First-mention definites:More than exceptional cases

Traditional linguistic theories of definiteness have characterized the definite article in terms of uniqueness or familiarity, inclusiveness or identifiability. From this perspective, anaphoric uses of definite noun phrases (NPs) are seen as the paradigm case, while non-anaphoric or first-mention uses are treated as exceptions deserving no special attention. The main weaknesses of such approach are its tendency to be based on constructed examples and its focus on one single language, English. When natural data is taken into account, classical treatments of definites collapse.