Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

28
CONJUNCTIONS, CO-ORDINATION AND
DISCOURSE CONNECTION
In Turkish a number of devices are used for co-ordinating phrases and/or sentences:
(i) The juxtaposition of two or more constituents (28.1)
(ii) The subordinating suffixes -(y)Ip and -(y)ArAk (28.2)
(iii) Conjunctions and connectives (28.3).
Certain items may be omitted when two or more phrases or clauses are conjoined. These
are discussed in 28.4.
28.1 THE JUXTAPOSITION OF TWO OR MORE CONSTITUENTS
One of the most common methods of co-ordinating two or more phrases or sentences is
simply to list them without using an overt co-ordinator. Note that Turkish uses simple
juxtaposition in many cases where English uses ‘and’ or ‘or’:
(1) siyah beyaz bir film
‘a black [and] white film’
(2) Öğleyin ekmek peynir yedim.
‘I had bread [and] cheese at lunch time.’
(3) Gece gündüz çalışıyoruz.
‘We’re working night [and] day.’
Apart from semi-lexicalized pairs such as those shown in (1)–(3), and juxtaposed
numeral pairs such as iki üç ‘two [or] three’ (15.7.1), constituents co-ordinated in this
way are often separated by a pause in speech, and at the end of all but the last of the
conjoined items there is rising intonation. In writing, listing in this manner requires a
comma:
(4) güzel, büyük, deniz manzaralı bir oda
‘a beautiful, large room with a view of the sea’
(5) Ziya pabuçlarını, paltosunu giydi, eline şemsiyesini aldı, işe gitti.
‘Ziya put on his shoes [and] coat, picked up his umbrella [and] left for work.’