Mood: mood
| Values: | Cnd | CndGen | CndPot | Des | Gen | GenNec | GenPot | Imp | Ind | Nec | Opt | Pot | Prs | Sub |
Mood expresses the modality, a speaker’s perspective, in finite verbs.
Turkish verbs may carry a wide range of mood information.
Different moods are indicated by a number of suffixes, which also interact with tense and aspect of the verb.
Ind: indicative
The indicative can be considered the default mood. A verb in indicative merely states that something happens, has happened or will happen, without adding any attitude of the speaker.
Examples
- eve gidiyor ‘she is going home’
- eve gitti ‘she went home’
- Kaplumbağa yavaş yürüyor. “The tortoise walks/is walking slowly.” (statement about a specific tortoise; Göksel & Kerslake, 2005, p.340)
Gen: generalized modality
Turkish modal system includes a distinction between statements of direct experience (Ind) and statements with a more general or theoretical nature (Göksel & Kerslake, 2005, p.295).
This mood is typically marked by the aorist marker on verbs, and with -DIr suffix on nominal predicates.
(NOTE: this mood interacts with evidentiality. One may consider the status of evidentiality expressed by this suffix to be “inferred”. Hence, an alternative way of marking this could be Evidential=Infer, or something similar)
Examples
- park yapılmaz ‘one does not park = no parking’
- iki, iki daha dört eder ‘two plus two is four’
- ikinin karesi dörttür ‘two’s square is four’
- Ali işe geç gider ‘Ali goes to work late’
- hastadır ‘(I hypothesize/deduce that) she must be sick’
- Kaplumbağa yavaş yürür. “A tortoise walks slowly.” (a general statement about tortoises; Göksel & Kerslake, 2005, p.340)
Imp: imperative
In Turkish imperatives are expressed by lack of any tense/aspect/modality marker. The form of imperative may indicate second or third person plural/singular. Note that, forms other than second person singular may indicate a wish rather than a command, so may be marked as Opt (see below).
Examples
- eve git ‘go home!’
- eve gidin ‘(you-PLU) go home!’
- eve gitsin ‘(I am ordering him/her to) go home!’
Prs: persuasive (new, not in UD)
Turkish has a particular form of imperative, where the request is not an order, but an attempt to persuade.
Examples
- eve gitsene ‘(please) go home’
- eve gitsenize ‘(you-PLU, please) go home’
Opt: optative
Optative suffix (-(y)A) in Turkish typically combines with first person markers and expresses a suggestion. The use with second/third person markers express a wish, but it is rare. With third person singular agreement the imperative form may also express a wish or suggestion, and more common than -(y)A forms.
Examples
- eve gidelim ‘let’s go home’
- bakayım ‘let’s me see’
- gele ‘I wish he/she comes’
- gelesin ‘I wish you come’
Nec: necessitative
This expresses some sort of necessity (must/should/have to in English).
Examples
- eve gitmeli ‘she should go home’
- eve gitmeliydi ‘she should have gone home’
GenNec: general or hypothetical necessitative
The necessitative suffix can be combined with a suffix of general modality.
Examples
- Siyasi riskteki artış gözden kaçmamalıdır. “The spike in political risk should not go unnoticed.”
Pot: potential
The suffix -Abil may indicate ability or possibility. These moods are normally distinct, and the same verb may express both at the same time (see the last example below). However, it is also very difficult to disambiguate between these two moods.
Examples
- eve gidebilir ‘she can go home’ (‘she is capable of going home’, or ‘she just may go home’)
- yağmur yağabilir ‘it may rain’
- eve gidemeyebilir ‘she may not be able to go home’ (it is possible that she is not capable of going home)
GenPot: general or hypothetical potential
When the potential suffix is combined with the non-past (aorist) suffix, the resulting sentence either is a statement of generalized validity, or a hypothetical statement (Göksel & Kerslake, 2005, p.346).
Examples
- Kaplumbağa hızlı yürüyemez. “A tortoise can’t walk fast.” (Göksel & Kerslake, 2005, p.488)
- Masayı şuraya koyabiliriz. “We can/could put the table here.” (a hypothetical statement)
Sub: subjunctive / conjunctive
The subjunctive mood is used under certain circumstances in subordinate clauses, typically for actions that are subjective or otherwise uncertain. In German, it may be also used to convey the conditional meaning.
Examples
- [fr] Je veux que tu le fasses “I want you to do it” lit. I want that you it do.Sub
Cnd: conditional
This expresses conditionality.
It is the primary means of forming conditionals in Turkish (‘if …’).
The suffix responsible for this mood is -sA.
The suffix is ambiguous between Cnd and Des (see below).
Examples
- eve gittiyse ‘if she went home’
- eve gidiyorsa ‘if she is going home’
- eve giderse ‘if she goes home’
- eve gidecekdiyse ‘if she was going to go home’
- Arabayı satsa hepimiz rahatlarız. “If he sold the car it would be a relief to all of us.” (Göksel & Kerslake, 2005, p.488)
CndGen: general (non-past) conditional
When the conditional suffix is combined with the non-past (aorist) suffix, the resulting sentence gets a future or generalized predictive reading.
Examples
- Arabayı satarsa hepimiz rahatlarız. “If he sells the car it will be a relief to all of us.” (Göksel & Kerslake, 2005, p.488)
CndPot: conditional potential
The potential modality can be combined with the conditional suffix.
Examples
- durumların çoğu tartışma olmadan çözülebilse “if most situations could be resolved without conflict”
Des: desiderative
This mood expresses a wish.
It shares the same form as the Cnd mood.
It may be disambiguated by particles (keşke: desire, eğer: condition) or by the context.
For example, desires do not work well with fixed time references.
In general it is difficult to automatically disambiguate between these two moods.
Examples
- (keşke) uyusa ‘I wish she sleeps’
- (keşke) uyusaydı ‘I wish she slept’
References
- Aslı Göksel and Celia Kerslake. Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge, 2005.
Mood in other languages: [ab] [akk] [arr] [bej] [bg] [bm] [cs] [cy] [el] [eme] [en] [es] [ess] [et] [fi] [fr] [ga] [gd] [gn] [gub] [hbo] [hu] [hy] [it] [jaa] [ka] [ky] [mdf] [myv] [pcm] [ps] [qpm] [qtd] [quc] [ru] [say] [sl] [sv] [tpn] [tr] [tt] [u] [ug] [uk] [urb] [urj] [xcl]