Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

(113) {Çocukların öğretmen-ler-i} İngiliz.
teacher-3PL.POSS/-3PL.POSS
(a) ‘The children’s teachers are English.’
(b) ‘The children’s teacher is English.’
Whereas sentences on the pattern of (112) clearly express the singularity of the possessed
entity, the ambiguity of (113) shows that the plurality of an entity possessed by a plural
possessor cannot be unambiguously articulated. However, (113a) represents the more
typical sense in which this pattern is used.
One function of the genitive-possessive construction is to resolve ambiguities of the
kind noted above in 14.3.2, where Arkadaşlarına soralım (46) was shown to be capable
of four different readings. (114) demonstrates how the addition of a genitive-marked
pronoun modifier, combined in (c) with the use of singular possessive marking,
eliminates these ambiguities:
(114)
The noun phrase 163
(a) {Sen-in arkadaş-lar-ın}-a soralım.
you-GEN friend-PL-2SG.POSS-DAT.
‘Let’s ask your friends.’
(b) {O-nun arkadaş-lar-ın}-a soralım.
s/he-GEN friend-PL-3SG.POSS-DAT
‘Let’s ask his/her friends.’
(c) {Onlar-ın arkadaş-ın}-a soralım.
they-GEN friend-3SG.POSS-DAT
‘Let’s ask their friend.’
(d) {Onlar-ın arkadaş-ların}-a soralım.
they-GEN friend-PL.3PL.POSS-DAT
‘Let’s ask their friends.’
In informal styles, the head of a genitive-possessive construction is often left without
possessive marking, particularly when the genitive-marked modifier is a 1st or 2nd
person pronoun:
(115) Burası {biz-im ev}-den daha sıcak. (cf. (86) in Chapter 18)
here we-GEN house-ABL more warm
‘It’s warmer here than [in] our house.’
(116) Nerede {senin çocuklar}?
‘Where are your children?’
Such constructions occur only in contexts which fulfil the conditions governing the use of
genitive-marked pronouns (see 18.1.5, 18.1.5.1). Note also that the omission of
possessive marking on the head is not permissible in possessive existential sentences
(12.1.1.2). Thus the possessive suffix on araba in (117) is obligatory:
(117) {Siz-in araba-nız} var mı?
you-GEN car-2PL.POSS existent INT
‘Do you have a car?’