonal interpretations can be given for some transitive verbs as well:
Bura-da çene çal-mak-tan başka iş yap=ıl-ma-z.

Here they don’t / one doesn’t do anything but chatting.
Bu insanlar-a iyilik yap=ıl-ma-z.
One doesn’t do these people a favour.
In a number of cases, the aspect of ‘not being able’ is conveyed:
Bir makine-ye kalleşlik ed=il-me-z ki.

One can’t do treacherous tricks with a machine.
30.4 Passives 411
Boya iş-i yağmur yağ-ar-ken yap=ıl-ma-z.

You can’t do painting while it rains.
The impersonal form is often used in prohibitions, another form of generic statement:
Sigara iç=il-me-z.
No smoking!
(Compare: Cigarette is not smoked → One does not smoke → No smoking)
Pazarlık yap=ıl-ma-z.
No bargaining!
(Compare: Bargaining is not done → One does not bargain → No bargaining)
The passive abilitative form (see section 21.1) can be applied to a passive verb stem as well.
Here are some examples.
Bu kolayca halled=il-ebil=in-ir.
This can easily be arranged.
Yoksa başkaları kendi yer-lerin-e geçir=il-ebil=in-ir-di.
Otherwise the others could be transferred to their own places.
Madem ki anla-yamı-yor-lar bu konu-da nasıl konuş=ul-abil=in-ir.
Since they don’t understand, (then) how can this topic be talked about?
Rahatlıkla söyle=n-ebil=in-ir ki şair bu duygusal şiir-ler-i sayesinde kurtul-uyor.
It can easily be said that the poet pulls through thanks to his sensitive poetry.
The dual passive marking in these examples shows that an abilitative verb is in fact a
compound consisting of two verb stems, the first of which is linked to the stem bil- by means
of a single vowel. For a detailed discussion of this type of formation, see section 37.3.
However, a much more common pattern is single marking. This is a construction in
which the active form of the abilitative is combined with a passive stem.
Uzlaşma sağla=n-abil-ir-se rejim-le ilgili değişiklik-ler yap=ıl-abil-ir.

If the agreement can be assured, changes affecting the regime can be made.
Bu mikro yazı-lar büyüteç-le bak=ıl-dığ-ın-da oku=n-abil-ir.
These micro writings can be read when one looks through a magnifying glass.
This pattern is in line with passive formations of the negative abilitative, which never shows
dual marking.
Şu anda ev-ler-e tehlike neden-i-yle enerji ver=il-emi-yor.

For safety (danger) reasons no energy can now be delivered to the houses.
Kimse-den zorla fedakarlık iste=n-eme-yecek.
Self-sacrifice cannot be demanded from anyone by force.
30.4.5 Uncontrolled process / event
Not only is an impersonal interpretation often possible for certain passive verb forms, but
at the same time they convey the meaning of an uncontrolled process or event. This implies
that often two translations can be given:
Pencere aç=ıl-dı. The window opened / was opened.

Bardak kır=ıl-dı. The glass broke / was broken.
Kapı-lar kapa=n-ıyor! The doors close / are being closed!
Saat kaç-ta aç=ıl-ıp kapa=n-ıyor-sunuz?
At what time do you open and close your shop?
Hareket işaret-i ver=il-diğ-i zaman kapı-lar kapa=n-ır.
At the departure signal the doors close.
Kapı dışarı-dan vur=ul-uyor, hafifçe it=il-iyor,
arala=n-ıyor, yeniden kapa=n-ıyor-du.
From the outside the door was knocked on, lightly pushed against,
it (= the door) opened a little and (then) it closed again.
30.4.6 Pseudo-passives
So-called pseudo-passives have the shape but not necessarily the meaning of a genuine passive
verb. In the following examples, the intransitive dökülmek ‘to stream / flow’ is not necessarily
the passive counterpart of dökmek ‘to pour’, nor is the relation between çözülmek ‘to melt’ and
çözmek ‘to loosen’ a matter of active versus passive voice, nor can yığılmak ‘flock (together)’
be interpreted as the passive form of yığmak ‘to pile up’ only. Typically, such passive-like verbs
all have a strongly lexicalized meaning, as in:
Göz-ler-in-den yaş-lar dökül-üyor-du.

Tears were flowing from his eyes.
İlkyaz gel-ip de buz-lar çözül-me-ye başla-dı.
Springtime came and all the ice started to melt.
Köylü-ler büyük kapı-nın iç-in-e yığıl-dı-lar.
The villagers crowded within the gate.
30.4.7 Objects of passives
So far only ordinary transitive verbs have been dealt with, that is to say, verbs which normally
have a direct object. If definite, a direct object is expressed by the accusative case marker. In
this way a sentence based on an active verb can be contrasted with one based on a passive verb.
Ali pencere-yi aç-tı. Ali opened the window.

Pencere aç=ıl-dı. The window opened.
30.4 Passives 413
Ali bir pencere aç-tı. Ali opened a window.

Bir pencere aç=ıl-dı. A window was opened.
Now, the noun phrase based on pencere ‘window’ is direct object in the active sentences,
but subject in the passive ones. The examples clearly show once more that case marking of
a direct object depends on ‘definiteness’ and is not just related to the type of object itself.
In case of an indefinite direct object the accusative case marker does not occur.
The situation is different for verbs with an object of some other type. Dative, locative,
ablative, or instrumental objects are always expressed for the passive form and the object in
question does get its matching case marker.
For instance, transitive verbs such as başlamak (-e) ‘to begin’ and binmek (-e) ‘to get on /
to mount / to board’ always have a dative object, as do their passive counterparts.
O sırada rıhtım yapım-ın-a başla=n-mış-tı ora-da.

Then the construction of the landing stage was begun, there.
İçecek-le yiyecek-ler bırak=ıl-arak dönüş-e başla=n-dı.
Leaving all the food and drink behind, one has begun the return journey.
Bu kitap, at-a nasıl bin=il-eceğ-in-i ve üzer-in-de nasıl dur=ul-acağ-ın-ı anlat-ıyor.
This book explains how to mount a horse and how to sit on it.
The verbs oturmak (-e) ‘to sit down’ and oturmak (-de) ‘to live / reside’ also require a full
expression of their object when made passive:
Sonra hep birlikte sofra-ya otur=ul-uyor-du.

Then we sat down at the dinner table together.
Bun-lar, bu tür bina-lar-da otur=ul-ma-sın-a izin ver-me-di-ler.
These [people] did not allow that one could live in this kind of building.
An ablative object can be expected for verbs such as korkmak (-den) ‘to fear / be afraid (of)’
and nefret etmek (-den) ‘to hate / dislike’. Also their passive forms are accompanied by such
objects in the ablative case marker:
Sert soğuk-lar başla-mış, soğuğ-un daha da sertleş-me-sin-den kork=ul-uyor-du.

Bitter cold had set in, and it was feared that the cold would further intensify.
At, buğday ve para çal-ma-ya başla-dık-ları zaman,
haydut-lar-dan nefret ed=il-iyor-du.
When they began stealing horses, wheat, and money, the robbers were hated.
This section can be concluded by presenting an example of an instrumental object of a

passive verb:
Fransız asil-ler-in-den biri-yle evlen=il-di

ve Meroving-ler Hanedan-ı diye bil=in-en bir soy oluş-tu.
They married some French noblemen and
(thus) a lineage came into being known as the Merovingian House.
30.4.8 Agent phrases
As a passive construction is often used to present a state of affairs from a perspective

other than that of the doer (the original but reduced subject) in an action or event, it is
not surprising that a doer is in many a case not mentioned in a Turkish passive sentence.
In other words, in common language usage one says either Arkadaş-ım hesab-ı öde-di
‘My friend paid the bill’ (active sentence) or Hesap öde-n-di ‘The bill was paid’ (passive
sentence), and in the latter case it is irrelevant who had an active part in the act of paying.
Yet it is possible to add an adverbial phrase to the latter sentence specifying that person,
as in for instance ‘The bill was paid by my friend’. Such a specification is called an agent
phrase or by-phrase.
In Turkish the situation is a little different. A Turkish passive sentence can be extended
with the equivalent of a by-phrase, but this is only done to express contrast or emphasis. In
the next example the question is asked how a certain window (was) opened and the second
example presents a contrasting answer. The third sentence, too, is an example of contrast or
emphasis.
Pencere kendiliğin-den mi aç=ıl-dı?

Did the window open by itself?
Pencere Hasan tarafından aç=ıl-dı.
The window was opened by Hasan.
Genç kız baba-sı tarafından iste=n-me-miş.
The young girl seems not to be wanted by her father.
Literally, the meaning of tarafından is ‘by the side of ’. This word is particularly used for
actual doers such as authorities, (government) agencies, departments, and the like.
Dün akşam ASÖ üç kişi tarafından kapalı bir araç-la kaçır=ıl-dı.

Yesterday evening ASÖ was kidnapped by three men in a closed vehicle.
İpucu-lar değerlendir-mek için polis tarafından özel bir merkez kur=ul-du.
For evaluating tip-offs a special centre has been opened by the police.
Dünya Sağlık Teşkilat-ı tarafından bugün yap=ıl-an açıklama-da . . .
In a statement issued today by the WHO . . .
Additionally, in sentences based on a verb containing a causative and passive suffix

combined, an adverbial phrase can be included in order to give a clue about the agent
behind the action or the means by which that action was carried out.
Çünkü gemi-nin bir denizaltı tarafından bat=ır=ıl-dığ-ın-ı san-mış-lar-dı.

For they must have thought that the ship had been sunk by a submarine.
Bir düşman kruvazör-ü topçu atış-ı-yla ba =ır=ıl-dı.
A cruiser belonging to the enemy has been sunk by artillery fire.
Bir nakliye gemi-si topçu-muz-un atış-ı-yla bat=ır=ıl-dı.
A transport ship has been sunk by our cannonade.
30.4 Passives 415
Another alternative for the construction in tarafından is an adverbial phrase formed with
the suffix –CE (see section 14.4.3), as can be exemplified by:
İki hafta-dan ziyade kal-ma-dığ-ı da herkes-çe malum.

That she had not stayed for more than two weeks was clear to everyone.
Now, combination with a passive verb yields the equivalent of a ‘by-phrase’:
Eski bakan hükümet-çe affed=il-di.

The ex-minister was pardoned by the government.
On-un ne uçarı ol-duğ-u herkes-çe bil=in-en şey-di.
What a womanizer he was, was something known by everyone.
Klasik Türk musiki-si bazı-ların-ca san=ıl-dığ-ı kadar eski değil-dir.
Turkish classical music is surely not as old as is thought by some of them.
Nouns denoting a group of people can be interpreted in two ways if supplied by the suffix –CE.
Firstly, an agentive reading is most likely to be evoked in combination with a passive verb,
provided that the noun is placed in preverbal (focus) position.
Yeni abide-nin açılış-ın-a biz okul-ca götür=ül-müş-tü-k.

To the unveiling of the new monument we were taken by the school.
Şimendifer gibi halk-ça bil=in-me-yen kelime-ler-in ne lüzum-u var?
What need is there for words not known by the people, like ‘chemin de fer’?
Secondly, the entirety of a group is highlighted when the noun occupies another than the
focal position. This is the case in:
Okul-da-yken, sınıf-ça maden tur-un-a çık-ma-ya zorla=n-ır-dı-k.

At school we were forced to go on a trip to a mine with the whole class.
In combination with an active verb the group-reading is the only possible interpretation:
İkili, üçlü grup-lar halinde ya da aile-ce plâj-a gel-miş-ler-di.

They had come to the beach in groups of two or three or with the whole family.
Sınıf-ça bir oyun düzenle-di-ler.
They prepared a play / dance / game with the whole class.
Okul-ca bu yarışma-ya katıl-mış-tı-k.
We took part in that race with the whole school.
Also for nominal sentences the sole option is the group-reading. Compare:
Biz millet-çe genel bir eğitim seferberliğ-in-e muhtac-ız.

We as a nation are in need of a general education campaign.
Oda-da-ki erkek-ler bir daha toplu-ca gül-dü.
The men in the room laughed once more as a group (as with one voice).
The rule of thumb presented here regarding differences in interpretation is, however, not
incontrovertible; very often the problem of ambiguity remains unresolved and is at the
same time irrelevant. Examples are:
Bu konu-nun, grup-ça görüş=ül-me-si ve tartış=ıl-ma-sı düşünce-sin-de-yiz.

We think that this topic must be talked about and discussed by the (whole) group.
Cumhuriyet-in ilan-ı, bütün millet-çe sevinç-le karşıla=n-dı.
The proclamation of the republic was received by the entire nation with delight.
30.5 Reflexives *
Reflexive forms of English are based on a transitive verb and a reflexive pronoun (e.g. himself )
which functions as the object. In Turkish there is a handful of verbs made reflexive by the
addition of a suffix, but this mechanism is not productive any more. Instead, pronouns
based on kendi ‘own’ are used in the role of object.
30.5.1 Unproductive formation
A very small number of Turkish verbs have a derived form which is called reflexive. This
form expresses that the subject and the direct object of an originally transitive verb are one
and the same person. The form resembles the one of the passive, because the suffixes
involved are –(I)n and –Il. This can be illustrated as follows.
yıka-mak (-i) to wash → yıka-n-mak to wash oneself

tara-mak (-i) to comb → tara-n-mak to comb oneself
sakla-mak (-i) to hide → sakla-n-mak to hide oneself
bul-mak (-i) to find → bul-un-mak to find oneself
besle-mek (-i) to feed → besle-n-mek to feed oneself
çek-mek (-i) to pull → çek-il-mek to withdraw / retract
eğ-mek (-i) to bend → eğ-il-mek to stoop / duck
The formation of reflexive verbs is however not productive any more. In order to express
the reflexive nature of some action, the pronoun kendi(n) ‘self ’ (see section 7.6) is applied.
Zavallı adam balkon-dan atla-yarak kendin-i öldür-dü.

The poor man jumped off the balcony and killed himself.
Kendi-m-i öldür-mek isti-yor-um! Çünkü artık dayan-amı-yor-um!
I want to kill myself! Because I cannot bear this any longer!
‘Kendi-m-i as-acağ-ım’ yanıt-ın-ı al-ır-ken, paniğ-e kapıl-dı.
When he got the answer ‘I’m going to hang myself ’, he panicked.
Aynı gece Semra, iki defa kendin-i as-ma-ya çalış-tı.
That very evening Semra tried to hang herself twice.
30.5 Reflexives 417
30.5.2 Ambiguity
Because of the identical form of the passive and reflexive suffixes, sometimes two
interpretations are possible. Compare:
Atlet yarış-tan çek=il-di.

The athlete was withdrawn from the race. (passive)
/ The athlete withdrew from the race. (reflexive)
Kaçır=ıl-an müdür orman-da sakla=n-dı.
The kidnapped director was hidden in the forest. (passive)
/ The kidnapped director was hiding himself in the forest. (reflexive)
Bu araç Amsterdam’da bul=un-du.
The car was found in Amsterdam. (passive)
/ The car was in Amsterdam. (reflexive)
As has been said in connection with active and passive verbs, that often more than one
translation is possible, this holds for certain reflexive verb forms as well: the reader is
referred to a dictionary.
This advice is certainly relevant for verbs with a passive or reflexive appearance, but
which still can be accompanied by a direct object. For instance, the transitive verb giy-mek
(-i) ‘to put on / wear’ (1) exists side by side with the intransitive and reflexive giy=in-mek
‘to dress oneself ’ (2) and the transitive verb giyin-mek (-i) ‘to put (oneself) an X on’ (3).
Compare:
Ağır ağır ayağ-a kalk-tı, ayakkabı-lar-ın-ı giy-di, dışarı çık-tı. (1)

He rose slowly to his feet, put his shoes on, and went out.
It is possible to specify some body part involved in giy-mek (-i):
Sol ayağ-ın-a giy-di birin-i.

One of them he put on his left foot.
Sırt-ın-a hırka giy-di, baş-ın-ı da tıraş et=tir-di.
He put on a woollen sweater and had his head shaved.
Baş-ın-a yuvarlak bir hasır şapka giy-di.
On her head she put a round straw hat.
Genuine reflexive verbs have no objects:
Sıkı giy=in-di-m can-ım, üşü-me-m. (2)

I am clad well, my dear, I don’t / won’t freeze.
Giy=in-di kuşan-dı, boyunbağ-ı takın-dı ve at-ın-a bin-di.
He put his clothes on, girded his sword on, put a neckcloth on, and mounted his horse.
The transitive variant giyin-mek (-i) allows for direct objects specifying clothes.
Ayakkabı-sın-ı giyin-di. (3)

She put her shoe on.
Feride Hanım, el-i ayağ-ı titre-ye titre-ye manto-sun-u giyin-di.
Ms / Mrs Feride put her coat on, shivering all over.
A comparable complex picture exists for the pair yükle-mek (-i, -e) and yüklen-mek (-i)
with meanings such as ‘to load’ and ‘to take on / up’ respectively. The usage of transitive
yükle-mek (-i, -e) can be illustrated by:
Yol-da siz-in-ki-ler-e ne gerekli-yse hepsin-i yükle-di-m.

What you people might need on the way, I have loaded it all.
Cankurtaran-a ölü-sün-ü yükle-di-ler.
They loaded his corpse on the ambulance.
Çal-dığ-ı ıslak bez-ler-i omz-un-a yükle-miş-ti.
He had loaded the wet clothes he had stolen on to his shoulder.
The transitive verb yüklen-mek (-i) ‘to load’ and ‘to take on / up’ requires a direct object;
otherwise confusion with the passive may arise. Compare the first two examples with the
third one:
Çuval-ın bir-in-i yüklen-di, bir-in-i Derya’ya ver-di.

One of the sacks he took on his shoulder / back, and he gave one to Derya.
İş-i hemen ora-da bitir-di-m; bütün sorumluluğ-u yüklen-di-m.
I finished the job there immediately; I took all responsibility on me.
Bir gemi-ye elektronik aygıt-lar-la dolu büyük sandık-lar yüklen-miş-ti.
On one ship large crates full of electronic equipment had been loaded.
Yet, when some body part is being specified, a reflexive interpretation is more likely.
Yaşlı adam-ın bir-i orman-dan odun kes-miş, sırt-ın-a yükle=n-miş.

Some old man had been chopping wood in the forest and loaded it on his back.
Also transitive tak-mak (-i, -e) ‘to put on, attach, mount’ has a derivative takın-mak (-i),
which is primarily used in the sense of ‘to assume a certain attitude’. For a comparison,
consider the following examples:
Daha sonra Cumhurbaşkanı Demirel’e kulüb-ün bir rozet-in-i tak-tı.

Afterwards he fixed a club rosette on President Demirel.
Orta boy iğne-sin-e sardalya-lar-dan bir-in-i tak-tı.
On his medium-sized fish-hook he put one of the sardines.
En sevimli gülümseyiş-im-i takın-dı-m hemen.
I immediately put on my loveliest way of smiling.
30.6 Summarizing 419
Yüz-ün-e bir minnettarlık ifade-si takın-dı.

She assumed a facial expression of gratitude.
Muhtar, bütün resmi otorite-sin-i takın-dı.
The village head assumed an air which radiated his entire official authority.
30.5.3 Disambiguation
The confusion that might arise between passive and reflexive interpretation can be avoided by
using the (double) passive suffix –n=Il for verbs ending in a vowel instead of just a single –n.
Thus, the following double forms are possible:
Besle=n=il-miş ol-an ümit-ler büyük ölçü-de boşa çık-mış-tır.

The hope that was nourished turned out to be for nothing at a large scale.
Murat bekle=n=il-diğ-i gibi gülümse-me-di.
Murat did not smile the way it was expected.
Bekle=n=il-diğ-i gibi, Murat gülümse-me-di.
As expected, Murat did not smile.
Bütün hamam-lar-da böyle yıka=n=ıl-ır.
In all hammams (public baths) one is washed this way.
Sakla=n=ıl-acak ne var?
What is there to hide (be hidden)?
30.6 Summarizing
The relation among a number of verbal derivations can neatly be summarized using the
transitive verb giymek (-i) ‘to put on clothes’. In sum:
giy-mek (-i) to put on / wear / dress

giyin-mek to dress oneself (reflexive)
giyil-mek to be worn (passive)
giydir-mek (-i, -e) to dress / make wear (causative)
giydiril-mek to be dressed (causative and passive)
Text fragments illustrating these differences are:
Üst-ün-e bir şey-ler giy, dışarı-da hava çok soğuk.

Put something on, it is very cold outside.
Dur bir dakka (dakika), daha giy=in-me-di-m.
Hey, wait a minute, I am not dressed yet.
Bu hava-da askılı elbise giy=il-me-z, üş-ür-sün, o yazlık.
In this weather one wears no dress with straps, you freeze; that’s a summer dress.
O, ban-a tepe-den tırnağ-a yeni elbise-ler giy=dir-di.

He set me up in new clothes from head to foot.
Demirel’e pastacılık mesleğ-in-in simge-si ol-an beyaz kep giy=dir=il-di.
They put a white hat on Demirel’s head, the symbol of confectioners.
30.7 Unproductive formations
Certain verb stems have an appearance which can easily be mistaken for a causative, passive,
or reflexive form, but for which no form can be found that served as the basis for derivation.
Besides such orphaned stems there are other unproductive and equally deceptive formations
as well: derived verb stems with a reciprocal, collective, or intensifying meaning or which,
despite their suffix, have a fully lexicalized meaning.
30.7.1 Orphaned verb stems
There are about twenty Turkish verb pairs which contain an element reminiscent of a
causative, passive, or reflexive suffix. These verbs can be thought of as derivations from a com-
mon stem; however, without this element a word remains that has no meaning (any more) in
modern Turkish, and, hence, it can’t be found in any dictionary. The ‘ancestor’ may have been
existent in historic times, but the forms once derived are ‘orphaned’ and have several meanings
nowadays. With regard to meaning in terms of causative, passive, or reflexive, the utmost
caution is necessary: in many a case such a meaning cannot be discerned. For the correct
interpretation a good dictionary should be consulted. Some frequently used verb pairs
(presented here with a very limited number of meanings) of this type are:
alda-t-mak (-i) to deceive / be unfaithful

alda-n-mak to be deceived / be mistaken
avu-t-mak (-i) to comfort / distract
avu-n-mak to be consoled / distracted / be preoccupied
dağ-ıt-mak (-i) to scatter / distribute / mess up / dissolve (organization)
dağ-ıl-mak to scatter / get messy / come to an end (organization)
dona-t-mak (-i) to provide one with clothes / decorate / equip (ship)
dona-n-mak to dress up / be decorated / be equipped / rigged (ship)
inci-t-mek (-i) to hurt / strain / offend
inci-n-mek to be hurt / (for a muscle) to be strained / be offended
kuşa-t-mak (-i, -e) to gird (someone) with (a sword) / besiege
kuşa-n-mak (-i) to gird on (a sword)
öğre-t-mek (-i) to teach
öğre-n-mek (-i) to learn
tüke-t-mek (-i) to exhaust / consume
tüke-n-mek to be used up / become exhausted
30.7 Unproductive formations 421
yıpra-t-mak (-i) to wear (something) out / erode / burn (someone) out

yıpra-n-mak to get worn-out / become burned-out / lose influence
30.7.2 Reciprocal –(I)ş
When a transitive verb takes a form which indicates that two or more persons are simul-
taneously involved in carrying out the action with regard to each other, it is called the
reciprocal form. As can be expected, Turkish uses a suffix and the result of the derivation
is an intransitive verb. The suffix is –(I)ş, which is not productive. Its application can be
illustrated by:
etkile-mek (-i) to influence → etkile-ş-mek to influence each other

öp-mek (-i) to kiss → öp-üş-mek to kiss each other
gör-mek (-i) to see → gör-üş-mek to see each other / meet
bak-mak (-e) to look (at) → bak-ış-mak to look at each other
benze-mek (-e) to resemble → benze-ş-mek to resemble each other
küs-mek (-e) to be angry → küs-üş-mek to be angry with each other
As a result of this type of derivation the object is erased. These objects are direct objects for
etkilemek, öpmek, and görmek and dative objects for verbs such as bakmak, benzemek, and
küsmek. Furthermore, a reciprocal verb always takes a multiple subject, that is, the referent
is two or more persons. Also, the action is carried out on each other and this entails that
another object cannot be specified.
As for the reflexive verb, an alternative for the reciprocal verb is available: the (transitive)
basic verb used in combination with the lexical word birbir + possessive suffix ‘each other’
(see section 7.7) as object. In this way ‘to look at each other’ can be expressed by both
bak=ış-mak as well as by bak-mak (-e). Compare:
Ben ol-an-lar-ı anlat-tıkça, o anne-m-le bak=ış-ıyor-du.

While I told (them) what happened, he and my mother were looking at each other.
Birbir-imiz-e bak-mı-yor-du-k bile.
We didn’t even look at each other.
Bir süre ora-da-ki üç insan sessizce birbir-lerin-e bak-tı-lar.
For a while the three people there were silently looking at each other.
Also benze=ş-mek and benze-mek (-e) occur with similar differences:
Onlar-ı iyi hatırlı-yor-um; iki adam benze=ş-iyor-du.

I remember them well; the two men resembled each other.
Pek çok bakımdan birbir-imiz-e benzi-yor-du-k.
In many respects we resembled each other.
Bu kızıl saçlı kadın-lar birbir-lerin-e benzi-yor.
These red-headed women resemble each other.
30.7.3 Collective –(I)ş
By the suffix –(I)ş is also expressed that some action is carried out by a number of doers at
the same time, without being related to ‘one another’. In this collective meaning, ‘together’,
the suffix occurs with intransitive and transitive verbs.
ağla-mak to cry → ağla-ş-mak to cry together

gül-mek to laugh → gül-üş-mek to laugh together
bekle-mek to wait → bekle-ş-mek to wait together
Fransızca söyle=ş-ti-ler, ama ben anlı-yor-um elbette.
Among themselves they spoke French, but I do understand that, of course.
The notion of ‘together’ can also be expressed by beraber and birlikte (see section 6.7.6):
Hep-imiz beraber bu film-i gör-dü-k, on-u bir daha gör-me-ye-lim.

We have all seen this film together, let’s not do it once more.
Bir polis: Ben-im-le birlikte karakol-a gel-ecek-sin! de-di.
An officer said: You come together with me to the police station.
30.7.4 Intensifying –(I)ş
Another meaning that can be ascribed to the suffix –(I)ş is that of signalling the intensified
nature of the action or event described. There exist side by side:
titre-mek to shiver → titre-ş-mek to shiver all over

dol-mak to get full → dol-uş-mak to crowd in / to (a place)
kok-mak to smell → kok-uş-mak to smell rotten
Afiş-ler taşı-yan kalabalık bağıra çağıra meydan-a dol=uş-muş-tu.
Crowds of people carrying posters flocked, shouting, to the square.
Kalabalık avlu-ya polis-ler de dol=uş-tu.
The busy courtyard was crowded with policemen.
For a few verbs denoting movement the suffix –(I)ş means ‘in all directions’, as in:
Düşünce-ler-im, tipi-de kar tane-ler-i gibi ora-dan ora-ya uç=uş-uyor.

My thoughts fly in all directions, like snowflakes in a blizzard.
Kurt gibi iri ol-an köpek-ler, deli-cesine havla-yarak koş=uş-uyor-lar-dı.
Dogs as big as wolves ran in all directions, barking madly.
30.7.5 Deceptive formations
A word of caution is in place with respect to word pairs in which the variant with –(I)ş has
an entirely different and non-derivable meaning compared to the form without this suffix.
It should be pointed out again that a thorough knowledge of Turkish vocabulary is a

prerequisite and that it should never be assumed that meaning can be correctly inferred
from correspondences in form, which in turn could easily be formalized as relatively sim-
ple linguistic formation rules. Here are some examples:
al-mak (-i) to buy / get / take / receive / accept

alış-mak (-e) to get used (to)
bul-mak (-i) to find
buluş-mak to meet each other
çık-mak to go out / come out
çıkış-mak (-a) to scold
değ-mek (-a) to touch
değiş-mek to change
gel-mek to come
geliş-mek to develop / grow
yap-mak (-i) to make / do / build
yapış-mak to stick / cling to
30.8 Combinations and constraints
In the final paragraph of section 30.7 it was discussed that certain verbs have the appearance
of having been derived from a verb stem by addition of a suffix, but that such a possibility is
ruled out when their meaning is taken into account. The verbs under scrutiny contain an
element resembling the reciprocal suffix. Furthermore, there are more forms of a type one
would at first glance take for a verb stem plus a very familiar suffix or a combination of such
suffixes. But appearances are deceptive. This is a particularly common phenomenon among
verbs containing elements resembling a series of derivational suffixes. Three types of suffix
combination will be discussed, combinations with a derivable and ones with a non-derivable
meaning. In the sentences exemplifying the analysis derivational suffixes will be separated
from the verb stem by ‘=’ and inflectional morphemes are preceded by the usual ‘-’.
30.8.1 Reciprocal + causative
The combination–(I)ş + –TIr occurs rather frequently and it has two flavours: a derivable
and a non-derivable meaning. A meaning is derivable when through a limited number of
logical steps a certain interpretation can be arrived at, taking the semantic contribution of
the suffixes into account. In this way the transitive tanı-mak (-i) ‘to know, recognize’ forms
the basis of the derived but intransitive tanı=ş-mak ‘to know one another’, which in turn can
be made transitive by the causative suffix: tanı=ş-tır-mak (-i, -le) ‘to introduce a person’:
Siz-i anne-m-le tanı=ş=tır-acağ-ım.

I will introduce you to my mother.
Biz-i tanı=ş=tır-dı.
He introduced us.
Komutan-ın karı-sı zorla öp=üş=tür-dü biz-i.

The wife of the commander forced us to kiss each other.
Boyuna da en güçlü hayvan-lar-la, aslan-lar-la, kaplan-lar-la döv=üş=tür-üyor-lar.
Continually they let / make them fight with the strongest animals, lions and tigers.
Hayır, çok yakın-lar-ı-yla gör=üş=tür-üyor-lar yalnızca.
No, they let (him / her) talk with his next of kin only.
Siz-i bir dedektif-le gör=üş=tür-eceğ-im.
I’ll have / let you meet with a detective.
For a non-derivable meaning two causes can be given. First, there are verbs containing the
element –(I)ş-TIr, in which –(I)ş should not be regarded as a suffix but should be seen as a
fixed part of a lexicalized verb. Thus, there is a clear divide between the semantic relation
between the verbs in the left-hand column below and the pairs of intransitive and transitive
verbs in the right-hand column. Only the pairs of verb stems in the right-hand column are
semantically related to each another (via the causative).
değ- (-e) to touch değiş- to change (intransitive)

değiştir- (-i) to change (transitive)
uyu- to sleep uyuş- to get numb
uyuştur- (-i) to numb / anaesthetize
yat- to lie down yatış- to calm down / subside
yatıştır- (-i) to calm / soothe / mollify
Bearing the false friends from section 30.7.5 in mind, one can say that the semantically
related pairs as represented in group A and group B below have no semantic relationship
with those in group C.
Group A
alış=tır-mak (-i, -e) to train (someone) to do or accept (something)
buluş=tur-mak (-i, -le) to get (people) together
geliş=tır-mek (-i) to develop / build up / improve
yapış=tır-mak (-i) to glue / paste / tape / stick on to
Group B
alış-mak (-e) to get used (to) / become familiar (with)
buluş-mak to meet / come together
geliş-mek to develop / grow up
yapış-mak to stick (to) / adhere (to) / cling to
Group C
al-mak (-i) to buy / get / obtain / take
bul-mak (-i) to find
gel-mek to come
yap-mak (-i) to make / do / build
Secondly, there are verbs of the shape V-(I)ştIr which do have a semantic relationship with
V, but of which at the same time there is no intermediate derivation *V-(I)ş. Thus, a form
such as serp=iştir-mek (-i) is recorded by the Redhouse Çağdaş Türkçe-İngilizce Sözlük

as ‘to sprinkle / scatter (something) here and there’, as well as its primitive serp-mek (-i) as
‘to sprinkle / scatter’, whereas *serpiş-mek is nonexistent. Likewise, besides kov-mak (-i)
‘to drive (someone) away / expel / get rid of ’ there is the form kov=uştur-mak (-i) ‘to investi-
gate (a crime)’, but *kovuş-mak does not exist. Compare also ara-mak (-i) ‘to look (for),
hunt (for), seek / search’, ara=ştır-mak (-i) ‘to investigate, explore, research, study’, and
*araş-mak.
30.8.2 Causative + passive
Section 30.4.3 briefly discussed that a causative verb can be made intransitive again by
adding a passive suffix. This combination is expressed by: –TIr + –Il; –t + –Il; –Ir + –Il; –It +
–Il; –Er + –Il. Examples are:
don=dur=ul-mak to be frozen
don=dur-mak (-i) to freeze (something)
don-mak to freeze
soğu=t=ul-mak to be cooled
soğu=t-mak (-i) to cool (transitive)
soğu-mak to cool off
otur=t=ul-mak (-e) to be seated / put / placed
otur=t-mak (-i, -e) to seat / put / place (something)
otur-mak (-e) to sit down
bat=ır=ıl-mak to be sunk
bat=ır-mak (-i) to sink (a ship)
bat-mak to sink
kork=ut=ul-mak to be scared / frightened
kork=ut-mak (-i) to scare / frighten
kork-mak to fear
çık=ar=ıl-mak to be taken off
çık=ar-mak (-i) to take off
çık-mak to get off / get out
Moreover, there are similar combinations in which the first element is a reciprocal suffix.
The verb stem in the next two examples has been expanded by three suffixes: reciprocal,
causative, and passive:
Adam, kız ve anne-si-yle önceden tanı=ş=tır=ıl-dığ-ı bahane-si-yle onlar-ı selamla-dı.

The man greeted them under the pretext that he, the girl, and the mother had
previously been introduced to one another.
Öğrenci-ler-in yuva-da-ki-ler-le gör=üş=tür=ül-me-leri yasak idi.
It was forbidden that the students / pupils would be brought into contact
with the people of the home.
And naturally, verbs of shape V-Iş + causative + passive are represented as well:
Bun-un bir vicdan azab-ın-ın yatış=tır=ıl-ma-sın-dan kaynaklan-dığ-ın-ı anla-dı.

She understood that this originated from the pangs of conscience being soothed.
Agariç bir kahve-de yoldaş-lar-la buluş=tur=ul-du.
Agariç was made to meet the comrades in a cafe.
İnsan-lar uyuş=tur=ul-muş gibi çok ağır hareket ed-iyor-lar.
The people move very slowly as if they are numbed / sedated.
Examples of V-(I)ştIr + passive are:
DNA zincir-in-de-ki bilgi-ler 5 milyar nükleotid-in ara-sın-a serp=iştir=il-miştir.

The information in the DNA chains lies spread among five billion nucleotides.
Bu yurttaş, bu suç için kov=uştur=ul-acak-tır.
This compatriot will be thoroughly screened / investigated for this crime.
30.8.3 Passive + causative
Is the sequence –(I)n + –TIr an expression of the combination passive plus causative?
In section 30.2.1 the suffix –lE was introduced, by means of which a transitive verb can be
derived from a noun or an adjective. In section 30.4 it was shown how a transitive verb
stem can be made intransitive by adding the passive suffix, being an –n for derivations
in –lE. This leads to the following relations:
zehir=le-mek (-i) to poison → zehir=le=n-mek to be poisoned

şişe=le-mek (-i) to bottle → şişe=le=n-mek to be bottled
imza=la-mak (-i) to sign → imza=la=n-mak to be signed
fırça=la-mak (-i) to brush → fırça=la=n-mak to be brushed
cevap=la-mak (-i) to answer → cevap=la=n-mak to be answered
Such formations cannot be combined with a causative suffix. This holds not only for the
suffix –n as shown here, but for all its variants (that is, –In and –Il).
Next, there are two categories of verbs seemingly ending in a causative following a passive
suffix: –lEndIr. Verbs of the first category do not have a primitive of the shape –lE, but their
passive form in –lEn (see section 30.2.2) and its causative derivatives in –TIr exist side by
side: ceza=lan-mak ‘to be punished’ and ceza=lan=dır-mak (-i) ‘to punish’. This kind of verb
can further be exemplified by:
sınır=lan-mak to be limited
sınır=lan=dır-mak (-i) to limit
değer=len-mek to gain value
değer=len=dir-mek (-i) to add value
Lastly, a very small number of forms end in –lEndIr. For instance: yön=lendir-mek (-i, -e)
‘to direct / steer / orient (someone) towards’ < yön ‘direction / quarter’; bölge=lendir-mek
(-i) ‘to partition’ < bölge ‘region, zone’; yapı=landır-mak (-i) ‘to (re)structure’ < yapı ‘structure’.
Examples are:
Abla-sı Marie, on-u piyano-ya yön=lendir-di.

His sister Marie led him to the piano.
Ev-in-i yeniden yapı=landır-ınca-ya kadar ev-im-de kal-ma-n-ı isti-yor-um.
I want you to stay in my house until your house is rebuilt.
As can be expected, passive formations can be found among the types V-lEndIr and V-lEndIr:
Türk Askerî Kurul-un-un görev-i, belirli bir süre-yle sınır=lan=dır=ıl-ma-mış-tı.

The task of the Turkish Military Council was not limited to a certain period.
Meslekî ve teknik eğitim ağırlıklı olarak yeniden yapı=landır=ıl-acak-tır.
The professional and technical education will again be heavily restructured.
30.9 Imperative and optative of causative and passive verbs
It is not surprising that causative, passive, and reflexive verbs of Turkish can take all sorts of
temporal endings (see chapter 20). The combination of an indirect imperative (which is not
a tense form—see section 18.1) with a causative or passive verb is not only a possible, but
even a rather frequently occurring phenomenon. Here are some short selections:
30.9.1 Causative + imperative / optative
A simple imperative is formed by the stem of a causative verb. e.g. Araba-yı dur=dur! ‘Stop
the car!’ and Çocuğ-u otur=t! ‘Let the child sit!’.
For the indirect imperative the expected suffix combination is: –TIr + –sIn, as in:
‘Allah da sen-i gül=dür-sün’ de-di.

She said: ‘May Allah make you laugh.’
Kral, “Yargıcı-lar kurul-u artık karar-ın-ı bil=dir-sin” diye buyur-du.
The king ordered: ‘The Board of Jurors should let (us) know their verdict.’
Ne olur baba-nız-a söyle-yin de çöz=dür-sün şu köpeğ-i.
Tell your father anyhow that he should have that poor dog unfastened.
Öylesine söyle ki, öldür-eceğ-iz san-sın, anla-dı-n mı,
kork-ut on-u, kork-sun, öyle kork-sun ki,
iş-in-in gidiş-in-i değiş=tir-sin korku-dan.
Tell him in such a way that he thinks we will kill him, do you understand,
frighten him, let him be afraid, let him be so afraid,
that he changes the course of his business, out of fear.
Dolayısıyla Avrupa çabuk davran-sın, Bulgar-lar-ı dur=dur-sun,

donanma-ların-ı yolla-sın; bun-un için Boğaz’lar-ı aç-acağ-ız.
Therefore Europe must come into action, stop the Bulgarians,
(and) send their fleets; for that purpose we shall open the Straits.
For optative forms the following examples can be given:
Gel, tanış=tır-a-yım sen-i.

Come, let me introduce you.
On-u nasıl gül=dür-e-lim?
How can we make him laugh?
30.9.2 Passive + imperative / optative
Imperative forms of passive verb stems are extremely rare, if not impossible, because the
process that takes place as described by a passive verb is presented from the perspective of
the person or thing. So the grammatical subject is not the doer but the one that undergoes
the action and this implies that the latter has no control over what happens. In order to
follow a command, order, or request, the person addressed should be able to control
(determine) whether the situation desired obtains or not. If this is not the case, this usually
excludes the usage of a passive imperative, although exceptions such as ‘Drop dead!’ and
‘Don’t fall!’ can regularly be heard.
An indirect imperative form of a passive verb, on the other hand, is very possible. The
expected suffix combinations are: =Il + –sIn and =In + –sIn, as can be shown by:
Temenni ed-e-lim ki güçlü bir hükümet kur=ul-sun.

Let us wish that a powerful government will be formed.
Her bir-in-in kol-u sıva=n-mış, iğne yap=ıl-sın diye bekli-yor-lar.
They are waiting (in order) to be inoculated, each of them with a sleeve rolled up.
Bu aşama-da, idam ceza-sı ver=il-sin mi ver=il-me-sin mi tartışma-sı çok yanlış.
At this stage, discussion of whether the death penalty should be given is wrong.
Bol vakt-imiz ol-duğ-u da san=ıl-ma-sın!
And let them not think that we have plenty of time.
Constructions based on optative forms can be illustrated by:
Evet, fakat bu ban-a kâfi gel-me-di, iste-di-m ki çok, pek çok sev=il-e-yim.
Yes, but that’s not enough for me, I want to be loved much much more.
Ben de on-un-la birlikte mezar-a göm=ül-e-yim diye bağır-ıyor-du.
He shouted: Let me be buried together with her.
Ne diye, kim-in için öldür-e-lim, kim-in için öldür=ül-e-lim?
Why, for whom should we kill and for whom should we be killed?
As=ıl-acak-sa-k birlikte as=ıl-a-lım!

If we are going to be hanged, let us be hanged together!
Some caution is necessary with respect to lexicalized forms resembling the passive:
Öyle-yse izin ver, çekil-e-yim.

If that’s the case, allow me to be withdrawn.
On-un bu düşünce-sin-e katıl-a-yım mı de-r-sin?
Am I supposed to agree with that idea of his, you say?
Biraz da biz yorul-a-lım.
We should tire ourselves a bit too.
Haydi bakalım, şimdi yol-a koyul-a-lım.
Come on, let’s hit the road!
30.9.3 Reflexive + imperative / optative
Reflexive verbs stems can in principle be used as imperative, although such forms are
relatively rare given the limited set of morphological reflexives. Examples are:
Ne kimse-nin ön-ün-de eğ=il, ne kimse-ye dil dök.

Do not bow to anyone, or try to flatter anyone.
Çabuk, bir yer-e sakla=n da, ben kendi-si-yle konuş-a-yım, durum-u anlat-a-yım.
Quick, you hide somewhere and let me talk to him and explain the situation.
For the indirect imperative the suffix combinations are =Il + –sIn and =In + –sIn, but the
application is limited to lexicalized verbs and they occur regularly, witness:
Ben kitapsız dolaş-ama-m, hep el-im-in alt-ın-da bir kitap bul=un-sun.

I can’t roam about without a book, I must always have a book at hand.
İste-n-ir ki, Refet Paşa milletvekilliğ-in-den çek=il-sin ve git-sin hükümet kur-sun.
They want Refet Pasha to resign from parliament and form a government.
Köy-den çık-ıp dere-nin iç-in-de sakla=n-sın-lar.
They must get out of the village and hide (themselves) in the valley.
Yeter ki Fatma yanlış-ın-ı anla-yıp on-un kol-lar-ın-a at=ıl-sın!
It is enough that Fatma understands her faults and throws herself in his arms!
Examples of optative forms are:
Haydi gid-ip yıka=n-a-lım.

Come on, let’s go and wash ourselves.
Uyu-madan önce, güzelce bir yıka=n-a-yım.
Before I go to sleep, let me have a thorough wash.
Bir yer göster de sakla=n-a-yım!

Show (me) a place and let me hide (there)!
Hemen şu duvar-ın arka-sın-a sakla=n-a-lım.
Let us immediately hide ourselves behind that wall over there.
30.9.4 Causative + passive + imperative / optative
In section 30.9.2 it was argued that a standard imperative of a passive verb is impossible

and it goes without saying that this holds for the type of passive verb now being examined
as well. Other forms of imperative and optative do exist.
The indirect imparative formed by the suffix combination is: =TIr + =Il + –sIn:
Avukat: Dava dur=dur=ul-sun.

Solicitor: The lawsuit / trial must be stopped.
Sofya elçi-sin-e bil=dir=il-sin ki Danef bura-da idi.
The ambassador in Sofia must be told that Danef was here.
Structures such as FF-1 + Causative + Passive are to be regarded as a subgroup:
Anayasa değiş=tir=il-sin!
May the Constitution be changed! / The Constitution should be changed!
Bir robot ne kadar geliş=tir=il-ir-se geliş=tir=il-sin, yine robot-tur.
No matter how far a robot has been developed, it is still a robot.
Optative forms of this type seem to be extremely rare. The sole example attested reflects the
thoughts of a despairing soldier at the front in an endless war:
Ne diye, kim-in için öl=dür-e-yim, kim-in için öl=dür=ül-e-yim?

What for, for whom should I kill, for whom should I be killed?
30.10 Verbal couplings with –(y)Ip
The suffix –(y)Ip is in its usage not as transparent as it might seem on the basis of the examples
presented in section 27.1. There it was merely presented as a means to link two or more
events, in a strictly consecutive way. But there is more: certain combinations of verbs linked
by –(y)Ip form idiomatic expressions the meaning of which can sometimes be guessed on
the basis of the composing verbs, whereas others have turned into fully lexicalized composite
verbs, and yet others are used to express some degree of intensity or finality.
30.10.1 Consecutive actions
In sections 27.1.2–27.1.4 the role of the suffix –(y)Ip has been explained in coupling two
or more actions. Four different types of construction can be distinguished, of which typical
examples are:
30.10 Verbal couplings with –(y)Ip 431
Güzel kahverengi şapka-sın-ı baş-ın-dan çıkar-ıp selam ver-di.

He took off his hat and greeted him/her.
Abla-m bir yer-ler-den bul-up çıkar-ıp, eski bir fotoğraf-ımız-ı ban-a ver-di.
My sister has somewhere dug up an old photo with us in it and she gave it to me.
Sanki iç-in-de bir virüs var da büyü-yüp büyü-yüp on-u çılgınlık-lar-a götür-üyor.
It is as if there’s a virus inside of her that grows, grows, and drives her to frenzy.
Harabe-nin iç-in-den çek-ip al-dı-m on-u, zavallı küçük şey.
I pulled him out from under the rubble, the poor little thing.
Each of these examples describes as a matter of fact two sequential actions: çıkar-ıp selam
ver-di ‘took off (his hat) and greeted him/her’; bul-up çıkar-ıp ‘found and removed’; büyü-yüp
büyü-yüp ‘grew and grew’; and çek-ip al-dı-m ‘pulled and took’.
30.10.2 Compound verbs
Some coupled verbs have, taken as one unit, a specialized meaning because together they
have undergone a semantic shift. From a structural point of view such collocations show
different degrees of lexicalization. In this way there are coupled verbs whose overall mean-
ing can more or less easily be derived or inferred on the basis of the two separate verbs.
This is the case with for instance: dal-ıp gitmek (dive and go) ‘to be lost in thought’; del-ip
geçmek (make a hole and pass) ‘to pierce / penetrate, pierce something and pass through it’;
don-up kalmak (freeze and remain) ‘to be petrified with astonishment / fear’; say-ıp dökmek
(count and pour) ‘to tell everything / pour (it) all out’; söv-üp saymak (swear and enumerate)
‘to swear a blue streak (at)’. Examples are:
Ben böyle düşün-ür-ken, dal-ıp git-miş-im.

Thinking this way, I must have lost myself in thought.
Mehmet, hayret-ler içinde don-up kal-dı.
Mehmet was petrified with astonishment.
An indication for the (relatively) low degree of lexicalization can be found in the fact
that instead of the suffix –(y)Ip, also the suffix for Past-2 (–TI) occurs, thereby often
expanded by a personal suffix. Compare the first two examples with the third and the
fourth.
Piyaz-ın soğan-ın-ı doğra-r-ken, göz-ler-i uzak-lar-a dal-dı git-ti.

While cutting the onion in her bean salad, her eyes were focused at infinity.
Herkes birden ol-duğ-u yer-de don-du kal-dı.
Everyone froze on the spot.
Sen bugün ne-ler say-dı-n dök-tü-n, ağz-ım açık kal-dı!
‘What have you blurted out today?’, I stood agape with astonishment.
Gerçi ben az önce onlar-a söv-dü-m say-dı-m, yine de hepsin-e saygı duy-ar-ım.
Although I just swore a blue streak at them, yet I do feel respect for all of them.
Furthermore, there are constructions with two adjacent verbal stems carrying –(y)Ip which
underwent a similar semantic development. Structurally speaking, these constructions
resemble those discussed in section 27.1.2, although in the present case there is a transparent
(derivable) meaning side by side with a special meaning for which only a dictionary can
give any clarification. Thus, verbs have several meanings; one derivable and (at least) one
with a specialized meaning. For instance: evir-ip çevirmek 1. to turn something over and
over; 2. inspect something carefully; 3. evade the subject. That is why in the next example
both the first and also the second meaning obtain.
Köfte-ler-i ufak parça-lar-a böl-üyor, her parça-yı ağz-ın-da evir-ip çevir-ip

güçlük-le yut-tu.
She divided the meatballs into tiny chunks and turning each of them over and over
(‘tasting’) in her mouth, she swallowed them with difficulty.
Also, sil-ip süpürmek has several meanings: 1. to clean a place from top to bottom; 2. to eat
up every morsel of something; 3. to destroy all, sweep all away. In the next example only the
third meaning applies.
Bir hamle-de hepsin-i sil-ip süpür-üp

yer-ler-in-e yeni bina-lar inşa ettir-ebil-ir-siniz.
You can sweep everything away in one stroke
and have new buildings built in its place.
That this type of combination has only a low degree of lexicalization can be inferred from
the occurrence of forms in which not –(y)Ip but a suffix for Past-1 or Past-2 (–TI of –mIş)
has been applied.
Adam çok kız-dı, bağır-dı çağır-dı, tabanca-sın-a sarıl-ıp bir el de ateş et-ti.
The man got very angry, ranted and raved, resorted to his pistol and fired a shot.
Biz-ler de düşün-dü-k taşın-dı-k, Alacakaranlık kahve-sin-e bir çare bul-du-k.
We all thought it over carefully, we found a solution for Café Twilight.
30.10.3 Lexicalization
The third class of constructions in –(y)Ip which are to be discussed and exemplified are
combinations with a much higher degree of lexicalization. For instance: gülüp oynamak /
gülüp söylemek ‘to have a good time’; basıp geçmek ‘to get up and leave’; arayıp sormak ‘to
ask after’; kurup takmak ‘to assemble’. Certain combinations express some degree of intensity
or finality (compare sections 27.1.4 and 30.11.1–30.11.5): arayıp taramak ‘to comb / search
thoroughly’; dayayıp döşemek ‘to furnish (a house) completely’; dikilip durmak ‘to stand
and wait for a while’; and yakıp yıkmak / kırıp dökmek ‘to destroy utterly’.
A characteristic of these combinations is that the suffix –(y)Ip cannot be replaced
by the suffix for Past-2 (–TI), with or without a personal suffix. This is also the case with
a combination such as uğraşıp didinmek ‘to work hard and wear oneself out’, as can be
exemplified by:
30.10 Verbal couplings with –(y)Ip 433
Karım da biz töre-miz ney-se on-u yap-tı-k, di-yor,

onca uğraşıp didin-ip yemek-ler, tatlı-lar yap-tı-k da,
teşekkür ed-ip bir elinize sağlık bile de-me-di-niz.
And my wife says: whatever our customs are, that is what we have done,
we worked so hard and wore ourselves out, we made food and sweets,
and you haven’t even said ‘thanks and “well done” ’.
Düşünce-sin-in doğruluğ-un-u kanıtla-mak için ay-larca uğraşıp didin-di.
She slaved away for months in order to prove the correctness of her idea.
30.10.4 Intensification / finalization
Certain combinations express a certain degree of intensity or finality (compare sections 27.1.4

and 30.11.1–30.11.5), as reflected in translation by an adverbial (totally, entirely, wholly, and
the like) or a verb that has been formed by including a preposition or an adverb (for instance
pull away, pull out).
The predicate examples are based on the type of verb elucidated in section 30.10.2, being
the verb combination the left member of which occurs with both the form –(y)Ip as well as
with –TI or –mIş.
Müthiş bir acı yeniden göğs-üm-ü del-di geç-ti. (del-ip geç-ti)

A tremendous pain pierced my chest again.
Harabe-nin iç-in-den çek-ti-m al-dı-m on-u, zavallı küçük şey. (çek-ip al-dı-m)
I pulled him out from under the rubble, the poor little thing.
Çek-ti-m çıkar-dı-m forma-yı üzer-in-den ve yara-yı sar-dı-m. (çek-ip çıkar-dı-m)
I took off the uniform and bandaged the wound’.
Kadın çabucak hepsin-i sil-di süpür-dü. (sil-ip süpür-dü)
The woman quickly swept everything up / away.
Bun-un hepsin-i sil-di-k süpür-dü-k daha doğru-su. (sil-ip süpür-dü-k)
We erased all of this, to be frank.
Cesaret-lerin-in hiç kırıntı-sı kal-dı mı? (sil-ip süpür-dü-ler)
—Sil-di-ler, süpür-dü-ler.
Is there a crumb left of their courage?
—They totally destroyed it.
Rus-lar-da harb-i zafer-le bitir-me ümit-lerin-i sil-miş süpür-müş-tü.
With the Russians the hope of ending the war with a victory was totally quenched.
Also, certain verb combinations discussed in section 30.10.3 express some degree of totality
or finality; however, without any alternative forms for the left-hand member. To mention
only a few: arayıp taramak ‘to comb / search thoroughly’; dayayıp döşemek ‘to furnish
(a house) completely’; dikilip durmak ‘to stand and wait for a while’; and yakıp yıkmak /
kırıp dökmek ‘to destroy utterly’.
30.11 Fixed word combinations
Fixed word combinations (also referred to as collocations) are the result of new formations
the meaning of which cannot, after some time, be derived any more from the words that
make up the combination. On the one hand, so-called morphological collocations can be
distinguished, which are built up by some suffix followed by a certain (invariable) verb. In
sections 30.11.1–30.11.4 expressions of totality and finality will be discussed and in sec-
tions 30.11.6–30.11.8 constructions expessing an inclination. On the other hand, there are
idiomatic formations (see section 30.11.5) and combinations of a verb with a certain
(invariable) object (see section 30.11.9), which have a (more or less) derivable meaning or a
meaning that cannot be derived.
30.11.1 Totality 1: –TI + personal suffix + gitti
A certain totality or finality with respect to the action or event described by the verb can
be expressed by the combination –TI + personal suffix + gitti. In English this aspect can be
rendered by adverbs such as: away, down, totally, entirely and with negative verbs by at all.
With regard to their resultative nature these constructions can be compared to those of
section 27.1.4.
Güzel, çok güzel, doldur-du-m gitti. (ben)

Nice, excellent, I have totally stuffed myself (with food).
Hiç alış-ama-dı-m gitti.
I couldn’t get used to it at all.
Sen şu iş-i halled-eme-di-n gitti. (sen)
You weren’t able at all to finish up that job.
Kitap-ların-ı çabucak topla-yıp yürü-dü gitti. (o)
She quickly picked up her books and walked away.
Zaten ev yan-dı gitti.
Mind you, the house was (totally) burned down.
Ama bu duygu-lar kısa süre-de sön-dü gitti.
But in a short period of time these feelings have entirely been dulled.
Televizyon-un belirme-si-yle, yaygınlaş-ma-sı-yla birlikte
radyo keyf-i de sil=in-di gitti.
With the introduction and spread of the TV,
the pleasure of radio has totally been swept away.
Çıplak ayak-ları-yla alacakaranlık-ta uzaklaş-tı gitti.
In her bare feet she vanished in the darkness.
Köy-ümüz de ortadan kalk-tı, yok ol-up, iz-ler-i de silin-di gitti.
And our village ceased to exist, disappeared, no trace of it is left.
On-un aile-sin-i unut-tu-k gitti. (biz)
We have totally forgotten his family.
Yoksa yan-dı-nız git-ti de-di ve ceb-in-den bir banknot çıkar-dı. (siz)

‘Otherwise you are totally done for,’ he said, and took a banknote out of his pocket.
Ses-lerin-i kıs-ıp, def ol-du-lar gitti. (onlar)
They lowered their voices and totally disappeared.
For the third person singular this type of construction can also be interpreted as a direct
sequence of actions (see sections 27.1.2–27.1.4), as it can be expressed by –(y)Ip as well.
Nihayet kalk-tı git-ti. / Nihayet kalk-ıp git-ti.

At last she rose to her feet and went away.
Orhan açık kalmış kapı-dan çık-tı (/ çık-ıp) git-ti.
Orhan went through the door, which was open, and left.
For other grammatical persons an appropriate suffix is required. Compare:
Ara-mız-da hiçbir şey geç-me-miş gibi kalk-tı-m (/ kalk-ıp) git-ti-m.

As if nothing had passed between us, I rose to my feet and went away.
Öteki-ler çekil-di-ler (/ çekil-ip) git-ti-ler.
The others withdrew and went away.
The resultative nature of these constructions is quite similar to that of those discussed in
section 27.1.4.
30.11.2 Totality 2: –mIş gitmişti + personal suffix
The form –mIş gitmişti + personal suffix pertains to the past and expresses, like the con-
struction discussed in the previous subsection, a certain totality or finality with respect to
the action or event described by the verb.
Öteki olay-lar-ın hepsin-i akşam-a kadar unut-muş gitmişti-m.

All other events I had totally forgotten towards the evening.
Sen de, ağz-ın yarı açık, göz-ler-in yarı kapalı,
dünya-dan geç-miş, dal-mış gitmişti-n.
You too, your mouth half open, your eyes half shut,
were totally disconnected from the world, you had completely dozed off.
Koca-sı Ahmed’in kendi-si köy-ün-de unut=ul-muş gitmişti.
Her husband Ahmed himself was completely forgotten in her village.
Sanki Recep çoktan öl-müş gitmişti.
It was as if Recep had died a long time ago.
Kazan-dık-ları iki yüz lira eri-miş gitmişti.
The two hundred lira they had earned was totally evaporated.
Yoksa çoktan köy-ü bırak-mış gitmişti-k.
Or else we had left the village long ago.
30.11.3 Totality 3: –TI + personal suffix + attı
Another way of expressing totality or finality is by using –TI + personal suffix + attı.
İşte o zaman kız-dı-m, hepsi-yle bağ-ım-ı kopar-dı-m attı.

Look, then I was angry and had totally broken off my relations with everybody.
Kar, her zaman var olan yanık lastik koku-sun-u sil-di attı.
The snow has totally wiped out the always-present smell of burnt rubber.
When attı is followed by a personal suffix, it has the literal meaning ‘to cast away’:
Yazı-nın son-un-u gönder-mi-yor-um, yırt-tı-m ( / yırt-ıp ) at-tı-m.

I am not sending the end of the article, I have torn it apart and thrown away.
Duvar-lar-da-ki resim-ler-in hepsin-i kes-ti-k ( / kes-ip ) at-tı-k.
We cut all pictures on the walls up and threw them away.
The next example is a variant of these:
Bak-tı-m, bun-lar hepsin-i sök-müş at-mış-lar.

I saw that they had dismantled and thrown away everything.
30.11.4 Totality 4: –TI geçti
Forms in –TI geçti in the sense of totality, finality, or completeness mostly occur with the
third person singular:
Yağmur-lar yağ-dı geçti.

The rains are all over.
Ateş yan-dı geçti.
The fire burned out.
Bütün ömr-ü gel-di geçti.
His whole life is over.
Şimdi aradan sene-ler gel-di geçti.
Now in the meantime the years have completely passed by.
Altıncı oyun-da ise hata-lar-ı affet-me-yerek Kasparov’u ez-di geçti.
And in the sixth match he mercilessly smashed Kasparov entirely.
As was advanced in section 30.10.2, the meaning element of ‘to pass through’ in the sense of
‘penetrate’ is in many cases conveyed by geçti:
Sel ev-i del-di geç-ti.

The flood streamed into the house.
Bir viraj-ı dön-er-ken karşı-dan gel-en bir TIR,

otobüs-ü sol tarafından biç-ti geç-ti.
A truck, coming out of a bend from the other direction
ran into the left-hand side of the bus.
Yeğen-im öyle bir bakış bak-tı ki, yüreğ-im-i del-di geç-ti san-dı-m.
My niece looked at me in such a way, as if it pierced my heart, I thought.
Since one of the meanings of geçmek is ‘to pass’, certain combinations have the connotation
of shortness or fleetingness.
Es-ti geç-ti, ciddi-ye al-mı-yor-um.

It blew over, I don’t take it seriously.
Ad-ın-ı duy-unca ürper-di-m, göz-ler-im-i sanki yakıcı bir yel yala-dı geç-ti.
When I heard her name I shivered, as if a burning wind brushed (touched
and went past) my eyes.
Kafa-sın-dan da gene o pirinç parıltı-sı şimşek gibi parla-dı geç-ti.
And from his head flared again this sparkle of brass like a flash of lightning.
In similar combinations in which a personal suffix follows geçti, the meaning ‘to pass’ is the
first matter of importance. The preceding verb indicates what happens ‘in passing’ and in
this way the entire construction gets its overall meaning. Thus, gül-dü-x geç-ti-x can be
understood as ‘to laugh while passing’ or ‘to find ridiculous’, and çiğne-di-x geç-ti-x as
‘to trample / overrun in passing’ or ‘to neglect, disregard’. Variants of these forms are: gül-üp
geçmek and çiğne-yip geçmek.
Önce böyle söyle-yen-ler-e gül-dü-m geç-ti-m.

At first I found people who speak like this too ridiculous to bother about.
Baba-m-ı üz-dü-n, anne-m-i incit-ti-n, ağabey-im-i çiğne-di-n geç-ti-n.
You upset my father, you hurt my mother, you neglected my brother.
30.11.5 Idiomatic formations
The combinations gelmiş geçmiş and görmüş geçirmiş have idiomatic meanings: ‘ever / of all
times’ and ‘experienced / seasoned’ respectively.
Gerilim tür-ün-ün gelmiş geçmiş en büyük usta-sı Hitchcock‘tır.

The greatest master ever of the thriller genre is Hitchcock.
Genç erkek-ler-e düşkün, görmüş geçirmiş, orta yaşlı kadın-lar var-dı.
There were experienced middle-aged women, fond of young men.
30.11.6 Inclination 1: –(y)EcEK + possessive + gel-
An inclination or a (suddenly emerging) feeling of wanting something can be expressed

by the combination –(y)EcEK + possessive suffix + gel-. The verb gel- occurs always
in its third person singular form and the subject of the dependent verb takes the
genitive.
Ev-in-i çok gör-eceğ-im gel-di.

I really felt like seeing her house.
Ne kadar unutkan ol-duğ-un-u gör-dükçe gül-eceğ-im gel-iyor!
When I see how forgetful she is, I feel like laughing!
Öyle sevin-di-m ki, gid-ip boyn-un-a sarıl-acağ-ım gel-di.
I felt so happy that I really could embrace him.
Ban-a öyle bir bakış fırlat-tı ki, on-un yap-tığ-ın-a inan-acağ-ım gel-di.
She looked at me in such a way that I started believing that she had done it.
İnan-acağ-ım gel-me-di.
I wouldn’t believe it.
Fakat akşam dön-düğ-üm zaman, kafa-m-ı yatakhane-nin duvar-ın-a
çarp-arak parçala-yacağ-ım gel-iyor-du.
But as I returned that evening, I felt like banging and crushing my head
against the wall of the dormitory.
Patron-un her gün-kün-den daha erken gel-eceğ-i gel-di.
The boss began to suddenly show up earlier every day.
With the word insan in subject position of this construction, the whole gets an impersonal
interpretation and insan can be translated as ‘one’ or ‘you’.
Böyle şey-ler gör-ünce insan-ın kus-acağ-ı gel-iyor, ama.

Yet one gets the feeling of puking when seeing such things.
İnsan-ın ‘Acaba bir İstanbul köşe-sin-e Lenin’in büst-ün-ü koy-sa-k mı?’, di-yeceğ-i gel-ir.
One would like to say ‘Should we then not place a bust of Lenin somewhere
here in Istanbul?’
Gerçekten, bu dayanılmaz görünüm-den kaç-mak için, insan-ın ev-in-e gir-ip
kapan-acağ-ı, kapı-lar-ı, pencere-ler-i sımsıkı ört-eceğ-i gel-iyor-du.
Really, in order to escape from this unbearable scene, you would want to lock
yourself up in your house and shut the doors and windows tight.
30.11.7 Inclination 2: –(y)EsI + possessive + gel-
A variant of this future-based construction is –(y)EsI + possessive suffix + gel-. Actually,

forms in –(y)EsI are nouns, a fact which can be inferred from the occurrence of possessive
suffixes for the first and second person singular:
Siz-i dinle-dikçe inan-ası-m gel-iyor.

The more I listen to you, the more I tend to believe you.
Sen-i gör-me-yeli gör-esi-m gel-di.

I have had an increasing desire to see you since the last time I saw you.
Hem öyle güzel yaz-mış ki, gid-ip boyn-un-a sarıl-ası-m gel-di.
And she had also written it so beautifully that I felt like embracing her.
Öyle bir gül-esi-m gel-di ki!—Gül-esi-n gel-di demek!
Then I really had to laugh!—So you had to laugh!
Parmak-lar-ın-ı yi-yesi-n gel-di, değil mi?
You really could have eaten your fingers, couldn’t you?
Şu ol-an-lar-a inan-ası-n gel-iyor mu?
Are you inclined to believe in these happenings?
Selim oğl-umuz-u gör-esi-miz gel-di.
We felt the need to see our son Selim.
Gör-esi-niz gel-mi-yor mu, Halil Bey?
Wouldn’t you like to see it, mister Halil?
However, the third person does not require a possessive suffix:
Helâ-ya gid-esi yok-tu, ama gir-ince de çık-ası gel-me-di.

He didn’t feel like going to the loo, but once he had got inside, he didn’t want
to go out again.
Babaanne-m biz-den ayrıl-dık-tan sonra kendi kendine düşün-müş ve
Hasan’ın biz-e haber vermek için uğra-dığ-ın-a pek inan-ası gel-me-miş.
After my grandmother had left us she gave it a thought and she seemed not
willing to believe that Hasan had visited us to inform us.
İnsan-ın ‘Maşallah’ di-yesi gel-iyor.
One would like to say ‘Wonderful’.
In this type of construction the subject insan can be translated as ‘one’, and sometimes as
‘man’. Compare:
İnsan-ın ‘Keşke dede-ler-imiz-in Şarklı ol-duğ-u kadar biz de Garplılaş-abil-se-ydi-k’

di-yesi gel-iyor.
One would be inclined to say: ‘I wish we could have westernized as much as our
ancestors (‘grandfathers’) have orientalized.’
İnsan-ın şair de ol-ası gel-iyor.
Man wants / needs to be a poet as well.
Negated forms are possible too:
Fakat yap-ası-m gel-mi-yor.

But I don’t feel like doing it.
Bazen sen-in bir insan ol-duğ-un-a inan-ası-m gel-mi-yor.
Sometimes I’m not willing to believe that you are (a) human.
Whereas constructions with gel- describe a process, those with var / yok represent the result
(a state) thereof. For instance:
Pek bir şey yi-yesi-m yok.

I absolutely don’t feel like eating.
Her şey-den kaç-ası-m var-dı, hem de her şey-den.
I felt like running away from everything, surely from everything.
In their quality of adjectival phrases, forms with the unproductive suffix –(y)EsI (a nice
variant is –(y)EsIcE) occur in curses. Hence there are quite a number of idiomatic expressions,
such as: el-i kırıl-ası kadın (may her hand break) ‘that darn woman’; geber-esi herif (may he
die) ‘that damn fellow’; boy-u devril-ası köpek (may he drop dead) ‘that damn dog’; göz-ü
kör ol-asıca çocuk (may his eyes turn blind) ‘that damn child’; ocağ-ı yan-asıca patron-umuz
(may his hearth burn) ‘that damn boss of ours’. Other examples are:
Defol-un, yer-e (dib-in-e) bat-ası yaratık-lar!

You bugger off, damn creatures!
Ara-mız-da yıkıl-ası dağ-lar var.
Between us there are these damned mountains.
How this suffix can be applied in adverbial phrases (with –(y)EsIyE, as in doy-asıya, öl-esiye,
et cetera) has been discussed in section 14.4.6.
30.11.8 Inclination 3: –(y)EcEK + possessive + tut-
An inclination, plan, intention, or decision arising all of a sudden can also be expressed by
the combination –(y)EcEK + possessive suffix + tut-.
Patron-un her gün-kün-den daha erken gel-eceğ-i tut-muş-tu.

The boss had taken it into his head to show up earlier than before (every day).
At-ın-ın huysuzlan-acağ-ı tut-tu.
His horse began suddenly to become unruly (irritable).
Ayşe’nin şimdi-ye kadar baston taşı-dığ-ı gör-ül-me-miş-ti,
bun-a gül-eceğ-im tut-tu.
Up to now Ayşe had never been seen with a cane;
I suddenly felt like laughing at it.
Ne yazık ki, bir başka-sın-ın bu para-yı ver-eceğ-i tut-tu.
What a pity, that now all of a sudden someone else wanted to give that money.
An gel-iyor, ön-ün-de-ki rapor-u gör-me-yeceğ-in tut-uyor.
The moment comes, when all at once you don’t need to see the report (any more).
30.11.9 Collocations
Collocations with a derivable and a non-derivable meaning are very numerous. They consist
of a noun or adjective plus a verb. For a limited number of verbs it will be shown that the
meaning of some collocations may be derived (albeit with a certain ‘quantity of imagination’),
but also that other collocations are idiomatic or lexicalized (and hence, their meaning is
not derivable).
The basic meaning of the verb almak is ‘to get / take / buy’ and these meanings are
transparent in the following expressions: karar almak ‘to take a decision / decide’; fikir
almak ‘to get an idea’; göreve almak (-i) ‘to appoint someone in a job’; hastalık almak ‘to get
a disease’; faiz almak ‘to charge interest’; kilo almak ‘to put on weight’; ucuza almak (-i) ‘to
buy something cheaply’; kuvvet almak (-den) ‘to get strength (from something)’; cesaret
almak (-den) ‘to derive courage (from something)’; ciddiye almak (-i) ‘to take something /
someone seriously’.
The following collocations have a non-derivable meaning: kaleme almak (-i) ‘to put on
paper’; askıya almak (-i) ‘to postpone (a decision etc.)’; öne almak (-i) ‘to prefer’; demir
almak ‘to raise (the) anchor’.
The verb çekmek has a basic meaning of ‘to pull / draw’, as in: ilgi çekmek ‘to draw atten-
tion’ and (bir) yana çekmek ‘to pull aside’, but of ‘to make’ and ‘to send’ in the following
examples: film / fotoğraf çekmek ‘to make / shoot a picture / film’; kopya çekmek ‘to (make a)
copy / xerox’; faks / teleks çekmek (-e) ‘to send a fax / telex-message’; tel / telgraf çekmek (-e)
‘to (send a) cable / telegraph’.
The meaning of ‘to undergo / experience’ underlies the following collocations: hasret
çekmek (-e) ‘to long (for)’; ceza çekmek ‘to be punished’; çile çekmek ‘to undergo an ordeal’;
iç çekmek ‘to sigh / sob’; oh çekmek ‘to take malicious pleasure (in) / gloat (over)’; sopa
çekmek ‘to get a beating (with a stick)’; uyku çekmek ‘to oversleep’; zahmet çekmek ‘to have
trouble’.
Other forms have a strong idiomatic meaning, as in: kafayı çekmek ‘to booze / get
sloshed’; kahve çekmek ‘to grind coffee (beans)’; kanı çekmek (-e) ‘to resemble (in looks)’;
sinyal çekmek ‘to give a signal’.
Also, atmak ‘to throw / cast / fling / hurl / toss’ is frequently found as the ‘carrier’ of
collocations: for expressions such as hapse atmak (-i) ‘to throw someone in jail’; kaşık
atmak ‘to eat quickly / gobble up one’s food’; göbek atmak ‘to belly-dance’; mektup atmak ‘to
send off a letter’; postaya atmak (-i) ‘to put something in the post’; suç atmak (-e) ‘to blame
someone for something’; çamur atmak ‘to sling mud’ the overall meaning can be more or
less guessed.
This is not the case with the following series: geriye atmak (-i) ‘to postpone / put off ’; gol
atmak ‘to make a goal’; imza atmak (-e) ‘to sign’; laf atmak (-e) ‘to make an inappropriate
remark’; ortaya atmak (-i) ‘to suggest / propose’; ayak atmak (-e) ‘to be somewhere for the
first time’; poz atmak ‘to assume an attitude / pose’; slogan atmak ‘to yell slogans’; mantar
atmak ‘to tell lies’; yalan atmak ‘to lie’.
The meaning of ‘to regard as / consider’ for görmek comes clearly to the fore in: yarar
görmek ‘to regard as useful’; rüya görmek ‘to dream’; rüyasında görmek (-i) ‘to dream of some-
one’; layık görmek (-i, -e) ‘to find something / someone appropriate / suitable / enough’; lüzum
görmek (-e) ‘to deem something necessary’; hoş görmek (-i) ‘to be tolerant of / condone’; uygun
görmek (-i) ‘to approve / find something acceptable’.
On the other hand, the meaning of ‘to undergo / experience’ is found in: hasar görmek
‘to suffer damage’; itibar görmek ‘to be respected / in demand’; iyilik görmek ‘to be treated
with kindness or generosity’; kurs görmek ‘to take a course / lesson(s)’; tahsil görmek ‘to get
an education’; tamir görmek ‘to be repaired’; tedavi görmek ‘to get therapy’; terbiye görmek
‘to be taught (good) manners’; zam görmek ‘to be increased in price / to get an increase in
wages / pay ‘; zarar görmek ‘to suffer a loss’; âdet görmek ‘to menstruate’; ceza görmek ‘to
serve a sentence’.
To the verb çıkmak a fair number of meanings can be assigned as well: ‘to go out / to get
out / to emerge / to appear’ and the like. Compare: alışverişe çıkmak ‘to go shopping’;
karaya çıkmak ‘to get ashore’; ava çıkmak ‘to go hunting’; seyahate çıkmak ‘to go travelling’
with lexicalized forms such as: haklı çıkmak ‘to turn out that one is (in the) right’; haksız
çıkmak ‘to prove to be unjust’; yalan çıkmak ‘to turn out to be false (not true)’; boşa çıkmak
‘to turn out to be worthless / in vain’ and: açığa çıkmak ‘to be fired / become known’; ortaya
çıkmak ‘to appear / be brought to light’.
31
Formation of adjectives and nouns
With three lexical categories—noun, adjective, verb—there are nine theoretical derivational
pathways for a transition of an item from one category to another. How adjectives are
made from nouns and conversely, as well as how category-internal operations are carried
out, is shown in sections 31.1 and 31.2. The section ‘Other formations’ (31.3) gives an over-
view of various unproductive formations for which it is useful to know how they relate
to the words they have been derived from. Because of its recursive nature the process
of nominal compounding (section 31.4) is a particularly powerful derivational device.
In section 31.5 some special attention is given to derivatives and the use of geographical
names, names of nations, peoples, etc. The Persian izafet / ezafe construction is dealt with
in section 31.6, especially because this construction is abundantly present in the older
literature. The final three sections discuss and illustrate the formation and usage of three
types of deverbal noun.
In this chapter the following abbreviations are used: N for noun, A for adjective, and V
for verb. Derivational paths are indicated as N → A, A → A, and V → A.
31.1 Adjectives
Adjectives are derived from nouns mainly by suffixation (sections 31.1.1–31.1.6). Other
sources are verb stems (sections 31.1.7, 31.1.9), participles (section 31.1.8), adjectives
(sections 31.1.10–31.1.13) and reduplication (sections 31.1.14–31.1.19).
31.1.1 Suffix –sIz
This suffix has the meaning of ‘without’ and –less, as in:
N→A
süt-süz without milk
şeker-siz without sugar
dikkat-siz without attention
ümit-siz hopeless / without hope
gürültü-süz quiet /without noise
palto-suz without a jacket
giysi-siz without clothes on
son-suz endless /without end
The suffix can also be placed after a personal pronoun: sen-siz ‘without you’, on-suz ‘without
him / her / it’, biz-siz ‘without us’.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
444 Formation of adjectives and nouns
31.1.2 Suffix –lI
Added to a noun this suffix forms the opposite of forms in –sIz. It is used in four types of
adjective. First, there are adjectives denoting a concrete property which is related to exist-
ence, presence, or being available.
N→A
süt-lü with milk
(az) şeker-li with (a little) sugar
dikkat-li attentive / with attention / caution
ümit-li hopeful
gürültü-lü noisy
resim-li illustrated / with pictures
bulut-lu clouded / with clouds
küf-lü peynir blue(-veined) cheese; mouldy cheese
bahçe-li bir ev a house with a garden
1 Haziran tarih-li mektub-unuz your letter of 1 June
gül bahçe-li bir ev a house with a rose garden
deniz manzara-lı bir ev a house with a sea view
A word of caution is in place when it comes to forming opposites of constructions which

contain a nominal compound. The first seven examples have clear antonyms, as listed in
section 31.1.1. But a phrase such as küf-lü peynir ‘mould-with cheese’ is ambiguous: it may
stand for a certain type of cheese (containing veins of blue, edible mould), or secondly, it
may indicate some cheese that happens to be affected by mould. Only in the latter sense
will an opposite form such as küf-süz peynir ‘cheese with no mould on it’ make sense. This
problem does not exist for structures such as bahçe-li bir ev ‘a house with a garden’, and
thus, ‘a house with no garden’ is simply bahçe-siz bir ev.
However, when a nominal compound is involved in this type of adjectival derivation,
there is a problem. Consider the following examples with the compound underscored:
gül bahçe-li bir ev a house with a rose garden

deniz manzara-lı bir ev a house with a sea view
Now, indicating the absence of ‘rose garden’ and ‘sea view’ cannot be done by a mere
substitution of the suffix –lI by –sIz, because this yields an ungrammatical construction.
The only way out is to resort to the type of construction to be introduced in section 32.1.2.
gül bahçe-si ol-ma-yan bir ev a house with no rose garden

deniz manzara-sı ol-ma-yan bir ev a house with no sea view
The auxiliary ol-ma-yan is used here for the construction of a so-called existential relative
clause. A structure of this type can be interpreted in two ways. Hence, gül bahçe-si ol-ma-
yan bir ev literally stands for ‘rose garden (its)-not exist-a house’ and this can be translated
both as ‘a house which has no rose garden’ or as ‘a house where there is no rose garden’. As
a matter of fact, this boils down to ‘a house with no rose garden’, or ‘a house without a rose
garden’. Some similar text examples are:
31.1 Adjectives 445
Kapı-sı ön-ün-de bir çocuk araba-sı ol-ma-yan bir ev-di.

It was a house without a pram at the front door.
Adam, operasyon ve saha tecrübe-si ol-ma-yan bir kişi-dir.
The man is someone (a person) without operational and field experience.
Secondly, the suffix –lI produces also adjectives denoting an abstract property:
akıl reason / wisdom → akıl-lı wise

rahmet God’s mercy → rahmet-li deceased
paha price → paha-lı pricy / expensive
hız speed → hız-lı speedy / fast
yaş age → yaş-lı aged
siyah black → siyah-lı dressed in black
beyaz white → beyaz-lı dressed in white
kir dirt → kir-li dirty / filthy
kilo kilogramme → kilo-lu too heavy / obese
The word ne ‘what’ can occur with the suffix –lI as well and in this way it has obtained the
meaning ‘what kind of / with what on it’.
Tost-un ne-li ol-sun?

What should there be in your toasted sandwich?
/ What kind of toasted sandwich do you want?
Şu kocaman pasta ne-li?
What kind of big cake / pie is that?
/ What’s in that big cake / pie?
Starting out with a certain word stem, a derived word with –lI is not always the antonym
of the derivation in –sIz. One of the two derived forms often has a special meaning which
is not related to the supposed counterpart: evli ‘married’—evsiz ‘homeless’; pahalı
‘expensive’—pahasız ‘priceless’; düzenli ‘orderly / tidy’—düzensiz ‘unsystematic’. This differ-
ence is also demonstrated by the following example:
Önünde ılık, su-lu bir fincan kahve dur-uyor-du.

Before him stood a lukewarm cup of weak (‘watery’) coffee.
In a number of cases there is a non-related word that forms the antonym: evli ‘married’—
bekar ‘single’; düzenli ‘tidy’—dağınık ‘untidy / messy’; pahalı ‘expensive’—ucuz ‘cheap’; yaşlı
‘aged’—genç ‘young’; hızlı ‘fast’—yavaş ‘slow’; kilolu ‘too heavy’—zayıf ‘lean / weak’; kirli
‘dirty’—temiz ‘clean’.
Nouns modified by an adjective can take the suffix –lI to form another adjective:
(uzun boy)-lu tall

(geniş omuz)-lu broad-shouldered
(orta yaş)-lı middle-aged
(güler yüz)-lü pleasant / warm / cordial
Thirdly, with nouns denoting a place, the notion of ‘(originating) from’ is expressed:
köy-lü villager
şehir-li city dweller / townsman
Afrika-lı African
İstanbul-lu Istanbulite
Hollanda-lı Netherlander / Dutchman
Türkiye-li someone from Turkey
uzay-lı an extraterrestrial / an alien
Nereli-siniz?
Where are you from?
Buralı mı-sın?
Are you a local here?
Bun-lar hakkında oralı-lar daha çok şey-ler söyle-r-ler.
The people from that place say many more things about all this.
Fourthly, this suffix is also applied in expressions of age (see section 11.8):
Elli-li yaş-lar-ın-da bir adam-dı.

He was a man in his fifties.
Yirmi-li yaş-lar-ın-ın son-un-da-sın.
You are in your late twenties.
Kadın-lar ise otuz-lu yaş-ların-ın orta-lar-ın-da ve
kırk-lı yaş-ların-ın baş-ların-da zina faaliyet-lerin-in doruğ-un-a eriş-iyor-du.
And women reached the peak of their adulterous activities when they were
in their mid-thirties and early forties.
The fifth meaning is found in sayings of the type: okul-lu çocuk-lar ‘school-going children’,
lise-li kız-ı ‘her daughter who goes to the secondary school’, and üniversite-li genç-ler ‘the
youngsters studying at the university’, yatı-lı öğrenci ‘boarding student’.
31.1.3 Suffix –lIk(1)
In section 11.5.4 the application of this suffix was shown in expressions denoting a quantity,
based on a noun modified by a cardinal. By means of this suffix an adjective is formed, as
can be demonstrated by:
yüz yıl-lık ağaç-lar trees (of) a hundred years old

beş saat-lik bir seyahat a journey of five hours
iki ay-lık bir tatil a holiday of two months
üç yüz doksan sayfa-lık bir kitap a 390-page book
Bin metrekare-lik bahçe-si var. He has a garden of 1000 m2.
31.1 Adjectives 447
After a bare cardinal, an expression indicating age is formed:
otuz-luk bir erkek a man in his thirties

altmış-lık bir kadın a woman in her sixties
kırk-lık bir kız a girl in her forties
In a number of cases this suffix turns a noun into an adjective which expresses the idea of
‘intended (for) / good (for) / fit (for)’. For instance:
yaz-lık ve kış-lık giysi-ler summer and winter dresses

hastane-lik ripe for the hospital
hurda-lık good for the scrapheap
mahkeme-lik someone to be tried at court
kira-lık for rent
With nouns denoting a period one can find the following forms:
yıl-lık izin yearly leave / furlough

ay-lık kira monthly rent
hafta-lık dergi weekly magazine
gün-lük gazete daily newspaper
gün-lük yaşam daily life
gün-lük süt / yumurta daily fresh milk / eggs
Attached to nouns which denote something typical of a landscape, the suffix –lIk yields an
adjective meaning ‘(entirely) consisting of ’. In this mode such adjectives are in stark con-
trast with the meaning ‘with’ (see section 31.1.2) of the corresponding adjective in –lI.
kum-lu plaj-lar beaches with some sand

kum-luk plaj-lar sandy beaches
Tuna’nın batak-lı delta-sı the swampy Danube delta
batak-lık bir arazi a piece of land with swamps allover
taş-lı, kaya-lı dağ-lar stony and rocky mountains
Anadolu’nun kaya-lık toprak-lar-ı the rocky / rugged soil of Anatolia
For more nouns formed with –lIk, see sections 31.2.5–31.2.6. Deverbal adjectives and nouns
ending in –lIk are discussed in sections 32.10.8 and 32.10.9.
31.1.4 Suffix –sEl
This suffix turns nouns into adjectives. For example:
N→A
tarih-sel historical
cebir-sel algebraic
kimya-sal chemical
fizik-sel physical
bilim-sel scientific
oran-sal numerical / in terms of percentage
para-sal financial
bitki-sel vegetable / vegetal
evren-sel universal
belge-sel documentary
A small number of derivations have a somewhat deviant form because neither the full base
word nor the full suffix is applied.
öz self → özel special; private

siyaset politics → siyasal political
anayasa constitution → anayasal constitutional
31.1.5 Suffix –î
This is an older suffix, a loanword from Arabic, not productive any more, and found in a
limited nuber of words only. Examples are:
N→A
tarih-î historical
din-î religious
ruh-î mental / spiritual
beden-î physical
ahlak-î moral / ethical
asker-î military
For some words knowledge of Arabic is indispensable in order to discern a word stem in
the derived adjectival form. This is the case in, for instance:
millî national
ciddî serious
resmî official
maddî material
tıbbî medical
şahsî personal / private
It should be noted that some adjectives are preferably formed on the basis of the newer
suffix –sEl and others preferably with the older suffix –î. In fact, it is difficult to indicate what
exactly triggers some preference. The best way to deal with such differences is to assume that
it is a matter of convention which word takes which suffix, and this is corroborated by the
fact that there are many opposed pairs: ahlak-sal kural-lar ‘moral rules’ – ahlak-î görüş-ler-
imiz-e göre ‘our insights into moral matters’; din-î / din-sel neden-ler ‘religious reasons’;
31.1 Adjectives 449
ruh-sal güzellik ‘spiritual beauty’ – ruh-î sulh ‘spiritual peace’; and tarih-î / tarih-sel olay-lar
‘historical events’.
31.1.6 Suffix–(I)msI (1)
After a noun (see section 31.1.13 for adjectives) this suffix expresses similarity and corresponds
to English endings such as –ish, –y, and –like, et cetera.
N→A
bakır-ımsı like copper / ‘copperish’
yağ-ımsı fatty / oily
bilmece-msi mysterious / puzzling
metal-imsi metallic
hardal-ımsı bir sos a mustard-like sauce
salon-umsu bir oda a salon-like room
In the form cam-sı ‘glassy / transparent’ the suffix is shortened to –sı.
31.1.7 Suffix –(y)IcI (1)
This suffix has a threefold function. First, with a verb stem it forms an adjective and secondly,
with nouns it forms nouns denoting an instrument or a profession. The latter two denota-
tions will further be discussed in section 31.2.8. More than half (53%) of the words ending
in –(y)IcI are adjectives. Examples are:
V→A
güldür-mek to make laugh → güldür-ücü ridiculous
ağlat-mak to make cry → ağla-t-ıcı tear-jerking
bunalt-mak to depress → bunalt-ıcı depressing
ak-mak to flow → ak-ıcı fluent
boğ-mak to choke → boğ-ucu suffocating
bulaş-mak to infect → bulaş-ıcı contagious
kal-mak to stay → kal-ıcı permanent
patla-mak to explode → patla-yıcı explosive
geç-mek to pass → geç-ici temporary
31.1.8 Participles
Certain verb forms, known as participles, can be used as adjectives. Here is a short list of
such participles; more details will follow in sections 32.10.4–32.10.7.
V→A
iç-ecek bir şey something to drink
tüken-me-yecek bir kaynak an inexhaustible source
inan-ıl-ma-yacak bir cesaret incredible courage

düşün-ül-eme-yecek bir durum an unthinkable situation
çalış-ır durum-da in a functioning state
değiş-me-z bir şekil-de in an unchanging / unvarying form
güven-il-ir reliable
kaçın-ıl-ma-z inevitable
kullan-ıl-ama-z unusable / useless
bekle-n-me-dik unexpected
bil-in-me-dik unknown
geliş-me-miş undeveloped
gör-ül-me-miş unseen
31.1.9 Suffix –I
Combined with a passive verb stem this suffix yields an adjective with the same meaning as
the past participle forms in –mIş. These will be treated in section 32.10.6. Hence the following
parallelism can be observed:
V→A
as-ıl-ı (as-ıl-mış) hanged / suspended
bas-ıl-ı (bas-ıl-mış) printed
dik-il-i (dik-il-miş) planted / put upright / sown
diz-il-i (diz-il-miş) ordered / lined up
ek-il-i (ek-il-miş) sown
göm-ül-ü (göm-ül-müş) buried / decayed
ölç-ül-ü (ölç-ül-müş) measured
ser-il-i (ser-il-miş) spread out
tak-ıl-ı (tak-ıl-mış) mounted / attached / put on
tart-ıl-ı (tart-ıl-mış) weighed out
yığ-ıl-ı (yığ-ıl-mış) piled up
ört-ül-ü (ört-ül-müş) covered / hidden
sar-ıl-ı (sar-ıl-mış) wrapped up
say-ıl-ı (say-ıl-mış) counted / numbered
yaz-ıl-ı (yaz-ıl-mış) written
For the latter four forms an alternative derivation (analysis) is possible as well, being one
which is based on a noun to which the suffix explained in section 31.1.2 has been attached.
In this way, sarı-lı can be analysed as ‘with a yellow colour / dressed in yellow / jaundice’;
sayı-lı as ‘numbered / counted / limited’; and yazı-lı as ‘with caption / written (e.g. exam)’.
Also baş-ı ört-ül-ü ‘her head is covered’ and baş örtü-lü (compare baş örtü-sü ‘headscarf ’)
are different for the same reason. The word çevr-il-i ‘surrounded (by) / turned (to)’ (see
section 6.7.6) always takes a complement with the instrumental case marker.
31.1 Adjectives 451
31.1.10 Suffix –CE
This stressed suffix has a softening effect on the meanings of adjectives—their modified
meaning can in English be expressed by ‘rather’.
A→A
güzel-ce rather nice
uzun-ca rather long
genç-çe youngish
sıkı-ca rather tight / taut
iyi-ce rather good / well
büyük-çe rather large / a little big
Adverbs also are formed this way:
açık-ça frankly / clearly / openly / plainly

akıllı-ca intelligent / smartly / wisely
deli-ce crazily / madly
gizli-ce secretly / surreptitiously / in a sneaky way
A variant of this suffix is unstressed –CEk and this is synonymous with –CE. A word final k
is deleted before this suffix.
büyü-cek (< büyük) somewhat large / fairly big

çabu-cak (< çabuk) pretty fast
31.1.11 Suffix –CIk (1)
This suffix (along with its variants) intensifies the meaning of a small number of adjectives.
Words ending in a k drop that sound before this suffix.
A→A
sıca-cık (< sıcak) nicely warm
küçü-cük (< küçük) pretty small
alça-cık (< alçak) rather low
ufa-cık (< ufak) very tiny; minuscule
yumuşa-cık (< yumuşak) nicely soft / rather soft
These adjectives also drop the final k when used and inflected as nouns. In the spelling this
is indicated by a yumuşak g, as in: yaz sıcağ-ı ‘summer heat’; en ufağ-ı / en küçüğ-ü ‘the
smallest one’; alçağ-ın bir-i ‘some scoundrel / swine’; en büyüğ-ü ‘the largest one’.
kısa-cık rather short / brief

ince-cik very slender / thin
az-ıcık very few

dar-acık very narrow
genc-ecik (< genç) rather young / very young
Combined with the adverbial suffix –CE of section 31.1.10, the suffix –CIk results in adverbs.
usul-ca-cık very quietly

hemen-ce-cik immediately
kolay-ca-cık very easy
hafif-çe-cik very lightly
yavaş-ça-cık very very slowly
çabu-ca-cık (< çabuk) very quickly
31.1.12 Suffix –(I)mtrak
This partially harmonic suffix and its variant –(I)mtırak denote a semblance and are
attached to adjectives of colour and taste. The stress falls on the last syllable.
A→A
mor-umtrak purplish
yeşil-imtrak greenish
kırmızı-mtrak reddish
kara-mtrak darkish
tatlı-mtrak sweetish
acı-mtrak spicy / bitterish
ekşi-mtrak sourish
31.1.13 Suffix –(I)msI (2)
This suffix denotes a semblance as well when added to adjectives (see section 31.1.6 for
nouns taking this suffix).
A→A
inci-msi thinly
acı-msı with a bitter taste / bitterish
ekşi-msi sourish
kekre-msi somewhat astringent
Sarı-msı diş-ler-in-i gör-dü-m.
I saw his yellowish teeth.
31.1.14 Reduplication 1: doubling the adjective
Another way of expressing an intensified meaning for adjectives is doubling or reduplica-

tion. As was shown in section 14.4.4, reduplicated adjectives occur in combination with
nouns to intensify the meaning of the property expressed by the adjective.
31.1 Adjectives 453
koca koca lokma-lar very big morsels

pırıl pırıl bir dere a very clear stream
üzgün üzgün very sad
Another considerably less frequent form of reduplication is produced by doubling the

adjective after the question particle mI. This has a reinforcing effect on its meaning.
güzel mi güzel very beautiful

âşık mı âşık terribly in love
sıcak mı sıcak very hot
soğuk mu soğuk extremely cold
yüksek mi yüksek enormously tall / high
derin mi derin very deep / profound
31.1.15 Reduplication 2: N1-lI N2-lI
For the formation of adjectival and adverbial constructions there exists a special type of
reduplication: two different nouns are both expanded by the suffix –lI (see section 31.1.2).
In this way expressions are obtained the meaning of which sometimes can, but mostly cannot,
be derived (inferred) on the basis of these two nouns.
irili ufaklı large and small

küçüklü büyüklü small and large
uzunlu kısalı tall and short
inceli kalınlı thin and thick
tatlı tuzlu both sweet and salty
beyazlı mavili (painted) in white and blue
morlu pembeli purple-pink
sarılı morlu with / in yellow and purple
karalı beyazlı in black and white
gümüşlü morlu silvery-purple
evli barklı married with children
gizli kapaklı clandestine / secretly / hidden
akıllı usullü wise / sensible
süslü püslü tarted up / dolled up (with make-up / clothing)
kanlı canlı strong and healthy / robust
güçlü kuvvetli powerful and strong
derli toplu neat / tidy / orderly
senli benli / içli dışlı open and honest / without ulterior motives
kadınlı erkekli grup-lar groups consisting of men and women
altlı üstlü bir ev a house with neighbours above and below
altlı üstlü oda-lar rooms on top of each other
inişli yokuşlu bir yol a road with many slopes
inişli çıkışlı hareket-ler movements up and down
sabahlı akşamlı every morning and every evening
geceli gündüzlü day and night / always / uninterruptedly
yazlı kışlı the whole year through

belli başlı adım-lar the correct steps / measures
ispatlı şahitli proven and witnessed
öksürüklü tıksırıklı sick (someone who coughs and sneezes)
ölçülü biçili carefully calculated / prepared
sazlı sözlü with songs and music
şiddetli öfkeli with violence and anger
şanlı şöhretli renowned and famous
However, there are a number of forms which strongly resemble those in the previous
paragraph. This is so first because some words end in –lI themselves, for instance hayli
‘very / much / rather (much) / quite some’ (as in hayli renkli ‘very colourful’) and denli
‘extremely / very’ (as in denli önemli ‘extremely important’).
Secondly, some of these constructions are based on a noun phrases the first word of
which ends in –lI and should be analysed as an adjective qualifying the second noun:
(sulu göz)-lü with watery eyes

(örgülü saç)-lı with braids
(tatlı ses)-li with a nice / sweet voice
(damalı desen)-li chequered
(çilli yüz)-lü with blotches on the face
(nazlı bakış)-lı with shy / coquettish glances
(yaşlı baş)lı (with an) old-looking (face)
(kaşlı göz)-lü with an attractive face
(etli but)-lu with fleshy buttocks / chubby / obese
(sinirli tavır)-lı with a nervous attitude / facial expression
(köylü yüz)-lü with a peasant’s face
(tatlı su)-lu nehir-ler freshwater rivers
(kanlı el)-li with bloodstained hands
The difference in meaning between tatlı tuzlu kurabiye-ler ‘biscuits which are sweet and
(biscuits which are) salty’ on the one hand, and sulu gözlü çocuklar ‘children with watery
eyes’ on the other, can be clarified by paraphrasing both constructions. The first examples
can be paraphrased as tatlı ve tuzlu kurabiye-ler ‘sweet and salty biscuits’ and the second
one as Çocuk-lar-ın göz-leri sulu ‘The eyes of the children are watery’. Bracketing these
phrases the other way around leads to sheer nonsense: *(tatlı tuz)-lu kurabiye-ler ‘Biscuits
with salt which is sweet’ and *(sulu ve gözlü) çocuklar ‘Children with water and eyes’.
31.1.16 Reduplication 3: N1-sIz N2-sIz
Counterparts of the adjectival and adverbial constructions discussed so far are formed by
two different adjectives to which the suffix –sIz is attached. This system is highly productive,
but it is advisable to consult a (preferably a monolingual) dictionary. A rather modest
selection of examples will suffice here.
sessiz sedasız quiet and calm

kayıtsız şartsız without any condition / unconditionally
31.1 Adjectives 455
kavgasız gürültüsüz without a quarrel or a racket

sorgusuz sualsiz without even asking anything
yersiz yurtsuz homeless / rootless; uprooted
uçsuz bucaksız endless
parasız pulsuz without having / paying a penny
şartsız şurtsuz without any condition
insiz cinsiz desolate
kazasız belasız without problems
tatsız tuzsuz absolutely tasteless / neither fish nor fowl
anasız babasız without parents or relatives
borçsuz harçsız without taking or giving credit
hesapsız kitapsız irresponsible / immoderate / excessive
işsiz güçsüz without having anything to do
kansız cansız tired and weak
selamsız sabahsız without greeting
yolsuz yöntemsiz not done in the proper way
31.1.17 Reduplication 4: N1-lI N2-sIz
Another form of reduplication consists of two identical adjectives, the first of which
gets the suffix –lI, whereas the second one bears the suffix –sIz. The result is an adverbial
phrase.
zamanlı zamansız at (an) inconvenient moment(s)

vakitli vakitsiz at (an) inconvenient moment(s)
mevsimli mevsimsiz (doing something) at the wrong moment
yerli yersiz without any consideration
sıralı sırasız without taking time or place into account
yollu yolsuz (işler) illegal activities / monkey business
nedenli nedensiz ungrounded; without reason
sebepli sebepsiz without a clear reason
lüzumlu lüzumsuz unnecessary / unnecessarily
gerekli gereksiz without any consideration / without reason
ilgili ilgisiz (insan) (people) who have nothing to do with it
belirli belirsiz vague / unclear
belli belirsiz hardly visible / hardly discernable
taraflı tarafsız herkes everyone / be it supporter or opponent
gönüllü gönülsüz half wanted / half unwanted
denli densiz (söz) (to speak) in a disrespectful way
It should be noted that an adjective ending in –sIz followed by one in –lI does not form a
‘mirror image’ of the constructions explained above. In some cases the first word ending in
–sIz is an adjective qualifying the noun that follows, as in (sonsuz ışık)-lı lokanta-lar ‘the
eateries with an infinite number of lights’ and as in (uğur-suz surat)-lı yaşlı adam ‘the old
man with a face that foretells not much good’). In other cases the adjective in –sIz modifies
a noun which is already modified by the adjective in –lI, as in: sayı-sız (köpük-lü dalga)
‘uncountable waves with foam (on top)’.
31.1.18 Syllable reduplication
Yet another widespread mechanism of reduplication is based on copying (a part of) the first
syllable of an adjective and using it as a prefix, an element that comes before the adjective.
Between the copied syllable and the original adjective a consonant, mostly m, p, r, or s, is
inserted, but the exact quality of this consonant cannot be predicted. This implies that such
partially reduplicated forms must be learned by rote. Here are some examples:
ap-açık wide open

bam-başka totally different
bem-beyaz white as a sheet
bom-boş totally empty
çar-çabuk very fast / very quickly
dap-dar very narrow
dos-doğru absolutely right
dop-dolu chock-full
kap-kara pitch-black
kıp-kırmızı crimson / scarlet
kup-kuru bone-dry
küs-kütük dead drunk
mas-mavi deep blue
mos-mor (lurid) purple
sap-sarı canary yellow
tas-tamam totally ready
tap-taze farm-fresh
up-uzun very long
yep-yeni brand-new
yem-yeşil emerald green
In a few number of cases the reduplicated form contains an extra element:
sır-sıklam / sır-ıl-sıklam sopping wet / soaking wet

çır-çıplak / çır-ıl-çıplak stark naked / buck naked
The following formations are the result of a combined application of reduplication and the
suffix discussed in section 31.1.11.
ip-ince-cik very very thin

dap-dar-acık very very narrow
gepe-genc-ecik very young
31.1.19 M-reduplication
The notion of ‘and so on / and suchlike’, et cetera, can be expressed by the mechanism of
m-reduplication (see section 14.4.4). A noun is copied, while an m replaces its initial
31.2 Nouns 457
consonant or is added to its initial vowel, but words with an initial m are of course excluded
from this type of reduplication. Examples are:
Ali gazete mazete oku-ma-z.

