Mass Nouns Research Articles

Chinese nouns are mass nouns: An information-theoretic computational proof

The mass–count distinction in Mandarin Chinese has been heatedly debated in linguistics. Previous research investigated the mass–count distinction primarily through qualitative methods. Our study applied mutual information and created three variation conditions to explore the relationship between Chinese nouns and the individuation function of classifiers. Furthermore, we examined the mass–count distinction by quantitatively analyzing 1,000 instances of Num–CL–N (numeral–classifier–noun) structures. The computational results indicate that the individuation function of classifiers is influenced by noun homogeneity. Moreover, we argue that Chinese nouns exhibit an inclination for homogeneity and the deep semantic processing of nouns is similar to classes or sets, providing evidence for the broad mass noun hypothesis and the collective-name hypothesis in the philosophy of language.

Possession in Categorization across Language and Category

Abstract Menon & Pancheva (2014) conjecture that the roots of all property concepts (words expressing the semantic content of adjectives in English; Dixon 1982, Thompson 1989), independent of syntactic category, have an abstract mass noun semantics in the spirit of Francez & Koontz-Garboden (2015, 2017). According to this conjecture, variation in the morphosemantics of categorization masks this underlying universality, leading to superficial variation in the morphosyntax of predication within this class of words. Supporting this line of analysis, we show that morphologically transparent behavior of nouns, verbs and adjectives in Ulwa, Wá·šiw, and English reveals that despite variation in category, property concepts in these languages receive a unified analysis on the view that mass-denoting roots are categorized by nominalizing, verbalizing, and adjectivizing heads, respectively, that introduce a possessive semantics.

Exploration of Lexical Collocations Employed in EFL Students’ Essay Writing

This study investigates the use of different types of lexical collocations and common errors made related to these collocations in essay writing. The participants included EFL students who wrote an essay as a class writing test in 60 minutes. A 5-level Likert close-ended survey questionnaire was designed to collect quantitative data regarding students’ perceptions of the categories of lexical collocations they have used and the difficulties they have encountered in using these. To get qualitative data for the study, students’ essays were then analyzed to identify errors related to different categories of lexical collocations. The results revealed that adjective-noun collocations were the most frequently used by the participants while lexical collocations related to adverbs were used least frequently. Errors related to the morpheme -s such as the omission of morpheme -s in plural nouns and overuse of morpheme -s in singular or uncountable nouns were most commonly made by students, followed by the wrong choice of component words and non-existent lexical collocations. Pedagogical implications are then discussed to assist students in enhancing collocational use in essay writing.

The count-mass distinction in Hong Kong Sign Language: an intra- and cross-modal comparison

Abstract This article is in part an intra- and cross-modal comparison of the count-mass distinction (CMD) in Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL). For the intra-modal analysis, HKSL data are compared to data found in Koulidobrova’s (2021) work on the CMD in American Sign Language/ASL (Koulidobrova, Elena. 2021. Counting (on) bare nouns: Revelations from American Sign Language. In Tibor Kiss, Francis Jeffry Pelletier & Halima Husić (eds.), Things and Stuff: The Semantics of the Count-Mass Distinction, 213–231. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press). According to Koulidobrova, the existing diagnostics used in spoken language research are insufficient to bring to light CMDs in sign languages. ASL’s CMD is visible in the failure to conjoin count and mass nouns and in the ungrammaticality of partitive constructions containing mass nouns. HKSL and ASL differ from each other in a few respects, among which the two aforementioned ASL diagnostic criteria. Regarding the cross-modal comparison, HKSL and ASL belong to different categories in Chierchia’s (2010) count-mass typology (Chierchia, Gennaro. 2010. Mass nouns, vagueness and semantic variation. Synthese 174. 99–149). Chierchia’s typology is based on CMDs in spoken languages. ASL is a number-neutral language (Type III), whereas HKSL is a number marking language (Type I) and thus patterns with languages like English and Dutch. The CMD in HKSL is visible in its failure to combine mass nouns directly with numerals and count adjectives without the intervention of a classifier. Based on my data analysis, I can furthermore argue that HKSL is a number marking language but that its plural number marking is realised through zero marking.

