Generics, Frequency Adverbs, and Probability

supporting instances may occur in the future. Let us reconsider the sentences
in (3), repeated below:
(23) a. Mary handles the mail from Antarctica.
b. Members of this club help each other in emergencies.
Sentence (23.a) does not claim that Mary actually handles mail from Antarctica,
but that she is likely to do so. While Mary may never have handled mail
from Antarctica yet, mail from Antarctica may arrive in the future. All that
the truth of (23.a) requires is that in all sufficiently long histories in which
mail does arrive, Mary will handle most of it. We may base our prediction
that Mary would, indeed, handle Antarctic mail if and when it arrives, on
Mary’s job description; 8 but this is not what the meaning of (23.a), under
its descriptive reading, refers to.
Similarly, (23.b) does not require that club members actually help each
other in emergencies, merely that they be likely to do so. That is to say, in
all sufficiently long histories which contain emergencies, club members will
help each other in most cases. Again, while the constitution of the club may
(but does not necessarily) help us make a prediction about how members
would behave if and when emergencies occur, the meaning of (23.b), under
its descriptive reading, does not refer to the constitution.
8 Though we may base it on other things, such as the observed fact that whenever a
piece of mail arrived from an exotic place, Mary immediately became curious and asked
to handle it.
22