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

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Turkish Phonology and Morphology (Türkçe Ses ve Biçim Bilgisi)
Reduplication
Another means of word formation in Turkish is the process called reduplication.
It involves copying some part of the underlying stem to various extent. One type
is realized by repeating the leftmost syllable of the stem accompanied by the
insertion of one of the consonants /p/, /m/, /s/, /r/. This is called partial
reduplication. Some examples are ipince from ince, s›ms›k› from s›k›, masmavi
from mavi, and tertemiz from temiz. This formative process is applied to adjectives
and adverbs in Turkish to create augmented meanings such as “increase in size”
or “added intensity” in Sapir’s terms (1921: 78). So, contrasted meanings after
reduplication in the above examples are thin vs too thin, tight vs utterly tight, blue
vs all blue, and clean vs utterly clean respectively. The reduplicated leftmost
portion serves as the modifier of the affected stem.
Augmented meanings can also be created by copying the entire stem yielding
full reduplication. This process applies to all word classes except conjunctions
and post positions (Demircan, 2001: 85): [h›zl› h›zl›] yürüdü (adverb), [mavi mavi]
boncuklar (adjective), [kap› kap›] dolaflt› (noun), [sus sus] s›ra sana gelsin (verb),
[kim kim] gittiniz (pronoun), [Ah ah]! (interjection). Unlike partial reduplication,
full reduplication does not exhibit a modifier modified relationship. The words
that are paired are of equal status, and they both modify the following form, not
each other. Augmentation in these examples emphasizes continuance or
repetition in verbs, intensity in modifiers and interjections, and plurality in
varying degrees of intensity in nouns and pronouns.
Before we conclude our discussion on reduplication, some formal features of
this word formation process can be emphasized.
It can be said that the duplicative process is of somewhat grammatical
significance in Turkish. Manner adverbs are formed from adjectives by full
reduplication. For example, h›zl› in h›zl› tren cannot be used as an adjective when
duplicated: *h›zl› h›zl› tren. Yet it is perfectly acceptable when used with a verb as
an adverb: h›zl› h›zl› yürüdü. There are also frequency adverbs formed in this
way: zaman zaman, s›k s›k.
Phonologically, reduplication in Turkish allows sound alternations to form
rhyming pairs. One example is consonant alternation: s>f as in s›k› f›k›, k>s as in
kaba saba, s>p as in sus pus 1 . Another example is the internal vowel alternation
as in çar çur, hart hurt, zart zurt. These words are called mimetic words
since they are created by imitating the stem. Some mimetic words have matching
counterparts including what is called extenders. For example, f›r f›r, har har, z›r
z›r can be extended into f›r›l f›r›l, har›l har›l, z›r›l z›r›l. The extended forms mark
semantically more intensive meanings and this difference is achieved only by
adding the extender -›l. There are some infixing extenders as well: z›ng›r z›ng›r,
güldür güldür which are claimed to be extended from z›r z›r and gür gür (Ido,
1999: 67-72).
Another productive phonological process produces forms which are called
doublets with /m/ (Lewis, 1967: 237). /m/ is added initially to the words with
initial vowels: ar› mar›, or replaces the initial consonants in words with initial
consonants: sar› mar›. The new meaning added by this way is either that of
vagueness or of etcetera/and the like. (Demircan, 2001: 87; Johanson, 1998: 50).
Other examples include televizyon melevizyon (tevizyon and the like, televizyon