A Morpho-pragmatic Classification of Turkish TAM Markers

Abstract

This article reviews eight TAM (Tense/Aspect/Mood) markers of Turkish regarding their pragmatic functions. Its main argument is that three aspectuo-temporal situations and nominal predication present an environment where multiple markers compete for expression and that the choice of marker depends on pragmatics. Perfective past viewpoint has four competing markers: mIştI, DI, mIş and mIştIr. mIştI and DI contrast in that -mIştI marks shared knowledge while -DI marks the speaker’s epistemic primacy. mIş, on the other hand, only indicates that the speaker does not hold epistemic primacy. It is void of any assumptions regarding the addressee’s epistemic position. -mIştIr is the marker of choice if the speaker and the speech community share the knowledge of the past event and impose primacy over the addressee. Such a pragmatic classification allows us to treat the other markers competing for continuous aspect, iterative aspect, and nominal predication. These are -Ar and -yor with verbal predicates, and -DIr and -∅ with nominal predicates.