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Article In:
Linguistic Constructions
Edited by Beata Trawiński, Marc Kupietz and Kristel Proost
[Languages in Contrast 24:2] 2024
► pp. 298–324

The mass/count distinction in nouns for foodstuffs

A contrastive view

ORCID logo | University of StuttgartGermany
Languages show variation in the encoding of plurality in the domain of foodstuffs. Some foodstuffs are lexicalized by singular mass nouns (e.g., garlic) and others by plural count nouns (e.g., beans). In the paper it is argued on the basis of German and Russian that there is no difference in meaning between these two forms: both denote aggregates as clusters of objects. Since objects are built into clusters, they are inaccessible for counting and both types of nouns uniformly behave like mass nouns. Such a uniform behavior would be unexplainable if these forms differed in meaning and the plural form were a regular count plural. This investigation suggests that two types of plural have to be distinguished: the mass aggregate plural, which indicates a clustered plurality of objects, and the count plural, which designates sets of disjoined objects. Regular plural markers may in principle be ambiguous between these two interpretations. However, if a plural marker is attached to a singulative or unit-denoting morpheme of a noun, the plural is unambiguously interpreted as count plural. The mass aggregate plural may receive a special morphological marking in some languages, as in Russian.
Keywords: mass/count distinction, plural, collectives, aggregate nouns, German/Russian
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Aggregate mass nouns vs. plurals
    • 2.1Aggregate mass nouns: Grammatical properties
    • 2.2Mereotopological analysis of aggregate mass nouns
    • 2.3Plural foodstuff-denoting nouns
  • 3.Plural nouns as aggregate denotations in German
    • 3.1Measuring vs. counting
    • 3.2Non-individuating quantifier viel ‘much’
    • 3.3Combination with classifiers
    • 3.4Adjectival modification of units in a plurality context
  • 4.Plural nouns as aggregate denotations in Russian
    • 4.1Measuring vs. counting
    • 4.2Singulative formation
    • 4.3Combination with classifiers
    • 4.4Adjectival modification of units in a plurality context
  • 5.Discussion of results: Aggregates and two types of plural
    • 5.1Denotation of aggregates in German vs. Russian
    • 5.2Marking of aggregate plurals in Italian and Russian
    • 5.3Count plurals
  • 6.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Sources
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
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