Mass Nouns, Count Nouns, and Non-count Nouns: Philosophical Aspects

Abstract

Whereas linguists often distinguish ‘count nouns’ and ‘non-count’ nouns, philosophers more commonly distinguish ‘count nouns’ and ‘mass nouns’ — a dichotomy often thought to have ontological significance. Count nouns are supposedly distinguished semantically from mass nouns by some criterion of ‘divided reference’ (‘criteria of distinctness,’ ‘individuation,’ etc.). But the supposed criterion is unsatisfactory, actually distinguishing singular count nouns from both plural count nouns and non-count nouns alike. By contrast, the count/non-count dichotomy — which is purely semantic, having no ontological significance — is not similarly flawed. Significantly, since count nouns are semantically either singular or plural, to be non-count is to be neither singular nor plural.