The Puzzle of (Un)Countability in English. A Study in Cognitive Grammar

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Table of contents

 

Preface/ 7

Introduction / 9

 

1. Approaches to (un)countability – An overview / 13

1.1 The major directions of exploration of countability and uncountability / 14

1.1.1 The philosophical heritage / 14

1.1.2 The grammatical view / 15

1.1.3 The ontological view / 20

1.1.4 The semantic view / 22

1.1.4.1 The first accounts / 22

1.1.4.2 The formal approaches to language / 25

1.1.4.3 The cognitive turn / 34

1.1.5 The pragmatic view / 42

1.1.6 The regularities of extension in linguistic research / 45

1.2 The Cognitive Grammar framework / 49

1.2.1 General assumptions / 50

1.2.1.1 The conceptual content and construal / 51

1.2.1.2 Approaches to metonymy and metaphor / 55

1.2.2 The noun / 58

1.2.3 Countability and uncountability / 62

1.2.3.1 Conceptual foundations / 63

1.2.3.2 The claim concerning countability and uncountability of nouns / 66

1.2.3.3 Regularities of semantic extension / 67

1.3 Cognitive Grammar in the context of other theories / 69

 

2. The analysis / 79

2.1 The methodology of the research / 79

2.1.1 The type and number of nouns / 80

2.1.2 The corpus / 82

2.1.3 The grammatical criteria of selection / 85

2.1.4 Notation and terminology / 88

2.2 Mass extensions of count nouns / 91

2.2.1 The pattern [[object]c → [mass dimension of the object]u] / 95

2.2.1.1 [[object]c → [spatial dimension of the object]u] / 96

2.2.1.2 [[object]c → [substance that the object is made of]u] / 107

2.2.1.3 [[object]c → [part of the object]u] / 109

2.2.1.4 [[object]c → [property of the object]u] / 111

2.2.1.5 [[object]c → [capability of the object]u] / 116

2.2.2 The pattern [[object]c → [mass dimension associated with the object]u] / 117

2.2.2.1 [[object]c → [substance contained in the object]u] / 118

2.2.2.2 [[object]c → [part of an object contiguous to the object]u] / 118

2.2.2.3 [[object]c → [action associated with the object]u] / 119

2.2.3 The pattern [[object]c → [aggregate of objects]u] / 122

2.2.4 Chains of reference points / 125

2.3 Count extensions of mass nouns / 128

2.3.1 The pattern [[substance/ aggregate of things]u → [bounded amount of the substance/ limited number of individual things]c] / 134

2.3.1.1 [[substance]u → [thing made of the substance]c] / 135

2.3.1.2 [[substance]u → [thing for which the substance is a salient component]c] / 137

2.3.1.3 [[substance/ aggregate of things]u → [thing that has a property of the substance/ the aggregate of things]c] / 140

2.3.1.4 [[substance/ aggregate of things]u → [limited amount of the substance/ limited number of elements of the aggregate] c] / 142

2.3.1.5 [[substance/ aggregate of things]u → [container that holds a limited amount of the substance/ number of the things]c] / 151

2.3.1.6 [[aggregate of things]u → [place that holds a number of things]c] / 153

2.3.1.7 [[substance/ aggregate of things]u → [thing associated with the substance/ the aggregate of things]c] / 154

2.3.1.8 [[substance/ aggregate of things]u → [action associated with the substance/ the aggregate of things]c] / 157

2.3.2 The pattern [[substance/ aggregate of things]u → [kind of the substance/ aggregate of things]c] / 159

 

2.4 Conclusions and discussion / 165

2.4.1 Results of the analysis / 165

2.4.1.1 Count nouns / 165

2.4.1.2 Mass nouns / 167

2.4.2 General discussion / 171

 

Bibliography / 181

Dictionaries / 194

Appendix / 195

Streszczenie / 197

Résumé / 198

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