Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

one of these suffixes is combined with a possibility marker, the -DIK/-(y)AcAK
distinction often involves modality as much as tense. The combinations -(y)AbildiK and -
(y)AmAdIK always express actualized possibility/impossibility:
(109) [Selim-in neden bun-u anla-ya-ma-dığ-ın]-ı bilmiyordum.
Selim-GEN why this-ACC understand-PSB-NEG-VN-3SG.POSS-ACC
‘I didn’t know [why Selim couldn’t understand this].’ (Implies that he did not
understand it.)
By contrast, the combinations -(y)AbileceK and -(y)AmAyAcAK have a number of
different modal values in subordinate clauses:
(i) An objective possibility (or impossibility) that is expected to be actualized at some
(relative) future time. This usage is equivalent to -(y)AbileceK in finite clauses:
(110) [Toplantıya katıl-a-ma-yacağ-ım]-ı söyledim.
attend-PSB-NEG-VN-1SG.POSS-ACC
‘I said [I wouldn’t be able to attend the meeting].’
(111) Kartı [herkesin gör-ebil-eceğ-i] bir yere koymuştu.
see-PSB-PART-3SG.POSS
‘S/he had put the card in a place where everyone would be able to see it.’
(ii) Two of the kinds of objective possibility that are articulated by the aorist
combinations -(y)Abilir and -(y)AmA(z) in finite clauses, in which the question of
actualization is unresolved:
Generalizations:
(112) [Yaşlıların gençleri kıskanabileceklerin]-i herkes bilir.
‘Everyone knows [that the old can be jealous of the young].’
Hypothetical situations:
(113) [O çocuğun yapamayacağı] hiçbir şey yok.
‘There is nothing [that boy couldn’t do].’ (If he set his mind to it)
(iii) Counterfactual situations (expressed in finite clauses by -(y)Abilirdi and -
(y)AmAzdI):
(114) Osman [Ali’ye yardım edebileceği halde] hiçbir şey yapmadı.
[‘Although Osman could have helped Ali], he did nothing.’
(iv) Permissive possibility and its denial:
Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 304
(115) Özdemir’e [bilgisayarımı kullanabileceğin]-i söyledim. (cf. 99))
‘I told Özdemir [that he could use my computer].’
(v) The affirmative form -(y)AbileceK (attached to a positive or negative stem) can
express speculative possibility:
(116) [Başkanlık konusunda Coşkun’u ikna edemeyebileceğim için] başka kişiler
üzerinde de durmamız gerekiyor. (cf. (105))