Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

26
ADVERBIAL CLAUSES
Adverbial clauses are subordinate clauses that perform an adverbial function (see Chapter
16) within another clause. In Turkish, adverbial clauses can be finite or non-finite (see
12.3), but the non-finite forms are much more numerous and, in general, more widely
used.
Finite adverbial clauses (26.1) are all marked by subordinating conjunctions. Those
which are introduced by the Persian-derived ki or a compound of it are structurally
similar to Indo-European-type adverbial clauses:
(1) Koca-sın-a düşkün ol-malı [ki masa-sın-da o-nun üç tane resm-i var].
husband-3SG.POSS-DAT very.fond be-OBLG SUB desk-3SG.POSS-LOC he-
GEN three ENUM picture-3SG.POSS existe
‘She must be very fond of her husband, [because there are three pictures of him
on her desk.]’
Non-finite adverbial clauses have subordinating suffixes on the verb, and in some cases
the verb is also followed by a postposition or noun phrase (usually with oblique case
marking):
(2) [Masa-sın-da koca-sı-nın üç tane resm-i ol-duğ-un-a göre] on-a düşkün olmalı.
desk-3SG.POSS-LOC husband-3SG.POSS-GEN three ENUM picture-3SG.POSS
be-CV-3SG.POSS-DAT according.to he-DAT very.fond be-OBLG
‘[Seeing that there are three pictures of her husband on her desk,] she must be
very fond of him.’
The subordinate verb forms that occur in non-finite adverbial clauses are called converbs
(8.5). More information about the structural features of these clauses is given in 26.2.
Section 26.3 is devoted to a discussion of the functions of specific converbs, classified
according to meaning.
Conditional clauses, which are also adverbial in function, have a different structure
from other adverbial clauses and are discussed separately in Chapter 27.
26.1 FINITE ADVERBIAL CLAUSES
These clauses are formed with diye, ki, madem(ki), nasıl ki, (sanki)… -mIş/-(y)mIş gibi
and -DI mI. It should be noted that those formed with ki, madem(ki), nasıl ki and -DI mI
can only modify the main clause of a sentence.