From a to the

Abstract

This paper presents an account of the semantic relationship between an indefinite NP and its coreferential definite successor in sentences such as Harry bought some strawberries, and they were mushy and Tom caught a rabbit, killed it, skinned it, and cooked it. Section 1 introduces a semantics for quantifiers. There are two weaknesses in accounts of quantification and countability such as are presented in, e.g. Link (1983), Lasersohn (1995), Landman (1989, 1996), L⊘nning (1997), and Chierchia (1998): one is a lack of consistent correlation between the semantics and the morphosyntax of the constructions under consideration; another is the lack of attention to the fact that countability is a characteristic of NPs rather than nouns. The semantics for quantifiers used in this paper is one developed in Allan (1999, 2001) specifically to counter these deficiencies. It uses a variant of Bunt's (1985) ensemble theory, and gives a semantics for the articles a( n ) and the that treats them as generalized quantifiers. Section 2 describes and defines the definite and indefinite articles. Personal pronouns are presumed to contain the semantics of the default definite, the . Section 3 demonstrates quantifier scope within the semantics presented here. Section 4 discusses the interpretation of definites and indefinites in the scope of a universal quantifier. Section 5 tackles the semantic relationship between an indefinite NP and its coreferential definite successor in sentences such as Harry bought some strawberries, and they were mushy . The conclusion is that for any restrictor F and clause predicates G and H, [Q indef x: Fx](Gx Λ [ the y: y =x](Hy)) . Section 6 demonstrates the incremental interpretation in sentences such as Tom caught a rabbit, killed it, skinned it, and cooked it. Section 7 lists the key points made in the paper.