The asymmetries between the definite article and demonstratives in referential expressions: comparison between Spanish and Chinese

Abstract

In the framework of givenness hierarchy, this paper analyzes the asymmetries between the definite article and demonstratives in Spanish and makes a comparison between Spanish and Chinese. The paper concludes that despite some similarities, the asymmetries in Chinese are more moderate because the instruction encoded in Chinese demonstratives is more general. In addition, the asymmetries in the two languages should be understood in different ways. In Spanish, the main factor that causes the asymmetries is that the article does not impose restrictions on the context construction. However, with the demonstratives, the selection of encyclopedic context is impossible. In Chinese, the demonstratives do not impose restrictions on the context choices. However, being an element not fully developed as grammaticalized representation of definiteness (Cao, 2014), the demonstratives remain inadequate in the use of the first mention and associative anaphora. In cases of direct anaphora, due to the lack of economy and the fact that most anaphoric expressions are incomplete descriptions, the percentage of use of demonstratives in Chinese is also low.