Exploring the functionality of -sa/se affixes for conveying potential and unreal scenarios

Abstract

The article focuses on the grammatical and semantic potential of the -sa/-se affix in forming the conditional and desirable mood in the Turkish language. It allowed the authors to trace the gradual transitions from actual reality to a broader one through the sphere of potentiality toward unreality. It was found that the affix -sa/-se is involved in forming the hypothetical and unreal word modality, i.e., it directly affects the seme. The proposed scientific research systematizes the existing knowledge about the paradigm of meanings that the -sa/-se affix can realize. Using a comprehensive methodological approach, it determines the interrelation between its position and function in the Turkish language construction. This includes a continuous sampling method, a descriptive method, a method of contextual analysis to establish the specifics of the formation of different contexts by this morpheme, and a method of pragmatic analysis. The article shows that the affix -sa/-se can express both unreal and real conditions. The authors of this paper have investigated that the sequence of formants in the formation of an unreal condition semantics has the following form: a condition affix (in preposition), an affix that realizes the temporal value. While forming a semi-real condition, the formant does not have a temporal indicator since, in hypothetical constructions, there is a clear opposition between the real and the desired. In the case of verbal modeling of a real condition, the temporal marker is the one in the preposition to the condition affix. As a word-forming formant, the affix realizes a wide range of other modal meanings and can express a more grammatically formalized epistemic modality.