The specificity marker -e with indefinite noun phrases in Modern Colloquial Persian

Persian has two indefinite markers, the prenominal ye(k) and the suffixed -i. Both
forms express particular kinds of indefiniteness, as does their combination: for
Modern Colloquial Persian, indefinites ending in -i express a non-uniqueness or
anti-definite implication and behave similarly to any in English. Ye(k), on the other
hand, expresses an at-issue existence implication and behaves similarly to the
English a(n) (Jasbi 2016). The combination of ye(k) and -i expresses an ignorance
implication. Modern Colloquial Persian has the specificity marker -e, which can be
combined with ye(k) NP, as well as with the combined form of ye(k) NP-i, but not
with (solitary) NP-i (Windfuhr 1979; Ghomeshi 2003). In this paper, we investigate
the function of the indefinite form when combined with the specificity marker -e,
namely ye(k) NP-e and ye(k) NP-e-i. We present two pilot studies that tested our
hypothesis, which is that the contrast between these two specific forms depends
on whether the specificity is speaker-anchored, as for ye(k) NP-e, or non-speaker
anchored, as for ye(k) NP-e-i. The results of the two studies provide weak support
for this hypothesis, and provide additional evidence for the fine-grained structure
of specificity as referential anchoring (von Heusinger 2002).