Cumulative readings of distributive conjunctions: Evidence from Czech and German

Abstract

We present new data showing that cross-linguistically a class of conjunction strategies usually considered purely distributive exhibit cumulative readings in object position. This is similar to the pattern found for every-DPs (Kratzer 2003; Champollion 2010 a.o.) and German jed-DPs (Haslinger and Schmitt, 2018), suggesting all these elements form a natural class. Our evidence stems from experiments on Czech A i B and German sowohl A als auch B (‘A as well as B’) using a Semantic Choice Task (Lohiniva and Panizza 2016). In the crucial items, participants saw pictures of a cumulative scenario and a scenario making both the cumulative and the distributive reading false, and had the option of selecting one scenario or rejecting both. In both languages, cumulative scenarios were accepted more often with the conjunction in object position than with the conjunction in subject position. Further, as surface subjects of passive sentences patterned with objects of active sentences and topicalized objects with non- topicalized objects, passivization and topicalization do not seem to affect cumulative readings.