Do Mass Nouns Constitute a Semantically Uniform Class?

David Nicolas
2002 Kansas Working Papers in Linguistics  
Research on mass nouns has focused on concrete terms. So, are there semantic properties shared by all mass terms? We first consider concrete nouns like milk and furniture. Contra Cheng (1973), we show that they can be held to refer distributively (i.e. to apply to any part of what they apply to) only if this property is understood with a new part-relation, that of N-part . In addition, they r efer cumulatively: when they apply to each of two things, they also apply to the two things considered
more » ... ogether. We then turn to abstract mass terms like beauty and love. We find, surprisingly, that they too refer distributively and cumulatively.
doi:10.17161/kwpl.1808.591 fatcat:fbemt7xakncjhfccxzos4ae3ha