Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 298
It should be noted that the -mIş component of -mIştIr has no (evidential) modality value
of its own; it is purely past/perfective. The modal function of -DIr in these verbal
sentences is to indicate that a claim of some significance is being made, and that this is
based on some well-founded authority which gives it a kind of permanence that
transcends the explicit tense marking of its content.
21.4.1.3 Hypothetical and counterfactual situations
Hypothetical and counterfactual situations imply the fulfilment of some condition
(27.2.3–6):
(74) Koşma, düşersin.
‘Don’t run; you’ll fall over.’ (i.e. Don’t run; if you do…)
(75) Senden iyi mühendis olur.
‘You would make a good engineer.’ (lit. ‘From you [a] good engineer would
come into existence.’)
Counterfactual situations differ from hypotheticals in that the condition upon which they
depend is known to be unrealizable. They are expressed by -(A/I)rdI/-mAzdI or -
(y)AcAktI:
(76) Ben bu reng-i seç-mez-di-m.
I this colour-ACC choose-NEG.AOR-P.COP-1SG
‘I wouldn’t have chosen this colour.’
-(y)AcAktI is an option only where reference is to a pre-planned or scheduled event:
(77) [O konser-e git-mek] hoş ol-ur-du/ol-acak-tı.
that concert-DAT go-VN nice be-AOR-P.COP/be-FUT-P.COP
‘It would have been nice [to go to that concert].’
In counterfactual utterances the past copula -(y)DI is as much a marker of modality as of
tense, and the reference is not always to past time (27.2.3.2).
21.4.1.4 Assumptions
In Turkish the principal markers of non-factual probability judgements are the aorist and
-DIr. Assumptions expressed with these forms are usually also marked by a modal
adverbial (16.3) such as kesinlikle ‘definitely’, herhalde ‘probably’, ‘presumably’, ‘I
expect’, or belki ‘perhaps’, which expresses the strength of the speaker’s confidence in
the soundness of the assumption. Where no modal adverbial is used the utterance will
usually be understood as having the medium strength of an assumption marked by
herhalde. It is important to note that assumptions do not have to be grammatically
marked in Turkish. The non-factual modality of such utterances is often indicated simply
by the presence of a modal adverbial. We include within the category of assumptions
expressions of hope marked by the modal adverbial umarım ‘I hope’ or inşallah ‘God
willing’, ‘hopefully’.
(i) Verbal sentences with -(A/I)r/-mAz: