Formation of verbs

Abstract

Whereas inflection (and conjugation) are the essentials in the first four parts of this book, the next two chapters are devoted to derivational issues, or rather, to the question of how words are made using existing material. Not surprisingly, the grammar of Turkish has plenty of solutions. In the formation of verbs, auxiliary verbs and nouns are primarily used to form words for new concepts, but devices such as suffixes for causative, passive, and reflexive produce a meaning derived from an existing one. Also many formations which suggest that they were once made on the basis of rules now no longer productive deserve, of course, the necessary attention. A special section deals with forms rarely discussed in grammars: the indirect imperative of causative and passive verbs. The upbeat to an account of fixed verb combinations, the structure and semantics of couplings with –(y)Ip are discussed.