The Count-Mass Distinction and the Expression of Number within Nominal Systems

Abstract

This work investigates the count-mass distinction within natural language nominal systems. In particular, we focus on the count-mass distinction and its relation to number morphology. We claim that there is no necessary typological correlation between the lack of number marking and the nonexistence of a count-mass distinction for common nouns. Joosten’s (2002) proposal is presented with the purpose of showing that the count-mass distinction can be treated either as a lexical distinction among the denotations of common nouns, or as a distinction among Noun Phrase constituents.