Jeretič et al. 2025 — Anti-duality of tous #
The English universal quantifiers all and every are 'anti-dual', i.e. cannot be used if their domain is known to contain only two individuals. […] French tous is also anti-dual. But French does not have a lexical item for 'both'.
The account (resolving [Che07a]'s puzzle via the conceptual alternatives of [BKC18]): dual number features are universally present — overt in Slovenian (paper (36)), in French syncretic with plural — so the string tous les NP is parse-ambiguous between plural and dual. Three entities drive the competition (paper §4, Fig. 1):
- Lexicalized dual items (English both/neither, German beide, Japanese dotti, Icelandic hvor) — standard MP competitors ([Per06], [Sau08]).
- The unpronounceable dual structure (tous les NP.dual) —
generated by the grammar, blocked from pronunciation by Avoid
Ambiguity (paper eq 37;
Blockedbelow). - The indirect alternative (les deux NP) — pronounceable,
meaning-equivalent to (2), at most as complex by node count; its
existence licenses (2) as MP competitor (paper eq 43,
Alternatives.indirectFrom).
paperData records the 19 (language, quantifier-slot) judgment cells the
paper reports; theory_matches_data checks the prediction — anti-dual
iff a lexical dual or an indirect alternative exists — on every cell.
The worked example runs the pipeline on paper (25): Avoid Ambiguity
blocks the dual parse (tousDual_blocked), pronounceability is thereby
derived rather than stipulated (frenchPron_iff_not_blocked), and MP
fires through the indirect alternative (tous_violatesMP_via_indirect).
The DUAL denotation itself (paper eq 39) lives in
Number.dualPredOnLattice (Features/Number/Decomposition.lean).
The account extends [Sau03]'s direct-alternative phi-feature MP;
the two diverge exactly on the indirect-alternative cells
(accounts_diverge). Not formalized: §4.4 (tous les deux), §4.5
(domain restrictions on Avoid Ambiguity), §6 (rejected alternatives,
e.g. BOTH as the core concept).
Languages, quantifier slots, and competitor typology #
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- JereticEtAl2025.instDecidableEqLanguage x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
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- JereticEtAl2025.instReprLanguage = { reprPrec := JereticEtAl2025.instReprLanguage.repr }
Quantifier slots the paper discusses.
- universal : QSlot
Universal: English all, French tous, German alle.
- negative : QSlot
Negative: English no, French aucun, German keine.
- which : QSlot
Interrogative: English which, French quel, Japanese dono.
- each : QSlot
Distributive: English each, French chaque.
- one : QSlot
Existential: English one, French un.
- always : QSlot
Temporal universal: English always, French toujours, German immer, Japanese itu-mo.
Instances For
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- JereticEtAl2025.instDecidableEqQSlot x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
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- JereticEtAl2025.instReprQSlot = { reprPrec := JereticEtAl2025.instReprQSlot.repr }
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- JereticEtAl2025.instReprQSlot.repr JereticEtAl2025.QSlot.one prec✝ = Repr.addAppParen (Std.Format.nest (if prec✝ ≥ 1024 then 1 else 2) (Std.Format.text "JereticEtAl2025.QSlot.one")).group prec✝
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What a language provides as dual competitor for a quantifier slot (paper §4, Fig. 1): a lexicalized dual item (standard MP), a silent dual structure licensed by a pronounceable indirect alternative, or nothing sufficiently simple.
- lexicalDual : Competitor
- unpronounceableWithIndirectAlt : Competitor
- noCompetitor : Competitor
Instances For
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- JereticEtAl2025.instDecidableEqCompetitor x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
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- JereticEtAl2025.instReprCompetitor = { reprPrec := JereticEtAl2025.instReprCompetitor.repr }
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Paper-reported acceptability in a two-element domain. Three values
preserve the paper's gradient judgments: Japanese dono is categorical
# where Icelandic hvaða is marginal ?.
- hash : Acceptability
#— infelicitous in dual contexts (anti-dual). - question : Acceptability
?— marginal in dual contexts. - ok : Acceptability
Felicitous in dual contexts (not anti-dual).
Instances For
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- JereticEtAl2025.instDecidableEqAcceptability x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
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Anti-dual means degraded in a two-element domain: # or ?.
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- a.IsAntiDual = (a ≠ JereticEtAl2025.Acceptability.ok)
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A (language, quantifier-slot) cell the paper explicitly reports, with its acceptability and paper location.
- language : Language
- slot : QSlot
- observed : Acceptability
- paperRef : String
Paper section/example reference, for audit.
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- JereticEtAl2025.instReprDatum = { reprPrec := JereticEtAl2025.instReprDatum.repr }
The paper's judgment cells; cells the paper does not report are omitted rather than extrapolated. In particular there is no German universal row (beide is asserted in §2/§5.2 prose, but no alle judgment is reported) and no Slovenian row ((36) shows overt dual morphology, not a quantifier judgment).
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The theory #
The typological input the theory reads: the dual competitor each language provides per slot. English and French values are checked against Fragment lexica below; the rest follow the paper:
- English both/neither are lexical duals (§1, §5.2); which of the two etc. are too complex for the other slots (§5.1); always decomposes as all+ways, so both times is an equally complex indirect alternative (§5.4).
