Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

(29) İsterse Ahmet {bir arkadaşın}-ı getirebilir.
‘Ahmet can bring {a friend (of his)} if he wants.’
22.3 CATEGORIAL STATUS
A categorial noun phrase is not marked for number. It denotes an unspecified quantity, or
number of items of a certain kind, or an unspecified quantity of a certain substance. Note
that, unlike generic noun phrases (22.4), categorial noun phrases do not refer to a class of
entities as a whole, or to a typical member of a class. Categorial noun phrases are used in
contexts where distinctions of number or quantity are simply irrelevant:
(30) Şu anda konuşamayacağım, müşteri var.
‘I can’t talk now; I’ve got customers/a customer.’
(31) O gün kar yağmıştı.
‘Snow had fallen on that day.’
The formal characteristics of noun phrases used with categorial status are that:
(i) They cannot be modified by any determiners.
(ii) They cannot be plural-marked.
(iii) When functioning as subject they have to occupy the immediately preverbal
position (see 23.2.1).
(iv) When functioning as direct object, they do not receive accusative case
marking unless topicalized (see 23.3.3).
There are certain contexts in which the use of the categorial form is regularly preferred to
a number-marked form:
(i) A subject complement expressing the gender, nationality, occupation or social
status of a person or persons:
(32) Oğlumun bütün öğretmenleri kadın.
‘All of my son’s teachers are women.’
(33) Biz [onları Türk] sanıyorduk. (See 24.5.)
‘We thought [they were Turks].’
Note that if the subject complement is a plural-marked noun phrase, as in (34b), it
acquires definite status:
(34)
Turkish: A comprehensive grammar 328
(a) Onlar dokTOR-muş(-lar).
doctor-EV.COP(-3PL)
‘Apparently they’re doctors.’
(b) Onlar doktor-LAR-mış.
doctor-PL-E V.COP
‘Apparently they’re the doctors.’