Accounts of the count-mass distinction: A critical survey

Author: Joosten, Frank

Source: Lingvisticae Investigationes, Volume 26, Number 1, 2003 , pp. 159-173(15)

Publisher: John Benjamins Publishing Company

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Abstract:

SummaryThe issue of what is usually, but also misleadingly called the count-mass distinction, i.e. the distinction between nouns that can be counted (e.g. a car, two cars, many cars) and nouns that cannot (e.g. *a sand, *two sands, *many sands, sand, much sand), has been addressed and accounted for in different ways. This paper gives a critical survey of four main theoretical views on the distinction and points out that each of them is problematic in some way. It is argued that that the count-mass distinction should not be reduced to an exclusively grammatical, ontological, semantic, or contextual issue. A proper characterisation of the distinction can only be given if its multidimensional character is fully acknowledged and if parameters such as basic count- or masshood, degree of lexicalisation, conceptualisation, and (non-)arbitrariness are taken into account.

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/li.26.1.11joo

Affiliations: 1: FWO-Vlaanderen/KU Leuven

Publication date: 2003-01-01