Öldürürken

Öldürürken is a Turkish adverbial participle formed from the verb öldürmek, meaning to kill. The form expresses simultaneity, translating roughly to "while killing" or "during the act of killing." It is used to connect a subordinate clause to a main clause, indicating that the action described in the -ken clause occurs at the same time as the action in the main clause.

Formation and grammar: Öldürürken is created by attaching the suffix -ken to the verb stem, typically on the present or aorist stem of the verb. The resulting form functions as an adverbial clause marker, not as a finite verb. The subject of the -ken clause may be the same as the subject of the main clause or different, depending on context, which is a common feature of Turkish subordinate clauses.

Usage: The -ken participle is commonly found in narrative and descriptive prose to provide background information or simultaneous actions. It allows writers to convey action in progress or to set the temporal frame for another action without introducing a new finite verb. While inherently tied to a violent verb in many examples, the construction itself is a general grammatical device and can appear in literary or clinical descriptions without inherent normative judgment.

Examples: "Yazar, karakteri öldürürken içsel çatışmasını betimliyor." (The author depicts the inner conflict while the character is killing.) "Sahne, kahraman öldürürken kameraların ona odaklandığını gösteriyor." (The scene shows cameras focusing on him while the hero is killing.)

See also: Turkish adverbial participles, -ken form, Turkish grammar.