Blackwell Reference Online

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The prototypes of definiteness and indefiniteness in English are the definite article the and the indefinite article a/an , and singular noun phrases (NPs) determined by them. That being the case, it is not to be predicted that the concepts, whatever their content, will extend satisfactorily to other determiners or NP types. However, it has become standard to extend these notions. Of the two categories definites have received rather more attention, and more than one researcher has characterized the category of definite NPs by enumerating NP types. Westerståhl (1985), who was concerned only with determiners in the paper cited, gave a very short list: demonstrative NPs, possessive NPs, and definite descriptions. Prince (1992) listed proper names and personal pronouns, as well as NPs with the , a demonstrative, or a possessive NP as determiner. She noted, in addition, that “certain quantifiers (e.g. all, every ) have been argued to be definite” (Prince 1992: 299). This list, with the quantifiers added, agrees with that given by Birner and Ward (1998: 114). Ariel (1988, 1990) added null anaphoric NPs. Casting our net widely, we arrive at the list in (1), ordered roughly from most definite or determined in some sense to least. Speaking loosely, we can see that each NP type listed in (1) is ordinarily used to refer to some particular and determinate entity or group of entities. ... log in or subscribe to read full text