Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 240
person markers (on the predicate or possessed constituent). For the omission and usage of
object pronouns see 28.4.2–3.
Note that the 3rd person pronouns o(nun) and onlar(ın) do not occur nearly as
frequently as ben(im), sen(in), biz(im) and siz(in) to express a grammatical subject or a
genitive-marked modifier. This is because a 1st or 2nd person pronoun is the only noun
phrase that can be used to refer to the speaker (and his/her associates) and the hearer(s)
(and any associated people) in any particular speech situation. For a 3rd person referent,
on the other hand, a personal pronoun will often not provide sufficient identification, and
a more explicit noun phrase (such as Mehmet or şu büyük ağaç ‘that big tree’) has to be
used instead. O or onlar can be used only where an unambiguously identifiable referent is
available. This will usually be as a result of immediately previous mention:
(58) Bugün Zeliha ve Hakan’la karşılaştım. Onlar taşınıyorlarmış.
‘Today I ran into Zeliha and Hakan. It seems they’re moving.’
(i) Omission of subject pronouns in finite clauses:
In Turkish, main clause predicates are obligatorily marked for person, (12.2.1) and
subject pronouns are not necessary. In the 3rd person singular person marking is effected
by the absence of a person suffix (except for the optative/imperative -sIn, see 8.4, groups
3 and 4).
(59) O zaman öğrenci-ydi-k.
then student-P.COP-1PL
‘We were students then.’
(60) Paris-e gid-ecek-miş.
Paris-DAT gO-FUT-EV.COP
‘Apparently s/he’s going to go to Paris.’
(61) Öğleden sonra biz-e gel-sin.
afternoon we-DAT come-OPT.3SG
‘Let him/her come round to us this afternoon.’
(ii) Omission of subject pronouns in non-finite clauses:
Subjects of noun clauses, relative clauses formed with -DIK/-(y)AcAK and some types
of adverbial clause are indicated by the appropriate possessive marker (8.1.2) on the
predicate. The use of personal pronouns referring to the subject is therefore not normally
required in these clauses either:
(62) [Ev-e dön-me-m] zor olmadı.
home-DAT return-VN-1SG.POSS
‘It wasn’t difficult [for me to return home].’
(63) [Ev-e git-tiğ-im]-de kapılar açıktı.
home-DAT go-CV-1SG.POSS-LOC
‘[When I arrived home] the doors were open.’
Subject pronouns can or must be omitted also in those types of adverbial clause whose
predicates do not have person marking (see 26.2.2).
(iii) Omission of genitive-marked pronouns as modifiers of possessive noun phrases: