GRAMMATİCAL CATEGORIES

Standart negation in Turkish is marked on the verb using the negative morpheme -mA as in gelmedi. The other negative marker değil is used with adjectival and nominal predicates as in Olcay mutlu değil, Olcay öğretmen değil, etc.

There is a set of non-plural meanings of –lAr listed below: Turkish: • -lAr with quantifiers is used to refer to people or events that are common public knowledge: Kırk Haramiler, Üç Silahşörler, Çifte Havuzlar, Dört Büyükler, Beş Hececiler, etc. • -lAr with proper nouns is used to signal: a. family or friends: Beyhan’lar da konsere gidiyor. b. common ethnic, regional or religious background: Türkler, İstanbullular, Müslümanlar, etc. • analogy: Sporumuzu Süreyya Ayhanlar yüceltiyor. • -lAr with common nouns marks generic meanings referring to all members of a category: etoburlar, öğretmeler derneği, turunçgiller. • Proximity with –lAr: Sevda’nın evi postanenin yakınında biryerlerde, biryerlerde, Katil yirmi yaşlarındaymış, etc. • Augmentative –lAr is used to emplify the meaning: İstanbullarda ne işin vardı? Mart ayında soğuklar bastırır, etc. • -lAr with uncountables refers to individual units or occurances of that noun: Sular şırıl şırıl akıyor (masses of water), çaylar geldi (‘cups’ or ‘glasses’ of tea), yalnızlıklar yaşadım (several instances of loneliness), etc. • -lAr in frozen forms lacking singular counterparts: İyi geceler!,Tatlı rüyalar!, Sağlıklar! but not *İyi gece!, *Tatlı rüya!, *Sağlık!

The genitive case morpheme -(n)In: a. typically marks ownership: Çocuğ-un yeleği, adam-ın arabası, annem-in kitabı, ben-im öğrencilerim, etc. b. marks the subject in subjective genitive constructions: çocuğ-un ağlaması, karı-ın yağması, saat-in çalması, etc. c. marks the object in objective genitive constructions: İstanbul-un fethi, şarkı-nın bestecisi, kitab-ın yazarı, etc. d. marks the source in genitive of origin constructions: Atatürk-ün fikirleri, Sezen Aksunun şarkıları, yazar-ın eserleri, etc. e. describes the head noun in de*ive genitive constructions: başarılar-ın çocuğu, acılar-ın adamı, etc. f. marks whole-part relationship in partitive genitive constructions: sınıf-ın çalışkanı, ev-in odaları, tren-in vagonları etc. g. implies the non-genitive noun in appositive genitives: sinema-nın sultanı (Türkan Şoray), Cumhuriyet-in kurucusu (Atatürk), etc. h. marks the object of the postpositions as kadar, gibi, ile when used with pronouns: ben-im kadar, sen-in gibi and o-nun-la. i. expresses superlativity: peynir-in iyisi, kitab-ın, ucuzu, otel-in temizi, etc.

There are two types of grammatical categories: nominal and verbal. Nominal categories are expressed on nouns, and they mark number, gender, case. Verbal categories are expressed on verbs, and they mark (a) tense, aspect and mood (TAM); (b) polarity: negative vs positive; (c) voice: active, passive, reflexive, reciprocal, causative; and (d) agreement in number and person.

Grammatical categories mark grammatical information associated with particular lexical categories. They can be realized in the form of a word (function words), a bound morpheme (inflectional suffixes) or a zero morpheme (Ø).

Tense and aspect communicate information about time. Tense is a grammatical category that locates the event in time. Lexical aspect gives information about the internal temporal structure of a verb: a. sıçra-, kır, hapşır- do not last long inherently b. oku- yüz- uyu- last long inherently c. başla-, bit-, son ver- focus on the beginning or the finishing of an event d. sür-, ol-, dur- focus on the ongoing nature of an event e. büyü-, soğu-, yeşer- emphasize a change in state of affairs, etc. Grammatical aspect conveys information about the nature of the event. That is, the way in which the event occurs in time: Is it continuous? Is it a one-time event; and therefore, semalfactive? Does it involve multiple repetitions of a seriees of sub-events; and therefore, iterative? Is the event completed (perfective), or left open (imperfective)? etc.

