An investigation about bare nominal phrases and the mass-count distinction in Brazilian Portuguese

Authors

  • Kayron Beviláqua Universidade Federal do Paraná (UFPR), Curitiba, Paraná, Brasil

Keywords:

Comparison, Bare nouns, Bare singular, Experimental semantics

Abstract

This paper investigates the so-called bare nominal phrases (NPs) in Brazilian Portuguese (BrP), in relation with their mass/count properties in comparison structures. We performed an experiment using the method of quantity judgments, which allowed us to test the comparison scale used by the speaker. The results led us to challenge the generalizations by Bale and Barner (2009). We concluded that Pires de Oliveira and Rothstein’s (2011) proposal is a better explanation for the case of bare singulars. Also, we posited an explanation for the case of fl exible nouns in BrP.

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References

BALE, A.C.; BARNER, D. The interpretation of functional heads: using comparatives to explore mass/count. Journal of Semantics, n. 26, p. 217–252, 2009.

BARNER, D.; SNEDEKER, J. Quantity judgments and individuation: evidence that mass nouns count. Cognition, n. 97, p. 41–66, 2005.

CHIERCHIA, G. Reference to kinds across languages. Natural Language Semantics, n. 6, v. 4, p. 339-405, 1998a.

CHIERCHIA, G. Plurality of mass nouns and the notion of “semantic parameter”. Events and Grammar, v. 70, p. 53-103, 1998b.

CHIERCHIA, G. Mass nouns, vagueness and semantic variation. Synthese, n. 174, p. 99-149, 2010.

GRIMM, S.; LEVIN, B. Who has More Furniture? An Exploration of the Bases for Comparison. Mass/Count in Linguistics, Philosophy and Cognitive Science Conference, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, December, 2012.

MÜLLER, A. Genericity and the denotation of common nouns in Brazilian Portuguese. D.E.L.T.A., n. 18, p. 287-308, 2002.

PIRES de OLIVEIRA, R.; ROTHSTEIN, S. Bare Singular noun phrases are mass in Brazilian Portuguese. Lingua, n. 121, p. 2153-2175, 2011.

SCHMITT, C.; MUNN, A. Against the nominal mapping parameter: bare nouns in Brazilian Portuguese. Proceedings of NELS, n. 29, p. 339-353, 1999.

Published

2016-02-15

How to Cite

Beviláqua, K. (2016). An investigation about bare nominal phrases and the mass-count distinction in Brazilian Portuguese. Estudos Linguísticos (São Paulo. 1978), 44(1), 321–334. Retrieved from https://revistas.gel.org.br/estudos-linguisticos/article/view/892

Issue

Section

Semântica