From: Rolf Furuli (furuli@online.no)
Date: Tue Jan 06 1998 - 03:17:57 EST
Jonathan Robie wrote:
<In the case of the sentence "I'm going to the hospital", the doctor may
<have told me that I'm going to the hospital, but perhaps I do not know
<which one. I am going to "the hospital" that my doctor is sending me to,
<and using this definite phrase referentially. This is different from "I am
<going to a hospital", which is indefinite.
<To argue that "the hospital" is indefinite in these sentences is to argue
<that the definite article in English does not grammaticalize definiteness;
<if you do that, you will have a lot more explaining to do ;->
Dear Jonathan,
I may be brave or just only stupid, but my point was exactly that the
definite article does not grammaticalize definiteness in English!
Definiteness/indefiniteness are semantic categories while the difference
between what is articular and anarthrous is grammatical, and the range of
the semantic category need not match the range of the grammatical category
in a particular language. I am no native speaker and do not have the same
intuition as you and Paul, so I have to build on informants. I have been
taught the following difference between British and American English and am
happy to be corrected if it is wrong: In BE "the hospital" in "I am going
to the hospital" is always definite because it must denote a particular
hospital. In AE "the hospital" in a similar clause can be definite or
indefinite, a particular hospital can be meant or any hospital (being
synonym with: I am going to have an operation). I used the example because
I thought this was selfevident for Americans, but in this I erred.
I assume the following definition of definite: "A noun is definite when it
is already mentioned, when it is known, or when it denotes a particular
exemplar or individual. In my Collins Cobuild English Grammar under the
heading "generalizing" in the section about the use of "the", I find the
following examples:
"For him the stage was just a way of earning a living." ("the stage" - no
particular stage but any stage on which he palyed, thus the articular
phrase is indefinite.)
"They do not hesitate to break the law" ("the law" - not a particular
paragraph, but any law, thus "the law" is indefinite)
"Geoff plays the piano for hours" ("the piano" - not a particular
instrument, but any piano, thus the phrase is indefinite.)
"Australia is the home of the kangoroo" ("the kangoroo" - not a particular
exemplar but the species, thus the phrase is indefinite.)
We must understand the grammar of our own language to learn the grammar of
a foreign language. Greek and English are quite different, but in my mind
the examples above show that we cannot take for granted that the Greek
definite article always indicate definiteness. This must be studied.
<Isn't this referential vs. attributive use of a definite noun phrase, which
<is still definite? A few items from the Lexicon of Linguistics
<("http://helpdesk.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/~rustless/ling/Lexicon_of_Ling/"):
<Referential use
<SEMANTICS: the use that a speaker makes of a definite noun phrase when he
<uses the content of the noun phrase to identify an individual. The definite
<noun phrase in The murderer of Smith is insane is used referentially when
<the speaker intends to refer to a particular person which he knows to be
<the murderer of Smith. Donnellan (1966) distinguishes the referential use
<of definite noun phrases from their ˇattributive use.
<Attributive use
<SEMANTICS: the use that a speaker makes of a definite noun phrase to say
<something about whatever fits the description of the noun phrase. The
<definite noun phrase in The murderer of Smith is insane is used
<attributively if the speaker does not intend to refer to a particular
<person which he knows to be the murderer of Smith (that would be the
<ˇreferential use), but to the (possibly unknown) person who murdered Smith,
<whoever that person may be.
My examples above do not seem to fit the "attributive use" because the
articular substantive in all of them refers to an unknown NUMBER of
exemplars or individuals while the attributive use occurs when an articular
singular substantive refers to an unknown exemplar or individual. However,
the articular substantive in the attributive example is also indefinite and
speaks against any rule that articular substantives allways refer to
definite objects.
Regards
Rolf
Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo
furuli@online.no
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