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

Author(s): Grzegorz Drożdż
Subject(s): Language studies, Language and Literature Studies, Theoretical Linguistics
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Cognitive Grammar; Uncountability; Countability; extension of meaning
Summary/Abstract: „The book is divided into two main parts: theoretical and analytical. In the theoretical part, there are three main chapters. In the first one, we make an overview of the major views on countability and uncountability, indicate their major characteristics, point to the insights that each of them has made, and collect the regularities of count-to-mass and mass-to-count shifts that have been observed within them. The second chapter introduces Cognitive Grammar (CG) and its terminological apparatus. It discusses the major assumptions of CG: its approach to meaning, to the noun, and to countability and uncountability. The first part concludes with a chapter that compares the claims found in other branches of linguistics and those made within CG.The analytical part is divided into four chapters. In the first one, we present the methodology of the analysis. In the second chapter, we present the schemas and patterns of semantic extension that we determined after an analysis of mass extensions of 30 count nouns. In the third chapter, we present the results of an analysis of count extensions of 30 mass nouns. The final chapter sums up the analysis and provides a discussion of the results.” (from Introduction)

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