Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 396
25.6 FINITE RELATIVE CLAUSES WITH ki
Relativization with ki is a quite different strategy for forming relative clauses. In a
reversal of the order in non-finite relative clauses, the relativized constituent precedes ki
and the finite clause (12.3) it introduces. The subordinator ki, here functioning somewhat
like a relative pronoun, is used mostly to form non-restrictive relative clauses, i.e. simply
to add new information about the referent of the head noun (see 25.2). It may also be
used in restrictive relative clauses and parenthetical expressions.
25.6.1 ki IN NON-RESTRICTIVE RELATIVE CLAUSES
The head noun in these constructions almost always functions as the subject of the main
clause. It is also usually 3rd person singular or plural:
(87) Ayşe, [ki şu anda mutfakta yemek pişiriyor,] birazdan ortaya çıkacak.
‘Ayşe, [who is cooking in the kitchen at the moment,] will appear soon.’
(88) Komşu-muz, [ki oldukça tanınmış bir piyanist-miş,]
neighbour-1PL.POSS RP quite well.known a pianist-EV.COP
evinde sık sık oda müziği konserleri düzenliyor.
‘Our neighbour, [who is apparently quite a well-known pianist,] often organizes
chamber music concerts at his home.’
Finite relative clauses with ki are also used for emphatic purposes. In these constructions
the main clause can contain a reiterated subject, identical to the head and followed by bile
‘even’. These constructions may also have 1st or 2nd person pronouns as their head:
(89) Sen [ki herkesin doğum gününü hatırlarsın], sen bile
Semra’nınkini unuttun.
‘Even you, [who remember everyone’s birthday], forgot about Semra’s.’
In certain circumstances a 3rd person head either may or must be reiterated within the ki
clause by a resumptive pronoun:
(i) If the head is the subject of the relative clause, and refers to someone whom the
speaker holds in respect, one of the pronouns kendisi or kendileri (18.1.2.2 (iii), (iv)) may
be added:
(90) Komşumuz, [ki kendisi oldukça tanınmış bir piyanist-miş]… (cf. (88))
‘Our neighbour, [who is apparently quite a well-known pianist]…’
The personal pronoun o can also be used instead of kendisi in such cases, but this usage is
less common and it lacks the respectful tone. Where the head refers to more than one
person onlar or kendileri can be used:
(91) Bodrum’da tanıştığımız bir çift, [ki onlar öğretmenmiş]…
‘A couple that we met in Bodrum, [who apparently are teachers] …’
(ii) If the head is not the subject of the relative clause, but instead functions within it as
an object or adverbial, this function is made explicit by an appropriately case-marked 3rd
person pronoun, o/onlar or kendisi/ kendileri, within the ki clause: