Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 224
Üzerine also means ‘on’, ‘upon’ in a temporal sense, expressing a sequential and causal
relation between two events. In this usage also, the complement is left in the non-casemarked
form (unless it is one of the genitive-attracting pronouns):
(71) Kocasının ölümü üzerine kendi memleketine döndü.
‘On her husband’s death she went back to her own country.’
For bunun üzerine as a temporal discourse connective see 28.3.8.
(iv) In addition to its literal meaning of ‘beside’, yan+POSS+OBL has a number of
metaphorical senses. Most of these still belong to the realm of physical space, and require
any definite or specific complements to be genitive-marked:
(72) Babalarının yanında sigara içmezler.
‘They don’t smoke in their father’s presence.’
(73) Çocuk daha çok anneannesinin yanında kalıyor.
‘The child lives mainly with his grandmother.’
(74) Yanımda beş kişi çalışıyor.
‘I‘ve got five people working for me.’
In the abstract sense of ‘in comparison with’, yan+POSS+LOC may or may not have a
genitive-marked complement:
(75) [Ali’nin yaptıkları](-nın) yanında bunlar pek parlak değil.
‘Compared with the ones Ali made/makes, these are not very wonderful.’
(v) In its sense of ‘between’, ara+POSS+OBL can take two or more conjoined
complements. In the case of two complements, they are conjoined by -(y)lA/ile (28.3.1.1
(ii)):
(76) Benim odamla onunki arasında kalın bir duvar vardı.
‘There was a thick wall between my room and his.’
In informal speech the second of the conjoined complements may be given genitive
marking:
(77) Ahmet’le çocuklar(ın) arasında bir sorun mu var?
‘Is there some problem between Ahmet and the children?’
If one of the complements conjoined by ara+POSS+OBL is a personal pronoun, it
usually occurs as the second item, and if it is one of the genitive-attracting pronouns it
must be genitive-marked:
(78) baba-sı-yla (biz-im) ara-mız-da
father-3SG.POSS-CONJ we-GEN between-1PL.POSS-LOC
‘between his/her father and us/me’
In informal speech, some speakers may use a pronoun as the first of the two conjoined
complements:
(79) bizimle babası arasında
‘between us and his/her father’