Number indicates whether or not a member of the related word class is singular or plural. The morpheme -lAr in Turkish marks plurality, and lack of it implies singularity. However, -lAr is *d in cases where plurality is explicitly marked with other quantifiers: iki kitap, birkaç kitap, biraz kitap, but not *iki kitaplar, *birkaç kitaplar, *biraz kitaplar.

There are syntactic and semantic definitions of the notion case. • Syntactically speaking, the term case is used to refer to the surface inflectional form of a noun which indicates grammatical relations. For example, the form of the word cam can be changed by inflection into camı or cama to show different functions of this word such as subject, direct object and indirect object. • Semantically speaking, case shows the semantic relationship between the verb and its arguments (nouns). Compare the syntactic and semantic properties of the word tafl in Ali camı taşla kırdı and Taş camı kırdı. Syntactically, it functions as an adverbial in the first sentence, and a subject in the second. However, its semantic relationship with the verb is the same in both sentences. Taş is the instrument with which the action performed. Therefore, taşla and taş are said to be in the instrumental case. In this section, the focus will be on the former. Traditional grammarians of Turkish distinguish five cases which convey the following functions: • the nominative case marking the subject: ev-f • the accusative case marking the direct object: ev-i • the dative case marking the indirect object: ev-e • the locative case marking location: ev-de • the ablative case marking point of departure: evden • the genive case marking the possessor in a possessive construction: ev-in

The accusative case morpheme -(y)I is used as: a. a definitizer: Doktor hasta-yı tedavi ediyor. b. a generic marker when it is combined with the plural -lAr in modal contexts: Doktor hastalar-ı tedavi eder. c. the obligatory object marker: Doktor Murat-ı tedavi etti, Doktor sen-i tedavi etti, Ben-i duydun mu?, Meral-i aradım, etc. d. the marker of completeness: merdiven-i çıktı, Yolu yürüdü, Pasta-yı yedi, etc.

Agreement shows a grammatical relationship between two elements in a sentence which requires concordance in different features. For example, the subject of a sentence is suppossed to be compatible with the person marked on the verb. The reason why *ben geldin is not grammatical is that the person marker on the verb does not agree with the person that the subject indicates. Turkish requires agreement in both person and number categories. There are two types of agreement in Turkish: • Verbal agreement is seen on the verbs of main clauses, predicative nouns, and predicative adjectives. • Nominal agreement is marked on the nouns of possessive constructions, on the verbs of noun clauses, and on the verbs of relative clauses. Despite this rich system, Turkish allows some violations of number agreement to produce socially marked forms: Ahmet Bey geldiler, Suzan Hanım neredeler?, etc.

• directly witnessed factive events: gitti, geldi, söyledi, etc. • narratives as direct accounts of events with firsthand evidence: “... Ben işte böyle korkudan titrerken birden omuzuma bir el dokundu. Döndüm. Babamdı.” • historical facts as conventional information known to everybody: Atatürk 1881’ de doğdu, 1919’da Samsun’ a çıktı, 1923’ te Cumhuriyet!i kurdu. • hearsay in the context of prepared minds: Yeni medeni kanun geçti (as an expected event).

The dative case morpheme -(y)A: a. marks the indirect object: Kitabı Zeynep-e verdim, Zeynep-e tuzu uzattım, Evi Zeynep-e sattım, Zeynep-e eşyalarını götürdüm. b. indicates direction/goal: Kitabı ev-e götürdüm, Kitabı Ankara-y-a yolladım, Kitabı masa-y-a bıraktım/koydum, Eşyaları otel-e götürdüm, Kitabı Zeynep’e götürdüm, Masa-y-a düştü, Sinop-a gittik, Salon-a döndük. c. marks the objects of dative verbs, postpositions, adjectives: X-e ilgi duymak, X-e gücenmek, X-e yakışmak; those of adjectives are X-e hayran, X-e düşkün, X-e meraklı; and those of postpositions are X-e kadar, X-e rağmen, X-e göre. d. indicates benefactive meanings: Annem-e yardım ettim, Herkes o-n-a çalışıyor, etc. e. indicates purpose: Sınav-a hazırlanıyor, Bilgi almay-a gidiyoruz, etc. f. indicates price for whole unit: Kitapları kaç-a aldın?, 20 milyon-a.

