Superplurals analyzed away

Abstract

Many natural languages include plural terms, i.e. terms which denote many individuals at once. Are there also superplural terms, i.e. terms which denote many pluralities of individuals at once? Some philosophers say 'Yes', citing a range of sentence types which apparently can't be analyzed in a first-order plural logic, but which can be analyzed in a superplural one. We argue that all the data presented in favor of the superplural can, in fact, be analyzed using only first-order resources. The key is to add to ordinary plural logic a new notion of a generalized cover. A generalized cover reflects how interlocutors in a conversation may divide a salient plurality into many subpluralities, which can then be involved in reference and predication. With generalized covers in place, all the apparently troublesome sentences can be easily handled. Our approach can also be extended to account, not only for linguistic data which seem to favor the superplural but also for other phenomena involving plurals. The result is a unified approach to natural language plurals on which superplurals are analyzed away.