Johnson 2004 - CDLI - UCLA

Definite noun phrases such as “my brother” or “the guy standing on the corner” can only
occur in definiteness effect environments as a list of alternatives, known as a pair-list
reading. Even if only a single definite noun occurs, it is still interpreted as only one of
several possible alternatives. The pair-list interpretation of definite nouns that occur in
definiteness effect environments can be confirmed by looking at the behavior of what are
known as strong quantifiers such as “each” and “every” in definiteness effect
environments. McNally (1992 apud Chung and McCloskey 2002, 6) notes that strong
quantifiers only appear in contexts affected by the definiteness effect when they quantify
over semantic kinds as in the following example from Chung and McCloskey (2002, 6).
(46) There was every kind of ice cream in the fridge.
Here the quantifier “every” does not quantify over individuals, but rather over types as
indicated by “every kind of . . . .”
Definiteness effects such as the one identified in English existential “there”
sentences are fairly common in other languages and have been studied in considerable
detail for years. Of the three major analytical traditions in the investigation of
definiteness effects, identified by Chung and McCloskey as the impersonal approach
(Milsark 1974; Chomsky 1981; Safir 1985; Chomsky 1986; Reuland and Meulen 1987,
passim non vidi), the locative approach (Lyons 1967; 1968; Clark 1978; Kuno 1971;
Freeze 1992), and the pragmatics approach (Lumsden 1988, Prince 1992; Abbot 1992;
1993; 1997; Ward and Birner 1995; 1997; Zucchi 1995, passim non vidi), I would like to
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