TURKISH: A COMPREHENSIVE GRAMMAR

Aug 24, 2026

Comprehensive grammar reference for Modern Turkish, covering the language’s sound system, word structure, and sentence architecture in a systematic progression. The contents address phonology topics such as vowel harmony, word stress, and intonation, then move to morphology including suffixation principles, derivation, inflectional suffixes, and noun compounds. The syntax section develops sentence types and core constituents, including verb phrases, noun phrases, clause structure, word order, questions, negation, tense/aspect/modality, and related constructions, supported by appendices, glossary, and index.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryExam

FormatPDF

Pages535

Reading Time22 h 28 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Turkish and its speakers

Contents

Phonology: the sound system

Morphology: the structure of words

Syntax: the structure of sentences

Appendix 1 Reduplicated stems

Appendix 2 Tense/aspect/modality suffixes

Glossary of grammatical terms

Bibliography

Index

TURKISH: A COMPREHENSIVE GRAMMAR Routledge Comprehensive Grammars Comprehensive Grammars are available for the following languages: Modern Written Arabic Cantonese Catalan Chinese Danish Dutch Greek Indonesian Japanese Slovene Swedish Turkish Ukrainian Modern Welsh Titles of related interest Colloquial Turkish: A Complete Course for Beginners Jeroen Aarssen andAd Backus Dictionary of the Turkic Languages Kurtuluş Öztopçu, Zhoumagaly Abuov, Nasir Kambarov and Youssef Azemoun TURKISH: A COMPREHENSIVE GRAMMAR Aslı Göksel and Celia Kerslake LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2005 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2006. “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to [http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/](http://www.ebookstore.tandf.co.uk/).” © 2005 Aslı Göksel and Celia Kerslake All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data has been applied for ISBN 0-203-34076-0 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-415-11494-2 (pbk) ISBN 0-415-21761-X (hbk) CONTENTS Acknowledgements vii Introduction viii Abbreviations xvii List of conventions observed in this book xx The Turkish alphabet and writing conventions xxii Part 1 Phonology: the sound system 1 1 Phonological units 2 Sound changes produced in the stem by suffixation 3 Vowel harmony 4 Word stress 5 Intonation and sentence stress Part 2 Morphology: the structure of words 6 Principles of suffixation 7 Word classes, derivation and derivational suffixes 8 Inflectional suffixes 9 Reduplication 10 Noun compounds 11 Clitics 3 14 21 26 35 41 43 49 65 90 94 100 Part 3 Syntax: the structure of sentences 107 12 Simple and complex sentences 109 13 The verb phrase 126 14 The noun phrase 144 15 Adjectival constructions, determiners and numerals 170 16 Adverbial constructions 189 17 Postpositional phrases 214 18 Pronouns 230 19 Questions 251 20 Negation 271 21 Tense, aspect and modality 283 22 Definiteness, specificity and generic reference 322 23 Word order 337 24 Noun clauses 351 25 Relative clauses 380 26 Adverbial clauses 399 27 Conditional sentences 419 28 Conjunctions, co-ordination and discourse connection 438 Appendix 1 Reduplicated stems 462 Appendix 2 Tense/aspect/modality suffixes 465 Glossary of grammatical terms 470 Bibliography 480 Index 484 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The present book would not have been in the form it is had it not been for the generous feedback of the following colleagues, friends and students, linguists and teachers and users of Turkish, who read and commented on parts of the manuscript: Didar Akar,Öznur Ayman, Ercan Balcı, Cem Çakır, Georgia Catsimali, Monik Charette, Ruth Christie, Ann Denwood, Dilek Elçin, Eser Erguvanlı-Taylan, Kate Fleet, Jorge Hankamer, Katerina Hardiman, Atakan İnce, Meltem Kelepir, Elisabeth Kendall, Wilfried Meyer-Viol, Mine Nakipoğlu-Demiralp and A. Sumru Özsoy. We are grateful to all these people for sparing the time to help us in this way. We owe special thanks to Ceyda Arslan for reading the whole manuscript meticulously. Her detailed and insightful corrections helped us avoid many errors. Dimitris Antoniou and Andras Ried

FAQs

What topics are covered in the phonology section?

The phonology part explains phonological units, stem sound changes caused by suffixation, vowel harmony, word stress, and intonation and sentence stress.

What does the morphology section include?

It covers the principles of suffixation, word classes and derivational suffixes, inflectional suffixes, reduplication, noun compounds, and clitics.

Which syntax topics are included in the sentence structure section?

The syntax section addresses simple and complex sentences, verb and noun phrases, adjectival constructions and determiners, adverbial constructions, postpositional phrases, pronouns, questions, negation, tense/aspect/modality, word order, and multiple types of clauses including relative and conditional sentences.

Aug 24, 2026

Uploaded by Clementine