Verb classes and properties in Turkish

In a language's lexical hierarchy, it can be said that nouns are at one end and verbs are at the other. Verbs form one of the most important groups in this category. Verbs, in their most basic sense, are grammatical categories used to describe all activities accomplished in the real world. Verbs constitute one of the most striking classes among the word groups because they describe all the activities that human beings perform. The works carried out by people, the changes in the situation in nature and the feelings and thoughts of people towards the universe are explained through verbs. An important study on the ontological classification of verbs has been done by Levin. Levin identified 48 verb classes for English in his own study. The aim of this study is to determine the verb classes in Turkish and to describe the general characteristics of these classes by using the criteria and semantic relations Levin used in her study. Thanks to the data presented by this study, which verb class has more members in Turkish, which class has wider semantic features, and most importantly, Turkish verb classes will be better understood. Keywords Modern Turkish, verb classes, morphosyntax, transitivity, intransitivity