Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

(iii) bu yana ‘since’:
This item is synonymous with beri in its ‘since’ meaning, except that the temporal
reference point is usually the present moment, not a point of time in the past. Thus bu
yana could be substituted for beri in (38) but not normally in (39). It is considerably less
common than beri in informal speech.
(iv) dolayı ‘because of’:
This postposition has a synonym ötürü, which is less frequently used.
(46) Üzüntüsünden dolayı Ayşe o akşamki toplantımıza katılamadı.
‘Because of her distressed state Ayşe wasn’t able to join our gathering that
evening.’
(v) itibaren ‘from’, ‘with effect from’:
This is a temporal postposition indicating the time at which some planned or
anticipated state of affairs or process is or was due or expected to begin.
(47) Bu tarife, 1.10.2003 tarihinden itibaren geçerlidir.
‘This timetable is effective from 1.10.2003.’
(vi) önce/ evvel ‘before’:
(48) Onlar benden önce gelmişler.
‘They arrived before me.’
(vii) sonra ‘after’:
Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 220
(49) Her yemekten sonra mutlaka bir fincan Türk kahvesi içer.
‘S/he invariably drinks a cup of Turkish coffee after every meal.’
önce and sonra differ from other postpositions in that they can be modified by an
immediately preceding adverbial, either an adverbial of quantity such as çok ‘much’ or
biraz ‘a little’ (16.5), or an expression denoting a period of time, such as beş dakika ‘five
minutes’ or bir yıl ‘a year’:
(50) Yemekten biraz sonra Ahmet işine döndü.
‘A little while after lunch Ahmet returned to his work.’
(51) Onlar benden beş dakika önce gelmişler.
‘Apparently they arrived five minutes before me.’
For the (non-postpositional) adverbial functions of önce and sonra see 16.4.1.1. For
adverbial clauses formed with the subordinators -mAdAn önce and -DIktAn sonra see
26.3.16 (vi).
(viii) yana ‘as regards’, ‘in favour of’:
(52) Berna akrabadan yana şanslı sayılır.
‘Berna can be considered fortunate as regards relatives.’
(53) İdam cezasından yana değilim.
‘I’m not in favour of capital punishment.’