Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Glossary of grammatical terms 473
expressing the basic notion there is an x (in y), and possessive, expressing the basic
notion x has y (where is and has stand for any form of the verbs be and have
respectively)
finite clause a clause whose predicate is either a finite verb or identical in form to a
nominal sentence
finite verb form a verb form that can occur in a simple sentence or main clause
focused (of a sentence constituent) emphasized by being pronounced with heavy stress
fricative (consonant) produced through friction in the vocal tract resulting from two
organs (e.g. tongue and teeth) coming very close together
front (of a vowel) articulated with the tongue positioned at the front of the oral cavity
generic the status of a noun phrase that (in any given utterance) is used with a
generalizing function, to refer to an entire class of entities, or to a(ny) typical member
of that class (e.g. drugs in Drugs can kill or the tiger in The tiger is a carnivore)
genitive one of the five case markers (-(n)In), marking a noun phrase either as the
possessor of another entity expressed in the sentence, or as the subject of certain types
of subordinate clause
genitive-attracting pronouns a set of pronouns which, when not plural-marked, require
genitive case marking with certain postpositions
genitive-possessive construction a composite noun phrase consisting of a genitivemarked
noun phrase followed by a noun phrase marked with a possessive suffix: benim
ad-ım ‘my name’, kitab-ın fiyat-ı ‘the price of the book’
glide a consonant whose articulation does not involve any closure or friction, also called
a semi-vowel
glottal stop consonantal sound produced by the audible release of a complete closure at
the glottis (the aperture in the larynx between the vocal cords)
habitual (of an imperfective verb form) presenting a situation as part of a recurring
pattern
hard palate the hard bony area in the roof of the mouth between the alveolar ridge and
the velum
head (i) the obligatory constituent (cf. modifier) of certain types of phrase: in particular,
the verb in a verb phrase and the constituent furthest to the right in a noun phrase;
(ii) the last constituent of a noun compound
high vowel a vowel produced by raising the tongue above its neutral position
imperative a finite verb form expressing a command
imperfective (of a verb form) expressing a situation from an internal temporal aspect, as
being in some sense incomplete and ongoing (e.g. gidiyordum ‘I was going’, ‘I used to
go’); see progressive and habitual
impersonal passive a form that occurs in Turkish but not in English, namely the passive
form of an intransitive verb (e.g. sevinilir ‘one is pleased’, ‘people are pleased’)
indefinite the status of a noun phrase that either
(i) refers to a specific entity (or set of entities) known to the speaker, but assumed not to
be familiar to, or identifiable by, the addressee(s) (e.g. a tiger in we saw a tiger today)
or (ii) denotes a non-specific entity (or set of entities), whose identity is unknown or
unknowable to the speaker (e.g. a tiger in I’ve never seen a tiger)
indirect command a noun clause whose content would, if converted into an independent
sentence, express a command (e.g. to wait there in They told me to wait there)