Generics revisited: a simple theory of types

Abstract

In this paper I propose a novel treatment of genericity. While my diagnosis is that no present theory is satisfactory, I choose Liebesman’s simple kind predication theory (2011) as an initial framework. I reject Liebesman’s claim that generics are sentences about kinds and suggest that they are rather sentences about types showing the virtues of such view. While my ultimate goal is to show that the type analysis of generics is both natural and explanatorily superior to its rivals, I also propose both semantic and pragmatic analysis of generic sentences.