Ali never reads newspapers and the like.
Bahçe-lerin-de ağaç mağaç yok ki!
But in their garden there are no trees or anything like that.
Herşey var-dı, köfte möfte, salata malata, gerçekten herşey!
There was everything, meatballs and so on, salad and stuff, really everything!
Bilgisayar-ın-da Windows Mindows yok mu?
Don’t you have Windows or similar stuff on your computer?
Ama . . . —Ama-sı mama-sı yok!
But . . . —No buts!
31.2 Nouns
Nouns are predominantly derived from other nouns (sections 31.2.1–31.2.6), but adding a
plural suffix to an adjective may result in a noun as well (section 31.2.7) and also verb stems
can produce nouns by suffixation (section 31.2.8).
31.2.1 Suffix –CI
This suffix is sometimes referred to as the professional suffix because it often denotes a
profession. This is indeed the case with:
N→N
iş-çi worker
anahtar-cı locksmith
gazete-ci journalist
süt-çü milkman
balık-çı fishmonger
çay-cı tea merchant
antika-cı antique(s) dealer
balon-cu balloon man
kapı-cı doorkeeper / maintenance man
deniz-ci seaman
şarkı-cı singer
gemi-ci seaman
ayakkabı-cı shoemaker
halı-cı carpet trader
tarih-çi historian
hurda-cı scrap-iron dealer
The word neci has been formed in the same way and means not only ‘having the profession;
by profession’, but with oluyor it expresses a certain involvement in a more general sense.
Compare:
Sen-in baba-n neci?

What is your father by profession?
Bu adam neci böyle?
What kind of work does this man do?
O da neci ol-uyor?
And what is it to her? / And what has she to do with it?
Peki, sen neci ol-uyor-sun di-yecek-sin!
Okay, now you will tell us what business it is of yours!
Other nouns, however, denote a property related to the noun they are derived from.
yalan lie → yalan-cı liar

yol road → yol-cu traveller
milliyet nationality → milliyet-çi nationalist
bira beer → bira-cı beer lover
röntgen X-ray → röntgen-ci X-ray specialist
şikâyet complaint → şikâyet-çi complainer
konuşma conversation → konuşma-cı speaker
şaka joke → şaka-cı joker / comedian
dedikodu gossip → dedikodu-cu gossip
The suffix –CI can also be applied to adjectives and this results in a noun:
inat stubborn → inat-çı stubborn person

erken early → erken-ci early person
eski old → eski-ci rag-and-bone man
toptan wholesale → toptan-cı wholesaler
beleş gratis → beleş-çi sponger / parasite
acele hurry → acele-ci a hasty person
31.2.2 Suffix –lIk (2)
This suffix derives abstract nouns from adjectives and will be discussed in further detail in
sections 31.2.5 and 31.2.6. In anticipation of this, but in connection with the suffix explained
in the previous paragraph, a number of examples will be presented here showing how this
suffix can be combined with denotations of profession.
N→N
gazete-ci journalist → gazeteci-lik journalism
kitap-çı book seller → kitapçı-lık book trade / business
31.2 Nouns 459
banka-cı banker → bankacı-lık banking

balık-çı fisherman → balıkçı-lık fishery
aş-çı cook → aşçı-lık profession of cookery
yol-cu traveller → yolcu-luk journey
inat-çı stubborn person → inatçı-lık stubbornness
yalan-cı liar → yalancı-lık mendacity
şaka-cı joker → şakacı-lık joking
futbol-cu football player → futbolcu-luk football
deniz-ci seaman / sailor → denizci-lik shipping
A combination of suffixes, –CI-lIK, strongly resembling the ones discussed here, expresses
together with forms of oynamak ‘to play’ pastimes popular among young children: tren-cilik /
doktor-culuk / kızılderi-cilik / kovboy-culuk / eşkıya-cılık / bakkal-cılık / ev-cilik oynamak ‘to
play trains / doctor / Indians / cowboys / bandits / shops / house’.
31.2.3 Suffix –CIk (2)
Attached to a noun this suffix forms a diminutive, denoting the relative smallness of some-
thing or an affectionate attitude in the speaker.
N→N
elma-cık small apple
masa-cık small table
kere-cik just one time
gece-cik one night
dakika-cik minute
çorba-cık nice soup
Ayşe-cik little Ayşe
kimse-cik no one at all
köpe-cik (< köpek) small dog
bebe-cik (< bebek) sweet baby
sinek-çik small fly / midge
çekirdek-çik small seed
iplik-çik (short) strand of yarn
kulak-çık little ear
kemik-çik small bone
It should be no surprise that such forms, when based on a proper name or a noun denoting
a human or animal and expanded by a possessive suffix, are used as terms of endearment,
particularly in addressing a person. Here is a brief selection:
kardeş-çiğ-im dear brother

anne-ciğ-im dear mother
baba-cığ-ım dear father
yavru-cuğ-um dear child / sweet child
koca-cığ-ım dear husband
karı-cığ-ım dear wife

Sevim’ciğ-im my dear Sevim
Hasan’cığ-ım my dear Hasan
kuzu-cuğ-um my darling / sweet lamb of mine
güneş-çiğ-im my sunshine
It should be noted that this diminutive suffix bears a certain resemblance to the rather
infrequent suffix –CEK, which expresses compassion. In this way there are oppositions such
as kuzu-cuğ-um ‘my sweet lamb’ versus kuzu-cağ-ım ‘my poor lamb’. Compare also yavru-
cuk ‘sweet little thing / darling’ and yavru-cak ‘poor little thing / darling’.
31.2.4 Suffix –CEğIz
The effect of this suffix is that a certain degree of sympathy is expressed towards the referent
of the noun. This suffix is almost exclusively applied to people and animals, although nouns
denoting a place and nouns denoting things people are fond of can get this suffix too.
N→N
adam-cağız (poor) little man
kadın-cağız sweet woman
kız-cağız sweet little daughter
çocuk-çağız sweet little child
hayvan-cağız poor animal
ev-ceğiz sweet little house
el-ceğiz little hand
köy-ceğiz sweet little village
kuş-çağız little bird
can-cağız poor soul
ses-çeğiz timid voice
Words with this suffix can be inflected for possession and case marking, as shown by:
Rahmetli koca-m kendi el-ceğiz-i-yle yap-mış-tı on-u.

My late husband made this with his own hands.
Az ötede dört beş ev-lik köy-ceğiz-imiz-i gör-dü.
A little farther down he saw our sweet little village of four, five houses.
Added to a noun this suffix produces nouns denoting abstract and concrete concepts. Here
follows a series of the abstract category.
N→N
ana mother → ana-lık motherhood
baba father → baba-lık fatherhood
31.2 Nouns 461
çocuk child → çocuk-luk childhood

arkadaş comrade → arkadaş-lık camaraderie
dost friend → dost-luk friendship
düşman enemy → düşman-lık enmity
bekâr bachelor → bekâr-lık bachelorhood
bakire virgin → bakire-lik virginity
Hıristiyan Christian → Hıristiyan-lık Christianity
Yahudi Jew → Yahudi-lik Jewry
milliyetçi nationalist → milliyetçi-lik nationalism
inatçı stubborn → inatçı-lık stubbornness
The following combinations with a noun denote a concrete concept:
tuz salt → tuz-luk salt cellar

biber pepper → biber-lik pepper pot
şeker sugar → şeker-lik sugar bowl
kömür coal → kömür-lük coal-shed
odun firewood → odun-luk firewood store
göz eye → göz-lük pair of glasses
sinek fly → sinek-lik flypaper / fly-swatter
Formation with an adjective can be illustrated by:
lâzım necessary → lâzım-lık chamber pot

gerek necessary → gerek-lik need / necessity
Some of the forms dealt with in section 31.1.3 are also used as substantives:
zeytin olive → zeytin-lik olive grove

batak swamp → batak-lık swampy area
dağ mountain → dağ-lık mountainous area
orman wood / forest → orman-lık forested area
kaya rock → kaya-lık rocky area
taş stone → taş-lık stony area
Added to a cardinal number this suffix yields nouns such as: beş-lik, onluk, yirmi-lik, elli-lik,
yüz-lük, et cetera, meaning ‘a banknote of 5 X (a fiver), 10 X (a tenner), 20 X, 50 X, 100 X
and the like.
This suffix turns an adjective into an abstract noun, as shown by:
A→N
iyi good → iyi-lik goodness / favour
güzel beautiful → güzel-lik beauty
kolay easy → kolay-lık something easy

zor difficult → zor-luk difficulty
aç hungry → aç-lık hunger
Also, derived adjectives ending in –sIz or –lI (see sections 31.1.1–31.1.2) can take –lIk and
this produces beautiful abstract nouns:
nemli-lik humidity
kirli-lik pollution
geçerli-lik validity
dikkatli-lik caution
dikkatsiz-lik inattentiveness
adaletsiz-lik injustice
dengesiz-lik unbalance
sessiz-lik silence
düşüncesiz-lik thoughtlessness
güvensiz-lik insecurity
isteksiz-lik listlessness / apathy
itaatsiz-lik disobedience
tecrübesiz-lik inexperience
ümitsiz-lik hopelessness
31.2.7 Suffix –lEr
Adding a plural suffix to an adjective leads to broadening its meaning to a more general
sense. This holds particularly for adjectives ending in –lI.
A→N
hasta sick → hasta-lar patients / the sick
genç young → genç-ler youth / young people
büyük big / large → büyük-ler adults / grown-ups
yaralı injured → yaralı-lar the wounded
yaşlı old → yaşlı-lar old people
yetkili qualified → yetkili-ler the authorities
şüpheli doubtful → şüpheli-ler the suspects
31.2.8 Suffix –(y)IcI (2)
This suffix has a threefold function. First, attached to a verb stem it forms nouns denoting
an instrument or profession and, secondly, it forms adjectives, as has been discussed in
section 31.1.7.
Nouns denoting an instrument (or tool, device, remedy) represent around 25% of the
whole lexical stock and nouns denoting a profession (or occupation) around 20%. In many a
case the basic verb is transitive. Examples of the first group are:
V→N
al-ıcı receiver
ver-ici transmitter
dondur-ucu freezer
ısıt-ıcı heater
kurut-ucu dryer
soğut-ucu cooler
yaz-ıcı printer
havalandır-ıcı ventilator
kustur-ucu emetic
uyuştur-ucu anaesthetic / narcotic
Examples of nouns denoting a profession (or occupation) are:
at-ıcı marksman
bile-yici knife grinder
dağıt-ıcı distributor
bak-ıcı babysitter
sun-ucu presenter / host
al-ıcı buyer / client
sat-ıcı salesperson / seller
sür-ücü driver / chauffeur
koş-ucu runner
dolandır-ıcı swindler / crook
araştır-ıcı investigator / researcher
eleştir-ici critic
31.3 Other formations
The suffixes discussed in the previous sections are all productive. This means that a word can
relatively easily be extended by any of these suffixes to create a new word. Apart from these
productive formations there are some series of nouns and adjectives, all with a suffix of their
own, which are derived from a verbal stem. These suffixes have in the course of time become
unproductive. This implies that they cannot be applied any more to derive new formations.
In several Turkish grammar books an attempt has been made to generalize over certain
types of formation on the basis of what the resulting word denotes (for instance, action,
result of some action, instrument, and the like), but it is striking that such classifications
actually do not hold, because within each group of words with a certain suffix derived
forms can be found denoting some action, result, or instrument. In this way, it is impossible
to determine the relationship between the meaning of some derivation and its suffix. On
the other hand, the semantic relation between the original input word and its derivation is
not always transparent. Again: the reader should consult a good dictionary. The situation is
not much different for two minor groups of adjectives derived from verbs and a group of
nouns being derived from another noun.
In the subsections 31.3.1–31.3.3 a number of sizeable groupings of unproductive formations
is represented. This listing is, however, not exhaustive; smaller groups of a few members
only do exist but are not included. The following derivations can be distinguished: V → N
(section 31.3.1), V → A (section 31.3.2), and in section 31.3.3 some formations are discussed
which lead to nouns as well as adjectives. The final section, 31.3.4, is on nouns and adjectives
which derive from short sentences.
For the sake of convenience, verb stems are represented as ending in a hyphen (-).
31.3.1 Verb to noun
Suffix –I. kok-u ‘smell / odour’ (< kok- ‘to smell / stink’); kork-u ‘angst / fear’ (< kork- ‘to
fear’); koş-u ‘race’ (< koş- ‘to run / race’); öl-ü ‘dead body’ (< öl- ‘to die’); ölç-ü ‘measurement /
size’ (< ölç- ‘to measure’); öner-i ‘proposal’ (< öner- ‘to propose’); say-ı ‘number’ (< say- ‘to
count’); sor-u ‘question’ (< sor- ‘to ask’); yap-ı ‘structure / build’ (< yap- ‘to make / build’).
Suffix –gI / –kI. alış-kı ‘habit’ (< alış- ‘to get used to’); as-kı ‘(cloth) hanger’ (< as- ‘to
hang’) (compare: kol askı-sı ‘sling / bandage’); dış-kı ‘excrement / droppings’ (this word has
possibly been formed in analogy to the words listed above, for a verb stem such as *dış-mak
does not exist); dol-gu ‘filler’ (< dol- ‘to fill / become full’); duy-gu ‘feeling’ (< duy- ‘to hear /
feel / sense’); iç-ki ‘alcoholic beverage’ (< iç- ‘to drink’); kat-kı ‘contribution / addition’ (< kat-
‘to add’); ser-gi ‘exhibition’ (< ser- ‘to spread’ (e.g. something on the floor); sev-gi ‘love /
affection’ (< sev- ‘to love / like’); sor-gu ‘interrogation’ (< sor- ‘to ask’); vur-gu ‘accent / stress’
(< vur- ‘to strike’).
Suffix –(I)ntI. al-ıntı ‘loaned word or phrase’ (< al- ‘to take’); bağla-ntı ‘connection’ (< bağla-
‘to bind / tie / connect’); bekle-nti ‘expectation’ (< bekle- ‘to wait / expect’); bul-untu ‘find’
(< bul- ‘to find’); gez-inti ‘trip / journey’ (< gez- ‘to travel around / visit’); kal-ıntı ‘leftover /
remainder / wreck’ (< kal- ‘to stay / remain’); kes-inti ‘interruption / amount withheld’ (< kes-
‘to cut / withhold’).
Suffix –TI. alın-dı ‘receipt’ (< alın- ‘to be taken’); bağlan-tı ‘connection’ (< bağlan- ‘to be
connected’); beklen-ti ‘expectation’ (< beklen- ‘to be expected’); çık-tı ‘output’ (< çık- ‘to go
out’); gir-di ‘input’ (< gir- ‘to enter’); ver-di ‘rate of flow (liquid)’ (< ver- ‘to give’).
Suffix –ç / –Inç. bilin-ç ‘consciousness’ (< bilin- ‘to know oneself ’); sevin-ç ‘joy’ (< sevin- ‘to
be joyful / happy’); inan-ç ‘belief ’ (< inan- ‘to believe’); kazan-ç ‘profit / yield / benefit’
(< kazan- ‘to win / earn’); diren-ç ‘resistance’ (< diren- ‘to resist’); utan-ç ‘shame / modesty)’
(< utan- ‘to feel ashamed’); bas-ınç ‘(physical) pressure’ (< bas- ‘to press’); iğren-ç ‘loathsome /
disgusting’ (< iğren- ‘to loathe / disgust’); kork-unç ‘terrible / fearful’ (< kork- ‘to fear’); gül-ünç
‘ridiculous’ (< gül- ‘to laugh’).
Suffix –(E)k. bat-ak ‘swamp’ (< bat- ‘to sink’); dur-ak ‘bus stop / tram stop, etc.’ (< dur-
‘to stop / halt’); gevşe-k ‘slack / relaxed / soft’ (< gevşe- ‘to get loose / slacken / become lax’);
kaç-ak ‘refugee / contraband’ (< kaç- ‘to flee’); kork-ak ‘fearful / timid / coward’ (< kork- ‘to
fear’); otur-ak ‘low stool / seat in a rowing-boat / chamber pot’ (< otur- ‘to sit down’); ölç-ek
‘scale / unit of measure / criterion’ (< ölç- ‘to measure’); sap-ak ‘crossroad’ (< sap- ‘to turn
off ’); tara-k ‘comb’ (< tara- ‘to comb’); uç-ak ‘aeroplane’ (< uç- ‘to fly’); ürk-ek ‘easily startled
and timid person’ (< ürk- ‘to start / shy / take fright’); yat-ak ‘bed’ (< yat- ‘to lie down’).
Suffix –(y)Im. öl-üm ‘death’ (< öl- ‘to die’); iç-im ‘sip / drink’ (< iç- ‘to drink’); dök-üm
‘casting /detailed presentation / inventory / (hair) loss’ (< dök- ‘to pour’); bat-ım ‘sunset’
(< bat- ‘to sink’); ilet-im ‘conduction / transfer’ (< ilet- ‘to pass / conduct / transfer’); kes-im
‘slaughter’ (< kes- ‘to slaughter’); dur-um ‘situation / state’ (< dur- ‘to stop / stand’); dil-im
‘slice’ (< dil- ‘to slice’); kes-im ‘region / section’ (< kes- ‘to cut (out)’); tad-ım ‘taste’ (< tat- ‘to
taste / experience a certain taste’); yud-um ‘swallow / gulp / sip’ (< yut- ‘to swallow’); de-yim
‘saying / idiom / expression / phrase’ (< de- ‘to say’); kes-im ‘cut / make (tailoring)’ (< kes- ‘to
cut’); yar-ım ‘half ’ (< yar- ‘to cleave / split’).
Suffix –IşIm. There are deverbal (derived from a verb) nouns which prima facie end
in –IşIm. But it is well-known that appearances are deceptive: on closer inspection three
different constellations can be distinguished.
First, there are nouns in which, albeit with some imagination, a reflexive stem (see
section 30.5) can be discerned to which the suffix –Im is attached. Examples are: ayr-ış-ım
‘disjunction / degradation’ (< ayr-ış- ‘to separate / dissociate’); bak-ış-ım ‘symmetry’
(<bak-ış- ‘to look at one another’); ilet-iş-im ‘communication / transmission’ (< ilet-iş- ‘to
communicate with one another’); yığ-ış-ım ‘conglomerate’ (< yığ-ış- ‘to pile up’); uyuş-um
‘agreement / correspondence’ (< uyuş- ‘to agree / correspond’).
Secondly, there are (lexicalized) verbs with a stem itself ending in –Iş. This suffix does not
have any contribution to its overall meaning—which is mostly not even derivable. From
such verbs nouns are formed by attaching –Im, as in: dönüş-üm ‘conversion / transformation /
rotation / cycle’ (< dönüş- ‘to transform / convert’); geçiş-im ‘osmosis / incorporation’
(< geçiş- ‘to mix / blend’); geliş-im ‘progression / development’ (< geliş- ‘to progress /
develop’); giriş-im ‘attempt / initiative / approach’ (< giriş- ‘to attempt / undertake /
approach’); karış-ım ‘mixture / composite’ (< karış- ‘to mix’); kavuş-um ‘conjunction’ (< kavuş-
‘to come together’); oluş-um ‘formation / development / occurrence’ (< oluş- ‘to form’);
yetiş-im ‘upbringing (< yetiş- ‘to grow’).
Thirdly, there are derivations which are apparently modelled after other words, by directly
adding –IşIm, because an ‘intermediate’ stem is nonexistent. For words such as bildiriş-im
‘communication / information’ (< bildir- ‘to inform / notify / report’); bil-işim ‘informatics /
data processing’ (< bil- ‘to know’); çağr-ışım ‘association / connotation’ (< çağır- ‘to call / evoke
/ invoke’) corresponding stems such as *bildiriş- / *biliş- en *çağrış- do not exist.
Suffix –Ik. A noun formed by a transitive verb stem plus –Ik denotes a thing (resulting
object or product); for instance: ısır-ık ‘bite / mouthful’ (< ısır- ‘to bite’); kır-ık ‘fragment /
piece’ (< kır- ‘to break’); osur-uk ‘fart’ (< osur- ‘to break wind’); öksür-ük ‘cough’ (< öksür- ‘to
cough’); yar-ık ‘split / cleft / fissure / slit’ (< yar- ‘to split / cleave’).
31.3.2 Verb to adjective
Suffix –Ik. Transitive verb stems to which this suffix has been attached are derivations
denoting a result in the form of an adjective.
This type of word indicates a state (property as a result of some event); for instance: aç-ık
‘open’ (< aç- ‘to open’); boğ-uk ‘muffled’ (< boğ- ‘to choke / suffocate’); boz-uk ‘broken / off
(perishable goods)’ (< boz- ‘to spoil / ruin’); eğ-ik ‘bent (down) / slanted’ (< eğ- ‘to bow /
bend’); kes-ik ‘cut off / off / curdled (milk)’ (< kes- ‘to cut’); kır-ık ‘broken / fragmented’ (< kır-
‘to break’); yar-ık ‘split / cleft / cloven’ (< yar- ‘to split / cleave’); yık-ık ‘demolished / ruined’
(< yık- ‘to ruin’); yırt-ık ‘torn / ripped’ (< yırt- ‘to tear / rip’).
Intransitive verb stems expanded by the suffix –Ik also denote a state: bat-ık ‘sunk /
submerged’ (< bat- ‘to sink’); buruş-uk ‘puckered / wrinkled’ (< buruş- ‘to become puckered /
wrinkled’); düş-ük ‘low / fallen’ (< düş- ‘to fall’); sark-ık ‘pendulous / drooping’ (< sark- ‘to
hang down’); sol-uk ‘withered’ (< sol- ‘to wither’); yan-ık ‘burnt’ (< yan- ‘to burn’).
Note: When the event (action or process) described by the verb deserves more emphasis
than its result (state or product), the passive stem of a transitive verb receives the participle
in –mIş (see sections 31.1.9 and 32.10.6). In this way many formations parallel with those
of the previous paragraph can be found. For instance: aç-ıl-mış ‘opened’ (< aç- ‘to open’);
boğ-ul-muş ‘smothered / choked / muffled’ (< boğ- ‘to choke / suffocate’); boz-ul-muş ‘broken
/ off (perishable goods)’ (< boz- ‘to spoil / ruin’); eğ-il-miş ‘bent (down) / slanted’ (< eğ- ‘to
bow / bend’); kes-il-miş ‘cut off / off /curdled (milk)’ (< kes- ‘to cut’); kır-ıl-mış ‘broken /
fragmented’ (< kır- ‘to break’); yar-ıl-mış ‘split / cleft / cloven’ (< yar- ‘to split / cleave’); yık-
ıl-mış ‘demolished / ruined’ (< yık- ‘to ruin’); yırt-ıl-mış ‘torn / ripped’ (< yırt- ‘to tear / rip’).
In the case of intransitive verbs the participle –mIş is attached right after the stem:
bat-mış ‘sunk / submerged’ (< bat- ‘to sink’); buruş-muş ‘puckered / wrinkled’ (< buruş- ‘to
become puckered / wrinkled’); düş-müş ‘low / fallen’ (< düş- ‘to fall’); sark-mış ‘pendulous /
drooping’ (< sark- ‘to hang down’); sol-muş ‘withered’ (< sol- ‘to wither’); yan-mış ‘burnt’
(< yan- ‘to burn’).
Suffix –gIn / –kIn. This type of adjective is mostly referred to as resultative. For example:
bık-kın ‘sick / disgusted / bored’ (< bık- ‘to be disgusted / be tired of / get bored’); kes-kin
‘sharp / cutting / biting’ (< kes- ‘to cut / interrupt / disconnect’); dur-gun ‘still / stagnant / calm /
static’ (< dur- ‘to stop / cease / stand’); dol-gun ‘plump / filled / stuffed’ (< dol- ‘to fill / swell /
become full’); ger-gin ‘tense / strained / tight / nervous’ (< ger- ‘to stress / tighten / extend’);
sol-gun ‘faded / pale / wilted / anaemic’ (< sol- ‘to wither / wane / fade / wear away’); yor-gun
‘tired / weary / exhausted’ (< yor- ‘to tire’); sus-kun ‘silent / dumb / speechless’ (< sus- ‘to keep
quiet / shut up’); bit-kin ‘worn out / weary / beaten’ (< bit- ‘to finish / end’); şaş-kın ‘confused /
puzzled / bewildered’ (< şaş- ‘to be amazed / astonished’); belir-gin ‘distinct / explicit /
apparent’ (< belir- ‘to appear / become visible / emerge’); düş-kün ‘fond / addicted / devoted’
(< düş- ‘to fall / drop / plunge’); alış-kın ‘accustomed / used to’ (< alış- ‘to get used to’); seç-kin
‘exquisite / choice / eligible’ (< seç- ‘to choose / select / pick’); değiş-kin ‘modified’ (< değiş- ‘to
change’); geliş-kin ‘advanced’ (< geliş- ‘to develop’); piş-kin ‘well-cooked / ripe / hard-boiled’
(< piş- ‘to be cooked / boil / ripen’); yetiş-kin ‘grown up / full-grown / skilled’ (< yetiş- ‘to grow’).
31.3.3 Verb to noun / adjective
Suffix –TEş. The majority of these formations denote a person. For instance: din-daş ‘fellow
believer / co-religionist’ (< din ‘religion / faith’); duygu-daş ‘sympathizer’ (< duygu ‘feeling’);
meslek-taş ‘co-worker / colleague’ (< meslek ‘profession / trade’); vatan-daş ‘compatriot / citizen’
(< vatan ‘native country’); âşık-taş ‘beloved (person)’ (< âşık ‘in love’); arka-daş ‘friend /
colleague’ (< arka ‘reverse side’); yan-daş ‘supporter’ (< yan ‘side’); yol-daş ‘comrade / fellow’
(< yol ‘(ideological) track / path / road’). Examples of adjectives are: çağ-daş ‘contemporary /
modern / up-to-date’ (< çağ ‘epoch / period’); zaman-daş ‘simultaneous’ (< zaman ‘time / era’).
Suffix –kEn / –gEn. The majority of these formations denote a property. For instance:
akış-kan ‘fluid’ (< akış-mak ‘to flow’); alın-gan ‘touchy / easily offended’ (< alın-mak ‘to
take offence (at)’); buyur-gan ‘dictator / tyrant’ (< buyur-mak ‘to command’); çalış-kan
‘hardworking / industrious / studious’ (< çalış-kan ‘to work’); çekin-gen ‘shy / retiring /
reluctant’ (< çekin-mak ‘to hesitate / recoil / be timid’); doğur-gan ‘prolific / fecund’ (<
doğur-mak ‘to give birth’); geçir-gen ‘permeable’ (< geçir-mek ‘to pass’); ilet-ken ‘something
which conducts / conductive’ (< ilet-mek ‘to convey / transmit / conduct’); kırıl-gan ‘break-
able / easily offended / touchy’ (< kırıl-mak ‘to be broken / to break’); konuş-kan ‘talkative’
(< konuş-mak ‘to speak’); osur-gan ‘(someone) who farts a lot’ (< osur-mak ‘to fart / break
wind’); övün-gen ‘boastful / vainglorious’ (< övün-mek ‘to praise oneself / boast / brag’);
saldır-gan ‘aggressive / belligerent / truculent’ (< saldır-mak ‘to attack / assault’); sırıt-kan
31.4 Compounds 467
‘given to grinning stupidly’ (< sırıt-mak ‘to grin’); unut-kan ‘forgetful’ (< unut-mak ‘to
forget’); uyuş-kan ‘amicable / congenial / agreeable’ (< uyuş-mak ‘to get along with each other’);
üret-ken ‘productive’ (< üret-mek ‘to produce’); yapış-kan ‘sticky / adhesive’ (< yapış-mak ‘to
stick / adhere (to)’).
Special attention is due to the linguistic terms ettirgen ‘causative (verb)’ and edilgen
‘passive (verb)’.
31.3.4 Sentence to noun / adjective
A small but pleasant curiosity is this: in some dictionaries a small number of items can be
found which are lexicalized forms of a short sentence. Some of these new formations are
nouns but adjectives occur too. Examples of nouns are: hünkârbeğendi ‘sultan’s delight’
(eggplant puree with cheese) (<hünkâr ‘sultan’ + beğen-mek ‘to like’); gündöndü ‘sunflower’
(< gün ‘sun’ + dön-mek ‘to turn’); mirasyedi ‘someone who has inherited a fortune / someone
who spends money like water’ (< miras ‘inheritance’ + ye-mek ‘to eat’).
The form sinekkaydı (< sinek ‘fly’ + kay-mak ‘to skid’) is used as an adjective for tıraşlı
‘shaven’ and tıraş ol-mak ‘to shave oneself ’:
Doktor, orta boylu ve sinekkaydı tıraşlı biri-ydi.

The doctor was someone of average height and was clean-shaven.
The word türedi is derived from türe-mek ‘to spring up, appear suddenly, etc.’ and means
‘upstart / parvenu / Johnny-come-lately’, but it is also used as an adjective:
Bu bereketli toprak-lar-a sahip ol-an türedi bir şeker tüccar-ı-ydı.

The owner of these fertile lands was an upstart sugar merchant.
31.4 Compounds *
Another way of creating new words is compounding: two words or word stems are linked
together. The result is a new word with a new meaning, which is often, but not necessarily
as a rule, predictable on the basis of the two elements forming the compound.
Compounds can be made in several ways. One way of categorizing compounds is
roughly on the basis of the word class of what is technically called the head. In, for instance,
school book the element book is the head noun because the first element (school) indicates,
as it were, what type of book is being talked about. In other words, a school book is just a
special kind of what is generally called book.
As a matter of consequence, compound heads can be distinguished as based on a verb,
an adjective, and a noun. They will be discussed in this order.
Verbs do not play a very great role in the formation of compounds, so there are not many
compounds in which the head is based on a verb form. The next three examples are formed
with a noun as the first element.
bilgi-sayar (< information + he counts) computer

ateş-kes (< fire + stop) cease-fire
yurt-sever (< native country + he loves) patriot
Adjectives can also be used as a first element, as in kara-basan (< black + it pressed)
‘nightmare / depression’, but a verb can take this position as well.
biçer-döver (< he cuts + he threshes) combine harvester

çek-yat (< pull + lie down) folding bed
kap-tı kaç-tı (< he caught + went away) private minibus
vur-du-m duy-ma-z (< I hit + he feels nothing) insensitive person
It should be noted that the hyphens (‘-’) between the composing elements are not written
normally. They serve here only to visualize the internal structure.
Besides, there are many so-called collocations: compounds consisting of a noun plus a verb.
Typically, the meaning of the compound cannot easily be derived from the constituent parts.
For a correct understanding the help of a good dictionary is indispensable. Some examples are:
dalga geçmek (< dalga ‘wave’ + geçmek ‘to pass’) ‘to kid someone / waste time’; acı çekmek (< acı
‘pain’ + çekmek ‘to pull’) ‘to suffer physically or mentally’; can atmak (< can ‘soul’ + atmak ‘to
throw’) ‘to desire strongly / want badly’; servis atmak (< servis ‘service’ + atmak ‘to throw’) ‘to
serve (the ball)’; el açmak (< el ‘hand’ + açmak ‘to open’) ‘to beg for alms / money’; fakir düşmek
(< fakir ‘destitute’ + düşmek ‘to fall’) ‘to become poor’; gol yemek (< gol ‘score’ + yemek ‘to eat’)
‘to give away a goal’; bağ bozmak (< bağ ‘vineyard’ + bozmak ‘to spoil’) ‘to harvest grapes’; kafa
patlatmak (< kafa ‘head’ + patlatmak ‘to explode’) ‘to do a lot of hard mental work’.
Adjectives do not often occur as the head in compounds either. For instance: er geç
(< early + late) ‘sooner or later’; yorgun argın (< tired + weak) ‘dead tired’; (güler yüz)-lü
(< (laughing + face)-with) ‘affable / pleasant / cordial’; sütbeyaz ‘milk white’; and kömür
siyah ‘coal black’. The first element in the first two examples is an adjective, in the latter two
examples the first element is a noun.
Nouns as the head in compounds form the majority of these constructions, owing to the
fact that formation according to this model is a very productive and efficient way of enriching
the lexicon. The first element can be a verb form:
çalar saat alarm clock

yazar kasa cash register
döner koltuk swivel chair
dönerbasar rotary press
dönergeçit turnstile
çıkmaz sokak cul de sac
paslanmaz çelik stainless steel
akarsu stream (water)
Combinations with an adjective are possible as well, witness: büyükanne ‘grandmother’;

kızıl ötesi (< red + other side) ‘infrared’; and Akdeniz (< white + sea) ‘Mediterranean Sea’.
Furthermore, there are a few forms the first element of which is a cardinal number: onbaşı
(< ten + head) ‘corporal’ and kırkayak (< forty + foot) ‘centipede’.
The most important group are combinations of two nouns. These can be linked to each
other in two ways: with and without a formal element indicating that the status of the new
word is that of nominal compound. For the time being the difference between the two types
of compounding can be illustrated with taş köprü-Ø ‘stone bridge’ and taş devr-i ‘stone age’
and also kadın doktor-Ø ‘female doctor’ and kadın doktor-u ‘gynaecologist’.
31.4 Compounds 469
31.4.1 Nominal compounds without a formal element
These compounds consist of two nouns at most and they can be classified in terms of three
groups. The first group of bare nominal compounds can be represented by:
babaanne (baba + anne) paternal grandmother

anneanne (anne + anne) maternal grandmother
önek (ön + ek) prefix
sonuç (son + uç) result
önsöz (ön + söz) preface
Compounds with baş ‘head’ as the first element are rather numerous, as in:
başbakan prime minister

başkent capital
başrol leading role
başhemşire head nurse
başçavuş sergeant-major
If the first element is a denotation for some material the second element is made of, there is
no formal element either: Two nouns are put together in the following way:
fötr şapka felt hat

altın bilezik golden bracelet
taş köprü stone bridge
demir kapı iron door
çim alan lawn (‘grass area’)
gümüş tepsi silver tray
tahta merdiven wooden stairs (ladder)
plastik iskemle plastic chair
naylon poşet plastic bag
kağıt peçete paper napkin
When the first element in a compound denotes some property of the second element, this
leads to a bare compound as well. This way of characterizing people is very popular, as fol-
lows from:
kadın doktor (woman + doctor) female doctor

berber kız (barber + girl) the girl hairdresser
melek kadın (angel + woman) an angel of a woman
çok şeytan adam (devil + man) a devilish man
eşek polis (donkey + policeman) a stupid policeman
katil çocuk (murderer + child) a murderous child
hıyar kapıcı (gherkin + doorman) a prick of a doorman
kuş herif (bird + guy) idiot
aslan oğl-um (lion + my son) my lion of a son
This way of property assignment resembles the one in:
eski dost-um Hakan my old friend Hakan

kapıcı Muammer the doorman Muammer
Apart from these categories the formation of compounds by simply joining two nouns is in
fact very ‘unturkish’. This is also the case with many neologisms, such as otoyol ‘motorway’;
bilim kurgu ‘science fiction’; and dilbilim ‘linguistics’. The latter form has the ‘real’ Turkish
variants dil bilim-i (also spelt as dilbilim-i) which are formed in the regular way and which
will be discussed in the next section.
31.4.2 Nominal compounds with a formal element
These represent the most important and productive category of this type of derivation.
They are distinct from the previous type in that this type receives a suffix signalling com-
pound status: –(s)I(n). Representing nouns as N1 and N2, the general model for nominal
compounds is:
N1 + N2 → Nc-(s)I(n)
In this formula Nc stands for the bare nominal compound, that is, without a suffix. The reason
to distinguish Nc separately is found in the observation that the suffix does not occur when
the compound is used in a possessive construction or in some other derivation. To start out
with the possessive construction, diş ‘tooth’ and fırça ‘brush’ can be joined to the bare Nc diş
fırça ‘toothbrush’. In order to arrive at a possessive construction, the only ingredient to be
added is a possessive suffix. As for the stress pattern in nominal compounds, the first word
receives primary stress and the secondary stress is on the suffix. This gives diş fırçası ( ! . . *)
and diş fırçaları with the stress pattern ( ! . . . *). Here are all possessives:
diş fırça-m my toothbrush

diş fırça-n your toothbrush
diş fırça-sı his toothbrush
diş fırça-mız our toothbrush
diş fırça-nız your toothbrush
diş fırça-ları their toothbrush
Secondly, a bare compound can be applied in the type of derivation discussed in sec-
tions 31.1.1–31.1.2. With deniz ‘sea’ and manzara ‘view / panorama’ the bare compound deniz
manzara ‘sea view’ can be produced, to which the suffix –lı ‘with’ can directly be applied.
In this way the adjectival compound form deniz manzara-lı ‘with a sea view’ is made, and
this result can be used to specify a noun: deniz manzara-lı bir ev ‘a house with a view over the
sea’. In a similar way güneş gözlük-lü kız ‘the girl with sunglasses’ is created in one go on the
basis of güneş gözlük ‘sunglasses’.
In all other cases the suffix –(s)I(n) must be placed after the Nc, except when a plural
form is to be produced, because the plural suffix comes first. This results in:
diş fırça-sı toothbrush

diş fırça-lar-ı toothbrush-es (!)
31.4 Compounds 471
Compare:
diş fırça-sı his / her toothbrush

diş fırça-ları their toothbrush(es)
his / her toothbrushes
It is clear that both free forms (that is, not embedded in a possessive construction or
another derivation) are identical in form with those of the possessive forms’ third person
singular and plural.
This is no reason, however, to translate the suffix –(s)I(n) in a nominal compound as ‘his /
her / its’ in all circumstances. This is only possible when the context or situation allows for
it. For instance, for Ali’nin diş fırça-sı nerede? ‘Where is Ali’s toothbrush?’ this could be
done (albeit in the form of a genitive), but for Ban-a yeni bir diş fırça-sı lâzım ‘I need a new
toothbrush’ it would be nonsensical. Thus, in a neutral sense diş fırça-sı means ‘toothbrush’
and the occurrence of –(s)I(n) is typical for many a nominal compound. That is why this
suffix is often referred to as a compound marker, abbreviated as CM. Translations in terms
of ‘tooth-its-brush’ are of course more or less ridiculous because there is no possessive rela-
tion whatsoever between diş and firça. That this suffix must be attached in most cases is
only to show that the two nouns together form a new word with a new meaning; and that
this is nothing more than a custom fully coincidentally rooted in the historical development
of the language. Comparing this situation with that of English, when one says children’s
book, is it really assumed that there is a possessive relation between its composing elements
or wouldn’t this expression be better paraphrased as ‘a book for children’?
In connection to the foregoing, some minor remarks are in place. The formation of a com-
pound in its eventual form is presented here in terms of two steps: create a bare compound,
güneş gözlüK, and next, decide what to do with it. Then there is a threefold choice: make an
adjective (güneş gözlük-lü), make a possessive construction (güneş gözlüğ-üm), or use it as a
free construct (güneş gözlüğ-ü).
In many traditional approaches the standard compound includes what is called here
the compound marker and the choice between, say, the possessive güneş gözlüğ-üm ‘my
sunglasses) and the neutral construct güneş gözlüğ-ü ‘sunglasses’ is explained away by saying
that ‘two suffixes of the same category are not allowed in one word’. However, this can
unfortunately not answer the question why the correct form is güneş gözlük-lü and not
*güneş gözlüğ-ü-lü.
In the process of formation advanced here, that is, starting out with a bare form, all
kinds of restructuring operations are avoided to arrive at the desired form. It is left to the
imagination of the reader to make a calculation of the number of steps (the removal of
suffixes, their adaptation to the correct final form, and re-fixing them) are necessary to arrive
at güneş gözlük-lü on the basis of güneş gözlüğü or at çocuk arabaları ‘prams’ with çocuk
arabası as the point of departure.
31.4.3 Noun phrase as complement
The formula in the previous section indicates that two nouns can be combined into one
new compound noun. In fact, a more precise statement is needed about the nature of the
combining elements. But first, a few terms should be presented: what is placed at the left
hand side (N1) of a compound is the complement and the second element (N2) is called the
head. Now, bare nouns may function as not only a complement, but also a reduced noun
phrase or a compound itself. The latter word category can be used as head as well. But, in
order not to complicate matters unnecessarily at this stage, in this section it will be discussed
what should be understood by a reduced noun phrase and in section 31.4.4 the fate of a
compound as the head of another compound will be elucidated.
The structure of noun phrases was introduced in section 6.2 and was further discussed
in section 8.3. In that chapter it was shown how a noun phrase can be followed by suffixes
for plural, possession, and case markers, and that the head of a noun phrase can be pre-
ceded by an adjective, an indefinite article, or a cardinal number plus demonstrative, and
by a possessive pronoun. The reduced version of the noun phrase, however, can only have a
cardinal number, an adjective, or an indefinite article, and after the noun stem only a plural
suffix can be expected. Thus, the following nominal compounds illustrate the reduced noun
phrase in its function as complement.
kör-ler okul-u school for the blind

yazar-lar liste-si list of authors
önemli iş-ler dosya-sı folder for important matters
yaşlı kadın-lar derneğ-i club / foundation of elderly women
üç çocuk anne-si mother of three children
All kinds of verbal constructions may figure as complement as well in a compound. Only a
limited number of representative examples can be given here because the bulk of this type
of construction will be dealt with in section 35.2.
(kendi-sin-i niye terk et-tiğ-i) soru-su

the question of why s/he left him / her
(kendi-sin-i terk ed-eceğ-i) inanc-ı
the belief that s/he would leave him / her
(kötü bir haber al-ma) korku-su
the fear of bad news
(ev-e dön-me) fikr-i
the idea of going back home
(biz-im yap-ma-mız) olasılığ-ı
the possibility that we will do it
31.4.4 Recursion
If the complement is a compound itself it produces with another noun a construction com-
prising three nouns. Taking diş firça-sı ‘toothbrush’, for instance, and combining it with
fabrika ‘factory’ gives the bare Nc diş fırça-sı fabrika ‘toothbrush factory’.
A possible possessive form would be diş fırça-sı fabrika-mız ‘our toothbrush factory’, and
its free, non-possessive form would of course be diş fırça-sı fabrika-sı ‘toothbrush factory’. The
latter form can, in turn, be combined with another appropriate noun, for instance müdür
‘director’. If one has to specify one’s profession as ‘director of a toothbrush factory’, one word
in Turkish would suffice: diş fırça-sı fabrika-sı müdür-ü (1) ‘toothbrush factory director’.
31.4 Compounds 473
Interestingly, addition of nouns can in principle be unlimited. Thus, the aforementioned

director is perhaps a member of a union or society called diş fırça-sı fabrika-sı müdür-ler-i
işbirliğ-i (2) ‘union of directors of toothbrush factories’. Such a club regularly convenes a
meeting, referred to as diş fırça-sı fabrika-sı müdür-ler-i işbirliğ-i toplantı-sı (3) ‘meeting of
the union of directors of toothbrush factories’ and these meetings have a chairman (başkan),
who is then called diş fırça-sı fabrika-sı müdür-ler-i işbirliğ-i toplantı-sı başkan-ı (4). In sum,
the whole developmental process can be depicted as follows:
diş fırça-sı fabrika-sı müdür-ü (= 1)

diş fırça-sı fabrika-sı müdür-ler-i işbirliğ-i (= 2)
diş fırça-sı fabrika-sı müdür-ler-i işbirliğ-i toplantı-sı (= 3)
diş fırça-sı fabrika-sı müdür-ler-i işbirliğ-i toplantı-sı başkan-ı (= 4)
This phenomenon of repetitive application of a rule to its own output is usually referred to
as recursion. This ‘toothbrush’ example may seem somewhat far-fetched, but in the every-
day practice of written and spoken Turkish this type of construction is extremely common.
For structures such as bathroom towel rack designer training programme it has often been
argued that they represent the shortest and easiest way of packing a maximum of informa-
tion into a minimum number of words. Whatever the case might be, another reason is
surely that Turkish has hardly any other grammatical possibilities for linking a great num-
ber of words than by compounding, for Turkish has no prepositions by means of which a
chain of words can be built.
The example of ‘toothbrush factory’ also reveals another fact: that when the formation rule
is several times applied to its own result, the chain or words grows from left to right. Once diş
fırça-sı ‘toothbrush’ has been produced, another noun must be added to the right to make
the chain longer. Several stages of enlarging can be visualized by putting the intermediate
results in brackets:
((( diş fırça-sı ) fabrika-sı ) müdür-ler-i ) işbirliğ-i
Some text examples of this recursive model are:
Orman Mühendis-ler-i Oda-sı Ege Şube-si

the Aegean Office of the Chamber of Forestry Engineers
akıl hasta-lar-ı vakf-ı turnuva-sı
tournament of the foundation of mental patients
Taking a nominal compound as the right-hand element of a newer formation, it can be

combined with another noun and the chain grows from right to left. The only type of
compound qualifying for a right to left formation is a bare Nc. A simple example may
illustrate this claim. When kız ‘girl’ and lise ‘secondary school’ are combined this yields the
bare kız lise ‘girls’ secondary school’, to which bölge ‘region’ can be added as the left-hand
element, and this results in another bare compound: bölge kız lise ‘regional secondary
school for girls’.
With a possessive suffix, for instance, (bölge kız lise)-miz ‘our regional lyceum for girls’, is
produced but if the more general notion of ‘regional lyceum for girls’ is to be expressed, the
suffix –(s)I(n) must be added and this results in (bölge kız lise)-si.
Considering bölge kız lise ‘regional lyceum for girls’ not as the final but as an intermediate
product, another noun can be added to the left, for instance, the place name Yalova. This
gives (Yalova (bölge (kız lise)))-si ‘regional lyceum for girls in Yalova’.
Formations from right to left, as in the latter example, occur much less frequently than
formations from left to right. Yet constructions like ‘regional lyceum for girls’ are not really
a rarity in Turkish, witness the text of certain billboards or the text on Turkish bank notes:
İstanbul Orman Bölge Müdürlüğ-ü

Regional Directorate for State Forestry in Istanbul
Türkiye Cumhuriyet Merkez Banka-sı
Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey
In fact, many of such compound forms can be attested in texts. Sometimes they have a pure
right-to-left or left-to-right structure, but many hybrid forms occur too, as in:
Bolu Belediye-si Trafik Hizmet-ler-i Şube Müdürlüğ-ü

the branch directorate of traffic services of the municipality of Bolu
Türkiye Cumhuriyet-i Devlet Demiryol-lar-ı
the Turkish State Railway Company
The reader might wonder why Turkish bank notes write Türkiye Cumhuriyet whereas the
name of the Turkish state railway company starts with Türkiye Cumhuriyet-i.
Well, a simple answer is not possible, but one thing is obvious: the term Türkiye Cumhuriyet-i
‘republic of Turkey’ or ‘Turkish republic’ (often represented as TC) is far more common and
sounds therefore far more familiar than the text on bank notes. And that is perhaps why a
lot of native speakers are confused when asked what is written on Turkish paper money.
Besides, who is interested in what is written on banknotes other than in the numbers repre-
senting their value? On the other hand, that Türkiye Cumhuriyet-i forms a compound is
signalled by the compound marker: the –i makes clear that cumhuriyet ‘republic’ belongs to
Türkiye. But why should it be assumed that this is also the case in the text on the banknotes?
Although the translation speaks of the ‘(Central Bank of) the Republic of Turkey’, one
might also raise the question whether the noun cumhuriyet would not allow for assignment
to what follows it, rather than what precedes it. Consider the following examples, in which
cumhuriyet is not the head noun of a compound but the complement. The first example is
not about ‘republic of Turkey’ or ‘republic known as Turkey’, but about ‘Turkey (in its quality)
as a republic’, here translated as ‘republican Turkey’:
O dönem, cumhuriyet Türkiye-sin-in altın çağ-ı-ydı.

That period was republican Turkey’s golden era.
İrlanda Cumhuriyet Ordu-su hepsin-i mahved-iyor-du.
The Irish Republican Army destroyed all.
The latter example is about an ‘army to be associated with a republic’ and definitely not
about some ‘army of the republic of Ireland’, and this is what was well understood at the
time IRA was first translated into Turkish. And who knows what exactly came to mind of
the people who had to think out a proper text for the new bank notes back right after the
foundation of the Turkish republic? One reason often advanced in the Turkish media is
31.4 Compounds 475
that the name Cumhuriyet Merkez Bankası was originally proposed for the central bank,
which would be founded in 1930. The bare cumhuriyet was chosen deliberately to contrast
this bank with the Osmanlı (Merkez) Bankası and, furthermore, to emphasize that this
new financial institution was not connected with and was independent from the state. With
an eye towards international relations, a parliamentary commission later added Türkiye.
Whatever the case might be, that Türkiye Cumhuriyet Merkez Bankası has a right to left
structure is beyond dispute, as much as that of Cumhuriyet Halk Parti-si ‘Republican
People’s Party’ and of the genitive phrase in:
(Yargıtay (Cumhuriyet Başsavcı-sın))-ın görev-i ne-dir?

What is the function of the chief public prosecutor of the Supreme Court?
Certain hybrid compound structures are really complex, in the sense that their overall
structure is left-branching or right-branching, but internally there are fragments that run
in the opposite direction. This is the case in:
İstanbul Büyükşehir Belediye-si Kültür İş-ler-i Daire Başkanlığ-ı

Kütüphane ve Müze-ler Müdürlüğ-ü
Directorate of Libraries and Museums of the Regional Office of the
Cultural Department of the Municipality of Greater Istanbul
Ankara Üniversite-si Edebiyat Fakülte-si Türk Edebiyat-ı profesör-ü
Professor of Turkish literature at the Faculty of Letters of Ankara University
31.4.5 Productivity and lexical storage
The general idea about the moment of attachment of the suffix –(s)I(n) in a nominal com-
pound is that this takes place as soon as it is clear for the language user that s/he is not
going to use the compound as a possessive construction or in another derivative formation
(as in: deniz manzara-lı ‘with a sea view’).
Now, the formation of compounds is a productive process, that is, every language user
can make compound structures to his liking whenever he feels the need, using a formation
rule which is simple, transparent, and open for new productions. But on the other hand,
many nominal compounds have been produced already, at least once, and are learned and
remembered to be used whenever the situation calls for it.
Newly formed compounds are stored in what is called the mental lexicon, that part of the
human memory where language is supposed to reside and where it is assumed that a long
list of words, expressions, their meanings, and the linguistic rules that apply to them is
stored. It is perhaps more efficient to memorize certain structures with their meaning (and
instructions how to use them in certain situations) than to create them all the time afresh.
To give a simple example, elbirlik or elbirliğ-i means ‘cooperation’ and this meaning can-
not be derived as ‘hand-unit’ on the basis of el ‘hand’ and birlik ‘unit’. So it is worthwhile to
store the bare form elbirlik plus its meaning while coding it for compound (Nc).
For most compound formations it can be assumed that they are stored as Nc, that is,
they are indexed as compound, so as the suffix –(s)I(n) will follow where needed: when
the compound is going to be used as a free form, and not in a possessive construction or
a derivation.
However, some compound structures change their status after some time from Nc to
ordinary noun (N), which entails that the suffix –(s)I(n) is not required any more. Examples
are the place name Topkapı (N), which was in the 1930s officially still known as Topkapısı
(Nc), and also Kadıköy (N) which could be heard as Kadıköyü based on Nc in former years.
As a matter of fact, among speakers of Turkish there is some variation; some of them say
Kadıköy-e gittim ‘I went to Kadıköy’, whereas others (mostly elderly people) say Kadıköy-
ün-e gittim. Also a spoken form such as şiş kebap is often found as şiş kebab-ı in written
form (menus, et cetera).
The variation in names for ‘sunflower oil’ can be explained in the same way. Some labels
show ay çiçeğ-i yağ-ı or ayçiçeğ-i yağ-ı, others just ayçiçek yağ-ı. In this latter form the element
ayçiçek (moon + flower ‘sun flower’) is lexically coded as N and not as Nc.
Another form in which some nominal compounds are to be stored lexically is together
with the suffix –(s)I(n). This suffix has been absorbed, as it were, and has become part of
the entire structure. Examples are denizaltı (< deniz + alt + –ı = sea + underside + CM)
‘submarine’ and ayakkabı (< ayak + kap + –ı = foot + cover + CM) ‘shoe’. The plural forms
of these lexicalized compounds are denizaltı-lar and ayakkabı-lar and case markers are
attached directly after the lexical forms denizaltı and ayakkabı without the connecting
piece known as the pronominal n. Correct forms are: denizaltı-da (not: denizalt-ın-da) ‘in
the submarine’ and ayakkabı-ya (not: ayakkab-ın-a) ‘for the shoe’.
31.4.6 Order of formation rules
By way of conclusion, some remarks are in place with respect to the order of application of
certain formation rules. In section 31.2.1 the suffix –CI was discussed, one of the meanings
of which is ‘profession’. In the linguistic literature there has been some confusion about
the question of how the formation of ayakkabı boya-sı ‘shoe polish’ relates to ayakkabı
boya-cı-sı ‘shoe polisher, shoe cleaner’, because it was thought that the former combination
would form the basis for the latter structure and that, as a matter of consequence, the suffix
–CI was inserted in one way or another. Perhaps surprisingly, that the idea of suffix inser-
tion is not correct is easy to see. The forms are actually not related at all, no matter how
striking their resemblance is. For ayakkabı boya-cı-sı it can be stipulated that ayakkabı
‘shoe’ + boyacı ‘polisher’ are combined into (ayakkabı boyacı)-sı ‘shoe polisher’ and there
is no more to it. The compound ayakkabı boya-sı is structured in an equally simple way:
ayakkabı ‘shoe’ + boya ‘paint / shine / polish’ → (ayak-kabı boya)-sı ‘shoe polish’.
As a rule one could say that word formation by means of a derivational suffix as discussed
in sections 31.1–31.3 and 31.7, which can be symbolized by N1 + suffix → N2-suffix, must
precede the formation of compounds, as in boya ‘paint / polish’ + –CI → boya-cı ‘painter /
polisher’. On the basis of this form a compound can be formed: ayakkabı ‘shoe’ + boyacı
‘polisher’ → (ayakkabı boyacı)-sı ‘shoe polisher’.
31.5 Some points of interest
In expressing notions such as ‘Dutch / English / German’ or ‘Turkish’ in Turkish some spe-
cial caution should be taken. The reason is found in the fact that these English adjectives
are very versatile—they can be applied to refer to language, ethnicity, origin, et cetera,
whereas in Turkish there are more precise means to distinguish between several domains
of application and accordingly, there are other constructions and expressions.
31.5.1 Nationality and language
In section 14.4.3 it was shown that the suffix –CE can be applied to a noun denoting a
nationality or a country. Such a newly formed word can be used as an adjective and a noun,
but also as an adverb, as can be shown by:
Türkçe, kolay bir dil değil. Turkish is not an easy language.

Türkçe öğren-mek iste-yen-ler. Those who want to learn Turkish.
Niye Türkçe konuş-mu-yor-sun? Why don’t you speak Turkish?
İki tane Türkçe kitap al-dı-m. I bought two Turkish books.
Bu akşam Türkçe bir film var. Tonight there is a film in Turkish.
Bun-un Türkçe-si nasıl ol-uyor? How do you say this in Turkish?
Türkçe ders-ler-in nasıl gid-iyor? How are your Turkish lessons going?
Türkçe öğretmen-iniz kim? Who is your teacher of Turkish?
Strictly speaking, the phrase ‘Turkish teacher’ does not necessarily refer to the same person
as a ‘teacher of Turkish’, although in colloquial speech people sometimes tend to be rather
careless—unlike speakers of Turkish. For both constructions a nominal compound is used,
the difference being found in the type of noun used as its complement.
In a compound equivalent to ‘Turkish teacher’ the first word refers to a member of some
people, nation or ethnic group, and it refers to men and women alike, for instance, Yunan
‘Greek’; Alman ‘German’; İskoç ‘Scot’; İngiliz ‘Englishman’; İtalyan ‘Italian’; Fransız
‘Frenchman’; Rus ‘Russian’; Bulgar ‘Bulgarian’; Sırp ‘Serb’; Kürt ‘Kurd’; and Türk ‘Turk’. Here
is how it is done in Turkish:
Okul-umuz-da genç bir Türk öğretmen-i çalış-ıyor.

In our school a young Turkish teacher is working.
Hollanda’da çalış-an Türk kadın-lar-ı için de geçerli-dir.
This holds for Turkish women working in the Netherlands as well.
Türkçe öğretmen-imiz Türk değil, Kürt‘tür.
Our teacher of Turkish is not a Turk, but a Kurd.
In a similar fashion one finds: bir Yunan kral-ı ‘a Greek king’; Türk-Yunan savaş-ı ‘the
Turco-Greek War’; Yunan edebiyat-ı ‘Greek literature’; Yunan kimliğ-i ‘the Greek identity’;
sarışın bir Alman kadın-ı ‘a blonde German woman’; and also Bulgar polis-i ‘the Bulgarian
police’; Sırp konsolos-u ‘the Serbian consul’; and Arnavut halk-ı ‘the Albanian people’.
Names of countries and regions do not play a role in this type of expression, for instance:
İngiltere ‘England’; İskoçya ‘Scotland’; Almanya ‘Germany’; Fransa ‘France’; Rusya ‘Russia’;
İtalya ‘Italy’; and Türkiye ‘Turkey’. Some formations are derivations of an ethnic denotation,
e.g. Yunan-istan ‘Greece’; Bulgar-istan ‘Bulgaria’; Sırb-istan ‘Serbia’; Kürd-istan ‘Kurdistan’;
and Arnavut-luk ‘Albania’.
31.5.2 Names of countries and regions
The name of a country or region does play a role when an unambiguous name for some
people, nation, or ethnic group is not available. In section 31.1.2 it was explained that the
suffix –lI after a place name or name of a country or region stands for the notion ‘from’.
There are forms such as köy-lü ‘villager / farmer / provincial person’; şehir-li ‘city
dweller’; Afrika-lı ‘African’; İstanbul-lu ‘Istanbulite’; Hollanda-lı ‘Dutchman’; Belçika-lı
‘Belgian’; İzlanda-lı ‘Icelander’; Finlandiya-lı ‘Fin’; Türkiye-li ‘resident of Turkey’;
Anadolu-lu ‘someone from Anatolia’; and Trakya-lı ‘Thracian / someone from Thrace’.
These derivations can be used adjectivally and independently.
Hollanda-lı bir arkadaş-ım var. I have a Dutch friend.

İzlanda-lı bir turist gel-di. An Icelandic tourist came.
Belçika-lı yazar Hugo Claus. The Belgian writer Hugo Claus.
Anne-si Hollanda-lı. Her mother is Dutch.
Trakya-lı hanım-lar uzun boylu. Thracian ladies are tall.
Kosova-lı-lar kardeş-imiz-dir. The Kosovars are our brothers.
Thus an inhabitant of Amerika ‘America’ (also ABD, short for Amerika Birleşik Devletler-i)
is called Amerika-lı, but there is a special word for ‘American’, namely Amerikan. This is,
however, a noun, as follows from:
Sonra filtreli Amerikan sigara-sın-ı dudak-lar-ın-ın ara-sın-a yerleştir-di.

Then she placed an American cigarette with a filter between her lips.
Since the eighties of the last century the word Türkiyeli has been on the rise and this has led
to many, sometimes passionate and furious polemics in the Turkish media. Mostly it is
used to keep one’s distance regarding differences in ethnicity.
Türkiye-li Öğrenci-ler Derneğ-i

Turkish Students’ Association // Association of Students from Turkey.
Avrupa Türkiye-li İşçi-ler Konfederasyon-u
European Confederation of Turkish Workers // Workers from Turkey
Notice the snake in the grass in the following sentence: Türkiye-li Avrupa dünya güc-ü
ol-ur. Here the suffix –lI means ‘with’ (see section 31.1.2) and the translation is ‘Europe with
Turkey (as a member state) becomes a world power’.
The notions of Dutch Turk and Turkish Dutchman can be expressed in Turkish with
equal precision. The most frequently used structure, however, is in the next example.
Kendi-lerin-i Avrupa Türk-ler-in-in bir parça-sı olarak gör-en Kıbrıs Türk-ler-i . . .

Cypriot Turks, who regard themselves as a section of European Turks, . . .
TÜYAP Kitap Fuar-ın-dan üç Türk Hollandalı geç-ti.
Three Turkish Dutchmen have visited the TÜYAP book fair.
31.5.3 Proper names in compounds
Country names in a nominal compound form the basis of the equivalent of an English
adjective when it comes to a characterization (typification), as in:
Fransa pul-lar-ı French stamps (from France)

Hollanda para-sı Dutch money (from the Netherlands)
31.6 Ezafe-forms 479
Angola kahve-si Angolan coffee (from Angola)

Belçika Büyükelçiliğ-i the Belgian Embassy (of Belgium)
Gürcistan Konsolosluğ-u the Georgian Consulate (of Georgia)
Türkiye Cumhuriyet-i the Turkish Republic (of Turkey)
Yunanistan hükümet-i the Greek government (of Greece)
İngiltere basın-ı the English press (in England)
Türkiye kadın-ı the typical Turkish woman (woman in Turkey)
31.5.4 Summarizing
The adjectives ‘Turkish’ and ‘Dutch’ (and their likes) are expressed as follows.
First, the suffix –CE is attached to the name of a country in order to form the name of
a language: Türkçe bir kitap ‘a book in Turkish’; Hollandaca bir şarkı ‘a song in Dutch’.
Thus, expressions can be expected such as: Türkçe kitab-ı okudum ‘I have read the book
in Turkish’ and Türkçe kitab-ın-ı okudum ‘I have read the book on Turkish’, for Türkçe
kitap means ‘a book written in Turkish ‘and Türkçe kitab-ı is ‘a book on the Turkish
language’.
Secondly, if the name of a people, nation, or ethnic group is existent, a nominal compound
will be formed: bir (Türk kadın-ı) ‘a Turkish woman’ and bir (Kürt yazar-ı) ‘a Kurdish
writer’, but if such a word is nonexistent, then the desired adjective is formed on the basis of
the name of a country, as in Hollandalı (bir) kadın ‘a Dutch woman’ and Türkiyeli bir Kürt ‘a
Kurd from Turkey, a Turkish Kurd’.
Thirdly, for general characterizations a nominal compound is formed: Hollanda
Türk-ler-i ‘Dutch Turks, Turks as one finds them in the Netherlands’, Türkiye Kürt-ler-i
‘the Kurds in Turkey’; Türkiye kadın-ı ‘a women typical of Turkey’; Türkiye kadın-lar-ı
‘women as one finds them in Turkey; women in Turkey’; and Hollanda kadın-ı ‘a typical
Dutch woman’.
31.6 Ezafe-forms
The ezafe is a way of linking words together and is copied from Persian: a noun can be
coupled with another noun or adjective by means of the fourfold suffix –I, henceforth Ez.
Typically, adjectives in these constructions follow the noun they modify and orthographically
speaking, the suffix is always separated by a hyphen (-). In Turkish this way of linking
nouns with adjectives or nouns is officially not productive any more (since the 1920s), but
in recent days a renewed interest in this type of old-fashioned construction can clearly be
observed in the literature.
nam–ı diğer (name-Ez other) → alias / pseudonym

sürç–ü kalem (error-Ez pen) → slip of the pen
sürç–ü lisan (error-Ez tongue) → slip of the tongue
şayan–ı dikkat (worth-Ez attention) → worth the attention
Bab–ı Âli (port-Ez high) → the Sublime Porte
Devlet–i Osmaniye (state-Ez Ottoman) → the Ottoman State
Darülfünun–u Şahane (university-Ez imperial) → the Imperial University
The modern equivalents of some of these forms are shaped as compounds: kalem sürçme-si
(sürç–ü kalem) ‘slip of the pen’; dil sürçme-si (sürç–ü lisan) ‘slip of the tongue’; dikkat-e
değer (şayan–ı dikkat) ‘worth the attention’. Compare also:
Gelenek-ler-in-de var olan kurtarıcı-yı diğer ad-ı-yla Mehdi’yi bekli-yor-lar-dı.

They were awaiting the saviour of their old traditions, alias the Mahdi.
İletişim-in posta-yla sağla-n-dığ-ı gün-ler-de,
‘mektupla öğretim’ uzaktan eğitim-in diğer ad-ı-ydı.
In the days that communication was operated by the Postal Services
‘correspondence courses’ was another name for distance education.
The formation of ezafe-constructions is recursive and hence, structures longer than two
units were no exception.
Cemiyet–i İlmiye–i Osmaniye

society-Ez science-Ez Ottoman
the Ottoman Scientific Society
Taht–ı muallâ–yı saltanat–ı Osmaniye
throne-Ez superior-Ez sultanate-Ez Ottoman
the superior throne of the Ottoman sultanate
The former example is structured as noun-Ez adjective-Ez adjective and the latter example,
already introduced in section 11.4.6, follows the pattern noun-Ez adjective-Ez noun-Ez
adjective.
Interestingly, the ezafe-construction existed side by side with compound constructions
and in older texts one may encounter many examples of hybrids; combinations of ezafe and
nominal compounds.
Berlin (Darülfünun–u Askerî)-si
Berlin university-Ez military-CM
the Berlin Military Academy
(Kıtaat–ı Fenniye) ve (Mevaki–i Müstahkem) Müfettişliğ-i
corps-Ez engineering and place-Ez fortified inspectorate-CM
the Inspectorate of the Engineering Corps and Fortresses
((Devlet Demiryol-lar-ı ve Liman-lar-ı) (Müdüriyet–i Umumiye))-si
state railways-pl-CM and harbour-pl-CM directorate-Ez generality-CM
the General Directorate of State Railways and Harbours
31.7 Forms in –mE
The suffix –mE was introduced in section 15.2 as the short infinitive. Such forms, however,
can also be used as nouns (section 31.7.1) and in principle as adjectives (section 31.7.2) as
well, although these derived adjectives are mostly lexicalized and some of them can only be
used in combination with a complement in the ablative.
31.7 Forms in –Me 481
31.7.1 Derived nouns
The stressed suffix –mE, forming deverbal nouns, is placed directly after a verb stem and
denotes an action or its result. In this way süsle- means ‘to decorate’ and süsleme stands for
the ‘act of decorating’, but also for ‘decoration’ as a result. Likewise, bağlama (< bağla- ‘to
connect / tie / bind’) can be interpreted as ‘act of binding’, but also as ‘musical instrument
resembling a saz / connecting beam’ or ‘lintel’.
The meaning cannot always be derived from the verb stem itself. There are many lexicalized
meanings and if a special meaning exists for a certain derivation in –mE it cannot be deter-
mined beforehand what the whole word means; only a good dictionary can resolve this
problem. On the other hand, for a number of (very common) forms the derived meaning is
very close to that of the verb.
gülme laughter
titreme shivering / trembling
konuşma talk / conversation / presentation
koşuşma running (in all directions)
vuruşma shooting at each other
kaçışma fleeing in all directions
kekeleme stuttering / stammering
ağlama crying / weeping
çelişme fault-finding / carping / arguing
In the following forms also the meaning is mostly derivable:
aşağılama insult / offence

abartma exaggeration
görüşme meeting / conversation
değiştirme change
uydurma fabrication / fabricated
deneme experiment / essay
gelişme development
anlaşma agreement / treaty
korunma protection
kullanma usage
The difference between a derived noun in –mE and an infinitival form in –mE (see chapter 15
and sections 21.2 and 33.2) comes to the fore in the following examples.
Er-ler-den çok az-ı termometre kullanma-sın-ı bil-iyor-du.

Very few soldiers knew (about) the usage of a thermometer.
Er-ler-den çok az-ı termometre kullan-ma-yı bil-iyor-du.
Very few soldiers knew how to use a thermometer.
The first example conveys the general idea of ‘thermometer usage’, whereas the second
example expresses the idea of ‘how to use a thermometer in a concrete situation’.
In certain cases, however, it might be difficult to determine whether some form in –mE
stands for a possibly lexicalized verb or for a concrete action. Derivations such as deverbal
nouns often occur as predicates, while their status as nouns is obvious from the presence of
other grammatical material, such as a case marker, an adjective, or a demonstrative. The
following are examples of predicative usage:
Amiral Dorya’nın bütün ümit-ler-i bu son donanma-da-dır.

All the hopes of admiral Dorya are set on this last fleet.
Tek umud-um bu son buluşma-da-ydı.
My only hope was in this last meeting.
Ben içeriye gir-diğ-im-de, iş bu aşama-da-ydı.
When I entered, the thing was at this stage.
Gerçek ora-da, günlük çalışma-da-ydı.
Reality lay there, in daily work.
On the other hand, concrete actions are expressed by constructions in –mE-dE-dIr for the
present and –mE-dE-ydI for the past. The former combination can be illustrated by:
Bir torba içinde bir yavru, baş-ı aşağı-ya sark-mış, uyukla-ma-da-dır.

In a sack (sits) a young creature, its head hanging down, dozing.
Çünkü, burn-un-a Yusuf ’un gömleğ-in-in koku-su gel-me-de-dir.
For to her nose comes the scent of Yusuf ’s shirt.
And the latter combination by:
Bun-u yap-mak çok iste-di;

ama herkes de bu iş-i üzer-in-e al-ma-yı dile-me-de-ydi.
He very much wanted to do this,
but everyone wished to take this job upon himself.
Küçücük bir oda-da-ydı; delik-ler-den dışarı-ya bak-ma-da-ydı.
She sat in a very small room (and) looked out through holes.
Returning to the idea of (abstract) actions, it can be expected that such nouns are used in
nominal compounds. Worth mentioning are:
bekleme salon-u waiting room

duyma cihaz-ı / işitme alet-i hearing aid
görme kayb-ı loss of eyesight
konuşma saat-(ler)i office hour(s)
okuma kitab-ı reading book
planlama büro-su planning bureau
These examples in –mE are all derived from an active verb stem, but this type of derivation
can also be applied to passive verb stems.
yargıla=n-ma sürec-i trial; process of judgment

uygula=n-ma tarih-i the date of commencement
silahla=n-ma kontrol-ü arms control
31.7 Forms in –Me 483
In a number of cases derivations of both types are used side by side, but each with a specific
domain of application. Nouns derived from a passive verb stem often appear in genitive-
possessive constructions, in which the modifier (the left-hand member) can be thought of
as the direct object of the corresponding active verb. Compare:
yakala-ma emr-i arrest warrant

hırsız-ın yakala=n-ma-sı the apprehension of the thief
boşalt-ma karar-ı the decision to evacuate
şehr-in boşalt=ıl-ma-sı the evacuation of the city
However, lexicalized forms, derivations with a non-derivable meaning which should thus
all be listed in a dictionary, are numerous as well. Examples are: çıkartma (< çıkart- ‘to
remove’) ‘sticker / transfer’; havalandırma (< havalandır- ‘to ventilate / air’) ‘fan’ (not:
ventilation’); açıklama (< açıkla- ‘to explain / state’) is ‘explanation / statement’ as an act,
but also in the sense of ‘document’ or ‘text’; and alıştırma (< alıştır- ‘to train / exercise’)
is ‘training / exercise’, both in the sense of act but also in the sense of ‘exercise’ as found
in course books; and lastly, arama (< ara- ‘to search’) occurs in the compounds ev
arama-sı ‘house search’ (in which house is not the object of search) and arama makine-si
‘search machine’. Many such derivations end up in the lexicon owing to their special,
non-derivable meaning.
31.7.2 Derived adjectives
Also adjectives derived from a verb and ending in –mE share these properties. A frequently
used word is, for instance, takma (< tak- ‘to mount / fasten’), meaning ‘artificial / false’,
as in: takma diş ‘false tooth’; takma dişler ‘(set of) dentures’; takma kol ‘artificial arm’;
takma bacak ‘artificial leg’; takma saç ‘hairpiece’; takma kirpikler ‘false (eye)lash(es)’; and
also takma ad ‘nickname’. Also asma (< as- ‘to hang’) is applied this way: asma köprü
‘suspension bridge’; asma bahçeler ‘hanging gardens’; asma kilit ‘padlock’; and asma saat
‘wall clock’.
An important category is formed by deverbal adjectives taking a complement in –TEn
(for other types of complement, see section 35.1). For instance:
alınma taken, copied (from)

yapılma made (of)
yetişme educated (by, at, in)
çıkma emerging (from)
kalma remaining (from)
gelme originating (from)
Other examples are:
Program-ın ad-ı, The Beatles’ın şarkı-sın-dan alınma: ‘Tek ihtiyac-ın aşk’.

The programme’s name was taken from a song by The Beatles, All You Need is Love.
Alay-dan yetişme doktor-lar da bu iş-i Çarşamba gün-ler-i yap-ıyor-lar-dı.
Doctors who were educated in the army were doing this operation on Wednesdays.
Babaanne-m-in el-i abanoz ağac-ın-dan yapılma baston-un-u

öyle sık-ıyor ki, kemik yer-ler-i beyazlaş-ıyor.
My grandmother’s hand presses so hard on her ebony stick that her
knuckles become white.
Murat, kendi mutfağ-ın-dan çıkma özel yemek-ler gönder-me-ye karar ver-iyor.
Murat decides to send them special food coming from his own kitchen.
Kahvaltı-yla bir önceki akşam yemeğ-in-den kalma bulaşık-lar
musluğ-un alt-ın-da yığılı-ydı.
Dishes and stuff remaining from breakfast and yesterday evening’s dinner
had piled up in the sink.
Sarışın, belli ki Trakya yöre-sin-den gelme, iriyarı, alyanak, genç-ten biri.
The blonde girl was a young person, sturdy, with red cheeks, clearly coming
from the region of Thrace.
Idiomatic expressions can be exemplified as follows:
ana-dan doğma congenital / stark naked

baba-dan kalma inherited from forefathers
eski-den kalma long existing, old
tepe-den inme unexpected / order from high official
baş-tan inme suddenly
çekirdek-ten yetişme learned young
meslek-ten yetişme learned by practising
el-den düşme second-hand
kulak-tan dolma by hearing someone say
sonra-dan görme nouveau riche / parvenu
yeni-den kurma / yapılanma built up from scratch
yer-den bitme / yapma of small stature
Bu iddia-nın kulak-tan dolma, başkasın-dan duyma bir iddia ol-duğ-u açık-tır.
It is clear that this claim is what someone said, a claim heard from someone else.
Zevahir-i kurtar-mak için baştan savma bir makale yaz-ıp dergi-ye yolla-dı-m.
To make it look as if I was working I slapped an article together and sent it to the magazine.
Infinitival embeddings, resembling these constructions, are very common. This type of
construction will be discussed in detail in sections 35.3.3–35.3.5, for instance:
Her gün iş-ten at-ıl-ma korku-su içinde-yim.

Every day I fear that I will be kicked out of my job.
Kendi-sin-de yatak-tan kalk-ma güc-ün-ü bul-duğ-un-da . . .
As she had found the strength in herself to get out of bed . . .
31.8 Forms in –(y)Iş *
The suffix –(y)Iş is stressed and is placed directly after a verbal stem, resulting in a (deverbal)
noun with a concrete or abstract meaning. In certain cases the meaning of the word can be
31.8 Forms in –(y)Iş 485
inferred from or guessed on the basis of the underlying verb, but nevertheless, it is highly
recommended to consult a dictionary, because meaning quite often shifts over time and
this causes words to become lexicalized.
Nouns formed with –(y)Iş occur in three types: designating a concrete thing, as in the
three next examples, or an event (action, occurrence, process), as in the second series of
examples. Another meaning which can be associated with this type of derivation is manner
in which some action is performed, as can be shown by the third group of words below.
Examples of denotations of things are:
giriş entrance
çıkış exit
geçiş overpass
Examples of actions are:
uçuş flight
dalış dive / plunge
iniş landing / descent / downward slope
dövüş fight
çekiliş draw (lottery)
gidiş–dönüş return ticket / round trip
geliş arrival
dönüş return / turn
giriş access / introduction
çekiş tug / haul / draw / drag
The notion of ‘manner’ is obvious in the following examples:
davranış behaviour
anlayış (way of) understanding
düşünüş way of thinking
bakış glance / way of looking
görüş point of view / opinion
gidiş departure / way of walking / gait
yaşayış way of life
31.8.1 Pure nouns
The behaviour of such derived nouns is really ‘nominal’, since they can be combined with the
indefinite article bir, demonstratives (bu, şu, and o) and adjectives.
Bu bekleyiş ne kadar da uzun sür-üyor-du!

How long this waiting lasted!
Ne korkunç bir yaşayış bu!
What a terrible (way of) life this is!
Zira bu erkek sürekli bir arayış içinde yol-un-a devam ed-ecek-tir.
For this man surely will proceed on his way, searching continually.
Soğu-yan kahve-sin-i iki çekiş-te bitir-di.

In two sips he finished his coffee, which had turned cold.
The nominal nature of these derivations comes clearly to the fore in nominal compounds:
Ahlaksızlığ-ın ve çöküş-ün neden-i, kent yaşayış-ın-a geçiş-te-dir. (Rousseau)

The cause of immorality and decay is in the transition to city life.
On-un ahlak anlayış-ı ise, toplum-un dinsel ahlak anlayış-ı-ydı.
His sense of decency was the religious sense of decency of the community.
Sevgili-ler arasında çok gergin bir bakış alışveriş-i ol-du.
Between the lovers there was a tense exchange of looks.
Besides stem plus –(y)Iş negative forms based on –mE-yIş are not uncommon:
Bu bil-me-yiş katlan-abil-eceğ-im-den fazla-sı-ydı.

This not-knowing was more than I could endure / bear.
Bakış-ların-da acı oku-n-uyor, son-u gel-me-yen bir ara-yış,
son-u gel-me-yen bir bul-ama-yış oku-n-uyor-du.
In the way he looked one could read bitterness, searching which had no end,
and a not-being-able-to find which had no end either.
The core of what is expressed by forms in –(y)Iş is usually a ‘single occurrence’ of an action
or process. Thus, arayış refers to an action of searching, as taking place once or with repeti-
tions within a certain time frame. How such an action or process relates to a person
involved (the doer) is expressed by a possessive suffix: geliş-im is ‘my coming’ and yürüyüş-
ümüz is ‘our walk’.
A single occurrence, with or without supportive devices such as bir ‘a(n)’, her ‘every’, or
ilk ‘first’, can be illustrated as follows.
Sevgili-si bardağ-ın-ı hava-ya kaldır-dı ve bir dikiş-te boşalt-tı.

His beloved raised her glass and emptied / drained the glass at a draught.
Ankara’dan İstanbul’a bir gel-iş-in-de Beykoz’a uğra-mış-tı.
When one day he went from Ankara to Istanbul he stopped by at Beykoz.
On-un denizaltı macera-sın-ı her anlat-ış-ın-da göz-ler-i yaşar-ıyor-du.
Every time that he told of his adventure with the submarine, his eyes filled with tears.
Bura-ya ilk gel-iş-im-de ben, daha ihtiyar görün-mü-yor mu-ydu-m?
When I came here the first time, didn’t I look much older then?
Repetition and duration of actions, states, and processes are supported by içinde ‘in’:
İsmet Paşa, bekleyiş içinde geçir-diğ-i bu gün-ler-de çok üzül-müş.

Ismet Pasja was very upset these days, which he spent in waiting.
Onlar, genç, neşeli ve arayış içinde-ki iki ruh.
They are two young and happy spirits, feeling their way.
31.8 Forms in –(y)Iş 487
Yüz-ü güçlü bir beğen-me-yiş içinde buruş-tu.

His face grew gloomy (‘creased’) with a strong disapprobation.
The nouns discussed here are applied in genitive-possessive constructions: in this way
Hasan’ın davranış-ı (Hasan’s behaviour) stands for the ‘behaving-of-Hasan’ and also for the
‘way in which Hasan behaves’. Similarly, Fatma’nın bakış-lar-ı (Fatma’s looks / glances) can
be interpreted as the ‘looking-of-Fatma’ and the ‘way Fatma looks’. Logically speaking,
Hasan and Fatma are surely the performers of ‘behave’ and ‘look’, but from a grammatical
point of view these words are no subjects.
31.8.2 Addition of complements
Besides forms in –(y)Iş which are to be regarded as pure nouns, as just illustrated, there are
numerous cases in which such a form has more in common with a normal verb, because it
is accompanied by one or more objects or by an adverbial phrase, thereby resembling an
ordinary verbal sentence.
Such a construction—verbal stem in –(y)Iş plus complements—forms an embedding: as
a whole it can function as a sentence in another sentence in the roles of predicate, subject,
object, and adverbial phrase. A property of an embedded sentence of this type is that the
(embedded) subject (if present) is marked by the genitive case and furthermore, –(y)Iş is
directly followed by a possessive suffix in agreement with that subject.
These pseudo-verbal sentences, ending in a verbal stem plus –(y)Iş, occur in all kinds of
syntactic function: predicate, subject, direct object, dative object, ablative object, and
adverbial phrase. Examples of usage as a predicate are:
Bu adam-da ben-i büyüle-yen, en fazla hayran bırak-an şey,

(on-un) hakkında düşün-ül-en-ler-e kayıtsız kal-ış-ı.
What fascinates me about this man and what strikes me with most admiration,
is that / how he remains indifferent to all that is being thought about him.
İlk uzun adım, madde-ler-in doksan kadar doğal element-e indir-il-iş-i-ydi.
The first big step was the reduction of matter to ninety natural elements.
Application as subject can be shown by:
Koca dolap-lar-ı araba-dan tek başına indir-iş-i güçlüğ-ün-ü göster-iyor-du.

How he took those huge wardrobes from the truck all alone showed his strength.
Bu iş-in hayırlı bit-me-yiş-i kötü.
How / that this has ended not favourably is (a) bad (thing).
Different types of direct object can be illustrated by:
Abla-m-ın o zaman ban-a yaşa-dığ-ı korkunç olay-lar-ı anlat-ış-ın-ı anımsa-dı-m.

I still remembered how my sister then told me the nasty things she lived through.
Ali’nin piyano-nun ön-ün-de sahte bir kayıtsızlık-la otur-uş-un-u hatırlı-yor-um.
I remember how Ali was seated at the piano with a false indifference.
Dative and ablative objects are found in:
On-un bul=un-ma-yış-ın-a çok üzül-üyor-du-m.

I very much regretted that he / she / it was not found.
On-u terk ed-eme-yiş-in-den de hoşlan-mı-yor-um.
I don’t like it at all that you / she can’t leave him.
And such embeddings are at a large scale applied as adverbial phrases as well:
Bab–ı Âli, gümrük tarife-ler-in-i arttır-ma-yı her dene-yiş-in-de karşısında

Batı’nın Düvel–i Muazzama-sın-ı bul-muştur.
At every attempt to raise the customs duties, the Sublime Porte was confronted
by the Great Powers of the West.
Yerli halk, başkan-ın kalk-ıp git-me-yiş-in-den memnun da değil-di.
The local population was not happy with the fact that the chairman wouldn’t quit.
İzmir’in kurtar=ıl-ış-ın-dan bugün-e kadar doksan sene geç-ti.
From the liberation of Izmir up to now ninety years have passed.
In some of the translations presented so far, an abstract noun being the direct semantic
equivalent of the word in –(y)Iş will do, for instance geliş ‘coming, arrival’, davranış ‘behav-
iour’, düşünüş ‘(way of) thinking / mentality / view’, görüş ‘view / vision / opinion’, deneyiş
‘attempt’, et cetera. However, when dealing with a negative derivation in –(y)Iş or a derivation
in –(y)Iş with complements, a direct semantic equivalent may not be available and in such
cases the only way out is in terms of a subordinate clause. Two types are suitable for these
purposes: a clause beginning with that, as in ‘. . . that the chairman wouldn’t quit’, and one
beginning with how, as in ‘. . . how my sister then told me the nasty things. . . ’. By the former
type a fact is introduced, whereas the latter type places the action or circumstance designated
by the verb in the forefront, rather than informs us about the manner in which the action is
performed. This is particularly obvious with verbs used to evoke a certain (vivid) image.
Here are some typical examples.
Ağz-ın-ı sil-iş-in-de ve peçete-sin-i yeniden katla-yış-ın-da trajikomik bir şey var-dı.

There was something tragicomic about the way she wiped her mouth and folded
up her serviette again.
Karı-nız-dan ayrıl-ış-ınız-ı anımsı-yor mu-sunuz?
Do you recall how you left your wife?
O zaman okul-un bahçe-sin-de birlikte yürü-yüş-ümüz-ü hatırla-dı-m.

I remember how we walked together then in the garden of the school.
Bazan da çay doldur-uş-un-u, kaşığ-ı ağz-ın-a götür-üş-ün-ü ve

çay-ı höpürdet-erek iç-iş-in-i seyred-er ve on-dan nefret ed-er-di-m.
And sometimes I watched how she poured her tea, how she brought the teaspoon
to her mouth, and how she slurped her tea and (then) I loathed her.
31.9 Forms in –mE-lIK, –mEk-lIK, –mIş-lIk, and –mEz-lIk 489
With a verb like anlamak ‘to understand’ not only ‘the fact that’ and ‘the manner in which’,
but also ‘the reason why’ can be conveyed by means of –(y)Iş:
Sonra-sın-ı, yani olay-lar-ın ak-ış-ın-ı anlı-yor-sun, değil mi?

You understand what came later, thus, how things have worked out, don’t you?
Bir baba gibi on-u sev-eme-yiş-in-i anlı-yor-du.
He understood why he couldn’t love her like a father.
Genç kadın-ın davran-ış-ın-ı anla-mı-yor-du.
He did not understand why the young woman behaved like this.
Whereas actions are expressed by –(y)Iş, by the complex –mE-yIş only facts, circumstances
and states can be referred to. After all, if evlen-me-di-m ‘I am not married’ tells us that the
action of evlen-mek has not taken place, then evlen-me-yiş-im ‘my-not-being-married’ does
not stand for an action, but rather for a state, circumstance, or fact. These notions are often
related to an underlying reason or cause, as in the second example below.
Sıkıntı, bir kendin-i rahat hisset-me-yiş.

Depression is a state (of mind) in which one does not feel at ease.
Evlen-me-yiş-im-in neden-i, kadın-lar-dan nefret et-tiğ-im-den
ya da onlar-ı kötülüğ-ün sebeb-i gör-düğ-üm-den değil.
The reason that I am not married is not because I dislike women or
that I see them as the cause of all evil.
Also, states, circumstances, and facts are often alluded to by ol-uş and ol-ma-yış. Such forms
will be dealt with in section 37.1.6. By way of an appetizer, here are some simple examples:
Bazı-ların-a göre bun-un neden-i ardından gel-en kral-ın zayıf ol-uş-u-ydu.

According to some the reason for this is that the succeeding king was weak.
Bun-un neden-i bir erkek arkadaş-ım-ın ol-ma-yış-ı-dır.
The reason for this is (the fact) that I don’t have a male friend.
31.9 Forms in –mE-lIk, –mEk-lIk, –mIş-lIk, and –mEz-lIk
This section discusses a number of abstract nominal derivations ending in –lIk, some of
which are based on an infinitive or verbal noun, others on participal forms.
31.9.1 Purpose adjectives
Forms in –mE-lIk express some purpose, and they are adjectives mostly based on a deverbal
noun in –mE (see section 31.7). In this way, the verb atıştır-mak ‘to bolt / gobble (food) / gulp
down (a drink)’ underlies atıştır-ma ‘the act of bolting food, et cetera’. Compare the descrip-
tion of the dictionary Türkçe Sözlük (TDK, 1999) for Turkish sinek bar ‘snack bar’ as
atıştırma yer-i. This deverbal noun, in turn, leads to the form atıştır-ma-lık ‘suitable for
bolting food / gulping down drinks, et cetera’.
In the same fashion, kızart-ma-lık et of the second example below can be understood as
‘meat (good) for roasting’.
Mutfak-ta kendin-e atıştır-ma-lık bir şey-ler hazırla-yıp karn-ın-ı doy-ur-du.

In the kitchen he prepared a few snacks for himself and ate his fill.
Bakkal-a gid-in, bir parça kızart-ma-lık et-le havuç al-ın.
Go to the shop and get a piece of meat to roast and some carrots.
Similar examples of adjectival formations are:
Yani göster-me-lik bir birliktelik değil bu.

In other words, it is not a togetherness for show (‘intended to deceive’), this.
Kırmızı dol-ma-lık biber-i ocak-ta közle-yin.
Roast the red bell pepper that is to be stuffed, on the charcoal stove.
Furthermore, such forms occur in more or less fixed expressions, as for instance sıkmalık
portakal ‘oranges for juicing’, yakmalık odun ‘firewood’, and other lexicalized items.
Ancak henüz yönetmelik hazırla-n-ama-dı.

But the (written) regulations / instructions could not be prepared yet.
Katır için kurtarmalık ne ver-eceğ-iz?
What do we give as a ransom for the mule?
Oda-da, hasır oturmalık-lı altı ceviz iskemle, bir masa ve bir büfe gör-dü.
In the room he saw six walnut chairs with a cane seat, a table, and a buffet.
And they are part of well-known sayings, as can be illustrated by:
Onlar korkunç bir akşamdan kalmalık içinde uyan-dı-lar.

They woke up with a terrible hangover.
Göz açıp kapamalık bir zaman bile geç-meden sanki,
öylesine çabuk satış-a hazır ekmek tüken-iyor tezgâh-ta.
It is as if in the twinkling of an eye,
the bread available for sale runs out that quickly at the counter.
Finally, certain forms are clearly so-called ‘false friends’, words which are not based on a
verb stem. Besides by elmalık ‘apple orchard’, hurmalık ‘grove of date palms’, çömelik ‘squatted
on one’s haunches’, and sıtmalık ‘very malarious place’, this can be shown by:
Bu saçmalık da ney-in ne-si?

What is this nonsense?
Telefon-da kısa, birkaç kelimelik bir konuşma yap-tı.
On the phone he had a short conversation of a few words.
31.9 Forms in –mE-lIK, –mEk-lIK, –mIş-lIk, and –mEz-lIk 491
31.9.2 Fact / circumstance
In older texts a fact or circumstance is often expressed by the form –mEk-lIk plus a posses-
sive suffix:
Anla-dı-k ki, kabahat-imiz kendi-miz-i unut-mak-lığ-ımız-mış.

We understood that our fault lay in the fact that we forgot ourselves.
Biz-im bun-u tahmin et-me-mek-liğ-imiz-de-ki hata, saflığ-ımız-dan-dır.
Our mistake in not surmising this derives from our naivety.
Ben-den, müzakere-ye karış-ma-mak-lığ-ım-ı rica et-ti.
He requested me not to interfere with / mingle in the discussion.
31.9.3 Abstract nouns
The suffix combinations –mIş-lIk and –mEz-lIk applied after a verb stem yield an abstract
noun. The endings –mIş and –mEz are so-called participles and for that particular reason
the formation of such nouns can be discussed only after the treatment of nominalizations
in chapter 32. Nonetheless, a taste of what’s in store can be presented here. For details the
reader is, however, referred to sections 32.10.8 and 32.10.9.
The combination –mIş + –lIk expresses some state (situation) as the result of a com-
pleted action or event. In this way geliş-miş-lik can be interpreted as ‘state of being devel-
oped’, that is: ‘development’. Quite similarly, tuzağ-a düşür-ül-müş-lük means ‘state of
having fallen into a trap’ or ‘being trapped’. A few examples drawn from literature are:
Bütün oku-muş-luğ-um-a rağmen, bun-dan haber-im yok-tu.

Despite all my-being-well-read, I knew nothing of this.
Birlikte epey bira yuvarla-mış-lığ-ımız var.
Together we tossed down quite a lot of beer.
By the combination –mEz plus –lIk another type of abstract noun can be formed, for
instance: umursa-maz-lık ‘indifference’; dokunul-maz-lık ‘invulnerability / unassailability’;
anlaş-maz-lık ‘contention / disagreement’; kaçınıl-maz-lık ‘inevitability’; güvenil-mez-lik
‘insecurity’; utan-maz-lık ‘impudence / shamelessness / impertinence’; bil-mez-lik ‘ignorance’.
Some textual examples are:
On-un için de bu anlaş-maz-lık çok acı bir şey-dir.

And therefore this disagreement is a very bitter thing.
En iyi-si anla-maz-lık-tan gel-mek-ti.
The best (thing to do) was to pretend not to understand.
PART VII
NOMINA L I Z AT IONS
The primary function of a verb is to give information about a certain state of affairs and as
a predicate it relates an event or situation to its participants. But when a verb is used in a
role which is typically reserved for a noun phrase, it obtains through nominalization a form
which behaves like a noun, and then it can take, for instance, plural and possessive suffixes.
This part is on nominalizations.
It consists of two chapters. Chapter 32 deals with relative clauses; ordinary ones such as
subject and object clauses, but also with those types in which a subject participle occurs
while an object participle is expected. Apart from that, this chapter goes into several usu-
ally underexposed matters: how are adverbial phrases relativized; can all participles be used
independently; what are pseudo-relative clauses? Chapter 33 is mainly about subordination
and the role of complementation; it shows how verbal sentences are embedded as the object
in another sentence.
32
Relative clauses
When it comes to relative clauses, Turkish has them in different colours and flavours. But
first of all it should be explained what a relative clause is, before notions such as subject
clause, object clause, relativization of adverbial phrase, and pseudo-relative clause are even
mentioned. In English one could say:
The man who sits there is a friend of my brother’s.

The man sitting there is a friend of my brother’s.
With both examples two messages are being conveyed about a certain man. First, that he
‘sits there’ and second, that he ‘is a friend of my brother’s’. In the first example the sentence
fragment ‘who sits there’ is called a relative clause and ‘The man is a friend of my brother’s’
is known as the main clause.
The word ‘who’ (a so-called relative pronoun) signals that the ‘the man’ is the subject of
‘sits’ in the relative clause, but also of ‘is’ in the main clause. The verb form ‘sitting’ in the
second example is called a participle and forms, with ‘there’, a type of relative clause that
comes close to what is found in Turkish, where only participles are used in relative clauses.
The equivalent of both sentences above would be structured as:
There sitting man (is) my brother’s friend.
So, the Turkish equivalent of ‘sitting there’ will be called a relative clause, with ‘man’ as its
head noun. At the same time this noun is the subject in the main clause: namely the Turkish
equivalent of ‘man (is) my brother’s friend’.
In chapter 23 it was advanced that there are three sentence types in Turkish: verbal,
nominal, and existential sentences. Now, the verbal fragment who sits there of the first
example can be replaced by the nominal who is a teacher or by who is in his office. In Turkish
this information is expressed by a relative clause of the shape: ‘teacher being’ and ‘at his
work being’, thus using a participle equivalent to ‘being’. This yields Turkish sentences along
the lines of The teacher being man is a friend of my brother’s and The in his office being man
is a friend of my brother’s. Also for existential sentences such a practice is common.
Two types of participle, subject participle (Sp) and object participle (Op), play a crucial role
in the description of Turkish relative clauses: these are represented in the following examples
by the underscored fragments.
Orada otur-an adam abla-m-ın arkadaş-ı.

there sit-Sp man (is) sister-my-gen friend-poss3s
Cem’in al-dığ-ı ev pek büyük.
Cem-gen buy-Op-poss3s house (is) very big.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
496 Relative clauses
The subject participle will receive ample treatment in section 32.1 on standard relative
clauses, in section 32.2 on the Başı-Bozuk construction, in section 32.3 on the Focus-Locus
construction and the object participle gets its share of attention in sections 32.4, 32.5, and
32.8. How participles are used independently is the topic of section 32.7 and how they end
up as lexicalized items is revealed in section 32.10.
32.1 The subject participle –(y)En *
The subject participle plays a crucial role in the formation of three types of relative
clause. There are verbal relative clauses based on an active (section 32.1.1), passive, or
reflexive (section 32.1.4) verb, and, secondly, there are existential relative clauses where
this participle appears on the auxiliary verb ol- (section 32.1.2). In nominal relative
clauses (section 32.1.3) this auxiliary is a necessity also. The nominal constructs for
which the participle in ol- is applied comprise possessive, dative, locative, ablative, and
postpositional complements. Relative clauses based on impersonal passives are discussed
in section 32.1.5.
32.1.1 Verbal relative clauses
When the head of the relative clause is co-referential with the subject involved in the
event described by the participle, this subordinate event is expressed by the subject
participle –(y)En, provided that the event is not completed and that it does not take
place in the future or the remote past (see section 32.6). Thus, this usage covers the pre-
sent tenses and a non-completed action in the proximate past. The following examples
illustrate this:
Ora-da otur-an adam kardeş-im-in en iyi arkadaş-ı.

The man who sits / sat there is my brother’s best friend.
İstanbul’u, on-u yalnız bırak-ma-yan dost-lar-ın-ı çok sev-iyor.
She really loves Istanbul and the friends who don’t leave her on her own.
Ben-im gibi giy-en, ben-im gibi düşün-en, ben-im gibi hissed-en insan-lar . . .
People who dress like me, think like me, feel like me . . .
Lise-de-yken iyi şarkı söyle-yen Mehmet Bilen . . .
Mehmet Bilen, who was a good singer when he was at high school, . . .
When an event (action or process) has been completed in the remote past, a participle with
the suffix –mIş is applied and in case of future reference, the participle takes the form
–(y)EcEK. Both suffixes are often followed by the auxiliary form ol-an ‘being’, which will be
discussed in further detail in sections 32.6.1–32.6.3.
The denotation subject participle is derived from the observation that in verbal relative
clauses of the type just illustrated the head can be interpreted as the logical subject of the
participle. A grammatical subject, however, is not present in this type of relative clause. As
will be explained in section 32.2, this is not always the case.
32.1 The subject participle –(y)En 497
32.1.2 Existential relative clauses
Whereas with ‘to be’ in an existential sense (see section 23.2) the presence or absence of
something is signified by var and yok, instead of these two existential predicates the auxiliaries
ol-an and ol-ma-yan are used in relative clauses.
Sebze ve meyve bahçe-ler-i çok ol-an bir yer-e git-ti-m.

I went to a place where there were many fruit and vegetable gardens.
Giriş-çıkış trafiğ-i az ol-an bir şehir-de-ydi-k.
We were in a city where there is little incoming and outgoing traffic.
Fransızca metin-de ol-ma-yan şey-ler ekle-yerek şiir-i düzelt-me-ye çalış-tı.
She tried to improve the poem by adding things which were not present
in the French text.
Ses-lerin-de, her zaman ol-ma-yan bir tartışma ton-u var-dı.
In their voices there was a tone of arguing which was not always there.
32.1.3 Nominal relative clauses
The auxiliary form olan (see also section 37.1.4) is also used in relative clauses based on a
noun, expressing identity with the head noun, or on adjective, expressing some property of
the head noun. Examples are:
1937 yıl-ı güz-ün-de başbakan ol-an Celal Bayar, bun-un bir temsilci-si-ydi.
Celal Bayar, prime minister in the autumn of 1937, was a representative of this place.
Vücud-un-dan memnun ol-ma-yan kadın-lar için . . .
For women who are not content with their body, . . .
Çok uzak ol-ma-yan bir yer-den gel-en silah ses-ler-i duy=ul-uyor-du.
Gunshots were heard, coming from a place not very far away.
Also, there are combinations of olan with a noun phrase which has a possessive suffix, a
case marker, or which is the complement of a postposition.
Possessives. In the first series of examples a noun phrase ending in a possessive suffix pre-
cedes olan ‘being’. In fact, these are the well-known genitive-possessive constructions, in
which the possessive part is modified by an adjective.
Sen, en yakın dost-un ol-an ban-a karşı hiç bir özveri-de bulun-ama-z-sın.
For me, (being) your best friend, you should not go to any lengths / expense.
Kendi icad-ınız ol-an bir çalışma tarz-ınız var-dı, değil mi?
You had a method (of working) which is your own invention, hadn’t you?
Çok büyük bahçe-si ol-an bir ev-de kal-ıyor-du-k.
We stayed in a house that had a very big garden.
Baba-m, asıl geliş neden-imiz ol-an arsa konu-sun-u aç-tı.

