Do Mass Nouns Constitute a Semantically Uniform Class?

Abstract

Research on mass nouns has focused on concrete terms. So, are there semantic properties shared by all mass terms? We first consider concrete nouns like milk and furniture. Contra Cheng (1973), we show that they can be held to refer distributively (i.e. to apply to any part of what they apply to) only if this property is understood with a new part-relation, that of N -part. In addition, they refer cumulatively: when they apply to each of two things, they also apply to the two things considered together. We then turn to abstract mass terms like beauty and love. We find, surprisingly, that they too refer distributively and cumulatively.