Inverted Syntax in Early Turkish Texts

Authors

• Wolfgang-E. Scharlipp

Abstract

Inverted syntax, in Turkish devrik cümle, is described by various
grammarians and linguists as any of several types of deviation from the
normal word order in a sentence. As the Turkic languages are SOV
languages, the most frequent and most obvious change in word order is to
place some other part of the sentence behind the finite verb, which in a socalled
normal sentence should be the last word.
Some Turkologists include under the term devrik cümle also other
changes of position in the sentence, like, for example, the order OSV. In
fact, the possibilities of change of word order are so manyfold that
virtually all members of a sentence can occur in the position following the
finite verb, including an infinite verb.