Converbs in Kirghiz

This thesis is a descriptive study discussing the converbs in Kirghiz syntactic-typological synchronically. Converbs, are marked by certain morphemes, syntactically connected to a main clause as a subordinate and are generally used as adverbial function. These structures undertake different syntactic tasks such as time, cause, manner, purpose in their basic sentences. Kirghiz is a Turkic language, which is a member of Northwest (Kipchak) group that forms the Aral-Caspian sub-group together with the Kazakh, Noghay, Karakalpak dialects as well. As it is in other Turkic languages, converb segments in Kirghiz formed with certain converbs suffixes (-(X)p, -A/-O;-y, -mAyInčA/-mOyUnčA, -GAnčA/-GOnčO, -GIčA/-GUčA, -GAnDA/-GOndO, -GAnDAy/-GOndOy, -GAn/-GOn boydon, -GAn/-GOn sayïn, -GAnDAn/-GOndOn bašqa, -GAndAn/-GOndOn kiyin) have various syntactic and semantic tasks. In this study, these tasks are described in detail on the basis of Johanson's (1995) theoretical approach. According to this model of Johanson, Kirghiz converb suffixes appear in 4 levels: in Level 1 and Level 2, focused on that the converb segment and base segment whether or not to take the different or same first actant. While focused on the lexicazation of the converb structures In Level 3, in Level 4 the transformation of certain converb structures in time grammatical categories (suffixes) such as actionality, modality and aspect-tense has been discussed. Keywords Turkic Languages, Kirghiz, Converbs, Syntax, Typology, Converb segment, Base segment