Breakdown of Kendi bacağını bir yalıyor, bir mırlıyor.
kendi
self
bacak
leg
bir
one moment ... the next (alternating)
mırlamak
to purr
yalamak
to lick
Questions & Answers about Kendi bacağını bir yalıyor, bir mırlıyor.
How exactly does the bir ... bir ... structure work in this sentence?
It acts as a correlative conjunction showing alternating actions, translating roughly to 'one moment [Action A], the next moment [Action B].' It implies a continuous, repetitive switching between licking and purring. You just place bir directly before each of the alternating verbs.
Could we drop kendi and just say bacağını?
Yes, bacağını already means 'his/her/its leg' because of the possessive suffix -ı (followed by the buffer -n- and the accusative case). However, adding kendi (own) emphasizes that the cat is licking its own leg, rather than another cat's.
The word bacağını ends with the accusative suffix -ı. Does this direct object apply to both verbs?
No, it only applies to yalıyor (is licking), which is a transitive verb requiring a direct object. The second verb, mırlıyor (is purring), is intransitive and cannot take an object. In Turkish, it is perfectly natural to join two verbs this way even if the object only belongs to the first one.
The root of the second verb is mırlamak (to purr). Why does it become mırlıyor?
This is a quick refresher on vowel narrowing. When a verb root ends in a wide unrounded vowel like a or e, adding the present continuous -yor suffix forces that final vowel to narrow. Here, the a in mırla- narrows to ı, giving us mırlıyor.
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