a contrastive analysis of the english and turkish pronouns yuksel goknel

2015

2015

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE

ENGLISH AND TURKISH PRONOUNS

yüksel goknel [email protected]


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A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH AND

TURKISH PRONOUNS

Both English and Turkish learners have difficulty in learning English and Turkish pronouns. Therefore, in the following table, both the English and Turkish pronouns are given.

Turkish pronouns are rule governed (regular) because the subject pronouns are followed by certain morphemes to produce the ob-ject pronouns, the possesive adjective pronouns and the pos-sessive pronouns. However, some English pronouns are not rule governed (irregular) because the object pronouns, the posses-sive adjective pronouns and possessive pronouns do not contain any markers to show that they are the first, the second, or the third person, etc. For instance:

subject object possessive possessive pronoun pronoun adjective pro. pronoun

Turkish: ben ben-i ben-im ben-im English: I me my mine Turkish: sen sen-i sen-in sen-in English: you you your yours Turkish: o o-/n/u o-/n/un o-/n/un English: he, she, it him, her, it his, her, its his, hers, its Turkish: biz biz-i biz-im biz-im English: we us our ours

Turkish: siz siz-i siz-in siz-in English: you you your yours Turkish: o-/n/lar o-/n/lar-ı o-/n/lar-ın o-/n/lar-ın English:: they them their theirs

The blue colors above show the subjects, the black colors show the objects or the subject complements and the purple colors show the adjectives.


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If noticed, one can easily discover that the Turkish subjective pro-

nouns are the basic pronouns to produce the other pronouns in Turk-

ish. All kinds of pronouns in Turkish start with the subject pronouns

“ben, sen, o, biz, siz, or onlar”. To produce an objective pronoun,

you should attach one of the "i, ı, ü, u" allomorphs to subject

pronouns as suffıxes following the Turkish vowel harmony rules. For

instance:

“ben-i” → (be*ni), “sen-i” → (se*ni), "o-u" → (o-/n/u) “biz-i” →

(bi*zi), “siz-i” →(si*zi), “onlar-ı” → (on*la*rı).

In English, however, all subject pronouns change except for the

subject pronouns "you" and "it":

I → me; you → you; he → him; she → her; it → it; we → us; they

→ them

All the objective pronouns and additionally all the objective proper

nouns are suffixed by the "i, ı, ü, u" allomorphs ın Turkish. For ins-

tance:

O ben-i gördü. He saw me. O Jack'i gördü. He saw Jack.

As it is seen, although the proper noun Jack is a definite person, it

takes the allomorph "i" attached to the proper noun "Jack" in Turk-

ish. This characteristic of the Turkish language makes it possible for

the Turkish speakers or writers to change the places of the subject

and object in the "subject + object + verb" basic sentence order in-

to an "object + subject + verb" order:

Jack Mary-i gördü. Jack saw Mary.

Mary-i Jack gördü. Jack saw Mary.

Although these two Turkish sentences mean "Jack saw Mary", as the

subject "Jack" comes before the verb, the meaning of the second

sentence changes into the meaning "Not anybody but Jack saw

Mary".

This sort of subject and object transposition is impossible in English.


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Jack saw Mary. *Mary Jack saw

To produce a possessive adjective pronoun in Turkish, one should

attach a personal possessive allomorph to one of the subject

pronouns in Turkish.

The possessive personal allamorphs are as follows:

ben- im

sen-in

o- /n/un

biz-im

siz-in

onlar-ın

When these possessive adjectives are separated into syllables, the

single underlined consonants detach from their syllables and attach

to the following "i, ı, ü, u" vowels to produce syllables. Such as:

“ben-im” → (be*nim), “sen-in” → (se*nin), “o-/n/un” → (o*nun),

“biz-im” → (bi*zim), “siz-in” → (si*zin), “onlar-ın” → (on*la*rın).

As it is seen on the table above, the Turkish possessive adjectives

are also used as possessive pronouns in Turkish.

Bu ben-im defter-im. This is my notebook.

Bu defter ben-im. This notebook is mine.

As for the English pronouns, we can see that some English pronouns

are rule governed, but some others are not (irregular). The common

possessive morpheme in English seems to be the apostrophy ('s)

which is used after proper nouns like "Jack's", "Mary's"; after common

nouns like "the man's", "the boy's", "the teacher's", etc.

In Turkish, the English apostorphy ('s) like Turkish allomorphs are

used following the Turkish subject pronouns such as: I's, you's, he's,

she's, it's, we's, you's , they's. However, in some English possessive

adjectives, this basic apostrophy ('s) rule changes into different pos-


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sessive adjectives such as: (I's) turns into "my", "you's" turns into

"your", "he's" turns into "his", "it's" turns into "its", "we's" turns into

"our", "they's" turnes into "their".

In the given examples above, "he" and "it" subjec pronouns seem to

have used the main apostrophy ('s) morpheme, which is heard in

speech. Additionally, the possessive interrogative adjective "who's" is

written as "whose", which also uses the basic possessive morpheme

('s), which is heard in speech.

In English people say "my book", "your teacher", "his work", "her

friend", "its tail", "our school", "your friends", "their aim". As it is seen

in these examples, the nouns followed by the possessive adjectives

do not take any morphemes attached to them. If we translate them

litarally into Turkish, they are written as "my book" "ben-im kitap",

"your eyes" "sen-in göz-ler", "his car" "o-/n/un araba".

