1.3. Indefiniteness
When a speaker assumes that his/her addressee does not know a discourse referent, s/he uses an indefinite noun phrase. Indefinite noun phrases can be of different forms: a full noun phrase [Syntax - Chapter 4.] with an indefinite determiner such as a or some plus a common noun as in a student, a noun phrase with a common noun but no determiner as in “There is snow on the roads.”, and an indefinite pronoun [Lexicon - Section 3.7.7.] with the meaning ‘someone’. Indefinites are usually used to introduce new referents into the discourse [Pragmatics - Chapter 5.].
In TİD, indefinite discourse referents can be expressed in the following ways: (i) common nouns with no determiner, (ii) noun phrases with an indefinite determiner, and (iii) pronominal forms which are usually indefinite determiners with an unpronounced ‘person’, functioning as pronouns. The first type is described here whereas the latter two will be described in the following sections.
Existential and possessive constructions [Syntax - Section 2.1.5.] typically contain common nouns with no indefinite determiner that are interpreted as indefinite expressions. mılk is an indefinite expression in the existential clause in (a) and so is sıster in the possessive construction in (b).
a. frıdgea ıxa mılk there_ıs
‘There is milk in the fridge.’
b. poss1 sıster there_ıs
‘I have a sister.’
It is also possible to have indefinite noun phrases in the object position.
ıx1 mılk want
‘I want milk.’
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