Turkish Posture Verbs: Horizontal Position Verb yat-

Abstract

The semantics of the Turkish verb of horizontal position yat- and its compatibility with the names of different types of objects, as well as how its polysemy developed are investigated in the article. Various instances of lexical compatibility of yat- in action and state meanings are examined. The absence of its function as auxiliary with an aspectual meaning, characteristic for the position verbs in many languages, is explained by comparing it with the verb dur- ‘to be stationary’. Refs 9.