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vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Cumulativity_and_mass_nouns"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">2</span> <span>Cumulativity and mass nouns</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Cumulativity_and_mass_nouns-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Multiple_senses_for_one_noun" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Multiple_senses_for_one_noun"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">3</span> <span>Multiple senses for one noun</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Multiple_senses_for_one_noun-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-Quantification" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#Quantification"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">4</span> <span>Quantification</span> </div> </a> <button 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noun</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-Conflation_of_collective_noun_and_mass_noun-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-See_also" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#See_also"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">6</span> <span>See also</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-See_also-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-References" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#References"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">7</span> <span>References</span> </div> </a> <ul id="toc-References-sublist" class="vector-toc-list"> </ul> </li> <li id="toc-External_links" class="vector-toc-list-item vector-toc-level-1 vector-toc-list-item-expanded"> <a class="vector-toc-link" href="#External_links"> <div class="vector-toc-text"> <span class="vector-toc-numb">8</span> 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class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>العربية</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-de mw-list-item"><a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoffname" title="Stoffname – German" lang="de" hreflang="de" data-title="Stoffname" data-language-autonym="Deutsch" data-language-local-name="German" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Deutsch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-et mw-list-item"><a href="https://et.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aines%C3%B5na" title="Ainesõna – Estonian" lang="et" hreflang="et" data-title="Ainesõna" data-language-autonym="Eesti" data-language-local-name="Estonian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Eesti</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-es mw-list-item"><a href="https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustantivo_no_numerable" title="Sustantivo no numerable – Spanish" lang="es" hreflang="es" data-title="Sustantivo no numerable" data-language-autonym="Español" data-language-local-name="Spanish" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Español</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-fa mw-list-item"><a href="https://fa.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%A7%D8%B3%D9%85_%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%B4%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%A7" title="اسم ناشمارا – Persian" lang="fa" hreflang="fa" data-title="اسم ناشمارا" data-language-autonym="فارسی" data-language-local-name="Persian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>فارسی</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-it mw-list-item"><a href="https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nome_massa" title="Nome massa – Italian" lang="it" hreflang="it" data-title="Nome massa" data-language-autonym="Italiano" data-language-local-name="Italian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Italiano</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-sw mw-list-item"><a href="https://sw.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nomino_za_wingi" title="Nomino za wingi – Swahili" lang="sw" hreflang="sw" data-title="Nomino za wingi" data-language-autonym="Kiswahili" data-language-local-name="Swahili" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Kiswahili</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-mg mw-list-item"><a href="https://mg.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anaran%27_ny_tsy_azo_isaina" title="Anaran' ny tsy azo isaina – Malagasy" lang="mg" hreflang="mg" data-title="Anaran' ny tsy azo isaina" data-language-autonym="Malagasy" data-language-local-name="Malagasy" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Malagasy</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-nl mw-list-item"><a href="https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stofnaam" title="Stofnaam – Dutch" lang="nl" hreflang="nl" data-title="Stofnaam" data-language-autonym="Nederlands" data-language-local-name="Dutch" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Nederlands</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-nds mw-list-item"><a href="https://nds.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoffnaam" title="Stoffnaam – Low German" lang="nds" hreflang="nds" data-title="Stoffnaam" data-language-autonym="Plattdüütsch" data-language-local-name="Low German" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Plattdüütsch</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-simple mw-list-item"><a href="https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_noun" title="Mass noun – Simple English" lang="en-simple" hreflang="en-simple" data-title="Mass noun" data-language-autonym="Simple English" data-language-local-name="Simple English" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Simple English</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-uk mw-list-item"><a href="https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9C%D0%B0%D1%81%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B9_%D1%96%D0%BC%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA" title="Масовий іменник – Ukrainian" lang="uk" hreflang="uk" data-title="Масовий іменник" data-language-autonym="Українська" data-language-local-name="Ukrainian" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Українська</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-vi mw-list-item"><a href="https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danh_t%E1%BB%AB_kh%C3%B4ng_%C4%91%E1%BA%BFm_%C4%91%C6%B0%E1%BB%A3c" title="Danh từ không đếm được – Vietnamese" lang="vi" hreflang="vi" data-title="Danh từ không đếm được" data-language-autonym="Tiếng Việt" data-language-local-name="Vietnamese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>Tiếng Việt</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh-yue mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh-yue.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%95%B8%E5%94%94%E5%88%B0%E5%90%8D%E8%A9%9E" title="數唔到名詞 – Cantonese" lang="yue" hreflang="yue" data-title="數唔到名詞" data-language-autonym="粵語" data-language-local-name="Cantonese" class="interlanguage-link-target"><span>粵語</span></a></li><li class="interlanguage-link interwiki-zh mw-list-item"><a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%B8%8D%E5%8F%AF%E6%95%B8%E5%90%8D%E8%A9%9E" title="不可數名詞 – Chinese" lang="zh" hreflang="zh" data-title="不可數名詞" data-language-autonym="中文" data-language-local-name="Chinese" 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dir="ltr"><div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none">Noun whose quantity is treated as an undifferentiated unit</div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236090951">.mw-parser-output .hatnote{font-style:italic}.mw-parser-output div.hatnote{padding-left:1.6em;margin-bottom:0.5em}.mw-parser-output .hatnote i{font-style:normal}.mw-parser-output .hatnote+link+.hatnote{margin-top:-0.5em}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .hatnote{display:none!important}}</style><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Not to be confused with <a href="/wiki/Collective_noun" title="Collective noun">Collective noun</a>.</div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1129693374">.mw-parser-output .hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .hlist ul{margin:0;padding:0}.mw-parser-output .hlist dd,.mw-parser-output .hlist dt,.mw-parser-output .hlist li{margin:0;display:inline}.mw-parser-output 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.mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-list-title,html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle{background:transparent!important}html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .sidebar:not(.notheme) .sidebar-title-with-pretitle a{color:var(--color-progressive)!important}}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .sidebar{display:none!important}}</style><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><table class="sidebar sidebar-collapse nomobile nowraplinks" style="width:18em"><tbody><tr><th class="sidebar-title" style="background:#ccccff;font-size:110%"><a href="/wiki/Grammatical_category" title="Grammatical category">Grammatical features</a></th></tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content vlist" style="padding:.3em; text-align:left;"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="color: var(--color-base)">Related to nouns</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Animacy" title="Animacy">Animacy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Grammatical_case" title="Grammatical case">Case</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Dative_construction" title="Dative construction">Dative construction</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dative_shift" title="Dative shift">Dative shift</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Quirky_subject" title="Quirky subject">Quirky subject</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nominative_case" title="Nominative case">Nominative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Comitative_case" title="Comitative case">Comitative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Instrumental_case" title="Instrumental case">Instrumental</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Classifier_(linguistics)" title="Classifier (linguistics)">Classifier</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Measure_word" title="Measure word">Measure word</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Construct_state" title="Construct state">Construct state</a></li> <li>Countability <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Count_noun" title="Count noun">Count noun</a></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Mass noun</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Collective_noun" title="Collective noun">Collective noun</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Definiteness" title="Definiteness">Definiteness</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Grammatical_gender" title="Grammatical gender">Gender</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Genitive_construction" title="Genitive construction">Genitive construction</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Possession_(linguistics)" title="Possession (linguistics)">Possession</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Suffixaufnahme" title="Suffixaufnahme">Suffixaufnahme (case