Breakdown of Sen gerçekleri vurgulamadıkça meseleyi çarpıtacaklar.
sen
you
gerçek
truth / reality
mesele
issue / matter
çarpıtmak
to distort
Questions & Answers about Sen gerçekleri vurgulamadıkça meseleyi çarpıtacaklar.
How does the suffix in vurgulamadıkça create the meaning of 'unless'?
The suffix -dıkça / -dikçe generally means 'as long as' or 'the more (something happens)'. When you attach it to a negative verb stem like vurgulama- (not emphasize), it literally translates to 'as long as you do not emphasize'. In English, this is most naturally expressed as 'unless'.
Since vurgulamadıkça doesn't have a personal ending, how do we know it means 'unless you emphasize'?
You're right that the -dıkça suffix does not take personal endings. We know who is doing the action because the pronoun Sen (you) is placed explicitly at the beginning of the sentence. Without Sen, the clause would be ambiguous and could mean 'unless he/she emphasizes', depending on context.
How could we rewrite the first part of this sentence to use the asıl ... olan emphasis structure from this lesson?
To emphasize 'the facts' using a cleft-like structure, you could say: Asıl vurguladığın (şey) gerçekler olmadıkça... This translates to 'Unless the actual thing you emphasize is the facts...' It pairs asıl (the real/main) with the relative clause vurguladığın (that you emphasize) and uses olmadıkça (as long as it is not).
Why are both gerçekleri and meseleyi in the accusative case?