# A few questions from a reading exercise



## jbionic2010

Please first read the following Turkish text
https://photos.app.goo.gl/HEcLA3ZxUwgKvcdZ2

Then refer to the highlighted parts.

1.My first question is about affixes in "düşündüklerini". I do understand that the very last affix -i is the accusative affix caused by transitive properties of "söyleyince".
However my confusion is related to affix -leri? At first glance I thought this was the plural possessive affix, but then upon checking with the English translation I decided that the affix was actually composite of plural "ler" + singular possessive "i" as if it conveyed the meaning that many thoughts all belonged to Nurullah Bey himself. Obviously, "arkadaşları" would have the meaning "his friends" rather than "their friend".
Is this correct?

2.What is the correct morphological structure of "karşılamayan"? Does "ama" means negation of -EBIL in this particular case?

3.What is the meaning of "içtimai"?


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## CHovek

1)What he/they think or thought(his/their thought)=Düşün*düğü*
   What he/they think or thought(his/their thought*s*)=Düşündük*leri*

2)iyi karşıla-ma-yan =not liking or not approving... , -ma=not
   karşılayan=liking or approving ...,
   karşıla-y-ama-yan= -y is the buffer, -ama is negation of -ebil,-abil

3)içtimai= social  (but toplumsal is much more common)


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## jbionic2010

> 1)What he/they think or thought(his/their thought)=Düşün*düğü*


Perhaps I learnt Turkish by reading a wrong book, but how comes  Düşün*düğü* also stands for what *THEY* thought?


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## Bespelled

jbionic2010 said:


> Perhaps I learnt Turkish by reading a wrong book, but how comes  Düşün*düğü* also stands for what *THEY* thought?



"Onların düşündükleri" is the longer (and I guess the original) grammatical form, but in many cases it is permissible to drop the "ler" affix in plural possessive constructions. Therefore, "onların düşündüğü" does indeed mean "what they thought".

"Onun düşündüğü", however, means "what s/he thought", so you have to judge by the context.

Generally, you would not drop the "ler" part if it could cause confusion.


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## jbionic2010

Thanks. So is my statement 1 above correct then?


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## Bespelled

jbionic2010 said:


> Thanks. So is my statement 1 above correct then?



It is, with the qualification that whenever there could be a misunderstanding you should use "düşündükleri" instead of "düşündüğü" for "what they think/thought"


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## CHovek

jbionic2010 said:


> Perhaps I learnt Turkish by reading a wrong book, but how comes  Düşün*düğü* also stands for what *THEY* thought?


In Turkish plural pronouns can take plural verbs or singular verbs.

"Onlar gittiler" and "onlar gitti" are both correct and current.


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