Comparative Concept: nonspecific referent (inf)
Extracted from the appendix of Morphosyntax: Constructions of the World's Languages, by William Croft (2022)
nonspecific referent (inf)
| Typ | information packaging |
|---|---|
| Alias(se) | nonspecific referent • (semantically) nonspecific (indefinite) referent • nonspecific indefinite referent • semantically nonspecific indefinite referent • semantically nonspecific referent |
| Assoziiert |
Partonomie
Taxonomie
Definition
the information status of a referent whose identity cannot be known to the speaker and the hearer because the referent is only type identifiable. Example: in A student came to my office, the hearer does not know the identity of the student, and hence that referent is nonspecific. (Section 3.5)