From @YaleVM.YCC.YALE.EDU:LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET Thu Sep 2 05:52:53 1993 Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by NEBULA.SYSTEMSZ.CS.YALE.EDU via SMTP; Thu, 2 Sep 1993 05:52:53 -0400 Received: from YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU by eli.CS.YALE.EDU via SMTP; Thu, 2 Sep 1993 05:52:49 -0400 Message-Id: <199309020952.AA00509@eli.CS.YALE.EDU> Received: from CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU by YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 2100; Thu, 02 Sep 93 05:51:14 EDT Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Mailer R2.07) with BSMTP id 3698; Thu, 02 Sep 93 05:50:05 EDT Date: Thu, 2 Sep 1993 10:45:20 BST Reply-To: I.Alexander.bra0125@oasis.icl.co.uk Sender: Lojban list From: Iain Alexander Subject: Re: TECH: specifity & definiteness X-To: lojban@cuvmb.cc.columbia.edu To: Erik Rauch Status: O X-Status: la djan. kau,n. cusku di'e > What is an [] example of a specific indefinite reference (in English)? Assuming that And's talking about the definite article "the" vs. the indefinite article "a", then this is one of the points I've tried to make several times now. The indefinite article can be used to refer to something specific. I'm looking for a tall man with long blond hair - have you seen him? Or there's the introductory usage that's been mentioned a few times. There was an old woman who lived in a shoe. We use the indefinite article to indicate our expectation or suspicion that the listener may not know what we're referring to, rather than whether we have a specific in mind. mi'e .i,n.