A Morphological Analysis of Unique Derivational Suffixes in Divânu Lugâti't-Türk

Abstract

Morphemes are the smallest linguistic units in a language that posses meaning-separating characteristic. They are classified as bound or free morphemes based on their ability to stand alone. Unique morphemes are those whose use in a language is limited to one or few instances. Various researchers have referred to unique morphemes using different terminologies. In Turkish, these morphemes can appear as affixes or as roots that cannot occur independetly. Previous studies have primarily focused on roots that do not stand alone in strandard Turkish. These study examines the unique morphemes found in the suffixes of Div & acirc;n & uuml;-Lug & acirc;ti't-T & uuml;rk, written by Kashgarl & imath; Mahmud in the 11th century. To achieve this, the editions of Div & acirc;nu L & ucirc;g & acirc;ti't-T & uuml;rk by Dankoff-Kelly (1982-1985), Atalay (1985-1986), Ercilasun-Akkoyunlu (2015), and Ka4alin (2019) were comparatively analysed. Additionally, the works of Bilgen (1989), Nalbant (2008), and Herkmen (2009), who conducted morphological studies on Div & acirc;nu L & ucirc;g & acirc;ti't-T & uuml;rk, were also reviewed. The study categorises the unique derivational suffixes identified based on their occurrence with noun and verb bases. It also incorporates researchers' opinions from etymological dictionaries, grammar books, and articles, discussing their etymological structures and the words they modify. The semantic and structural changes these suffixes induce in the noun and verb bases are highlighted. In the concluding section, fourteen unique derivational suffixes identified in the work are evaluated.