Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

10
NOUN COMPOUNDS
In this chapter we discuss noun compounds, word-like units which are made up of two
nouns or an adjective and a noun. There are two types of noun compound:
(i) bare compounds: kız kardeş ‘sister’, naylon torba ‘plastic bag’, Yeşilbahar
Sokak ‘Yeşilbahar Street’, büyükbaba ‘grandfather’
(ii) -(s)I compounds: at arabası ‘horse-drawn carriage’, gaz sobası ‘gas stove’,
Atatürk Bulvarı ‘Atatürk Boulevard’, buzdolabı ‘refrigeration’.
In both types the first noun or adjective modifies the second noun, which is called the
head. As seen in the above examples, some compounds are written as one word.
Noun compounds whose modifiers are clauses (e.g. savaşın uzun bir süre devam
edeceği korkusu ‘the fear that the war would go on for a long time’) are discussed in
24.6. See 4.2 for stress in compounds.
10.1 BARE COMPOUNDS
These are of two types: bare noun compounds and adjective-noun compounds.
10.1.1 BARE NOUN COMPOUNDS
These consist simply of two juxtaposed nouns, with no suffixation to mark the relation
between them. This type of compounding is of restricted occurrence. Its main areas of
usage are listed below.
(i) Compounds in which the first noun specifies the sex or the profession of the person
denoted by the second noun:
erkek kardes ‘brother’
kızarkadaş ‘girlfriend’
kadın doktor ‘woman doctor’
avukat kadın ‘woman who is a lawyer’
(ii) Compounds in which the first noun specifies the nationality of the person denoted by
the second noun (also expressed by -(s)I compounds (10.2)):
Alman mimar ‘German architect’
Türk çocuklar ‘Turkish children’