Structural Restrictions on Comitative Coordination

Comitative constructions with coordination-like properties have been described for several languages (Spanish, Schwartz 1987a,b, Camacho 1996; Tzotzil, Aissen 1989; Navajo, Hale 1975; Polish, Dyła 1988; Russian, McNally 1993; Catalan, Rigau 1989a, 1990; and Turkish, Kornfilt 1990). Several peninsular and Latin American dialects of Spanish also have this construction (see Kany 1969). These dialects are unique among the above-mentioned languages in restricting comitatives to subject position only. I will show that this restriction can be related to another semantic restriction on comitatives in Spanish: they must be collective. I will claim that there is a subject/nonsubject asymmetry regarding collectivity: purely collective readings are a property of subjects only; apparent collectivity in objects is derived from secondary predication.