Stubborn distributivity and collective nouns
Abstract
Stubbornly distributive predicates are those that, combined with pluralities, apply only to the individuals and never to the whole (Estas cajas son largas - These boxes are long). These predicates can be combined with some mass nouns (arroz largo - long rice) if they contain discrete units, but, surprisingly, they do not easily produce the same reading with collective nouns (#alameda larga - #long grove). This article argues that this restriction is syntactically based: the position in which a distributive predicate has to be introduced interrupts the syntactic constituent formed by the collective noun, and not the one associated with a mass noun.Downloads
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