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turkish phonology and morphology (türkçe ses ve b‹ç‹mb‹lg‹s‹)

turkish phonology and morphology (türkçe ses ve b‹ç‹mb‹lg‹s‹)

turkish phonology and morphology (türkçe ses ve b‹ç‹mb‹lg‹s‹)

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98<br />

Turkish Phonology <strong>and</strong> Morphology (Türkçe Ses <strong>ve</strong> Biçim Bilgisi)<br />

expressed on nouns, <strong>and</strong> they mark number, gender, case. Verbal categories are<br />

expressed on <strong>ve</strong>rbs, <strong>and</strong> they mark (a) tense, aspect <strong>and</strong> mood (TAM); (b) polarity:<br />

negati<strong>ve</strong> vs positi<strong>ve</strong>; (c) voice: acti<strong>ve</strong>, passi<strong>ve</strong>, reflexi<strong>ve</strong>, reciprocal,causati<strong>ve</strong>; <strong>and</strong> (d)<br />

agreement in number <strong>and</strong> person.<br />

Before we proceed, it should be noted that a grammatical category is a linguistic<br />

category, not a real world category; <strong>and</strong> there may not always be a one-to one<br />

correspondance between the two. For example, tense is a linguistic category<br />

marking the world category of time. While the past tense marker -DI usually<br />

expres<strong>ses</strong> a past time as in Dün erken kalkt›m, the same morpheme expres<strong>ses</strong><br />

future or present in Geldim, geldim! as a response to a ringing doorbell. Similarly,<br />

the linguistic category plural number marks the world category more than one.<br />

Howe<strong>ve</strong>r, Ali’ler does not necessarily mean that there is more than one Ali.<br />

Nominal Categories<br />

Number<br />

Number is a grammatical category which indicates whether or not a member of<br />

the related word class is singular or plural. The morpheme -lAr in Turkish is<br />

employed to con<strong>ve</strong>y the concept of plurality, <strong>and</strong> lack of it implies singularity.<br />

Number inflection in Turkish is particularly seen in nouns (ev/evler),<br />

demonstrati<strong>ve</strong>s (bu/bunlar, flu/flunlar, o/onlar), personal pronouns (ben/biz,<br />

sen/siz, o/onlar), pos<strong>ses</strong>si<strong>ve</strong> determiners (benim/bizim, senin/sizin, onun/onlar›n),<br />

pos<strong>ses</strong>si<strong>ve</strong> pronouns (benimki/bizimki, seninki/sizinki, onunki/onlar›nki),<br />

reflexi<strong>ve</strong> pronouns (kendim/kendimiz, kendin/kendiniz, kendi/kendileri). Bare<br />

nouns are unspecified in terms of number. They represent a categorial meaning<br />

rather than representing a member of that category. For example, insan refers to<br />

the category human, bir insan refers to a single member of the category human<br />

that exists in the uni<strong>ve</strong>rse, <strong>and</strong> insanlar indicates indefinite number of members<br />

of the category human.<br />

It is your turn!<br />

Look at the It number is your turn! taking word clas<strong>ses</strong> gi<strong>ve</strong>n abo<strong>ve</strong>. Do you think they can enter into<br />

1<br />

double plural<br />

1<br />

marking?<br />

It is your turn!<br />

2<br />

In addition to the inflectional morpheme -lAr, the idea of number is con<strong>ve</strong>yed<br />

It is your turn!<br />

by a number of pronouns <strong>and</strong> adjecti<strong>ve</strong>s as well.<br />

2<br />

Singular : her, her bir, biri, hiç kimse, hiçbiri, bir<br />

It is your turn!<br />

Plural : It bir is your çok, turn! çok, birkaç, baz›, iki, üç, on<br />

3 3<br />

An interesting property of Turkish number marking is the lack of it in ca<strong>ses</strong><br />

It is your turn!<br />

4<br />

where plurality is explicitly marked with other quantifiers such as numbers. The<br />

It is your turn!<br />

ungrammaticality of *on sorular shows that Turkish economizes on using markers<br />

4<br />

having similar functions consecuti<strong>ve</strong>ly. Both on <strong>and</strong> -lar con<strong>ve</strong>y the idea of more<br />

It is your turn!<br />

5<br />

than one; therefore, only one, namely the quantifier, is used so as to avoid<br />

It is your turn!<br />

redundancy.<br />

5<br />

It is your turn!<br />

It is your turn!<br />

6 6<br />

It is your turn!<br />

It is your turn!<br />

7 7<br />

It is your turn! It is your turn!

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