stacking)</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Noun_class" title="Noun class">Noun class</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Grammatical_number" title="Grammatical number">Number</a> <ul><li><div class="hlist"><ul><li>Singular</li><li><a href="/wiki/Dual_(grammatical_number)" title="Dual (grammatical number)">Dual</a></li><li><a href="/wiki/Plural" title="Plural">Plural</a></li></ul></div></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Singulative_number" title="Singulative number">Singulative-Collective-Plurative</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Specificity_(linguistics)" title="Specificity (linguistics)">Specificity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Universal_grinder" title="Universal grinder">Universal grinder</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content vlist" style="padding:.3em; text-align:left;"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="color: var(--color-base)">Related to verbs</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Associated_motion" title="Associated motion">Associated motion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Clusivity" title="Clusivity">Clusivity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Grammatical_conjugation" title="Grammatical conjugation">Conjugation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Evidentiality" title="Evidentiality">Evidentiality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Modality_(semantics)" title="Modality (semantics)">Modality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Grammatical_person" title="Grammatical person">Person</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Telicity" title="Telicity">Telicity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mirativity" title="Mirativity">Mirativity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tense%E2%80%93aspect%E2%80%93mood" title="Tense–aspect–mood">Tense–aspect–mood</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Grammatical_aspect" title="Grammatical aspect">Grammatical aspect</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lexical_aspect" title="Lexical aspect">Lexical aspect (Aktionsart)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Grammatical_mood" title="Grammatical mood">Mood</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Grammatical_tense" title="Grammatical tense">Tense</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Voice_(grammar)" title="Voice (grammar)">Voice</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content vlist" style="padding:.3em; text-align:left;"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="color: var(--color-base)">General features</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Affect_(linguistics)" title="Affect (linguistics)">Affect</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Boundedness_(linguistics)" title="Boundedness (linguistics)">Boundedness</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Comparison_(grammar)" title="Comparison (grammar)">Comparison (degree)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Egophoricity" title="Egophoricity">Egophoricity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pluractionality" title="Pluractionality">Pluractionality</a> (verbal number)</li> <li><a href="/wiki/Honorifics_(linguistics)" title="Honorifics (linguistics)">Honorifics (politeness)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Affirmation_and_negation" title="Affirmation and negation">Polarity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reciprocal_construction" title="Reciprocal construction">Reciprocity</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Reflexive_pronoun" title="Reflexive pronoun">Reflexive pronoun</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reflexive_verb" title="Reflexive verb">Reflexive verb</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content vlist" style="padding:.3em; text-align:left;"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="color: var(--color-base)">Syntax relationships</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Argument_(linguistics)" title="Argument (linguistics)">Argument</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Transitivity_(grammar)" title="Transitivity (grammar)">Transitivity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Valency_(linguistics)" title="Valency (linguistics)">Valency</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Branching_(linguistics)" title="Branching (linguistics)">Branching</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Serial_verb_construction" title="Serial verb construction">Serial verb construction</a></li> <li>Traditional grammar <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Predicate_(grammar)" title="Predicate (grammar)">Predicate</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Subject_(grammar)" title="Subject (grammar)">Subject</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Object_(grammar)" title="Object (grammar)">Object</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Adjunct_(grammar)" title="Adjunct (grammar)">Adjunct</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Predicative_expression" title="Predicative expression">Predicative</a></li></ul></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content vlist" style="padding:.3em; text-align:left;"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="color: var(--color-base)">Semantics</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Contrast_(linguistics)" title="Contrast (linguistics)">Contrast</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mirativity" title="Mirativity">Mirativity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Thematic_relation" title="Thematic relation">Thematic relation</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Agent_(grammar)" title="Agent (grammar)">Agent</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Patient_(grammar)" title="Patient (grammar)">Patient</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Topic_and_comment" title="Topic and comment">Topic and Comment</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Focus_(linguistics)" title="Focus (linguistics)">Focus</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Volition_(linguistics)" title="Volition (linguistics)">Volition</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Veridicality" title="Veridicality">Veridicality</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-content vlist" style="padding:.3em; text-align:left;"> <div class="sidebar-list mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"><div class="sidebar-list-title" style="color: var(--color-base)">Phenomena</div><div class="sidebar-list-content mw-collapsible-content"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Agreement_(linguistics)" title="Agreement (linguistics)">Agreement</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Polypersonal_agreement" title="Polypersonal agreement">Polypersonal agreement</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Declension" title="Declension">Declension</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Empty_category" title="Empty category">Empty category</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Incorporation_(linguistics)" title="Incorporation (linguistics)">Incorporation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Inflection" title="Inflection">Inflection</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Markedness" title="Markedness">Markedness</a></li></ul></div></div></td> </tr><tr><td class="sidebar-navbar"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239400231">.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:inline;font-size:88%;font-weight:normal}.mw-parser-output .navbar-collapse{float:left;text-align:left}.mw-parser-output .navbar-boxtext{word-spacing:0}.mw-parser-output .navbar ul{display:inline-block;white-space:nowrap;line-height:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::before{margin-right:-0.125em;content:"[ "}.mw-parser-output .navbar-brackets::after{margin-left:-0.125em;content:" ]"}.mw-parser-output .navbar li{word-spacing:-0.125em}.mw-parser-output .navbar a>span,.mw-parser-output .navbar a>abbr{text-decoration:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-mini abbr{font-variant:small-caps;border-bottom:none;text-decoration:none;cursor:inherit}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-full{font-size:114%;margin:0 7em}.mw-parser-output .navbar-ct-mini{font-size:114%;margin:0 4em}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}@media(prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .navbar li a abbr{color:var(--color-base)!important}}@media print{.mw-parser-output .navbar{display:none!important}}</style><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Grammatical_categories" title="Template:Grammatical categories"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Grammatical_categories" title="Template talk:Grammatical categories"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Grammatical_categories" title="Special:EditPage/Template:Grammatical categories"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <p>In <a href="/wiki/Linguistics" title="Linguistics">linguistics</a>, a <b>mass noun</b>, <b>uncountable noun</b>, <b>non-count noun</b>, <b>uncount noun</b>, or just <b>uncountable</b>, is a <a href="/wiki/Noun" title="Noun">noun</a> with the <a href="/wiki/Syntax" title="Syntax">syntactic</a> property that any quantity of it is treated as an undifferentiated unit, rather than as something with discrete elements. Uncountable nouns are distinguished from <a href="/wiki/Count_noun" title="Count noun">count nouns</a>. </p><p>Given that different <a href="/wiki/Language" title="Language">languages</a> have different <a href="/wiki/Feature_(linguistics)" title="Feature (linguistics)">grammatical features</a>, the actual test for which nouns are mass nouns may vary between languages. In <a href="/wiki/English_language" title="English language">English</a>, mass nouns are characterized by the impossibility of being directly modified by a <a href="/wiki/Numeral_(linguistics)" title="Numeral (linguistics)">numeral</a> without specifying a <a href="/wiki/Unit_of_measurement" title="Unit of measurement">unit of measurement</a> and by the impossibility of being combined with an <a href="/wiki/Indefinite_article" class="mw-redirect" title="Indefinite article">indefinite article</a> (<i>a</i> or <i>an</i>). Thus, the mass noun "water" is quantified as "20 litres of water" while the count noun "chair" is quantified as "20 chairs". However, both mass and count nouns can be quantified in relative terms without unit specification (e.g., "so much water", "so many chairs", though note the different quantifiers "much" and "many"). </p><p>Mass nouns have no concept of <a href="/wiki/Grammatical_number" title="Grammatical number">singular</a> and <a href="/wiki/Plural" title="Plural">plural</a>, although in English they take singular <a href="/wiki/Grammatical_conjugation" title="Grammatical conjugation">verb forms</a>. However, many mass nouns in English can be <a href="/wiki/Conversion_(word_formation)" title="Conversion (word formation)">converted</a> to count nouns, which can then be used in the plural to denote (for instance) more than one instance or variety of a certain sort of entity – for example, "<i>Many cleaning agents today are technically not soaps [i.e. types of soap], but detergents,</i>" or "<i>I drank about three beers [i.e. bottles or glasses of beer]</i>". </p><p>Some nouns can be used indifferently as mass or count nouns, <i>e.g.