Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Negation 277
Sentences containing ne…ne can have either affirmative or negative predicates, but in
each case they have a separate intonation contour and stress pattern. When the predicate
is affirmative the first ne receives secondary stress, there is a rise in intonation after the
first conjunct, and primary stress falls on the constituent before the predicate:
(39) Bu filmden ne kadınlar ne erkekLER hoşlandılar.
‘Neither the women nor the men liked this film.’
If the predicate is negative, all of the ne conjuncts have an identical intonation contour,
where both ne and the stressable syllable within the conjunct receive secondary stress,
and primary stress falls on the predicate (on the syllable before the negative marker):
(40) Bu filmden ne kadınlar ne erkekler hoşLANmadılar.
‘Neither the women nor the men liked this film.’
The second conjunct can be placed after the predicate, but only when the predicate is
affirmative:
(41) Bu sandviççide ne çay var, ne de kahve.
‘There is neither tea nor coffee in this sandwich shop.’
(42) Ne yiyecek bulabildim ne (de) içecek.
‘I couldn’t find either food or drink.’
The ne…ne connective can conjoin pairs of any type of phrase, such as adverbial phrases,
adjectival phrases, verb phrases, etc. It can also conjoin clauses:
(43) Ne tamir işleriyle uğraşır, ne yemek pişirmesini bilir, ne (de) çocuklarla
ilgilenir.
‘S/he neither does any repair jobs, nor knows how to cook, nor takes care of the
children.’
(44) O kitaba sadece şöyle bir göz gezdirdim, yani ne okudum ne okumadım.
‘I just glanced at that book, I mean I neither read [it] nor didn’t read [it].’
20.5 EXPRESSIONS INTERACTING WITH NEGATION
There are a number of expressions which are very restricted in their ability to occur with
affirmative predicates. They can occur in all types of negative sentence, and some can
also occur in affirmative questions. These expressions are: