Definite article asymmetries and concept types

semantic and pragmatic uniqueness

Albert Ortmann

pp. 293-321

in: Thomas Gamerschlag, Doris Gerland, Rainer Osswald, Wiebke Petersen (eds), Frames and concept types, Berlin, Springer, 2014

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to explain the various asymmetries with regard to the (non-)use of definite articles in diverse languages by exploiting the distinction of semantic and pragmatic uniqueness as originally introduced by Löbner (Journal of Semantics 4: 279–326, 1985). I put forward the claim that typologically speaking, there are two kinds of such definite article splits. Both of them follow the scale of uniqueness Löbner (Journal of Semantics 28: 279–333, 2011), a concept hierarchy that is defined by the (in)variance of reference of nominal expressions. The first kind is a split such that the bottom segment of the scale is marked by the definite article, whereas the rest remains unmarked. The second kind of split is characterised by pragmatic and semantic uniqueness being morphosyntactically distinguished by different forms of the definite article, commonly a strong and a reduced form. I propose a few amendments to the scale of uniqueness so that the variation both between and within individual languages is captured in terms of spreading along the scale.