Bare vs. non-bare nouns

This paper investigates distributional and semantic properties of two kinds of indefinite NPs in Bulgarian: bare nouns vs. NPs headed by edin ‘one’. The central question, which constitutes a subject of intense debate in the literature, is whether there is a semantic (and pragmatic) difference between these two kinds of indefinites. It will be argued in favour of such a distinction. This claim is supported by different properties which these two kinds of Bulgarian indefinites display concerning their scope behaviour in opaque contexts, the choice of discourse anaphora, the use of wh-words, and the possibility of clitic doubling. Additional evidence for the claimed distinction is provided by the intensifying function of edin ‘one’ used in predicative NPs in Bulgarian. The paper discusses how the difference claimed can be accounted for. Showing that the distinction specific vs. non-specific is not sufficient to explain the data, it will be proposed to draw the line of distinction between the two kinds of indefinite NPs in terms of type vs. token reference.