The definite article: code and context
Francis Renaud · Journal of Semantics · 1996
Numerous grammatical items can only be understood if the context is taken into account. In order to provide a formal treatment of this problem, we introduce the notion of knowledge base into linguistics. After having worked out a hard core system of rules for analysing numerals, definite articles, and indefinite articles, we give a thorough study of the French singular definite article le. This grammatical item has the particularity of not encoding a fixed information stored in the lexicon, but of running a program of information processing We show that the referential computation can be made by a precise algorithm working on a definite stratum of the reader's knowledge base. In this framework, the uniqueness hypothesis of Russell becomes a guideline to retrieve memorized information. The algorithm accounts for deictic as well as anaphonc referential identifications. Our analysis proposes a unitary account for a large part of empirical data and reconciles the logical approach of Russell–Montague with the pragmatic approach of Hawkins.