In linguistics, specificity is a semantic feature of noun phrases (NPs) that distinguishes between entities/nouns/referents that are unique in a given context and those that are not.
A noun phrase with the accusative case morpheme -(y)i is necessarily interpreted as specific, as shown in this example: Conversely, a noun phrase lacking case morphology is considered non-specific, as demonstrated in this example: This distinction between specific and non-specific noun phrases is more explicit in languages like Turkish, as opposed to English, where specificity is generally indicated by the presence or absence of certain adjectives.
[3] "In contrast, in some languages, NPs in certain positions are always unambiguous with respect to specificity.
"[3] Some analytic and isolating languages like Samoan also use explicit specificity markings in nouns despite not having grammatical cases.
Specificity and definiteness, while closely linked, are distinct semantic features.