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Writer's pictureGalina Blankenship

Signaling Emphasis and Emotion in Turkish Writing

Updated: Sep 19


Turkish word order is more flexible than English, which is why Turkish speakers tend to rely more on shifting words to the language-specific stress (or non-stress) positions to emphasize or de-emphasize them. The Turkish language is characterized by innumerable formulaic expressions, which are easily accessible to Turkish speakers, especially in such emotionally loaded situations as birth, death, old age, and illness. To express commands, requests, or suggestions, Turkish speakers can choose from several imperative verb forms and a number of formulaic frozen expressions signaling the varying degrees of politeness and formality.



Painting "Oriental Warrior" by Nikolaos Gyzis
"Oriental Warrior" by Nikolaos Gyzis

Turkish is abundant with linguistic markers of emphasis and emotion:


  • Word order variations, with specific stress positions: declaratives, questions, imperatives, exclamations, passives, inverted (devrik) sentences, fragments

  • Pre-stressing clitics and suffixes: ki, mi, ya, bile, da, -(y)sa/ise, -me/-ma, -dir, -leyin, -sizin, -le/-la, -ce/-ca, -ki, -madan, -çasına, -(y)ken

  • Stressed suffixes: -iyor, -erek/-arak, -ince, -iver, -(y)esin/-(y)asın, -malı, dıkça, -meksizin

  • Focusing adverbs & discourse connectives: daha, en, gene, hep, zaten, nasılsa, nasıl olsa

  • Focusing quantificational markers: determiners (her), numerals, pronominalized determiners (bazısı, kimi), pronominal quantifiers (herkes, her şey)

  • Discourse connectives & transitional expressions: halbuki, oysa, üstelik, ayrıca, onun için

  • Linguistic politeness markers: formality markers, hedges, softeners, minimizers, familiarity markers, formulaic expressions

  • Reduplications: full repetition, zero repetition, incomplete repetition, and reverse repetition reduplications

  • Interjections & exclamations: of, ayy, vah vah

  • Punctuation: exclamation point, question mark, dash, suspension points, etc.


 

Using a topic- or subject-marking comma (or, rarely, a semicolon) signals an emphasis on the topic (subject):


Anlatmak istediğim, onun o kadar genç ve güzel oluşu.

What I tried to explain is (the fact) that she is so young and beautiful.


In Turkish, a single introductory comma functions as a pre-stressing device: by signaling a pause, it draws attention to the preceding intonational (and informational) unit. Such introductory comma often signals the topic of the sentence (which is also often its subject).

For example, below an introductory comma marks an introductory clause (bu yolda öylesine ileri gitti ki), a topic-marking comma (kendisiyle yapılmış bir konuşmayı), a subject-marking comma (biz), a parenthetical appositive phrase-marking comma (onun birkaç okuru), and a series-marking comma (hiçbir gazetede, hiçbir dergide) can all be used to draw attention to these structures:


Bu yolda öylesine ileri gitti ki, kendisiyle yapılmış bir konuşmayı, biz, onun birkaç okuru, hiçbir gazetede, hiçbir dergide okumadık.

He went so far in this way that we, his few readers, have never read an interview by him in any newspaper or magazine.

Ferit Edgil

Likewise, a comma used after the main verb, in the area that is supposed to be backgrounded and thus de-stressed, may indicate that the postverbal part is an afterthought, which can present new information and bear stress. In the sentence below, while the subject (ben) is indeed backgrounded, the part that follows (bir ceset, bir kuyunun dibinde) is an added, supplemental appositive afterthought remark:


Şimdi bir ölüyüm ben, bir ceset, bir kuyunun dibinde.

I am nothing but a corpse now, a body at the bottom of a well.

Orhan Pamuk, Benim Adım Kırmızı (the opening sentence)

 

 Antithetical two-part constructions, one of which is contains değil, are used to signal a contrast between parallel constituents:


Ali, annesiyle değil, babasıyla konuşmuyormuş.

Ali was not talking to his mother, but to his father.


Sadece bu olağandışı sporcular değil, her sporcu problemlerin üstesinden gelmek zorundadır.

Every athlete has to overcome problems, not just these extraordinary athletes.


Other constructions with değil are used for contrasting or comparing two events or entities in terms of their improbability, in a similar way to let alone, much less, or not to mention in English:


Diplomasını almak değil, tezini bile daha yazmamış.

