Morphological Processing for Turkish

Abstract

This chapter presents an overview of Turkish morphology followed by the architecture of a state-of-the-art wide coverage morphological analyzer for Turkish implemented using the Xerox Finite State Tools. It covers the morphophonological and morphographemic phenomena in Turkish such as vowel harmony, the morphotactics of words, and issues that one encounters when processing real text with myriads of phenomena: numbers, foreign words with Turkish inflections, unknown words, and multi-word constructs. The chapter presents ample illustrations of phenomena and provides many examples for sometimes ambiguous morphological interpretations.

Appendix: Turkish Morphological Features

In this appendix we present an overview of the morphological features that the morphological analyzer produces. The general format of an analysis is as given in Sect. 2.4.1: any derivations are indicated by ̂DB. The first symbol following a ̂DB is the part-of-speech of the derived form and the next feature symbol is usually a semantic marker that indicates the semantic nature of the derivation. If the second symbol is +Zero that indicates a implied covert derivation without any overt morphemes.

• 1. Major Root Parts of Speech: These mark the part-of-speech category of the root word. This is not necessarily the part-of-speech of the final word if the word involves one or more derivations.

  Feature	Indicates	Feature	Indicates
  +Noun	Noun	+Adj	Adjective/modifier
  +Adverb	Adverb	+Verb	Verb
  +Pron	Pronoun	+Postp	Postposition
  +Num	Number	+Conj	Conjunction
  +Det	Determiner	+Interj	Interjection
  +Ques	Question clitic	+Punc	Punctuation
  +Dup	Onomatopoeia
  	words

• 2. Minor Parts of Speech: These follow one of the part-of-speech category symbols above and either denotes a further subdivision that is morphosyntactically relevant or a semantic marker that indicates the nature of the derivation.

  • (a) After +Noun

    Feature	Indicates	Example
    +Prop	Proper noun	Çağla,
    		Mahkemesi’nde

  • (b) After +Pron

    Feature	Indicates	Example
    +Demons	Demonstrative pronoun	bu “this”
    +Ques	Interrogative pronoun	kim “who”
    +Reflex	Reflexive pronoun	kendim “myself”
    +Pers	Personal pronoun	biz “we”
    +Quant	Quantifying pronoun	hepimiz “all of us”

  • (c) After +Num

    Feature	Indicates	Example
    +Card	Cardinal number	iki “two”
    +Ord	Ordinal number	ikinci “second”
    +Dist	Distributive number	ikişer “two each”

  • (d) After ̂DB+Noun

    Feature	Indicates	Example
    +Inf1	Infinitive	gitmek “to go”
    +Inf2	Infinitive	gitme “going” , gitmem
    		“my going”
    +Inf3	Infinitive	gidiş (going)
    +PastPart	Past participle	gittiği (the fact that
    		(he) went)
    +FutPart	Future participle	gideceği “the fact that
    		he will go”
    +FeelLike	“the state of feeling like”	gidesim ((the state of) me
    		feeling like going)

  • (e) After ̂DB+Adj: These are markers that indicate the equivalent of subject, object, or adjunct extracted relative clauses.

    Feature	Indicates	Example
    +PastPart	Past participle	gittiğim [yer]
    		“[the place] I am going”
    +FutPart	Future participle	gideceğim [yer]
    		“[the place] I will be going”
    +PresPart	Present participle	giden [adam]
    		“[the man] who is going”
    +NarrPart	Evidential participle	gitmiş [adam]
    		“[the man] who (is rumored)
    		to have gone”
    +AorPart	Aorist participle	geçer [not] “passing [grade]” ,
    		dayanılmaz [sıcak]
    		“unbearable [heat]”

• 3. Nominal forms (Nouns, Derived Nouns, Derived Nominal and Pronouns) get the following inflectional markers. Not all combinations are valid in all cases:

  • (a) Number/Person Agreement

    Feature	Indicates	Example
    +A1sg	1st person singular	ben “I”
    +A2sg	2nd person singular	sen “you”
    +A3sg	3rd person singular	o “he/she/it” , all singular nouns
    +A1pl	1st person plural	biz “we”
    +A2pl	2nd person plural	siz “you”
    +A3pl	3rd person plural	onlar “they” , all plural nouns

  • (b) Possessive Agreement

    Feature	Indicates	Example
    +P1sg	1st person singular possessive	kalemim “my pencil”
    +P2sg	2nd person singular possessive	kalemin “your pencil”
    +P3sg	3rd person singular possessive	kalemi “his/her/its pencil”
    +P1pl	1st person plural possessive	kalemimiz “our pencil”
    +P2pl	2nd person plural possessive	kaleminiz “your pencil”
    +P3pl	3rd person plural possessive	kalemleri “their pencil(s)”
    +Pnon	No possessive	kalem “pencil”

  • (c) Case

    Feature	Indicates	Example
    +Nom	Nominative	çocuk “child”
    +Acc	Accusative	çocuğu “child as definite object”
    +Dat	Dative	çocuğa “to the child”
    +Abl	Ablative	çocuktan “from the child”
    +Loc	Locative	çocukta “on the child”
    +Gen	Genitive	çocuğun “of the child”
    +Ins	Instrumental/	kalemle “with a pencil”
    	accompanier	çocukla “with the child”
    +Equ	Equative (by object)	bizce “by us”

• 4. Adjectives do not take any inflectional markers. However, the cases ̂DB+Adj+PastPart and ̂DB+Adj+FutPart will have a possessive marker “one of the first six of the seven above” to mark subject agreement with the verb that is derived into the modifier participle. For example, gittiğim [yer] “[the place] (that) I went” will have …̂DB+Adj+PastPart+P1sg , gittiğimiz [yer] “[the place] (that) we went” will have …̂DB+Adj+PastPart+P1pl.

• 5. Verbs will have multiple classes of markers

  • (a) Valency changing voice suffixes are treated as derivations. These voice markers follow ̂DB+Verb. A verb may have multiple causative markers.

    Feature	Indicates	Example
    +Pass	Passive	yıkandı “it was washed”
    +Caus	Causative	yıkattı “he had it washed”
    +Reflex	Reflexive	yıkandı “he washed himself”
    +Recip	Reciprocal/	selamlaştık “we greeted each other”
    	Collective	gülüştük “we all giggled”

  • (b) The following markers marking compounding and/or modality are treated as deriving new verbs with a semantic twist. These markers also follow ̂DB+Verb. All except the first have quite limited applicability.

    Feature	Indicates	Example
    +Able	Able to verb	okuyabilir
    		“[s/he] can read”
    +Repeat	verb repeatedly	yapadurdum
    		“I kept on doing [it]”
    +Hastily	verb hastily	siliverdim
    		“I quickly wiped [it]”
    +EverSince	have been verbing ever since	bilegeldiğimiz
    		“that we knew ever since”
    +Almost	Almost verbed but did not	düşeyazdım
    		“I almost fell”
    +Stay	Stayed/frozen while verbing	uyuyakaldılar
    		“they fell asleep”
    +Start	Start verbing immediately	pişirekoydum
    		“I got on cooking [it]”

  • (c) Verbal polarity attaches to a verb (or the last verbal derivation (if any), unless last verbal derivation is from a +Noun or +Adj is a zero derivation).

    Feature	Indicates	Example
    +Pos	Positive polarity	okudum “I read”
    +Neg	Negative polarity	okumadım “I did not read”

  • (d) Verbs may have one or two tense, aspect or mood markers. However not all combinations are possible.

    Feature	Indicates	Example
    +Past	Past tense	okudum “I read”
    +Narr	Evidential past tense	okumuşum
    		“it is rumored that I read”
    +Fut	Future tense	okuyacağım “I will read”
    +Prog1	Present continuous tense—process	okuyorum “I am reading”
    +Prog2	Present continuous tense—state	okumaktayım
    		“I am in a state of reading”
    +Aor	Aorist mood	okur “he reads”
    +Desr	Desiderative mood	okusam “wish I could read”
    +Cond	Conditional aspect	okuyorsam “if I am reading”
    +Neces	Necessitative aspect	okumalı “he must read”
    +Opt	Optative aspect	okuyalım “let’s read”
    +Imp	Imperative aspect	oku “read!”

  • (e) Verbs also have Person/Number Agreement markers. See above. Occasionally finite verbs with have a copula +Cop marker.

• 6. Semantic markers for derivations

  • (a) The following markers mark adverbial derivations from a verb—hence they appear after ̂DB+Adverb.

    Feature	Indicates	Example
    +AfterDoingSo	After having verbed	okuyup “after having read”
    +SinceDoingSo	Since having verbed	okuyalı “since having read”
    +As	As …verbs	okudukça “as he reads”
    +When	When …is done verbing	okuyunca
    		“when he is done reading”
    +ByDoingSo	By verbing	okuyarak “by reading”
    +AsIf	As if verbing	okurcasına
    		“as if he is reading”
    +WithoutHaving-	Without having verbed	okumadan
    DoneSo		“without having read”
    		okumaksızın
    		“without reading”

  • (b) +Ly marks manner adverbs derived from an adjective: yavaş (slow) derives yavaşça “slowly”.

  • (c) +Since marks temporal adverbs derived from a temporal noun: aylar “months” derives aylardır “since/for months.”

  • (d) +With and +Without mark modifiers derived from nouns: renk “color” derives renkli “with color” and renksiz “without color.”

  • (e) +Ness marks a noun derived from an adjective with semantics akin to -ness in English: kırmızı “red” derives kırmızılık “redness,” uzun “long” derives uzunluk “length.”

  • (f) +Become and +Acquire mark verbs productively derived from nouns with the semantics of becoming like the noun or acquiring the noun: taş “stone” derives the verb stem taşlaş “become a stone/petrify”; para “money” derives the verb stem paralan “acquire money.”

  • (g) +Dim marks derives a diminutive form a noun: kitap “book” derives kitapçık “little book/booklet”.

  • (h) +Agt marks a noun derived from another noun involved in someway with the original noun; the actual additional semantics is not predictable in general but depends on the stem noun: kitap derives kitapçı “bookseller,” gazete “newspaper” derives gazeteci “journalist,” fotoğraf derives fotoğrafçı “photographer.”

• 7. The following will follow a postposition to indicate the case of the preceding nominal it will subcategorize for. This is not morphologically marked but is generated to help with parsing or morphological disambiguation. Their only use is to disambiguate the case of the preceding noun if it has multiple morphological interpretations.

  • +PCAbl

  • +PCAcc

  • +PCDat

  • +PCGen

  • +PCIn

  • +PCNom