Two Kinds of Definites in Classifier Languages

Contrary to most earlier claims in the literature, we demonstrate that crucial aspects of definiteness are overtly marked in classifier languages and follow recently established typological patterns of definiteness marking. Specifically, demonstrative descriptions are used for familiar definites while definite bare nouns are used only in contexts licensed by uniqueness. In classifier languages such as Mandarin (Cheng & Sybesma 1999) and Thai (Piriyawiboon 2011), both of which lack articles, bare nouns can be interpreted in a number of ways, including as definites, scopeless indefinites, and kinds. In the literature, the availability of definite interpretations for bare nouns is often established on the basis of a very simple sentence like the following. We will illustrate our claims for Thai; essentially identical facts hold for Mandarin: (1) mǎa dog kamlaN