Re: USAGE: Count and mass nouns
| From: | Trebor Jung <treborjung@...> |
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| Date: | Thursday, January 15, 2004, 4:12 |
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Quoting Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...>:
"On Thu, 15 Jan 2004 02:17:22 +0100, Trebor Jung <treborjung@...> 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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