Sentence Analysis: Identifying and Revising Usage Errors (Anlatım Bozuklukları) in Turkish Writing
Updated: Aug 26
Common Syntactical & Stylistic Errors in Turkish Writing
Orthographic errors: misspellings (typos), punctuation, capitalization, hyphenation, etc.
Ambiguous word orders: misplaced modifiers, squinting (ambiguous) modifiers.
Ambiguous referent-tracking and anaphora resolution: faulty use/omission of pronouns.
Agreement inconsistencies (singular vs. plural usage issues, distributive singulars/plurals).
Sensitive language: use of identity-insensitive, discriminating language.
Stylistic repetitiveness (redundancy): tautological duplications, pleonastic modifiers, redundant descriptors, binomial duplications, excessive enumerations.
“Padding” and “empty” expressions: hypercharacterization, clichés, hyperstylization.
Imprecise, vague language: hedging as a politeness strategy.
Semantic and logical fallacies: metonymic fallacy, anthropomorphic fallacy.
Below, I analyze some conspicuous examples of redundancies and “padding” in Turkish writing, which involve the use of extraneous modifiers, enumerations, clichéd expressions, or otherwise excessively stylized language with convoluted or stiff phrasing. Due to the peculiar nature of the Turkish language—namely, its verb-final, head-final, pronoun-dropping, left-branching, and asyndetic clause-linking properties—Turkish sentences are especially susceptible to redundancies and ambiguities.
Analysis & Revision Using Examples from Literature and Journalism
Faulty Parallelism (Literary Fiction)
According to the principle of linguistic parallelism, serial items in a sentence must be parallel (identical) in their meaning (e.g., as agents, actions, locations, goals, etc.), in their function in the sentence (e.g., as subjects, objects, predicators, modifiers, etc.), and, in most cases, in their grammatical form as well (e.g., as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, etc.). When it comes to the synthetical, agglutinative Turkish, because of its robust case-marking system, grammatical agreements, and vowel harmony, serial items not only have the same grammatical form, they also often rhyme! Duplicate morphologies of serial parallel items, with each followed by a serial comma (save for the last item in the series), makes it easy to spot them, including in cases of a faulty parallelism, as in this beautiful sentence from Tanpınar’s Huzur:
Original:
Üçüncü ve belki en büyük şartının [tıpkı tıpkısına Nuran’a benzemek], [Türkçeyi onun gibi teganni edercesine konuşmak, karşısındakine onun gözlerinin ısrarıyla bakmak], [kendisine hitap edildiği zaman kumral başını onun gibi sallayarak konuşana dönmek], [elleriyle aynı jestleri yapmak], [konuşurken bir müddet sonra kendi cesaretine şaşırarak öyle kızarma], [hiçbir özentisiz, telaşsız, büyük ve geniş, suları, dibi görünecek kadar berrak, bir nehir gibi hayatın ortasında hep kendi kendisi olarak sakin, besleyici akmak] olduğunu o gün değilse bile, o haftalar içinde öğrendi.
If not on that same day, Mümtaz learned in the coming weeks that the third, though perhaps superseding, factor was to resemble Nuran herself: to speak Turkish liltingly as she did; to face her interlocutor with the insistence she carried in her eyes; to lean toward one, when addressed, by cocking her sandy brown head; to make similar gestures of hand; to simply blush, moments after making a retort, astonished at her own pluck; to ply through the midst of life in a calm and nourishing manner, forever her own woman, like a river without pretension or anxiety, vast and wide—whose waters were clear enough to see all the way to the bottom.