My father brought up the plot of land which was the real reason for our coming.
Independent usage of a relative clause (see section 32.7) in this form is widespread:
Biz-im ihtiyac-ımız ol-an, o türkü-ler.

What we need are those songs.
Genitive. A noun ending in the genitive can be applied as predicate, and likewise, it can
occur as the complement of olan:
Âdeta kendi-m-in ol-an o ses yüksel-iyor-du.

It was as if that voice, which was my own, got higher in tone.
Çoğu zaman, bir zamanlar sen-in ol-an bu küçük oda-da uyu-yor-um.
Mostly I sleep in that small room which once was yours.
Ben-im ol-an bu dünya-nın iç-in-de ne arı-yor-sun ve nasıl bul-du-n ben-i?
What are you looking for in this world, which is mine, and how did you find me?
Araba-nın iç-in-de biz-im ol-an iki şey bulun-uyor.
In the car are two things which are ours.
Dative. Complements of olan ending in a dative are the argument of the noun following
olan. The equivalent of the dative in English is rendered by several prepositions.
Artık Çehov’a ol-an alâka gittikçe art-ıyor-du.

The interest (which existed) for Chekhov increased gradually.
Laik demokrat Türkiye’ye ol-an inanc-ımız-ı koru-ya-lım.
Let us preserve our belief in a secular, democratic Turkey.
Kitab-a ol-an merak-ı sonsuz-dur.
Her interest in books is endless.
Daha iyi bir hayat-a ol-an hakk-ın-ı ara-r-mış gibi bak-ıyor-du.
He looked as if he was seeking his right to a better life.
Balıkçı-ya ol-an borc-um-u da o öde-di.
It was she who also paid my debts to the fishmonger.
Hiçbir şey Fatma’ya ol-an sevgi-sin-i söndür-eme-yecek-ti.
Nothing could quench the love he felt (‘had’) for Fatma.
The nouns alâka ‘interest (in)’; inanç ‘belief (in)’; merak ‘interest (in)’; hak ‘right (to)’; borç
‘debt (to)’; sevgi ‘love (for)’ are comparable to the adjectives taking a dative complement of
section 6.7.2.
Locative. A construction in which a locative noun phrase precedes olan resembles an

existential relative clause (see section 32.1.2), but the connotation ‘there is / are’ is lacking.
Henüz yatak-ta ol-an kız, ‘Gir!’ diye seslen-di.

The girl, who was still in the bed, shouted ‘Come in!’
Kendi-si-yle aynı yaş-ta ol-an koca-sı için genç görün-mek iste-diğ-i belli-ydi.
That she wanted to look young for her husband, (who was) as old as she, was clear.
Complements in the locative often form a fixed expression, as in:
Dün-den beri su altında ol-an köy-ler-e gözcü-ler gönder-il-di.

Observers have been sent to the villages which are inundated since yesterday.
Keyif-leri yerinde ol-an karı koca, otuz saatlik bir yol al-mış-lar-dı.
The couple, being in good spirits, embarked on a journey of thirty hours.
Elimde ol-an hiçbir şey-i savsakla-ma-dı-m.
I haven’t neglected anything I have under control.
Ablative. Relative constructions in which a noun phrase with an ablative case marker
precedes olan can be divided into three groups. There are constructions with a complement
which 1) consist of one or more lexicalized nouns ending in the ablative, as in havadan
sudan ol-an bir konu ‘a trivial topic’, içten ol-ma-yan bir duygu ‘a non-sincere feeling’ and
sıradan ol-ma-yan olay-lar ‘unordinary events’; 2) is based on a noun with a plural suffix—
these constructions express ‘belong (to)’; 3) is based on a noun plus a possessive—the
meaning conveyed by such structures is ‘coming / originating (from)’.
The meaning ‘belong (to)’ can be demonstrated with:
En pahalı metal-ler-den ol-an altın-ın fiyat-ı, 1968’den beri hala yüksel-iyor.

The price of gold, being one of the most expensive metals, is still rising, (as it has) since
1968.
Onlar-dan ol-ma-yan bir adam-dı.
It was a man who didn’t belong to them.
Words denoting a collective do not take the plural suffix.
Boris’in baba-sı ve biz-im uzak akraba-mız-dan ol-an Kostas hayat-ın-ı anlat-tı.

Kostas, who was Boris’s father and a distant relative of ours, related his life story.
Suudi ulus-un-dan ol-ma-yan bir erkek-le evlen-mek iste-r-se . . .
If she wants to marry a man who does not belong to the Saudi nation . . .
Bu memleket biz-im-dir, biz-den ol-ma-yan vatansız-dır.
This land is ours, someone not included in our group is stateless.
Onlar-ın grub-un-dan ol-ma-yan bir arkadaş-ı beş ay önce yakala=n-mış.
A friend of his, not belonging to their group, had been arrested five months before.
A noun plus possessive suffix leads to the interpretation ‘coming / originating (from)’:
Kendi çevre-sin-den ol-ma-yan yakışıklı erkek-ler-le gelgeç ilişki-ler kur-muş-tu.

She began fleeting relationships with handsome men, not from her own
social background.
Biz-im kent-imiz-den ol-ma-yan bu adam-ı hemen karakol-a gönder-di.
He immediately sent this man, who was not from our city, to the police station.
These structures might be taken as a type of partitive construction (see section 11.7), namely
one without a possessive part, but this type does not exist. A partitive construction always
contains elements specifying the part and the whole, as in:
Güney Doğu il-ler-imiz-den bir-i ol-an Urfa’da doğ-du-m.

I was born in Urfa, one of our southeastern provinces.
Postpositions. The complement of olan may also be based on a postposition, which of

course brings along its own complement. Here is a small selection:
Bura-dan istasyon-a kadar ol-an yol topu topu dokuz kilometre.

The road (that goes) from here to the station is all in all nine kilometres long.
Kadın, koca-sı ile ol-an alâka-sı kes-ti.
The woman has severed relations (which she had) with her husband.
Gelin-in kayınpeder-i ile ol-an ilişki-si özellikle başlangıç-ta çok mesafeli-dir.
The relation the bride has with her father-in-law is, especially in the beginning,
very distant.
Ban-a göre ol-an şey dolu dolu yaşa-mak!
The thing fitting for me is to live life to the fullest!
Ban-a karşı ol-an aşk-ınız eski-si gibi-ydi.
The love you had towards me was as it used to be.
Mary’ye karşı ol-an ruhsal durum-u çok değişken-di.
His mood as regards Mary was very unstable.
Felix, o zamanlar Prusya sınır-lar-ın-a dahil ol-an Düsseldorf ’ta doğ-muş.
Felix was born in Dusseldorf, which lay at the time within the borders of Prussia.
32.1.4 Passives and reflexive participles
For the English translation of a subject participle of a Turkish passive or reflexive verb (see
sections 30.4 and 30.5) there is often the choice between a relative clause and a past participle.
The first option can be exemplified by:
Market-ler-den al=ın-an sigara, içki ve benzeri ürün-ler . . .

Cigarettes and drinks and products like these, being bought in supermarkets, . . .
Tıp fakülte-sin-de kullan=ıl-an kadavra-lar nere-den bul=un-uyor?
Where are the bodies found which are used at the faculty of medicine?
‘Sabah Olmasın’ çok rahat oku=n-an bir roman-dır.
Sabah Olmasın is a novel that reads very easily.
Dolandırıcılık suç-un-dan ara=n-an C. H. dün yakala=n-dı.
C.H., who was wanted on charges of swindling, was arrested yesterday.
Passive participles can often be translated by a past participle in English:
Bugün aç=ıl-an hastane-de . . .

In the hospital opened today . . .
Yani 50 yıl içinde bas=ıl-an kitap sayı-sı 40 bin civarında-dır.
Thus, the number of books printed in 50 years amounts to around 40,000.
Trafik Hizmet-ler-i Başkanlığ-ı’ndan al=ın-an bilgi-ler-e göre . . .
According to the data obtained from the Ministry of Traffic . . .
Deniz-in ön-ün-e çek=il-en set . . .
The dyke built to hold back the sea . . .
32.1.5 Impersonal passives
The participle in –(y)En is also applied in relative clauses based on verbs which are interpreted
as impersonal: despite a passive element after the stem there is no subject (see section 30.4.4).
These forms exist for transitive and intransitive verbs and are translated in terms ‘one . . . / it
is . . .ed / there is . . .ing’. Participles of an impersonal passive verb may relate to direct objects,
but also to other objects. For instance:
2016 yıl-ın-ın en çok bin=il-en araç Renault ol-du.

The most frequently boarded make of vehicle in 2016 was Renault.
Sirkeci’den bin=il-en tren-le ta Berlin’e kadar gid=il-ir-di.
By train, which one boarded at Sirkeci station, one travelled as far as Berlin.
İn=il-en istasyon bilgi-si de kart-a yükle=n-iyor.
Information on the station where one gets off is loaded on to the card as well.
As was explained in section 30.5.2, the suffixes for passive and reflexive are identical and
therefore this can give rise to a certain degree of ambiguity, especially when a sentence is
presented out of its context. The next example can be interpreted as passive, the ones fol-
lowing as reflexive.
‘Bura-da sakla=n-an rehine-ler-i bul-mak için gel-di-m’ de-di.

He said: ‘I came here to find the hostages who are (kept) hidden here.’
Salon-un ta son-un-da Esra’nın yan-ın-da sakla=n-an Kazım’ı gör-eme-di-m.
I couldn’t see Kazım, who was hiding at the other end of the room beside Esra.
Nadiren yıka=n-an kadın-lar-ın el-in-i öp-me-me-yi bir öğren.
You must just learn not to kiss the hands of women who rarely wash themselves.
Some sentences allow for both a passive and a reflexive interpretation at the same time:
Arka-da-ki otomobil-de bul=un-an üç kişi . . .

The three persons who were found in the car behind (it) . . . (passive)
The three persons who were (‘sitting’) in the car behind (it) . . . (reflexive)
32.2 The Başı-Bozuk construction *
This construction is a special type of relative clause which owes its name to a shortened
version of baş-ı bozuk ol-an adam ‘the man whose head is damaged’. Leaving out the second
half leads to başı bozuk. This is not only a much-used curse of Captain Haddock, one of the
heroes of the Adventures of Tintin, but in historical times, başıbozuk used to be the name of
free-headed, irregular, and undisciplined soldiers of the Ottoman army. In modern times
the name başıbozuk has earned some fame among linguists as a denotation of an entire
class of Turkish constructions.
A characteristic of this Başı-Bozuk construction is that bozuk cannot be regarded as a
property (to be) assigned to adam ‘man’, but to baş-ı ‘head-his’ instead, and it is this word
which has a possessive relation with adam. This is why the element –(s)I(n) in this type of
construction is known as the anticipatory possessive, as introduced in sections 23.1.6 and 28.4.
This type of relative clause consists of a noun plus third person possessive suffix, about
which something is said (‘predicated’) by means of the next word. That word can be
regarded as predicate and this predicate can be based on a noun, an adjective, or a verb. In
the case of nouns and adjectives there is a correspondence with English ‘to be’ and ‘to have’.
This will be discussed in sections 32.2.1 and 32.2.2. Verbs, however, all take the form of a
participle and these will be dealt with in sections 32.2.3–32.2.6.
32.2.1 Adjectival clause
In the case of a nominal relationship the participle ol-an can be left out:
Ulyanov, kendi eğitim düzey-i yüksek (ol-an) bir insan-dı.

Ulyanov was a man with a high educational level of his own.
In this example there is a nominal relationship between the adjective yüksek ‘high’ and the
possessive noun eğitim düzey-i ‘his educational level’: the adjective must be seen as a modifier
for this noun and not as a modifier of insan ‘man; human’. This construction is not some
rare formation, as can be demonstrated by the following fragments.
Ara-mız-da (yaş-ı ileri) yedek subay-lar var-dı.

In our ranks there were older reserve officers.
(Ayağ-ı topal) bir sandalye çek-ip kuytu bir köşe-ye otur-uyor-du-m.
I got a wobbly chair and sat down in a quiet corner.
Onlar-ın ard-ın-dan (ayağ-ı çıplak) kadın-lar gir-di-ler.
After them bare-footed women entered.
Öbür (baş-ı açık) kadın-lar-a bir şey de-me-di-k.
To the other bare-headed women we said nothing.
(Üst-ü baş-ı pis) erkek bir hizmetçi karşıla-dı on-u.
A male servant with filthy clothes came to meet him.
Bu pis kok-an, (el-ler-i nasırlı), alelade bir köylü karı-sı-dır.
This dirty stinker is an ordinary farmer’s wife with calloused hands.
(Bir göz-ü kör, bir kulağ-ı kopuk), pis, yaşlı bir kedi bul-du-lar.
They found a dirty old cat with one eye blind and one ear torn off.
The elements in brackets form a kind of relative clause without a verb, but with a subject
and predicate, for example: yaş-ı ileri (age-poss3s advanced) ‘elderly’; ayağ-ı topal (leg-
poss3s cripple) ‘lame / with crippled foot’; ayağ-ı çıplak (foot-poss3s naked) ‘barefooted’;
baş-ı açık (head-poss3s uncovered) ‘bareheaded’; üst-ü baş-ı pis (clothes-poss3s dirty)
‘with filthy clothes’; el-ler-i nasırlı (hand-plur-poss3s callous) ‘with calloused hands’, bir
göz-ü kör (one eye-poss3s blind) ‘with one eye blind’, bir kulağ-ı kopuk (one ear-poss3s
torn) ‘one ear torn off ’.
The predicate in brackets may be specified by a complement. Here is a short selection:
Bir serçe, (iç-i su dolu) bir oluk-tan birkaç damla iç-iyor-du.

A sparrow drank a few drops from a gutter which was full of water.
El-in-de (üst-ü çay bardak-lar-ı dolu) bir tepsi taşı-yor-du.
She carried a tray which was full of tea glasses.
Üst-ün-de (göğs-ü madalya-lar-la dolu) bir üniforma var-dı.
He wore a uniform, the breast of which was full of all sorts of medals.
(Tırnak-lar-ı kan lekeli), (bilek-ler-i yara izli) el-ler.
Hands with bloodstained nails and scarred wrists.
If used independently, the fragments in brackets can be regarded as short sentences of the
nominal type, for instance: Ayağ-ı çıplak ‘Her foot is naked’ and also Baş-ı açık ‘His head
is uncovered’.
As has been said for the very first example above, this type can often be translated in
terms of ‘to be’ and ol-an can be left out. Yet constructions containing this auxiliary verb do
occur as well, witness:
Teknoloji-si ileri ol-an ülke-ler, tüm dünya-yı etki-leri altına al-ır.

Countries whose technology is advanced influence the whole world.
Üst taraf-ı çıplak ol-an bu adam, son derece huysuz bir kişi-ydi.
This man, whose torso was naked, was an extremely bad-tempered person.
Merkez-i su altında ol-an köy-ler-de kimsecik kal-ma-dı.
In the villages where the centre is inundated there is no one left at all.
Asıl mesleğ-i avukatlık ol-an Hüseyin Avni, milletvekili olarak seç-il-miş-ti.
Hüseyin Avni, whose real profession is that of a lawyer, was elected MP.
En büyük hobi-si yazarlık ol-an bir kimse için oldukça yavaş yaz-ıyor-du.
For someone whose greatest hobby is writing, she wrote rather slowly.
In these sentences the word to the left of ol-an can be used as a predicate over the word
preceding it. Thus, it can be inferred that: Bu adam-ın üst taraf-ı çıplak-tı ‘This man’s torso
was bare’. Other examples of this type of inferred knowledge are: Köy-ler-in merkez-i su
altında ‘The centre of the villages is under water’; Asıl mesleğ-i avukatlık ‘His real profession
is that of a lawyer’; and En büyük hobi-si yazarlık ‘Her greatest hobby is writing’.
The form ol-an is optional in certain types of relative clause. This is the case in nominal
relative clauses and in verbal relative clauses based on –mIş and –(y)EcEk. For the distribution
of such forms over various temporal aspects, see section 32.6.
32.2.2 Existential clause
The notion ‘to have’ (in the sense of possession—see section 23.2) is expressed in relative
clauses by ol-an and ol-ma-yan. The noun phrase being the object of ‘to have’ takes a pos-
sessive suffix, because there is a possessive relation between that object and the head.
Examples are:
Kilo problem-i ol-an kadın-lar için bir tedavi merkez-i aç=ıl-dı.

For women with a weight problem a centre for treatment has been opened.
Bilgisayar-ı ol-ma-yan vatandaş-lar-a okul-da internet erişim-i sağla=n-dı.
For citizens who do not have a computer there is Internet access at school.
Bu, belki dünya-da eş-i ol-ma-yan bir şey-di.
This was perhaps something that had no equal in the whole wide world.
Hasta-sı ol-ma-yan ev yok-tu.
There was no house that had no patient.
The grammatical subject of var and yok in logical inferences from this kind of sentences is a
genitive-possessive construction. For the first two examples it can be inferred that Bu
kadın-lar-ın bir kilo problem-i var ‘These women have a weight problem’ and Vatandaş-
lar-ın bilgisayar-ı yok ‘The citizens have no computers’. And conversely, there is a one-to-
one correspondence of Bu şey-in dünya-da eş-i yok ‘This thing doesn’t have its equal in the
whole wide world’ and Her ev-in bir hasta-sı var-dı ‘Every house had a patient’ with the
third and fourth example respectively. This observation leads to the motivation to bring
this type of construction under the denominator of existential clause (as a subtype of the
Başı-Bozuk construction).
It is not surprising, given the functions of ol-an and ol-ma-yan, that some constructions
can be translated in terms of both ‘to be’, and ‘to have’, for example:
Kulak-lar-ı fazla büyük ol-ma-yan çocuk-lar.

Children whose ears are not too big.
Children who don’t have excessively big ears.
As a matter of consequence, it can not only be said that Çocuk-lar-ın kulak-lar-ı fazla büyük
değil ‘The ears of the children are not too big’, but also that Çocuk-lar-ın fazla büyük kulak-
lar-ı yok ‘The children do not have all excessively big ears’.
32.2.3 Relative clause
Also in a verbal relative clause a Başı-Bozuk construction must be applied if a noun phrase
has a possessive relation with the head. This is the case, for instance, when the word kendi-si
‘self ’, being related to the head, is the subject of the relative clause. This is shown by:
Kendi-si oku-yama-yan ben-im vatandaş-ım . . .

My compatriot, who himself cannot / could not read, . . .
It is clear that there is a grammatical relation of possession between kendi and vatandaş:
Ben-im vatandaş-ım-ın kendi-si oku-yamı-yor / oku-yama-dı ‘My compatriot cannot /
couldn’t read himself ’. A similar relation underlies the following constructions:
Karı-sı bir fabrika-da çalış-an komşu-muz . . .

Our neighbour, whose wife works in a factory, . . .
Henüz duman-ı tüt-en sıcak bir ekmek-le geri dön-dü.
She returned with a warm loaf of bread, (its ‘vapour’) still steaming.
Anne-si yaşa-yan evlat-lar-a renkli bir karanfil tak-ıyor-lar.
They put a coloured carnation on children whose mother is still alive.
Without any further information being given about komşu-muz ‘our neighbour’, it can be
inferred that: Komşu-muz-un karı-sı bir fabrika-da çalış-ıyor’ The wife of our neighbour
works in a factory’. From the second example it follows that the vapour belongs to the
bread: Ekmeğ-in duman-ı henüz tüt-üyor ‘The vapour of the bread is still rising’. And in the
third example there are children for whom the following can be taken as a fact: Onlar-ın
anne-ler-i yaşı-yor-lar ‘Their mothers are alive’.
As has been indicated in section 32.1.1, the subject participle –(y)En has the variants–mIş
for a completed action or process in the past, and –(y)EcEK for reference to a future event.
Apart from the participle –(y)En also the participle –mIş is well represented in Başı-Bozuk
constructions. For instance:
On-un reng-i git-miş yüz-ün-ü yumrukla-mak isti-yor-du.

She wanted to punch him in his face, the colour of which was gone.
Kemik-ler-i ve deri-si ayrıl-mış dört tavuk bud-u kızart-ın.
Fry four chicken thighs, the bones and skin of which have been removed.
Çehre-ler-i, boya-lar-ı sol-muş, çerçeve-ler-i tozlan-mış eski fotoğraf-lar-da gibi.
As in old photos, the faces and colours of which have wilted and the frames of
which have gathered dust.
Sometimes the possessive relationship is embedded rather deeply. Note that ilân-ı aşk
‘declaration of love’ in the next example is an ezafe-construction (see section 31.6).
Doğulu Dil-ler Okul-u’nda oku-yan 24 yaş-ın-da-ki Sumru Başak’a ilân-ı aşk

ed-en, ancak teklif-i geri çevr=il-en 19 yaş-ın-da-ki Mihail Papaz pompalı
tüfek-le önce sev-diğ-i kız-ı, ardından kendi-sin-i öldür-dü.
The 19-year old Mihail Papaz, who declared his love to the 24-year old Sumru
Başak, a student at the School for Oriental Studies, but whose (= M.P.) proposal
was rejected, first killed the girl he loved with a shotgun and then himself.
This example contains a passive verb form: teklif-i geri çevr=il-en . . . Mihail Papaz ‘Mihail
Papaz whose proposal was rejected’.
Other examples of passive verbs based on a Başı-Bozuk construction are:
Liste-ye ad-ı yaz=ıl-an ikinci kadın-ın parasal sorun-u var-dı.

The second woman whose name was written on the list had a financial problem.
Anne-si lanet-le an=ıl-an bu genç kız-ın tam karşı-sın-da-ydı.
He sat opposite this young girl whose mother was remembered with disgust.
Değerli eşya-lar-ı çal=ın-an arkadaş-a tuzlu bir telefon fatura-sı gel-di.
The friend, whose expensive things were stolen, got a steep telephone bill.
An example of a Başı-Bozuk construction based on an independently used participle is:
Savaş-ta baba-lar-ı, oğul-lar-ı ve kardeş-ler-i öldür=ül-en-ler,

iç-lerin-i on-a dök-müş-ler-di.
Those whose fathers, sons, and brothers were killed in the war
poured out their hearts to him.
Expression of the past is possible as well:
Tekerlek-ler-i çamur-a göm=ül-müş bir öküz araba-sı yol-u tıka-mış-tı.

An ox-cart, the wheels of which were buried in the mud, had blocked the road.
Ora-da karn-ın-da suç-u yaz=ıl-mış ceset-ler gör=ül-üyor-du.
There were corpses to be seen there, whose crimes were written on their bellies.
32.2.4 Adverbial clause
Returning to the introductory constructions of section 32.2.1, in a fragment such as ayağ-ı

kırık bir sandalye ‘a chair the leg of which is broken’ the fragment ayağ-ı kırık (leg-poss3s
broken) functions as an adjective for bir sandalye ‘a chair’. Needless to say, perhaps, such
phrases are by no means a rarity. Here we are with:
Kendi-si de, bir ayağ-ı çukur-da ihtiyar bir adam-dı.

And he himself was an old man, having one foot in the grave.
Üzer-in-de bir bacağ-ı alçılı dokuz–on yaş-ların-da bir kız otur-uyor-du.
On top of it sat a nine- or ten-year-old girl with a leg in a plaster cast.
Saç-lar-ı kara, çene-si yuvarlak, burn-u biraz kemerli,
ufacık göz-ler-i pırıl pırıl bir adam-dı.
It was a man with black hair, a round cheekbone, a slightly curved nose,
and very small shiny eyes.
In these examples the fragments in bold print are to be regarded as adjectival phrases, but
they can be used as independent statements, such as Burn-u biraz kemerli ‘Her nose is
slightly curved’, and also as an adverbial phrase. In the latter case such constructions do not
reflect some property of the noun, but rather, they specify some circumstance in which
something takes place (see section 28.4) or is the case.
There are mainly two types. In one of these types the adverbial phrase is based on a
nominal sentence, for instance:
El-im boş geri dön-mek iste-mi-yor-du-m.

I didn’t want to return empty-handed.
Maymun-lar göz-ler-i kapalı keyif-le sıcak suy-un iç-in-de yüz-üyor.
The apes are swimming in warm water with their eyes closed and with pleasure.
Ağz-ı açık, göz-ler-i yumuk, el-ler-i dümdüz, kımıltısız,
mum-dan bir heykel gibi bembeyaz-dı.
With his mouth open, his eyes tightly shut, his hands stretched, and motionless,
he lay there white as a waxen statue.
Adverbial phrases of this type based on a locative are, for instance:
Herkes, el-ler-i ceb-in-de, yürü-me-ye başla-dı.

Everyone began to walk, hands in pockets.
El-ler-im ceb-im-de ve yüreğ-im ağz-ım-da, yine içeri gir-di-m.
Hands in my pockets and heart in my throat, I went in again.
Bayağı otur-du-m, bir ayağ-ım duvar-ın bu yan-ın-da, öbür-ü öteki yan-ın-da.
I just sat, with one leg on this side of the wall, the other on the other.
Nuran, bir ayağ-ı son merdiven-de, ol-duğ-u yer-de dur-du.
Nuran, with one leg on the final step, stopped at the very spot.
Ayağ-a kalk-tı, el-ler-i kalça-sın-da, ban-a alaylı alaylı bak-ıyor-du.
She stood up and, hands on hips, looked at me mockingly.
Dirseğ-i diz-ler-in-in üzer-in-de, baş-ın-ı kaldır-arak on-u seyred-iyor-du.
With his elbows on his knees and raising his head, he was observing her.
İhtiyar adam, sağ ayağ-ı balığ-ın kafa-sın-da, deri-sin-i yüz-dü.
With his right foot on the head of the fish, the old man tore its skin off.
These constructions differ from those in section 28.4, in which an adverbial phrase specifying
circumstance or detail occurs, and for which the instrumental is used. Compare:
El-in-de üç torba ve omz-un-da çanta-sı-yla çıkış kapı-sın-a yönel-di.

With three sacks in her hand and her handbag on her shoulder, she went to the exit.
O da göz-ler-in-de yaş-lar-la herkes-i kucakla-dı.
With tears in her eyes, she too embraced everyone.
The adverbial phrase of the type el-im boş (my hand empty) ‘empty-handed’ as well as the
locative adverbial phrases, e.g. el-ler-im ceb-im-de ‘my hands (being) in my pocket’, are all
small clauses which predicate something about a body part in the role of subject: the predi-
cate in the former type is an adjective expressing some property and in the latter type the
predicate reveals the whereabouts of a body part.
The instrumental adverbial phrases, by contrast, contain small clauses which give
information about what is found where: they open with a phrase specifying some location
and close with a phrase specifying what is available at that location, e.g. omz-un-da çanta-sı
(on his shoulder—his bag). Together with the instrumental case marker this forms an
adverbial specifying some circumstance or detail: omz-un-da çanta-sı-yla ‘with his bag on
his shoulder’.
32.3 The Focus-Locus construction *
As has been indicated in the previous sections, a Başı-Bozuk construction based on a

verb is a relative clause which has two important characteristics. First, there exists a
possessive relationship between a word in the relative clause and its head. The second
typical trait is that the participle ends in –(y)En, while this suffix is mostly regarded
as an indication that the head of the relative clause is the logical subject of that p
articiple,
as is the case with constructions shaped along the lines of Kitap oku-yan adam
(book reading man) ‘The man who read(s) (a) book(s)’. For this reason, the term subject
participle is often used in grammar books. In this type of relative clause, the logical
subject stands after the participle. This is in stark contrast to the Başı-Bozuk construc-
tion: the subject is that constituent which precedes the participle and which carries a
possessive suffix.
32.3.1 Possessive absent
There is another type of relative clause which is often taken for or associated with the con-
struction referred to in section 32.2.4, but which is structured differently for the mere
reason that a possessive element is not an essential part of it. The confusion is based on
the sole observation that the participle ends in –(y)En, a fact serious enough to treat such
constructions as belonging to an independent type. What sets these constructions apart is
the fact that the participle is preceded by a subject which has no possessive relation with
the head. Here is an example:
Su-lar ak-an, kuş-lar öt-en toprak . . .

A piece of land where water runs everywhere and birds sing . . .
The construction is baptized Focus-Locus construction here because of two important

features. First, the head of the relative clause (that fragment about which this clause
predicates something) is a word designating some place, being the place where the action
described by the participle occurs (locus actus, locus in quo). Secondly, in the relative clause
there is a constituent which is the subject of the participle in –(y)En. That subject can take,
as will be shown in section 32.3.3, different shapes, but one thing is certain: it is always to be
found in the Focus position (preverbal position, see section 29.5), that is, immediately
preceding the participle. That is a special position for constituents which are prominent,
deserve extra attention, or must receive emphasis—they are in focus. This explains briefly
the naming adopted here for this type of construction. A third peculiarity is that from a
grammatical point of view the subject which precedes the participle is always non-
referential (see sections 9.2.3, 10.4, and 29.5). This issue will be addressed shortly in
section 32.3.3, where the order of constituents will be discussed.
Introducing the simplest variants, they comprise a relative clause with a subject and a
participle only. More examples of such Focus-Locus constructions are:
Elektrik ve su bulun-ma-yan kent-te . . .

In the city where there is no electricity and water, . . .
Meşe bit-en toprak-ta, hemen hemen hiç başka ağaç gözük-me-z.
On the land where oaks are standing there’s almost no other tree visible.
Bu yerleşme alan-lar-ı, bugün insan yaşa-yan bölge-ler-le aynı-dır.
These places of settlement are the same as the areas where people live now.
Bu yol-lar-dan bir-i siz-i yabanıl ağaç-lar-ın bir küme-sin-e götür-ür;
bun-lar-ın rüzgâr gir-me-yen orta-sın-da yemiş yüklü bir ağaç büyü-müştür.
One of those roads takes you to a grove of wild trees;
in the middle, where there’s no wind, there is a tree laden with fruit.
Bu bakteri de ışık ol-ma-yan yer-ler-de kemosentez yap-ıyor.
This bacterium also does chemosynthesis in places where there is no light.
Ateş ol-ma-yan yer-den duman çık-ma-z.
There is no smoke in a place where there is no fire.
Passive constructions of this type are also numerous:
Öğle sıcağ-ın-da yemek ye=nil-en küçük bir lokanta-ya git-miş-ti-m.

I had entered a small eatery, where people had lunch in the midday heat.
Demirel, pasta üret=il-en mutfak-ta öğrenci-ler-le sohbet et-ti.
Demirel had a chat with pupils in the kitchen where pastries are made.
Burası, sene-ler önce kömür sakla=n-an bir depo idi.
Years ago this was a storage shed where coal was being kept.
Kâğıt oyna=n-an, sigara iç=il-en oda-nın açık kapı-sın-ın ön-ün-den geç-ti.
She passed by the open door of the room where one smoked and played cards.
The examples shown here are all verbal relative clauses with a number of properties attracting
the attention. First, they contain a participle ending in –(y)En, while its logical subject is
not the head but a noun preceding that participle. Secondly, in all constructions the head
is a noun which denotes a place. As has been mentioned in section 14.2, such nouns constitute
a separate lexical category (as do, for instance, proper names) and this category is relevant
for the constructions under scrutiny. As place nouns the following have been introduced:
toprak ‘ground / land’, kent ‘city’, bölge ‘region’, orta ‘middle’, lokanta ‘eatery’, yer ‘place / ground’,
mutfak ‘kitchen’, depo ‘storage / depot / warehouse’, and oda ‘room’.
In all these cases there is a special relationship between the head noun and the subject of
the participle: the head indicates the location where the subject performs the action. As can
be expected, this is corroborated on the basis of valid inferences, for instance: Bu toprak-ta
su-lar ak-ar ve kuş-lar öt-er ‘On that land there is water flowing and birds are singing’;
Kent-te elektrik ve su bulun-mu-yor / yok ‘In the city there is no electricity and water’;
O bölge-ler-de insan(-lar) yaşı-yor ‘There are people living in those regions’; Öğle sıcağ-ın-da
küçük lokanta-da yemek yen=il-ir ‘In the small eatery people are eating during the midday
heat’; (Demirel’in öğrenci-ler-le sohbet et-tiğ-i) mutfak-ta pasta üret=il-ir. ‘In the kitchen
(where Demirel had a chat with the pupils) pastries are made’. An important point to note
is that in all these inferences the head of the original relative clause occurs as a locative
phrase followed by the subject. This ordering is critical, because in both inferences and
original constructions corresponding structures have the same focus (see section 32.3.3).
However, it is not only the static idea of place (location) which determines the relationship
between head and subject, but also dynamic relations with respect to some locations do
certainly occur, such as ‘direction’ (dative) and ‘direction from which’ (ablative). For example:
Ses gel-en taraf-a doğru yürü-dü.

He walked towards the area / side from which (a) sound(s) came.
Bakış-lar-ın-ı deniz koku-su fışkır-an beden-in-de gezdir-di.
He ogled her body, from which the scent of the sea emanated.
El uzat=ıl-an yer-e dil uzat=ıl-ma-z.
One does not stick his tongue out at a place to which a hand is reaching out.
Ardından, kadın ses-ler-i gel-en kapı-ya ürkek ürkek bak-tı.
Afterwards he looked timidly at the doorway from which female voices came.
Cereyan gel-en pencere-nin yan-ın-a otur-mak iste-me-di.
He didn’t want to sit by the window where the draught came from / through.
And of course, from such sentences too, information can be extracted in the same way as
already shown, for instance: O taraf-tan bir ses geldi. ‘From that side there came a sound’.
Also fixed expressions based on the verb stem gir- ‘to enter’ are rather popular, even with a
past tense participle –mIş (see section 32.6.2).
Güneş gir-me-yen ev-e doktor gir-er.

In a house where no sunlight comes in, the doctor will enter.
Hiç öğretmen gir-me-miş bir köy-de okuryazar çocuk-lar bul-du-lar.
In a village that had never seen a teacher (where never a teacher had entered)
they found children who could read and write.
Balta gir-me-miş bir orman-da . . .
In a virgin forest (a forest that had never seen an axe) . . .
The verb gir- ‘to enter / go into’ forms the basis of the Turkish equivalent of ‘not being able
to sleep’, as in: Göz-üm-e / Göz-ün-e uyku gir-me-di. ‘I / She couldn’t sleep’. These elements
are the core of the following sentence:
Nihayet bütün gece uyku gir-me-yen göz-ler-in-i kapa-dı.

All night he did not sleep a wink, (but) he finally closed his eyes.
32.3.2 Possessive present
Expansion of the Focus-Locus construction with a phrase containing an anticipatory possessive

is very possible. Such an addition takes the form of an adverbial phrase which is linked to
the head via a possessive element. That phrase serves as an expression of notions such as
‘place / direction / direction whence’ and is formed on the basis of a component related to
the head via a possessive. In the construction under discussion that possessive-marked
component precedes the participle in –(y)En and for this reason the whole resembles to a
certain extent the genuine Başı-Bozuk construction. Although this similarity is striking
a prima facie, the shape of the participle has nothing to do with the occurrence of a pos-
sessive element related to the head. Once again:
Alt-ın-da sıcak su kayna-yan o kasaba . . .

That town under which hot water wells up . . .
First, on the one hand the relationship between kasaba ‘town’ and alt-ı(n) ‘underside-poss3s’
is expressed by the locative suffix, but on the other hand, omitting the locative adverbial
phrase does not affect the shape of the rest of the construction. Compare:
Sıcak su bulun-ma-yan otel . . .

The hotel where there’s no hot water . . .
Secondly, instead of a locative adverbial phrase dative and ablative adverbials are also
possible, especially when this is a possessive element related to the head. Here are a few
examples, all based on a so-called place noun of the series alt ‘underside’, ön ‘front’ et cetera
(see section 10.2):
Alt-ın-a / üst-ün-e toz düş-en masa-lar . . .

The desks under / on top of which dust drifts down . . .
İç-in-e atık su karış-an kanal . . .
The canal which sewage water flows into . . .
Üzer-in-e kar yağ-an tek çay Türk çay-ı-dır.
The only tea (variety) on which snow falls is Turkish tea.
İç-in-de mantar yetiş-en orman . . .
A wood where mushrooms grow . . .
Arka-sın-dan / ard-ın-dan güneş doğ-an bir dağ . . .
A mountain behind which the sun comes up . . .
Alt-ın-dan duman çık-an kapı . . .
The door from under which smoke is coming out . . .
Üst-ün-den tren geç-en köprü-nün alt-ın-dan geç-ti-m.
I went under a bridge over which trains pass.
Üzer-lerin-den buz-lar sark-an muz ağaç-lar-ı-yla kaplı orman-a gir-di-k.
We entered a wood of banana trees from which icicles were hanging.
The forms olan and bulunan are to be expected in existential constructions of this kind:
Hüseyin ben-i orta-sın-da çeşme ol-an bir küçük meydan-a getir-di.

Hüseyin took me to a small square where there was a well in the middle.
Kuşak-lar-ın-da şöyle kama-lar-ı ol-an işçi-ler bu adam-a göz açtır-ma-dı-lar.

The workers who had thus their daggers in their belts gave this man no chance.
Tam orta-sın-da kapı bul=un-an dümdüz, yalın bir duvar var-dı.
There was a straight clear wall with a door right in the middle.
Expansion, in the form of an adverbial phrase based on a noun denoting a part of the
human head, leads to a construction which is quite often to be found in the literature.
Herkes, saç-lar-ın-dan ter-ler damla-yan zavallı adam-a bak-tı.

Everyone looked at the poor man from whose hair sweat was dripping.
Bun-lar-ı gör-üp da göz-lerin-den yaş-lar süzül-me-yen kaç kişi var ara-mız-da?
How many are there among us whose tears don’t flow on seeing this?
Lacivert göz-leri-yle gül-dükçe yanağ-ın-da gül-ler aç-an,
ağla-dıkça göz-lerin-den inci-ler dökül-en peri kız-lar-ın-a benze-di.
She looked like those nymphs on whose cheeks roses open when they laugh
with their light blue eyes and from whose eyes pearls emerge when they cry.
Bun-un kenar-ın-da, çıplak üst dal-lar-ın-da karga yuva-lar-ı gör=ül-en
birkaç akçaağaç yüksel-mek-te-dir.
At the edge of this a couple of maple trees rise up,
in the bare upper branches of which crows’ nests are visible.
Compounded adverbial phrases are also possible:
Bulgar batarya-ları, dal-lar-ın ara-sın-dan duman-ı gör=ül-en dingin bir köy-de

yerleş-miş bulun-uyor-du.
The Bulgarian artillery was deployed in a quiet village, the smoke of which could
be seen through the branches.
Sometimes it is hard to determine at first sight to which type of construction a sentence

belongs. Although there is some resemblance to the previous example, the following
sentence is an unalloyed Başı-Bozuk construction.
Dal-lar-ın ara-sın-dan kuyruğ-u düş-en kar-lar-ı andır-an beyaz bir kuş uç-tu.
Through the branches flew a white bird, whose tail resembled falling snowflakes.
In the previous example, dal-lar-ın ara-sın-dan ‘through the branches’ is an adverbial

phrase to duman-ı gör=ül-en ‘its smoke visible’, but in the next example the fragment
dal-lar-ın ara-sın-dan ‘through the branches’ is an adverbial phrase for beyaz bir kuş uç-tu
‘a white bird flew’. The subject of the relative clause ending with andır-an ‘is resembling’ is
kuyruğ-u ‘its tail’. Also, because it contains the accusative case marker, düş-en kar-lar-ı
is the direct object of the relative clause.
Thirdly, apart from dative, locative, and ablative, accusative case markings also occur, on
the proviso that there is a transitive verb and that the object contains a possessive marker:
Peynir-in-i fare yi-yen bakkal . . .

The grocer’s at which / where mice have eaten the cheese . . .
Cam-ın-ı maymun kır-an masa . . .

The table whose glass pane monkeys have broken . . .
Burn-un-u sivrisinek sok-an kız . . .
The girl who was stung in the nose by mosquitoes . . .
Note that the head in the last three examples should not be interpreted as denoting a physical
object or person but rather as a designation for a place. In this way, bakkal does not refer to
a person (‘the grocer’) but to the scene of the action (‘the grocery / grocer’s shop’). Likewise,
masa ‘table’ is the place where the glass tabletop (cam) is to be found, and burun ‘nose’ in
the third example is a part of a larger place, kız ‘girl’.
A location metaphor occurs when an event noun is used as a denotation for ‘location in
time and space’. In this way, with symposiums in the next example reference can be made to
both place where and time when certain things happen, and school may stand for a place
(as in: at school) and for a period of time (as in: during school) in which certain events take
place. Particularly in combination with impersonal passives Turkish makes extensive use of
this possibility. Examples are:
Aynı mekân-da ye=nil-en, iç=il-en, müzik dinle=n-en, dans ed=il-en ve

kanepe-ler-e uzan=ıl-ıp felsefe tartış=ıl-an son Roma sempozyum-lar-ın-dan
bu yana 2000 küsur yıl geç-ti.
Since the last Roman symposiums at which one ate, drank, listened to music,
danced, and discussed philosophy in the same place, having lain down on divans,
a 2,000-odd years have passed.
Ol-mu-yor mu, yabancı dil-le eğitim yap=ıl-an okul-lar-ımız-da?
Doesn’t it happen, in our schools where teaching is done in a foreign language?
En önemli şey-in barış ol-duğ-u belirt=il-en açıklama-da . . .
In the commentary in which it was stated that the most important thing is peace . . .
Hence, it is not surprising that temporal nouns, too, have a strong correlation with the
notion of place:
Bir hevenk muz ve bir kasa şampanya tüket=il-en gece . . .

The night in which a bunch of bananas and a crate of champagne were used up . . .
Kabile-yle yaşa=n-an gün-ler-in arasında hiç bir ayrım yok-tu.
There was no difference between the days during which one lived with the tribe.
Çık-ma-mız-a izin ver=il-en hafta-nın ikinci gün-ü-ydü.
It was the second day of the week on which we were given permission to go out.
32.3.3 Internal make-up
What remains to be done in this chapter is to explain the internal constituent order of the
Focus-Locus construction and this can easily be determined on the basis of the following
observations.
The point of departure is its simplest form and this construction comprises three words
only: (subject verb-(y)En) head. The first two words together say something about the third
one. In other words, the relative clause made up of subject and participle is an attribute of
the head. For instance:
Bülbül öt-en orman . . .

The wood where (a) nightingale(s) sing . . .
Secondly, the complexity can be varied by adding all kinds of ‘extras’. For instance, the
subject may be plural and can be modified for quantity:
Üçüncü kat-ın-dan duman-lar çık-an bina . . .

The building where a lot of smoke came out from its third floor . . .
Su-lar-ın-dan bol balık çık-an göl-ler . . .
Lakes where there is an abundance of fish . . .
Göz-ün-den bir damla yaş ak-ma-yan bu kadın . . .
This woman, from whose eyes there flows not a single teardrop . . .
Yüz-ü kapalı ve ağz-ın-dan tek söz çık-ma-yan bir genç kız . . .
A veiled young girl, out of whose mouth not a single word comes . . .
İç-in-den bir baş, iki kol ve iki ayak çık-an uç-ma-ya hazır bir balon . . .
A balloon, ready to fly, out of which a head, two arms, and two legs are sticking . . .
Thirdly, adverbials also are not unwelcome:
Bütün gece göz-ün-e uyku gir-me-yen arkadaş-ı . . .

His friend, who could not sleep the whole night, . . .
Motor-un-dan birden alev çık-an kargo uçağ-ı korkut-tu.
The cargo plane, from whose engine flames suddenly broke out, was frightening.
Fourthly, adjectives to the subject are rather common as well:
Kolon-lar-ın-dan paslı demir-ler çık-an yarım kal-mış beton yapı-lar-ı . . .

Half-finished concrete structures where rusty iron is sticking out of their columns . . .
Sürekli isli bir yağmur yağ-an kapkara gökyüzün-de . . .
In a pitch-black sky from which incessantly a sooty rain falls . . .
Ağz-ın-dan asla yanlış bir sözcük çık-ma-yan gezgin bir yargıç . . .
A touring judge, out of whose mouth never a bad word comes . . .
Fifthly, this type of construction occurs most frequently with a participle based on an
intransitive verb, and hence, an object is not to be expected. Objects are possible only with
transitive verbs, as in the example with the mice devouring the grocer’s cheese.
Summarizing, one could say that the Focus-Locus construction is in fact a relative clause
which has a lot in common with a regular simple sentence. What makes it special and
interesting is that the subject precedes the participle, instead of following it. In the linguistic
literature it has been suggested that these constructions could be explained in terms of
subject incorporation (comparable to object incorporation—see section 6.5.1), but the
mere fact that, in contrast to incorporated subjects, the subject in a Focus-Locus construc-
tion can occur in its plural form and can be accompanied by adjectives, expressions of
quantity, and also adverbial phrases does not argue in favour of this idea.
Moreover, and secondly, the noun phrase giving shape to the subject is always non-
referential and in terms of structure it is identical with the reduced noun phrase which has
been discussed in section 31.4.3 as a possible left-hand member in a nominal compound.
Thirdly, in this type of construction the subject is always placed immediately before the
verb (participle) and this is the position pre-eminently used to draw attention to a constitu-
ent by putting it in focus, because it is indefinite, emphasized, or because it contains new
information (see section 29.5).
These constructions are applied to make a statement about what is going on at a certain
place (locus, location)—such statements are presentative—and put the emphasis (focus) on
the subject of the event: the attention is drawn to, for instance, land where WATER flows
and BIRDS sing, to a kitchen where PASTRIES are made, and to concrete buildings where all
sorts of RUSTY IRON sticks out of their columns.
32.3.4 Comparable structures
In this section some constructions are presented which have in terms of structure and
usage many properties in common with those of sections 32.2 and 32.3, but which are based
on an adjective derived from a passive verb. The forms under consideration end in –I after
a passive stem, as discussed in section 31.1.9, and are semantically speaking equivalent to
participles in –mIş. In this way, as=ıl-ı ‘hanged’ and yığ=ıl-ı ‘heaped, piled, stacked’ can be
exchanged with as=ıl-mış and yığ=ıl-mış respectively. Participial forms are:
Bu saray-da (körpe akçakavak-lar dik=il-miş) bir bahçe var-dır.

In this palace there’s a garden where young silver poplars have been planted.
Orta-da yuvarlak (ve çevre-sin-e tahta sandalye-ler diz=il-miş) bir masa dur-uyor.
In the middle there’s a round table around which wooden chairs are arranged.
The fragments in parentheses can be interpreted as follows: körpe akçakavak-lar dik=il-miş

‘young silver poplars having been planted’ and ve çevre-sin-e tahta sandalye-ler diz=il-miş
‘and around it wooden chairs, having been arranged’. A typical trait of this type of con-
struction is the passive verb form with a non-referential (plural) subject.
The adjectival structures in the following series of examples do not so much represent
some lexical property of the head of the construction, but rather, they behave like verbs:
they are preceded by the subject of the passive verb and that subject is, again, a non-referential,
reduced noun phrase. The head of the construction is a noun indicating a place and in this
respect the construction at issue strongly resembles the Focus-Locus construction. Here
are some examples:
Ot bürü-müş, çöp yığ=ıl-ı bir yer-di.

It was a weed-infested place where rubbish had piled up.
Ora-da armut ve ayva ağaç-lar-ı dik=il-i bir bahçe-miz var.

There we have a garden where pear and quince trees have been planted.
Ölü-ler göm=ül-ü bir kilise-ydi burası.
This was a church where dead people were buried.
İç-in-den, birkaç anahtar tak=ıl-ı bir zincir çıkar-dı.
From the inside he produced a chain to which a number of keys were fastened.
It is of course possible to add an adverbial phrase, particularly of the type that specifies a
part of the (linguistic) head. Here you are:
Duvar-ın dib-in-de, yan-ın-da yüz-lerce plâk yığ=ıl-ı bir gramofon dur-ur.

By the wall stands a gramophone next to which hundreds of records are piled up.
Üzer-in-de ‘Harmagnac’ yaz=ıl-ı bir şişe-yi aç-tı-m.
I opened a bottle on which ‘Harmagnac’ was written.
Omz-un-da, her iki uc-un-da bir-er kova as=ıl-ı bir sırık var-dı.
On her shoulders lay a stake, from each end of which a pail had been hung.
The literary fragment below nicely summarizes some of the matters discussed:
Bahçe-sin-de kabak ek=il-i bir ev-i,

ayağ-ın-dan bağlı bir dana-nın otla-dığ-ı küçük yeşil alan-ı,
kolon-ların-dan paslı demir-ler çık-an yarım kal-mış beton yapı-lar-ı geç-ti-k.
We passed a house, in the garden of which squash was sown,
a little green field where a calf was grazing, its leg bound, and half-finished
concrete structures, where rusty iron bars stick out of their pillars.
32.4 The object participle –TIK
If one claims, for instance, about some book that ‘Aliye has written it’ and furthermore that
‘it is interesting’, then these two statements can be merged into one sentence, starting with
‘the book’:
The book (that) Aliye wrote is very interesting.

Aliye write book (is) very interesting.
The underlined parts Aliye wrote and Aliye write are relative object clauses of English and
fake-Turkish respectively. This is a type of relative clause that does not share its subject with
the main clause; the subject of the main clause is ‘book’ and that of the relative clause is
‘Aliye’. Typically, the object clause has no grammatical object, and the logical object of that
clause is ‘book’, being the subject of the main clause.
The syntactic pattern that is followed for the Turkish relative object clause equals that of
the main clause. Taking the Turkish pattern ‘the-there-sitting-man’ for the relative subject
clause, the object clause follows the exactly same syntactic ordering: ‘Aliye-write-book’. This
should of course be interpreted as ‘the book that Aliye writes / wrote’ or ‘the book that Aliye
32.4 The object participle –TIK 517
has written’. The temporal aspect is again present or past. Other tenses are discussed in
section 32.6.
As for the overall form of the object clause, the subject of a relative object clause takes
the genitive, –(n)In, the embedded verb takes the participle suffix –TIK plus a possessive
form agreeing with the grammatical person of the subject. They have thus the form of the
genitive-possessive construction, as discussed in section 9.3, for instance: Aliye’nin ev-i
‘Aliye’s house’. The Turkish equivalent of ‘the book Aliye wrote . . .’ takes the following gen-
eral shape:
Aliye’nin geçen yıl yaz-dığ-ı kitap çok ilginç.

The book that Aliye wrote last year is very interesting.
This sentence can be divided in the following parts: kitap çok ilginç ‘the book is very
interesting’ is the main clause and the fragment preceding it, Aliye’nin geçen yıl yaz-dığ-ı is
called the relative object clause. The subject of the main clause is kitap ‘book’ and that of the
object clause is Aliye. On the other hand, from a logical viewpoint kitap ‘book’ is also some
sort of object of yaz- ‘to write’ (in this particular case direct object) and this explains the
notions ‘relative object clause’ and ‘object participle’.
32.4.1 Direct objects
In the object clause above, the word kitap ‘book’ does not occur. This word is understood as
the direct object of yaz ‘to write’ and at the same time as the subject of the main clause. The
entire object clause is placed in the position of an adjectival modifier and it takes the form
of the genitive-possessive construction. The following examples will further illustrate the
form variation of such relative clauses.
(Ben-im) geçen yıl yaz-dığ-ım kitap çok iyi sat-ıyor.

The book (that) I wrote last year is selling very well.
(Biz-im) Türkiye’de al-dığ-ımız maaş-lar pek yüksek değil-di.
The salaries we drew in Turkey were not very high.
(Sen-in) Pazar-dan al-dığ-ın giysi-ler nerede?
Where are the clothes you bought in the market?
O, (siz-in) gerçek de-diğ-iniz şey.
That is the thing you call reality.
(Onlar-ın) Yaşa-dık-ları trajedi-den sonra yurt dış-ın-a çık-tı-lar.
After the misery they went through they went abroad.
The noun phrase that takes a relative object clause as a modifier, in casu the head, is called
the relativized object. For instance, mektup ‘letter’ in oku-duğ-um mektup ‘the letter (that)
I have read’ is the relativized object of the verb oku ‘to read’, a verb that usually takes a
direct object.
As has been indicated in section 9.2.3, some Turkish verbs have two objects, the first of
which takes the accusative case marker and the second the dative. Both objects can be rela-
tivized and section 32.4.6 will return to this matter.
32.4.2 Dative objects
Dative objects are the kind of objects occurring with verbs such as gitmek ‘to go (to)’,
taşınmak ‘to move house (to)’ and rastlamak ‘to run / bump (into)’. Such objects can be
relativized, as can be exemplified by:
Geçen yıl git-tiğ-iniz tatil köy-ü Türkiye’nin nere-sin-de-ydi?

The holiday village you went to last year, where was that in Turkey?
Öteki köy-ler-de rastla-dığ-ım filozofça görüş-e bura-da rastla-ma-dı-m.
The philosophical viewpoints I came across in other villages, I did not find here.
Taşın-dığ-ımız ev-de iki dul kadın da var-dı.
In the house we moved to were also two widows.
32.4.3 Locative objects
Locative objects are noun phrases with locative case markers and they occur in combination
with verbs such as yaşamak ‘to live (in)’, oturmak ‘to live (in)’, and the like, and expectedly,
this type of object can also be relativized.
Yıl-larca yaşa-dık-ları şehr-in ad-ın-ı sor-du.

She asked for the name of the city where they had lived for years.
O zaman otur-duğ-umuz şehir-de böyle bir şey yok-tu.
In the city we lived in at that time, you wouldn’t find something like this.
32.4.4 Ablative objects
Ablative objects can be found in combination with verbs such as nefret etmek ‘to hate’, kork-
mak ‘to fear’, utanmak ‘to feel ashamed (of)’, and çekinmek ‘to avoid / shy away (from) /
loathe’. Their relativized ablative objects can be exemplified as follows:
Hem sev-diğ-i, hem nefret et-tiğ-i bu kent-in inanılmaz bir potansiyel-i var-dı.
This city, which he both hated and loved, had an incredible potential.
Elbette, ben-im en kork-tuğ-um kişi o-ydu.
Surely, the person I feared most was she.
Aliye’nin dünya-da en çok çekin-diğ-i ve nefret et-tiğ-i şey bu idi.
This was what Aliye loathed most and hated most in the whole world.
Ben-im tek çekin-diğ-im şey . . .
The only thing I shy away from . . . / The only thing I dislike . . .
32.4.5 Instrumental objects
Instrumental objects occur with verbs such as evlenmek ‘to marry (with)’, tanışmak ‘to meet
(with) / get to know’ and görüşmek ‘to meet (with) / speak (to)’.
Yeni evlen-diğ-i Rus asıllı eş-in-in ism-i . . .

His originally Russian wife, to whom he got married recently, is called . . .
Tanış-tığ-ınız birçok kişi-yi birkaç gün sonra hatırla-yama-yacak-sınız.
After a couple of days you won’t be able to remember (any more) quite a lot of
people you have met.
Görüş-tüğ-ümüz gemi adam-ları.
The seamen we have spoken with.
32.4.6 Relativization of the second object
When the first object of a verb with two objects is a direct object, the second object will
require a dative, ablative or instrumental case marker. Both objects can be relativized. In
the next two examples, based on bağlamak (-i, -e) ‘to tie / connect’, the direct object is
relativized: ip ‘the rope’ and bir naylon torba ‘a plastic bag’ occurring in the main clauses,
are the things that have been tied to something else.
Bir sepet-e bağla-dığ-ı ip-i el-in-de tut-uyor-du.

In his hand he held the rope he had tied to a basket.
Ercan, boyn-un-a bağla-dığ-ı siyah bir naylon torba-yla dön-dü.
Ercan returned with a black plastic bag (he had) tied around his neck.
However, in the next examples the second object is relativized. The main clause contains
the second object of bağlamak, that is, sepet ‘basket’ is the thing to which the first object ip
‘rope’ has been tied.
Bir ip bağla-dığ-ı sepet-i el-in-de tut-uyor-du.

In his hand he held the basket to which he had connected a rope.
Hayat-ın-ı bağla-dığ-ı insan-ı yitir-dikten sonra yit-me-ye başla-yan bir
kadın-ın görüntü-sü-ydü.
It was the sight of a woman who began languishing away after she had
lost the person to whom she had committed her life.
Also göndermek ‘to send / dispatch’ is a verb with a direct object and a dative-object, which
designates the destination of the thing or person sent away. In the next example the direct
object is relativized and in the second one the dative-object.
Şirket-im-in bir dil kurs-un-a gönder-diğ-i adam hiç bir şey öğren-me-miş.
The man whom my company has sent to a language course learned nothing at all.
At-lar-ımız-a bin-erek ağırlığ-ı gönder-diğ-imiz istikamet-e doğru koş-tu-k.
We mounted our horses and raced in the direction we had sent the luggage.
In the next example, however, the head of the relative clause, mektub-unuz ‘your letter’, is
not a dative object, but the basis for an adverbial phrase (see section 32.5).
Katrin’den haber-ler-i gönder-diğ-iniz mektub-unuz dün gel-di.

Your letter, in which you send news from Katrin, came yesterday.
Recall that there are also verbs that take a locative object as the second object. Both objects
can be relativized in Turkish. In the following example the direct object is relativized and in
the second sentence it is the locative object.
Kral, saray-ın-da barın=dır-dığ-ı bütün adam-lar-ı uzaklaştır-mak iste-di.

The king wanted to have all the men evicted to whom he had given shelter in his palace.
İyice eski bir ev-di, dede-m-in on-u otur=t-tuğ-u ev.
It was a pretty old house in which my grandfather had put him up.
An example of a relativized direct object of a verb that has an ablative object as its second
object is the following:
Aliye, Fikret dayı-m-dan ödünç al-dığ-ı bir roman oku-yor.

Aliye is reading a novel she borrowed from my uncle Fikret.
In the next two examples the ablative object is relativized. The first sentence is based on
almak ‘to buy’, a verb of which the associated seller is expressed by the ablative. In the sec-
ond sentence the object of ödünç al- ‘to borrow’ is relativized: dayı-m ‘my uncle’. For the
sake of clarity this may be supported by the pronominal form kendi-sin-den ‘from him’, as is
shown by the second example:
Yağlan-an el-ler-im-i yıka-mak için tavuğ-u al-dığ-ım lokanta-ya git-ti-m.

In order to wash my greasy hands I went to the eatery where I bought the chicken.
(Kendi-sin-den) bir roman ödünç al-dığ-ım dayı-m . . .
My uncle, from whom I borrowed a novel, . . .
Furthermore, there are verbs with a direct object as their first object and an instrumental
object as their second. First, two examples are represented in which the instrumental object
is relativized, and next, a sentence with a relativized direct object.
Bu tür davranış-lar-ın ülke-yi karşılaştır-dığ-ı tehlike-ler . . .

The dangers this sort of behaviour confronts the country with . . .
Tuncay’ı tanıştır-dığ-ı yayınev-i sahib-in-den büyük bir avans al-dı.
From the publisher to whom he introduced Tuncay he got a huge advance.
Çakmak-la aç-tığ-ı şişe mutfak-ta.
The bottle he opened with the lighter is in the kitchen.
Birol ile iki yıl önce evlendir-diğ-i kız-ı Huri’nin ofis-in-de çalıştır-dı.
The daughter whom he had married off to Birol two years before, he employed in
Huri’s office.
Verbs that obtained two objects through causative formation (see section 30.3.2) also occur
frequently in relative clauses. Thus, otur=t-mak (-i, -e) ‘to seat / place / make sit’ has two
possibilities of object relativization, as can be demonstrated by:
Masa-nın üzer-in-e otur=t-tuğ-u çocuğ-u giy=dir-me-ye çalış-ıyor-du.

She tried to dress the child that she had placed on the table.
Bu cevap-lar-ı otur=t-tuğ-u çerçeve-nin büyük bir zarafet-e sahip ol-ma-sı da

aynı derecede önemli-dir.
That the framework in which he places these answers possesses a great elegance
is to the same degree important.
Also yapış=tır-mak (-i, -e) ‘to glue, paste’ is a causative verb with such properties:
Gazete kupür-lerin-i yapış=tır-dığ-ı bir sürü defter-ler-i var-dı.

She had a series of notebooks in which she had glued newspaper clippings.
On-un albüm-ün-e yapış=tır-dığ-ı kupür-ler-de şahane inci-ler var-dı.
Among the clippings she had glued in her album were splendid pearls.
Having exemplified relative object clauses based on verbs with two objects, it should be
noted that relative clauses with a relativized direct object occur much more frequently than
those with a relativized second object. The reason is to be found in the fact that objects
which are more central (first objects) are the most obvious candidates for relativization.
32.4.7 Syntactic differences
The syntax of clauses containing an object participle can now in two ways be contrasted
with clauses with a subject participle. On the one hand, there are pairs like:
O şiir kitab-ın-ı yaz-an komşu-m . . .

My neighbour who wrote / has written that poetry book . . .
Komşu-m-un yaz-dığ-ı o şiir kitab-ı . . .
That poetry book which my neighbour wrote / has written . . .
In the fragment preceding the head of the first clause there is no subject (of the participle)
and in the second clause it is the object which is lacking. This is why yaz-an is called ‘sub-
ject participle’ and yaz-dık ‘object participle’. This opposition is, as it were, representative
for the model functioning as the standard in explaining the difference between subject
participle and object participle. From a somewhat different perspective this difference in
clause types can also be accounted for in terms of the status of komşu-m ‘my neighbour’: it
is subject in both clauses but head in the first one only. Likewise, also o şiir kitab-ı ‘that
poetry book’ is (direct) object in the first clause but head in the second clause.
On the other hand, pairs of relative clauses can also be compared, one member of which
contains a subject participle whereas the other member contains an object participle, while
both their subjects precede the participle. This last type can be illustrated by:
Yangın-ın çık-tığ-ı yer de hava giriş-i güzergah-ın-da-ydı!

And the place where the fire broke out was on the route of the air supply!
As has been indicated in section 32.3, the other type is a Focus-Locus construction:
Bolu’da yangın çık-an hastane-de-ki hasta-lar tahliye ed-il-di.

In Bolu the patients from the hospital where a fire broke out were evacuated.
The differences can be explained in terms of pragmatic differences. In the first sentence
there is a topical perspective: it is assumed common knowledge or known information that
some fire has broken out and this is expressed by fronting yangın ‘the fire’.
In the second sentence, however, ‘fire breaks out’ is presented as information to be newly
introduced to the discourse, and hence, yangın ‘fire’ is focal and is put in the preverbal
position. In this way, relative clauses of this type follow the constituent ordering of regular
simple sentences (see section 29.3).
32.4.8 Possessive objects
These are complements which are to be interpreted as some object (and not as the subject)
of the participle. Such objects contain a possessive suffix which is related to the head of the
relative clause and they have a case marker dependent on the type of verb underlying
the participle.
In section 32.2.3 a construction was explained in which karı-sı ‘his wife’ figures as
the subject of the participle ending –(y)En, but in the following examples this possessive
element is the object of a participle in –TIK and –(y)EcEK.
Karı-sın-ı dün akşam gör-düğ-üm komşu . . .

The neighbour whose wife I saw yesterday . . .
Karı-sın-a bir hediye ver-diğ-im komşu . . .
The neighbour to whose wife I gave a present . . .
Karı-sın-a çiçek getir-diğ-im komşu . . .
The neighbour for whose wife I brought flowers . . .
Karı-sın-da biraz hafiflik sez-diğ-im komşu . . .
The neighbour in whose wife I sensed (felt) a slight frivolity . . .
Karı-sın-dan böyle bir şey bekle-me-diğ-im komşu . . .
The neighbour of whose wife I didn’t / don’t expect such a thing . . .
Karı-sı-yla akşam yemeğ-i ye-diğ-im komşu . . .
The neighbour with whose wife I had dinner . . .
Karı-sı-yla yarın akşam yemeğ-i yi-yeceğ-im komşu . . .
The neighbour with whose wife I’ll have dinner tomorrow . . .
In these examples the ‘I’, as expressed via the possessive suffix –(I)m, is the grammatical
subject of the embedded verb and karı-sı ‘his wife’ is the object. Some text examples of this
type of construction are:
Baba-m, baba-sın-ı anne-sin-i tanı-dığ-ı bu çocuğ-un öğrenim-in-i tamamla-ma-sın-a

yardım ed-ebil-mek için, bütün öğretim üye-leri-yle yakın ilişki-ler kur-du.
In order to be able to help complete the education of this child, whose parents he
knew, my father established close relations with all members of the teaching staff.
Zafer’in ses-lerin-i tanı-dığ-ı köylü-ler karı-ların-a ve hızlı yürü-yen hayvan-ların-a
küfred-iyor-lar-dı.
The farmers, whose voices Zafer knew (recognized), were swearing to their wives and
their stampeding animals.
Rıfat Yarar’ın başkanlığ-ın-ı yap-tığ-ı Deprem Vakf-ı’nın çaba-ları

‘yeterince’ devlet-imiz tarafından değerlendir-il-me-di.
The efforts of the Earthquake Foundation, the chairman of which is Rıfat Yarar,
have not been judged as ‘sufficient’ by our state.
1923 yıl-ın-da Türkiye Cumhuriyet-i, bütün devlet-ler-in resmen sınır-lar-ın-ı
tanı-dığ-ı yeni bir Türk devlet-i-dir.
From 1923 the Republic of Turkey is a new Turkish state, the boundaries of
which all states recognize officially.
That a place adverbial (for instance, alt-ın-da ‘under’) which is linked to the subject via a
possessive relation (see section 32.3.2) is in principle not a criterion for the occurrence of the
suffix –(y)En is again demonstrated contrasting the following example with the next four.
İç-in-de mantar yetiş-en orman . . .

A wood where mushrooms grow . . .
Şu an-da iç-in-de barın-dığ-ı bu yapı ne-ydi?
What was that building in which / where he is hiding at this moment?
Orta-sın-dan tut-tuğ-um uçurtma iskelet-i . . .
The frame of the kite of which I was holding the centre, . . .
Ali’nin her sabah alt-ın-a mektup sıkıştır-dığ-ı tahta kapak . . .
The wooden cover under which Ali placed letters every morning . . .
İç-in-e atlama-ya bayıl-dığ-ım o koskoca karyola . . .
That enormous bed into which I would so much like to jump . . .
In contrast to the other four examples, the subject of the first example precedes the participle.
In the second example the subject of the relative clause is not expressed, but if the subject
had been, for instance, Ali, it would be in the genitive to agree with the possessive of the
participle. In sum, the picture would have been:
Ali’nin şu an-da iç-in-de barın-dığ-ı bu yapı ne-ydi?

What was that building in which / where Ali is hiding at this moment?
For the third example it is clear also that the subject of the main clause, uçurtma iskelet-i
‘kite frame’, is not identical with that of the relative clause. When the subject in the relative
clause receives emphasis a personal pronoun is applied. This leads to:
Ben-im orta-sın-dan tut-tuğ-um uçurtma iskelet-i . . .

The frame of the kite which I was holding by its centre, . . .
32.4.9 Embedded objects
An object that is embedded can be relativized if a verb has an object which itself is based on
a verb. A simple example is:
This is the thing he believed [that she was looking for (a thing)].
Here the verb believe has an object: she was looking for (a thing). This fragment, too, has an
object: a thing. It is this object which is relativized in This is the thing, et cetera.
A verb such as believe can take verbal objects, as is the case with its Turkish equivalent
inanmak and many other verbs. Although such verbs will be discussed extensively in
sections 33.5 and 33.8, relative clauses in which these occur are easy to recognize and
understand. Take a verb such as korkmak ‘to fear’, as in: Bu soru-dan kork-uyor-du-m ‘I
feared this question’. In its relativized form one could say, for instance: Kork-tuğ-um bu
soru-yu sor-ma-dı ‘This question, which I feared, she did not ask’. Now, there is of course a
difference between ‘I feared the questions she asked’ and ‘I feared that she asks / would ask
this question’. In Turkish this is: Sor-duğ-u soru-dan kork-uyor-du-m versus Bu soru-yu sor-
ma-sın-dan kork-uyor-du-m. In the first sentence soru ‘question’ is the object of korkmak ‘to
fear’, but in the second one, of sormak ‘to ask’. In the latter case one usually speaks of an
embedded object. This explains why it is safe to say that the speaker in the next example is
afraid of the things the woman was going to say.
Kadın-ın söyle-me-sin-den kork-tuğ-um şey-ler tüy-ler-im-i ürpert-ti.

The things I feared the woman would say made my flesh creep.
In this example the (verbal) object of kork-tuğ-um ‘which I feared’ is kadın-ın söyle-me-si
‘that the woman would say’. Now, the head noun of the relative clause is şey-ler ‘the things’
and this is then to be understood as the (relativized) object of söyle- ‘to say’.
In what follows the relativized objects are underscored and the predicates with which
they are semantically connected are indicated by a capital X. Hence, in the next example
süs-ler-i ‘her trinkets’ is the relativized direct object of hoşlanmak ‘to like, be pleased’ and
not of bilmek ‘to know’.
Eş-in-in X hoşlan-dığ-ın-ı bil-diğ-i süs-ler-in-i takıp takıştır-ıyor-du.

She decked herself out with trinkets of which she knew that her husband liked them.
The verb of which the head of the relative construction can be thought to be object (the
embedded verb, that is) can occur in infinitival form (–mE and –mEk), as well as in tense-
marked form (–TIK / –(y)EcEK). See sections 33.5 and 33.8.
Examples of infinitives are:
O, ban-a X anlat-ma-ya çalış-tığ-ı şey-i başkaların-ın duy-ma-sın-ı iste-me-di.

He did not want that others would hear what he wanted to tell me.
San-a X söyle-me-yi unut-tuğ-um şey-ler-i, birazdan söyle-r-im.
The things I forgot to tell you, I will tell you any minute now.
Üç gün-de X bitir-me-yi ümit et-tiğ-im bir iş tam üç hafta sür-müş-tü.
A job I hoped to finish in three days has lasted exactly three weeks.
Belki de X baş edeme-mek-ten kork-tuğ-unuz bu yüzleşme-den kaç-ıyor-sunuz.
Perhaps you are running away from this confrontation you fear not being able to cope with.
Ne X ara-dığ-ımız ya gör-mek iste-diğ-imiz,
ne de X karşılaş-mak-tan çekin-diğ-imiz biri var.
There is no one we visited or wanted to see,
nor is there anyone we avoid meeting.
Peki, X geri gönder-mek-ten çekin-diğ-iniz bu öğretmen nerede?

All right, where is that teacher you were reluctant to send back?
Person-marked infinitival forms are represented in the next two examples.
Şimdi, X sor-ma-ma-nız-dan kork-tuğ-um bir soru-yu cevapla-yacağ-ım.

Well, I will answer a question I am afraid you will not ask.
Hastane-ye gel-miş ve az sonra X getir-me-sin-i unut-tuğ-u hediye-yi hatırla-mış.
She came to the hospital and shortly after she remembered the present she had
forgotten to bring.
Tense- and person-marked constructions can be illustrated by:
Hizmetçi-ler-in X kır-acak-ların-dan kork-tuğ-u salon-da-ki porselen-leri

çok değerli-ydi.
Their porcelain in the sitting room, which they were afraid the servants would break,
was very costly.
Sonra da kendin-i X yap-ma-yacağ-ın-a inandır-dığ-ı şey-i yap-tı: teslim ol-du.
And then he did what he had convinced himself not to do: he surrendered.
Kendin-e ciddi bir hava ver-sin diye X tak-tığ-ın-a inan-dığ-ım gözlüğ-ü-yle çok hoş.
She looks very nice with her glasses, which I think she has put on in order to give
herself a serious air.
Multiple embeddings are no exception either:
Son olarak X yap-ma-sı gerek-tiğ-in-e inan-dığ-ı şey-i yap-tı.

Finally, he did what he believed that he should do.
32.4.10 Embedded subjects
An embedded subject appears at first glance as the object of the participle it follows.
For the sake of clarity, the relativized subjects in the next series of examples are under-
lined and the predicates they are semantically connected to are indicated by a capital
X. In comparison with the first example of the previous section, the point in the next
example is that the speaker is afraid ‘that the woman will make a tactless remark’
(kadın-ın ayıp bir şey yumurtla-ma-sın-dan korkmak), but not necessarily of the woman
herself.
X Ayıp bir şey yumurtla-ma-sın-dan kork-tuğ-um kadın-a kaş-lar-ım-ı kaldır-dı-m.

I frowned upon the woman, who I feared would say something disgraceful.
Some logical inferences would be: Kadın-ın ayıp bir şey yumurtla-ma-sın-dan kork-uyor-du-m
‘I was afraid that the woman would say something disgraceful’ and O kadın-a kaş-lar-ım-ı
kaldır-dı-m ‘I frowned upon that woman’.
Other embeddings based on a verb are, for instance:
X Konuş-ma-sın-ı bekle-diğ-imiz denizkızı dilsiz bile ol-abil-ir-di.

The mermaid we expected to talk might even be mute.
O, X iş-e yara-ma-yacağ-ın-a inan-dığ-ı adam-lar-ı ayır-ıyor-du.
He separated the men of whom he believed they would be good for nothing.
X Ben-i etkile-yebil-eceğ-in-i düşün-düğ-ünüz herkes-le bağlantı kur-uyor-du-nuz.
You were setting up connections with everyone who you thought could influence me.
Kork-tuğ-u ya da X kendi-sin-den kork-tuğ-un-u san-dığ-ı insan-ı kim sev-ebil-ir?
Who can love a person he fears and who he thinks fears him?
Gizle-diğ-in her şey-i X bil-diğ-in-e inan-dığ-ın biri-yle karşılaş-tığ-ın-da ne yap-acak-sın?
What will you do when you meet someone whom you believe to know all the things
you hide?
Nominal and existential embeddings of this type occur as well:
X Doğru ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı bil-diğ-in şey-ler-i yap-arak mutlu ol-abil-ir mi-sin?

Can you be happy while you do these things which you know are not right?
X Şef gibi bir görev-i ol-duğ-un-u san-dığ-ım bıyıklı bir adam biz-e bak-ıyor-du.
A moustached man who I thought had a job as a chef was looking at us.
As for embeddings with a passive verb, such constructions are very possible:
Sen ben-im taraf-ım-dan X yaptır=ıl-dığ-ın-ı bil-diğ-in veya tahmin et-tiğ-in

hiçbir hadise-ye itiraz et-me.
You should not object to any activity which you know or reckon that I had organized.
Hiç sev-me-diğ-i, hiç kimsece de X sev=il-me-diğ-in-i bil-diğ-i baba-sı-yla
karşılaş-mak iste-mez-di.
She didn’t want to meet his father, whom he didn’t love at all and of whom she
knew that he (the father) wasn’t liked by anybody at all either.
32.5 Relativization of adverbial phrases
Adverbial phrases for place, time, instrument and, so forth can be relativized according to
the same model, that is, like objects. If, for instance, the following is given:
We first met in my grandfather’s house.

That house was hit by lightning and burned down.
this information could also be conveyed in one go by a sentence like:
The house, where we first met, was hit by lightning and burned down.
32.5 Relativization of adverbial phrases 527
The word house is the core of the adverbial phrase in my grandfather’s house and is the place
referred to in the relative clause where we first met.
Save their structure, for this type of relative clause in Turkish matters are not very
different. The next three examples contain a relativized locative adverbial, the fourth example
a temporal adverbial and the fifth one a relativized instrumental phrase.
Eşya-sın-ı topla-yıp buluş-tuğ-umuz ufak ev-i üç gün önce terk et-ti.

She has packed her things and three days ago she left the small house where
we always met.
En güzel kadın-lar-la buluş-tuğ-un bir kent-se, orası . . .
And if that is a city where you have met the most beautiful women . . .
Hatta bir gece ben-i o yaşlı kadın-a tanıştır-dığ-ı o kahve-yi bile hatırlı-yor-um.
I even recall that cafe where he introduced me to that elderly woman one night.
Spor Bayram-ın-ın kutla-n-dığ-ı geç-tiğ-imiz Çarşamba gün-ü . . .
Last Wednesday, (the day on which) when Sports Day was celebrated, . . .
Şişe-yi aç-tığ-ı çakmak masa-da.
The lighter with which he opened the bottle is on the table.
Passive forms of this kind are not uncommon, as can be shown by:
Cenaze tören-ler-in-in yap=ıl-dığ-ı bir salon-du.

It was a large room where funeral ceremonies are / were held.
İş-e yaramaz birçok şey-in at=ıl-dığ-ı bir düzlük-te . . .
On a flat area, on which a lot of worthless things had been thrown . . .
Orman-lar-ın yok ed=il-diğ-i bir çağ-da ol-du.
It happened in an era when the woods were completely cleared.
Impersonal constructions based on a passive form (see sections 30.4.4 and 32.1.4) in which
an adverbial phrase has been relativized can be exemplified by the following:
Halep tren-in-e bin=il-en istasyon bu mu-ydu?

Was this the station where one got on the train to Aleppo?
Şelale-nin alt-ın-a in=il-en bir yol var-dı.
There was a path along which one descended under the waterfall.
These sentences can be regarded as containing a relativization of an adverbial phrase which

is expressed by locative and ablative case markers respectively: Bu istasyon-da Halep tren-
in-e bin=il-ir-di ‘At this station one boarded the train to Aleppo’ and Bu yol-dan şelale-nin
alt-ın-a in=il-ir-di ‘By this path one descended under the waterfall’.
Also this type of (subjectless) passives can be accompanied by an adverbial phrase which
has a possessive relation with the head.
İç-in-de hâlâ otur=ul-an ev-ler-in ön kapı-lar-ın-da bir duyuru gör-mek mümkün.

At the front doors of the houses in which people are still living a notice is visible.
Üzer-in-den uç=ul-an ülke-ler-in kent-ler-in-in hava görüntü-ler-i al=ın-dı.

Aerial photos were taken of the cities in countries over which they flew.
32.6 Temporal aspects *
Many relative clauses in which a temporal aspect is specified make use of the auxiliary ol-an.
In certain case this form can be omitted: perfective (section 32.6.2), future (section 32.6.4),
but in imperfective (section 32.6.1) constructions this is not possible.
32.6.1 Imperfect(ive)
Imperfect and imperfective stand for a non-completed action or event. When one wants to
explicitly express the fact that some action or event has not been completed, the tense form
introduced as Present-3 (see section 20.6) must be applied in the relative clause. In the rela-
tive subject clause the combination –mEktE ol-an occurs after the verb stem. In the relative
object clause it is the sequence –mEktE ol-duk plus a possessive suffix, which corresponds
to the grammatical person of the subject. The subject in the relative object clause takes, of
course, a genitive suffix.
Kahve pişir-mek-te ol-an babaanne-m ‘konyak’ diye bağır-dı.

My grandmother, who was making coffee, shouted ‘Cognac!’
Aliye’nin yaz-mak-ta ol-duğ-u kitap çok ilginç.
The book Aliye is / was writing is very interesting.
Alternative forms in –(I)yor ol-an do occur, to be sure, but not very frequently.
Su kule-sin-in arka-sın-da gizle=n-iyor ol-an bir düzine Fransız asker-in-i gör-dü.

He saw a dozen French soldiers who were hiding behind the water tower.
Bu gülümseme-de, karşı-sın-da-kin-e güzel bir şey sun-uyor ol-an birin-in
al-dığ-ı keyif hissed=il-iyor-du.
In this smile the pleasure was perceptible which someone gets who presents
something nice to the one who in front of him.
Also the combination –(I)yor ol-duk plus possessive occurs as participle in relative clauses,
albeit not very frequently. The following are text examples:
Bun-lar biz-im cevaplı-yor ol-duğ-umuz soru-lar.

These are the questions we are answering (right now).
On-a ön-ün-de dur-uyor ol-duğ-umuz market-i göster-di-m: Burası bakkal işte.
I showed her the market in front of which we were standing: Here’s the grocer’s, see.
Other combinations of –(I)yor ol- will be exhaustively discussed in sections 37.1 and 37.2.
32.6.2 Perfect(ive)
Perfect and perfective stand for a completed action or event. When an action or event has
been completed in the past, there are again, in analogy to the choice in suffixes for the non-
completed action, two possibilities. The past tense is expressed by –mIş, which is followed
by the optional auxiliary ol-an in the relative subject clause and by the obligatory auxiliary
ol-duk plus possessive suffix in the relative object clause.
O zaman, yan-ın-a otur-muş ol-an abla-sı gözyaş-ların-ı sil-di.

Then his sister, who had sat down next to him, wiped away her tears.
Yük-leri al=ın-mış ol-an at-lar otlu-yor-lar-dı.
The horses, who had been unloaded, were grazing.
Avcı-nın el-in-den kurtul-muş ol-an yabanî ördek ve kaz . . .
The wild duck and the goose, having escaped from the hands of the hunter, . . .
The auxiliary form ol-an can be left out:
Memleket-in-den dışarı ayak at-ma-mış bir adam-dır.

He is a man who never has set foot outside his country.
Anne-sin-i ve karı-sın-ı armağan-lar içinde yaşat-mış adam-dı.
He was a man who enabled his mother and his wife to live in wealth (gifts).
Polis-ler kara çarşaf giy-miş kadın-lar-ı tepe-den tırnağ-a arı-yor-du.
The police officers searched the women clad in a chador from head to toe.
İmren Aykut, Türkiye’nin en tanın-mış kadın politikacı-lar-ın-dan bir-i-ydi.
Imren Aykut was one of Turkey’s best-known female politicians.
For the relative object clause the expected pattern based on ol- plus –TIK is followed:
Okul-da öğren-miş ol-duğ-unuz bir bilgi-yi hatırla-yamı-yor-sa-nız . . .

If you cannot recall something you have learned at school . . .
Dinle-miş ol-duğ-unuz bu şarkı, 1954’te yaz-mış ol-duğ-um ikinci şarkı-m.
This song you just have listened to, is my second song, which I wrote in 1954.
Sen, dün sev-miş ol-duğ-un her şey-den bugün nefret ed-iyor-sun.
Today you dislike everything you loved yesterday.
In this type of complex temporal expression, the verbal suffix –mIş has no other meaning
than ‘past’ (completion) and not that of indirect observation as in Past-1 (see section 20.3).
32.6.3 Similarities and differences
In section 32.1.1 it was shown that the participle –(y)En is used to indicate that the event
described by the verb takes place in the present or in the past. As a matter of fact this suffix
serves as a kind of all-purpose device for subject reference while temporal reference is
expressed by different means. In the following example this reference is rather vague, since
it covers, roughly speaking, ‘present’ to ‘past’. In other words, it does not relate to ‘future’ or
‘remote past’.
Bu kadın, 1988 yıl-ın-da trafik kaza-sın-da öl-en teyze-m-in arkadaş-ı-ydı.

This woman was a friend of my aunt who (has) died in a traffic accident in 1988.
Sometimes the notions ‘completed’ and ‘non-completed’ are used in an attempt to pin-point
the factors relevant for an adequate description. For the example above, as well as for the
next two examples, it can however be assumed that at the moment these sentences were
uttered, the processes in which teyze-m ‘my aunt’, adam ‘the man’, and arkadaş-lar-ı ‘her
friends’ were involved had come to an end. In other words, the idea of ‘completed or not’
fails to explain the differences in all cases. Consider:
O anda öl-mek-te ol-an adam-ın göz-ler-i bir kez daha aç=ıl-dı.

The eyes of the man who was dying that moment opened one more time.
1918’deki grip salgın-ın-da öl-müş ol-an arkadaş-lar-ı için gözyaşı dök-tü.
She shed tears over her friends who had died in the flu epidemic of 1918.
Now, how do the latter two examples relate to the first one, given the adverbial phrases
indicating that what happened just happened in the past and is therefore completed?
A clue can be found in the relation between the notion ‘completed’ and the point in time
described by the adverbial phrases. In the first sentence there is no explicit connection
between 1988 yılında ‘in 1988’ and the question of whether something was completed or
not. But in the other two sentences there is such a relationship: the fragment öl-mek-te
refers to an ongoing (non-completed) process at point o anda ‘that moment’, whereas
öl-müş means that such a process had already finished (completed) at some point during
the 1918 flu epidemic, as indicated by 1918’deki grip salgınında.
32.6.4 Future
An action or event that has not occurred or even started can be situated in the future. This
future aspect is expressed by –(y)EcEK, which in turn is often followed by ol-an in the rela-
tive subject clause and by ol-duk plus possessive suffix in the relative object clause. The idea
of ‘future’ can be related to the present and to the past. In the following example there is a
relation to the moment of utterance, that is, the present.
Merkür’e gid-ecek ol-an Mariner Nükleer 10, Mars’ın iç yapı-sı hakkında

bilgi ver-ecek ol-an magnetosfer-in-i incele-yecek.
The Mariner Nuclear 10, bound for Mercury, will investigate the magnetosphere
of Mars, which (magnetosphere) will give data about its (Mars’s) internal structure.
Yarın San Jose’den uçak-la gel-ecek ol-an Demet’i karşıla-ma-ya gid-e-lim.
Let’s go and meet Demet, who will come tomorrow by plane from San José.
The auxiliary form ol-an can be left out:
Bil-iyor-um, sen hırsızlık ed-ecek adam değil-sin bil-iyor-um.

I know, you are not a man who will commit theft, I know.
Öl-en kadın-ın hiç de intihar ed-ecek bir kadın ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı düşün-üyor-um.
I think that the deceased woman was not a woman at all who would commit suicide.
The following examples show that –(y)EcEK ol- is related to a moment that is located
before the actual utterance took place: the relative clauses refer to a future action or event
in the past.
Yaşantı-mız-ın akış-ın-ı değiştir-ecek ol-an o 1914 yıl-ın-da . . .

In that year 1914, the year that would change the course of our lives, . . .
On yıl sonra öl-ecek ol-an Gegh, zayıf bir ressam-dı.
Gegh, who would die ten years later, was a third-rate painter.
Relative object clauses of this kind can be exemplified by:
Ben bu kaçır-acak ol-duğ-um kız-ın baba-sın-a çalış-tı-m iki buçuk sene.

For two and a half years I worked for the father of this girl I was going to kidnap.
Anne-n ‘Oğl-um, yap-acak ol-duğ-un iş-i bitir-meden dön-me!’ de-di.
Your mother said: ‘My son, do not return before you have finished
the work you were going to do!’
32.6.5 Regularity / duration
The forms –(I/E)r and –mE-z (see Present-2 in section 20.5) are applied as participles in
relative subject clauses to express a certain regularity or duration of the action or event
described by the verb. Many such participle forms are more or less petrified and have
become pure adjectives (see sections 32.10.3 and 32.10.5) being used almost exclusively in
combination with durum and hal, both meaning ‘state / situation / position’, as in:
işle-r durum-da in a working state, functioning

yat-ar durum-da laying, in the state of laying
El-imiz-de uç-ar durum-da bir tek T33 var.
We only have one T33 that can fly.
Kendin-i tekrar ed-er durum-a düş-müş.
He has entered a state which repeats itself all the time.
Bakış-ların-da ben-i tanı-dığ-ın-ı göster-ir bir ışık bul-ama-dı-m.
In his glances I found no light showing that he recognized me.
Mine ile koca-sı, asalet-lerin-e yaraş-ır bir tantana ile yaşa-mak-ta-lar.
Mine and her husband live with the grandiosity that suits their nobility.
The negational counterpart of the abilitative (‘can / be able’—see section 22.1.1) is very

frequently used, particularly with passive verbs:
İç-in-den çık=ıl-ama-z, çözüm-ü bul=un-ama-z bir durum ol-muş-tu.

A situation occurred from which one could not get out and which was
irresolvable. (Literally: . . . the solution of which could not be found.)
Sadece Diyarbakır’da iki bin bilgisayar kullan=ıl-ama-z hal-e gel-di.
In Diyarbakir alone 2,000 computers became unusable.
Yani ülke yönet=il-eme-z hal-e gel-diğ-in-de . . .
So, when the country had got into an ungovernable state . . .
32.6.6 No necessitative
Following the order in which the simple tenses were introduced in chapter 20, in the previous
paragraphs complex tenses were discussed. In chapter 22 the necessitative has been explained,
which is expressed by a suffix and placed in the slot of a tense form. Although this necessi-
tative form of the verb cannot occur in a relative clause, there are certain expressions which
might be confused with such constructions at first glance. For instance, tartışmak means
‘to discuss / argue’ and the derived noun tartışma ‘discussion / argument’. The adjective
tartışmalı, however, means ‘disputable / arguable’. Also, inmeli resembles the necessitative
form of inmek ‘to descend / get off ’, but it is derived from inme inmek ‘to have a stroke’ and
thus, inmeli means ‘paralysed’. This can be exemplified by:
Bilgin-ler ara-sın-da tartışmalı ol-an pek çok sorun . . .

Many problems, still being disputed among scholars, . . .
İnmeli ol-an karı-sı yirmi yıl-dır sandalye-sin-den kımılda-mı-yor-du.
His wife, being paralysed, has not come out of her chair in twenty years.
Clearly, from these sentences it can be inferred that Pek çok sorun tartışmalı ‘Many problems
are disputable’ and that Karı-sı inmeli ‘His wife is paralysed’.
32.7 Independently used participles
In section 32.1 it was shown how sentences are structured in which the subject of the main
clause is identical with that of the relative clause. In the relative clause the verb has the form
of a subject participle, characterized by the suffix –(y)En. And in section 32.4 the object
participle in –TIK was discussed, a verb form that is followed by a possessive suffix which
agrees in person and number with its subject bearing the genitive case marker. In both
cases the relative clause occupies the syntactic position of an adjective: it shows up as an
attribute of the head.
Attachment of a possessive suffix in clauses with an object participle clearly shows that
the participle has adopted properties of a noun phrase. In such cases the verb is said to
nominalize and that it therefore has a nominalized form. The process involved is referred to
as nominalization. Another term for words or phrases used as a noun is substantive, and
related terms are substantivize, substantivized, and substantivization. Subject participles,

too, have this property: they can be used independently in Turkish as nouns and they form
so-called headless relative clauses.
32.7.1 Subject participles
There are two types of independently used subject participles: they both end in –(y)En
and –mIş. When used independently, the forms in –(y)EcEK mostly occur in combination
with ol- or in their plural form followed by a genitive.
Here are some simple examples:
Çay iç-en (var mı)? (tea vendors)

Are there people drinking tea?
/ Tea!
İn-ecek var! (bus)
There is someone who wants to get off.
/ I want to get off.
Gereksiz kullan-an-lar cezalandır=ıl-ır. (emergency brake)
Those using (it) unnecessarily will be punished.
/ Abuse will be prosecuted.
The participle for the subject relative clause can often be translated with use of ‘those who’
or ‘who’ and occurs independently as subject. This is shown in the next two examples.
Çok garip ama, her gör-en ben-i tanı-yor.

It is very peculiar, but everyone who sees me recognizes me.
Sürekli kilo problem-i-yle yaşa-yan-lar çok-tur.
There are many people who constantly live with a weight problem.
An independently used subject participle can, of course, also be used as an object, not only
in its nominative form, but with all case markers:
Ağz-ın-dan çık-an-ı kulağ-ın işit-sin!

May your ear hear what comes out of your mouth.
/ You should hear what you’re saying.
Doğru söyle-yen-i dokuz köy-den kov-ar-lar.
Who speaks the truth is chased away everywhere (from nine villages).
Dinle-mek iste-me-yen-e söz anlat-mak güç-tür.
It is hard to persuade someone who doesn’t want to listen.
Allah-tan kork-ma-yan-dan kork=ul-ur.
One is afraid of him who does not fear the Lord.
Zira büyük şehir-ler-de yaşa-yan-lar-ın yüzde kırk-ı çok şişman.
Because forty per cent of those who live in big cities are far too fat.
Polis Merkez-i’ni ara-yan-lar-a ‘Kusura bak-ma-yın şu anda polis-ler siz-e

cevap ver-emi-yor’ söz-lerin-i dinle=t-iyor-lar.
And those who call the police station, they let them hear the words:
‘We are sorry, but at the moment the police cannot answer your call.’
Açık hava-da çalış-an-lar-da deri kanser-ler-i daha sık ortaya çık-mak-ta-dır.
Among those working in the open air skin cancers occur often.
Sehpa-nın üst-ün-de dur-an-lar-dan değil, kendi-nin-ki-ler-den yak-tı.
He didn’t light one of those standing on the coffee table, but one of his own.
Ödül al-an-lar-la birlikte fotoğraf çektir-en Cumhurbaşkanı Demirel . . .
President Demirel, having his photo taken together with those receiving a reward, . . .
In constructions equivalent to ‘to be’ and ‘to have’ independently used participles require
the usage of the auxiliary verb olmak.
Başka ulus-tan ol-an-lar-la dostluk kur-an-lar-a da rastla=n-mak-ta-dır.

One also meets people who strike up a friendship with people of another nation.
Bilim-i bilim ol-ma-yan-dan ayır-an özellik-ler şun-lar-dır . . .
The properties which set science apart from what it is not are the following . . .
Üye-ler Müslüman’dan ve Müslüman ol-ma-yan-dan seç=il-ecek.
The members will be chosen from among Muslims and those who are not.
İlaç al-acak para-sı ol-ma-yan-lar . . .
People not having the money to buy medicine . . .
Independently used participles based on a passive verb are numerous:
anlat=ıl-an that which is / was being told

anlat=ıl-ma-yan-lar all that which is / was not being told
iste=n-en that which is / was being wanted / required
iste=n-me-yen that which is / was not wanted / required
bil=in-en-ler all that which is / was being known
bil=in-me-yen that which is / was not known, the unknown
Yap=ıl-ma-yan-ı yap-mak, sor=ul-ma-yan-ı sor-mak şart-tır.
It is imperative to do what hasn’t been done and to ask what hasn’t been asked.
A second series of constructions demonstrating that participles can be used as if they were
nouns is based on forms in –mIş. Generally speaking, such forms are not applied as subject
in a sentence, but rather, they are used as part of a genitive-possessive construction or as
some object. In the following examples such participles form the possessive part of a genitive-
possessive construction.
Kırmızı da kömür-ün yan-mış-ı değil mi-dir?

And is that red (stuff) not burned (remnants of) coal?
Köy kopuk-lar-ın-ın en ip-in-i kopar-mış-ı on-dan kız-ın-ı iste-me-ye gel-ir.

The man who broke off more relationships than any other of the village tramps
goes up to him and wants his daughter.
Türlü türlü ot-lar var-dı: türlü renkli-si, diş diş ol-an-ı,
güneş-le ve koku-yla kavrul-muş-u, kısacası Provence’ın ne kadar ot-u var-sa.
There were all sorts of herbs: with different colours, with denticulate leaves,
scorched by the sun, and impregnated by scents, in short, whatever herbs of
Provence there are.
In the next two examples it is the participle which has taken the genitive suffix.
As-ıl-mış-ın ev-in-de ip-ten bahsed=il-me-z.

In the house of someone who was hanged one does not talk about ropes.
Onlar-ın göz-ün-de zaten kendin-i beğen-miş-in bir-i-ydi-m!
In their eyes anyway I was one who is very happy with himself.
Also as a direct or dative object there is ample employment for these participles:
O da hep dene=n-me-miş-i, yeni-yi arı-yor-du.

He too always sought that which had not been tested, (he sought) something new.
Kös dinle-miş-e davul-un ses-i vız gel-ir.
For him who has listened to the big drum, the small drum is insignificant.
As can be expected, plural forms are possible. Here is a short selection:
Yen-miş-ler-le yen=il-miş-ler-in tartış-abil-ecek-leri bir konferans başla-dı.

A conference started where those who won and those who were defeated
would be able to negotiate.
Bun-lar, oku-muş-lar-ın dil-in-i Farsça ve Arapça öğe-ler-den arıtma çaba-sı
güd-üyor-lar-dı.
These people aimed at purifying the Persian and Arabic elements from the
language of the educated people.
İşte, yoksul-lar-a ve ezil-miş-ler-e olan ilgi-si yapay-mış.
Look here, her interest in paupers and the oppressed is apparently artificial.
Fazla (oku-muş yaz-mış)-lar-dan değil-di.
She did not belong to those who had learned too much.
The latter example belongs to a construction type which will be discussed in section 32.7.3.
As has been said, independently used subject participles in –(y)EcEK do not often occur,
and mostly they are followed by ol-an.
Ön-ümüz-de-ki yıl trafik-te öl-ecek ol-an-lar-ın sayı-sı,

4700’den 4465’e düş=ür=ül-ecek.
The number of people who will die in traffic next year
will be brought down from 4,700 to 4,465.
Ol-acak ol-an-lar-ın hepsin-i önce-den gör-müş.

All that was going to happen she saw in advance.
En son yap=ıl-acak ol-an-ı ilk önce yap-ıyor.
What should be done last, he does it first.
Klinik-te tren-e kon=ul-acak ol-an-lar-ın hep-sin-i hazırla-dı-k.
In the clinic we have prepared all those who / that which will be put on the train.
However, when independently used subject participles in –(y)EcEK occur, they are in the
plural and genitive.
Kondüktör, bu istasyon-da in-ecek-ler-in bilet-lerin-i topla-ma-ya gel-di.

The conductor came to collect the tickets of those who would get off at this station.
Ol-abil-ecek-ler-in bazı-lar-ı ol-ma-dı.
Some of the things that could happen did not happen.
Kuzu ziyafet-in-de bulun-acak-lar-ın sayı-sı çoğalt=ıl-abil-ir.
The number of people who will be present at the ‘lamb banquet’ may be increased.
The following examples are based on a passive verb:
Bu sayı-nın düşün=ül-ebil-ecek-ler-in çok öte-sin-de ol-acağ-ı kesin.

That this number will be much higher than those that could have been imagined is certain.
On-un için söyle=n-ebil-ecek-ler-in hepsi işte bu kadar.
All that can be said in favour of him is this much.
A special case is benzemek ‘to resemble’, which can take a dative object consisting of a
verb stem plus –(y)EcEK, –(I)yor or –mIş. The examples clearly show that each of the
verbs occurring as the complement of benzemek can be regarded as an independent,
nominalized form. In this way ver-ecek can be understood as ‘something / someone that
will give’, bil-iyor as ‘someone who knows’, and sinirlen-me-miş ‘someone who has not
become nervous’.
Bun-lar bu sene çok yemiş ver-eceğ-e benzi-yor.

It looks as if these will give a lot of fruit this year.
Güzel bir gün ol-acağ-a benze-r-di.
It looked as if it would be a beautiful day.
Oysa bu dazlak bir şey-ler bil-iyor-a benzi-yor-du.
However, this bald one seemed (to me) to know something more.
Şaka yap-ıyor-a benze-mi-yor-du.
It was not like she was joking. / She didn’t look like someone who was joking.
Cahit Hoca hiç sinirlen-me-miş-e benzi-yor-du.
Cahit Hoca looked like someone who was not nervous at all.
Oysa biz-im adamcık ne yol-un-u yitir-miş-e benzi-yor-du,

ne öl-esiye yorgun düş-müş-e, ne öl-esiye aç kal-mış-a,
ne susuzluk-tan öl-müş-e, ne de korku-dan öd-ü patla-mış-a.
But our little man did not look like someone who had lost his way,
or like someone who was dead tired or who had almost starved,
or died from lack of water, or who had been frightened to death.
32.7.2 Possessive subject participles
An independently used subject participle ending in –(y)En can be expanded by a posses-

sive suffix for the first and second person plural. In this way the notions of ‘one of us’ and
‘someone among you (plur)’ can be expressed.
‘Bazen en korkak görün-en-imiz en yürekli ol-an-ımız-dır’ de-di.

