distributive (adj./n.) (dist, DIST)

A term used in SEMANTICS for PREDICATES or QUANTIFIERS which ascribe a property or action to the individual members of a group, as opposed to the group as a whole; it contrasts with COLLECTIVE. For example, be asleep is a distributive predicate: The children are asleep ENTAILS that each individual child is asleep (or nearly all of them). In contrast, assemble (in its INTRANSITIVE sense) is a collective predicate: The children assembled in the playground means that the group as a whole assembled; an individual child cannot assemble.