Countability (grammar)

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Countability is a property of nouns in grammar : in linguistics, they can be classified according to whether they are 'countable' or not. Nouns are countable if they are formally grammatically capable of forming a plural . The opposite applies to non-countable nouns , which in turn can be subdivided into concrete (like “meat” or “lead”) and abstract (like “love”).

Disambiguation

In principle, extra-linguistic entities can be described as discretely countable ( number ) or as non-discrete multiplicity (mass). 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. In linguistics, a countable noun is a noun that can be combined with numeralia (number words like two , three , four ) or other quantifiers (some, each, some, several) and of which it is usually or "simplified" one Singular and plural forms there. Countable nouns conceptualize their referents as discrete , clearly delimitable units, while substance names ( mass nouns ) , for example, do not.

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 concept of countability, because this is no longer about words per se, but about words with a certain interpretation."

special cases

Uncountable nouns that are actually not discrete can be made countable through word composition or derivation :

  • Rain (uncountable) → downpour (countable) → plural: downpours
  • Advice (uncountable) → Advice (countable) → Plural: Advice
  • Dispute (uncountable) → dispute (countable) → plural: disputes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Ruhr University Bochum: Anneliese Maier Prize Winner comes to RUB (last change: October 29, 2013)
  2. ↑ Tibor Kiss, Ruhr University Bochum Technical access to the essence of language Archive link ( Memento from November 17, 2015 in the Internet Archive )

See also

swell