DETERMINERS, BARE SINGULARS, PLURALS: A PORTABLE TUTOR FOR SENTENCE GRAMMAR

This paper is based on the assumption that a portable tutor, as a practice-based tool, can offer students ample opportunities to improve their sentence grammar. By focusing on one specific grammar issue at a time, it presents certain sentence patterns that, through repeated practice, can eventually correct that particular grammar issue, in this case, that of determiners, bare singulars, and plurals. Significantly, this study has specific implications for Assumption University students and for Thai students in general, in that it explains why people who grow up speaking a language where nouns do not have determiners will have difficulty when learning a language that has them, for instance English. The paper begins by presenting a classification of determiners followed by a detailed description of one specific type of determiner: the bare singular count noun. The study continues with the proposed research methodology consisting of the Portable Tutor development, and the Experiment’s three main components, pre-testing, “treatment” and post-testing of the participating group of students. The paper concludes with data collection and analysis, and conclusions. <p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/edu_01/0745/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Context sensitivity and the semantics of count nouns in the evaluation of partial objects by children and adults

Previous research has documented that children count spatiotemporally-distinct partial objects as if they were whole objects. This behavior extends beyond counting to inclusion of partial objects in assessment and comparisons of quantities. Multiple accounts of this performance have been proposed: children and adults differ qualitatively in their conceptual representations, children lack the processing skills to immediately individuate entities in a given domain, or children cannot readily access relevant linguistic alternatives for the target count noun. We advance a new account, appealing to theoretical proposals about underspecification in nominal semantics and the role of the discourse context. Our results demonstrate that there are limits to which children allow partial objects to serve as wholes, and that under certain conditions, adult performance resembles that of children by allowing in partial objects. We propose that children's behavior is in fact licensed by the inherent context dependence of count nouns.

The grammatical distinction between count nouns and mass nouns in Mandarin Chinese

The purpose of this paper is to prove the Mass Noun Hypothesis wrong. The hypothesis claims that all common nouns in classifier languages like Mandarin Chinese are mass nouns. The objection against it consists in displaying its implausible deduction, where false conclusions have been drawn due to relying on the grammar of English, which is incongruent with the grammar of Chinese. Consequently, this paper defends the Count Noun Thesis, stating that in Chinese there are count as well as mass nouns. In support of this statement, first, the typology of numeral classifiers had to be established, which resulted in gathering and completing all the reasons to distinguish classifiers from measure words. After only this necessary differentiation was made, it was possible to show that the count/mass distinction exists in Mandarin Chinese. That is, count nouns by default have only one classifier, with certain disclaimers. Apart from that, count nouns, as in every language, may undergo some measurement with measure words. Mass nouns, however, in the context of quantification may appear only with measure words, but not with classifiers. These conditions naturally follow from the ontological status of the two types of nouns’ referents, i.e. bounded objects denoted by count nouns, and scattered substances denoted by mass nouns.

Layers of (un)boundedness: The aspectual–quantificational interplay of quantifiers and partitive case in Finnish object arguments

I present an account of the interplay between quantifiers and the partitive–accusative case alternation in Finnish object marking, with special reference to the aspectual and quantificational semantics of the clause. The case alternation expresses two oppositions (in affirmative clauses): (a) bounded (accusative) vs. unbounded (partitive) quantity, (b) culminating (accusative) vs. non-culminating (partitive) aspect. The quantifiers analyzed are of two main types: (i) mass quantifiers (e. g., paljon ‘a lot of’, vähän ‘(a) little’), which quantify a mass expressed by a mass noun or a plural form, (ii) number quantifiers (e. g., moni ‘many’, usea ‘a number of’), which quantify a multiplicity of discrete entities expressed by a count noun in the singular or plural. Finnish mass quantifiers only quantify nominals in the partitive, while number quantifiers agree with the quantified nominal in number and case and are used throughout the case paradigm. With a mass quantifier, the partitive form of the quantified nominal expresses unbounded quantity, which the quantifier then renders bounded (quantized). This is why object phrases with mass quantifiers behave like accusative objects: they express a bounded quantity together with culminating aspect. Number quantifiers quantify both accusative and partitive objects, in the singular and plural. Such objects are able to express aspect and quantity at two levels: (i) that of the individual component events which concern one entity each; (ii) that of the higher-order event which concerns the whole quantity expressed. I argue that the case marking of the object relates primarily to level (i), while the meaning of the number quantifier relates to level (ii). This is why a number quantifier typically renders the quantity bounded and the aspect culminating at level (ii), even when the partitive case expresses unboundedness or lack of culmination at level (i).

