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The expression "chairs", however, does, suggesting that the generalization is not actually specific to the mass-count distinction. As many have noted, it is possible to provide an alternative analysis, by which mass nouns and plural count nouns are assigned a similar semantics, as distinct from that of singular count nouns. [5]
The concept of a "mass noun" is a 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.
[10] [11] The count and non-count distinction also affects what other determiners can occur with the nouns: singular count nouns can occur with a but not some (e.g., a chair but not usually *some chair) while non-count nouns can occur with some but not a (e.g., some furniture but not *a furniture). [10] Many common nouns have both count and non ...
Mass nouns or uncountable (non-count) nouns differ from count nouns in precisely that respect: they cannot take plurals or combine with number words or the above type of quantifiers. For example, the forms a furniture and three furnitures are not used – even though pieces of furniture can be counted.
[3] Such nouns may refer to a unique singular object (essentially a proper noun), but more often than not, they refer to uncountable nouns, either mass nouns (referring to a substance that cannot be counted as distinct objects, such as 'milk') or collective nouns (referring to objects that may in principle be counted but are referred to as one ...
In English, the difference between mass nouns and count nouns is distinct, contrary to other languages where the mass vs count distinctions may be neutralized. [8] In Gennaro Chierchia's theory, mass nouns are inherently plural. Water is good. (mass noun as verb argument) This is water. (mass noun as predicate)
Measure words play a similar role to classifiers, except that they denote a particular quantity of something (a drop, a cupful, a pint, etc.), rather than the inherent countable units associated with a count noun. Classifiers are used with count nouns; measure words can be used with mass nouns (e.g. "two pints of mud"), and can also be used ...
I thought mass noun had to do with countability (cattle can't be counted, as e.g. *"three cattle", at least for me), which is also what the OED says ("Grammar, a noun denoting something, such as a substance or a quality, which cannot be counted; esp. (in the English language) a noun which lacks a plural in ordinary usage and is not used with ...