Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

27
CONDITIONAL SENTENCES
From the functional point of view, conditional clauses are a sub-type of adverbial clauses
(Chapter 26). However, their expression in Turkish differs from that of other adverbial
clauses in that the subordinating verb forms they contain are more closely related to finite
verb forms than to converbs. Person marking of the predicate of a conditional clause is
effected not by the use of possessive suffixes but by one of the sets of person markers
used on finite verbs (8.4):
(1) [Şura-da otur-sa-nız]daha rahat ed-er-siniz.
here-LOC sit-COND-2PL more comfortable be-AOR-2PL
‘You’d be more comfortable [if you sat here].’
(2) [Öykü-yü d aha bitir-me-di-niz-se] daha sonra da
story-ACC yet finish-NEG-PF-2SG/PL-COND.COP later also oku-yabil-ir-im.
read-PSB-AOR-1SG
‘[If you haven’t finished [writing] the story yet] I can read it later.’
This chapter begins with a brief review of the grammatical marking of conditional
clauses, devoting most attention to the suffixes -sA and -(y)sA and their distribution
(27.1). Since the choice of conditional marker depends upon the function of the
conditional clause in relation to the sentence as a whole, we proceed to discuss three main
functional types of conditional sentence. Predictive conditionals, which express a
predictable relation between two situations, are explained in 27.2. Then in 27.3 we look
at knowable conditions, which usually serve as background for an inference, a question,
or some kind of volitional utterance (e.g. a command or request). Section 27.4 deals with
further uses of -sA and -(y)sA as subordinators, including concessive forms with dA and
bile, and 27.5 discusses universal conditional clauses, which contain a question phrase
in addition to a conditional marker. Finally in 27.6 we review alternative types of
conditional construction which do not involve conditional suffixes.
27.1 THE GRAMMATICAL MARKING OF CONDITIONAL
CLAUSES
27.1.1 THE VERBAL SUFFIX -sA AND THE COPULAR MARKER -
(y)sA (OR ise)
We use the term ‘conditional clause’ to denote the subordinate clause in a conditional
sentence, that is the one corresponding to the ‘if’ clause in an English conditional
sentence. With the exception of the constructions described in 27.6, all conditional
clauses in Turkish are marked in one of two ways: