Conditionals in Turkish
A classification based on function
Defined as the relation between two propositions, conditionals are composed of a protasis -“p”- and an apodosis -“q”-. Languages employ different strategies to construct a conditional. The most common way is to express the protasis in an explicit manner (Bhatt & Pancheva 2005: 642). This study is based on the hypothesis that the positions of the protasis and apodosis determine the functions of the Turkish conditional clauses with the conditional copula ise, its cliticized allomorph -(y)sA, and the conditional suffix -sA ”. With this objective in mind, the answers to the following research questions have been sought; “What are the positions of protasis/if-subordinate clause and apodosis/main clause in conditionals of Turkish?”, “What are the functions of the conditional clause depending on the positions of the protasis/if-subordinate clause and apodosis/main clause?” To answer these research questions a database consisting of eight different detective novels was studied, and these novels were analyzed according to Declerck and Reed’s (2001) approach to the conditional clauses. According to the findings of our analysis the unmarked order of the conditionals in Turkish is ‘protasis + apodosis’ and Turkish conditional clauses mostly undertake the purely case-specifying function and maintain this through the conditional clauses named ‘purely case-specifying P-clause specifying the circumstances under which the perception of the Q-situation may take place’. We have observed that the conditional information can be processed with the help of the case-specifying function of Turkish conditional clauses which occupies the unmarked order in the listener/reader’s mind. In terms of their unmarked orders, however, Turkish conditional clauses mostly assume the comment function by encoding “Hedging-P conditionals” and the speaker presents the content of the apodosis via the functions of protasis.
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LIST OF THE NOVELS IN THE DATABASE
Akbay, Ercan
2007 Tilki Tilki Saat Kaç? İstanbul: Arion Yayınevi
Ersoy, Servet
2007 Karanlıktaki Saltanat: Asil Kanın Son Efendileri. İstanbul: Karakutu Yay.
Dikenelli, Çağan
2006 Kör Fahişe Bıçağı. İstanbul: Oğlak Yayınları
Sezgintüredi, Algan
2007 Katilin Meselesi. İstanbul: Versus Kitap Yay.
Taşçıoğlu, Cihat
2008 Gereği Düşünüldü. İstanbul: A.P.R.I.L Yay.
Tayman, M. Enis
2007 Bin Delikli Ev. İstanbul: Altın Bilek Yay.
Ülsever, Cüneyt
2008 Hisarüstü Cinayetleri. İstanbul: Everest Yay.
Ümit, Ahmet
2006 Beyoğlu Rapsodisi. İstanbul: Doğan Kitapçılık
Cited by
Cited by 1 other publications
DENİZER, Faik Utkan
2023.
KARŞIOLGUSAL VE HAYALÎ KOŞUL CÜMLELERİ ÜZERİNE.
Hacettepe Üniversitesi Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi (HÜTAD)
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