Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

sleep-LOC go.around-CV as.if
‘For several days I wandered around [as if sleepwalking].
(68) [Hiçbir şey anla-ma-mış gibi] konuşuyorsun.
understand-NEG-CV as.if
‘You’re talking [as if you hadn’t understood a single thing].’
(69) Demet [dediklerimi duymamışçasına] konuşup duruyordu.
‘Demet kept on talking [as if she hadn’t heard a word I said].’
(iii) -DIğI/- (y)AcAğI/-mAsI gibi
Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 412
(a) The construction -DIğI/-(y)AcAğI gibi expresses manner in terms of
conformity to another known action or psychological state. The subject of this
type of clause takes genitive case marking:
(70) Pastayı [anne-m-in anlat-tığ-ı gibi] yapmaya çalıştım.
mother-1SG.POSS-GEN describe-CV-3SG.POSS as
‘I tried to make the cake [the way my mother had described].’
(b) The construction -mAsI gibi simply draws attention to a similarity between
two situations:
(71) [Turhan’ın kızıp ofisi birbirine katması gibi] Ahmet de düşünmeden istifa
etti.
‘[Just as Turhan became irate and caused havoc in the office], Ahmet resigned
without thinking.’
This structure produces the same meaning as finite clauses introduced by nasıl ki
(26.1.4). For the use of universal conditional clauses with nasıl ‘how’ in the same
function, see 27.5.
(iv) Converbs formed with -mAdAn, -mAksIzIn, both meaning ‘without’, express
manner negatively, in terms of what is not done. Note that the -mA in -mAdAn is the
negative suffix, and generates stress on the preceding syllable (see 8.5.2.2 (i)):
(72) Çocuklar, [baĞIRmadan] oynayın!
‘Children, play [without shouting]!’
(73) Kemal Bey bütün bir günü [televizyon seyRETmeden] geçirebilmiş.
‘It seems that Kemal Bey has managed to spend a whole day [without watching
television].’
The form -mAksIzIn is rare except in relatively formal registers.
26.3.9 MEANS
The means by which some goal is sought or result achieved can be expressed by -(y)ArAk
(26.3.8 (i)) or more formally by -mAk suretiyle/ yoluyla ‘by (means of)’:
(74) Ayten [her gün yürüyüş yaparak/yapmak suretiyle] kilo verdi.
‘Ayten lost weight [by going for a walk every day].’