Ahmed Hamdi Tanpınar, Huzur
This long sentence has one expansive series, consisting of six nominal infinitival (‑mak/‑mek) clauses that function as complements of the same complex verbal phrase olduğunu öğrendi (the items are shown above in brackets). A quick scan at the items reveals a defect (most probably a typo) in the penultimate item that end with ‑ma instead of ‑mak:
Revised:
Üçüncü ve belki en büyük şartının tıpkı tıpkısına Nuran’a benzemek, Türkçeyi onun gibi teganni edercesine konuşmak, karşısındakine onun gözlerinin ısrarıyla bakmak, kendisine hitap edildiği zaman kumral başını onun gibi sallayarak konuşana dönmek, elleriyle aynı jestleri yapmak, konuşurken bir müddet sonra kendi cesaretine şaşırarak öyle kızarmak, hiçbir özentisiz, telaşsız, büyük ve geniş, suları, dibi görünecek kadar berrak, bir nehir gibi hayatın ortasında hep kendi kendisi olarak sakin, besleyici akmak olduğunu o gün değilse bile, o haftalar içinde öğrendi.
Due to the peculiarities of Turkish syntax, the non-final items in a series are normally signalled by two end-boundary markers (in the sentence above, the end infinitival suffix ‑mak/‑mek and a comma). This makes it easier to identify the start of a series and the end of the series, signaled by no comma after the last item.
Redundancies (“beraber”, “ve hatta”, “onun”), Misplaced Intensifier “asıl” (Literary Fiction)
Human languages are built to tolerate certain repetitiveness, despite the fact that redundancies violate the principle of linguistic economy governing human communication. In addition to helping clarify meaning or convey an emotion, repetitions may also have several specific functions, one of which is revealed through interaction with pragmatics (communication in the context). Let me explain.
The logic of economy in language compels us to omit anything that can be understood implicitly, without being stated explicitly. For example, in coordination, we do not need to repeat the same information shared by coordinated items. This is why, let's say, instead of the verbose and repetitive Ben yarın gelirim, ben yarın onu alırım (I'll come tomorrow; I'll get it tomorrow), Turks would use a more economical variant, like, Yarın gelir, alırım (I'll come and get [it] tomorrow). As the trimmed version demonstrates, the repeated adverbial yarın and the verb's person suffix -ım can be stated only once; the repeated pronominal subject ben can be omitted altogether (because it can be understood from the verb's morphology), as can be the once-used object onu (because it can be inferred from the semantics of the verb al-). Now, if we were to hear or read the sentence in its initial form (Ben yarın gelirim, ben yarın alırım), we would certainly notice its repetitive structure, specifically, the elements expected to be normally omitted (yarın, -im, ben, onu).
The conspicuous use of an implicitly understood and, therefore, omittable constituent makes it stand out and generate emphasis.
This demonstrates an important effect of an explicit redundancy: not omitting a constituent that is expected to be omitted causes it to stand out, which translates into pragmatic emphasis. In other words, by explicitly stating something that is normally expected to be omitted (because it can be understood implicitly), we draw attention to it, making it pragmatically prominent and, therefore, stressed (emphasized). Simply put, the deliberate explicit use of something redundant in a sentence is a sure way to signal that the redundancy must be noticed, that is, stressed. This is why we tend to perceive repeated words as emotionally charged (hayır değil, değil) or use reduplications for their intensifying and amplifying effect (koca koca lokmalar). This is also why, if any omittable personal or possessive pronouns are explicitly used, they are meant to fulfill a certain function: a discourse-pragmatic emphasis (topic introduction/shift, contrast, focus), semantic disambiguation, or a socio-linguistic function (hedging, softening, pleading, etc.).
By this logic, if an omittable word is not omitted, it is understood to be emphasized, which may cause confusion if the word is not meant to be prominent, as (in my opinion) is demonstrated below by the explicit, and redundant, use of the omittable adverbial beraber (together) and by the explicit, and misleading, use of the omittable pronoun onun (his):
Original:
Genç adam, Seniha ile beraber iki ve hatta üç kadının bir arada idaresini o kadar müşkül bulmuyordu; onun belini büken şey; asıl kumardı.
Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoğlu, Kiralık Konak
► Misplaced intensifier asıl:
A misplaced adverbial modifier is a common issue in writing. Unless the adverbial modifier is sentential in its function (when it modifies the entire sentence, such as a modal adverbial), it is syntactically and semantically linked to the word(s) it modifies, i.e., its head that can be a verb, a noun, an adjective, or another adverbial. If the adverbial is not adjacent to its head (as a misplaced modifier), the adverbial may be understood as modifying another constituent, as, for example, the intensifying adverbial asıl (actually, truly, really) in the extract below. As an intensifier, the adverbial asıl generates emphasis for the word that follows it, which in this context is not kumar (gambling) but büken (weighing), as in “the thing that actually weigh him down was gambling”, instead of “the thing that weigh him down was actually gambling”.
► Redundant beraber:
Because the adverbial beraber follows the postposion ile, it is semantically redundant, unless it is meant to be pragmatically prominent or contrasting. The context is not that of contrast, however: Seniha is simply meant to be included in the number of women manageable by the protagonist (in other words, Seniha ile simply means including Seniha, not together with Seniha).
► Redundant and misleading use of onun:
Turkish is a classified as a pro-dropping (pronoun-dropping) language, where any personal pronouns in the subject position and any possessive pronouns used as possessors are usually omitted because they are encoded, respectively, into the number and person suffixes of the related predicators (verbs) and the possessive suffix -(s)i of the related noun. In narratives, recurrent characters tend to be placed in subject (and topic) positions, as genç adam here. Being recurrent, subject-topics function as continuing topics, i.e., they extend their scope (effect) over the entire sentence and the adjacent sentences, including any unintegrated (unpaired) “possessed” constituents, such as belini in this sentence. In the context, the possessor of belini is clearly the subject-topic genç adam. However, the explicit onun implies that it may refer to some other possessor (Seniha in the context), and not the subject genç adam (as in her back, not his back), which is incorrect. The subject-contrasting effect of the possessive onun is also known as the anti-subject effect.
► Redundant ve in ve hatta:
The intensifying sense of hatta (even) does not need the coordinating conjunction ve (and) to convey its meaning.
Revised:
Genç adam, Seniha ile iki, hatta üç kadının bir arada idaresini o kadar müşkül bulmuyordu; belini asıl büken şey, kumardı.
The young man did not find managing two, or even three, women at once, including Seniha, all that difficult. The thing that did weigh him down was gambling.
Note that I have also replaced the subject-marking semicolon, after şey, with a comma. In nominals sentences (where the subject and the predicative are both nominal, like şey and kumar here), subjects are normally marked by a comma to prevent combining the nominal subject and predicative into a noun compound. A semicolon may instead be required if the subject and the predicative are grammatically parallel, in which case a comma between them may lead to misreading them as serial items. Since, şey and kumar can hardly be perceived as forming a series, a comma would be perfectly fine.
Misplaced “Squinting” Adverbial Modifier “neredeyse” (Literary Fiction)
An adverbial may be placed in such a position that it can potentially link to more than one constituent, causing ambiguity. Such modifiers are also known as “squinting” , or winking, modifiers.
Another often-misplaced adverbial is neredeyse (almost, nearly), which can modify a verb, noun, adjective, adverbial, etc. Due to its multifunctionality, its misplacement can cause confusion. For example, below, the adverbial neredeyse precedes a pair of two parallel noun phrases, toplanmış kalmış bir yığın malumat, bir yığın hikmet (an accumulated heap of information, wealth of wisdom), where the noun phrases bir yığın malumat, bir yığın hikmet are modified by toplanmış kalmış. Therefore, It is not clear whether neredeyse modifies the entire construction ([toplanmış kalmış] bir yığın malumat, [toplanmış kalmış] bir yığın hikmet) or just the immediately adjacent modifier toplanmış kalmış. The context tells us that neredeyse certainly does not modify the adjacent modifier toplanmış kalmış, which is why we should reposition it by placing it right before the part it modifies:
Original:
Bu kararı da verince, kafasında aile hukukuna, kadınların terbiye ve idaresine, çocukların yetiştirilmelerine dair, neredeyse toplanmış kalmış bir yığın malumat, bir yığın hikmet bulunduğunu anladı.
Upon reaching this decision, he realized that his mind held nearly a vast collection of information and wisdom about family law, education and management of women, and upbringing of children.