</i>, <i>three cabbages</i> or <i>three heads of cabbage</i>; <i>three ropes</i> or <i>three lengths of rope</i>. Some have different <a href="/wiki/Word_sense" title="Word sense">senses</a> as mass and count nouns: <i>paper</i> is a mass noun as a material (<i>three reams of paper</i>, <i>one sheet of paper</i>), but a count noun as a unit of writing ("the students passed in their papers"). </p> <meta property="mw:PageProp/toc" /> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Grammatical_number_and_physical_discreteness">Grammatical number and physical discreteness</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Mass_noun&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: Grammatical number and physical discreteness"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>In English (and in many other languages), there is a tendency for nouns referring to liquids (<i>water</i>, <i>juice</i>), powders (<i>sugar</i>, <i>sand</i>), or substances (<i>metal</i>, <i>wood</i>) to be used in mass syntax, and for nouns referring to objects or people to be count nouns. But there are many exceptions: the mass/count distinction is a property of the <i>terms</i>, not their referents. For example, the same set of chairs can be referred to as "seven chairs" (count) and as "furniture" (mass); the Middle English mass noun <i>pease</i> has become the count noun <i>pea</i> by <a href="/wiki/Morphological_reanalysis" class="mw-redirect" title="Morphological reanalysis">morphological reanalysis</a>; "vegetables" are a plural count form, while the British English slang synonym "veg" is a mass noun. </p><p>In languages that have a <a href="/wiki/Partitive_case" title="Partitive case">partitive case</a>, the distinction is explicit and mandatory. For example, in <a href="/wiki/Finnish_language" title="Finnish language">Finnish</a>, <i>join vettä</i>, "I drank (some) water", the word <i>vesi</i>, "water", is in the partitive case. The related sentence <i>join veden</i>, "I drank (the) water", using the <a href="/wiki/Accusative_case" title="Accusative case">accusative case</a> instead, assumes that there was a specific countable portion of water that was completely drunk. </p><p>The work of logicians like <a href="/wiki/Godehard_Link" title="Godehard Link">Godehard Link</a> and <a href="/wiki/Manfred_Krifka" title="Manfred Krifka">Manfred Krifka</a> established that the mass/count distinction can be given a precise, mathematical definition in terms of <a href="/wiki/Quantization_(linguistics)" title="Quantization (linguistics)">quantization</a> and <a href="/wiki/Cumulativity" class="mw-redirect" title="Cumulativity">cumulativity</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-1"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>1<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Cumulativity_and_mass_nouns">Cumulativity and mass nouns</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Mass_noun&action=edit&section=2" title="Edit section: Cumulativity and mass nouns"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>An expression <i>P</i> has <a href="/wiki/Cumulativity" class="mw-redirect" title="Cumulativity">cumulative reference</a> if and only if<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-2"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>2<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup><sup id="cite_ref-3" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-3"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>3<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> for any <i>X</i> and <i>Y</i>: </p> <ul><li>If <i>X</i> can be described as <i>P</i> and <i>Y</i> can be described as <i>P</i>, as well, then the sum of <i>X</i> and <i>Y</i> can also be described as <i>P</i>.</li></ul> <p>In more formal terms (Krifka 1998): </p> <dl><dd><span class="mwe-math-element"><span class="mwe-math-mathml-inline mwe-math-mathml-a11y" style="display: none;"><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" alttext="{\displaystyle \forall X\subseteq U_{p}[\mathrm {CUM} _{p}(X)\Leftrightarrow \exists x,y[X(x)\,\wedge \,X(y)\,\wedge \,\neg (x=y)]\;\wedge \;\forall x,y[X(x)\,\wedge \,X(y)\Rightarrow X(x\,\oplus \,y)]]}"> <semantics> <mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mstyle displaystyle="true" scriptlevel="0"> <mi mathvariant="normal">∀</mi> <mi>X</mi> <mo>⊆</mo> <msub> <mi>U</mi> <mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mi>p</mi> </mrow> </msub> <mo stretchy="false">[</mo> <msub> <mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mi mathvariant="normal">C</mi> <mi mathvariant="normal">U</mi> <mi mathvariant="normal">M</mi> </mrow> <mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mi>p</mi> </mrow> </msub> <mo stretchy="false">(</mo> <mi>X</mi> <mo stretchy="false">)</mo> <mo stretchy="false">⇔</mo> <mi mathvariant="normal">∃</mi> <mi>x</mi> <mo>,</mo> <mi>y</mi> <mo stretchy="false">[</mo> <mi>X</mi> <mo stretchy="false">(</mo> <mi>x</mi> <mo stretchy="false">)</mo> <mspace width="thinmathspace" /> <mo>∧</mo> <mspace width="thinmathspace" /> <mi>X</mi> <mo stretchy="false">(</mo> <mi>y</mi> <mo stretchy="false">)</mo> <mspace width="thinmathspace" /> <mo>∧</mo> <mspace width="thinmathspace" /> <mi mathvariant="normal">¬</mi> <mo stretchy="false">(</mo> <mi>x</mi> <mo>=</mo> <mi>y</mi> <mo stretchy="false">)</mo> <mo stretchy="false">]</mo> <mspace width="thickmathspace" /> <mo>∧</mo> <mspace width="thickmathspace" /> <mi mathvariant="normal">∀</mi> <mi>x</mi> <mo>,</mo> <mi>y</mi> <mo stretchy="false">[</mo> <mi>X</mi> <mo stretchy="false">(</mo> <mi>x</mi> <mo stretchy="false">)</mo> <mspace width="thinmathspace" /> <mo>∧</mo> <mspace width="thinmathspace" /> <mi>X</mi> <mo stretchy="false">(</mo> <mi>y</mi> <mo stretchy="false">)</mo> <mo stretchy="false">⇒</mo> <mi>X</mi> <mo stretchy="false">(</mo> <mi>x</mi> <mspace width="thinmathspace" /> <mo>⊕</mo> <mspace width="thinmathspace" /> <mi>y</mi> <mo stretchy="false">)</mo> <mo stretchy="false">]</mo> <mo stretchy="false">]</mo> </mstyle> </mrow> <annotation encoding="application/x-tex">{\displaystyle \forall X\subseteq U_{p}[\mathrm {CUM} _{p}(X)\Leftrightarrow \exists x,y[X(x)\,\wedge \,X(y)\,\wedge \,\neg (x=y)]\;\wedge \;\forall x,y[X(x)\,\wedge \,X(y)\Rightarrow X(x\,\oplus \,y)]]}</annotation> </semantics> </math></span><img src="https://wikimedia.org/api/rest_v1/media/math/render/svg/667a9026024a6332fe2d9a440fa2bd7d5850220f" class="mwe-math-fallback-image-inline mw-invert skin-invert" aria-hidden="true" style="vertical-align: -1.005ex; width:93.054ex; height:3.009ex;" alt="{\displaystyle \forall X\subseteq U_{p}[\mathrm {CUM} _{p}(X)\Leftrightarrow \exists x,y[X(x)\,\wedge \,X(y)\,\wedge \,\neg (x=y)]\;\wedge \;\forall x,y[X(x)\,\wedge \,X(y)\Rightarrow X(x\,\oplus \,y)]]}"></span></dd></dl> <p>which may be read as: <i>X</i> is cumulative if there exists at least one pair<i> x,y</i>, where <i>x</i> and <i>y</i> are distinct, and both have the property <i>X</i>, and if for all possible pairs <i>x</i> and <i>y</i> fitting that description, <i>X</i> is a property of the sum of <i>x</i> and <i>y</i>.<sup id="cite_ref-4" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-4"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>4<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Consider, for example <i>cutlery</i>: If one collection of cutlery is combined with another, we still have "cutlery." Similarly, if water is added to water, we still have "water." But if a chair is added to another, we do not have "a chair", but rather two chairs. Thus the nouns "cutlery" and "water" have cumulative reference, while the expression "a chair" does not. The expression "chairs", however, does, suggesting that the generalization is not actually specific to the mass-count distinction. As many have noted, it is possible to provide an alternative analysis, by which mass nouns and plural count nouns are assigned a similar semantics, as distinct from that of singular count nouns.<sup id="cite_ref-Gillon_5-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Gillon-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>An expression <i>P</i> has <a href="/wiki/Quantization_(linguistics)" title="Quantization (linguistics)">quantized reference</a> if and only if, for any X: </p> <ul><li>If <i>X</i> can be described as <i>P</i>, then no proper part of <i>X</i> can be described as <i>P</i>.</li></ul> <p>This can be seen to hold in the case of the noun <i>house</i>: no proper part of <i>a house</i>, for example the bathroom, or the entrance door, is itself a house. Similarly, no proper part of <i>a man</i>, say his index finger, or his knee, can be described as <i>a man</i>. Hence, <i>house</i> and <i>man</i> have quantized reference. However, collections of <i>cutlery</i> do have proper parts that can themselves be described as <i>cutlery</i>. Hence <i>cutlery</i> does not have quantized reference. Notice again that this is probably not a fact about mass-count syntax, but about prototypical examples, since many singular count nouns have referents whose proper parts can be described by the same term. Examples include divisible count nouns like "rope", "string", "stone", "tile", etc.<sup id="cite_ref-Gillon_5-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-Gillon-5"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>5<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p><p>Some expressions are neither quantized nor cumulative. Examples of this include <a href="/wiki/Collective_noun" title="Collective noun">collective nouns</a> like <i>committee</i>. A committee may well contain a proper part which is itself a committee. Hence this expression is not quantized. It is not cumulative, either: the sum of two separate committees is not necessarily a <i>committee</i>. In terms of the mass/count distinction, <i>committee</i> behaves like a count noun. By some accounts, these examples are taken to indicate that the best characterization of mass nouns is that they are <i>cumulative nouns</i>. On such accounts, count nouns should then be characterized as <i>non-cumulative</i> nouns: this characterization correctly groups <i>committee</i> together with the count nouns. If, instead, we had chosen to characterize count nouns as <i>quantized nouns</i>, and mass nouns as <i>non-quantized</i> ones, then we would (incorrectly) be led to expect <i>committee</i> to be a mass noun. However, as noted above, such a characterization fails to explain many central phenomena of the mass-count distinction. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Multiple_senses_for_one_noun">Multiple senses for one noun</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Mass_noun&action=edit&section=3" title="Edit section: Multiple senses for one noun"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Many English <a href="/wiki/Noun" title="Noun">nouns</a> can be used in either mass or count syntax, and in these cases, they take on cumulative reference when used as mass nouns. For example, one may say that "there's <i>apple</i> in this sauce", and then <i>apple</i> has cumulative reference, and, hence, is used as a mass noun. The names of animals, such as "chicken", "fox" or "lamb" are count when referring to the animals themselves, but are mass when referring to their meat, fur, or other substances produced by them. (e.g., "I'm cooking chicken tonight" or "This coat is made of fox.") Conversely, "<a href="/wiki/Fire" title="Fire">fire</a>" is frequently used as a mass noun, but "a fire" refers to a discrete entity. Substance terms like "water" which are frequently used as mass nouns, can be used as count nouns to denote arbitrary units of a substance ("Two <i>waters</i>, please") or of several types/varieties ("<i>waters</i> of the world").