She hasn’t even written her thesis yet, let alone received her degree.


The alternative contrasting constructions include şöyle dursun, bir yana, and the colloquial bırak … bile:


Fransızca şöyle dursun, İngilizce bile konuşamaz.

She can't speak English, much less French.


Koşmak bir yana, neredeyse yürüyemiyor.

She can hardly walk, let alone run.


Onlar, bırak ihtilal yapmayı, koyun bile güdemez.

They can't even herd sheep, let alone stage a revolution.


 

 Using a comma in elliptic sentences also signals their contrastive structures:


Onlar konuşarak, ben konuşmadan yedik.

We ate with them talking and me not talking.

O. Pamuk, Sessiz Ev

 

 A comma is often used to mark parallel contrastive constructions:


İskemle ve misafiri beraberce uyandılar. Birisi Mümtaz'a doğru ilerledi, öbürü bir adım geri çekildi.

The chair and its partner awoke together: One shape approached Mümtaz, while the other skipped backward.

Ahmed Hamdi Tanpınar, Huzur

 

 Enclosing commas may be used to highlight a rhetorical adverb (adverbial):


Viyana’dan döndüğü günden beri herkese dargın, hemen hemen, yapayalnız yaşıyordu.

Since his return from Vienna, he had, in his bitterness, swept his life empty of friends.

Ahmed Hamdi Tanpınar, Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü

 

 Pre-stressing clitics or pre-stressing suffixes are used to emphasize preceding constituents:


Ben de içmeyeceğim.

I won't drink either.


 

 Stressing suffixes or focusing adverbs generate secondary stresses:


Çalıştıkça başarabilirsin. Sana hep yardım ettim.

As long as you work, you can make it. I always helped you.


 

 Inserting parenthetical remarks as asides or adding comments as afterthoughts reflect the low-key prosodic intonation typical of such remarks and comments:


Ona on iki lira -kâğıt para- aylık bağladılar. Evde tuz kalmamış, bir de süt.

They gave him twelve liras (in cash) on a monthly basis. There is no salt left in the house, nor any milk.


 

 Topic-shifting structures, which create external topics, also function as discourse connectives (as opposed to internal topics):


Bana gelince, ben bambaşka bir çocuktum.

As for me, I was a totally different kid.


 

 Quantificational determiners create secondary stress:


Dün beş kişi olarak oyun oynadık.

Yesterday, five of us played the game.


 

 Turkish has a variety of reduplication strategies used as emphatic stylistic devices. The typical strategy is to repeat the same word for emphasis:


Anladım, anladım. Yaşınızı saklıyorlar, o halde henüz evlenmemiş bir küçük hanımsınız.”

“I get it, I get it. They are hiding your age, so you are an unmarried young lady.”

Halide Edip Adıvar, Kalp Ağrısı

 

 Another strategy is to duplicate the word with an “m” added at the beginning to signal emphatic casualness or to mean “and so on and so forth”:


Çocuk mocuk dinlemem, alırım ayağımın altına!

I don't care, kids or not kids, I will crush you!


Dışarıdan ekmek mekmek alıp döneceğim.

I am going out to get some bread and other things and come back.


 

 Reduplicated items are sometimes used with such conjunctions as ama (+çok), which enhance the emphasis:


Güzel, ama çok güzel bir gömlek almış.

He bought such a lovey shirt.


 

 Reduplication-type repetition of phrases, known as resumed appositive comments, can be added as afterthoughts for a dramatic effect:


Ne kadar taşımıştı onu sırtında, ne kadar.

How devotedly he carried it on his back, how devotedly.

Tarık Buğra, İbiş’in Rüyası

 

 The exclamation point enclosed with parentheses can be used to mark something surprising, with a tinge of mockery. Here, for example, the author clearly does not believe the claim made by a protagonist and openly mocks her:


Genç kızı, aralarındaki on yaş farka rağmen Dame de Sion’dan tanıyan (!) ve galiba hiç sevmediği halde son derecede sevdiğini iddia eden asıl medyumumuz Sabriye Hanımefendiye göre, mektep arkadaşı öyle medyum filân değildi ve hiç de olmamıştı.

Our official psychic, Sabriye Hanımefendi (who claimed to have been Aphrodite’s classmate and intimate at the French lycée Notre Dame de Sion, despite a ten-year age difference and an evident mutual distaste), maintained that the young lady was in no way a spiritual medium and never had been.

