The Distributivity of Collections Terms in Korean

The plural morpheme –tul in Korean has been discussed to have two readings: a pluralizer and a distributor. A less discussed usage of – tul is that it may be attached to a collection term to derive the mem- ber reading of a collection. However, not all terms that are consid- ered as collective nouns are subject to individualization by –tul. Thus, it must be discussed which nouns are individualized and what properties they share. This study presents four tests to define au- thentic collection terms and proposes that –tul has an additional reading of member specification function.