Two theories of implicit domain restriction have gained considerable prominence over the last two decades. According to von Fintel, quantifiers come with covert restrictors and, as a result of this, induce domain restriction; according to Stanley [in Gerhard and Peter Logical form and language, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 2002; Stanley and Szabó :2192–2161, 2000)], by contrast, nouns, as opposed to quantifiers, come with covert restrictors. In this article, I do three things. First, I assess the arguments that have been given for (...) and against these two accounts and show that none of them is conclusive. Second, I advance a novel empirical argument based on the observed pragmatic behaviour of bare nouns, an argument that falsifies Stanley’s theory while providing clear evidence in support of von Fintel’s. Finally, I discuss the relevance of the bare noun data in the context of another important debate—namely, whether domain restriction is a local mechanism only, or whether it can also be achieved by global means. (shrink)