Generics in context : generalisation, context and communication
This thesis consists of four chapters and an introduction. The first chapter is concerned with cases of purported genericity which are true despite only a minority of the kind in question satisfying the predicated property and whose predicated property is somehow striking. I argue that such cases are pathological, and hence shouldn't be used as evidence for claims about the nature of genericity or the semantics of generics. In particular, these cases pose no difficulty for theorists who want to solve the problem of variability (the main obstacle in providing an adequate theory of generics), at least in part, by appeal to the linguistic property of quantifiers known as (contextual) domain restriction. The second chapter is devoted to defending a quantificational analysis of generics in which the logical form of generics contains an unpronounced quantifier expression Gen. The chapter defends the original argument of Carlson (1989), the multiple readings argument, which has recently come under scrutiny. In addition, it provides a novel argument in favour or Gen. This chapter also responds to various objections to the quantificational analysis, in particular to the linguistic evidence offered in favour of the
Sterken, Rachel
Generics in context : generalisation, context and communication. This thesis consists of four chapters and an introduction. The first chapter is concerned with cases of purported genericity which are true despite only a minority of the kind in question satisfying the predicated property and whose predicated property is somehow striking. I argue that such cases are pathological, and hence shouldn't be used as evidence for claims about the nature of genericity or the semantics of generics. In particular, these cases pose no difficulty for theorists who want to solve the problem of variability (the main obstacle in providing an adequate theory of generics), at least in part, by appeal to the linguistic property of quantifiers known as (contextual) domain restriction. The second chapter is devoted to defending a quantificational analysis of generics in which the logical form of generics contains an unpronounced quantifier expression Gen. The chapter defends the original argument of Carlson (1989), the multiple readings argument, which has recently come under scrutiny. In addition, it provides a novel argument in favour or Gen. This chapter also responds to various objections to the quantificational analysis, in particular to the linguistic evidence offered in favour of the
context generalisation context communication consist_four introduction first concerned case purport genericity true despite minority kind question satisfy property whose property somehow striking argue case pathological hence use evidence claim nature genericity semantics generic particular_case pose difficulty theorist want solve_problem variability main obstacle provide_adequate theory generic least part appeal linguistic property quantifier know contextual domain restriction second devote defend analysis generic logical form generic contains quantifier expression gen defend original argument multiple reading argument recently come scrutiny addition provide_novel argument_favour gen also respond various objection analysis particular linguistic_evidence offer favour