Denotation and Implicature of Distributivity

Landman (2000) reduces distributivity to plurality mostly from the semantic point of view. This paper fundamentally points out that distributivity amounts to plurality not only at the semantic level but also at the pragmatic level. First, sorting out several plausible interpretations associated with distributivity, I spell out the denotation and implicature of distributivity. Thoroughly understanding distributivity at two different levels of interpretation, I further discuss that the denotation and implicature of distributivity reveal parallel patterns with those of plurality. Just like plurality forms a strength scale with singularity, distributivity forms a strength scale with collectivity. On the basis of the scale, the implicature of distributivity is arrived at by subtracting the denotation of collectivity from the denotation of distributivity. This is the same process how the implicature of plurality is derived. Noting the intriguing parallelism, I confirm the fact that Landman introduces to the grammar, i.e., distributivity amounts to plurality.