- French les deux is the indirect alternative for tous (§4); aucun des deux, ni l'un ni l'autre, and les deux fois are all too complex to block (§5.2, §5.4).
- German has lexical beide (§2, §5.2 prose) but no neither counterpart for keine (§5.2); suppleted immer = all+ways competes with beide Male (§5.4).
- Japanese builds dual which/each/one on the indeterminate dotti (§2); bimorphemic ni-kai on its definite reading is the surrogate for itu-mo — ni-kai-to-mo is too complex (§5.4 (84)–(85)).
- Icelandic has dual hvor beside hvaða (§2 (7)).
Cells the paper does not discuss fall through to .noCompetitor and
must not appear in paperData.
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- JereticEtAl2025.lexiconCompetitor JereticEtAl2025.Language.english JereticEtAl2025.QSlot.universal = JereticEtAl2025.Competitor.lexicalDual
- JereticEtAl2025.lexiconCompetitor JereticEtAl2025.Language.english JereticEtAl2025.QSlot.negative = JereticEtAl2025.Competitor.lexicalDual
- JereticEtAl2025.lexiconCompetitor JereticEtAl2025.Language.english JereticEtAl2025.QSlot.always = JereticEtAl2025.Competitor.unpronounceableWithIndirectAlt
- JereticEtAl2025.lexiconCompetitor JereticEtAl2025.Language.french JereticEtAl2025.QSlot.universal = JereticEtAl2025.Competitor.unpronounceableWithIndirectAlt
- JereticEtAl2025.lexiconCompetitor JereticEtAl2025.Language.german JereticEtAl2025.QSlot.universal = JereticEtAl2025.Competitor.lexicalDual
- JereticEtAl2025.lexiconCompetitor JereticEtAl2025.Language.german JereticEtAl2025.QSlot.always = JereticEtAl2025.Competitor.unpronounceableWithIndirectAlt
- JereticEtAl2025.lexiconCompetitor JereticEtAl2025.Language.japanese JereticEtAl2025.QSlot.which = JereticEtAl2025.Competitor.lexicalDual
- JereticEtAl2025.lexiconCompetitor JereticEtAl2025.Language.japanese JereticEtAl2025.QSlot.each = JereticEtAl2025.Competitor.lexicalDual
- JereticEtAl2025.lexiconCompetitor JereticEtAl2025.Language.japanese JereticEtAl2025.QSlot.one = JereticEtAl2025.Competitor.lexicalDual
- JereticEtAl2025.lexiconCompetitor JereticEtAl2025.Language.japanese JereticEtAl2025.QSlot.always = JereticEtAl2025.Competitor.unpronounceableWithIndirectAlt
- JereticEtAl2025.lexiconCompetitor JereticEtAl2025.Language.icelandic JereticEtAl2025.QSlot.which = JereticEtAl2025.Competitor.lexicalDual
- JereticEtAl2025.lexiconCompetitor x✝¹ x✝ = JereticEtAl2025.Competitor.noCompetitor
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The account's prediction (paper §4–5): a quantifier is anti-dual iff some dual competitor exists — lexical, or silent-but-licensed by an indirect alternative.
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Fragment grounding #
The English and French inputs derive from Fragment lexica: if both
or les deux lost their dual restriction, or tous its plural one,
these checks would fail and expose lexiconCompetitor as out of sync
with the lexicon.
Theory matches data #
On every cell the paper reports, the prediction computed from
lexiconCompetitor matches the reported judgment.
Divergence from [Sau03]'s direct-alternative phi-MP, which
derives anti-duality only from lexicalized duals (English both): it
has no route for French tous or English always. The divergence
cells are exactly the indirect-alternative ones; the observed judgments
(rows "§1 (2)" and "§5.4 (80)" of paperData) favor this paper.
Avoid Ambiguity #
Paper eq (37): "if a string S is ambiguous between two parses P1 and P2,
and there is a string S′ with a parse P1′ whose meaning is semantically
equivalent to P1, but no parse P2′ equivalent to P2, and S′ is
structurally at most as complex as S, then string S cannot realize
parse P1." Complexity is node count (paper (38)). The paper restricts
the principle's domain of application (fn 11, §4.5: phase-bounded
application, a broad non-synonymy condition); Blocked is the
unrestricted (37).
A string is ambiguous iff it has two parses with distinct meanings.
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- JereticEtAl2025.IsAmbiguous parses meaning s = ∃ p₁ ∈ parses s, ∃ p₂ ∈ parses s, meaning p₁ ≠ meaning p₂
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Avoid Ambiguity (paper eq 37): s cannot realize its parse p₁
when s is ambiguous between p₁ and some p₂, and a string s' at
most as complex realizes p₁'s meaning but has no parse equivalent
to p₂.
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Only ambiguous strings block: eq (37)'s ambiguity premise is built in, so unambiguous synonyms never compete under Avoid Ambiguity.
