The structure of conditional sentence in the newspaper journalistic style of standard Turkishl

Abstract

The article is devoted to the use of various means of expressing the functional-semantic field of condition by reference to the Turkish press of the 20th – 21st centuries, which is considered the most “democratic” and flexible style of standard language. The structure of complex sentence in modern Turkish has not been so far in the focus of researchers, which determines the topicality and scientific novelty of this paper. The aim of the study is to determine the basic tendencies in Turkish syntax in the diachronic aspect during the last century, using the methods of comparative and quantitative linguistics. The research results show that in the newspaper journalistic style of the modern Turkish language preference is being given to morphological (forms of conditional mood and, less frequently, conditional modality) and lexical-syntactic (constructions made with verbal forms and auxiliary words) means of expressing condition. It is noted that periphrastic forms of conditional mood and modality are not used in the 21st century. There is a decrease in number of lexical means originating from Arabic and Persian, which can be the result of the evolution of the Turkish mass media language; moreover, writers refuse to use conjunctions due to them being optional in a Turkish conditional sentence. In addition, in the Turkish press of the 21st century, means that express substantival instead of adjectival meaning and do not contain temporality are used with higher frequency. Previous studies carried out on the topic of sentences of concession, reason and comparison in the Turkish press show similar results.