He said: At times the one of us who looks most cowardly is the bravest of us.
Bu arada gel-en-imiz gid-en-imiz de eksik ol-mu-yor-du; anne-m
bu gün-ler-de ev-de-ki şeker ve kahve tüketim-in-den şikâyetçi-ydi.
Meanwhile there was no lack of our people coming and going; my mother
complained in those days about the consumption of sugar and coffee at home.
Leonid Brejnev kim-di, bil-en-iniz var mı?
Who was Leonid Brezhnev, is there anyone among you who knows this?
Çalışkan bir hamal-ın ülke-miz-de holding kur-acak kadar yüksel-diğ-in-i
bil-me-yen-iniz var mı?
Is there anyone among you who does not know that in our country a hard-working
porter can rise to be founder of a holding company?
32.7.3 Subject participles plus ablative
In section 23.1.5 a construction was introduced consisting of a noun phrase with the suffix
combination plural plus ablative (–lEr + –TEn) in the role of predicate followed by a per-
sonal suffix. The entire construction has the meaning of ‘to belong to’ and can be applied to
subject participles as well; –(y)En for a non-completed action, –mIş for a completed action,
and –(y)EcEk for a future action.
Ben galiba yaşam-a hep pencere-den bak-an-lar-dan-ım.

I guess I belong to those people who always look at life through the window.
Ben de on-un gibi bu kelime-ler-e inan-ma-yan-lar-dan-ım.
Like he does, I too belong to those (people) who don’t believe in these words.
Siz kendin-i düşün-mek-ten başka bir şey yap-ma-yan-lar-dan mı-sınız?
Do you belong to those people who do nothing else than think about themselves?
Bir yarar-ı ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı çoktan gör-müş-ler-den-im, ben de.

I too am one of those who a long time ago realized that it had no use.
M.K. şöyle de-miş-ti: Ben de saray-a gid-ecek-ler-den değil-im.
M.K. said it thus: And I am not one of those who will go to the palace.
O kardeş gibi bir dost-tu, eş-i benzer-i bul=un-ama-yacak-lar-dan bir-i.
He was a friend like a brother; one of those for which
an equal or similar will not be found.
The auxiliary ol-an occurs in the next two sentences in combination with a past-tense and
future-tense participle. The participle functions, as it were, as an adjective (see also sec-
tions 32.10.4 and 32.10.5), comparable to the one in the third sentence below.
O mu? Çocukluğ-un-da acı bir şey çiğne-miş ol-an-lar-dan-dır.

She? She’s one of those who experienced something nasty in their childhood.
Atatürk ban-a ‘Sen ben-im tarih-im-i yaz-acak ol-an-lar-dan-sın’ de-di.
Ataturk said to me: You are one of those who will write my biography.
Ben bu hadise-ler esnasında en ziyade sakin ol-an-lar-dan-ım.
I am rather one of the quieter people during such events.
32.7.4 Object participles
When used independently, thus without a head noun, participles can also figure as the
object of some verb. In English they can be translated as ‘that which’ or simply as ‘what’.
Object participles occur as the subject of main clauses:
Siz-in iste-diğ-iniz ne-dir?

What is it that you want?
En az sevin-diğ-in bu mu?
Is this what you are the least happy about?
En çok nefret et-tiğ-i bu-dur.
What she most dislikes / hates / loathes is this.
In these examples siz-in iste-diğ-iniz means ‘(that) which you want’, en az sevin-diğ-in ‘that
which you are the least happy about’, and nefret et-tiğ-i ‘(that) which she dislikes’. These
fragments can be interpreted as referring to the object of the verb that forms the participle,
being the direct, dative, and ablative objects respectively. In the same vein the following
object participles can be analysed:
Yi-yeme-dik-ler-imiz-i sar=dır-a-lım mı?

Shall we have it wrapped, all that we couldn’t eat?
Demin söyle-diğ-im ara-mız-da kal-sın!
What I just said must remain strictly between you and me!
Here yi-yeme-dik-ler-imiz ‘all that which we were not able to eat’ and demin söyle-diğ-im
‘that which I just said’ are used as direct object and subject respectively.
Object participles in –(y)EcEK occur independently as well:
Şimdi söyle-yeceğ-im ara-mız-da kal-sın!

What I am going to say now must remain strictly between you and me!
Söyle-yeceğ-in-i söyle-di.
He said what he was going to say.
On-un kendi-lerin-e söyle-yecek-ler-in-i dinle-yecek-ler-dir.
They will certainly listen to all she is going to say to them.
But there is more. Both headless participles can also be interpreted in terms of a fact or
an act: siz-in iste-diğ-iniz ‘(the fact) that you want X’ or ‘(the act of) your wanting X’, and
similarly, nefret et-tiğ-i can be understood as ‘(the fact) that she hates X’ as well as ‘(the act
of) her hating X’.
Such objects often occur in combination with another verb, expressing a fact, as in:
Bun-u iste-diğ-iniz-i bil-mi-yor-du-m.

I didn’t know that you want(ed) this.
Birden kork-tuğ-um-u hisset-ti-m.
Suddenly I felt that I was afraid.
Köpek-ler-den kork-tuğ-un-u tahmin ed-eme-di-m.
I could not have guessed that you were afraid of dogs.
Sen ben-im şimdi böyle ol-duğ-um-a bak-ma.
Ignore the fact that I now have become this way.
Headless participles applied as the subject of olmak ‘to happen / occur’ (see section 37.1.2)
are a good illustration of how an act can be expressed:
Anne-m-le kardeş-im-e bile bir şey al-dığ-ım ol-uyor-du.

/ my buying something—occurred
It happened that I bought something even for my mother and little brother.
Sen-in ben-i özle-diğ-in ol-mu-yor mu hiç?
/ your missing me—doesn’t it happen?
Does it never happen that you miss me?
Suçluluk duygu-lar-ınız-ı halı-nın alt-ın-a süpür-düğ-ünüz ol-ma-dı mı?
/ your sweeping aside your feelings—hasn’t it happened?
Hasn’t it happened that you swept your feelings of guilt under the carpet?
In combination with question words the independently used participle more and more
resembles a complete sentence. This type of construction will be discussed in full detail in
chapter 33, but as a start here are a few examples:
Ne iste-diğ-iniz-i bil-mi-yor-um.
I don’t know what you want(ed). / I don’t know the thing you want(ed).
Neden kork-tuğ-um-u kestir-emi-yor-du-m.

I could not make out why I was afraid / what I was afraid of.
Kim-in doğru söyle-diğ-in-i ise zaman göster-ecek.
And who speaks the truth, time will tell.
Ne-ler söyle-diğ-in-i ve nasıl söyle-diğ-in-i dinle-yin.
Listen to what he says and how he says it.
Bun-u ne diye söyle-diğ-in-i kendi-si de bil-mi-yor-du.
For what purpose (why) he said it, he didn’t know himself.
The final example of this section is based on a type of verb that has been discussed in
section 32.1.3, a verb with an ablative object. Despite the fact that relativization of this type
of object is very possible, sometimes a dummy word is applied in the form of şey ‘thing /
something’, as in the following:
O an-da dünya-da en kork-tuğ-u şey ön-ün-den geç-en köpek-ti.

What he then feared most was the dog passing in front of him.
The final examples make perfectly clear how a participle can be applied as a predicate:
Bil-me-diğ-i şey, kapı aç=ıl-dığ-ın-da ne di-yeceğ-i-ydi.

What she did not know is what she was going to say when the door opened.
Tek bil-diğ-i, kapı aç=ıl-dığ-ın-da gid-eceğ-i-ydi.
The only thing he knew was that he would go when the door opened.
32.8 Pseudo-relative clauses
In section 32.4 it was explained how relativization of objects works and in section 32.5 it

was shown how adverbial phrases are relativized. By way of a reminder, compare:
Ali’nin yaz-dığ-ı kitap the book that Ali writes / wrote

(onlar-ın) buluş-tuk-ları ev the house where they meet / met
For the choice of the participle it does not matter at all whether the object (kitap ‘book’) of
a verb is relativized or the noun (ev ‘house’) on which an adverbial phrase is based: in either
case the form of the relative clauses is the same.
In the sentences that follow, however, the relative clause is placed before a noun
which itself is not relativized. In other words, in the next examples vaka ‘case’, an
‘moment’, zaman ‘moment’, akşam ‘evening’, gün ‘day’, sene ‘year’ and yıl ‘year’ are not the
object of some verb or the core of some adverbial phrase. For this reason clauses of this
type are known as pseudo-relative clauses. These are widespread for expressions of time
and place, as in:
Öl-en-ler-in kemik-lerin-i incele-diğ-imiz vaka-lar da var.

There are cases in which we investigate the bones of the dead.
32.9 Complex structures 541
Dokuz saat uç-tuk-tan sonra Atatürk havaalan-ın-a in-diğ-imiz an-da . . .

The moment we landed on Atatürk Airport after a flight of nine hours . . .
Tekrar buluş-tuğ-umuz zaman yüz-ü gül-üyor-du.
When we met again his whole face was laughing.
Ev-e taşın-dığ-ımız ilk akşam fark et-ti-k ki, gaz lâmba-sı getir-me-miş-iz.
The first evening after we had moved house we noticed that we had not
brought a gas lamp.
Evlen-diğ-imiz gün-den itibaren, fotoğrafçılık öğren-mek iste-di.
As of the day we got married she wanted to learn photography.
Riemann’la beraber çalış-tığ-ı sene-ler on-un en verimli yıl-lar-ı-ydı.
The years when he worked together with Riemann were his most productive years.
1969, Rasim’in bu üç kitab-ın-ın yeniden bas-ıl-ıp yayımla-n-dığ-ı yıl-dır.
1969 is the year when these three books by Rasim were reprinted.
In a similar way, the word yer ‘place’ functions as a dummy in the next two examples.
Dur-duğ-umuz yer-de dur-ama-yız, geri-ye de gid-eme-yiz.

Where we stopped we may not stop; we can’t go back either.
O çalış-tığ-ınız yer-de ben de dört yıl önce çalış-mış-tı-m.
Where you work I worked four years ago.
Bulun-duğ-umuz yer tehlikeli-ydi.
It was dangerous where we were.
But yer ‘place’ does not necessarily always function as a dummy. In the next examples it is
direct object of bil- ‘to know’ and dative object of git- ‘to go’.
Siz bil-diğ-iniz yer-e gid-in, biz de bil-diğ-imiz yer-e gid-e-lim.

Go to a place you know and let us go to a place we know.
Git-tiğ-imiz yer-in ad-ı Üç-Köyler’di.
The name of the place we were going to was Üç-Köyler.
32.9 Complex structures
In Turkish the equivalent of a relative clause is an adjectival phrase which consists of a verb,
possibly preceded by a number of objects. Such an object can in turn be modified by
another relative clause. In fact there is nothing peculiar to it—other languages exhibit this
phenomenon as well, although in a language like English chains of relative clauses are
demarcated by relative pronouns, whereas Turkish just stacks relative clauses.
Yaşa-dık-ları şehr-in ad-ın-ı saklı tut-tuğ-umuz aile-nin sorun-ları sayısız-dı.

The problems of the family regarding which we keep the name of the city in which they
live secret were numerous.
In a somewhat simplified version, this complex sentence can be read as follows. The word
aile ‘family’ is modified by the relative clause ad-ın-ı saklı tut-tuğ-umuz ‘we keep its name
secret’. Up to this moment ad-ın-ı saklı tut-tuğ-umuz aile can be interpreted as ‘the family
whose name we keep secret’. However, ad ‘name’ is bound by a genitive to şehir ‘city’, which
is in turn modified by Yaşa-dık-ları ‘they live’. So, the thing being kept secret is not ‘the
name of the family’ but ‘the name of the city the family lives in’.
Brackets indicate the mutual dependencies:
(((Yaşa-dık-ları) şehr-in ad-ın)-ı saklı tut-tuğ-umuz) aile-nin sorun-ları . . .
In the next example the verb (bil- ‘know’) of the relative clause has a direct object which is
a clause (neci ol-duğ-un-u) itself, as can be shown by the brackets.
((Neci ol-duğ-un-u) kimse-nin bil-me-diğ-i) yaşlı bir adam-dı.

He was an elderly man about whom no one knew what his profession was.
As for this last translation, a much easier way to get the message across would of course be
saying: ‘He was an elderly man whose profession no one knew.’
32.10 Lexicalized participles *
In section 32.7 it was explained how relative clauses can be used independently. This usage
may lead to a process of lexicalization: a participle is used as a noun or adjective and in
the meantime its meaning becomes fixed because it is not derivable any more. In this way, the
expressions geçen-ler-de ‘in the past’ and geçmiş ‘the past’ are derived from the verb stem
geç- ‘to pass’, and the noun gelecek ‘the future’ is nothing else than the future participle of gel-
‘to come’. An expression such as alışılmışın hayli dışında ‘very unusual’ is also produced is this
way: alış- is a verb stem meaning ‘to get used to’ and its passive counterpart alış=ıl- combined
with –mış stands for ‘that which one is used to’. The genitive marker of the aforementioned
expression shows that it is used as a noun, ‘the usual’, being linked to dışında ‘outside’, which
in turn is modified by hayli ‘very’, rendering the meaning ‘very out of the usual (thing)’.
Independent participles can be categorized in terms of the lexical category they resemble
most. These are nouns and adjectives, as will be explained in the next section.
32.10.1 Nouns in –(y)EcEK
Independently used participles ending in –(y)EcEK (future participle) can often be categorized
as (lexicalized) nouns. The examples below denote physical objects.
açacak opener (for bottles, cans and the like)

silecek screen wiper
çekecek shoehorn
alacak money owed to one / credit
verecek debt / money owed / debit
sıkacak fruit or vegetable press
ekecek sowing seed
delecek perforator / punch
tutacak oven cloth / potholder / oven glove / oven mitt

çıkacak towel (as given in hammams)
Ön cam-da-ki silecek-ler hızlı hızlı çalış-ıyor-du.
The wipers on the front screen were moving super-fast.
Ama altmış boğaz-ı doyur-acak ol-an bu yiyecek-ler için içecek de lâzım-dı.
But with that food, having to feed sixty mouths, something to drink was needed too.
This type of noun can easily be specified by using it as the head in a nominal compound
(see section 31.4). Examples are: cam sileceğ-i ‘windscreen wiper’, limon sıkacağ-ı ‘lemon
squeezer’, konserve açacağ-ı ‘can opener’, fındık kıracağ-ı ‘nutcracker’, kabuk soyacağ-ı ‘peeler
for fruit skins’.
The next three examples show how such participles are applied as nouns with a some-
what more abstract meaning.
Deprem bölge-sin-e ilaç, su, giyecek ve içecek-ler kara yol-u-yla ulaştır=ıl-ıyor.

Medicine, water, clothing, and beverages are transported over land to the
earthquake region.
Üzüm, erik, elma ve kiraz gibi meyve de onlar-ın yiyecek-ler-i arasında-dır.
Also fruits such as grapes, plums, apples, and cherries are a part of their diet.
Soya, çorba-lar, fırınlan-an yiyecek-ler ve salata-lar-da kullan=ıl-ır.
Soya is used in soups, oven dishes, and salads.
That this type of derivation has resulted in real nouns is also clear from the following
examples, where the indefinite article bir occurs and where the noun in –(y)EcEK takes a
possessive suffix.
Babaanne-m-in bun-a bir di-yeceğ-i yok-tu.

My grandmother had nothing to say to this.
Daha başka bir di-yeceğ-in var mı-ydı?
Did you have anything else to say?
Kimse-nin ban-a bir di-yeceğ-i ol-ama-yacağ-ın-ı san-ıyor-du-m.
I thought that no one could / should have something to say to me.
Kendi-m-i ne öv-eceğ-im var, ne de yer-eceğ-im.
I have nothing to praise myself for, nor to criticize.
Siz-e bir söyle-yeceğ-im var.
I’ve got to tell you something.
32.10.2 Nouns in –mIş
This category comprises independently used participles ending in the suffix –mIş (past par-
ticiple) and these have a lexicalized meaning, such as:
ermiş holy person

geçmiş the past
dolmuş taxi or boat leaving when filled up with passengers

okumuş well-educated person
32.10.3 Nouns in –(I/E)r
This category comprises independently used participles ending in –(I/E)r. These equal the
tense forms discussed in section 20.5 and have a lexicalized meaning. For instance:
yazar writer
okur reader
yarar profit, advantage
gelir income
gider expenditure
çıkar advantage, profit
düşünür thinker
Many compounds are based on sever (< sevmek ‘to love’) e.g. sanatsever ‘art lover’;
müziksever ‘music lover’; doğasever ‘nature lover’; hayvansever ‘animal lover’; cazsever ‘jazz
lover’; sinemasever ‘film lover’.
32.10.4 Adjectives in –(y)EcEK
Participles denoting an object or a substance which serves the purpose of undergoing an

action, such as içecek ‘something to drink’ and yiyecek ‘something to eat’, can easily be
applied as adjectives as well.
İçecek bir damla su yok-tu ve çok sıcak-tı.

There was not a drop of water to drink and it was very hot.
Siz-e içecek bir şey getir-me-m-i iste-r mi-siniz şimdi?
Do you want me to fetch you something to drink, right now?
Dolap-tan yiyecek bir şey-ler ara-dı-m.
I was looking in the cupboard for something edible (something to eat).
Tabii ki, giyecek bir şey bul-ama-dı.
Naturally, she couldn’t find anything to put on / wear.
Görecek bir şey yok.—Şaşılacak bir şey değil, zaten.
There is nothing to see.—That is nothing to be surprised about, by the way.
Değil yatacak yer, oturacak yer bile kal-ma-dı.
There was no place left to sit, let alone to sleep.
Yapacak bir iş-im yok.
I have nothing to do.
Participles based on a passive verb are also easily applicable as adjectives. However, a
corresponding adjective expressing ‘future’ is often not available in English, but a translation
in the form of a relative clause is usually adequate. Typical examples are:
kullan=ıl-acak usable (which will be used)

tartış=ıl-ma-yacak indisputable (which will not be disputed)
inan=ıl-ma-yacak unbelievable (which will not be believed in)
düşün=ül-eme-yecek unthinkable (which cannot be thought of)
The latter example contains the suffix –(y)EmE-, which expresses a certain ‘impossibility’.
Also its positive counterpart –(y)Ebil- occurs in combination with a passive verb stem and
the suffix –(y)EcEK.
Bil=in-ebil-ecek şey-ler-den ne kadar az-ın-ı bil-iyor-uz.

How little do we know from all the things that can be known.
Gül=ün-ebil-ecek bir şey gibi görün-mü-yor-du.
It didn’t look like something one would have been able to laugh about.
32.10.5 Adjectives in –(I/E)r and –mE-z
Another large category of adjectives derived from a participle is formed by means of the
suffixes –(I/E)r and –mE-z (see Present-2 in section 20.5) following a passive verb stem.
Thus:
güven=il-ir reliable, secure, trustworthy

hissed=il-ir noticeable, tangible, perceptible
kullan=ıl-ır usable
anlaş=ıl-ır understandable
iste=nil-ir desired, wanted
inan=ıl-ır credible, reliable, plausible, convincing
seç=il-ir discernable, noticeable
iç=il-ir drinkable, potable
The adjectival nature is clear in the following examples:
Bu iş-ler-de güven=il-ir insan-lar-a ihtiyaç var-dır.

There is surely a need for reliable people in these jobs.
Öykü yaz-an bir bankacı; az gör=ül-ür bir şey bu.
A story-writing banker; this is something hardly ever to be seen.
Demirel, Türkiye’nin dostluğ-u ara=n-ır bir ülke ol-duğ-un-u vurgula-dı.
Demirel emphasized that Turkey is a country where one seeks friendship.
This type of adjective is often used in a construction with gibi değil, as in:
Sıcak dayan=ıl-ır gibi değil-di.

The heat was unbearable.
Bu, bağışla=n-ır gibi değil.
This is unforgivable.
Gör-dük-ler-im inan=ıl-ır gibi değil-di.

All that I saw was incredible.
Also, the negational counterparts of these forms are rather numerous. In section 21.2.3 the
forms in –mEk bil-me-z were discussed and in section 32.6.5 some examples with –EmE-z
(bir) have been presented. By way of a reminder, some examples are repeated here:
Bit-mek bil-me-z bir yol-du.

It was an endless road (a road that does not know how to end)
Bilgisayar kullan=ıl-ama-z bir hal-e gel-di.
The computer became unusable (came into a state of not being able to be used).
Other examples of active and passive participles are:
doy-mak bil-me-z insatiable

yorul-mak bil-me-z indefatigable / tireless
tüken-mek bil-me-z inexhaustible
bit-mek bil-me-z endless / infinite
çık=ıl-ma-z insoluble / insolvable
ulaş=ıl-ma-z inaccessible / unreachable / unattainable
sars=ıl-ma-z unshakeable
inan=ıl-ma-z unbelievable / unimaginable / incredible
ayr=ıl-ma-z indivisible / inseparable
dayan=ıl-ma-z unbearable / irresistible
aş=ıl-ma-z unbridgeable / impassable / irreconcilable
anlat=ıl-ma-z which cannot be told
böl=ün-me-z inseparable
kaçın=ıl-ma-z inevitable
The formation of adjectives of this type (deverbal adjectives) is productive, which implies that
the language user can create such (negative) forms at will. The following forms with –(y)EmE-z
are a stronger variety of those in –mE-z.
kullan=ıl-ama-z unusable / which cannot be used

yönet=il-eme-z uncontrollable / unmanageable
tartış=ıl-ama-z indisputable
dayan=ıl-ama-z unbearable / irresistible
There are, of course, adjectives based on active verb stems. Examples are:
kayna-r su boiling water

yakış-ma-z bir şekil-de not in an appropriate / suitable way
değiş-me-z bir mana an invariable meaning
bil-me-z bir durum-da in a state of ignorance
In certain cases, the adjective has the shape of a relative clause, owing to the occurrence of
an object or an adverbial phrase:
(Bun-a benze-r) ses-ler-di.

It was sounds resembling this one.
Baba-m (gül-er yüzlü) idi.
My father was a cheerful person.
(Rahatla-dığ-ın-ı belli ed-er) şekil-de bir nefes al-dı.
He was breathing in a way that made it clear that his mind was put at rest.
On-u (bir ağac-ın alt-ın-da yarı uyu-r) hal-de bul-du-m.
I found her in a state of half-sleep under a tree.
Çocuk (solu-ma-yı andır-ır) bir ses duy-du.
The child heard a sound that reminded him of breathing.
32.10.6 Adjectives in –mIş
Participles in –mIş used as adjectives are for the most part transparent with respect to their
meaning. Yet in a good bilingual dictionary many such forms are included, particularly
when more than one translation is appropriate. Examples are:
alış=ıl-mış usual / ordinary

azgeliş-miş underdeveloped
dinlendir=il-miş aged (wine) / fallow (ground)
duy=ul-ma-mış unheard-of
gör-me-miş upstart / parvenu / unsophisticated
işle=n-me-miş raw / untreated
kalıplaş-mış stereotyped / inflexible / rigid
kok-muş smelly / stinking / putrid-smelling
ol-ma-mış unripe
tanın-mış well-known / famous / known for
yetiş-miş experienced / trained / mature / fully developed
Collocations can also be considered to be lexicalized. Here is a small selection:
dağdan gel-miş uncouth / loutish

geri kal-mış underdeveloped / backward
güve ye-miş motheaten
su katıl-ma-mış undiluted / real, in every sense of the word
As has been shown in the discussion on relative clauses (see section 32.6.2), the participle –mIş
is also placed in the position of an adjective.
Ancak ben yer-im-e yapış-mış biri değil-im.

But I am not someone who is stuck to his seat.
Polis, duvar-ın iç-in-e gizle=n-miş bir günlük bul-du.
The police found a diary hidden in the wall.
Yoksul ve geri kal-mış bir ülke-den gel-miş-ti-k.

We had come from a poor and backward / underdeveloped country.
Yeni evlen-miş bir genç kız kadar güzel-sin.
You are as beautiful as a just-married young girl.
Önce-ki gece çok bira iç-miş birin-e benzi-yor.
She looks like one who has drunk too much beer the night before.
However, there are many expressions in which the participle in –mIş occurs as the
core of an adverbial clause which expresses some state or situation pertaining to the
subject.
Adjectives and nouns which behave adverbially are called secondary predicates and are
discussed in section 33.6.1.
Bir kadın, el-ler-in-i hava-ya kaldır-mış haykır-ıyor-du: ‘Allah’ım, Allah’ım!’

A woman with uplifted hands was shouting: ‘My God, my God!’
Herkes soluğ-un-u tut-muş bekli-yor.
Everyone waits with bated breath.
Lenny göz-ler-in-i yer-e çevir-miş otur-uyor-du.
Lenny was sitting with her eyes turned to the ground.
Rahatla-mış görün-üyor-du.
She looked relieved / at ease.
Her şey-e rağmen kır=ıl-mış hissed-iyor-du kendin-i.
Despite everything he felt broken.
Salon-da o tuhaf insan-lar-la birlikte otur-muş bekli-yor-du-m.
In the room I was waiting, sitting with these weird people.
Baş-ların-ı ön-e eğ-miş dur-uyor-lar ve yer-e bak-ıyor-lar-dı.
They were standing with their heads bowed and they were looking at the ground.
İstanbul, bütün haşmet-i-yle göz-ler-imiz-in ön-ün-e uzan-mış dur-uyor-du.
Istanbul lay, in all its majesty, stretched out before our eyes.
Ondan sonra, sırala=n-mış dur-an-lar-ın çoğ-u çekil-di-ler.
Then most of those who were standing lined up have pulled out.
Kadın, ayak-lar-ın-ın dib-in-de çömel-miş dur-an küçük çocuğ-u kucağ-ın-a al-dı.
The woman took the small child who sat crouched at her feet on to her lap.
Some intransitive verb forms in –mIş have a synonym in –Ik (see section 31.3.9):
bat-ık – bat-mış sunken

buruş-uk – buruş-muş wrinkled / puckered
düş-ük – düş-müş low / fallen
sark-ık – sark-mış hanging / flabby / drooping
sol-uk – sol-muş withered
yan-ık – yan-mış burnt
Some passive forms in –mIş are more or less synonymous with those discussed in
sections 31.1.9 and 31.3.9. Compare:
as=ıl-ı – as=ıl-mış hanged

bas=ıl-ı – bas=ıl-mış printed
yığ=ıl-ı – yığ=ıl-mış piled up
aç-ık – aç=ıl-mış open / opened
boz-uk – boz=ul-muş broken
eğ-ik – eğ=il-miş bent
32.10.7 Adjectives compared
Despite the fact that the English translations for some of the expressions introduced and
discussed so far are the same, as in the following:
bekle=n-me-yecek unexpected, which will not be expected

bekle=n-me-z unexpected, which is / was never expected
bekle=n-me-dik unexpected, which was not expected
The reader should nonetheless keep in mind that participles in Turkish all express a certain
element of tense (temporal reference). Whereas –(y)EcEK points to the future, such a refer-
ence is absolutely absent in the suffix –(I/E)r, since it is used to indicate that some state of
affairs (as denoted by the verb stem) occurs as a rule (repetitive, habitually).
Another way of deriving an adjective is by attaching to a verb stem the combination
–mEdIk, which stands for negation and past tense. The following examples show the con-
trast between ‘future’ and ‘past’:
Soğut=ul-duktan sonra kutu-lar gör=ül-meyecek bir şekil-de kapat-ıl-ır.

After having cooled off, the boxes are closed in an invisible manner.
Erkek-ler-in pek sakin dur-ma-ların-a karşılık,
karı-ları gör=ül-medik bir şekil-de saldırgan-dı-lar.
Contrary to the fact that the men remained standing very calm (still),
their women were aggressive in an unprecedented way.
The next examples have been extracted from literary texts:
bekle-n-medik bir fırsat an unexpected chance / opportunity

um-ul-madık bir başarı an unhoped-for success
bil-in-medik bir hastalık an unknown disease
dokun-ul-madık bir yer an undisturbed (untouched) place
akl-a gel-medik çare-ler solutions one would never think of
Bekle-mek-ten yorul-an anne-m bir kadeh şarap iste-di. Bir kadeh şarap mı?
Böyle olmadık bir şey-di ki, İnci bir süre bütün terbiye-sin-i unut-up
ağz-ı açık bir şekil-de anne-m-e bak-tı.
My mother, who was tired of waiting, asked for a glass of wine. A glass of wine?
That was so unusual (unasked-for) that Inci forgot her good manners for a while
and looked at my mother with her mouth wide open.
32.10.8 Nouns in –mIş-lIk
The suffix combination –mIş-lIk after a verb stem produces an abstract noun. More
precisely, it denotes a state or situation as the result of a completed action or event. In this
combination the suffix –mIş can be analysed as the suffix expressing completeness (see sec-
tion 32.6.2). In this way kandır=ıl-mış-lık duygu-su can be interpreted as ‘the feeling of
being cheated’ and geç kal-mış-lık korku-su ‘the fear of having come late’. Other examples
of such forms are:
Eğer herkes yap-tığ-ı iş-i başka-sın-dan daha iyi yap-ar-sa, geliş-mişlik ol-uyor.
If everyone were to do the work he does now much better than the others,
then there would be (a situation of) progress (development).
Hopa’nın kalkın-mışlık-ta daha çok mesafe al-ma-sı gerek-tiğ-in-i söyle-di.
He said that Hopa had a much longer way to go in the (its) development.
Çoğu ünlü kişi-de gör=ül-en kendin-i beğen-mişlik, şımarıklık ve çok bilmişçe
davranış-lar on-da yok-tu.
The conceitedness, being spoilt, and cunning tricks one observes with
most famous people were absent in him.
Ama beyin zamanla bu sürekli hızlan-mışlık durum-un-a katlan-ama-z ol-ur.
But over time the brains cannot bear any more this state of being rushed all the time.
32.10.9 Nouns in –mEz-lIk
Another way of forming abstract nouns is by placing the suffix –lIk after an adjective which
ends in –mE-z (see section 32.10.5). The meaning of this type of formation is in many cases
transparent, yet lexicalized forms occur as well. Compare:
anlaş-mazlık disagreement
umursa-mazlık indifference / unconcern
uyuş-mazlık conflict / incompatibility / disagreement
şaş-mazlık infallibility
utan-mazlık impudence / shamelessness
bil-mezlik ignorance
yara-mazlık naughtiness / stupidity
yet-mezlik insufficiency / inadequacy
Nouns derived from passive verb stems can be exemplified by:
dokun=ul-mazlık unassailability / invulnerability / imunity

çık=ıl-mazlık impasse / deadlock
böl=ün-mezlik indivisibility
kaçın=ıl-mazlık inevitability
güven=il-mezlik unreliability / untrustworthiness
yen=il-mezlik invincibility
sık=ıl-mazlık brazenness
ayr=ıl-mazlık inseparability
bil=in-mezlik darkness / obscurity
32.10.10 Collocations
The combinations –mIş-lIk and –mE-z-lIk occur in a number of collocations—fixed word

combinations with a non-derivable meaning (see also section 30.11).
When such a word is followed by a form of etmek, the meaning shifts towards ‘to see to it
that . . . / take care that . . . / make sure that. . . / refuse to . . . ‘and so on. Examples are:
Biz-im köy yemek-ler-imiz-i beğen-mezlik et-me!

You just see to it that you like our village dishes.
Ben, hiçbir zaman yol vergi-sin-i ver-mezlik et-miş değil-im.
I have never not seen to it to pay road tax.
Sen-i çağır-dık-lar-ı halde gel-mezlik ed-iyor-sun.
In case they call you (up) you make sure you don’t go.
İnsan bun-u iste-mezlik ed-ebil-ir mi?
Can one deliberately not want this?
Çirkin ve biçimsiz kardeş-in-i nasıl tanı-mazlık ed-ebil-ir-di!
How could he avoid getting acquainted with her ugly and ill-shaped brother!
Bu sefer aldır-mazlık et-me-si de imkânsız-dı.
This time it was impossible not to bother / mind / take notice.
Kadın-ın çığlık-lar-ın-a aldır-mazlık ed-eme-yecek-ti.
He would not be able to ignore the screams of the woman.
Stems expanded with the negational suffix –mE occur very frequently:
Hadi şimdilik eyvallah, ben-i özle-r-se-n, çağır-ma-mazlık et-me.

Well, for now good-bye; if you miss me, make sure that you invite me.
Şölen-imiz-de bulun-ma-mazlık et-me-yin.
See to it not to be absent at our banquet.
Bun-u dikkat-e al-ma-mazlık ed-eme-yiz.
We cannot decline to pay attention to this.
Ver-me-mezlik ed-eme-m.
I can’t refuse to give it.
Bul-ur-san al-ma-mazlık et-me.
If you find it, don’t refuse to take it.
Köy-ün ağa-sı da at-ın-dan in-me-yip gel-me-mezlik ed-eme-di.
The village chief could not refuse to get off his horse and visit (them).
Oysa ben iste-se-m bile on-u sev-me-mezlik ed-emez-di-m.
But even if I didn’t want to, I would not be able to not love her.
These double negative nouns are also used without forms of etmek, as in:
Bun-u gizle-diğ-im için de anlaş-ma-mazlık gün-den gün-e art-tı.

And because I was hiding this, the misunderstanding grew from day to day.
Ara-ların-da bir anlaş-mazlık da çık-ma-dı.
There arose no conflict between them.
Dilbilimci-ler ara-sın-da nasıl uyuş-ma-mazlık ol-abil-ir?
How can there be disagreement among linguists?
Rusya ile ara-mız-da-ki büyücek bir anlaş-ma-mazlık nokta-sı ortadan kalk-ar.
The rather big disagreement between Russia and us will disappear.
Combined with the ablative case marker, –TEn, and followed by a form of gel- the meaning
for a number of these abstract nouns shifts towards ‘to pretend / feign’. The verb gel- can
occur in its negative forms (with –mE) as well. Here are some examples:
Sokak-ta ben-i gör-ünce tanı-(ma)mazlık-tan gel-iyor-du.

Seeing me in the street, she pretended not to recognize me.
Bun-u bil-(me)mezlik-ten gel-eme-yiz.
We cannot feign not to know.
Gör-(me-)mezlik-ten ve duy-(ma-)mazlık-tan gel!
Act as if you don’t see or hear it.
Haydi canım, anla-(ma)mazlık-tan gel-me-yin!
Come on my dear, do not pretend you do not understand!
Biz siz-i gör-mezlik-ten gel-iyor-uz, siz de biz-i.
We pretend not to see you and you us.
As can be expected, impersonal passive constructions are also possible:
Terör ve terör-le mücadele bir sorun olarak gör=ül-me-miş

veya gör-mezlik-ten gel=in-erek yok say=ıl-mıştır.
Terror and the war on terror have not been seen as a problem
or have been regarded as nonexistent by the pretence of not seeing them.
Bu, gör-mezlikten gel=in-ecek bir hadise ol-ama-z-dı.
This could not become an incident that one would pretend not to see.
Other ways of expressing ‘to do as if / pretend’, et cetera, are based on the complex
combinations –mIş-lIğ-E vurmak and –mEz-lIğ-E vurmak, as in:
Patavatsızlığ-ın-ı ört-mek için kız-mışlığ-a vur-du.

In order to cover up her tactlessness, she pretended to be angry.
Ben-im sorun-um değil-di, umursa-mazlığ-a vur-du-m.
It wasn’t my problem, I did as if I didn’t care / I was indifferent.
33
Subordination and embedding
Subordination is the result of linking two sentences to each other by means of a conjunction,
thereby indicating that the subordinate clause is dependent on the main clause. If ‘The
house will be sold’ is linked to ‘John says’, this results in ‘John says that the house will be
sold’. The fragment preceding the conjunction ‘that’ is called the main clause and what fol-
lows it is the subordinate clause. So, when used as an independent statement, ‘The house
will be sold’ is a sentence, but after ‘John says that’, it is identified as a subordinate clause.
The subordinate clause functions in this example as the direct object, and this becomes
clear when it is replaced by something else, for instance: ‘John says “hello” .’ An object based
on a sentence is called sentential object.
The sentence ‘The house will be sold’ can also be turned into a subordinate clause and
used as the subject in another sentence: in that case ‘That the house will be sold is a shame’
has a sentential subject.
Needless to have it spelled out in so many words perhaps, but it is important to p revent
any possible misunderstanding about these concepts. A sentential object is not the object of
a sentence but a sentence functioning as an object, and likewise, a sentential subject is not
the subject of a sentence but a sentence functioning as a subject. In addition to this, senten-
tial predicates exist as well: these are sentences used as a predicate.
Sentential subjects, objects, and predicates are found in Turkish too, but in terms of their
structure there is an essential difference when compared to the situation in English and
similar languages. In Turkish and related languages, conjunctions like ‘that’ are in fact con-
sidered a Fremdkörper (foreign element). Yet in the course of the centuries the Persian
word ki has crept in, which to a certain extent fulfils the role of conjunction. However, its
usage is restricted to the cases discussed in section 33.1.
The way in which sentential subjects, objects, and predicates are shaped in Turkish is
very reminiscent to the model of the relative clause, as discussed in the previous chapter. In
order to leave the reader with an impression of how this works, in Turkish ‘Hasan says that
Fatma will sell her house’ is expressed according to the model:
Hasan (Fatma-house-sell) says.
The subordinate clause ‘Fatma-house-sell’ is a sentential object which is embedded in the

main clause ‘Hasan . . . says’. Sentential subjects, objects, and predicates are often referred to
as embeddings and they all take a particular form.
Sentential predicates will be discussed in section 33.2, sentential subjects in section 33.3,
and after an intermezzo on direct and indirect speech in section 33.4, sentential objects will
be explained in section 33.5 and beyond.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
554 Subordination and embedding
33.1 Subordination with the particle ki *
There are three clearly distinct sentence categories using ki, comparable to a subordinate
clause, to be discussed in section 33.1.1–33.1.3. Furthermore, ki is used for intensification
(section 33.1.4), in expressions of purpose or intention (section 33.1.5), and as the introduc-
tory element in comment clauses (section 33.1.6). Constructions which cannot be classified
are brought together in section 33.1.7.
33.1.1 Prelude to direct speech
An important distinction for the usage of ki can be made according to the difference
between direct and indirect speech. The next example consists of a verbal ‘running start’
plus ki, followed by a direct speech sentence, as indicated by quotation marks. Use of quotation
marks, however, is not a convention copied on the large scale in Turkish orthography, as
exemplified by the second example. In fact, the fragments following ki can be regarded
as independent sentences.
Kulağ-ım-a eğil-erek de-di ki, ‘Sen-i gör-düğ-üm-e sevin-di-m.’

He bent over to my ear and said: ‘I am glad to see you.’
On-un için di-yor-um ki, önce insan-a saygı!
And that’s why I say: ‘First of all, respect for the human being!’
The conjunction ki is very frequently used in combination with verbs denoting a mental
content or (direct) observation, as with zannetmek ‘to think’; anlamak ‘to understand’;
görmek ‘to see / realize’; inanmak ‘to believe’; sanmak ‘to think / believe’; söz vermek ‘to
promise’; ümit etmek ‘to hope’; iddia etmek ‘to claim’; yemin etmek ‘to swear / vow / take an
oath’; ifade etmek ‘to express’ and the like. The examples will illustrate this.
Ben zanned-er-im ki, bun-lar büyük ölçü-de yakıştırma ve uydurma-dır.

I believe these are fabrications and concoctions on a large scale.
Ama inan-ıyor-um ki o yine de ben-i izli-yor-dur.
But I believe he keeps track again of what I am doing.
San-ıyor-um ki tam bir hafta geç-miş-ti.
I think (believe) that exactly one week had passed.
San-a söz ver-iyor-um ki o cezalandır=ıl-acak-tır.
I promise you that he will be punished.
Ben hâlâ ümit ed-iyor-um ki, Türkiye’de petrol de, gaz da var-dır.
I still hope that there is oil and gas (in the ground) in Turkey.
Verbs can occur in the past tense as well:
Anla-dı ki, bun-lar on-un dost-u değil-di.

He realized that these were not his friends.
33.1 Subordination with the particle ki 555
O kız ne zaman anla-dı ki sen on-dan hoşlan-ıyor-sun?

When did the girl understand that you like (fancy) her?
Çünkü herkes gör-dü ki bura-ya gel-me-di.
Because everybody saw (realized) that he hadn’t been here.
Bak-tı gör-dü ki, büyük bir ev-in ön-ün-e gel-miş-ler.
She looked up and saw that they had arrived at a big house.
Imperatives and optatives are also to be found:
Ama şun-u bil ki, Tehmina artık ben-i ilgilendir-mi-yor, yemin ed-er-im.
But know that Tehmina doesn’t interest me any more, I swear.
Lakin unut-ma ki pahalılık gün-den gün-e art-ıyor.
But don’t forget that the price / cost goes up from day to day.
İnan-ın ki hiç yarar-ı ol-maz bun-un.
You must believe that this has no use at all. / . . . this is good for nothing.
Peki, di-ye-lim ki böyle bir şey var.
Okay, let’s say something like that exists.
Şükürler ol-sun ki henüz büyük kalabalık yok-tu
Thank heavens there was no big crowd yet.
33.1.2 Topical ki
In a related form of subordination an adverbial expression of some modality (e.g. certainty,

probability, possibility, et cetera) is topicalized by placement in sentence-initial position
(see section 29.5). Examples are:
Tabii ki zaman-ı iyi seç-mek gerek-iyor.

Of course one has to choose the moment well.
(Literally: It is natural that one . . . )
Yeter ki sen çalış! / iste!
You only have to work / ask!
(Literally: It is sufficient that you . . .)
Bir fark-la ki onlar bir tehlike de oluştur-uyor-lar.
It is with one difference, (namely, that) they form a danger.
Şu da belli ki, bir iş-te fırsat kaçır=ıl-ır-sa, o iş bozul-ur.
Also this is obvious: if one misses a chance in business, the business falls apart.
Tuhaf bir rastlama-dır ki 28 Nisan 1909’da Sultan Hamit taht-tan
indir=il-diğ-i vakit on-u Selânik’e götür-en muhafız bu Fethi ol-acak-tı.
It was a strange coincidence that the bodyguard who would take Sultan Hamid
to Salonika, after he had been deposed on 28 April 1909, was this very Fethi.
In analogy to the constructions discussed in section 27.5.1 which express reason and
cause, an adjective is often followed by the emphatic suffix –TIr (see section 24.7) and ki
(see section 27.5.1), particularly when certainty, probability, or possibility are to be

expressed. Compare the first two examples with the five others:
Ondan-dır ki . . . It is because of that that . . .

Bu yüzden-dir ki . . . It is for this reason that . . .
Kesin-dir ki . . . It is certain that . . .
Muhtemel-dir ki . . . It is likely that . . .
Olası-dır ki . . . It is likely that . . .
Olanaklı-dır ki . . . It is possible that . . .
Mümkün-dür ki . . . It is possible that . . .
Each of these expressions can be followed by the sentence:
. . . Refet Paşa şimdilik Amasya’da kal-ma-yı tercih ed-er.

. . . Refet Pasha prefers to stay in Amasya for the time being.
In sentences of the type Mümkündür ki Refet Paşa şimdilik Amasya’da kalmayı tercih eder
the subject and predicate seem to have swapped places. Indeed, mümkün(dür) ‘it is possible’
can of course be placed as the predicate in sentence-final position, but then the fragment
after ki must appear in an adapted form as the subject. Here we are:
Refet Paşa’nın şimdilik Amasya’da kal-ma-yı tercih et-me-si mümkün-(dür).

That Refet Pasha prefers to stay in Amasya for the time being is possible.
The choice between either of the construction types is largely determined by the question
which part of the sentence must be highlighted. In the ki-constructions there is more
emphasis on what is possible, whereas in the alternative with the embedded sentence the
possibility that is more stressed.
33.1.3 Conjunction indicating effect or result
In the next series of examples the conjunction ki links a subordinate and main clause via a
causal relationship. Such constructions can mostly be translated in terms of ‘such that / to
the effect / on the understanding that / provided (that) / in the sense that’, et cetera.
Typically, an important feature of these structures is that they have a strong tendency to
co-occur with adverbial phrases expressing some degree (e.g. o kadar ‘that much’, ne denli
‘so’, çok hafif ‘very weak’). Without such words the whole sentence would not make much
sense. Another trait of such structures is that in terms of intonation the particle ki is part
of the word preceding it. This is apparent from the fact that the stress falls on the syllable
preceding ki, which is often indicated by the comma.
Bun-lar-ı o kadar bağır-arak söyle-di ki, herkes duy-du.

He said all this so loudly (shouting) that everyone could hear it.
O kadar sev-er-di ki, iki–üç kilo üzüm-ü rahatlık-la yi-yebil-ir-di.
He liked them so much that he could easily eat two or three kilos of grapes.
Bazen öyle bir hal-e gel-iyor-um ki her şey-den kaç-mak isti-yor-um.
Sometimes I end up in a state where I want to run away from everything.
Öyle şey-ler yaşı-yor-um ki, anlat-sa-m hiçbir-in-e inan-ma-z-sın.

I go through such things that if I told you, you wouldn’t believe any of it.
Baş-ım-a öyle bir kaza gel-di ki, az kalsın yaşam-ım-a mal ol-uyor-du.
I had an accident such that I nearly lost my life.
Öyle gün-ler ol-uyor ki hiç bit-me-sin isti-yor-um.
There are days such that I wish they wouldn’t come to an end.
Bu, ban-a öyle iğrenç gel-di ki, kalk-ıp daha uzak bir yer-e otur-du-m.
This was so disgusting to me, that I moved over to a place farther on.
In these examples the clause preceding ki can be regarded to indicate a circumstance or cause
and the rest can be considered to represent the result or consequence. There are, however, also
constructions in which a certain conclusion is connected by ki to a reason or circumstance.
Kafa-n ne denli karışık ol-malı ki inan-ıyor-sun böyle bir şey-e.

You (r head) must be so confused, that you believe (in) such a thing.
O sıra on-un uyku-su çok hafif ol-malı-ydı ki
göz-ler-in-i aç-tı ve sor-an bakış-lar-la ban-a bak-tı.
Her sleep must at that time have been so light
that she opened her eyes and looked at me with questioning looks.
It is not only fully fledged verbs that can precede the conjunction ki, but nouns derived
from verbs can take that position as well (see section 31.7). Typically, –TIr occurs.
Nere-den gel-miş-ti? Yalnız Allah bil-ir, o kadar kekeme-dir ki,

söyle-diğ-i on kelime-den bir-in-i anla-ma-ya imkân yok.
Where had he come from? Only Allah knows, it was such a stuttering that
out of the ten words he said you could not understand even one.
Erkek-le kadın sevgi-si, iki taraf-ın rıza-sı-yla yap=ıl-mış
öyle bir anlaşma-dır ki, zayıf-lık göster-en ancak ihanet-le suçla=n-ır.
The love between a man and a woman is a contract made in mutual agreement on
the understanding that only the one who shows a weakness is accused of betrayal.
In larger text fragments ki may be placed in sentence-initial position. Examples of ki intro-

ducing a conclusion are:
En son tahmin ekonomik kayıp-lar-ın 20 milyar dolar civarında ol-duğ-u

yönünde. Ki bu da Türkiye’nin millî gelir-in-in hemen hemen onda bir-i kadar.
The latest estimation is that the economic losses are towards 20 billion dollars.
So, that is almost ten per cent of Turkey’s national income.
Sinema yönetmenliğ-in-in bir organizasyon sanat-ı ol-duğ-u söyle=n-ir.
Analitik zeka gerektir-diğ-i iddia ed=il-ir. Ki, kimi-ler-in-e de sor-acak
ol-ur-sa-nız, kadın-lar-ın analitik düşünce yeti-si yok-tur.
It is said that being a manager of a cinema is an art of organization.
It is claimed that it requires an analytic mind. That implies that,
if you were to ask certain people, women do not have the faculty of analytic thinking.
Kelime hazine-si bakım-ın-dan klasman-da-ki yer-i de işte o kadar-dır.

Ki, yedi bin küsur yaşa-yan dil ara-sın-da hiç fena bir yer say=ıl-maz.
In terms of vocabulary its place in the ranking is that much, see.
Thus, among seven thousand odd living languages it’s not a bad place at all.
Arkadaşlık düzey-in-de devam et-ti ilişki-miz.
Ki diyalog-lar-ımız genelde bilimsel araştırma-lar temel-in-de-ydi.
Our relation went on at the level of friendship.
This implies that our conversations were mostly based on scientific research.
33.1.4 Intensification
There is also a category of expressions in which the word ki is placed at the end of the
sentence and where it has not the function of subordinating element, but rather, that of
intensifying what is expressed by the verb. These structures mostly contain an adverbial
phrase expressing some degree (e.g. o kadar ‘that much’, öyle ‘so much’), a question word, or
a negative verb.
Kendi-m-i o kadar yalnız hissed-iyor-um ki!

I feel so lonely!
Ben san-a ne yap-tı-m ki?
But what have I done to you?
With a negative verb the negation is intensified. In English adverbs like ‘really / at all’ or a
tag question are appropriate.
Bun-dan hoşlan-ır-lar mı, hoşlan-ma-z-lar mı, karar ver-emi-yor-um ki!

Whether they like it or not, I can’t really decide on that!
Aliye diye bir kadın tanı-mı-yor-um ki!
But I don’t know a woman called Aliye at all.
Nasıl anlat-sa-m san-a on-u, bil-emi-yor-um ki!
How I am (supposed) to tell you this, I don’t know at all.
Bil-iyor-um, sen-in iş-in var, san-a bir şey de-mi-yor-um ki!
I know you have things to do, but I don’t say anything to you, do I?
Ben, on-a hiç yalan söyle-mi-yor-um ki!
I wouldn’t lie to him, would I?
In the next examples the emphasis falls on a personal pronoun that follows ki:
Öyle mutsuz, öyle mutsuz bir kadın ki o!

What utterly unhappy woman she is!
Öyle bir değiş-ti ki o!
How much she’s changed, hasn’t she!
Peki ne bok bil-ir-sin ki sen!

What do you know, actually?!
Ne yaşama-sı? Yaşa-mı-yor-uz ki biz! İhtiyarlı-yor-uz, şişmanlı-yor-uz, çök-üyor-uz.
What life? We don’t live at all! We grow old, fat, and we go downhill.
Savaş-ın bir spor ol-duğ-un-u düşün-en aptal-lar-dan başka ney-di ki onlar?
What else were they, other than fools who think that war is a sport?
Dondurma sev-me-m ki ben!
I don’t like ice cream at all!
Bil-eme-di-m ki ben!
I really couldn’t have known that.
Tek başına değil-sin ki sen!
You aren’t by yourself at all!
Tarihçi değil-iz ki biz.
We just aren’t historians.
Bir yer-e gidecek değil-siniz ki siz!
You aren’t going anywhere at all!
On the other hand, certain sentences can be thought of as elliptical structures, sentences in
which words are left out or implied, possibly because some cause, reason, effect or result is
given or implied by the context. Compare:
Kendi-m-i öyle yorgun hissed-iyor-um ki basit bir konuşma ben-i bitkin düş=ür-üyor.
I feel so tired that a simple conversation makes me collapse from exhaustion.
Ben siz-e ne yap-tı-m ki, ban-a karşı böyle davran-ıyor-sunuz?
What have I done to you, that you behave this way toward me?
Bu sorun-un cevab-ın-ı ben bile tam olarak bil-emi-yor-um ki anlat-a-yım.
Even I wouldn’t exactly know the answer to this question so that I could tell you.
Reason or cause is sometimes provided afterwards, by a sentence following ki:
Niye söz ver-iyor-um ki? Can-ım iste-r-se iç-er-im!

And why (would I) promise that? When I feel like it, I drink!
Ben o dünya-ya hiç gir-emi-yor-um ki! O dünya-da yer-im yok.
I can’t really be part of (enter) that world! In that world there’s no place for me.
Ben de sen-den bun-u iste-mi-yor-um ki. Yalnızca on-u koru-ma-n-ı isti-yor-um.
And I’m really not demanding this from you. I only want you to protect him.
Ben zaten kimse tarafından arzula=n-mak iste-mi-yor-um ki!
Erkek-ler-e çekici görün-mek-ten bık-tı-m, yıpran-dı-m.
By the way, I don’t want to be desired by anyone at all.
I’m bored by looking attractive to men, I’m worn out.
33.1.5 Purpose and intention
Another form of subordination is structurally related to the type discussed in this section,
but it expresses a purpose or intention. This shade of meaning is typically reinforced by the
usage of the indirect imperative (see section 18.1).
Ev-e erken dön-me-ye çalış-ıyor-um ki uyku-suz kal-ma-sın.

I try to get home early so as she won’t lie sleepless.
‘Um-mak isti-yor-um ki bir çözüm bul=un-sun’ yanıt-ın-ı ver-di.
He answered: ‘I may hope that a solution will be found.’
Ben herkes-e tavsiye ed-iyor-um ki, bu ülke-de herkes birbir-in-i kabul
et-sin, birbir-in-e karşı tolerans-lı ol-sun.
And I recommend to everyone, let all in this country respect one other
and be tolerant towards one another.
Ben di-yor-um ki, öyle bir hükümet kur=ul-sun ki, bu hükümet uyumlu
çalış-sın ve dayanıklı ol-sun.
And I say, may a government be formed such that it functions harmoniously
and that it is long-lasting.
Nere-si serin ki bura-sı sıcak ol-ma-sın.
It is hot everywhere.
(Literally: What place is cool, so that this place shouldn’t be hot).
33.1.6 Comment clauses
The word ki can also be used as the introductory element in a comment clause. This type of
clause provides a commentary statement on what has been said so far. This may relate to a
noun phrase, as well as to larger units. This comment is mostly placed between hyphens,
commas, or parentheses. Below, these clauses are underlined.
Amerikalı-lar-a ait, nükleer madde yüklü yirmi altı uzay arac-ın-dan üç-ün-de
(ki bun-lar-dan bir-i 3,5 kg plütonyum taşı-yan Apollo 13) kaza ol-muş.
In three of the twenty-six spacecrafts belonging to the Americans loaded with
nuclear material (one of these was the Apollo 13, carrying 3.5 kg plutonium)
an accident took place.
Çevre-miz-de-ki kırmızı cüce-ler-den Luyten 726B (ki UV Cet-i diye de bil=in-ir),
Alpha Centauri C ve Wolf 359 benzer biçimde sıcak gaz püskürt-üyor-lar.
Of the red dwarfs in our neighbourhood Luyten 726B (also known as the Ultra
Violet Jet), Alpha Centauri C, and Wolf 359 spit out hot gas in a similar way.
Bütün dünya-yla alay ed-iyor-muş gibi (ki bun-u yap-mak niyet-in-de değil-di)
tuhaf bir tavır al-ır-dı.
As if he was mocking the whole world (he did not intend to do this), he adopted a
strange pose.
Meclis–i Vükelâ’ca ver=il-en bu karar-ı (ki de-diğ-im gibi tarih-in-i tespit ed-eme-di-m)
Bab–ı Âli büyükelçi-ler-in-e yolla-dığ-ı bir genelge ile Büyük Devlet-ler-e bildir-ir-di.
The Sublime Porte notified the Great Powers of this resolution (as I said I couldn’t
determine the date) adopted by the Ministers of State via a notice sent to their
ambassadors.
Herhalde çıldır-dığ-ım-ı san-an general (ki yanıl-mı-yor-du) yüz-üm-e
dik dik bak-tı.
The general, who surely thought I had gone mad (he was not mistaken),
looked fixedly at me.
Ortaya başka delil çık-maz-sa (ki çık-ma-ma-sı gerek-ir-di) kendi-sin-e bir şey
yap-ama-yacak-lar-dı.
If no other proof surfaces (it shouldn’t come up), they wouldn’t be able to do
anything to him.
Hatta bu durum gerçek ol-sa bile (ki siz-in ben-im gibi akl-ı baş-ın-da insan-lar-ın
böyle bir şey-e bir an için bile inan-ma-lar-ı söz konu-su ol-ama-z) yasal olarak
kabul ed=il-me-yecek-tir.
Even if this situation were real (it is absolutely out of the question that people
having a good head on their shoulders, like you and me, would believe such a
thing for even a moment), it will not be legally accepted.
Birdenbire seyirci-ler-in ara-sın-dan New York’ta yaşa-yan cazcı İlhan Erşahin
(ki biz, eskiden on-un çal-dığ-ı kulüb-e Cumartesi Brunch’ların-a gid-er-di-k)
el-in-de saksafon-u-yla belir-iver-di.
Suddenly, among the bystanders, the New York resident and jazz musician
Ilhan Erşahin (we used to go to the Saturday Brunches in the club where he
played in the old days) could be seen with his saxophone in his hand.
If a personal pronoun follows ki in the comment clause, this can sometimes be translated as
a relative clause containing a relative pronoun. Here are some examples:
O yıl-lar-da Mahmut Bozkurt—ki kendi-si Cumhuriyet’in ilk Adliye Vekil-i’dir—

Çiğ et-i bulgur-la karıştır-ıp yi-yen-ler-in Afrika yamyam-lar-ın-dan fark-ı yok
gibi bir şey de-miş-ti.
In those years Mahmut Bozkurt, who was the first minister of Justice of the Republic,
said something like: There is no difference between those who eat raw meat mixed
with bulgur and African cannibals.
Kurucu-muz Koviçev’tir, ki kendi-si lise-miz-de doğa bilim-ler öğretmen-i-ymiş.
Our founder is Koviçev, who was a teacher of natural science at our secondary.
İlk ata-lar şeytan-a uy-duk-ların-dan, bütün soy-lar-ı (ki onlar daha doğ-ma-mış-tı)
kendi-lerin-in işle-me-diğ-i bir suç-un ceza-sın-ı çek-me-yeyargılı ol-du-lar.
Because the first forefathers conformed to the devil, all their descendants
(who were not yet born) were sentenced (to undergo) a punishment for a crime
they had not committed themselves.
33.1.7 Remainders
A small number of constructions cannot be included in the classifications presented so far.

Firstly, the fixed expression kaldı ki means ‘besides / in addition’, and also ‘furthermore,
(it is the case that)’:
Kaldı ki ben-im bu iş-i daha önce yap-ma-m gerek-ir-di.

Besides, I should have done that work earlier.
Secondly, there are the following constructions. The next example strongly resembles the
pseudo-relative clauses of section 32.8. What follows ki in the second example is the actual
content of haber ‘news’ in the main clause, and in the third example bu bir daha ol-ma-yacak
‘it will not happen again’ is the content of söz ‘promise’.
Bir zaman gel-di ki, İstanbul fiilen de işgal ed=il-di.

There came a moment when Istanbul was de facto occupied.
On-dan sonra haber gel-di ki, Lord Curzon Lozan’dan ayrıl-mış-tı.
Then the news arrived that Lord Curzon had left Lausanne.
San-a şeref-im üzerine söz ver-iyor-um ki bu bir daha ol-ma-yacak.
I give you my word of honour that it will not happen again.
33.1.8 An atypical structure
Again, it should be noted that the type of subordinated sentences as elucidated in the previous
sections, is as a matter of fact untypical for Turkish, although to a certain extent it has been
accepted over some variety of constructions.
How the sentence ‘John says that Peter is going to sell his house’ is expressed in a typical
Turkish way is the topic of section 33.4, but by way of an introduction an example illustrating
both methods of subordination could be presented here:
Doktor ban-a söyle-di ki, hiçbir hastalık yok,

sadece üzüntü-den ol-duğ-un-u söyle-di.
The doctor said to me: ‘It is not a disease at all,’
he said that it was brought about by grief only.
33.2 Sentential predicates
A sentential predicate is a construction in which the predicate is formed not by a lexical

item or a phrase, but by a sentence. Since a statement is expressed by a sentence, that state-
ment can be used to give information about something else. For instance, John is jobless
could be predicated over problem, and this would then result in The problem is that John is
jobless with the underlined part as the sentential predicate. In Turkish such predicates
can be based on a full infinitive, the equivalent of which is The problem is being jobless in
English, but also on a short infinitive, comparable to The problem is John’s being jobless.
33.2 Sentential predicates 563
In sections 33.2.1 and 33.2.2 infinitival constructions will be discussed, and in section 33.2.4

it is shown how finite constructions are used as sentential predicates.
33.2.1 Infinitive
In chapter 15 the infinitive has been introduced and it was shown that this verb (and
dictionary) form can be applied as the direct object of some other verb, e.g. istemek ‘to
want’, düşünmek ‘to think’, öğrenmek ‘to learn’, and unutmak ‘to forget’, and as the dative
object of başlamak ‘to begin’, çalışmak ‘to try’, and gitmek ‘to be on one’s way (to)’.
Examples are:
Çay iç-mek iste-di. He wanted to drink tea.

Ev-e git-mek iste-di. She wanted to go home.
İngilizce konuş-ma-ya başla-dı. He started to speak English.
Kapı-yı aç-ma-ya çalış-tı. She tried to open the door.
Alışveriş yap-ma-ya gid-iyor-um. I’m on my way to do some shopping.
Ne yap-ma-yı düşün-üyor-sunuz? What are you thinking of doing?
Önce öğren-me-yi öğren-sin-ler. First, they must learn how to learn.
San-a söyle-me-yi unut-tu-m. I have forgotten to tell you.
In this type of sentence the one who ‘wants something’, ‘tries something’, and ‘goes some-
where’ is identical with the one who ‘drinks’, ‘goes’, ‘speaks’, ‘opens’, or ‘goes shopping’. These
are personal constructions because the subject in the main clause is also the subject of the
verb in the infinitive (see especially section 33.8). A common way of describing this phe-
nomenon is by saying that the subjects are co-referential: they have the same referent.
33.2.2 Predicate
In definitions and descriptions of purpose and the like the infinitival form can occur as the
predicate and then one speaks of impersonal usage of the infinitive, because the acting per-
son is irrelevant and the whole gets a generic interpretation. This also implies that the verb,
as such, has no grammatical subject. The examples below all have a sentential predicate
based on an infinitive which, in its entirety, expresses something (it predicates something)
about the phrase in brackets.
(Bun-un amac-ı) Türkiye’de bir nükleer reaktör kur-mak-tır.

The aim of this is to build a nuclear reactor in Turkey.
(Bu ekib-in görev-i) sualtı dalış teknik-lerin-i geliştir-mek-tir.
The task of this team is to develop diving techniques.
(Büyük kent-e yerleşme-nin ilk koşul-u) kafa-yı kullan-mak-tır.
The first requirement for settling in a big city is to use your head.
(Nüfus planlama-sı) çocuk yap-ma-mak değil, sağlıklı ve planlı üret-mek-tir.
Demographic planning is not ‘not making children’, but producing them in
a healthy and planned way.
(Önyargı,) iş-in iç yüz-ün-e bak-maksızın karar ver-mek de-mek-tir.

A prejudice is as much as: making a decision without looking into the internal
aspects of the matter.
Besides the form –mEk, a verbal form in –mE is used when there is more emphasis on the
action or process described by the verb.
Şimdi yap-ıl-ma-sı gerek-en yara-yı ilaçla-yıp bağla-ma-dır.

What must be done now is to put medicine on the wound and bandage it.
O, temel amac-ın arzu-yu bastır-ma, sabret-me-yi öğren-me ol-duğ-un-u belirt-ti.
He made clear that the basic goal was surpassing the desire, learning to be patient.
Şu anda yap-tığ-ınız, namuslu bir kadın-a kara çal-ma-dır.
What you are doing now is slandering an honourable woman.
Bu mücadele-yi bırak-ma değil, daha farklı bir mücadele-yi başlat-ma-dır.
It is not giving up this fight, (it is) starting a more different fight.
33.2.3 Verb or noun
The difference between a verb form in –mE and a deverbal noun in –mE (see section 31.7),
is not always at first glance easy to tell. If a form in –mE is preceded by some object, it is as
a rule safe to say that it is a verbal construction. This is the case in the last four examples in
the previous section. However, if a word ending in –mE is preceded by an adjectival phrase
or by the indefinite article bir, it can be identified as a deverbal noun.
Bir diğer yöntem ise soru sor-ma-ya dayalı öğren-me-dir.

Another method is learning based on asking questions.
Ayrıca, en iyi öğren-me bir iş-i yap-arak öğren-mek-tir.
Moreover, the best (way of) learning is learning while doing a job.
Bu da büyük bir rahatla-ma-dır onlar için.
And that is a great reassurance / comfort / relief to them.
Bu dava, önceden hüküm ver=il-miş bir yargıla-ma-dır.
This court case is a trial in which the sentence is passed beforehand.
33.2.4 Verbal constructs
The impersonal constructions discussed in sections 33.2.2–33.2.3 are in stark contrast to

sentences which do have a subject. In the following two examples the subject bears the
genitive case marker and the predicate in –mE has the corresponding possessive suffix.
In the first example neden-i ‘its reason’ is the subject of the main clause, and kendi-si is
the subject of hoşlan-ma. In the second example biz-im iste-diğ-imiz ‘what we want’ is the
subject of the main clause and halk-ımız-ın yüz-ü ‘the face of our people’ that of gülme.
Neden-i kendi-sin-in çok güzel bir yer-de çalış-mak-tan hoşlan-ma-sı-dır.

The reason (for it) is that he enjoys working in a nice place.
Biz-im iste-diğ-imiz halk-ımız-ın yüz-ün-ün gül-me-si-dir.
What we want is that the population is cheerful.
Tüm suç-um, reng-im-in esmer ol-ma-sı
ve Türk ol-duğ-um-un ilk bakış-ta anlaş=ıl-ma-sı!
The whole thing (‘my crime’) is that my skin is tanned
and that that I am a Turk is understood at first glance.
The last example contains a complex predicate which is linked with the conjunction ve
‘and’. The first fragment is (reng-im-in) esmer ol-ma-sı ‘that (my skin colour) is tanned’ and
the second part is (Türk ol-duğ-um-un ilk bakış-ta) anlaş=ıl-ma-sı ‘that it is clear (at first
glance—that I am a Turk)’.
33.3 Sentential subjects
A sentential subject is a construction in which the subject is a sentence. For example Mary
works hard appears as the subject in the following fashion: That Mary works hard is no
problem. In Turkish such embedded subjects can be based on a full infinitive, the equivalent
of which is Working hard is no problem in English, but also on a short infinitive, comparable
to Mary’s working hard is no problem.
In section 33.3.1 impersonal constructions based on a full infinitive are explained and in
section 33.3.2 an account is presented of personal structures which are all based on the
short infinite and a possessive marker. Sentential subjects based on a passive verb behave in
the same way as personal structures and they are treated in section 33.3.4.
33.3.1 Impersonal
The following constructions are impersonal because they have no subject for the verb in
the infinitive. The examples are hence to be interpreted in a generic way, which implies that
these are statements of general validity. In the following examples the verbs function as
sentential subjects.
Asıl-mak tehlikeli ve yasak-tır.

Hanging on (the tram) is dangerous and forbidden.
İlan yapıştır-mak yasak-tır.
No billposting.
33.3.2 Personal
A verb form in –mE plus possessive suffix can be used as the head of an embedded clause.
Its subject occurs in the genitive. The whole word group may function as the subject or
object of some other verb. In the following all personal forms are represented for the verb
git- ‘to go’ in combination with lâzım ‘it is necessary that . . .’ .
(ben-im) git-me-m lâzım I must go

(sen-in) git-me-n lâzım you must go
(on-un) git-me-si lâzım he must go
(biz-im) git-me-miz lâzım we must go
(siz-in) git-me-niz lâzım you must go
(onlar-ın) git-me-si lâzım they must go
In the case that there is no overt subject indicating a third person plural (e.g. noun
plus –lEr-In or onların), the form git-me-leri lâzım must be used, as in:
Halbuki, itiraz ed-ebil-me-leri, interaktif düşün-ebil-me-leri lâzım.

However, they must be able to object, they must be able to think interactively.
Possessive forms such as git-me-m, git-me-n, and git-me-si can be literally understood as
‘my going’, ‘your going’, and ‘his going’. In the majority of the examples in this section, these
personal verbal nouns function as subject, but they can of course also be used as objects
(for instance, in section 33.4.8).
Other adjectives, comparable to lâzım ‘it is necessary’, that can function as predicates
are: kesin ‘certain’; muhtemel / olası ‘probable’; olanaklı / mümkün ‘possible’; (olası değil) /
(muhtemel değil) ‘improbable’; olanaksız / imkânsız ‘impossible’ and also gerek ‘needed /
necessary’; yasak ‘forbidden’; and şart ‘condition’.
The embedded clause has the shape of a genitive-possessive construction. Examples are:
Siz-in bun-u bul-ma-nız pek mümkün değil.

It is not really possible that you (will) find this.
Ben-im bu işi daha önce yap-ma-m gerek-ir-di.
I should have done this job much earlier.
Eşeğ-in bir şey söyle-me-si mümkün değil.
That a donkey can say something is impossible.
Kadın-lar-ın ağır iş yap-ma-sı yasak-tır.
It is forbidden that women do hard labour.
An embedded personal pronoun can be left out:
Ne yap-ma-m gerek, bir bil-ebil-se-m, de-di-m.

What must I do, if I only could know, I said.
Git-me-si önemli değil.
That she goes (away) is not important.
These verbal nouns, being derived from verbs by the attachment of –mE, may be preceded
by the reflexive pronoun kendi ‘self ’ plus a possessive suffix. This leads, as it were, to double
possessive marking with the noun in –mE.
Kendi-n ol-ma-n gerek-ir, o zaman kız-lar sen-den hoşlan-ır-lar.

You need to be yourself, then the girls (will) like you.
Bun-u kendi-n öner-me-n ne güzel.

How nice that you suggest this yourself.
Bu gibi iş-ler-i kendi-miz yap-ma-mız gerek-tiğ-in-i anlat-tı.
She told us that we had to do such things ourselves.
The third person singular requires the expression of a genitive case marker:
Bun-un için de toprağ-ın-ı kira-ya ver-me-me-si,

iş-ler-in-i kendi-sin-in yürüt-me-si, büyükbaş hayvan besle-me-si,
tarla-lar-ı gübrele-me-si, ağaç dik-me-si gerek-iyor-du.
And therefore he shouldn’t put his land to lease, (but) he himself should
do the work related to it; feeding cattle, manuring fields, and planting trees.
Yani Büyük Patlama madde-nin uzay içeri-sin-de patla-ma-sı değil,
uzay-ın kendi-sin-in patla-ma-sı-dır.
So the Big Bang is not the explosion of matter within the universe,
it is the exploding of the universe itself.
The relevant structures of the latter two examples can be made explicit as follows. The
fragment kendisinin yürütmesi can be read as (kendi-sin)-in yürüt-me-si (himself-gen carry
out-poss3s) ‘that he carries out X himself ’, and uzayın kendisinin patlaması can be analysed
as (uzay-ın kendi-sin)-in patla-ma-sı ((universe-gen itself-poss3s)-gen explode-poss3s))
‘the exploding of the universe itself ’.
33.3.3 Ambiguity
In a number of cases some confusion may arise about the lexical status of a certain word
form: is it a verb or a noun? In section 31.7 it was shown that the forms in –mE can be
interpreted as a derivative form of a verb, for instance gülme ‘laughter’, açıklama ‘statement /
explanation’, and konuşma ‘conversation’. And in section 33.2.2 it was explained that these
forms can be understood as ‘the act of laughing’ and ‘the act of speaking’.
Since every Turkish verb can in principle occur with the suffix –mEk to form a ‘full’
infinitive, and the suffix –mE to form a ‘short’ infinitive as well as a verbal noun, the difference
between the latter two categories is sometimes wafer-thin. Here is a tip-off to determine
what is what. When an uninflected noun precedes a form in –mEsI, the whole construction
is probably a nominal compound, as in barış anlaşma-sı ‘peace agreement’, çevre kirlenme-si
‘environment(al) pollution’, and in:
Nüfus planlama-sı çocuk yap-ma-mak değil.

Demographic planning is not: not making children.
If a form in –mEsI is preceded by a noun phrase in the genitive, it is then most likely that it
relates to a full verb, equivalent of a that-construction in English. Compare:
Türkiye, on hükümet değiştirme-sin-e rağmen,

10 milyar dolar turizm gelir-in-i yakala-mış-tı.
Despite the ten changes of government,
Turkey had got hold of ten billion dollars’ income out of tourism.
Satış strateji-lerin-i ise yeni hükümet-in çok fazla değiştir-me-si bekle=n-mi-yor.

As for their sales strategy, it is not expected that the new government will change
them too much.
(Literally: . . . the new government’s ‘too-much-changing-them’)
The first example is about ‘a number of times that governments are being changed’, because
‘the government’ is the object of some change. The second example is a statement on
‘changes to be carried out by the government’, because ‘the government’ is the subject in the
‘act of changing’. The object is satış strateji-leri ‘their sales strategies’.
33.3.4 Passive
A passive verb has no subject in the sense of ‘acting person or thing’. As has been indicated
in section 30.4, the original direct object (of the active counterpart of the passive verb)
takes over the role of subject. In many a case the entire construction must be interpreted as
impersonal, as can be demonstrated by:
Bura-da mektup-lar aç=ıl-ıyor ve kontrol ed=il-iyor.

The letters (mail) are opened and checked here.
/ Here they open and check the letters (mail).
When ‘the (act of) opening letters’ is used independently, for example, as the subject of
another sentence, this subject appears in the genitive:
Oysa mektup-lar-ın aç=ıl-ma-sı ve kontrol ed=il-me-si suç.

But opening and checking letters (mail) is a crime.
Likewise, this is the case in the following examples.
Önce yara-lar-ın bağla=n-ma-sı / sar=ıl-ma-sı gerek-iyor.

First, the injuries must be bandaged.
Siz-e söyle-diğ-im şey-ler-in tartış=ıl-ma-sı mümkün değil-dir.
It is impossible to argue about the things I have told you.
Besides the that-construction in English translations, an infinitival construction is

appropriate:
Demokrat Rauf ’un 23 Mayıs’ta seç=il-me-si kesin.

That the democrat Rauf will be elected on 23 May is certain.
Bu kâğıd-ın as=ıl-ma-sı biz-e karşı büyük bir aşağıla-ma-dır.
That this paper has been posted is a great insult to us.
Savaş yıl-ların-da aşk şiir-lerin-in yaz=ıl-ma-sı ne kadar saçma ise,
bun-un ters-i de geçerli-dir.
No matter how ridiculous it is to write love poems during the war years,
the opposite is true as well.
Tespit ed=il-ebil-me-si ise neredeyse imkânsız.

That it can be proven is almost impossible.
/ It is almost impossible to prove it.
Note that in the latter example the grammatical subject (‘it’) is not specified in Turkish.
Here, one could of course think of bunun ‘this’ and also onun ‘that’.
Another point is that the content of some of these examples could perfectly well be ren-
dered by active sentences using the infinitive –mEk. Yet these active constructions are to be
interpreted as impersonal.
Bu kâğıd-ı as-mak biz-e karşı büyük bir aşağıla-ma-dır.

To hang this paper is a great insult to us.
Savaş yıl-ların-da aşk şiir-ler-i yaz-mak saçma.
Writing love poems during the war years is absurd.
Bun-u tespit et-mek neredeyse imkânsız.
To prove this is almost impossible.
Compare these reconstructions with the following attested examples:
Bun-u düşün-mek bile on-un çok derin ol-an duygu-lar-ın-a bir aşağılama-ydı.
Even thinking this was an insult to her feelings which were very profound.
Böyle Tanrı cezalandır-ıyor falan de-mek çok saçma.
Saying ‘This is how God punishes’ or the like is great nonsense.
Çok eski ol-duğ-u için bun-u tespit et-mek çok zor-dur.
Because it is very old, proving this is very difficult.
33.3.5 Always suffix –mE
In Turkish there are a number of predicates which always require embedding with the
suffix –mE. Besides the adjectives mentioned in section 33.3.2, the predicate doğru ‘right’ is
exemplified in the sense of ‘appropriate’.
Bir kız-ın bun-u evlen-me-den yap-ma-sı doğru ol-ma-z.

It is not appropriate that a girl does this before she is married.
Finlandiya elçi-sin-in büyükelçi-ler konferans-ın-a gir-me-si doğru ol-ma-z.
It wouldn’t be right if the Finnish envoy goes to the conference of ambassadors.
How doğru is used in the sense of ‘true’ and why a complement in –TIK is required will be
discussed in section 33.5.8. Also karşı ‘against’, as used in karşı çıkmak ‘to protest against
something’, requires a dative complement in –mE (or –mEyE, see section 33.8.2). Compare:
Fransız subay-ların-ın gönder=il-me-sin-e karşı değil-iz.

We are not against the sending of French officers.
Hemen git-me-m-e karşı çık-ma-dı.

She did not protest against the fact that I left immediately.
Hemen git-me-me-m-e karşı çık-tı.
She protested against the fact that I didn’t leave immediately.
Adile, ev-e dön-me-ye karşı çık-tı.
Adile was against returning home.
33.4 Direct and indirect speech
A direct speech complement of some verb literally represents what has been said. The
Turkish verb demek ‘to say’ is the sole verb that can take a quotation, at least according to
most (official) grammars. Withe other ‘verbs of saying’, such as ask, state, claim, and the
like, one must always use diye to complete the complement. By means of this particle diye
following a quotation, adverbial phrases can be produced, indicating some reason, pur-
pose, mental content, expectation, and even misinformation. All this will be discussed in
section 33.4.1.
Indirect speech, the topic of section 33.4.2, does not make use of quotations but requires
embeddings with a subject in the genitive and a nominalized verb taking a possessive.
In sections 33.3.3 and 33.3.4 the expression of future and past in such constructions are
discussed, and in section 33.4.5 the construction of questions in indirect speech is
explained. How such structures are built up with other verbs than sormak ‘to ask’ is shown
in section 33.5.6. The remainder of this chapter (sections 33.4.7–33.4.9) is on simplifica-
tions, constructions which, despite the official rule referred to in the first paragraph have
come into existence to avoid complex operations and which are therefore widely used in
day-to-day conversation. The final section shows which simplified structures can be
regarded as indirect commands.
33.4.1 Direct speech
If a sentence reproduces literally what has been said by someone, one speaks of direct
speech. When the content of some statement relates to what has been said in any other way,
that form is called indirect speech. In section 33.1.1 an example was represented which
illustrates a direct speech complement:
Kulağ-ım-a eğil-erek de-di ki, ‘Sen-i gör-düğ-üm-e sevin-di-m.’

He bent over to my ear and said: ‘I am glad to see you.’
Now, the way this direct-speech complement is presented is not very common. In the last
example there are in fact two sentences linked to each other by means of ki. The normal,
simple sentence representing direct speech is:
‘Sen-i gör-düğ-üm-e sevin-di-m’ de-di.

He said: ‘I am glad to see you.’
The sole verb that can officially (that is to say, according to most grammar books) take a
direct speech complement in this way is demek ‘to say’. Yet there are, as the result of gram-
matical simplification, many examples that are at variance with this rule (see sec-
tions 33.4.7–33.4.8). Although other verbs can have direct speech complements as well, the
element diye ‘saying’ must always be placed before the verb of the main clause. For söylemek
‘to say’ this can be exemplified by:
‘Sen-i gör-düğ-üm-e sevin-di-m’ diye söyle-di.

He said: ‘I am glad to see you.’
Other verbs expressing a way of saying, too, require diye for a direct speech complement
used as a direct object:
Ne tarafa gid-iyor-sunuz diye sor-du-m.

I asked in what direction you are going.
Bravo! diye bağır-arak alkışlı-yor-lar.
They applauded, while yelling ‘Bravo!’
Cumhurbaşkanı, ‘Bu okul siz-e armağan-dır’ diye seslen-di.
The president said: ‘This school is a present for you.’
The particle diye is also used for the expression of reason (see section 27.5.2) and has a
direct speech complement. In most cases quotation marks are not written, as is the case in:
Yağmur yağ-acak diye şemsiye-m-i getir-di-m.

I took my umbrella because it will rain.
Dışarıda soğuk diye üst-ün-e birşey-ler giy!
Put something on, for it is cold outside.
Adverbial phrases expressing purpose (see section 28.3.2) can be formed with diye as well,
and again diye has a direct speech complement. The use of an optative or indirect imperative
is typical for such constructions:
Bir süre dinlen-e-lim diye ben ve iki arkadaş-ım seyahat-e çık-ma-ya karar ver-di-k.
To take a rest for a while, two friends and I have decided to travel.
Ne de-diğ-in-i anla-sın-lar diye üç parmağ-ın-ı göster-di.
For them to understand what he said, he showed three fingers.
Also a certain mental content, such as consideration, thought, contemplation, hope, or fear,
can be represented by a direct speech complement of diye. For instance:
Hafta-da üç kere koş-sa-m diye düşün-dü-m.

I considered / thought about running three times per week.
Ben hep uyku-m-da öl-se-m diye ümit ed-er-di-m.
I always hoped that I would just die in my sleep.
Yıl-larca çocuğ-um öl-ecek diye korku ile yaşa-dı-m.

For years I have lived with the fear that my child would die.
With beklemek some expectation can be expressed using direct speech and diye:
Kendi-si gel-ecek ya da mektup gönder-ecek diye bekli-yor-du.

She expected him to come himself or to send a letter.
(Literally: She expected: ‘He will come himself or send a letter’).
Bu olay-la ilgili olarak da ben yine çağr=ıl-ır-ım diye bekli-yor-du-m.
In connection to that event I expected to be called up again.
(Literally: I expected: ‘I am summoned again . . . ’).
Also for certain forms of the passive verbs denmek ‘to be said’ and bilinmek ‘to be known’
the complement has the shape of direct speech:
Biraz önce emir gel-di, isyancı-lar-a asla ateş aç=ıl-ma-yacak de-n-iyor.

The order just came; one says that fire will never be opened on the rebels.
Bu peynir-ler nere-ler-de yap=ıl-ır, kim-ler yap-ar bil=in-me-z.
At what places all these sorts of cheese are made and who makes them is unknown.
Çiftlik-te-ki iş-ler-i bun-dan sonra kim yap-acak bil=in-me-z.
Who will later on do all the work on the farm, one doesn’t know.
The particle diye in combination with bilmek obtains the meaning ‘to think’, in the sense of
being incorrectly informed.
Siz şu an-da okul-da-sınız diye bil-iyor-um.

I thought you would be at school at this moment.
Şimdi-ki teknik-le bu bile tespit ed=il-ebil-ir diye bil-iyor-um.
I thought that even this could be shown with the present technique.
As a rule, verbs other than demek ‘to say’ cannot have a direct speech complement, unless
this is followed by diye, as in the following fragment taken from a fairy tale. Note that
biliyorsun, structured here as bili-yor-sun, is a form of bilemek ‘to sharpen’.
Yaban domuz-un-un bir-i ağac-ın arka-sın-a sakla=n-mış, diş-lerin-i bili-yor-muş.

On-u bir tilki gör-müş: ‘Diş-ler-in-i ne diye bili-yor-sun?
Bir tehlike mi sez-di-n? Avcı mı var bura-da?’ diye sor-muş.
Some wild boar had hidden himself behind a tree and was sharpening his teeth.
A fox sees him and asks: ‘Why are you sharpening your teeth?
Is there by chance some danger that you sensed? Are there any hunters here?’
In informal language there are deviations from this rule. For instance, the negated form
of belli ‘known / obvious / clear / visible / certain / evident / definite’ takes a direct speech
complement in various tenses. The complement is typically based on a question:
Sanık ne söyle-r, tercüman ne çevir-ir, yargıç ne anla-r belli değil!

What does the accused say, what does the interpreter translate,
what does the judge understand?— (it is) not clear.
Bütün gün ne yap-ıyor, nerelerde dolaş-ıyor belli değil.
What does he do all day, where does he walk around—(it is) not known.
Niçin sat-mış belli değil.
It is not obvious why he sold it.
Bun-lar on-u niye öldür-dü nasıl öldür-dü belli değil.
It is not certain why and how these people have killed him.
Not only question words, but also the question particle can shape the complement.
Recep onlar-ı sev-er mi-ydi sev-mez mi-ydi belli değil-di.

It was not clear whether Recep loves them or not.
Arnavut Tosk-lar-ın neredeyse hepsi Bektaşi ol-muş,
onlar da mı Orta Asya’dan gel-di belli değil.
Almost all Albanian Tosk people have become Bektaşi;
it is not known if they too came from Central Asia.
33.4.2 Indirect speech
A complement for indirect speech can be formed by using a sentence as the direct object of
a verb meaning ‘to say’. To keep it simple for the moment, recall Fatma and her house and
consider the following example:
Hasan, (Fatma’nın ev-i sat-tığ-ın)-ı söyle-di.

Hasan said that Fatma (has) sold the house.
What is put in brackets is based on Fatma ev-i sat ‘Fatma the-house sell’ and gets its final
form according to the following general rule:
a. the subject gets the genitive: → Fatma’nın

b. the verb stem takes –TIK to express past or present: → sat-tık
c. next is a possessive suffix agreeing with the subject: → sat-tığ-ı(n)
d. transitive söylemek ‘to say’ requires the accusative: → sat-tığ-ın-ı.
Other verbs take other types of object, for instance, inanmak (-e) ‘to believe’ takes a dative
object and substituting this verb in the example above results in:
Hasan, (Fatma’nın ev-in-i sat-tığ-ın)-a inan-dı.

Hasan believed that Fatma (has) sold her house.
The overall shape of embedded sentences equals that of relative object clauses (see sec-
tion 32.4). The variation with respect to person and number also follows the same grammatical
rules. When ‘Hasan said’ is kept constant and the possessors are varied from ‘I’ to ‘they’, the
maximum variation possible is as follows:
Hasan, ben-im ev-im-i sat-tığ-ım-ı söyle-di.

Hasan, sen-in ev-in-i sat-tığ-ın-ı söyle-di.
Hasan, on-un ev-in-i sat-tığ-ın-ı söyle-di.
Hasan, biz-im ev-imiz-i sat-tığ-ımız-ı söyle-di.
Hasan, siz-in ev-iniz-i sat-tığ-ınız-ı söyle-di.
Hasan, onlar-ın ev-in-i sat-tık-ların-ı söyle-di.
33.4.3 Non-future
The suffix –TIK expresses present tense or (recent) past, but not future tense. This is done
with –(y)EcEK and can be illustrated by:
Demirel, kendi-sin-in de kaynak ara-yacağ-ın-ı söyle-di.

Demirel said he would search for (financial) resources himself too.
Türkiye-siz bir Avrupa’nın düşün=ül-eme-yeceğ-in-i söyle-di.
He said that a Europe without Turkey would be unthinkable.
33.4.4 Remote past
The (more) remote past is expressed by means of the auxiliary verb ol- and the embedded
verb receives the suffix –mIş. This suffix remains uninflected and the markings for person and
number are attached to the auxiliary ol-, which is in turn followed by –TIK or –(y)EcEK.
Examples are:
Ali, on-u pek anla-ma-mış ol-duğ-um-u söyle-di.

Ali said that I hadn’t understood him (that) well.
Haber al-dıktan sonra, pek çok ağla-mış ol-duğ-un-u söyle-di.
She said she had wept a lot after having received the news.
O anda başkent-e var-mış ol-acağ-ın-ı söyle-di.
She said that he would have arrived in the capital by then.
33.4.5 Whether or not
The suffix –(y)Ip is applied as indirect speech complement in embedded questions. Two
main types can be distinguished, an embedding for yes / no questions (see sections 18.2 and
23.1.3) and one for questions pertaining to choice (see section 26.2). To start out with the
latter type, its structure resembles that of the direct speech. Compare:
Çay mı kahve mi isti-yor-sun? diye sor-du.

‘Do you want tea or coffee?’ she asked.
Çay mı kahve mi iste-diğ-in-i sor-du.
She asked if you want tea or coffee.
A similar idea of choosing is conveyed by constructions which express whether something

is ‘done or not.’ Such a construction comprises two equal verbal stems which are linked by
means of the suffix –(y)Ip (see section 27.1) while the second verb stem is negated. Both
verbs can take the same but also a different object.
In the next two examples the verbal complex is person-bound and temporal aspects are
expressed by –TIK and –(y)EcEK:
Ora-da ben ne yap-abil-ir-im?

—Ne yap-ıp (ne) yap-ama-yacağ-ın sen-in problem-in.
What can I do there?
—What you will be able to do and what not, is your problem.
Ne yap-ıp ne yap-ma-dık-ların-ı siz-e olabildiğince çabuk bildir-ecek.
He will inform you as soon as possible what they have done and what not.
Sentences in which the verbal complex is not person-bound do occur as well, and
these are based on an infinitive. The following exemplifies the usage of the infinitive
in –mEk.
Bil-diğ-iniz gibi, ahlâklı ol-mak, bun-u yap-ıp şun-u yap-ma-mak nispeten kolay-dır.
As you know, to be moral—do this and don’t do that— is relatively simple.
Birin-i çağır-ıp ötekin-i çağır-ma-mak biraz tuhaf ol-ur-du.
It was a bit odd to invite one of them and not the other.
In adverbial phrases based on konusunda ‘as regards / in relation to’ the so-called ‘short’
infinitive in –mE is used to form a compound construction:
Ne yap-ıp ne yap-ma-ma konu-sun-da hiç kafa yor-ma-dı-lar.

They haven’t given a thought at all to what to do and what not.
Yukarı çık-ıp çık-ma-ma konu-sun-da kararsız kal-dı-m.
I was undecided as to whether I would go up or not.
Similar compound structures are found for nouns such as sorun ‘problem’ and mesele
‘matter / issue / problem’:
Sorun, bu durum-da onlar-la görüş-üp görüş-me-me sorun-u değil-di.

The problem was not to meet them, or not to meet them in this situation.
Olay, rejim-in var ol-up ol-ma-ma mesele-si.
The thing is (the problem of) whether you have a diet or not.
Returning to yes / no questions, the structure of the embedded question is somewhat more
complicated than that of the questions in direct speech. Compare:
‘O film-i gör-dü-n mü?’ diye sor-du.

He asked: ‘Have you seen that film?’
O film-i gör-üp gör-me-diğ-in-i sor-du.
He asked if you have seen that film.
The latter construction is built up by a verbal stem plus –(y)Ip and the same stem plus
negational suffix –mE, followed by a temporal form –TIK plus a possessive suffix and a case
marker. An example of future reference by –(y)EcEK is:
‘O film-i gör-ecek mi-sin?’ diye sor-du.

‘Are you going to see that film?’ he asked.
O film-i gör-üp gör-me-yeceğ-in-i sor-du.
He asked if you are going to see that film.
In fact, these embedded questions are a sort of yes / no questions, because they are of the
type: ‘He asked if you want a cup of tea’; a question which could possibly be expanded into
‘He asked if you want a cup of tea or not’. These are questions which are preferably to be
answered by yes or no. Here are a few more examples:
Koş-up el-in-i tut-tu-m ve bir şey iste-yip iste-me-diğ-in-i sor-du-m.

I ran and seized her arm and asked if she needed anything.
On-a genelev-ler-e gid-ip git-me-diğ-in-i sor-du-m.
I asked him whether he visited brothels.
San-a haber ver-ip ver-me-yeceğ-im-i sor-uyor-du-m kendi kendi-m-e.
I was wondering whether I would inform you or not.
Also the notions of ‘to have’ and ‘to be’ are expressed by the auxiliary form ol-:
Öl-müş bir kişi-nin gerçek anne baba-sı ol-up ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı sor-an-lar var.
There are people who ask if a deceased person has real parents.
Babaanne-m baba-m-a bir iste-diğ-i ol-up ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı sor-du.
My grandma asked my dad if there was anything he wanted.
Bilim adam-lar-ı bu düşünce-ler-in doğru ol-up ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı merak ed-iyor-lar.
Scientists are eager to find out whether these ideas are correct or not.
33.4.6 Other functions
As was shown in the previous section, the temporal forms –TIK and –(y)EcEK occur in
complements of verbs: such complements are sentences being used as direct objects. But
verbs other than sormak ‘to ask’ can also take such complements, as in:
Adam o çocuğ-un gerçekten kendi-sin-den ol-up ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı merak ed-iyor.

The man is curious whether that child is really his own.
Anne-n-i tanı-yıp tanı-ma-dığ-ın-ı öğren-mek isti-yor.
She wants to find out (‘learn’) whether or not she knows your mother.
Bu, patron-umuz-un bun-dan memnun ol-up ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı göster-me-di mi?
Didn’t this show whether our boss was happy with this?
Reng-in moda-ya, giysi-ler-iniz-e uy-up uy-ma-yacağ-ın-ı,
başka-ların-ın beğen-ip beğen-me-yeceğ-in-i düşün-me-yin.
Don’t you worry if the colour keeps up with the latest fashions or suits your
clothes, or if other people will like it or not.
Kuyrukluyıldız-ın kuzeybatı-da gör=ül-üp gör=ül-eme-yeceğ-in-i denetle-yecek-ti-k.
We would check if the comet was going to be seen in the northwest.
In the following examples, however, the embedding is not the object of a verb but func-
tions as an independent form in the role of predicate, subject, or adverbial phrase. Instead
of a temporal suffix the infinitival suffix –mE occurs. In relation to embeddings as the
complement of a verb there is another considerable difference: the state of affairs described
is presented as a tenseless notion, rather than as an action which has been, is being, or will
be performed—to a certain extent the state of affairs is hypothetical.
Bun-u sen de gör-üyor mu-sun?—Ben-im gör-üp gör-me-me-m önemli değil.

Do you see that too?—Whether I see that or not is not important.
Zaten konuş-up konuş-ma-ma-mız ne-yi değiştir-ir?
By the way, what does it change, whether we talk or not?
On-un yap-tığ-ın-ı bil-ip bil-me-me-sin-in önemsiz ol-duğ-un-u düşün-dü.
He thought it was not important whether she knew that he has done it.
Structures based on ol-up ol-ma-ma can be regarded as embeddings of nominal and existential
constructions, mostly to be interpreted in terms of ‘to have’ and ‘to be’.
Anlat=ıl-an-lar-ın doğru ol-up ol-ma-ma-sı önemli değil-di.

Whether all that is / was being told is true or not was not important.
Tek sorun, bun-u yap-mak için yeterli neden-ler-e sahip ol-up ol-ma-ma-nız-dır.
The only problem is whether you have enough reasons to do this, or not.
Sorun, bilgi-ye sahip ol-up ol-ma-ma-ları ile ilgili değil-dir.
The problem has no relation to whether they have information or not.
Delil-in ol-up ol-ma-ma-sı çok önemli-dir.
It is very important if there is any evidence or not.
Anticipating on what will be discussed in detail in section 33.5, it could already be revealed

that a second distinction is relevant, being the difference between fact—something to
which a truth value (true or false) can be attributed, and an act—an occurrence or action
which is not to be regarded as having a link to past, present, or future.
There are sentences strongly resembling those represented above, but which are yet
c onspicuous because it is not ol-up ol-ma-ma but rather ol-up ol-ma-dığ which is the core
of the embedding. The choice between these sequences is determined by the verifiability of
the statement involved: Is it true or not?
Sen-in değil, karşı-n-da-kin-in aptal ol-up ol-ma-dığ-ı önemli ol-an.

Not if you, but if the one opposite you is stupid or not is what counts.
Hikâye-nin uzun veya kısa sürme-si değil, iyi ol-up ol-ma-dığ-ı önemli-dir.
It is not whether the story is long or short that is important,
but whether or not it’s a good story.
Maden-in tungsten ol-up ol-ma-dığ-ı önemli değil-di.
It was not important whether the metal is tungsten or not.
At-ım-a bin-me-ye lâyık ol-up ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı ban-a ispat ed-ecek-sin.
Whether you are worth mounting my horse, you shall prove to me.
Artık öyle ol-up ol-ma-dığ-ın-a aldır-mı-yor-um.
I don’t care any more whether it is so or not.
Another type of embedded yes / no question is found in the constructions below, which are
based on the infinitive –mEk plus locative:
Hatta bir an içeri gir-ip gir-me-mek-te bile kararsız kal-dı.

Moreover, he remained undecided whether he would go in for a moment.
Orhan Bey söyle-yip söyle-me-mek-te bir tereddüt geçir-di.
Mister Orhan felt some hesitation about whether he would say it or not.
Yardımcı ol-up ol-ma-mak-ta serbest-sin.
You are free in being / becoming an assistant or not.
33.4.7 Simplification 1: direct speech plus verb
In less formal language usage such complex constructions are avoided by simply lining up
(stacking) a number of ‘loose’ constituents. The following examples are simplified yes / no
questions, as taken from literary texts, albeit representing spoken language.
Saçma mı, değil mi, gör-ür-sün.

Nonsense or not, you will see.
O adam bizim-le konuşma-yı kabul ed-er mi, et-me-z mi, bil-emi-yor-um.
Whether that man agrees to talk with us or not, I wouldn’t know.
İzmir’den kimse var mı, yok mu, sor-ma-ya gel-di-m.
I came to ask if there is someone from Izmir or not.
Doğru mu, yanlış mı, bugün de bir şey söyle-yeme-m.
Right or wrong, today also I can’t say anything about it.
Öyle rahatla-dı-m ki, gül-e-yim mi, ağla-ya-yım mı, bil-eme-di-m.

I was so relieved that I didn’t know if I should laugh or cry.
İyi mi yaşa-yacağ-ım, kötü mü yaşa-yacağ-ım, sen-i ilgilendir-mi-yor.
Whether I will live in good or bad circumstances won’t be your concern.
Also verbs such as şüphe etmek ‘to doubt / be suspicious about’, karar vermek ‘to decide’,
şaşırmak ‘to be at a loss as to what to say / do’, and the impersonal verb anlaşılmak ‘to be
clear / obvious’ often have a direct speech complement:
Çocuk-lar-dan bir tane-si biz-im mi, değil mi şüphe ed-iyor-uz di-yor-lar.

They say: ‘We are in doubt—is one of the children ours or not.’
Bu gece yapayalnız ol-duğ-un-a sevin-sin mi, üzül-sün mü karar ver-eme-di.
He could not decide whether he should be glad or feel sad to be all alone tonight.
Kulağ-ım-a öyle rivayet-ler gel-iyor-du ki,
gül-mek mi, ağla-mak mı lazım, ben de şaşır-ıyor-du-m.
Such rumours were coming to my ears that I was at a loss: should I laugh or cry?
Elbise-ler beyaz mı, sarı mı anlaşıl-mı-yor.
It is not clear if the clothes are white or yellow.
In spoken language ‘whole sentences in direct speech’ often occur as objects of verbs such
as duymak ‘to hear’, görmek ‘to see’, bilmek ‘to know’, ummak ‘to hope’, fark etmek ‘to notice’,
and farkında olmak ‘to be aware’. Here is a small selection of such simplifications:
Ne laf-lar ed-iyor duy-uyor mu-sun?

What is she gossiping about, do you hear (all that)? / Do you hear what she is gossiping about?
Bu söz Almanca-da nasıl gürlü-yor duy-uyor mu-sunuz?
Do you hear how this word thrums in German?
Kim-in-le ne konuş-uyor, hangi grup-ta yer al-ıyor gör-ür, bil-ir-di-m.
With whom he talks about what and what group he is in, I saw, I knew that.
Gid-elim ve yazgı ban-a daha ne-ler hazırlı-yor gör-elim.
Come on, let’s see what other things fate has in store for me.
Ah, sen-in için ne üzüntü-ler geçir-di-k bil-se-n!
Ah, if you would know what grief we felt because of you!
Nasıl anla-dı-nız bil-mi-yor-um ama tamamıyla doğru, de-di kadın.
How you understood (it) I don’t know, but it is entirely correct, said the woman.
Yalan söylü-yor-sun bil-iyor-um.
You’re lying, I know (that). / I know that you’re lying.
Neden-i ben değil-im um-ar-ım.
I’m not the reason / cause, I hope.
Rica-m-ı unut-ma-yacak-sınız um-ar-ım.
You won’t forget about my request, I hope.
Ne kadar zor ol-duğ-un-u asla öğren-mez-sin um-ar-ım.

You never find out how hard it is, I hope.
Kim bağır-dı fark ed-eme-di-m, arkadaş-lar-dan bir-i ‘Kımılda-ma!’ de-di.
Who shouted I couldn’t make out, one of the colleagues said: ‘Don’t move!’
Ne kadar hızlı değiş-iyor farkında mı-sın?
How fast it is changing, do you notice? / Are you aware of how fast it changes?
A sentence in direct speech can also be preceded by forms such as um-ar-ım ‘I hope’,
san-ır-ım ‘I think / believe’, or bil-ir-im ‘I know’, as follows from:
Um-ar-ım rahatla-mış olarak dön-er-sin.

