scholarly journals (De)accenting definite descriptions

2001 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 231-249
Author(s):  
Carla Umbach
Keyword(s):  
Definite Description ◽  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Descriptive Content ◽  
Discourse Referent

This paper focuses on definite descriptions. It will be shown that a definite description refers to a given discourse referent if the descriptive content is completely deaccented. But if there is a focussed element within the descriptive content it introduces a novel referent. This amounts to allowing two readings for definite descriptions without, however, allowing two readings for the definite article.  

Definiteness and Familiarity

2019 ◽  
pp. 116-129
Author(s):  
Barbara Abbott
Keyword(s):  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Descriptive Content

In this chapter two kinds of theories of definite descriptions are reviewed: the first is Russell’s famous theory, which holds that the article the conveys unique satisfaction of the descriptive content associated with it. The second kind of theory is one which holds that the conventional import of the definite article is one of familiarity of some type. Following that, this chapter also reviews a number of serious problems for familiarity theories, arguing that those are sufficient to make such theories untenable. Finally, this chapter looks at cases where definite descriptions do convey familiarity, and attempts (not completely successfully) to explain those cases.

scholarly journals Definite descriptions of events: progressive interpretation in Ga (Kwa)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agata Renans
Keyword(s):  
Definite Description ◽  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Imperfective Aspect ◽  
Discourse Referent ◽  
Grammatical Aspect ◽  
Topic Time

AbstractThis paper demonstrates that the progressive interpretation in Ga is an effect of the interaction between the imperfective aspect and a definite description of events. Crucially, the data from Ga point to the consequences of the view that definite descriptions of events encode the familiarity of the discourse referent and its uniqueness in bearing the property in question. Namely, they yield direct evidentiality and the necessary ongoingness of the event at the topic time. Thus, the paper identifies previously unattested variation in the semantics of the progressive in a cross-linguistic perspective and shows that not only lexical but also grammatical aspect exhibits striking parallelisms with the nominal domain.

Asymmetries between uniqueness and familiarity in the semantics of definite descriptions

2021 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
pp. 694
Author(s):  
Sadhwi Srinivas ◽  
Kyle Rawlins ◽  
Daphna Heller
Keyword(s):  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Future Work

In over a century of research into the English definite article "the", two main theoretical factors have been identified as relevant to its meaning: namely, (i) uniqueness and (ii) familiarity. The identification of these factors has led to an extensive debate in semantics about which of them is more fundamental to the meaning of "the". In this paper, we contribute to this debate by introducing novel data obtained through two controlled psycholinguistic experiments. We manipulated uniqueness and familiarity of potential referents, examining how these factors affect the comprehension and production of English definite descriptions. The behavioral results reveal an asymmetry between these two factors, with familiarity being a weaker cue than uniqueness – a pattern that is unexpected under any existing theory of definiteness. We close with a discussion of possible extensions to existing theories in light of this result, as well as avenues for future work.

scholarly journals Definiteness

Linguistics ◽  
2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus von Heusinger
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Science ◽  
Computational Linguistics ◽  
Proper Names ◽  
Analytic Philosophy ◽  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Linguistic Structure ◽  
Definite Expressions

Definiteness is a semantic-pragmatic notion that is closely associated with the use of the definite article (or determiner) in languages like English, Hungarian, Hebrew, and Lakhota. The definite article can be used in different conditions: deictic, anaphoric, unique, and certain indirect uses, often also called “bridging uses.” Accordingly, there are different semantic theories of definiteness, such as the salience theory, the familiarity or identifiability theory, and the uniqueness or inclusiveness theory. Definite expressions cover personal pronouns, proper names, demonstratives, definite noun phrases, and universally quantified expressions. Noun phrases with the definite article, known as “definite descriptions,” are a key issue in semantics and analytic philosophy with respect to the interaction of reference and description in identifying an object. The research and analysis of definiteness is of great importance not only for the linguistic structure of languages but also for our understanding of reference and referring in philosophy, cognitive science, computational linguistics, and communication science.

