A Grammar of Turkish Sign Language (TİD)

The position of an object clause depends on the verb that takes it as an object. Object clauses of the verbs want, like, know_how_to, forget_to, make_an_effort occur before the verbs that they are the object of:

 

melek [run] much like

‘Melek likes running very much’.

         (adapted from Göksel & Kelepir 2016: p19; ex. 24b)

 

In contrast, object clauses of the verbs think, know_that, forget_that, understand, and believe, occur after the verbs that take them as objects:

 

ali_i self_i think [ayşe rest]

‘Ali himself thinks that Ayşe is resting.’

           (adapted from Göksel & Kelepir 2016: p7; ex. 6a)

 

The object clauses above are declarative clauses. Object clauses can also be in the form of interrogative clauses. In this case, they behave somewhat differently in terms of their order with respect to the main verb. The verb find_out has free word order with respect to its complement. The object clause can come either after or before the main verb:

 

                                                    y/n

ix₂ find_out [who exam pass]

‘Did you find out who passed the exam?’

 

                                          y/n 

ix₂ [who exam pass] find_out

‘Did you find out who passed the exam?’

                                                                            (Hakgüder 2015a: 72; ex. 62-63)

 

When the main verb is ask and the sentence cast as indirect speech, the object clause can only come before the main verb, although it does not have to be strictly adjacent to it:

 

          [girl hale]_a [poss₁ mother name what] bilge_b ask_b

_{‘Hale asks Bilge what my mother’s name is.’}

                                                                                                (adapted from Hakgüder 2015a: 75; ex. 64)

 

In direct speech, the object clause can either follow or precede the main verb ask. In the next example, the complement comes before the main verb ask:

 

[girl hale]_a [ayşe what high school go] bilge_{b a}ask_b

‘Hale asks Bilge: ‘Which high school did Ayşe attend?’’

                                                                          (adapted from Hakgüder 2015a: 75; ex. 65)

 

The following example has a different order. The complement object clause comes after the main verb ask:

           

ix_{2 2}ask₃ [butterfly how_many there_is]

‘You ask him/her: How many butterflies are there?’’

                                                           (adapted from Hakgüder 2015a: 76; ex. 66b)