Number, Benchmarks and Evidentiality in Generic Sentences

According to the seminal observation of Lawler (1973), unlike Bare Plural Generics (BP-generics), Indefinite Singular Generics (IS-generics) are mostly felicitous with definitional properties. Relatively little attention has been devoted to the several strategies that allow rescuing nondefinitional IS-generics—including focus, contrast and domain restriction—and even less to the commonalities that statements resorting to these rescuing strategies share with definitional statements. Discussing previous literature, the paper argues for benchmark relativity of IS-generics. We argue that definitional properties make the benchmark self-identifiable, whereas non-definitional properties require accommodating it. The accommodation proceeds by identification of alternatives that trigger the benchmark. Furthermore, IS-generics are argued to presuppose the benchmark, while BP-generics do not. We advance the new hypothesis that this difference follows from the evidentiality conditions imposed by the indefinite singular and bare plurals, triggering a deductive vs. an inductive mode of generalization respectively, as a piece of procedural meaning encoded at the non-at-issue level.