A question about Turkish and indefinites

[Marcel Erdal]

The answer to your question on the Enc paper is: Yes, you're right.
Assuming that 'to interview' is soru$tur-mak (any other translation I
can think of would not govern a direct object), your sentences would be
a) Oda-m-a birkaC Cocuk girdi. Iki kIz-I soru$turmak istedim
and
b) Oda-m-a birkaC Cocuk girdi. Iki kIz soru$turmak istedim.
Both are possible. In (a) the 'two girls' have both a specific and a
non-specific reading (non-specific in case I had previously decided I
wanted to interview any two girls from out of this group which was about
to be presented to me); in (b) the 'two girls' have only a non-specific
reading. (It would be felicitous especially if it had a continuation,
saying that, e.g., as there happened to be some girls among these
children, I thought I might as well interview those for my purposes.)
Sincerely, M.E.
--
Prof. Dr. Marcel Erdal
J.W. Goethe Universitaet, FB 11, Turkologie,
Postfach 11 19 32,
D-60054 Frankfurt a.M.
Tel. +49-69-79 82 28 58, Fax. +49-69-79 82 49 74