Memduh Şevket Esendal, “Saide”
Revised:
Bu kararı da verince, kafasında aile hukukuna, kadınların terbiye ve idaresine, çocukların yetiştirilmelerine dair, toplanmış kalmış neredeyse bir yığın malumat, bir yığın hikmet bulunduğunu anladı.
The adverbial modifier neredeyse thus “squints” (winks, in the sense of flirting) because it is not clear whether it modifies the immediately following constituent or the next constituent.
Misplaced “Squinting” Demonstrative Pronoun “o” (Literary Fiction)
Adjectival demonstrative pronouns, such as o, can be misplaced, as in the sentence below. Here, we have the so-called cluster of attributive modifiers—a series of modifying clauses, çocukluğumda tanıdığım, her şeyi bilen, and bir kere öğrendiğini bir daha unutmayan, the adjective meraklı, and the adjectival demonstrative pronoun o—all modifying the same head, ihtiyarlar. The adjectival pronoun o has to be placed as close to the head as possible; otherwise, it can be understood as modifying another, more adjacent, constituent. For example, the phrasing o her şeyi bilen, although admittedly awkward, could still be interpreted as modifying the noun phrase her şeyi (who knew that all):
Original:
Ne olurdu, çocukluğumda tanıdığım o her şeyi bilen, bir kere öğrendiğini bir daha unutmayan meraklı ihtiyarlara benzeseydim.
What would it be like if I were like those curious old people that I knew when I was a kid, who knew everything and never forgot what they learned?
Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Beş Şehir
Revised:
Ne olurdu, çocukluğumda tanıdığım, her şeyi bilen, bir kere öğrendiğini bir daha unutmayan o meraklı ihtiyarlara benzeseydim.
Redundant gibi-Verbal and Converbs (Textbook)
There are quite a few issues with the sentence below, including the repetitive gibi-phrase, the use of the extraneous kurulup, and the semantically questionable use of the verb complex verilmeye çalışılır:
Original:
Türk Tarih Kurumu, Türk Dil Kurumu gibi yapılanmalar yeni bir anlayışın kurulup geliştirilmesinde rol alıp elde edilen sonuçlar; şiir, tiyatro, roman gibi edebi türler aracılığıyla verilmeye çalışılır.
(lit., Such organizations as the Turkish Historical Society and the Turkish Language Association played a role in establishing and developing a new mindset, and efforts were made to convey the resulting outcomes through such literary genres as poetry, theater, and the novel.)
Çağdaş Türk Romanı, ed. Yakup Çelik & Emine Kolaç
Revised:
Türk Tarih Kurumu ile Türk Dil Kurumu, yeni bir anlayışın geliştirilmesinde rol oynar; bunun sonuçları da, şiir, tiyatro, roman gibi edebi türler aracılığıyla aktarılır.
The Turkish Historical Society and the Turkish Language Society play a role in the development of a new understanding, with the results conveyed through poetry, plays, novels, and other literary genres.
“Empty” Expression (Official Document)
In officialese texts, nouns are often used as modifiers, or rather as qualitative modifiers; they are also often redundant. For example, in the sentence below, the modifiers çeşitli derece ve türdeki (of various degrees and types) are rather “empty”:
Original:
Madde 3 – Türk eğitim ve öğretim sistemi, bu genel amaçları gerçekleştirecek şekilde düzenlenir ve çeşitli derece ve türdeki eğitim kurumlarının özel amaçları, genel amaçlara ve aşağıda sıralanan temel ilkelere uygun olarak tespit edilir.
(lit., The Turkish education and training system is organized to achieve these general objectives, and the specific objectives of educational institutions of various degrees and types are determined in accordance with the general objectives and the basic principles listed below.)
Milli Eğitim Temel Kanunu, 1739 Sayılı Kanun
Revised:
Madde 3 – Türk eğitim ve öğretim sistemi, bu genel amaçları gerçekleştirecek şekilde düzenlenir ve eğitim kurumlarının özel amaçları, genel amaçlara ve aşağıda sıralanan temel ilkelere uygun olarak tespit edilir.
