Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

16.1.8 POSTPOSITIONAL PHRASES
Postpositional phrases form the subject of Chapter 17. Their most characteristic function
is adverbial (see 17.4.1):
(19) Evdeki durumdan dolayı Filiz gelemeyebilir.
‘Because of the situation at home Filiz may not be able to come.’
16.1.9 CONSTRUCTIONS WITH olarak
Olarak, the converbial form of ol- ‘be’ formed with -(y)ArAk (26.3.8), has been
lexicalized as a marker of certain types of adverbial phrase:
(i) It produces adverbials from adjectives, generally from derived adjectives (cf.
16.1.2).
(20) Raporu yazılı olarak sunmuşlardı.
‘They had submitted the report in writing.’
(ii) Following a noun phrase, it forms an adverbial indicating:
(a) Status or classification:
Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 192
(21) Bunu sana avukat olarak değil, arkadaş olarak söylüyorum.
‘I’m saying this to you not as a lawyer but as a friend.’
(22) Şimdilik bu sandığı masa olarak kullanıyoruz.
‘For the moment we’re using this chest as a table.’
(23) Meyva olarak ne var?
‘What is there in the way of fruit?’
(b) Collective involvement in an action or state (see -CA, 16.1.6 (iv)):
(24) Aile olarak müziğe meraklılar.
‘As a family, they’re interested in music.’
Where the group involved is expressed by a noun phrase containing a numeral modifier,
olarak may be omitted (see 12.2.1, example (58)):
(25) Biz üç arkadaş (olarak) konuşuyoruz.
‘We are chatting as a group of three friends.’
16.1.10 CONSTRUCTIONS WITH olmak üzere
olmak üzere, another converbial form of ol- ‘be’ (cf. 26.3.2, 26.3.12) is used to produce
two kinds of adverbial:
(i) A construction indicating the internal composition of a set or group, in quantitative
or proportional terms. The quantitative or proportional expression is marked with a 3rd
person possessive suffix. This usage is rather formal.