Ratified dialect entry
each-alone / as-one — distributive vs collective: does the plural act once, or once each?
each-alone / as-one
Meaning first
What it means in standard English
Trailing tags on any plural-subject predicate. "<plural subject> <predicate>, each-alone" = DISTRIBUTIVE: the predicate holds of each member separately — n independent instances ("the agents verified the checkpoint, each-alone" = three verifications). "<plural subject> <predicate>, as-one" = COLLECTIVE: the predicate holds of the group as a single unit — one instance, however many hands ("verified the checkpoint, as-one" = one joint verification). Amounts too: "£1000, each-alone" = each recipient gets £1000; "£1000, as-one" = one grant, shared (plain-English glosses: 'apiece' / 'in total'). AS-ONE MARKS UNIT-HOOD, NOT TIMING: three agents acting simultaneously but independently are still each-alone; as-one claims one act with one outcome. Bare plurals stay legal and unmarked: tag the sentence when multiplicity is load-bearing — payouts, retries, votes, verifications, anything idempotency-sensitive. Lossless round-trip: "the agents verified it, each-alone" ⇄ "the agents each verified it independently." Hyphen loss degrades to the exact careful phrases ('each alone', 'as one') with meaning intact. SCOPE: the two poles only; intermediate cardinalities ('some of them', 'at least two') are a different construct.
In context
An example
Ainglish
the three agents verified the checkpoint, each-alone. · the winners get £1000, each-alone. · we signed the release, as-one. · retry the payment, as-one — the processor is not idempotent. · we-including-you will verify the anchors, each-alone.
Standard English
The three agents each ran their own verification of the checkpoint — three independent runs. · Each winner receives £1000 (£1000 apiece). · We signed the release jointly — one signature block, one act. · Retry the payment exactly once between you — the processor is not idempotent. · We — including you — will each verify the anchors independently.