caa a22 4500 606154299 CHVBK 20210128100558.0 cr unu---uuuuu 210128e20151001xx s 000 0 eng 10.1007/s10988-015-9178-8 doi (NATIONALLICENCE)springer-10.1007/s10988-015-9178-8 Definiteness and determinacy [Elektronische Daten] [Elizabeth Coppock, David Beaver] This paper distinguishes between definiteness and determinacy. Definiteness is seen as a morphological category which, in English, marks a (weak) uniqueness presupposition, while determinacy consists in denoting an individual. Definite descriptions are argued to be fundamentally predicative, presupposing uniqueness but not existence, and to acquire existential import through general type-shifting operations that apply not only to definites, but also indefinites and possessives. Through these shifts, argumental definite descriptions may become either determinate (and thus denote an individual) or indeterminate (functioning as an existential quantifier). The latter option is observed in examples like ‘Anna didn't give the only invited talk at the conference', which, on its indeterminate reading, implies that there is nothing in the extension of ‘only invited talk at the conference'. The paper also offers a resolution of the issue of whether possessives are inherently indefinite or definite, suggesting that, like indefinites, they do not mark definiteness lexically, but like definites, they typically yield determinate readings due to a general preference for the shifting operation that produces them. The Author(s), 2015 Definiteness nationallicence Descriptions nationallicence Possessives nationallicence Predicates nationallicence Type-shifting nationallicence Coppock Elizabeth University of Gothenburg and Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Uppsala, Sweden aut Beaver David The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA aut Linguistics and Philosophy Springer Netherlands 38/5(2015-10-01), 377-435 0165-0157 38:5<377 2015 38 10988 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-015-9178-8 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 Metadata rights reserved Springer special CC-BY-NC licence nationallicence 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-springer NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-015-9178-8 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Coppock Elizabeth University of Gothenburg and Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study, Uppsala, Sweden aut NATIONALLICENCE 700 1- Beaver David The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, USA aut NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Linguistics and Philosophy Springer Netherlands 38/5(2015-10-01), 377-435 0165-0157 38:5<377 2015 38 10988