linguistics Linguistics is the science, scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure ...

, specificity is a semantic feature of

noun phrase In linguistics, a noun phrase, or nominal (phrase), is a phrase that has a noun or pronoun as its head or performs the same grammatical function as a noun. Noun phrases are very common cross-linguistically, and they may be the most frequently oc ...

s (NPs) that distinguishes between entities/nouns/referents that are unique in a given context and those that are not. Several distinct known factors determine an entity/noun/referent's relative specificity, including: * Singular terms (e.g. proper names) * Habituality * Actual/Nonactual moods * Factivity * Negation Specificity does not rely on existence. This is because specificity relies on the ''uniqueness'' of an entity, regardless of whether it may or may not actually exist. For example, “I’m looking for a male sister” refers to no actual entity. However, the ambiguity of its specificity (are you looking for a particular male sister, or any male sister?) is retained.

Ambiguity in Languages with Unmarked Specificity

In English and many other languages, specificity is not typically marked. As a result, sometimes, specificity can be ambiguous. Consider the following example: * ''Every woman talked to a student.'' This has two interpretations. Under one reading, every woman talked to the same student (the class president, for example), and here the noun phrase ''a student'' is specific. Under the second reading, various students were talked to. In this case, ''a student'' is non-specific. "In contrast, in some languages, NPs in certain positions are always unambiguous with respect to specificity. The ambiguity is resolved through case marking: NPs with overt case morphology are specific, NPs without case morphology are nonspecific." Some analytic and isolating languages like Samoan also use explicit specificity markings in nouns despite not having

grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomin ...

Relationship Between Specificity and Definiteness

Specificity and

definiteness In linguistics, definiteness is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between referents or senses that are identifiable in a given context (definite noun phrases) and those which are not (indefinite noun phrases). The prototypical ...

, while closely linked, are distinct semantic features. The two main nominal codings of definiteness are definite and indefinite. The former leads predominantly to a specific noun phrase. The latter can be either specific or non-specific. *''I'm looking for the manager, Ms Lee.'' efinite, specific*''I'm looking for the manager, whoever that may be.'' efinite, non-specific*''There's a certain word that I can never remember.'' ndefinite, specific*''Think of a word, any word.'' ndefinite, non-specific Note that to make the second example definite and non-specific requires a clarifying extra clause.

References

Semantics Formal semantics (natural language) {{semantics-stub