The locative case morpheme –DA: a. marks spatial location which shows location in place: ev-de, araba-da, koltuk-ta, Avrupa-da, etc. b. marks temporal location which show location in time: saat altı-da, Haziran-da, iki yıl-da, ara-da sıra-da, etc. c. marks abstract location which shows abstract placement in abstract nouns and adjectives indicating shape, size, color and age: sarı renk-te, güzellik-te, daire şeklin-de, 2 yaşın-da, uzunlukta, doktorluk-ta, inanç-ta, sevgi-de, etc. d. idicates temporary possession: Kitap Semra-da, araba ben-de, anahtar annem-de, etc.

Subjects of independent finite clauses are marked with the nominative case: Çiçek-Ø açtı, Ali-Ø gitti, araba-Ø durdu, etc. Non-referential direct objects too are marked with nominative case: araba-Ø aldım, elma-Ø yedim, kalem-Ø buldum, etc.

• definite past with definite time adverbials: Dün eve döndük, İki yıl önce tanıştık, Buraya geçen yıl geldik, etc. • future/present: Hadi ben gittim! (before leaving), Geldim, geldim! (before opening the door), etc.

Mood is the inflectional category that marks modality in a language. Epistemic modality indicates the degree of commitment on the part of the speaker to the actuality of the event marked by the verb. It is used to indicate different levels of certainty or possibility about the truth value of an event. This information can be conveyed based on direct sensory evidence (visual/auditory), or indirect evidence (reportative/inferential). For example, Osman hasta indicates a fact; and therefore, signals 100% certainty of the speaker (factive), but Osman hasta olabilir is nonfactive since it indicates a possibility about which the speaker is less certain. Deontic modality conveys the kind of need (external/internal) which forces the speaker to perform an action. The following meanings are categorized as deontic: orders, obligations, suggestions, requests, permission, volition (wanting, willingness, intention, wishing, promising, threatening). The modal category ability is neither epistemic, nor deontic since it does not express a choice of behavior.

Grammatical gender marks nouns, adjectives, pronouns, and articles as masculine, feminine, and neuter. In Turkish, there is no grammatical gender except for some suffixes of foreign origin: müdür/müdire, katip/katibe, muallim/muallime, kral/kraliçe, tanrı/tanrıça. Natural gender is a world category and it denotes biological gender. Turkish is somewhat sensitive to natural gender and employs lexical items to mark it in different ways: kadın polis, kız arkadaş, erkek arkadaş, erkek yolcu, dişi aslan, erkek aslan, dişi kuş. Some lexical items that are inherently marked for gender in Turkish: abla vs. ağabey, damat vs. gelin, amca vs. hala, dayı vs. teyze, dana vs. tosun, tavuk vs. horoz, koyun vs. koç.

• perfect with current relevance: Zeynep kitabı okumuş (implication: she knows about the book and she can talk about it.) • perfective: Zeynep kitabı okumuş (as an answer to the question Zeynep ne yapmış?)

The ablative case morpheme –DAn: a. indicates point of departure/source: Sınıf-tan çıktık, Hemen uçak-tan idi, Havuz-dan bir türlü çıkamadı, İki saat önce biz-den ayrıldı, Kitabı ben-den aldı, etc. b. expresses place/channel through which an action is perfomed: Orman-dan geçtik, Suyu şişeden içtik, Eve pencere-den girdik, etc. c. express a point through which something is affected: Başın-dan yaralandı. d. expresses reason/cause: Telaş-tan unuttum. e. denotes material from which something is made: cam-dan ayakkabı f. has partitive semantics: Öğrenciler-den beşi, yumurtalar-dan hiçbiri, çocuklar-dan bazıları, öğretmenler-den birkaçı. g. expresses price per unit: Kitapları kaçtan aldın?, İkişer milyondan. h. functions as the obligatory object marker for a certain sub-group of verbs, adjectives, and postpositions: X-ten nefret etmek, X-ten hoşlanmak, Xten bahsetmek; X-ten uzun, X-ten pahalı, X-ten meraklı, X-ten beri, X-ten dolayı, Xten başka, etc.

