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Generics: some (non) specifics

Published version
Peer-reviewed

Change log

Abstract

jats:titleAbstract</jats:title>jats:pThis paper is about an underappreciated aspect of generics: their non-specificity. Many uses of generics, utterances like ‘Seagulls swoop down to steal food’, express non-specific generalisations which do not specify their quantificational force or flavour. I consider whether this non-specificity arises as a by-product of context-sensitivity or semantic incompleteness but argue instead that generics semantically express non-specific generalisations by default as a result of quantifying existentially over more specific ones.</jats:p>

Description

Funder: Arts and Humanities Research Council; doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100000267

Keywords

5003 Philosophy, 50 Philosophy and Religious Studies

Journal Title

Synthese

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0039-7857
1573-0964

Volume Title

199

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC