Kinds of (Non)Specificity

Abstract

Abstract The chapter casts a look at the role specificity has played in DP semantics since the early 1970s. It puts forward the proposal that the common thread across specificity distinctions is the contrast between stability vs variability in value assignments for the variable introduced by the DP across various types of alternatives. Special determiners are used to mark either variation (nonspecificity) or stability (specificity).