The auxiliary verb ol at the morphology–syntax interface

A theoretically significant asymmetry in the behavior of the Turkish auxiliary ol- 'to be/become' in different clause types is argued to motivate two distinct analyses of its grammatical status & function. (1) In main clauses of the types gor-mus-tu-m 'I have /had seen' vs go...

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Published inTHE VERB IN TURKISH, Taylan, Eser Erguvanli [Ed], Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp 151-181 Vol. 44
Main Author Taylan, Eser Erguvanli
Format Book Chapter
LanguageEnglish
Published The Netherlands John Benjamins Publishing Company 2002
Subjects
LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS
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Summary:A theoretically significant asymmetry in the behavior of the Turkish auxiliary ol- 'to be/become' in different clause types is argued to motivate two distinct analyses of its grammatical status & function. (1) In main clauses of the types gor-mus-tu-m 'I have /had seen' vs gor-mus ol-du-m 'I ended up seeing', the auxiliary has an inherent aspectual sense, makes a semantic contribution, & is analyzed accordingly as a lexical verb; its visibility to the syntax is confirmed by its properties of allowing double negation & clitic insertion & blocking a set of temporal adverbials. (2) In object relative clauses of the types gor-du-g-um 'that I saw/am seeing' vs gor-mus ol-du-g-um 'that I saw', ol- has no semantic content & functions as a syntactically inactive morphological buffer required to support certain sequences of tense/aspect/mood suffixes that would otherwise be ungrammatical. 39 References. J. Hitchcock
Bibliography:SourceType-Books-1
ObjectType-Book Chapter-1
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ISBN:9789027227652
9027227659
ISSN:0166-0829