Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Adjectival constructions, determiners and numerals 187
‘four medium-sized potatoes’
15.9.5 DETERMINERS OR NUMERALS WITH ADJECTIVALS
FORMED WITH -ki
In general, determiners and numerals have to follow -ki adjectivals (15.3.6, 15.3.7):
(99) gazetedeki öbür resim
‘the other picture in the paper’
(100) romandaki her önemli kişi
‘every important character in the novel’
If a determiner or numeral is placed before a locative+-ki construction, it is usually
understood as modifying the immediately following locative-marked noun phrase rather
than the larger one, of which the -ki adjectival is a part:
(101) öbür gazetedeki resim
‘the picture in the other paper’
(102) her romandaki önemli kişi
‘the important character in every novel’
However, bütün/tüm ‘all’ and the demonstratives form exceptions to this general pattern.
In the case of bütün/tüm, the determiner is understood as modifying the larger noun
phrase, regardless of its position:
(103) bütün çekmecedeki para/çekmecedeki bütün para
‘all the money in the drawer’
(104) bütün yedi yaşındaki çocuklar/yedi yaşındaki bütün çocuklar
‘all (the) seven-year-old children’
Placing a demonstrative before a locative+-ki adjectival creates a potential ambiguity as
to whether the determiner forms part of the smaller or the larger noun phrase:
(105) bu masadaki kitaplar
(i) ‘the books on this table’
(ii) (=masadaki bu kitaplar) ‘these books on the table’
In (i) bu is understood to modify masa ‘table’ and in (ii) to modify kitaplar ‘books’.
In practice any potential ambiguity is usually eliminated by the way in which the
words are uttered. If the demonstrative is intended as a modifier of the large noun phrase,
it is unstressed and sometimes followed by a very slight pause. If, on the other hand, it is
intended as a modifier of the noun closest to it, it is slightly stressed.
15.9.6 DETERMINERS OR NUMERALS WITH RELATIVE CLAUSES
Relative clauses (Chapter 25) behave rather similarly to -ki adjectivals in the way they
interact with determiners and numerals. The position following the relative clause is the
standard one for all these items: