The Concept of Politeness in Turkish Language: Synonymousness of Affirmative and Negative Words

Abstract

The present article deals with the peculiarities of usage of the affirmative and negative words from the point of category of politeness in Turkish language. These (affirmative: evet = olur, peki, tabii, elbette, lütfen, baş üstüne, hayhay, negative hayır = yok, değil, ne münasebet, еstağfurullah, maalesef, üzgünüm) words are given in the synonymic lines. These lines (evet = olur, peki, tabii, elbette, lütfen, baş üstüne, hayhay; hayır= yok,değil, ne münasebet, еstağfurullah, maalesef, üzgünüm) show that there are differences among these lexemes. According to these peculiarities the affirmative and negative lexemes are divided into three groups: simple confirmation and simple negation (sıradan bir onay= evet, olur, peki,× sıradan bir ret =hayır, yok, değil), confirmation without doubt and denial of doubt (kuşkusuz onay = tabii,elbette×kuşkulu ret= ne münasebet, еstağfurullah), confirmation with pleasure and denial of regret (memnuniyetle onay = baş üstüne, hayhay ×üzüntüyle ret=maalesef, üzgünüm).
The analyses of the authentic material shows that all affirmative and negative lexemes are not equal from the point of their meanings, there is difference between them that determine from the context. Studied lexemes are etymologically different. There are Turkish, Arabic, hybrid (Turk.+Ar.) lexemes among them. The structure of the studied lexemes is not the same; they include simple, derivative and compound words.