Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar

Definiteness, specificity and generic reference 329
In (34a) the suffix -lar is the group 2 person marker (3rd person plural) (8.4), affixed to
the evidential copular suffix -(y)mIş (8.3.2). It refers to the plurality of the subject onlar.
In (34b), on the other hand, -lar is the nominal plural marker (8.1.1) affixed to the noun
phrase doktor.
(ii) The subject of an interrogative or negative existential sentence (12.1.1.2):
(35) Kardeşiniz var mı?
‘Have you any brothers or sisters?’
(36) Bizim apartmanımızda hiç çocuk yok.
‘There are no children at all in our block of flats.’
(iii) The non-specific subject or direct object of an interrogative or negative verbal
sentence:
(37) Misafir mi gelecek?
‘Are you expecting guests?’ (lit. ‘Are guest(s) going to come?’)
(38) Amerika’lılar oraya asker göndermemişti.
‘The Americans had not sent (any) troops there.’
(iv) The direct object of sentences in which attention is focused on an action or activity
rather than on the entity/entities affected or produced by it:
(39) Ne güzel şarkı söylü-yor-sun!
how beautiful song sing-IMPF-2SG
‘How beautifully you sing!’
(40) Ayşe bütün gün kitap okuyor.
‘Ayşe reads books all day.’
Many verbal expressions of the form bare noun+verb, where the bare noun is the direct
object, have been lexicalized as expressions that will be found in dictionaries. Some other
examples are: ders çalış- ‘study’, ‘do one’s homework’, yemek ye- ‘eat’, ‘have a meal’,
and sigara iç- ‘smoke’. The fact that these lexicalized expressions exist does not in any
way prevent the same noun being used with the same verb but with a different referential
status. For example, the direct object noun phrase o şarkıyı below is definite, referring to
a specific song that the speaker assumes the hearer can identify.
(41) O şarkı-yı ne güzel söyledin!
that song-ACC
‘How beautifully you sang that song!’
In (42), on the other hand, iki sigara is indefinite; the identity of the cigarettes in question
is not of interest:
(42) Bugün yalnız iki sigara içtim.
‘I have smoked only two cigarettes today.’
(v) The subject of a sentence in which attention is focused on an action, or the impact of
that action, rather than on the identity of the person or thing doing it:
(43) Geçen kış evimize hırsız girdi.