Shape and substance

Abstract

Any three-dimensional item has shape and substance, and can be viewed in two complementary ways: as a substance that has a particular shape, or as a shape that is manifested by a particular substance. Some shape/substance items, such as solid artefacts, are more likely to be viewed as shapes, while others, such as liquids, are more likely to be viewed as substances. Still other shape/substance items have no strong bias either way. It is argued that the complementary shape/substance conceptualizations correlate with the two linguistic options in, for example, The wall is of stone and The wall is stone. When the NP in the predicate of such sentences designates the substance that constitutes the referent of the subject, the choice of the nominal predicate correlates with a substance conceptualization, and the choice of the prepositional phrase with a shape conceptualization of the referent of that subject. A general principle is proposed to account for the choice of the nominal predicate in the case of a substance conceptualization of the referent of the subject. It is discussed how differences between English and Dutch in the choice of nominal and prepositional predicates can be squared with this general principle.