8 - Bare Nouns and the Count–Mass Distinction: A Pilot Study Across Languages

Summary

This chapter presents the results of a pilot study where participants performed three tests with bare nouns in comparative constructions (affirmatives and interrogatives): (i) acceptability; (ii) picture matching; and (iii) quantity judgment. The independent variable is the noun phrase, with five levels: Bare Singular, Bare Plural, singular and plural Flexible Nouns, and Mass nouns. Four languages were investigated: English, Rioplatense Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Cape Verdean. The results show that the BS is the locus of variation; plural and mass nouns are stable across these languages. We argue that the Bare Singular in English and Rioplatense Spanish is an atomic predicate which is coerced to mass when in a cumulative context, such as comparison. In Brazilian Portuguese and in Cape Verdean, it is interpreted by cardinality, but for different reasons in the two languages. In CV, the Bare Singular is a variant of the Bare Plural, i.e. a number neutral noun. In Brazilian Portuguese its interpretation oscillates between cardinal and no-cardinal readings. We then argue it behaves as predicted by Pelletier (2012) – it is both mass and count.