Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

‘Is there anything other than this?’
(ii) beri ‘since’, ‘for’:
Postpositional phrases headed by beri always have temporal meaning. They express
the duration, prior to a given reference point, of a state of affairs or a process which, at
the point of time referred to, is/was still continuing. When beri has the sense of ‘since’,
the complement noun phrase expresses the time at which the state or process began:
(38) Pazartesiden beri hasta-yım.
Monday-ABL since ill-1SG
‘I’ve been ill since Monday.’
(39) Mehmet ekim baş-ın-dan beri yurtdışın-da-ydı.
Mehmet October beginning-NC-ABL since abroad-LOC-P.COP
‘Mehmet had been abroad since the beginning of October.’
(40) Koray 1995’ten beri Kanada’da yaşıyor.
‘Koray has been living in Canada since 1995.’
When beri has the sense of ‘for’, the complement noun phrase expresses the amount of
time that has/had elapsed since the start of the process or the onset of the state:
(41) Üç günden beri hastayım.
‘I’ve been ill for three days.’
(42) Koray birkaç yıldan beri Kanada’da yaşamaktaydı.
‘Koray had been living in Canada for several years.’
If (as in the above examples) the postpositional phrase headed by beri modifies the main
predicate of the sentence, this predicate is usually presented in the form which expresses
the state or process as ongoing at the reference point (see the discussion of imperfective
aspect in 21.3.1–2). It can therefore be a nominal predicate, as in (38), (39), (41), or a
verbal predicate with progressive aspect (-(I)yor, -mAktA), as in (40), (42). However,
when beri has the sense of ‘since’, a quantified or negative predicate is often expressed
with perfective aspect (-DI, -mIş):
(43) O zamandan beri arabamı üç defa değiştirdim.
‘I’ve changed my car three times since then.’
(44) Yıllardan beri kendine yeni pabuç almamıştı/almıyordu.
‘S/he hadn’t bought herself/himself any new shoes for years.’
In the case of a negative predicate there can be a clear difference in meaning between the
perfective and imperfective versions of the same sentence:
(45)
Postpositional phrases 219
(a) Toplantı-dan beri konuş-ma-mış-lar.
meeting-ABL since speak-NEG-EV/PF-3PL
‘Apparently they haven’t spoken since the meeting.’
(b) Toplantı-dan beri konuş-mu-yor-lar-mış.
meeting-ABL since speak-NEG-IMPF-3PL-EV.COP
‘Apparently they haven’t been speaking since the meeting.’