Grammaticalization in Turkic

The chapter represents the whole Northern Eurasian area, where Turkic languages are spoken in close contact with the Transeurasian languages Mongolic and Tungusic. These three families share significant grammaticalization strategies and typological characteristics with each other as well as with Koreanic and Japonic. First, the distribution, classification, and some basic typological features of Turkic languages are briefly presented in comparison with other Transeurasian languages. The main focus lies on typically non-European grammaticalization processes that are representative of the whole family and recur throughout the known history of Turkic. A detailed account of different grammaticalization strategies of so-called postverbial constructions—a combination of a converb and an auxilary verb—complements the treatment of similar processes in other Transeurasian languages in the volume.