Speaker's Reference, Descriptions and Information Structure
Paul Dekker

Abstract:
The notion of information developed in systems of dynamic semantics is
applied in an analysis of the referential interpretation of definite
descriptions, and the specific interpretation of indefinite ones. A Russellian
treatment of descriptions is upgraded with the dynamic semantic notion of a
discourse referent, and this enables a combination of contextually given
information with information which is properly semantic. The analysis is
sharpened by the addition of a partition of utterances into a ground and a
focus part. The two extensions suffice to account for the most important
features of situations which involve the referential use of expressions in a
both semantically and pragmatically satisfactory way. A by-product is a
rudimentary analysis of negative existential statements involving names.