On Plurality Category and Teaching in Turkish

Abstract

When discussing about "plurality" of nouns in Turkish, it reminds /+lar/ affix after nouns (morpheme) and the subject is undervalued. Whereas, plurality and formation of plurality is not simple as it is thought as well as it is not made up of /+lar/ affix. It is because /+lar/ affix is only one of the linguistic elements in the morphological plurality used for making plural in Turkish.

Out of /+lar/ affix, /+An+/, /+Ar+/, /+(ş)Ar+/, /+GIl+/, /+GUn+/, /+ºK+/, /+lA+/, /+ºs+/, /+ºş+/, /+ºT+/, /+ºz+/ affixes have given plurality, plus, double, group, generalization, exaggeration, respect etc. to the words they are added in the historical process of Turkish. However, a major part of affixes used in plurality by morphological ways in Turkish has lost their function of plurality etc. in the historical process and combined with the base, origin, and body of their words.

The plurality in Turkish is a name of category (as it is in all world languages) and made in three ways: Morphological plurality, semantic plurality, and syntactic plurality

In this article, information is given primarily in "generality" and "singularity" and secondarily in plurality in Turkish, ways of forming this category, and some problems in learning it.