Descriptions in context

Standard theories of indefinite NP's, including both those that analyze them as inherently existentially quantified and those that analyze them as non-quantificational, variable-contributing elements, predict that indefinites always have existential force if outside the scope of any operator, that they assert rather than presuppose existence, and that they are not essentially context-sensitive.;I develop a more fine-grained theory of novelty within the framework of File Change Semantics (Heim 1982), allowing for strongly and weakly novel indefinites. Strongly novel indefinites are associated only with a novelty condition with respect to their index. Weakly novel indefinites are associated with a novelty condition with respect to their index and a familiarity condition with respect to their descriptive content. Bare plurals are both weakly and strongly novel. Their functional reading arises when they are interpreted as weakly novel indefinites. I show how the apparent quantificational force, the existential presupposition, and the context-sensitivity of the functional reading follow from the felicity conditions weakly novel indefinites are associated with and general principles governing informational accommodation and contextually salient functions invoked to guarantee felicity.;In this dissertation I show that bare plural indefinite descriptions in English, in one of their readings, do not have existential force even in the absence of any operator, presuppose rather than assert existence and are crucially context-sensitive. I call this reading the functional reading and argue that it constitutes a distinct interpretation that cannot be subsumed under the regular gereric or existential interpretation.