Countable noun
Count noun (English. Countable noun , noun count ; also: track name , individual noun , individual atoms or Zählnomen ) is in the linguistics a noun that with Numerals (number of words such as two , three , four ), or other quantifiers that reference a number (e.g. B. some , all , some , several ), can be combined, and of which there is usually a singular and plural form. Countable nouns conceptualize their referents as discrete , clearly delimitable units, while substance names ( mass nouns ) , for example, do not.
The adjective 'countable' does not refer to 'noun' (e.g. the word "house"), but rather means - according to Duden 2005 - "if the object identified by the noun can be counted", in the example house / Houses.
The opposite applies to non-countable nouns , i.e. names of substances , which in turn can be subdivided into concrete (like “meat” or “lead”) and abstracts (like “love”).
definition
In linguistics, nouns can be classified according to whether they are 'countable' or not. A suitable test for checking countability is the question of whether a noun can be used in a certain context with several or other quantifiers that determine a number. The counting quantifiers include:
- a (singular only)
- some (only in plural)
- quite a few (only in plural)
- several (only in plural)
- some (only in plural)
- which (only in plural)
- many (only in plural)
- all (only in plural)
Countability in the German language
The countability is determined according to Duden Rule 442, “that nouns in the singular, if they can be counted, have an article word with them 'in principle' and that nouns without an article are a clear exception”.
Countable and non-countable nouns, as the following example shows, cannot in principle be differentiated lexically, this type of determination is determined by the application of the article : This usually has the zero form for substance names , but a form of quantification for item names , in the singular or plural; compare:
(a) Gestern hatten wir Ø Känguru zum Abendessen. (b1) Gestern hatten wir ein Känguru zum Abendessen. (b2) Im Tierpark sind mehrere/zahlreiche/zwölf Kängurus zu besichtigen.
Although the same noun appears as an object in these sentences, kangaroo with null article in (a) refers to a non-countable mass (e.g. meat) that can (but does not have to) consist of several specimens of the genus kangaroo. In (b1), on the other hand, the speaker is a definable and countable specimen, i.e. H. a kangaroo with exactly one head, tail, etc., at (b2) a basically countable number of kangaroos.
Further examples (at Kiss) show that "the concept of word may not be the right place for determining [...] the countability, because here it is no longer about words per se, but about words with a certain interpretation."
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christian Lehmann Theory of Language: Basic Concepts
- ↑ deinThai.de: Glossary: Individual nouns ( Memento from November 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) (September 10, 2013)
- ↑ a b Ruhr University Bochum: Anneliese Maier Prize Winner comes to RUB (last change: October 29, 2013)
- ↑ Tibor Kiss, Ruhr University Bochum Technical access to the essence of language Archive link ( Memento from November 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive )