Online Tips for Turkish Language Learning

But, unlike eğer (see An 'iffy' Proposition) which is always meaningless (by itself), tıpkı is always meaningful -- either by itself or when it is found coupled with its frequent partner-word, gibi.
[ gibi is a conjunction too that, when it appears by itself, simply means 'like'. But notice -- in the King Kong sentence above -- how gibi trails the phrase it belongs to...
So, strictly speaking it should be called a 'postpositional' conjunction, not a prepositional conjuction, right?]

And when it does couple with gibi (as in the King Kong sentence), tıpkı provides two functions -- in a manner somewhat similar to that of eğer:

1) It forewarns the coming of a phrase -- in this case a phrase in which the similarity between one object(s) and another will be established (for instance, between King Kong and another monkey). And remember...this is a phrase that begins with tıpkı and ends with gibi, so these phrase delimiters -- when you run across them -- can be very useful identifiers, to help you parse and translate a Turkish sentence.

2) It reinforces or adds emphasis to the phrase it fronts. And when tıpkı and gibi appear together in a phrase, it is tıpkı that emphasizes how very alike one object(s) is to the other -- giving the sense that object A (King Kong) is exactly like or just like object B (any other monkey). This is a stronger statement than, object A (King Kong) is [merely] like B (another monkey).

Other Examples: Using tıpkI and gibi together...
Kral Arthur [kafasına] bir abajur yine giymiş --
tıpkı köşede oturan sihirbaz gibi;
King Arthur is wearing a lampshade [on his head] again --
just like the sorcerer sitting in the corner.
[What happened to that fresh bottle of Whiskey, Mabel?]

Using tıpkI by itself...

Kral Arthur [kafasına] bir abajur giymiş --
tıpkı Merlin;
King Arthur is wearing a lampshade [on his head] --
exactly like Merlin.

Using gibi by itself...

Kral Arthur [kafasına] bir abajur giymiş --
Merlin gibi;
King Arthur is wearing a lampshade [on his head] --
like Merlin.

Weren't those last examples magical...?

Oh, BTW...The English-language debate about whether, "Winston tastes good, as a cigarette should," or, "...like a cigarette should" --
does not arise in Turkish.
A gibi is a gibi is a gibi
[with tıpkı acting as a gibi strengthener...]

'tıpkı' -- A 'prepositional' conjunction in its own time...