Indirectivity category in old Anatolian Turkish

Indirectivity is the immediate sub-branch of the evidentiality category, which is based on the grammatical marking of the origin of the referred information in linguistics. The function of the evidentiality category is to mark the way of the speaker to access the information he/she expresses. Evidentiality takes place in two ways: directly and indirectly. The evidentiality category in Turkish comes in the form of indirectivity, which refers to getting information through indirect ways. The indirectivity category refers to any situation where the speaker is not included in or witnesses the event or the speaker notices the case later on though he/she is included in. In this case, the speaker gets involved after the action is finished. The evidentiality category, which is more comprehensive and includes the indirectivity category as well, is the grammar category that deals with the origin of information. World languages have differences in marking the origin of information. Whereas some languages mark the indirective way of information morphologically, some mark it lexically and syntactically. Turkic languages have had a powerful way of expressing the origin of information morphologically since ancient times, however it may be supported lexically and syntactically, as well. In this study, the indirectivity category in Old Anatolian Turkish was examined focusing on three works, namely, Yusuf ve Zeliha, Hüsrev ü Şirin, and Süheyl ü Nevbahar. The suffixes used to mark the indirective kind of information and the circumstances under which they were used in Old Anatolian Turkish were determined, the pragmatic meanings that showed up were commented on, and the indirectivity category was evaluated on the grounds of the reviewed examples.