• perfective aspect: It marks completedness: Saçlarım ıslandı ama şimdi kurudu, Gürkan önce ellerini yıkadı sonra da yüzünü, Gürkan Türkçe ödevini bitirdi ama daha diğerleri var, Pantolonuma çay döküldü, bir de yırtıldı, etc. • perfect: It focuses on the present result of a past situation (current relevance): Saçlarım ıslandı ve hala da ıslak (implication: I can’t go out), Gürkan ellerini yıkadı (implication: they are clean now, so he can eat), Gürkan Türkçe ödevini bitirdi (implication: it is ready now to be turned in), Pantolonuma çay döküldü (implication: it is wet now, so I have to change it), etc. • recent past with appropriate adverbials: Ekmekler yeni/henüz geldi. • experiential perfect: ömrümde et yemedim, hiç 50 kilo olmadım, bir kere bile yalan söylemedim.

• indirect evidence/evidential à Hearsay: indicates second-hand information through reporting: Zeynep kitabı okumuş (I heard Zeynep read the book). A hearsay may come as a surprise in the context of unprepared minds: Biliyor musun, yeni medeni kanun geçmiş. • indirect evidence/evidential à Inferential: indicates second-hand information through logical reasoning based on evidence: Zeynep kitabı okumuş (based on her book with color marked pages including underlined sentences and notes from cover to cover.) Or Zeynep can be heard in a talk making arguments based on the book whose content is familiar to him/her. It is also used in narratives centering around unreal events outside the personal experience of the speaker, i.e. myths, tales, dreams, etc. This usage is associated with the hearsay/reportative function of –mIş: ...Bir padişahın bir oğlu varmış. Günün birinde canı sıkılmış, düşmüş yollara... Yolda giderken bir dervişe rastlamış. Derviş şehzadeye, ‘Şehzadesin, güzelsin, bu yollarda ne gezersin?’ demiş. Şehzade de derdini anlatmış...

past: dün eve dönmüş, iki yıl önce tanışmışlar, buraya geçen yıl gelmişler, etc.

Assumptions based on prior knowledge about a situation: eve gitme, annem şimdi alışverişte olacak; doktoru ara, odasında olacak; paspası kaldır, anahtar altında olacak

• prediction: Osman sebze sever, öyleyse fasulye de yer. • self-assurance: Ben üniversite sınavını kazanırım, ben bu masayı kaldırırım, ben bu işi kotarırım, etc. • volition on the part of the speaker: Sana onbeşten veririm, evimi size veririm, yüzde beşine razı olurum, etc. • promising: Söz, gelirken oyuncaklarımı da getiririm; Söz, ağzımı açmam. • offers /invitations/requests: Biraz daha alır mısınız?, Bize gelir misin?, Biraz sessiz olur musun? • narratives: -(A)r/-(I)r brings more immediacy to the text because past meanings remain alive in the present: “...İhanet de o vakit başlar zaten. Kendini sevmeye başlamasıyla. ‘Kendimi sevdiğimi anladım,’ der ölüm sorgusunda, ‘ve hayatı...’ Kendisi hesabına ve dışarıdaki hayat adına içerideki dünyaya ihanetin bedelini de bilir...” (Kırca, 1997: 24) “ ...Oğlan az uyur, çok uyur. Bir de bakar ki, kız yok. Ne oldu diye gezinirken, orada bir kuyu bulur. Kuyunun içine bakar ki, dibinde bir gürültü, çalgı çağanak artık deme gitsin. Derken, kuyunun içinden bir kuş çıkar. Kuş, oğlanı görünce, ‘Ey yiğit, sen burada ne arıyorsun?’ diye sorar...” (Kunos, 1991: 128)

Prospective aspect with appropriate adverbials: Otobüs şimdi hareket edecek (=it has not departed yet, but will soon), annem hemen gelecek (=she is not here now, but soon will be) make a reference to a present state related to a future event.

Planned or unplanned future: Koşacak, geleceğiz, vereceksin, soracaklar, etc.

• Omnitemporal: holds for all times; therefore, true for the past, present, and future, namely constant. • Indefinite unplanned future: Yarın İstanbul’a gideriz, annemleri çağırırız, salata da yaparız, sinemaya gideriz, etc.

• habitual typical of the subject: Balık yemem, Saat 12’den önce yatmam, Yedi saat uyurum, Babam kendine çok dikkat eder, Bizim eve çok misafir gelir, etc. • generic as the characterization of an entity: balıklar yüzer, zürafaların uzun boyunları olur, aslan kükrer, tavuk gıdaklar, insan düşünür, bebekler sevgi ister, etc. • scientific facts: güneş doğudan doğar, beş kere beş yirmibeş eder, bütün canlılar yaşlanır, ay dünyanın etrafında döner, ısınan hava yükselir, zıt kutuplar biriribirini çeker, etc.

