Full text loading...
USD
-
Count and mass nouns in Dâw
- Source: Linguistic Variation, Volume 20, Issue 2, Oct 2020, p. 219 - 229
-
- 01 Oct 2020
Abstract
Abstract
The goals of this paper are to describe the grammatical properties of nouns and number in Dâw (Naduhup family, Northwestern Amazonia, Brazil) using Lima & Rothstein’s questionnaire (this volume) on mass versus count nouns and to contribute to the typological and semantic literature on nouns and number. Our results show that Dâw is a bare argument language, with no plural on nouns or numeral classifiers, in which all nouns can be counted directly without the need of a measure or container phrase. A difference between notionally count and mass nouns can be found only when different sets of quantifiers are combined with mass and count nouns and in comparatives.
© John Benjamins Publishing Company