scribbling

[RonButters at AOL.COM]

In a message dated 9/7/06 1:57:11 PM, laurence.horn at YALE.EDU writes:


> he's scribbling on the wall"
> (where the weak definite is possible, since it doesn't matter which
> wall is affected).  Do you find the latter impossible, so you'd have
> to say "She's scribbling on one of the walls" or "She's scribbling on
> the north wall" or whatever?
> 

My instinct is to say that "She's scribbling on the wall" is not an idiom for 
me in the way that "She looked it up in the dictionary" is. I'd have to say, 
"She's scribbling on a wall" to give any sense of indefiniteness. For that 
matter, "She's scribbling in the dictionary" can't be a "weak" definite, can it? 
Or "She's scribbling herself a note on the hand"?

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