For over 20 years I have been collaborating with Jeanette Gundel and Nancy Hedberg on research focusing on referring expressions. As part of this research we propose something we term the Givenness Hieararchy–a set of cognitive statuses the are on an implicational scale. Oddly enough this research is mentioned in the just-published novel Starting from Scratch by Susan Gilbert-Collins.The protagonist, is a linguistics graduate student whose research uses the Givenness Hiearchy. During her dissertation defense “one committee member, Dr. Ogilive–who was inordinately fond of noun-phrase referring expressions–had caught her off guard at one point pouncing on the indefinite article in one of Olivia’s subject’s utterances. Wasn’t it also important, he said, to consider such referents in light of their cognitive status on the Givenness Hierarchy?”