Different Kinds of Specificity Across Languages (Studies in Linguistics and Philosophy Book 92)

This anthology of papers analyzes a range of specificity markers found in natural languages. It reflects the fact that despite intensive research into these markers, the vast differences between the markers across languages and even within single languages have been less acknowledged. Commonly regarded specific indefinites are by no means a homogenous class, and so this volume fills a gap in our understanding of the semantics and pragmatics of indefinites. The papers explore differences and similarities among these specificity markers, concentrating on the following issues: whether specificity is a purely semantic or also a pragmatic notion__;__ whether the contribution of specificity markers is located on the level of the at-issue content; whether some kind of speaker-listener asymmetry concerning the identification of the referent is involved; and the behavioral scope of these indefinites in the context of other quantifiers, negation, attitude verbs, and intensional/modal operators. Front Matter....Pages i-vii Introduction....Pages 1-10 Specificity Markers and Nominal Exclamatives in French....Pages 11-30 The Interpretation of the German Specificity Markers Bestimmt and Gewiss ....Pages 31-74 Pragmatic Variation Among Specificity Markers....Pages 75-103 Certain Presuppositions and Some Intermediate Readings, and Vice Versa....Pages 105-122 Exceptional Scope: The Case of Spanish....Pages 123-153 The Distribution of two Indefinite Articles: The Case of Uzbek....Pages 155-176 Scenarios of Equivalence: The Case of Quelque ....Pages 177-207 This book surveys specificity markers in natural languages, filling a gap in understanding of the semantics and pragmatics of indefinites and showing that research has not narrowed differences between the markers across languages or within single languages.