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- JereticEtAl2025.instDecidableBlockedOfDecidableEqOfFintype = id inferInstance
Worked example: tous les verres (paper (25)) #
The pipeline end-to-end on paper (25) (tous les verres sont pleins vs
les deux verres sont pleins), collapsed to essential head structure:
tous V / les_deux V, with the silent witness tous_DUAL V. Trees
are shallow — one NP over two terminals — so every step is a decide
or a single Katzir substitution.
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- JereticEtAl2025.instDecidableEqWorldEx x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
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- JereticEtAl2025.instReprWorldEx = { reprPrec := JereticEtAl2025.instReprWorldEx.repr }
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The universal tous.
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The silent dual-bearing realization of tous (paper §4.2.1); same
category, so Katzir-substitutable for tousLex.
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- JereticEtAl2025.tousDualLex = Syntax.Tree.terminal Syntax.Cat.Det "tous_DUAL"
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The indirect alternative les deux, a portmanteau Det for minimality.
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- JereticEtAl2025.lesDeuxLex = Syntax.Tree.terminal Syntax.Cat.Det "les_deux"
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The common noun verres.
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The lexicon of the worked example.
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tous V: the surface universal.
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tous_DUAL V: the silent witness — one Katzir substitution from
tousVerres, identical size.
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Whether a tree contains the silent dual marker.
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- JereticEtAl2025.hasDualMarker t = t.subtrees.any fun (s : Syntax.Tree Syntax.Cat String) => match s with | Syntax.Tree.terminal a "tous_DUAL" => true | x => false
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Whether a tree contains les_deux.
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- JereticEtAl2025.hasLesDeux t = t.subtrees.any fun (s : Syntax.Tree Syntax.Cat String) => match s with | Syntax.Tree.terminal a "les_deux" => true | x => false
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French pronounceability: trees containing tous_DUAL are silent.
Stipulated here; derived from Avoid Ambiguity in
frenchPron_iff_not_blocked below.
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- JereticEtAl2025.frenchPron t = (JereticEtAl2025.hasDualMarker t = false)
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Toy semantics: tous V asserts "all cups full" with trivial
presupposition; the dual variants (silent or les deux) additionally
presuppose exactly two cups, so they are defined only in w2.
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- JereticEtAl2025.meaning t JereticEtAl2025.WorldEx.w2 = if (JereticEtAl2025.hasDualMarker t || JereticEtAl2025.hasLesDeux t) = true then true else true
- JereticEtAl2025.meaning t JereticEtAl2025.WorldEx.w3 = if (JereticEtAl2025.hasDualMarker t || JereticEtAl2025.hasLesDeux t) = true then false else true
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Avoid Ambiguity discharge (paper §4.2.2) #
French dual is syncretic with plural, so the surface string tous les verres realizes both the plural parse and the silent dual parse, while les deux verres unambiguously realizes the dual meaning at equal node count. Eq (37) blocks exactly the dual parse.
The two surface strings of paper (25).
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- JereticEtAl2025.instDecidableEqStr x✝ y✝ = if h : x✝.ctorIdx = y✝.ctorIdx then isTrue ⋯ else isFalse ⋯
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- JereticEtAl2025.instFintypeStr = { elems := { val := ↑JereticEtAl2025.Str.enumList, nodup := JereticEtAl2025.Str.enumList_nodup }, complete := JereticEtAl2025.instFintypeStr._proof_1 }
Parses per surface string: tous les verres is plural/dual ambiguous (syncretism, §4.2.1); les deux verres is unambiguous.
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String complexity: maximal node count over the string's parses (uniform here, paper (38)).
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- JereticEtAl2025.strSize s = List.foldr max 0 (List.map Syntax.Tree.size (JereticEtAl2025.strParses s))
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Paper §4.2.2: the dual parse of tous les verres is blocked by eq (37), witnessed by les deux verres.
The plural parse survives: les deux verres does not realize the plural meaning, and no other string is simple enough.
frenchPron is Avoid Ambiguity in disguise: on the example's
strings, a parse is pronounceable iff eq (37) does not block it. This
derives the pronounceability predicate the indirect-alternative source
consumes below.
Maximize Presupposition via the indirect alternative #
Presupposition: definedness of the sentence, meaning lifted to
Prop for the violatesMP substrate.
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- JereticEtAl2025.presupFn t w = (JereticEtAl2025.meaning t w = true)
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At-issue assertion, uniform across the three sentences: they differ only in presupposition, the precondition for MP.
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- JereticEtAl2025.assertionFn x✝¹ x✝ = True
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The indirect-alternative source (paper eq 43): Katzir alternatives
filtered by pronounceability and meaning-equivalence to a silent
witness, complexity measured by Tree.size.
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tous_DUAL V is a Katzir alternative of tous V, by substituting
tousDualLex for tousLex at the Det position.
les deux V is in the indirect-alternative source of tous V, witnessed by the silent tous_DUAL V (paper eq 43).
tous V violates Maximize Presupposition via the indirect alternative les deux V, licensed by the silent witness tous_DUAL V (paper §4.1 (25), §4.3): the paper's derivation of the anti-duality of tous, end-to-end.