29.1244, Confs: Cognitive Science, General Linguistics, Linguistic Theories, Semantics, Syntax/Germany
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LINGUIST List: Vol-29-1244. Tue Mar 20 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.
Subject: 29.1244, Confs: Cognitive Science, General Linguistics, Linguistic Theories, Semantics, Syntax/Germany
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Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2018 17:58:53
From: Johanna Poppek [poppek at linguistics.rub.de]
Subject: The Count-Mass Distinction: A Linguistic Misunderstanding?
The Count-Mass Distinction: A Linguistic Misunderstanding?
Date: 07-May-2018 - 09-May-2018
Location: Bochum, Germany
Contact: Johanna Marie Poppek
Contact Email: poppek at linguistics.rub.de
Meeting URL: http://count-and-mass.org/becl2018/
Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science; General Linguistics; Linguistic Theories; Semantics; Syntax
Meeting Description:
Numerous publications bear witness that the count/mass distinction is a
prominent topic in linguistic research. Despite its prominence, the
distinction is elusive, and several key issues have not yet been resolved.
Many linguists and philosophers have some intuitive idea of a count/mass
distinction, but formal theories eventually have to map their count/mass
distinction to another arbitrary property. Lost in this process is the
possibility that a binary distinction may be observationally and descriptively
inadequate.
On the semantic side, some authors presuppose that count nouns make atomic
denotations available in language (cf. Link 1983; Chierchia 1998, 2000;
Rothstein 2010). Some of these approaches have been challenged by the
homogeneous structure of count nouns like fence and wall. Additionally there
are the so-called fake mass nouns, object mass nouns or superordinates such as
furniture, silverware or lingerie that provide denotations with an atomic
structure but unlike count nouns they do not make their atoms available in
language. Even though Rothstein (2010) manages to solve these problems by
introducing contextually related atomicity, it remains unclear what the very
concepts count and mass mean apart from making atomic structure available. In
Rothstein’s approach, the burden is shifted to a contextual function, which,
however, seems to be present in every usage of at least some nouns.
While the aforementioned approaches are based on compositional semantic
analyses, syntactic approaches such as Borer’s 2005 treatment of plurals as
divisions have shed new light on interesting areas, but fail to integrate
compositionality. A peculiar puzzle for the role of number in syntax and
semantics is the fact that ‘mass’ nouns sometimes can denote pluralic
entities, but require singular number agreement in many languages. This
observation has severe implications for approaches as diverse as the
Minimalist Program (Chomsky 2005) and HPSG (Pollard and Sag 1994) – both
approaches assume that number is an interpretable feature.
The uncertainty around the count/mass distinction is further exacerbated by
the observation that a binary distinction may not be able to account for the
full range of data. Although Allan (1980) has already shown that nouns do not
necessarily occur in all contexts that are usually labeled syntactically as
‘count’ or ‘mass’, the variation among nouns has been ignored with the
exception of so-called dual life nouns, i.e. nouns that are both count and
mass. Recent empirical research by Kiss et al. (2016) has put this issue on
the fore again, by pointing out nouns that may be pluralized, but may not
occur together with an indefinite determiner (e.g. additive, disadvantage,
therapy and punishment), and also nouns that may occur together with an
indefinite determiner, but may not be pluralized (blush, bosom and front).
Similar problems emerge if immediate grammatical consequences of a count/mass
distinction are considered. Many grammarians assume e.g. that singular count
nouns require the presence of a determiner; but a closer look into the
literature reveals that the relationship between determiners and nouns is
either one of stipulation (if not circularity), or even reversed, so that we
could instead conclude that determiners of a certain type need ‘count’ nouns
as their complement, but not that the nouns actually require the presence of a
determiner (as e.g. in Chierchia 1998).
Finally, broader typological research has shown that the count/mass
distinction is not a necessary property of the grammar system (cf. Wiltschko
2012, Mathieu 2012, Lima 2014, 2016).
The purpose of this conference is to critically examine what we know about the
count/mass distinction, and ideally to provide ideas and evidence that puts
research on the count/mass distinction on a new level – even if this means
that the count/mass distinction is replaced by alternative concepts (cf. CfP
for details).
Program:
The Count-Mass Distinction - A Linguistic Misunderstanding?
