Breakdown of İçinde yazarın adını gördüğüm önsöz kaynakçadan daha uzun.
uzun
long / tall
görmek
to see
ad
name
yazar
author
daha
more
içinde
inside, within
kaynakça
bibliography
önsöz
foreword
Questions & Answers about İçinde yazarın adını gördüğüm önsöz kaynakçadan daha uzun.
How does İçinde ... gördüğüm önsöz translate to 'the foreword in which I saw...'?
This sentence uses a postpositional relative clause. English uses 'in which', but Turkish places a locative word like içinde (inside it) at the start of the clause, followed by the -dık / -dik participle. Literally, it translates to 'The inside-it-author's-name-my-having-seen foreword'.
Why doesn't içinde have a genitive pronoun attached to it, like onun içinde?
In these relative clauses, the pronoun (onun) is usually dropped because it is understood from the head noun (önsöz) that comes immediately after the clause. Saying onun içinde wouldn't be grammatically wrong, but Turkish naturally drops it to sound more concise.
Why is it yazarın adını with an extra -nı at the end?
Yazarın adı means 'the author's name' (a standard genitive-possessive compound). Because this entire phrase is the direct object of the verb gördüğüm (that I saw), it must take the accusative case. The word breaks down as ad (name) + -ı (possessive) + -n- (buffer letter) + -ı (accusative).
Just to review, how is the comparison 'longer than the bibliography' formed here?
Comparisons in Turkish use the ablative case (-dan / -den, meaning 'from') attached to the noun you are comparing against. Kaynakça (bibliography) becomes kaynakçadan (literally 'from the bibliography'), followed by daha uzun (longer).
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