Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

(5) Bu gün evde kal-a-ma-m.
stay-PSB-NEG.AOR-1SG
‘I can’t stay at home today.’
For a detailed discussion of the properties of such sentences, see Chapter 13.
12.1.1.2 Nominal sentences
These are sentences whose predicate either does not contain an overt verb at all or whose
verb is one of the forms of the copula (ol- ‘be’, ‘become’, ‘exist’ or -(y)- ‘be’; see 8.3.1).
This type of predicate is called a nominal predicate.
(6) Necla öğretmen.
‘Necla is a teacher.’
Non-modalized utterances with non-recurrent present time reference, such as (6), do not
have an overt copula. Past tense (21.2.1) or evidential modality (21.4.3) can be indicated
by copular markers (8.3.2):
(7)
Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 110
(a) Necla öğretmen-di.
teacher-P.COP
‘Necla was a teacher.’
(b) Necla ev-de-ymiş.
home-LOC-EV.COP
‘Apparently Necla is/was at home.’
For the expression of other types of tense, aspect and modality it is necessary to use the
suppletive form ol- of the copula (12.1.1.3):
(8) Necla öğretmen ol-acak-tı.
teacher be-FUT-P.COP
‘Necla was going to be a teacher.’
Turkish nominal sentences are of two kinds: linking and existential.
Linking sentences
These correspond to the pattern x is y, and contain the following:
(i) a subject (if overtly expressed; see 12.1.2, 18.1.5)
(ii) a subject complement as (part of) the predicate
(iii) a copular marker (suffixed to, or immediately following, the subject
complement). In present-tense sentences which are not aspectually or modally
marked the copula has no overt expression. Person/number marking of the
predicate is attached to the copular marker, if there is one, otherwise to the subject
complement
(iv) (optionally) one or more adverbials.