CALM 2018
May 7-9, 2018
Bochum, Germany
http://count-and-mass.org/becl2018/
Registration Deadline: April 15, 2018
Invited Speakers:
Gennaro Chierchia Harvard University, USA
Jenny Doetjes Universiteit Leiden, The Netherlands
Susan Rothstein Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Discussants:
Hagit Borer Queen Mary University of London
F. Jeffry Pelletier University of Alberta
Monday May 7, 2018
9:15 - 10:00:
Registration & Welcome
Welcome address by Prof. Dr. Axel Schoelmerich, Rector Ruhr-Universitaet
Bochum
10:00 - 10:45:
Alan Bale (Concordia University):
Number marking and the mass/count distinction
10:45 - 11:00: Coffee Break
11:00 - 11:45:
Scott Grimm (University of Rochester):
Determining Countability Classes
11:45 - 12:30:
Hanna de Vries (University of York), George Tsoulas (University of York),
Raffaella Folli (Ulster University), Agata Renans (Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum),
Jacopo Romoli (Ulster University):
'Exoskeletal iceberg semantics': a best-of-both-worlds approach to the
mass/count distinction
12:30 - 14:00: Lunch Break
14:00 - 15:30:
Gennaro Chierchia (Harvard University):
Where do we stand with the mass and count distinction?
15:30 - 16:00: Coffee Break
16:00 - 16:45:
Byeong-uk Yi (University of Toronto):
The Mereological Approach to the Mass/Count Distinction: Critical Remarks
16:45 - 17:30:
Sandeep Prasada (Hunter College):
The formal dimension of common sense concepts and the count-mass distinction
17:30 - 18:15:
Brendan S. Gillon (McGill University):
Underspecification and the mass count distinction
Tuesday May 8, 2018:
9:15 - 10:00:
Peter R. Sutton (Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf), Hana Filip
(Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf):
Coercion: container, contents and measure readings
10:00 - 10:45:
Christine Hnout (Bar-Ilan University), Lior Laks (Bar-Ilan University), Susan
Rothstein (Bar-Ilan University):
Mass to count shifts in the Galilee dialect of Palestinian Arabic
10:45 - 11:00: Coffee Break
11:00 - 11:45:
El Mustapha Lemghari (Cadi Ayyad University):
Mass and Count Terms: Towards a Hybrid Sub-category
11:45 - 12:30:
Tibor Kiss (Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum), F. Jeffry Pelletier (University of
Alberta), Halima Husic (Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum), Johanna Marie Poppek
(Ruhr-Universitaet Bochum):
Countability and Polysemy
12:30 - 14:00: Lunch Break
14:00 - 15:30:
Susan Rothstein (Bar Ilan University):
Counting and plurality
15:30 - 16:00: Coffee Break
16:00 - 16:45:
Chiara Zanini (University of Zuerich), Giorgio Arcara (San Camillo Hospital,
Venice, Italy), Francesca Franzon (SISSA):
The role of the context in countability: a psycholinguistic approach
16:45 - 17:30:
Peter Lauwers (Ghent University):
Mass-like categories in lexical plurals. A gradual view on the mass/count
distinction
17:30 - 18:15:
Francesca Franzon (SISSA, University of Padova), Chiara Zanini (University of
Padova, University of Zuerich), D. Addison Smith (University of Trento),
Raffaella Bernardi (University of Trento), Sandro Pezzelle (University of
Trento):
An exploration of visual cues related to countability: two computer vision
experiments
Conference Dinner at Yamas Bochum
Wednesday May 9, 2018:
9:15 - 10:00:
Kayron Bevilaqua (Universidade Federal do Parana), Roberta Pires de Oliveira
(Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Universidade Federal do Parana,
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnoligico):
What do Bare Nouns mean cross-linguistically? Preliminary results
10:00 - 10:45:
Helen Koulidobrova (Central Connecticut State University):
Counting (on) Bare Nouns:Revelations from ASL
10:45- 11:00: Coffee Break
11:00- 11:45:
Christopher Hicks (University of Manchester):
Marking and acquisition of individuation: English and Mandarin compared
11:45- 12:30:
Kurt Erbach (Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf), Hana Filip
(Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf), Peter R. Sutton
(Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf), Kathrin Byrdeck
(Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet Duesseldorf):
Object Mass Nouns as an Arbiter for the Mass/Count Category
12:30 - 14:00: Lunch Break
14:00 - 15:30:
Jenny Doetjes (Universiteit Leiden):
Count/mass asymmetries
15:30 - 16:00: Coffee Break
16:00 - 16:45:
Myriam Dali (University of Ottawa), Eric Mathieu (University of Ottawa):
Distributed number and the mass/count distinction
16:45 - 17:30:
David Nicolas (Institut Jean Nicod, ENS, EHESS, PSL, CNRS):
Matter and mixtures
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