Null objects, null nominal anaphora and antilogophoricity

Abstract This paper discusses null objects (NOs) in Ibero-Romance. European Portuguese (EP) has both definite and indefinte NOs, but Castillian Spanish (CSpanish) only allows NOs when the antecedent is a bare plural nominal or a mass noun. The paper argues that these differences are related to the distribution of bare nominals in each language and proposes that the same underlying mechanism is at the root of indefinite and definite object drop, namely a rootless [ nP n ] proform. [ nP n ] denotes a contextually salient property, its possible interpretations being derived by general type-shifting operations. In CSpanish, the property denoted by [ nP n ] is interpreted as a restrictive modifier of the predicate and the relevant variable is bound under VP level Existential Closure. Focusing on EP, there are striking similarities between definite NOs and other types of nominal anaphora, including epithets. In particular, like epithets, NOs are subject to an Antilogophoricity Constraint. This affinity between NOs and epithets constitutes a case in favor of the idea that the NO is a base-generated nominal. The difference with respect to CSpanish lies in the possibility of interpreting the null nominal by a choice function, a function maps a property onto an entity that has the property.

Lexis and Grammar Specifics of the English Language in Africa

This research work deals with the lexical and grammatical features of the English language variant widely used in Africa. The importance of the use of British English is also taken into account, as well as its transformational processes due to the interaction and mutual influence of local dialects on its structure. Examples of neologisms and modified lexical units are given, based on the influence of local culture and the lack of an equivalent in the recipient language. The article pays attention to the grammatical aspects of language in the functioning of phrasal, modal and prepositional verbs, and also reveals the peculiarities of articles and pronouns use due to the influence of autochthonous languages. The aim of the research work is to identify the specifics of the linguistic and cultural adaptation of the English language in Africa and systematize the lexical and grammatical aspects of the English language as the territorial variant type. The choice of working methods is determined by the goals and objectives of the study. In the research work the method of metalinguistic analysis, methods of contextual and definitional analysis, methods of systematization and classification of linguistic material are used. As a result of the work the high productivity of the realities functioning in autochthonous languages in the lexical structure of the English variant in African countries and the lexical borrowings of terms from autochthonous languages are revealed. This trend is also emphasized in the borrowing of entire lexical phrases from the thesaurus of native languages. With regard to the grammatical part, a significant deviation from British English is emphasized. The research work results in such grammatical changes as: the use of auxiliary verbs together with semantic ones; the functioning of a simplified form of modern forms of the verb; the productive use of uncountable nouns in speech in the form of a countable nouns; significant deviations from British English in the process of using articles, personal and possessive pronouns.