The Turkish education and training system is organized to achieve these general objectives, and the specific objectives of educational institutions are determined in accordance with the general objectives and the basic principles listed below.
Redundant Verbal/Converb (Academic Manuscript)
Here is a common case of pleonastic repetitiveness: the information conveyed by the first part of the sentence (virgül konarak) is already implied by the second part of the sentence (virgülle bağlansa):
Original:
Burada kullanılan noktalı virgül yerine virgül konarak iki cümle virgülle bağlansa olmaz mı?
(lit., Couldn’t the two sentences be linked with a comma by using a comma instead of the semicolon used here?)
Faysal Okan Atasoy, “Metin Yayınlarında Noktalama Üzerine”
Revised:
Bu iki cümle, noktalı virgül yerine virgülle bağlansa, olmaz mı?
Couldn’t these two sentences be linked with a comma instead of a semicolon?
Excessive Wording (“bir duygu hali”), Redundant Descriptor, Placement of Adverbial “kimi zaman” (Academic Manuscript)
The sentence below is ambiguous. The lack of the introductory, subject-marking comma may momentarily confuse the reader about the subject of the sentence, which may be either aşk (love), or aşk sınırları (love boundaries), or even aşk sınırları kuralları (love boundaries and rules). Semantically, the former seems the best option:
Original:
Aşk sınırları kuralları olmayan bir duygu hali olduğundan insanlar kimi zaman hiç aşık olmamaları gereken insanları sevebilirler.
(lit., Because love is a state of feeling that has no boundaries or rules, people can sometimes love people they should never love.)
Türk Kadın Yazarların Romanları
► Redundant descriptor:
bir duygu hali ⟶ bir duygu
The descriptor hal in duygu hali is redundant.
► Disambiguating subject-marking comma vs. duplicated expression (binominal):
aşk sınırları kuralları ⟶ aşk, sınırları kuralları
The lack of a comma between the parallel items sınırları (boundaries) and kuralları (rules) suggests that the expression sınırları kuralları may be a duplicated expression, i.e., a binominal, although it is not a lexicalized one, at least not yet.
► Stylistic repetitiveness and excessive wording:
insanlar … insanları ⟶ insanlar … kişileri
olmayan ... olduğundan ⟶ olmadığından
Finally, the stylistic repetitiveness of insanlar … insanları can be improved by a lexical synonymic replacement, as shown below. The sentence still sounds somewhat awkward, however, and it can be edited further. The stylistic repetitiveness and verbosity of olmayan … olduğundan … olmamaları is immediately noticeable.
► Better placement of the adverbial kimi zaman:
The adverbial kimi zaman (sometimes) clearly modifies the verb sevebilirler (they can love), so its placement right before the verb makes the meaning clearer.
Revised:
Aşkın sınırları kuralları olmadığından, insanlar, hiç aşık olmamaları gereken kişileri kimi zaman sevebilirler.
With love having no boundaries or rules, people may sometimes fall in love with those whom they shouldn't love.
“Empty” Expressions, Pseudo-Redundancy (News Reporting)
Original:
Bölgesel ve uluslararası konularda aynı yönde düşüncelerin paylaşıldığını görmekten büyük memnuniyet duyduğunu ifade eden Türkiye Cumhurbaşkanı, bu çerçevede ortak bir açıklamanın kabul edildiğini bildirdi.
(lit., Expressing his great pleasure in seeing that the same views are shared on regional and international issues, the Turkish President announced that a joint statement was adopted in this context.)
Revised:
Bölgesel ve uluslararası konularda aynı düşüncelerin paylaşıldığını görmekten büyük memnuniyet duyduğunu ifade eden Türkiye Cumhurbaşkanı, ortak bir açıklamanın kabul edildiğini bildirdi.
The Turkish President expressed his satisfaction with the fact that the parties shared the same views on regional and international issues, reflected in the adopted joint statement.
