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Investigating Cognitive Individuation: A Study of Dually-Countable Abstract Nouns

Maloney, Erin M.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1244571228

Abstract Details

2009, Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, Linguistics (Arts and Sciences).
Abstract nouns refer to entities that do not exist in space and time, and are construed in the English language as count nouns (countable entities), mass nouns (non-countable phenomena), or both (i.e., they are dually countable). Drawing from previous research that has investigated the count-mass distinction in concrete nouns, the goal of the present study is to explore the usage of count versus mass status of abstract nouns. In particular, this study evaluates the Cognitive Individuation (CI) Hypothesis, which assumes that countability depends on ease of individuation. Three types of analysis of dually-countable abstract nouns include (1) an account of the ontological status of the nouns’ referents in both count and mass status, (2) corpus analysis of the modification of dually-countable nouns, and (3) the contextual semantic shifts for count and mass versions of the dually-countable nouns. The combined results of these analyses support the view that the CI Hypothesis descriptively applies to abstract nouns to indicate countability, and that individuation can be attributed to modification and shifts in meaning resulting from ontology and polysemy. Finally, this study postulates the perceptual schema behind individuation of third-order nouns and the implications for the cognition of plurality in abstract entities.
Scott H. Jarvis, PhD (Advisor)
Hiroyuki Oshita, PhD (Committee Member)
Liang Tao, PhD (Committee Member)
56 p.
Linguistics
Count Mass Distinction; Abstract Nouns; Plurality; Individuation; Corpus studies

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Citations

  • Maloney, E. M. (2009). Investigating Cognitive Individuation: A Study of Dually-Countable Abstract Nouns [Master's thesis, Ohio University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1244571228

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Maloney, Erin. Investigating Cognitive Individuation: A Study of Dually-Countable Abstract Nouns. 2009. Ohio University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1244571228.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Maloney, Erin. "Investigating Cognitive Individuation: A Study of Dually-Countable Abstract Nouns." Master's thesis, Ohio University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1244571228

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ohiou1244571228
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© 2009, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Ohio University and OhioLINK.