Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 234
The 3rd person forms kendisi and kendileri can have any type of noun phrase with a
human referent (not only personal pronouns) as their antecedent’, such as müdürler
‘directors’ and Erol below:
(20) Müdür-ler kendi-leri atıyorlar muavinlerini.
director-PL self-3PL.POSS
‘Directors appoint their deputies themselves.’
(21) Arabayı Erol kendisi yıkayacak.
‘Erol is going to wash the car himself.’
In the 3rd person the antecedent may be given genitive marking:
(22) Arabayı Erol’un kendi-si yıkayacak.
Erol-GEN/self-3SG.POSS
‘Erol is going to wash the car himself.’
On the other hand, the 1st and 2nd person pronouns as antecedents of emphatic kendi-
can be genitive-marked only in noun clauses and relative clauses (see (27) and (28)
below).
The form kendisi can be replaced by kendi. Where the antecedent is non-case-marked,
this produces no difference of formality:
(23) Arabayı Erol/o kendi yıkayacak.
Erol/he self
However, where the antecedent is genitive-marked, the use of kendi is informal:
(24) Arabayı Erol-un kendi yıkayacak.
Erol-GEN self
Unlike the 1st and 2nd person emphatic forms, which, in main clauses, occur only as
subjects, the 3rd person emphatic forms kendisi and kendileri can function as objects and
adverbials. In these cases, the antecedent (o, onlar or any appropriate noun phrase)
appears in the genitive form:
(25) Meclis’e belli bir saatte gidersen Başbakan-ın kendi-sin-i bile
prime minister-GEN self-3SG.POSS-ACC
görebilirsin.
‘If you go to parliament at a certain time you will be able to see
the Prime Minister himself/herself.’
(26) Sonuçları onlar-ın kendi-lerin-den öğrenebilirsin.
they-GEN self-3PL.POSS-ABL
‘You can find out the results from them in person.’
An emphatic construction with kendi- can be the subject of a noun clause (Chapter 24) or
relative clause (Chapter 25). When it is the subject of a relative clause, the verb usually
agrees with it (as in (27a)), but some speakers use 3rd person singular possessive marking
on the verb (as in (27b)):