I hope you come back rested.
San-ır-ım birbir-imiz-i aynı an-da gör-dü-k.
I believe we saw each other at the same moment.
Bil-ir-im siz ben-i çok sev-er-siniz.
I know that you are really fond of me.
A hybrid form of direct and indirect speech is based on a question followed by diye:
Acaba biz-e gülümse-yecek mi diye bak-ar-dı-k.

We looked at whether she was going to smile at us.
Pencere açık mı diye merak ed-iyor-du-m.
I wondered whether the window was open.
Kahvaltı et-ti-m mi diye sor-uyor-du.
She asked if I had had breakfast.
33.4.8 Simplification 2: optative / indirect imperative plus istemek
Another type of construction illustrating this type of simplification (particularly in day-to-day

conversations) consists of a form of istemek ‘to want’ preceded by an indirect imperative
(see chapter 18) or by an optative form (see chapter 19). The main verb can take all tense
forms for all grammatical persons. For purposes of comparison alternative constructions in
the style of formal indirect speech are indicated by an arrow. For the form verb stem + –mE +
possessive, see section 33.3.2.
Combinations for the optative are: –(y)E-yIm + iste- and –(y)E-lIm + iste-, as in:
Aşağı in-me-n için ne yap-a-yım iste-r-sin?

What do you want me to do so that you come down?
→ Aşağı in-me-n için ne yap-ma-m-ı iste-r-sin?
Bir daha gör-e-yim isti-yor-um on-u.
I want to see him / her once more.
→ Bir daha gör-mek isti-yor-um on-u.
Bir an önce tanış-a-lım iste-di-m.

I would have liked to meet much earlier.
→ Bir an önce tanış-ma-mız-ı / tanış-mak iste-di-m.
Sen-i zorla-ya-yım isti-yor-lar-mış.
They seem to want me to force you (to do it).
→ Sen-i zorla-ma-m-ı isti-yor-lar-mış.
Daha mı açık söyle-ye-yim isti-yor-sunuz?
You want me to say it even clearer / more frankly?
→ Ben-im daha mı açık söyle-me-m-i isti-yor-sunuz?
Also, the combinations –(y)E-sIn + iste- and –(y)E-sInIz + iste- for the second person singular
and plural can be found, though not very frequently:
Bil-se-ydi-m gid-er-ken sen-i de uyandır-ır-dı-m.

Geç yat-tı-k, biraz daha uyu-ya-sın iste-di-m.
Had I known (that), (then) I would have woken you up when I left.
(But) We went to bed late, I wanted you to sleep a little more / longer.
→ ... sen-in biraz daha uyu-ma-n-ı iste-di-m.
Hakk-ımız-da söyle=n-en basmakalıp bazı laf-lar-ın asl-ı esa-sı yok-tur,
bil-e-siniz isti-yor-um.
There is really no truth in some stereotypical tales that are being rumoured
about us, I want you to know that.
→ ... siz-in bil-me-niz-i isti-yor-um.
The possibilities for the indirect imperative, –sIn iste- and –sIn-lEr iste-, are:
Kız kardeş-in burn-un-u sok-sun iste-mi-yorum.

I don’t want your sister to interfere (to stick her nose into it).
→ Kız kardeş-in-in burn-un-u sok-ma-sın-ı iste-mi-yorum.
Duy-sun-lar isti-yor-um, herkes duy-sun isti-yor-um.
I want them to hear it, I want everyone to hear it.
→ Duy-ma-ların-ı isti-yor-um, herkes-in duy-ma-sın-ı isti-yor-um.
Okul-lar açıl-an-a kadar kız-ım aylak ol-ma-sın isti-yor-um.
I don’t want my daughter to be idle until the schools (re-)open.
→ Okul-lar açıl-an-a kadar kız-ım-ın aylak ol-ma-ma-sın-ı isti-yor-um.
Fikret’in baba-sı da oğul-lar-ı oku-muş ol-sun isti-yor.
Fikret’s father, too, wants his sons to be educated (to have studied).
→ Fikret’in baba-sı da oğul-lar-ın-ın oku-muş ol-ma-ların-ı isti-yor.
Koltukalt-lar-ı ter kok-sun iste-mi-yor-du.
She didn’t want her armpits to smell of sweat.
→ Koltukalt-lar-ın-ın ter kok-ma-sın-ı iste-mi-yor-du.
Baş-ı ağrı-yor, çevre-sin-de konuş-sun-lar iste-mi-yor.
His head aches and he doesn’t want them to talk in his vicinity.
→ Baş-ı ağrı-yor, çevre-sin-de konuş-ma-ların-ı iste-mi-yor.
Bir gün hikâye-m-i anlat-sın-lar isti-yor-um.

I want them to tell my story one day.
→ Bir gün hikâye-m-i anlat-ma-ların-ı isti-yor-um.
Onlar-ın durum-un-un da farklı ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı gör-ebil-sin-ler iste-r-di-m.
I wanted them to be able to see that their situation is / was not different.
→ Onlar-ın durum-un-un da farklı ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı gör-ebil-me-lerin-i iste-r-di-m.
Embedded projection to the past (see also section 24.1.4) occurs as well:
İster mi-sin, bu gece-de öyle bir şey ol-sun-du?

Do you wish something like that had happened tonight?
33.4.9 Simplification 3: söyle plus indirect imperative
Another form of simplification is found in a construction in which it is indicated by

means of the imperative form söyle ‘say’ what a ‘third person singular’ must do or refrain
from. This command is issued as an indirect imperative. The patterns are: söyle + –sIn
and söyle + –sIn-lEr.
Anne, on-a söyle ben-i rahat bırak-sın!

Mother, tell him to leave me alone!
Hastane-ye götür on-u, söyle doktor-a gel-sin! de-di.
‘Take him to the hospital and tell the doctor to come here!’ she said.
Söyle git-sin iş-in-e. Söyle de başla-sın!
Tell him to go to work and tell him to start.
Kâhya-ya da söyle ban-a gel-sin, baba-m-a bir haber gönder-eceğ-im.
Tell the butler to come to me, I want to send a message to my father.
Uşak-lar-a söyle, düzelt-sin-ler şun-u.
Tell the servants to put this in order.
Siper-e koş da söyle bekle-me-sin-ler.
Run to the trench and tell them not to wait.
33.4.10 Indirect commands
The constructions presented in sections 33.4.8 and 33.4.9 are so-called indirect commands.
They are used when it is desirable, advisable, necessary, et cetera that someone do some-
thing, while one has decided not to issue a command in the form of an imperative. Whereas
Go away! is an imperative, I want you to go away is an indirect command. A subform, the
quoted command can be exemplified by John said to Mary ‘Go away!’ and a reported com-
mand is contained in John said to Mary that she should go away.
Some Turkish examples of indirect commands are:
Sırt-ım-a biraz masaj yap! (Imperative, see section 16.1)

Massage my back a little!
Sırt-ım-a biraz masaj yap-ma-n-ı isti-yor-um. (Indirect, see section 33.3.2)
I want you to massage my back a little.
Sırt-ım-a biraz masaj yap-ar mı-sınız diye sor-du-m. (Quoted, see section 33.4.1)
I asked ‘Can you massage my back a little?’
Sırt-ım-a biraz masaj yap-ma-sın-ı iste-di-m. (Reported, see section 33.5.4)
I asked her to massage my back a little.
33.5 Sentential direct objects
A sentential object is a construction in which the object is based on a sentence. For example
Mary works hard appears as the object in the following fashion: I know that Mary works hard.
In Turkish such embedded subjects can be based on a finite form, the English equivalent of
which is I like Mary’s working hard or I like it that Mary works hard, but also on a short
infinitive, comparable to Mary likes to work hard.
In section 33.5.1 infinitival constructions will be discussed, and in section 33.5.2 it is
shown that nominal and existential embeddings require the auxiliary form ol-. The next five
sections, sections 33.5.3–33.5.8, go into the question how the choice between suffixation
with –TIK / –(y)EcEK and –mE can be accounted for. A crucial notion is the distinction
between linguistic structures that denote a fact and those which denote an act. With I know
that Mary works hard the underlined part presents Mary’s activity as a fact, whereas in I saw
Mary working hard the object refers to the activity itself.
33.5.1 Transitive verbs
In chapter 15 it was mentioned that verbs can get the accusative when used as the object of
certain verbs. Examples of such object-taking verbs are:
düşünmek to think ummak to hope

beklemek to wait / expect başarmak to succeed
unutmak to forget öğrenmek to learn
öğretmek to teach sevmek to love / like
saymak to consider / count amaçlamak to aim
tercih etmek to prefer reddetmek to reject
teklif etmek to propose önermek to propose
kabul etmek to accept sağlamak to warrant
zorlaştırmak to complicate kolaylaştırmak to make easy
görmek to see / understand duymak to hear / sense
Examples illustrating the usage of these verbs are:
Yüz-me-yi, koş-ma-yı sev-er-im.

I love swimming and running.
Bu, alış-ma-yı kolaylaştır-ır.
This makes getting used to it easier.
Roman yaz-ma-yı düşün-üyor mu-sunuz?
Are you thinking of writing a novel?
Ama doğrusu on-un-la çalış-ma-yı çok iste-r-di-m.
Put more precisely, I would like to work with him / her very much.
Üzül-ür-sün diye san-a aktar-ma-yı gereksiz gör-müş-tü-m.
I found it unnecessary to tell you this because you would feel sad.
‘Ben-den şarkı söyle-me-yi iste-me-yin’ söz-ler-i-yle espri yap-tı.
She was joking, saying ‘Don’t expect me to sing a song’.
Ben-i tanı-ma-yı, kim ol-duğ-um-u öğren-me-yi iste-diğ-iniz-i bil-iyor-um.
I know you want to know me and find out who I am.
The verb istemek allows also for complements in –mEk as in:
Eve erken dön-mek iste-diğ-in-i bildir-di.

He stated that he wanted to go home early.
Siz-in-le sadece bir görüş-mek iste-di-m.
I wanted to talk to you (just) for a moment.
Artık o küstah serseri-yle karşılaş-mak iste-mi-yor-um.
I don’t want to have anything to do any more with that impertinent lowlife.
Also in the following examples, the full infinitival verb form in –mEk occurs. This is possible,
however, only for passive verbs, because the verb in –mEk is subject.
Yabancı birisi-yle evlen-mek tercih ed=il-iyor-sa da, . . .

If one prefers to marry a foreigner, . . .
Toplum-un yaşam kalite-sin-i yükselt-mek amaçla=n-mış-tır.
The aim is (‘it is aimed’) to increase the standard of living in society.
Bu seyahat-i yap-ar-ken para kazan-mak teklif ed=il-iyor-du ban-a.
They proposed that I should earn money while travelling.
Şimdi siz-in-le konuş-mak hoş-um-a gid-iyor. Pek konuş-mak say=ıl-ma-sa da.
I’d like to talk with you now. As long as we leave talking too much aside.
33.5.2 Nominal and existential embedding
In the examples presented so far, all embedded sentences are based on a verb. But there is
more! Consider the second line of the following fragment.
O da Fevzi Paşa ile konuş-tuğ-un-u,

on-un çok iyimser ol-duğ-un-u,
Yunanlı-lar-ı yen-eceğ-imiz-i söyle-di.
He said that he had spoken to Fevzi Paşa,
and that the latter was / is very optimistic,
and that we would / will defeat the Greeks.
The model of section 33.4.2 is applicable to embeddings of existential and nominal sentences

(the line in bold print above) as well. This implies in the first place that the subject gets the
genitive, and secondly, that the verb stem takes –TIK to express past or present tense, and
thirdly, that a possessive suffix follows which agrees with the subject.
Now, when ‘to have’ or ‘to be’ must be expressed in an embedding, the auxiliary ol- can
be expected, and therefore, it functions as the carrier for –TIK and the possessive suffix.
In the following sentence pairs an existential sentence used independently is presented
first and and an embedded one subsequently.
Buzdolab-ın-da bira var. (independent)

There is beer in the fridge.
Aliye, buzdolab-ın-da bira ol-duğ-un-u söyle-di. (embedded)
Aliye said that there was / is beer in the fridge.
Ali’nin para-sı yok. (independent)
Ali has no money.
Murat, Ali’nin para-sı ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı söyle-di. (embedded)
Murat said that Ali has / had no money.
What is shown here is that var ‘there is / are’ and yok ‘there is / are not’ can occur only in an
independent sentence and that they are expressed by means of ol- in embeddings. Nominal
sentences show the same picture:
Aliye, vücud-un-dan memnun ol-duğ-un-u söyle-di.

Aliye said that she is / was happy with her body.
Bun-un da mümkün ol-abil-eceğ-in-i söyle-di.
He said that this too would be possible.
But in the sense of ‘to exist’ forms of var olmak are used.
Ezel-den beri var ol-an ve son-u hiç gel-me-yecek bir zaman-a kadar
var olacak bir şey. Yani, sonsuz-a kadar var ol-acak!
It is a thing that exists from time immemorial and that will exist until a time
whose end will never come. Thus, it will exist ad infinitum!
Bu gibi durum-lar-ın gerçekten var ol-duğ-un-u bil-iyor-um.
I know that situations like this really do exist.
Aynı anda sadece dört tür-ün var ol-ma-sı olanaksız-dı.
That only four species existed at the same time was impossible.
33.5.3 Form differences
As has been explained in section 33.4, there is a considerable difference in form between

direct and indirect speech. These differences can simply be elucidated as follows.
Müdür, ‘Hasan Ankara’ya git-ti’ diye söyle-di.

The boss said: ‘Hasan went / has gone to Ankara.’
Müdür, Hasan’ın Ankara’ya git-tiğ-in-i söyle-di.
The boss said that Hasan goes / went / has gone to Ankara.
In the next pair of examples there is seemingly the same type of difference:
Müdür, ‘Hasan Ankara’ya git-sin!’ de-di.

The boss said: ‘Hasan must go to Ankara.’
Müdür, Hasan’ın Ankara’ya git-me-sin-i söyle-di.
The boss said that Hasan must go to Ankara.
Before showing how these sentences relate to each other, it is useful to first check what can
be inferred from a comparison between each pair of sentences.
First, the suffix –TI in the first example stands for completed action witnessed by
the boss (otherwise it would have been appropriate to use –mIş), but the suffix –TIK in the
second sentence indicates only that the event described is not in the future and not com-
pleted in the past. The act of going may have taken place in the recent past and may even
still be ongoing in the present (the moment of speaking, that is).
Secondly, the suffix –sIn in the first sentence of the other pair can be identified as the
indirect imperative (third person singular), whereas the fragment ‘sin’ in the second
sentence is how the possessive suffix third person singular –(s)I(n) is spelled out. The
imperative suffix belongs to the category of verbal suffixes, whereas the possessive suffix is a
nominal suffix.
So, the conclusion is justifiable that in both cases the similarity between the verbal forms
in these sentence pairs is completely accidental and in no way comparable.
However, what does count is how the relation between the second and fourth examples
can be explained. Here they are again, this time side by side:
Müdür, Hasan’ın Ankara’ya git-tiğ-in-i söyle-di.

The boss said that Hasan goes / went / has gone to Ankara.
Müdür, Hasan’ın Ankara’ya git-me-sin-i söyle-di.
The boss said that Hasan must go to Ankara.
That the suffix –mE must be used in the latter sentence and not –TIK is related to the
difference between factual and non-factual actions or events.
What is expressed by Müdür, Hasan’ın Ankara’ya git-tiğ-in-i söyle-di is that ‘Hasan’s-
going-to-Ankara’ is a fact: it takes place or has taken place and this can be tested. However,
what is presented by Müdür, Hasan’ın Ankara’ya git-me-sin-i söyle-di is an abstract and
future or possible (but non-factual) act. The interpretation is ‘to have to, must’, as in the
following examples:
Doktor-a telefon et-me-m-i, bir de kendi-sin-e ekmek al-ma-m-ı söyle-di.

She said that I should call the doctor and buy bread for her.
Ben-i bekle-t-me-ye nasıl cesaret ed-er-sin! Hemen gel-me-n-i söyle-miş-ti-m!
How dare you keep me waiting! I said that you should come immediately!
Mehmet ile ban-a salon-a gid-ip oyna-ma-mız-ı söyle-di.
She said to Mehmet and me that we should play in the drawing room.
33.5.4 Suffix selection
The difference in expression between fact as –TIK / –(y)EcEK and act as –mE is systematic,
although the choice of the correct suffix is partly determined by the semantics of the verb
in question. The difference is relevant for verbs denoting a perception or observation, for
instance görmek ‘to see’, duymak ‘to hear’, seyretmek ‘to watch’, izlemek ‘to watch, follow’,
dinlemek ‘to listen (to)’, and the like. Examples are:
Murat, Berna’nın ev-den çık-tığ-ın-ı gör-dü.

Murat saw that Berna had left the house. (fact)
Murat, Berna’nın ev-den çık-ma-sın-ı gör-dü.
Murat saw Berna leaving the house. (act)
Murat, Berna’nın ev-den çık-tığ-ın-ı duy-du.
Murat heard that Berna had left the house. (fact)
Murat, Berna’nın ev-den çık-acağ-ın-ı duy-du.
Murat heard that Berna is going to leave the house. (fact)
Murat, Berna’nın ev-den çık-ma-sın-ı duy-du.
Murat heard Berna leaving the house. (act)
Murat’ın tenis oyna-ma-sın-ı seyret-ti-m / izle-di-m.
I watched Murat playing tennis. (act)
Murat’ın tenis oyna-ma-sın-a bak-tı-m.
I watched how Murat was playing tennis. (act)
Murat’ın piyano çal-ma-sın-ı dinle-di-m.
I listened to how Murat was playing the piano. (act)
Also with verbs of ‘saying’ this difference is relevant. Verbs such as söylemek (-i) ‘to say’,
bildirmek (-i) ‘to announce’, and açıklamak (-i) ‘to explain’ with –TIK / –(y)EcEK express a fact.
With the suffix –mE, the entire expression gets the interpretation of ‘to have, must’
(imperative, see chapter 16).
Murat, Berna’nın ev-den çık-tığ-ın-ı söyle-di.

Murat said that Berna had left the house. (fact)
Murat, Berna’nın ev-den çık-ma-sın-ı söyle-di.
Murat said that Berna had to leave the house. (imperative)
These examples are all fabricated in order to facilitate an easy way of presenting the linguistic
facts. To some native speakers of Turkish, however, the last example seems at first glance to
be somewhat awkward and in order to sound ‘right’, either Berna’nın should be replaced by
Berna’ya ‘to Berna’ or söyle-di should be replaced by iste-di ‘wanted’ or emret-ti ‘ordered’.
This would lead to:
Murat, Berna’ya ev-den çık-ma-sın-ı söyle-di.

Murat told Berna to leave the house.
Murat, Berna’nın ev-den çık-ma-sın-ı iste-di / emret-ti.
Murat wanted / ordered that Berna must leave the house.
The first option is a good possibility when the intended message is that Murat told Berna to
her face want he wanted. Compare this with the following example:
Kız-a mutfak-tan çık-ma-sın-ı söyle-miş-ti.

He had told the girl to get out of the kitchen.
The second option, then, would suggest that Murat made his wish known, but not necessarily
to Berna in person.
Obviously, there seems to be a conflict between the usage of söylemek ‘to say’ in an
imperative way and the presence of an embedded subject. Nonetheless, some examples
could be attested in which this seems to be unproblematic:
Büyükanne, herkes-in oda-dan çık-ma-sın-ı söyle-yerek,

‘Bir dakika Aydan’la konuş-ma-m lazım,’ de-di.
Ordering everyone out of the room, grandmother said:
‘I need to talk to Aydan for a minute.’
Ada-lar-a gel-ince, yerli-ler-i Rum’dur; eğer onlar Türk ol-sa-ydı,
Yunanistan’a on-lar-ın birtakım-ın-dan çık-ma-sın-ı söyle-yebil-ir-di-k.
As for the islands, the locals there are Rum; had they been Turks, then we
could have said to Greece that they (onlar—the locals) should leave some
of them (birtakım-ı—the islands).
In fact, these constructions are indirect commands, as introduced in section 33.4.10. Thus,

in terms of usage, the verb söylemek ‘to say that something should occur’ is comparable to
emretmek (-i) / buyurmak (-i) ‘to order / command’, since they always require a comple-
ment in –mE.
Hizmetçi-ye beş dakika-da hazırla-n-ma-sın-ı buyur-du.

She ordered the servant to be ready in five minutes.
Kaptan-ımız top-lar-ın hazırla-n-ma-sın-ı emret-ti.
Our captain ordered (the men) to prepare the cannons.
Verbs such as istemek ‘to want / require’ and bildirmek ‘to tell / inform’ also allow for an
interpretation in terms of indirect commands:
Berna, Murat’ın ev-den çık-ma-sın-ı iste-di.

Berna wanted Murat to leave the house.
Kendisin-e resimli roman al-ma-m-ı iste-di.
She wanted me to buy him a comic strip. / I had to buy a comic strip for her.
Sen-in de ben-im-le gel-me-n-i isti-yor-um.
I want you too to come with me. / You too must come with me.
Anne-m tehlikesiz bir oyun oyna-ma-mız-ı isti-yor.
My mother wanted us to play a safe game. / My mother made us play a safe game.
Parmağ-ın-ı salla-yarak sus-ma-sın-ı bildir-di.
With her finger she signalled to him that he should keep silent.
More on directive verbs (e.g. buyurmak / emretmek ‘to order / command’; yasaklamak ‘to
forbid / prohibit’) can be found in section 33.8.4 under Group 4A and on manipulative verbs
(e.g. istemek ‘to want / demand / require’; tavsiye etmek ‘to recommend / advise’) in sec-
tion 33.8.4 under Group 4B. Other verbs with the possibility of expressing indirect commands
(e.g. bildirmek ‘to tell / inform’; göstermek ‘to show / point out’) are discussed in section 33.8.5.
A similar difference between fact and act is relevant for verbs denoting mental content,
such as farketmek ‘to notice’, hatırlamak ‘to remember’, inanmak ‘to believe’, hissetmek ‘to
feel’, anlamak ‘to understand’, and bilmek ‘to know’. For some of these verbs a minor shift in
meaning occurs with the forms in –mE in that they express some reason or manner. More
on this in section 33.8.5 under Group 5A.
Hasan’ın git-me-sin-i anlı-yor-uz.

We understand why (that) Hasan has / had left.
O, kazan-dığ-ı para-yı ye-me-sin-i bil-mi-yor.
He doesn’t know how to spend the money he earns.
Fatima on-un titre-me-sin-i hissed-ebil-iyor-du.
Fatima could feel how he shivered.
33.5.5 Unique type of complement
So far, embedded verbs taking either –TIK / –(y)EcEK or –mE have been discussed; this
difference depends on the verb in the main clause and therefore this leads to different
interpretations as fact or act. There are, however, verbs that take complements with one
type of suffix only.
First, directive verbs such as buyurmak / emretmek ‘to order / command’ and yasaklamak
‘to forbid / prohibit’, as well as manipulative verbs such as istemek ‘to want / demand /
require’ and söylemek ‘to say that something should occur’ always require a complement
in –mE. Examples are:
Bütün hizmetçi-lerin-e ev-den çık-ıp git-me-lerin-i buyur-du.

She ordered all their servants to go out of the house.
Onlar-ın derhal serbest bırak=ıl-ma-sın-ı emred-iyor-um.

I order / demand that they be set free immediately.
Secondly, a small number of verbs, sanmak (-i) ‘to think / believe’ and zannet-mek (-i)
‘to think / believe / imagine’ always take an embedded verb in –TIK / –(y)EcEK and never
with –mE. Thus:
Berna, Murat’ın bütün viski-yi iç-tiğ-in-i san-ıyor.

Berna thinks (regards it as a fact) that Murat drank all the whisky.
Abla-m ilk anda on-u bir yer-den tanı-dığ-ın-ı zannet-ti.
My sister thought at first that she recognized / knew him from somewhere.
The verb sanmak allows for direct speech complements:
Üç yüz yıl önce-sin-i yaşı-yor-um san-ıyor-du-m.

I thought I was going through something from 300 years ago.
Sen ben-i ara-yacak-tı-n, öyle konuş-muş-tu-k.
—Öyle mi? Ben de sen ara-yacak-sın san-ıyor-du-m.
You were going to call me, that’s how we had arranged it.
—Really? And I thought you would call me.
Daha önce on-un-la pek ilgi-n yok-tu san-ır-ım.
Earlier, you had not too much involvement with him / her, I think.
Yüreğ-im öyle çarp-ıyor-du ki, herkes duy-uyor san-ıyor-du-m.
My heart was pounding so loudly, I thought that everyone could hear it.
Forms of sayılmak ‘to be regarded’ after a fragment in direct speech can be interpreted as
an adverb meaning ‘one could say’:
Tamam di-yor-um bit-ti say=ıl-ır.

Okay, I say, it’s over (done), one could say.
Yaşam-ım-ın tüm ayrıntı-lar-ın-ı bil-iyor say=ıl-ır-dı.
She knows all the details of my life, one could have said.
The verbs presented so far fall into two categories: verbs taking only one type of ending for
its complement (–TIK / –(y)EcEK or –mE) and verbs that take both types (–TIK / –(y)EcEK
and –mE).
However, there is another type of ending for verbal complements: –mE plus case marker
and what is more, some verbs take only one type of complement, others two types, and yet
others can even take complements with three different endings.
The intricacies of complementation will be explained in sections 33.8.1–33.8.7. It will be
shown that all verbs allowing for subordination can be classified on the basis of the number
of different complement endings they can take. There are three groups of verbs taking only
one type of complement ending, three groups of verbs taking two different endings, and one
group that can take all three endings.
33.5.6 Summary
By way of a summary, the verbs represented in sections 33.5.4 and 33.5.5 can be schematized
as follows. The symbol ‘–’ in groups C and D indicates that only one type of complement
can be applied. Note that ‘act’ in group C should be read as ‘future action’.
Verb Meaning –TIK / –(y)EcEK –mE
a görmek (-i) to see fact act

duymak (-i) to hear fact act
seyretmek (-i) to watch fact act
izlemek (-i) to watch fact act
dinlemek (-i) to listen fact act
hissetmek (-i) to feel fact act
b söylemek (-i) to say fact act
açıklamak (-i) to explain fact act
anlamak (-i) to understand fact act
inanmak (-e) to believe fact act
bilmek (-i) to know fact act
hatırlamak (-i) to remember fact act
farketmek (-i) to notice fact act
c emretmek (-i) to order / command – act
buyurmak (-i) to order / command – act
istemek (-i) to want / command – act
söylemek (-i) to say/command – act
d sanmak (-i) to think fact –
zannetmek (-i) to think / surmise fact –
33.5.7 Fact or object
Expectations would be that verbs of category C can only have a complement denoting a
future event, as in the following examples.
Mahkeme, merkez ofis-in kapat=ıl-ma-sın-ı emret-ti.

The court has ruled that the headquarters be closed down.
İlişki-ler-in yeniden düzenle=n-me-sin-i isti-yor-uz.
We want relations to be renewed / repaired.
This entails that such a complement cannot represent a fact. Yet, and this is of crucial
importance, verbs such as emretmek (-i) ‘to order’ and istemek (-i) ‘to want / require’ can be
found with complements which are based on a participle in –TIK / –(y)EcEK.
However, this is possible only when the participle is used independently. In this way such a
participle does not denote a fact but a thing, an object. As has been argued in section 32.7.4,
the independently used participle iste-diğ-iniz means ‘what you want(ed)’, sev-diğ-in ‘that
which you love(d)’, nefret et-tiğ-im ‘what I dislike(d) most’, and yi-yeme-dik-ler-imiz ‘all we
could not eat up’. In the examples below, because of her ‘every’ the participle söyle-diğ-i can be
read as ‘what X said’:
On-un her söyle-diğ-i mutlaka doğru-ydu.

Everything she said was undoubtedly true.
Doktor, hasta-ların-ın her söyle-diğ-in-e önem ver-mek gerek-tiğ-in-i vurgula-r.
The doctor stresses that one must consider everything one’s patients say important.
And likewise, yap-tığ-ı is to be understood as ‘what she did’:
Onlar, her yap-tığ-ın-a, her söyle-diğ-in-e kız-mış-lar-dı anne-lerin-in.

They seem to have got angry about all she did and all she said, their mother.
When used as the object of emretmek (-i) ‘to order’ and istemek (-i) ‘to want’, such participles
produce structures like:
Beğen-diğ-iniz-i emred-iniz, murad-ınız-ı al-ınız.

Order what you want and get what you desire.
Her gör-düğ-ün-ü iste-yen çocuk-lar-dan değil-di ben-im kız-ım.
She was not the sort of child that wants everything she sees, my daughter.
The plurality of the object the participle refers to is indicated by –lEr, as in:
Ne ol-duğ-un-u anlat-tı-m ya, çocuk alığ-ın tek-i, söyle-dik-ler-im-i anla-ma-dı.

I told him what happened, (but) that stupid kid didn’t understand all that I said.
O mağaza-lar-da gör-dük-ler-im-i anlat-ama-m.
I can’t tell all I have seen in those shops.
Apart from the opposition act-fact, many other verbs, too, allow for an interpretation in
terms of an object with the suffix –TIK / –(y)EcEK. For inanmak (-e) ‘to believe’, for
instance, there is a threefold contrast: act–fact–object.
Eğer insan-lar-ın hayat-ın-ı kurtar-ma-ya inan-mı-yor-sa-n, o zaman bu ne-dir?

If you do not believe in saving the lives of people, what is this then?
Ama ben, yine de bun-un art niyetli yap=ıl-ma-dığ-ın-a inan-ıyor-um.
But still, I believe that this was not done with ulterior motives.
Ne yap-ar-sa-n yap, yine sen-in söyle-diğ-in-e inan-ama-m.
Whatever you do, yet I cannot believe in what you say / (have) said.
Such sentences are always somewhat tricky: the last example, for instance, has two other
interpretations as well: sen-in (bun-u) söyle-diğ-in-e inan-ama-m ‘I can’t believe that you
said (this)’ and with emphasis on senin: ‘I can’t believe it was you who said it’.
And sevmek (-i) ‘to love / like’ gives the following picture:
Atatürk ömr-ün-ü pek kıt kanaat geçir-diğ-in-den, para kaybet-me-sin-i sev-me-z-di.

Since Atatürk barely made ends meet in his life, he did not like to lose money.
Kork-tuğ-un-u yen-miş ve yen-diğ-in-i sev-miş-tir.

He conquered what he was afraid of and he loved the fact that he had conquered it.
Ama en son söyle-diğ-in-i sev-di-m.
But what you said last I liked.
Also beğenmek (-i) ‘to like’ for instance, allows for such contrasts:
Okul-un ban-a gerekli teorik bilgi-ler-i ver-me-sin-i beğen-iyor-um.

I like it that the school provides me with the theoretical knowledge needed.
Ben on-un yap-tığ-ın-ı beğen-me-di-m.
I did not like it that he did that. / I disliked what he did. / I disliked that HE did it.
Yap-tığ-ınız-ı beğen-iyor mu-sunuz?
Are you happy with what you do / have done?
33.5.8 Act–fact test
Actions have a starting point and an end point and they can be specified for duration.
Biraz sonra sığır-lar-ın böğürtü-sü, bakıcı-ların-ın bağrış-ma-sı başla-dı.

A little later began the mooing of the cattle and the shouting of their herders.
Tam sağ=ıl-ma-sı bit-er-ken keçi, kesintisiz mele-me-ye başla-dı.
Just after the milking was done, the goat started to bleat incessantly.
Bun-un, 10 cm çap-ın-da bir mantar haline gel-me-si yalnızca beş-altı gün sür-er.
This (thing) becoming a toadstool ten cm in diameter takes only five to six days.
Because facts are ‘truths’ which can be observed, conveyed (said, told, et cetera), remem-
bered, recalled, believed, and known, a simple test can be set up using the adjective doğru
‘true’ to find out which of the suffixes–TIK /, –(y)EcEK, or –mE should be applied. If values
true or false can be assigned to the content of an embedding then –TIK / –(y)EcEK should
be applied and this results in a factive clause. Otherwise, that is, if truth values are irrele-
vant, the suffix –mE applies.
The subjects of the following sentences are based on a factive clause:
Evren-de-ki madde miktar-ın-ın sürekli olarak değiş-tiğ-i doğru ise . . .

If it is true that the amount of matter in the universe is continuously changing . . .
Demek yirmi yıl önce-ki ilk muayene ed-en doktor-un de-diğ-i doğru-ymuş.
This means that what the doctor, who had done the first check-up twenty years before,
has said, was true.
Ama zekâ-sın-ı kullan-dığ-ı doğru.
But it is true that she uses her brains.
Orta Çağ’ın en büyük kent-i ol-duğ-u doğru.
That it was the largest city of the Middle Ages is true.
Bu parti-nin kültür merkez-ler-i kur-ul-ma-sın-a karşı ol-duğ-u doğru değil.
It is not true that this party is against founding cultural associations.
In independently used participles (see section 32.7) doğru can also be interpreted as

‘right / correct’ (see section 33.3.5).
Söyle-diğ-i doğru değil mi?

Is what she says / said not true / right / correct?
Her yap-tığ-ı doğru.
All she does / did is right / correct.
33.5.9 Subordination and negation
Within embeddings the position of the negational suffix –mE is highly important for a correct
interpretation. There are in principle two positions available: predicate and embedding,
resulting in four combinations: pos-pos, pos-neg, neg-pos and neg-neg.
Hollanda’ya git-mek iste-diğ-im-i bil-iyor mu-sun? (positive—positive)

Do you know that I want to go to the Netherlands?
Hollanda’ya git-mek iste-diğ-im-i bil-mi-yor mu-sun? (positive—negative)
DON’T you know that I want to go to the Netherlands?
Hollanda’ya git-mek iste-me-diğ-im-i bil-iyor mu-sun? (negative—positive)
Do you know that I DON’T want to go to the Netherlands?
Hollanda’ya git-mek iste-me-diğ-im-i bil-mi-yor mu-sun? (negative— negative)
DON’T you know that I DON’T want to go to the Netherlands?
The same conditions apply for nominal and existential embeddings:
Bun-u ödeyecek para-n ol-duğ-un-u bil-iyor-um.

I know that you have (the) money to pay for this.
Bun-u ödeyecek para-n ol-duğ-un-u bil-mi-yor-um.
I DON’T know that you have (the) money to pay for this.
Bun-u ödeyecek para-n ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı bil-iyor-um.
I know that you DON’T have (the) money to pay for this.
Bun-u ödeyecek para-n ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı bil-mi-yor-um.
I DON’T know that you DON’T have (the) money to pay for this.
All this can nicely be summarized as:
Ben ne ol-mak iste-me-diğ-im-i bil-iyor-um ama,

ne ol-mak iste-diğ-im-i bil-mi-yor-um.
I know what I do NOT want to become,
but I DON’T know what I DO want to become.
This difference in position is irrelevant for certain verbs denoting verbal content, such as
istemek ‘to want’, sanmak ‘to think / believe’, et cetera. Here you are:
On-un ban-a kız-ma-ma-sın-ı isti-yor-um.

I want her not to be angry with me.
On-un ban-a kız-ma-sın-ı iste-mi-yor-um.
I don’t want her to be angry with me.
Konuşma-lar-ımız-ı kimse-nin duy-ma-dığ-ın-ı san-ıyor-um.
I think / believe that no one has heard our conversations.
Artık biz-i duy-duğ-un-u san-mı-yor-um.
I don’t think / believe any more that he has heard us.
33.5.10 Different subjects
Lastly, a few words on the interpretation of the suffix –(y)Ip, a suffix indicating that two
actions follow each other directly (see sections 27.1.2–27.1.4). Here is a reminder:

Hasan came home and immediately went to sleep.
This suffix is also applied in indirect yes / no questions, as discussed in section 33.4.5:
Bir gün bu soru-lar-a cevap ver-ip ver-eme-yeceğ-im-i bil-mi-yor-um.

I don’t know whether I will be able to give an answer to these questions one day.
In these examples all verbs have the same subject. In the following sentences, however,
this is not the case. In the first example anne-m ‘my mother’ is the subject of ara- ‘to
phone’ and of bildir- ‘to let know’, but not of the embedded verb gel- ‘to come’. The subject
of the latter verb can be inferred from its personal suffix: –im ‘my’. The entire embeddings
are underscored.
Anne-m okul-u ara-yıp gel-eme-diğ-im-i bildir-di-Ø.

My mother rang the school and let them know that I would not be able to come.
When the suffix –(y)Ip is part of an embedding in which a subject is present and case-
marked by the genitive, the interpretation is unambiguous:
Ben izn-im olmadan gemi-ye kimse-nin gir-ip çık-ama-yacağ-ın-ı söyle-di-m.

I said that without my permission no one would be able to get on or off the ship.
But if this is not the case, the relation must be inferred otherwise or be provided by the
context, as is the case in the following examples.
Kutsal rahip-ler on-u et suy-u-y-la besle-yip eri-yip git-me-sin-i engelle-di-ler.

The holy men fed him on broth and avoided his pining away (and dying).
Kendi-sin-e kısa bir cevap yaz-ıp de-dik-ler-in-i yap-acağ-ım-ı söyle-di-m.
I said I would write her a short answer and do all she had said.
33.6 Secondary predicates and raising *
For sentences like She walked around sick two inferences can be made. Firstly, that ‘some
female person is perambulating’, and secondly, that ‘she is sick’. The sentence in italics con-
tains in fact two predicates, both about the subject: walk around and sick. The latter is called
a secondary predicate. However, in the sentence He ate the fish raw the secondary predicate
raw is about the object fish. A related phenomenon is raising. An alternative way of saying
She thought that he was stupid is She thought him stupid. Whereas the former sentence
contains a subordinated clause with he as the (embedded) subject, the second one contains
him as an object.
33.6.1 Secondary predicates
In section 32.10.6 it was shown that a deverbal adjective in –mIş can be used as an adverbial
phrase. The fragments in bold print are known as secondary predicates.
Sen çok rahatla-mış görün-üyor-sun.

You look much relieved / at ease.
Herkes soluğ-un-u tut-muş ve göz-ler-in-i yer-e çevir-miş otur-uyor-du.
Everyone was sitting with bated breath and with eyes turned to the ground.
A secondary predicate forms a clause which is generally an adjective or noun and expresses
some property of the subject or object of the main clause. In the linguistic literature such
constructions are known as predicative attributes, co-predicates, small clauses, and predica-
tive adjuncts.
In the next example the secondary predicate dümdüz ‘perfectly smooth’ tells us
something about the object (onlar ‘they’) of yap- ‘to make’. Such a construction is called
resultative, since the secondary predicate indicates the outcome of some action. Compare
also the second example: the result of seç- ‘to elect / choose’ is that Ahmet is now başkan
‘chairman’.
Onlar-ı dümdüz yap-tı.

He made them perfectly smooth.
Ahmet’i başkan seç-ti-k.
We elected Ahmet chairman.
A related type of construction is often referred to as depictive, as it gives information about

the physical state characterizing a subject (as in the next example) or object (as in the sec-
ond example).
Hava bura-da çok ılık ve hepsi çıplak dolaş-ıyor.

The weather here is very mild / tepid and everyone walks around naked.
Tırnak-lar-ı ve diş-ler-i-yle kopar-dık-ları parça-lar-ı çiğ çiğ yi-yor-lar-dı.
They ate the pieces alive which they had torn off with their nails and teeth.
Some more examples of secondary predicates are:
Göz-ler-i daha büyük görün-üyor-du şimdi.

Her eyes looked much bigger now.
Zeytinyağlı-lar sıcak değil soğuk ye=nil-ir.
Dishes based on olive oil are eaten not warm but cold.
Çok genç evlen-di-n.
You married very young.
O da anne-m gibi küçük yaşta evlen-miş-ti.
She, too, had married, like my mother, at a young age.
Soğuk iç-iniz!
Drink cold!
Kapı-yı açık bırak-tı-n.
You have left the door open.
Bahçe-de ayaküstü konuş-uyor-lar-dı.
They were talking standing (on (their) feet) in the garden.
Sırtüstü yer-e uzan-dı.
She lay (stretched out) on her back.
Erhan belediye başkan-ı seç=il-di.
Erhan was elected mayor.
Bu zaman-da meyve iste-r, çarşı-lar-da artık bun-lar-ın bul=un-ma-dığ-ı
söyle=n-ince de surat as-ar otur-ur-du.
At that moment she wanted fruit, and when it was said that it was not to be found
any more in the market, she sat with a sullen face (face hanging).
33.6.2 Raising
In section 33.5.5 it was advanced that verbs such as sanmak (-i) / zannetmek (-i) ‘to think /
imagine / suppose’ always take an embedded verb with –TIK / –(y)EcEK. This was illustrated
by the following sentence:
Berna, Murat’ın bütün viski-yi iç-tiğ-in-i san-ıyor.

Berna thinks / believes that Murat drunk all the whisky.
Because the information contained in ‘Murat-drank-all-the-whisky’ is embedded as a

direct object in the sentence above, Murat gets the genitive in its role of the embedded
subject, and furthermore, the participle suffix –TIK is followed by the possessive suffix
third person singular plus the accusative suffix due to the main verb sanmak.
For just a handful of verbs it can be observed that there is a possibility of presenting an
embedded clause as a kind of direct speech complement—the logical subject of which is
expressed as the direct object of the main clause. This direct object always occurs with the
accusative. This metamorphosis is called raising and the effect is that the embedded clause
is reduced to a fragment which pertains in a grammatical sense to a third person, as
referred to by the direct object. The example above has the variant:
Berna, Murat’ı bütün viski-yi iç-ti san-ıyor.

Berna thinks about Murat: He drank all the whisky.
/ Berna thinks (believes) that Murat drank all the whisky.
This way of perspectivizing towards a third person is also shown in a pair of sentences
much quoted in the linguistic literature. Here they are:
Ben (sen-in banka-da para-n var) san-mış-tı-m.

I had thought: You have money in the bank.
Ben sen-i (banka-da para-sı var) san-mış-tı-m.
I had thought about you: She has money in the bank.
Both sentences contain a direct speech complement and in the first example para-n indicates
via the possessive suffix –n that para ‘money’ relates to sen ‘you’. However, in the latter
example the form para-sı contains the possessive suffix third person. Note that sen-i is the
direct object of the verb in the main clause and that the sen ‘you’ is coreferential with
the person represented in brackets.
Embedded verbal constructions often occur with the markers –TI, –(y) EcEK, –(I)yor,
and –mIş, and these are as a rule never followed by a personal suffix (a few exceptions are
discussed in section 33.6.5). For instance:
Üstelik artık polis on-u öl-dü san-ıyor-du.

Moreover, the police took him for dead / . . . thought that he was dead.
Ben siz-i öl-müş san-ıyor-du-m.
I took you for ‘having passed away’.
Ben sen-i uyu-yor san-dı-m.
I thought you were asleep.
Ben sen-i giyin-miş san-ıyor-du-m.
I was under the impression that you were dressed.
Siz-i gel-me-yecek san-ıyor-du-m.
I thought that you wouldn’t come. / I thought of you: ‘He won’t come’.
Contrary to constructions with a direct speech complement (see section 33.5.5), in

which the verb of the complement contains a personal suffix and its subject is marked
by a genitive, in raising constructions the embedded verb has no personal ending. Its
subject appears as the object of the main verb. Compare the last example with the
following:
(Siz-in) Bu gece hiç gel-me-yecek-siniz san-dı-m.

I thought you wouldn’t come at all tonight.
Adverbial phrases as a part of the embedding are no exception:
Baba-m, bar-da çalış-tığ-ım-ı bil-mi-yor; ben-i telefon-da çalış-ıyor san-ıyor.

My dad doesn’t know that I work in a bar; he thinks I work at the phone company.
Ben sen-i ikinci kat-ta çalış-ıyor san-ıyor-du-m.
I thought of you ‘she works on the second floor’.
This construction is also applied in relative clauses:
Ali’yi öl-dü san-an zavallı Elena . . .

Poor Helena, who believed / believes that Ali died, . . .
Besides verbal and existential embeddings nominal constructions of this type also occur:
Ben servet-ten söz et-mi-yor-um, ama ben sen-i daha zengin san-ıyor-du-m.
I’m not talking about (real) wealth, but I thought you were richer.
On-u daha akıllı san-ır-dı-m.
I thought him more intelligent.
İlk bakış-ta kız-ı yabancı san-mış-tı.
At first sight she took the girl for a foreigner.
En tuhaf-ı da on-u bir beyefendi san-dı-m.
And the oddest of it is that I thought / believed he was a gentleman.
Herkes, kendi-sin-i Meryem’in içten dost-u san-ıyor-du.
Everyone thought that he was a close friend of Miryam.
Ben-i başka biri san-dı.
He took me for someone else.
Ben-i ol-ma-dığ-ım biri san-ıp âşık ol-du-ysa, suç ben-im mi?
If she fell in love, taking me for someone I am not, is that my fault?
The secondary predicate may be based on an adjective, too, or on a locative or genitive

noun phrase, as is the case in the following examples.
Ben-i deli san-mış-lar-dı.

They have thought that I was crazy.
Ben on-u Avrupa’da bir yer-ler-de san-ıyor-du-m.
I thought he was / is somewhere in Europe.
Bu anahtar siz-in mi? Fakat biz on-u Fatma’nın san-ıyor-du-k.
Is this key yours? But we thought it was Fatma’s.
Another variety of this construction comprises a predicate based on a question word or a
predicate combined with a question particle:
Asıl sen kendi-n-i ne san-ıyor-sun?

What do you think you are yourself, really?
Sen ben-i ne san-ıyor-sun?—Bu önemli değil, de-di kadın.

What do you take me for?—That’s not important, said the woman.
Kendi-niz-i kim san-ıyor-sunuz?
Who do you think you are?
Kendin-i nerede san-ıyor bu kadın?
Where does she think she is, that woman?
Sen de ben-i deli mi san-ıyor-sun?
And do you think as well that I am mad?
Combined with a direct object based on kendi ‘self ’ the meaning of sanmak has shifted to
‘to imagine’. This can be illustrated by:
Kendin-i Paris’te bir lokanta-da san-ıyor, karşı-sın-da-kin-i de

şarap şişe-sin-i aç-mak-la meşgul bir garson gibi gör-üyor-du.
He imagined himself in a restaurant in Paris, and saw the one facing him
as a waiter busy opening a bottle of wine.
İnsan kendi-sin-i Haçlı-lar zaman-ın-da Filistin’de san-ıyor.
One gets the feeling to be in Palestine in the time of the Crusaders.
‘Kendi-niz-i çok akıllı san-ıyor-sunuz, değil mi?’ di-ye tısla-dı Erol.
‘You consider yourself very clever, don’t you?’ said Erol, hissing.
33.6.3 Other verbs, similar forms
Also with bilin the sense of ‘to regard as’, bul- ‘to find’, and gör- ‘to see’ raising phenomena
occur. The fragments in bold print can be translated as adverbial clauses.
Avuç dolu-su para harcı-yor-du-m, herkes ben-i zengin bil-iyor-du.

I was spending handfuls of money, everyone regarded me as rich.
On-u düşman bil-di-k.
We regarded him as an enemy.
Mehmet’i sokak başında ben-i bekli-yor bul-du-m.
I found Mehmet at the street corner waiting for me.
İçeri gir-diğ-im-de anne-m-i yatak-ta otur-ur bul-du-m.
When I entered, I found my mother sitting in bed.
On-u yatağ-ın-da ölü / öl-müş bul-du-lar.
They found him / her dead in his / her bed.
Fatma on-u çok yakışıklı bul-du.
Fatma found him very handsome.
Ben, arkadaş-lar-ımız-ı biraz daha yaşlı bul-du-m,
onlar ben-i büyü-müş ve güzelleş-miş bul-du-lar.
I found my friends a little bit older,
and they found that I had grown bigger and more beautiful.
On-u bir köşe-de çömel-ip otur-muş bul-du.

He found her squatting on her haunches in a corner.
Birden baba-m-ı yalınayak koş-ar gör-dü-m.
Suddenly I saw my father running barefoot.
Imperial Otel-in-de, methalde Emin Bey’i bekli-yor gör-dü-m.
I saw Mr Emin in the Imperial Hotel, waiting by the entrance.
Ben-i böyle düşünce-ler-e dal-mış gör-ünce, sebeb-in-i sor-du.
Seeing me lost in thought, she asked for the reason.
Kuş-u öl-müş gör-ünce ağla-ma-ya başla-mış-lar-dı.
When they saw that the bird had died, they began to cry.
Düş-ler-in-de o, çıplak kal-mış gör-ür kendin-i, sık sık tekrarlan-ır bu düş-ler.
In her dreams she sees herself always naked, these dreams often recur.
33.6.4 Direct speech complement
Besides raising an embedded subject there is an alternative for the verbs san- or zannet- in
taking an ordinary direct-speech complement.
Oysa o suskunluğ-umuz-u yanlış yorumla-dı ve surat as-tı-k zannet-ti.

However, he misinterpreted our silence and thought we were sulking.
(Literally: . . . that we put on a sour face.)
Bun-u nereden duy-duğ-um-u sor-acak san-dı-m, ama sor-ma-dı.
She will ask where I heard this, I thought, but she didn’t.
Dünya baş-ım-a yıkıl-ıyor san-dı-m.
The world is collapsing on top of me, I thought.
Çocuk anlı-yor mu san-ıyor-sun?
Do you think by chance that the child understands this?
These constructions are examples of simplification strategies (see sections 33.4.7–33.4.8).
33.6.5 Some peculiarities
As was indicated in section 33.6.2, an embedded verb in a raising construction rarely

receives a personal suffix of the first and second person. As a matter of fact, each of the
following examples is a curiosity:
Sen-i kaç-tı-n san-dı-m, de-di.

She said: ‘I thought you ran away.’
Siz-i git-ti-niz san-ıyor-du-m, de-di.
‘I thought you had gone away,’ said he.
Belli et-me-den ben-i gözetli-yor-um san-dığ-ı bir anda,

bakış-lar-ımız karşılaş-ıyor ve hemen göz-ler-in-i önüne indir-iyor-du.
At a moment when she thought I was spying (on her) / peeping (at her) on the sly, our
glances met and immediately she lowered her eyes.
In certain cases there is no possibility of applying a Turkish adjective in a resultative con-

struction. As a possible alternative there is the construction discussed in section 27.1.4,
which is based on two verbs connected by –(y)Ip. The examples show how this works.
Raf-ta-ki vazo yer-e düş-üp parçalan-dı.

The vase on the shelf fell to the ground to pieces.
Bir otomobil çarp-ıp devir-miştir kadın-ı, diye düşün-dü-m.
I thought: A car has run down this woman.
Also boyamak (-i, -e) ‘to paint / give colour’ denotes an action the result of which cannot be
expressed in a direct way. Turkish requires the dative:
On-u, Mine’yle birlikte, üç kez beyaz-a boya-dı-k.

Together with Mine, I painted it white three times.
Güverci-nin tüy-ler-i kan-a boya=n-dı.
The feathers of the dove were smirched with blood. / . . . bloodstained.
Mezar-lar-ın hepsi canlı renk-ler-e boya=n-mış-tı.
All the graves had been painted in lively colours.
The next examples are based on hastanelik ‘ready to be hospitalized / hospital-worthy’, which
forms an active and passive derivation with the auxiliary verbs etmek (see section 30.1.1) and
olmak (see section 30.1.2).
Bir gece yeni gel-en fizik öğretmen-in-i hastanelik et-miş-ler-di.

One night they beat up the new physics teacher
so badly that he had to be hospitalized.
İki kişi hastanelik ol-du.
Two persons needed hospitalization.
(Literally: Two persons became ‘hospital-worthy’).
33.7 More on –mE
In section 31.7 it was explained how verbal nouns in –mE are formed. Examples are
rahatlama ‘relief ’, konuşma ‘talk / presentation’, and aşağılama ‘insult / offence’. These forms
are in fact the product of the process usually referred to as nominalization (see also sec-
tion 27.5.5). Typically, their nominal character is clearly visible when they are preceded by
the indefinite article, as in:
Bu büyük bir rahatlama-dır.

This is certainly a great relief.
In section 33.2.2 it was shown that besides verb stems plus –mEk (infinitive) the so-called
‘short’ infinitive in –mE can also be applied as a predicate of a sentence, as exemplified by:
Şimdi yap=ıl-ma-sı gerek-en yara-lar-ı bağla-ma-dır.

What must be done now is bandaging the wounds.
Such short infinitives can take personal suffixes:
Sebeb-i de, aşağıla=n-ama-yacak kişi-ler-in kimse-yi aşağıla-yama-ma-sı-dır.

And the reason is that those who cannot be humiliated (themselves),
cannot humiliate someone else (either).
En iyi-si biz-im de on-u öylece bırak-ma-mız ve
eşek değil-se-k bun-a gül-me-miz-dir.
The best thing (to do) is that we leave it as it is and
that we, if we are not stupid, laugh about it.
Daha önemli ol-an Rosi’nin ben-im-le evlen-miş ol-ma-sı-ydı.
What was more important, was that Rosi was married to me.
In section 27.4.4 a construction was introduced which is based on a verbal noun; a noun

derived from a verb stem. The following example is related to the third person singular and
the final example of this section is related to a first person singular:
On-u gör-me-si-yle araba-dan in-me-si arasında ne kadar zaman geç-ti?

How much time passed between when he saw her and when he got out of the car?
(Literally: . . . between his seeing her and his getting out of the car?)
Birahane-ye gir-me-m-le çık-ma-m bir ol-du.
I hardly had entered the pub before I was out again.
(Literally: My entering the pub and going out coincided.)
That verbal nouns play an important role in the grammar of Turkish is further shown and
discussed in sections 35.4 and 37.1.6.
33.8 More on complementation *
In section 9.2 it was explained that there are verbs with and without an object, commonly
referred to as transitive and intransitive. The category of transitive verbs can be split up in terms
of the types of object they take: direct object on the one hand, and dative, locative, ablative, and
instrumental objects on the other. Within the class of transitive verbs there is yet another kind
of distinction relevant and it is related to how the object is formed. Some verbs allow only for
nominal objects (objects based on a noun phrase), but others take an object which is based on
a clause (sentential object) and there are verbs which take both types of object. A verb that can
take a sentential object is called a matrix or main verb and its relation with the embedded
clause is one of subordination. Typically, the embedded verb must be nominalized. Thus, any
of the object categories mentioned here may be based on a sentential object.
The type of verb in the main clause determines the type of embedding: a verb in the
main clause takes what is called a propositional or a predicational complement. In other
words, some verbs take an embedding that describes a fact (in the past, present, or future,
and which may be true or false—this is a propositional complement), and other verbs take
an embedding that describes an action or occurrence, which in itself is neutral with respect
to tense (past, present, future—this is a predicational complement).
For the sake of convenience, instead of this opposition, in what follows it will be referred
to the opposition of fact versus act. Some verbs allow a choice between these possibilities
and, as can be expected, this leads (in most cases) to differences in interpretation. Actually,
the opposition fact versus act has been introduced in section 33.5.3 and not only forms the
basis for a lexical classification but also plays an important role in the form variation found
in embeddings.
The suffix combinations found in embeddings correspond to three types of embedding,
as shown by:
Type I: –mE + case marker (Act-1)

Type II: –mE + possessive + case marker (Act-2)
Type III: –TIK / –(y)EcEK + possessive + case marker (Fact)
It follows that an embedding presented as a fact is always expressed as a suffix combination

of Type III: –TIK or –(y)EcEK, in either case followed by a possessive and a case marker.
When an embedding describes an action (or occurrence), a variant of Type I (–mE + case
marker) or of Type II (–mE + possessive + case marker) will be applied, the choice being
dependent on the verb in the main clause.
Besides these three main verb classes, there are verbs that allow for a choice between any
of these form variants, and hence, taking the opposition fact-act into account, another four
subclassifications are possible. Together with their position in a greater classification of
verbs this total of seven types of matrix verb can be represented as:
verbs
–transitive +transitive
–subordination +subordination
matrix verbs
proposition predication
finite finite non-finite

FACT ACT INF
Clause: factive verbal noun infinitive
Suffixes: Type III Type II Type I
1 +
2 +
3 +
4 + +
5 + +
6 + +
7 + + +
A pure opposition between fact and act is brought to light by contrasting (1) with (2)
and (3). Verbs of group (2) always take a verbal noun clause as embedding (with suffix
combination Type II), and those of group (3) always have a infinitival clause (ending in
Type I). Verbs of group (1) take only factive clauses as embeddings (with Type III).
Verbs of the other groups can take different combinations of complements. In a number
of cases such differences can be accounted for in terms of simple criteria, whereas in other
cases this appears to be impossible and as a matter of consequence, for certain verbs it
must be assumed that they have two or more different meanings, each with their particular
variant of Type I, Type II, or Type III. Variation in meaning is indicated by −1 and −2, as in
bilmek-1 ‘to know that’ and bilmek-2 ‘to know how’.
Verbs of Group 4 are most numerous and their complements describe only acts, so the
expected type of embedded clauses are based on an infinitive (with a Type I ending) or a
verbal noun (with Type II).
For (5), (6), and (7) the most important factor of division is again the opposition fact–act.
Regarding the criteria for a classification of verbs there is a large choice. As has been
indicated verbs are intransitive (without an object) or transitive (with e.g. a direct, dative,
locative, ablative, or instrumental object). Not all transitive verbs can take a sentential
object (subordination)—only those which do are called matrix verbs. And for this type of
verb some other criteria are used for a further subclassification: certain verbs can be taken
together because of some semantic property they share. Among these there are ‘directives’
(e.g. to order s.o. to, to command s.o. to, to direct s.o. to, to instruct s.o. to, to charge s.o. with,
to forbid, et cetera), ‘implicatives’ (e.g. to know how to, to be successful in, to succeed in, to
manage to) or ‘emotives’ (e.g. to love, like, be happy, be bored of, to hate, to detest, et cetera).
Although such labels have no explanatory power for the variation in complement types,
some of these labels will be used in Group 4.
A second criterion for the classification of matrix verbs is the number of objects they
have. All matrix verbs are transitive—with one object they are called two-place verbs
and those with two objects are known as three-place verbs. The number refers to the
total number of verbal arguments. In this way ‘read’ has two arguments (e.g. John reads
nonsensical poetry) and ‘give’ has three (e.g. John gave the book to Mary). This will be
further dealt with shortly.
A third phenomenon that may play a role in the classification of verbs is based on what is
called control in the linguistic literature. This notion is crucial in answering the question of
how the subject of an embedded verb can be identified by looking at the main clause. When
the subject of the embedding is identical with that of the matrix verb (there is one subject for
two verbs) one speaks of Subject Control. But if the embedded subject is identical with some
object of the main verb, one speaks of Object Control. Here is a simple example:
(a) Mary promised Peter to read (him) a story.

(b) Mary ordered Peter to read (her) a story.
In both sentences (a) and (b) Mary is the subject and Peter the object of the matrix verb
(‘promised’ and ‘ordered’ respectively), but for the embedded verb things are different.
According to (a) it is Mary who is/was going to read a story, because ‘to promise’ goes with
Subject Control, but from (b) it follows that it is Peter who is/was going to read a story
because the verb ‘to order’ implies Object Control. In other words, in (a) the subject of the
main clause is the controller of the embedded verb, whereas in (b) the controller of the
embedded verb is the object of the main clause.
Now, the notion of control is only relevant for three-place verbs because only for such
verbs does there exist an opposition between subject control and object control: is the
embedded subject identical with the subject or with the object of the matrix verb?
For two-place verbs the factor of control plays no role whatsoever. In the linguistic
literature certain claims can be found that the infinitival form of the Turkish verb (stem
plus –mE or –mEk), possibly followed by a case marker but never by a possessive suffix,
indicates subject control. This claim has, of course, to do with the coreferentiality of the
subjects of an embedded and matrix verb, but as a matter of fact, this is nothing special.
This is always the case with two-place verbs, for the simple reason that there is no other
argument (third argument or second object, that is) which can be a candidate for object
control. A few simple examples will be sufficient here to make this clear:
(a) Mary decided to buy a new car.

(b) John imagined that Mary would buy a new car.
Whatever Mary in (a) decides to do, this Mary is the sole person who can control whether
or not ‘buying a new car’ will obtain, and if so, it will be Mary who is the person who buys.
This implies that ‘control’ as a linguistic factor is irrelevant. Also for example (b) this is the
case: although John is the sole ‘source’ of what is imagined, this John does not play any role
in what is actually imagined. Both verbs, decide and imagine, lack a third argument which
can be affected.
The notations applied in the examples in the remainder of this chapter are to be under-
stood as follows. If the embedded subject (Se) equals that of the matrix verb (Sm), the
notation Se = Sm will be used. The reverse case is indicated by Se <> Sm. If Se is identical
with the direct object or some other object of the matrix verb, ‘object control’ will be
indicated. In some cases Se cannot be identified and for embeddings of Type I this leads
thus to a generic interpretation.
A final point of attention is the matter of constructions disguised as Type I, whereas they
are in fact lexical derivations in –mE (see section 31.7), for example: karşılaşma ‘accidental
meeting’, araştırma ‘investigation’, görüşme ‘meeting / conversation’. Also for Type II certain
verbs (e.g. becermek ‘to succeed’) can incidentally cause a distorted picture because the
complement of the main verb is based on a short infinitive plus possessive suffix rather
than a case marker showing that Se = Sm. Among other things, the following structures
were found in texts: pasta-lar yapma-sı ‘the baking (making) of pastry’, kahramanlık
gösterme-si ‘to prove to be courageous’, düdük yapma-sı ‘the making of flutes’ and çene
çalma-sı ‘to chatter / drivel’ (see further sections 31.7 and 33.3.3).
In sections 33.8.1–33.8.7 these seven categories of matrix verbs will be further illustrated.

Of the underlined verbs in every section an example will be given. It should be noted, how-
ever, that the meanings of the verbs are of summary nature. For more detail, the reader is
referred to a good dictionary.
33.8.1 Group 1: Proposition—Fact
Suffix: Type III = –TIK / –(y)EcEK + POSS + CASE. Verbs that can take only a fact as
an embedding (Type III) were introduced in section 33.5.5 by sanmak / zannetmek
‘to think / believe / surmise’, but this class of two-place and three-place verbs is much
larger and comprises at least the following:
Two-place verbs: bilmek-1 (-i) ‘to know’, düşünmek-1 (-i) ‘to believe / think (of)’, farketmek
(-i) ‘to notice / realize’, ikna olmak (-e) ‘to be persuaded / convinced’, ispat etmek (-i) /
kanıtlamak (-i) ‘to prove’, karar vermek-2 (-e) ‘to deduce / infer’, kavramak (-i) ‘to
comprehend / grasp’, kaydetmek (-i) ‘to record’, kuşku duymak (-den) ‘to suspect / doubt’,
malum olmak (-e) ‘to sense / surmise’, müdrik olmak (-i) ‘to perceive’, sanmak (-i) ‘to think /
believe’, sezmek (-i) ‘to sense’, şikâyet etmek (-den) ‘to complain’, şüphe etmek (-den) ‘to
suspect / doubt’, tahmin etmek (-i) ‘to guess’, tanımak (-i) ‘to recognize’, teyit etmek (-i) ‘to
corroborate / confirm’, vâkıf olmak (-e) ‘to be aware / cognizant (of)’, yadsımak (-i) ‘to deny /
reject’, zannetmek (-i) ‘to think / surmise’.
bilmek-1 (-i) ‘to know that’ (having knowledge)

Şiir yaz-dığ-ın-ı bil-iyor-du.
He knew that she writes / wrote poetry.
Siz-in masa-nız ol-duğ-un-u bil-mi-yor-du-m.
I didn’t know it was your table.
Şiddet-e başvur-ama-yacağ-ın-ı bil-mek ban-a her zaman güç ver-miştir.
Knowing that you / he would not be able to resort to violence has always
given me strength.
düşünmek-1 (-i) ‘to believe / think (of)’

Önce yanıl-dığ-ın-ı düşün-müş-tü.
First he thought that he was mistaken.
ispat etmek (-i) ‘to prove’

At-ım-a bin-me-ye lâyık ol-up ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı ban-a ispat ed-ecek-sin.
You shall prove to me that you are worthy of mounting my horse.
karar vermek-2 (-e) ‘to draw the conclusion that’

Kastor, 15 milyon yıl içinde Gondwana’nın 90° dön-düğ-ün-e karar ver-miş.
Kastor drew the conclusion that Gondwana had turned 90° in 15 million years.
şüphe etmek (-den) ‘to suspect / doubt’

Bugün kimse bütün madde-nin atom-dan, atom-un da elektron, nötron ve proton
de=nil-en küçük yapı parça-ların-dan yap=ıl-dığ-ın-dan şüphe et-me-z.
Nowadays no one doubts that all matter is built out of atoms and that
atoms are built out of tiny particles called electrons, neutrons, and protons.
Öğretmen, çocuğ-unuz-un zekâ özürlü ol-duğ-un-dan şüphe ed-iyor.
The teacher suspects your child to be mentally handicapped.
teyit etmek (-i) ‘to corroborate / confirm’

Az önce söyle-dik-lerin-i teyit et-ti-ler.
They confirmed what they had said shortly before.
yadsımak (-i) ‘to deny / reject’

O düğün-ler saye-sin-de üç beş kuruş kazan-dığ-ım-ı yadsı-yama-m.
I cannot deny that I earn some money, thanks to these weddings.
Three-place verbs are for instance: ikna etmek-1 (-i, -e) ‘to convince’, inandırmak (-i, -e) ‘to
convince / make believe’, pişman etmek (-i, -e) ‘to make regret / make s.o. feel remorse (for)’.
ikna etmek-1 (-i, -e) ‘to convince’

Baba-m-ı, bun-un zorunlu bir evlilik ol-ma-dığ-ın-a ikna et-me-m gerek-miş-ti.
I had to convince my father that this was not an arranged marriage.
inandırmak (-e) ‘to convince / make believe’

Eski kilise-nin tüm dünya-yı ölümlü İsa’nın tanrısal ol-duğ-un-a
inandır-ma-sı gerek-iyor-du.
The old Church had to convince the whole world that the mortal Jesus was divine.
Yoksa çıldır-dığ-ım-a mı inandır-acak-sınız ben-i?
Are you by chance going to convince me that I’ve gone mad?
33.8.2 Group 2: Predication—Act-2
Suffix: Type II = –mE + POSS + CASE. There are a small number of verbs that describe
pure actions and they take a complement of Type II only.
This group consists of two-place verbs: acımak (-e) ‘to pity / feel compassion (for)’,
bağışlamak (-i) ‘to pardon / forgive’, düşünmek-2 (-i) ‘to imagine’, gerçekleştirmek (-i) ‘to
realize / materialize / carry out / fulfil’, hazırlamak (-i) ‘to prepare’, karşı çıkmak (-e) ‘to
protest / oppose / object’, onaylamak (-i) ‘to approve’, övmek (-i) ‘to praise / laud’, rica etmek
(-i) ‘to request’, tembih etmek (-i) ‘to caution / warn / admonish’.
düşünmek-2 (-i) ‘to imagine’

Fabrika-nın daha ileride ol-ma-sın-ı düşün-düğ-ümüz-ü söyle-di-m.
I said that we imagined the factory to be yet farther down.
Kötülüğ-ün galebe çal-ma-sın-ı düşün-mek can-ın-ı çok sık-ıyor-du.
Imagining that evil would be victorious annoyed him a lot.
onaylamak (-i) ‘to approve / ratify / certify’

Amerika’da iki büyük petrol şirket-i Exxon ve Mobil’in hissedar-lar-ı,
iki şirket-in birleş-me-sin-i onayla-mış-lar-dı.
In America the shareholders of two big oil companies Exxon and Mobile
have approved the fusion of the two companies.
rica etmek (-i) ‘to request’

İmparator, Türk veliaht-ın-a selâm-ların-ı ilet-me-m-i rica et-ti.
The emperor requested me to pass on his regards to the Turkish heir.
Mihail, hepsin-in dışarı çık-ma-sın-ı rica et-ti.

Michael requested that everybody get out.
tembih etmek (-i) ‘to caution / warn / admonish’

Muazzez’i uyandır-ma-ma-mız-ı tembih ed-erek ayrıl-dı.
She left and cautioned us not to wake up Muazzez.
Bu konuda Mehmet’e bir şey söyle-me-me-m-i tembih et-ti.
She admonished me not to say anything to Mehmet about this matter.
33.8.3 Group 3: Predication—Act-1
Suffix: Type I = –mE + CASE. There is a sizeable group of verbs describing an action and
they can only take a complement with suffix combination Type I. There are two subgroups:
3A and 3B.
Group 3A consists of two-place verbs, comprising among others: aklına koymak (-i) ‘to
make up one’s mind on s.t. and be adamant’, anlaşmak (-de) ‘to agree’, başarısız olmak
(-de) ‘to be unsuccessful (in)’, başlamak (-e) ‘to begin / start’, bayılmak (-e) ‘to like greatly’,
bırakmak-1 (-i) ‘to quit / stop’, cesaret etmek (-e) ‘to venture / dare’, çabalamak (-e) ‘to
strive / struggle’, çalışmak (-e) ‘to try / strive to do s.t.’, dayatmak (-de) ‘to insist obstinately’,
denemek (-i) ‘to try / attempt’, devam etmek (-e) ‘to continue / keep on’, diretmek (-de) ‘to
resist’, düşünmek-3 (-i) ‘to consider / think out’, ertelemek (-i) ‘to postpone / delay’, gönül
indirmek (-e) ‘to lower’, hazırlanmak (-e) ‘to prepare oneself (to)’, ihmal etmek (-i) ‘to
neglect / omit’, inat etmek (-de) ‘to be obstinate’, istekli olmak (-e) ‘to be willing (to)’,
kaçmak (-den) ‘to avoid’, kalkışmak (-e) ‘to undertake things that are beyond one’s
powers’, kalkmak (-e) ‘to start / attempt’, karar vermek-1 (-e) ‘to decide (to)’, kıymak (-e) ‘to
give up’, koyulmak (-e) ‘to begin / set about / embark upon’, kusur etmek (-de) ‘to act
wrongly (in)’, mecbur olmak (-e) ‘to feel obliged (to)’, niyet etmek (-e) ‘to intend’, övünmek
(-le) ‘to take pride’, reddetmek-1 (-i) ‘to refuse’, seçmek (-i) ‘to choose’, tasarlamak (-i) ‘to
plan’, tenezzül olmak (-e) ‘to lower oneself ’, tereddüt etmek (-de) ‘to hesitate / waver’,
uğraşmak-1 (-e) ‘to strive / struggle / endeavour / exert oneself / work hard’, uğraşmak-2
(-le) ‘to be occupied with doing s.t.’, utanmak-1 (-e) ‘to feel too ashamed to do s.t.’, üzerine
almak (-i) ‘to take s.t. upon oneself ’, vazgeçmek (-den) ‘to give up’, yeltenmek (-e) ‘to try to
do s.t. that is beyond one’.
denemek (-i) ‘to try, attempt’

Kol-un-u baş-ın-ın üst-ün-e kıvır-arak yer-de yat-ma-yı dene-di.
With her arm curled up over her head she tried to sleep on the floor.
Alice, başka bir soru sor-ma-yı dene-di.
Alice tried to ask one more question.
düşünmek-3 (-i) ‘consider, think over/out’

Bir daha evlen-me-yi düşün-me-miş.
He did not think of marrying again.
ihmal etmek (-i) ‘to neglect’

Tuz koy-ma-yı ihmal et-me-yin.
Don’t omit to put salt in it.
karar vermek-1 (-e) ‘to decide to’

Kız, ortalık karar-ınca-ya değin bekle-me-ye karar ver-di.
The girl decided to wait until the environment was dark.
niyet etmek (-e) ‘to intend, mean, aim, plan to’

Germain’in evlen-me-ye niyet ed-ip et-me-diğ-in-i sor-muş-tu-m.
I have asked whether Germain planned to get married.
reddetmek-1 (-i) ‘to refuse / decline’

Ancak o, kayıtsız bir ifade-yle bun-u yap-ma-yı reddet-ti.
However, with an indifferent expression he refused to do it.
utanmak-1 (-e) ‘to feel too ashamed to’

Yüz-ün-e bak-ma-ya utan-ıyor-du-m neredeyse.
I almost felt too ashamed to look at her.
Hoca-n-ın surat-ın-a karşı sırıt-ma-ya utan-mı-yor mu-sun?
Don’t you feel ashamed to smirk in your teacher’s face?
Group 3B contains two subgroups of three-place verbs: both groups are control verbs.
Verbs with subject control are avutmak (-i, -le) ‘to soothe / distract’, tehdit etmek (-i, -le)
‘to threaten / menace’. An example is:
tehdit etmek (-i, -le) ‘to threaten / menace’ (subject control)

Polis-i ara-yıp ben-i kaçır-mak-la tehdit et-tiğ-in-i bildir-iyor-um.
I will call the police and tell them that you are threatening to abduct me.
Üstelik, ben-i miras-tan mahrum et-mek-le tehdit et-ti!
On top of it she threatened to disinherit me!
Verbs with object control are: bırakmak-2 (-i, -e) ‘to leave to’, çağırmak (-i, -e) ‘to call / summon
/ evoke’, cesaretlendirmek (-i, -e) ‘to encourage’, davet etmek (-i, -e) ‘to invite’, ikna etmek-2
(-i, -e) ‘to talk s.o. into / persuade’, itmek (-i, -e) ‘to compel / persuade’, kandırmak (-i, -e) ‘to
deceive / fool’, mahkum etmek (-i, -e) ‘to condemn’, mecbur etmek (-i, -e) ‘to force / oblige
s.o. to do s.t.’, men etmek-1 (-i, -den) ‘to prohibit / forbid’, öğretmek-1 (-e, -i) ‘to teach’, razı
etmek (-i, -e) ‘to get s.o. to agree to (do) s.t.’, suçlamak (-i, -le) ‘to accuse s.o. (of)’, sürüklemek
(-i, -e) ‘to drag s.o. into’, teşvik etmek (-i, -e) ‘to encourage / inspire (to)’, zorlamak (-i, -e) ‘to
force s.o. to do s.t.’.
davet etmek (-i, -e) ‘to invite / summon’ (object control)

İvan, bir el hareket-i-yle Bay Goladkin’i otur-ma-ya davet et-ti.
With a gesture Ivan invited mister Goladkin to sit down.
ikna etmek-2 (-i, -e) ‘to talk s.o. into / persuade’ (object control)
Heykeltıraş, genç rahibe-yi çıplak heykel-i için poz ver-me-ye ikna et-ti.
The sculptor talked the young nun into posing for the nude statue.
kandırmak (-i, -e) ‘to persuade / convince’ (object control)

Sonunda anne-sin-i diş-ler-in-i çek=tir-me-ye kandır-an o ol-du.
In the end it was he who persuaded his mother to have her teeth drawn.
mecbur etmek (-i, -e) ‘to force / oblige someone (to)’ (object control)
Bun-da kimse-nin kabahat-i yok, sen-i kim mecbur et-ti gel-me-ye?
No one is guilty of this, who has forced you to come?
men etmek-1 (-i, -den) ‘to preclude’ (object control)

Tecrübe-ler göster-miştir ki, her şey-i söyle-mek-ten insan-lar-ı
men et-mek asla mümkün değil-dir.
Experience has shown that it is never possible to prevent people
from saying whatever they like.
suçlamak (-i, -le) ‘to accuse someone (of)’ (object control)

Rusya, barış güc-ün-ü Sırp-lar-ı koru-ma-mak-la suçlu-yor.
Russia accuses the peace-keeping force of not protecting the Serbs.
teşvik etmek (-i, -e) ‘to encourage / inspire (to)’ (object control)
Radyo sekiz ay-dır Hutu-lar-ı, Tutsi-ler-i öldür-me-ye teşvik ed-iyor.
Since eight months ago the radio has been encouraging the Hutus to kill Tutsis.
zorlamak (-i, -e) ‘to force’ (object control)

Birkaç yağmur damla-sı Napoleon’u boyun eğ-me-ye zorla-dı.
A few raindrops forced Napoleon to bow his head (give in).
33.8.4 Group 4: Act-1 versus Act-2
Suffix: Type I—Type II. A rather large group of Turkish verbs have the possibility of taking
a complement of either Type I or Type II. There are seven subgroups (4A–4G), of which the
verbs of 4A and 4B are three-place, and those of the remaining groups are two-place verbs.
As a corollary, control phenomena can be expected only in 4A and 4B. Complements of
Type II in 4A–4G correspond to the English (subordinating) that-construction.
33.8.4.1 Group 4A—directive verbs

These three-place verbs are mostly exclusively associated with object control in the linguistic
literature, but the form variation between Type I and Type II relevant for this group is left
out of the account. Only for Type II is it clear that in all cases object control is effective. On
the other hand, for a complement of Type I in this group the conclusion cannot be drawn
that subject control is expressed, because of the simple fact that it cannot a priori be
established that the subject of the embedded verb is to be identified with that of the main
verb. In such cases a generic interpretation of the embedded subject must be given. In other
words, who will carry out the action imposed is not specified and cannot be inferred.
Among the directive verbs there are: beklemek-1 (-den, -i) ‘to expect (from)’, buyurmak,
(-e, -i) ‘to charge / dictate / order’, emretmek (-e, -i) ‘to order / command / direct’, talep
etmek (-den, -i) ‘to demand / want’, yasaklamak (-e, -i) ‘to forbid / prohibit’.
beklemek-1 (-den, -i) ‘to expect’

Doğrusu, gol at-ma-yı bekle-mi-yor-du-m. I—Se = Sm
Frankly, I didn’t expect to make a goal.
Hep-imiz kurtar-ıl-ma-yı bekli-yor-uz.
We all expect to be saved.
Yıkıl-ıyor-um, ağla-yarak Aliye’den ben-i avut-ma-sın-ı bekli-yor-um. II—Oc
I collapse and weeping I expect from Aliye that she will comfort me.
buyurmak (-e, -i) ‘to order / command’

Fakat gerçek böyle yap-ma-yı buyur-ur. I—generic subj.
But reality dictates we do it this way.
Aliye, bundan böyle her gün gel-me-m-i buyur-uyor. II—Oc
Aliye orders / urges me to come every day from now on.
Passive verbs embedded with buyurmak ‘to order / command’ require a form variant of
Type II, as in the following:
Araba-m-ın hazırla=n-ma-sın-ı buyur-du-m.
I ordered (s.o.) to get my carriage ready.
emretmek (-e, -i) ‘to order / command’

İsa, çocuk-lar-ın-ı sev-me-yi ve I—generic subj.
onlar-a karşı görev-ler-in-i yerine getir-me-yi emret-ti.
Jesus has commanded all to love their children and do one’s duty
towards them.
Babaanne-m mutfağ-a geç-ti, II—Oc
Hacer’e öğle yemeğ-i hazırla-ma-sın-ı emret-ti.
Grandmother entered the kitchen and ordered Hacer to prepare the
midday meal.
Feride’ye sofra-yı hemen kaldır-ma-sın-ı emret-ti.
She charged Feride with the task of clearing the dinner table immediately.
talep etmek (-den, -i) ‘to demand / want (from)’

Boğaz’lar-ı kapalı tut-ma-yı talep et-mek, I—generic subj.
sulh ihtimal-in-den vazgeç-me-ye var-ır.
Demanding the straits (Bosporus and Dardanelles) to be cut off
boils down to giving up chances for peace.
Mahkeme heyet-in-in bun-lar-ı dikkat-e al-ma-sın-ı talep ed-iyor-um. II—Oc

I request the court to take note of all this.
yasaklamak (-e, -i) ‘to forbid / prohibit’

Bu da çok normal: Hazret-i İsa boşan-ma-yı yasakla-mış-tı. I—generic subj.
That is quite normal: the prophet Jesus had forbidden people to divorce.
Henri de bun-u çak-tığ-ı için II—Oc
on-un başkent-e gir-me-sin-i yasakla-mıştır.
And because Henry had understood that, he forbade her to go to
the capital.
33.8.4.2 Group 4B—manipulative verbs

Also for these three-place verbs Type I alternates with Type II, a choice which is determined
by object control. Contrary to the case of the verbs in 4A (directives), the occurrence of
Type I expresses object control, and this can quite often be determined through the presence
of a pronoun which is an object of the matrix verb. Regarding possible translations, the
most obvious construction for Type I is an infinitive and for Type II the that-construction
is most suitable.
To this group belong: istemek-2 (-i, -den) ‘to require / demand / expect’, izin vermek (-i, -e)
‘to give permission’, men etmek-2 (-i, -e) ‘to forbid / prohibit’, müsaade etmek (-e, -e) ‘to
allow / approve (of)’, tavsiye etmek (-e, -i) ‘to recommend / advise’, teklif etmek (-i, -e) /
önermek (-i, -e) ‘to propose / suggest’, yardım etmek (-i, -e) ‘to help’.
istemek-2 (-i, -den) ‘to require / demand’

Yalnız ben-den şarkı söyle-me-yi iste-me-yin. I—Oc
Do not expect / ask me to sing a song.
Biz daha çok sen-den dinle-me-yi iste-r-di-k.
We rather required from you that you listen some more.
İş saat-lerin-in azalt=ıl-ma-sın-ı ve II—that
ücret-ler-in art-ma-sın-ı iste-yiniz.
Demand that working hours be shortened and that pay rise!
Ali Durgun, bütün vali-ler-den, M.K.’den artık
hiç bir buyruk al-ma-ma-ların-ı iste-yince durum gerginleş-ti.
When Ali Durgun required all mayors to no longer accept orders from
M. K., the situation became tense.
izin vermek (-i, -e) ‘to give permission’

Birden çok kadın al-ma-ya izin ver-me-z-ler. I—Oc
They don’t give permission to take more than one wife.
Dünya-nın hemen her yer-in-de boşan-ma-ya izin ver=il-mek-te-dir.
All over the world it is permitted (‘permission is given’) to divorce.
Şu tüfeğ-i yan-ım-a al-ma-m-a izin ver-ir mi-sin? II—that
Do you allow me to take this rifle with me?
Toprağ-ımız-ı daha fazla kirlet-me-n-e izin ver-ecek değil-iz.

We definitely don’t allow you to pollute our soil any further.
men etmek-2 (-i, -e) ‘to forbid / prohibit’

Tudoritza bayramlık oda-lar-a ayak at-ma-yı hep-imiz-e men et-ti. I—Oc
Tudoritza forbade us all to ever set foot in those festive rooms again.
Erkek-ler-in iki kardeş-le ilişki kur-ma-ların-ı men et-miş-ti-niz. II—that
You had forbidden that the men set up a relationship with the two sisters.
müsaade etmek (-e, -e) ‘to allow / approve (of)’

Müttefik-ler on-a bir şey yap-ma-ya müsaade et-me-yecek-ler-dir. I—Oc
The allies will definitely not allow her to do something.
Bura-ya gir-miş ol-duğ-un-u san-a hatırlat-ma-m-a müsaade et! II—hat
Allow me to remind you that you have entered this place.
İstanbullu-lar-ın sırt-ımız-dan semir-me-sin-e asla müsaade et-me-yeceğ-iz.
We will never allow the Istanbulites to live on our expenses.
tavsiye etmek (-i, -e) ‘to recommend / advise’

Sibel, iki defa suiistimal ed=il-diğ-in-i hatırlat-arak, I—Oc
ihtiyatlı ol-ma-yı tavsiye et-ti.
Sibel reminded him that abuse had taken place twice before
and advised him to be cautious.
Hassas tip-ler-den uzak dur-ma-nız-ı tavsiye ed-iyor-uz. II—that
We advise you to avoid sensitive people.
Vatandaş-lar-ın panik yap-ma-ma-sın-ı tavsiye ed-iyor-uz.
We recommend to our compatriots not to panic.
teklif etmek (-i, -e) ‘to propose / suggest’

Eğer siz-in-le birlikte otur-ma-yı teklif ed-er-se şaşır-ma-yın; I—Oc
çünkü çoğunlukla kendi kira-sın-ı öde-yeme-yecek durum-da-dır.
If she proposes to live with you, don’t be surprised,
because mostly she is not able to pay the rent herself.
Kira-yı peşin olarak öde-me-sin-i teklif ed-er-im. II—that
I suggest that she pay her rent in cash.
33.8.4.3 Group 4C—facilitative verbs

Complementation with Type I means that the subjects of the embedded and matrix verbs
are identical, and Type II corresponds with the that-construction.
To the two-place verbs belong: alıkoymak (-den) ‘to keep / detain / prevent’, bitirmek (-i)
‘to finish / complete’, çekinmek (-den) ‘to avoid / be reluctant to do s.t.’, desteklemek (-i) ‘to
support’, durdurmak (-i) ‘to put an end (to) / stop’, engellemek (-i) ‘to prevent’, hoş görmek
(-i) ‘to be tolerant of / condone’, kaçınmak (-den) ‘to avoid / get out of ’, kesmek (-i)
‘to interrupt / put an end to / stop’, kurtarmak (-i) ‘to save / rescue’, kurtulmak (-den) ‘to be
saved / escape’, neden olmak (-e) ‘to cause / bring about’, önlemek (-i) ‘to stop / prevent’, razı
olmak (-e) ‘to be willing / agree’, sakınmak (-den) ‘to guard against’, sebep olmak (-e) ‘to pave
the way (for)’, yol açmak (-e) ‘to cause / bring about’.
çekinmek (-den) ‘to avoid / be reluctant to do s.t.’

Ama birçokları ahlaksızlık yap-mak-tan çekin-me-z-ler. I—Se = Sm
But many people are not reluctant to do something immoral.
Politika-dan konuş-mak-tan çekin-ir, yalnız at-lar-dan filan bahsed-er-di-k.
We avoided talking about politics, we talked about horses and the like.
On-un Rusya’nın Boğaz’lar sorun-un-u da yeniden ortaya II—that
çıkar-ma-sın-dan çekin-diğ-i de san=ıl-abil-ir.
One might think that he wants to prevent Russia from bringing up the issue
of the straits (Bosphorus and Dardanelles).
Ali Paşa acele bir saldırı-nın başarısızlığ-a uğrama-sın-dan çekin-mek-te-dir.
Ali Paşa wants to avoid the possibility that a swift attack will end in failure.
kesmek (-i) ‘to interrupt / put an end (to) / stop’

Köpek-ler havla-ma-yı, horoz-lar öt-me-yi kes-ti-ler. I—Se = Sm
The dogs stopped barking and the cocks have stopped crowing.
Ama Tanrı on-un konuş-ma-sın-ı kes-ti. II—that
But God interrupted his / her talking.
Recep bağır-dı: Şu orospu döl-ün-e söyle de gül-me-sin-i kes-sin.
Recep yelled: Tell that bastard to stop laughing.
As is well known, the outer appearance of word forms can be deceptive, as is the case in the
next example, in which subject and object are nouns rather than verb forms.
Başkan-ın gelme-si tartışma-yı kes-miş-ti.

The arrival / coming of the minister put an end to the discussion.
kurtulmak (-den) ‘to be rescued / be saved / escape’

Ama iş hayat-ın-da ikinci sınıf ol-mak-tan kurtul-ama-dı-lar. I—Se = Sm
But they could not escape the state of being second-rate in business.
Herkes-in sen-i korkak diye ayıpla-ma-sın-dan kurtul-ma-yacak-sın. II—that
There’s no evading the fact that everyone shames you as a coward.
33.8.4.4 Group 4D—volitional verbs

Complementation with Type I means that the subjects of embedded and matrix verbs are
identical, and Type II corresponds with the that-construction.
Two-place verbs are for instance: arzulamak (-i) ‘to wish / long for / desire’, can
atmak (-e) ‘to desire strongly / want badly’, dilemek (-i) ‘to request / beg’, istemek-1 (-i)
‘to want / wish / desire’, planlamak (-i) ‘to plan’, uygun bulmak (-i) / uygun görmek (-i) ‘to
regard as suitable’, yeğlemek (-i) ‘to prefer’.
Three-place verbs comprise among others: yeğ tutmak (-i, -e) ‘to prefer x-i over y-e’.
istemek-1 (-i) ‘to want / wish / desire’

Başbakan ol-mak / ol-ma-yı iste-r mi-siniz?—Kim iste-me-z? I—Se = Sm
You want to be a minister?—Who doesn’t?
Mektup-lar-ı gör-mek / gör-me-yi iste-yince, ver-mek zorunda kal-dı-m.
When they wanted to see the letters, I had to hand them over.
Hani doktor ol-mak / ol-ma-yı isti-yor-du-n?
So you wanted to become a doctor?
Geri kal-an-lar-dan bir kısm-ı da oturmak / otur-ma-yı iste-me-di-ler,
kol-ları-yla hareket-ler yap-ıp şarkı söylü-yor-lar-dı.
A proportion of those who stayed behind didn’t want to sit down;
with their arms they made movements and they were singing.
Ama bun-u anne-m-e anlat-ma-m-ı iste-mi-yor-du. II—that
But she didn’t want me to tell this to my mother.
Ben-siz becer-me-me-n-i iste-r-di-m!
I wished that you wouldn’t manage without me!
planlamek (-i) ‘to plan / intend to do’

Sen el-in-i tut-ma-yı planlı-yor-sun, konuşma sırasında. I—Se = Sm
So you are planning to hold hands with her during the lecture.
Wilson, birlik-ler-in yoğun bir saldırı-ya geç-me-sin-i planla-dı. II—that
Wilson planned that the units would engage in a massive attack.
yeğlemek (-i) ‘to prefer to’

Biz yok-muş-uz gibi davran-ma-yı yeğle-di. I—Se = Sm
She preferred to behave as if we weren’t there.
Hatta, zeki ol-ma-ma-sın-ı yeğle-r-im. II—that
I’d rather see that she were not intelligent.
Ben-i sev-iyor-sa-n neden özgür biri ol-ma-m-ı yeğle-mi-yor-sun?
If you love me, why don’t you prefer that I am a free person?
yeğ tutmak (-i, -e) ‘to prefer x-i over y-e / consider x-i better than y-e’
Hiç kimse alış-ma-dığ-ı yeni bir at-a bin-me-yi, I—Se = Sm and Sc
alış-tığ-ı bir at-a bin-me-ye yeğ tut-ma-z.
No one would prefer to mount a new horse he is not used to
over riding a horse he is used to.
Because of the passive verbs the embedded subject does not equal that of the matrix verb,
and hence, Se <> Sm.
Akıllı kimse-ler, canlı bir varlığ-ın dil ve söz-le çiz=il-erek anlat= ıl-ma-sın-ı,
boya ya da herhangi bir sanat eser-i-yle göster=il-me-sin-e yeğ tut-ar-lar.
Sensible people prefer to see that a living being is sketched and drawn by
language and words, rather than that he is exposed in paint or whatever form
of (visual) artistic expression.
33.8.4.5 Group 4E—emotive verbs

Complementation with Type I means that the subjects of embedded and matrix verbs are
identical, and Type II corresponds with the that-construction.
These are all two-place verbs: alışmak (-e) ‘to get used (to) / become familiar (with)’,
doğru bulmak (-i) ‘to agree’, gerek duymak (-e) ‘to feel the necessity (to)’, gerek görmek
(-e) ‘to find necessary’, günah saymak (-i) ‘to consider s.t. a sin’, hak etmek (-i) ‘to
deserve’, hoşlanmak (-den) ‘to like / enjoy’, hoşnut olmak (-den) ‘to be pleased (with)’,
ihtiyaç duymak / olmak (-e) ‘to feel a need (to)’, ilgilenmek (-le) ‘to take an interest (in)’,
kınamak (-e) ‘to condemn’, nefret etmek (-den) ‘to hate / loathe’, onur duymak (-den) ‘to
feel honoured’, saçma bulmak (-i) ‘to find s.t. nonsense’, sevmek (-i) ‘to love / like’,
sıkılmak (-den) ‘to get bored’, tiksinmek (-den) ‘to feel sick (from)’, usanmak (-den) ‘to
get bored (by) / get tired of ’, yanlış bulmak (-i) ‘to disapprove’, yaşamak (-i) ‘to experi-
ence / live through’.
alışmak (-e) ‘to get used to / become familiar with’

Dur-madan ora-dan ora-ya topalla-ma-ya alış-mış-tı. I—Se = Sm
He got used to limping from pillar to post all the time.
O, Necat’ın nasıl ol-duğ-un-u sor-ma-ma-sın-a da alış-mış-tı. II—that
He was also used to the fact that Necat never ever asked him how he was.
hak etmek (-i) ‘to deserve / earn’

Bu kral-ımız tarih-te yer al-ma-yı hak et-miştir. I—Se = Sm
This king of ours deserves to get a place in history.
Kendi-sin-e bir eşek ver=il-me-sin-i neden II—that
hak et-tiğ-in-i anla-ma-ya çalış-tı.
He tried to understand why it was that he deserved to be given a donkey.
ilgilenmek (-le) ‘to concern oneself (with)’

Aslında, hep on-u incele-mek-le, I—Se = Sm
on-u değerlendir-mek-le ilgilen-iyor-du-m.
As a matter of fact, I was busy studying him all the time, evaluating him.
Tersane-de gemi-ler-in havuzla=n-ma-sı-yla ilgilen-di. II—that
He concerned himself with the launching of ships at the shipyard.
nefret etmek (-den) ‘to hate / loathe / detest / abhor’

Böyle durum-lar-a düş-mek-ten nefret ed-er-im işte. I—Se = Sm
That’s why I hate to get involved in such situations.
Sorul-ma-sın-dan nefret et-tiğ-iniz bir soru var mı? II—that
—Bil-emi-yor-um.
Is there a question you detest being asked?
—I wouldn’t know.
sevmek (-i) ‘to love / like’

Yüz-me-yi, koş-ma-yı sev-er-im. I—Se = Sm
I love swimming and running.
Mutfak-ta birin-in ben-i izle-me-sin-i sev-me-m. II—that
I don’t like it when someone in the kitchen is watching what I’m doing.
Also for this form variant it is at times hard to see that a nominal compound rather than a
verb is the basis of some constituent. A good example is:
Atatürk, ömr-ün-ü pek kıt kanaat geçir-miş ol-duğ-un-dan,

para kaybet-me-sin-i sev-me-z-di.
Because Atatürk has been parsimonious for his entire life,
he disliked losing money.
tiksinmek (-den) ‘to be revolted (by) / feel sick (from)’

Su-da öl-müş bir örümcek gör-mek-ten tiksin-di. I—Se = Sm
Seeing that drowned spider turned her stomach.
Bebeğ-in hep kus-ma-sın-dan tiksin-iyor-um. II—that
That this baby is vomiting all the time nauseates me.
usanmak (-den) ‘to get bored (by) / get tired (of)’

Ben-im-le konuş-mak-tan usan-dı-nız. I—Se = Sm
You are tired / have had enough of talking with me.
Ali’nin hep karı-sın-ın hakkında konuş-ma-sın-dan usan-dı-m. II—that
I am/was bored with Ali talking about his wife all the time.
33.8.4.6 Group 4F—implicative verbs

For Type I the subjects of embedded and matrix verbs are identical, and for Type II there is
correspondence with the that-construction.
These are all two-place verbs: başarmak (-i) ‘to accomplish / achieve / succeed’, becermek
(-i) ‘to accomplish / succeed / manage’, bilmek-2 (-i) ‘to know how / have the skill (to)’,
boyun eğmek (-e) ‘to submit (to) / humiliate oneself (by)’.
başarmak (-i) ‘to accomplish / achieve / succeed (in)’

Yağmur-a aldırış et-me-yen Petrov, I—Se = Sm
kadın-ın kan-ın-ı durdur-ma-yı başar-dı.
Petrov, who did not mind about the rain,
succeeded in stopping the woman’s bleeding.
In the next example the matrix verb has a verbal noun as its object, thus Se <> Sm:
Bütün bun-lar-dan açıkça ortaya çık-ıyor ki, yalnızca proletarya

gerçek insanlık kültür-ün-ün yaratılma-sın-ı başar-abil-ir.
From all this it follows clearly that only the proletariat will be able to bring
the creation of a really humane culture to a successful conclusion.
becermek (-i) ‘succeed (in) / manage (to) / accomplish’

Genç karı-sı, on-u çok geç-meden etki-si alt-ın-a al-ma-yı becer-iyor. I—Se = Sm
His young wife quickly manages to bring him under her influence.
Anne-m, tam zamanında bir Davidoff ikram et-me-yi becer-iyor.
My mother manages to proffer him a Davidoff at the right moment.
Also embedding becermek is of course possible.

Sanki gül-me-yi becer-ebil-me-m-e şaş-mış-lar-dı. I—Se = Sm
It was as if they were surprised that I could manage to laugh.
Bun-un iyi bir öykü konu-su ol-abil-eceğ-in-i düşün-üp dur-uyor-du yıl-lar-dır
ama, yaz-ma-yı becer-eme-yeceğ-in-i san-mı-yor-du.
For years on end she thought that this would be good subject matter for
a story, but she didn’t believe that she wouldn’t manage to write it.
In the sense of ‘to accomplish’ becermek (-i) requires a complement that can be interpreted
as based on a short infinitive, thereby taking an ending of Type II, as underscored in the
following examples. The meaning comes close to ‘know what to do to accomplish s.t.’
(see the Type II endings of bilmek-2 next below).
Madam Şarlot pek az bir para-yla nefis yemek-ler,

hatta pasta-lar yap-ma-sın-ı becer-ir-di.
With very little money Madam Charlotte succeeded in making
lovely dishes and even pastries.
Uzun zaman dert-ler-in dış-ın-da kal-ma-sın-ı becer-ir-di.
He knew what to do to stay out of (the) problems for a longer period of time.
Ama, zamansız kahramanlık göster-me-sin-i becer-emi-yor-um.
But I don’t know how to show courage all too soon.
Bil-ir mi-siniz ki, otur-up konuş-ma-sın-ı becer-ir-di o zaman-lar.
Do you know that he knew what to do to sit and talk, at the time.
bilmek-2 (-i) ‘to know how to do s.t.’

Küçüklük-ten beri ‘hayır’ de-me-yi bil-eme-di-ler. I—Se = Sm
Since their childhood they hadn’t known how to say no.
Esasında pazarlık yap-ma-yı bil-mi-yor değil-di de,
gurur-un-a yedir-emi-yor-du üç-beş kuruş için satıcı-lar-la atış-ma-yı.
It was in fact not the case that he didn’t know how to haggle over the price,
but his pride wouldn’t swallow it, that arguing with shop assistants over
a few pennies.
In the constructions above, all of Type I, an important semantic aspect is the way in which
things are done: how one says ‘no,’ how one manages to be happy, how one drives a car,
et cetera. So it is the skill of the referent of the grammatical subject that is highlighted.
In the following examples, however, a more general skill is in the focus of attention: what
to do in order to say ‘thank you’, and what to do in order to entertain children.
Sen bun-dan başka türlü teşekkür et-me-sin-i bil-me-z mi-sin?

