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It has been known that the definite article the in English reveals an asymmetrical property with regard to the existential presupposition. This paper claims that the presuppositional asymmetry comes from the correlation between the topic-focus articulation and two types of structural accommodation rules. Previously, Horn (1986), Strawson (1964), and Atals (2004) have incorporated the topic-focus structure in explaining the asymmetrical property but they have postulated two different lexical entries for the one and the same form the. My account develops the undesirable aspect and simplifies the lexicon by arguing that English has a single the as to the existential presupposition.
