Two kinds of definites in numeral classifier languages
Peter Jenks
October 2015 

Numeral classifier languages are shown to distinguish definite noun phrases licensed by uniqeness from those licensed by familiarity. Unique definites are expressed by bare nouns, while familiar definites are expressed by indexicals such as demonstrative descriptions or pronouns. This generalization parallels the observation by Schwarz (2009) that German distinguishes unique versus familiar or anaphoric definiteness in its definite article system. The difference between the two types of definites can be reduced to the presence of a semantic index in the case of familiar definites. As familiar definites occur in most E-type contexts, including donkey anaphora, and uniqueness definites are not possible in these contexts, these facts provide support to dynamic analyses of anaphoric processes and pose problems for uniqueness-based approaches, such as the theory of Elbourne (2013).

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/002596 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Proceedings of SALT 25, pp. 103-124
keywords:	definiteness, bare nouns, dynamic semantics, e-type anaphora, donkey anaphora, semantics, syntax
previous versions:	v2 [August 2015] v1 [July 2015]
Downloaded:	3144 times

 

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