Genericity and Logical Form

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Koslicki, Kathrin

• In this paper I propose a novel treatment of generic sentences, which proceeds by means of different levels of analysis. According to this account, all generic sentences (I-generics and D-generics alike) are initially treated in a uniform manner, as involving higher-order predication (following the work of George Boolos, James Higginbotham and Barry Schein on plurals). Their non-uniform character, however, re-emerges at subsequent levels of analysis, when the higher-order predications of the first level are cashed out in terms of quantification over individuals: this last step, I suggest, involves knowledge concerning the lexical meaning of the predicates in question.

• Date created

  1999

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Terms
  • Semantics
  • Generic Sentences
  • Quantification
  • Philosophy Of Language

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3RV0DF5H

• License

  © 1999 K. Koslicki et al. This version of this article is open access and can be downloaded and shared. The original author(s) and source must be cited.