No Gender Polarity in Arabic Numeral Phrases

Gender polarity is an intriguing morphological phenomenon in Arabic. The numerals 3–10 take the gender opposite to that of their count nouns; that is, when the count noun is feminine, the numerals 3–10 appear in the masculine form, and vice versa. Earlier analyses (see, e.g., Alqassas 2013, 2017, Alqarni 2015) proposed that the numerals 3–10 bear an inherent feminine feature, which is deleted by an impoverishment rule in the presence of a feminine feature on the count noun, yielding gender polarity. This article provides empirical counterevidence to these analyses and the concept of gender polarity on the whole. It shows that the numerals 3–10 do not interact with the gender of the count noun; rather, they interact with the count noun’s morphology—that is, whether the count noun bears the morpheme /at/ or /a:tu/-/a:ti/ in its structure. These findings suggest that gender polarity in Arabic is a misnomer; the phenomenon should instead be termed morpheme polarity. Rather than implementing the impoverishment rules proposed in earlier analyses, this article uses readjustment rules to account for the morpheme polarity at hand.

Coming nearer and nearer: A cognitive grammar account of the third person plural impersonal

Coming nearer and nearer: A cognitive grammar account of the third person plural impersonalThe present paper analyses different readings of the 3pl impersonal pronoun (3pl IMP) from the Cognitive Grammar (CG) perspective. While the well-known taxonomy established for 3pl impersonals in European languages by Siewierska & Papastathi (2011) highlights contextual features of different readings of the pronoun, CG is able to focus on what has been neglected in this approach and offers a more adequate analysis of the 3pl IMP as an important means of portraying the agent. In the article the impersonal agent is presented as unspecified and, as such, defocused to various degrees. Evidence is provided for a set of four prototypical readings of the pronoun – the corporate, the vague, the specific and the universal – constituting reference points within a continuum and differentiated as to the agent portrayal. Establishing such portrayals is seen as a phenomenon rooted in the cognitively basic mechanism of distancing, which in the case of the 3pl IMPs means approaching the perceived object by the conceptualizer, as in the schema underlying the difference between a count noun and a mass noun. The mechanism is illustrated by language data taken from English and Swedish. Podchodząc coraz bliżej. Odczytania zaimka 3 os. l. mn. w funkcji bezosobowej w ujęciu gramatyki kognitywnejNiniejszy artykuł analizuje różne odczytania zaimka 3 os. l. mn. (np. pol. oni, ang. they), wykorzystywanego w funkcji bezosobowej, z punktu widzenia gramatyki kognitywnej w ujęciu R. W. Langackera. Podczas gdy taksonomia opracowana dla tego typu zaimków w językach europejskich przez Siewierską i Papastathi (2011) eksponuje cechy kontekstowe decydujące o różnych interpretacjach treści zaimka, gramatyka kognitywna uzupełnia te ujęcia i proponuje jego opis jako środka zróżnicowanego przedstawiania agensa w wypowiedzeniach. Omówione zostają cztery prototypowe odczytania zaimka - korporacyjne, niejasne, specyficzne i uniwersalne, stanowiące punkty odniesienia w kontinuum, które umożliwia określoną interpretację treści analizowanej jednostki językowej. Ustanowienie takich wzorcowych „portretów” opiera się na podstawowym mechanizmie poznawczym, którym jest przybliżanie się konceptualizatora do obiektu konceptualizacji, co w przypadku zaimka 3 os. l. mn. oznacza płynne przejście od obiektu postrzeganego jako dyskretny do obiektu konceptualizowanego jako homogeniczna substancja. Mechanizm ilustrują dane językowe zaczerpnięte z języka angielskiego i języka szwedzkiego.

Logical Form

Chapter 2 presents the particular reasons locutions on which the book focuses, and argue that one of them is fundamental. The chapter identifies the logical form of this fundamental reasons locution by introducing the idea that ‘reason’ is a predicate/operator hybrid. It then shows why ‘reason’ as a count noun is not ambiguous in any way (contra Mark Schroeder and John Broome), and offer arguments against Justin Snedegar’s claim that reasons locutions are contrastive and John Skorupski’s claim that reasons locutions have an epistemic parameter and/or a weight parameter.

