21.4.1 Five Types of Referring Expressions

Indefinite Noun Phrases Indefinite reference introduces entities that are new to the hearer into the discourse context. The most common form of indefinite reference is marked with the determiner a (or an), but it can also be marked by a quantifier such as some or even the determiner this:

(a) Mrs. Martin was so very kind as to send Mrs. Goddard a beautiful goose.

(b) He had gone round one day to bring her some walnuts.

(c) I saw this beautiful Ford Falcon today.

Such noun phrases evoke a representation for a new entity that satisfies the given description into the discourse model.

The indefinite determiner a does not indicate whether the entity is identifiable to the speaker, which in some cases leads to a specific/non-specific ambiguity. Example (21.36a) only has the specific reading, since the speaker has a particular goose in mind, particularly the one Mrs. Martin sent. In sentence (21.37), on the other hand, both readings are possible.

(21.37) I am going to the butchers to buy a goose.

That is, the speaker may already have the goose picked out (specific), or may just be planning to pick one out that is to her liking (nonspecific).

Definite Noun Phrases Definite reference is used to refer to an entity that is identifiable to the hearer. An entity can be identifiable to the hearer because it has been mentioned previously in the text, and thus is already represented in the discourse model:

It concerns a white stallion which I have sold to an officer. But the pedigree of the white stallion was not fully established.

Alternatively, an entity can be identifiable because it is contained in the hearer's set of beliefs about the world, or the uniqueness of the object is implied by the description itself, in which case it evokes a representation of the referent into the discourse model, as in (21.39):

(21.39) I read about it in The New York Times.

Pronouns Another form of definite reference is pronominalization, illustrated in example (21.40).

(21.40) Emma smiled and chatted as cheerfully as she could.

The constraints on using pronominal reference are stronger than for full definite noun phrases, requiring that the referent have a high degree of activation or salience in the discourse model. Pronouns usually (but not always) refer to entities that were introduced no further than one or two sentences back in the ongoing discourse, whereas definite noun phrases can often refer further back. This is illustrated by the difference between sentences (21.41d) and (21.41d').

(21.41) a. John went to Bob's party, and parked next to a classic Ford Falcon.

b. He went inside and talked to Bob for more than an hour.

c. Bob told him that he recently got engaged.

d. ?? He also said that he bought it yesterday.

d.' He also said that he bought the Falcon yesterday.

By the time the last sentence is reached, the Falcon no longer has the degree of salience required to allow for pronominal reference to it.

Pronouns can also participate in cataphora, in which they are mentioned before their referents are, as in example (21.42).

(21.42) Even before she saw it, Dorothy had been thinking about the Emerald City every day.

Here, the pronouns she and it both occur before their referents are introduced.

Pronouns also appear in quantified contexts in which they are considered to be bound, as in example (21.43).

(21.43) Every dancer brought her left arm forward.

Under the relevant reading, her does not refer to some woman in context, but instead behaves like a variable bound to the quantified expression every dancer. We will not be concerned with the bound interpretation of pronouns in this chapter.

Demonstratives Demonstrative pronouns, like this and that, behave somewhat differently than simple definite pronouns like it. They can appear either alone or as determiners, for instance, this ingredient, that spice. This and that differ in lexical meaning; (this, the proximal demonstrative, indicating literal or metaphorical closeness, while that, the distal demonstrative indicating literal or metaphorical distance (further away in time, as in the following example)):

I just bought a copy of Thoreau's Walden. I had bought one five years ago. That one had been very tattered; this one was in much better condition.

Note that this NP is ambiguous; in colloquial spoken English, it can be indefinite, as in (21.36), or definite, as in (21.44).

Names Names are a very common form of referring expression, including names of people, organizations, and locations, as we saw in the discussion of named entities in Sec. ??. Names can be used to refer to both new and old entities in the discourse:

a. Miss Woodhouse certainly had not done him justice.

b. International Business Machines sought patent compensation from Amazon; I.B.M. had previously sued other companies.