Question 1

How exactly does "tarafından" mean "by" in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

In passive sentences, the doer of the action (the agent) is expressed using the word tarafından right after the noun. It is built from the word taraf (side) and literally translates to "from the side of." So, okurlar tarafından literally means "from the side of the readers," which is how Turkish expresses "by the readers."

Question 2

Since this lesson also covers the "-cE" suffix, could we use that here instead?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you could! You could write this as okurlarca instead of okurlar tarafından. Both mean "by the readers." However, tarafından is generally preferred in everyday spoken Turkish when referring to specific people, while the -cE suffix (which becomes -ca here due to vowel harmony) can sound a bit more formal, like something you'd read in a newspaper or a literary review.

Question 3

How is the verb "beğenildi" built to mean "was liked"?

Accepted Answer

The root verb is beğenmek (to like). To make it passive, we add the passive suffix -il, giving us beğenilmek (to be liked). Finally, the standard definite past tense suffix -di is added to match the third-person singular subject, creating beğenildi (was liked).

Question 4

If the novel is the thing being liked, why doesn't "roman" have an accusative suffix?

Accepted Answer

Because the sentence is passive. If it were active ("The readers liked the new novel"), "novel" would be the direct object and would need the accusative case: Okurlar yeni romanı beğendi. But in a passive sentence, the thing receiving the action gets promoted to be the subject of the sentence, so roman stays in its plain, dictionary form.

Yeni roman okurlar tarafından beğenildi.

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