Bare Singular Count Nouns in Dutch as a Heritage Language in Brazil / Nomes singulares nus em neerlandês como língua de herança

The aim of this research was to evaluate the distribution of DPs in generic sentences, in Dutch Heritage Language Speakers (HLS) in Holambra, Brazil, especially regarding the acceptability of Bare Singular Count Nouns (BS). The Distribution of BS is more restricted in Dutch than in Brazilian Portuguese, nonetheless, we raised the hypothesis that, due to the influence of Brazilian Portuguese, these HLS would accept BS in contexts similar to those of Brazilians. We applied an acceptability judgement test to 60 adult HLS from Holambra (experimental group), 30 Brazilian monolinguals and 30 native Dutch speakers (control groups 1 and 2). We presented to each participant in the experimental group 10 Dutch stimulus sentences and 20 filler sentences in order to verify their acceptability on a five-item Likert scale. The results showed that sentences with BS eliciting a generic reading received high acceptability rates from the Experimental Group of Holambra (72% acceptability rate). These responses were more aligned with the Brazilian Control (78% acceptability rate) than with the Dutch Control (96% unacceptability rate). The statistical Regression Analysis of the BS showed that the Dutch Control had a significant divergent behavior (p.value = <2-16) when compared to the Experimental Group. The results seem thus to support our hypothesis that a slightly different grammar has risen in the Dutch HLS of Holambra, suffering attrition due to the influence of Brazilian Portuguese, since they accept Bare Singulars, showing no significant difference with the Brazilian Control Group. We will follow Oosterhof’s proposal (2008) on the distribution of empty determiners in Dutch and assume that the grammar of the Holambra speakers possesses a bundle of features allowing a 0[+R, +count, –pl] combination: That is, a singular count noun DP with an empty determiner, rendering a generic reading. Keywords: language acquisition; heritage languages; bare singular count nouns; Dutch; Brazilian Portuguese.Resumo: O objetivo desta pesquisa foi avaliar a distribuição de DPs em sentenças genéricas em falantes de neerlandês como língua de herança em Holambra, Brasil, especialmente em relação à aceitabilidade de nomes singulares nus (NNs). A distribuição de NNs é mais restrita em neerlandês do que no Português Brasileiro (PB), no entanto, levantamos a hipótese de que, devido à influência do PB os falantes de Holambra poderiam aceitar NNs em contextos semelhantes aos dos brasileiros. Aplicamos um teste de aceitabilidade em 60 HLS adultos de Holambra (grupo experimental), 30 monolíngues brasileiros e 30 falantes nativos de holandês (grupos de controle 1 e 2). Apresentamos a cada participante do grupo experimental 10 sentenças em neerlandês e 20 distratores, a fim de verificar sua aceitabilidade em uma escala Likert de cinco itens. Os resultados mostraram que sentenças genéricas com NNs receberam alta aceitação do Grupo Experimental de Holambra (72% de aceitabilidade). Essas respostas estão mais alinhadas com o Controle Brasileiro (78% de aceitabilidade) do que com o Controle Holandês (96% de inaceitabilidade). A análise de regressão estatística dos NNs mostrou que o Controle Holandês apresentou comportamento significativamente divergente (p. valor=<2-16) quando comparado com o Grupo Experimental. Os resultados parecem corroborar nossa hipótese de que uma gramática ligeiramente diferente surgiu nos falantes de holandês de Holambra, sofrendo atrito devido à influência do PB, uma vez que aceitam NNs, não mostrando diferença significativa com o Grupo de Controle Brasileiro. Seguiremos a proposta de Oosterhof (2008) sobre a distribuição de determinantes vazios em holandês, e propor que a gramática dos falantes de Holambra possui um conjunto de traços permitindo a combinação 0 [+ R, + count, -pl]: isto é, um nome nu singular contável com uma leitura genérica.Palavras-chave: aquisição de linguagem; línguas de herança; nomes singulares nus; neerlandês; português brasileiro.

On the interrogative terms ʔaddēʃ and kam in Syrian Arabic

This paper compares two interrogative terms—ʔaddēʃ and kam—in Syrian Arabic. Both of these form questions about quantity. I argue, though, that ʔaddēʃ and kam are fundamentally different both syntactically and semantically. ʔaddēʃ can be separated from the term that contributes the scale it asks about, which is typical of degree operators in Syrian Arabic. Various scales are compatible with ʔaddēʃ. This makes ʔaddēʃ similar to English how as in how high, how fast, how much, etc. Kam, on the other hand, combines only with a singular count noun and asks how many instances of the count noun denotation have the property the remnant sentence denotes. This, and syntactic and morphological parallels between kam and numerals in Syrian Arabic, point to the conclusion that kam is an interrogative numeral.

Count Nouns and Mass Nouns: Crops, Produce, and the Plural of Seed

The distinction between count nouns and mass nouns affects thinking and writing about various types of crops and produce. Count nouns are words that indicate discrete, countable objects (e.g., forks, viewpoints), whereas mass nouns are words that indicate some relatively undifferentiated substance (e.g., water, energy). We explain the grammar of these two forms and point out some writing pitfalls to avoid. The word seed is one of the few English nouns that is both a count noun and a mass noun. An argument is presented for using seeds as the plural when several individuals are counted and for using seed as the singular when referring to seeds in the aggregate.