It is shown that the notion of the partition of a set can be used to describe in a uniform way the meaning of the expression the same, in its basic uses in transitive and ditransitive sentences. Some formal properties of the function denoted by the same, which follow from such a description are indicated. These properties indicate similarities and differences between functions denoted by the same and generalised quantifiers.

Predicates like gather and ones like be numerous have both been described as ‘collective predicates,’ since they predicate something of a plurality. The two classes of predicates differ, however, with respect to plural quantifiers, which are grammatical with gather-type predicates but ungrammatical with numerous-type predicates. Here, I show that the gather/numerous opposition derives from mereological properties that are familiar from the domains of telicity and mass/count. I address problems of undergeneration and overgeneration with two technical innovations: first, I weaken the (...) property of divisibility to Champollion’s concept of stratified reference; second, I provide mechanisms to rule out accidental satisfaction of the logical property. More broadly, I place collective predication in a larger context by building empirical connections to mass/count and collectivity across semantic domains. (shrink)