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Glite Dictionary
➗ Operation property 🗣️ Separate actions
distributivity

distributivity

9.9
A quality that applies to each member of a group separately
  • noun
  • /ˌdɪstrɪˈbjuːtɪvɪti/
  • Specialized
: distributividad
  • In the sentence 'The students read books,' distributivity means each student read a book, not all together.

Examples

  • In linguistics, distributivity refers to how each member of a group performs an action independently, shown in the sentence 'The cats chased mice' where each cat chased its own mouse.

  • The concept of distributivity is important in both linguistics and logic when analyzing plural statements.

  • Understanding distributivity helps explain why some verbs can describe actions done by individuals in a group.

  • The concept of distributivity is crucial in semantics.

  • We studied the distributivity of verbs in our linguistics class.

  • Understanding distributivity is essential for analyzing sentences, as it indicates that actions or qualities apply to each individual in a group rather than to the group as a whole.

  • The principle of distributivity helps clarify how certain verbs express individual actions among members of a plural subject.

Surface Forms

distributivity singular
distributivities plural

Morphology

distributivity = distributive (transparent) = distribute + ive + ity

Formed regularly from the adjective 'distributive' with the productive noun-forming suffix '-ity' meaning 'the property or state of being distributive'.

Etymology

Distributivity comes from Latin parts dis- 'apart' and tribuere 'to give', and it is the same root as the common word distribute. So in language, distributivity means an action or quality is 'given out' to each person or thing separately, not shared by the whole group.