Unidentifiedness

Classification and testing of unidentifiedness

In this case, the relative clause who is not identified is predicted to be false, matching our intuitions. Summing up the analysis, predications of identifiedness and unidentifiedness are analyzed as relations between a discourse referent and the output file introduced by the description of content.

When Tylenol capsules were contaminated with cyanide and placed on the market in the fall of 1982, no one knew which capsules contained the cyanide. Accordingly, no one knew who would be poisoned if no preventive measures were taken. This unidentifiedness did not soften the response that followed the first poisonings. Indeed, it arguably magnified it, as unidentifiedness is a close cousin. of the awful randomness—associated with terrorists and criminal maniacs—that many people uniquely fear.