I call that form as Narrative perfective tense. In Turkish -mIştı marking is used for actions that are completed in the past. By using - mIştı , we are ;
1. narrating the past action to someone
2. I witnessed or I myself performed that action.
3. The action occurred in the definite past *
As in your example;
Ben size söz vermiştim. ---> I had promised you.
1. I am reminding you, narrating you the event [my promising you].
2. I remember and i witnessed the action that it has been performed by me.
3. It occurred in the past and it occurred in a definite time in the past.
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The only distinctive difference between simple past tense [size söz verdim] and [size söz vermiştim] is , we are narrating the past event that we witnessed.
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3. 3. The action occurred in the definite past *
Although this form technically should indicate the indefinite past because of tense narrowing at present time it is used for definite past.
According to Prof.Hamza Zülfikar ;
The definite perfective past -dıydı is replaced by indefinite perfective past - mıştı
söz verdiydim ---------------------------------> söz vermiştim
tense narrowed into
- as a result , at present time, we use -mişti form for definite perfective past time.
The nearest tense in English is plu-perfect tense [had]
Edited (12/17/2012) by tunci
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