Valency of verbs i̇n old Turki̇c (Valenz)

Valency concept was introduced to the world of science by Lucien Tesniére. It has been a subject of interest since its introduction to the world of science. When this term was first used, it was only associated with verbs. However with later studies have been understand that names, adjectives, verbals and compound verbs have also valency. Valency subject has been examined on the verbs in the texts of Kül Tigin, Bilge Kağan and Tonyukuk Inscriptions known as the Orkhon Inscriptions in the contexts of the study. In this way, it has been aimed have an idea about the valency structure in Historical Turkish texts and to create a comparision ground for other studies. While examining valency of verb in the Orkhon Inscriptions the scope has kept wide and all verbs that were in the structure predicate and verbal has been included in this study. All identified verbs have been discussed in the aspect of the logical, semantic and syntactic valency. Structures of the obligatory valency, optional valency and the adjunct have been shown in sentences. In the study, the model of valency representation developed by Helbig and Schenkel has been used. At the end of the examination, the logical valency of the verbs has been determined as at least one maximum of three. İn the text the most frequently used semantic roles are agent, situation, subject and patient; semantic restrictions are human, administrator, location and armed organisation; case markers are nominative, accusative and direktive. In this study, 75 has monovalent, 168 has bivalent, 17 has trivalent verbs have been determined. It has been determined that these valency of verbs do not change according to verbal or predicate. Generally while the passive structure of verbs in active structure has been determined that reduction in the number of valencies, while the active structure of verbs in passive structure has been determined that increase in the number of valencies. Key words: Old Turkic, Valency, Verb, Verbals.