Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Fatma flower-PL-ACC today water-FUT
‘Fatma will water the plants TODAY.’
(48) Bazı günler ön bahçe-de çocuk-LAR oynu-yor.
some day-PL front garden-LOC child-PL play-IMPF
‘Some days CHILDREN play in the front garden.’
A less common strategy for focusing a constituent is to place stress on it in its unmarked
position:
(49) BUgün çiçekleri sulayacaksın.
‘You will water the plants TODAY.’
The most typical strategy for focusing a constituent in an existential sentence is to place
stress on it in its unmarked position:
(50) Ahmet’İN iki arabası var.
‘AHMET has two cars.’
Word order 345
In linking sentences the preferred strategy is to place the focused constituent just before
the predicate:
(51) Ahmet’in babası HER gün hasta.
‘Ahmet’s father is ill EVERY DAY.’
Focused constituents can be used with focus-sensitive adverbials and connectives such as
ancak ‘only’, dA ‘also’ and bile ‘even’ (see 16.7, 28.3.1.1).
(52) Ancak öZEL izin-le gir-il-ebil-iyor-muş kulis-e.
only special permit-INS enter-PASS-PSB-IMPF-EV.COP back.stage-DAT
‘One can only go back stage by special permit.’
(53) KomşuLAR da bazı günler ön bahçede oturuyor.
‘Some days the neighbours too sit in the front garden.’
Like any other constituent, predicates can be focused by placing stress on them. When
stressed, they can occupy any position, including their unmarked sentence-final position:
(54) Onlar-ın hep-si öğretMEN. (Cevapları tabii ki bilecekler.)
they-GEN all-3SG.POSS teacher
‘They are all TEACHERS. (Of course they’ll know the answers.)’
(55) Ama ben bütün mektupları dün yırtTIM.
‘But I TORE UP all the letters yesterday.’
23.3.2 THE POSITION OF BACKGROUND INFORMATION: THE
POSTVERBAL AREA
The area following the predicate, generally referred to as the postverbal area, is the site
for information which is backgrounded, information which is assumed to be shared by the
speaker and the hearer, or which has only just been mentioned in the discourse. Placing
constituents here also has the effect of rendering another constituent more prominent,
sometimes leaving this latter as the only phrase before the predicate. Note that the