Don’t you know how to express your gratitude other than in that way?
Çocuk-lar-ı her zaman eğlendir-me-sin-i bil-en İnci’yi bul-ma-ya koş-tu-m.
I ran away to find Inci, who always knew what to do to entertain the children.
boyun eğmek (-e) ‘to submit (to)’ takes only complements of Type I with Se = Sm:
Sonunda el-im-de-ki para-nın hep-sin-i bu işe yatır-ma-ya boyun eğ-di-m.
Eventually I consented to invest all my money in this business.
In the next example Type II is found on a passive verb:
Türkiye, kendi yap-mak veya hiçbir şey yap=ıl-ma-ma-sın-a

boyun eğmek arasında seç-meli idi.
Turkey had to choose between doing it themselves and
agreeing that nothing would be done at all.
33.8.4.7 Group 4G—impersonal verbs

In a complementation of Type I the subject of embedded and matrix verb are NOT identical,
and this leads to a generic interpretation. Also, a complement of Type I can often be analysed
as a noun in –mE, and this leads again to the interpretation of a generic subject. Type II can
be translated with the that-construction.
This group exists of two-place verbs and comprises: gerektirmek (-i) ‘to necessitate /
require’, kolaylaştırmak (-i) ‘to make easier’, sağlamak (-i) ‘to ensure / guarantee’, sonuçlan-
mak (-le) ‘to result’, yetmek (-e) ‘to be enough’, zorlaştırmak (-i) ‘to hamper / hinder /
complicate’.
kolaylaştırmak (-i) ‘to ease / make easier’

Bu, oku-ma-yı ve net gör-me-yi kolaylaştır-ıyor. I—generic subj.
This makes reading and seeing clearly easier.
Bu, Lübnan’ın Mehmet Ali’ye karşı ayaklan-ma-sın-ı kolaylaş-tır-dı. II—Se <> Sm

This made it easier that the Lebanon rebelled against Mehmet Ali.
sağlamak (-i) ‘to ensure / guarantee’

Gör-me-yi, düşün-me-yi ve hisset-me-yi sağla-yan organ-lar-ımız. I—generic subj.
It is our organs that ensure seeing, thinking, and feeling.
Bun-lar da bu öykü-nün mutlu son-la bit-me-sin-i sağla-yacak. II—Se <> Sm
All this ensures that this story ends well.
yetmek (-e) ‘to be enough / be sufficient / suffice’

Bu iş-in büyü-sü ben-i iç-in-e çek-me-ye yet-ti. I—generic subj.
The charm of this thing was (strong) enough to drag me in.
İşte o dalış-lar gerçeğ-i anla-ma-m-a yet-ti. II—Se <> Sm
And delving into it was enough for me to understand how it was.
sonuçlanmak (-le) ‘to result’

Kural-lar-a karşı gel-mek bazen toplum-dan dışlan-mak-la sonuçlan-ır. I—generic subj.
Running counter to the rules leads sometimes to exclusion from the
community.
Enflasyon ve devalüasyon konu-sun-da-ki belirsizlik, II—Se <> Sm
faiz-ler-in gökyüzün-e tırman-ma-sı-yla sonuçlan-ıyor.
Indefiniteness in the domain of inflation and devaluation leads
to skyrocketing interest rates.
Bu harekât, Bağdat’ın elden çık-ma-sı-yla sonuçlan-mış-tı.
This military operation resulted in the loss of Baghdad.
zorlaştırmak (-i) ‘to hamper / hinder / impede / complicate’

60 yaş-ın üzer-in-de-ki-ler-de gör-ül-en katarakt, I—generic subj.
oku-ma-yı zorlaştır-ıyor, net gör-me-yi engelli-yor.
Cataract, which occurs among people over sixty,
complicates reading and impedes seeing clearly.
II—Se <> Sm
Koordinasyonsuzluk yardım-lar-ın gerekli yer-ler-e ulaş-ma-sın-ı zorlaştır-ıyor.
Lack of coordination hinders aid getting to the required places.
Dayanılmaz bir isteğ-in nefes al-ma-sın-ı zorlaştır-dığ-ın-ı hisset-ti.
She felt that an irresistible desire impeded her breathing.
33.8.5 Group 5: Fact versus Act-2
Suffix: Type II—Type III. This opposition implies that a verb of this group may take an
embedding of Type I, as well as one of Type II. In other words, there is an opposition
between –mE + possessive + case marker on the one hand, and –TIK / –(y)EcEK, both
followed by a possessive and case marker on the other. For the details the reader is referred
to section 33.5.3, because in that section the idea has been introduced to linguistically
distinguish fact from act for what a Turkish verb may express. The following lists are meant
as an addition to the verbs presented there. Two subgroups can be distinguished: verbs
with and without a modal meaning.
33.8.5.1 Group 5A—Verbs with a modal meaning for Type II

This is a group of two- and three-place verbs which have a modal meaning when used with
form variant Type II: ‘how something is carried out’, ‘that / how something must be carried
out’. This is why such verbs are often categorized as directive.
Two-place verbs are for instance: hatırlamak (-i) ‘to remember’, hissetmek (-i) ‘to feel /
perceive / sense’.
hatırlamak (-i) ‘to remember’

Karı-m-ın piyano-nun önünde sahte bir kayıtsızlık-la otur-ma-sın-ı II—modal
hatırlı-yor-um.
I remember how my wife sat at the piano with a false indifference.
Karı-m-ın piyano-nun önünde sahte bir kayıtsızlık-la otur-duğ-un-u III—fact
hatırlı-yor-um.
I remember that my wife sat at the piano with a false indifference.
Three-place verbs are: açıklamak (-i, -e) ‘to explain’, anlatmak (-i, -e) ‘to explain / relate / tell
/ describe’, belirtmek (-i, -e) ‘to make clear / clarify / explain’, bildirmek (-i, -e) ‘to inform /
report / let know / state’, göstermek (-i, -e) ‘to show / indicate / point out / prove’, söylemek
(-i, -e) ‘to say / tell’.
anlatmak (-i, -e) ‘to explain / relate / tell / describe’

Sonra biz-e diferansiyel denklem-ler-in çöz=ül-me-sin-i anlat-ma-ya başla-dı. II—modal
Then she started to explain to us how differential equations must be solved.
Roman, iki aile-nin çocuk-ların-ın birbir-lerin-e âşık ol-ma-sın-ı anlat-ıyor.
The novel describes how the children of two families fall in love with each other.
Demirel, her alan-da büyük gelişme-ler ol-duğ-un-u anlat-tı. III—fact
Demirel explained that there were great developments in every field.
Genç kız anne ve baba-sın-a neden evlen-eme-yeceğ-in-i anlat-ıyor-du.
The young girl explained to her father and mother why she could not get married.
Notice that anlatmak in the sense of ‘to tell (about) / relate something’ only takes noun
phrases as direct object. Quite often such a noun phrase is headed by a noun in –mE, as
derived from a verb (see section 31.7). In this way some confusion may arise because of the
ending of Type I in embeddings. However, words such as bu ‘this/these’ and bir ‘a(n)’ are
good indicators for the nominal nature of the construction in question, for instance:
On-a bu karşılaşma-yı anlat-ma-dı-m.

I haven’t told her about this meeting.
Her hafta birisi yap-tığ-ı bir araştırma-yı anlat-ıyor.
Every week someone describes the research she or he is working on.
Nominal compounds are also included:
Orenburg kuşat-ma-sın-ı anlat-acak değil-im.

I am really not going to tell you about the siege of Orenburg.
bildirmek (-i, -e) ‘to let know / inform / notify / announce’

Parmağ-ın-ı gözdağı ver-ir-cesine salla-yarak sus-ma-sın-ı bildir-di. II—modal
With a threatening finger she signalled to him that he should keep silent.
Asıl muharebe-nin Taşkışla’da sür-düğ-ün-ü
ve derhal ora-ya git-me-lerin-i bildir-en emr-i al-dı.
He got the order informing him
(fact) that the fight proper dragged on at Taşkışla, and
(act) that they had to go there immediately.
İşte, 1877’de Schiaparelli Mars’ın yüzey-in-de oluk-lar gör-düğ-ü bildir-ir. III—fact
Well, in 1877 Schiaparelli reports that he has seen canals on the surface of Mars.
Bu sorun-lar-ı yeni kurul-acak hükümet-e ilet-eceğ-in-i bildir-di.
He informed (s.o.) that he would convey these problems to the government
to be newly formed.
göstermek (-i, -e) ‘to show / indicate / point out / prove’

Hele dur bak-a-yım, ben san-a et pişir-me-sin-i göster-ir-im! II—modal
Hey stop it, I’ll show you how one should prepare meat!
Bu da en az bir milyar yıl daha yaşlı ol-duğ-un-u göster-iyor. III—fact
And this proves / indicates that this is at least a billion years older.
söylemek (-i, -e) ‘to say / tell’

On-a derhal kasab-a git-me-sin-i ve et al-ma-sın-ı söyle-di. II—modal
She told him to immediately go to the butcher’s and get meat.
On-un kasab-a git-tiğ-in-i söyle-di. III— fact
She said that he’d gone to the butcher’s.
33.8.5.2 Group 5B—Verbs with non-modal meaning for Type II

This group consists of two- and three-place verbs which have no modal meaning for a
complement of Type II.
Two-place verbs are, for instance: aldırmak (-e) ‘to mind / pay attention’, beğenmek (-i) ‘to
like / be pleased’, beklemek-2 (-i) ‘to wait for / await’, duymak (-i) ‘to hear’, görmek (-i) ‘to see’,
güvenmek (-e) ‘to trust’, itiraz etmek (-e) ‘to object’, keşfetmek (-i) ‘to discover / find out’,
reddetmek-2 (-i) ‘to reject / claim that something is untrue’, savunmak (-i) ‘to defend /
argue’, sevinmek (-e) ‘to be happy (with)’, şaşmak (-e) ‘to be amazed’, utanmak-2 (-den) ‘to
feel ashamed (for)’, üzülmek (-e) ‘to feel sorry / regret’, kızmak (-e) ‘to get angry’.
aldırmak (-e) ‘to mind / pay attention (to)’

Anne-m-in şaşır-ma-sın-a aldır-ma-dan de-di ki . . . II—act
Without being concerned about my mother’s surprise, he said . . . / noun
Artık öyle ol-up ol-ma-dığ-ın-a aldır-mı-yor-um. III—fact
I do not care any more whether it is true or not.
beklemek-2 (-i) ‘to wait (for) / await’

Yer-imiz-e otur-up onlar-ın iyice yaklaş-ma-sın-ı bekli-yor-uz. II—act
We go and sit in our place and wait until they have drawn near.
Şimdi okul-lar-ın kapan-ma-sın-ı bekli-yor-uz.
Now we wait until the schools shut down.
Uyu-yor-muş gibi yap-tı, ne ol-acağ-ın-ı bekle-di. III—fact
He pretended to sleep and waited for what would happen.
Aydan, adam-ın ne cevap ver-eceğ-in-i bekli-yor-du.
Aydan waited to hear what kind of answer the man would give.
On-un yanıt ver-ip ver-me-yeceğ-in-i bekle-me-ye karar ver-di-ler.
They decided to wait (and see) whether or not he would give an answer.
reddetmek-2 (-i) ‘to deny / reject’

Kongre, bu konu üzerinde görüşme-ler yap=ıl-ma-sın-ı reddet-ti. II—act
The congress rejected the idea of organizing meetings/talks on this issue.
Başkan Clinton, NATO içinde bölünmüşlük ol-duğ-un-u reddet-ti. III—fact
Chairman Clinton denied that there was discord within NATO.
utanmak-2 (-den) ‘to feel ashamed (of/about)’
Ali, arkadaş-lar-ı karşı-sın-da sarhoş yakala=n-ma-sın-dan utan- II—act

ıyor-du. / noun
Ali felt ashamed towards his friends for having been caught being drunk.
‘Yap-tığ-ın-dan utan!’ de-di. III—fact
He said: ‘You ought to be ashamed of what you did!’
Subay-lar-ımız-ın ne-ler yap-tık-ların-ı gör-ünce Rus ol-duğ-um-dan utan-dı-m.
I felt ashamed to be Russian when I saw what our officers had done.
üzülmek (-e) ‘to feel sorry / regret’

Kendin-i kötü hisset-me-n-e üzül-dü-m. II—act
I am sorry that you feel so bad.
Bazen on-un-la evlen-diğ-im-e üzül-üyor-um. III—fact
Sometimes I regret that I am married to him.
Three-place verbs with a non-modal meaning for a suffix of Type II are: anımsatmak (-e, -i)
‘to remind’, hatırlatmak (-e, -i) ‘to remind / call attention (to)’.
anımsatmak (-i, -e) ‘to remind’
Baba-sı, zaman-ı gel-ince para gönder-me-sin-i anımsat-acak-tı. II—act /
Her father would remind her in due course to send money. noun
Çiş-in-in ol-duğ-un-u anımsat-mış-tı bu koku. III—fact
That smell reminded him that he had to pee.
33.8.6 Group 6: Fact versus Act-1
Suffix: Type III—Type I. This group of verbs distinguishes between expression of fact
and that of act. The action or occurrence may be thought of as being positioned in the
future because of the form variant –mE + case marker, whereas factivity is expressed
by –TIK / –(y)EcEK, both to be followed by a possessive suffix plus case marker. There
are two-place and three-place verbs in this group.
Two-place verbs in this group are: kabul etmek (-i) ‘to accept / consent / agree’, pişman
olmak (-den) ‘to regret / feel remorse’, unutmak (-i) ‘to forget’. Examples are:
kabul etmek (-i) ‘to accept / consent / agree to’

Hafta-da dört gün Ankara’ya gel-me-yi kabul et-ti-m. I—Se = Sm
I agreed upon going to Ankara for four days per week.
Ben de arka-da otur-ma-yı kabul et-mek zorunda kal-dı-m.
And I had to accept that I should sit in the back.
In a number of cases an embedding ending in –me-yi should be analysed as a noun plus

accusative case marker. Hence, in some examples boşanma should be interpreted as ‘a
divorce’, açıklama as ‘statement, explanation’, and is görüşme rather ‘meeting’ or ‘talk’ than
‘seeing each other’? For deverbal nouns, see section 31.7.
Roma’nın Katolik Kilise-si de boşanma-yı kabul et-me-mek-te-dir.

The catholic church of Rome does not allow divorces.
Ama on-un bir daha yalı-ya gel-eceğ-in-i kabul ed-emi-yor-du. III—fact
But he could not accept that she would come again to the beach house.
Yenil-diğ-in-i kabul et-mek iste-me-di.
She would not accept that she had lost.
unutmak (-i) ‘to forget’

Terzi-ye sıkıca tembih et-me-yi unut-ma! I—Se = Sm
Don’t forget to strongly insist at the tailor’s!
Um-ar-ım ki oğl-um, Allah’a şükret-me-yi unut-ma-dı-n.
I hope, my son, that you have not forgotten to thank the Lord.
Dimi’nin ev-de kal-arak yıl-larca ihtiyar ana-mız-a bak-tığ-ın-ı unut-tu. III—fact
He forgot that Dimi, staying at home, had taken care of our old mother for years.
Three-place verbs (with subject control) are: söz vermek (-e, -e) ‘to promise’, taahhüt etmek
(-e, -i) ‘to promise / commit oneself to do s.t.’.
söz vermek (-e, -e) ‘to promise’

Arabacı Hasan biz-e yiyecek bul-ma-ya söz ver-miş-ti. I—Se = Sm / Sc
Coachman Hasan had promised us to find some food.
Barış ve kardeşlik için yaşa-ma-ya söz ver-en Öcalan,
devlet-in hizmet-in-de çalış-mak iste-diğ-in-i söyle-di.
Öcalan, who promised to live in peace and brotherhood,
said that he would like to work in the state’s service.
Ben-im san-a belirt-tiğ-im gün-ler-in dış-ın-da III—Se = Sm
buluş-mak iste-me-yeceğ-in-e söz ver!
Promise me that you will not demand to meet
over and above the days which I have indicated to you.
taahhüt etmek (-e, -i) ‘to promise / commit oneself to do s.t.’

Merkez Banka-sı herkes-e bu kur-dan döviz ver-me-yi taahhüt et-ti. I—Se = Sm / Sc
The Central Bank promised to give anyone foreign currency against this rate.
The following example shows that an intention as expressed by –(y)EcEK can form the
object of taahhüt etmek also.
Çin, Hong Kong’a 50 yıl süresince dokun-ma-yacağ-ın-ı taahhüt et-miş. III—Se = Sm / Sc

China promised Hong Kong that it would not meddle in its affairs for
a period of fifty years.
33.8.7 Group 7: Fact versus Act-2 versus Act-1
Suffix: Type III—Type II—Type I. In this group of two- and three-place verbs there is a
threefold opposition.
To the two-place verbs belong: affetmek (-i) ‘to forgive an act’, bahsetmek (-den) ‘to talk
about / mention’, bıkmak (-den) ‘to get bored / be fed up’, endişe etmek (-den) ‘to be anxious /
worry’, ısrar etmek (-de) ‘to insist’, iğrenmek (-den) ‘to feel disgust’, inanmak (-e) ‘to believe’,
işaret etmek (-e) ‘to indicate / point out’, kastetmek (-i) ‘to mean to say / aim’, korkmak
(-den) ‘to be afraid (of)’, memnun kalmak (-den) ‘to be content (with)’, öğrenmek (-i) ‘to
learn / find out’, talıp olmak (-e) ‘to hope’, tartışmak (-i) ‘to debate / consider’, ummak (-i) /
ümit etmek (-i) ‘to hope that / for’.
korkmak (-den) ‘to fear, be afraid of ’

Reşit Paşa sus-tu, oğl-un-u kır-mış ol-mak-tan kork-muş-tu. I—Se = Sm
Reşit Paşa didn’t say anything; he was afraid to have hurt his son.
Polis-in el-in-e düş-mek-ten kork-uyor-du-k.
We were afraid of falling into the hands of the police.
Bun-un halk-ı ürküt-me-sin-den kork-uyor-du. II—Se <> Sm
He was afraid that this would startle the population/people.
Diğer-lerin-in duy-ma-sın-dan kork-ar gibi, yavaşça ‘Merak etme!’ de-di.
As if she was afraid that others would hear it, she softly said: ‘Don’t worry!’
Bun-un bir hayal, sadece göz ve akıl aldan-ma-sı ol-duğ-un-dan III—fact
kork-arak el-in-i merak-la, çekin-erek uzat-tı.
Fearing that this was just his imagination, an optical illusion, or a fit of
insanity, he reached out his hand worriedly and hesitantly.
öğrenmek (-i) ‘to learn / find out’

Bonjour de-me-yi ve Fransızca on-a kadar say-ma-yı öğren-di-k. I—Se = Sm
We have learned to say ‘bonjour’ and to count to ten in French.
Duygu-lar-ım-ı da herkes-ten sakla-ma-sın-ı öğren-di-m. II—Se <> Sm
I have learned to keep my feelings secret from everyone.
Acı-lar-ı-yla yaşa-ma-sın-ı öğren-miş de-di Arif.
Apparently she has learned how to live with her misery, said Arif.
Form variant Type II in both examples expresses that someone has ‘learned’ how some-
thing should be carried out or performed. The first example is about ‘learning how to live’
and the second one about ‘learning how to keep something secret’. A similar shade of
meaning of how is conveyed in constructions based on bilmek ‘to know’ and anlatmak ‘to
explain / relate, tell / describe’.
Malko’nun kim ol-duğ-un-u ve III—fact

ne iste-diğ-in-i öğren-mek için çabalı-yor-lar-dı.
They really bothered to find out who Malko was and what he wanted.
ümit etmek (-i) ‘to hope’

Bir gün siz-in-le de bir kahve iç-ip sohbet et-me-yi ümit ed-er-im. I—Se = Sm
One day I hope to have coffee and a chat with you.
Debriyaj-a bas-arak vites-i, II—Se <> Sm
birinci vites ol-ma-sın-ı ümit et-tiğ-i dişli-ye geç-ir-di.
He pressed down the clutch pedal,
put it into gear, which he hoped would be the first gear.
Bu şey-in ne ol-duğ-un-u açıkla-yabil-eceğ-im-i ümit ed-iyor-du. III—fact
She hoped that I would be able to explain what this thing was.
A three-place verb is: öğretmek (-e, -i) ‘to teach / make clear’. For this type of verb object
control comes into play for complements of Type I; those of Type II allow for a modal
interpretation, whereas Type III stands for the expression of a fact.
öğretmek (-e, -i) ‘to teach / make clear / clarify’

Sen ban-a pabuç-lar-ım-ı bağla-ma-yı öğret-ti-n. I—Se = Om / Oc
You have taught me to do up my shoelaces.
The way in which complements of Type II should be interpreted resembles that of the verbs
in Group 5A: via the complement it is expressed ‘how something happens’ and also ‘that
something must happen’.
Ban-a ağaç-tan düdük yap-ma-sın-ı öğret-miş-ti. II—modal

He taught me how to make a flute / flutes from wood.
Gel bura-ya da, ben san-a çene çal-ma-sın-ı öğret-e-yim.
Just come here, then I’ll teach you how to chatter.
Baba-m ban-a sabırlı ol-ma-sın-ı öğret-miş-ti.
My father taught me that / how one must be patient.
Bu serseri bir daha ev-im-e adım-ın-ı at-ar-sa, III—fact
dünya-nın kaç bucak ol-duğ-un-u öğret-ir-im on-a.
If that layabout sets foot in my house once more,
I’ll seriously beat him up (show him all quarters of the world).
Okul-da biz-e bun-lar-ın gericilik ol-duğ-un-u,
cehalet devr-in-e ait şey-ler ol-duğ-un-u öğret-ti-ler.
At school they taught us that all this was reactionary attitudes,
that these were things belonging to the era of ignorance.
Embeddings with future reference obtain a modal flavour, as in:
Nasıl davran-acağ-ın-ı öğret-ir-im san-a!

I will teach you how to behave!
Biz-e nasıl oyun yaz=ıl-acağ-ın-ı ve nasıl oyna=n-acağ-ın-ı öğret-mek iste-di.
He wanted to teach us how a play should be written and how it must be played.
33.9 Overview of complementation
Summarizing the previous sections, one could say that there are different perspectives from
which the form variation in verbal complementation can be analysed. The relation between
ending types and suffixes is as follows:
Type I: –mE + case marker (Act-1)

Type II: –mE + possessive + case marker (Act-2)
Type III: –TIK / –(y)EcEK + possessive + case marker (Fact)
33.9 Overview of complementation 629
33.9.1 Type of complement
Verbs can be classified on the basis of a propositional or a predicational complement.

Pure manifestations are Group 1 (propositional) with Type III embeddings, Group 2
(predicational) with Type II, and Group 3 (predicational) with Type I embeddings. Mixed
forms are found in Group 4 (Types I & II), Group 5 (Types II & III), Group 6 (Types I &
III), and Group 7 (Types I & II & III).
33.9.2 Number of arguments
A second angle from which a classification can be set up is the number of arguments of a
verb. Thus, two-place verbs occur in all groups except 3B, 4A, and 4B. And three-place
verbs are found in all groups but 2 and 4C-G.
33.9.3 Control
This factor plays a role for three-place verbs only, because for this type of verb there is an
opposition possible between subject control and object control.
It was observed that control is not bound to any particular type of complement.
Subject control is found with complements with an infinitival clause (ending Type I) in
Group 4A and, rarely, with a verbal noun clause (ending Type II) in Group 6.
Object control is found with complements with an infinitival clause (ending Type I) in
Group 3B, 4B, and 7, as well as with complements based on a verbal noun clause (ending
Type II) in Group 4A.
It is true that Group 3 comprises control verbs signalling ‘who does what’, but on the
other hand, it does not offer any explanatory power with respect to the choice of the type of
complement involved, because there is only one type of complementation. This is in stark
contrast to Groups 3, 4, and 7, in which there is some variation in complementation such
that the choice of complement type can be related to the notion of control.
For two-place verbs this is not relevant because there is no opposition with object con-
trol. Yet the infinitival marker (–mE, not followed by a possessive) is often associated with
subject control and this is based on the observation that the subject of the embedding is
identical to that of the matrix verb. This is indeed correct for two-place verbs but certainly
not for three-place verbs, witness the examples of Groups 3B, 4B, and 7. The construction
in Group 4A with Type I has a generic subject (for –mEk in predicate position, see sec-
tion 33.2.2 and for –mEk as sentential subject, see section 33.3.1) and the construction with
Type II in Group 4B is comparable with the English that-construction (see sections 33.3.3
and 33.3.4). This form also occurs in the complements of Type II and in the groups 4C–4G
(all with two-place matrix verbs).
33.9.4 Modality
In Groups 5A and 7 a certain degree of modality is conveyed by the embeddings of Type II:
how something (should) happen(s).
33.9.5 Overview
How form variation in complementation relates to the number of verbal arguments, the
role of control, and modality can be depicted as follows:
Group Variation 2-place V 3-place V
1 1 III III –TIK + poss + case

2 1 II – –mE + poss + case
3A 1 I – –mE + case
3B 1 – I Oc –mE + case

4A 2 – I Sc / gen
– II Oc
4B 2 – I Oc
– II

4C-G 2 I –
II –
5A 2 II modal II modal
III III
5B 2 II II
III III
6 2 I I Sc
III III Sc

7 3 I I Oc
II II modal
III III
33.9.6 Homonymy
A number of homonymous verbs can be put in different groups because they differ in
meaning and take a complement type accordingly. This yields:
beklemek 1 (-i) to wait (for) / await 5B

2 (-i, -den) to expect / look for 1
bırakmak 1 (-i) to quit / stop 3A
2 (-i, -e) to leave to 3B
bilmek 1 (-i) to know that 1
2 (-i) to know how 4F
düşünmek 1 (-i) to believe / think of 1
2 (-i) to imagine 2
3 (-i) to consider / think over / out 3A
ikna etmek 1 (-e, -i) to convince 1

2 (-e, -i) to talk s.o. into / persuade 3B
istemek 1 (-i) to want / wish / desire 4D
2 (-i, -den) to require / demand / expect 4B
men etmek 1 (-i, -den) to stop / keep s.o. from doing s.t. 3B
2 (-i, -e) to forbid / prohibit 4B
karar vermek 1 (-e) to decide to 3A
2 (-e) to deduce / draw the conclusion that 1
reddetmek 1 (-i) to refuse / decline 3A
2 (-i) to deny / reject 5B
utanmak 1 (-e) to feel too ashamed to do s.t. 3A
2 (-den) to feel ashamed for s.t. done 5B
uğraşmak 1 (-e) to strive / struggle 3A
2 (-le) to be occupied with doing 3A
33.10 Stacking of passive embeddings
Both matrix verb and embedded verb can be based on an active or passive stem. There are
three verbs for which some scholars claim that a passive matrix verb is always accompanied
by a passive embedded verb. These verbs are 1) başlamak (-e) ‘to begin / start’; 2) çalışmak
(-e) ‘to try / attempt’; and 3) istemek (-i) ‘to want / demand / require’.
In what follows this matter is further investigated and it will be shown that, although
simultaneous occurrence of two passive verbs does eventuate, this is only possible under
certain conditions. This implies that other combinations exist as well and raises the question
if there are more verbs which exhibit this phenomenon.
In principle, there are four combinations of active and passive verbs thinkable for a
matrix verb and its embedded verb: passive-active (PA), active-active (AA), passive-passive
(PP), and active-passive (AP). The aforementioned verbs will be scrutinized one by one; for
the sake of clarity verb stems are separated from the passive suffix by ‘=‘.
33.10.1 Verb 1: başlamak
The active verb başlamak (-e) ‘to begin’ is used with and without an object. Without an
object it is applied in constructions stating the beginning of some event or process, usually
designated by a noun that figures as a subject, as in Toplantı saat sekiz-de başla-yacak ‘The
meeting will begin at eight o’clock’ and Film zamanında başla-ma-dı ‘The film did not begin
on time’. The subject can also be a noun in –mE derived from an active verb, thereby repre-
senting a possible combination AA.
Osmanlı’nın başkent-in-in göbeğ-in-de silahlı bir çatışma başla-dı.

In the heart of the Ottoman capital an armed conflict started.
O anda Türk-ler-in 3. Ordu-su ile Rus-lar-ın çatışma-sı başla-mış-tı.

Then the Russian skirmishes with the Third Army of the Turks had begun.
Also in compounds this construction is pervasive:
İşte bu nokta-da bir etik tartışma-sı başlı-yor.

As you see, at this point an ethical discussion is starting.
O ay-da Bulgaristan ayaklanma-sı ve az sonra Lüleburgaz vuruşma-sı başla-dı.
In that month the Bulgarian uprising and shortly afterwards the battle of L. began.
Gözlüğ-ü tak-ınca bir baş dönme-si, mide bulanma-sı başla-dı.
As I put on the glasses I got giddy and sick.
For the remaining combinations the dative object of başlamak is expressed by the verbal
noun form –mE-sIn-E or the infinitival form –mE-yE. The dative object ending in –mE-sIn-E
represents a combination PA and is, as a matter of fact, based on a passive verbal noun (see
section 31.7.1). This noun is contained in a genitive-possessive construction and there is no
relation with the subject of başlamak. This can be illustrated on the basis of oku=n-ma
‘being read’ and boşalt=ıl-ma ‘being evacuated’:
Şu anda bildirge-ler-in oku=n-ma-sın-a başlı-yor-uz.

We now commence with reading the messages.
Yunanlı-lar Anadolu’nun boşalt=ıl-ma-sın-a başla-malı-ydı.
The Greeks had to start with the evacuation of Anatolia.
When the subject of başlamak is coreferential with the subject of the embedded verb, the
infinitival form –mE-yE is used: a passive-based embedding leads to the combination PA
and an embedding with an active verb to AA. The combination PA can be exemplified by:
Derken, çocuğ-un ses-i işit=il-me-ye başlı-yor-du: Hop, hop.

At that moment, the voice of the child began to be heard: hop, hop.
İnsan ses-leri-yle deniz-in şıpırtı-sı işit=il-me-ye başla-mış-tı artık.
Human voices and the murmur of the sea began to be heard.
An active verb as the complement of başlamak (AA) leads to a picture as expected:
Kadın-lar sinirlen-me-ye başla-dı-lar.

The women began to become edgy.
Hasan, küçük bir çocuk gibi ağla-ma-ya başla-dı.
Hasan started to weep like a small child.
It should be noted that this last type includes constructions with verbs which seemingly
contain a passive element (see section 30.4.5):
Göz-ler-in-den yaş-lar dökül-me-ye başla-dı.

Tears began to flow from his eyes.
İlkyaz gel-ip de buz-lar çözül-me-ye başla-dı.

Springtime came and all the ice started to melt.
Köylü-ler büyük kapı-nın iç-in-e yığıl-ma-ya başlı-yor-lar-dı.
The villagers began to crowd within the gate.
Being a passive verb, başla=n-mak never has a subject but it will always be accompanied by
a dative object. This construction mostly allows only for an impersonal interpretation.
With the combination AP there is usually a nominal object:
O sırada rıhtım yapım-ın-a başla=n-mış-tı ora-da.

Then the construction of the landing stage had been started, there.
Deve bulun-ma-dığ-ı için, eşya-yla yiyecek-ler bırak=ıl-arak dönüş-e başla=n-dı.
Since there was no camel available, they began to go back, leaving all their things and
food behind.
Passive verbal nouns ending in –mE are the core of combinations of the type PP and are
expressed as an object in –mE-sIn-E. They all have an impersonal interpretation,
Bir rasathane yap=ıl-ma-sın-a başla=n-mıştır.

One has started the construction of an observatory.
Türk kadın-ın-ın standart ölçü-ler-in-in belirle=n-me-sin-e başla=n-dı.
They began to establish the standard measure of Turkish women.
Başkan-ın katil-in-in yargıla=n-ma-sın-a başla=n-dı.
They began the trial of the murderer of the minister.
Also infinitival forms in –mE-yE occur and for the combination PP they can be elucidated
as follows. Being the subject of the passive verb in the complement, the underscored fragments
can be regarded as the direct object of their active counterpart in the first two examples,
and as the ablative object in the third sentence.
Özellikle berber Ali’nin dükkân-ın-da politika konuş=ul-ma-ya başla=n-dı.

Particularly in barber Ali’s shop, one started talking politics.
O zaman-lar-da kesici alet-ler bakır alaşım-lar-ın-dan yap=ıl-ma-ya başla=n-dı.
Back then cutters began to be made of copper alloys.
Kız-ı bir ejderha-nın kaçır-mış ol-abil-eceğ-in-den kork=ul-ma-ya başla=n-dı.
People began to fear that a dragon could have abducted the girl.
The combination AP is expressed with –mE-yE as well and is strictly impersonal:
Yeniden ye-me-ye başla=n-dı.

They started to eat again.
Çeşitli yer-ler-de toplantı-lar düzenle-me-ye başla=n-dı.
At several places people started to organize meetings.
Başka bir kişi-nin imza-sı-yla bildirim-ler yap-ma-ya başla=n-ınca . . .

When one starts to publish announcements with someone else’s signature . . .
Summarizing, one could say that noun-based objects of başlamak and başlanmak are
characterized by the ending –mE-sI and objects based on a verb by –mE-yE. The combinations
PA and AP for a verbal complement make clear that the claim of obligatory double passive
marking is not tenable.
But how about çalışmak ‘to try / attempt’, istemek ‘to want / demand / require’, and their
passive counterparts? These verbs will be discussed in the next two sections.
33.10.2 Verb 2: çalışmak
The active verb çalışmak (-e) in its meaning ‘to attempt / try’ can take only verbal objects
and two combinations are possible. The first two examples illustrate the combination PA
and the other two are instances of AA.
Yurt dış-ın-a sevk ed=il-me-ye çalış-ıyor-du.

He tried to be sent to a post abroad.
Arkadaş-lar-ı tarafından çamur-a it=il-me-me-ye çalış-ıyor-du.
He tried not to be pushed into the mud by his friends.
Yunus’a yaklaşık bir saat kalp masaj-ı yap-arak hayat-a döndür-me-ye çalış-tı.
By giving Yunus heart massage for almost an hour, she tried to bring him back to life.
Fırsat bul-dukça Alman-lar-ın arasına sokul-ma-ya çalış-ıyor-du-m.
Whenever I saw a chance, I tried to mix in with the Germans.
Also the passive variant çalış=ıl-mak (-e) can only be interpreted as an impersonal con-
struction and this verb has verbal objects only. Two combinations (PP and AP) are possible.
The first example below represents the combination PP and the next two examples are
instances of the combination AP.
Uçak-lar-ın yüzey-ler-i mümkün olduğunca pürüzsüz yap=ıl-ma-ya çalış=ıl-ır.

It is attempted to make the surface of the aircraft as smooth as possible.
Sorun-lar gündem-de tut=ul-ur ve çözüm-e ulaş-ma-ya çalış=ıl-ır.
The problems are kept on the agenda and people try to find a solution.
Üç gün geç-ince on-un-la karşılaş-ma-ya çalış=ıl-sın.
They should try to meet him / her once three days have passed.
These observations lead to the conclusion that for çalış-mak and çalış=ıl-mak the variation
in the type of complement is much more restricted than for the members of the opposition
between the active başla-mak and the passive başla=n-mak. These differences can of course
be accounted for in terms of semantics: whereas başla-mak ‘to begin’ can be used intransi-
tively (The film began on time) as well as transitively (The chairman began an endless speech),
thereby describing a process and an action respectively, the transitive verb çalış-mak
(always taking a dative object) can only describe an action: an attempt to do something.
Furthermore, regarding the claim on the simultaneous passive marking of matrix and
embedded verbs, for çalış-mak and çalış=ıl-mak this is possible too, but, as witness the
previous two examples, not obligatory.
33.10.3 Verb 3: istemek
Inspection of the complements being used in sentences with the active istemek (-i) ‘to want /
demand / require’ and the passive and impersonal iste=n-mek, reveals that the form variation
is very similar to that with başla-mak and başla=n-mak.
First, both iste-mek and iste=n-mek can take nominal complements, in the form of a
noun phrase or as a nominalized verb. Here is a simple noun phrase:
Hekim bir havlu iste-di.

The doctor wanted a towel.
Onlar-dan her zaman ekmek iste=n-ir.
People demand bread all the time from them.
Secondly, a nominalized verb in –mE used as a complement in this type of construction

also carries the suffix –sI(n) with an antecedent in the genitive. It is found in active and
passive matrix verbs. In the first two examples the deverbal noun is part of a compound
(serbest bırakılma-sı ‘release’ and işten ayrılma-sı ‘leave of employment’) whereas the forms
bırak=ıl- ‘being left free’ and ayr=ıl- ‘being separated’ in the second series are pure
passives.
Biz bu nedenle on-un serbest bırakılma-sın-ı iste-di-k.

For that reason we demanded for her (to be) release(d).
Derya’nın işten ayrılma-sı iste=n-di.
One demanded Derya’s leave of employment.
On-lar-ın cami-ye gid-ip git-me-mek-te serbest bırak=ıl-ma-sı iste=n-iyor-du.
One wanted that they were left free as regarded whether or not to go to the mosque.
Hakim, baba ile oğul-un birbirin-den ayr=ıl-ma-sın-ı isti-yor-du.
The judge demanded that father and son be separated from each other.
Thirdly, in constructions with istemek as the matrix verb active and passive embeddings get
the suffix –mEk. The following three examples have a passive complement and the next two
examples an active complement.
Yatağ-a gönder=il-mek iste-mi-yor-du-m.

I didn’t want to be sent to bed.
Ama bu gâvur kent-in-de göm=ül-mek iste-me-m.
But I don’t want to be buried in this pagan city.
Güven=il-mek isti-yor-um.
I want to be trusted. / I want people to trust me.
Oyun-a katıl-mak iste-me-z mi-sin?

Don’t you want to join in (the game)?
Bu çözüm-e biz de katkıda bulun-mak iste-di-k.
We too wanted to contribute to handling this problem.
Instead of –mEk the form –mE-yI occurs in relative clauses:
Ben-im-le paylaş-ma-yı iste-diğ-in bir şey var mı-ydı?

Was there something you want(ed) to share with me?
With a passive matrix verb nothing will be different:
Ne zaman vakit bul=un-ur-sa o zaman ye=n-iyor,

hiçbir şey ihmal ed=il-me-mek iste=n-iyor-du.
Whenever time was found, then one would eat,
one wanted nothing to be missed out.
Yalnızca büyük şey-ler yap-mak iste=n-mi-yor,
yap=ıl-an-lar-ı öv-mek de iste=n-iyor.
One doesn’t only want to make great things,
one wants also to praise all which is made.
33.10.4 Verb 4: beklemek
In the foregoing the following has become clear. First, active and passive variants of
başlamak, çalışmak, and istemek in the role of matrix verb can take complements based on
both active as well as passive verbs; second, all possible combinations occur (in as far as the
semantics of the main verb allow); and, third, it is surely not the case that a passive matrix
verb is always accompanied by a passive embedded verb.
Other verbs also show that they occur in the combinations passive-active (PA), active-
active (AA), passive-passive (PP), and active-passive (AP). Here are some examples based
on beklemek (-i) ‘to await / wait for’ as matrix verb.
Ahmet, kapı-nın aç=ıl-ma-sın-ı ve sevgili-sin-in gel-me-sin-i bekli-yor.

Ahmet waits until the door opens (is opened) and his beloved enters.
Yakala=n-ma-sın-ı bekle-yecek-sin-iz.
You will / have to await his arrest (being arrested).
Şimdi okul-lar-ın kapa=n-ma-sın-ı bekli-yor-uz.
Now we wait until the schools close down (are being closed).
And here are some examples of bekle=n-mek ‘to be expected / be waited (for)’:
Birkaç gün içinde hükümet-in kurulma-sı bekle=n-iyor.

Within a couple of days the formation of a government is expected.
Anlaşma-nın bir sene içinde yürürlüğ-e gir-me-si bekle=n-iyor.

It is expected that the agreement will come into force within a year.
Bu borç-lar-ın birkaç sene-de geri öde=n-me-si bekle=n-iyor.
One expects that these debts will be paid back in a couple of years.
Değerlendirme-ler-in bu ay-ın son-un-da sonuçlandır=ıl-ma-sı bekle=n-iyor.
It is expected that the evaluations will be concluded at the end of this month.
Perhaps it is worth mentioning that stacking more than two passives will result in impressively
complex constructions. For details the reader is referred to chapter 34.
33.11 Other types of embedding
In adverbial phrases those based on a verbal embedding are very common. In chapter 27
the different types of expression have been discussed that form an adverbial phrase. This
section will further go into the question of what kind of embeddings are possible in
adverbial phrases.
33.11.1 Simultaneity
In section 27.3 it was explained that the suffix –(y)ken can be placed after any arbitrary
predicate (nominal or verbal, existential or after a noun phrase in the locative), that its
meaning is ‘while / during’, and that this meaning also applies to –(y)ErEk, which can occur
only after a verb stem. Any verb taking either of these suffixes can take a sentential object as
well, as can be demonstrated by the following.
Türkiye’nin ABD (Amerika Birleşik Devlet-ler-i) pazar-ın-dan daha çok

faydalan-ma-ya başla-dığ-ın-ı göster-diğ-in-i vurgula-r-ken . . .
Emphasizing that Turkey demonstrates to have started benefiting more and more
from the American market . . .
Nüfus-un o zaman yüzde 80’in-in karanlık-ta bulun-duğ-un-u hatırlat-arak . . .
Reminding us / them that eighty per cent of the population sat in the dark at that time . . .
33.11.2 Temporal aspects
In section 27.4 the verbal suffixes –(y)ElI ‘since’, –(y)IncE ‘when’, the combination –TIK +
possessive suffix + –TE ‘when’, –mEdEn ‘without / before’ and the suffix –mEksIzIn ‘with-
out’ have been introduced. A verb to which any one of these suffixes has been attached can
take a sentential object itself.
Bu gürültü son-a er-miş-ti ve ben ölümlü ol-duğ-un-u anla-yalı çok ol-ma-mış-tı.

The noise had stopped and not much time had elapsed since the moment
I understood that this was lethal.
Fakat kendi-si için artık her şey-in bit-miş ol-duğ-un-u söyle-yince . . .

But when he said that everything had already finished for himself . . .
Pek değiş-me-miş ol-duğ-un-u söyle-diğ-im-de . . .
As I said, she hadn’t changed that much . . .
Televizyon-un düğme-sin-e bas-ıp bir süre ne izle-diğ-in-i anla-madan izle-di.
He hit the button of the telly and watched a while without grasping what he saw.
Ne yap-tığ-ın-ı bil-meksizin yer-den bir dal parça-sı al-ıp köpeğ-e uzat-tı.
Without knowing what he was doing he picked up a piece of a branch from
the ground and held it out to the dog.
33.11.3 Reason / degree
In section 27.5 suffix combinations were discussed expressing reason and degree: –TIK +
possessive suffix + –TEn ‘because’, –TIK + possessive suffix + için ‘because’, –TIK + possessive
suffix + halde ‘although’ and the suffix –TIkçE ‘as / as much as / as long as’. Some examples
with a sentential object are:
Kendi-sin-e hangi reng-in iyi gel-eceğ-in-i bil-diğ-in-den . . .

Because she knew which colour would suit her . . .
Bütün bun-lar-ın ne kadar zor ol-duğ-un-u bil-diğ-im için . . .
Because I know / knew how difficult all this is / was . . .
Üç yıl-dan beri yatak-ta ol-duğ-un-u söyle-diğ-im halde . . .
Although I said that he had been bedridden for three years . . .
İhtiyar-ın her gün boş sandal-ı-yla dön-düğ-ün-ü gör-dükçe, üzül-üyor-du.
The more often she saw the old man returning every day with his empty boat,
the sadder she became.
33.11.4 Comparative expressions
A form of embedding is also found in combination with the comparative of adjectives.

There are three distinct types of construction.
First, assuming the value X for the quality or property expressed by an adjective, personal
constructions are built up along the lines of san-dığ-ın-dan daha ‘more X than you / she /
he think(s)’; inan-dığ-ın-dan daha ‘more X than you / he / she believe(s)’; anlat-tığ-ın-dan
daha ‘more X than you / she / he tell(s) / told’. The following examples are based on similar
constructions.
Ben de babaanne-m-i, on-un kendi-sin-i bil-diğ-in-den daha iyi bil-ir-di-m.

I knew my grandmother better than she knew herself.
Ban-a bekle-diğ-im-den çok yardım et-ti.

He helped me more than I expected.
Secondly, impersonal constructions allow for an interpretation in terms of ‘one’ or ‘they’ in
combination with a passive verb. Comparable constructions are: gör=ül-düğ-ün-den daha
‘more X than is being seen / visible’; san=ıl-dığ-ın-dan daha ‘more X than is being thought’;
söyle=n-diğ-in-den daha ‘more X than they say’. Also:
Yemek-ler düşün=ül-düğ-ün-den daha pahalı-ydı.

The dishes were more expensive than had been thought.
As can be expected, in the cases of ‘to have’ and ‘to be’ the form ol- occurs:
Bu on-a ol-duğ-un-dan daha çocuksu bir görünüm ver-iyor-du.

This gave her a much more childish look that she already had.
Kız-ın, ol-duğ-un-dan daha büyük göster-diğ-in-i düşün-dü-m.
I thought that the girl showed herself bigger than she was.
Evet, bazı şey-ler ol-muş. Bir rapor yaz=ıl-mış. On-un tartışma-sı ol-muş ama
bun-lar-ı ol-duğ-un-dan fazla büyüt-me-mek gerek-iyor.
Surely, a few things have happened. A report was written. Its discussion took
place, but one should not blow things out of proportion.
33.11.5 Postpositional embeddings
In phrases based on a postposition plus a sentential complement (for details, see also sec-
tion 28.1), a transitive verb can take a sentential object. The following examples are based
on the postpositions discussed in chapter 28.
Kozma’nın emr-i alt-ın-da ol-duğ-un-u öğren-diğ-im-den beri . . .

Since I heard / learned that he is under the command of Kozma . . .
Bu konu-da aynı düşünce-de ol-duk-ların-ı gör-düğ-ün-den dolayı
çok sevin-diğ-in-i anlat-tı.
He told (us) that he was very happy because he had seen that in this
area they had the same ideas.
Bun-u iyi bil-me-diğ-in-den ötürü özür dili-yor-muş gibi bir hal-i var-dı.
Because she didn’t know this well, she had an attitude as if apologizing.
Öğretmen bir önce-ki ders-te ne-ler yap=ıl-dığ-ın-ı tekrarla-dıktan sonra . . .
After he repeated what had been done in the previous lesson, the teacher…
Adam-ın kim ol-duğ-un-u bil-me-den önce . . .
Even before they knew who the man was . . .
Öğretmen-i nasıl dinle-dik-ler-in-i göster-mek için . . .

In order to show how well they have listened to the teacher . . .
Telefon-un alıcı durum-un-a geç-me-sin-i önle-mek için . . .
In order to prevent the telephone switching to the reception state . . .
İlan ed=il-en uçuş yasağ-ı bölge-si uygulama-sın-ı destekle-mek üzere . . .
In order to support the creation of the No-Fly-Zone announced . . .
Dünya-nın en iyi dinle-yen insan-ı ol-duğ-um-u söyle-mek üzere-yken
vazgeç-iyor-du-m.
While I was about to say that I’m the best listening man on earth,
I gave up (the idea).
33.11.6 Quantifying embeddings
As a final point, the quantitative postposition kadar ‘as X as’ (see also section 28.5), in
which X stands for some quality, can take a verbal complement as well, as in:
İç-ebil-diğ-in kadar iç ve yi-yebil-diğ-in kadar ye!

Drink and eat as much as you can!
Koş-abil-diğ-in kadar koş ve at-abil-diğ-in kadar at!
Run as fast as you can and throw it as far / fast as you can!
Gel-ebil-diğ-in kadar çabuk bura-ya gel!
Come here as quickly as possible!
Çal-abil-diğ-in kadar güçlü bir ıslık çal!
Whistle as loudly as you can!
This construction can be made with all grammatical persons:
Yap-abil-diğ-imiz kadar yap-ma-dı-k, maalesef.

We have not done as much as we could have done, unfortunately.
İste-diğ-iniz kadar protesto ed-ebil-ir-siniz.
You can protest as much as you want.
Anla-dığ-ım kadar anlat-acağ-ım.
I will tell you in so far as I understand.
Hamal-lar kol-lar-ın-da taşı-yabil-dik-leri kadar al-ıyor-lar-dı.
The porters took as much as they could carry in their arms.
Application to the future tense is possible as well, and particularly frequent in combination
with the abilitative suffix –(y)Ebil- / –(y)EmE-:
İki üç masa-nın zor sığ-acağ-ı kadar küçük bir yer-di.

It was such a small space that two or three tables would hardly fit in it.
On-un-la ilgili anı-lar-ım, yok di-yebil-eceğ-im kadar çok.

The memories I have of him are almost nil.
Göster-ebil-eceğ-i kadar kayıtsızlık-la cevap ver-iyor-du.
She answered with all possible indifference she could show.
İnan-ama-yacağ-ınız kadar çok.
So much / many that you won’t be able to believe it.
Mustafa’nın duy-ama-yacağ-ı kadar alçak bir ses-le . . .
With a voice so low that Mustafa couldn’t hear . . .
Hayal ed-eme-yeceğ-im kadar zengin-di-m.
I was rich, so rich I wouldn’t be able to dream.
Constructions with –(y)EcEK kadar are impersonal and make reference to a general situation.
In such constructions a possessive suffix is absent. Their meaning is ‘(just) enough / (hardly)
sufficient’. Compare:
Öl-me-yecek kadar işsizlik para-sı al-ıyor-um.

I receive enough unemployment benefit to keep starvation away.
Bu ülke-de herkes-e yet-ecek kadar ekmek var.
In this country there is just enough bread for everyone.
Kavga çıkar-acak kadar kıskançlık yap-ma-nın alem-i yok ki.
But there is no point in being so jealous as to start a row.
Herkes şimdi şikâyet ed-iyor, ama biz oldum olası hiçbir zaman ay son-un-a
getir-ecek kadar para kazan-ma-dı-k.
Everyone complains now, but for as long as I have known we never earned enough
money to take us until the end of the month.
By means of the past participle –mIş, combined with kadar some quantity is expressed,
related to a hypothetical situation.
Böyle bir çalışma-dan çık-tık-tan sonra insan büyük bir güreş-ten çık-mış
kadar yorgun ol-uyor.
After such a job you are so tired, as if you had come out of a wrestling match.
Yatak-lar-ımız-a dikil-ip bak-tı-k: Ercan ip-ten indir=il-miş kadar sarı idi.
We sat straight up in our beds and looked: Ercan was as yellow
as if he just had been cut loose from the rope.
Constructions based on –(y)IncE-yE kadar (see section 27.4.2) are not specified for tense.
Bilgisayar başına bir otur-duk-ların-da 20-30 saat boyunca ve yıkıl-ınca-ya

kadar çalış-ır-lar, yemeğ-i ancak hatırla-r-lar-sa veya biri getir-ir-se yer-ler.
Once they sit at their computers they work for 20–30 hours until they
collapse and they only eat when they think about it (when they remember)
or when someone brings them food.
An alternative for –(y)EcEK kadar is based on derece ‘degree’ (see section 27.5.10), as in:
On-u deli gibi, on-suz yaşa-yama-yacağ-ımız-ı hissed-ecek derece-de

sev-me-ye başla-ma-mız-ın neden-i ne-dir acaba?
One wonders what the reason is that we began to love her like madmen,
so much that we felt we wouldn’t be able to live without her.
Bu bilgi-ler-in iç-in-de insan-ı şaşırt-acak derece-de
bekle=n-me-yen-ler-i de var-dır.
In this information there are surely also data about it which are not expected,
to the extent that they (the data) will confuse people.
33.12 Cleft sentences: object participles as subject
In section 32.7 it was discussed how subject participles and object participles are used inde-
pendently. In principle they can syntactically be applied as subject, object, predicate and
they can form the core of an adverbial phrase. Object participles used as subject can be
illustrated as follows:
İşte kesin olarak bil-diğ-im bu-dur.

Look, what I know for sure is this.
Bütün söyle-diğ-im bu-ydu.
All I have said was this.
Fakat de-mek iste-diğ-im bu değil, bil-iyor-sun.
But this is not what I want to say, you know that.
Other syntactic functions can be exemplified by:
Oysa ben al-dığ-ım-ın yarı-dan çoğ-un-u on-lar-a gönder-mek zorunda-ydı-m.

But more than half of what I received I had to send them.
San-a ver-diğ-im-den başka el-in-de ne var?
Other than what I gave you, what else do you have in your hand?
These Turkish examples all open with new information: one could say that ‘what I know for
sure’, ‘all I have said’, et cetera, are in focus. But the content of such an object clause may
also be given information, and as a matter of consequence, that information is already
understood and can therefore be put in the background.
In this section independent object participles are discussed in the role of syntactic sub-
ject and placed in sentence-final position. What is expressed by the object participle is
pragmatically speaking old information, and that is why it is more or less presented as an
afterthought. The result is a sentence which is reminiscent of the so-called cleft sentences
in, for instance, English. Clefts typically put a particular constituent into focus, and in
Turkish it is the predicate that is put in the foreground.
33.12 Cleft sentences: object participles as subject 643
Olağanüstü bir an-dı yaşa-dığ-ı.

It was an extraordinary moment, what he has been through.
Baba-sın-ın araba-sı-ydı gör-düğ-ü.
It was his father’s automobile, what she saw.
Yine de Şirin kadar güzel ol-mak değil-di iste-diğ-i.
And yet it was not ‘being as beautiful as Şirin’, what she wanted.
Bu ses kim-in-di? Küçük bir çocuğ-un acı dolu ses-i-ydi duy-duğ-u.
Whose voice was this? It was a small child’s voice, full of grief, what she heard.
In a similar fashion object participles can be constructed which do not consist of a single
word, but are seemingly extended by a number of arguments. In fact these are fully fledged
headless relative clauses, as is the case in the following two examples:
İşte, işte o kadın! Mahmut’un şimdi düşün-düğ-ü.

Look, there’s that woman! Whom Mahmut is thinking of now.
Delilik, bu garson-un yap-mak iste-diğ-i.
It is madness, what this waiter wants to do.
Paraphrasing these examples brings to light that there is an identity relation between the
two parts of the sentence. The ‘woman’ in the prefinal example is of course given informa-
tion, since Mahmut’un düşün-düğ-ü kadın ‘the woman Mahmut is thinking of ’ must earlier
have been part of the discourse. Similarly, there must already have been a judgement that
can be described in the final example as Bu garson-un yap-mak iste-diğ-i delilik ‘What this
waiter wants to do is madness’.
However, there are many circumstances in which it is not the discourse that provides
givenness of some constituent or other, but rather the context. More specifically, certain
nouns are the denotation of mental content. Now, there are sentences that consist of an
introductory part in which such a noun (antecedent) is used, the mental content of which
is instantiated in the second part of the sentence. This is the case in the following examples,
in which the antecedent is underscored.
On-a bir tek şey söyle=n-emi-yor, abi-sin-in yıkıntı-lar-ın alt-ın-da can ver-diğ-i.
The one thing which he cannot be told is that his brother lost his life in the rubble.
On-lar-ın görüş-leri ise İnternet’in bilgi çağ-ın-ın yapı taşı ol-duğ-u.
And their viewpoint is that the Internet is a building block of the information era.
Apart from nouns, subject and object participles can also form the introduction:
Tabii, şimdi ben-i daha çok ilgilendir-en Şafak’a nasıl davran-dığ-ı.

Of course, what I am most interested in now is how she behaves towards Şafak.
Ben-im bil-diğ-im, tek kuruş birik-miş para-sı ol-ma-dığ-ı.
What I do know is that he has not a single kuruş (accumulated) as savings.
As for tense, besides –TIK the object participle in –EcEK is found as well, and as projectional
extensions –(y)TI and –TIr are not uncommon in this type of construction.
Asıl mesele bisküvi-ler-in Türkiye’nin dört bir yan-ın-a nasıl dağıt=ıl-acağ-ı-dır.

The real problem is how the biscuits should be distributed all around Turkey.
İlk düşünce-si bun-un bir ejderha ol-abil-eceğ-i-ydi.
Her first thought was that this could be a dragon / large snake.
Bil-diğ-im bir şey, Nino’nun o gece-yi unut-ama-dığ-ı-dır.
One thing I know is that Nino has surely not been able to forget that evening.
Ev-den edin-diğ-i izlenim bu ev-de hiç olay yaşan-ma-dığ-ı-ydı.
The impression she had from the house was that there had occurred no incident at all.
PART VIII
C OMPL E X SE NT E NCE S
Chapter 34 shows how embedded sentences can be stacked. This forms structures of the
shape ‘sentence in a sentence in a sentence’, etc. In Chapter 35 it is explained how a sentence
can be the complement of adjectives, of nouns and nominal compounds, of words express-
ing possibilities and probabilities, and of postpositions. Postposition-like constructions are
discussed in chapter 36. These involve fossilized structures with the shape of an inflected
postposition. Finally, chapter 37 deals with verbal complexes and these mostly consist of a
tensed verb combined with some form or other of the auxiliary olmak, leading to several sorts
of aspectual meanings. Non-verbal negational elements combined with verbal sentences
will also be discussed.
34
Stacking embedded sentences
This chapter discusses how recursion works for several types of verbal predicates. Every
verb that allows for a sentential complement based on a verb can form the core of such a
complement itself. These comprise verbs of perception such as see, hear, feel, and verbs of
mental content such as know, remember, believe, suppose, and the like. As a corollary the
embedded verb takes a nominalized shape, visible in suffixes signalling tense and person.
Compared to English and related languages, Turkish is a language which works ‘the
other way around’ with respect to its constituent ordering—the verb is preferably put at the
end of the sentence and all other constituents are preceding it, and this has important
implications for the internal structure of the Turkish sentence.
One of these implications is that if a verb is not placed in sentence-final position, as,
for instance, in an embedded sentence, this verb is going to behave like a noun—it obtains
nominal properties and it takes a (transitional) suffix which attracts nominal suffixes. In
this way the standard word ordering ‘subject-object-verb’ can be maintained.
An embedded verb can take another embedding and this implies that embeddings are to
be stacked on to one another. Simple examples are:
Bolu’dan ne haber ol-duğ-un-u sor-duğ-um zaman . . .

When I asked what news there was from Bolu . . .
Adam-lar-ın hepsin-in git-tiğ-in-i söyle-di.

He said that all men were going.
Adam-lar-ın hepsin-in git-miş ol-duğ-un-u söyle-di.

He said that all men had gone.
In the first example the auxiliary ol- must be applied because ‘there is news from Bolu’ is
the direct object of sormak ‘to ask’. In the second sentence there is a sentential object
(Adam-lar-ın hepsin-in git-tiğ-i ‘all the men-go’), and in the third example the direct object
is expressed by ol- because the combination of –mIş and –TIK is not possible. These verbal
forms are stacked and this phenomenon is particularly clearly visible in sentences with an
embedded verb which takes a verbal object itself. Consider:
Dede-m-in, on-un-la neden karşılaş-mak iste-me-diğ-in-i bil-me-z-di-m.

I never knew why my grandfather didn’t want to meet him.
That nominalization of a verb also takes place when it forms a grammatical subject is not
surprising either, as has been pointed out in section 33.3 in great detail. Examples are:
Sen-i unut-ama-ma-nın ver-diğ-i acı-lar bir hamlede sona er-miş-ti.

All the grief that not being able to forget you gave me was over at one stroke.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
648 Stacking embedded sentences
Bütün bu gerçek-ler-i söyle-me-me-nin olanaksız ol-duğ-un-u hissed-iyor-du.

He felt that not telling all these truths / veracities was impossible.
Especially verbs expressing an observation or a propositional content (facts—see

sections 33.5, 33.8.1 and 33.8.5–33.8.7) frequently occur in a stacked series of participles.
These are verbs such as see, hear, feel, and also know, remember, believe, suppose, and the
like. The first series of examples is based on see, hear, and feel. It should be noted that
duymak has two meanings: ‘to feel / to hear’ and ‘to be informed’.
Ora-da dur-duğ-un-u gör-düğ-üm ilk araba-ya atla-dı-m.

I jumped into the first car I saw stopping there.
Ölüm, Kemal Atatürk’ü, yaklaş-mak-ta ol-duğ-un-u gör-düğ-ü ikinci
bir toplu öldürme-yi yaşa-mak zorunda kal-mak-tan koru-du.
Death kept Kemal Atatürk from going through a second mass slaughter,
which he saw coming closer.
Çoktan-dır ufuk-ta parla-dığ-ın-ı gör-düğ-ümüz şimşek-ler çok daha
şiddetlen-me-ye başla-dı.
The thunderbolts we had seen lighting up the skyfor a long time at the horizon began
to become much more intense.
Soğu-duğ-un-u ve pıhtılaş-tığ-ın-ı duy-duğ-u ılık kan-ın görünüm-ü
on-u tepe-den tırnağ-a kadar titret-ti.
The sight of the lukewarm blood, which he felt cooling off and clotting,
made him shiver from head to foot.
Boğaz-ın-dan çık-tığ-ın-ı duy-duğ-u ses-ler on-u çok korkut-tu.
The sounds he heard coming from her throat terrified him.
In the next example duy- means ‘to be informed’:
Şu anda görüş=ül-düğ-ün-ü duy-duğ-umuz anayasa-dan bir bilgi-miz yok-tur.

We have no information about the constitution of which we heard that it is
currently being discussed.
Facts are expressed by verbs such as know, believe, think that, remember, and suppose.
Examples of how bilmek ‘to know’ is used are:
Büyükanne-m, küçük yaş-lar-da çok sev-diğ-im-i bil-diğ-i bir bardak sıcak

süt koy-uyor-du baş-ım-ın uc-un-a.
At the head of my bed my grandmother placed a glass of hot milk,
of which she knew that I was fond when I was young.
İsmet ay-lar-dır kapalı ol-duğ-un-u bil-diğ-i yol-a gir-di.
Ismet took a road about which he knew that it had been blocked for months.
Masa-da, ev-e ait ol-duğ-un-u bil-diğ-i bir anahtar var-dı.
On the table was a key about which she knew that it belonged to the house.
Stacking embedded sentences 649
Vaktiyle çok güzel ol-duğ-un-u bil-diğ-i—şimdi de belli ya—sevimli kadın

kendi-sin-e hiç uy-ma-yan bir adam-la nasıl nişanlan-mış?
How could such a lovable woman, whom he knew to have been pretty in her day—still
now this was visible—get engaged to a man with whom she is ill-matched?
However, if the noun following bildiği carries a possessive marker (compound marker; see
section 31.4.2), this combination is to be considered a sentential compound (see section 35.2):
Şu kız da kim?
—Davranış-lar-ın-dan ben-im kim ol-duğ-um-u bil-diğ-i sonuc-un-u çıkar-ıyor-um.
And who is that girl?
—On the basis of her behaviour I draw the conclusion that she knows who I am.
Examples of be sure of, believe, think that, remember, and suppose are:
Öfke-sin-i gizle-diğ-in-den emin ol-duğ-um hoca-mız-dan çekin-iyor-du-m.

I didn’t feel at ease with our teacher, of whom I was sure he was hiding his anger.
Gerekli ol-duğ-un-a inan-dığ-ım bazı şey-ler-i söyle-yeme-di-m.
A few things I considered necessary I could not say.
Çok sev-diğ-im ve ben-i ben-den fazla sev-diğ-in-e inan-dığ-ım
bir arkadaş-ım geçen hafta vefat et-ti.
A friend of mine, whom I liked very much and whom I believed to like me
more than I liked him, passed away last week.
Düş-üm-den gel-diğ-in-i san-dığ-ım çığlık-lar-la yer-im-den fırla-dı-m.
I sat up straight with shouts which I thought came from my dream.
Çok uzak-lar-da ol-up bit-tiğ-in-i san-dığ-ımız bir olay-ın gün-ün
bir-in-de biz-im baş-ımız-a da gel-ip gel-me-yeceğ-in-i bil-eme-yiz.
We just can’t know whether an event of which we think that it is taking place
far away will happen to us as well one day.
Soyad-ın-ın Güreş ol-duğ-un-u hatırla-dığ-ım bir orman mühendi-si var-dı.
There was a forestry engineer of whom I remember that his last name was Güreş.
Adam-ın kendi-sin-den ne talep et-tiğ-in-i söyle-yeme-yeceğ-in-i
biz-e açıkla-dığ-ın-da ne kadar şaşır-dığ-ımız-ı hâlâ hatırla-yabil-iyor-um.
I can still recall how very confused we were when she explained to us that
she wouldn’t be able to say what the man demanded from her.
2000 yıl önce yap=ıl-dığ-ın-ı tahmin et-tiğ-imiz resim-ler-di bun-lar.
These were paintings of which we suspect that they were made 2,000 years ago.
‘Kaltak!’ diye bağır-ıyor-du Ali’nin-ki ol-duğ-un-u tahmin et-tiğ-im bir ses.
‘Whore!’ shouted a voice of which I surmised it belonged to Ali.
This way of stacking verbs boils down to ‘embedding in embedding’ and since this mechanism
is recursive, there is in principle no theoretical limit to the number of embeddings. In the
next example there are four verbs in one sentence.
650 Stacking embedded sentences
Saygı göster=il-me-si gerek-tiğ-in-e inan-dığ-ın-ı bil-iyor-uz.

We know that he believed that it was necessary that respect should be shown.
Stacking of passive forms is not unusual either, as follows from:
Bun-un-la, kent-in, Kemalist-ler-e müttefik-ler tarafından

geri ver=il-me-si önle=n-mek iste=n-iyor-du.
With this one wanted to avoid the city being given back by the allies to the Kemalists.
Önceden baba ve çocuk birbir-lerin-e bak=ıl-arak benzet=il-me-ye çalış=ıl-ır-dı.
In the beginning one has tried to compare father and child by looking at them.
But there are sentences in which several passive forms occur which are not related to one
another. This is the case in:
Geç-tiğ-imiz hafta darp rapor-u ver=il-en ve bugün anne-si tarafından

döv=ül-düğ-ü iddia ed=il-en üç yaşında-ki çocuk hayat-ın-ı kaybet-ti.
The three-year-old child, who was last week reported to have been beaten
and who was allegedly beaten today by his mother, has lost his life.
Another example of the greatness of ease with which Turkish verbs nominalize is provided by
independently used relative clauses (see section 32.7). In the next example aklına gel-en-i
‘that which comes to his mind’ is the direct object of söylemek ‘to say’, yap=ıl-acak-lar ‘all that
which has to be done’ is the direct object of tamamlamak ‘to complete’, and söyle-yecek-ler-im
‘all that which I’m going to say / order’ is the direct object of the verb almak ‘to take down’.
Herkes akl-ın-a gel-en-i söylü-yor.

Everyone (just) says what comes to his mind.
İlk yap=ıl-acak-lar-ı tamamla-yınca söyle-yecek-ler-im-i al-mak için
bir adım geri çekil-di.
When he was done with all that had to be done first,
he stepped back to take down what I was going to order (‘say’).
Another factor which is co-responsible for the strategy of embedding is the fact that
Turkish has no prepositions to link nouns, adjectives, and noun phrases. Except for ki (see
section 33.1) and the system of embedding, there are no means to make a subordinate
clause. This function is partially fulfilled by postpositions (see section 35.5): they take either
a simple noun phrase as their complement or a sentential subject or object. Embeddings
are found on a large scale with adjectives (section 35.1), but also as the complement in
nominal compounds (section 35.2), postpositions (section 35.5) and with gibi ‘like, as if ’
(section 35.6).
35
Sentential complements
Not only transitive verbs can take a sentential complement. The lexical category of adjectives
(section 35.1) contains a limited number of items that can take a sentential complement.
Also certain nouns (section 35.2), such as kinship terms, make sense only with some other
notion in the background, and there are two ways this is expressed: by a genitive-possessive
construction or by a nominal compound with a sentential complement. The next section
shows that adjectives, nouns, and adverbs expressing an epistemic modality (section 35.3)
take their sentential complements in a similar way. An alternative is found in existential
constructions with an infinitival complement in the dative. This pattern is common to
predicates expressing a deontic modality (section 35.3) as well. Postpositional sentential
complements are treated in section 35.5 and in section 35.6 the various types of comple-
ment of gibi ‘like’ will be explored.
35.1 Complements of adjectives
Certain adjectives in English are linked to their complements by means of a preposition: in

Turkish this linkage function is fulfilled by a case marker. Worth mentioning are: bağlı (-e)
‘dependent (on)’; ilgili (-(y)le) ‘in connection (to)’; hazır (-e) ‘ready (to)’; uygun (-e) ‘suitable
(for)’; alışkın (-e) ‘used (to)’.
The complement can be a noun phrase or a sentential complement, as in:
Bun-un doğru veya yanlış ol-ma-sın-a bağlı ol-duğ-u san=ıl-ma-malı-dır.

One should not think that this depends on whether it is right or wrong.
Canlı-lar-ın ömr-ün-ün uzat=ıl-ma-sı-yla ilgili çalışma-lar da sür=dür=ül-üyor.
Research on life prolongation (in living beings) is also continuing.
Ora-lar-da hava-yı, türlü hastalık-lar-ın iyileş=tir=il-me-sin-e ve
sağlığ-ın koru=n-ma-sın-a uygun ve iyi san-ıyor-uz.
We believe that the weather there is good and serves for the protection of health
and curing of all kinds of diseases.
Bu saat-te içme-ye hiç alışkın ol-ma-dığ-ı halde bir sigara yak-tı.
Though he was not used to smoking at this hour, he lit a cigarette.
A similar word is yana (see also section 13.1), which is in use as a postposition and as an
adjective. It takes ablative complements and is also used predicatively.
Bugün şans sen-den yana değil.

Fortune is not on your side today.
Hiç kimse-den yana değil-iz.
We do not favour anybody. / We are not on anybody’s side.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
652 Sentential complements
Irak’ın böl=ün-me-sin-den yana değil-ler.

They are not in favour of a subdivision of Iraq.
Biz Azerbaycan’ın ora-da otur-an-lar-a ait ol-ma-sın-dan yana-yız.
We are all for Azerbaijan belonging to those who live there.
35.2 Complements of nouns and nominal compounds
Certain nouns are relational, that is to say, they are to be understood only in relation to
some other noun. Using a kinship term, for instance, there is always the presupposition
of some related person, be it or be it not in the background. Thus, father implies child, and
conversely, child implies parent, father, mother.
Yet other nouns, such as fetih ‘conquest’, icat ‘invention’, keşif ‘discovery’, gelişme ‘develop-
ment’, and the like are always related to a noun which functions, as it were, as a kind of
object. Consider the underscored fragment in:
İstanbul’un feth-in-in 567. yıldönümü tören-ler-le kutla-n-ıyor.

The 567th anniversary of the conquest of Istanbul will be celebrated with ceremonies.
Tekerleğ-in icad-ı son derece önemli buluş-tur.
The invention of the wheel is an extremely important finding.
Bir element-in başka bir element-le elektron alışveriş-i sonucunda,
malzeme-ler-in elektriksel iletkenlik özellik-ler-in-i değiştir-ebil-eceğ-in-in
keşf-i, mikroçip-ler gibi elektronik aygıt-lar-ın gelişme-sin-i olanaklı kıl-dı.
The discovery that, as a result of the exchange of electrons of one element with
those of another the properties of electrical conductivity in materials could change,
made the development of electronic instruments such as microchips possible.
In Turkish such notions are expressed by means of the genitive-possessive construction,

but there is a third category of nouns which can be linked to another linguistic unit:
nominal compounds.
As has been advanced in section 31.4.3, the formation of a new noun on the basis
of two existing words (nominal compounding) is a powerful means whereby to enrich
the lexicon. This derivational process is relatively simple and is used to create larger
and more complex structures. The reason is obvious: because there are neither any
prepositions in Turkish, nor words to mark subordination, it is impossible to follow a
constituent ordering as in ‘a feeling of he-always-knows-everything-better’ or ‘the question
as to what-are-you-going-to-do-next-year-after-you-will-have-finished-school’.
For this type of construction Turkish simply resorts to compounding: the head noun
gets the suffix –(s)I(n) and follows its sentential complement. In this complement the nor-
mal constituent ordering is maintained. Compare the following pairs:
Ali, kendi-sin-i niye terk et-tiğ-in-i sor-du. (sentence)

Ali asked why she had left him.
Kendi-sin-i niye terk et-tiğ-i soru-su . . . (compound)
The question why she has left him . . .
Ali, kendi-sin-i terk ed-eceğ-in-e inan-dı. (sentence)

Ali believed that she would leave him.
Kendi-sin-i terk ed-eceğ-i inanc-ı . . . (compound)
The belief that she would leave him . . .
Clearly, there is a relation between sormak ‘to ask’ and soru ‘question’ on the one hand and
inanmak ‘to believe’ and inanç ‘belief ’ on the other. Many other verbs and nouns exhibit a
similar relationship, although in a number of cases the noun is derived from a verb (→),
but in other cases the verb is derived from a noun (←). For instance:
sormak ‘to ask’ → soru ‘question’

yanıtlamak ‘to answer’ ← yanıt ‘answer’
inanmak ‘to believe’ → inanç ‘belief ’
korkmak ‘to fear’ → korku ‘fear / angst’
ümit etmek ‘to hope’ ← ümit ‘hope’
iddia etmek ‘to claim’ ← iddia ‘claim / statement’
duymak ‘to feel’ → duygu ‘feeling’
hissetmek ‘to feel’ ← his ‘feeling’
istemek ‘to want’ → istek ‘wish’
emretmek ‘to order / command’ ← emir ‘order / command’
teklif etmek ‘to propose’ ← teklif ‘proposal’
All these nouns take a sentential complement, which can vary from a direct speech
complement to a normal embedded sentence.
‘O kadın-lar ne isti-yor-lar?’ soru-su . . .

The question ‘What do these women want?’ . . .
‘Yap-abil-eceğ-imiz bir şey yok, öyle-dir bir kez’ yanıt-ın-ı ver-di.
She answered: ‘We can’t help it, it is just the way it is.’
Bu konu-da bir görüşme yap-ıp yap-ma-dık-ları soru-su . . .
The question of whether they had talked about this . . .
Feride, adam-ın biz-e de uğra-ma-yacağ-ı cevab-ın-ı ver-di.
Feride gave the answer that the man wouldn’t come over to us either.
Also a word such as duygu ‘feeling’ follows this pattern:
Kendi-sin-in de on-un yer-in-de aynı şey-i yap-acağ-ı duygu-su . . .

The feeling that she would do the same in his position . . .
On-u tanı-yor-muş-um duygu-su . . .
The feeling that I knew him . . .
Başka bir insan-la bir ol-mak duygu-su . . .
The feeling of being one with someone else . . .
Interestingly, some nouns are subject to certain constraints with respect to the type
of complement they can take. Mainly this has to do with the meaning of the noun in
question: for instance, teklif ‘proposal’ and karar ‘decision’ take only complements in –mE,
because these notions pertain to an action to be carried out in the future:
Yan-ımız-a bir hizmetçi tak-ma teklif-i . . .

The proposal to assign us a servant . . .
Lewis’in film-ler-in-den hiç bir-in-i seyret-me-me karar-ı . . .
The decision to see not a single film of Lewis’s any more . . .
Nouns such as korku ‘fear’ can take complements in the form of a bare noun, a direct speech
fragment, an infinitival clause, or an embedding expressing a fact. Consider:
Zavallı kadın-lar hep dayak korku-su içinde yaş-ar-lar-dı.

The poor women lived with the fear of being beaten all the time.
Sonradan ağla-mak zorunda kal-ır-ım korku-su-yla şimdi gül-me-ye bak-ıyor-um.
With the fear that ‘I will cry afterwards’ I worry myself with laughing now.
Dikiş-ler pat diye ayrıl-acak korku-su-yla otur-amı-yor-du-m.
I couldn’t sit down from fear that the seams would come apart with a crack.
Kötü haber al-ma korku-sun-a kapıl-dı.
She was paralysed with fear of receiving bad news.
Görül-mek korku-su-yla kendi-m-i sokağ-a at-tı-m.
With fear of being spotted I ran into the street.
On-dan azar işit-eceğ-im korku-su-yla ev-in-e git-me-ye cesaret ed-eme-di-m.
I did not dare to go to his house for fear of being scolded by him.
Minare-ler-den biri-nin sivri külah-ın-a geç-iver-eceğ-im korku-su . . .
The fear that I will end up on the sharp-pointed spire of some minaret or other . . .
The word kaygı ‘anxiety / worry’ also has the possibility of taking such complements:
Bir başka neden de enflasyon kaygı-sı-dır.

Another reason is anxiety / worries about inflation.
Gün-ün bir-in-de dön-er-se-m tanıdık şey-ler bul-a-yım kaygı-sın-ı güt-me-di-m.
I didn’t foster a desire like ‘If I return one day, may I find things familiar (to me)’.
Diyet yap-ma kaygı-sı-yla vücud-unuz-u yağ-dan yoksun bırak-ma-yın.
If you bother to follow a diet, do not deprive your body of fat.
Önce Kerim’in kendi-sin-i aşağıla-yacağ-ı kaygı-sı-yla çekin-en Cafer,
korku-sun-u yen-ip koca-m-la görüş-mek iste-di.
Cafer, who at first shunned Kerim because of anxiety that he would humiliate him,
conquered his fear and wanted to meet with my husband.
The noun düşünce ‘thought / idea / opinion’ also takes such complements:
Şu an için evlilik düşünce-si ban-a çok saçma gel-iyor zaten.

Moreover, the thought of a marriage appears to me as quite nonsensical right now.
Anne-m para harcan-acak düşünce-si-yle yutkun-uyor-du.

My mother had to stomach the idea of ‘That’s going to cost money’.
Ben on yıl kaybet-miş ol-acağ-ım düşünce-sin-i bir türlü kabullen-emi-yor-du-m.
I could anyhow not accept the idea that I would have lost ten years.
Ev-e dön-me düşünce-si . . .
The thought of going home . . .
Otomobil-ler-e jet motor-u tak-mak düşünce-si yeni değil-dir.
The idea of putting a jet engine into motor cars is not new.
O anda bir başka erkeğ-in kol-lar-ın-da ol-duğ-u düşünce-si . . .
The idea (thought) that she would now lie in the arms of someone else . . .
Delir-diğ-im düşünce-si beyn-im-den bir şimşek gibi geç-ti.
The notion that I had gone mad flashed through my brain like lightning.
Words such as istek ‘wish / desire / request’, dilek ‘wish’, umut / ümit ‘hope’, and the like can
only take complements in –mE and –mEk.
Ben-im manken ol-ma isteğ-im-i çok destekle-di-ler.

They supported my wish to become a model very strongly.
Gina, sen-i gör-mek isteğ-i-yle öl-üyor-um.
Gina, I am dying to see you.
Sen-in peş-in-de koş-ma dileğ-im-i, bir iki gün terk et-ti-m.
In a few days I gave my wish up to run after you.
Sevgili-si-nin el-in-i öp-mek dileğ-in-de bulun-du.
He wished to kiss the hand of his beloved / sweetheart.
Çünkü, artık ülke-m-e dön-me umud-u-m kal-ma-dı.
Because my hope to return to my country has vanished.
Arkadaş-ın-ı gör-mek ümid-i bugün on-da sevinç uyandır-ma-mıştı.
The hope of seeing his friend has not aroused (any) delight in him today.
In order to cut a long story short, there is quite some variation in the sort of complement nouns
(including verbal nouns) can take when they follow the model of nominal compounding.
In the following summary a number of nouns are represented together with the type of
sentential complement they can or must take. Words marked with an asterisk belong to
more than one category. This entails, that is to say from a linguistic point of view, that there
is no clear-cut one-to-one relationship between type of noun and type of complement. The
asterisk in the examples below indicate that the noun also occurs in another group.
Suffix –mE and –mEk. An infinitival complement takes:
tavsiye advice öğüt advice

teklif proposal öneri suggestion / proposal
niyet intention / plan karar decision
heves* wish / desire
Suffixes –mE and –TIK. A future state of affairs or an ongoing or completed (past) action
or event (the latter two are facts) is described by the complement of:
düşünce* thought, idea fikir* idea

umut* hope istek* wish / demand
heves* wish / desire
Suffix –TIK. Only a completed or ongoing action or event (both facts) can be expressed by
the complement of the following nouns:
korku* fear, angst düşünce* thought / idea

duygu feeling his feeling
kuşku doubt fikir* idea
inanç belief utanç shame
şüphe doubt / suspicion
This type of complement is applicable to nouns denoting a (subjective) judgement or

assessment about certain matters:
problem problem dert problem

mesele issue / question kanı opinion
gerçek reality yalan lie
söylenti* rumour bahane* pretext / excuse
Also nouns making reference to an actual (linguistic) utterance can take a complement
denoting a fact, such as:
iddia* claim / statement cevap* answer

yanıt* answer soru* question
sual* question
A sentence is possible for direct speech complements. This is possible with:
iddia* claim / statement cevap* answer

yanıt* answer soru* question
sual* question emir* order / command
rica* request
The reader should keep in mind, however, that the classification sketched out here is just a
rough guideline and not an exhaustive listing of nouns taking a certain type of complement.
There are too many to be listed in the framework of this section; what is important to
understand, though, is how the principle of selecting a complement works and that any
noun denoting a certain mental content can be specified for that content. Some other
characteristic examples are:
Subay-lar arasında çekiş-me ol-duğ-u haber-i uydur-ma-dır.

The message that there was a quarrel among officers is a fabrication.
Pek çok kuş-un yok ol-ma tehlike-si alt-ın-da ol-ma-ların-a karşın . . .

Despite the fact that many birds are under the threat of vanishing . . .
Birden ‘Uyu-yan prenses-i uyandır-ır-ım’ korku-sun-a kapıl-dı-m.
Suddenly I was struck by the fear ‘I might wake up the sleeping princess’.
Bugünlerde ye-me iç-me heves-in-i azalt-an yaşlılığ-a pek çok minnet borçlu-yum.
I am very grateful to old age, which reduces the desire to eat and drink nowadays.
Aşk-ın yaşam-ı-nın anlam-ı ol-duğ-u iddia-sın-dan sonsuz-a kadar vazgeç-ecek.
She will for ever abandon the claim that love is / was the meaning of her life.
35.3 Complements of possibilities and probabilities
So-called epistemic modalities such as possibility and probability are expressed in Turkish
by adjectives, nouns, and adverbs. These can be listed as follows.
Modality Adjective Adverb Noun

certain, sure kesin kesinlikle kesinlik
probable muhtemel muhtemelen ihtimal
olası olasılıkla olasılık
possible olanaklı ― olanak
mümkün ― imkân
improbable (olası değil) ― ―
(muhtemel değil) ― ―
impossible olanaksız ― olanaksızlık
imkânsız ― imkânsızlık
The semantic relation between the words across the lexical categories of adjective, adverb,
and noun is rather transparent. The adjective muhtemel means ‘probable’ and the adverb
muhtemelen ‘probably’, whereas the noun ihtimal means ‘probability’. For that matter, it
should be noted that the borderline between olanak ‘possibility’ and olasılık ‘probability’ is
not always very clear: as will be shown in section 35.3.3, sometimes a translation of olasılık
as opportunity and chance is more favourable than probability.
These nouns form the core of adverbial phrases in constructions such as tam bir kesinlikle
‘with great certainty’, büyük bir olasılıkla ‘with great likelihood’, büyük bir ihtimalle ‘very likely,
very probable’.
35.3.1 Modal adjectives
Adjectives from this series can be used in two ways: as a regular adjective in a noun phrase
and as a predicate. The first application can be illustrated as follows:
M.K., din-i devlet-ten ayır-mak için kesin bir adım at-mış-tı.

In order to separate state and religion M.K. had taken a decisive step.
Irak Kürt-ler-in-in muhtemel bir reaksiyon-un-a engel ol-mak.

Preventing a possible reaction of the Iraqi Kurds.
Olası bir çatışma-yı önle-mek için.
In order to avoid a possible dispute.
Neredeyse olanaksız bir şey isti-yor-du.
She wanted something almost impossible.
Belki de imkânsız bir rekor kır-dık-ların-ı kabul et-ti-m.
I assumed that they had perhaps broken an impossible record.
Application as a predicate is demonstrated in the following examples:
Bun-un önemli bir parçası ol-duğ-u hemen hemen kesin-dir.

It is almost sure that this is an important part of it.
Sayı-lar-ın yüksek tut=ul-muş ol-ma-sı kuvvetli muhtemel-dir.
It is extremely likely that the figures are kept too high.
Kafatas-ın-ın et çürü-dükten sonra ayrıl-ma-sı olası-dır.
It is likely that the skull opens after the flesh has rotted away.
Ayrıntılı bir tablo ortaya çıkar-mak olanaklı-dır.
It is possible to produce a detailed image.
Siz-in bun-u bul-ma-nız pek mümkün değil-dir.
It is not really possible that you will find this.
Dur-mak olanaksız, dön-mek daha da olanaksız-dır.
To stop is impossible, all the more so to return.
The complements taken by adjectives used as predicates are all sentential subjects or
infinitival constructions.
When an adjective is preceded by a passive verb as its complement, it forms a construction
identical with possessive complements (see section 32.2). Compare the first with the next
three examples which are based on a passive verb:
Karı-sı bir fabrika-da çalış-an komşu-muz . . .

Our neighbour, whose wife works in a factory . . .
(Kürt-ler tarafından yap=ıl-ma-sı muhtemel) bir taarruz.
An attack, which will probably be carried out by the Kurds.
(Literally: an attack the execution of which by the Kurds is probable.)
(Uygula=n-ma-sı mümkün) bir plan.
A plan that can be carried out.
(Literally: a plan the execution of which is possible.)
(Anlat=ıl-ma-sı olanaksız) bir duygu.
A feeling that cannot possibly be described.
(Literally: a feeling the description of which is impossible.)
35.3.2 Subordination
When the suffix –TIr is attached to the adjective followed by ki a subordinate clause is
formed. In section 33.1.3 the following examples were presented.
Kesin-dir ki . . . It is certain that . . .

Muhtemel-dir ki . . . It is likely that . . .
İhtimal(-dir) ki . . . It is likely that . . .
Olası-dır ki . . . It is likely that . . .
Olanaklı-dır ki . . . It is possible that . . .
Mümkün-dür ki . . . It is possible that . . .
. . . Refet Paşa şimdilik Amasya’da kal-ma-yı tercih ed-er.
. . . Refet Pasha prefers to stay in Amasya for the time being.
Note that the combination ihtimal ki occurs much more frequently (20 x) than ihtimaldir ki.
The type of subordination treated here cannot be formed on the basis of negative expressions
such as olanaklı değil / mümkün değil ‘impossible’.
35.3.3 Modal nouns
Nouns from this series exhibit a very rich variety in applications. Two main groups can be
distinguished, for each of which two subgroups can be set up.
The first main group is based on a genitive-possessive construction, for instance with
olasılık ‘possibility’ as the head. This can be shown by:
Böyle bir patlama-nın olasılığ-ı yüz bin-de bir-dir.

The probability of such an explosion is one to a hundred thousand.
Bir yabancı-yla evliliğ-in olasılığ-ın-ı dil-e getir-di.
She brought up the possibility of marrying a foreigner.
Böyle bir saldırı-nın olasılığ-ın-a inan-ma-dı-lar.
They did not believe in the possibility of such an attack.
Other complements are based on the infinitive in –mE.
Analiz, araç telefon sohbet-ler-in-in sürücü-nün kaza yap-ma olasılığ-ın-ı

dört kat artır-dığ-ı sonuc-u ver-iyor.
The analysis shows that conversations via a car phone increase the
chance of the driver causing an accident by a factor of four.
Bu tür bir kaza-nın ol-ma olasılığ-ı bir milyon-da bir.
The chance that this type of accident happens is one to a million.
Hiç kimse-nin kurtul-ma olasılığ-ı yok-tu.
No one had a chance to escape.
In the second main group olasılık ‘possibility, chance’ is applied as the head of a nominal
compound. Two types of complement have been attested: a noun and a sentential
complement.
Bir tek (başarı olasılığ-ı) var-dı.

There was one single chance of success.
(Bu evlilik-ler-in uzun ömürlü ol-ma-ma-sı) olasılığ-ı kuvvetli-ydi.
The chance that these marriages would not be lasting was very high.
(Bir uygarlığ-ın başar-abil-eceğ-i) olasılığ-ı da var-dır.
There is also a chance that a civilization will be successful.
The following two constructions should be analysed in different ways:
(Biz-im yap-ma-mız) olasılığ-ı var.

There is a chance that we (will) do it.
Biz-im (yap-ma olasılığ)-ımız var.
We have the chance (possibility) of doing it.
The first example is in line with the previously presented examples, whereas the latter one
expresses ‘to have’ because it is based on a possessive construction.
35.3.4 Alternatives
Alternative expressions can be formed by combining modal nouns with yok ‘there is / are
not’. The sentential complement typically receives a dative case marker.
Biz-im düşünce-ler-imiz-i anla-ma-ların-a ihtimal yok.

It is impossible that they understand our thoughts.
(Literally: A possibility of their-understanding-our-thoughts is nonexistent).
Bu olay-lar-ın ol-ma-ma-sın-a ihtimal yok.
It is out of the question (impossible) that these events will not occur.
Bu faiz-ler-le para bul-ma-mız-a imkân yok.
It is impossible for us to find money at these interest rates.
Popr’ın ortaya koy-duğ-u bu eleştiri-ye katıl-ma-ya olanak yok-tur.
It is not possible to agree with this criticism which Popr brings up.
This type of construction can be embedded:
Fakat bun-a imkân ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı da bil-iyor-du-m.

But I knew also that this was not possible.
Bun-u bil-me-si olanak ol-duğ-un-u düşün-emi-yor-du-m.
I could not imagine that there was a possibility that she knew this.
35.4 Complements of must, may, and being forbidden 661
Remarkably, these alternative forms occur mainly with yok ‘there is not’. Constructions
with var ‘there is’ occur only as rhetorical questions with a negative answer.
Artık birlikte kal-ma-mız-a olanak var mı?

Can we (then) stay together? (No, we can’t.)
Bun-u bil-me-me-sin-e imkân var mı?
Is it then possible that he didn’t know this? (No, he knew.)
35.3.5 Other modal nouns
Words with a similar purport to those of some of the nouns expressing epistemic modality
are fırsat ‘opportunity / possibility’ and şans ‘chance / good luck’. They take complements
in –mE and –mEk.
On-un-la bir araya gel-me fırsat-ı bul-mak-tan büyük memnuniyet duy-du.

She felt a great satisfaction at having found the opportunity to meet him.
Çalış-mak fırsat-ın-ı bul-ama-dı-m.
I found no opportunity to work.
Ekonomik kriz-i aş-abil-me şans-ı, ancak ihracat artış-ı ile sağlan-abil-ecek.
The possibility of overcoming the economic crisis can be guaranteed only
by an increase of the export.
Bir şey-ler-i on-un-la paylaş-mak şans-ı yok-tu.
She had no chance (opportunity) to share a few things with her.
Lastly, the noun fırsat ‘opportunity’ is found with a dative complement as well. The main
verb is olmak in the sense of ‘to happen / occur / take place’. In the second example the
sentential complement is based on a compound.
(Kitap-lar-ım-ı oku-ma)-ya fırsat ol-ma-dı.

The opportunity to read my books did not occur.
(Kitap-lar-ım-ı oku-ma) fırsat-ı ol-ma-dı.
A reading opportunity for my books did not occur
35.4 Complements of must, may, and being forbidden
The type of modality which covers obligation and permission is called ‘deontic modality’
and is expressed by a sizeable variety of constructions in Turkish.
The word gerek can be classified as an adjective and as a noun (its quality as a verb stem
has been discussed in section 22.1.6). Therefore, its meaning can be rendered as ‘is needed’
or ‘necessity’, depending on how it is used in the sentence. Likewise, yasak can be interpreted
as ‘is forbidden’ or ‘prohibition’.
Used as adjectives, these words occur as predicates, thereby taking all possible complement
types. This can be shown by:
Mutluluk sorun-u insan kadar eski olsa gerek-tir.

The problem of happiness must be as old as mankind itself.
Kadın-lar-ın ağır iş yap-ma-sı yasak-tır.
It is forbidden that women do hard labour.
Bun-a kesin olarak bir son ver-mek gerek-tir.
It is absolutely necessary to put an end to this.
An older synonym for gerek ‘is necessary’ is mecbur. The latter word requires a dative
complement.
Türkiye ileri git-me-ye mecbur-dur.

Turkey must make progress.
Doğu, Batı’ya yönel-me-ye mecbur-dur.
The East should follow (conform to) the West.
Used independently, gerek ‘necessity’ often occurs in existential constructions, just like
mecburiyet ‘necessity’ and izin ‘permission’.
Bun-dan kork-ma-ya gerek yok.

One need not be afraid of this. / It is not necessary to be afraid of this.
Acele-ye gerek yok.
There is no need to hurry.
Batı’nın ahlâkiyat-ın-ı da al-ma-ya mecburiyet var mı-dır?
Is it necessary to adopt the moral system of the West too?
O zaman-da çokkarılılığ-a izin var-dı.
At that time polygamy was allowed.
Hiçbir şey normal değil, her şey-e izin var.
Nothing is normal, everything is permitted.
The word izin ‘permission’, too, takes sentential complements:
Birazcık şarap iç-me-miz-e izin var-dı.

It was permitted that we had (drank) a little wine.
Oda-ya gir-me-sin-e izin yok-tu.
It was not allowed for him to enter the room.
Bir-den fazla kadın al-ma-ya izin var mı-dır?
Is it permitted to have more than one wife?
In the sense of ‘prohibition’, yasak is used only in nominal compounds, with all possible
complement types.
35.5 Complements of postpositions 663
Sokağ-a çık-ma yasağ-ın-ı çiğni-yor-lar mı?

Are they breaking the curfew?
Deniz-e gir-me yasağ-ı dört gün sür-ecek.
The prohibition of going into the sea will last four days.
Büyük balıkçı motor-lar-la ve gırgır ağ-lar-ı-yla avla=n-ma yasağ-ı kaldır=ıl-dı.
The ban on fishing with large ships and trawling nets was lifted.
35.5 Complements of postpositions
Postpositions taking sentential complements are: kadar ‘in as far / the degree in which’;
rağmen / karşın ‘although / despite’; başka ‘except’; göre ‘since / as / in accordance with’ and
için ‘in order to / as to’. A frequently used expression based on kadar is bil-diğ-im kadar-ıyla
‘as far as I know’. An example with a sentential complement is:
Bir insan-ı yıl-larca dolaştır-acak kadar zor soru-lar var mı-dır?

Are there questions so difficult that they cause people to wander about for years?
In its simplest application rağmen / karşın ‘although / despite’ has an ordinary noun phrase
as its complement, for instance her şey-e karşın ‘despite everything’ and tüm bu olumlu
bekleyiş-ler-e karşın . . . ‘despite all these positive expectations . . .’ . Sentential complements
of this postposition are based on –mE plus possessive suffix and dative. These construc-
tions always express a fact.
Aynı ev-de yaşa-ma-mız-a karşın . . .

Despite the fact that we live(d) in the same house . . .
Sayı-ları daha az ol-ma-sın-a rağmen . . .
Despite the fact that their numbers are / were yet lower . . .
Anne-sin-e yardım ed-ecek yaş-ta ol-ma-sın-a karşın . . .
Despite the fact that she is / was at an age when she can / could help her mother . . .
Türkiye’nin bun-u gerçekleştir-me-me-sin-e karşın . . .
Despite the fact that Turkey has not realized / achieved this . . .
Berna ile Kemal’ın yan yana otur-ma-ların-a karşın . . .
Despite the fact that Berna and Kemal were / are sitting next to each other . . .
With a complement ending in –TIK-TEn the word başka means ‘except for / apart from’, as in:
O bu teklif-i kabul et-me-dik-ten başka, ora-da-ki kuvvet-ler-i de

Filistin cephe-sin-e çek-me-sin-i tavsiye et-miş.
Apart from not accepting this proposal, he also advised the withdrawal of the forces
over there to the Palestinian front.
Bütün halk yer-lerin-den sür=ül-dük-ten başka otlak-lar da ateş-e ver=il-miş-ti.
Not only had the entire population been driven away from their places,
but also the pasturelands had been set on fire.
Yazın iş-im kolay ol-duk-tan başka keyifli ve de eğlenceli-dir.

Apart for being easy in the summer, my work is pleasant and amusing.
The word başka ‘other’ occurs with noun phrases and with sentential complements. In
expressions such as başka bir şey ‘something else’, başka bir amaç ‘another purpose’, başka
bir niyet ‘some other plan / intention’, and başka bir çare ‘another choice’, it functions as an
adjective preceding the noun phrase, but with a sentential complement it functons as a
postposition, taking complements with –mEk and –mE. Compare:
Sen, hisset-tiğ-in gibi yaşa-mak-tan başka bir şey yap-mış değil-sin ki.
You have never done anything other than living the way it suits you.
Uyu-mak-tan başka bir şey bil-me-z-di.
He knew nothing else to do than sleep.
Akşam-ın gel-me-sin-den başka bir şey bekle-mi-yor-du-k.
We waited for nothing more than the evening to come.
Uzun mola-lar-ımız-da at-lar-ın kişne-me-sin-den başka bir şey işitil-mi-yor-du.
During our long breaks nothing else was to be heard but the neighing of the horses.
The postposition göre takes dative complements in –TIK as well as in –(y)EcEK:
Gazete-ler-den öğren-diğ-imiz-e göre . . .

Since we have learned (it) from the newspaper(s) . . .
Bu kahve-yi ben işlet-eceğ-im-e göre, sen-in patron-un da ben ol-ur-um.
Since I will be the manager of that café, I will be your boss.
Other meanings of göre are ‘in as far as’ and ‘as’:
Şimdi-ye kadar gör-dük-ler-imiz-den anla-dığ-ımız-a göre . . .

As far as we have understood from what we saw so far . . .
Atatürk’ün kendi-sin-den dinle-diğ-imiz-e göre . . .
As we have heard from Atatürk himself . . .
The word göre means ‘according to’ when combined with complements ending in –mE
(mostly nominalized verbs—see section 31.7.1).
Bakanlığ-ımız-ın planlama-sın-a göre . . .

According to the planning of our Ministry . . .
Türkiye’nin imzala-dığ-ı ILO sözleşme-sin-e göre . . .
According to the ILO-agreement Turkey has signed . . .
Sporadically forms in –mE occur which express the independent usage of a verb:
Kendi adına konuş-ma-sın-a göre . . .

Since she speaks on behalf of herself . . .
Kendi söyle-me-sin-e göre . . .
According to what he himself says . . .
35.6 A special case: gibi 665
Also dair ‘concerning’ requires complements with –TIK and –(y)EcEK plus a dative:
Gereğ-in-i yerine getir-me-ye başla=n-dığ-ın-a dair cevap al-dı-m.

I received an answer concerning the fact that they have started to carry
out the necessary actions.
Çaba-lar-ımız-ın gerekli ol-acağ-ın-a dair neden-ler-i ortaya koy-du-m.
I put forward the reasons for the fact that our efforts will be necessary.
The postposition için means ‘in order to’ and takes complements with the suffixes –mEk
and –mE. In case of application of the suffix –mEk the whole construction expresses a pur-
pose and with –mE a wish is expressed.
Düşman-a son darbe-yi indir-mek için . . .

In order to deal the final blow to the enemy . . .
Vatan-ın düşman işgal-in-den kurtar=ıl-ma-sı için . . .
So that the fatherland would be liberated from the hostile occupation . . .
Ücret-im-in düş-me-me-si için hafta-da bir makale yaz-ma-m gerek-iyor-du.
For my salary not to drop, I had to write one article per week.
Ben konuş-madan dinli-yor, tedirgin ol-ma-ma-sı için eş-im-e söz et-mi-yor-du-m.
I listened without speaking and said nothing to my wife, lest she become nervous.
35.6 A special case: gibi *
The word gibi expresses similarity and takes almost any type of complement. In the linguis-
tic literature gibi is mainly praised as a postposition and that is where the story usually
ends. Yet there is more to it, and this forms the reason to devote a special section to this
wonderful and powerful word. Almost all structural types in which gibi occurs will be
classified and elucidated.
For constructions with gibi two types of usage can be distinguished: 1) usage as a
postposition, and 2) usage in an independent, nominal construction. Within these divisions
there are several functions for word groups based on gibi: postpositional constructions can
be used attributively (as an adjective, as it were) and predicatively (as a predicate) and as an
adverbial phrase. The independently used construction based on gibi occurs as subject,
object, and adverbial phrase.
35.6.1 Notion like
As a postposition gibi always takes a complement and this can be a bare noun, a noun
phrase, or even a sentential complement. With a noun phrase gibi is used as an adjective
and as a predicate. The following examples demonstrate these forms of usage:
Hasan, ayı gibi-sin.—Sen de!

Hasan, you are (just) (like) a bear.—You too!
O balıkçı-lar gibi-yiz.
We are like those fishermen.
Siz bil-mi-yor gibi-siniz.

It is as if you do not know (it).
Yürü-yebil-ecek gibi değil-im.
I am not as if I will be able to walk.
In the examples below gibi functions as an adjectival phrase:
Öfke de tıpkı üzüntü ve mutluluk gibi bir duygu.

Anger is also a feeling, just like grief and happiness.
Hele Almanca gibi bir dil-i öğren-ebil-se-ydi-m . . .
Had I above all been able to learn a language such as / like German . . .
Note that personal and demonstrative pronouns require the genitive case marker, as in:
Aylin sen-in gibi bir kadın-dı.

Aylin was a woman like you.
Bun-un gibi bir şey söyle-miş ama, bence ters-i doğru.
Apparently she said something like that, but in my opinion the opposite is true.
An important criterion for the occurrence of the genitive is the question of what is
expressed by the complement of gibi. If this is a pure comparison, the genitive is obligatory.
Hiç bun-un gibi bir şey gör-me-di-k.

We have seen nothing at all like that.
Diğer deneme-ler de bun-un gibi başarısız ol-muş.
Like this one (was), also the other tests turned out to be unsuccessful.
However, when reference is made to some property, the complement takes no genitive:
Atom-lar-dan daha küçük bu gibi cisim-ler-in varlığ-ın-a inan-mı-yor-lar.

They do not believe that there are such things, smaller than atoms.
Bu gibi ‘hayat uzatma faktör-ler-i’ evrim-in erken bir safha-sın-da oluş-tu.
Such ‘life-expanding factors’ came about in the early stages of evolution.
In combination with quantities gibi expresses a certain degree of vagueness:
On-un-la yirmi beş yıl gibi bir zaman aynı çatı altında bulun-du-m.
With him / her I lived under one roof for twenty-five-odd years.
Borsa-da-ki hisse-ler-den bir milyar gibi bir kazanç-ları ol-du.
With shares at the stock market they made a profit of something like a billion.
Particularly when gibi is used for the purpose of identification or specification of some
noun or noun phrase, a translation as ‘such as’ is often appropriate. Besides infinitival com-
plements, direct speech complements are also used in that function.
Problem-ler-i var-mış.—Ne-ler gibi?

He seems to have problems.—Such as? / What sort of problems?
Kişisel eşya-ların-a sahip ol-mak gibi hak-lar . . .
Rights such as possessing personal property . . .
Geleneksel giysi-ler-i giy-mek gibi adet-ler . . .
Habits such as wearing traditional clothing . . .
Ben-i küçümse-yecek-miş gibi bir duygu.
A feeling as if she would look down on me.
‘Deniz sıcak mı soğuk mu?’ gibi şey-ler-den söz et-ti-k.
We talked about things like ‘Is the sea warm or cold?’
‘Eğer bun-u böyle yap-sa-ydı-k’ gibi düşünce-ler . . .
Thoughts such as ‘If we did it this way’ . . .
Another area where gibi is frequently applied is comparing different states of affairs, for
instance actions, occurrences, or situations.
Aliye, Hasan’ın konuş-tuğ-u gibi yaz-ar, yani anlaşılamaz bir şekil-de.

Aliye writes as Hasan talks, in an incomprehensible way, that is!
Hasan konuş-tuğ-u gibi yaz-ıyor.
Hasan writes the way he speaks.
Ali, Hasan gibi yaz-ıyor.
Ali writes like Hasan (writes).
Hasan gibi Ali de İzmir’e git-ti.
Like Hasan, Ali has gone to Izmir too.
Hasan’ın şiir yaz-dığ-ı gibi, Ali de ressam olarak çalış-ıyor.
As Hasan writes poems, Ali works as a painter.
Comparisons in terms of existence are possible as well:
Hollanda’da ol-duğ-u gibi Türkiye’de de çok inek var.

Like the Netherlands, in Turkey there are a lot of cows as well.
And comparisons with respect to the general validity of statements.
Her iş-te ol-duğ-u gibi bura-da da dikkatli ol-mak gerek-iyor.

As is the case in any job, one should be cautious here too.
Her zaman ol-duğ-u gibi . . .
As is always the case . . .
Yabancı öğretmen-ler için ol-duğ-u gibi . . .
As it goes for foreign teachers . . .
Ne amaç-la yolculuğ-a çık-tığ-ın-ı bil-me-diğ-imiz gibi

neden dön-düğ-ün-ü de bil-mi-yor-uz.
As we do not know why he went on a journey,
we don’t know why he has returned either.
Popular phrases are bil-diğ-iniz gibi ‘as you know’ and the passive bil=in-diğ-i gibi ‘as is
known / as one knows’. Examples of similar expressions are:
Daha önce belirt-tiğ-imiz gibi, yakınma-lar . . .

As we have indicated before, those complaints . . .
Daha önce belirt=il-diğ-i gibi . . .
As has been indicated before . . .
Demin de söyle-diğ-im gibi . . .
As I just have said . . .
Baş-ta da anlat-tığ-ım gibi, ıh . . .
As I told you in the beginning, er . . .
35.6.2 Notions as if and such as
Not only ‘like’ but also ‘as if ’ and ‘such as’ are possible translations of gibi. In the latter two
senses gibi is used as a predicate, similar to the examples of the previous section. This
predicate describes a non-factual situation, while the (grammatical) person involved as the
subject is expressed with gibi. Also, the complement of gibi should be seen as the (abstract)
denotation of a property. In translation such constructions can be introduced by ‘It is / was
as if . . . ‘, as in:
Biraz sarar-mış gibi-sin, kendin-i iyi hissed-iyor mu-sun?

It is as if you are a little pale, do you feel all right?
The fragment sarar-mış gibi-sin’ can of course be interpreted along the lines of ‘you
are like someone who grew pale’, but such a representation is a needlessly long-winded
wording. As follows from the next series of examples, all personal suffixes occur for past
and present.
Gerçeklik duygu-sun-u yitir-miş gibi-yim / gibi-ydi-m.

It is / was as if I had lost my sense of reality.
Ben-i iyice unut-muş gibi-sin / gibi-ydi-n.
It was as if you have completely forgotten me.
Boğaz-ın-a bir şey tıkan-mış gibi / gibi-ydi.
It is / was as if something got stuck in her throat.
Sanki daha bir gün önce konuş-muş gibi-yiz / gibi-ydi-k.
It is / was as if we had still talked a day before.
Hiçbir şey yap-ma-mış gibi-siniz / gibi-ydi-niz.
It is / was as if you haven’t done anything.
Bu iki güzel insan, ben-i avutma yarış-ın-a gir-miş gibi-ler / gibi-ydi-ler.

It is / was as if the two beautiful people were competing in comforting me.
Gibi is also used as the head of a postpositional phrase taking a sentential complement.
This functions as an adverbial expression, indicating the way in which some event takes
place. The verb of a sentential complement can contain one of the following tense suffixes:
Present-1, Present-2, Future and Past-1. Here are examples of each of them.
Present-1: –(I)yor gibi

Diğer kadın ise, hiçbir şey-den anla-mı-yor gibi bak-ıyor-du.
As for the other woman, she looked as if she didn’t understand a bit of anything.
Onlar-ın oku-duk-ların-ı anlı-yor ve dinli-yor gibi davran-ıyor-du-m.
I pretended (behaved as if) to listen and understand what they read out.
Present-2: –(I/E)r gibi & –mEz gibi

Her şey-i bil-ir gibi gülümsü-yor-du.
She smiled as if she knew everything.
On-u duvar-a çivile-mek iste-r gibi görün-en bir şiddet-le Hasan’ı süz-üyor-du.
She looked at Hasan with an intensity which looked as if she wanted to nail him
to the wall.
Hiçbir şey anla-maz gibi bön bön yüz-üm-e bak-ar-lar.
They stare me foolishly in the face as if they don’t understand anything at all.
Sen köylü millet-in-i bil-mez gibi konuş-uyor-sun.
You talk as if you do not know the farming population at all.
Future: –(y)EcEk gibi

Yüreğ-im patla-yacak gibi at-ıyor-du.
My heart was beating as if it would explode.
Mum alev-i sön-ecek gibi sallan-dı.
The candle flame fluttered as if it would go out.
Past-1: –mIş gibi

Konuş-mak-tan yorul-muş gibi sus-tu.
She kept silent as if she was tired of talking.
Asıl söyle-me-si gerek-en-i söyle-me-miş gibi konuş-ma-ya devam et-ti.
He kept talking as if he had not said the main thing he had to say.
In the examples above gibi is found as the head of an adverbial phrase. The aspect of ‘as if ’ can
be intensified by the application of the projectional suffix –(y)mIş to the complement, even
when the suffix for Past-1 is already attached. With gibi in predicate position the suffix –(y)
mIş does not occur, as was shown at the beginning of this section: Siz bil-mi-yor gibi-siniz ‘It is
as if you do not know (it)’ and Yürü-yebil-ecek gibi değil-im ‘It is as if I will not be able to walk’.
Nominal complements formed this way can be exemplified by:
Dost-un-a şükran-la bak-tı ve sanki ağabey-i-ymiş gibi on-a boyun eğ-di.

He looked gratefully to his friend and gave in to him as if he was his older brother.
O kadar ince ruhlu-ymuş gibi davranma, daha dün söv-üp say-ıyor-du-n.

Don’t behave so sensitively, yesterday you were still swearing a blue streak.
Ol-duğ-un-dan daha bitkin ve hasta imiş gibi gözük-me-ye çalış-mış-tı.
He tried to look more tired and sicker than he actually was.
A locative noun phrase expresses place or time, as in:
Kendi-niz-i büyük bir cezaevin-de-ymiş gibi mi hissed-iyor-du-nuz?

You felt as if you were in a big prison?
Genç-ler, bir düğün gün-ün-de-ymiş gibi eğlen-iyor-lar-dı.
The youngsters were amusing themselves as if (they were) at a wedding.
Also existential constructions of this type occur frequently:
Dünya-da başka bir kadın yok-muş gibi on-u düşün-üyor.

He thinks of her as if there were no other woman in the whole wide world.
Okul-lar-da ciddi bir uyuşturucu problem-i var-mış gibi de bir intiba yarat=ıl-ıyor.
The impression is created that there is a serious drug problem in the schools.
The projectional suffix –(y)mIş intensifies the non-factual content of the verbal complement,
of gibi, as can be demonstrated as follows.
Present-1: –(I)yor-muş gibi

İç-iyor-muş gibi yap-ıyor-sun.
You are pretending to be drinking.
Gazete-ye bak-ıyor-muş gibi yap-tı-m.
I acted as if I was looking at the newspaper.
Present-2: –(I/E)r-mIş gibi & –mEz-mIş gibi

Bir daha görüş-eme-yecek iki eski dost vedalaş-ır-mış gibi kucaklaş-ıyor-uz.
We hug each other like two old friends, who won’t be able to meet again, say
farewell to each other.
Sanki dudak-lar-ım-ın kımılda-ma-sın-dan bir mana çıkar-ma-ya çalış-ır-mış gibi
dik dik yüz-üm-e bak-ıyor.
As if she is trying to derive a meaning from the movements of my lips,
she stares angrily at me.
Kendi-si de inan-ama-z-mış gibi dur-uyor-du.
He stood there as if he could not believe it himself.
O işit-mez-miş gibi yap-ıyor, söyle-dik-lerin-e yanıt bile ver-mi-yor-du.
She pretended not to hear and she didn’t even respond to what they said.
Future: –(y)EcEk-mIş gibi

Sanki bir daha ora-ya dön-eme-yecek-miş gibi konuş-uyor.
He talks as if he will not be able to go back to that place any more.
Sigara-sız yap-ama-yacak-mış gibi bir sigara yak-tı.

He lit a cigarette as if he couldn’t do it without one.
Çok yağmur yağ-dı, de-di, hiç dur-ma-yacak-mış gibi yağ-dı.
It has rained a lot, said he, it rained as if it would never stop.
Past-1: –mIş-mIş gibi

Arabacı bütün gün bu söz-ler-i bekle-miş-miş gibi gülümse-di.
The driver smiled as if he had been waiting all day for these words.
Sonra birden bir şey hatırla-mış-mış gibi surat-ın-ı as-tı ve ayağ-a kalk-tı.
Then she sulked as if she had suddenly remembered something and got to her feet.
35.6.3 Different subjects
What has been shown so far is that the complement and gibi together form an adverbial
phrase of the verb in the main clause. The examples in the previous section have been
chosen in such a way that the subject of the complement is identical with that of the verb
in the main clause. Now, certain constructions based on a third person singular can be
interpreted in more than one way. In, for instance, Adam büyük bir saygısızlık yapmış gibi
baktı, it is not clear beforehand whether adam ‘man’ as the subject of baktı ‘looked’ is also
the subject of büyük bir saygısızlık yapmış ‘has done something very disrespectful’. In fact,
two entirely different persons may be involved in these affairs, so that in a translation such
as ‘The man looked as if he / she has done something very disrespectful’ the referents of ‘he’
and ‘the man’ might very well differ. In order to emphasize that the subjects are identical
the word kendisi is often applied, as in:
Güzel kız-a dünya-yı kendi-si yarat-mış gibi bak-tı.

He looked at the pretty girl as if he (himself) had created the world.
Sanki bütün bu cürüm-ler-i kendi-si işle-miş gibi ıstırap çek-iyor-du.
He suffered as if he himself had committed all these crimes.
If the two subjects are not identical, either a personal suffix is attached to the verb of the
complement, or the subject of that verb is overtly expressed as a noun phrase. Compare:
Adam büyük bir saygısızlık yap-mış gibi bak-tı.

The man looked as if he himself / he / she had been disrespectful.
Adam büyük bir saygısızlık yap-mış-ım gibi bak-tı.
That man looked as if I had been disrespectful.
Ben-i hiç gör-me-miş-sin gibi dur-up bak-ma.
Don’t stand there and look at me as if you have never seen me.
Ben, Hasan birşey gör-me-miş gibi devam et-ti-m.
I continued as if Hasan hadn’t seen anything.
Az sonra birşey ol-ma-mış gibi gir-di.
A while later he entered as if nothing had happened.
There are two highly frequent combinations of gibi and a verb in which this phenomenon
plays a great role. Thus, –mIş + (personal suffix) gibi yapmak means ‘to pretend / do something
as if . . .’ and –mIş + (personal suffix) gibi gelmek can be translated in terms of ‘to be / look
like / resemble / come across (as) / it seems / appears / looks to me that . . . ’, et cetera.
In the following examples of ‘pretending’, the co-identity of the subjects is self-evident in
the first three examples, whereas in the others the embedded subject is overtly present, as
indicated by the underscores.
Artık fark et-me-miş-im gibi yap-ama-m.

I can’t pretend any more that I haven’t noticed.
Ama duy-ma-mış gibi yap-tı-m.
But I acted as if I hadn’t heard it.
Yüz-üyor-muş gibi yap-tı-m.
I acted as if I was swimming.
Her zaman ben birşey bil-me-z-miş-im gibi konuş-ur-sun.
You always talk as if I know nothing.
Birşey ol-ma-mış gibi ban-a bak-tı.
He looked at me as if nothing had happened.
A similar type of construction is based on –mIş + (personal suffix) gibi gelmek, by means
of which an apparent but unreal situation is sketched. In fact this yields an impersonal
construction in English, (‘It is / was as if . . .’), in which the person experiencing the diversion
described (the experiencer) is always expressed as a dative-object. But that person is not
necessarily the subject of the verb in the complement of gibi. Hence, in the first three examples
the experiencer (underlined) differs from the embedded subject because the latter is explicitly
mentioned.
İnsan-a bir şey ol-uyor-muş gibi gel-mi-yor,

her şey normal-miş gibi gel-iyor.
One does not get the impression that something is happening,
it is as if everything is normal.
Bir keresinde on-a ihtiyar adam uyan-ıyor-muş gibi gel-di.
One time she had the idea that the old man was waking up.
Ban-a onlar hiç kimse-yi gör-me-miş-ler gibi gel-iyor.
To me it appears that they haven’t seen anyone at all.
In the next examples the embedded verb carries a personal suffix showing that the experiencer
is identical with a subject not overtly mentioned in the sentence.
Ban-a birdenbire cennet-e gir-miş-im gibi gel-di.

It was as if I had suddenly entered paradise.
San-a boğul-uyor-muş-sun gibi gel-mi-yor mu?
Isn’t it as if you are suffocating?
O zaman ban-a hiç evlen-me-yecek-miş-iz gibi gel-ir-di.
Then it seemed to me as if we would never get married.
Az sonra da siz-e hayal gör-üyor-muş-sunuz gibi gel-iyor-du.

And shortly afterwards it appeared to you as if you were seeing things / ghosts.
If, grammatically speaking, a third person is the experiencer and if the embedded verb at
the same time has no other marking than that for the third person, some ambiguity may
arise, because personal pronouns such as he, she, and they may also have an antecedent
outside the sentence. This may be the case with:
Hiç bu kadar lezzetli bir şey ye-me-miş gibi gel-iyor-du.

To him / her it looked like she had never eaten something this tasty.
Fatma’ya sanki ora-da bir saat dur-muş-lar gibi gel-di.
It appeared to Fatma as if they had been standing there for an hour.
Sokak-ta yürü-r-ler-ken on-a birbir-lerin-den utan-ıyor-lar-mış gibi gel-iyor-du.
When walking in the street he got the idea that they felt ashamed of each other.
The following sentences are all impersonal constructions because the content of the
complement refers to a situation given only by the context. Compare:
Fakat ban-a pek mümkün-müş gibi gel-iyor.

But to me it comes across as very easily possible.
San-a öyle-ymiş gibi gel-mi-yor mu?
Doesn’t it appear to you that it is that way?
Ban-a hiç de doğal değil-miş gibi gel-me-miş-ti.
To me it never looked as if it is / was not natural.
The construction –mIş + (personal suffix) gibi gelmek is not reserved to sentences with a
relatively simple structure, as shown so far, but it often occurs in relative clauses and in
other forms of embedding as well. Here’s a small selection:
Ban-a yıl-lar geç-miş gibi gel-en bir süre-den sonra masa-ya yaklaş-tı.
After a while, giving me the idea that it took ages, she came close to the table.
Artık on-a kendi-sin-in-miş gibi gel-me-yen el-i-yle
mutfak tezgâh-ı-nın alt-ın-da-ki çekmece-ler-den bir-in-i aç-tı.
She opened one of the drawers under the kitchen counter
with the hand which no longer gave her the impression that it was her own.
Bütün bun-lar on-a gitgide pek de hayal değil-ler-miş gibi gel-me-ye başlı-yor.
All these gradually begin to look to her as if they’re not mostly imaginations.
Peki, gizli bir tehlike var-mış gibi gel-me-diğ-in-i de söyle-yebil-ir mi-sin, Murat?
Okay, and would you say, Murat, that it does not look like there’s a hidden danger?
Biz-de-ki bazı politikacı-lar-ın ban-a hep başka gezegen-ler-den-miş gibi
gel-me-sin-in sebeb-i de böylece ortaya çık-ıyor.
The reason that I have the idea that some of our politicians come from whole
other planets comes to light this way.
Lastly, it should be noted that instead of by a dative-object, the experiencer is sporadically

expressed by gibi-m-e and gibi-n-e. Here are two examples:
O kadar çabuk davran-mak doğru ol-maz-mış gibi-m-e gel-iyor-du.

It seemed to me that to act so quickly was not (the) right (thing to do).
Hiçbir şey ol-uyor-muş gibi-n-e gel-mi-yor. Bu yüzden bu kadar korkutucu.
It doesn’t appear to you that something has happened. That’s why it is so scary.
35.6.4 Independent gibi
Independently used, gibi occurs in combination with the suffix –sI(n) and this construction
is syntactically applied as subject, object, and in adverbial phrases.
Demonstrative and personal pronouns functioning as the complement of gibi require
a genitive case marker. Therefore, this construction resembles in some cases a genitive-
possessive construction, as for instance in bunun gibisi ‘like this (one)’.
However, appearances are deceptive. Such structures cannot just be split up as bun-un
gibi-si ‘like this (one)’, as if these two words were nouns, for the simple reason that in a uni-
form and consistent treatment of this type of construction this analysis would fail for ben-im
gibi-si ‘like me’: in lieu of the possessive suffix –si the correct –m would be expected. The
occurrence of the genitive can of course be attributed to the combination of demonstrative
or personal pronoun with gibi, as is the case with other postpositions (see section 13.3), and
the occurrence of the suffix –sI(n) can be explained as signalling the substantivized use of
gibi, which is to be associated with a shift in meaning towards ‘something / someone like . . .’ .
Accordingly, the structures are then: (bun-un gibi)-si ‘something / someone like this (one)’
and (ben-im gibi)-si ‘someone like me’.
Bun-un gibi-si Türkiye’de yok!

In Turkey there’s nothing / nobody like this one!
Yem konu-sun-da ben-im gibi-si yok-tur.
There’s no one like me when it comes to fodder.
Sürü-yle gör-dü-m sen-in gibi-sin-i!
Whole herds I’ve seen, of people like you!
Bir tane-ydi ben-im sevgili-m, on-un gibi-si yok-tu!
She was a darling, my beloved, there was no one like her.
In plural constructions based on a demonstrative or personal pronoun there is no –sI(n),

but the suffix –lEr plus a case marker.
Normal ol-an insan-lar arasında bu gibi-ler-e pek az rastlan-ır.

Among normal people one rarely comes across the likes of these.
Biz-im gibi-ler-e burada da orada da hayat yok!
For people like us there’s no life, neither here nor there!
Siz-in gibi-ler-de ne diye çocuk ol-ur?
For what purpose are there children with the likes of you?
Biz-im Kafkasya’da ben-im gibi-ler-in nice zaman-lar-dan beri çocuk-lar-ı ol-ur.

With us in the Caucasus, people like me have children for a long, long time.
Bun-un gibi-ler-i gebert-mek, yılan gibi ez-mek gerek-ir!
One should let the likes of these perish, crush them like snakes.
Sonra biz-im gibi-ler-i sıkıştır-ma-ya başla-r-lar.
Afterwards they begin to pressurize people like us.
Siz-in gibi-ler-i iyi bil-ir-im, sonunda bir çöplük-te öl-ür-ler!
People like you I know well and eventually they all die on a garbage heap!
Nominal complements, however, do not require the genitive case marker:
Rıdvan gibi-sin-e hâlâ rastla-ma-dı-m.

I haven’t met someone yet like Ridvan.
Biz-i hiçbir şey-den eksik bırak-ma-dı, Allah’a şükür,
lâkin insan-ın ev-i gibi-si yok.
He hasn’t left us behind with anything lacking, thank God,
but there is nothing like a man’s own home (‘east, west, home’s best’).
In rare occurrences the ‘something’ referred to by–(s)I(n) is coupled to a noun immediately

preceding gibi.
Palto-sun-un alt-ın-a giy-diğ-i giysi gibi-sin-i de hiç gör-me-miş-ti.

She had never seen clothes the likes of those he wore under his coat.
Davranış-ın-da gör-düğ-üm değişiklik gibi-sin-i hiç gör-me-miş-ti-m.
A change like the one I saw in his behaviour I had never seen (before).
Concluding this section, constructions with gibisinden and gibilerden should be presented,
which all have a direct speech complement (or something that can be interpreted as such),
a fact which presents itself as a strong structural similarity with nominal compounds (see
section 35.2). These constructions yield adverbial phrases expressing manner.
‘O da ne-ymiş?’ gibisinden pek şaşır-dı-lar.

They were utterly confused, as if thinking / saying ‘And what is that?’
El-i-yle ağz-ın-ın kenar-lar-ın-ı ‘nolur nolmaz’ gibisinden sil-di.
With her hand she wiped the corners of her mouth, as if saying ‘Just in case!’
Sonra içini çek-ti, unut=ul-an bir şey var mı gibisinden salon-a bir göz at-tı.
Then he sighed and shot a glance at the hall, as if asking ‘Anything forgotten?’
Adam, el-in-i en nazik tabir-le ‘Çekil git!’ gibisinden salla-dı.
The man waved in a very amiable way, with an air of ‘Beat it, go away!’
Ne de-r-sin gibilerden bak-ıyor-lar.
They look as if to say ‘What do you say about it?’
Aldırma de-r gibilerden el-in-i boşluk-ta salla-dı.
He waved his hand as if he wanted to say: ‘Never mind.’
Variants with a dative instead of an ablative are:
Abdi Ağa, ne var gibisine Topal Ali’nin yüz-ün-e bak-tı.

Landowner Abdi looked at Crippled Ali, as if saying ‘What’s up?’
Murat’la Cemil, bun-un altında bir şey-ler var gibisine birbir-lerin-i süz-dü-ler.
Murat and Cemil gave each other the once-over, as if they thought ‘There is more to it’.
36
Postposition-like constructions
There is a relatively small number of linguistic structures which seemingly consist of a

noun expanded by a possessive suffix third person singular and a locative, ablative, or
instrumental case marker. They are used as adverbial phrases (section 36.2), but the possessive
element of the head of the phrase has no antecedent and that is why these constructions
bear the semblance of postpositions more than that of real nouns. Especially temporal
constructions (section 36.2) based on a noun denoting some moment, period, or duration
behave like real postpositions in that they allow for indefinite and finite complements.
Various postposition-like structures can also be used in predicate position and thus take a
person marker (section 36.3). These constructions are typical for the description of mental
states and mental content and of instances of intention, decision, and obligation.
36.1 Adverbial phrases
In this section a number of adverbial phrases will be discussed which are formed by a
postposition-like structure plus a case marker. A typical feature of this type of construction
is that they seem to be built up according to the model ‘noun + possessive suffix + case
marker’. However, only for sayesinde ‘thanks to’, hakkında ‘about’, and yüzünden ‘because of /
due to’ does the possessive suffix make reference to any of the words in its complement. In
this way these structures bear the semblance of postpositions more than that of real nouns
(see sections 10.3 and 10.4).
The word takdirde ‘in case’, as used in the expression aksi taktirde (in the opposite case)
‘otherwise, if not’, is a postposition that only takes sentential complements describing a fact.
As can be expected, its complements end in –TIK and –(y)EcEK:
Fırsat bul-duğ-u takdirde . . .

In case he found an opportunity . . .
Mümkün ol-duğ-u takdirde . . .
In the case that is / was possible . . .
‘Hayır’ oy-ları fazla ol-duğ-u takdirde . . .
In case there are too many votes saying ‘No’ . . .
İlaç tedavi-si uygulama-sı yetersiz kal-acağ-ı takdirde . . .
In case (application of) the treatment with medicine is insufficient . . .
Yunanistan, ism-in-i değiştir-me-diğ-i takdirde Makedonya Cumhuriyeti’ni
tanı-ma-yacağ-ın-ı açıkla-mış bulun-uyor.
Greece has declared that it will not recognize the Republic of Macedonia
in the case that it does not change its name.
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
678 Postposition-like constructions
The word civarında ‘near / in the environs of / about / approximately’ takes only noun
phrases as its complement. This can be illustrated by:
Dünya altın üretim-i yıl-da 2000 ton civarında-dır.

World gold production is approximately 2,000 tons a year.
Demirel, Nevşehir civarında-ki kilise-ler-e dikkat çek-ti.
Demirel drew attention to the churches near Nevşehir.
The word dolayında, too, means ‘about / in the surroundings’, as in:
Çalış-ıl-mış yatak-lar-ın altın içeriğ-i, 182 ton dolayında-dır.

The quantity of gold in the riverbeds which had been worked is about 182 tons.
The meaning of ‘surroundings’ can be exemplified by:
O akşam-dan beri bura-ya hiç gel-me-miş, dolayın-dan bile geç-me-miş-ti.

Since that evening she hasn't been here any more, not even in the neighbourhood.
The form sayesinde ‘thanks to’ has a noun phrase or a personal pronoun as its complement, as
in: keskin göz-ler-i saye-sin-de ‘thanks to his sharp eyes’; Hasan saye-sin-de ‘thanks to Hasan’;
internet saye-sin-de ‘thanks to the Internet’ and İngiliz-ler saye-sin-de ‘thanks to the English’.
Personal pronouns as complement take the genitive and the stem saye takes a possessive
suffix which agrees in person and number with the antecedent. For example: ben-im
saye-m-de ‘thanks to me’; sen-in saye-n-de ‘thanks to you’; biz-im saye-miz-de ‘thanks to us’;
siz-in saye-niz-de ‘thanks to you’.
The plural forms biz-ler-in / siz-ler-in sayesinde ‘thanks to all of us / you’ (with variants
biz-ler / siz-ler sayesinde) and also onlar-ın / onlar sayesinde ‘thanks to them’ make clear
that in structures not based on a ‘bare’ pronoun the word sayesinde behaves as a real
postposition. Similar oppositions can be observed in: bun-un saye-sin-de ‘thanks to this’
versus bun-lar-ın / bunlar sayesinde ‘thanks to all this’. The form sayelerinde ‘thanks to them’
is used when the antecedent onlar(-ın) is absent, as in:
Kaygı ve korku, işte saye-lerin-de kurtul-duğ-um iki belâ.

Anxiety and fear, here are two sorts of trouble I am freed from, thanks to them.
Sentential complements end in –mE plus a possessive suffix and they describe a fact.
Şimdi-ye kadar çok çalış-ma-m sayesinde geçin-ebil-diğ-im-i zanned-iyor-du-m.

Up to now I thought that I could make a living, thanks to working hard.
Fakat polis-in gerekli önlem-ler-i al-ma-sı sayesinde . . .
But thanks to the fact that the police have taken the necessary precautions . . .
Suy-un katı, sıvı ve gaz olarak üç halde de bulun-abil-me-si sayesinde . . .
Owing to the fact that water can exist in three phases: solid, liquid, and gaseous . . .
Kafadar iki arkadaş ol-ma-mız sayesinde başar-dı-k.
We succeeded, thanks to the fact that we are two like-minded friends.
36.1 Adverbial phrases 679
Hayalet-ler-den kork-ma-nız sayesinde.

Because you are afraid of apparitions.
The word hakkında ‘about’ takes a noun phrase or a personal pronoun as its complement.
The complement takes the genitive case marker and the possessive suffix after hakk- agrees
in person and number with the complement: ben-im hakk-ım-da ‘about me’; Hakk-ımız-da
daha fazla bilgi için ‘For more information about us’. Compare: Uçak bilet-leri hakk-ın-da
bilgi için ‘For information about aeroplane tickets’.
Bu yol-un tehlikeli ol-duğ-u hakkında Aliye’nin düşünce-si . . .

Aliye's thought / worry / reflection that this road is dangerous . . .
Bütün bunlar, köylü-ler-imiz-in nasıl bir dehşet-e düş-müş ol-duk-ları hakk-ın-da
insan-a bir fikir ver-iyor.
All this gives people an idea as to what kind of terror our farmers had been
struck with.
The form yüzünden means ‘because of, due to’:
Bir kız yüzünden çık-an kavga-da ünlü şair Hasan Kül bıçakla=n-dı.
In a fight that broke out because of a girl, the famous poet Hasan Kül was stabbed.
Kavga-lar art-ma-sı yüzünden bir genelge yayınla=n-dı.
Owing to the increase in the number of fights a by-law has been published.
Pronouns as complement take the genitive, and the possessive suffix following yüz- agrees
in person and number with its antecedent:
Hep bun-lar sen-in yüz-ün-den.

And that's all because of you.
Bile-sin ki dünya-nın son-u gel-ecek-se, bu, ben-im yüz-üm-den ol-ma-yacak.
You must know that if the world is going to end, this will not be because of me.
Baş-ın-a gel-en her kötü şey hep biz-im yüz-ümüz-den-miş.
Every bad thing that happens to him/her seems to happen because of us.
The form sonucunda means ‘as a result of ’ and takes a simple noun phrase as its complement
(yıldırım düşme-si sonucunda ‘as a result of a stroke of lightning’—with düşme-si interpreted
as ‘stroke’), as well as sentential complements in –mE (yıldırım-ın düşme-si sonucunda ‘as a
result of the lightning striking’). Other examples are:
Rekor, yirmi yedi hamilelik sonucunda çoğu ikiz, üçüz olmak üzere altmış
dokuz çocuk doğur-an bir Rus kadın-da-ydı.
The record was in the hands of a Russian woman, who, as the result of twenty-seven
pregnancies, gave birth to sixty-nine children, most of whom were twins and triplets.
Şehir halk-ın-ın diren-me-si sonucunda geniş kitle-ler kılıç-tan geçir=il-di.
As a result of the resistance by the city folk large masses were put to the sword.
The word açısından ‘from the viewpoint of ’ occurs combined with noun phrases and
complements in –mE. Hence: ahlak açısından ‘from a moral point of view’; para açısından
‘from a financial viewpoint’; kendi açısından ‘from his own point of view’.
Geçmiş-te-ki borç-lar-ın-ı geri öde-me açısından hiçbir ara ver-me-miş.

He never ceased to pay back his debts from the past.
Keşif, ilaç geliştir=il-me-si açısından önem-li.
The discovery is important with respect to the development of medicine.
Bu plan, alerji yarat-an yiyecek-ler-i keşfet-me-niz açısından çok etkili-dir.
This plan is influential from the perspective of your discovery of allergenic foodstuff.
Bakımından has a similar denotation: ‘from the point of view; in relation to; with respect
to’: Sırp vahşet-i önle-me bakımından ‘with respect to avoiding Serbian violence’; satın alma
güc-ü bakımından ‘with regard to purchasing power’ and sürdürebilir kalkınma-nın
sağlan-abil-me-si bakımından ‘with respect to achieving a permanent development’.
The postposition-like form suçundan means ‘accused of, on a charge of ’ and takes
simple noun phrases and sentential complements with –mEk and –mE, as in: sahtekârlık
suçundan ‘accused of forgery’; para aşır-ma suçundan ‘on a charge of embezzling
money’; tehdit yolu-yla haraç topla-mak suçundan ‘on the accusation of committing
blackmail’.
Neden means ‘why’ but occurs also as a noun in the sense of ‘reason’ and ‘cause’ in genitive-
possessive constructions and as the head in nominal compounds. The same holds for the
synonymous sebep (b-). In this way compound constructions are formed: ölüm neden-i
‘cause of death’; pişmanlık sebeb-i ‘the reason for remorse / regret’ and the genitive-possessive
constructions:
Bura-da kal-ma-sın-ın neden-i . . .

The reason that she stays here . . .
Japon-lar-ın rahatsız ol-ma-lar-ın-ın neden-i . . .
The reason that the Japanese feel uncomfortable . . .
Komiser-in ölüm sebeb-i . . .
The cause of death of the chief inspector . . .
When a compound takes the instrumental case marker, another postposition-like

construction is created: ‘because of / due to / on grounds of / by reason of ’.
Dil yetersizliğ-i nedeniyle . . .

Because of lack in language proficiency . . .
Sağır ve dilsiz ol-ma-sı sebebiyle . . .
For the reason that she is deaf mute . . .
The word kadar has been introduced in chapter 13 as a postposition, but it has a number
of nominal properties as well. In its function as (nominal) head in a compound and
expanded with the instrumental suffix another sort of postposition-like construction is
36.2 Expressions for moments, periods, and duration 681
formed. This structure takes complements describing facts. Simple and often heard
expressions are: Anla-dığ-ım kadarıyla . . . ‘Insofar as I understand . . .’; Bil=in-ebil-diğ-i
kadarıyla . . . ‘Inasmuch can be known . . .’ . Larger complements are found in:
Sonradan hatırla-dığ-ımız kadarıyla . . .

As far as we can remember afterwards . . .
Dışarı-dan gör-düğ-ünüz kadarıyla . . .
As far as you see it from the outside . . .
Nura’nın duy-duk-lar-ın-dan çıkar-abil-diğ-i kadarıyla . . .
As far as she (Nura) could infer from what Nura (she) has / had heard . . .
Hakkında yaz=ıl-an-lar-dan anla-yabil-diğ-im kadarıyla . . .
As far as I can / could understand from what is / was written about it . . .
The words koşul and şart mean ‘condition’ and are found as the head in compounds (e.g.:
temel koşul-u ‘fundamental condition’), as well as in the form of instrumental postposition
and they take the infinitive forms –mEk and –mE.
Uslu dur-mak şartıyla gid-ebil-ir-sin.

You can only go on the condition that you behave well.
Akşam-ları geri getir-mek koşuluyla . . .
On the condition that she returns it in the evenings . . .
Tabii, sınav-ların-ı geç-me-leri şartıyla . . .
Of course, provided that they pass their exams . . .
Her şey-i ban-a anlat-ma-n koşuluyla . . .
Only if you tell me all . . .
36.2 Expressions for moments, periods, and duration
Sırasında. The word sıra means, ‘row / turn’, but in the form of sırasında it is to be interpreted
as ‘during / at the time of ’. It is always preceded by a noun or a noun phrase. Examples are:
ameliyat sırasında ‘during the operation’; dua sırasında ‘during the prayer’; deprem sırasında
‘at the time of the earthquake’; seçim kampanya-sı sırasında ‘during the election campaign’.
The complement noun phrase can be indefinite as well as definite, as is shown by the
following examples, in which an indefinite article, a demonstrative, plural forms, and
possessive suffixes occur.
bir kavga sırasında during a quarrel

romantik bir dans sırasında during a romantic dance
bu son görüşme sırasında in the last meeting
gördüğü bu düş sırasında in that dream he had
olay-lar sırasında during the events
düş-ü sırasında in his / her dream
konuşma-sı sırasında during her / his speech
zina ilişki-niz sırasında in your adulterous relations

evliliğ-in sırasında during your marriage
2. Dünya Savaş-ı sırasında in / during the Second World War
Esnasında. This form has much in common with sırasında and means ‘during / in the
course of ’. It takes nominal complements only: fırtına esnasında ‘during the storm’; doğum
esnasında ‘during birth / the delivery of the child’; hamilelik esnasında ‘in the course of the
pregnancy’.
Kadın, bütün bu patırtı esnasında uyan-ma-dı.

During this whole racket the woman did not wake up.
Doktora çalışma-lar-ı esnasında orada-ki teorik fizikçi-ler-le arkadaş ol-du.
In the course of her PhD work she became friends with theoretical physicists there.
Süre. This word means ‘period’, but gets the meaning ‘during’ in the form of süresinde. A
related word is süresince ‘during’. Examples are:
başlangıç süresinde
during the beginning (period)
(Uzun bir çocukluk dönem-i) süresince . . .
During a long childhood (period) . . .
Önce. Combined with the locative this word means ‘at a moment in the period prior to’. For
instance: tören önce-sin-de ‘before the ceremony’; bayram önce-sin-de ‘in the period prior
to the public holidays’; seçim önce-sin-de ‘before the elections’.
Yaklaşık yarım saat sür-en görüşme öncesinde . . .

At some moment before the meeting, which lasted about half an hour, . . .
Şun-u da sor-malı-yız: İki milyon yıl önce-nin önce-sin-de ne ol-du?
We must also ask: What happened in the period before two million years ago?
Sebep eylem-in önce-sin-de mi yoksa sonra-sın-da mı saklı sen-ce?
Is the cause hidden in the period before or after the action, in your opinion?
Sonra. The same holds for sonra ‘after’, as can be shown by:
Yaklaşık bir saat sür-en görüşme sonrasında . . .

At some moment after the meeting, which lasted about an hour, . . .
Körfez kriz-i sırasında ve sonrasında . . .
During and after the Gulf Crisis . . .
Bu, deprem-in sonra-sın-da yazıl-an bir yazı-ydı.
It was an article written after the earthquake.
By way of a conclusion, it can be said that all these temporal phrases take a noun phrase
(which can be interpreted as definite) as a complement. Because of the suffix –(s)I(n) there
is a strong similarity to nominal compounds. On the other hand, the position of the heads
of these phrases is reminiscent of that of postpositions.
36.3 Person-bound postpositions in predicate position
The postposition-like constructions in this section have three things in common: 1) they
can be analysed as compound constructions in the locative (–TE); 2) therefore, the
element –(s)I(n) is non-referential; 3) they are used as predicate in the sentence and
take a personal suffix.
Three main groups can be distinguished: 1) expressions describing a mental state some
person is subject to; 2) expressions describing a person's intention or decision or an obligation
a person is subject to; and 3) postpositional expressions describing some mental content
(what a person thinks or says and the like).
36.3.1 Mental state
Other than by using an adjective such as deli ‘crazy / mad’, depresyonlu ‘having a depres-
sion’, sinirli ‘tense and irritable’, certain mental states are described by means of altında
‘under’; içinde ‘in’; halinde ‘in a state of ’; durumunda ‘in the state / position’. This can be
exemplified by:
Sürekli baskı altında-yım.

I am constantly under pressure.
O kadar panik içinde-yim.
I am in such a panic.
Öylesine depresyon halinde-yim ki . . .
I am so depressed . . . (in a state of depression)
Ben bun-lar-ı açıkla-mak durumunda-yım.
I am in a position to explain everything.
As a matter of fact, the predicates above appear to be based on a word that forms a nominal
compound with a noun phrase (alt ‘underside’, iç ‘inside’, hal ‘state’, and durum, ‘state /
position’). Nevertheless, forms such as altında ‘under’ and the like should be taken as
postposition-like structures because there is no variation with respect to case marking. An
exception is: baskı altına almak (-i) ‘to exert pressure’.
There are two postposition-like constructions that take a complement in the genitive:
fark-ın-da ‘to notice / be aware of ’ and karşı-sın-da ‘to be against’. The complement can be a
noun phrase or a sentential complement.
Aynı zaman-da ben de on-un istek-lerin-in fark-ın-da-yım.

At the same time I am aware of what she wants.
Çoğu insan-dan daha iyi ol-duğ-un-un fark-ın-da-yım.
I did notice that she is much better than most people.
Evet, ben bun-un karşı-sın-da-yım bir yer-de.

Indeed, I am against it, somewhere.
Ben yıl-lar-dır idam ceza-sın-ın karşı-sın-da-yım.
For many years I have been against capital punishment.
36.3.2 Intention / decision / obligation
These notions are expressed by means of niyet-in-de ‘to intend to’, karar-ın-da ‘to have
decided to’ and zor-un-da / mecburiyet-in-de ‘to have to / must’. They take sentential
complements in the infinitive (–mEk).
Bir kez okul-u bitir-mek niyetinde-yim.

I am planning to finish (my studies at) that school some day.
Bu tartışma-lar-dan kaçın-mak kararında-yım.
I have decided to avoid these discussions.
Evet, kabul et-mek zorunda-sın.
Sure, you have to accept that.
Şun-u acı bir şekil-de söyle-mek mecburiyetinde-yim.
I must say this in a painful way.
36.3.3 Mental content
Mental content forms the basis of expressions such as iddia-sın-da ‘to claim that’; kanı-sın-da
‘of the opinion’; görüş-ün-de ‘of the view / opinion’; kanaat-in-de ‘convinced’; düşünce-sin-de
‘in the thought / having the idea of ’; inanc-ın-da ‘in the belief ’.
Now, the translations presented might be somewhat awkward here and there, but the
examples below will shed some more light on how things can be expressed in ‘proper’
English. Since expressions of this kind refer to mental content which is for the person in
question factual, they all express facts and hence it is not surprising that not only the full
infinitive (–mEk), but also tensed forms such as –TIK and –(y)EcEK occur in the sentential
complements.
Siz-ler-den daha fazla anla-mak iddiasında-yım.

I claim to understand more of it than all of you.
Bun-un olanaksız ol-duğ-u kanısında-yım.
In my opinion this is impossible.
Yap-abil-ecek kadar zekâ-sın-ı kullan-dığ-ı görüşünde-yim.
In my view she uses her brains as well as she can.
Bu pürüz-ler-in aş-ıl-abil-eceğ-i kanaatinde-yim.
I am convinced that these problems will be overcome.
Birçok kişi-nin hayal kırıklığ-ın-a uğra-yacağ-ı düşüncesinde-yim.

I think that a number of people will be disappointed.
Herhalde Rıdvan gibi bir futbol adam-ın-ın Sergen'siz Fenerbahçe’yi
düşün-üyor ol-ama-yacağ-ı inancında-yım.
I surely believe that a football person like Ridvan will not be able to think
of a Fenerbahçe without Sergen.
This type of predicate is embedded according to the standard pattern, using an auxiliary
form in ol- (see sections 37.1.3 and 37.1.4).
Sonra bun-un farkında ol-duğ-un-u san-dığ-ın-ı söyle-di.

She said she thought she would have noticed it later.
Doro ne yap-mak niyetinde ol-duğ-un-u sor-du.
Doro asked what he was planning to do.
Ayak-ta dur-arak bekle-mek zorunda ol-duğ-u için can-ı sıkıl-ıyor-du.
He got bored because he had to wait standing (on his feet).
Onlar-la çakış-abil-eceğ-in-i kabul et-mek zorunda ol-acağ-ımız-ı iddia et-ti.
He insisted that we will have to accept that he may come into conflict with them.
37
Verbal complexes *
By verbal complexes combinations of tense forms are understood, which are not transparent
with respect to their overall meaning. It is often the case that the individual tense forms are
recognizable in their own right, while their combinations are fuzzy. A very simple example
is the combination of –TI and the same verb stem expanded by the s uffix –(y)EcEK.
Şişe bit-ti bit-ecek.

The bottle is almost finished.
Yağmur başla-dı başla-yacak.
It will start raining presently.
Hediye doğur-du doğur-acak.
Hediye is about to give birth.
Sigara-sın-ın kül-ü düş-tü düş-ecek.
The ash of his cigarette almost dropped.
Another factor contributing to this kind of complexity is the fact that some verbs can be used
independently but also as auxiliaries. Both functions of the verb olmak are extensively dis-
cussed in section 37.1, followed by an account of the aspectual properties of a tensed verb plus
a form of olmak in section 37.2. Another type of aspect is expressed by a verbal suffix com-
posed of a linking vowel and a second verb stem and this will be discussed in section 37.3.
Although it has been advanced that a classification in terms of nominal, existential, and verbal
sentences is motivated by the type of negation each class requires, the verbal system is the one
that deviates from this partition because of double negation. In section 37.4 the negation of a
tensed verb form by means of değil will be explained, in section 37.5 several aspects of verbal
negation by means of yok, and in section 37.6 the combination yok değil will be elucidated.
37.1 The basic functions of olmak
The verb olmak is used with a number of meanings; independently used it means ‘to become’
or ‘to happen / occur’, as will be discussed in sections 37.1.1 and 37.1.2. Furthermore, it is used
as an auxiliary verb, as will be discussed in sections 37.1.3 and 37.1.4. Optative forms of olmak
with a non-verbal complement will be treated in section 37.1.5, and constructions based on
the deverbal nouns oluş and olmayış will be introduced in section 37.1.6.
37.1.1 Olmak ‘to become’
Used as an independent verb, olmak is combined with the names of diseases as in: grip
olmak ‘to get the flu’, kanser olmak ‘to get cancer’ and verem olmak ‘to succumb to tuberculosis’,
but without any such word denoting a disease it also means ‘to become’:
DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198851509.001.0001
37.1 The basic functions of olmak 687
Her şey çok güzel ol-du.

Everything has become very beautiful.
Gömleğ-in leke ol-du.
Your shirt got stained.
With olmak ‘to become’ as the object of a verb, an auxiliary form occurs (see section 37.1.4).
Bu, hastane-nin dünya-ca ünlü bir araştırma merkez-i ol-ma-sın-ı sağla-dı.

This ensured that the hospital became a world-famous research centre.
This form can be contrasted with the following example, in which it is the ‘state of being’
(as a fact) that is conveyed and not the ‘process of becoming’ (as an act).
İleride kendi-sin-in de güzel ol-acağ-ın-ı mı san-ıyor, ne?

Does she by chance think that she too will be a beauty in the future, or what?
The combination yerle bir ol-mak means ‘to (totally) collapse’ in the sense of ‘to become
level with the ground’
Fay hatt-ı üzerinde-ki bina-lar yerle bir ol-du.

The buildings on the fault line were levelled to the ground’.
37.1.2 Olmak ‘to happen’
The second meaning of olmak is ‘to happen / occur / take place’. It is used as an independent
verb and takes different complements.
Sonunda da düşün-düğ-ü ol-du.

And ultimately what she had thought (expected) happened.
İste-diğ-im ol-ma-dı.
What I wanted did not come true.
Variation in tense is clearly visible in the following examples, in which the complement of
olmak takes a verb with –TIK. The embedded verb describes a fact.
Yalnız bazen her şey-e rağmen iş-ler-in karış-tığ-ı ol-uyor.

Only, despite everything it sometimes happens that things get mixed up.
Bari bu iki yıl içinde sen-in sonuc-un-u hiç merak et-tiğ-i ol-ur mu-ydu?
Has it then ever happened in those two years that she showed
an interest in your results?
Suy-un sıcaklığ-ın-ın 32,5 derece-ye bile çık-tığ-ı ol-ur-du.
It occurred that the water temperature even rose to 32.5° C.
Meyhane-nin boş kal-dığ-ı ol-ma-z-dı.
It never happened that the restaurant remained empty.
688 Verbal complexes
Arada dışarıda kal-dığ-ı ol-ur-du, ertesi gün gel-eceğ-in-i ya da

getir-il-eceğ-in-i bil-ir-dik.
At times he stayed outside, but we knew that he would come back
the next day or that someone would go and pick him up.
When olmak ‘to happen / occur’ is the object of some other verb, again an auxiliary form
can be expected to occur (see section 37.1.4):
Böyle ol-ma-sın-ı isti-yor-um! Hem de derhal.

I want it to be this way! And also right now!
Also, olmak can be interpreted as ‘to be’ and, in a much wider sense, even as ‘to exist’.
Bun-un böyle ol-acağ-ın-ı ben söyle-miş-ti-m, fakat dinle-yen ol-ma-dı!

I have said that this would go this way, but there was no one listening!
Kusursuz cinayet ol-ur mu?—Türkiye’de ol-uyor.
Does the perfect murder exist?—In Turkey it occurs.
Enflasyon yüz-de 50 iken, yüz-de 100 faiz ol-ur mu?—Ol-ma-z!
At an inflation rate of 50%, is a 100% interest rate possible?—No! / It can’t be!
In section 27.4.4 the form –mE + possessive + –(y)lE followed by –mE + possessive + bir
olmak has been discussed. In such constructions the word bir can be taken as expressing
‘simultaneous’ and olmak as ‘to occur’. Recall:
1885 yıl-ın-da kitap olarak çık-ma-sı-yla ün-ün-ün dünya-yı tut-ma-sı,

hemen birçok dil-e çevril-me-si bir ol-du.
No sooner had it been published as a book in 1885 than it attained world fame
and was immediately translated into a number of other languages.
37.1.3 Olmak as auxiliary (1)
The third meaning of olmak is ‘to be’. Two forms attract the attention. In a combination
such as bu ol-du, used as a predicate, the word bu ‘this’ forms its core and is emphasized.
The only reason for the fragment ol-du to be in the sentence is to create a focus position
(see sections 29.5 and 32.3) for the core. Compare the first example with the other three, in
which ol-du is applied as an auxiliary.
Ben-im için ilginç ol-an bu.

What is / was interesting for me is this.
Gerçekten de ol-an bu ol-du.
And this is what really happened.
Sonuc-u etkile-yen bu ol-du.
This is what influenced the result.
Ben-i de rahatsız ed-en bu ol-du sanır-ım.

And what has upset me is this, I think.
Other elements can be put in the focus position as well:
Bugüne kadar en iyi dost-lar-ım onlar ol-du.

My best friends up to now are they!
Lâf ara-mız-da, söyle-diğ-in-i yap-an da o ol-du, ben değil.
Between you and me, the one who did what you said is / was him, not me!
Tepe-ye ilk gel-en onlar ol-du-lar.
Those coming to the summit first are / were they.
A comparable usage of ol-du is found in the sentences below, which might on the basis of
their translations be reminiscent of existential constructions. However, these are as a mat-
ter of fact just sentences with a focal element.
On-u gök-ler-e çıkar-an-lar ol-du, küfred-en-ler de ol-du.

There were people who praised him to the skies, and people who cursed him.
Ancak daha sonra bazı önemli geliş-me-ler ol-du.
But later there were some important developments.
Forms in ol-uyor are mostly accompanied by a locative construction and a temporal phrase.
The tenor of such sentences is a habitual or repeated action.
Perşembe gün-ler-i dışında saat iki-yi çeyrek geçe ev-de ol-uyor-um.

Except on Thursdays I am home at a quarter past two.
Öğle-ye doğru göl-de ol-uyor, öğle-den sonra üç-te de ev-e dön-üyor.
Towards noon she’s on the lake, and (afterwards) at three o’clock she goes home.
O yüzden çoğu kez gerilim içinde ol-uyor-sunuz.
For that reason you are tense most of the time.
37.1.4 Olmak as auxiliary (2)
The stem ol- is also often used as an auxiliary in its function as carrier for grammatical
material (suffixes) in embeddings. There are several ways in which the stem ol- can be
expanded by suffixes and the important factor determining the type of suffix that can
beattached is the distinction that must be made between act and fact, as explained in
section 33.5. In section 33.5.6 it was indicated that a fact is systematically expressed
by –TIK / –EcEK and an action by –mE. This opposition is relevant for the usage of olas
an auxiliary.
First, if one wants to describe a fact, of course a matrix verb can be used that typically
allows for complements denoting facts, situations, or circumstances, for instance, görmek
‘to see’, duymak ‘to hear / feel’, dinlemek ‘to listen (to)’, izlemek ‘to watch / follow’ (Group
A in section 33.5.6), and also söylemek ‘to say’, anlamak ‘to understand’, inanmak ‘to
believe’, bilmek ‘to know’, and hatırlamak ‘to remember’ (Group B in 33.5.6). As a rule, the
complement is expressed by a form of ‘to be’ in English. The following sentences could
serve as examples:
On-un hasta ol-duğ-un-u bil-iyor-du-k.

We (really) knew that she was / is ill.
Bun-un ne ol-duğ-un-u anla-ma-dı.
He did not understand what that is / was.
Gel-en-in kim ol-duğ-un-u fark et-ti.
She noticed (realized) who was the one arriving.
Anahtar-ı yan-ın-da ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı söyle-di.
He said he didn’t have his key with him.
İsmet Bey üç ay-dır kapalı ol-duğ-un-u bil-diğ-i yol-a gir-di.
Ismet Bey entered a road of which he knew that it had been closed three months before.
Babaanne-m baba-m-a bir iste-diğ-i ol-up ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı sor-du.
My grandmother asked my father if there was something he wanted.
Kendi-leri-yle yap-acağ-ım görüşme-nin çok yararlı ol-acağ-ın-a inan-ıyor-um.
I believe that the interview I will do with them will be very useful.
Bun-un da sakıncalı ol-ma-yacağ-ın-ı söyle-di.
She said that this would not be objectionable.
Masa-sın-a şeref ver-me-m-in mümkün ol-up ol-ma-yacağ-ın-ı sor-uyor-muş.
He seems to be asking if it would be possible that I honour his table with my presence.
A fact (state, situation, circumstance, and the like) which is described by a past participle
(–mIş, see section 32.6.2), takes an auxiliary in the form of ol-ma-sı. In certain cases it is
necessary to translate with ‘the fact that’:
Baş-ın-a bir şey gel-miş ol-ma-sın-dan mı kork-uyor-sun?

Are you (by chance) afraid that something has happened to him / her?
Bu kadar zaman geç-miş ol-ma-sı üzücü bir durum değil mi, sizce?
Isn’t it a sad thing that so much time has passed, in your opinion?
Abdullah’ın kasa-mız-dan al-dığ-ı bir milyon dolar-ın büyük bir
bölüm-ün-ü, Cafer’in ağabey-in-in bak=ıl-dığ-ı hastane-ye bağışla-mış
ol-ma-sın-ı koca-m-ın henüz hazmed-eme-diğ-in-i bil-iyor-du-m.
I knew that my husband had not yet been able to digest the fact that Abdullah
had donated the greater part of the one million dollars he took from our vault
to the hospital where Cafer’s older brother was being nursed.
Tepe-nin tuhaflığ-ı, yukarı-dan aşağı-ya doğru iki-ye böl=ün-müş ol-ma-sın-da-ydı.
The oddity of the hill was (the fact) that it was top-down divided in two parts.
Postpositions taking a complement describing a fact also take the auxiliary form olması:
Bina boya=n-mış ve her yer temizle=n-miş ol-ma-sın-a rağmen . . .

Although the building had been painted and cleaned everywhere . . .
Aradan yirmi yıl geç-miş ol-ma-sın-a karşın . . .
Despite the fact that in the meantime twenty years had passed . . .
Bir zarar ver-miş ol-ma-sın-dan dolayı . . .
Owing to the fact that it had inflicted damage . . .
Sağır ve dilsiz ol-ma-sın-dan sebebiyle . . .
Because she is deaf mute . . .
Of course, grammatical persons other than third person singular are possible as well:
Tarsus Amerikan Koleji’nde oku-muş ol-ma-m, gün-ün şart-ların-da

bir yabancı dil bil-iyor ol-ma-m, pek bir şey-i değiştir-mi-yor.
The fact that I was a student of the American College in Tarsus and that I,
by today’s requirements, know a foreign language, doesn’t change a bit of it.
Uzaylı-lar-ca ziyaret ed=il-miş ol-ma-mız harika bir varsayım, ama . . .
That we’ve been visited by extra-terrestrials is a marvellous assumption, but . . .
O gün-e kadar rastlaş-ma-mış ol-ma-nız rastlantı-ydı.
That you haven’t met one another to that very day was a coincidence.
Türkiye’de ol-ma-nın avantaj-ı öğrenci-ler-in öğren-me-ye daha hazır ol-ma-ları.
The advantage of being in Turkey is that students are more prepared to study.
Öğrenci-ler-in mezun ol-ma-ları ve öğren-dik-lerin-i öğret-me-leri
müderris-in onay-ı ile ol-mak-ta-ydı.
That students graduated and taught what they had learned happened only with the
permission of the professor.
Secondly, there are verbs that describe a nonexistent but future or desirable state of affairs,
for example: istemek ‘to want’, dilemek ‘to wish’, arzulamak / arzetmek ‘to request / require /
want’ (compare Group 4D in section 33.8.4), tavsiye etmek ‘to recommend’, önermek ‘to
recommend’ (compare Group 4B in section 33.8.4), and also hedeflemek ‘to strive / aim
(at)’, tercih etmek ‘to prefer’. Mostly, complements in –mE of such verbs are translated by
forms of ‘to have’ and ‘to be’.
Başka ne ol-ma-sın-ı bekli-yor-du-nuz ki?

What else were you expecting him / her / it to be?
Ne ol-ma-sın-ı isti-yor-sun onlar-ın?
How do you want them to be?
Ben her yön-ü-yle ban-a benze-yen bir oğl-um-un ol-ma-sın-ı iste-r-di-m.
I wanted (to have) a son who would resemble me in every respect.
Bütün bun-lar-ın düş değil gerçek ol-ma-sın-ı ne çok isti-yor-du-m!
How much I wanted all this to be no dream but reality!
Kendi-sin-i tebrik ed-iyor-um ve herkes-e örnek ol-ma-sın-ı dili-yor-um.

I wish her good luck and wish that she will be an example to everyone.
The final example of this section shows four forms with three meanings of ol- in one sentence:
Sonunda bir gün gel-di,

koş-mak, yap-mak-ta ol-duğ-um şey-ler-den bir-i ol-mak-tan çık-ıp
yap-mış ol-duğ-um şey-ler-den bir-i ol-du.
In the end there came a day when
running ceased to be one of the things that I was doing
(but) became one of the things that I had done.
In the fragments yap-mak-ta ol-duğ-um ‘that I was doing’ and yap-mış ol-duğ-um ‘that
I had done’ the element ol- functions as an auxiliary, in ol-mak-tan çık- it stands for ‘to be’,
and in the sentence-final form ol-du it has the meaning of ‘to become’.
37.1.5 Optatives of olmak
In the sense of ‘to become’ and ‘to happen’ and in its function of auxiliary (‘to be’ and
‘to have’) olmak has several optative forms, all based on a non-verbal complement. Such
forms exist for all grammatical persons and they can relate to the present or the past (see
section 24.1.4).
These forms are: ol-a / ol-ma-ya, taking a personal suffix of Type 1 and ol-a-ydı / ol-ma-
ya-ydı, taking a personal suffix of Type 2. The notions of ‘to become’ and ‘to happen’,
effected by independent usage of olmak, are expressed by the following examples:
Sen-i bir canavar ol-a-sın diye yetiştir-me-di-m.

I did not raise you wishing that you would become a monster.
Sen neden başarılı bir sanatçı ol-ma-ya-sın?
Why wouldn’t you become a successful artist?
Keşke hiç öyle bir şey ol-ma-ya-ydı.
If only such a thing hadn’t happened.
In the sense of ‘to be’, olmak is applied as auxiliary in the following series:
Ben-i genç bir adam ol-arak gör-emez mi-sin?—Keşke genç ol-a-ydı-n.

Can’t you see me as a young man?—I wish you were young!
Adam ol-a-ydı-n da kız-ın-ı bu hal-e düşür-me-ye-ydi-n!
Had you been a man, you wouldn’t have let your daughter end up in such a state!
Ah, bir biz ol-a-ydı-k on-un yer-in-de!
Ah, I wish it had been us instead of him!
İki hafta-dan beri bura-da ol-a-sın da ben sen-i gör-me-ye-yim?
How can you have been here since two weeks ago, so that I have not seen you?
Ah, keşke becerikli İnci de bura-da ol-a-ydı!

Ah, had the dextrous Inci only been here!
Of course, the idea of ‘to have’ is expressed in the same way:
Ah, bir de şu topal ayağ-ı ol-ma-ya-ydı.

Ah, if only he hadn’t had that crippled foot.
Constructions based on a verbal complement will be discussed in section 37.2.8.
37.1.6 Constructions with oluş and olmayış
As was pointed out in the first lines of section 37.1.4, the stem ol- is often used as a carrier
for suffixes in embeddings, and hence, it functions as an auxiliary.
A fact, state, or circumstance can be described in Turkish by the word ol-uş. This derivative
form in –(y)Iş (see section 31.8) is as a matter of fact a nominalized form of ol- and therefore it
behaves as a noun: it takes a possessive suffix. The word which functions as its antecedent
(the thing or person made reference to) stands in the genitive, but this word may be left
unspecified. In the next five examples the fragment in bold print is the predicate of the
sentence and the remaining part is the corresponding subject of the sentence.
Anlat-mak iste-diğ-im, on-un o kadar genç ve güzel oluş-u.

What I tried to explain is (the fact) that she is so young and beautiful.
The word ol-uş can often be translated with a form of ‘to be’, also by ‘the fact that’ or ‘state’
or ‘circumstance’ and in some cases simply by ‘that’. The negational counterpart of ol-uş is
ol-ma-yış, a form which is of course in use as a noun, in the sense of ‘not-being’. The following
two examples exemplify the expression of the ‘absence of some property’ by means of
ol-ma-yış. Note that at the same time projectional suffixes are applied for ‘past’ and ‘inference’.
In some examples it is indicated that the antecedent (in brackets) of ol-ma-yış has been left out.
İlac-ı etkili kıl-an, toz-un saf ol-ma-yış-ı-ydı.

What made the medication effective was that the powder was not pure.
Asıl en kötü-sü, (on-un) hiç de sarhoş ol-ma-yış-ı-ymış.
What was allegedly the worst of it was that he wasn’t drunk.
Some fact, state, or circumstance can of course also be ‘denied’:
Dünya-da-ki sorun-un kaynağ-ı insan-lar-ın farklı ol-uş-u değil.

The source of problems in the world is not that people are different.
Uyu-yama-yış-ım-ın sebeb-i, yatağ-ın rahatsız ol-uş-u değil-di.
The reason that I couldn’t sleep is not that the bed was uncomfortable.
A negation of a negation is possible as well:
On-u da asıl üz-en kendi iş-in-in ol-ma-yış-ı değil-dir.

What actually worries him is not the fact that it is not his own business / job.
Aliye’yi rahatsız ed-en, (kendi-sin-in) bir mucize ol-ma-yış-ı değil-di.

What bothered Aliye was not that she is not a miracle herself.
As is well known, the notion of ‘to have’ is closely related to that of ‘to be’ in Turkish.
Üzücü ol-an, (on-un) belirli bir amac-ın-ın ol-ma-yış-ı.

The saddening thing is that he has no proper objective.
Moebius şerid-in-in özelliğ-i, (on-un) tek bir yüz-ü ol-uş-u.
The peculiarity of the Möbius strip is that it has a single side.
Constructions with ol-uş and ol-ma-yış are quite frequently part of an adverbial phrase
ending in a case marker, a postposition, or a combination of both
Yeni gel-diğ-i, (hiç yara-sı ol-ma-yış-ın)-dan anlaş-ıl-ıyor-du.

That he had just arrived was clear from the fact that he had no injuries.
Şimdi de, (bun-lar-ın hiçbir-in-in ol-ma-yış-ı) yüzünden kork-uyor-du.
And now she was afraid because it was none of these.
Kişi-ler (erkek veya kadın ol-uş-ların)-dan ötürü birbir-lerin-den ayrıl-ır-lar.
People are separated from one another because of their being a man or a woman.
Such constructions are formed not only on the basis of the third person, but with all other
grammatical persons as well. In the next two examples facts or circumstances are related to
the second person singular and the second person plural respectively. The carrier ol-uş and
its complements take up the position of predicate.
Düşün-düğ-ünüz şey değil, ben-i şaşırt-an siz-in bu kadar emin ol-uş-unuz.

What surprises me is not what you think, but the fact that you are so sure about it.
Biz-im en büyük kusur-umuz (biz-im) saadet-imiz-e fazla düşkün ol-uş-umuz-dur.
Our biggest fault is that we are too much devoted to our happiness.
Furthermore, the constructions under discussion are also used as subjects and objects:
San-ır-ım hüzünlü ol-uş-um bu ve benzeri pek çok şey-e bağlı.

I think that the fact that I’m sad has to do with this and with many things like this.
Varlıklı ol-uş-unuz bu tartışma-da ben-im üstün ol-ma-m-ı sağla-r.
The fact that you are wealthy ensures that I have the upper hand in this discussion.
Biraz içkili ol-uş-unuz-a üzül-dü-m, yoksa siz-e bazı şey-ler sor-ar-dı-m.
I regret that you’re a little intoxicated, otherwise I would ask you a few things.
Characteristic of the fragments in bold print in ol-uş and ol-ma-yış is that they have
something in common with nominal predicates. From each of these fragments inferences
can be drawn in the form of a corresponding nominal sentence: from on-un o kadar genç ve
güzel oluş-u it can be inferred that o, o kadar genç ve güzel ‘she is so young and beautiful’
and toz-un saf ol-ma-yış-ı leads to the deduction that toz saf değil ‘the powder is not pure’.
Similarly, by virtue of belirli bir amac-ın-ın ol-ma-yış-ı it is known that belirli bir amac-ı
yok ‘he has no proper purpose’.
In another type of construction the complement of ol-uş / ol-ma-yış plus complement

is based on a verb. Two things stand out in verbal constructions. First, the embedded verbs
have no (grammatical) subject of their own, but they do have their own objects and adverbial
phrases. Secondly, ol-uş and ol-ma-yış always carry a possessive suffix, the antecedent of
which occurs in the genitive. That antecedent can indeed be interpreted as the logical subject
of the verb, but grammatically speaking it is definitely not a subject, because it forms with
ol-uş and ol-ma-yış a genitive-possessive construction, between the borders of which a
further specification of the antecedent is given. This will be further addressed after the
presentation of some examples.
In the next three examples ol-uş plus complement is the predicate:
On-a göre Minu’nun tek sorun-u, (on-un) fazla şımart=ıl-mış ol-uş-u.

According to him, Minu’s only problem is her being so very spoilt.
Yadırga-dığ-ım tek şey, (ben-im) artık hiçbir şey-i yadırga-ma-z ol-uş-um-du.
The only thing I found odd was that I found nothing odd any more.
Biz-im mutluluğ-umuz, (biz-im) savunma iste-mi-yor ol-uş-umuz-da-dır.
Our happiness is in the fact that we want no protection.
There are, of course, also examples with ol-uş plus complement in the role of subject:
Tornacılık-ta çalış-acak ol-uş-u gözünü biraz korkut-uyor-du.

The fact that he would work in the turnery discouraged him a little.
Gezegen-ler-in mükemmel daire-ler içinde hareket et-mi-yor ol-uş-ları
Kepler’i üz-müş-tü.
That the planets did not revolve in perfect circles had upset Kepler.
In what follows ol-uş plus complement is applied as the object of the sentence:
(Siz-i daha önce gör-me-miş ol-uş-um)-a şaş-ma-malı.

The fact that I haven’t seen you before should not surprise anyone.
(Ben-im de belki çok fena hasta ol-acak ol-uş-um)-la teselli bul-abil-ir-siniz.
You can find solace in the fact that I too will perhaps become very ill.
And surely, ol-uş plus complement also occurs as an adverbial phrase, ending in a case
marker and / or a postposition:
Hâlâ iş-i bitir-eme-miş ol-uş-un-a bahane-ler arı-yor-du.

He sought all sorts of excuses for the fact that he had not yet been able to finish it.
Yararlı hiçbir şey öğren-me-miş ol-uş-um-un ardında bir amaç yat-ıyor belki de.
There is perhaps a purpose behind the fact that I have not learned anything useful.
Given that a construction such as ben-im X ol-uş-um has no other meaning than ‘the fact
that I am X’, in which X stands for some property, it is clear that also complements can be
interpreted in this way. It follows, then, that fazla şımart=ıl-mış can be interpreted as
‘someone who has been spoilt in excess’, and, likewise, mükemmel daire-ler içinde hareket
et-mi-yor as ‘something that does not revolve in perfect circles’.
Finally, a warning is in place for a little snake in the grass. There is also an intransitive
verb oluşmak meaning ‘to form’, from which the noun oluşum ‘formation’ has been derived.
Naturally, this is not be confused with ol-uş-um as exemplified above. Compare:
Ne de olsa ham petrol-ün oluşum-u doğa-da bile bin-lerce yıl sür-üyor.

After all, the formation of crude oil takes, even in nature, thousands of years.
37.2 The aspectual functions of olmak
In its infinitival form olmak is used as an auxiliary verb by presenting some action in its
entirety, rather than relating it to some reference point in time (i.e. the moment of speaking).
This type of construction will be dealt with in section 37.2.1. Furthermore, in several tensed
forms the stem ol- is applied as auxiliary to represent all kinds of subtleties and shades of
meaning of certain temporal aspects of the main verb. Also, it is used to indicate that a
statement has a certain subjective load on behalf of the speaker, as will be discussed in
sections 37.2.2–37.2.9.
Lastly, there are three types of construction which by means of ol- describe the way a
certain action or process develops in time (sections 37.2.10–37.2.12).
37.2.1 Foregrounding
This is a method of presenting an event by means of the infinitival form olmak, in the case
of a nonexistent direct relation with the moment of speaking. The verb describing the event
bears a tense suffix which is followed by olmak. In this way, the event in its entirety is presented
as an entity: in the present by –(I)yor + olmak, in the future by –(y)EcEK + olmak and in the
past by –mIş + olmak. The combination –(I/E)r + olmak can also be included in this type
of construction, although in many a case the verbal part is interpretable as a lexicalized
participle. The construction is impersonal, since personal suffixes do not occur. Therefore
the verb form preceding olmak can be interpreted as a participle. With olmak the whole
construction reads as: ‘to be someone who . . . ’.
Present: –(I)yor + olmak. The clause in olmak may be subject of the main clause:
Bütün bun-lar-ı hissed-iyor ol-mak on-u gülümset-ti.

Feeling all this made him smile.
Bun-u bil-iyor ol-mak iyi de-di-m.
‘It is good to know this,’ said I.
Bir bahar sabah-ın-ın temiz hava-sın-ı solu-yor ol-mak güzel-di.
It was lovely breathing the fresh (clean) air of a spring morning.
But it also occurs as an object:
Bun-u siz-in-le paylaş-abil-iyor ol-mak-tan son derece memnun-um de-di.

‘At being able to share this with you I am exceedingly happy,’ he said.
Bir rüya gör-üyor ol-mak-tan kork-uyor-um.
I’m afraid of dreaming.
37.2 The aspectual functions of olmak 697
Negated forms also exist, even combined with the suffix indicating ‘possibility’:
Neden kork-tuğ-um-u bil-mi-yor ol-mak da ben-i hiç rahatlat-mı-yor-du.

Not knowing what I feared did not reassure me at all.
Ortadoğu’yu tanı-mı-yor ol-mak korku-lar-ımız-ı, önyargı-lar-ımız-ı artır-ıyor.
Not knowing the Middle East makes our fears and prejudices increase.
Nasıl bir gün ol-acak? Bir gün-e başla-r-ken on-un nasıl bit-eceğ-in-i
bil-emi-yor ol-mak, uzun zaman-dır unut-tuğ-um bir şey.
What kind of day will it be? Not being able to know how a day will end,
once I started it, is something I have forgotten since long ago.
Future: –(y)EcEK + olmak. For these forms the same distribution holds as for –(I)yor.
Tabii ki, siz-in-le röportaj yap-acak ol-mak büyük bir ayrıcalık, de-di.
Of course it’s a great privilege to be going to do an interview with you, said he.
Söz konusu yazar-ı ora-da gör-ecek ol-mak-tan heyecan duy-uyor-du-m.
I felt excited, for I was going to see the writer in question there.
Sadece sevin-di-m, sen-in-le yolculuk ed-ecek ol-mak-tan ötürü mutlu ol-du-m.
I’m only glad, I’m happy to be travelling with you.
Böyle bir eğlence-ye katıl-ama-yacak ol-mak-tan büyük bir üzüntü duy-du.
She felt great sadness at not being able to participate in such entertainment.
Kız-ı artık el-in-de tut-ama-yacak ol-mak-tan çek-tiğ-i işkence-ydi, bu.
This was the torment he suffered for no longer being able to keep the girl
under control.
Past: –mIş + olmak. The first three examples are affirmative, the second series is based on a
negated verb.
Kayıt ol-ma-nın tek koşul-u var, o da okul-u bitir-miş ol-mak.

There’s one single condition for registration: to have finished school.
Bun-a imkan bul-muş ol-mak-tan memnun ol-duğ-un-u söyle-di.
He said that he was glad to have found a possibility for this.
Ben-i zengin ol-mak için müşteri-ler-im-i soy-muş ol-mak-la itham ed-eme-z-ler.
They cannot accuse me of having stripped my customers as to become rich.
Belki top atış-ı talim-i gör-me-miş ol-mak eksiklik-ti.
Perhaps it was a deficiency not to have been given shooting practice.
Bazı-ların-ı hiç tanı-ma-mış ol-mak on-da hayal kırıklığ-ı yarat-mış-tı.
Not having recognized some of them left him disappointed.
Çocuğ-un kabahat-i, ana-sın-ın pişir-diğ-i bir yemeğ-i beğen-me-miş ol-mak-tı.
The child’s fault was not having liked a dish his mother had cooked.
Also adverbial phrases expressing purpose (see section 28.3) can be made with –mIş olmak.
Okul-a gid-ecek-ti. Sırf müdür-le görüş-müş ol-mak için.

He would go to school. Just to speak (Literally: to have spoken) with the director.
Onlar-ı memnun ed-ecek bir şey yap-mış ol-mak için de katıl-ma-yı kabul et-ti.
And for the aim of having done something that would please them,
he agreed to participate.
Git-miş ol-mak için oku-ma-ya karar ver-miş-ti-m,
yoksa oku-mak için git-miş değil-di-m.
I had decided to study in order to be gone away,
I had not gone in order to study.
Negative purpose clauses (–mE-mIş + olmak için) can be illustrated by:
Harika! de-di sırf çocuk-lar-ı kır-ma-mış ol-mak için.

Wonderful!, she said, merely so as not to hurt the children.
Ön-lerin-de-ki manzara-yı hiç gör-me-miş ol-mak için çok şey ver-ir-ler-di.
They would have given a lot not to have seen the scene in front of them.
Bence idrak et-me-miş ol-mak için ya gafil veya cahil ol-mak lâzım-dır.
I think, not to have understood, one needs to be totally unaware or ignorant.
Combination: –(I/E)r + olmak. In all cases of this construction olmak must be interpreted
as the expression of the notion ‘to be’. The verb forms ending in –(I/E)r are participles
which have been lexicalized to adjectives, as was discussed in section 32.10.5
Pek ziyade uzağ-ı gör-ür ol-mak lazım gel-me-z-di.

It was not necessary to be able to foresee too much of what will happen.
Özdeğ-in öz-ü hiç de algıla=n-ır ol-mak değil-dir.
The nature of matter is by no means perceptible.
Önce insan olarak bilinçli ve güven=il-ir ol-mak gerek-ir.
First and foremost, as a human it is necessary to be conscious and reliable.
Kız-lar-ın arzula=n-ır ol-mak için şişmanlat=ıl-dığ-ı kültür-ler-i öv-üyor-du.
He praised cultures in which girls are fattened up to be / become desirable.
Naturally, negational counterparts are not uncommon:
Türkiye’nin, bu savaş-lar-da yenilgi-ye uğra-ma-sı kaçın=ıl-maz ol-mak-ta-ydı.

That Turkey would suffer defeat in these wars was inevitable.
Sen-in gibi görün-mez ol-mak isti-yor-um, dedi.
‘Like you I want to be / become invisible,’ she said.
Tümüyle doğa, Kant’a göre bil=in-eme-z ol-mak-ta devam et-mek-te-dir.
The whole of nature, according to Kant, continues to be not knowable.
37.2.2 Hypothesis
The combination –(y)EcEK ol-ur-sa expresses (thanks to –sE) a hypothetical state of affairs,
signalling a certain reserve or reticence of the speaker.
Biri siz-i sorgu-ya çek-ecek ol-ur-sa bir şey bil-me-diğ-iniz-i söyle-yin!

Should it happen that someone questions you, say you know nothing!
Biraz öznel ol-acak ol-ur-sa-m . . .
If I may be a little bit subjective . . .
Uzman-lar-a inan-acak ol-ur-sa-k . . .
If we may believe the experts . . .
Moleküler biyoloji açısından düşün-ecek ol-ur-sa-nız . . .
Now, if you would think from the viewpoint of molecular biology . . .
37.2.3 Assumption
Another application of olas an auxiliary is found in a type of construction the meaning of

which can easily be guessed, but which at the same time conveys the notion of ‘it must / will be
the case’. In other words, this construction expresses an assumption on the part of the speaker.
The first two examples (see section 24.7.3) are comparable to the third, fourth, and fifth ones.
Başka birşey ye-miş-sin-dir.

You must have eaten something different.
Herkes git-miştir. Belki kal-an var-dır, ama sen gid-ecek-sin-dir.
Everyone has gone. Perhaps someone will stay, but you will probably go.
Sen kendi-n de fark et-miş ol-acak-sın ki . . .
You will have noticed yourself too that . . .
Şimdi-ye değin ver=il-en bilgi-ler-den kuşkusuz anlaş=ıl-mış ol-acak-tır ki . . .
From the information received so far, it will undoubtedly have been understood that . . .
Taksi ara-dığ-ım-ı san-mış ol-acak-lar ki, bir-i kalk-ıp dışarı çık-tı.
They must have thought that I wanted a taxi; (because) someone rose to
his feet and came out.
37.2.4 Conclusion / deduction
Given certain circumstances, the form ol-malı is used to express a conclusion or deduction:
‘it must be the case that . . .’ . It follows a sentential complement which is not inflected for
person. Personal suffixes are placed after ol-malı.
Aynı şaşkınlığ-ı o da ben-im göz-ler-im-de oku-yor ol-malı-ydı.

It must be the case that he too saw the same surprise in my eyes.
Bura-da otur-uyor-sa-nız tanı-yor ol-malı-sınız.

As you are sitting here, you must know him / her.
Kuzey hat-ların-dan bir-in-e aktarma yap-acak ol-malı-sınız.
You will need to change (trains) at one of the northern lines.
Yanlış bir patika-ya gir-miş ol-malı-yım.
I must have taken a wrong path.
A variant is olsa gerek ‘it must be the case that’. This form occurs predominantly in non-verbal
sentences. For instance:
Çocuk üç yaş-lar-ın-da olsa gerek, çünkü . . .

The child must be three years of age or so, because . . .
Öyle değil mi?—Öyle olsa gerek.
Isn’t that so?—Yes, it must be the way you say. / That’s most likely so.
37.2.5 Result
The combination –mIş ol-uyor expresses the result of an action or event. Mostly this can be
inferred from context or situation, but also adverbs give a certain indication, for instance
böylece ‘so, in this way’, bu şekil-de ‘in this way / form’ and the like.
Sarhoş-a, asla adım at-ama-yacağ-ı cennet-in bir parça-sı aç=ıl-mış ol-uyor.

For the drunk a small piece of heaven opens up (as a result),
a place where he will never be able to take a step.
Bu karar-la SSCB, Ay yarış-ın-a üç yıl gecik-meli olarak gir-miş ol-uyor-du.
With this decision the USSR began the race to the moon with a three-year delay.
Bu sebep-ten kız-lar anne-nin iş-ler-in-i de hafiflet-miş ol-uyor.
For this reason the girls lighten the work of the mother.
Son parça da böylece tamamla=n-mış ol-uyor-du.
The final piece was completed in this manner.
37.2.6 Expectation
By –mIş ol-ur and –mIş ol-ur-du an expectation is expressed in regard to a habitual action
or event in the present or past:
Bun-un ol-acağ-ın-ı bil-iyor-du-m de-r-se-m abart-mış ol-ur-um.

If I were to say I knew this was going to happen, I’d exaggerate.
Ancak hiç etkile=n-me-di-m de-r-se-n yalan söyle-miş ol-ur-su-n.
But if you say you’re not affected at all, you’ll have told a lie.
Anne-m genellikle bu saat-e kadar çoktan dön-müş ol-ur-du.
My mother would usually have returned for a long time at this hour.
Akşam ev-e gel-diğ-imiz-de hava karar-mış ol-ur-du.

When we came home in the evening, it would have grown dark.
Bu durum-da Türkiye’de ol-sa-ydı-n çoktan öl-müş ol-ur-du-n.
If you’d been in Turkey in this situation, you would have been long dead.
37.2.7 Possibility
The combination ol-abil- means ‘it may be the case that’. The forms preceding this auxiliary
part are –mIş and –(I)yor. Negated forms in ol-ama-z are rather frequent.
Yanıl-mış ol-abil-ir-im.
I may be mistaken. / It is possible that I am mistaken.
On-da nasıl bir izlenim bırak-mış olabil-ir-di-m?
What kind of impression may I have made on her?
Güzelliğ-iniz-in kaybol-acağ-ın-ı düşün-üyor ol-abil-ir-siniz.
It may be (the case) that you think your beauty will disappear.
‘Numara yap-ıyor ol-ama-z’, de-di-m, ‘çok üzgün görün-üyor-du’.
‘It can’t be that he pretends,’ I said, ‘he looks very sad.’
37.2.8 Desirability
Constructions which express some desideratum (wish, hope, or the like) can be formed in
several ways. One way is by means of the suffix –sE for the irrealis (see section 22.2) which
after the introductory words Allah / Tanrı vere de ‘Allah / God grant (that) . . .’ is attached
to –mIş ol- in order to express something which is wished or hoped for, as can be shown by:
Allah vere de bir kuşku uyandır-ma-mış ol-sa-m!

I hope I have not raised any doubt.
Tanrı ver-e de baba-sın-a çek-miş ol-ma-sa!
I wish she will not take after her father!
Another way of expressing a desideratum is based on the indirect imperative:
Ama Allah ver-e de gül-ler-imiz-i çiğne-me-miş ol-sun-lar.

But God grant that they have not trampled our roses.
Furthermore, there are optative forms which express some desideratum when combined
with a complement ending in –mIş or –(I)yor. Two main lines of expression must be
distinguished: 1) person-marked optatives such as ol-a and ol-ma-ya; and 2) indirect
imperatives based on ol-sun and ol-ma-sın. Both types of construction have a counterpart
relating to the past.
First, person-marked forms of ol-a with a complement in –mIş are very frequent in
colloquial speech, as well as in the literature. There are three modes of expression.
Present. A form in ol-a plus personal suffix refers to the present.
Eh, iş bul-ama-z-sa-nız, bari ben siz-e söyle-miş ol-a-yım.

Er, in case you can’t find a job, at least I want to have told you.
Böylece büyük bir aptallık yap-mış ol-acak-sın, bil-miş ol-a-sın!
You will have committed a big folly this way, I hope you will know this.
Ev-iniz-e gir-me-miş ol-a!
He shouldn’t have entered your house.
Haydi, bu seferlik izin ver-miş ol-a-lım.
All right, let us give permission this time.
Karşılaşma-dan önce birbir-iniz-i biraz ol-sun tanı-mış ol-a-sınız diye
san-a yolla-dığ-ım tüm kart-lar-ın bir kopya-sın-ı on-a da yollu-yor-um.
For you to get to know each other a little before the meeting,
I send him copies of all the cards I send to you.
Zamanında gel-miş ol-a-lar!
I wish they had come on time!
Past. Projectional forms in the past are also possible:
Bura-da otur-an iki işçi-yi gör-müş ol-a-ydı-m.

I wish I had seen these two workers who are living here.
Av-a gid-er-ken avlan-mak da var-dı, eğer onlar-a yetiş-miş ol-a-ydı-n.
To go out hunting also implied being hunted, I wish you were taught these things.
Keşke ban-a da tanrı-lar böyle bir kuvvet ver-miş ol-a-ydı!
I wish the gods had given me such a power.
Bari yeterli para bırak-mış ol-a-ydı-k.
I hope we have enough money left behind.
Bari iyi bir-in-i seç-miş ol-a-ydı-nız.
I wish you had selected a good one.
Doğru eve git-miş ol-a-ydı-lar!
It is to be hoped that they have gone home straight away.
Negation. There are two types of negation, each with semantics of its own. A negated form
in ol-, in this case any sequence –mIş ol-ma-ya expanded by a personal suffix, is the mere
expression of a wish, hope, or other desiderative form. Here is a selection of this first type
ranging over all grammatical persons.
Belki sahi bir gaf yap-mış ol-ma-ya-yım bugün.

It is to be hoped that I have not seriously blundered today.
Bu alışveriş-te sakın aldan-mış ol-ma-ya-sın.
I hope that you have not been deceived in that purchase.
Anne-si baş-ın-ı salla-r: ‘Tanrı ver-e de baba-sın-a çek-miş ol-ma-ya!’ de-r-di.

His mother shook her head and said: ‘God grant that he does not take after his father.’
On-a karşı büyük bir suç işle-miş ol-ma-ya-lım.
It is to be hoped that we haven’t committed a serious crime towards him.
Sis çök-ünce karşı-ya geç-ip, bir hendeğ-e falan düş-müş ol-ma-ya-sınız.
I wish you haven’t fallen into a ditch or something like it, going across,
when the fog was rising.
Hemen hareket-e geç-mek-te geç al-mış ol-ma-ya-lar.
It may be hoped that they are not late in ‘beginning to act immediately’.
Contrary to the case of verbal (see section 24.1.4) and non-verbal (see section 37.1.5)
constructions based on an optative, combinations of negation and past are seemingly
nonexistent.
As for the second type of negation, the negational suffix is found in the verbal complement
and the combination with a form of ol-a leads to an interpretation which has much in
common with pretending. In this way the idea of ‘I wouldn’t have said something to you’
can be phrased in two different ways. The most important part of the next example is ben
san-a bir şey söyle-miş ol-ma-ya-yım ‘let me not be the one who told you something’.
Ben-den işit-miş ol-ma sakın, ben san-a bir şey söyle-miş ol-ma-ya-yım,
sen-i bugün gör-me-di-m bile, işit-iyor mu-sun?
You really haven’t heard it from me, let me not be the one who told you
something, I haven’t even seen you today, do you hear me?
However, the following example contains a negated complement, which leads to ‘may I be
someone who said nothing’. Here it is:
Ah, o zaman en iyisi ben san-a hiçbir şey söyle-me-miş ol-a-yım.

Ah, then the best thing is that we act as if I haven’t said anything to you.
It is clear that as a matter of fact the opposite is true of what is being claimed or suggested.
The fragment hiçbir şey söyle-me-miş ‘having said nothing at all’ in the example above is not
true: something has been said, but that fact should be disguised. In such language usage
this is a so-called counterfactual construction. These constructions are mainly used for the
first and second persons singular and plural. Other examples are:
Savcı, ‘Bu söyle-dik-ler-in-i duy-ma-mış ol-a-yım’ de-di.

The lawyer said: Let me pretend that I haven’t heard what you just said.
Ama en iyisi siz sor-ma-yın, ben de söyle-me-miş ol-a-yım.
But you’d better not ask, and in that case I haven’t said anything.
Keşke rapor-u getir-en-e,
‘Al git, ban-a gel-me-miş ol, ben bun-u gör-me-miş ol-a-yım’ de-se-ydi-m.
I wish I had said to the one who brought the report:
‘Take this and go away, you haven’t been here, (so) I haven’t seen that.’
Böyle bir şey hiç yap-ma-mış ol-a-sın!

Pretend you have never done such a thing.
Tanrı ver-e de sinema-ya, ikinci gösteri-ye git-me-miş ol-a!
She shouldn’t have gone to the cinema, to this second showing.
Bu söz-de-ki ima-yı anla-ma-mış ol-a-lım ve
tarihî vazife-miz-i ifa-ya devam ed-e-lim.
Let us pretend that we haven’t understood the hint in these words
and continue with the fulfilment of our historical duty.
Pekâlâ, bu konu-da hiç konuş-ma-mış ol-a-sınız.
Okay, about this you shouldn’t have talked at all.
Forms relating to the past, all shaped along the lines of –mE-mIş ol-a-ydı, express a more
neutral type of counterfactual statement and they are not merely about keeping up some
pretension.
Öner-iniz-i işit-me-miş ol-a-ydı-m.

I wish I hadn’t heard your proposal.
Oğlan-ı ban-a bırak-ma-mış ol-a-ydı-n, on-u yolla-maz-dı-m.
If you hadn’t left the boy to me, I wouldn’t have sent him away.
Ay o sırada beyaz bir bulut-un arka-sın-a gir-me-miş ol-a-ydı.
I wish the moon hadn’t disappeared behind a white cloud at that moment.
Forms with –mE-z ol-a-ydı are also used in this way, for instance:
Bin-me-z ol-a-ydı-m araba-sın-a.

If only I hadn’t got into his car.
Ah ana-m, ben-i doğur-ma-z ol-a-ydı-n.
Oh mother, I wish you hadn’t given birth to me.
In combination with a question word a rhetorical question is formed:
Neden, bu kadar saçma bir şey yap-mış ol-a-yım?

Why would I have done something that stupid?
Niye sen aldat=ıl-mış ol-a-sın?
Why would you be cheated on?
‘Yoo, neden kabalık et-miş ol-a-sınız?’ dedi.
‘No, no, why would you have behaved rudely?,’ said he.
Forms with –(I)yor ol-a are often applied when a choice is involved:
İster dur-uyor ister hareket ed-iyor ol-a-lım, ağırlığ-ımız aynı ol-acak.

Whether we are standing still or moving, our weight will be the same.
İster uyanık, ister uyu-yor ol-a-yım, iki üç daha beş ed-er.

Whether I am awake or asleep, two and three make five.
Secondly, constructions with ol-sun and ol-ma-sın (see section 18.1) with a verbal complement
ending in –mIş and –(I)yor can be regarded as forms expressing some wish or desire.
Negated forms with ol-ama-z occur as well. Examples are:
Fikret’in baba-sı da oğul-lar-ı oku-muş ol-sun isti-yor.

Fikret’s father also wants his sons to have studied.
Ne maksat-la, ne yap=ıl-acağ-ın-ı düşün-ebil-miş ol-sun-lar.
It is to be hoped that they were able to think up what should be done and for what purpose.
Bir roman isti-yor-um ki,
kişi-si ne ana-sın-ı, ne de baba-sın-ı öldür-me-miş ol-sun.
I want a novel in which the hero murdered neither his mother nor his father.
The following sentences can possibly be regarded as rhetorical questions:
Neden duy-ma-mış ol-sun?

Why wouldn’t she have heard it?
(Literally: Why would it be the case that she hasn’t heard it?)
Biz-im kuşak-tan bir Türk yazar-ı masal dinle-me-miş ol-sun?
Would there be a Turkish writer of our age who has not listened to fairy tales?
Negation can also be based on ol-ma-sın, as in:
Sakın bir şey ol-muş ol-ma-sın.

I really hope that nothing has happened.
Baş-ın-a tatsız bir iş gel-miş ol-ma-sın sakın!
It is to be hoped that nothing unpleasant has happened to him.
Bir yer-de düş-üp kal-mış ol-ma-sın diye gid-ip bütün tuvalet-ler-i gez-di-m.
Wondering if it hadn’t fallen somewhere, I visited all the toilets.
Kadın, kedi içeri gir-miş ol-ma-sın diye oda-lar-ı ara-ma-ya kalkış-abil-ir.
The woman can start searching the rooms hoping that the cat hasn’t sneaked in.
And even a ‘double negation’ was found in a literary text:
Sakın ‘bir arkadaş-tan’ al=ın-ıp geri ver=il-me-miş ol-ma-sın?

It won’t be the case, I hope, that it was taken from a friend and not given back.
Forms in –(I)yor ol- and –(y)EmE-z ol- are:
Yazık, sakın bu adam Alman şair-ler-in-den de nefret ed-iyor ol-ma-sın.

Too bad, it is to be hoped that this man doesn’t dislike German poets.
Şimdi iki hasta hayal ed-e-lim; bun-lar aynı hastane-de, aynı oda-da iki-ye
ayrılma-yı bekli-yor ol-sun-lar ve ad-lar-ı Pınar ve Dilek ol-sun.
Now, let us imagine two patients; they are in the same hospital and room and
are awaiting separation, and their names are Pinar and Dilek.
Oyuncu-lar uyu-yor, yemek yi-yor ol-sun-lar, ama lütfen hazır ol-ma-sın-lar-dı.
May the players be sleeping or eating, but please let them not be ready.
Hiçbir an yok-tur ki ölüm yaklaş-mı-yor ol-sun.
There is not a single moment when death is not approaching.
Hay kalk-ama-z ol-sun da gel-eme-z ol-sun!
May he not be able to leave and come here.
When the construction –mE-mIş ol-sun is preceded by a negated clause ending in the
particle ki (see section 33.1), the second clause is to be interpreted as ‘declarative’:
Onlar-ın ara-sın-da bir tek kimse gör-me-di-m ki

kendi zavallılığ-ı-yla esri-me-miş ol-sun.
Among them I saw not a single person
who did not revel in his own misery.
/ . . . or he revelled in his own misery.
Tek ağaç yok-tur ki
pürüzsüz kabuğ-un-un üst-ün-e Marcela ad-ı kaz=ıl-ma-mış ol-sun.
There is surely not a single tree
in the perfect bark of which the name Marcella had not been carved.
/ . . . or in its perfect bark the name Marcella has been carved.
Gün geç-mi-yor-du ki
iç-ler-in-den bir-i on-dan bir hediye al-ma-mış ol-sun.
Not a day passed
that someone from their midst did not get a present from him.
/ . . . or someone from their midst got a present from him.
37.2.9 Hypotheses
A hypothetical state of affairs can be expressed with combinations such as: –(I)yor
ol-sa, –mIş ol-sa or –(y)EcEK ol-sa. Projections in the past (–(y)TI) occur as well. A charac-
teristic of this type of construction is that the counterpart of what is being expressed is true.
Furthermore, the clause following the clause expressing the hypothesis always contains a
verb in –(I/E)r or –mE-z.
Dünya-nın öbür uc-un-a gid-iyor ol-sa-nız bile bul-ama-z-sınız.

Even if you go to the other end of the world, you can’t find it.
Ama belki de her gün koklu-yor ol-sa-m, sonunda fark et-me-yebil-ir-im.
But perhaps if I smell it every day, eventually, I will not notice (any more).
Forms for the past can be exemplified by:
‘Eğer kork-uyor ol-sa-ydı-m çukur-a atla-ma-z-dı-m’ de-di.

He said: ‘If I had been afraid, I wouldn’t have jumped into the pit.’
Biz-i dinle-miş ol-sa-ydı-nız, bu kesinlikle ol-ma-z-dı.
If you had listened to us, this certainly wouldn’t have happened.
Ne demek iste-diğ-im-i sor-acak ol-sa-ydı herhalde cevap ver-eme-z-di-m.
If she were to ask what I meant to say, I probably wouldn’t know the answer.
Examples with –(I/E)r in the main clause are:
Eğer öl-mek gerek-iyor ol-sa-ydı, o anda öl-ebil-ir-di-m.

If it was necessary to die, I could have died that very moment.
Bun-u bir başka-sı yap-ıyor ol-sa-ydı, ilk itiraz ses-i on-dan yüksel-ir-di.
If someone else were to do this, the first voice of protest would come from her.
37.2.10 Interruption
The notions of ‘being about to do something’ or ‘being on the verge of ’ entail that the
action or event described by the verb is planned but in all likelihood not even started, let
alone finished. This is expressed as: –(y)EcEK plus ol-du / ol-muş / ol-uyor(-du).
İlkin bıçağ-ı pantolon-un-a sil-ecek ol-du . . .

At first he wanted to wipe off the knife on his trousers . . .
Ben kendi sandalye-m-i uzat-acak ol-du-m, ‘Karış-ma sen!’ de-di.
I just wanted to proffer my own chair, (but) she said ‘Don’t interfere!’
Tüccar bir şey söyle-yecek ol-muş fakat kadın söz-ün-ü kes-miş.
The merchant was about to say something but the woman interrupted him.
Ara sıra bu işin arkasını bırak-acak ol-uyor-um.
Now and then I get to the point of dropping the thing.
Düşünce-ler-im-e gömülü ol-ma-m-a karşın, bazen lafa karış-acak ol-uyor-du-m.
Although I was lost in thought, I was at times on the verge of interrupting.
37.2.11 Decrease
A gradual decrease in quality, quantity, duration, or frequency pertaining to some action is

expressed by the combination –mE-z ol-du-.
Uyku-lar tut-ma-z ol-du son gece-ler.

The last few nights I have had more and more trouble falling asleep.
Gene birbir-imiz-e ihtiyaç duy-ma-z ol-du-k.
Again we felt less and less need for each other.
Kendi kendi-m-e soru sor-ma-z ol-du-m.

I came to ask myself fewer and fewer questions.
Artık iş-in-den zevk al-ma-z ol-du.
She began to enjoy her work less.
37.2.12 Increase
A gradual increase in quality, quantity, duration, or frequency pertaining to some action is

expressed by the combination –(I/E)r ol-du-.
Ev-de gene şarkı söyle-yen ses-in-i duy-ar ol-du-k.

At home we began hearing her voice again, singing songs.
Babaanne-m-den bu konu-da destek ara-r ol-du.
On this subject she began seeking more and more support from my grandmother.
Yemek-ler-in-i yalnız ye-r ol-du.
She began having her meals more often on her own.
Deniz kenar-ın-a gitgide seyrek in-er ol-du-k.
That we went down to the beach occurred gradually less and less frequently.
37.3 Other aspectual forms
The structures discussed in sections 37.2.1–37.2.12, all being based on a verbal stem plus tense
marker combined with an auxiliary form in ol-, are linguistically known as forms expressing
aspect. Unlike tense forms (see chapter 20), aspect forms cannot be placed on the temporal
axis, because they do not relate an action or event to the here and now of the moment of
speaking, but rather, aspect forms tell us something about the course of an action or event in
terms of its beginning, termination, duration, and its frequency and regularity and the like.
There are also aspectual forms which are made by placing as special suffix directly after the
verbal stem (including causative and passive stems). These suffixes are: –(y)Edur- / –(y)Egel-,
–(y)Ekal-, –(y)Iver-, –(y)Egör-, –(y)Eyaz-. By this expansion aspects such as continuity,
transition, brevity, completion, and the like are expressed. Naturally, after this new stem
inflectional suffixes for tense and person may follow. In principle the negational suffix –mE
can occur before as well as after the new stem. More on this in section 37.3.7.
37.3.1 Continuity
A continuous action or event is expressed by –(y)Edur- and –(y)Egel-.
Evet, evet, siz gül-edur-un, efendi-ler-im!