<sup id="cite_ref-6" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-6"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>6<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> One may say that mass nouns that are used as count nouns are "<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/countify" class="extiw" title="wikt:countify">countified</a>" and that count ones that are used as mass nouns are "<a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/massify" class="extiw" title="wikt:massify">massified</a>". However, this may confuse syntax and semantics, by presupposing that words which denote substances are mass nouns by default. According to many accounts, nouns do not have a lexical specification for mass-count status, and instead are specified as such only when used in a sentence.<sup id="cite_ref-7" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-7"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>7<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> Nouns differ in the extent to which they can be used flexibly, depending largely on their meanings and the context of use. For example, the count noun "house" is difficult to use as mass (though clearly possible), and the mass noun "cutlery" is most frequently used as mass, despite the fact that it denotes objects, and has count equivalents in other languages: </p> <ul><li>Incorrect: *There is house on the road. (Incorrect even if a catastrophe is considered)</li> <li>Incorrect: *There is a cutlery on the table. (Incorrect even if just one fork is on the table)</li> <li>Correct: You got a lot of house for your money since the recession.</li> <li>Correct: Spanish cutlery is my favorite. (type / kind reading)</li></ul> <p>In some languages, such as <a href="/wiki/Chinese_(language)" class="mw-redirect" title="Chinese (language)">Chinese</a> and <a href="/wiki/Japanese_language" title="Japanese language">Japanese</a>, it has been claimed by some that all nouns are effectively mass nouns, requiring a <a href="/wiki/Measure_word" title="Measure word">measure word</a> to be quantified.<sup id="cite_ref-8" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-8"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>8<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Quantification">Quantification</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Mass_noun&action=edit&section=4" title="Edit section: Quantification"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <p>Some <a href="/wiki/Quantifier_(linguistics)" class="mw-redirect" title="Quantifier (linguistics)">quantifiers</a> are specific to mass nouns (e.g., <i>an amount of</i>) or count nouns (e.g., <i>a number of</i>, <i>every</i>). Others can be used with both types (e.g., <i>a lot of</i>, <i>some</i>). </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading3"><h3 id="Words_fewer_and_less">Words <i>fewer</i> and <i>less</i></h3><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Mass_noun&action=edit&section=5" title="Edit section: Words fewer and less"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236090951"><div role="note" class="hatnote navigation-not-searchable">Main article: <a href="/wiki/Fewer_versus_less" title="Fewer versus less">Fewer versus less</a></div> <p>Where <i>much</i> and <i>little</i> qualify mass nouns, <i>many</i> and <i>few</i> have an analogous function for count nouns: </p> <ul><li>How much damage? —Very little.</li> <li>How many mistakes? —Very few.</li></ul> <p>Whereas <i>more</i> and <i>most</i> are the <a href="/wiki/Comparative" title="Comparative">comparative</a> and <a href="/wiki/Superlative" class="mw-redirect" title="Superlative">superlative</a> of both <i>much</i> and <i>many</i>, <i>few</i> and <i>little</i> have differing comparative and superlative (<i>fewer</i>, <i>fewest</i> and <i>less</i>, <i>least</i>). However, <a href="/wiki/Suppletion" title="Suppletion">suppletive</a> use of <i>less</i> and <i>least</i> with count nouns is common in many contexts, some of which attract criticism as <a href="/wiki/Nonstandard_dialect" class="mw-redirect" title="Nonstandard dialect">nonstandard</a> or low-<a href="/wiki/Prestige_(sociolinguistics)" title="Prestige (sociolinguistics)">prestige</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-mwdeu-less-fewer_9-0" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-mwdeu-less-fewer-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> This criticism dates back to at least 1770; the usage dates back to <a href="/wiki/Old_English" title="Old English">Old English</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-mwdeu-less-fewer_9-1" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-mwdeu-less-fewer-9"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>9<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> In 2008, <a href="/wiki/Tesco" title="Tesco">Tesco</a> changed supermarket <a href="/wiki/Point_of_sale" title="Point of sale">checkout</a> signs reading "Ten items or less" after complaints that it was bad grammar; at the suggestion of the <a href="/wiki/Plain_English_Campaign" title="Plain English Campaign">Plain English Campaign</a> it switched to "Up to ten items" rather than to "Ten items or fewer".<sup id="cite_ref-10" class="reference"><a href="#cite_note-10"><span class="cite-bracket">[</span>10<span class="cite-bracket">]</span></a></sup> </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="Conflation_of_collective_noun_and_mass_noun">Conflation of collective noun and mass noun</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Mass_noun&action=edit&section=6" title="Edit section: Conflation of collective noun and mass noun"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1251242444">.mw-parser-output .ambox{border:1px solid #a2a9b1;border-left:10px solid #36c;background-color:#fbfbfb;box-sizing:border-box}.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+style+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+link+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+style+.ambox,.mw-parser-output .ambox+.mw-empty-elt+link+link+.ambox{margin-top:-1px}html body.mediawiki .mw-parser-output .ambox.mbox-small-left{margin:4px 1em 4px 0;overflow:hidden;width:238px;border-collapse:collapse;font-size:88%;line-height:1.25em}.mw-parser-output .ambox-speedy{border-left:10px solid #b32424;background-color:#fee7e6}.mw-parser-output .ambox-delete{border-left:10px solid #b32424}.mw-parser-output .ambox-content{border-left:10px solid #f28500}.mw-parser-output .ambox-style{border-left:10px solid #fc3}.mw-parser-output .ambox-move{border-left:10px solid #9932cc}.mw-parser-output .ambox-protection{border-left:10px solid #a2a9b1}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-text{border:none;padding:0.25em 0.5em;width:100%}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image{border:none;padding:2px 0 2px 0.5em;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-imageright{border:none;padding:2px 0.5em 2px 0;text-align:center}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-empty-cell{border:none;padding:0;width:1px}.mw-parser-output .ambox .mbox-image-div{width:52px}@media(min-width:720px){.mw-parser-output .ambox{margin:0 10%}}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .ambox{display:none!important}}</style><table class="box-Unreferenced_section plainlinks metadata ambox ambox-content ambox-Unreferenced" role="presentation"><tbody><tr><td class="mbox-image"><div class="mbox-image-div"><span typeof="mw:File"><a href="/wiki/File:Question_book-new.svg" class="mw-file-description"><img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/50px-Question_book-new.svg.png" decoding="async" width="50" height="39" class="mw-file-element" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/75px-Question_book-new.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/9/99/Question_book-new.svg/100px-Question_book-new.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="512" data-file-height="399" /></a></span></div></td><td class="mbox-text"><div class="mbox-text-span">This section <b>does not <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Citing_sources" title="Wikipedia:Citing sources">cite</a> any <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability">sources</a></b>.<span class="hide-when-compact"> Please help <a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Mass_noun" title="Special:EditPage/Mass noun">improve this section</a> by <a href="/wiki/Help:Referencing_for_beginners" title="Help:Referencing for beginners">adding citations to reliable sources</a>. Unsourced material may be challenged and <a href="/wiki/Wikipedia:Verifiability#Burden_of_evidence" title="Wikipedia:Verifiability">removed</a>.</span> <span class="date-container"><i>(<span class="date">March 2022</span>)</i></span><span class="hide-when-compact"><i> (<small><a href="/wiki/Help:Maintenance_template_removal" title="Help:Maintenance template removal">Learn how and when to remove this message</a></small>)</i></span></div></td></tr></tbody></table> <p>There is often confusion about the two different concepts of <i><a href="/wiki/Collective_noun" title="Collective noun">collective noun</a></i> and <i>mass noun</i>. Generally, collective nouns such as <i>group, family</i>, and <i>committee</i> are not mass nouns but are rather a special subset of <a href="/wiki/Count_noun" title="Count noun">count nouns</a>. However, the term "collective noun" is often used to mean "mass noun" (even in some dictionaries) because users conflate two different kinds of verb number invariability: (a) that seen with mass nouns such as "water" or "furniture", with which only singular verb forms are used because the constituent matter is <i>grammatically</i> indivisible (although it may ["water"] or may not ["furniture"] be <i><a href="/wiki/Etic" class="mw-redirect" title="Etic">etically</a></i> indivisible); and (b) that seen with collective nouns, which is the result of the <a href="/wiki/English_collective_nouns#Metonymic_merging_of_grammatical_number" class="mw-redirect" title="English collective nouns">metonymical shift</a> between the group and its (both grammatically and etically) discrete constituents. </p><p>Some words, including "<a href="/wiki/Mathematics" title="Mathematics">mathematics</a>" and "<a href="/wiki/Physics" title="Physics">physics</a>", have developed true mass-noun senses despite having grown from count-noun roots. </p> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Mass_noun&action=edit&section=7" title="Edit section: See also"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Plurale_tantum" title="Plurale tantum">Plurale tantum</a> – Noun that appears only in the plural form</li></ul> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="References">References</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Mass_noun&action=edit&section=8" title="Edit section: References"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1239543626">.mw-parser-output .reflist{margin-bottom:0.5em;list-style-type:decimal}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .reflist{font-size:90%}}.mw-parser-output .reflist .references{font-size:100%;margin-bottom:0;list-style-type:inherit}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-2{column-width:30em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns-3{column-width:25em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns{margin-top:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns ol{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .reflist-columns li{page-break-inside:avoid;break-inside:avoid-column}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-alpha{list-style-type:upper-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-upper-roman{list-style-type:upper-roman}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-alpha{list-style-type:lower-alpha}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-greek{list-style-type:lower-greek}.mw-parser-output .reflist-lower-roman{list-style-type:lower-roman}</style><div class="reflist reflist-columns references-column-width" style="column-width: 40em;"> <ol class="references"> <li id="cite_note-1"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-1">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1238218222">.mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit;word-wrap:break-word}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"\"""\"""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation:target{background-color:rgba(0,127,255,0.133)}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-free.id-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Lock-green.