Generics: investigating the expression and interpretation of generics across languages

Objective

All languages are thought to have ways to express generalisations, like ‘Tigers have stripes’ or ‘Birds fly’. Such expressions, termed ‘generics’, are generally true yet allow for exceptions. They enable communication about the world beyond immediate experiences and are used to convey characteristic or striking properties (‘Sharks attack people’), and/or to express knowledge about the world including stereotypes, and prejudices (e.g., ‘Lawyers are greedy’). While central to theories across the cognitive sciences, generics have only been well-explored in English and a few closely related languages, significantly limiting current understanding and future research on generalisations. This project addresses the lack of a wide-ranging typological investigation on generics by systematically examining their different forms across a representative sample of human languages. In this interdisciplinary project combining insights from formal linguistics, semantic fieldwork, psychology and psycholinguistics, I will develop and use a toolkit (in the form of storyboards including generic sentences) to collect data on generics in 28 languages, including vulnerable and endangered languages such as Macushi, Nez Perce, Tlingit and Catalan Sign Language via collaboration with expert linguists and native speakers, part of an established network. The research objectives are (a) to develop a systematic in-depth toolkit and an administration handbook to study generics, (b) to administer the toolkit in 28 languages (16 language families, 2 isolates and 1 sign language), (c) to make the toolkit and handbook available and create an accessible database of the collected data and (d) to address language universals about generics and their theoretical implications. Upon successful completion, my creative and innovative potential will be enhanced and I will have acquired new skills through advanced training and international mobility benefiting the knowledge-based economy the EU is pursuing.