Usage of definite and indefinite articles is known to vary across different varieties of English, especially in the outer circle. As a semantic/pragmatic category, definiteness is notoriously slippery to define -- is it uniqueness, familiarity, inclusiveness or identifiability? Literature has shown that the lack of an agreed definition can complicate any principled attempt to explain the meanings that are encoded by (in)definiteness markers such as articles. This paper considers pragmatic meanings that might arise if definiteness is seen as a semantic composite of locatability, inclusiveness and exclusivity (Chesterman, 2005). Such meanings may be able to account for variation patterns found in outer circle varieties. Speakers of these varieties may therefore construct a semantic/pragmatic system of articles that differs slightly from that of inner circle varieties but can be assumed to express systematic meanings that are achieved through communicative cooperation and implicature "a la" Grice. Some pedagogical implications of these variations are discussed.