Generics, Frequency Adverbs, and Probability

The probability judgment expressed by a generic sentence, then, is evaluated
with respect to G-admissible histories, whereas a frequency statement
is evaluated with respect to F-admissible histories. This is the difference between
the generic quantifier and usually; both express the same probability
judgment, but they have different admissibility criteria: the former is evaluated
with respect to G-admissible histories, whereas the latter only requires
F-admissible ones.
I will not attempt here to present an exhaustive list of salient partitions,
nor will I attempt to identify the conditions under which a particular partition
is salient. Some comments and illustrative examples, however, are in
order.
It is sometimes clear whether a partition is salient or not. For example,
Jorge Lois Borges’s famous taxonomy, 13 in which animals are divided into
such groups as those that belong to the Emperor and stray dogs, is clearly
not salient; in fact, its sole purpose is to demonstrate a classification which
humans would find extremely unnatural.
Nevertheless, judgments on whether a partition is considered salient in a
given context may vary considerably across cultures, languages and individuals.
It is possible that a speaker of Dyirbal, for example, would consider a
partition which groups together women, dogs, crickets, water, and fire to be
13 From “The Analytical Language of John Wilkins,” in Other Inquisitions (University
of Texas Press, 1964).
Of course, strictly speaking, Borges’s taxonomy is not really a
partition, since some categories overlap.
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