scholarly journals Idioms and the syntax/semantics interface of descriptive content vs. reference

Linguistics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (4) ◽  
pp. 769-814
Author(s):  
Berit Gehrke ◽  
Louise McNally
Keyword(s):  
Syntactic Structure ◽  
Semantic Role ◽  
Semantic Type ◽  
Descriptive Content ◽  
Discourse Referent ◽  
Semantic Modelling

AbstractThe syntactic literature on idioms contains some proposals that are surprising from a compositional perspective. For example, there are proposals that, in the case of verb-object idioms, the verb combines directly with the noun inside its DP complement, and the determiner is introduced higher up in the syntactic structure, or is late-adjoined. This seems to violate compositionality insofar as it is generally assumed that the semantic role of the determiner is to convert a noun to the appropriate semantic type to serve as the argument to the function denoted by the verb. In this paper, we establish a connection between this line of analysis and lines of work in semantics that have developed outside of the domain of idioms, particularly work on incorporation and work that combines formal and distributional semantic modelling. This semantic work separates the composition of descriptive content from that of discourse referent introducing material; our proposal shows that this separation offers a particularly promising way to handle the compositional difficulties posed by idioms, including certain patterns of variation in intervening determiners and modifiers.

scholarly journals KAIP APIBRĖŽIAMOSIOS DESKRIPCIJOS VARTOJAMOS SINGULIARINIAMS TEIGINIAMS IŠREIKŠTI?

Problemos ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 85 ◽  
pp. 130-140
Author(s):  
Evgeny Borisov
Keyword(s):  
Possible Worlds ◽  
Definite Description ◽  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Singular Proposition ◽  
Possible World ◽  
Possible World Semantics ◽  
Singular Propositions ◽  
Subject Term ◽  
The Subject

Straipsnyje keliamas klausimas: kokios sąlygos turi būti patenkintos, kad, ištarę sakinį su apibrėžiamąja deskripcija kaip sakinio subjektu, mes išreikštume singuliarinį teiginį (Kaplano prasme). Autorius teigia, kad Wettsteino įsitikinimas, jog teiginio singuliariškumas nustatomas ištarimo metu nurodant apibrėžiamosios deskripcijos referentą, yra nenuoseklus. Straipsnyje siūlomas kitas singuliariškumo kriterijus: teiginys yra singuliarinis, jeigu jame dalyvaujanti apibrėžiamoji deskripcija įvertinama vieninteliame galimame pasaulyje, o jeigu apibrėžiamoji deskripcija turi būti įvertinta daugiau nei vieno galimo pasaulio atžvilgiu, tai teiginys yra bendrasis (general). Šis kriterijus veiksmingas aiškinant kontroversiškus atvejus – kai išreiškiame teisingą singuliarinį teiginį, kurio subjekto dėmuo nedera su apibrėžiamąja deskripcija, pavartota ištartame sakinyje.Pagrindiniai žodžiai: apibrėžiamoji deskripcija, nuoroda, singuliarinis ir bendrasis teiginys, galimų pasaulių semantika. How Do We Use Definite Descriptions to Express Singular Propositions?Evgeny Borisov AbstractThe paper is devoted to the question: under what conditions do we express a singular proposition (in the Kaplanian sense) when uttering a sentence containing a definite description as the subject term. It is argued that Wettstein’s claim that singularity of a proposition is determined by the demonstration of the referent of definite description accompanying the utterance contains an inconsistency. An alternative criterion of singularity is proposed: we express a singular proposition if the definite description in question is to be evaluated at a single possible world, and we express a general one if the definite description in question is to be evaluated at a range of possible worlds. This criterion is effective in explaining controversial cases in which we manage to express a true singular proposition with a subject constituent that does not fit the definite description used in the utterance.Keywords: definite description, reference, singular and general propositions, possible world semantics

The Problem of the Missing Article in the Use of ‘God’

1994 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-27
Author(s):  
Rien Op Den Brouw
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrase ◽  
Definite Description ◽  
Prepositional Phrase ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Third Place ◽  
The Third ◽  
Proper Nouns ◽  
Proper Name ◽  
Christian Discourse

This article is concerned with the use of ‘God’ in Judaeo-Christian discourse. The debate over ‘God’ has mainly centred on the puzzling issue of whether ‘God’ is a proper name with no descriptive connotation at all or whether it is a descriptive term with unique reference. In my view four things have to be taken into account in analysing the use of this term. In the first place, the term ‘God’ is a speech or communication phenomenon. Any treatment of this term should therefore consider the intentions, purposes, beliefs that a speaker has in using this word. In the second place, in Christian theistic discourse this term occurs both with and without modification. ‘The God of Israel’ is an example of ‘God’ with modification. It can be analysed as a noun phrase in which ‘God’ fulfils the function of HEAD, ‘the’ is a definite article filling the DETERMINER slot, and ‘of Israel’ is a prepositional phrase functioning as POSTMODIFIER. The use of only the term ‘God’ is an example without modification. In the third place, when Christians use ‘God’, either with or without modification, they use it to refer to, to describe or address one particular being. In the fourth place, when they use ‘God’ without modification, they do not use this term with an (in-) definite article. In this article three accounts of the term ‘God’ will be discussed: the proper name analysis, the definite description analysis, and the title-phrase analysis. Grammatically speaking, among the defenders of any of these analyses there is an agreed consensus on the classification of ‘God’ as a noun, but there is a disagreement about whether ‘God’ belongs to the category of proper nouns or to that of common nouns. Those adopting one of the last two analyses assume that ‘God’ is a common noun. This article presents an inquiry into the strengths and weaknesses of each of the three analyses. In brief, the question we are seeking to answer is the following: what kind of term is ‘God’ and what is a Christian saying when he says ‘God’?

scholarly journals Accent and description: An account of anaphoric epithets

2010 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Charley Evan Beller
Keyword(s):  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Current Analysis ◽  
Conventional Implicature ◽  
Expressive Content ◽  
Nominal Reference

Anaphoric epithets are definite descriptions that achieve reference anaphorically. They also convey some expressive content. Potts (2003) analyzes the expressive component as a Conventional Implicature. He proposes that the expressive component is provided by the nominal, reference is provided by a phonologically null variable adjacent to the nominal, and the definite article is semantically contentless. The current analysis agrees that the nominal provides the attitudinal meaning. Rather than positing a null syntactic element reference is achieved by incorporating Elbourne's (2005) proposal that the definite determiner takes an index argument and a nominal argument.

scholarly journals Definite Descriptions, Presuppositions and Reference

2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Marco Ruffino
Keyword(s):  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Definite Article

In this article I review some fundamental aspects of the singularist view of definite descriptions taking as paradigm the Frege-Strawson version of it. I consider more closely the role of the definite article and its relation with presuppositions. Finally, I raise some doubts about the coherence of such approach as an explanation for the phenomenon of reference.

Frege on Singular Senses

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Marco Ruffino
Keyword(s):  
Definite Descriptions ◽  
Definite Article ◽  
Singular Terms ◽  
The Senses ◽  
Descriptive Sense

Abstract In this article the author discusses what seems to be a puzzle for Frege’s notion of singular senses (i.e., the senses of singular terms), in particular senses of definite descriptions. These senses are supposed to be complete (or saturated), but they are composed of the incomplete (unsaturated) senses of conceptual terms (i.e., conceptual senses). The author asks how the definite article (or what it expresses) transforms an unsaturated sense into a saturated one and reviews some attempted explanations in the literature. He argues that none of them is compatible with Frege’s views in semantics. Next, he discusses an alternative that Frege himself endorses and argues that it is also incompatible with his semantics. The author concludes that Frege has no coherent view on the senses of definite descriptions. If we assume that every name expresses a descriptive sense, then we must conclude that Frege has no coherent explanation for singular senses in general.

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