Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 378
(iii) a state of affairs, e.g. sorun/ mesele ‘problem’, konu ‘issue’
(iv) a desire, e.g. istek/ arzu ‘wish’, ‘desire’, özlem/hasret ‘longing’
(v) possibility or necessity, e.g. olasilik/ ihtimal ‘possibility’, gereksinim/
ihtiyaç ‘need’, zorunluk/ mecburiyet
(vi) a pattern of behaviour, e.g. alışkanlık ‘habit’, eğilim ‘tendency’, gelenek
‘tradition’
(vii) time, e.g. zaman/vakit ‘time (general)’, saat ‘time (by the clock)’.
Head nouns in categories (i)–(iii) above can be modified by either a finite or a non-finite
noun clause. (140)–(142) contain -(s)I compounds with finite-clause modifiers. These are
generally more informal than their non-finite counterparts.
(140) Nuri Bey, emekli olduktan sonra [ben artık hiçbir işe yaramıyorum]
kaygı-sın-a kapıldı.
anxiety-NC-DAT
‘After he retired, Nuri Bey began to feel that he lacked purpose.’ (lit. ‘started
feeling [an] “I’m no use any more” anxiety.’)
(141) Herkesin kafasında [seçim-ler ne zaman yap-ıl-acak] soru-su var.
election-PL when make-PASS-FUT question-NC existent
‘The question on everybody’s mind is: when are the elections going to be held?’
(lit. ‘On everybody’s mind is the question “When will the elections be held?”’)
(142) [“Saat altıda hazır ol-un”] komut-un-u aldık.
ready be-IMP.2PL order-NC-ACC
‘We received the order “Be ready at six o’clock”.’
The finite noun clauses in the above three examples are a statement (140), a question
(141) and a command (142). Their non-finite counterparts will therefore be respectively
an indirect statement (24.4.3.1), an indirect question (24.4.3.2) and an indirect command
(24.4.2.2 (iiib)):
(143) Nuri Bey, emekli olduktan sonra [artık hiç bir işe yaramadığı] kaygısına
kapıldı.
‘After he retired, Nuri Bey began to feel that he lacked purpose.’ (lit. ‘started
feeling [an] anxiety [that he was no use any more]’)
(144) Herkesin kafasında [seçimlerin ne zaman yapılacağı] sorusu var.
‘The question on everybody’s mind is when the elections are going to be held.’
(lit. ‘On everybody’s mind is the question of [when the elections will be held].’)
(145) [Saat altıda hazır olma] komutun-u aldık.
‘We received the order [to be ready at six o’clock].’
Where the head noun of the -(s)I compound falls into one of the categories listed (iv)–
(vii) above, a finite noun clause modifer is usually not possible, although with category
(iv) a finite clause with optative or conditional marking may occur colloquially:
(146) İçimde [Ahmet-i gör-ebil-se-m] özlem-i depreşti.
Ahmet-ACC see-PSB-COND-1SG longing-NC
‘The longing [that I might be able to see Ahmet] overwhelmed me again.’