Distributive and Collective Readings in a Conjunct NP Antecedent

Abstract

This paper begins with the observation that the English singular reflexive himself, though inherently reflexive, does not induce even a distributive reading and that only plural anaphors such as the English reflexive themselves give rise to the distributive/collective ambiguity. The Korean reflexives caki and caki-casin, even though they seemingly look alike, have radically different distributive properties. Local caki evokes a single individual, but does not evoke a collective figure such as John and Mary. This is because caki co-reference is ruled out by the incompatibility between caki (singular) and its conjunct NP antecedent (plural). On the other hand, the Korean reflexive caki-casin cannot evoke the guise of the collective figure of the antecedent. This property, called guises, accounts for the distributive reading in Korean. When the Korean plural reflexives caki-tul and caki-casin-tul occur with a plural NP antecedent, they induce dual readings, namely, a distributive reading and a collective reading. The Korean reflexives caki-tul and caki-casin-tul are specified as plural, but they can also appear in the singular form with a plural NP antecedent. This distributive/collective ambiguity is possible only with Korean plural reflexives, not with their singular counterparts, which induce only a distributive reading. Unlike English, however, this property can be reduced to a property of the Korean plural suffix -tul and not necessarily to that of the plural reflexives themselves. In conclusion, one hypothesis which can be applicable to both English and Korean is that to give rise to the distributive/collective ambiguity, structurally plural anaphors must be linked to plural antecedents.