Atomic Mass Nouns: Unity, Plurality and Semantic Flexibility
Haitao Cai · 2016
Atomic mass nouns share morphosyntactic properties with prototypical mass nouns. At the same time, the former semantically deviate from the latter. Based on re-examined empirical data, I propose that the semantics of atomic mass nouns is flexible. Particularly, a semantic shift occurs when the default interpretation of an atomic mass noun results in implausible interpretation or ungrammaticality.