Specificity (linguistics)
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In linguistics, specificity is a semantic feature of noun phrases, distinguishing between entities/nouns/referents that are unique in a given context and those which are not, even if the unique referent isn't identifiable.
This is distinct from the feature of definiteness.
- I'm looking for the manager, Ms Lee. [definite, specific]
- I'm looking for the manager, whoever that may be. [definite, non-specific]
- There's a certain word that I can never remember. [indefinite, specific]
- Think of a word, any word. [indefinite, non-specific]
In English and many other languages, specificity is not typically marked. As a result, sometimes, specificity can be ambiguous. Consider the following example:
- Every woman talked to a student.
This has two interpretations. Under one reading, every woman talked to the same student (the class president, for example), and here the noun phrase a student is specific. Under the second reading, various students were talked to. In this case, a student is non-specific.[1]
"In contrast, in some languages, NPs in certain positions are always unambiguous with respect to specificity. The ambiguity is resolved through case marking: NPs with overt case morphology are specific, NPs without case morphology are nonspecific."[2]