On Anaphoric Descriptions in English

Abstract

This paper investigates the use of three types of anaphoric descriptions in English: definite, demonstrative, and pronominal. As generally acknowledged, definite anaphoric descriptions are typically used when there is a unique referent introduced in the preceding discourse, but this is not always the case. Demonstrative ones can not only be used in uniqueness-compliant contexts, but also in anti-uniqueness contexts. In the latter contexts, saliency is also at work, thereby the discourse referent of an demonstrative one needing to be readily identified. Pronominal ones can be used even when their potential antecedents are introduced without one of them being discriminatively singled out. In larger discourse contexts, meeting the restrictions above, anaphoric descriptions are distributed also being contingent on accessibility/activation, or the writer/speaker’s evoking the mental object of a referring expression in the reader/listener. In other words, the choice of an anaphoric description depends on what the writer/speaker wants to make accessible/re-activated in the reader/listener’s mind.