If I were given a research grant to investigate the socio-linguistic history of Turkey and Turkish, I would examine the connection between the salience of tea culture and the cultivation of various social verbs and affectionate nouns. For example, dertleşmek means to ‘have a heart-to-heart talk’ with someone. Due to the lexical qualification of a social phenomenon encompassed by a singular verb. In conversation, one could state “Onu ile dertleştim,” “Dertleştik,” or even “Onu ile dertleşmişsin.” The first translates to “I had a heart to heart with him/her.” The second means “We had a heart to heart,” and the last sentence effectively signifies that “I heard that you had a heart to heart with him/her.” Moreover, there are multiple verbs to connotate meeting with someone. Buluşmak means to physically get together, karşılaşmak means to unexpectedly meet someone, and tanışmak means to meet someone for the first time. Although these verbs obviously exist in English as concepts, it is impossible to convey these specific incidents without additional lexical items in a phrase.

Given the presence of verbs representing sentence-long meanings in English, the further presence of more personal terms of endearment for people. In conversation, it is common to address family, friends, and significant others with a wide array of nouns. Some examples include “canım,” which means “my life, spirit, dear,” “abi/abla,” which mean “brother” and “sister” respectively, and “hoca,” which means “teacher,” for a few examples. When addressing the parents of your significant other, it is also respectful to refer to them as “Insert Name Annem/Babam,” or “Insert Name mother/father.” Overall, I would investigate how the presented lexical items, as well as others, emerged as concrete concepts in Turkish. I would further research how they developed their social connotations in relation to the grammatical functions of Turkish.