Special Indefinites in Discourse

不定名词短语（或短不定词）在语义和语用层面上有不同的贡献：(i)它们对句子的真值条件做出存在性贡献，（ii）它们将话语指称物作为后续回指术语的潜在先行词引入，并且，正如本项目旨在展示的那样，（iii）它们为话语指称物提供了话语结构潜力，即它们提供了关于即将到来的话语的指称结构的信息。例如，在语篇的哪一点以及与语篇所指物相关的实体将如何被重新提及。这个项目有两个目标。首先，我们打算从实证和理论的角度来研究上述三个语义-语用层面。其次，我们将通过对话语结构潜力的描述来扩展现有的语义理论，即通过对不确定词的前瞻性话语属性进行建模的理论。enpors（1991）关于土耳其语中不确定直接宾语的论文是不确定语义学的第一步，该语义学将特殊性与话语连接联系起来。在本研究中，我们将进一步发展一种理论，不仅分析向后看的语篇属性，而且扩展到前瞻的语篇属性。这一新的语义理论将以对土耳其语中不确定直接宾语的深入研究为出发点，这些不确定直接宾语在大小写标记和无标记形式之间交替存在。该项目将通过语料库搜索和相关参考参数的注释，以及使用故事延续、理解和眼动追踪实验的数据来扩展迄今为止文献中讨论的数据。

Indefinite noun phrases (or short indefinites) contribute to different semantic and pragmatic levels: (i) they make an existential contribution to the truth condition of a sentence, (ii) they introduce discourse referents as potential antecedents for subsequent anaphoric terms, and, as the present project aims to show, (iii) they furnish discourse referents with a Discourse Structuring Potential, i.e. they give information about the referential structure of the upcoming discourse, e.g. at what point in the discourse and how the entity associated with the discourse referent is going to be re-mentioned. The goals of this project are twofold. First, we intend to investigate the three aforementioned semantic-pragmatic levels from an empirical and theoretical point of view. Second, we will extend existing semantic theories through an account of the Discourse Structuring Potential, i.e. by a theory that models the forward looking discourse properties of indefinites. Ençs (1991) paper on indefinite direct objects in Turkish is a first step towards a semantics of indefinites that relates specificity to discourse-linking. In the present approach we will take a step further and develop a theory that not only analyses the backward looking discourse properties, but also extends to forward looking discourse properties. This new semantic theory will have as a starting point a thorough investigation of indefinite direct objects in Turkish, which alternate between a case-marked and an unmarked form. The project will expand the data that has been discussed in the literature so far by means of a corpus search and annotation of relevant referential parameters and using data from story continuation, comprehension and eye tracking experiments.