In this paper it is shown that a definite description refers to a given discourse referent if the descriptive content is deaccented. But if there is an accent on the descriptive content, a novel referent is introduced. Starting from a uniqueness view of definiteness, a distinction between two uses of definite descriptions is proposed: ‘Given definites’ represent identity anaphors exploiting the...

Perlmutter (1970) argued that the indefinite article is categorically different from the definite article and proposed that it is a clitic version of the numeral "one". But there are, as Perlmutter himself pointed out, instances of "a" as well as of "one" that don't seem to have the semantics of the numeral. Hence a divorce of "a" (and of "one") from "numeral"-hood is called for. Furthermore, t...

Let H be any complex inner product space with inner product < ·, · >. We say that f : | C → | C is Hermitian positive definite on H if the matrix ( f(< z,z >) )n r,s=1 (∗) is Hermitian positive definite for all choice of z, . . . ,z in H, all n. It is strictly Hermitian positive definite if the matrix (∗) is also non-singular for any choice of distinct z, . . . ,z in H. In this article we prove...

Perlmutter (1970) argued that the indefinite article is categorically different from the definite article and proposed that it is a clitic version of the numeral "one". But there are, as Perlmutter himself pointed out, instances of "a" as well as of "one" that don't seem to have the semantics of the numeral. Hence a divorce of "a" (and of "one") from "numeral"-hood is called for. Furthermore, t...

The English articles, the, indefinite a/an, and zero can be troublesome for English language learners. Thomas [1] demonstrated that English second language (L2) learners from first languages (L1) that do not have the equivalent of an article system encounter problems using articles. Ionin and Wexler [2] found that such learners fluctuate between definiteness and specificity. This study examined...

This paper investigates the semantics of kind-referring expressions and of generic quantification in Brazilian Portuguese (BP). It may thus be taken as a contribution to the development of a more accurate understanding of genericity as a crosslinguistic phenomenon. In BP genericity may be expressed by both definite singular (1) and definite plural (2) nominals, and also by indefinite nominals s...