Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Adjectival constructions, determiners and numerals 175
15.3.8 NOUN PHRASE+diye
The word diye is the -(y)A converbial form (26.3.8) of the verb de- ‘say’. Aside from its
wide range of functions as a subordinator marking noun clauses (24.3.1) and adverbial
clauses (26.1.1), diye has an adjectival function (not found in more formal registers) of
indicating what something is called. Adjectivals constructed with diye are used
exclusively in indefinite noun phrases (22.2):
(29) Bizim mahallede Güneş Gıda diye bir market var.
‘In our neighbourhood there’s a self-service shop called Güneş Gıda.’
(30) Mehmet diye bir oğlu daha var.
‘S/he’s got another son, called Mehmet.’
15.3.9 RELATIVE CLAUSE
Relative clauses are the most complex form of adjectival, having a sentence-like structure
with a participle as their verb. These are fully discussed in Chapter 25.
(31) [Arka-mız-dan gel-en] araba bizi geçmek istiyor.
back-1PL.POSS-ABL come-PART car
‘The car [that’s following us] wants to overtake us.’
15.3.10 POSSESSIVE-MARKED NOUN PHRASE+ADJECTIVE
(TRUNCATED RELATIVE CLAUSE)
This type of adjectival construction tends to occur with non-specific noun phrases (see
25.4.1.1 for details):
(32) [sap-lar-ı kopuk] birkaç çanta (cf. Chapter 25, (80)–(82))
handle-PL-3SG.POSS broken a.few bag
‘a few bags with broken handles’
15.4 MODIFICATION OF ADJECTIVES
Adjectives can be modified by a preceding adverbial of degree (16.5) in order to indicate
the intensity of the attribute denoted by the adjective. Most adverbials of degree, such as
çok ‘very’ or biraz ‘a little’, relate to abstract notions of quantity, but two of them (daha
‘more’ and en ‘most’), express respectively a comparative or superlative degree.