Why superordinate category terms can be mass nouns

Abstract

This paper offers an explanation as to why many superordinate category terms are mass nouns (e.g., furniture, jewelry, money) although they refer to diverse, discrete, countable objects. This violates the semantic basis of typical mass terms which refer to mass-like relatively homogeneous substances, such as milk or sand. On the basis of research contrasting collective and count nouns, it was argued that by using mass nouns to refer to superordinate categories, languages could help speakers learn the hierarchical relations between superordinate and lower level categories. If there is a psychological explanation for why superordinate category terms become distorted into mass nouns, then it should not be limited to English. For other languages as well, category terms at relatively high levels of a hierarchy (e.g., furniture) but not those on relatively low levels (e.g., chair) should be mass nouns. An examination of about 20 languages spanning several language families and subgroups confirmed this prediction. Moreover, if this functional explanation is correct then children should be better able to learn the identical superordinate category if it is referred to with a mass rather than a count noun. Two studies with preschool children confirmed this prediction. Children were better able to learn a new category such as “vehicle” if they heard, e.g., “A car is a piece of vehicle” rather than “A car is a vehicle”. These findings suggest a novel way in which psychological functions contribute to the evolution of linguistic structure.