MORPHOPHONOLOGICAL, MORPHOSYNTACTIC, AND ICONIC CONSTRAINTS GOVERNING IRREVERSIBLE NOMINAL AND VERBAL BICOORDINATIVES IN TURKISH
MORPHOPHONOLOGICAL, MORPHOSYNTACTIC, AND ICONIC CONSTRAINTS GOVERNING IRREVERSIBLE NOMINAL AND VERBAL BICOORDINATIVES IN TURKISH

Author(s): Hakan AYDEMİR
Subject(s): Phonetics / Phonology, Morphology, Lexis, Historical Linguistics, Turkic languages
Published by: Artsürem Bilim Sanat Danışmanlık A.Ş (Artsürem Yayıncılık)
Keywords: Turkish linguistics; Bicoordinatives; Irreversible binomials; Coordination; Ordering principles; Sonority hierarchy; Morphophonology; Iconicity; Typology;
Summary/Abstract: This study investigates the structural principles governing irreversible nominal and verbal binary coordinatives in Turkish, referred to here as bicoordinatives (Turkish: ikileme). While such binary coordinative formations have long been studied in descriptive work, the rules governing such binary structures have not yet been fully established. Drawing on a relatively large dataset from both Modern Turkish and Old Turkic, the present study argues that these formations are regulated by a systematic interaction of morphophonological, morphosyntactic, and iconic constraints, formulated here as Ordering Principles (OPri). The analysis identifies seven hierarchically interacting rules that determine the fixed order of asymmetric bicoordinatives. These rules range from segmental and syllabic properties to higherlevel iconic relations reflecting event structure and semantic sequencing. It is shown that, when the balance of the syllable pattern is disrupted, asymmetries in syllable structure and syllable count override segmental preferences. The study further demonstrates that these ordering principles are not restricted to Modern Turkish but are already attested in Old Turkic too, indicating long-term structural stability within the language. Beyond bicoordinatives, the paper situates these findings within a broader block-recursive model of coordination (BiCo–TriCo–MulCo), showing how binary coordinative units serve as the building blocks for larger coordinative structures. The proposed theoretical framework contributes to Turkish linguistics, coordination theory, and typological research by providing a unified and empirically grounded account of irreversible coordination.

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