Cycnos | Numéros | Volume 23.1 - Le Qualitatif

Résumé :

This article studies various modes of individuation of singular mass nouns (N2) by semantically discrete nouns (N1) in N1 of N2 noun phrases. The description is based on an ontological analysis of N1s and on four modes of individuation, modes 1, 2 and 3 isolating one single chunk while mode 4 isolates multiple units. The combination of these modes can associate individual and multiple reference and mode 3 type-individuation may provide the multiple units outlined by mode 4 in the case of a collection of types or of linguistic items. On the contrary, some N1s fail to preserve collective reference in front of singular N2s then only selecting mode 3 and others only exhibit mode 1 in front of non-collective mass N2s. Similarly, other N1s may lose collective reference because of a graph-structure which isolates two sets of multiple units of a different kind. Lastly, N1s usually referring to a multiplicity of primary types and in some cases preferably requiring two coordinated N2s, exhibit mode 3 individuation while obliterating primary multiple reference.

Date de publication : 2006-05-31