Like ordinals, distributive numerals in LIS make use of the same handshapes selected by cardinal numerals. These handshapes are associated with reduplicated movement in the signing space: the numeral is repeated in different locations and each instance corresponds to a set of entities. In the example below, twodistrassociated with the noun sandwich indicates that there are multiple sets of two sandwiches. From an articulatory perspective, there are two semantically equivalent possibilities: each reduplication can either be marked by a slight forward movement, as in (a), or be unmarked for movement, as in (b). In both cases transition movements are produced between reduplications.
a. sandwich twodistr exist (with repeated forward movement)
‘(They) have two sandwiches each.’
b. sandwich twodistr exist (without repeated forward movement)
‘(They) have two sandwiches each.’