TURKISH GRAMMAR
ACADEMIC EDITION
2012
YKSEL GKNEL
TURKISH GRAMMAR ACADEMIC EDITION 2012
1
TURKISH GRAMMAR ACADEMIC EDITION 2012
2
TURKISH GRAMMAR
ACADEMIC EDITION
2012
YKSEL GKNEL
TURKISH GRAMMAR ACADEMIC EDITION 2012
3
TURKISH GRAMMAR
FOREWORD
The Turkish Grammar book that you have just started reading is quite different
from the grammar books that you read in schools. This kind of Grammar is known as
traditional grammar. The main difference of a traditional grammar and that of a
transformational one is that the first one describes a natural language as a static
object, but the second one describes both the parts of the language engine and how
it runs. This is like learning about a motionless car. There is something lacking in this
description. It is the dynamics of the parts of a car that runs a hundred and twenty
kilometers an hour.
Traditional grammars describe only the physical appearance of a language; they
do not mind what goes on behind the curtain. The mind of a human being works like
the engine of a sports car. It arranges and chooses words matching one another,
transforms simple sentence units to use in different parts of sentences, and recollects
morphemes and phonemes to be produced by the human speech organs. All these
activities are simultaneously carried out by the human mind.
Another point that the traditional grammarians generally miss is that they write the
grammar of a certain language to teach it to those who have been learning it from the
time when they were born up to the time when they discover something called
grammar. This is like teaching a language to professional speakers.
Then, what is the use of a grammar? I believe most people were acquainted with
it when they started learning a foreign language. Therefore, a grammar written for
those who are trying to learn a second language is very useful both in teaching and
learning a second language.
I started teaching English as a second language in 1952, a long time ago. Years
passed and one day I found myself as a postgraduate Fulbright student at the
University of Texas at Austin in 1960. Although I studied there for only a short period,
I learnt enough from Prof. Archibald A. Hill and Dr. De Camp to stimulate me to learn
more about Linguistics.
After I came back to Turkey, it was difficult to find books on linguistics in
booksellers in Istanbul. Thanks to The American Library in Istanbul, I was able to
borrow the books that attracted my attention.
In those books, I discovered Noam Chomsky, whose name I had not heard during my
stay in the U.S.A.
I must confess that I am indebted to the scholars and the library above in writing
this Turkish Grammar.
I am also grateful to my son Dr. zgr Gknel who encouraged me to write this
book and to Vivatinell Warwick U.K., which sponsored to publish it.
YKSEL GKNEL
TURKISH GRAMMAR ACADEMIC EDITION 2012
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TURKISH GRAMMAR ACADEMIC EDITION 2012
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TURKISH GRAMMAR ACADEMIC EDITION 2012
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TURKISH GRAMMAR
ACADEMIC EDITION
YKSEL GKNEL
Vivatinell Bilim-Kltr Yaynlar
2012
Grafik Tasarm Uygulamalar
Vivatinell Press
Selami Burhan GKAY
Vivatinell Cosmopharmaceutics
Fetih Mah. Tunca Sk. No:2 34704
Ataehir / stanbul / TRKYE
Tel: +90 216 470 09 44
Faks: +90 216 470 09 48
TURKISH GRAMMAR ACADEMIC EDITION 2012
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CONTENTS
Foreword 3
Contents 7
Logical, Morphemic, and Oral Sequencing 13
The Turkish Grammar 16
The Turkish Vowel and Consonant Harmony 17
The Vowel Harmony Sequence 17
The Consonant Harmony 19
Morphemes and Allomorphs 22
Derivational Morphemes and Their Allomorphs 23
Morphemes Attached to Nouns to Produce Nouns 23
Morphemes Attached to Nouns to Produce Adjectives 24
Morphemes Attached to Adjectives to Produce Nouns 27
Morphemes Attached to Verbs to Produce Nouns 28
Morphemes Attached to Verbs to Produce Adjectives 32
Morphemes Attached to Nouns to Produce Verbs 33
Morphemes Attached to Adjectives to Produce Verbs 34
