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In this paper we will try to investigate certain syntactic and semantic properties of the postposition üzere in Turkish. The first section of the paper will present a brief historical account of the postposition in question. The second section will present complementation properties of üzere, noting its basic syntactic and semantic functions. Section three will discuss the semantics of üzere as a "prospective aspect marker".

I. Meanings of üzere
Dictionaries, both monolingual and bilingual, define four basic meanings of üzere. Türkçe Sözlük (1992:1543), for example, lists these meanings as (summarized here):
(1) a. expressing purpose;
b. expressing condition;
c. proximity in time; and
d. in the manner of.[1]

Bilingual dictionaries provide translations as on, upon, just before, nearly, with the object of, on the condition of, and according to, among others. Since it is a relatively new postposition, it does not appear in historical dictionaries

Clauson (1972:280-281) indicates that üzere derives from üze, originally a locative adverb and the üze form has been replaced "almost everywhere in the medieval period by üzere with suffix -re".[2] Divanü Lûgat-it-türk includes 26 citationsof the form üze where in all occurrences üze functions as a locative adverb. Among other derivations by -re suffix, we find as-ra (below), iç-re (inside), kis-re (after), ön-re (before), son-ra (after), and taþ-ra, (outside) most of which are obsolete now or highly lexicalized with their specific meanings, and it seems like üzere is the only surviving postposition. Given the fact that Turkish is relatively poor in terms of marking adpositional functions with postpositions, where in most instances nominals with a variety of cases are used, the remaining postpositions seem to express different meanings. Another historical aspect that we observe is the change in the types of complements available for üzere. Though it seems it is still an option, üzere does not select NP complements any more, as in the examples, adet(i) üzere (as usual, habitually) , muradý üzere (following his wish), uslub-u sabýk üzere (in accordance with his style), vech-i mahsus üzere (as is belonging), ekseriyet üzere (in accordance with the majority), etc. Note also that such NP-complements are all non-native elements and the construction is not productive. Our final remark is that üzere can be replaced by two other oldest postpositions of Turkish, namely, için and gibi in certain contexts. Another distinctive property of this postposition is the lack of extended forms.

II. Complements of üzere and their semantics
Üzere mostly forms postpositional relative clauses and adjunct clauses and such clauses are always optional in the contexts they appear. In the following sentences üzere occurs with an infinitival clause:[3]

(2) [[[ Ruanda'daki soykirimi sorusturmak] üzere] kurulan] uluslararasi mahkeme sözcüsü Danford Mpumila, Alphonse Nteziryayo'nun yargilanmasi için Tanzanya'daki mahkemeye gönderilecegini söyledi.
'The spokesman of the international court set up in order to investigate the genocide in Rwanda Danford Mpumila has said that Alphones Ntziryayo will be sent over to the court in Tanzania for trial.'

(3) SERVOSAN KAPIMAT serisi cihazlar, [ [ [ bir elektrik kesintisinde asansör kabin kapisi motorlarini beslemek] üzere ] gelistirilmis ] akü ile çalisan cihazlardir.
'The SERVOSAN KAPIMAT devices developed to the engine of a lift carriage door in case of a power cut are devices that run on batteries.'

(4) [Indirimli ve ücretsiz olmak üzere ] iki grupta toplanabilecek olan seyahat kartlarÝ], IETT'nin sosyal hizmet kurumu oldugunun da bir göstergesidir.
'Commuter cards that can be classified in two groups as discounted and free is an indication of the fact that IETT is also an institution of social service.'

The clauses with ol- that include certain nominals like, basta ol- (to head, to be at the leading position), dahil ol- ( to include, to be included) and quantifiers, like üçü kadin olmak üzere bes memur (a total of five officials among which three are women) , etc., are generally defined as "gerunds" ( -mek üzere ) in traditional grammars[5] , and it is the case that the above mentioned NP-complements are also of this type with the verbal element deleted.[5]

As can be noted from the sentences below, with the infinitival complements üzere expresses purpose where the semantics of matrix verb and the embedded verb does not contradict in terms of expressing purposeful activity:

(5) Ankaraya gitmek üzere gara geldim.
'I came to train station with the purpose of going to Ankara.'

