Abstract
AbstractIn modern Turkish, the apostrophe is used to separate proper names from inflectional endings (İzmir’de‘in İzmir’). This is not the case with inflected common nouns (şehirde‘in the city’). In this respect, the apostrophe constitutes an instance of graphematic dissociation between proper names and common nouns. Interestingly, the apostrophe was originally employed to transliteratehamzaandaynin Arabic and Persian loanwords (san’at‘art’). However, these loanwords gradually lost the apostrophe (sanat‘art’). This implies that Turkish experienced a graphematic change whereby the apostrophe developed from a phonographic marker of glottal stop into a morphographic marker of morpheme boundaries in proper names. This refunctionalization process is illustrated by a diachronic corpus analysis based on selected issues of the newspaperCumhuriyetfrom 1929–1975. The findings reveal that the use of the apostrophe with proper names was triggered by foreignness. More specifically, the apostrophe first occurred with foreign names to highlight morpheme boundaries (Eden’in‘of Eden’) and then expanded to native names via animacy (Doğan’ın‘of Doğan’).
Highlights
In Turkish, the apostrophe separates proper names from inflectional endings
We will examine the influence that foreignness and animacy have on the occurrence of the apostrophe with inflected personal names and place names
Turkish exhibits graphematic dissociations between common nouns and proper names (İzmir’de ‘in İzmir’ vs. şehirde ‘in the city’). These dissociations originated from a graphematic change involving the refunctionalization of the apostrophe from a phonographic marker of glottal stop in Arabic and Persian loanwords to a morphographic marker of morpheme boundaries in proper names
Summary
In Turkish, the apostrophe separates proper names from inflectional endings. The apostrophe does not occur with inflected common nouns such as amir ‘chief’ and şehir ‘city’ (amirin ‘of the chief’, şehrin ‘of the city’). This implies that there is a graphematic dissociation between proper names and common nouns. Dissociations are defined in terms of formal differences.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
