Re: Probability of Article Replacement?

John:
> Nik Taylor scripsit:
>
> > In my opinion, the "definite article" in English should be renamed "the
> > specific article", since it can (usually) only be used when referring to
> > a specific entity
>
> That turns out not to be the case.  The normal way of encoding +specific
> -definite noun phrases in English is with "a" or "a certain".  There are
> languages that mark specificity rather than definiteness (Lojban, e.g.),
> but English is not one of them
Furthermore, it is well known that _the_ is ambiguous between specific
(usually known as 'referential') and nonspecific (usu. 'attributive')
readings. "The inventor of the lightbulb was a genius" can be read as
"Edison was a genius" (specific) or as "Whoever invented the lightbulb
was a genius" (nonspecific).

--And.