The literal translations of all such expessions in Turkish are ungram-

matical. Their grammatical translations are noun compounds such

as: "my book" "ben-im kitap-ım" (be*nim / ki*ta*bım) (the book of

mine), "your house" "sen-ın ev-in" (se*nin / e*vin) (the house of

yours), "his scool" "o-/n/un okul-u" (o*nun / o*ku*lu), "our house" "biz-

im okul-u.muz" (bi*zim / o*ku*lu*muz).

Consequently, Turkish possessive adjective compounds are used like

"the garden of the school" "okul-un bahçe-/s/i", "his garden" "o-/n/un /

bahçe-/s/i". As it can be guessed, Turkish posessive adjectives that

modify the following nouns are used like "the garden of the school"

In Turkish, one has to attach personal possessive allomorphs to

the ends of the owned nouns that carry the same meanings of the

possessive adjectives. For instance:

ben-im defter-im, ben-im kitap-ım, ben-im yüz-üm, ben-im okul-um,

ben-im baba-am, ben-im anne-em.

In the expressions above, the "im", "ım", "üm", "um", "em", "am"

allomorphs all mean "ben-im".


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sen-in defter-in, sen-in yaş-ın, sen-in göz-ün, sen-in okul-un, sen-in

araba-an, sen-in çene-en.

In the expressions above, the "in, ın, ün, un, en, an" allomorphs

mean "sen-in".

o-/n/un ev-i, o-/n/un baş-ı, o-/n/un yüz-ü, o-/n/un okul-u, o-/n/un anne-

/s/i, o--/n/un baba-/s/ı.

In the expressions above, the "i, ı, ü, u" allomorphs mean "o-/n/un".

The /n/, and /s/ consonants between slashes show the glides that are

put between vowels that help to maintain the harmony between vow-

els.

biz-im ev-im.iz (bi*zim / e*vi*miz), biz-im mal-ım.ız (bi*zim / ma*lı*mız),

biz-im yüz-üm.üz (bi*zim / yü*zü*müz), biz-im yol-um.uz (bi*zim / yo*-

lu*muz), biz-im anne-em-iz (bi*zim / an*ne*miz), biz-im araba-am.ız

(bi*zim / a*ra*ba*mız).

In the expressions above, the "im.iz, ım.ız, üm.üz, um.uz, em.iz,

am.ız" allomorphs mean "biz-im".

siz-in iş-in.iz, siz-in at-ın.ız, siz-in yüz-ün.üz, siz-in dost-un.uz, siz-in

korku-un.uz, siz-in tarla-an.ız, siz-in beleme-en.iz.

In the expressions above, the "in.iz, ın.ız, ün,üz, un.uz, an.ız, en.iz"

allomorphs mean "siz-in".

onlar-ın iş-ler-i, onlar-ın baş-lar-ı, onlar-ın düş-ler-i onlar-ın yol-lar-ı

onlar-ın çalışma-lar-ı.

In the expressions above, the "ler-i, lar-ı" allomorphs mean "onlar-ın".

If a person thinks that the determined noun is singular, he does not

need to use the "ler, lar" plural allomorphs such as: "onlar-ın ev-i",

"onlar-ın çaba-/s/ı", "onlar-ın ülkü-/s/ü", "onlar-ın kuşku-/s/u".

As there is a possessive adjective and a possessive morpheme

carrying the same meaning attached to a noun in such expressions,

one can use only the noun with the possessive morpheme attached

to it. Therefore "defter-im" means "my notebook", "kitap-ım" means

"my book", "yüz-üm" means "my face", "okul-um" means "my school",

"anne-em" means "my mother", "baba-am" means "my father"


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The possessive personal allomorphs attached to nouns carrying the

meaning of the possessive adjectives are as follows:

Ben-im = ...im, ...ım, ...üm, ...um, ...em, ...am

Sen-in = ...in, ...ın, ...ün, ...un, ...en, ...an

O/n/-un = ...i, ...ı, ...ü, ...u

Biz-im = ...im.iz, ...ım.ız, ...üm.üz, ...um.uz, ...em.iz, ...am.ız

Siz-in = ...in.iz, ...ın.ız, ...ün.üz, ...un.uz, ...en.iz, ...an.ız

O/n/lar-ın = ...(ler).i, ...(lar).ı, ...ü, ...u

If a speaker or writer do not want to emphasize "benim, senin, onun,

bizim, sizin, onların" possessive adjectives, he could use only "defter-

im" instead of "ben-im defter-im"; "anne-en" istead of "sen-in anne-

en"; "baba-an" instead of "sen-in baba-an"; "okul-un" istead of "sen-in

okul-un"; "baba-/s/ı" instead of "o-/n/un baba-/s/ı", "ev-im.iz" instead

of "biz-im ev-ım.iz"; "korkular-ı" instead of "o/n/-lar-ın korku-lar-ı".

Common nouns, proper nouns and infinitives are used like the third

person possessive adjectives in Turkish:

"çalış-ma-/n/ın bit-me-/s/i" the end(ing) of working

"öğretmen-in gel-me-/s/i" the arrriving of the teacher

"Jack-in başarı-/s/ı" Jack's success

In the examples above, the single underlined consonants detach from

their syllables and attach to the first vowels of the following syllables if

they start with vowels. If the coinciding vowels such as (a-a, e-e, u-u)

follow each other, they combine and verbalize as single vowels:

a-a → a, e-e → e, u-u → u

The /s/ and /n/ consonants showed between slashes are glides used

between vowels to help to join them harmoniously. They do not carry

meaning.


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a contrastive analysis of the english and turkish pronouns yuksel goknel

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