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited.id-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration.id-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription.id-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg")right 0.1em center/9px no-repeat}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg")right 0.1em center/12px no-repeat}body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-free a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-limited a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-registration a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .id-lock-subscription a,body:not(.skin-timeless):not(.skin-minerva) .mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background-size:contain;padding:0 1em 0 0}.mw-parser-output .cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:none;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{color:var(--color-error,#d33)}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#085;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right{padding-right:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .citation .mw-selflink{font-weight:inherit}@media screen{.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}html.skin-theme-clientpref-night .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}@media screen and (prefers-color-scheme:dark){html.skin-theme-clientpref-os .mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{color:#18911f}}</style><cite id="CITEREFRothstein2010" class="citation journal cs1"><a href="/wiki/Susan_Rothstein" title="Susan Rothstein">Rothstein, Susan</a> (27 August 2010). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://semantics.uchicago.edu/kennedy/classes/f11/na/docs/rothstein10.pdf">"Counting and the Mass/Count Distinction"</a> <span class="cs1-format">(PDF)</span>. <i>Journal of Semantics</i>. <b>27</b> (3): 349, 351. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fjos%2Fffq007">10.1093/jos/ffq007</a>. <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://semantics.uchicago.edu/kennedy/classes/f11/na/docs/rothstein10.pdf">Archived</a> <span class="cs1-format">(PDF)</span> from the original on 2022-10-09<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">27 September</span> 2022</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Journal+of+Semantics&rft.atitle=Counting+and+the+Mass%2FCount+Distinction&rft.volume=27&rft.issue=3&rft.pages=349%2C+351&rft.date=2010-08-27&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1093%2Fjos%2Fffq007&rft.aulast=Rothstein&rft.aufirst=Susan&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fsemantics.uchicago.edu%2Fkennedy%2Fclasses%2Ff11%2Fna%2Fdocs%2Frothstein10.pdf&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMass+noun" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-2"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-2">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Krifka, Manfred 1989. Nominal reference, temporal constitution and quantification in event semantics. In <a href="/wiki/Renate_Bartsch" title="Renate Bartsch">Renate Bartsch</a>, Johan van Benthem and Peter van Emde Boas (eds.), Semantics and Contextual Expressions 75-115. Dordrecht: Foris.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-3"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-3">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFNicolas2008" class="citation journal cs1">Nicolas, David (2008). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120219021719/http://d.a.nicolas.free.fr/Nicolas-Mass-nouns-and-plural-logic-Revised-2.pdf">"Mass nouns and plural logic"</a> <span class="cs1-format">(PDF)</span>. <i>Linguistics and Philosophy</i>. <b>31</b> (2): 211–244. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1007%2Fs10988-008-9033-2">10.1007/s10988-008-9033-2</a>. <a href="/wiki/S2CID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="S2CID (identifier)">S2CID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:13755223">13755223</a>. Archived from <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://d.a.nicolas.free.fr/Nicolas-Mass-nouns-and-plural-logic-Revised-2.pdf">the original</a> <span class="cs1-format">(PDF)</span> on 2012-02-19<span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">2012-02-19</span></span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Linguistics+and+Philosophy&rft.atitle=Mass+nouns+and+plural+logic&rft.volume=31&rft.issue=2&rft.pages=211-244&rft.date=2008&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1007%2Fs10988-008-9033-2&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.semanticscholar.org%2FCorpusID%3A13755223%23id-name%3DS2CID&rft.aulast=Nicolas&rft.aufirst=David&rft_id=http%3A%2F%2Fd.a.nicolas.free.fr%2FNicolas-Mass-nouns-and-plural-logic-Revised-2.pdf&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMass+noun" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-4"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-4">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Borer, Hagit. (2005) <i>Structuring Sense: In Name Only</i>. Volume 1. Oxford: OUP. (p. 124)</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-Gillon-5"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-Gillon_5-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-Gillon_5-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text">Brendan S. Gillon (1992) Towards a common semantics for English count and mass nouns. Linguistics and Philosophy 15: 597–639</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-6"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-6">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Tsoulas, George (2006). Plurality of mass nouns and the grammar of number. <a href="/wiki/Generative_Linguistics_in_the_Old_World" class="mw-redirect" title="Generative Linguistics in the Old World">Generative Linguistics in the Old World</a>.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-7"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-7">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text">Keith Allan. 1980. Nouns and Countability. Language, 56(3):41–67.</span> </li> <li id="cite_note-8"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-8">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFChierchia1998" class="citation journal cs1"><a href="/wiki/Gennaro_Chierchia" title="Gennaro Chierchia">Chierchia, Gennaro</a> (1998). "Reference to Kinds across Languages". <i><a href="/wiki/Natural_Language_Semantics" title="Natural Language Semantics">Natural Language Semantics</a></i>. <b>6</b> (4): 339–405. <a href="/wiki/Doi_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="Doi (identifier)">doi</a>:<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://doi.org/10.1023%2FA%3A1008324218506">10.1023/A:1008324218506</a>. <a href="/wiki/S2CID_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="S2CID (identifier)">S2CID</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://api.semanticscholar.org/CorpusID:116940629">116940629</a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Natural+Language+Semantics&rft.atitle=Reference+to+Kinds+across+Languages&rft.volume=6&rft.issue=4&rft.pages=339-405&rft.date=1998&rft_id=info%3Adoi%2F10.1023%2FA%3A1008324218506&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fapi.semanticscholar.org%2FCorpusID%3A116940629%23id-name%3DS2CID&rft.aulast=Chierchia&rft.aufirst=Gennaro&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMass+noun" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-mwdeu-less-fewer-9"><span class="mw-cite-backlink">^ <a href="#cite_ref-mwdeu-less-fewer_9-0"><sup><i><b>a</b></i></sup></a> <a href="#cite_ref-mwdeu-less-fewer_9-1"><sup><i><b>b</b></i></sup></a></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite class="citation book cs1"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://books.google.com/books?id=2yJusP0vrdgC&pg=PA592">"less, fewer"</a>. <i>Merriam-Webster's dictionary of English usage</i> (2nd ed.). Merriam-Webster. 1995. p. 592. <a href="/wiki/ISBN_(identifier)" class="mw-redirect" title="ISBN (identifier)">ISBN</a> <a href="/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-87779-132-5" title="Special:BookSources/0-87779-132-5"><bdi>0-87779-132-5</bdi></a>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Abook&rft.genre=bookitem&rft.atitle=less%2C+fewer&rft.btitle=Merriam-Webster%27s+dictionary+of+English+usage&rft.pages=592&rft.edition=2nd&rft.pub=Merriam-Webster&rft.date=1995&rft.isbn=0-87779-132-5&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%3Fid%3D2yJusP0vrdgC%26pg%3DPA592&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMass+noun" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> <li id="cite_note-10"><span class="mw-cite-backlink"><b><a href="#cite_ref-10">^</a></b></span> <span class="reference-text"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1238218222"><cite id="CITEREFPeterkin2008" class="citation news cs1">Peterkin, Tom (1 September 2008). <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2659948/Tesco-to-ditch-ten-items-or-less-sign-after-good-grammar-campaign.html">"Tesco to ditch 'ten items or less' sign after good grammar campaign"</a>. <i>Daily Telegraph</i><span class="reference-accessdate">. Retrieved <span class="nowrap">16 April</span> 2010</span>.