ABSTRACT
In the last chapter we were concerned to describe and explain native speaker intuitions about the possible uses of the definite article. This chapter will be concerned with the difference between the definite and the indefinite article. The method of enquiry will be similar to that of the last chapter. We shall ask: when does an indefinite article have to be used rather than the definite article and what semantic intuitions do native speakers have about the nature of an indefinite reference and about its contrast to definiteness? We shall be able to justify this approach by producing a general semantic theory of the contrast between the definite and the indefinite article which receives strong confirmation from the syntax of English (cf. chapter 5) by being able to predict a large number of grammaticality facts. We shall be concerned primarily in this chapter with those uses of indefinites which are generally referred to as ‘specific’. But we shall turn later to a consideration of ‘non-specific’ indefinites, and we shall also consider generic uses of both the definite and the indefinite article.
