Two theories for computing the logical form of mass expressions
Francis Jeffry Pelletier, Lenhart K. Schubert · 1984
There are various difficulties in accomodating the traditional mass/count distinction into a grammar for English which has a goal the production of "logical form" semantic translations of the initial English sentences. The present paper surveys some of these difficulties. One puzzle is whether the distinction is a syntactic one or a semantic one, i.e., whether it is a well-formedness constraint or whether it is a description of the semantic translations produced. Another puzzle is whether it should be applied to simple words (as they occur in the lexicon) or whether it should apply only to longer units (such as entire NPs). Of the wide variety of possible theories, only two seem to produce the required results (having to do with plausible inferences and intuitively satisfying semantic representations). These two theories are developed and compared.