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2 - Quantity Systems and the Count/Mass Distinction

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2021

By
Jenny Doetjes
Edited by
Hana Filip
Hana Filip
Affiliation:
Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf
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Summary

This chapter analyses the connections between quantity expressions, which, in English, include expressions such as three, several, a few, much, and many, and the mass/count distinction. Based on cross-linguistic evidence from Brazilian Portuguese, English, Mandarin, and Yudja, amongst others, Doetjes argues that quantity expressions can be exhaustively subdivided into two classes: count quantity expressions, which presuppose the availability of units that can be counted, and non-count quantity expressions, which do not presuppose the availability of units that can be counted. Anti-count quantity expressions, which presuppose the absence of units that can be counted, are subsumed under the class of non-count quantity expressions. On the basis of this distinction, Doetjes argues that while we may expect to find languages in which all nouns have a count denotation (Yudja being a good candidate), it is not predicted to be possible for there to be languages in which all nouns have a mass denotation.

Keywords

count and non-count quantity expressionsanti-count quantity expressions Brazilian PortugueseMandarinYudjaEnglish
Type
Chapter
Information
Countability in Natural Language , pp. 52 - 84
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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