Count and mass across languages / edited by Diane Massam.

Format:

Book

Conference/Event

Contributor:

Massam, Diane.

Conference Name:

Workshop on Count and Mass Nouns (2009 : University of Toronto)

Series:

Oxford studies in theoretical linguistics.

Oxford studies in theoretical linguistics ; 42

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Discourse analysis.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Congresses--Mass nouns.

Grammar, Comparative and general.

Grammar, Comparative and general--Congresses--Noun.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (331 p.)

Place of Publication:

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2012.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This volume explores the expression of the concepts count and mass in human language and probes the complex relation between seemingly incontrovertible aspects of meaning and their varied grammatical realizations across languages. The chapters in this volume explore the question of the cognitive and linguistic universality and variability of the concepts count and mass from philosophical, semantic, and morpho-syntactic points of view, touching also on issues in acquisition and processing.

Contents:

Cover; Contents; General Preface; The Contributors; Abbreviations; 1. The count mass distinction: Issues and perspectives; 1.1 Setting the stage; 1.2 Are count and mass conceptually universal and are they mapped to the real world uniformly?; 1.3 Are count and mass universally expressed in language and are they always expressed in the same way?; 1.4 If count and mass are not expressed in the same way universally, how are they expressed?; 1.5 Conclusion; 2. Lexical nouns are both +MASS and +COUNT, but they are neither +MASS nor +COUNT; 2.1 Introduction: Informal accounts of +MASS and +COUNT

2.2 +MASS and +COUNT as syntax2.3 +MASS and +COUNT as semantics; 2.4 Problems with the syntactic approach; 2.5 Problems with the semantic approach; 2.6 Evaluation, and a flaw in common; 2.7 A different approach; 2.8 Related proposals; 2.9 Cross-linguistic comments; 2.10 Further advantages; 2.11 A final philosophical remark; 3. Aspects of individuation; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 Taxonomy of English nouns; 3.3 Chinese; 3.4 Plurality and classifiers; 3.5 Plural marking in Chinese?; 3.6 Apparent plural marking in Korean; 3.7 Individuation in Persian; 3.8 Conclusions

4. Collectives in the intersection of mass and count nouns: A cross-linguistic account4.1 Introduction; 4.2 Conceptual and morphosyntactic distinctions in the mass/count domain; 4.3 Variation in syntactic-conceptual mass/count correspondences; 4.4 Semantics as a mediator of syntactic and conceptual classifications; 4.5 Conclusions; 5. Individuation and inverse number marking in Dagaare; 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 The semantic basis of inverse number marking in Dagaare; 5.3 Language internal correlates; 5.4 Cross-linguistic correlates; 5.5 A formal account of -ri; 5.6 Conclusion

8.4 Conclusions & further questions9. Decomposing the mass/count distinction: Evidence from languages that lack it; 9.1 Introduction; 9.2 The mass/count distinction is not universally associated with categorical properties; 9.3 The source of the categorical properties of the mass/count distinction; 9.4 Variation in the content of the categorical properties: [ ± bounded] versus [ ± animate]; 9.5 Conclusion; 10. On the mass/count distinction in Ojibwe; 10.1 Introduction; 10.2 Number as an inflectional category in Ojibwe; 10.3 Ojibwe pluralized mass nouns; 10.4 Basis for a solution

10.5 Conclusion

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

0-19-965428-X

0-19-161318-5

1-299-20185-7

OCLC:

922971742