Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 454
(i) yeter ki ‘all that is needed is…’, introducing the second conjunct, expresses a
condition that needs to be fulfilled in order for the state of affairs described in the first
conjunct to be fully realized:
(94) Sana iş bulacağım. Yeter ki sen bulduğum işi beğen.
‘I will find you a job. All that is needed is for you to like the job I find.’
(ii) Other connectives perform the opposite function, of specifying the conditionality (or
lack of it) of the second conjunct. They fall into three groups:
(a) o halde/öyleyse ‘in that case’ and o zaman ‘then’ treat the content of the first
conjunct as a knowable condition (27.3), which is assumed to be fulfilled:
(95) A.– Dükkanlar saat 5’te kapanıyormuş. (cf. Dükkanlar… kapanıyorsa)
‘Apparently the shops close at 5 o’clock.’
B.– O halde bugün alışveriş yapamayacağız.
‘In that case we won’t be able to do any shopping today.’
(b) yoksa, aksi halde/takdirde and sonra ‘otherwise’, by contrast, treat the relation
between the two sentences as a predictive conditional (27.2) in which the second
conjunct predicts what the consequence would be if the state of affairs were other
than what is described in the first conjunct:
(96) Herhalde evde oturmaktan çok sıkıldı. Yoksa bu soğukta sokağa
çıkmazdı.
‘S/he must have got very bored staying indoors. Otherwise s/he would never
have gone outside in this cold weather.’
aksi takdirde is formal. On the other hand, sonra in this usage is very informal, and the
sentence that it marks usually follows a command:
(97) Haydi ceketini giy. Üşürsün sonra.
‘Come on now, put your jacket on. Otherwise you’ll get cold.’
(c) nasılsa/nasıl olsa/zaten ‘in any case’, ‘anyway’
These items indicate that the statement to which they are attached is independent
of any conditionality:
(98) A.– Benim yüzümden boş yere para harcadın diye üzülüyorum.
‘I feel bad about you spending money unnecessarily on my account.’
B.– Yok canım, ben ZAten/NAsılsa yeni bir bavul alacaktım.
That’s nonsense; I was going to buy a new suitcase anyway.’
These items are always stressed. For unstressed zaten see 28.3.11.
(d) The expression ne de olsa ‘after all’ has universal conditional concessive
meaning (27.5.1):
(99) Sevil’in bunu bilmesi gerekir. Ne de olsa fizikçi.
‘Sevil ought to know this. After all, she is a physicist.’