A thing that could be somewhat similar to definiteness, but also to some other things nouns can distinguish. Let us consider the mental act of selection as the distinctive trait.
Selection can be performed by the speaker, the listener, or even a third person. However, only persons aware of an object can select it, and the only relevant people for the act of selection are either speaker, listener or a third person relevant to the state of affairs described by the verb phrase.
Selection happens when the object is mentally marked out among others.
house-SEL on the hill: that house on the hill (out of many houses, or out of many potentially relevant objects)
house on the hill: a/the house on the hill
she likes snow (she generally likes snow)
she likes snow-SEL (she likes snow over the other options present)
As the house example shows, selection is not the same as definiteness: a single house on a hill is not necessarily marked as selected despite being the only thing on the hill. (However, maybe on the hill too could be marked for selectedness, thus distinguishing the full phrase house on the hill as selected, as opposed to, say, house by the beach). The snow example also shows that indefinite, mass nouns can be selected.
In imperatives, ommission of selection generally implies free choice, selection is basically the same as a demonstrative - although a fairly vague such, as some other NP involved may affect its meaning, e.g. "sell John's car-SEL" will resolve to whichever car John prefers you to sell.
Reuse of the selection morpheme refers back to the same entity as previously selected. Doubling it means a new selection takes place, after which a simple selection morpheme refers to the new selection.
So awesome
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