Comparison of Structural Features of Binomials inTurkish Language and English Language

The term ‘binomial’ refers to a pair of words denoting a synonymous or related idea, and sequence of words pertaining to the same form-class, placed at an identical level of syntactic hierarchy, and ordinarily connected by some kind of lexical link. Binomials carry some characteristics such as, fixed order, frozen words or freezes, conjoined words, and repetitive word pairs or reduplications. All these statements refer to binomials. The order of binomials is rigidly fixed. Both phonetic and semantic factors can play a role in determining the binomials. When two words are conjoined, their order of appearance is typically free. Both semantic and phonetic factors determine the ordering. For English, words that appear in the first position of binomials tend to refer to semantic concepts such as Here, Now, Adult, Male, Positive and Singular, whereas words appearing in second position tend to refer to opposite concepts. In terms of sound structure, words in first position tend to be monosyllables and contain a word-initial segment that is low in obstruency, as well as word-medial high vowel. The tendency for conjuncts in first position to be monosyllabic is considered to be the strongest of the phonetic determinant of ordering. The tendency for conjuncts in first position to contain a high vowel is also observed in English with regularity, particularly in the case of the high vowel ‘I’. The internal order of the binomials is affected by semantic and phonological factors. These features are common in English language and Turkish language. In the study, we tried to draw attention to the binomials in view of common characteristics in Turkish and English languages.

Keywords

Binomials in Turkish, Binomials in English, Syntax, Reduplication, Semantics, Phonetic