ABSTRACT
In a dialogic question-and-answer discourse situation between interlocutors, a fixed article-like demonstrative is employed for dynamic anaphoric definite use, which is independent of proper deictic use of demonstratives in article-less languages, particularly in Korean, Japanese, and Chinese. Countable bare common nouns in numeral classifier languages and other article-less languages freely occur in argument position for unique definite use (Jenks 2018) due to presupposition maximization (Heim 1991). They often occur as immediate-situation definites (Hawkins 1978). However, this chapter will also show how bare common nouns can function as anaphoric definites, even in non-subject/topic position in a sentence preceded by an utterance with an indefinite DP referred to. This happens in Chinese, Korean, and Japanese (contra Jenkins 2018). It will also be shown that the numeral ‘one’ before a human noun develops into a specific indefinite marker in Korean and sees specificity effects in other languages. Finally, the issue of genericity in terms of information structure in article-less vs. article languages will be discussed, highlighting its dynamicity.
