Descriptive Metaphysics, Natural Language Metaphysics, Sapir-Whorf, and All That Stuff: Evidence from the Mass-Count Distinction

Authors

Francis Jeffry Pelletier, University of Alberta

Abstract

Strawson (1959) described ‘descriptive metaphysics’, Bach (1986a) described ‘natural language metaphysics’, Sapir (1929) and Whorf (1940a,b, 1941) describe, well, Sapir-Whorfianism. And there are other views concerning the relation between correct semantic analysis of linguistic phenomena and the “reality” that is supposed to be thereby described. I think some considerations from the analyses of the mass-count distinction can shed some light on that very dark topic.

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Recommended Citation

Pelletier, Francis Jeffry (2011) "Descriptive Metaphysics, Natural Language Metaphysics, Sapir-Whorf, and All That Stuff: Evidence from the Mass-Count Distinction," Baltic International Yearbook of Cognition, Logic and Communication: Vol. 6. https://doi.org/10.4148/biyclc.v6i0.1570

References

Bach, Emmon. 1986a. ‘Natural Language Metaphysics’. In Ruth Barcan Marcus, G.J.W. Dorn & Paul Weingartner (eds.) ‘Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science, VII’, 573–595. Amsterdam: North Holland.

Bach, Emmon. 1986b. ‘The Algebra of Events’. Linguistics and Philosophy 9: 5–16.

Berger, Peter & Luckmann, Thomas. 1966. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Doubleday.

Boroditsky, Lera, Schmidt, Lauren & Phillips, Webb. 2003. ‘Sex, Syntax, and Semantics’. In Dedre Gentner & Susan Goldin-Meadow (eds.) ‘Language in Mind: Advances in the Study of Language and Cognition’, 59–80. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Cheng, L. & Sybesma, R. 1999. ‘Bare and Not-So-Bare Nouns and the structure of NP’. Linguistic Inquiry 30: 509–542.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/002438999554192

Chierchia, Gennaro. 1998a. ‘Reference to Kinds across Languages’. Natural Language Semantics 6: 339–405.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1008324218506

Chierchia, Gennaro. 1998b. ‘Plurality of Mass Nouns and the Notion of ‘Semantic Parameter’ ’. In S. Rothstein (ed.) ‘Events and Grammar’, 53–103. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

Chierchia, Gennaro. 2010. ‘Mass Nouns, Vagueness and Semantic Variation’. Synthèse 174: 99–149.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-009-9686-6

Doetjes, Jenny. 1997. Quantifiers and Selection: On the Distribution of Quantifying Expressions in French, Dutch and English. Ph.D. thesis, University of Leiden, Holland Institute of Generative Linguistics. Chapter 2: “Mass and Count Properties of Nouns and Verbs”.

Dölling, Johannes. 1993. ‘Commonsense Ontology and Semantics of Natural Language’. Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 46: 133–141.

Durst, Uwe. 2003. ‘The Natural Semantic Metalanguage Approach to Linguistic Meaning’. Theoretical Linguistics 29: 157–200.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/thli.29.3.157

Goddard, Cliff. 1994. ‘Semantic Theory and Semantic Universals’. In ‘Semantic and Lexical Universals’, 7–29. Philadelphia: J. Benjamins.

Goddard, Cliff. 1998. Semantic Analysis: A Practical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford UP.

Goddard, Cliff. 2002. ‘The Search for the Shared Semantic Core of All Languages’. In Goddard & Wierzbicka (2002), volume 1, pp. 5–40.

Goddard, Cliff. 2009. ‘A Piece of Cheese, A Grain of Sand: The Semantics of Mass Nouns and Unitizers’. In Francis Jeffry Pelletier (ed.) ‘Kinds, Things and Stuff’, 132–165. New York: Oxford UP.

Goddard, Cliff & Wierzbicka, Anna. 2002. Meaning and Universal Grammar: Theory and Empirical Findings, Vols 1 & 2. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Hansen, Chad. 1976. ‘Mass Nouns and ‘A White Horse Is Not a Horse”. Philosophy East and West 26: 189–209.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/1398188

Huddleston, Rodney & Pullum, Geoffrey. 2002. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

Iwasaki, Noriko, Vinson, David & Vigliocco, Gabriella. 2010. ‘Does the Grammatical Count/Mass Distiinction Affect Semantic Representations? Evidence from Experiments in English and Japanese’. Language and Cognitive Processes 25: 189–223.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01690960902978517

Katz, Jerrold. 1981. Language and other Abstract Objects. Oxford: Blackwell.

Krifka, Manfred. 1995. ‘Common Nouns: A Contrastive Analysis of English and Chinese’. In Gregory Carlson & Francis Jeffry Pelletier (eds.) ‘The Generic Book’, 398–411. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Latour. 1987. Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers through Society. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP.

Lima, Suzi. 2010. ‘There is No Count-Mass Distinction in Yudja’. Paper presented at the 15th Workshop on Structure and Constituency in the Languages of the Americas, February 2010.

Link, Godehard. 1983. ‘The Logical Analysis of Plurals and Mass Terms: A Lattice-Theoretical Approach’. In R. Baüerle, C. Schwarze & A. von Stechow (eds.) ‘Meaning, Use and Interpretation’, 303–323. Berlin: de Gruyter.

Matthewson, Lisa. 2003. ‘Is the Meta-Language Really Natural?’ Theoretical Linguistics 29: 263–274.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/thli.29.3.263

McCawley, James. 1975. ‘Lexicography and the Count-Mass Distinction’. In ‘Berkeley Linguistic Society, Vol. 1’, 314–321. Reprinted in J. McCawley (ed.) Adverbs, Vowels, and Other Objects of Wonder, Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago, 1979, pages 165–173.

Mei, Tsu-Lin. 1961. ‘Subject and Predicate, A Grammatical Preliminary’. Mind 70: 153–175.

Miller, George & Johnson-Laird, Philip. 1976. Language and Perception. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.

Müller, Ana, Storto, Luciana & Coutinho-Silva, Thiago. 2006. ‘Number and theMass/Count Distinction in Karitiana’. In ‘Workshop on Structure and Constituency in Languages of the Americas’, vol. 11, 122–135. Vancouver: UBC Working Papers in Linguistics.

Pelletier, Francis Jeffry & Schubert, Lenhart. 1989/2003. ‘Mass Expressions’. In F. Guenthner & D. Gabbay (eds.) ‘Handbook of Philosophical Logic, 2nd edition. Vol. 10’, 249–336. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Updated version of the 1989 version that appeared in the 1st edition of Handbook of Philosophical Logic.

Penn, Julia. 1972. Linguistic Relativity versus Innate Ideas: The Origins of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis in German Thought. Paris: Mouton.

Quirk, Randolph, Greenbaum, Sidney, Leech, Geoffrey & Svartvik, Jan. 1985. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. New York: Longman.

Sapir, Edward. 1929. ‘The Status of Linguistics as a Science’. Language 5: 207–214. Reprinted in David Mandelbaum (ed.), Selected Writings of Edward Sapir in Language Culture and Personality, 160-166 (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1968).

Schank, Roger. 1972. ‘Conceptual Dependency: A Theory of Natural Language Understanding’. Cognitive Psychology 3: 552–631.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(72)90022-9

Sharvy, Richard. 1978. ‘Maybe English has No Count Nouns: Notes on Chinese Semantics’. Studies in Language 2: 345–365.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/sl.2.3.04sha

Strawson, Peter. 1959. Individuals: An Essay in Descriptive Metaphysics. London: Methuen.

Strawson, Peter. 1966. The Bounds of Sense. London: Methuen.

Vendler, Zeno. 1967. Linguistics in Philosophy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press. Chapter 5. “Nouns and Nominalizations”.

Vendler, Zeno. 1972. Res Cogitans. Ithaca, NY: Cornell Univ. Press. Chapter 5. “On What One Knows”.

Whorf, Benjamin. 1940a. ‘Linguistics as an Exact Science’. Technology Review 43: 61–63, 80–83. Reprinted in (Whorf 1956, 220–232).

Whorf, Benjamin. 1940b. ‘Science and Linguistics’. Technology Review 42: 229–231,247–248. Reprinted in (Whorf 1956, 207–219).

Whorf, Benjamin. 1941. ‘The Relation of Habitual Thought and Behavior to Language’. In L. Spier (ed.) ‘Language, Culture, and Personality: Essays in Memory of Edward Sapir’, 75–93. Menasha, WI: Sapir Memorial Publication Fund. Reprinted in (Whorf 1956, 134–159).

Whorf, Benjamin. 1956. Language, Thought and Reality. Cambridge UP: MIT Press. Edited by J. Carroll.

Wierzbicka, Anna. 1988a. ‘Oats and Wheat: Mass Nouns, Iconicity, and Human Categorization’. In Anna Wierzbicka (ed.) ‘The Semantics of Grammar’, 499–560. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Wierzbicka, Anna. 1988b. The Semantics of Grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Wierzbicka, Anna. 1994. ‘Opening Statement’. In ‘Semantic and Lexical Universals’, 1–3. Philadelphia: J. Benjamins.

Wierzbicka, Anna. 1996. Semantics: Primes and Universals. Oxford: Oxford UP.

Wilhelm, Andrea. 2006a. ‘Count and Mass Nouns in Dëne Su˛liné’. In ‘West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics’, vol. 25, 435–443. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.

Wilhelm, Andrea. 2006b. ‘Count, Mass and Part Structure of Dëne Su˛liné Nouns’. In ‘Workshop on Structure and Constituency in Languages of the Americas’, vol. 11, 173–192. Vancouver:
UBC Working Papers in Linguistics.

Wilhelm, Andrea. 2008. ‘Bare Nouns and Number in Dëne Su˛liné’. Natural Language Semantics 16: 39–68.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11050-007-9024-9

Wilks, Yorick. 1976. ‘Parsing English II’. In E. Charniak & Y. Wilks (eds.) ‘Computational Semantics’, 155–184. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

Wilks, Yorick. 1977. ‘Good and Bad Arguments About Semantic Primitives’. Communication and Cognition 10: 184–221.

Wisniewski, Edward. 2009. ‘On Using Count Nouns, Mass Nouns and pluralia tantum: What Counts?’ In F.J. Pelletier (ed.) ‘Kinds, Things and Stuff’, 166–190. New York: Oxford UP.