In high school debate, we have resolutions or topics. This year, our topic is, "Just governments ought to require employers to provide a living wage." In order to form arguments, debaters have to specify whether the topic refers to one government or multiple governments when it says "Just governments ought to".
Some debaters say that because the topic specifies governments plural, it requires debaters to talk about multiple governments. However, there has been discussion that Bare Plurals, or plural nouns that have no number or temporal feature in front of it mandate that it be treated as a psuedo-singular noun. Therefore, under the bare plural interpretation, debaters would only be required to talk about one government.
My question is: which interpretation is correct; the plural interpretation or bare plural interpretation? What are arguments for both? Are there grammar experts that concur on one interpretation or another?
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