The semantics and pragmatics of Japanese plurals

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This study claims that i) Japanese "plural" suffixes TATI and RA may express, differently from English plural form "-s" as in "students", not only additive plural (ex. gakusei-tati "students"), but also associative plural (ex. gakusei-tati "student and associated members"), similative plural (ex. koko-ra "hereabout") and coordinated whole (ex. TATI in Tom and Jerry-tati clarifies that the two animals play a symmetric role in the event denoted);ii) TATI and RA may convey neutralization of singular / plural distinction;iii) the definiteness or specificity usually conveyed by TATI and RA is not due syntactically to the projection of an implicit DP, but to a pragmatic constraint imposed on an appropriate use of associative plural (which is analyzed as their basic meaning), according to which the referent of the host NP attached to TATI or RA should be more salient than associated implicit members.