LFG Architecture, Semantic Definiteness Structures and Nonverbal Syntactic Constructions

Nonverbal sentences have posed a challenge for modern linguistic theories. The proper analysis of definiteness/specificity helps account for certain nonverbal sentences. This paper is a preliminary study of a semantic definiteness structure in LFG theory which expresses three semantic definiteness relations found in natural language: Existential, Identity, and Characterizational. The three relations derive their features for definiteness/specificity from the discourse, similar to the feature systems of Heim (1982, 1983) and Enç (1991).