Advances in Role and Reference Grammar

TURKISH CLAUSE LINKAGE^543

(15) Ben çahş-madan önce git-ti.

I work-MEDEN before go-ρτ

"He left before I worked."

(16) Ben cevab-ι bil-meden önce o (cevab-i)

I answer-ACC know-mEdEn before PRO

bil-iyor-du.

knOW-PROG-PT

"Before I knew the answer, he knew (the answer)."

(17) *Ben cevab-i bil-meden  (cevab-i) bil-iyor-du.

I answer-ACC know-mEdEn PRO know-PROG-ρτ

Note that in (15) and (16), as expected in clausal juncture, there is no
coreferentiality requirement between arguments of the clauses. The sen­
tence in (17) is ungrammatical because there is no postposition marking the
embedding of the dependent clause. This is permitted only when a -mEdEn
clause occurs in core juncture:

(18) Kitab-i oku-madan cevab-i bil-iyor-du.

book-ACC read-mEdEn answer-ACC know-PROG-ρτ

"Without reading the book, he knew the answer."

(18') Ben o-na söyle-meden cevab-i bil-iyor-du.

I PRO-DAT tell-mEdEn answer-Acc know-PROG-ρτ

"Without my telling him, he knew the answer."

Unlike the earlier examples, these forms involve no postpositions but have

an interesting restriction: either the subject or the object (indirect object

here) must be shared by both clauses, suggesting that it is a nonsubordinate

nexus at the core level. That is, when the clauses occur without a postposi­

tion, a tighter linkage is involved. Though the core junctures to be discus­

sed below require coreferentiality between subjects, this is an example of

what F&VV considers a "less restrictive" core juncture in that the corefer­

ence may be either actor-actor or undergoer-actor (1984:194). If the post-

positionless constructions involving -mEdEn are truly instances of core

juncture, we would expect the clausal operators to have scope over both

clauses. This is, in fact, the case as the following example shows:

(19) Kitap oku-yabil(*-miş)-meden her soru-nun cevabini

book read-ABIL-mIş-mEdEn every question-GEN answer