Yes, yes, you keep on laughing, gentlemen!
ABD’de savaş propaganda-sı bil-in-diğ-i biçim-de yap-ıl-adur-mak-ta-dır.
In the USA they continuously promote war in the well-known fashion.
‘Birazdan geri dön-er-im, siz bekle-yedur-un’ de-di.

He said: ‘I will be back shortly, you keep on waiting.’
It should be noted that a variant of this construction can be formed by means of the
combination –(y)Ip + dur-, as can be shown by the following examples.
Omz-u üst-ün-den geri-ye bak-ıp dur-uyor-du.

All the time he looked back over his shoulder.
Babaanne-m bun-un hiç iyi ol-ma-dığ-ın-ı söyle-yip dur-ur-du.
My granny said all the time that this was no good at all.
Ben-i ay-larca ora-dan ora-ya sürükle-yip dur-du-nuz.
For months you have continuously dragged me from pillar to post.
Dün akşam ev-e dön-eli beri çekiş-ip dur-uyor-uz.
Since we came home yesterday evening, we have just been bickering.
Another variant consists of the combination–(I/E)r + dur-, as can be shown by:
Bil-mi-yor-muş gibi yap-ar-lar, öyle aldat-ır dur-ur-lar kendi kendi-lerin-i.

They act as if they don’t know; in this way they deceive themselves all the time.
Eğer on-u terk ed-er-se kendin-i öldür-eceğ-in-i, mırıldan-ır dur-ur-du.
She kept mumbling that she would kill herself if he left her.
Rüzgar-la ağac-ın dal-lar-ı titre-r, ama gövde-si hiç titre-me-z dur-ur.
The branches of the tree kept shivering with the wind, but its trunk didn’t at all.
Examples of aspect forms with –(y)Egel- are:
Bir süreden beri devam ed-egel-en bir durum-dur.

It’s a situation that has been going on for some time.
Ford’un koy-duğ-u ilke-ler, otomobil yapım-ın-da gün-ümüz-e dek sür-egel-miştir.
The principles laid down by Ford for the construction of cars are valid up to the present day.
Her zaman söyle=n-egel-diğ-i gibi . . .
As they keep on saying all the time . . .
Kadın-lar-la erkek-ler arasında birtakım kavga-lar ve çekişme-ler ol-agel-miş-tir.
Between men and women quarrels and bickering occur constantly.
37.3.2 Transition
By means of the suffix –(y)Ekal- a transition is being described from one state or situation
into another. The new state or situation is a lasting one. Examples are:
Hep-imiz ağz-ımız açık bak-akal-mış-tı-k.

We all kept standing with our mouths open.
Aliye, bir mucize gör-üyor-muş-çasına bak-akal-dı.

Aliye kept looking as if she saw a miracle.
Ali kapı-da şaşkın kal-akal-dı.
Ali kept standing bewildered at the door.
Derin bir hareketsizlik kal-akal-dı.
He froze into a deep motionlessness. / A deep motionlessness came over him.
Salon-un orta-sın-da yalnız kal-akal-dı-m.
I remained alone in the middle of the room.
Uyu-yakal-mak-tan kork-up kalk-tı.
Fearing that she would fall into a lasting sleep, she rose to her feet.
The combination –(y)Ip kal- constitutes a variant of this:
Kapı-yı aç-ınca bir an ora-ya yığıl-ıp kal-acağ-ım-ı san-dı-m.

When I opened the door I thought for a moment that I would totally collapse.
Oda-nın orta-sın-da, ayak-ta, öylece dikil-ip kal-ıyor-um.
In the middle of the room I remain standing upright, on my feet.
Bir yer-e yerleş-ip kal-dığ-ım-da delilen-iyor-um, yer-im-de dur-ama-z ol-uyor-um.
When I settle somewhere I behave manically, I can’t stay in my place.
Also, the resembling construction –(I/E)r + kal- is not unusual. Examples are:
O an, sırf öfke-m-den öl-ür kal-ır-dı-m bura-da.

At that moment I would have dropped dead from sheer rage, right here.
İnsan-lar-ın çoğ-u duyu-lar dünya-sın-da-ki ‘görüntü-ler-e’ saplan-ır kal-ır.
Most people are obsessed with ‘images’ from the sensory world.
Verbal forms ending in –mEz can mostly be interpreted as derived adjectives (see
section 32.10.5), as with çözülmez ‘not dissolved’ and bilinemez ‘cannot be known’ in:
Dile-r-iz ki bu birlik çözülmez kal-abil-sin.

We wish that this union may remain inextricable.
Demek ki ruh bilinemez kal-acak-tır.
That means that the soul / mind will remain unknowable.
Hiçbir şey anla-mı-yor-um, dedi, tamamen anla-ma-z kal-mak-ta kararlı-ydı.
‘I don’t understand a bit,’ he said, and he was well determined to keep it that way.
37.3.3 Brevity / speed
The (unexpected) speed with which an action is performed or the brief span of time in
which an event takes place is expressed by the suffix –(y)Iver-.
Siz bir doktor-a gid-iver-in !

Why don’t you quickly go to a doctor!
Onat ok gibi fırla-yıp gid-iver-di.
Onat sprang to his feet and dashed off.
Prenses de seçeceğ-in-i seç-ip bir anda ortadan kaybol-uver-di.
And the princess took her pick and disappeared in no time.
Siz-e bun-un nasıl yap=ıl-dığ-ın-ı anlat-ıver-e-yim.
Let me quickly tell you how this is to be done.
37.3.4 Completion
The suffix –(y)Egör- is always placed after a negative verb stem, and hence, it always shows
as –mEyEgör-, which is spelt alternatively as –mEyE gör-. The entire construction forms a
kind of conditional sentence, which is to be interpreted along the lines of ‘once x, then y
follows’ or ‘as soon as you do x, y also happens’. Mainly optative forms and indirect impera-
tive forms occur, as in the following three examples:
Başarısızlık bir defa gel-me-ye gör-sün, on-dan kurtuluş yok-tur.

Once there is lack of success, there is no salvation.
Hastalık bir kez ev-e gir-meyegör-sün, kimse yaka-sın-ı kurtar-ama-z.
Once the illness is in the house, no one can escape.
Ama bir yol-a çık-ma-ya gör-e-lim, hemen biz-i arka-dan saldır-ır-lar.
As soon as we depart, they immediately attack us from behind.
Zaten ben böyle an-lar-da hep terle-r-im, ister yaz ol-sun ister kış ol-sun,
azıcık sıkıl-mayagör-e-yim, buz gibi soğuk ter-ler boşal-ır sırt-ım-dan.
Besides, I always sweat at such moments, be it summer or winter,
however little I am under pressure, or ice cold sweat runs from my back.
Bir çalışma fırsat-ı ortaya çık-mayagör-sün, üst-ün-e üşüş-üyor-lar.
Once there is an occasion to work, (then) they flock around you.
Imperative forms of the second person singular are also possible. Mostly a warning is being
expressed or an appeal is made to take certain precautions.
O dağ-lar-da öl-meyegör! Cesed-in akbaba-lar-a yem ol-ur.

You just go and die in those mountains, your corpse will be food for the vultures.
This should of course be interpreted as: Mind you don’t die in those mountains! If you do,
your corpse will be food for the vultures. Other examples are:
O kurt-lar-la bir karşılaş-ma-ya gör, anla-r-sın!

You run into these wolves, then you’ll understand!
Herif-e bir sırr-ın-ı anlat-mayagör, bütün kantin öğren-ir mevzu-yu ertesi gün.
Tell the guy a secret of yours, the day after the whole canteen will know about it.
Expressions such as bir ‘once’ and bir defa / bir kez ‘one time’ can be left out:
Kafa-m kız-ma-ya gör-sün, ağz-ım-dan çık-an-ı kulağ-ım duy-ma-yabil-iyor.

Once I’m angry, it occurs that my ears don’t hear what comes out of my mouth.
Bir yer-de görün-meye gör-sün, hepsi peşine takıl-ır.
Once (this) shows up somewhere, all (will) follow.
İnsan tedirgin ol-mayagör-sün kafa-sın-a hep korkunç düşünce-ler takıl-ır.
Once someone becomes anxious, all kinds of terrible thoughts stick in his mind.
As was indicated in section 24.1.4, the indirect imperative third person singular has a past
form:
İnsan bir defa hakikat-i elde et-meye gör-sün-dü,

el-e geçir-dikten sonra bir daha on-dan vazgeç-er mi-ydi?
Once a man had obtained the truth, would he then,
after it had been handed over to him, give it up again?
İşçi-ler-imiz o kancık iklim-e alış-amı-yor-du. Hava azıcık boz-ma-ya gör-sün-dü,
kendi-lerin-i konukevin-e at-ıyor, yemek yi-yor ve tavla oynu-yor-lar-dı.
Our workers could not get used to that shitty climate. No sooner than the weather
got a little worse, they rushed into the guest house, ate and played tric trac.
37.3.5 Propinquity
The suffix –(y)Eyaz- expresses nearness to the beginning or termination of an action,

depending on the semantic nature of the verb. The Latin-based word propinquity means
‘nearness in place or time’, both notions which correspond to English adverbs such as
‘nearly / almost / well-nigh’. Also the terms ‘near miss / narrow escape / to come close to’
are in certain cases appropriate.
Hayvan bir kuyruk darbe-si-yle hafif sandal-ı devir-eyaz-dı.

With a lash of its tail the beast almost made the small boat capsize.
Şaşkınlık-tan düş-eyaz-dı-m de-di.
‘I was nearly bowled over from amazement,’ said he.
Oğl-un da açlık-tan öl-eyaz-dı.
And your son well-nigh died of hunger.
On-u kendi el-i-yle sopala-yıp öldür-eyaz-dı.
He came close to clubbing him to death personally (with his own hand).
37.3.6 Lexicalized forms
The suffix –(y)Ikoy- (with variants –(y)Ikon- and –(y)Ekoy-) occurs only in combination
with the verb stem al- and, if accompanied by complements in the accusative and ablative,
it means ‘to hold back / restrain / to keep someone from doing something’:
Ama siz-i, san-ır-ım, biraz iş-iniz-den al-ıkoy-du-m, bu da ben-i üz-üyor.

But I think I kept you a little from your work, and that upsets me.
Anla-yama-dığ-ı bir duygu on-u bun-u söyle-mek-ten al-ıkoy-du.
A feeling he could not understand held him back from saying this.
When accompanied by a sole complement in the accusative the meaning is, however, ‘to
keep apart / kidnap’.
Doktor, babaanne-m-i hastane-de al-ıkoy-arak büyük bir iyilik yap-tı biz-e.

The doctor did us a great favour by keeping grandma in the hospital.
Köylü-ler-in hayvan-lar-ın-ı bir ceza öde=n-ince-ye kadar al-ıkon-ur.
He seizes the farmers’ animals until a fine is paid.
Aile, yedi aylık bebeğ-in zorla al-akoy=ul-duğ-u iddia-sın-da.
The family claims that a seven-month-old baby was kidnapped.
37.3.7 Negation
Not all stem extensions presented in sections 37.3.1–37.3.6 can take the negational suf-
fix –mE. In principle this suffix may occur in two positions: preceding and following
a stem extension. The suffixes –(y)Edur- / –(y)Egel- and –(y)Eyaz- cannot be combined
with a negational suffix at all: not before and not after it. For –(y)Egör- this is only
possible if –mE precedes it, as has been shown in section 37.3.4: it forms a fixed
combination.
The extension –(y)Iver- can take –mE before and after itself. If the extension is placed
before the negational suffix, it expresses the speed or brevity of some action or event, as has
been indicated in section 37.3.3.
Akşam-dan sabah-a değiş-iver-me-di-m elbet.

Indeed, I just didn’t change overnight.
Daha sancı-yı ilk duy-duğ-um-da neden anla-yıver-me-di-m hemen?
Why didn’t I understand it just directly when I first felt the pain?
But when the extension follows the negational suffix, –mE + –(y)Iver-, then the interruption
of some action or event is expressed.
Sen de seyret-me-yiver.
Why don’t you stop looking as of now!
Aldır-ma-yıver-sin.
She shouldn’t bother any more.
Onlar uyu-yakal-ır, ben de siz-i gör-me-yiver-ir-im.
They fall asleep, I also don’t see you any longer.
Mademki sen iste-mi-yor-sun, biz de iste-me-yiver-ir-iz.
Since you do not want it, we don’t want it any longer either.
The extensions –(y)Ekal- and –(y)Ikoy- (and its variants –(y)Ekoy- and –(y)Ikon-) allow for
negational –mE only if it follows, as can be shown by:
Birbir-in-e benze-yen vaaz-lar-ı dinle-r-ken uyu-yakal-ma-mak için diren-ir-di-m.

Listening to these similar sermons, I fought against falling asleep.
Bun-lar, İzmit’te yıkıntı-lar arasında şaşkın bir şekil-de kal-akal-ma-dı mı?
Were these people not dumbfounded and confused amidst the ruins in İzmit?
Hayran-lar-ın-dan al-ıkoy-ma-ya-yım sen-i.
Let me not keep you away from your admirers.
İş-ler-iniz siz-i al-ıkoy-maz-sa, belki de biz-i gene bura-da bul-abil-ir-siniz.
If your work does not engross you entirely, you may find us here again.
Also the negational form –(y)EmE- occurs as a part of this extension:
On-un deli ol-duğ-un-u düşün-mek-ten al-ıkoy-amı-yor-du-m kendi-m-i.

I could not keep myself from thinking that he was mad.
Ben-i bun-dan al-ıkoy-ama-z, kimse.
No one can stop me from doing this.
37.3.8 Passives
In section 30.4.4 it was shown that the passive abilitative can follow a passive stem, as in the
following example:
Ortak savunma strateji-si geliştir=il-ebil=in-iyor-du.

A common defence strategy could be developed.
The question now is whether such a pattern can be discerned for the aspectual forms
introduced in sections 37.3.1–37.3.7. Frankly, the answer is no, except for two types. Apart
from a rarity based on a verbal noun, dual forms other than those based on –(y)Iver have
not been found in a survey of a text corpus. Dual forms can be exemplified by:
Bu konu-lar üzerinde ortalıkta konuş=ul-adur=ul-ma-sı on-u kuşkulandır-acak.

That people talk all the time in public about these topics, will make him suspicious.
Seçim-ler-den iki hafta önce müdür-ümüz emekli-ye sevked=il-iver=il-di.
Two weeks before the elections our boss was quickly sent into retirement.
Pencere-ler-e iliştir=il-iver=il-miş yatak çarşaf-lar-ı üzerinde dağınık saçlı
kadın gölge-ler-i boğuş-uyor, birbirin-i kovalı-yor-du.
On bed sheets, in a makeshift way fastened to the windows, the shadows of
women with flowing hair were at each other’s throats, chasing each other.
Contrary to the case of abilitative expressions, where the passive suffix is usually only
contained in the primary verb stem, for the aspectual forms under discussion the only
permissible order for the passive is -iver-il. This can be exemplified by:
Tasarı-lar bir tartışma-ya dahi lüzum gör=ül-me-den redded-iver=il-ecek-tir.

The projects will just be rejected, without even one discussion being regarded as necessary.
Bu ufak değişiklik-ler, bir memur tarafından bir anda yap-ıver=il-mek-te-dir.
By an employee these small alterations are made in an instant.
Certain verbs denoting uncontrolled events contain an element which could easily be
taken for a passive suffix, e.g. kırıl-mak ‘to break (by itself) and açıl-mak ‘to open (by itself)’.
However, such verbs are to be understood as the active form of intransitive verbs instead of
the passive form of transitive verbs (for examples, see section 30.4.5).
O koca, boş kafa-lar kolayca kırıl-ıver=il-iyor.

Those giant empty heads are quickly being crushed.
Bir yarık açıl-mayagör-sün.
You’d better see to it that no slit opens up.
37.3.9 Special formations
With respect to their semantics, a small number of combinations cannot be analysed

according to the descriptions given in sections 37.3.1–37.3.8.
First, two verbs bearing much resemblance to the aspectual forms discussed in the
previous two sections are the lexicalized forms koyuver-mek / salıvermek ‘to set free / let go /
release’. These forms have no aspectual meaning, but they can be made passive.
Sonunda tut-ama-dı-m, bir kahkaha koyuver-di-m.

In the end I could not control myself, I burst into a roar of laughter.
Yaşlı bir kadın her hafta on beş kuş salıver-ir-di.
An old woman released fifteen birds every week.
Their passive counterparts occur in:
Rusya da karşılık olarak koyuver=il-me-si gerek-en asker-in-i salıver-me-miş-tir.

And Russia did not let the soldier go who had to be released in return.
Uzak-ta-ki bir çit-ten koca bir zebra sürü-sü salıver=il-miş-ti.
From a fence far away a huge herd of zebras had been released.
Secondly, the meaning of çık-agel- is ‘to appear / emerge suddenly’, which cannot be arrived
at on the basis alone of the elements that make up the word.
Derken koskoca bir ayı homurdan-arak çık-agel-me-z mi?

At that moment, isn’t there an enormous growling bear emerging suddenly?
Kara giysi-li ve karanlık yüz-lü dört kişi çık-agel-di.
Suddenly four men showed up in dark clothes and with dark faces.
The meaning of koyulmak (-e) is ‘to begin / embark upon’, but it resembles a passive
verb because of –ul. Combined with the infinitive in –mE it also resembles in written form
(mainly because of inaccurate spelling habits) the extension introduced in section 37.3.6.
Osman ekmeğ-i ve peynir-i masa-nın üst-ün-e koydu, ye-me-ye koyul-du-lar.

Osman placed the bread and cheese on the table and they started eating.
Tabiatıyla, iste-diğ-i kağıd-ı bul-up oku-ma-ya-koyul-du-m.
Naturally, I found the document he wanted and I embarked upon reading it.
Also forms of gelmek ‘to come’ and gitmek ‘to go’ combined with the infinitive in –mE may
because of inaccurate spelling often give the impression that they are extensions of the type
discussed here. For instance, etmeyegeldim could be interpreted as et-me-yegel-di-m, and
not as the correct form, as represented by:
Onlar-a yardım et-me-ye gel-di-m.

I came to help them.
This sentence, however, contains an adverbial phrase as introduced in section 20.7.4. This

construction forms the basis for erroneously spelt forms of gitmek ‘to go’ as well:
Kimbilir, belki de bir el kız-ı-yla buluşmayagidiyordu şehr-e.

Who knows, perhaps he went to town to meet with a foreign girl.
The correct form is, of course, buluş-ma-ya gid-iyor-du. The sole verb in which –(y)Egit-
can be regarded as an extension is the lexicalized süregitmek ‘to continue / go on / drag on’
in which the stem sür- ‘to last’ can be discerned.
Değişmez bir hikâye-dir bu, sürekli aynı biçimde süregid-er.

This is an unchanging story; it continuously goes on in the same fashion.
‘Politika-ya meraklı-ymış-sın’ dedi, süregid-en sessizliğ-i boz-arak.
‘So you are interested in politics,’ said he, breaking the growing silence.
37.4 Verbal negation with değil
A nominal sentence can be negated by means of the negational particle değil ‘not’ (see
section 23.1.2). This particle can also be applied in combination with a verbal sentence and
as a result the whole gets the sense of ‘certainly / absolutely / really’ and the like.
Şikâyet ed-iyor-lar diye kimse-yi kını-yor değil-im.

I really don’t condemn anyone because they complain.
Sonra da yaşa-dık-ların-ın ne kadar benzer ol-duğ-un-u keşfed-iyor değil-ler ki.
But it is certainly not the case that they later discover how much what each goes
through resembles what the other does.
It is not only the suffix –(I)yor that can be part of the embedded verb but also other temporal
suffixes, such as: –mIş, –(y)EcEK, and –(I/E)r:
37.5 Verbal negation with YOK 717
Ben de on-u pek anla-mış değil-im.

I really do not understand him well.
Oldum olası düzenli oruç tut-abil-miş değil-im.
As far as I remember, I really never was someone able to fast regularly.
Karanlık-ta otur-acak değil-ler.
They really won’t go and sit in the dark.
İlk önce ben de geri dön-me-yi iste-r değil-im.
To begin with, I don’t want to go back at all.
In combination with a negative verb the particle değil expresses the opposite of what is
being stated or claimed. Translations along the lines of ‘certainly / really / it is not the case
that’ all cover this shade of meaning rather well.
Ama arada çözümsüz sorun-lar da ol-mu-yor değil.

Meanwhile there are certainly irresolvable problems.
Sen-i anla-mı-yor değil-di-m.
It is not so that I did not understand you. / I really did understand you!
Mustafa, yap-tık-ların-ın ne-ler-e yol aç-acağ-ın-ı bil-mi-yor değil-di.
It was surely not the case that Mustafa did not know where what they
had done would lead to.
Vallahi, ben siz-i bil-me-z değil-im.
I swear it, I really do know you.
Bu da öyle bir sistem ki değiş-me-z değil, daima değiş-ebil-ir.
And this is a system that really does change, it can always change.
A rather odd case seems to be the temporal form –TI after an embedded verb. Whereas the
personal suffix attaches to değil when it follows –(I)yor, –(y)EcEK, –mIş, or –(I/E)r, this
suffix follows –TI and değil comes last. This can be exemplified by:
Aynı an-da akl-ım-a kötü şey-ler gel-me-di değil.

At the same time some bad thoughts did occur to me.
Ben de iç-im-de bir titreşim-ler hisset-me-di-m değil.
I surely felt my inside trembling.
Alternative interpretations are possible in terms of ‘It is not the case that no bad thought
occurred to me’ and ‘It is not so (the case) that I didn’t feel my inside trembling’. More on
this topic in section 37.6.
37.5 Verbal negation with yok
The standard way of negating a verb is by placing the negational suffix –mE after its stem.
In this section verbal constructions with negation based on yok will be discussed.
37.5.1 Finite forms
The first example below shows standard negation, which should be contrasted with existen
tial negation (yok) in the second example.
Hasan’ın ne iste-diğ-in-i anla-ma-dı-m.

I have not understood what Hasan wanted.
Hasan’ın ne iste-diğ-in-i anla-dığ-ım yok!
I have absolutely not understood what Hasan wanted!
The difference between the two sentences is that by the former one negation is to be
understood as a neutral way of saying that anla- ‘to understand’ did not take place, whereas
in the second example a more categorical way of negating is meant. In other words, with
the second statement the speaker puts much more emphasis on the personal perception
that what is described did not happen: ‘my-having-understood’ does not exist.
Evliliğ-in iyi-sin-den çok anla-dığ-ın yok.

It is impossible that you understand much of the good things of marriage.
İş miş ara-dığ-ın yok, tatil-e çık-tı-n ya!
It can’t be that you have searched for a job and so, you went on holiday!
Conversely, a negated verb combined with yok gives a construction which expresses that
something did happen.
Bütün bun-lar-ı bil-me-diğ-in yok.

You actually do know all this.
The complements of yok ‘there is / are not’ are embedded sentences, in fact pertaining to all
temporal forms and grammatical persons. This follows from:
Ben-im sen-den önce sev-diğ-im yok.

Before you there was really no one I loved.
Hiç kimse-nin bir şey anla-dığ-ı yok-tu.
No one understood the first thing about it.
Niçin bekle-dik-lerin-i bil-dik-leri yok-tu.
They (honestly) did not know why they were waiting.
Kadın-ın Ali’ye bak-tığ-ı yok-tu.
The woman didn’t look at Ali at all.
(Literally: There was no ‘woman’s looking at Ali’.)
In English such strong negations can be rendered by adding adverbial phrases like ‘not at
all / absolutely not’ and the like.
The following examples show that the suffix for the future tense also can be applied:
Üzül-me ana-cığ-ım, bu hindi-ler-in bit-eceğ-i yok.

Don’t feel sad / upset, dear mother, there will really be no end to these turkeys.
37.5 Verbal negation with yok 719
Ali’nin de on-u da kolay kolay bul-acağ-ı yok.

And also Ali will not find it that easily.
Ben-i de mi öldür-mek isti-yor-sun? Böyle yap-mak-la bir şey ol-acağı yok!
You want to kill me too? Doing that is not going to get you anywhere!
Instead of yok, also var ‘there is’ can take sentential complements. With the suffix –TIK
rhetorical questions are formed, for which the answer is intrinsically negative.
Nere-den gel-ip nere-ye git-tiğ-im-i bil-diğ-im var mı?

Do I by chance (happen to) know where I came from and where I’m going?
But if the suffix –EcEK occurs in combination with var the complement of var is an
independently used participle (see section 32.10.1). Compare:
Ne geçmiş-imiz ne geleceğ-imiz var-dı.

We had neither past nor future.
Bin lira alacağ-ım var.
I have a thousand lira outstanding.
Daha bir di-yeceğ-in var mı?
Do you have anything else to say?
Önce san-a bir sor-acağ-ım var, sonra da san-a di-yeceğ-im var.
First I must ask you something, and then I’ll tell you something.
Eğer bu adam siz-e dokun-ur-sa gör-eceğ-i var!
If this man touches you, he will see something!
37.5.2 Infinitival forms
Constructions that must not be confused with the sentences represented above are based
on independently used relative clauses (see section 32.7). Hence, in the next examples yok
has no intensifying effect on the statement as a whole, but negates the existence of ‘some-
one who . . .’
Bun-u bil-me-yen yok-muş.

There seems to be no one not knowing this.
Avuc-um-a beş para koy-acak var mı?
Will there be anyone putting a few pennies in my hand?
Combined with the infinitive of a verb, yok expresses a prohibition or order:
Avuç aç-mak yok.

Begging prohibited.
Ne mi var?—Koş-mak var!
What’s going on, you’re asking?—Run!
Yalnızca öğren-mek var-dır.

There’s only learning (to do).
Güç yer-e sakla=n-mak yok.
You may not hide in a difficult place.
Bura-da ayakkabı-lar-ı çıkar-mak var.
You must take off your shoes here.
Bu yaz sokak-lar-da sürt-mek yok zaten,
baba-nın fırın-ın-da çalış-acak-sın.
By the way, there’s no hanging around in the streets this summer,
you will work in your father’s bakery.
In the next two examples it is not expressed what one is obliged to, but rather, the statements
point out the (general) existence of the possibility of doing something:
İzin ver=il-diğ-i ölçü-de kitap, gazete oku-mak var-dı, sigara iç-mek,

mektup yaz-mak var-dı; var-dı artık bazı özgürlük-ler.
To a certain extent, you could read books and newspapers, smoke, write letters, for which
permission was given; there were some liberties left.
Hey Allah’ım, Paris’te yaşa-mak var-ken, adam ne-ler-le uğraş-ıyor?
My God, if he can live in Paris, what is he up to?
37.6 The combination yok değil
An existential negation can once more be negated by means of the particle değil. The result
is a construction which can be compared to those discussed in section 37.4.
First, in an existential sense yok means ‘there is / are not’ and, secondly, the construction
yok değil often goes with a noun phrase in the locative.
Buz dolab-ın-da bira filan yok değil-di ama, . . .

It was not that there was no beer and the like in the fridge, but . . .
Doğru-sun-u iste-r-se-niz, kafa-sın-da fikir yok değil-di, . . .
If you really want to know, it was not the case that she had no ideas in her head, . . .
Bun-lar-ın bir fayda-sı ol-abil-eceğ-in-i düşün-en-ler de yok değil.
There are really people who think that all this will have some use.
Secondly, closely related are, of course, the constructions with a possessive suffix which
should be translated not by some form of ‘to be’, but by a form of ‘to have’:
Hızlı tren-ler-in bazı olumsuz yön-ler-i de yok değil.

It is not the case that high-speed trains do not have any negative aspects.
Ama düğün-ler-in bir iki yarar-ı da yok değil.
But those wedding parties really have some advantages.
37.6 The combination yok DEĞİL 721
Oysa, seçenek-leri yok değil-di.

However, it was not that they had no choice.
Lastly, it should be noted that the combination var değil does not occur, other than if
followed by the question particle. The meaning is ‘isn’t it’ and the like.
İnsan-lar-ın bul-duğ-u ne güzel şey-ler var değil mi?!

Man has found (invented) beautiful things, hasn’t he?!
Glossary of grammatical terms
adjective word signifying a property attributed to a noun, e.g. an old car and This is a nice one.
adverb word or phrase specifying a verb or an adjective, e.g. work hard, deadly ill
adversative in opposition or contrast
affirmative making a statement of fact; can be contrasted with negative and interrogative
agent doer of an action
agreement number or person matching with verb, e.g. He works / they work.
anaphoric referring to an antecedent, as in: John painted himself.
antecedent word or phrase referred to by a pronoun, e.g. John painted himself.
article English uses the definite article the and the indefinite article a(n)
aspect a verb form expressing how an action is viewed: continuous, iterative, habitual, etc.
aspiration an audible breath that accompanies a speech sound, as in: push [phush ] and tin [thin]
assimilation process in which a sound adapts to another adjacent sound, e.g. np > mp
attributive of an adjective: preceding the noun, e.g. This is an old car.
auxiliary verb verb helping to form a compound verb, e.g. has gone, had read, will go, does like
bare of noun or adjective: without inflection
case form form variation of noun with different meanings, e.g. this man’s car
cataphoric of reference: ‘this’ in He said this: ‘It’s a miracle.’
causative denotes ‘causing’ something to be done, e.g. She made me laugh.
clause phrase that includes a subject and a predicate, e.g. While he slept, . . .
cleft sentence reverse ordering, as in: All I know is this instead of This is all I know.
clitic unstressed word that combines with another word, e.g. I’m / I can’t
complement addition to complete word or phrase, e.g. John is in love with Mary.
compound tense verb tense composed of separate elements, e.g. has worked
concessive indicates circumstance which would normally be expected to preclude action in the
main clause, e.g. although
conjunction word that links sentences, clauses, phrases, or words, e.g. or, and, but
contraction shortening of a word in rapid speech, e.g. What are you going to do? [wha’ y’g’n’do?]
converb verbal connector that signals a temporal relation, e.g. stand-ing
count noun noun denoting an individual, e.g. tree, house, sea, moon, chicken
counterfactual a condition which is not fulfilled, e.g. If you had told me, . . . [you didn’t]
724 Glossary of grammatical terms
deictic relating to a word with context-dependent meaning, e.g. there, then

demonstrative pronoun, e.g. this, that
deontic modality such as necessity and obligation
derivation creation of a word on the basis of another, e.g. wild-ly, mad-man
diminutive form to express smallness or affection, e.g. booklet
ditransitive verb that takes two objects, e.g. I’ll send you a postcard.
durative verbal form indicating inherent duration, e.g. sleep-ing
epistemic modality such as possibility and probability
finite sentence sentence with verb marked for tense, e.g. worked, writes
foregrounding bringing an event into prominence by grammatical means
generic referring to an entire class or group, e.g. Cats are stupid.
habitual denotes an action done regularly / as a habit, e.g. used to go.
head the main element in a phrase, e.g. a very old car
homonym word with the same spelling or pronunciation as another, but different meaning
imperative word form by means of which a command is issued, e.g. stop, run
imperfect(ive) verb form indicating a non-completed action or event
impersonal verb its subject is understood in general terms, e.g. it, one, people
inchoative verb form indicating the beginning of an event
infinitive verb form as used in dictionaries, e.g. To see is to believe.
interjection word or expression which typically expresses emotion, e.g. ah, hey
interrogative pronoun, e.g. who?, what?, when?, why?
intransitive verb which takes no objects, e.g. sleep, sit
lexicalization process of adding new words (derived or copied) to the lexicon, e.g. emoji, Brexit
lexicon the stock of words and fixed phrases in a language
mass noun noun denoting a quantity e.g. air, water, sand, meat, beer
matrix verb verb that takes a sentence as object, e.g. I told you to shut up.
modality implied action running from necessity to obligation and from possibility to probability
morpheme smallest meaningful building unit in grammar, e.g. fool-ish-ly
negative denoting denial or contradiction, e.g. not, nobody, never
nominal sentence the predicate of such a sentence is a noun phrase
nominalization formation of a verb form that can be used as a noun
noun a word that names something, e.g. house, woman, beer, elections, future
noun phrase phrase which has a noun as its head, e.g. a beautiful old car
number status of singular (one) or plural (more), e.g. a man / more men
object entity involved in the action as denoted by a verb, e.g. read books
optative verb form expressing a desire or wish, e.g. May he live long!
palatalization softening of consonants by tongue moving towards the palatal area
palate (hard) front part of the roof of the mouth
participle verb form that is used as a noun or adjective, e.g. working people
particle indeclinable function word, e.g. also, but
passive describes action from the perspective of object, e.g. He was caught.
perfect(ive) verb form expressing that action is completed
person first person I / we; second person you; third person he / she / it / they
phonetics describes speech sounds in terms of place and manner of articulation
phonology set of rules for systematic relationships between speech sounds
phrase word group forming a conceptual unit, e.g. a big brown bear
possessive expresses the grammatical relation possession, e.g. my nose
postposition expresses some relation and is placed after a noun, e.g. years ago
pragmatics describes how language is used in certain contexts
predicative of an adjective: follows the noun, e.g. This car is old.
preposition expresses some relation and stands before a noun, e.g. on your nose
productive a word formation rule applicable to any word is said to be productive
pronoun a noun-like word, representing a known noun such as I / me, you, he / him, it, we / us, etc.
purpose phrase expression indicating purpose / intention, e.g. in order to explain . . .
quantifier adjective or pronoun expressing a quantity, e.g. many, some
reciprocal form indicating that action relates to two or more mutually interacting, e.g. one another
reflexive a word that refers back to the subject of a clause, e.g. himself
stem the most basic part of the verb, e.g. stop, walk, go
subject the word(s) naming the doer of an action, e.g. Mary baked bread.
subordinate clause dependent of main / matrix verb, e.g. I told you to shut up.
tense expresses the time frame of an action, e.g. he lived long, she works
topicalize make a word or phrase the topic of a sentence
transitive (verb) which can take an object, e.g. John saw Mary.
velum (soft) back part of the roof of the mouth
verb word describing action, occurrence, or state, e.g. walk, happen, be
verbal noun noun derived from a verb, e.g. hearing this news, seeing is believing
Selected bibliography
This bibliography comprises two sections. The first section is a brief selection of general books
on Turkish grammar and these items are presented according to the year of their publication. In the
second section material with a more specific character is listed, such as monographs, conference
proceedings, as well as articles. These items are listed with reference to chapters and sections in
this book.
General publications
Bazin, Louis (1968). Introduction à l’étude pratique de la langue turque [Introduction to the practical
study of the Turkish language]. Paris: Librairie d’Amérique et d’Orient.
Banguoğlu, Tahsin (1990). Türkçenin grameri [Turkish Grammar]. Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu
Basım Evi.
Brendemoen, Bernt & Even Hovdhaugen (1992). Tyrkisk Grammatikk [Turkish Grammar]. Oslo:
Universitetsforlaget.
Ediskun, Haydar (1993). Türk Dilbilgisi [Turkish Grammar]. Istanbul: Remzi Kitabevi.
Korkmaz, Zeynep (2003). Türkiye Türkçesi Grameri (Şekil Bilgisi) [Turkey-Turkish grammar
(Morphology)]. Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu.
Kornfilt, Jaklin (1997). Turkish. London: Routledge.
Lewis, Geoffrey (1967). Turkish Grammar. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Lewis, Geoffrey (2000). Turkish Grammar (2nd edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Göksel, Aslı & Celia Kerslake (2005). Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge.
Göksel, Aslı & Celia Kerslake (2010). Turkish: An Essential Grammar. London: Routledge.
Ketrez, F. Nihan (2012). A Student Grammar of Turkish. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Other publications
Chapter 1.1
Menges, Karl (1968). The Turkic Languages and Peoples: An Introduction to Turkic Studies. Wiesbaden:
Harrassowitz.
Golden, Peter (1992). An Introduction to the History of the Turkic Peoples (Turcologica 9). Wiesbaden:
Harrassowitz.
Golden, Peter (1998). ‘The Turkic Peoples: A Historical Sketch’, in Lars Johanson & Éva Csató (eds),
The Turkic Languages. London / New York: Routledge, 16–29.
Schönig, Claus (1997). ‘A new attempt to classify the Turkic languages (1)’, in Turkic Languages.
Volume 1, number 1: 118–33.
Volume 1, number 2: 262–77.
Volume 2: 130–51.
Chapters 2–5
Lees, Robert (1961). The Phonology of Modern Standard Turkish. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University
Publications.
Wendt, Heinz (1979). Praktisches Lehrbuch Türkisch. Berlin: Langenscheidt.
728 Selected bibliography
Sezer, Engin (1981). ‘On non-final stress in Turkish’, in Journal of Turkish Studies 5: 61–9.
Çakır, Cem (2000). ‘On non-final stress in Turkish simplex words’, in: Aslı Göksel & Celia Kerslake
(eds), Studies on Turkish and Turkic Languages. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference
on Turkish Linguistics (Turcologica 46). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1–11.
Kabak, Barış & Irene Vogel (2001). ‘The phonological word and stress assignment in Turkish’, in
Phonology 18: 315–60.
Revithiadou, Anthi, Hasan Kaili, Sofia Prokou, & Maria Anna Tiliopoulou (2006). ‘Turkish accen-
tuation revisited: compositional approach to Turkish stress’, in Semiramis Yağcioğlu et al. (eds),
Advances in Turkish Linguistics: Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Turkish
Linguistics. İzmir: Dokuz Eylül Yayınları, 37–50.
Chapter 5.2
van Schaaik, Gerjan (1996). ‘Lexical Representations’, in Gerjan van Schaaik, Studies in Turkish
Grammar (Turcologica 28). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 103–23.
Erdal, Marcel (2010). ‘Inalienability and syncopation in Turkish’, in Hendrik Boeschoten & Julian
Rentsch (eds), Turcology in Mainz / Turkologie in Mainz (Turcologica 82). Wiesbaden:
Harrassowitz, 147–53.
Chapter 6.5
Johanson, Lars (1977). ‘Bestimmtheit und Mitteilungsperspektive im türkischen Satz’, in Zeitschrift
der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft, Supp. III/2: 1186–203.
Nilsson, Birgit (1979). ‘Definiteness and reference in relation to the Turkish accusative’, in Orientalia
Suecana 27–8: 118–31.
Nilsson, Birgit (1986). ‘Object incorporation in Turkish’, in Ayhan Aksu-Koç & Eser Erguvanlı
Taylan (eds), Proceedings of the National Conference on Turkish Linguistics. Istanbul: Boğaziçi
University Publications, 113–28.
Chapter 7.3
Hayasi, Tooru (2014). ‘Temporal characteristics of the Turkish demonstrative şu’, Nurettin Demir,
Birsel Karakoç, & Astrid Menz (eds), Turcology and Linguistics. Éva Ágnes Csató Festschrift / Éva
Csató Armağanı. Ankara: Hacettepe Üniversitesi Yayınları, 209–18.
Chapter 8.7
Braun, Frederike & Geoffrey Haig (2000). ‘The noun / adjective distinction in Turkish: An empirical
approach’, in Aslı Göksel & Celia Kerslake (eds), Studies on Turkish and Turkic Languages.
Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Turkish Linguistics (Turcologica 46).
Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 5–92.
Chapter 9.2
Göksel, Aslı (1993). Levels of representation and argument structure in Turkish (Dissertation).
London: University of London.
Çetinoğlu, Özlem & Miriam Butt (2008). ‘Turkish non-canonical objects’, in Miriam Butt & Tracy
King (eds), Proceedings of the LFG08 Conference. http://csli-publications.stanford.edu/
Chapter 10.3
van Schaaik, Gerjan (2010). ‘Place nouns as compound heads: A short story of fake postpositions’, in
Turkic Languages Volume 14, Number 2: 206–38.
Chapter 11.7
Kornfilt, Jaklin (1996). ‘Naked partitive phrases in Turkish’, in Jacob Hoeksema (ed.), Partitives.
Studies on the Syntax and Semantics of Partitive and Related Constructions. Berlin / New York:
Mouton de Gruyter, 107–42.
Chapter 13.4
van Schaaik, Gerjan (2004). ‘On the position of sonra and önce’, in Turkic Languages Volume 8,
Number 1: 71–110.
Chapter 19
Johanson, Lars (2014). ‘The decline of the Ottoman optative’, in Nurettin Demir, Birsel Karakoç, &
Astrid Menz (eds), Turcology and Linguistics. Éva Ágnes Csató Festschrift / Éva Csató Armağanı.
Ankara: Hacettepe Üniversitesi Yayınları, 253–60.
Chapter 20
Johanson, Lars (1994). ‘Türkeitürkische Aspektotempora’, in Rolf Thieroff & Joachim Ballweg (eds),
Tense Systems in European Languages. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 247–66.
Erguvanlı Taylan, Eser (ed.) (2001). The Verb in Turkish. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Chapter 21
Kerslake, Celia (1996). ‘The semantics of possibility in Turkish’, in Bengisu Rona (ed.), Current Issues
in Turkish Linguistics. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Turkish Linguistics.
Ankara: Hitit Yayınevi, 85–103.
Chapter 25.3
Ersen-Rasch, Margarete (2014). ‘Noch einmal zur 3. Person Plural im Türkischen’ [Once more on
the 3rd person plural in Turkish], in Nurettin Demir, Birsel Karakoç, & Astrid Menz (eds),
Turcology and Linguistics. Éva Ágnes Csató Festschrift / Éva Csató Armağanı. Ankara: Hacettepe
Üniversitesi Yayınları, 151–73.
Chapter 29.5
Erguvanlı, Eser (1984). The Function of Word Order in Turkish Grammar. Berkeley, CA: University of
California Press.
Erdal, Marcel (2007). ‘On scrambling the absolutive object phrase in Turkic’, in Meltem Kelepir &
Balkız Öztürk (eds), MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 54: Proceedings of the Second Workshop on
Altaic Formal Linguistics. Cambridge, MA: MITWPL, 57-83.
Chapter 30.3–5
Babby, Leonard (1981). ‘A compositional analysis of voice in Turkish: passive, derived intransitive,
impersonal, and causative’, in Cornell Working Papers in Linguistics 2. Ithaca, NY: Cornell
University Press, 1–31.
Chapter 31.4
van Schaaik, Gerjan (2002). The Noun in Turkish. Its Argument Structure and the Compounding
Straitjacket (Turcologica 49). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Chapter 31.8
Erdal, Marcel (1998). ‘On the verbal noun in –(y)Iş’, in Kamile İmer & Leylâ Subaşı Uzun (eds),
Doğan Aksan Armağanı. Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi Yayın
No 366: 53–68.
Chapter 32.1–2
Dede, Müserref (1978). ‘Why should Turkish relativization distinguish between subject and non-
subject head nouns?’ in Berkeley Linguistic Society 4: 67–77.
Haig, Geoffrey (1997). ‘Turkish relative clauses: A tale of two participles’, in Turkic Languages
Volume 1–2: 184–209.
Haig, Geoffrey (1998). Relative Constructions in Turkish. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
730 Selected bibliography
Haig, Geoffrey (1998). ‘On some strategies for case recovery in Turkish relativization’, in Lars
Johanson & Éva Csató et al. (eds), The Mainz Meeting. Proceedings of the Seventh International
Conference of Turkish Linguistics (Turcologica 32). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 299–320.
Chapter 32.3
van Schaaik, Gerjan (2017). ‘Place nouns heading relative clauses with focal subjects’, in Turkic
Languages Volume 21, Number 1: 80–101.
Chapter 32.6
Ozil, Şeyda (1998). ‘The choice of the relative participles -(y)EcEk and -(y)EcEk ol’, in Lars Johanson
& Éva Csató et al. (eds), The Mainz Meeting. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference of
Turkish Linguistics (Turcologica 32). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 348–60.
Kerslake, Celia (1998). ‘Future time reference in subordinate clauses in Turkish’, in Kamile İmer &
Engin Uzun (eds), Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Turkish Linguistics.
Ankara: Ankara Üniversites Basımevi, 49–59.
Chapter 32.10
Schroeder, Christoph (1998). ‘Vom Partizip zum Adjektiv im Türkischen’ [From Participle to
Adjective in Turkish], in Wınfried Boeder, Christoph Schroeder, Karl-Heinz Wagner, & Wolfgang
Wildgen (eds), Sprache in Raum und Zeit. In memoriam Johannes Bechert (Beiträge zur
empirischen Sprachwissenschaft, Vol 2). Tübingen: Narr, 302–18.
Chapter 33.1
Schroeder, Christoph (1997). ‘Relative ki-clauses and the structure of spoken Turkish’, in Kamile
İmer & Engin Uzun (eds), Proceedings of the Eighth International Conference on Turkish Linguistics.
Ankara: Ankara Üniversitesi Basımevi, 347–62.
Chapter 33.5
van Schaaik, Gerjan (1999). ‘The Order of Nominalizations in Turkish’, in Turkic Languages Volume 3,
number 1: 87–120.
Chapter 33.6
Kornfilt, Jaklin (1977). ‘A note on subject raising in Turkish’, in Linguistic Inquiry 8: 736–42.
Chapter 33.8
van Schaaik, Gerjan (2014). ‘Complications in Turkish complementation: for Éva’, in Nurettin Demir,
Birsel Karakoç, & Astrid Menz (eds), Turcology and Linguistics. Éva Ágnes Csató Festschrift / Éva
Csató Armağanı. Ankara: Hacettepe Üniversitesi Yayınları, 401–16.
Chapter 35.6
van Schaaik, Gerjan (1998). ‘On the usage of gibi’, in Lars Johanson & Éva Csató et al. (eds), The
Mainz Meeting. Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference of Turkish Linguistics
(Turcologica 32). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 422–57.
Chapter 37
Johanson, Lars (1971). Aspekt im Türkischen: Vorstudien zu einer Beschreibung des türkeitürkischen
Aspektsystems. Stockholm: Almqvist och Wiksell.
Johanson, Lars (1994). ‘Türkeitürkische Aspektotempora’, in Rolf Thieroff & Joachim Ballweg (eds),
Tense Systems in European Languages. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, 247–66.
van Schaaik, Gerjan (2001). ‘Periphrastic tense/aspect/mood’, in Eser Erguvanlı Taylan (ed.), The
Verb in Turkish. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 61–95.
van Schaaik, Gerjan (1996). ‘Periphrastic Constructions’, in Gerjan van Schaaik, Studies in Turkish
Grammar (Turcologica 28). Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 178–209.
Index of suffixes and combinations
Suffix(es) Section Page –(y)EcEK = deverbal noun 32.4.1 517

–(I)m = 1sg poss 6.4 49 –(y)EcEK = deverbal adjective 32.4.4 518
–(I)mIz = 1pl poss 6.4 49 –(y)EcEK = future 20.2 217
–(I)n = 2sg poss 6.4 49 –(y)EcEK + –(y)ken 27.3.1 351
–(I)nIz = 2pl poss 6.4 49 –(y)EcEK + –(y)mIş-(y)sE + pers 24.5 286
–(I)n- =passive 30.4.2 408 –(y)EcEK + –(y)mIş-çEsInE 27.6.3 374
–(I)n- = reflexive 30.5.1 416 –(y)EcEK + –(y)TI-(y)sE + pers 24.5 286
–(I)ş- = reciprocal 30.7 420 –(y)EcEK + poss + –(y)E 27.4.9 365
–(I)ş- + –TIr- 30.8.1 423 –(y)EcEK + poss + gel- 30.11.6 437
–(I)yor = present-1 20.1 215 –(y)EcEK + poss + halde 27.5.5 368
–(I)yor + –(y)ken 27.3.1 351 –(y)EcEK + poss + için 27.5.4 367
–(I)yor + –(y)mIş-(y)sE + pers 24.5 286 –(y)EcEK + poss + –TEn 27.5.3 367
–(I)yor + –(y)mIş-çEsInE 27.6.3 374 –(y)EcEK + poss + kadar 33.11.6 640
–(I)yor + –(y)TI-(y)sE + pers 24.5 286 –(y)EcEK + poss + tut- 30.11.8 440
–(I)yor + pers 20.1 215 –(y)EcEK + poss + var / yok 37.5.1 718
–(I)yor + değil + pers 37.4 716 –(y)EcEK + poss + yerde 27.4.9 365
–(I)yor + ol-a + pers 37.2.8 701 –(y)EcEK + pers 20.2 217
–(I)yor + ol-an 32.6.1 528 –(y)EcEK + değil + pers 37.4 716
–(I)yor + ol-abil- 37.2.8 701 –(y)EcEK + derecede 33.11.6 640
–(I)yor + ol-ama-z + pers 37.2.8 701 –(y)EcEK + diye 27.5.2 367
–(I)yor + olmak 37.2.1 696 –(y)EcEK + halde (değil) 27.5.5 368
–(I)yor + ol-malı + pers 37.2.4 699 –(y)EcEK + kadar 33.11.6 640
–(I)yor + ol-ma-sın 37.2.8 701 –(y)EcEK + ol-du / ol-muş + pers 37.2.10 707
–(I)yor + ol-sa-(ydı) + pers 37.2.8 701 –(y)EcEK + ol-mak 37.2.1 696
–(I)yor + ol-sun 37.2.8 701 –(y)EcEK + ol-malı + pers 37.2.4 699
–(I/E)r = deverbal noun 32.10.3 544 –(y)EcEK + ol-sa(-ydı) + pers 37.2.9 706
–(I/E)r = deverbal adjective 32.10.5 545 –(y)EcEK + ol-ur-sa 37.2.2 699
–(I/E)r = present-2 20.5 219 –(y)Edur- = aspect 37.3.1 708
–(I/E)r + –(y)ken 27.3.1 351 –(y)Egel- = aspect 37.3.1 708
–(I/E)r + –(y)ken + –ki 27.3.1 351 –(y)Egör- = aspect 37.3.4 711
–(I/E)r + –(y)mIş-çEsInE 27.6.3 374 –(y)Ekal- = aspect 37.3.2 709
–(I/E)r + –(y)TI-(y)sE + pers 24.5 286 –(y)Ekal- + –mE 37.3.7 713
–(I/E)r + değil + pers 37.4 716 –(y)Ekoy- = aspect 37.3.6 712
–(I/E)r + kal- 37.3.2 709 –(y)Ekoy- + –mE 37.3.7 713
–(I/E)r + mIsIn(Iz) 16.4 203 –(y)ElI 27.4.1 357
–(I/E)r + ol-du + pers 37.2.12 708 –(y)ElI beri 27.4.1 357
–(I/E)r + ol-mak 37.2.1 696 –(y)ElIdEn beri 27.4.1 357
–(I/E)r + pers 20.5 219 –(y)EmE- = abilitative 21.1.1 233
–(I/E)r . . . –mE-z 27.4.3 359 –(y)EmE- + –(y)E + pers 21.1.4 235
–(n)In = case genitive 6.5.2 51 –(y)EmE- + –(y)Ebil- 21.1.2 234
–(s)I(n) = 3sg poss 6.4 49 –(y)EmE- + –(y)EcEK + poss + kadar 33.11.6 640
–(y)E = case dative 6.5.3 52 –(y)EmE-z + (bir) 32.10.5 545
–(y)E + var mı-sın? 23.2.5 264 –(y)EmE-z + (bir) + ol-sun 37.2.8 701
–(y)E 14.4.3 182 –(y)En = subject participle 32.1 496
–(y)E = optative 19.1 210 –(y)En-E dek / değin 13.2 164
–(y)E . . . –(y)E 14.4.5 186 –(y)En-lEr-dEn + pers 32.7.3 537
–(y)E + pers + –(y)mIş 24.2.4 282 –(y)En + poss 32.7.2 537
–(y)E + pers + –(y)TI 24.1.4 275 –(y)En-dE 27.4.5 361
–(y)Ebil- = abilitative 21.1.1 233 –(y)ErEk 27.3.2 355
–(y)Ebil- + –(y)E + pers 21.1.4 235 –(y)ErEk-tEn 27.3.2 355
–(y)Ebil- + –(y)EcEK + poss + kadar 33.11.6 640 –(y)EsI 30.11.7 438
–(y)Ebil- + –TI + poss + kadar 33.11.6 640 –(y)EsI + poss gel- 30.11.7 438
732 Index of suffixes and combinations
–(y)EsIcE 30.11.7 438 –It- + –Il- + –sIn = caus+pass+imp-2 30.9.4 430

–(y)EsIyE 14.4.6 187 –It- + –TIr- = caus + caus 30.3.1 403
–(y)Eyaz- = aspect 37.3.5 712 –It- = caus 30.3.1 403
–(y)E = 3sg opt 19.3 212 –It- + –Il- = caus + pass 30.4.3 409
–(y)E-sIn = 2sg opt 19.2 211 –It- + –Il- + –sIn = caus+pass+imp-2 30.9.4 430
–(y)E-sInIz = 2pl opt 19.2 211 –It- + –TIr- = caus + caus 30.3.1 403
–(y)E-yIm = 1sg opt 19.1 210 –k = 1pl type-2 20.4 218
–(y)E-yIm + iste- 33.4.8 580 –lEr = 3pl type-1 20.1 215
–(y)E-lIm = 1pl opt 19.1 210 –lEr = 3pl type-2 20.4 218
–(y)E-lIm + iste- 33.4.8 580 –lEr = plural 6.3 47
–(y)I = case accusative 6.5.4 52 –lErI(n) = 3pl poss 6.4 49
–(y)Ikon- = aspect 37.3.6 712 –lEr-dEn + pers 23.1.5 257
–(y)Ikon- + –mE 37.3.7 713 –m = 1sg type-2 20.4 218
–(y)Ikoy- = aspect 37.3.6 712 –mE = inf-1 15.2 199
–(y)Ikoy- + –(y)EmE- / –mE 37.3.7 713 –mE = deverbal noun 31.7 480
–(y)Im = 1sg type-1 20.1 215 –mE + poss 22.1.3 243
–(y)In = 2sg imp-1 16.2 201 –mE + poss + –(y)lE . . . bir ol- 27.4.4 360
–(y)IncE 27.4.2 358 –mE + poss + için 28.3.1 378
–(y)IncEyE dek / değin 27.4.2 358 –mE = negation 17 205
–(y)IncEyE kadar 27.4.2 358 –mE + –(y)Ebil- 21.1.2 234
–(y)InIz = 2pl imp-1 16.2 201 –mE + –(y)EcEK + poss var / yok 37.5 717
–(y)Ip 27.1.2 341 –mE + –(y)Egör- 37.3.7 713
–(y)Ip + kal- 37.3.2 709 –mE + –(y)Iver- 37.3.7 713
–(y)Ip + V-mE + –(y)EcEK + poss 33.4.5 574 –mE-dEn 27.4.6 362
–(y)Ip + V-mE + –TIK + poss 33.4.5 574 –mE-dEn önce 27.4.6 362
–(y)Ip + gitti 30.10.1 430 –mEdIk 32.10.7 549
–(y)Ip + (V1-(y)Ip + V2-(y)Ip + V) 27.1.3 341 –mE-dIkçE 27.5.7 370
–(y)Ip + (V1-(y)Ip + V2) 27.1.4 342 –mE-sI-ylE . . . –mE-sI bir ol- 27.4.4 360
–(y)Iver- = aspect 37.3.3 710 –mEyEcEk 32.10.7 549
–(y)Iver- + –mE 37.3.7 713 –mEğ-E = inf-2 dat 20.7 222
–(y)Iz = 1pl type-1 20.1 215 –mEk / –mE 15.1 199
–(y)ken = proj-4 27.3.1 351 –mEk = inf-2 20.7.2 223
–(y)lE = case instrumental 6.5.7 53 –mEk + –lE 27.3.3 356
–(y)mIş + pers = proj-3 24.1.3 273 –mEk + bil-me-mek 21.2.2 237
–(y)mIş-çEsInE = proj-5 27.6.3 374 –mEk + bil-me-yen 21.2.3 237
–(y)sE + pers = proj-2 24.1.3 273 –mEk + bil-me-z 32.10.5 545
–(y)sE + pers dE 27.2.3 348 –mEk + için 28.3.1 378
–(y)TI + pers = proj-1 24.1.3 273 –mEk + şöyle dursun . . . bile 27.4.10 365
–CEsInE 27.6.1 372 –mEk + suretiyle 27.3.4 356
–Er- = causative 30.4.2 408 –mEk + üzere 27.4.11 366
–Er- + –Il = caus + pass 30.4.3 409 –mEk + üzere-yken 33.11.5 639
–Er- + –Il- + –sIn = caus+pass+imp-2 30.9.4 430 –mEk + var 22.1.10 251
–Er- + –t = caus + caus 30.4.3 409 –mEk + yerine 27.4.9 365
–Il- = pass 30.4.2 408 –mEk + yok 22.1.10 251
–Il- + –E = pass + opt 30.9.2 428 –mEk-lE 27.3.3 356
–Il- + –sIn = pass + imp-2 30.9.2 428 –mEk-lE beraber / birlikte 27.3.5 357
–Il- = reflex 30.5.1 416 –mEk-lIk 31.9.2 491
–Il- + –sIn = reflex + imp-2 30.9.3 429 –mEk-sIzIn 27.4.7 363
–In- = pass 30.4.2 408 –mEk-tE = present-3 20.6 221
–In- + –E = pass + opt 30.9.2 428 –mEk-tE + ol- 32.6.1 528
–In- + –sIn = pass + imp-2 30.9.2 428 –mEk-tE + pers 20.6 221
–In- = reflex 30.5.1 416 –mEk-tE + –(y)TI-(y)sE + pers 24.5 286
–In- + –sIn = reflex + imp-2 30.9.3 429 –mEk-tE + –(y)kEn 27.3.1 351
–Ir- = caus 30.3.1 403 –mEk-tEnsE 27.4.8 364
–Ir- + –Il- = caus + pass 30.4.3 409 –mElI + pers = necessitative 22.1.1 239
–Ir- + –Il- + –sIn = caus+pass+imp-2 30.9.4 430 –mE-lIk 31.9.1 489
–Ir- + –t- = caus + caus 30.3.1 403 –mE-mE + –CEsInE 27.6.4 374
–It- = caus 30.3.1 403 –mE-mE + poss + gerek 22.1.9 249
–It- + –Il- = caus + pass 30.4.3 409 –mE-mEk lâzım / gerekli 22.1.9 249
–mE-mEk-lE birlikte / beraber 27.3.5 357 –mIş + ol-ma-sa + pers 37.2.8 701
–mE-mEzlIk-tEn gelmek 32.10.10 551 –mIş + ol-ma-sın 37.2.8 701
–mE-mIş 20.3 218 –mIş + ol-ma-ya + pers 37.2.8 701
–mE-mIş + –(y)ken 27.3.1 351 –mIş + ol-sa(-ydı) + pers 37.2.8 701
–mE-mIş + mI + pers 24.6.1 289 –mIş + ol-sun 37.2.8 701
–mE-mIş + ol-a(-ydı) + pers 37.2.8 701 –mIş + ol-ur(-du) + pers 37.2.6 700
–mE-mIş + ol-ma-sın 37.2.8 701 –mIş + ol-uyor + pers 37.2.5 700
–mE-mIş + ol-sa + pers 37.2.8 701 –mIş + pers 20.3 218
–mE-mIş + ol-sun 37.2.8 701 –mIş + pers + attı 30.10.3 432
–mE-dIK + poss yok 37.5 717 –mIş + gitmişti + pers 30.11.2 435
–mEsInE ama / ya 27.5.6 369 –mIş + kadar 33.11.6 640
–mE-yE = inf-1 dat 20.7.4 224 –mIş + mI + pers + –TIr 24.7.4 298
–mE-yE + gel-me-z + pers 20.7.6 226 –mIş-lIğ-E vurmak 32.10.10 551
–mE-yE + gel-mi-yor + pers 20.7.6 226 –mIş-ken 27.3.1 351
–mE-yE + gör- / –mEyEgör- 20.7.5 225 –mIş-lIk / mEz-lIk 31.9.3 491
–mE-yE + V 33.5.1 583 –mIş-tIr 24.7.1 291
–mE-yI bil-mek 21.2.1 236 –n- = passive 30.4.2 408
–mE-z = deverbal noun 32.10.3 544 –n-Il- = double passive 30.4.2 408
–mE-z = deverbal adjective 32.10.5 545 –n = 2sg type-2 20.4 218
–mE-z = neg pres-2 20.5 219 –nIz = 2pl type-2 20.4 218
–mE-z + –(y)ken 27.3.1 351 –Ø = 3sg type-1 20.1 215
–mE-z + –(y)TI-(y)sE + pers 24.5 286 –Ø= 3sg type-2 20.4 218
–mE-z + –cEsInE 27.6.2 373 –sE + pers = irrealis 22.2 251
–mE-z + –dIr 24.7.4 298 –sE–(y)mIş + pers 24.2.3 281
–mE-z + ol-a-ydı + pers 37.2.8 701 –sE + –(y)TI + pers 24.2.4 282
–mE-z + ol-du 37.2.11 707 –sE dE . . . –mE-sE + pers + dE 27.2.2 347
–mE-z + pers 20.5 219 –sEnE = 2sg imp-2 16.3 202
–mE-z + mIsIn(Iz) 16.4 203 –sEnIzE = 2pl imp-2 16.3 202
–mEz-dEn önce 27.4.6 362 –sIn = 2sg type-1 20.1 215
–mEz-lIğ-E vurmak 32.10.10 551 –sInIz = 2pl type-1 20.1 215
–mEz-lIk 31.9 489 –sIn = 3sg imp-2 18.1 207
–mEz-lIk etmek 32.10.10 551 –sIn-lEr =3pl imp-2 18.1 207
–mEz-lIk-tEn gelmek 32.10.10 551 –sIn-lEr + –(y)mIş 24.2.5 283
mI = question particle 23.1 255 –sIn-lEr + –(y)TI 24.1.4 275
mI + pers + -TIr 24.7.2 293 –sIn-lEr + iste- 33.4.8 580
mI-dIr ne-dir? 24.7.4 298 –sIn-lEr + mI 18.2 208
–mI- = negation pres-1 20.1 215 –sIz + –CEsInE 27.6.2 373
–mIş = deverbal noun 32.10.2 543 –t- = causative 30.3 402
–mIş = deverbal adjective 32.10.6 547 –t- + –Il- = causative + passive 30.4.3 409
–mIş = past-1 20.3 218 –t- + –Il- + –sIn = caus + pass + imp-2 30.9.4 430
–mIş + –(y)ken 27.3.1 351 –t- + –TIr- = double causative 30.3.1 403
–mIş + –(y)mIş + pers 24.2.1 277 –TE = case locative 6.5.5 52
–mIş + –(y)sE + pers 24.4 286 –TE + X + var / yok 23.2.3 262
–mIş + –(y)TI + pers 24.4 286 –TEn = case ablative 6.5.6 53
–mIş + –(y)TI . . . –mEsInE 27.5.6 369 –TEn + beri / dolayı / ötürü 28.1 376
–mIş + –(y)TI-(y)sE + pers 24.5 286 –TI . . . –mEsInE+ ama 27.5.6 369
–mIş + –(y)TI-lEr-(y)TI 24.5 286 –TI . . . –(y)EcEK 37 686
–mIş + –lEr-(y)TI-(y)sE 24.5 286 –TI + diye 27.5.2 367
–mIş + değil + pers 37.4 716 –TI + pers = past-2 20.4 218
–mIş + ol- + –TIK + poss 32.6.2 529 –TI + pers + attı 30.10.3 432
–mIş + ol- + –(y)EcEK + poss 32.6.4 530 –TI + pers + değil 37.4 716
–mIş + ol-a + pers 37.2.8 701 –TI + pers + gitti 30.10.1 430
–mIş + ol-abil- 37.2.7 701 –TI + pers + mI 27.4.3 359
–mIş + ol-acak + pers 37.2.3 699 –TI + –(y)sE + pers 24.3 283
–mIş + ol-an 32.6.2 529 –TI + –(y)TI + pers 24.4 286
–mIş + ol-a-ydı + pers 37.2.8 701 –TI geçti 30.11.4 436
–mIş + ol-mak 37.2.1 696 –TI mI 27.4.3 359
–mIş + ol-mak için 26.3.1 333 –TIğIncE 27.5.9 371
–mIş + ol-malı + pers 37.2.4 699 –TIğIndEn beri 28.1 376
734 Index of suffixes and combinations
–TIğIndEn dolayı / ötürü 28.1 376 –TIktEn sonra 28.2 377

–TIK = object participle 33.4.3 574 –TIr = temporal 13.2 164
–TIK + poss + halde 27.5.5 368 –TIr = emphasis 24.7 290
–TIK + poss + için 27.5.4 367 –TIr ki 27.5.1 366
–TIK + poss + kadar 33.11.6 640 –TIr- = caus 30.3.1 403
–TIK + poss + oranda 27.5.8 371 –TIr- + –Il- = causative + passive 30.4.3 409
–TIK + poss + –TE 27.4.5 361 –TIr- + –Il- + –sIn = caus+pass+imp-2 30.9.4 430
–TIK + poss + –TEn 27.5.3 367 –TIr- + –sIn = caus + imp-2 30.9.1 427
–TIK + poss + –TEn beri 33.11.5 639 –TIr- + –t- = double causative 30.3.1 403
–TIK + poss + –TEn dolayı 33.11.5 639 V V 33.5.9 594
–TIK + poss + –TEn ötürü 33.11.5 639 V V–mE 33.5.9 594
–TIK + poss + yok 37.5 717 V1–(y)Ip + V2 30.10.2 431
–TIkçE 27.5.7 370 var / yok + pers 23.2.5 264
–TIktE 27.4.5 361 V-mE V 33.5.9 594
–TIktEn başka 35.5 663 V-mE V-mE 33.5.9 594
Index of inflections
Plural marker 6.3 Optative markers

–lEr –(y)E-yIm opt 1sg 19.1
–(y)E-sIn opt 2sg 19.2
Possessive markers 6.4 –(y)E opt 3sg 19.3
–(I)m 1sg –(y)E-lIm opt 1pl 19.1
–(I)n 2sg –(y)E-sInIz opt 2pl 19.2
–(s)I(n) 3sg
–(I)mIz 1pl Tense markers
–(I)nIz 2pl –(I)yor present-1 20.1
–lErI(n) 3pl –(I/E)r present-2 20.5
–mEk-TE present-3 20.6
Case markers 6.5 –(y)EcEK future 20.2
–(n)In genitive –mIş past-1 20.3
–(y)E dative –TI past-2 20.4
–(y)I accusative
–TE locative Modality markers
–TEn ablative –sE conditional 22.2
–(y)lE instrumental –mElI obligation 22.1
–(y)Ebil- potential 21.1
Person markers 20.1–4 –(y)EmE- idem negative 21.1
Type 1 Type 2
–(y)Im –m 1sg Projectional markers
–sIn –n 2sg –(y)TI proj-1 24.1
–Ø –Ø 3sg –(y)sE proj-2 24.1
–(y)Iz –k 1pl –(y)mIş proj-3 24.1
–sInIz –nIz 2pl –(y)ken proj-4 27.3
–lEr –lEr 3pl –(y)mIşçEsInE proj-5 27.6
Infinitive markers 15 Miscellaneous markers

–mE short –TIr emphatic 24.7
–mE-yE short, dative mI question 23.1
–mE-yI short, accusative
–mEk full Coupling forms
–mEğ-E full, dative –(I/E)r . . . –mE-z 27.4.3
–mEğ-I full, accusative –(y)E . . . –(y)E 14.4.5
–(y)EcEK + poss + –(y)E 27.4.9
Imperative markers –(y)EcEK + poss + yerde 27.4.9
–(y)In imp-1 2sg 16.2 –(y)ElI 27.4.1
–(y)InIz imp-1 2pl –(y)En-dE 27.4.5
–sEnE imp-2 2sg 16.3 –(y)En-E dek / değin 13.2
–sEnIzE imp-2 2pl –(y)ErEk 27.3.2
–sIn imp-3 3sg 18.1 –(y)ErEk-tEn 27.3.2
–sIn-lEr imp-3 3pl –(y)EsIyE 14.4.6
–(y)IncE 27.4.2
Negational markers –(y)Ip 27.1.2
–mE verbal 17 –(y)mIş-çEsInE 27.6.3
–mE-z present-2 20.5 –CEsInE 27.6.1
–mI present-1 20.1 –mE-dEn 27.4.6
değil nominal 17 –mE-dEn önce 27.4.6
yok existential 17 –mE-dIkçE 27.5.7
736 Index of inflections
–mEk şöyle dursun . . . bile 27.4.10 Voice markers 30.3–5

–mEk üzere 27.4.11 causative: –TIr-, –t-, –Ir-, –It-, –Er-
–mEk yerine 27.4.9 passive: –Il-, –(I)n-, –n-Il-
–mEk-lE 27.3.3 reflexive: –(I)n-, –Il-
–mEk-sIzIn 27.4.7 reciprocal: –(I)ş-
–mEk-tEnsE 27.4.8
–mEmECEsInE 27.6.4 Participles
–mE-sI-ylE . . . –mE-sI bir ol- 27.4.4 –(y)En subject participle 32.1
–sE de . . . –mE-sE de 27.2.2 –(I/E)r aorist participle 32.10
–TI . . . –mEsInE 27.5.6 –(y)EcEK future participle 32.10
–TI / –(y)EcEK + diye 27.5.2 –mIş past participle 32.10
–TI mI 27.4.3 –TIK object participle 32.4
–TIğIncE 27.5.9
–TIK / –(y)EcEK + poss + –TEn Aspectual markers 37.3
27.5.3 –(y)Edur-
–TIK / –(y)EcEK + poss halde 27.5.5 –(y)Egel-
–TIK / –(y)EcEK + poss için 27.5.4 –(y)Ekal-
–TIK + poss + oranda 27.5.8 –(y)Iver-
–TIK + poss + –TE 27.4.5 –(y)Egör-
–TIkçE 27.5.7 –(y)Eyaz-
–TIktE 27.4.5 –(y)Ekoy-
–TIr ki 27.5.1 –(y)Ikoy-
Index of derivations
Suffix Transition Section –Er [V>V] 30.3.1

–(E)k [V×N] 31.3.1 –gI / –kI [V×N] 31.3.1
–(E)r [A×V] 30.2.4 –gIn / –kIn [V×A] 31.3.2
–(I)msI (1) [N>A] 31.1.6 –î [N×A] 31.1.5
–(I)msI (2) [A>A] 31.1.13 –I [N>A] 31.1.9
–(I)mtrak [A>A] 31.1.12 –I [V×N] 31.3.1
–(I)n / –Il [V×V] 30.5.1 –Ik [V×A] 31.3.2
–(I)n [V>V] 30.4.1 –Ik [V×N] 31.3.1
–(I)ncI [T>A] 11.2 –Il [V>V] 30.4.1
–(I)ntI [V×N] 31.3.1 –Ir [V>V] 30.3.1
–(I)ş [V×V] 30.7.2 –Ir / –It / –Er [V×V] 30.3.1
–(I/E)r / –mEz [V>A] 32.10.5 –IşIm [V×N] 31.3.1
–(I/E)r [V>N] 31.10.3 –It [V>V] 30.3.1
–(ş)Er [T>A] 11.3 –kEn / –gEn [V×N/A] 31.3.3
–(y)EcEk [V>A] 32.10.4 –lE [N/A>V] 30.2.1
–(y)EcEK [V>N] 31.10.1 –lEn [N>V] 30.2.2
–(y)ElI [V>Z] 27.4.1 –lEr [A>N] 31.2.7
–(y)En [V>A] 31.1.8 –lErcE [T>A] 11.5.1
–(y)ErEk [V>Z] 27.3.2 –lEş [N/A>V] 30.2.3
–(y)EsI [V×A] 30.11.7 –lI [N>A] 31.1.2
–(y)IcI (2) [N>N] 31.2.8 –lIk (1) [N>A] 31.1.3
–(y)IcI (1) [V>A] 31.1.7 –lIk (2) [N>N] 31.2.2
–(y)IcI (2) [V>N] 31.2.8 –lIk (3) [N>N] 31.2.5
–(y)Im [V×N] 31.3.1 –lIk (4) [A>N] 31.2.6
–(y)IncE [V>Z] 27.4.2 –mE [V>A] 31.7.2
–(y)Iş [V>N] 31.8.1 –mE [V>N] 31.7.1
–a [A×V] 30.2.4 –mEdIk [V>A] 32.10.7
–ç / –Inç [V×N] 31.3.1 –mIş [V>A] 32.10.6
–CE [A>A] 31.1.10 –mIş [V>N] 31.10.2
–CE [N>Z] 13.4.3 –n-Il [V>V] 30.4.1
–CEğIz [N>N] 31.2.4 –sEl [N>A] 31.1.4
–CI [N>N] 31.2.1 –sIz [N>A] 31.1.1
–CIk (1) [A>A] 31.1.11 –t / –n [X×V] 30.7.1
–CIk (2) [N>N] 31.2.3 –t [V>V] 30.3.1
–E [V>Z] 14.4.5 –TEş [V×N/A] 31.3.3
–El [A×V] 30.2.4 –TI [V×N] 31.3.1
–en / –an [N/A×Z] 14.4.2 –TIr [V>V] 30.3.1
Index of subjects
abbreviation 63, 128, 443 aspiration 9, 11

abilitative 215, 233, 234–8, 266–9, 389, 411, 532, assumption 251, 290–9, 699
640, 714 attributive usage 86, 375, 385
ablative 53, 57, 63 auxiliary 35, 207, 256, 288, 341, 348, 363, 397–9,
accentuation mark 11 444, 496–538, 574–5, 583–4, 602, 645, 647,
accusative object 100 685–701, 708
active verb 407–15, 482–3, 546, 631–4
adjective 86–97, 118, 133, 140, 172, 181, 237, bare
245, 443–56 = cardinal 135, 447
adverb 90, 97, 122, 131, 171, 174–94 = compound 469–73
adverbial clause 506 = noun 311, 325, 472, 654–5
adverbial phrase 112, 131, 181, 526, 677 başı–bozuk construction 496, 502–12
affirmative 201, 210, 246, 267, 292, 325, 332, 697 beneficiary 166, 386, 406
age 146–9, 446–7 boundary
agent 414–15 morpheme = 39, 42
agglutination 3 syllable = 12, 39, 42
agreement 239, 253, 304–13, 323–7, 465, 487, brevity 707, 713
491, 567 buffer sound y 30, 36–7
alphabet 2–4, 9–13, 18–22
anteriority 59, 353–4, 362, 377 case marker 5, 50–62
anticipatory causality 340, 355–6
= possessive 162, 260, 381, 502, 510 causative 402–7
= relator 162 = plus passive 409, 425
antonym 109, 444–5 double = 406
aorist 219 irregular = 409
apostrophe 22, 35, 62–3 passive plus = 426
argument, verbal 605, 630 primary = 406
arithmetic 127, 292 reciprocal plus = 423
article, indefinite 5, 51, 86–9, 100–3, 124, 131, 309, 315, secondary = 406–7
472, 485, 543, 564, 602, 681 causee 403, 405
aspect (1) causer 402, 405–9
assumption 699 choice 331–2, 343, 574, 704
choice 704 circumflex 13, 21–2, 22–3
conclusion 699 classification 64, 107, 174–5, 309, 463, 562, 604–5,
counterfactual 703 629, 656, 686
desirability 701 clause
expectation 700 comment = 554, 560–1
hypothesis 706 dependent = 387–8
possibility 701 embedded = 50, 565–98, 603–4
pretending 703 = linking 253, 340–74
result 700 object = 55, 493–4, 516–17, 521, 528–531, 574, 642
aspect (2) pseudo-relative = 493–4, 540, 562
brevity 707, 713 relative = 309–26, 343, 444, 493–553, 561–2, 599,
completion 708 636, 643, 650, 673, 719
continuity 708 small = 376, 507–8, 596
decrease 707 clitic 329, 333
increase 708 collective 47, 133–4, 193, 328, 420–1, 499
interruption 713 collocation 431, 434, 441, 468, 547, 551
propinquity 712 comitative 53
restraint 712 company 53, 62–3, 163, 166, 190–1, 474
speed 710, 713 comparative 3, 89–91, 162, 638
transition 708, 709 comparison 86, 148, 666–7
740 Index OF SUBJECTS
complement date 158
= and deontic modality 661 dative object 52, 100–7, 223–4, 406–13, 421, 487,
= and epistemic modality 657 518–19, 535–6, 541, 563, 573, 632–3
= of adjectives 651 days of the week 154
= of nouns 652 decision 440, 677, 683–4
= of postpositions 663 declarative 201, 204, 210, 706
= of verbs 583–97, 603–30 declension 38
sentential = 62, 94, 168, 172, 376, 639, 647, 651–84, decrease 707
699, 719 deduction, see aspect (1)
complementation 493, 590, 603–30 definite noun phrase 89–90, 326, 385, 388
completeness 70, 436, 550 definiteness 100–4, 413
completion 529, 708 definition 100, 563
compound deictic element 177
left-branching = 415 deletion 33
nominal = 50–1, 63, 444, 468–86, 515, 543–4, 618, depictive 596
635, 652–5, 660, 680, 683 derivation 38, 398, 489, 543, 602–6, 652
right-branching = 415 desiderative form 276, 702
concessive 228–9, 301, 348, 368–9 desirability 207–8, 211, 701
conclusion 241, 280, 476, 557, 699 deverbal
concord 253, 304–5 = adjective 299, 447, 483, 546, 596
condition 230, 281, 290, 302, 343, 346 = form 395
conditional 17, 228–9, 286–90, 302, 339, 346–9, 711 = noun in 443, 481, 489–90, 564
irrealis 17, 239, 251, 286–9, 302, 339, 346–50, 701 dialect 1, 2, 11, 268
realis 17, 239, 251, 281–9, 302, 339, 346–50, 701 diminutive 72, 76, 459–60
conjugation 38, 397 diphthong 12
conjunctive 335, 357 direct speech 208, 211, 243, 378–9, 554–98, 653–66, 675
consequence 302, 335, 366, 557 ditransitive, see verb (2)
consonant doublet 22, 185, 210, 212, 287, 347
= alternation 31 duration 113, 127, 136, 147, 164–5, 174, 182, 232–3, 299,
= assimilation 27–8 370, 486, 531, 593, 677, 681, 707–8
bilabial = 12 durative 237
buffer = 22 dynamism 108
= cluster 18, 24, 40–1
= doubling 44 echo question 68–9
final = 25, 34–7, 45, 54 embedding 243
hard = 18 active-active = 631, 636
soft = 25, 27 active-passive = 631, 636
uvular = 22 passive-active = 631, 636
velar = 25 passive-passive = 631, 636
voiced = 9, 31, 36, 182, 219 emphasis 79, 84, 240, 261–2, 290–1, 296, 334–5, 391–2,
voiceless = 9, 46, 182 414, 465, 508, 515, 523, 556–7, 564, 592, 718
constituent order enumeration 145, 329
= in existential sentences 260, 388 expectation 297–8, 362–3, 368, 570–1, 700
= in main clause 253, 388 ezafe 443, 479, 480
= in nominal sentences 257, 388
= in verbal sentences 269, 388 factive 593, 605
= independent clauses 389 factual 241, 251, 283, 586, 668–9, 684
special = 390–4 focus position 263, 391–2, 508, 688–9
continuous 237, 708 Focus-Locus construction 496, 508–15, 521
continuity 233, 344, 708 foregrounding 596, 642
control 605–6, 610–13, 626–30 formal style 293
controlled / uncontrolled 403, 412, 715 formation
controller 605 = of adjectives 443–56
converb 339, 343 = of adverbs 181–9
coordination 339–44 = of nouns 457–91
copula 271 = of verbs 397–442
co-referential 496, 563 unproductive = 399, 404, 421, 443, 463
count noun 48 fraction 56, 125, 141–2
counterfactual 286, 703–4 frequency 24, 345, 370, 707–8
curse 440, 502 frequentative 228
Index OF SUBJECTS 741
fricative 26 intention 217, 232, 303, 374–5, 378–9, 440, 554, 560,
future, see aspect (1) 626, 677, 683
interjection 73, 337
generic intermediate
= direct object 410 = derivation 424
= statement 228–31, 411 = stem 424, 473–4
= subject 512, 563, 565, 606, 620, 629 interpretation / meaning
genitive-possessive construction 55, 109, completed = 227
115–16, 140–1, 157, 262, 319, 483, 504, 517, 566, concessive = 230
659, 674 conditional = 302
gerund / gerundive 355–6 directive = 231
glottal stop 22, 35 frequentative = 228
generic = 229
habitual 228, 301, 549, 689, 700 habitual = 228, 301
headless relative 533, 643 historical present = 227
homonymy 107, 630 imperfect(ive) = 227
homophonous 194 incomplete = 227
hyphen 62, 479 past-1 / past-2 = 232
hyphenation 38–9, 41–2 perfect(ive) = 227
hypothesis 240–53, 269, 274, 280–3, 289–90, 706 performative = 228
present-1 = 227, 301
identifiable 52, 100 present-2 = 228, 301
identification 309, 666 repetitive = 228
identity 65, 319, 408–9, 477, 497, 643, 672 rhetorical = 231, 303
idiomatic 186, 397–8, 399, 430–41, 484 subjective = 229
imperative 201–14 topical = 228
imperfect(ive), see meaning interrogative
impersonal construction 226, 240–7, 501, 527, 563–4, = form 241, 256, 267
634–5, 672–3 = pronoun 64–5
implicative 605, 618 interruption 35, 464, 713
inclusive 167 intransitive, see verb (2)
incomplete 227, 307, 353 irrealis 17, 239, 251, 286–7, 302, 339, 346–50, 701
incorporation 515
increase 442, 708 judgement 229, 239, 282, 406, 643, 656
indefinite
= article 5, 51, 86–7, 100–1, 124, 131, 309, 315, 472, ki-construction
485, 543, 564, 602, 681 particle ki 213, 554–62, 706
= noun phrase 89–90, 326, 385–6 suffix –ki(n) 83–5, 91–2, 159–61
= pronoun 75–6, 109, 306 kinship term 192–3, 651–2
= quantity 88–9, 135–6
indirect lexeme 38
= imperative 207–8, 266–7, 275–83, 379, 397, lexical
427–8, 560, 571, 580–6, 701–12 = category 388, 509, 542, 651
= speech 243, 553–4, 570–81, 586 = class 4–5, 604
inferential 218, 253, 277–8, 280–1 = storage 475
infinitive 199, 222–7, 563 = word 421
infinitival complement 226, 233, 247, 351, 603–28 loanword 22–3, 448
inflection 38, 397 locative 52, 57, 91, 106, 119, 262
nominal = 45 locative object 52, 57, 100–7, 518–19
suspended = 307
information m-reduplication 185, 456
contextual = 102, 319 mass noun 48
second-hand = 277 matrix verb 604–36, 689
situational = 102, 319 measure 125, 135–9, 145, 385, 464
subjective = 176 mental
insertion = content 554, 570–1, 589, 643, 647, 656, 677, 683–4
suffix = 476 = lexicon 475
vowel = 25 = state 68, 105–6, 677, 683
instrumental object 6, 100–108, 223, 413, 518–19, 603–4 metaphor
intensifying effect 719 locational = 513
metaphor (cont.) noun phrase

metaphoric expressions 73 functions of = phrase 98–9
metaphoric usage of place nouns 117, 119–120 reduced = phrase 472, 515
mirative 218 word order in = phrase 387
modal number
= adjectives 245 cardinal = 57, 89, 125–49, 306, 461, 468, 472
= meaning 622–3 collective = 134
= nouns 659–60 distributive = 125, 131–2, 185
= suffixes 239 ordinal = 88, 129, 135
= verbs 246 telephone = 39, 127
modality numeral 128, 131–2
abilitative 215, 233–8, 266–7, 389, 411, 532, numerator 142
640, 714
deontic = 651, 661 object
epistemic = 651, 661 ablative = 53, 100, 106, 410–11, 487–8, 518–19,
hypothesis 240–53, 269, 274, 280–90, 706 538–9, 633
necessity 69, 239, 240–52, 274, 279–86, 661–2 dative = 52, 104–5, 223, 406–21, 518–19, 535–6, 632–3
permission 233–4, 613, 661–2 direct = 5–6, 51–2, 72, 100–8, 223, 236, 240, 268–9,
possibility 233–4, 266, 354, 545, 555–661, 697, 720 329, 390–1, 400–21, 483–4, 501–650
modes of address 74 = incorporation 515
modifier-modified 87 indirect = 6
moment of speaking 101, 215, 530, 586, 696, 708 instrumental = 6, 100–8, 223, 413, 518–19, 603–4
morpheme 4, 38–41, 423 locative = 52, 57, 100–7, 518–19
motive 366–7, 617 oblique = 6
= participle 493–6, 516–39, 642–3
names second = 103–4, 106, 519–20, 606
= of countries 477 obligation 95, 239, 243, 248, 661, 677, 683–4
= of days 154 external = 248
= of languages 63, 183 moral = 239, 243
= of months 154 occupation 51, 309, 462–3
= of nationalities 477 optative 24, 210–14, 235, 242, 252, 268, 275, 282–90,
= of regions 477 346, 380, 427–30, 555–80, 686, 692, 701–2, 711
= of seasons 155 order
necessitative 532 constituent = in dependent clauses 389
necessity 69, 239, 240–52, 274, 279–86, 661–2 constituent = in main clauses 253
negation special constituent = 391–2
existential = 206, 718, 720 suffix = in kinship terms 192–5
nominal = 206, 310 suffix = in nouns and verbs 387
verbal = 205–6, 215, 374, 645, 686, 717–18, 719 word = in noun phrases 89, 387
= of abilitative 234 orthography 22, 62, 202, 208, 217, 554
= of aspectual forms 713
neologism 470 palatalization 25–6
nominal compound 50–1, 63, 444, 468–86, 515, participle
543–4, 618, 635, 652–60, 680, 683 independently used = 506, 544, 591–2, 719
nominalization 362, 369, 491–2, 532, 602, 647 object = 493–6, 516–39, 642–3
nominative 50, 51, 64, 100, 101, 189, 351, 361, 376, 533 subject = 493–537, 642
non- = used as adjective 170, 449, 547, 662
non-completed action 215, 496, 528–9, 537 = used as noun 92, 159, 246, 387, 480
non-compositional temporal 159 particle 329–37
non-countable things 128 = ki 213, 554–62, 706
non-derivable meaning 422–3, 441, 483, 551 negation = 24, 191
non-factual 241, 586, 668–9 question = 17, 256–7
non-finite 604 part–whole relation 142
non-modal 623–4 partitive 56–7, 125, 142–3, 500
non-permissible structure 40 passive
non-possessive 472 double = 634
non-referential 95, 101, 123, 392, 508, 515, 683 imperative of = 428–9
non-stressed position 19 impersonal = 568–9
non-verbal 206, 645, 686, 692, 700–1 = of causative 426
= of intransitive 410–11 syllable-initial = 11, 26

optative of = 428–9 syllable-final = 26
pseudo-= 412 positivity 293
stacking of = forms 631 possessed 109
past possession 32–3, 46–7, 51, 68, 72, 109, 192, 255, 262,
perfect = 227 460, 472, 504–5
perfective = 227 alienable = 32–3, 72
proximate = 496 inalienable = 32–3, 72
remote = 496, 530, 574 possessive
per cent 46, 142 anticipatory = 162, 260, 381, 502–10
performative 228–9 = suffix 32–3, 47–8, 62, 72–87, 109, 119,
period 56, 110, 136, 140, 146, 150–6, 165–73, 384, 447, 497–537
513, 677, 681–2 possessor 109, 263, 574
permission 233, 235, 613, 661–2 possibility 233, 235, 266, 354, 545, 555–6, 657–61, 697,
permissive 403, 407 701, 720
person-bound postponed suffixation 304, 307–8
= adjunct 376–7 postposition 663
= postposition 683–4 postpositional
personal suffix = complement 82, 376–86, 496
= suffix imperative 202–3 = expression 683
= suffix indirect imperative 207–8 predicate 5, 98, 200
= suffix optative 210–14 = adjunct 90
= suffix negative present 221 = attribute 596
= suffix Type I 216 co-= 596
= suffix Type II 219 secondary = 189, 548, 596–9, 601
perspective 328, 407–8, 414, 428, 521–2, 628 predicational complement 603–4, 629
phonetic predicative
= 10, 18, 20–1 = adjunct 596
= alphabet 18 = attribute 596
phonological spelling 24 = usage 86, 375, 383, 482
phonology 18 preposition 5, 104, 163, 342–3
phrase pretending 552, 672, 703
adjectival = 87, 149, 259, 314–15, 440, 506, 541, primary
564, 666 = causative 406
adverbial = 5, 90, 98, 113–14, 122–3, 150–1, 163–95, = stress 14–15, 470
259–70, 342–76, 378–82, 388–94, 414–15, 488, = verb stem 714
506–46, 556–642, 657, 665–79 probability 176, 214, 290–7, 555–6, 657
circumstance 189, 260, 380–1 productive 46
noun = 5–6, 89, 98–113, 255, 472 productivity 475
purpose = 212, 225, 378–9 profession 74, 309, 326, 449, 457–8, 462–3, 476
temporal = 113, 151, 159–60, 354, 377, 384, 393, prohibition 200, 202, 242, 251, 411, 661–2, 719
682, 689 projection suffixes 316, 320, 324
place combinations of = 286–9
= adverbial 177, 393, 523 conditional = suffix 283–5
= name 15, 259, 474–5 inferential = suffix 277–9
= noun 83, 116–17, 178, 509–10 past = 271–5
plural reportative = suffix 277–9
= in kinship terms 192–4 pronominal n 50, 63, 67, 76, 143, 155, 476
= of nouns 47 pronoun
= of pronouns 70 demonstrative = 67, 88, 102, 319, 327, 666
plurality 304–25, 592 indefinite = 75–6, 109, 306
pluralizing 81 interrogative = 64–5
polysyllabic stem 216, 403 personal = 49, 67, 70
portion 48, 54, 125, 371 possessive = 83, 87
position reciprocal = 80–1
focal = 394, 425 reflexive = 78–9, 88, 416, 566
preverbal = 391, 508, 522 property attribution 309–19, 325–7
sentence-initial = 336, 555, 557 propinquity 712
sentence-final = 382, 392, 556, 642, 647 proportion 54, 371
proposal 210, 226, 289–90, 464, 505, 654 reflexive = clause 500–1
proposition 34 verbal = clause 496, 504, 509
propositional complement 603–4, 629, 648 relativization
proverb 208, 230 = of ablative object 518
proximate past 496 = of dative object 518
proximity 71 = of direct object 517
pseudo- = of instrumental object 518
pseudo-passive 412 = of locative object 518
pseudo-relative clause 493–4, 540, 562 relevance 347
pseudo-verbal sentence 487 repetition 486
purpose phrase 212, 225, 378–9 repetitive 228, 342, 345, 473, 549
remoteness 71
quantified noun 136–7 reportative 218, 253, 277–8, 281
quantifier 48, 137, 146 request
quantity compelling = 201
absolute = 135 paraphrased = 201–5, 235
countable = 137–8, 455 polite = 201
indefinite = 88, 90, 135–6 restraint 205, 712
non-countable = 128 result 700
relative = 139 resultative 342–3, 434–5, 466, 596, 602
question resyllabification 29, 41
choice = 329, 331 reticence 699
= particle 17, 69, 208–10, 252–83 rhetoric 296
rhetorical = 69, 228, 231, 280, 289–303, 329, 335, rhetorical question 69, 228, 231, 280, 289, 303, 329,
661, 704–5, 719 335, 661, 704–5, 719
tag = 329, 336, 558 root 4
= word 66–70, 109, 114
yes / no = 329, 574–8 secondary
quotation mark 554, 571 = causative 406–7
quotative 218 = predicate 189, 548, 596–601
= stem 34
raising 19, 596–601 = stress 14–17, 470
reciprocal semblance 452
= plus causative 423–4 sentence
= pronoun 80–1 complex = 542
= suffix 421–2 existential = 98, 110, 255, 260–7, 271–8, 284, 296,
recursion 473, 647 363–4, 388, 495, 585
recursive 109, 443, 473, 480, 649 nominal = 86, 98–9, 205, 230, 255–9, 271–7, 283,
reduction 290, 298, 321, 415, 507, 585, 694, 716
= of noun phrase 472, 515 simple = 255–70, 514, 522, 570
participant = 408–9, 414 sentential
vowel = 18–19, 202, 216–17, 234 = direct object 583–95
reduplication 131, 181–6, 452–7 = object 343, 553, 583, 603–4, 637–9, 647
reference = predicate 553, 562–3
anaphoric = 162 = subject 553, 565–9, 629, 650, 658
cataphoric = 150, 162 similarity 375, 449, 511, 586, 665, 675, 683
referent 51–2, 101, 142, 161–2, 321, 325, 421, 460, similative 373–4
563, 620 simplification 570–1, 579–82, 601
referential 93, 101, 123 simultaneity 352, 356
co-= 496, 563, 598, 606, 632 small clause 376, 507–8, 596
non-= 95, 101, 123, 392, 508, 515, 683 soft g 13
reflexive specific person 75–6, 179
= pronoun 78–9, 88, 416, 566 specific object 101, 103
= suffix 417, 420 speech
relative clause 495–551 colloquial = 81, 185, 190, 213, 222, 264, 477, 701
existential = clause 444, 496–7 direct = 208, 211, 378–9, 554, 570–98, 653–6, 666, 675
headless = clause 533, 643 indirect = 243, 553–4, 570–86
nominal = clause 496, 504 prelude to direct = 554
passive = clause 500–1 = sound 18
pseudo–= relative clause 540 speed 710–11
spelling present-2 = 219

official = 19, 24 present-3 = 221
= of proper names 45 tenseless = 219, 228, 234, 267, 301,
stacking 574, 578, 631–7, 648–50 354, 577
standard of comparison 148 topic 60, 387, 391–3,
statement transition 4, 12, 299, 443, 647, 708–9
classifying = 292–3, 309–10, 314–28 transitive, see verb (2)
descriptive = 228–9 transportation 53, 62, 163, 166, 190–1
= of general validity 230
generic = 228–30, 411 unit 48, 125–6, 135, 139
identifying = 292, 309–22, 327 decimal 132
subjective = 229, 239 morphological = 4
stem phonological = 333
disharmonic = 34 syntactic = 5
disyllabic = 14, 35, 39, 220 unproductive 399, 404, 420–1, 440, 443, 463
= expansion 24, 205, 708
long = 34 vagueness 143, 173, 180, 231, 666
monosyllabic = 39, 220 value 140, 386
polysyllabic = 216, 403 sound = 4, 9
short = 25, 32–3 truth = 175, 302, 346, 577, 593
stress variation
= position 14–19 consonant = 30–5
primary = 14–19, 470 morphological = 7, 29–42
secondary = 15–17, 470 phonological = 18
tertiary = 14 predictable = 18
subject systematic = 18
anonymous = 351 vowel = 30
= participle 493–508, 521, 532–3, 537 = in suffixes 29, 37
subjunctive 207, 210 = in word stems 30–1
subordination 554–644 verbs (1)
substantive 47, 83, 180, 461, 532 = of mental content 554, 643, 647
suffixation (postponed) 304, 307–8 = of observation 554, 587, 648
superlative 89–90 = of perception 647
supposition 239, 251, 300, 652 = of saying 570, 571
swearing 522 directive = 589, 611–13
syllabification 14, 26, 29, 41 emotive = 617–18
syllable facilitative = 614–15
= boundary 12, 39, 42 impersonal = 410, 579, 620–1
= contraction 23–4 implicative = 618–20
= expansion 24 manipulative = 589, 613–14
= initial position 11, 26 volitional = 615–17
= final position 26 verb (2)
permissible = 39, 42 ditransitive = 405
= structure 11, 38–9 intransitive = 99, 400–10, 421, 465–6, 501, 514, 548,
696, 715
tag question 329, 336, 558 three-place = 605–16, 622–9
telephone numbers 39, 127 transitive = 99, 400–26, 465–6, 501–2, 512–13, 548,
temporal aspects 603–4, 634, 639, 651, 696–715
= expressions 141, 152–62, 681 two-place = 605–29
future = 530 active = 407–15, 482–3, 546, 631–4
imperfect non-completed = 216, 227, 528 passive = 195, 397, 407–17, 427–30, 450, 482–3,
necessitative = 575 501–50, 565, 568, 572, 584, 612, 617, 620,
perfect completed = 529 631–9, 658, 716
regularity / duration = 532 voice
tense active = 412
compositional = 271–2 causative = 402
future = 217 collective = 422
past-1 = 218 passive = 412
past-2 = 218 reciprocal = 421
present-1 = 215 reflexive = 416
volition 217, 615 front = 4, 9, 12–13, 19, 25, 27, 29, 37, 47
voluntative 210 long = 20–3
vowel open = 19
= deletion 33 rounded = 19, 216
= harmony 3, 29–37, 54, 334, 351 short = 19–20
= insertion 25, 476 twofold = 29
= lengthening 9, 11–13, 21 unrounded = 10
= raising 19
= reduction 19, 202, 216–7 wishes and desires 275
back = 4, 9, 11, 25–6, 29, 37, 47, 217
fourfold = 30, 215 zero 31, 127, 142

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The Turkish Grammar

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OUP CORRECTED PROOF – FINAL, 19/06/20, SPi

The Oxford Turkish Grammar

The Oxford Turkish

Detailed contents vii

10. Spatial orientations 113

15. Infinitival forms 199

vi Short contents

18. Indirect imperative forms 207

23. Simple sentences 255

30. Formation of verbs 397

32. Relative clauses 495

34. Stacking embedded sentences 647

Glossary of grammatical terms 723

viii Detailed contents

5.4 Morphemes versus syllables 38

7.7 Reciprocal pronouns 80

10. Spatial orientations 113

1 0.3 From noun to locative postposition 119

13. Postpositions 163

15. Infinitival forms 199

xii Detailed contents

18. Indirect imperative forms 207

Detailed contents xiii

22.1.9 Negational forms 249

23. Simple sentences 255

xiv Detailed contents

24.8 Meaning and interpretation in projections 301

27.4.2 Suffix –(y)IncE358

xvi Detailed contents

30. Formation of verbs 397

Detailed contents xvii

30.10.3 Lexicalization 432

xviii Detailed contents

31.4.2 Nominal compounds with a formal element 470

32. Relative clauses 495

Detailed contents xix

32.4.8 Possessive objects 522

xx Detailed contents

33.4 Direct and indirect speech 570

Detailed contents xxi

33.11 Other types of embedding 637

34. Stacking embedded sentences 647

xxii Detailed contents

37.2.4 Conclusion / deduction 699

Glossary of grammatical terms 723

Gerjan van Schaaik

Abbreviations and symbols

xxviii Abbreviations and symbols

v-like sound between two rounded vowels

1.1 On Turks, Turkey, Turkic peoples, and their languages *

1.1 On Turks, Turkey, Turkic peoples, and their languages 3

Oghuz (southwest): Turkish, Gagauz, Azeri, Turkmen

1.2 Basic linguistic terminology

Lexical Classes. A sentence, be it in English or Turkish, consists of words. In a language

1.2 Basic linguistic terminology 5

Adverb. An adverb is an independent or derivable word which gives extra information

2.1 Letters and sounds

10 The alphabet

a bak look [ɑ] as in: dock, block, mock, etc.

ç çok much / many [tʃ] as in: chock-full

In what follows, the sound corresponding to y is phonetically represented by [y], ş by [sh],

b bak look [b] as in: ball

t taş stone [t] as in: tone

para → [ pha–ra ] money

Detailed contents vii

10. Spatial orientations 113

15. Infinitival forms 199

18. Indirect imperative forms 207

23. Simple sentences 255

30. Formation of verbs 397

32. Relative clauses 495

34. Stacking embedded sentences 647

Glossary of grammatical terms 723

5.4 Morphemes versus syllables 38

7.7 Reciprocal pronouns 80

10. Spatial orientations 113

1 0.3 From noun to locative postposition 119

13. Postpositions 163

15. Infinitival forms 199

18. Indirect imperative forms 207

22.1.9 Negational forms 249

23. Simple sentences 255

24.8 Meaning and interpretation in projections 301

27.4.2 Suffix –(y)IncE358

30. Formation of verbs 397

30.10.3 Lexicalization 432

31.4.2 Nominal compounds with a formal element 470

32. Relative clauses 495

32.4.8 Possessive objects 522

33.4 Direct and indirect speech 570

33.11 Other types of embedding 637

34. Stacking embedded sentences 647

37.2.4 Conclusion / deduction 699

Glossary of grammatical terms 723