► Pseudo-redundancy:
aynı düşüncelerin paylaşıldığını
Some expressions can be pseudo-redundant. For example, the expression aynı düşüncelerin paylaşıldığı (sharing the same views), meaning agreeing with somebody is often considered redundant, as the modifier “the same” is already implied by the verb “to share,” making it pleonastic. However, düşüncelerin paylaşıldığı can also be understood as “sharing one's views with somebody,” meaning “disclosing one's views to somebody.” By stating aynı, we effectively differentiate between the two meanings, which makes aynı düşüncelerin paylaşıldığı legitimate (or pseudo-redundant).
Faulty Parallelism, Pleonasm (Nonfiction)
Original:
Veri toplama amaçlı ilçeye gidildiğinde yerel yönetim yetkilileri ile yapılan görüşmelerde; ilçe yerel yönetiminin, birçok turizm projesini geliştirerek ilçelerinde kırsal ve eko-turizmi geliştirme çabası içerisinde oldukları görülmüştür.
(lit., During meetings held with local government officials while visiting the district for data collection, it was observed that the local administration is striving to develop rural and eco-tourism in the area by advancing various tourism projects.)
Özdamar, M. & Çakıcı, A. C., “Farklı Gelişmişlik Düzeylerindeki Alanya-Erdek-Kalecik’te Halkın Turizm Algısı ve Turizme Desteği”, from Turizm Akademik Dergisi
► Pleonastic modification:
ilçe yerel yönetimi ⟶ ilçe yönetimi
Here is another case of pleonastic modification: by definition, a local government is an umbrella term that covers any government that is not federal or national, i.e., any district, province, or city government or administration.
► Singular vs. plural inconsistency:
ilçe yerel yönetimi ⟶ ilçe yönetimleri
Furthermore, there is an inconsistency between ilçeye gidildiğinde (during the visit to the district) and ilçelerinde (in their districts). Based on the context, these refer to the same “districts”, so it must be plural in both cases.
► Faulty parallelism (coordination):
kırsal (...) ve eko-turizmi ⟶ kırsal turizmi ve ekoturizmi
Another agreement inconsistency has to do with the coordination in kırsal ve eko-turizmi geliştirme çabası (rural and eco-tourism development effort(s)). The coordinated pair seems to be the adjectives kırsal (rural) and eko- (eco-), the latter being the shortened variant of the adjective ekolojik (ecological). In coordination, the added constituents must be parallel in their grammatical form and equal in their status. Although kırsal and eko- are both adjectives and both function as attributive modifiers, they are not exactly parallel, since one is abbreviated and marked with the so-called elliptical, or suspended, hyphen. Elliptical hyphens are not commonly used in Turkish, and this usage is clearly a calque (borrowing) from English. In English, when a pair or a series of hyphenated compounds share the same base (the second component in the compound), the elliptical/suspended hyphen can be used to signal the shared component, which can be elided and delayed until the last item of the pair/series. For example, the items middle- and upper- are perfectly parallel, so the coordination is syntactically correct:
middle-class and upper-class consumers ⇒ middle- and upper-class consumers
The problem with the Turkish sentence is that eko-turizm should be written as ekoturizm (ecotourism is a neologism, meaning “tourism to areas of ecological interest to support conservation efforts and observe wildlife”), which means that the coordinated pair does not share the second component (turizm), and it needs to be repeated:
kırsal turizmi ve ekoturizmi geliştirme çabası
rural tourism and ecotourism development effort(s)
Revised:
Veri toplamak amacıyla ilçelere gidildiğinde, yerel yönetim yetkilileri ile yapılan görüşmelerde, yetkililerinin, ilçelerinde kırsal turizmi ve ekoturizmi geliştirilme çabaları kapsamında turizm projelerinde yer aldığı ifade edilmiştir.
During visits to the districts for data collection, discussions with local government officials revealed that they were involved in tourism projects aimed at developing rural tourism and ecotourism in their respective districts.