(6) Beldemizde bulunan yazlikçilara ve denizseverlere hizmet vermek üzere 5 adet 30 metre uzunlugunda iskele yapilarak hizmete sunulmustur.
'Five 30-meter piers have been built to serve the summer-house owners and seafarers living in our locality.'

Mostly with verbs of change of possession or interaction üzere clause sets the condition:

(7)Yarin geri vermek üzere bu kitabi ödünç aliyorum.
'I borrow this book on condition that I return it tomorrow.'

(8) Hava Kuvvetleri Komutanligi namina okutulmak üzere askeri liselere öðrenci alinacaktir.
'Student will be accepted to the military colleges to be educated on behalf of the Air Forces.'

In such contexts, üzere is interchangeable with the other primary postposition için or purpose indicating expressions like amacýyla (with the purpose of), in (5) and (6), and with the conditional expressions like þartýyla (with the condition of), koþuluyla (with the condition of), etc. in (7) and (8).

In terms of the type of the complement clauses we will note two final types, the nominalized passives and their non-passivized versions functioning as appositive clauses. With -DIK and -EcEk nominalizers, üzere functions more as a frame-setting element in a discourse:

(9) [Bilindigi üzere], Tanzimat'in açiklanmasindan sonra yerel yönetimlerle ilgili düzenlemeler 7 Kasim 1864 tarihli Nizamname ile gerçeklestirilmistir.
' As is known, after the declaration of Tanzimat, arrangements concerning the local administrations have been made by virtue of Regulations dated November 7th, 1864.'

(10) [Görüldügü üzere] tamir yapiyorum.
'As is seen, I am doing repair work.'

The adjunct clauses that have anaphoric reference in (9) and (10) impose a selectional restriction on the verbs, i.e., they occur only with verbs, that we may in general terms call mental verbs. The non-passivized versions of similar clauses mainly occur as appositives :

(11) Nakdi olarak yapilmak istenen yardimlarin, [yetkililerin israrla belirttigi üzere], sadece TRT'nin kampanyasi araciligiyla yapilmasi isteniyor.
'Cash donations as is reiterated by the authorities must only be made through the campaign conducted by TRT.'

Such uses of üzere express the meaning "in the manner of" as defined in the dictionaries and in such contexts, üzere can be replaced by gibi. When the verb in the complement clause is an infinitivized reciprocal, this time üzere clause functions as a discourse finalizer that expresses a future expectation:

(12) Çok yakinda bulusmak üzere …
'Meet you soon!'

(13) Gelecek yaza görüsmek üzere …
'See you next summer!'

In such uses, the notion of futurity is preserved whereas the notion of proximity is gone unless there occurs a quantified definite temporal expression like yarým saat sonra (half an hour later). Such expressions with their formulaic nature may be argued to have leave-taking or discourse concluding function.

III. The prospective aspect and üzere
In a very general sense, aspect characterizes the internal temporal structure of an event. While lexical aspect (Aktionsart) refers to lexical and notional categories relating to the classification of situations or state of affairs, grammatical aspect identifies the structure of a situation or speaker's perspective on it. Further distinctions proposed in the literature concerning classes of lexical and grammatical aspect include, inceptive (beginning), terminative (endpoint), prospective, retrospective and intensive ( Binnick 1991; Frawley 1991).

Üzere, when used predicatively, functions as the prospective aspect marker encoding a point just prior to the beginning of an event. It denotes that an event is about to take place or on the verge of obtaining. In other words, prospective aspect is a "way of viewing an event in which a nonchronological or not primarily chronological connection is established between the event and the reference point, in the case of 'present' relevance between the events and 'now' " (Fleischman 1983:192).

