Nonatomic distributive readings - an experimental perspective

This paper presents two experiments that tested the availability of nonatomic distributivity in sentences with a plural subject and a singular indefinite object. In the literature, it is often assumed that while these sentences have an atomic distributive reading, they lack the nonatomic distributive interpretation. The results, however, indicate that the nonatomic distributive reading of those sentences is not only generally available, but virtually to the same extent as atomic distributivity. These findings support accounts like the one in Schwarzschild (1996) where the nonatomic distributive reading of such sentences is predicted, the distinction between atomic and nonatomic distributivity is eliminated and both readings are accounted for by the same means.