ABSTRACT

This chapter provides a continuum-based approach to the count-mass distinction. After rejecting the traditional binary view that [+mass] is [-count] and vice versa, I propose that one type can be more or less countable than the other type: that is, there are many different types between the countable type and the non-countable type. There are three important features involved in deciding whether a noun is more or less countable than the other: [+individual member], [+distributable], [+countable]. The feature geometry of the three features is as follows: (i) [+countable] → [+distributable] and (ii) [+distributable] → [+individual member]. The nouns considered in this chapter can be classified into five types on the basis of the three features as follows: English Count Nouns: [+countable] > Korean Count Nouns: [+countable (small numbers)] > Korean Count-Mass Nouns: [+distributable] > English APs headed by the and British collective nouns [+individual member] > English/Korean Mass Nouns: [-individual member]. This chapter also shows that the so-called plurality marker -tul is a distributive marker, not a marker that is used for countable nouns.