The Sortal Theory of Plurals

Abstract

This paper explores the hypothesis of a semantics for plurals with no atomic partial order defined on the domain of quantification, and thus no ontological distinction between singular and plural individuals. The idea is that the work usually done in the semantics by the atomic partial order is instead done by the syntax, which makes available to the semantics a phonologically covert sortal which provides the suitable granularity. This sortal theory of plurals is compared to the standard atomic theory with the two case studies of partitives and distributivity.