Relative clauses : a contrastive analysis of modern standard Arabic and Turkish

Abstract EN

This paper explores the differences and similarities between Turkish and Modern Standard Arabic in the area of Relative Clauses.

Turkish is an agglutinative language.

Its modals and auxiliaries are bound morphemes suffixed to the predicate, whereas relative pronouns in Modern Standard Arabic are used as separate words.

Accordingly, the Turkish relative clause contains one of the following participle suffixes : –(y)an, -dik or (y) ecak corresponding to the following Modern Standard Arabic relative pronouns that are used as separate words: ʔallaði, ʔallaðaani , ʔallaðayni, ʔallaðiina, ʔallati, ʔallattaani ʔallatayni and ʔallaati or ʔallawaati.

The paper also attempts to reveal some pedagogical implications which are helpful in teaching Arabic and Turkish as foreign languages.