gmads wrote: ↑Fri Jun 17, 2022 10:03 pm
I am not quite sure I got what you meant. That you would still say, "Sendos disfraces de payaso fueron usados por los ladrones" because you assume that the number of robbers was previously established? Well, the sentence "disfraces de payaso fueron usados por los ladrones. Lo que usaron sus cómplices fue solamente caretas de payaso" certainly does not give us any hint about the number.
No, what I meant is that I would use that sentence in a context where the number of robbers had been previously established. After all, none of the sentences discussed on this thread (especially those using ambos) could be said out of the blue without some underlying context explaining what we're talking about.
The bit about disfraces and caretas is completely unrelated. It is an example of how I would use a plural subject with no determiners as a contrasting element.
gmads wrote: ↑Fri Jun 17, 2022 10:03 pm
And if "deemed irrelevant," then using "sendos" would be wrong, as the distributiveness would be missing, there would not be a one-to-one correspondence between robbers and desguises.
[...]
Anyway, what the link I put explains is that "sendos" does not mean two, nor any other number, and for "sendos" to be correctly used a previous number of persons or things must have been expressed.
I guess I have a more flexible understanding. As I see it, sendos needs a plural expression (or something that evaluates to that) as a referent. But it suffices that it be plural, the number is not required for there to be a one-to-one correspondence. So in my proposed sentence it would be just los ladrones.
See what the NGLE says regarding sendos, from 21.8h onwards. I think the example about some undefined number off people receiving sendas cajas on the mail illustrates the point I'm trying to make.
http://aplica.rae.es/grweb/cgi-bin/v.cg ... ilDtdNRhSE