Cover not available

In:Footprints of Phrase Structure: Studies in syntax in honour of Tim Stowell
Edited by María J. Arche, Jan-Wouter Zwart, Hamida Demirdache and Hagit Borer
[Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today 288] 2025
► pp. 220–248

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload Book PDF
authorization required

Ensuring atomicity with distributive share markers

 | Nantes University/CNRS
 | Utrecht University
Published online: 2 October 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/la.288.11dem
Abstract
This paper tackles the question of the granularity of distributivity — that is, the nature and size of the entities over which distribution takes place, a parameter of variation in the meaning of distributive operators. We focus on two classes of distributive markers: Distributive-Key markers such as determiner each in English and svaki ‘every’ in Serbian vs. Distributive-Share markers such as Serbian po and binominal each. We present experimental evidence suggesting that the core of Safir & Stowell’s (1998) seminal analysis of binominal each can be extended in a unified way to distributive operators such as po that distribute over atomic, as well as non-atomic entities, be it count entities bigger than atoms (plural individuals), or entities from noncount domains (time/space).
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Distributive share vs. distributive key markers
  • 3.Non-atomic (exhaustive) po: Experimental evidence
  • 4.(Non)atomic distribution with Determiner and Binominal each: Issues and experimental evidence
    • 4.1Partial distributive readings: Every vs. each
    • 4.2Distributive collective readings: Po vs. each and every
    • 4.3Determiner each: Experimental evidence from (in)dependent verbs
    • 4.4Binominal each: Experimental evidence from (in)dependent verbs
    • 4.5Po and binominal each vs. determiner each
  • 5.Enforcing atomic distribution in Serbian: Svaki + po. Experimental evidence
  • 6.Safir & Stowell’s (1988) analysis of binominal each
  • 7.Distance distributivity: A uniform analysis of binominal each and (svaki) po
  • 8.Mapping the DistKey onto the DistShare
  • 9.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (40)
References
Balusu, Rahul. 2006. Distributive reduplication in Telugu. Proceedings North East Linguistic Society (NELS) 36, 39–52.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Balusu, Rahul, & Jayaseelan, Karattuparambil Achuthan. 2013. Distributive quantification by reduplication in Dravidian. In K.-H. Gil, S. Harlow, & G. Tsoulas (Eds.), Strategies of quantification (pp. 60–86). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bosnić, Ana, Spenader, Jennifer & Demirdache, Hamida. 2020. Dancing monkeys in Serbian and Korean — exhaustivity requirements on distributive share markers. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 5(1): 78. 1–28. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bosnić, Ana, Demirdache, Hamida & Spenader, Jennifer. 2021. Exhaustivity and homogeneity effects with distributive share markers — experimental evidence from Serbian po. Syntax: A journal of theoretical, experimental and interdisciplinary research, 25(1), 1–38. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Bosnić, Ana. 2021. Experimental investigations into the semantics of distributive marking: Data from Serbian, Korean and Dutch. PhD dissertation. Rijksuniversiteit Groningen/ University of Nantes.
Cable, Seth. 2014. Distributive numerals and distance distributivity in Tlingit (and beyond). Language, 90(3), 562–606. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Champollion, Lucas. 2010. Parts of a whole: Distributivity as a bridge between aspect and measurement. PhD dissertation. University of Pennsylvania.
. 2012. Each vs. Jeweils: A cover-based view on distance distributivity. In M. Aloni, V. Kimmelman, F. Roelofsen, G. W. Sassoon, K. Schulz, & M. Westera (Chairs), 18th Amsterdam Colloquium. Amsterdam.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2016. Overt distributivity in algebraic event semantics. Semantics and Pragmatics 9(16). 1–65. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Choe, Jae-Woong. 1987. Anti-quantifiers and a theory of distributivity. PhD dissertation. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.
Faller, Martina. 2001. The problem of Quechua-nka — distributivity vs. group forming. In Proceedings of SULA. Amherst (pp. 38–46).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gil, David. 1982. Distributive numerals. PhD dissertation. University of California, Los Angeles.
