Numberless indefinite definites in Italian

This paper investigates Numberless Indefinite Definites (NIDs) in Italian, an understudied class of nominal expressions that, despite their morphologically definite and singular form, convey an indefinite and number-neutral interpretation (e.g., L’hotel ha la piscina lit. ‘the hotel has the pool’). The study addresses two main questions: (i) what grammatical factors license NIDs in Italian? And (ii) how can their indefinite and number-neutral readings be compositionally derived? First, I argue that NIDs are exclusively licensed in the object position of have-predicates, provided that the resulting V+NID combination expresses a characterizing property of the subject. Second, I propose a novel compositional analysis of NIDs. To account for number-neutrality, I argue that these constructions lack Number specification and do not project a Number Phrase. As a result, they denote definite kinds, which receive an existential interpretation via Derived Kind Predication when combining with the selecting have-predicate. Besides providing a compositional account of the existential and number-neutral interpretation of NIDs, this analysis also explains their obligatory narrow scope behavior and their restriction to taxonomic modification.