Cover not available
Article published In:
A typology of the mass/count distinction in Brazil and its relevance for mass/count theories
Edited by Suzi Lima and Susan Rothstein
[Linguistic Variation 20:2] 2020
► pp. 352–365

The count/mass distinction in Taurepang

| State University of Roraima
This paper presents a description of the count/mass distinction in Taurepang, a Cariban language spoken in Brazil and Venezuela. The methodology used was based on Lima & Rothstein’s questionnaire (this volume). We show that Taurepang is a bare noun language and that mass and count nouns can be pluralized. Despite nominal quantifiers have the same distribution, they show different interpretation with count and mass nouns. As the data also shows that numerals distinguish count and mass nouns and that container phrases trigger the count/measure interpretation, we assume here that the denotation of mass nouns in Taurepang cannot be count.
Keywords: count/mass distinction, Semantics, quantification, Taurepang
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.The distribution of numerals
  • 3.Plurals in Taurepang
    • 3.1A Quantity Judgement Task in Taurepang
  • 4.The distribution and interpretation of nominal quantifiers
    • 4.1Comparatives
  • 5.Container phrases of Taurepang
  • 6.General discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 1 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.00026.cou
References (18)
References
Armellada, Cesareo de. 1943. Gramática y diccionário de la lengua Pemon (Arekuna Taurepan, Kamarakoto). Volume I1 C.A. Caracas: Artes Gráficas.Google Scholar
. 1989. Tauron Panton: Así dice el cuento. Caracas: Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.Google Scholar
Armellada, Cesareo de & Mariano Gutiérrez Salazar. 2007. Diccionario Pemón, Pemón-Castellano/CastellanoPemón. 4ª Ed. Caracas: Universidad Católica Andrés Bello.Google Scholar
Costa, Isabella C. 2018. A quantificação em Ye’kwana: a distinção contável-massivo. Rio de Janeiro, RJ: The Federal University of Rio de Janeiro dissertation.Google Scholar
Cruz, Maria O. 1995. A Fonologia Taurepang: A língua da família Karib falada em Roraima. Master Thesis. Recife, PE: The Federal University of Pernambuco thesis.Google Scholar
Doetjes, Jenny. 1997. Quantifiers and selection: on the distribution of quantifying expressions in French, Dutch and English. Leiden, The Hague: Holland Academic Graphics.Google Scholar
Epps, Patience, Claire Bowern, Cynthia Hansen, Jane Hill & Jason Zentz. 2012. On numeral complexity in hunter-gatherer languages. Linguistic Tipology 161. 41–109.Google Scholar
Keizer, Evelien. 2007. The English noun phrase: The nature of linguistic classification. In The english noun phrase. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Koptjevskaja-Tamm, Maria. 2001. “A piece of the cake” and “a cup of tea”: partitive and pseudo-partitive nominal constructions in the Circum-Baltic languages. In Östen Dahl & Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm (eds.), The Circum-Baltic Languages: Typology and Contact, Volume 21, 523–568. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Landman, Fred. 2004. Indefinites and the type of sets. Oxford: Blackwell. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lima, Suzi. 2014. On the locative interpretation of container phrases in Yudja. Proceedings of the 37th. Annual Penn Linguistic Conference. Volume 201. 201–210.Google Scholar
Mascarem, Deibiana. 2016. Nomes Contáveis e massivos no Taurepang. Boa Vista, RR: The State Univesrity of Roraima monography.Google Scholar
Partee, Barbara. & Vladimir Borschev. 2012. Sortal, relational, and functional interpretations of nouns and Russian container constructions. Journal of Semantics, 1–42.Google Scholar
Pessoa, Katia. 2006. Fonologia Taurepang e Comparação preliminar da fonologia de línguas do grupo Pemóng (Família Caribe). Recife, PE: The Federal University of Pernambuco thesis.Google Scholar
Romero, Fanny. 2002. Relações entre língua e identidade em uma comunidade bilíngue: O grupo etnolinguístico Taurepang. Recife, PE: The Federal University of Pernambuco thesis.Google Scholar
Rothstein, Susan. 2012. Numericals: Counting, measuring and classifying. Paper presented at Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 16, Utrecht.
. 2009. Measuring and counting in Modern Hebrew. Brill’s Annual of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics 11. 106–45. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Selkirk, Elizabeth. 1977. Some remarks on noun phrase structure. In Peter Culicover, Thomas Wasow & Adrian Akmajian (eds.), Studies in formal syntax, 285–316. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

[no author supplied]
2033. Title Pending 9334. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 25 october 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.