Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

modifies kız yüksek meslek okul-u ‘technical college for girls’. Kadıköy Kız Yüksek
Meslek Okulu is modified by Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı, which is also a
construction with embedded compounds. The head of this compound is bakanlık
‘ministry’, modified by the noun phrase milli eğitim ‘national education’. The compound
Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı ‘Ministry of National Education’ is modified by Türkiye
Cumhuriyeti ‘Republic of Turkey’, itself a compound.
Note that when a compound acts as the head of another compound, only one
occurrence of -(s)I on the head is possible:
Kadıköy Kız Yüksek Meslek Okul-u ‘Kadıköy Technical College for Girls’
Polonya gölge tiyatro-su ‘Polis h shad ow theatre’
10.4 SEPARABILITY OF THE CONSTITUENTS OF COMPOUNDS
The constituents of bare noun compounds and -(s)I compounds usually form a single unit
and are inseparable. However, there are two exceptions:
(i) Conjoined compounds:
When two compounds have the same head, they can be conjoined by ve (28.3.1.1), and
the first occurrence of the head can be deleted. The head in such cases may or may not
have plural marking:
kız ve erkek çocuklar ‘female and male children’, ‘girls and boys’
İngiliz ve Alman ‘(the) British and German cinema(s)’
sineması/sinemaları
(ii) Adjectives modifying the head:
Adjectives, determiners and numerals modifying the head noun are placed before the
whole compound in the same order as they are placed before the head of a noun phrase
(see 15.9):
güzel bir masa örtüsü ‘a beautiful tablecloth’
birtakım ilginç çocuk kitapları ‘some interesting children’s books’
However, in compounds which refer to official bodies, an adjective (but not determiners
or numerals) may be placed before the head noun:
eski Dışişleri Bakanı/Dışişleri eski Bakanı
‘the former Foreign Secretary’
Noun compounds 99