Cumulative readings of every do not provide evidence for events and thematic roles

Abstract

An argument by Schein(1986, 1993) and Kratzer (2000) does not conclusively show that events and thematic roles are necessary ingredients of the logical representation of natural language sentences. The argument claims that cumulative readings of every can be represented only if at least agents are related to verbs via events and thematic relations. But scope-splitting accounts, which are needed anyway for noun phrases headed by every and other quantifiers, make it possible to represent cumulative readings in an eventless framework. While Kratzer regards the limited distribution of cumulative every as evidence for asymmetries in the logical representation of thematic roles, the empirical generalization on which she bases her reasoning is not the only plausible one. It looks more likely that every must be c-commanded by another quantifier in order to cumulate with it, no matter what its thematic role is.