Exploring Rule-based and Idiosyncratic Loanword Plural Forms in Arabic

This study sought to explore how loanwords in Arabic are pluralized, whether loanword plurals are rule-based or idiosyncratic and the productivity of each type of loanword plural form: The Masculine Sound Plural (MSP), Broken Plural (BP), two or more Plurals, Zero Plural (ZP), Borrowed/Foreign Plural (BP) and Hybrid Plural (HP). It also aimed to shed light on the factors that contribute to the emergence of new, idiosyncratic plural forms. Analysis of a sample of 265 loanwords used in Standard and Colloquial Arabic collected from some Internet websites and glossaries showed that 37% of the loanwords in the sample have no plural forms (a Zero Plural) such as invariable singular nouns referring to food and drink (pizza, cappuccino), names of diseases and medications (bilharzia, Panadol), names of chemicals (potassium; ); sports (judo), sciences or areas of study (انثروبولوجيا anthropology), non-count nouns (ديزل diesel), Proper Nouns with a unique reference كونغرس) Congress ), noun referring to genus لافندر) lavender), and collective nouns (باغاج baggage). Results also showed that 35% of the loanwords take a BP only, whether it is a sole plural or a second or third plural form for the same loanword; 22% have double plurals as in nouns referring to some nationalities, ethnicities and religious groups, specialists and political loanwords; 16% have a BP (كادر /ka;dir/ > كوادر /kawa:dir/ cadres); 13% have a MSP together with another plural; 15% retain their Foreign Plural (يوتيوبرز YouTubers; موفيز movies; شيبس chips; داتا data); 4% have multiple plural forms (Malay (pl): الماليز (BP), ماليزيون (MSP), ماليزيات (FSP) and 1.5% have a HP (شوزات shoes+a:t/). Findings also showed that 46.5% of the loanwords follow the Arabic pluralization rules in the MSP, BP and FSP formation, even in the case of loanwords with double and multiple Plurals. Loanwords with a FP and HP represent a new morphological phenomenon in Arabic that was not reported by any prior study in the literature. The factors that contribute to the emergence of new idiosyncratic plural forms are discussed. Findings are also discussed in the light of some integration/adaptaion models of Arabic morphology. Recommendations for Arabic, English and translation pedagogy are given.

COUNT/MASS NOUNS AND DEFINITENESS IN PALESTINIAN ARABIC HERITAGE SPEAKERS OF ENGLISH

Definiteness correlates to a cluster of cross-linguistic semantic scalar variables, among which is countability (count/mass nouns distinction). Count and mass nouns are distinguished by definiteness markers in English, but not in Arabic. Middleton et al. (2004) proved that countability is related to cognitive individuation of discrete bounded entities. Lucy and Gaskins (2001) demonstrated that the presence of count/mass distinction directly correlates with attention to the shape rather than the substance of individual entities. I analyze linguistic and cognitive effects of the Palestinian Arabic (PA) and English (EN) definiteness systems and cognitive individuation biases in 15 PA heritage speakers of English (PAHSEs, aged 18-25). Heritage speakers understand but cannot speak a familiar heritage language (Polinsky, 2018). PA is sociogeographically and cognitively peripheral in PAHSEs’ world experience. Fifteen PA and EN native speakers (aged 18-25) represent control groups. Linguistic experiments (Liu and Gleason, 2002) tested definiteness grammar of nouns with different countability properties. Semantic and cognitive experiments (Iwasaki et al., 2010) tested effects of PA countability and individuation parameters in PAHSEs. PA definiteness does not significantly affect PAHSEs’ grammatical competence. PAHSEs’ semantic and cognitive results converge with those of the PA control group, showing bedrock effects of heritage PA.

Noun classifiers in Hong Kong Sign Language

Abstract As most other sign languages, Hong Kong Sign Language (HKSL) makes use of verbal classifiers for the purpose of spatial predication. However, a thorough study of the Asian SignBank shows that these same classifier handshapes occur in 76% of all HKSL nouns. In this paper, I argue that these classifier handshapes embedded in nouns are in fact noun classifiers. Under the framework of Distributed Morphology, classifier handshapes are underspecified roots in root compounds which can be assigned the nominal category when merged with a nominal functional head in syntax. The function of these classifiers is to identify, and categorize a discourse referent, and they are full-fledged classifiers according to standards set by the general linguistic literature on classifiers. In addition to verbal and noun classifiers, I also briefly show how HKSL uses mensural numeral classifiers to intervene between mass nouns and numerals within the NP. Taken together, this means that HKSL employs three different types of classifiers: verbal, noun, and numeral classifiers.

