72-4560 MARTIN, John Stuart, 1937- CLARIFYING THE SEMANTIC M D GRAMMATICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NO* -COUNTABLE NOUN THROUGH CLASSIFICATION, CC MPARISON AND VOCABULARY. The Ohio State University Ph.D., 1971. Education, general University Microfilms, A XERQ\Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROF LMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED CLARIFYING THE SEMANTIC AND GRAMMATICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NON-COUNTABLE NOUN THROUGH CLASSIFICATION, COMPARISON AND VOCABULARY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By John Stuart Martin, A.A., B.A., M.A, The Ohio State University 1971 Approved by "Adviser English Education College of Education PLEASE NOTE: Some Pages have in d istin ct p rin t. Filmed as received. UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ! I am indebted to the following persons who have aided me in the pursuit of ray studies in higher education beyond the M.A. level: i > . To Professor Donald R. Bateman who has given his students the freedom to discover the things that they want to discover. To Professor Wilfred Eberhart, who has not only successfully attempted to instill poise and confidence in his students but who has also allowed these students to discuss issues openly. To Professor George M. Landon whose help and guidance both as a teacher and as the supervisor of teachers will not be forgotten. ii VITA October I, 1937 . • • Born - Columbus Ohio 1 9 6 U ........... A .A., Old Dominion College, Norfolk, Virginia 1 9 6 5 .......... B.A., Linguistics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1966-1967 ....... Teaching Assistant, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1967-1968 ...... Teaching Assistant, Department of Linguistics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1968 . Planning Coordinator, Communication Skills, Higher Education Opportunity Program, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1968 ....... M.A., Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1968-1969 ...... Lecturer in English for Speakers of Other Languages and Assistant to Chairman, English as a Second Language, Department of English, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1969 to present . Chairman, English as a Second Language and Instructor in English as a Second Language, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: The Teaching and Administering of Courses in English for Speakers of Other Languages Studies in English Education. Professors Wilfred Eberhart, Donald R. Bateman and George M. Landon Studies in English for Speakers of Other Languages. Professors Dennis R. Preston, Shiela M. Goff and George M. Landon Studies In Linguistics. Professors D. Terence Langendoen, Charles J. Fillmore and U s e Lehlste iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS......................... 11 VITA ............... .......................... Ill LIST OF TABLES................ v Chapter I. THE SCOPE OF THIS DISSERTATION............ 1 II. THE CRUCIAL LINK BETWEEN GRAMMAR AND MEANING . 5 III. MASS AND THE NON-COUNTABLE N O U N ........... II IV. THE NON-COUNTABLE NOUN AS AN EXPRESSION OF CLASS................................ 21 V. IDEAS AS REPRESENTED BY NON-COUNTABLE NOUNS . 31 VI. THE NON-COUNTABLE NOUN AS RELATED TO THE COUNTABLE NOUN ............... k2 VII. THE NON-COUNTABLE NOUN AS RELATED TO THE ADJECTIVE............................ 68 VIII. THE UNIQUE GRAMMATICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NON-COUNTABLE N O U N ........... 80 IX. SUMMARY ..................... 88 APPENDICES, Introductory N o t e ..................... 101 APPENDIX A. ............. 102 B .................... 110 C. ................ Ill BIBLIOGRAPHY ......... ^ iv LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Mass Words, with Use in Sentence, Representing SolidB, without Particles............................ 16 2. Mass Words, with Use in Sentence, Representing Solids, with Particles too Small to Count ............ 17 3. Mass Words, with Use in Sentence, Representing Liquids. 18 U. Non-Countable Class Words Primarily with Tangible Membership...................... 25 5. Non-Countable Class Words Primarily with Non- Couhtable Membership........................ 26 6. Non-Countable Words as a Reflection of Ideas or Abstractions................................ 38 7. Two-Word or Prepositional WordB Used as Nouns .... 51* 8. Nouns Countable and Non-Countable Reflecting Mass where Not Counted .......................... 58 9. Nouns Countable and Non-Countable which Replace Clans when Not C o u n t e d ........... 60 10. Nouns Countable and Non-Countable which Replace Ideas when Not C o u n t e d ............................ 6l 11. Articles Used Exclusively with Countable and Non- Countable Nouns . ............ 81 12. Countable Noun Used for Expression of Generic .... 8U 13. The Use of Markers with Non-Countable Nouns to Esqpress the Generic............ 85 lU. Non-Countable Words with Endings, Primarily not Countable ............. 88 15. Words with Endings, Non-Couqtable and Countable . 