Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

(a) Anla-dı-n mı? (Entry into state)
-PF-2SG INT
‘Have you understood?’/‘Do you understand?’
(b) Anlı-yor mu-sun? (State)
-IMPF INT-2SG
‘Do you understand?’
In the case of some of the verbs that have this dual event/state quality, in particular those
involving physical states, it is possible for perfective forms to indicate not just entry into
the state (of sleep, sitting, etc.) but the maintenance of that state over a period of time:
(39) Sekiz saat uyumuşum.
‘I seem to have slept for eight hours.’
(40) Bütün gün evde oturduk.
‘We sat at home all day.’
Turkish also has a small class of verbs which can directly express only the entry into a
state. The existence of the state at some particular time is expressed by a perfective form.
The most important verbs in this class are acık- ‘get hungry’, susa- ‘get thirsty’, yorul-
‘get tired’, bık- ‘get tired (of)/bored (with)’, kız- ‘get angry’, kal- ‘be left’:
(41) Susa-dı-m.
get.thirsty-PF-1SG
‘I’m thirsty’
Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 292
21.3.4 ASPECT IN NOMINAL SENTENCES
Aspectual marking in nominal sentences requires the presence of the copular verb ol-
(12.1.1.3) to act as the bearer of one of the aspectual suffixes discussed in 21.3.1. Two
particular forms are aspectually significant: oldu (contrasting with -(y)DI/idi and vardı)
and oluyor.
21.3.4.1 The distinction between oldu and -(y)DI/idi or vardı
In its copular functions the verb ol- can have either dynamic or stative meaning, a
distinction that generally corresponds to the distinction between ‘become’ and ‘be’ in
English. The past copular marker -(y)DI/idi, on the other hand, being a marker of
imperfectivity, can only express states (‘be’). This means that the distinction between
oldu and -(y)DI/idi often corresponds to that between ‘became’ and ‘was’:
(42) 1994’te Ahmet derneğin başkanı oldu.
‘In 1994 Ahmet became president of the society.’
(43) 1994’te Ahmet derneğin başkanıydı.
‘In 1994 Ahmet was president of the society.’
However, there are certain kinds of nominal sentence in which oldu does not express a
change of state (as ‘become’ does), but rather the outcome of some kind of process of
evaluation or ranking.