Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 286
It is quite possible for this ref erence point to be after the moment of speech, i.e. in the
future:
(11) İnşallah [ben dön-ünce-ye kadar] uyu-muş ol-acak-sın.
I.hope I return-CV-DAT until sleep-PF AUX-FUT-2SG
‘I hope you will have gone to sleep [by the time I get back].’
As for -DI, its primary function in terms of tense is the same as that of -(y)DI, but in
colloquial usage it can combine with -(y)DI in the sequence -DIydI, in which context
(only) it acquires the relative tense value typical of -mIş. (For the position of a person
marker in -DIydI forms see 8.4.)
(12) Ben sana bu sabah ↓söyle-di-ydi-m/↓söyle-di-m-di.
I you-DAT this morning say-PF-P.COP-1SG/say-PF-1SG-P.COP
‘I (had) told you this morning.’
It should be noted that forms in -mIştI and -DIydI do not always locate an event prior to a
specific reference point in the past. Sometimes, as in (12), the combination of two past
tense markers simply serves to indicate that the situation being talked about is located in
a past time that is quite separate from the speech context.
21.2.2 PRESENT TENSE
Turkish has no marker of present tense as such. In verbal sentences, present tense is
indicated by a combination of
(i) a marker of progressive aspect (21.3.2), usually -(I)yor, less commonly -
mAktA, and
(ii) the absence of the past copular marker -(y)DI.
Progressive aspect, which presents a situation as ongoing at a particular point in time, is
equivalent in tense terms to ‘relative present’. (13) is the non-past version of (8) above:
(13) Ayten bir bankada çalış-ıyor.
‘Ayten works/is working in a bank.’
In nominal sentences without ol- (12.1.1.2), present tense is indicated simply by the
absence of the past copula. (14) and (15) are the non-past versions of (6) and (7) above.
(14) Bodrum’da-yız.
-1PL
‘We’re in Bodrum.’
(15) Evde hiç para yok.
‘There’s absolutely no money in the house.’
For the use of past tense perfective forms to express (entry into) a state ongoing at the
moment of utterance see 21.3.3.