Language Structure Problems

Word Order: Turkish

Examine these data and answer the questions that follow:

Please note that, although the syntactic data here are accurate, this page is missing several diacritics in the data so the Turkish orthography is wrong in some places.

1. bir kedi balIk yiyor
one cat eats fish

2. mavi bir fare
one blue mouse

3. bir kedi koSar
one cat runs
4. bir adam yurur
one man walks

5. farelerin evi - mice's house

6. bir adam balIk yiyor
one man eats fish

7. elden
from a hand

8. bir adamin agaci
one man's tree

9. buyuk ev
big house

10. farelerden
from mice

11. evde
in a house

12. sakin bir adam
one quiet man

13. evin dami
the house's roof

14. balik yiyor kedi
the cat that eats fish


A. What is the order of object, subject and verb?

B. Does this language use prepositions or postpositions? C. What is the order of thing possessed and possesser?

D. What is the order of relative clause and noun?

E. What is the order of adjective and noun?

F. Do the findings above fit together as expected? Is this language head initial, head final or a mixed case?