</cite><span title="ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.jtitle=Daily+Telegraph&rft.atitle=Tesco+to+ditch+%27ten+items+or+less%27+sign+after+good+grammar+campaign&rft.date=2008-09-01&rft.aulast=Peterkin&rft.aufirst=Tom&rft_id=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fuknews%2F2659948%2FTesco-to-ditch-ten-items-or-less-sign-after-good-grammar-campaign.html&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fen.wikipedia.org%3AMass+noun" class="Z3988"></span></span> </li> </ol></div> <div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="External_links">External links</h2><span class="mw-editsection"><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">[</span><a href="/w/index.php?title=Mass_noun&action=edit&section=9" title="Edit section: External links"><span>edit</span></a><span class="mw-editsection-bracket">]</span></span></div> <ul><li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19970221">The Mavens Word of the Day: less/fewer</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://semanticsarchive.net/Archive/jRiNmJkM/">Semantic Archives: Mass nouns, count nouns and non-count nouns</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.sfu.ca/~jeffpell/papers/PellSch.pdf">F.J. Pelletier L.K. Schubert (2001) Mass Expressions in D. Gabbay & F. Guenthner (eds) Handbook of Philosophical Logic, Vol. 10</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120219021719/http://d.a.nicolas.free.fr/Nicolas-Mass-nouns-and-plural-logic-Revised-2.pdf">D. Nicolas (2008) Mass nouns and plural logic. Linguistics and Philosophy 31.2, pp. 211–244</a></li> <li><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://web.stanford.edu/~bclevin/lsa11nouns.pdf">Conceptual Categories and Linguistic Categories VIII: Nouns and Individuation</a> by <a href="/wiki/Beth_Levin_(linguist)" title="Beth Levin (linguist)">Beth Levin</a> at web.stanford.edu</li></ul> <div class="navbox-styles"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><style data-mw-deduplicate="TemplateStyles:r1236075235">.mw-parser-output .navbox{box-sizing:border-box;border:1px solid #a2a9b1;width:100%;clear:both;font-size:88%;text-align:center;padding:1px;margin:1em auto 0}.mw-parser-output .navbox .navbox{margin-top:0}.mw-parser-output .navbox+.navbox,.mw-parser-output .navbox+.navbox-styles+.navbox{margin-top:-1px}.mw-parser-output .navbox-inner,.mw-parser-output .navbox-subgroup{width:100%}.mw-parser-output .navbox-group,.mw-parser-output .navbox-title,.mw-parser-output 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.navbox-odd{background-color:transparent}.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td dl,.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td ol,.mw-parser-output .navbox .hlist td ul,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist dl,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist ol,.mw-parser-output .navbox td.hlist ul{padding:0.125em 0}.mw-parser-output .navbox .navbar{display:block;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .navbox-title .navbar{float:left;text-align:left;margin-right:0.5em}body.skin--responsive .mw-parser-output .navbox-image img{max-width:none!important}@media print{body.ns-0 .mw-parser-output .navbox{display:none!important}}</style></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="Lexical_categories_and_their_features" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks hlist mw-collapsible mw-collapsed navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="2"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239400231"><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Lexical_categories" title="Template:Lexical categories"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Lexical_categories" title="Template talk:Lexical categories"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Lexical_categories" title="Special:EditPage/Template:Lexical categories"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="Lexical_categories_and_their_features" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/Part_of_speech" title="Part of speech">Lexical categories</a> and their features</div></th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Noun" title="Noun">Noun</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Abstract_and_concrete" title="Abstract and concrete">Abstract / Concrete</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Adjectival_noun_(Japanese)" title="Adjectival noun (Japanese)">Adjectival</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Agent_noun" title="Agent noun">Agent</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Animacy" title="Animacy">Animacy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Bare_nouns" title="Bare nouns">Bare</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Collective_noun" title="Collective noun">Collective</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Count_noun" title="Count noun">Countable</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Initial-stress-derived_noun" title="Initial-stress-derived noun">Initial-stress-derived</a></li> <li><a class="mw-selflink selflink">Mass</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Noun_adjunct" title="Noun adjunct">Noun adjunct</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Proper_and_common_nouns" class="mw-redirect" title="Proper and common nouns">Proper</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Relational_noun" title="Relational noun">Relational</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Strong_noun" title="Strong noun">Strong</a> / <a href="/wiki/Weak_noun" title="Weak noun">Weak</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Verbal_noun" title="Verbal noun">Verbal</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Verb" title="Verb">Verb</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Forms</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Attributive_verb" title="Attributive verb">Attributive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Converb" title="Converb">Converb</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Finite_verb" title="Finite verb">Finite</a> / <a href="/wiki/Nonfinite_verb" title="Nonfinite verb">Nonfinite</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gerund" title="Gerund">Gerund</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gerundive" title="Gerundive">Gerundive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Infinitive" title="Infinitive">Infinitive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Participle" title="Participle">Participle</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Supine" title="Supine">Supine</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Transgressive_(linguistics)" title="Transgressive (linguistics)">Transgressive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Verbal_noun" title="Verbal noun">Verbal noun</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Types</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Ambitransitive_verb" title="Ambitransitive verb">Ambitransitive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Andative_and_venitive" title="Andative and venitive">Andative / Venitive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Anticausative_verb" title="Anticausative verb">Anticausative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Autocausative_verb" title="Autocausative verb">Autocausative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Auxiliary_verb" title="Auxiliary verb">Auxiliary</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Captative_verb" title="Captative verb">Captative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Catenative_verb" title="Catenative verb">Catenative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Compound_verb" title="Compound verb">Compound</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Copula_(linguistics)" title="Copula (linguistics)">Copular</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Defective_verb" title="Defective verb">Defective</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Denominal_verb" title="Denominal verb">Denominal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Deponent_verb" title="Deponent verb">Deponent</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ditransitive_verb" title="Ditransitive verb">Ditransitive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dynamic_verb" title="Dynamic verb">Dynamic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Exceptional_case-marking" title="Exceptional case-marking">Exceptional case-marking</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Frequentative" title="Frequentative">Frequentative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Germanic_strong_verb" title="Germanic strong verb">Germanic strong</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Germanic_weak_verb" title="Germanic weak verb">Germanic weak</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Impersonal_verb" title="Impersonal verb">Impersonal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Inchoative_verb" title="Inchoative verb">Inchoative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intransitive_verb" title="Intransitive verb">Intransitive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Labile_verb" title="Labile verb">Labile</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lexical_verb" title="Lexical verb">Lexical</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Light_verb" title="Light verb">Light</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Modal_verb" title="Modal verb">Modal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Negative_verb" title="Negative verb">Negative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Performative_verb" title="Performative verb">Performative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Phrasal_verb" class="mw-redirect" title="Phrasal verb">Phrasal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Predicative_verb" title="Predicative verb">Predicative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Germanic_verb#Preterite-presents" class="mw-redirect" title="Germanic verb">Preterite-present</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pure_verbs" title="Pure verbs">Pure</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reflexive_verb" title="Reflexive verb">Reflexive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Regular_and_irregular_verbs" title="Regular and irregular verbs">Regular / Irregular</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Separable_verb" title="Separable verb">Separable</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Stative_verb" title="Stative verb">Stative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Stretched_verb" title="Stretched verb">Stretched</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Transitive_verb" title="Transitive verb">Transitive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Unaccusative_verb" title="Unaccusative verb">Unaccusative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Unergative_verb" title="Unergative verb">Unergative</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Adjective" title="Adjective">Adjective</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Intersective_modifier" title="Intersective modifier">Anti-intersective</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Collateral_adjective" title="Collateral adjective">Collateral</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Proper_adjective" title="Proper adjective">Common</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Demonstrative" title="Demonstrative">Demonstrative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intersective_modifier" title="Intersective modifier">Intersective</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Nominalized_adjective" title="Nominalized