Zhengjie Situ

University of Edinburgh | UoE · Department of Linguistics and English Language

Lecture accepted for presentation at the 18th International Pragmatics Conference, to be held in Brussels, Belgium, from 9 to 14 July 2023. Host institution: Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB).

Bare Plurals in English are ambiguous between a generic and an exis-tential interpretation. Cohen & Erteschik-shir (2002) claim that information structure completely determine which reading is available: a topical bare plural is interpreted generically while a bare plural in focus is interpreted existentially. In this paper I argue that although th...

Generics are statements expressing generalizations over a kind or, roughly, relevant members thereof. Despite being prevalent in people's speech, the exact meaning of bare plural generics has long been controversial among linguists and philosophers. In this essay I aim to show that 1. Contextually induced alternatives play a central role in the int...