Specificity and definiteness in sentence and discourse structure
- In this paper, I argue that this informally given list of characteristics covers only a certain subclass of specific indefinites. […] In particular, I dispute the definition of specific indefinites as "the speaker has the referent in mind" as rather confusing if one is working with a semantic theory. Furthermore, I discuss "relative specificity", it. cases in which the specific indefinite does not exhibit wide, but intermediate or narrow scope behavior. Based on such data, I argue that specificity expresses a referential dependency between introduced discourse items. Informally speaking, the specificity of the indefinite expression something [...] expresses that the reference of the expression depends on the reference of another expression, here, on the expression a monk, not the speaker.
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| Author: | Klaus von HeusingerORCiDGND |
|---|---|
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-308157 |
| URL: | http://www.zas.gwz-berlin.de/fileadmin/material/ZASPiL_Volltexte/zp24/zaspil24-heusinger.pdf |
| ISSN: | 1435-9588 |
| ISSN: | 0947-7055 |
| Parent Title (English): | Sentence type and specificity / Ed. by Klaus von Heusinger ; Kerstin Schwabe, Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung, Berlin, 2000; ZAS papers in linguistics Vol. 24 |
| Publisher: | Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft, Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung |
| Place of publication: | Berlin |
| Document Type: | Part of a Book |
| Language: | English |
| Date of Publication (online): | 2013/11/14 |
| Year of first Publication: | 2001 |
| Publishing Institution: | Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg |
| Release Date: | 2013/11/14 |
| GND Keyword: | Definitheit; Spezifität; Syntax |
| Volume: | 24 |
| Page Number: | 23 |
| First Page: | 167 |
| Last Page: | 189 |
| HeBIS-PPN: | 381233731 |
| Dewey Decimal Classification: | 4 Sprache / 41 Linguistik / 410 Linguistik |
| Sammlungen: | Linguistik |
| Linguistik-Klassifikation: | Linguistik-Klassifikation: Syntax |
| Linguistik-Klassifikation: Semantik / Semantics | |
| Linguistik-Klassifikation: Gesprächsforschung/Gesprochene Sprache / Conversation analysis/Spoken language | |
| Zeitschriften / Jahresberichte: | ZAS papers in linguistics : ZASPiL / ZASPiL 24 = Sentence Type and Specificity |
| : | urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-306659 |
| Licence (German): |  Deutsches Urheberrecht |
