Semantics Circle: The anti-duality of universals is not universal (but duality is!)

Abstract

In well-documented languages, like English, French, and all but one language I have examined, the word for ‘all’, namely a universal quantifier that permits non-distributive readings, cannot be used if its domain is known to contain exactly two individuals. This is exemplified by the oddness of ‘all my arms are broken’ in a situation where I have only two arms. This is what we call anti-duality. As noticed by Chemla (2007), anti-duality of universals extends to languages like French, which don’t have a dual universal quantifier like ‘both’ in English to fill that gap.

Given this pattern, it is tempting to hypothesize that the gap created by the anti-duality of universal quantifiers is universal.

But it is not: In Ecuadorian Siona, the word for ‘all’, si’a, is not anti-dual.

I then show that the analysis proposed in Jeretič et al. 2024 developed for account for the anti-duality with the universal quantifier in French can be extended to capture the data in Siona.

Code of Conduct for ZAS events: The ZAS is committed to fair, respectful, and professional interaction at its events. Therefore, please observe the Code of Conduct for this event.