(De)accenting Definite Descriptions 1

In this paper it is shown that a definite description refers to a given discourse referent if the descriptive content is deaccented. But if there is an accent on the descriptive content, a novel referent is introduced. Starting from a uniqueness view of definiteness, a distinction between two uses of definite descriptions is proposed: ‘Given definites ’ represent identity anaphors exploiting the order of salience of discourse referents. ‘Non-given definites’, on the other hand, make use of their descriptive content (possibly supported by bridging referents) to determine a unique referent. The definite article uniformly indicates that the referent is unique, either via salience or via description.