184 Gréte Dalmi
(76) W Krakowie sprzedało się dużo kwiatów.
in Cracow sell.perf.past refl a lot flowers
‘In Cracow we sold a lot of flowers.’ (actual past)
(Polish, Krzek, 2012: 156)
This correlation is largely dependent on the availability of the “habitual past” vs. “actual
past” readings of the imperfective vs. perfective aspects in these languages. There are
other languages in which the generic inclusive vs. unique reference alternation is present
but does not correlate with such aspectual restrictions (see Egerland & Sigurðsson 2009
for Icelandic). This suggests that the correlation between generic inclusive vs. unique
reference and imperfective vs. perfective aspect, detected by D’Alessandro & Alexiadou
(2003) in Italian, and in Polish by Krzek (2011, 2012 ) is subject to parametric variation.
Egerland and Sigurðsson (2009) report on generic vs. unique reference alternation
in the case of Icelandic maður ‘one/I’. In the present framework, this would amount
to saying tha maður must be in the scope of GN in order to acquire the 3sg generic
inclusive interpretation:
(77) [ForceP[SAPP gn [TOPPÍ Feneyjum ferðast [TPmaðurGN
in Venice travels one
yfirleitt [VP á báti]]]]].
generally on boat
‘In Venice, one generally travels by boat.’
(Icelandic, Egerland & Sigurðsson 2009: 175, bracketing added)
In the appropriate context, however, maður can be ambiguous between the 3sg generic
inclusive and the 1sg unique reference interpretation (example from Jónsson 1992):
(78) Ef maður tapar, thá er maður úr leik.
if one/I loses then is one/I out
‘If one loses, one is out.’
‘If I lose, I am out.’ (Icelandic, Jónsson 1992: 1)
This alternation in Icelandic is contextually determined. Egerland & Sigurðsson (2009)
note that the unique reference reading usually arises in veridical contexts with specific
time reference, while the generic interpretation is more common in non-veridical con-
texts. Thus, conditional or subjunctive mood (irrealis) often forces the generic inclu-
sive reading:
(79) Maður var óheppinn í gær.
man-the was lucky yesterday
‘I was lucky yesterday.’
(Icelandic, Egerland & Sigurðsson 2009: 163)
(80) Á tundlinu væri ferðast a báti.
on moon.the be.sbj travel.prtc on boat
‘On the moon, one would travel by boat.’
(Icelandic, Egerland & Sigurðsson 2009: 175)