(yağ*mur / bi*zim / za*ma:*nın*da / ti*yat*ro*ya / git*me*mi*zi / en*gel*le*di ↷)
The rain prevented us from going to the theatre in time. NP V NP prep phrs prep phrs prep phrs
adverbial adverbial adverbial
(Ben) (sen-in) böyle davran-ma-an-ı anla-ma-ı.yor-um. (dav*ran*ma*nı)
NP possessor adverb possessed V
noun + inf compound (obj) NP
I don’t understand your behaving like that.
(Ben) (o/n/-dan) (Ben-im) siyah pantolon-um-u (o-/n/un) ütüle-me-/s/i-/n/i rica ettim.
NP adverbial possessor possessed possessor possessed V
noun comp + [İ] (obj of “ütüle”) noun comp + [İ] (obj of “rica et”) NP NP
chain noun compound
The mental development of this last sentence contains two simple sentenc- es:
1 . O ben-im siyah pantolonum-u ütülesin. 2. Ben ondan bu-/n/u rica ettim.
The first simple sentence is transformed and nominalized as “onun benim siyah pantolonumu ütülemesi”, and then it is embedded and used in place
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(Ben) o/n/-dan (benim) siyah pantolon-um-u (onun) ütüle-me-/s/i-/n/i rica etti-im.
(si*yah / pan*to*lo*nu*mu / ü*tü*le*me*/s/i*/n/i / ri*ca: / et*tim ↷)
I asked her to iron my black trousers.
“Ben”, “benim” and “onun” words are optional because they are understood from the suffixes in “etti-/im/", "pantolon-um” and “ütüle-me-/s/i
(Ben) Mary’/n/in piyano çal-ma-/s/ı-/n/ı seyrettim. NP possessor N (obj of “çal”) possessed |
NP V VP (ma*ri*nin / pi*ya*no / çal*ma*sı*nı / sey*ret*tim ↷)
I watched Mary playing the piano.
(The /n/, /s/ and /n/ glides are respectively used.)
(Ben) (Sen-in) ev-e dön-me-en-i bekle-i.yor-um. (e*ve / dön*me*ni) NP possessor adv possessed |
noun compound (object) NP V
VP
I am waiting for your coming back home.
O/n/un konuş-ma-/s/ı-/n/ı anla-ma-ı.yor-um.
(o*nun / ko*nuş*ma*sı*nı / an*la*mı*yo*rum ↷)
I don’t understand his way of speaking.
(The /n/, /s/ and /n/ glides are respectively used.)
(Sen) (Ben-im) sana kahve getir-me-em-i iste-er mi-sin?
(sa*na / kah*ve / ge*tir*me*mi / is*ter / mi*sin ↷)
Would you like me to serve you coffee?
(Ben-im) onun-la evlen-me-em imkân-sız. possessor adverbial possessed V
noun compound (subject) (o*nun*la / ev*len*mem / im*kân*sız ↷)
It is impossible for me to marry her. (“Benim” is optional.)
(Ben) onu, (o-nun) bize yardım et-me-/s/i için ikna et-ti-im. (
ik*na:
/ et*tim)subj obj noun + inf comp (object of “için”) postp. V postpositional phrase of purpose
I convinced him to help us
In the sentence above, the /s/ is a glide; “onun” is not necessary, it is put there to show the reader the deleted "possessor" part of the compound.
Mektubu (ben-im) tekrar yaz-ma-am-ı rica etti.
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Tüm erkekler tüm kadın-lar-ın güzel gör-ün-me-/s/i-/n/i iste-er. (tüm / er*kek*ler / tüm / ka*dın*la*rın / gü*zel / gö*rün*me*si*ni / is*ter ↷) All men want all women to look beautiful.
In the sentences above, “bizim gitmemiz”, “senin davranman”, “onun ütüle- mesi”, “beklemenin faydası”, “Mary’nin piyano çalması”, “(senin) eve dön- men”, “(benim) getirmem”, “onun konuşması”, “(benim) evlenmem”, “onun yardım etmesi”, and “tüm kadınların güzel görünmesi” are all “noun + infini- tive” compounds that have been transformed from the simple sentences by the transformational component in order to be used in phrase structure pat- terns. The transformational component performs this mental activity to shape and use the simple sentences in phrase structure patterns. As the aim of this activity of the mind is to build up infinite oral sentences out of simple senten-
ces, it may be reasonable to call such phrases as “syntactic”, which means
that such oral nominal phrases have been built up for syntactic purposes.
