Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 116
(42) Ben o adamı sevmiyorum.
‘I don’t like that man.’
(43) Her yıl bu kentte iki bin beş yüz yeni bina yapılıyor.
‘Every year two thousand five hundred new buildings are constructed in this
town.’
It can also be complex, i.e. a noun clause (Chapter 24):
(44) [Jale’nin işten çıkartıldığı] doğru değilmiş.
‘Apparently it’s not true [that Jale has been dismissed from her job].’
The subject of a simple sentence or main clause is always in the non-case-marked form.
Subjects of certain kinds of relative clauses and of most noun clauses, on the other hand,
receive genitive case marking (see Chapters 24–25).
For the factors determining the position of the subject in the sentence, see 23.2–3.
12.2 AGREEMENT OF SUBJECT AND PREDICATE
The predicate shows agreement with the subject in terms of person and number.
12.2.1 PERSON AND NUMBER MARKING ON THE PREDICATE
First and second persons
In all sentences which have a 1st or 2nd person subject, the addition of the appropriate
person suffix (see 8.4) to the predicate is obligatory whether or not the subject is
separately represented in the sentence by a pronoun. (The only exception to this is
sentences which have pronominalized determiners as subjects; see 12.2.2.3 (72), (75)–
(76).)
(45) (Ben) yorgun-um.
(I) tired-1SG
‘I’m tired.’
(46) (Siz) yeni komşularımızla tanıştınız mı?
‘Have you met our new neighbours?’
(See also 12.2.3 (88) for 1st and 2nd person marking on the predicate with sentences
which have pronouns as subject complements.)
Third person singular
Turkish does not have overt marking of the 3rd person singular on predicates:
(47) Annem yorgun.
‘My mother’s tired.’
(48) Ahmet hiçbir şey yapmadı.
‘Ahmet hasn’t done anything at all.’