Against partitioned readings of reciprocals

This paper examines interpretations of sentences with reciprocal expressions like each other or one another. We concentrate on cases where two or more separate groups can be discerned in the interpretation of the subject of predication. We study the availability of such partitioned interpretations with de.nite subjects and proper name conjunctions, and show new evidence that partitioning effects are independent of the semantics of the reciprocal expression, and are exclusively determined by the interpretation of the subject. We then propose that the effect is yet another result of the familiar dependency of descriptions on contextual quantifiers.

• Affiliations: 1: The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; 2: Utrecht University