Generics, Frequency Adverbs, and Probability

(21) a. Israelis usually live on the coastal plane.
b. People in southeast Asia usually speak Chinese.
c. People usually have black hair.
d. People are usually over three years old.
e. Crocodiles usually die before they attain an age of two weeks.
f. Primary school teachers are usually female.
g. Bees are usually sexually sterile.
h. Books are usually paperbacks.
i. Prime numbers are usually odd.
The eighth puzzle, then, is the following: what is required for a generic
to be true, above and beyond having a majority of individuals satisfy the
predicated, and why don’t frequency adverbs have the same requirement?
2 Probability
2.1 Probability Based Truth Conditions
This paper argues for the thesis that all puzzles above can be accounted
for if we assume that generics and frequency statements express probability
judgments. Before presenting the arguments for this view, let me be more
precise about the relation between truth conditions and probability.
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