• progressive: Ne yapıyorsun?, Kitap okuyorum. • habitual non-typical of the subject: Balık yemiyorum, Saat 12’den önce yatmıyorum, Yedi saat uyuyorum, Babam kendine çok dikkat ediyor, Bizim eve çok misafir geliyor, Kardeşim bankada çalışıyor, Ben müzik dinlemeyi seviyorum, Hiç devamsızlık yapmıyorum. • perfect of persistant situation: on yıldır buradan alış veriş ediyorum, geçen yıldan beri dans dersleri alıyorum, onunla kısa bir süreden beri tanışıyoruz, ne zamandan beri bu işi yapıyorsun? • iterative when used with verbs otherwise semalfactive: Sevim öksürüyor , Zeynep başına vuruyor, Hakan topu tekmeledi vs Hakan topu tekmeliyor, Can hapşırdı vs Can hapşırıyor.

• present overlapping the moment of speech: şimdi yemek yapıyorum, şu an telefonda konuşuyorum, etc. • definite scheduled future events with time adverbials: Yarın eve dönüyorum, Pazartesi bütün faturalarımı ödüyorum, okul iki yıl sonra bitiyor. • past with verbs of communication: Rapor son rakamları veriyor, araştırmalar bunu gösteriyor, gazeteler öyle yazıyor. This type of usage is restricted to the verbs of. Even though past reference is acceptable in these contexts, -(I)yor is chosen to mark the currently operative nature of the situation. In narratives, commentaries, and demonstrations -(I)yor provides immediacy effect to past events and generates excitement: Hakan topu Rüştü’ye atıyor, ama maalesef top Rüştü’ye gelmiyor, Kırmızı Başlıklı Kız içeriye giriyor ve karşısında hain kurdu buluyor, Önce soğanımızı kavuruyoruz, sonra biraz da su ilave ederek pişiriyoruz.

Passive voice conveyed by -Il or -(I)n foregrounds the second participant: Ali döv-ül- dü. There are two types of passive in Turkish: personal passive (made with transitive verbs: okun-, yazıl, görül-, etc.) and impersonal passive (made with intransitive verbs: gidil-, gelin-, oturul-, etc.). Impersonal passives always require third person singular human subjects and they cannot be used with agentive phrases. Impersonal passives are of two types: unergatives (denoting volitional acts: çalış-, koş-, oyna-, etc.) and unaccusatives (denoting non-volitional acts: düş-, boğul-, takıl-, etc.). Unaccusative passives are restricted to the aorist tense only, whereas unergatives can appear with other tenses along with the aorist.

Causative voice conveyed by -DIr, -(I)t, -(I)r, - Ar is used when there are intermediaries that perform the verb for the subject: Ali Ahmet’i dövdürdü (implication: Ali had someone beat Ahmet). Two causative morphemes implies two intermediaries: Ali Ahmet’i döv-dür-t-tü (implication: Ali asked someone to have someone else beat Ali). Semantics of causation exibits a number of different functions: • causation proper (cause/make) à Onu doyurdum • causation permissive (allow/let) à Sakın kapıyı açtırma! • causation assistive (help) à Ona ders çalıştırdım.

Reciprocal voice conveyed by -(I)ş is used if the first participant involves more than one person: Ali ile Ahmet dövüştü. There are two types of reciprocal participation: mutual (with trasitive verbs: anlaş-, öpüş-, kapış-, etc.) and collective (with intransitive verbs: gülüş-, kaçış-, uçuş-, etc.).

Reflexive voice conveyed by -(I)n is used when the first and second participants are identical: Ali döv-ündü. Notice that reflexive and the passive morphemes are homonymous. Therefore, yıkandı is ambiguous between passive and reflexive readings: somebody washed himself/herself as well as somebody was washed by someone else.

Voice signifies the nature of the participation of a participant in the process, event or action described by the verb. There are three types of participants: the subject (the first participant), the direct object (the second participant), and the indirect object (the third participant).

Active voice foregrounds the first participant: Ali Ahmet’ i dövdü.

There are five types of voice categories in Turkish: • Active • Passive • Reflexive • Reciprocal • Causative