Ahmed Hamdi Tanpınar, Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü

 

 The rarely used combination of the exclamation point and the question mark is used to show a strong emotion behind the utterance:


“Belki ben daha evvel giderim...”

“Ya?!...

Hayret edişim onu güldürdü.

“Maybe I’ll leave before you do…”

“Really!?

She laughed at my surprise.

Sabahattin Ali, Kürk Mantolu Madonna

 

 Fragmentation of sentences is a way to make constituents stand out:


Her an... her dakika, her saniye kalp ağrısı. Hep.

A heartache every moment, every minute, every second. Always.


 

 Turkish uses numerous linguistic politeness (hedging) devices to soften the harshness of commands or questions by using supplementation (adding an element at the end as an afterthought) to rephrase them as rhetorical questions, suggestions, or requests.


For example, a yes-no question can be supplemented with such expressions as bakalım (let’s see), yoksa (translated into English as then), or acaba (I wonder, I wonder if), which brings down the rising pitch that follows the question particle . Likewise, by adding to a command the expression bakalım, based on the first-person plural (we), suggests sharing the burden that may be imposed by an imperative sentence:


Burada tanıdığın biri var mı, bakalım. Bir dene, bakalım.

Let’s see if you know anyone in here. Why don't you give it a try?

a yes-no question + bakalım = suggestion a command + bakalım = suggestion

Eski halılarını satıyor musun, yoksa? Onun yerine bana sorabilir misiniz, acaba.

Are you selling your old carpets, then? I wonder if you'd mind asking me instead.

a yes-no question + yoksa = rhetoric question a yes-no question + yoksa = request

When used at the beginning or middle of the sentence, bakalım (let’s see), yoksa (or, otherwise, then), or acaba (I wonder, I wonder if) can also minimize the burden of a yes-no question, wh-question, or command:


Bakalım, dürüstlük bizi nereye kadar götürecek.

Well, let's see how far honesty gets us.

a wh-question + bakalım = a declarative statement

Acaba, inmeme yardım edebilir misiniz?.. Yüksekten biraz korkuyorum da.

Do you think you could help me down? I’m a little scared of heights.

a yes-no question + acaba = a request

 

 Backgrounding is another device to reduce the intensity of a yes-no question.


For example, in Turkish yes-no questions formulated with the intensifying adverb hiç, the adverb hiç is often backgrounded. By backgrounding yet keeping the adverb, the speaker kills two birds, so to speak: the speaker wants to be polite and so she reduces the intensity and imposition on the listener by backgrounding the charged adverb; yet, by saying it, she still gets her point across and manages to save her face:


Söylediğim şeyleri dinlediğin oluyor mu hiç?

Do you ever listen to anything I say?


 

 Turkish speakers often use some hedging softening devices to soften the threat of their words towards others (to save their face) as well as to minimize the threat of other people's words towards them.


One of such “threats” may be a -dir statement, the using of which in Turkish is like practicing Zen. Used to convey either certainty or assumption (the lack of certainty), a -dir statement contains its own opposite and thus is inherently ambiguous. This can also make it emphatic.


To minimize the emphatic effect of a statement that ends with -dir and to remove its ambiguity by clarifying that the statement is an assumption rather than a certainty, Turkish speakers often supplement such statements with the modal adverbs belki or herhalde, or the discourse marker bence:


Sen, insan istediği şeyi yapabilir diye düşünüyorsundur, belki.

You think perhaps that everyone can do whatever he wants.


Görmüşümdür, ama dikkatimi çekmemiştir, herhalde.

I might have seen it, but probably it didn’t attract my attention.


By adding bence, the speaker assumes responsibility for the statement:


Bu bardak 250 mililitre alıyordur, bir litreden fazla içmişsindir, bence.

This glass surely takes 250 mL, so you must have drunk more than one liter.


 

 Exclamatory or emphatic statements often place the clitic ki at the end of the sentence, where it intensifies what is expressed by the verb. These structures mostly contain an adverbial phrase expressing some degree: e.g., o kadar (that much), öyle (so much), a question word, or a negative verb:


İyileştiğin için o kadar çok rahatladım ki...

I'm so relieved that you're recovering.


With a negative verb, the negation is intensified, which in English, may be translated as really or at all, or as a tag question:


Nasıl anlatsam sana onu, bilemiyorum ki!

