1. 2015
2015
A CONTRASTIVE
ANALYSIS OF THE
ENGLISH AND
TURKISH PRONOUNS
yüksel goknel
ygoknel@outlook.com

2. ENGLISH AND TURKISH PRONOUNS
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A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH AND
TURKISH PRONOUNS
Both English and Turkish learners have difficulty in learning English
and Turkish pronouns. Therefore, in the following table, both the
English and Turkish pronouns are given.
Turkish pronouns are rule governed (regular) because the subject
pronouns are followed by certain morphemes to produce the ob-
ject pronouns, the possesive adjective pronouns and the pos-
sessive pronouns. However, some English pronouns are not rule
governed (irregular) because the object pronouns, the posses-
sive adjective pronouns and possessive pronouns do not contain
any markers to show that they are the first, the second, or the third
person, etc. For instance:
subject object possessive possessive
pronoun pronoun adjective pro. pronoun
Turkish: ben ben-i ben-im ben-im
English: I me my mine
Turkish: sen sen-i sen-in sen-in
English: you you your yours
Turkish: o o-/n/u o-/n/un o-/n/un
English: he, she, it him, her, it his, her, its his, hers, its
Turkish: biz biz-i biz-im biz-im
English: we us our ours
Turkish: siz siz-i siz-in siz-in
English: you you your yours
Turkish: o-/n/lar o-/n/lar-ı o-/n/lar-ın o-/n/lar-ın
English:: they them their theirs
The blue colors above show the subjects, the black colors show the
objects or the subject complements and the purple colors show
the adjectives.

3. ENGLISH AND TURKISH PRONOUNS
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If noticed, one can easily discover that the Turkish subjective pro-
nouns are the basic pronouns to produce the other pronouns in Turk-
ish. All kinds of pronouns in Turkish start with the subject pronouns
“ben, sen, o, biz, siz, or onlar”. To produce an objective pronoun,
you should attach one of the "i, ı, ü, u" allomorphs to subject
pronouns as suffıxes following the Turkish vowel harmony rules. For
instance:
“ben-i” → (be*ni), “sen-i” → (se*ni), "o-u" → (o-/n/u) “biz-i” →
(bi*zi), “siz-i” →(si*zi), “onlar-ı” → (on*la*rı).
In English, however, all subject pronouns change except for the
subject pronouns "you" and "it":
I → me; you → you; he → him; she → her; it → it; we → us; they
→ them
All the objective pronouns and additionally all the objective proper
nouns are suffixed by the "i, ı, ü, u" allomorphs ın Turkish. For ins-
tance:
O ben-i gördü. He saw me. O Jack'i gördü. He saw Jack.
As it is seen, although the proper noun Jack is a definite person, it
takes the allomorph "i" attached to the proper noun "Jack" in Turk-
ish. This characteristic of the Turkish language makes it possible for
the Turkish speakers or writers to change the places of the subject
and object in the "subject + object + verb" basic sentence order in-
to an "object + subject + verb" order:
Jack Mary-i gördü. Jack saw Mary.
Mary-i Jack gördü. Jack saw Mary.
Although these two Turkish sentences mean "Jack saw Mary", as the
subject "Jack" comes before the verb, the meaning of the second
sentence changes into the meaning "Not anybody but Jack saw
Mary".
This sort of subject and object transposition is impossible in English.

4. ENGLISH AND TURKISH PRONOUNS
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Jack saw Mary. *Mary Jack saw
To produce a possessive adjective pronoun in Turkish, one should
attach a personal possessive allomorph to one of the subject
pronouns in Turkish.
The possessive personal allamorphs are as follows:
ben- im
sen-in
o- /n/un
biz-im
siz-in
onlar-ın
When these possessive adjectives are separated into syllables, the
single underlined consonants detach from their syllables and attach
to the following "i, ı, ü, u" vowels to produce syllables. Such as:
“ben-im” → (be*nim), “sen-in” → (se*nin), “o-/n/un” → (o*nun),
“biz-im” → (bi*zim), “siz-in” → (si*zin), “onlar-ın” → (on*la*rın).
As it is seen on the table above, the Turkish possessive adjectives
are also used as possessive pronouns in Turkish.
Bu ben-im defter-im. This is my notebook.
Bu defter ben-im. This notebook is mine.
As for the English pronouns, we can see that some English pronouns
are rule governed, but some others are not (irregular). The common
possessive morpheme in English seems to be the apostrophy ('s)
which is used after proper nouns like "Jack's", "Mary's"; after common
nouns like "the man's", "the boy's", "the teacher's", etc.
In Turkish, the English apostorphy ('s) like Turkish allomorphs are
used following the Turkish subject pronouns such as: I's, you's, he's,
she's, it's, we's, you's , they's. However, in some English possessive
adjectives, this basic apostrophy ('s) rule changes into different pos-

5. ENGLISH AND TURKISH PRONOUNS
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sessive adjectives such as: (I's) turns into "my", "you's" turns into
"your", "he's" turns into "his", "it's" turns into "its", "we's" turns into
"our", "they's" turnes into "their".
In the given examples above, "he" and "it" subjec pronouns seem to
have used the main apostrophy ('s) morpheme, which is heard in
speech. Additionally, the possessive interrogative adjective "who's" is
written as "whose", which also uses the basic possessive morpheme
('s), which is heard in speech.
In English people say "my book", "your teacher", "his work", "her
friend", "its tail", "our school", "your friends", "their aim". As it is seen
in these examples, the nouns followed by the possessive adjectives
do not take any morphemes attached to them. If we translate them
litarally into Turkish, they are written as "my book" "ben-im kitap",
"your eyes" "sen-in göz-ler", "his car" "o-/n/un araba".
The literal translations of all such expessions in Turkish are ungram-
matical. Their grammatical translations are noun compounds such
as: "my book" "ben-im kitap-ım" (be*nim / ki*ta*bım) (the book of
mine), "your house" "sen-ın ev-in" (se*nin / e*vin) (the house of
yours), "his scool" "o-/n/un okul-u" (o*nun / o*ku*lu), "our house" "biz-
im okul-u.muz" (bi*zim / o*ku*lu*muz).
Consequently, Turkish possessive adjective compounds are used like
"the garden of the school" "okul-un bahçe-/s/i", "his garden" "o-/n/un /
bahçe-/s/i". As it can be guessed, Turkish posessive adjectives that
modify the following nouns are used like "the garden of the school"
In Turkish, one has to attach personal possessive allomorphs to
the ends of the owned nouns that carry the same meanings of the
possessive adjectives. For instance:
ben-im defter-im, ben-im kitap-ım, ben-im yüz-üm, ben-im okul-um,
ben-im baba-am, ben-im anne-em.
In the expressions above, the "im", "ım", "üm", "um", "em", "am"
allomorphs all mean "ben-im".

6. ENGLISH AND TURKISH PRONOUNS
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sen-in defter-in, sen-in yaş-ın, sen-in göz-ün, sen-in okul-un, sen-in
araba-an, sen-in çene-en.
In the expressions above, the "in, ın, ün, un, en, an" allomorphs
mean "sen-in".
o-/n/un ev-i, o-/n/un baş-ı, o-/n/un yüz-ü, o-/n/un okul-u, o-/n/un anne-
/s/i, o--/n/un baba-/s/ı.
In the expressions above, the "i, ı, ü, u" allomorphs mean "o-/n/un".
The /n/, and /s/ consonants between slashes show the glides that are
put between vowels that help to maintain the harmony between vow-
els.
biz-im ev-im.iz (bi*zim / e*vi*miz), biz-im mal-ım.ız (bi*zim / ma*lı*mız),
biz-im yüz-üm.üz (bi*zim / yü*zü*müz), biz-im yol-um.uz (bi*zim / yo*-
lu*muz), biz-im anne-em-iz (bi*zim / an*ne*miz), biz-im araba-am.ız
(bi*zim / a*ra*ba*mız).
In the expressions above, the "im.iz, ım.ız, üm.üz, um.uz, em.iz,
am.ız" allomorphs mean "biz-im".
siz-in iş-in.iz, siz-in at-ın.ız, siz-in yüz-ün.üz, siz-in dost-un.uz, siz-in
korku-un.uz, siz-in tarla-an.ız, siz-in beleme-en.iz.
In the expressions above, the "in.iz, ın.ız, ün,üz, un.uz, an.ız, en.iz"
allomorphs mean "siz-in".
onlar-ın iş-ler-i, onlar-ın baş-lar-ı, onlar-ın düş-ler-i onlar-ın yol-lar-ı
onlar-ın çalışma-lar-ı.
In the expressions above, the "ler-i, lar-ı" allomorphs mean "onlar-ın".
If a person thinks that the determined noun is singular, he does not
need to use the "ler, lar" plural allomorphs such as: "onlar-ın ev-i",
"onlar-ın çaba-/s/ı", "onlar-ın ülkü-/s/ü", "onlar-ın kuşku-/s/u".
As there is a possessive adjective and a possessive morpheme
carrying the same meaning attached to a noun in such expressions,
one can use only the noun with the possessive morpheme attached
to it. Therefore "defter-im" means "my notebook", "kitap-ım" means
"my book", "yüz-üm" means "my face", "okul-um" means "my school",
"anne-em" means "my mother", "baba-am" means "my father"

7. ENGLISH AND TURKISH PRONOUNS
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The possessive personal allomorphs attached to nouns carrying the
meaning of the possessive adjectives are as follows:
Ben-im = ...im, ...ım, ...üm, ...um, ...em, ...am
Sen-in = ...in, ...ın, ...ün, ...un, ...en, ...an
O/n/-un = ...i, ...ı, ...ü, ...u
Biz-im = ...im.iz, ...ım.ız, ...üm.üz, ...um.uz, ...em.iz, ...am.ız
Siz-in = ...in.iz, ...ın.ız, ...ün.üz, ...un.uz, ...en.iz, ...an.ız
O/n/lar-ın = ...(ler).i, ...(lar).ı, ...ü, ...u
If a speaker or writer do not want to emphasize "benim, senin, onun,
bizim, sizin, onların" possessive adjectives, he could use only "defter-
im" instead of "ben-im defter-im"; "anne-en" istead of "sen-in anne-
en"; "baba-an" instead of "sen-in baba-an"; "okul-un" istead of "sen-in
okul-un"; "baba-/s/ı" instead of "o-/n/un baba-/s/ı", "ev-im.iz" instead
of "biz-im ev-ım.iz"; "korkular-ı" instead of "o/n/-lar-ın korku-lar-ı".
Common nouns, proper nouns and infinitives are used like the third
person possessive adjectives in Turkish:
"çalış-ma-/n/ın bit-me-/s/i" the end(ing) of working
"öğretmen-in gel-me-/s/i" the arrriving of the teacher
"Jack-in başarı-/s/ı" Jack's success
In the examples above, the single underlined consonants detach from
their syllables and attach to the first vowels of the following syllables if
they start with vowels. If the coinciding vowels such as (a-a, e-e, u-u)
follow each other, they combine and verbalize as single vowels:
a-a → a, e-e → e, u-u → u
The /s/ and /n/ consonants showed between slashes are glides used
between vowels to help to join them harmoniously. They do not carry
meaning.

8. ENGLISH AND TURKISH PRONOUNS
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