Article published in:
Linguistics in the Netherlands 2020Edited by Elena Tribushinina and Mark Dingemanse
[Linguistics in the Netherlands 37] 2020
► pp. 2–22
Event-distributivity and exhaustivity
Insights into distributive share markers from experiments with German jeweils
Maximilian Velich | University of Groningen
Jennifer Spenader | University of Groningen
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.
Keywords: quantification, distributivity, distributive share markers, exhaustivity, event-distributive readings
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background
- 2.1Experimental studies of exhaustivity requirement
- 2.2German jeweils
- 3.Experiment 1
- 3.1Method
- 3.1.1Participants
- 3.1.2Materials
- 3.2Predictions
- 3.3Results of Experiment 1
- 3.3.1Analysis
- 3.4Discussion of Experiment 1
- 3.1Method
- 4.Experiment 2
- 4.1Method
- 4.1.1Participants
- 4.1.2Materials
- 4.2Results of Experiment 2
- 4.2.1Analysis
- 4.3Discussion of Experiment 2
- 4.1Method
- 5.General discussion and conclusions
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
-
References
Published online: 27 October 2020
https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.00034.bos
https://doi.org/10.1075/avt.00034.bos
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