Deriving (Anti)-Uniqueness: Demonstratives In Ga (Kwa)

Abstract

There is along line of previous research arguing for a tight connection between the meaning of definites and demonstratives, see e.g. Ahn (2019); Dayal and Jiang (2022); Ebert et al. (2020); Elbourne (2008); King (2001); Roberts (2003); Wolter (2006). New data from Ga (Kwa), an under-researched language spoken in Ghana, directly supports the view that demonstratives are kind of marked definites: the meaning of demonstratives is transparently composed from the meaning of the definite determiner and the meaning of the particle restricting the interpretation of the DP. This transparent structure raises, however, a general compositional problem, i.e. how the anti-uniqueness inference of the demonstrative is derived, if the definite determiner conveys uniqueness. The paper solves this issue, addressing therefore one of the most pertinent issues in the semantics of demonstratives and definites across languages.