Metonymic Fallacy, “Padding” (Policy Report)
Original:
Bu raporumuzda biz geçtiğimiz yıla ilişkin bir değerlendirme yapma yoluna gitmeden 2022 yılı için Türkiyeyi de ilgilendiren ve uluslararası ilişkiler açısından önem taşıyan konu başlıklarına ilişkin görüşlerimizi paylaşacağız.
(lit., In this report, before we make an assessment of the past year, we will share our views on topics that also concern Turkey and are important in terms of international relations for 2022.)
Can Kasapoğlu, “2022 Yılı Türkiye Milli Güvenlik Ajandası Projeksiyonları ve Tahminler”, https://edam.org.tr/2022ye-bakis/
► Metonymic fallacy:
konu başlıklarına ilişkin ⟶ konulara ilişkin
In Turkish, an entity or concept may be referred to metonymically—not by its names but by the name of something closely associated with that entity or concept, indirectly, or even literally, as a mental shortcut. Thus, one may non-linearly connect an organization or a government body with the building or the city they are located at (Beyaz Saray bir savunma toplantısı yapacağını iletti), a people or a group of people with the region or area where they live/ conduct activities (Bütün okul hayret etti), a creator with her creations (Bir haftadır Tarkovsky seyrediyorum), or a topic heading as it is presented in writing with the topic itself (see below), a written sentence with a spoken utterance/ idea/ information/ notion (Bu son cümleyi söylemem yanlıştı), or a person's name with the person herself (edebiyatımızın güçlü ve klasikleşmiş ismi Kemal Tahir). One of the usage issues in the sentence above has to do with such the metonymic fallacy whereby topics are associated with headings (names) of topics.
► “Padding”:
-a ilişkin bir değerlendirme yapma yoluna gitmeden ⟶ -i değerlendirmeden
The sentence below has some excessively convoluted “padded” expressions, making the sentence difficult to process. One questionable usage has to do with the common metonymic (mis)use of the term konu başlıklarına ilişkin görüşlerimiz (our views on the topic headings) to actually mean konulara ilişkin görüşlerimizi (our views on the topics).
Revised:
Bu raporumuzda biz, geçtiğimiz yılı değerlendirmeden 2022 yılı için Türkiye'yi de ilgilendiren ve uluslararası ilişkiler için önem taşıyan konulara ilişkin görüşlerimizi paylaşacağız.
In this report, we will share our views on the topics that also concern Turkey and are important for international relations in 2022, without assessing the previous year.
Pleonasm, Redundant Descriptor, Repetitiveness (Textbook)
Below the sentence has several issues: an omissible descriptor (işletme) used with the name of a company, a redundant modifying verbal clause (yapmış olduğu), and the repetitiveness of ilgili:
Original:
Gürgen Ticaret işletmesinin yapmış olduğu satış ile ilgili olarak yapılan ilk kayıt, satış hasılatı ile ilgilidir.
(lit. The first record made regarding the sales made by the company Gürgen Ticaret is related to the sales revenue.)
Yeni Türk Edebiyatına Giriş, ed. Zeliha Güneş
Revised:
Gürgen Ticaret'in satışları ile ilgili ilk kaydedilen, satış hasılatıdır.
The first recorded item in connection with Gürgen Ticaret's sales is the sales revenue.
“Empty” Stylized Expressions, Metonymy (Policy Report)
Here is a remarkable example of the decorative language, evoking the Ottoman ornamental stylizing. Apart from that, the sentence is also “guilty” of a metonymic fallacy: başlıklardaki trendleri:
Original:
Bunu yaparken adeta bir “kristal küreye” bakarak tahminlerde bulunma çabasına girmeksizin bu başlıklardaki trendleri analiz etmek suretiyle olası gelişmelere ilişkin geleceğe dönük düşünce projeksiyonunda bulunacağız.
(lit., While doing this, we will analyze the trends in these topics and make projections regarding possible future developments, without trying to make predictions by looking into a “crystal ball”.)
