cumulative (adj.)

A term used in SEMANTICS to designate a reading peculiar to SENTENCES containing more than one plural noun phrase, in which none of the PLURAL NOUN PHRASES is interpreted as being in the scope of the others. For example, the cumulative reading of Six hundred Dutch firms have five thousand American computers is paraphrasable as ‘The number of Dutch firms which have an American computer is 600, and the number of American computers possessed by a Dutch firm is 5000’.

In SEMANTICS, a PREDICATE is said to have cumulative reference if, whenever it accurately applies to two individuals, it also applies to their sum. PLURAL and MASS NOUNS are generally cumulative. If X and Y are both accurately described as water, then the sum of X and Y can also be accurately described as water.