Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

The combination of the tense suffix -(y)AcAK with olan is the standard means of
expressing relative future tense in relative clauses that require -(y)An marking. (Compare
the informal alternative strategy exemplified in (57) above.)
(68) [Yarın çık-acak ol-an] gazete-de önemli bir yazı bulun-acak.
tomorrow come.out-FUT AUX-PART paper-LOC important an article be-FUT
‘There will be an important article in the paper [that’s going to come out
tomorrow].’
(69) [Dün gösterilecek olan] filmde sakıncalı sahneler bulunmuş.
‘It seems that improper scenes were found in the film [that was going to be shown
yesterday].’
Relative clauses with -(y)AcAk olduK- occur rather infrequently. They are identical in
meaning to their counterparts with the participle suffix -(y)AcAK:
(70)
(a) [arkadaş-lar-ın al-acak-ları] televizyon
friend-PL-GEN buy-PART-3PL.POSS television
(b) [arkadaş-lar-ın al-acak ol-duk-ları] televizyon
friend-PL-GEN buy-FUT AUX-PART-3PL.POSS television
‘the television [that [our] friends are/were going to buy]’
(iii) -mAktA olan, -mAktA olduK-, and -(I)yor olacaK-:
Both -mAktA and -(I)yor mark imperfective (progressive or habitual) aspect (21.3.2).
In relative clauses -mAkta is more typically used with olan and olduK-, while -(I)yor is
used with olacaK. Although verb forms with -mAktA ol- resolve ambiguities as described
below, they are not favoured in everyday speech.
In the absence of an adverbial expressing frequency (such as her gün ‘every day’)
these forms are understood to have progressive meaning:
(71) [Oku-makta ol-duğ-u] kitabı kaybetti. (cf. (64a) above)
read-IMPF AUX-PART-3SG.POSS
‘S/he lost the book [(that) s/he was reading].’
The use of a -mAktA ol- form of participle resolves the ambiguity of -(y)An and -DIK
with regard to perfectivity in favour of the imperfective (progressive) meaning.
Where the relative clause contains a time adverbial that denotes an ongoing situation,
such as şu anda ‘at the/this moment’ or o sırada ‘at that time’, the verb will be
understood as progressive, whether -mAktA olan/olduK- are used or the simple -(y)An or -
DIK participles. The use of -mAktA ol- in such cases is more formal:
(72)
Relative clauses 393
(a) [şu anda Erol-a mektup yaz-makta ol-an] kız
at this moment Erol-DAT letter write-ıMPF AUX-PART girl
(b) [şu anda Erol-a mektup yaz-an] kız
write-PART
‘the girl [who at this moment is writing a letter to Erol]’