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From the definition of 相撲部屋 from 三省堂

すもうべや［相撲部屋］｟名｠

〘すもう〙年寄(としより)が経営する、それぞれの集団ごとに所属する、力士の組織。部屋。

I am not sure if それぞれ is redundant since ごとに is already used. Is it an example of 重複表現? I am still struggling to grasp the nuances of ごとに but based on my understanding of this definition, 集団ごとに divides all sumo wrestlers into groups (or teams?). Each group have its own unique 相撲部屋 (or 力士の組織), right?

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That definition is not easy for even a native speaker to understand. It's not very clear who the subjects of 所属する are.

I would understand it as (and rephrase it to):

年寄(としより)が経営し、力士がそれぞれの集団ごとに所属する組織。

It means that wrestlers belong to these organizations on an each-group-to-one-organization basis. But this definition still seems weird to me because those groups are the results of the wrestlers belonging to different organizations.

My understanding would remain unaffected without それぞれの.

年寄(としより)が経営し、力士が集団ごとに所属する組織。

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  • Thanks, so you are saying that それぞれの is redundant?
    – John Davies
    Commented Jul 22 at 1:31
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    @JohnDavies - In the rephrased sentence, yes. But I feel removing それぞれ from the original would make it even harder to understand how 集団 is related to the rest of the sentence. It would seem 集団 came out of nowhere. それぞれ kind of prepares the reader for a delayed introduction of the entities that are forming those groups, which turn out to be 力士. It's like saying "each of their respective groups" instead of just "each group" but without saying who "their" refers to yet. I would say it's poorly written.
    – aguijonazo
    Commented Jul 22 at 3:21
  • Some dictionary definitions are hard to understand like this. They define every concept in one phrase that ends with a noun (not a sentence) and all phrases that modify that noun have to come before it. English relative clauses are more flexible as you can keep adding them after the noun.
    – aguijonazo
    Commented Jul 22 at 3:21
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I would take それぞれの集団ごとに所属する to mean

affiliated to each of their respective groups

or

affiliated to each group respectively

I don't think you're misunderstanding any nuance with ごとに. I suppose the concern here is to which group one might be associated with. I feel like それぞれの makes clear that they're affiliated with their own respective groups to make clear that the association is not willy-nilly without regard to affiliations. ごとに makes clear that no affiliations are omitted.

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