On the diverse interpretations of bare plural generics

Abstract

Bare plural generics display varying quantificational force. Previous work (e.g., Krifka et al., 1995; Chierchia, 1998; Leslie, 2007) treats examples like ‘Ravens are black.’, ‘Mosquitoes carry malaria.’, and ‘Ducks lay eggs.’ as distinct cases with distinct semantic analyses. However, these examples are structurally the same; they all display distributive generic predication over a bare plural in an out-of-the-blue context. In this paper, we argue that an adequate account of bare plural generics must (i) treat the bare plural constituent as a plural-object (e.g., in the sense of Link (1983)), (ii) have a uniform logical form, and (iii) advance our understanding about the underlying meaning of bare plural generics. In order to achieve such a treatment of bare plural generics, we propose that generics come with inquisitive content. The inquisitive content updates a sustained discourse context and is meant to be behaviorally relevant. Within the proposed analysis, a sentence like ‘Ravens are black.’ is conveying that we are to ask for each unfamiliar raven individual whether it is black and act as if it were. Accordingly, generic sentences are understood as a tool to convey behaviorally guiding information.