Subkinds and anaphoricity: Avoid covert complexity

Abstract

This paper is about the theoretical implications of Despić’s (2019) generalization regarding languages without definite articles. Applied to the number-marking Serbian and Turkish, bare plurals and uncountables can refer anaphorically to instances but not to subkinds, while bare singulars can refer anaphorically to both instances and subkinds. The first part poses a puzzle to the view that overt and covert definites are equivalent, along with the fact that overtly-definite plurals and uncountables can refer anaphorically to subkinds. I propose that the lack of equivalence is because subkind-anaphoricity is complex, and its covertness in languages without definite articles causes it to be blocked by the simpler covert operation of reference to kinds.