Overview
This lecture focuses on distinguishing between count nouns and mass nouns in English, discussing their syntactic properties, distribution tests, and context-dependent interpretations.
Syntactic Categories and Distribution Tests
- Syntactic category distribution tests help determine if a word is a noun, verb, adjective, etc., based on its sentence behavior.
- Some tests (e.g., pluralization, modification by "very") work for most but not all words in a category.
Count Nouns
- Count nouns can be pluralized (e.g., "members," "albums," "fans").
- They can be preceded by numerals (e.g., "seven members").
- Use "many" and "how many" for quantification (e.g., "how many members").
- Appear with "a lot of" plus plural (e.g., "a lot of members").
Mass Nouns
- Mass nouns cannot be pluralized (e.g., "salt," "mud," "furniture").
- Cannot usually be counted directly (e.g., "100 salts" is ungrammatical).
- Use "much" and "how much" for quantification (e.g., "how much salt").
- Appear with "a lot of" without plural marking (e.g., "a lot of salt").
Distribution Tests for Count vs. Mass Nouns
- Pluralization: Only count nouns take plural forms.
- Numerals: Only count nouns combine naturally with numerals.
- Quantifiers: "Many" for count nouns; "much" for mass nouns.
- "A lot of" works for both, but only count nouns get plural marking.
Language Variation and Contextual Flexibility
- The count/mass distinction is determined by grammatical rules, not by whether things are conceptually countable.
- Some nouns (e.g., "hair") are mass in English but count in other languages like French.
- Some nouns can switch between count and mass uses depending on context (e.g., "soda" as drink vs. "sodas" as cans).
Context-Dependent Interpretation
- Mass nouns can become count nouns when referring to containers or kinds (e.g., "two teas," "many cheeses").
- Count nouns can be interpreted as mass nouns when referring to undifferentiated substances (e.g., "so much pumpkin" after an accident).
Key Terms & Definitions
- Count noun — a noun that can be pluralized and counted directly (e.g., "members").
- Mass noun — a noun that refers to uncountable substances or concepts and cannot be pluralized (e.g., "salt").
- Distribution test — a linguistic method to determine a word's syntactic category by its grammatical behavior.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Complete the practice exercises on identifying count and mass nouns.
- Watch the next lecture video on prepositions.