Dancing monkeys in Serbian and Korean – exhaustivity requirements on distributive share markers

Bosnic, Ana; Spenader, Jennifer; Demirdache, Hamida

doi:10.5334/gjgl.858

Cited by 3 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…The One Group situation (Figure 3) focused on checking individual-distributive scenarios with the overt distributive key in the sentences (the subject). The Four Groups situation (Figure 4) investigated the conclusions from Bosnić et al (2020a) that groups of individuals can be interpreted as an implicit spatial key. A universal quantification analysis would predict that all individuals in the first condition and all the groups in the second condition must exhaustively participate, but an analysis of DistShare markers as pluractional (event plurality) markers would have no such requirement and nonexhausted conditions should be fully accepted.…”

Section: Experimental Studies Of Exhaustivity Requirementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Could the conclusions from Bosnić et al (2020a and2020b) be generalizable to other DistShare markers? Given the lack of similar experimental evidence with other markers, our present study focused on German jeweils.…”

Section: Experimental Studies Of Exhaustivity Requirementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Exhaustivity requirements of Dist-Share markers have been tested experimentally in Serbian and Korean. Bosnić et al (2020a) visually manipulated whether or not the spatial distributive key was exhausted in a series of picture verification experiments with adult Serbian and Korean speakers. Test sentences were intransitives like (5) and ( 6) above, with the DistShare marker associated with the overt subject argument.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…cages). Bosnić et al (2020a) found that when a Dist-Share marker was used with the subject of an intransitive sentence, non-atomic individuals (i.e. groups) were interpreted as the key that needed to participate exhaustively in the predicated action (see Figure 2).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This result seemed to support an analysis of DistShare markers as universal quantifiers. 5)/(6), from Bosnić et al (2020a). This condition was strongly rejected because of the presence of non-dancing monkeys in two groups, suggesting that the key should be the spaces defined by the groups of individuals (monkeys)…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Event-distributivity and exhaustivity

Bosnic

Velich

Spenader

2020

AVT

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Distributive-share markers such as jeweils in German or po in Serbian allow for event-distributive readings, where events are distributed over spatio-temporal units, unlike distributive quantifiers such as each in English that only allow individual-distributive readings. Some researchers propose that German jeweils should be analyzed as a universal event-distributive quantifier. In contrast, other researchers claim distributive share markers (e.g. Serbian po) are simply event plurality markers. We investigated these claims with jeweils in two experiments. Experiment 1 tested if both individual and spatial (event) distributive readings are readily available for transitive sentences in German, and if there is an exhaustivity requirement on the restrictor argument. Experiment 2 was designed to force event-distributive readings and further disambiguate the results from Experiment 1. Our findings suggest that jeweils seems to be a true universal event quantifier, and highlight that distributive share markers can differ in fundamental features cross-linguistically.

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Section: Experimental Studies Of Exhaustivity Requirementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Experimental Studies Of Exhaustivity Requirementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Event-distributivity and exhaustivity

Bosnic

Velich

Spenader

2020

AVT

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Exhaustivity and homogeneity effects with distributive‐share markers: Experimental evidence from Serbian po

Bosnic

Demirdache

Spenader

2021

Syntax

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There are two competing approaches to the semantics of distributive‐share markers: they are either universal distributive quantifiers over events or are merely event‐plurality markers. To address this debate, we present new conclusions based on novel experiments with Serbian transitive sentences in which the distributive‐share marker po was attached to the direct object. The first two experiments investigated exhaustivity effects in transitive sentences with po, while the third experiment probed homogeneity effects across three types of negative transitive sentences: with po marking the object, with the distributive‐key quantifier svaki (‘every’) in subject position, and with neither. If po is a universal quantifier, then it should enforce exhaustive distribution over a distributive key and remove homogeneity effects in negative sentences with a definite subject. If instead po is an event‐plurality marker with no universal quantificational force, then it should neither enforce exhaustive distribution nor remove homogeneity effects in negative sentences with a definite subject. We conclude that there are two populations of Serbian speakers with systematic patterns of interpretation: one population interprets po as a universal quantifier and one population interprets po as an event‐plurality marker. We conjecture that this population split might reflect an ongoing diachronic change in the semantic import of the distributive‐share marker po.

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'Uno que otro': A distributive indefinite in Mexican Spanish

Barrios

Rojas

2023

Borealis

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In Mexican Spanish, the indefinite quantifier “uno que otro” is used to refer to low cardinalities of entities separated in space or time. Even though they have a strictly singular form, noun phrases with “uno que otro” always refer to more than one entity. And, despite their notional content of plurality, they reject collective predicates. In this paper we propose a semantic analysis of this expression as a distributive indefinite, that is, an indefinite whose reference covaries as a function of a distributive operator, in the way that adnominal distributive numerals do in other languages (Gil, 1983; Cable, 2014). Distributive numerals are supposed not to exist in Spanish; however, we claim that “uno que otro” is a distributed share marker (Choe, 1987; Bosnić et al 2020) related to a set of events (Balusu, 2006; Cable, 2014; Romero, 2006). This set is necessarily plural, although of low cardinality, and involves the precondition that its elements (atomic events) occur in non-contiguous time or space intervals. The semantic characterization of “uno que otro” as a distributive indefinite captures its referential dependence, its plural sense, its rejection of collective predicates and its content of separation as a secondary effect of a precondition on the events on which it is distributed. We thus show that Spanish has an adnominal expression of the same semantic nature as distributive numerals, with the precision that it requires distribution over events and not over entities.

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Dancing monkeys in Serbian and Korean – exhaustivity requirements on distributive share markers

Cited by 3 publications

References 26 publications

Event-distributivity and exhaustivity

Event-distributivity and exhaustivity

Exhaustivity and homogeneity effects with distributive‐share markers: Experimental evidence from Serbian po

'Uno que otro': A distributive indefinite in Mexican Spanish

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