Indefinite determiners can still be existential quantifiers: Evidence from Algerian Arabic indefinites

In this paper, I investigate the scope properties of indefinites marked for specificity in Algerian Arabic (AA) and English. Following Schwarzschild (2002), I defend the classical analysis which takes indefinite DPs to contribute existential generalized quantifiers over individuals (EGQ). I argue that the surprising scope behavior of these indefinites is a matter of scope neutralization through extreme domain restriction. I show that extreme domain restriction to a singleton set is not implicit but morphologically marked in AA. I argue that the analysis is extendable to English a+certain DPs and point out the challenges that it faces when applied to English a DPs.