89 w \ CHAPTER I THE SCOPE OF THIS DISSERTATION This dissertation deals with the non-countable noun, the area of English syntax which makes the following sentences marginal:^ 1. I like to go out to look at the sceneries (where we would prefer, "I like to go out to look at the scenery"). 2. I messed up my clothes with an ink (where unless we were speaking of specific varieties of ink, we would prefer, "I messed up my clothes with ink' or with some ink"). 3. There were many skatings at the pond last night (where one might prefer, "There was skating, much skating, or a lot of skating at the pond last night"). U. Ladies and gentlemen, we have examined much soil this week (where the sentence "Ladies and gentlemen, we have examined many soils this week" would be preferred in the context of a class in botany or agronomy and where types of soils are investigated). * ^These sentences are based on the mistakes made by interna­ tional students that X have recently observed. 2 5. In ay garden, I have a very rich soil (where one might prefer, "In my garden, I have very rich soil"). Mistakes of this type are concerned with the English non-countable noun, often referred to hy teachers and linguists as the collective, mass or uncountable noun. Among other grammatical characteristics, words contained within the category of non-countable noun cannot usually be made plural and cannot usually be used along with the. indefinite article a(n). We must therefore pay particular attention to the fact that the plural or the indefinite article plays a part in all of the problems in the five sentences above (for Instance, sentence one is corrected when we say, "Like to go out and look at the scenery," sentence two is corrected by saying, "I messed up my clothes with ink," and so on). The non-countable noun presents many problems to foreign students, particularly to those from China, Japan and adjacent countries. In this dissertation, I shall first make the claim that students' problems originate with teachers and linguists who perhaps through a lack of knowledge or through a desire to maintain a particular philosophy about language, furniBh an in­ accurate or incomplete explanation of the non-countable noun. Second, by the use of examples, lists and rules, I shall present, for the benefit of teachers and Btudents, as complete an explanation as possible of this troublesome noun category. In order to make the dissertation as comprehensive sb possible, it has been found necessary to assemble a bibliography, prior to the bibliography, several dictionaries are Indicated as sources for the corpus of over 5,000 non-countable nouns which this dissertation 3 treats. From this corpus, I have extracted the vords which occur 50 or more times per 1,000,000 words in the English language;^ these frequently vords have then been used in tables and as examples throughout the text. The extensive explanation of the non-countable noun found in the dissertation is the primary factor contributing to its significance and originality. I also expect the dissertation to be original because of the two techniques that I shall use in order to make the explanation aB clear as possible— the techniques of classi­ fication and comparison. First, I shall deal with these nouns as a group totally separated from other grammatical categories such as adjectives, countable nouns, etc. By isolating the non-countable noun in this way, I shall relate the category to the world of ldeaB, attempting to illustrate the various ways that a student must think about the referent of a word in order to determine whether he is dealing with a non-countable noun. After the student has determined that he is indeed dealing with an idea which will be expressed by a non-countable noun, he will need a knowledge of the rules governing the cprrect use of his idea. The non-countable noun, as a sub­ group Isolated from other categories, will therefore be considered as a classification of ideas and as a grammatical expression of these ideas. After dealing with the taxonomy of ideas and their overt realization or expression, I shall compare the non-countable noun 2The source of word frequency is Edward Ii. Thorndike, and JErving Lorae. The Teachers Word Book of 30.000 Words (New York: Columbia University Press , 19^). ’ to the category of countable noun (i.e.t those nouns that can take the plural suffix or the indefinite article a). In addition, I shall compare the non-countable noun to adjectives, for the non- countable noun shares many grammatical and notional or semantic characteristics with adjectives— characteristics that are at least implicit in the sources mentioned in the dissertation. In summary, this dissertation will provide a thorough explanation of the non-countable noun, by the use of examples, by the use of vocabulary lists, and by the two expository devices of classification and comparison. Through these approaches, it is hoped that teachers of English as a second language will be able to explain thiB difficult sub-category more easily to students in their classes.