How I am (supposed) to tell you this, I don’t know at all!


If such a statement is followed by a personal pronoun, the pronoun receives an emphasis:


Siz olmadan yolumu bulamam ki ben.

But I cannot find my way without you!


 

In Turkish, supplemented afterthought remarks can be added using da/de, bir de, hem de, or hatta:


Oya odayı temizledi, Ali de.

Oya cleaned the room, and so did Ali.


Biz ilk burnu kavanço edip gözden kaybolunca, o da pılı pırtıyı topladı mıydı, evden hemen dümen kırmış; benim aldıklarımı da götürmüş.

As soon as we rounded the nearest cape and disappeared from sight, she, having barely collected all the household belongings, immediately disappeared from the house and took away everything that I had time to buy.

Halikarnas Balıkçısı, Bütün Eserleri: 1. Aganta Burîna Burinata

Bu fani dünyaya geldim geleli bir atı severim, bir de gözeli.

Since I’ve come to this mortal world, I’ve loved horses and beautiful women.

Karacaoğlan

Duyuyor, hem de kim bilir nerelerden duyuyor da koşup geliyor.

Yes, he can hear us who knows how, and I can hear him rushing to see us.

Sait Faik Abasıyanık, Son Mahkeme

Kökenleri belirsiz, soyu da, hatta adı bile.

His origins are obscure, his parentage, even his name.


Onlar ne arsız ne yılışkan ve yırtık gülmelidirler; ne de somurtmalıdırlar.

They should laugh neither cheeky nor shy and torn; nor should they pout.

Refik Halit Karay

Afterthought remarks can be such postpositional clauses as gibi, diye, or the conditional clause eğer:


Kapılar da gönülleri gibi hep yarı açılır misafire; görülmeden önce görmek, görmekten de çok(,) gözetlemek ister gibi.

The doors too, like their hearts, are always (only) half-opened to the guest, as if wanting to see before being seen and to spy rather than to see.

Eyüboğlu

Güreşçiler, bir avuç tuz alıp yere atarlar, şans getirsin diye.

Wrestlers take a handful of salt and throw it on the ground for luck.


 

When a request is turned down or an order disobeyed, the combination var mı is often used rhetorically in colloquial speech to give extra emphasis:


A: Şunu yapsana! A: Çekilsene be!

B: Yapmıyorum işte, var mı?! B: Çekilmiyorum, var mı?!

A: C’mon, would do this already! A: Bugger off!

B: I'm not doing it, okay? B: I won’t, got it?


 

In literary Turkish, ellipses, or suspension points, conversations are represented with multiple ellipses, especially at the end of one’s remark, to signal one’s trailing of speech, pauses, hesitations, faltering, or stammering, including deliberate self-interruption (below), which in English is represented by a dash:


İhsan, Macide'yi gösterdi: “Bu...” Sözünü bitirmekten aciz gibi durdu. Sonra kendini toplayarak tamamladı: “Buna bir şey söyle

İhsan pointed to Macide. “This one” He stopped as if powerless to finish his words. Then he mustered his strength and continued, “Give this one a word of advice.”

Ahmed Hamdi Tanpınar, Huzur

An ellipsis may be used to signal prolonged pronunciation of a word or an exclamation:


Tevfik Bey, huysuz bir atı idare eder gibi, bu neşeyi olduğu yerden bir uzunca -hut...-la selamladı.

Tevfik, as if reining in an unwieldy horse, greeted this eagerness with an extended “whooooaaaaa.”

Ahmed Hamdi Tanpınar, Huzur

 

Turkish clitics have plenty of unique powers, one of which is to create emphatic statements.


For example, the sentence-initial ya is used as an exclamation, signaling surprise or bewilderment:


Ya, gerçekten mi? Ya, içeri almamış mı?

For real? Didn't she let him in?


The sentence-initial ya can also be used as a mild exclamation:


A: Film güzel miydi, nasıldı?

В: Ya, çok güzel.

A: Was the movie good, how was it?

В: Oh, it was awesome.


When used with hani (remember, you know), ya conveys reminding something:


Hani sana göstermiştim ya, işte o ev.

Remember the house I showed you? That one.


 

Other specific punctuation patterns, used for many syntactic, pragmatic, and rhetorical purposes, including to organize the text, prevent misreading, make reading easier, and reveal the author’s intended meaning (emotions).


 

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