Üzere, as a prospective aspect marker mostly occurs with aspectual verbs which focus on the initial or final endpoints of events like baslamak (to start), bitmek (to finish), tamamlamak (to complete).

(14) Çivril-Baklan ovasi sulamasi adi altindaki sulama insaati devam etmekte olup, 3. kisim Baklan sol sahil sulama insaati bitmek üzeredir.
'The irrigation work called "The irrigation of the Çivril-Baklan plains" is under way and the 3rd stage Baklan-left coast irrigation work is about to be completed.'

(15) Suriye ve Irak ile sinir çizme çalismalari baslamak üzeredir. Antlasma, bu sinirlar üzerinde taraflarin özellikle güvenlik ve iyi komsuluk iliskilerini saglayacak bir biçimde yapilmistir.
'Border-drawing meetings with Syra and Iraq are to start soon. The agreement has been made in such a way so as to ensure security and friendly relationships between the parties.'

Since the conceptual structure of prospective aspect is "accountable to remoteness and proximal space" (Frawley 1991:333), based on this conceptual structure we loosely define two basic verb categories as verbs of initiation and verbs of completion. When the postposition üzere occurs with verbs that conceptually mark initiation or completion of events, üzere expresses this notion of proximity:

(16) Tüm grup ve müfrezeler arasi irtibat için en ileri teknolojiyle donatilmis olan komuta merkezi hizmete girmek üzeredir. (initiation)
'The headquarters, equipped with the latest technology to allow communication between all groups and troops, will begin to operate soon.'

(17) Topragin altinda kalan altin madenini koruyan Bergamalilar'i ileride baska köylüler izleyecektir. Nitekim Artvinliler harekete geçmek üzeredir. Öte yandan çevreciler termik santrallara, nükleer enerjiye de karsidir. (initiation)
'The Bergamaians, who protected their gold mine lying under the earth, will later be followed by other villages. In fact, Artivinians are on the point of taking action. On the other hand, environmentalists are opposed to thermionic power plant as well as nuclear energy.'

(18) Orta Anadolu Linyitleri Müessesesi (OAL) yeralti ocaginda mevcut ayak techizati ekonomik ömrünü doldurmak üzeredir. (completion)
'The economic life of the existing footing equipment in the underground mines of the Centeral Anatolian Lignite Administration (OAL) is about to expire.'

(19) Ekonomik durumumuzda bir yildan beri harcanan olaganüstü çabalar sonucunu vermek üzeredir. (completion)
'The extraordinary efforts that have been spent for a year to improve our economy are about to bear fruit.'

It is understood in the above sentences that the initiation or the completion of events expressed by the infinitive complement are not realized but are about to happen or likely to happen very soon. To put it differently, there is a kind of subjective linking of future event to present.

Among the verbs that occur in the data, the verbs that express completion outnumber the others, more specifically verbs of change of state and motion verbs occur relatively frequently as in (20-21) and (22-23).

(20) Bugün bu kesimlerde yeralan birçok kisi ve kurulusun bu isin içinde oldugu ve uluslararasi bankalarin çoguyla, borsalar ve dev sirketlerin bu paralarla döndügü iddia edilmektedir. Kapitalizm bir mafya rejimine dönüsmek üzeredir.
'It is claimed that many individuals and institutions in these sectors are involved in this affair and that most of the international banks as well as stock markets and giant companies run on such money. Capitalism is about to transform into a Mafia regime.'

(21) ... Karadeniz Ekonomik Isbirligi çerçevesinde gelistirilen Trabzon Serbest Bölgesi ile de Trabzon, eskiden oldugu gibi uluslararasi ticaret merkezi konumuna gelmek üzeredir.
'... with the Trabzon Free Zone established within the framework of the Black sea Economic Cooperation Organization, the city of Trabzon is about to become an international trade center as it once was.'

(22) Geçmiste hizli gelisen türlerle tesis edilen plantasyonlarin bir bölümü bugün idare süresinin sonuna gelmis veya gelmek üzeredir.
'Part of the plantations that were previously formed with rapidly growing species, have now come to an end or about to come to an end.'

