Editing Count noun

{{short description|Noun or noun phrase whose quantity is discrete and usually an integer}}
{{Grammatical categories}}
{{Wiktionary|count noun}}
{{Refimprove|date=September 2010}}
In [[linguistics]], a  '''count noun''' (also '''countable noun''') is a noun that can be modified by a [[Numeral (linguistics)|quantity]] and that occurs in both [[grammatical number|singular]] and [[plural]] forms, and that can co-occur with quantificational [[determiner]]s like ''every'', ''each'', ''several'', etc. A [[mass noun]] has none of these properties: It cannot be modified by a number, cannot occur in plural, and cannot co-occur with quantificational determiners.

==Examples==
Below are examples of  all the properties of count nouns holding for the count noun ''chair'', but not for the mass noun ''furniture''. 
* Occurrence in plural.
: There is '''a chair''' in the room. (correct)
: There are '''chairs''' in the room. (correct)
: There is '''chair''' in the room. (incorrect)
: There is '''a furniture''' in the room. (incorrect)
: There are '''furnitures''' in the room. (incorrect)
: There is '''furniture''' in the room. (correct)

* [[Co-occurrence]] with count determiners
: '''Every chair''' is man-made. (correct)
: There are '''several chairs''' in the room. (correct)
: '''Every furniture''' is man-made. (incorrect)
: There are '''several furnitures''' in the room. (incorrect)

Some determiners can be used with both mass and count nouns, including "some", "a lot (of)", "no". Others cannot: "few" and "many" are used with count items, "little" and "much" with mass nouns. On the other hand, "fewer" is reserved for count and "less" for mass (see [[Fewer vs. less]]), but "more" is the proper comparative for both "many" and "much".

==Grammatical distinction==
The concept of a "mass noun" is a [[grammar|grammatical]] concept and is not based on the innate nature of the object to which that noun refers. For example, "seven chairs" and "some furniture" could refer to exactly the same objects, with "seven chairs" referring to them as a collection of individual objects but with "some furniture" referring to them as a single undifferentiated unit. However, some abstract phenomena like "fun" and "hope" have properties which make it difficult to refer to them with a count noun.  

[[Classifier (linguistics)|Classifiers]] are sometimes used as count nouns preceding mass nouns, in order to redirect the speaker's focus away from the mass nature. For example, "There's some ''furniture'' in the room" can be restated, with a change of focus, to "There are some ''pieces'' of ''furniture'' in the room"; and "let's have some ''fun''" can be refocused as "Let's have a ''bit'' of ''fun''".

In English, some nouns are used most frequently as mass nouns, with or without a classifier (as in "Waiter, I'll have some ''coffee''" or "Waiter, I'll have a ''cup'' of ''coffee''"), but also, less frequently, as count nouns (as in "Waiter, we'll have three ''coffees''.")

==Theory==
Following the work of logicians like [[Godehard Link]] and linguists like [[Manfred Krifka]], we know that the mass/count distinction can be given a precise mathematical definition in terms of notions like [[cumulativity]] and [[quantization (linguistics)|quantization]]. Discussed by Barry Schein in 1993, a new logical framework, called plural logic, has also been used for characterizing the semantics of count nouns and mass nouns.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Nicolas |first=D. |year=2008 |title=Mass nouns and plural logic |journal=Linguistics and Philosophy |volume=31 |issue=2 |pages=211–244 |doi=10.1007/s10988-008-9033-2 |s2cid=13755223 |url=http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/00/28/55/22/PDF/Nicolas-Mass-nouns-and-plural-logic-Revised-2.pdf |access-date=2009-12-27}}</ref>

==Linguistic differences==
Some languages, such as [[Mandarin Chinese]], treat all nouns as mass nouns, and need to make use of a [[noun classifier]] (see ''[[Chinese classifier]]'') to add [[Number names|numerals]] and other [[Quantifier (linguistics)|quantifiers]]. The following examples are of nouns which, while seemingly innately countable, are still treated as mass nouns:

* '''那个人'''吃完了/'''那個人'''吃完了 ('''nà gè rén''' chī wán le) – "'''That unit (of) person''' has eaten", "That person has eaten"
* '''那三个人'''吃完了/'''那三個人'''吃完了 ('''nà sān gè rén''' chī wán le) – "'''Those three unit (of) person''' have eaten", "Those three people have eaten"
* 她有'''七本书'''/她有'''七本書''' (tā yǒu '''qī běn shū''') – "She has '''seven volume (of) book'''", "She has seven books."

A classifier, therefore, implies that the object(s) referred to are countable in the sense that the speaker intends them to be enumerated, rather than considered as a unit (regardless of quantity). Notice that the classifier changes as the unit being counted changes.

Words such as "milk" or "rice" are not so obviously countable entities, but they can be counted with an appropriate unit of measure in both English and Mandarin (e.g., "''glasses'' of milk" or "''spoonfuls'' of rice").

The use of a classifier is similar to, but not identical with, the use of [[units of measurement]] to count ''groups'' of objects in English. For example, in "three shelves of books", where "shelves" is used as a unit of measurement.

On the other hand, some languages, like [[Turkish language|Turkish]], treat all the nouns (even things which are not obviously countable) as countable nouns.

* {{lang|tr|'''Pirinçler''' daha tam pişmemiş.}} – "The '''rice''' (lit. ''rices'') hasn't been cooked well yet"
* {{lang|tr|'''Sütler''' hep '''yerlere''' döküldü.}} – "The '''milk''' (lit. ''milks'') has been spilled all over the '''floor''' (lit. ''floors'')"
* {{lang|tr|'''Nehirlerin''' '''suları''' çok güzel akıyor.}} – "The '''rivers'<nowiki/>''' '''water''' (lit. ''waters'') flows very nicely"
* {{lang|tr|Parasız '''kişiler''' için '''kitaplar''' dağıtıyorlar.}} – "They are distributing '''books''' for the '''people''' without money"

Even then, it is possible to use units of measures with numbers in Turkish, even with the very obviously countable nouns. The Turkish nouns can not take a plural suffix after the numbers and the units of measure.

* {{lang|tr|Beş '''bardak''' süt}} – "five '''glasses''' of milk"
* {{lang|tr|İki '''kaşık dolusu''' pirinç}} – "two '''spoonfuls''' of rice"
* {{lang|tr|Üç '''tane''' kişi}} – "three '''units''' of person"
* {{lang|tr|Dört '''metrekare''' yer}} – "Four '''square meters''' of floor"
* {{lang|tr|Yedi '''raf''' kitap}} – "seven '''shelves''' of book"

==See also==
* [[Collective noun]]<!-- often confused with mass nouns -->
* [[Grammatical number]]
* [[Measure word]]

==References==
<references/>

{{Lexical categories|state=collapsed}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Count Noun}}
[[Category:Grammatical number]]
[[Category:Nouns by type]]
[[Category:Syntax–semantics interface]]

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