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正月は家ごとに門松を立てる。

For example, could I say

正月はそれぞれの家に門松をたてる。

If so, the meaning remains the same, or are there any subtle nuances that comes with each word? It seems to me, whenever i see sentences with either words, that sometimes they can be interchangeable and sometimes it just seems weird replacing one with the another. More specifically, some sentences with ごとに could be rewritten using the pattern それぞれの (which in this case acts as a pronoun), for example:

木村さんは会う人ごとに挨拶している。 -> 木村さんはそれぞれの会う人に挨拶している。 Is the second sentence above by any chance correct?

Rodrigo Pará
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For the first one, it is correct, except that it sounds like a single person went around and did it. To avoid that, you can change it to

正月はそれぞれの家が門松を立てる。

The second one can also be rewritten, but yours is wrong. You should do it as

木村さんは会う人それぞれに挨拶している。

Note that Xごと means "every X", and you cannot always change it to それぞれ.

5メートルごとに門松を立てる。

cannot be rewritten using それぞれ.

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    At first I didn't get why you changed the particle for が, but after further inspection I think i get it: Is it because with に, it sounds like someone who is a outsider is walking and putting the trees at each house, and with が, it sounds like each family is responsible for putting the tree on your own house? – Rodrigo Pará Jun 26 '12 at 01:58
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    Why is それぞれの家 fine but それぞれの合う人 not? – Flaw Jun 26 '12 at 02:00
  • @Rodrigo That is right. が makes it the subject. 家 is used metaphorically like a person. –  Jun 26 '12 at 02:14
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    @Flaw It is unnatural to modify from outside of a relative clause. –  Jun 26 '12 at 02:16
  • sorry that just got me confused. why for example the sentence ハウルの動く城 (Howl's moving castle) is correct? the pattern seems similar... – Rodrigo Pará Jun 27 '12 at 04:04
  • @RodrigoPará Good point. One reason is that それぞれ has to modify "the person who is met" which is inside the relative clause and is invisible. In the genitive position that you had, it cannot modify into the relative clause; using それぞれ with the genitive の makes the それぞれ an independent noun, meaning "each person/thing". Another reason is because in Japanese relative clause, the nominative case of the subject can be replaced with the genitive case, and so your original expression can me miss-parsed as `[それぞれの会う]人` "the person that each person meets" rather than the intended `それぞれの[会う人]`. –  Jun 27 '12 at 04:24