What is a mass noun?

Definition
	A mass noun is a noun whose referents are not thought of as separate entities.
	It may have distinguishing features such as the following:
	The inability to take a plural form Cooccurrence with some determiners (such as some and much), but not others (such as the English many)

Discussion

Some nouns may permit treatment as either count or mass nouns.

Example:

In English, salad may be treated as either a count or mass noun, as evidenced by the acceptability of the following expressions:

Examples (English)

The word furniture is a mass noun. It cannot take the plural suffix -s:

* furnitures

In addition, it can occur with some determiners, but not others:

the furniture

much furniture

some furniture

* a furniture

* many furnitures

Source:

Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 246

Sources
	Hartmann and Stork 1972 137
	Crystal 1985 189
	Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, and Svartvik 1985 246
	Mish 1991 731

Concept module: mass noun
In overview module: Glossary (Linguistics): M
In modular book: Glossary of linguistic terms, by Eugene E. Loos (general editor), Susan Anderson (editor), Dwight H., Day, Jr. (editor), Paul C. Jordan (editor), and J. Douglas Wingate (editor)
In bookshelf: Linguistics

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 5.0 published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 2003. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 5 January 2004