Aslı Göksel

dA: a focus/topic associated clitic in Turkish☆

This article investigates the contribution of the clitic dA to the interpretation of an utterance and its role in the discourse structure of Turkish. It also attempts to provide a uniform analysis for some of the functions of dA, a clitic generally described as a multi-function particle fulfilling the roles of focalizer, topicalizer, additive and intensifier. The paper presents arguments to the effect that it is the interaction of dA with focus, i.e the affinity between the semantics of focus and that of dA, that has hitherto led to an analysis of dA as a focus particle. Focus introduces a presupposition with a lambda-operator and dA a presupposition with an existential operator. It is suggested that the principle difference between the semantics of focusing and the semantics of dA lies in the distinction between focus evoking a set of alternatives to an utterance and dA asserting the truth of one of these alternatives. The paper further argues against the claim that contrastive and presentational foci are semantically two separate phenomena. Contrastive and presentational foci are shown to be different manifestations of the same phenomenon in Turkish.

Prosodically constrained non-local doubling

Abstract In this article, we discuss non-local doubling in Greek and Turkish, a hitherto unanalysed aspect of these languages, and its implications for the interfaces. In non-local doubling, the reduplicated item is not located next to its base but at some other position in the clause depending on language-specific constraints. Interestingly, the attested type of doubling is not purely sensitive to syntactic nodes as in other languages (e.g. Dutch, Afrikaans), since we show that it targets a prosodic constituent. We argue that both Greek and Turkish employ an empty emphatic morpheme which has a two-legged exponence: One exponent is some phonological phrase in a clause and the other is its clone, placed farther than its source at the right periphery of the clause. We further discuss the variation between Greek and Turkish in terms of the prosodic structure of the two languages, showing that the differences lie in (i) the prosodic status of the copied element, (ii) the relative degree of free word order, and (iii) the properties of the right periphery (postverbal/postsentential). We thus propose that doubling is a general mechanism found across languages, and it is not only morphological or syntactic units, but also prosodic ones that can serve as input to this ubiquitous process.

Phrasal compounds in Turkish: Distinguishing citations from quotations

Abstract To date, studies of phrasal compounds, most of which are on Germanic languages, have been inconclusive with respect to whether the non-heads are phrases or quotations. In this paper, I present syntactic, semantic, and prosodic evidence from a typologically different language, Turkish, to distinguish between the two types. I will show that what look like equally complex constructions turn out to differ radically in complexity and in terms of their internal structure; phrases that are sensitive to syntax versus quotations which are not, and head-complement relations versus type-token relations. I further discuss the structural implications of having phrasal units within morphological units, arguing that this is a natural phenomenon within frameworks where the relation between morphology and syntax is bidirectional.

Turkey: Language Situation

This article presents the languages that are spoken in the Republic of Turkey, providing numbers of speakers where possible. It also gives a brief overview of the language policies from the end of the 19th century to the present day and the official status of the ethnic minority languages.