Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

As indefinite noun phrases always express new information, they very often occupy
the immediately preverbal position (see 23.3.1). If they are non-case-marked direct
objects, as in (17), they are obligatorily placed in this position (see 23.2.3, and exceptions
noted in 23.2.1).
22.2.1 SPECIFIC AND NON-SPECIFIC INDEFINITES
A noun phrase marked as indefinite can perform one of two referential functions:
(i) It can refer to a specific entity (or set of entities) known to the speaker, which is
being introduced into the discourse as a new item, and which is assumed not to be
familiar to, or not to be identifiable by, the hearer:
(18) Dün sokakta {çok eski bir arkadaşım}-la karşılaştım.
‘Yesterday I bumped into {a very old friend of mine} in the street.’
(19) Yarınki toplantıya {birkaç kişi} gelemeyecekmiş.
‘It seems {several people} are not going to be able to get to the meeting
tomorrow.’
(ii) It can denote a non-specific entity (or set of entities), whose identity is unknown or
unknowable to the speaker. Non-specific indefinites occur mainly in clauses expressing a
future or hypothetical event, or in negative statements or questions.
(20) [{Daha büyük bir araba} almay]-ı düşünüyoruz.
‘We’re thinking of [buying {a larger car}].’
(21) {Yeni bir şey} söyle-me-di.
new a thing say-NEG-PF
‘He didn’t say {anything new}.’
The distinction between specific and non-specific indefinites is reflected in certain
features of Turkish grammar.
(a) In direct objects the use of plural marking without a determiner is largely
confined to specific indefinites. Thus the plural-marked indefinite form in (22)
refers to specific shirts that have been purchased:
(22) Dün Korkut-a yeni gömlek-ler al-dı-k.
yesterday Korkut-DAT new shirt-PL buy-PF-1PL
‘Yesterday we bought (some) new shirts for Korkut.’
If the predicate were changed in such a way that the shirts lost their specificity, the
categorial form (without plural marking, see 22.3) would be preferred to the indefinite
form:
(23)
Definiteness, specificity and generic reference 325
(a) Korkut’a yeni gömlek almamız lazım.
‘We need to get a new shirt/(some) new shirts for Korkut.’
(b) Korkut’a yeni gömlek almadık.
‘We didn’t buy Korkut [any] new shirts.’