Inflectional Morphemes and Their Allomorphs 34
Nominal Phrases 37
Adverbs and Adverbials 40
The Transformational Activity of the Logic 41
Form and Function in Languages 43
Using Adjectives as Adverbs 45
The Inflectional Morphemes 48
The Defining [] Morpheme and Its Allomorphs [i, , , u] 48
The [LE], [LE.YIN] and [E], [DE], [DEN] Inflectional Morphemes 53
[LE] allomorphs: [le, la] 53
[LE.YIN]: 54
[E], [DE], [DEN] and [LE] Morphemes 54
[E] allomorphs: [e, a] 56
[DE] allomorphs: [de, da, te, ta] 62
[DEN] allomorphs: [den, dan, ten, tan] 64
Possessor + Possessed Noun Compounds (sim Tamlamalar) 66
Definite Noun Compounds (Belirtili sim Tamlamalar) 66
Indefinite Noun Compounds (Belirtisiz sim Tamlamalar) 73
Noun Compounds Without Suffixes (Taksz Tamlamalar) 73
Noun + Infinitive Compounds (sim Mastar Tamlamalar) 75
Prepositions and Postpositions (Edatlar or lgeler) 76
TURKISH GRAMMAR ACADEMIC EDITION 2012
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Primary Stress, Secondary Stress, and Intonation 77
[E], [DE], [DEN] Morphemes + Postpositions 86
The Inflectional Morphemes Attached to Verbs 93
The Simple Present be 94
The Present Modals with Verb be 103
must be 103
cant be 105
may be 106
may not be 107
The "yes - no" Questions Used With Verb "be" 108
have to be, should be, ought to be, neednt be 109
have to be (zorundaym) 109
neednt be (gerek yok) 110
The Simple Past Verb be 111
Interrogative Words 114
[M] (Rumor, Inference) (sylenti, anlam karma) 118
The Future Form of be (will be) 120
there is, there are; have, (have got) 121
there used to be, there used to have 122
there must (may) be, there cant be, there is going to be 123
Imperatves and Wshes 123
Wsh 125
The Simple Present Tense (Geni Zaman) 127
The Verbs Ending with Vowels or Consonants 131
Some Nouns Used Together With et, `yap, ile to Produce Verbs 132
The Negative Form of The Simple Present Tense 134
The Simple Present Positive Question 135
The Simple Present Negative Question 137
The Question Words Used in the Simple Present Tense 139
The Present Continuous and the Present Perfect Continuous 141
The Verbs That Are Not Used in the Simple Present in Turkish 146
Turkish Verb Frames (Trkede Fiil atlar) 148
Transitive and Intransitive Verb Frames 148
Reflexive Verb Frames 149
The Passive Transformation of the Intransitive Verbs 150
Reciprocal Verb Frames (te Fiiller) 152
Both Transitively and Intransitively Used English Verbs 153
The Simple Past and the Present Perfect 159
Mili Past Tense (Rumor and Inference) (Mili Gemi) 167
TURKISH GRAMMAR ACADEMIC EDITION 2012
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The Simple Future and be going to 171
The Past Continuous Tense 174
The Past Perfect Continuous Tense 178
Was (were) going to 178
used to 179
The Rumor Forms of The Simple Present and The Present Cont. 181
The Past Perfect Tense 182
The Future Continuous Tense 183
The Future Perfect Tense 184
Infinitives (Mastarar) 185
The [mek, mak] Infinitives 185
The [me, ma] Infinitives 185
The [i, , , u] Infinitives 185
The [dik, dk, dk, duk, tik, tk, tk, tuk] Infinitives 185
Where and How the Infinitives Are Used 187
1.(a) The [mek, mak] Infinitives Used as Subject 187
1.(b) The [mak, mak] Infinitives Used before Postpositions 187
1.(c) The [mek, mak] Infinitives Used as Objects of iste 189
1.(d) The [mek, mak] Infinitives Used Attached to [DEN] Morph. 189
2.(a) The [me, ma] Infinitives Used Attached to Noun Compounds 190
2.(b) noun+infinitive-[], and V-[me-/y/i], V-[ma]-/y/] 192
2.(c) noun+infinitive-[e, a] 196
2.(d) noun+infinitive Compounds Followed by [den, dan] 196
3.(a) noun+infinitive-[], [E], [DE], [DEN] 197
4.(a) possessor noun+ V-[dik, dk, dk, duk, tik, tk, tk, tuk] 198
The Passive Infinitive 199
Modals 201
Present Modals 201
can, may [ebil, abil] 201
must [meli, mal] 205
have to (zorunda) 207
neednt (dont have to) 208
should (ought to) 209
Past Modals 211
Could 211
was (were) able to 212
would, could (polite request) 213
Perfect Modals 214
must have 214
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cant (couldnt) have 216
should have (ought to have) 217
may have 218
might have 219
neednt h