Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

542 JAMES K. WATTERS

3. Turkish clause linkage

In the following sections I will present different types of Turkish clause lin­

kage. In each case, evidence will be presented for the particular level of

juncture involved (clausal, core, or nuclear) and the type of nexus (coordi­

nate, subordinate, or cosubordinate). It should be noted that this survey is

by no means exhaustive nor conclusive. There are a number of types of lin­

kage in Turkish other than those discussed here and the analyses presented

are somewhat tentative. Most importantly, I will attempt to show how

clauses interact in complex sentences with aspect, tense, modality, status

and evidentiality. Though there are some problems, it will be seen that the

claims put forth in F&VV are remarkably consistent with the Turkish facts.

I will assume that instances of subordination are those cases in which a

clause is marked by features that distinguish it as an embedded argument:

nominalization, possession, case marking, and/or postpositions. Other

instances of clause linkage will be treated as instances of coordination or

cosubordination. Finally, the loosest type of clause linkage, clausal coordi­

nation, will not be discussed at all. It certainly occurs in Turkish, but as the

least restrictive type of nexus it is not of much interest for the kind of claims

investigated in this paper.

4. Clausal subordination

Clausal subordination refers to those instances in which a clause functions

as an element of the periphery, i.e., as a locative, temporal or other

peripheral adjunct. With its variety of postpositions as well as oblique

cases, Turkish provides a formal means of distinguishing between clausal

subordination and cosubordination: postpositions and, in some instances,

oblique cases mark clauses which function as clausal arguments and are

thus examples of subordination. In this section I will very briefly discuss

only one construction involving clauses with postpositions which exemplify

clausal subordination. This construction is especially interesting, as the

same or a similar dependent verbal form is used without a postposition in

core juncture. The construction is marked by the suffix -mEdEn followed

by a postposition.^3 Note the following examples: