Re: USAGE: Count and mass nouns

I think that there cannot be any general rule on that topic, implying "all"
possible (concrete) nouns.

The question is: do I instinctly conceive some noun, let's call it X, as mass or
as count noun ? (opposition continuous / discrete).

If X is "sand", I would rather think it's mass, but it doesn't mean that I don't
want to say "a grain of sand" sometimes. The same with corn, grass... If I say
"potato", it would rather be count, but I may be willing to say "potatoes" as
stuff (Russian does so: "kartoshka" = potatoes, but it's singular; in French,
it would be "de la pomme de terre" instead of "des pommes de terre". It
probably depends partly of the size of the individual entity.

Brittonic for ex. has a singulative, to say "one single leave of grass" ("grass" being
understood as mass). Than you may imagine to put that singulative on plural,
meaning "several / many single leaves of grass."

It seems difficult to conceive such thing as "one water", because water is rather
continuous. Of course it could mean "a drop of water", but we come to this
interpretation only after thinking, meaning that it's not natural. The other
interpretation would be "one sort of water (among several), for ex. mineral
water brands.

The word "noun" usually refers to syntax much more than to semantics. It includes
a wide range of different concepts. That's why it's confusing.

Trebor Jung <treborjung@...> wrote:
Quoting Paul Bennett
:

"On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 02:17:22 +0100, Trebor Jung wrote:

"> Merhaba!
">
"> I'm creating a conlang in which I don't want to have to use classifiers
"> ('sheet
"> of paper'). I want to be able to say, for example, *'one paper'. If I
"> make
"> nouns count as default, instead of mass as in English, would I achieve my
"> goal?

"Possibly not. "One paper" is largely unambiguous, but what about "one
"sand", or worse "one water"?

"Paul"

'One sand' would mean 'grain of sand', and 'one water' would mean 'one droplet
of water'. The term 'sand (in general)' and 'shower' would be derived forms of
the count noun.

--Trebor

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