Noun Class and Classification in Tshiluba (L.31)

Languages have different ways of counting nouns, involvinga variable combination of pluralisation, combination withnumbers, and quantification. Established cross-linguisticliterature in this field like that of Chierchia (2019) suggestsa tripartite typological division between number-marking(e.g., English), classifier (e.g., Mandarin), and number-neutral (e.g., English) languages. In any case, the literatureargues for certain universals irrespective of type like thedivision of nouns into number-counting (e.g., pieces of meat)and kind-counting (e.g., pork and beef). In comparison withcross-linguistic typology and neighbouring languages likeLingala, Tshiluba does show affinities with the number-marking category with categories like fluid substancesneither able to change class nor combine directly withnumerals. However, there are other affinities with number-neutral languages like in the interpretation of quantifiers forthese fluid mass nouns, in this case a buunyi which can mean“many” bottles of water or “much” water. Ultimately, thetypological system is present but the motivation for it is morediscursive in that there can be countable and uncountableiterations of words like tshi-manu “wall” as opposed tocertain words being inherently (un)countable.

Atomicity & Countability in Linguistically-Informed Instruction

While the literature shows that there is strong support for the effects of explicit instruction on explicit language knowledge, there has been little research on the effects of different types of explicit instruction on language acquisition. This study attempts to bridge the gap between Instructed Second Language Acquisition and Generative Second Language Acquisition by creating an instructional context that employs Generative theories and findings in order to teach L2-English articles and noun types. The study investigates L1-Mandarin learners in three different instructional contexts (linguistically-informed instruction, traditional instruction, and no extra instruction) acquiring countable and uncountable nouns in an indefinite-singular article context in L2 English. As measured by an elicited-sentence imitation task and an acceptability judgment task at pre-test, immediate posttest, and three-week-delayed post-test, the results find that learners receiving explicit instruction on the semantic features needing to be reassembled make the greatest gains over the duration of the study. These findings suggest that if linguistically-informed instruction were implemented in a systematic way throughout an entire grammar course, it may lead to greater linguistic gains in a shorter amount of time.

A Review of Chinese Transfer on English Vocabulary Learning

There are various specific areas of research under the topic of second language acquisition. Among all of them, vocabulary is supposed to be the most basic and important one because people are not able to speak a language without acquiring a large amount of vocabulary. In addition, it is inevitable for second language learners to learn new vocabulary with the help of their mother tongue. In other words, learners tend to apply language transfer consciously or unconsciously. So, this paper will take Chinese as the first language and English as the second language to review and analyze the Chinese transfer on English vocabulary learning. The aim and meaning of this paper are to help Chinese learners to effectually acquire plenty of English vocabulary. According to the research results, the positive transfer mainly happens in the perspective of word formation, while the negative one takes place in word meanings, misuse of countable and uncountable nouns, literal translation of words and collocations. Suggestions will be given to teachers in order to better instruct students to overcome the negative transfer. For example, they can conduct the comparative analysis, emphasize the language input and choose the appropriate teaching language.

A comparative analysis of morphosyntactic features of Nigerian English and Ghanaian English

This study analyses aspects of lexis and morpho-syntax of Nigerian English and Ghanaian English. It also compares the data from the International Corpus of English (ICE), Nigeria and Ghana components respectively, that are used in the same or similar way in the two varieties. A total of fifty-three lexical items are analysed in this study. All the data were drawn from ICE Nigeria and Ghana respectively. Corpus linguistics was used as a method of data analysis. The AntConc software was used to authenticate the data that are present in both corpora. This study adopts an eclectic approach of Structural Semantics, alongside the theory of Contrastive Analysis (CA), using Bamiro’s tools of lexico-semantic variation for the categorization of the data. The study also uses ideas from Jowitt for this morphosyntactic analysis. The study found out among other things that, some irregular plurals are made regular in NE and GhE (+,-) for example, “…look for qualified staffs…”, “…top officials and other staffs who…” respectively. Also, uncountable nouns are frequently made countable and used in the plural: “advice, agenda, jewelry, offspring, property, machinery” in both varieties (+,-): “…we’ll uphold your advices…” and “…selfish agendas…”. This work has identified some NE and GhE morphosyntactic features/usages from ICE Nigeria and Ghana which have not been mentioned in existing works in NE and GhE. The study has further provided raw materials for researchers interested in the study of these two varieties and also West African English and is of immense importance to the development of NE and GhE lexicon. The study concludes that NE and GhE are separate varieties and have quite a number of distinctive features in common. These two varieties are not errors or deviations.