(23) Tahta çiktiginda sadrazam Fâzil Mustafa Pasa, II. Almanya seferi için Sofya'ya ulasmak üzereydi. Burada Padisah'in mührü ile samur kürkünü aldi ve sefere devam etti.
'When he succeeded to the throne, the Grand Vizir Fazil Mustafa Pasha was at the gates of Sofia on his second German campaign. There he took the Sultan's seal and mink fur and continued his campaign.'

It is worth noting that motion verbs are cited as the most common lexical origin of future (Comrie 1976; Bybee et al. 1991; Emanatian 1991). 'Moving towards' conceptually encodes the prospective meaning. The frequent occurrance of motion verbs in our data like gitmek (to go), gelmek (to come), ulaþmak (to reach) probably enhances the prospective meaning of üzere. As these verbs commonly share the features of telicity and dynamicity we may conclude that verbs of accomplishment and achievement are the most common complements of üzere.

When üzere is used predicatively with tense, aspect, modal (TAM) markers, -IDI, -ImIÞ, as opposed to -DIr in the above examples, it more overtly expresses imminent future event which is not fulfilled. This meaning becomes more clear with -IDI since it definitely locates the event in time. In (24), we understand that the event expressed by the infinitive complement has not been fulfilled. The rest of the context also gives support to the understanding that the event is not realized.

(24) Türkbank'la bir ara Mazda'nin Türkiye distribütörü Mermerler de anlasmak üzereydi. Anlasma tamam denildigi anda, Sigorta Mevduat Fonu ortakliktan çekildi.
'At one time, the main distributor of Mazda in Turkey, the Mermerler, was also on the verge of an agreement with the Türkbank.'

With -ImIs üzere expresses the indirect experience. This is an expected result following from the function of -ImIs as an evidential mood marker.

(25) Evin içinden asansör boslugu direk görünüyordu...Ve bu duvar depremde üzerime yikilmak üzereymis.
'The lift shaft could be directly seen from inside the flat... and it is said that the wall almost fell over me during the earthquake.'

Without any overt inflection, üzere expresses the likely occurrence of the imminent future event as in (26):

(26) Günümüzde bilgisayarlar hayatin her sahasina girmek üzere. Gelismis ülkelerde bilgisayar genis manada egitime girmistir.
'Today, computers are about to enter every field of life. In developed countries education has extensively been computerized

In some other uses like maç baslamak üzere (the match is about to start); uçak haraket etmek üzere (the plane is about to take off) üzere clauses inform or warn the audience that the event is likely to happen very soon. When used in titles like Kus cenneti yok olmak üzere (The bird paradise is on the verge of extinction); Genç kiz delirmek üzere (The young lady is on the verge of madness) i.e. with verbs of completion, depending on context, üzere may be regarded as a warning to a third party to prevent the future situation from coming about.

Such uses of üzere with and without inflection differs from the ones that we have exemplified in (14) to (21), where üzere occurs with -DIr. As discussed in the literature (Tura 1986), -DIr may express both probability and certainty depending on the context in which it occurs. In the examples above it tends to express certainty in the future rather than probability. However, when üzere + DIr clause is coordinated with -mIsDIr clause as in (27) or simply -DIr clause as in (28), the certainty of fulfillment of the imminent future event is lost. Here the expression of probability becomes more apparent.

27) Bu kültür Müslümanlarin hepsini kapsadikça ve onun vakiasi hasil oldukça Devlet Adami yetistirmeye baslar ve bu adamlar ne zaman bulunursa o zaman kalkinma olur. Ve degisme baslamistir veya baslamak üzeredir.
'As long as this culture encompasses all Muslims and bears fruit, then it starts to raise statesmen and whenever such men exist development follows. And change has started or is about to start.'

