Interpreting quantifiers in subject position

Abstract

In this paper we argue that collective readings of quantied NPs in subject

position involve a form of hidden distributivity (Dowty 1987). We argue that there

are two dierent types of collective predicates, and that the best way to model

this contrast is by means of two separate syntactic structures corresponding to

dierent aktionsarten (Taub 1989, Brisson 1998). Borrowing the basic mechanism

to exploit this idea from Brisson (2003), we argue instead that a semantics without

covers (Schwarzschild 1996) is both empirically more adequate and conceptually

more appealing.