Definite and indefinite article accuracy in learner English: A multifactorial analysis

AbstractWe present a learner corpus-based study of English article use (“a”/“the”/Ø) by L2 learners with four typologically distinct first languages (L1s): German and Brazilian Portuguese (both have articles), Chinese and Russian (no articles). We investigate several semantic and morphosyntactic factors—for example, specificity, prenominal modification that can affect article use. Our analysis of 660 written scripts from the Education First Cambridge Open Database confirms the lower overall accuracy of learners with no-article L1s. Our main finding is the differential effect of specificity on definite and indefinite articles: learners tend to associate specificity with “a,” which implies article omission with nonspecific indefinite singulars and overuse of “a” with specific indefinite mass nouns. Prenominal modifiers further contribute to perceived specificity, leading to article overuse with modified indefinite mass nouns. However, in definite contexts, prenominal modifiers are associated with increased article omission.

Monotonicity in a Numeral Classifier language

While many languages require an obligatory plural morpheme to make reference to plural individuals, numeral classifier languages generally do not (Greenberg 1972; Sanches & Slobin 1973; Doetjes 2012: a.o.). This led some researchers to conclude that noun denotations in numeral classifier languages are inherently plural. In this paper, I show that one can find a syntactic environment which requires a plural reading or a mass reading of a noun phrase in a numeral classifier language. The core empirical finding is that the postnominal measurement construction in Japanese (i) does not allow a singular reading, and (ii) sometimes triggers count-to-mass coercion. This suggests that the constraint that measure phrases select a non-quantised denotation (Krifka 1989) is non-trivially satisfied in Japanese even though Japanese is argued to have inherently cumulative common noun denotations. To solve this, I propose two possible analyses. The first option is to assume the stratified measurement reference (Champollion 2017) and the second option is to assume that Japanese distinguishes singular count nouns, plural nouns and mass nouns in its syntax (Watanabe 2006; 2017). I discuss the implications of these options in light of the previous literature and provide further data which may suggest that Japanese makes an atomicity distinction both in its lexicon and its syntax.

The Metaphysics of Opacity

This paper examines the logical and metaphysical consequences of denying Leibniz's Law, the principle that if t1= t2, then φ(t1) if and only if φ(t2). Recently, Caie, Goodman, and Lederman (2020) and Bacon and Russell (2019) have proposed sophisticated logical systems permitting violations of Leibniz's Law. We show that their systems conflict with widely held, attractive principles concerning the metaphysics of individuals. Only by adopting a highly revisionary picture, on which there is no finest-grained equivalence relation, can a well-motivated metaphysics for rejecting Leibniz's Law be developed. We sketch one such picture—a metaphysics of stuff. Stuff ontologies can be initially motivated through ordinary language: stuff stands to mass nouns as objects stand to count nouns. The stuff ontology we propose takes stuff to be fundamental and views the world as composed of an infinite descending hierarchy of kinds and portions of stuff. We defend the coherence of this picture and offer a model theory demonstrating that it can be consistently formalized.

Portions and countability: A crosslinguistic investigation

AbstractWe examine three constructions across several languages in which a mass noun is embedded in what appears to be a count environment, but the construction as a whole remains mass. We argue that the discussed phenomena—“Q-noun” constructions like lots of water, bare measure constructions like kilos of sugar, and pluralised mass nouns in languages like Greek and Persian—all involve portioning-out of the embedded mass denotation. We provide a structural account of portioning out and propose structures that derive both mass and count portioning out. Adopting an overlap-based approach to the mass/count distinction (e.g. Landman 2011; Rothstein 2011; Khrizman et al. 2015; Landman 2016) we provide a compositional semantics for the proposed structures.The examined phenomena all share an inference of large quantity or abundance that, we argue, cannot be reduced to the lexical meaning of the portioning-out expression, nor to a multiplicity inference contributed by plural morphology. We show that our cases of mass portioning-out involve a total order ≤ on portion size and propose to analyse the abundance inference in terms of an uninformativity-based Quantity implicature, following the analysis of the positive form (Mary is tall) in Rett’s (2015) approach to adjectival gradability.