Can Kasapoğlu, “2022 Yılı Türkiye Milli Güvenlik Ajandası Projeksiyonları ve Tahminler”, https://edam.org.tr/2022ye-bakis/
Revised:
Bunu yaparken bir “kristal küreye” bakarak değil, bu trendleri analiz ederek olası gelişmelere ilişkin tahminlerde bulunacağız.
In doing so, we will make predictions about possible developments not by looking into a “crystal ball” but by analyzing these trends.
“Padding”, Pleonasm, Sensitive Language (Textbook)
The extract below is from a textbook, the Contemporary Turkish Novel, published by the Anadolu University as part of the school's extension programs provided for students enrolled in online and remote learning courses. The extract is from Chapter 6, “Feminist Discourse and Women Writers”, and it follows the list of rights that Turkish women, including women writers, have fought to protect:
Original:
Türk edebiyatında kadın yazarlar tarafından sorgulanan bu haklar, başlangıçtan günümüze kadar birçok romanın konusu olmuştur. Yazılan romanlar, bu romanlar çevresinde yapılan tartışmalar yaklaşık 115 yıllık bir süreçte kadınların birçok probleminin toplum tarafından algılanmasını ve yeniden düzenlenmesini sağlamıştır.
(lit., These rights, scrutinized by female writers in Turkish literature, have been the subject of numerous novels from the early days to the present. The novels themselves, along with the discussions surrounding them, have enabled society to perceive and reform many of the women's issues over a span of approximately 115 years.)
Y. Çelik, O. Gündüz, M. Narlı, T. Şimşek, Çağdaş Türk Romanı (ed. Y. Çelik, E. Kolaç) (Anadolu Üniversitesi Açıköğretim Fakültesi)
► “Padding” issues:
bu romanlar çevresinde yapılan tartışmalar ⟶ bu tartışmalar
“Padding” tactics can also be pleonastic, meaning that the “padded” part is already implied by the rest of the expression. For example, in the second sentence, the immediate red flag is the repeated word romanlar. In fact, the phrases yazılan romanlar and bu romanlar çevresinde yapılan tartışmalar semantically, as well as lexically, overlap. After all, for a novel to be discussed, it must have been written.
► Pleonastic redundancy:
yazılan romanlar ⟶ bu romanlar
Moreover, the entire phrase yazılan romanlar is redundant—not just because it’s logically assumed by the part that follows but also because it’s certainly implied by the preceding sentence about the subjects of novels (for a novel to have a subject, it obviously must be written). The phrase başlangıçtan günümüze kadar is rather obscure.
► Sensitive language:
kadınların birçok problemi ⟶ kadınların yaşadığı pek çok problem
Furthermore, the phrasing of kadınların birçok problemi as a definite noun-noun compound has an unpleasant political undertone. It frames the existing inequalities and prejudiced attitudes towards women as “women’s problems”, instead of identifying them as systemic historical and societal inequities. The ending part of the sentence is stylistically awkward: to make the society perceive the problem (algılamak) is hardly a winning tactic, and defining the objective of the women’s movement as to have the society to reorganize itself (yeniden düzenlenme) sounds too general and unspecific.
► Misplaced adverbial:
bu haklar başlangıçtan günümüze kadar birçok romanın konusu olmuştur ⟶ başından beri ... bu haklar birçok romanın konusu olmuştur
The sentence (women writers questioned the matter of rights and from the start wrote about it) has the adverbial modifier from the start (başlangıçtan günümüze kadar) placed before the second predicate only, meaning that it can modify only the second predicate. It would make more sense if women writers questioned the matter of rights from the start and therefore wrote about it.
Revision (as an option):
Türk edebiyatında, Türk kadın yazarlar tarafından sorgulanan bu haklar, başından beri birçok romanın konusu olmuştur. Bu romanlardan esinlenen tartışmalar sayesinde, kadınların son 115 yılda yaşadığı pek çok problem fark edilmiş ve ele alınmıştır.
In Turkish literature, these rights, scrutinized by female authors, have been the subject of numerous novels. Thanks to the discussions inspired by these novels, many problems faced by women have been recognized and addressed over the past 115 years.
