Derivational Suffixes in the Divan of Halim Giray Sultan: A Morphological and Functional Analysis

Abstract

The fundamental elements that reveal a language's derivational power, morphological functioning, and conceptual productivity are defined as derivational suffixes. Turkish, as an agglutinative language, has maintained this characteristic throughout its history; especially in old texts and literary works, it has developed a rich derivational system with derivational suffixes. Divans written in Ottoman Turkish provide reliable and high-quality linguistic data for examining the formal and semantic functioning of derivational suffixes, both in terms of showing the historical stages of the language and the derivational methods of its vocabulary. This study, as a section of a doctoral thesis entitled "A Phonological and Morphological Analysis in the Divan of Halim Giray Sultan (Text, Dictionary Study)'', examines the derivational suffixes in the divan from their formal and functional aspects. The derivational suffixes in the text are evaluated in terms of their origins, frequency of use, and semantic values. While reading a text, discovering the ways in which words are derived and acquire new meanings can sometimes be a unique pleasure. Especially in historical poetry, it's possible to see how poets enriched the language by using suffixes. In the Divan of Halim Giray Sultan, the frequent and varied use of these small structures added to words is striking; this makes it an important resource for those wishing to understand the language of that period. This section aims to examine in detail the functions of derivational suffixes within the text of the Divan and the meanings they reveal.