On the conceptual basis for the count and mass noun distinction

Abstract

The English language makes a grammatical distinction between count nouns and mass nouns. For example, count nouns but not mass nouns can occur in plural form and can appear with the indefinite article. A number of scholars have suggested that to a fair degree this distinction is an arbitrary convention of language. An alternative view is based on the cognitive individuation hypothesis: count nouns refer to entities that speakers conceptualise as kinds of individuals whereas mass nouns refer to entities that they conceptualise as non-individuated. We propose a third view in which the use of count-mass syntax is often systematically related to a conceptual distinction in the minds of speakers. In other cases, though, speakers may use a count or mass noun in a way that does not reflect its typical conceptual basis, because of competing communicative functions of language. We describe research from a variety of domains including superordinates (e.g., clothing, vehicle), aggregates (e.g., rice, toothpicks), sounds and sensations, as well as developmental work that supports to a large degree a cognitive individuation view of the count-mass distinction. However, we also provide some preliminary evidence suggesting other reasons for count-mass syntax use (based on competing linguistic functions) that are not predicted by the cognitive individuation hypothesis.