adjective">Nominalized</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intersective_modifier" title="Intersective modifier">Non-intersective</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Possessive" title="Possessive">Possessive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Postpositive_adjective" title="Postpositive adjective">Postpositive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Proper_adjective" title="Proper adjective">Proper</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intersective_modifier" title="Intersective modifier">Pure intersective</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intersective_modifier" title="Intersective modifier">Relative subsective</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intersective_modifier" title="Intersective modifier">Subsective</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Adverb" title="Adverb">Adverb</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Conjunctive_adverb" title="Conjunctive adverb">Conjunctive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Flat_adverb" title="Flat adverb">Flat</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Adverbial_genitive" title="Adverbial genitive">Genitive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Interrogative_word" title="Interrogative word">Interrogative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Locative_adverb" title="Locative adverb">Locative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Prepositional_adverb" title="Prepositional adverb">Prepositional</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pronominal_adverb" title="Pronominal adverb">Pronominal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Relative_clause" title="Relative clause">Relative</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Pronoun" title="Pronoun">Pronoun</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Bound_variable_pronoun" title="Bound variable pronoun">Bound variable</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Demonstrative" title="Demonstrative">Demonstrative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Disjunctive_pronoun" title="Disjunctive pronoun">Disjunctive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Distributive_pronoun" title="Distributive pronoun">Distributive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Donkey_sentence" title="Donkey sentence">Donkey</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dummy_pronoun" title="Dummy pronoun">Dummy</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/T%E2%80%93V_distinction" title="T–V distinction">Formal / Informal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Gender_neutrality_in_languages_with_gendered_third-person_pronouns" title="Gender neutrality in languages with gendered third-person pronouns">Gender-neutral</a> / <a href="/wiki/Gender-specific_pronoun" class="mw-redirect" title="Gender-specific pronoun">Gender-specific</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Clusivity" title="Clusivity">Inclusive / Exclusive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Indefinite_pronoun" title="Indefinite pronoun">Indefinite</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intensive_pronoun" title="Intensive pronoun">Intensive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Interrogative_word" title="Interrogative word">Interrogative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Personal_pronoun" title="Personal pronoun">Personal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Possessive" title="Possessive">Possessive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reciprocal_pronoun" title="Reciprocal pronoun">Reciprocal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reflexive_pronoun" title="Reflexive pronoun">Reflexive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Relative_pronoun" title="Relative pronoun">Relative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Resumptive_pronoun" title="Resumptive pronoun">Resumptive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Weak_pronoun" class="mw-redirect" title="Weak pronoun">Strong / Weak</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Subject_pronoun" title="Subject pronoun">Subject</a> / <a href="/wiki/Object_pronoun" title="Object pronoun">Object</a> / <a href="/wiki/Prepositional_pronoun" title="Prepositional pronoun">Prepositional</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Preposition_and_postposition" class="mw-redirect" title="Preposition and postposition">Adposition</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Casally_modulated_preposition" title="Casally modulated preposition">Casally modulated</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Inflected_preposition" title="Inflected preposition">Inflected</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Preposition_stranding" title="Preposition stranding">Stranded</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Determiner" title="Determiner">Determiner</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Article_(grammar)" title="Article (grammar)">Article</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Demonstrative" title="Demonstrative">Demonstrative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Interrogative_word" title="Interrogative word">Interrogative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Possessive" title="Possessive">Possessive</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Generalized_quantifier" title="Generalized quantifier">Quantifier</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%"><a href="/wiki/Grammatical_particle" title="Grammatical particle">Particle</a></th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Discourse_marker" title="Discourse marker">Discourse</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Interrogative_word" title="Interrogative word">Interrogative</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Modal_particle" title="Modal particle">Modal</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Noun_particle" title="Noun particle">Noun</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Possessive" title="Possessive">Possessive</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Other</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Classifier_(linguistics)" title="Classifier (linguistics)">Classifier</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Measure_word" title="Measure word">Measure word</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Complementizer" title="Complementizer">Complementizer</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Conjunction_(grammar)" title="Conjunction (grammar)">Conjunction</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Copula_(linguistics)" title="Copula (linguistics)">Copula</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coverb" title="Coverb">Coverb</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Interjection" title="Interjection">Interjection</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Ideophone" title="Ideophone">Ideophone</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Onomatopoeia" title="Onomatopoeia">Onomatopoeia</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Preverb" title="Preverb">Preverb</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Procedure_word" title="Procedure word">Procedure word</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Pro-form" title="Pro-form">Pro-form</a> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Pro-verb" title="Pro-verb">Pro-verb</a> / <a href="/wiki/Pro-sentence" title="Pro-sentence">Pro-sentence</a></li></ul></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Prop-word" class="mw-redirect" title="Prop-word">Prop-word</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Syntax%E2%80%93semantics_interface" title="Syntax–semantics interface">Syntax–semantics interface</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Yes_and_no" title="Yes and no">Yes and no</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table></div> <div class="navbox-styles"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1236075235"></div><div role="navigation" class="navbox" aria-labelledby="Formal_semantics_(natural_language)" style="padding:3px"><table class="nowraplinks mw-collapsible autocollapse navbox-inner" style="border-spacing:0;background:transparent;color:inherit"><tbody><tr><th scope="col" class="navbox-title" colspan="2"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1129693374"><link rel="mw-deduplicated-inline-style" href="mw-data:TemplateStyles:r1239400231"><div class="navbar plainlinks hlist navbar-mini"><ul><li class="nv-view"><a href="/wiki/Template:Formal_semantics" title="Template:Formal semantics"><abbr title="View this template">v</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-talk"><a href="/wiki/Template_talk:Formal_semantics" title="Template talk:Formal semantics"><abbr title="Discuss this template">t</abbr></a></li><li class="nv-edit"><a href="/wiki/Special:EditPage/Template:Formal_semantics" title="Special:EditPage/Template:Formal semantics"><abbr title="Edit this template">e</abbr></a></li></ul></div><div id="Formal_semantics_(natural_language)" style="font-size:114%;margin:0 4em"><a href="/wiki/Formal_semantics_(natural_language)" title="Formal semantics (natural language)">Formal semantics (natural language)</a></div></th></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Central concepts</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Principle_of_compositionality" title="Principle of compositionality">Compositionality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Denotation" title="Denotation">Denotation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Entailment" class="mw-redirect" title="Entailment">Entailment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Extension_(semantics)" title="Extension (semantics)">Extension</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Generalized_quantifier" title="Generalized quantifier">Generalized quantifier</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intension" title="Intension">Intension</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Logical_form_(linguistics)" title="Logical form (linguistics)">Logical form</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Presupposition" title="Presupposition">Presupposition</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Proposition" title="Proposition">Proposition</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Reference" title="Reference">Reference</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Scope_(formal_semantics)" title="Scope (formal semantics)">Scope</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Speech_act" title="Speech act">Speech act</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Syntax%E2%80%93semantics_interface" title="Syntax–semantics interface">Syntax–semantics interface</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Truth-conditional_semantics" title="Truth-conditional semantics">Truth conditions</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Topics</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Areas</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Anaphora_(linguistics)" title="Anaphora (linguistics)">Anaphora</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Ambiguity" title="Ambiguity">Ambiguity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Binding_(linguistics)" title="Binding (linguistics)">Binding</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Conditional_sentence" title="Conditional sentence">Conditionals</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Definiteness" title="Definiteness">Definiteness</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Disjunction" class="mw-redirect" title="Disjunction">Disjunction</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Evidentiality" title="Evidentiality">Evidentiality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Focus_(linguistics)" title="Focus (linguistics)">Focus</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Indexicality" title="Indexicality">Indexicality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lexical_semantics" title="Lexical semantics">Lexical semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Linguistic_modality" class="mw-redirect" title="Linguistic modality">Modality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Negation" title="Negation">Negation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Propositional_attitudes" class="mw-redirect" title="Propositional attitudes">Propositional attitudes</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Tense%E2%80%93aspect%E2%80%93mood" title="Tense–aspect–mood">Tense–aspect–mood</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Quantifier_(logic)" title="Quantifier (logic)">Quantification</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Vagueness" title="Vagueness">Vagueness</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Phenomena</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Antecedent-contained_deletion" title="Antecedent-contained deletion">Antecedent-contained deletion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cataphora" title="Cataphora">Cataphora</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Coercion_(linguistics)" title="Coercion (linguistics)">Coercion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Conservativity" title="Conservativity">Conservativity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Counterfactuals" class="mw-redirect" title="Counterfactuals">Counterfactuals</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Crossover_effects" title="Crossover effects">Crossover effects</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Cumulativity_(linguistics)" title="Cumulativity (linguistics)">Cumulativity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/De_dicto_and_de_re" title="De dicto and de re">De dicto and de re</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/De_se" title="De se">De se</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Deontic_modality" title="Deontic modality">Deontic modality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Discourse_relation" title="Discourse relation">Discourse relations</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Donkey_anaphora" class="mw-redirect" title="Donkey anaphora">Donkey anaphora</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Epistemic_modality" title="Epistemic modality">Epistemic modality</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Exhaustivity" title="Exhaustivity">Exhaustivity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Faultless_disagreement" title="Faultless disagreement">Faultless disagreement</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Free_choice_inference" title="Free choice inference">Free choice inferences</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Givenness" title="Givenness">Givenness</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Homogeneity_(linguistics)" class="mw-redirect" title="Homogeneity (linguistics)">Homogeneity (linguistics)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Hurford_disjunction" title="Hurford disjunction">Hurford disjunction</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Inalienable_possession" title="Inalienable possession">Inalienable possession</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intersective_modifier" title="Intersective modifier">Intersective modification</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Logophoricity" title="Logophoricity">Logophoricity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mirativity" title="Mirativity">Mirativity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Modal_subordination" title="Modal subordination">Modal subordination</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Opaque_context" title="Opaque context">Opaque contexts</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Performative_utterance" title="Performative utterance">Performatives</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Polarity_item" title="Polarity item">Polarity items</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Privative_adjective" title="Privative adjective">Privative adjectives</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Quantificational_variability_effect" title="Quantificational variability effect">Quantificational variability effect</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Responsive_predicate" title="Responsive predicate">Responsive predicate</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Rising_declarative" title="Rising declarative">Rising declaratives</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Scalar_implicature" title="Scalar implicature">Scalar implicature</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Sloppy_identity" title="Sloppy identity">Sloppy identity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Subsective_modifier" title="Subsective modifier">Subsective modification</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Subtrigging" title="Subtrigging">Subtrigging</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Telicity" title="Telicity">Telicity</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Temperature_paradox" title="Temperature paradox">Temperature paradox</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Veridicality" title="Veridicality">Veridicality</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Formalism</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"></div><table class="nowraplinks navbox-subgroup" style="border-spacing:0"><tbody><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Formal systems</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Alternative_semantics" title="Alternative semantics">Alternative semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Categorial_grammar" title="Categorial grammar">Categorial grammar</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Combinatory_categorial_grammar" title="Combinatory categorial grammar">Combinatory categorial grammar</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Discourse_representation_theory" title="Discourse representation theory">Discourse representation theory (DRT)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Dynamic_semantics" title="Dynamic semantics">Dynamic semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Generative_grammar" title="Generative grammar">Generative grammar</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Glue_semantics" title="Glue semantics">Glue semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Inquisitive_semantics" title="Inquisitive semantics">Inquisitive semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Intensional_logic" title="Intensional logic">Intensional logic</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Lambda_calculus" title="Lambda calculus">Lambda calculus</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Mereology" title="Mereology">Mereology</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Montague_grammar" title="Montague grammar">Montague grammar</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Segmented_discourse_representation_theory" class="mw-redirect" title="Segmented discourse representation theory">Segmented discourse representation theory (SDRT)</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Situation_semantics" title="Situation semantics">Situation semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Supervaluationism" title="Supervaluationism">Supervaluationism</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Type_theory" title="Type theory">Type theory</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Type_theory_with_records" title="Type theory with records">TTR</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">Concepts</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-odd" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Autonomy_of_syntax" title="Autonomy of syntax">Autonomy of syntax</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Context_set" class="mw-redirect" title="Context set">Context set</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Continuation" title="Continuation">Continuation</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Conversational_scoreboard" title="Conversational scoreboard">Conversational scoreboard</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Downward_entailing" title="Downward entailing">Downward entailing</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Existential_closure" title="Existential closure">Existential closure</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Function_application" title="Function application">Function application</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Meaning_postulate" title="Meaning postulate">Meaning postulate</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Monad_(functional_programming)" title="Monad (functional programming)">Monads</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Plural_quantification" title="Plural quantification">Plural quantification</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Possible_world" title="Possible world">Possible world</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Quantifier_raising" class="mw-redirect" title="Quantifier raising">Quantifier raising</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Quantization_(linguistics)" title="Quantization (linguistics)">Quantization</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Question_under_discussion" title="Question under discussion">Question under discussion</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Semantic_parsing" title="Semantic parsing">Semantic parsing</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Squiggle_operator" title="Squiggle operator">Squiggle operator</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Strawson_entailment" title="Strawson entailment">Strawson entailment</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Strict_conditional" title="Strict conditional">Strict conditional</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Type_shifter" title="Type shifter">Type shifter</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Universal_grinder" title="Universal grinder">Universal grinder</a></li></ul> </div></td></tr></tbody></table><div></div></td></tr><tr><th scope="row" class="navbox-group" style="width:1%">See also</th><td class="navbox-list-with-group navbox-list navbox-even hlist" style="width:100%;padding:0"><div style="padding:0 0.25em"> <ul><li><a href="/wiki/Cognitive_semantics" title="Cognitive semantics">Cognitive semantics</a></li> <li><a href="/wiki/Computational_semantics" title="Computational semantics">Computational semantics</a></li> <li><a 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