(28) … parlamentolar, siyasi partiler, yerel hükümetler, sivil toplum örgütleri, basin-tv kuruluslari, müzeler, mesleki ve ticari odalar, bireyler, kisaca Ulusal ve Dünya elektronik toplumuna söyleyecek bir seyi olan herkes Internet üzerindedir veya olmak üzeredir.
'... parliaments, political parties, local governments, NGOs, media institutions, museums, chambers of commerce, individuals, in short anyone that has something to say to the National and International electronic community is on the internet or is about to be.'

A number of adverbials with temporal reference like nerdeyse (almost, soon, in any moment), artik (henceforth, no longer, no further), henüz (just now, not yet), simdi (now, just now), tam (exactly, just at) also occur with üzere clause. Neredeyse, an adverbial semantically very close to üzere, may cooccur with it and function as an intensifier. Although the notion of proximity is well expressed without neredeyse, its coocurrence with üzere makes proximity more proximate.

(29) 1994 ve 1995 yillarinda internet üzerine neredeyse hiç bir hak iddia edemeyen Microsoft bu pazari Netscape'in yükselmesi ile neredeyse kaybetmek üzereydi. Gates'in dahi pazarlama dehasi Internet Explorer'i standart paket uygulamasina dökmesiyle birlikte, belki de hiç akillardan çikmayacak Browser Savaslari dönemi basladi.
'With almost no right to claim on the internet in 1994 and 1995, Microsoft was about to lose this market due to the rise of Netscape. When Gates' prodigal marketing genius introduced the Internet Explorer in standard pack for, the possibly unforgettable era of Browser Wars started.'

Expressions of proximity are possible through other expressions in the language.

Among others, the following expressions are also available for this function:

30) basla-mak üzere;
start- INF about
'about to start'

basla-di basla-yacak;
start-PERFECTIVE start-FUTURE
'will start at any moment'

nerdeyse basla-yacak/yor/r;
almost start-FUTURE/ IMPERFECTIVE /AORIST
'will almost start / is almost starting / almost starts'

(Bir) az sonra / birazdan basla-yacak/yor/r;
(A) little later / soon/ start-FUTURE /IMPERFECTIVE/AORIST
'will start / is starting / starts a little later /soon'

basla-ma- sin- a az kal-di / ramak kal- di;
start-INF- POSS-DAT little remain-PERFECTIVE/an ace remain-PERFECTIVE
'will start within moments / in any moment' basla-ma-si yakin start-INF-POSS close 'Its start is imminent'

Although it is often a stylistic choices of a language users in a different context, we may still offer a scale (30) for these alternative structures in expressing the degree of proximity. The stronger the likelihood of event coming closer to the initial point in the proximity scale, the preference of üzere by the users is more likely with respect to the other markers. Among these alternatives, üzere has a very different status. With other expressions there is always one of these TAM markers. Üzere on the other hand, need not carry such a marker and selects a nonfinite complement. As other expressions carry such features which may bring about their own temporal properties into interpretation, üzere seems to express proximity in a more neutral fashion.

IV. Conclusion
In this paper we have tried to discuss the role of postposition üzere as an aspectual marker in Turkish. Based on naturally occurring data, we have defined the postposition üzere as a prospective aspect marker. It has become clear from the data that üzere expresses a notion of proximity relevant to the initial stage of the situation. Closely associated with the notion of proximity, the meaning of unfulfilled intention is also conveyed through üzere clauses.

[1]. All standard dictionaries seem to capture the diversity of meanings expressed by this postposition. However, some dictionary entries confuse üze- derivations with üst- derivations.

[2] . Tekin (1985) provides a detailed review and alternative etymologies of üzere.

[3]. The data that we analyzed in this study mostly gathered through a search in the internet via 'exact phrase' search. We had more than 66.000 hits during our seach in July 2000.

[4]. . Turkish grammars written in English ( Lewis 1967; Swift1963, among others.), tend to translate such structures with "being".

[5]. . Our data include sentences where üzere with ol- allowing for part-whole or portion of readings and list readings as well. However, we will not discuss such uses here.

 

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