8. Genericity
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Gregory Carlson
Abstract
Generic and habitual sentences are how natural language expresses regularities, laws, generalizations, habits, dispositions, etc. One example would be “Bears eat honey.” They are opposed in concept to episodic sentences, whose truth conditions concern whether or not an event of a given type occurs or fails to occur in a world of evaluation, whether as singular events or quantified over. An example would be “Some bears are eating some honey”. Generic sentences often include as a part a generic noun phrase such as “bears” whose denotation is argued to be a kind of thing, rather than being some quantification over individuals. This article reviews the recent conclusions and points of contention in both how noun phrases are represented in a semantics, and how the semantics of full sentences is to be represented.
Abstract
Generic and habitual sentences are how natural language expresses regularities, laws, generalizations, habits, dispositions, etc. One example would be “Bears eat honey.” They are opposed in concept to episodic sentences, whose truth conditions concern whether or not an event of a given type occurs or fails to occur in a world of evaluation, whether as singular events or quantified over. An example would be “Some bears are eating some honey”. Generic sentences often include as a part a generic noun phrase such as “bears” whose denotation is argued to be a kind of thing, rather than being some quantification over individuals. This article reviews the recent conclusions and points of contention in both how noun phrases are represented in a semantics, and how the semantics of full sentences is to be represented.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- 1. Pronouns 1
- 2. Definiteness and indefiniteness 33
- 3. Specificity 70
- 4. Quantifiers 112
- 5. Bare noun phrases 149
- 6. Possessives and relational nouns 177
- 7. Mass nouns and plurals 204
- 8. Genericity 232
- 9. Aspectual class and Aktionsart 274
- 10. Perfect and progressive 313
- 11. Verbal mood 369
- 12. Deverbal nominalization 407
- 13. Tense 436
- 14. Modality 463
- 15. Conditionals 503
- 16. Propositional attitudes 532
- 17. Indexicality and De Se reports 562
- Index 619
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Contents V
- 1. Pronouns 1
- 2. Definiteness and indefiniteness 33
- 3. Specificity 70
- 4. Quantifiers 112
- 5. Bare noun phrases 149
- 6. Possessives and relational nouns 177
- 7. Mass nouns and plurals 204
- 8. Genericity 232
- 9. Aspectual class and Aktionsart 274
- 10. Perfect and progressive 313
- 11. Verbal mood 369
- 12. Deverbal nominalization 407
- 13. Tense 436
- 14. Modality 463
- 15. Conditionals 503
- 16. Propositional attitudes 532
- 17. Indexicality and De Se reports 562
- Index 619
