U N I T 7
Deixis and definiteness
73
(2) Which of the following two utterances would be more appropriate?
(a) ‘Shall we go into a house now?’
(b) ‘Shall we go into the house now?’
(3) In the context we are considering, would it be appropriate to
use the referring expression
the elephants (as far as you can
tell from what we have told you about this context)?
Yes / No
(4) In this context, would it be appropriate
to use the referring
expression
the printer (again, as far as you can tell)?
Yes / No
Feedback
(1) (a) (2) (b) (3) No (4) No
Comment The appropriateness of the de
finite article is dependent on the context in
which it is used. The expressions judged inappropriate in the previous practice
would be quite appropriate in other contexts. Think
of such contexts for
practice.
Contexts are constructed continuously during the course of a conversation.
As a conversation progresses, items previously unmentioned and not even
associated with the topics so far discussed are mentioned for the
first time
and then become part of the context of the following utterance. Eventually,
perhaps, things mentioned a long time previously in the conversation will
‘fade out’ of the context, but how long it takes
for this to happen cannot be
speci
fied exactly.
When something is introduced for the
first time into a conversation, it is
appropriate to use the inde
finite article,
a. Once something is established in
the
context of the conversation, it is appropriate to use
the. But the de
finite
article
the is not the only word which indicates de
finiteness in English.
Definition DEFINITENESS is a feature of a noun phrase selected by a speaker to convey
his assumption that the hearer will be able to identify the referent of the
noun phrase, usually because it is the only thing of its
kind in the context of
the utterance, or because it is unique in the universe of discourse.
Example
That book is de
finite. It can only appropriately be used when the speaker
assumes the hearer can tell which book is being referred to.
The personal pronoun
she is de
finite. It can only appropriately be used when
the speaker assumes the hearer can tell which person is being referred to.
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