The versatile classifier və¹³ in Zauzou

Abstract This article presents a frequently used versatile classifier və¹³ in the endangered Ngwi language Zauzou. After investigating seven morphosyntactic contexts in which və¹³ may occur, this classifier exhibits considerable syntactic and semantic overlaps with ordinary classifiers and the inanimate plural quantifier in this language. və¹³ is used as the only classifier for unclassified nouns (i.e., some abstract and count nouns) and an alternative classifier for nearly all kinds of ordinary sortal or mensural classifiers for inanimates, especially when the canonical classifier is not known to the speaker. It shares a wide range of distributions with ordinary numeral classifiers and the plural quantifier and parallels these two classes of determiners in marking various referential values in different noun phrases. However, və¹³ is semantically special in that it may classify nouns of various semantic classes, including abstract and mass nouns, and is underspecified in number. It is compatible with singular, plural and mass interpretations. The final quantity in the reference must be determined in the context. Moreover, və¹³ is a lexical item involved in marking partitives, the function that is not found in ordinary classifiers and the plural quantifier. This study is a systematic description of an under-studied type of versatile classifier, highlighting the internal complexity of a classifier system in Tibeto-Burman languages.

Events and objects are similar cognitive entities

Logico-semantic theories have long noted parallels between the linguistic representation of temporal entities (events) and spatial entities (objects): bounded (or telic) predicates such as fix a car resemble count nouns such as sandcastle because they are “atoms” that have well-defined boundaries, contain discrete minimal parts and cannot be divided arbitrarily. By contrast, unbounded (or atelic) phrases such as drive a car resemble mass nouns such as sand in that they are unspecified for atomic features. Here, we demonstrate for the first time the parallels in the perceptual-cognitive representation of events and objects even in entirely non-linguistic tasks. Specifically, after viewers form categories of bounded or unbounded events, they can extend the category to objects or substances respectively (Experiments 1 and 2). Furthermore, in a training study, people successfully learn event-to-object mappings that respect atomicity (i.e., grouping bounded events with objects and unbounded events with substances) but fail to acquire the opposite, atomicity-violating mappings (Experiment 3). Finally, viewers can spontaneously draw connections between events and objects without any prior training (Experiment 4). These striking similarities between the mental representation of events and objects have implications for current theories of event cognition, as well as the relationship between language and thought.

Processing of Numeral + Noun structures by L1 Persian learners of L2 English, using an online reading task

Within the last two decades, researchers have begun to investigate how L2 learners process syntactic, morpho-syntactic, and lexical information during the comprehension of L2 sentences. The present study aimed to add to research by investigating how L1 influences L2 processing of sentences indicating plurality in constructions involving numerals. More specifically, the research investigated whether Persian speaking low-proficient L2 learners of English showed L1 transfer effects performing a self-paced online reading task. To address this issue, employing the IBEX software, reaction times on critical regions and accuracy rates of learners’ performance were measured on four types of structures (i.e., Numeral + Count Noun, Numeral + Classifier + Mass Noun, Numeral + Classifier + Count Noun, and Numeral + Non-referential Noun + Noun) and two sentence types (ill-formed vs. well-formed). Statistical analysis indicated the effect of both structure and sentence type on reaction times on the critical regions studied. Results also indicated traces of L1 effect in processing Numeral + Classifier + Mass Noun and Numeral + Classifier + Count Noun structures. Concerning the Numeral + Count Noun and Numeral + Classifier + Non-referential Noun + Noun, no clear evidence for L1 transfer effect was observed. Further studies employing a larger sample size, investigating the issue at higher proficiency levels, and having native English speakers as control group are suggested.