Semantics for Counting and Measuring (Key Topics in Semantics and Pragmatics) - Hardcover

Rothstein, Susan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1107001277 ISBN 13: 9781107001275

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2017

Synopsis

The use of numerals in counting differs quite dramatically across languages. Some languages grammaticalise a contrast between count nouns (three cats, three books) vs 'non-count' or mass nouns (milk, mud), marking this distinction in different ways. Others use a system of numeral classifiers, while yet others use a combination of both. This book draws attention to the contrast between counting and measuring, and shows that it is central to our understanding of how we use numerical expressions, classifiers and count nouns in different languages. It reviews some of the more recent major linguistic results in the semantics of numericals, counting and measuring, and theories of the mass/count distinction, and presents the author's new research on the topic. The book draws heavily on crosslinguistic research, and presents in-depth case studies of the mass/count distinction and counting and measuring in a number of typologically unrelated languages. It also includes chapters on classifiers, constructions and adjectival uses of measure phrases.

About this title

About the Author

Susan Rothstein is a Professor in the Department of English Literature and Linguistics at the Faculty of Humanities, Bar-Ilan University, Israel. She has written more than fifty articles and is the author of two previous books, Predicates and their Subjects (2001) and Structuring Events (2004), as well as editor or co-editor of several others.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2017
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1107001277
• ISBN 13: 9781107001275
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 270