Conference Yael Greenberg nov. 6

[Alda MARI]

Chers tous,
dans le cadre du séminaire de l'ANR "GENIUS: Genericity: Interpretation and Uses", nous sommes heureux de vous convier à une conférence de 
Yael Greenberg (Bar Ilan University)
"Contextual Dependency and Vagueness Systematically Interacting in the Interpretaion of Two Types of Generic Sentences"
qui aura lieu le 
jeudi 6 novembre à 17h00
à l'ENS
29 rue d'Ulm
Pavillon Jardin 
Salle de réunions - RdC
Resumé: 
This  talk deals with the way two types of generic sentences  -  with indefinite singular and with bare plural subjects (IS and BP generics, respectively) - tolerate exceptions, and with the connection of the exceptions-tolerance property of such sentences to some well-known observations about felicity differences between them (e.g. Lawler's 1973 Madrigals are popular vs. #A madrigal is popular). I show that whereas both IS and BP generics tolerate exceptional and contextually irrelevant entities (individuals and situations) in a strikingly similar way, which indicates the existence of a basically equivalent tolerance mechanism, there is also a difference between them, unnoticed so far, which has to do with the degree to which the properties of the legitimate exceptions can be characterized in advance. Following claims in Greenberg (2003) I argue that both this newly observed difference, as well as the traditional felicity differences result from an underlying contrast in the type of 'non-accidentalness' expressed by the two types of generic sentences, and more formally, in the accessibility relations that their generic quantifier (Gen) is compatible with. To capture the new difference in tolerance of exceptions I develop an improved version of the exceptions-tolerance mechanism for generic sentences suggested in Kadmon & Landman (1993) namely a restriction on the set of individuals and situations quantified by Gen, which is defined as partially vague to two different degrees using supervaluationist methods. The different degrees of vagueness in this restriction are shown to be systematically dependent on the two types of accessibility relations that IS and BP generics are compatible with. 
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