The semantics of count nouns

Susan Rothstein

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

We offer an account of the semantics of count nouns based on the observation that for some count nouns, the set of atoms in the denotation of the singular predicate is contextually determined. The denotation of singular count nouns is derived relative to a context k, where k is a set of entities which count as atoms in a particular context. An operation COUNTk applies to the mass noun denotation and derives the count meaning: a set of ordered pairs <d,k> where d is a member of N ∩ k and k is the context relative to which d counts as one. Count nouns and mass nouns are thus typally distinct and the grammatical differences between them follow from this. We distinguish between naturally atomic predicates, which denote sets of inherently individuable entities or Boolean algebras generated from such sets, and semantically atomic predicates, which denote sets which are atomic relative to a particular context k. This distinction is orthogonal to the mass count distinction.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationLogic, Language and Meaning - 17th Amsterdam Colloquium, Revised Selected Papers
Pages395-404
Number of pages10
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010
Event17th Amsterdam Colloquium on Logic, Language and Meaning - Amsterdam, Netherlands
Duration: 16 Dec 200918 Dec 2009

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume6042 LNAI
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference17th Amsterdam Colloquium on Logic, Language and Meaning
Country/TerritoryNetherlands
CityAmsterdam
Period16/12/0918/12/09

Keywords

  • atomicity
  • counting
  • homogeneity
  • mass/count distinction
  • measuring
  • nominal interpretations
  • semantics of number

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