I was looking at indefinite noun phrases like 'a man' or specifically sentences of this form:
'If I were to bring a chicken home, my dog would try to eat it.
Why is it that 'a chicken' does not refer, yet we can later use 'it' to refer to the chicken that I would have bought home?
I understand giving a 'description' of what I could bring home, yet why can I use 'it' like a reference to something that I have not referenced?
I understand it is a requirement to speak of things in generality, but why can we do this?