an article that is associated with the bottom end of the information status continuum, where the identity of the referent is not known to speaker or hearer (or both). This includes pragmatically specific referent, pragmatically nonspecific referent, and various categories of nonspecific referents (see Table 3.4 and Sections 3.4–3.5). Example: a bowl is an example of an indefinite article a combined with a common noun bowl, used in a context where the individual bowl in question is not identifiable by the hearer. (Table 3.4, Section 3.3.1)