Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 360
In (48), on the other hand, it is either the addressee or some third party:
(48) [Bütün gece oturmak] çok zor olmuştur.
‘It must have been very hard [sitting up all night].’
A -mak clause that is the subject of a sentence can also denote an activity, action or state
in the abstract, without relation to any particular subject:
(49) [Bir çocuğa öyle bir şey söylememek] lazım.
‘One shouldn’t say such a thing to a child.’
For the use of -mAk clauses in impersonal obligative expressions such as that in (49) see
21.4.2.2, and example (119) in that chapter.
(b) If the -mAk clause is the subject complement, and the subject of the sentence is
marked with a possessive suffix, the subject of the noun clause will be understood to be
the person referred to by that suffix:
(50) Amac-ım, [beş yıl içinde zengin ol-mak]-tı.
aim-1SG.POSS five years within rich be-VN-P.COP
‘My aim was [to get rich in five years].’
Where, in a sentence of this type, the main clause subject has no possessive marking, the
subject of the noun clause may be inferable from the context:
(51) Amaç, [beş yıl içinde zengin olmak]-tı.
‘The aim was [to get rich in five years].’
In some cases, as in (42) above, the noun clause has no identifiable subject, and is
understood to be applicable to human beings in general.
24.4.1.2 The accusative-marked form -mAyI
This form (sometimes spelt -mAğI, see 8.5.1.2) occurs where the noun clause is the direct
object of any transitive verb (although with iste- ‘want’ it is formal and much less
common than -mAk).
(52) Şükrü [yemek yap-may]-ı bil-iyor mu?
Şükrü food make-VN-ACC know-IMPF INT
‘Does Şükrü know [how to cook]?’
(53) [Bu yaz İtalya’ya gitmey]-i düşünüyoruz.
‘We’re thinking of [going to Italy this summer].’
In informal usage with a small number of main verbs, notably bil- ‘know (how)’, öğren-
‘learn’ and sev- ‘like’, the noun clause is sometimes marked with -mAsInI rather than -
mAyI, with no change in meaning. The 3rd person possessive suffix has no obvious
referent in such sentences.
(54) Şükrü [yemek yap-ma-sın]-ı bil-iyor mu?
Şükrü food make-VN-3SG.POSS-ACC know-IMPF INT
‘Does Şükrü know [how to cook]?’