scholarly journals Russian definitional generic sentences

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daria Seres ◽  
M. Teresa Espinal
Keyword(s):  
Generic Sentences

scholarly journals Genericity and the denotation of common nouns in Brazilian Portuguese

2002 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Müller
Keyword(s):  
Noun Phrases ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Natural Languages ◽  
Generic Sentences

This paper investigates what the semantics of generic sentences in Brazilian Portuguese (BP) says about the denotation of Noun Phrases in that language. More specifically, it addresses the syntactic and semantic differences among the indefinite nominals that get a generic interpretation in BP. The paper may also be taken to test well-known hypotheses about the functioning of genericity in natural languages.

scholarly journals Theory-based considerations influence the interpretation of generic sentences

2010 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-276 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrei Cimpian ◽  
Susan A. Gelman ◽  
Amanda C. Brandone
Keyword(s):  
Generic Sentences

The manifold interpretations of generic sentences

Lingua ◽  
1986 ◽  
Vol 68 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 149-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renaat Declerck
Keyword(s):  
Generic Sentences

Bare Nominals

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bert Le Bruyn ◽  
Henriëtte de Swart ◽  
Joost Zwarts
Keyword(s):  
Definite Article ◽  
Count Nouns ◽  
Narrow Scope ◽  
Bare Plurals ◽  
Nominal Structure ◽  
Bare Nouns ◽  
Bare Nominal ◽  
Bare Nominals ◽  
Made In ◽  
Generic Sentences

Bare nominals (also called “bare nouns”) are nominal structures without an overt article or other determiner. The distinction between a bare noun and a noun that is part of a larger nominal structure must be made in context: Milk is a bare nominal in I bought milk, but not in I bought the milk. Bare nouns have a limited distribution: In subject or object position, English allows bare mass nouns and bare plurals, but not bare singular count nouns (*I bought table). Bare singular count nouns only appear in special configurations, such as coordination (I bought table and chairs for £182). From a semantic perspective, it is noteworthy that bare nouns achieve reference without the support of a determiner. A full noun phrase like the cookies refers to the maximal sum of cookies in the context, because of the definite article the. English bare plurals have two main interpretations: In generic sentences they refer to the kind (Cookies are sweet), in episodic sentences they refer to some exemplars of the kind (Cookies are in the cabinet). Bare nouns typically take narrow scope with respect to other scope-bearing operators like negation. The typology of bare nouns reveals substantial variation, and bare nouns in languages other than English may have different distributions and meanings. But genericity and narrow scope are recurring features in the cross-linguistic study of bare nominals.

scholarly journals Compare Within and Between Groups: The Interpretation of Weak Generic Sentences

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhiguo Xie
Keyword(s):  
Internal Standard ◽  
The Other ◽  
International Standard ◽  
Know How ◽  
Port Royal ◽  
Precise Meaning ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Plural Subject ◽  
Alternative Set ◽  
Generic Sentences

AbstractThis paper explicates the precise meaning of weak generic sentences of the form Ks are P, best represented by the Port Royal Puzzle sentence Dutchmen are good sailors. The sentence is true even though the majority of Dutchmen do not know how to sail at all and a fortiori do not sail well. Two observations motivate my analysis. One is that weak generic sentences express a property that “distinguishes the subject referent from other entities that might belong to the same category” (Krifka et al. 1995). This leads to the use of alternative set in my analysis. The other observation is that the scale structure of the predicate P affects the availability of weak generic reading for sentences of the form Ks are P. I argue that the interpretation of weak generic sentences involves: (i) partitioning the set of entities denoted by the bare plural subject based on the property denoted by the predicate P; (ii) partitioning the set of entities alternative to the denotation of the subject in a similar fashion; and (iii) comparing an appropriate partition in (i) to its counterpart in (ii) with respect to the predicate P. The Port Royal Puzzle sentence is true if and only if: those Dutchmen who can sail and who are good at sailing in comparison with the Dutch-internal standard of being good at sailing and those international citizens who can sail and who are good at sailing in comparison to the international standard of being good at sailing are such that the former population generally have better sailing skills than the latter population.

A Causal Semantics of IS Generics

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert van Rooij ◽  
Katrin Schulz
Keyword(s):  
Probabilistic Analysis ◽  
Causal Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Close Similarity ◽  
Bare Plurals ◽  
The One ◽  
Causal Semantics ◽  
Do So ◽  
Generic Sentences

Abstract The felicity, or acceptability, of IS generics, i.e. generic sentences with indefinite singulars, is considerably more restricted compared to BP generics, generics with bare plurals. The goal of this paper is to account for the limited felicity of IS generics compared to BP generics, on the one hand, while preserving the close similarity between the two types of generics, on the other. We do so by proposing a causal analysis of IS generics, and show that this corresponds closely with a probabilistic analysis of BP generics.

Think Generic!: The Meaning and Use of Generic Sentences (review)

Language ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 78 (1) ◽  
pp. 203-203
Author(s):  
Karen Steffen Chung
Keyword(s):  
Generic Sentences
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