As important information, we have to assert that all the allomorphs used in transforming simple sentences are inflectional allomorphs because these allomorphs help simple sentences to be used in longer sentences without changing their simple sentence concepts.
In the following lines the simple sentences are printed in italics, and the
transformed “noun + infinitive” compounds are printed in bold face, which
have been produced for syntactic purposes. By the way, it is necessary to remember that the meaning of an oral sentence is always hidden in the sim- ple sentence underlying an oral sentence. Listeners and readers can under- stand an oral sequence so long as they realize the morphemic sequence underlying the oral sequence.
Read the simple sentences, and the “syntactic nominal phrases” pro-
duced by the transformational rules of the Turkish language:
Biz tiyatroya gidecektik. ↻ “bizim tiyatroya gidecek ol-ma-a.mız”
Sen böyle davranıyorsun. ↻ “senin böyle davran-ma-an, davran-dık-ın"
(O) siyah pantolonumu ütülesin. ↻ “siyah pantolonumu ütülemesi, ütülediği"
Mary piyano çalıyordu.↻ “Mary’nin piyano çal-ma-/s/ı, çal-dık-ı"
Sen eve dön-dü-ün. ↻ “senin eve dön-me-en, dön-dük-ün"
O konuşur. ↻ “onun konuş-ma-/s/ı, konuş-tuk-u"
Ben kahve getiririm. ↻ “benim kahve getir-me-em, getirdik-im”
Ben onunla evlenirim. ↻ “benim onunla evlen-me-em, evlen-dik-im”
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Ben mektubu tekrar yazayım. ↻ “benim mektubu tekrar yaz-ma-am”
Ben bir mektup yazmıştım.↻ “benim mektup yaz-mış ol-ma-am”
As it is seen in the noun compounds above, when sentences are trans- formed and nominalized, they lose their time concepts like all infinitives. The “benim”, “senin” parts of the compounds may be ignored, and so, only “tiyattroya gitmemiz” or “mektubu tekrar yazmam” can be used as noun com- pounds without the possessor adjectives.
Bekle-me-/n/in fayda-/s/ı yok. It is no use waiting.
(Literally: "There is not the use of waiting") (“beklemenin faydası” is an “in- finitive + noun” compound used as the subject of the sentence.
(Sen) (ben-im) şemsiye-em-i geri getir-me-/y/i unut-ma. (şem*si*ye*mi / ge*ri / ge*tir*me*yi / u*nut*ma ↷) Don’t forget to bring my umbrella back.
In the example above, the /y/ glide is used between the /e/ phoneme and the
[i] defining allomorph. The “sen” and “benim” words can naturally be ignored.
Biz-im takım kazan-ma-/y/ı haket-ti. (bi*zim / ta*kım / ka*zan*ma*yı / ha*ket*ti ↷)
Our team deserved to win.
Eski araba-a.mız-ı sat-ma-/y/ı ertele-di-ik.
(es*ki / a*ra*ba*mı*zı / sat*ma*yı / er*te*le*dik ↷) We postponed selling our old car.
“Arabamız-ı” is the object of “satmak”; “eski arabamızı satma/y/ı” is the ob- ject of “ertelemek”.
Yüz-me-/y/i bana baba-am öğret-ti.
(yüz*me*yi / ba*na / ba*bam / öğ*ret*ti ↷)
My father taught me (how) to swim.
(O) biz-im-le Bursa’ya git-me-/y/i kabul et-ti. (liaison) (bi*zim*le / bur*sa*ya / git*me*yi / ka*bu:*let*ti ↷)
He agreed to go to Bursa with us.
Hırsız kasa-/y/ı aç-ma-/y/ı dene-di.
(hır*sız / ka*sa*yı / aç*ma*yı / de*ne*di ↷) The thief tried opening the safe.
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Yeni bir araba al-ma-/y/ı düşün-ü.yor-uz.
(ye*ni / bir / a*ra*ba / al*ma*yı / dü*şü*nü*yo*ruz ↷) We are considering buying a new car.
Note: The infinitives above are all printed in bold face.