Who has more? The influence of linguistic form on quantity judgments

Quantity judgment tasks have been increasingly used within and across languages as a diagnostic for noun semantics. Overwhelmingly, results show that notionally atomic nouns (Who has more cats?) are counted, while notionally non-atomic nouns (Who has more milk?) are measured by volume. There are two primary outliers to the strict atomicity-tracking pattern. First, some nouns, like furniture, show primarily cardinality-based results in some studies, indicating atomicity, but nevertheless show systematic non-cardinality judgments in other studies, with comparison based instead on value/utility. Second, it has been reported that speakers of the Amazonian language Yudja favor cardinality-based quantity comparison for all nouns regardless of notional atomicity. In the current study, we show that both of these patterns arise in naïve English speakers in the absence of clear linguistic cues to atomicity, and suggest that the absence or mis-diagnosis of linguistic cues may be behind the reported outliers to atomicity-tracking.

Countability in Absence of Count Syntax: Evidence from Japanese Quantity Judgments

We investigated the interaction of mass-count syntax and item-specific wordmeanings by comparing quantity judgments in two mass-count languages(English, French) and a classifier language (Japanese). Speakers of bothEnglish and Japanese based quantity judgments on volume for substance-massterms (e.g., judging two large portions of toothpaste to be moretoothpaste thansix tiny portions) but on number for count nouns (e.g., shoes) andobject-mass nouns (e.g., judging that six small pieces of furniture are morefurniture than two large pieces). For words that can be used in either massor count syntax in English (e.g., string), English quantity judgmentsshifted as a function of mass-count syntax (i.e., based on number when usedin count syntax, but on volume when used in mass syntax), whileapproximately 50% of Japanese quantity judgments were based on number,falling between English mass and count judgments. For words that are massnouns in English but count nouns in French (e.g., spinach), quantityjudgments shifted as a function of syntax between these languages, whileJapanese judgments were not different from the count judgments of Frenchspeakers, and were based mainly on number. We argue that, across languages,mass-count syntax is not necessary for nouns to specify individuation, butacts to select from among universally available lexical meanings.

Quantity judgments and individuation: evidence that mass nouns count

Three experiments explored the semantics of the mass-count distinction inyoung children and adults. In Experiments 1 and 2, the quantity judgmentsof participants provided evidence that some mass nouns refer toindividuals, as such. Participants judged one large portion of stuff to be”more” than three tiny portions for substance-mass nouns (e.g. mustard,ketchup), but chose according to number for count nouns (e.g. shoes, candles)and object-mass nouns (e.g. furniture, jewelry). These results suggest thatsome mass nouns quantify over individuals, and that therefore reference toindividuals does not distinguish count nouns from mass nouns. Thus,Experiments 1 and 2 failed to support the hypothesis that there existone-to- one mappings between mass-count syntax and semantics for eitheradults or young children. In Experiment 3, it was found that for mass-countflexible terms (e.g. string, stone) participants based quantity judgmentson number when the terms were used with count syntax, but on total amountof stuff when used with mass syntax. Apparently, the presence of discretephysical objects in a scene (e.g. stones) is not sufficient to permitquantity judgments based on number. It is proposed that object-mass nouns(e.g. furniture) can be used to refer to individuals due to lexically specified grammatical features that normally occur in count syntax. Also, wesuggest that children learning language parse words that refer toindividuals as count nouns unless given morpho-syntactic and referentialevidence to the contrary, in which case object-mass nouns are acquired.

All notional mass nouns are count nouns in Yudja

<p>This paper investigates the linguistic expression of individuation and counting in Yudja (Juruna family), a Tupi language spoken in Brazil. Relying on the principles of mereotopology (Casati and Varzi 1999, Varzi 2007), the main claim of this paper is that in Yudja all nouns can be used as count nouns. That is, in Yudja maximal self-connected concrete portions of a kind can be considered as atoms and can be counted. This claim is based on two fundamental properties of Yudja. First, all notional mass nouns can be directly combined with numerals. Second, the results of quantity judgments studies with Yudja children and adults suggest that all nouns can be directly combined with count-quantifiers and that count-quantifiers are necessarily interpreted as referring to the number of concrete portions. These properties together suggest that all nouns in Yudja are interpreted as count nouns.</p>