Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 252
cat-PL two can-ACC both finish-EV/PF-3PL INT
‘Have the cats finished both tins?’
mI can also attach to a phrase within the sentence, with effects that are described in
19.1.4. A phrase to which mI is attached generally occurs just before the predicate.
However, like other focused phrases (23.3.1), a mI-phrase can also occur in other
positions, as long as it is not placed after the predicate:
(4) Zehra Londra-ya eylül-de mi gid-ecek?
Zehra London-DAT September-LOC INT go-FUT
‘Is Zehra going to London in SEPTEMBER?’
(5) Zehra eylülde mi Londra’ya gidecek?
‘Is Zehra going to London in SEPTEMBER?’
The intonation of questions with mI usually comprises a high rise just before mI,
followed by falling intonation (5.1), whether mI is placed at the end of the sentence or
not:
(6) Saatini ileri alDIN mı?
‘Have you put your watch forward?’
(7) BabasıNI mı özlemiş Hasan?
‘Is Hasan missing his father?’
There are, however, cases where questions with mI do not end with falling intonation.
These are:
(i) questions where mI is used for expressing surprise or disbelief (19.1.4 (iii))
(ii) questions where mI occurs with a wh-phrase (echo questions, 19.3)
(iii) questions where mI occurs with another stressed phrase (19.1.5).
19.1.1.2 Tag questions
A tag question is a question that is annexed to a statement and is used to seek
confirmation of that statement. There are two forms of tag question:
(i) değil mi, which is a combination of the negative particle değil ‘not’ (20.2) and
mI, and is most often pronounced ( or in informal
registers)