Turkish/Postpositions

Turkish has many postpositions, which are used the same way as prepositions in English. Unlike in English, which postposition you can use depends on the noun's case.

With genitive and absolute

The following are used after the genitive pronouns benim, bizim, senin, sizin, onun, and kimin, and after the absolute case of other pronouns and nouns:

• gibi "like, as";
• için "for";
• ile "with";
• kadar (Arabic) "as much as".

In colloquial speech; gibi, ile and kadar may be used with nominative pronouns as well, but this is to be avoided in written language.

For example, a certain corporation may describe its soft-drink as

buz gibi "like ice", that is, "ice cold".

However, another corporation may say of itself

Gibisi yok "Its-like non-existent", that is, "There's nothing like it".

Thus the label of postposition does not adequately describe gibi; Turkish vocabulary#Schaaik proposes calling it a predicate, because of its use in establishing similarity:

Eşek gibisin "Thou art like a donkey";
beni küçümseyecekmiş gibi bir duygu "me s/he-will-look-down-on like a feeling", that is,           
"a feeling as if s/he will look down on me".

The particle ile can be both comitative and instrumental; it can also join the preceding word as a suffix:

Deniz ile konuştuk or Deniz'le konuştuk "Deniz and I [or we], we spoke": 

here the literal translation "We spoke with Deniz" may be incorrect (I spoke : konuştum);

çekiç ile vur- or çekiçle vur- "hit with a hammer".

Pronouns are supposed to be used in genitive form, but they are often not so in colloquial speech.

Senin kadar zeki değilim. or Sen kadar zeki değilim. (Informal)

With dative

Used after nouns and pronouns in the dative case are:

• doğru "towards";
• göre "according to";
• kadar "as far as";
• karşı "against".

With ablative

• önce/sonra "before/after";
• beri "since";
• itibaren (Arabic) "from…on";
• dolayı "because of".

With absolute

The following postpositions are case-forms of nouns with the third-person possessional suffix; they can be understood as forming nominal compounds, always indefinite, with the preceding words (see also Turkish grammar#Nouns):

• bakımdan "from the point of view of" (bak- "look");
• hakkında "concerning, about" (hak "right, justice");
• tarafından "by the agency of" (taraf "side");
• yüzünden "because of" (yüz "face").

References

Books of use in the writing of this article include:

• Grammars:
  • Kaya Can, Yabancılar İçin Türkçe-İngilizce Açıklama Türkçe Dersleri, Ankara: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen ve Edebiyat Fakültesi, 1991. "Turkish lessons with Turkish-English explanation[s] for foreigners".
  • G. L. Lewis, Turkish Grammar, Oxford University Press, 1967; second edition, 2000. [Structural differences between the two editions are not named in the second, but appear to be as follows: IV,4 "-çe", VI,7 "Arithmetical terms", XI,16 "-diğinde", and XII,25 "tâ" are new, while XV,1 "Nominal sentences and verbal sentences" in the first edition was dropped.
  • Eran Oyal, Sözcüklerin Anlamsal ve Yapısal Özellikleri: Konular, Örnekler, Sorular, Açıklama Yanıtlar (ÖSS ve ÖYS için Dil Yeteneği Dizisi 2), Ankara, 1986. "Semantic and syntactic properties of words: subjects, examples, questions, answers with explanation (language ability for the university entrance examinations, 2)".
  • Atilla Özkırımlı, Türk Dili, Dil ve Anlatım, İstanbul Bilgi Üniversitesi Yayınları 2001. "The Turkish language, language, and expression".
  • Bengisu Rona, Turkish in Three Months, Hugo's Language Books Limited, 1989.
  • Gerjan van Schaaik, The Bosphorus Papers: Studies in Turkish Grammar 1996–1999, İstanbul: Boğaziçi University Press, 2001.
• Dictionaries:
  • İsmet Zeki Eyuboğlu, Türk Dilinin Etimoloji Sözlüğü, expanded and revised second edition, 1991.
  • H.-J. Kornrumpf, Langenscheidt's Universal Dictionary: English-Turkish, Turkish-English, Istanbul; new edition revised and updated by Resuhi Akdikmen, 1989.
  • Redhouse Yeni Türkçe-İngilizce Sözlük. New Redhouse Turkish-English Dictionary. Redhouse Yayınevi, İstanbul, 1968 (12th ed., 1991).
  • Redhouse Büyük Elsözlüğü İngilizce-Türkçe, Türkçe-İngilizce. The Larger Redhouse Portable Dictionary English-Turkish, Turkish-English. Redhouse Yayınevi, İstanbul 1997 (9th printing, 1998).
  • Türk Dil Kurumu [Turkish Language Foundation], Türkçe Sözlük, expanded 7th edition, 1983.

External links

• Turkish dictionaries at Curlie
• Turkish language at Curlie

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