3 ms·

It sounds weird (well, I'd say it's just wrong) because you didn't already mention a single hill to refer back to, not because "a" conveys the meaning better. I

It sounds weird (well, I'd say it's just wrong) because you didn't already mention a single hill to refer back to, not because "a" conveys the meaning better. In that case if you wanted to get across that it was the same hill, you'd say "the same hill". You still wouldn't say "a" if you meant there was only one hill.

foldr 8y ago
> You still wouldn't say "a" if you meant there was only one hill. You wouldn’t say “a” if you wanted to explicitly convey that every hiker climbed the same hill. But you can perfectly well say “Every hiker climbed a hill” if you know that every hiker climbed the same hill. To deny this basically amounts to denying the existence of specific indefinites: https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=%22specific+indefinites%22&btnG= https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=%2...
- mehrdadn 8y ago
  Sigh. You're barking up the wrong tree. OK, I'll append a third reason: maybe the speaker was confident. Yes, I guess technically just because he knows some piece of information, that doesn't mean he has to convey that information to you. Maybe because, for whatever reason, there being a single hill was not a conclusion he intended you to draw from the statement. Which means you shouldn't be drawing that conclusion. Are we good now? I think I'll rest my case here; if you think your conclusion is just as correct as the alternative then please do go around responding with that assumption as you hear people speak; I wish you (and the people you're speaking to) the best of luck.
  - foldr 8y ago
    Your sarcasm kind of proves the point: I don’t actually have any difficulty in my day-to-day life with misusing or misunderstanding definite or indefinite articles. So I don’t think I’m likely to be alone in finding the quiz question obscure. There are all kind of things that you might infer from a speaker choosing to use the indefinite rather than the definite in a particular circumstance. But I don’t think that non-uniqueness inferences are all that strongly indicated in the absence of any knowledge of the speaker’s intentions. Here are a couple of other examples: Every student in the class sat an exam. Every child in the school has joined a club. These sentences simply don't carry any strong implication that it wasn't the same exam/club for each student/child. The specific indefinite reading is readily available.

foldr 8y ago

> You still wouldn't say "a" if you meant there was only one hill. You wouldn’t say “a” if you wanted to explicitly convey that every hiker climbed the same hill. But you can perfectly well say “Every hiker climbed a hill” if you know that every hiker climbed the same hill. To deny this basically amounts to denying the existence of specific indefinites: https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=%22specific+indefinites%22&btnG= https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=%2...

mehrdadn 8y ago
Sigh. You're barking up the wrong tree. OK, I'll append a third reason: maybe the speaker was confident. Yes, I guess technically just because he knows some piece of information, that doesn't mean he has to convey that information to you. Maybe because, for whatever reason, there being a single hill was not a conclusion he intended you to draw from the statement. Which means you shouldn't be drawing that conclusion. Are we good now? I think I'll rest my case here; if you think your conclusion is just as correct as the alternative then please do go around responding with that assumption as you hear people speak; I wish you (and the people you're speaking to) the best of luck.
- foldr 8y ago
  Your sarcasm kind of proves the point: I don’t actually have any difficulty in my day-to-day life with misusing or misunderstanding definite or indefinite articles. So I don’t think I’m likely to be alone in finding the quiz question obscure. There are all kind of things that you might infer from a speaker choosing to use the indefinite rather than the definite in a particular circumstance. But I don’t think that non-uniqueness inferences are all that strongly indicated in the absence of any knowledge of the speaker’s intentions. Here are a couple of other examples: Every student in the class sat an exam. Every child in the school has joined a club. These sentences simply don't carry any strong implication that it wasn't the same exam/club for each student/child. The specific indefinite reading is readily available.