Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

7
WORD CLASSES, DERIVATION AND
DERIVATIONAL SUFFIXES
This chapter discusses the word classes of Turkish and the means by which new words
are formed by using derivational suffixes. Section 7.1 introduces the word classes of
Turkish, such as noun, adverb, verb, etc. 7.2 is on derivation, the formation of a new
word by means of attaching a suffix to a root. In 7.2.1 and 7.2.2, we list the derivational
suffixes that attach to verbs and nominals respectively, and in 7.3 we discuss the ordering
of derivational suffixes. 7.4 is on prefixation, a process which has a very limited range of
application in Turkish.
7.1 WORD CLASSES
A word in Turkish can belong to one of the following classes: nominal (noun, pronoun,
adjective or adverb), verb, postposition, conjunction or discourse connective, interjection.
7.1.1 NOMINALS
The group nominal contains four word classes: noun, pronoun, adjective and adverb.
In Turkish the boundaries between noun, adjective and adverb are somewhat blurred.
Many lexical items are able to occur with the typical functions of more than one of these
classes, although in almost all such cases one function or another is dominant in the
actual usage of that item. We call this its primary function. For example, the word güzel
can occur as a noun in güzelim ‘my beauty’ (affectionate mode of address), or as an
adverb, as in Güzel konuştu ‘S/he spoke well’. But in by far the majority of its
occurrences the function of the word güzel is adjectival, as in güzel bir köpek ‘a beautiful
dog’. Below we describe the criteria for identifying the primary function of any specific
word belonging to the nominal group.
(i) Nouns:
A noun is a word used for a thing (e.g. ağaç ‘tree’), a person (e.g. kadın ‘woman’), an
abstract concept (e.g. mutluluk ‘happiness’), or the proper name of a person (e.g. Suzan)
or place (e.g. Londra). Nouns in Turkish can be inflected for number (8.1.1, 14.3.1),
person (8.1.2, 14.3.2), and case (8.1.3, 14.3.3).
(ii) Pronouns:
A pronoun (Chapter 18) is a word which is substituted for a noun phrase in contexts
where it is either not necessary to name the referent explicitly or where it is impossible to
do so. Examples are sen ‘you’, bu ‘this (one)’, başkası ‘another (one)’, ne ‘what’, kimse
‘anyone’, ‘no one’. Pronouns are inflected for number, person and case: bunlar ‘these’,