Re: Number

On Sun, 5 Aug 2001 19:20:20 -0700, SMITH,MARCUS ANTHONY <smithma@...>
wrote:

>On Mon, 6 Aug 2001, claudio wrote:
>
>> when you write:
>> "Rather than simply quantity, some number systems distinguish distributed
>> all over the place from collected in one place."
>> does this sentence refer to the associative plural ?
>
>No. This is a distributive/collective distinction. Say you want to refer
>to the tools in the back yard. If they are scattered all over the yard,
>you use the plural marker, but if they are stacked up by the porch all
>together, then you use the singular or a collective plural (depending on
>the language). So the distributed plural indicates multiplicity of
>"locations" of the noun/pronoun/verbal action in question. Many languages
>cannot use the distributed plural for just two items, because it is hard
>to describe two things as distributed all over the place.
>
>Marcus
I hope you're kidding -- that is not at all how I understand "distributive"
and "collective". To me, "distributive" is like mathematical distributive
and "collective" means that the set of entities is treated like an entity
itself.

Jeff

Reply