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A typology of the mass/count distinction in Brazil and its relevance for mass/count theories
Edited by Suzi Lima and Susan Rothstein
[Linguistic Variation 20:2] 2020
► pp. 239–254

Individuation, counting, and measuring in the grammar of Kadiwéu

| University of Campinas

This work approaches some grammatical differences in the linguistic expression of counting, measuring, aggregating, and quantity comparison and partition in Kadiwéu, a classifier language spoken in Brazil. This paper brings evidence via the grammar of comparison and partition that the counting/measuring distinction is a genuine grammatical distinction. This work also shows that aggregate nouns in Kadiwéu pattern grammatically neither with substance nouns nor with naturally atomic object nouns. That is, Kadiwéu has a specific grammatical expression for groups as atoms.

Keywords: classifiers, aggregates, partition, measurement, counting, groups
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Kadiwéu as a classifier language
  • 3.Aggregates
  • 4.Counting and measuring
  • 5.Quantifiers and quantity comparison
  • 6.Partition in Kadiwéu
  • 7.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
Published online: 1 October 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/lv.00018.san
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