Nouns

Abstract

Abstract This chapter investigates the word-class Noun from a cross-linguistic perspective. Since nouns can be used to talk about many different things, ranging from concrete objects (cup, car) to very abstract entities (objection, trapezium, courage) and anything in between (game, wedding), the chapter will mostly focus on nouns with the widest cross-linguistic distribution: nouns used to talk about spatial entities, in particular physical objects. Nouns will be classified on the basis of the semantic features Shape and Homogeneity, resulting in six distinct nominal subcategories (Seinsarten): singular object nouns, collective nouns, and set nouns (which can be counted directly), as well as sort nouns, mass nouns, and general nouns (which need a special construction when numerated). Additionally, the chapter will pay attention to the prominent role of Shape in lexical semantics, and nouns (attested in numerous languages) that do not seem to be specified for the count vs mass distinction.