. 1990. Markers of Distributivity in Japanese and. In H. Hoji & P. M. Clancy (Eds.), Japanese/Korean Linguistics: Volume 1 (Vol. 1, pp. 385–393). Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 1995. Universal quantifiers and distributivity. In E. Bach, E. Jelinek, A. Kratzer, & B. B. H. Partee (Eds.), Quantification in natural languages (pp. 321–362). Springer Science & Business Media.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. Distributive numerals. In M. Haspelmath, M. S. Dryer, Oxford University, H.-J. Bibiko, Oxford University Press, Max-Planck-Institut für Evolutionäre Anthropologie, J. Hagen, D. Gil, B. Comrie, & C. Schmidt (Eds.), The World Atlas of Language Structures (pp. 222–225). Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Henderson, Robert. 2011. Pluractional Distributivity and Dependence. Semantics and Linguistic Theory, 21, 218–235. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. Dependent indefinites and their post-suppositions. Semantics and Pragmatics, 7(6), 1–58. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Junker, Marie-Odile. 1995. Syntaxe et sémantique des quantifieurs flottants tous et chacun. Distributivité en sémantique conceptuelle. Droz: Geneva.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Junker, Marie-Odile & Marie-Thérèse Vinet. 1993. Chaque, quantifieur binominal: représentation d’un phénomène de variation interdialectale. Travaux de linguistique, 26, 5–20.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Knežević, Nataša. 2015. Numerals and distributivity in Serbian: at the syntax-semantics-acquisition interface. PhD dissertation. University of Nantes, France.
Knežević, Nataša, & Demirdache, Hamida. 2017. On the acquisition of distributive numerals in Serbian. In Language Acquisition and Development. Proceedings of Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition 2015 (GALA) (pp. 83–107).Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2018. Universal Quantification and Distributive Marking in Serbian. In K. É. Kiss & T. Zétényi (Eds.), Linguistic and Cognitive Aspects of Quantification (pp. 115–140). Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koster, Anna de. 2021. Acting Individually or Together? An Investigation of Children’s Development of Distributivity. PhD dissertation. University of Groningen
Koster, Anna de, Spenader, Jennifer, Dotlačil, Jakub & Hendriks, Petra. 2020. A multiple cue explanation of collective interpretations with each. In: M. M. Brown & A. Kohu (Eds), Proceedings of the 44nd annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 252–265), Cascadilla Press.
Lasersohn, Peter. 1995. Plurality, conjunction and events. Berlin, Germany: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Law, Jess H. K. 2022. The Mereological Structure of Distributivity: A Case Study of Binominal Each. Journal of Semantics, 39, 159–211. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Matthewson, Lisa. 2000. On distributivity and pluractionality. Semantics and Linguistic Theory (Vol. 10, pp. 98–114) Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Moltmann, Friederike. 1991. On the syntax and semantics of binary distributive quantifiers. Proceedings of the North East Linguistic Society (NELS) 22. 279–292.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Müller, Ana, & Negrão, Esmeralda. 2012. On Distributivity in Karitiana. In P. Hofherr & B. Laca (Eds.), Verbal plurality and distributivity (Vol. 185, p. 159). Walter de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Newman, Paul. 1980. The classification of Chadic within Afroasiatic. Universitaire Pers Leiden.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oh, Sei-Rang. 2001. Distributivity in an event semantics. Semantics and Linguistic Theory, 11, 326–345. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Panaitescu, Mara, & Tovena, Lucia M. 2019. Distributivity over pairs of events and entities. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung. Vol. 23. No. 2.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Pasquereau, Jérémy, Baerman, Matthew & O’Meara, Carolyn. 2022. Distributivity in Seri verbs and nouns as cross-categorial pluractionality. in NELS 52: Proceedings of the Fifty-Second Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, Volume 3. Ozge Bakay, Breanna Pratley, Eva Neu and Peyton Deal, editors, pp. 11–24. Amherst: Graduate Linguistics Student Association at University of Massachusetts.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Safir, Ken, & Stowell, Tim. 1988. Binominal each. Proceedings of NELS, 18, 426–450.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stowell, Tim. 2013. Binominal each: A DP that may not be. Strategies of quantification, 260–294. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Szabolcsi, Anna. 1997. Strategies for scope taking. In Anna Szabolcsi (ed.), Ways of Scope Taking, 109–154. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tunstall, Susanne Lynn. 1998. The interpretation of quantifiers: semantics & processing. PhD dissertation. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA.
Zimmermann, Malte. 2002. Boys buying two sausages each: On the syntax and semantics of distance-distributivity. PhD dissertation. University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
. 2008. Quantification in Hausa. Quantification: Universals and Variation, 64, 415–475.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue