A Somewhat More Definite Article

Take a sentence containing an adverbial quantifier and an indefinite, and often you will be able to paraphrase it with a parallel sentence containing a determiner quantifier and no indefinite. For instance, take the sentences in ( 1) , where the adverbial quantifier is usually / most of the time and the indefinite is a blue-eyed bear. You can roughly paraphrase these with (2), which contains the determiner quantifier most. ( 1) a. A blue-eyed bear is usually intelligent. (von Finte1 1 994) b. Most of the time, a blue-eyed bear is intelligent. (2) Most blue-eyed bears are intelligent. This well-known fact suggests that we can use sentences like ( 1) to express quantification over individuals: to claim that some proportion of individuals (blue eyed bears, say) have some property (intelligence, say). What proportion depends on what adverbial quantifier we use.! Can we explain why these sentences have the use that they do, and at the same time stick to independently motivated syntactic structures and independentl