Are There Collective or Partially Collective Interpretations of Universal Quantificational “Each” Sentences?

Abstract

The English universal quantifier "each" is usually discussed as distributive in the literature. Yet linguists use the term "distributivity" to reference a number of different phenomena. I focus my analysis primarily on two kinds of distributivity with respect to "each": 'predicate distributivity' and 'event participation distributivity'. I explore two questions:(1) Can the meanings of any "each"-sentences be used to think about multiple referenced individuals as participating in the same events "collectively" or "partially collectively"?(2) Are there collective predicate interpretations of any "each"-sentences? I explore whether the answer to the first question might be 'yes' with respect to "partially collective" event interpretations. I claim that the question as to whether there is a "completely collective" event interpretation of "each"sentences warrants more investigation and may be open. I embed my analysis within a cognitive instructions framework, and argue for its usefulness in characterizing distributivity and quantification more generally.iii Table of Contents Introduction: Meanings are cognitive instructions, but what are cognitive instructions? .