Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Pronouns 237
(39) Ahmet hala uyuyor. Kendisi/o bu günlerde çok yorgun.
‘Ahmet is still asleep. He’s very tired at the moment.’
(40) A.—Kulüpteki arkadaşların nasıl?
‘How are your friends at the club?’
B.—Bilmem, kendi-lerin-i/onlar-ı çoktandır görmedim.
s/he-3PL.POSS-ACC/they-ACC
‘I don’t know. I haven’t seen them for a long time.’
kendisi and o are also interchangeable where the pronoun occurs in a subordinate clause
and refers to a person mentioned in the main clause or in the preceding sentence:
(41) Ahmet [kendisine/ona hediye vermeyenler]-i sevmiyor.
‘Ahmet doesn’t like people who don’t give him gifts.’ (him= Ahmet/someone
else)
Such sentences are therefore always potentially ambiguous where more than one possible
antecedent is available.
kendileri can also be used with 3rd person singular reference as a deferential substitute
for kendisi. In sentences with this usage of kendileri, all references to the person in
question are made in the plural form. Note that in this usage kendileri cannot be replaced
by onlar.
(42) Sayın Cumhurbaşkanı bugün yurda dönüyorlar. Kendi-leri
s/he-3PL.POSS
gezi-lerin-den çok verimli sonuçlarla dön-dük-lerin-i ifade et-ti-ler.
visit-3PL.POSS-ABL return-VN-3PL.POSS-ACC say-PF-3PL
‘The president is returning home today. S/he stated that s/he was returning from
his/her visit with very beneficial results.’
(iv) Usage of 3rd person kendi- as a resumptive pronoun:
The 3rd person form of kendi- (but not o) can optionally be used as a resumptive
pronoun in relative clauses with -DIK and -(y)AcAK where it refers to the head of the
relative clause (see 25.1.1.2 (ii)):
(43) [(Kendi-lerin-i) defalarca aradığımız] yetkili-ler telefonlarımıza cevap
vermediler.
s/he-3PL.POSS-ACC person.in.charge-PL
The persons in charge, whom we have rung many times, have not responded to
our calls.’
18.1.3 kendi kendi
Kendi kendi-, which is obligatorily inflected for person and case, is an emphatic version
of kendi- in its reflexive usage, and occurs in the same contexts:
(44) (Kendi) kendimden nefret ediyorum.
‘I hate myself.’
The omission of -(s)i in the 3rd person occurs in less formal contexts.