A study on the count/noncount distinction of abstract nouns in English from a pedagogical perspective

Kodera, Masahiro (2024). A study on the count/noncount distinction of abstract nouns in English from a pedagogical perspective. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

Preview

Kodera2024PhD.pdf
Text - Accepted Version
Available under License All rights reserved.
Download (4MB) | Preview

Abstract

The count/noncount distinction of nouns is an essential part of EFL/ESL teaching. L2 learners need to know when to use an indefinite article (a/an), a zero determiner singular form (ø) or a plural form. The count/noncount distinction of abstract nouns is more difficult than that of concrete nouns because abstract nouns provide no perceptual information and many abstract nouns can be used as both count and noncount. L2 learners face two questions: when to use a/an with abstract noncount nouns (e.g. knowledge) and when to use abstract nouns as count or noncount (e.g. Everyone stood in stunned silence/ a stunned silence/ stunned silences). The following explanations are often found. 1) Based on the hypothesis that grammar reflects conceptualization, some cognitive linguists claim that every noun can be used as either count or noncount depending on how a referent is interpreted. 2) Some abstract noncount nouns admit a/an when they are pre-modified by an adjective and/or post-modified by a phrase or a clause. 3) A/an can be used with abstract noncount nouns when the individual, particular nature of a referent is emphasized. The validity of these three propositions is examined in this PhD thesis.
Regarding the first proposition, the count/noncount distinction is not a direct reflection of the conceptual distinction. The distinction is flexible only with nouns that have both a count and noncount use. Grammatical convention takes precedence with nouns that have only a count or noncount use. The second proposition is examined with the data collected from the Bank of English and other corpora such as COCA (Corpus of Contemporary American English) and BNC (British National Corpus). Thirty-six abstract nouns (e.g. anger, warmth) are collected from the example sentences presented by twelve reference grammars and eight English learner’s dictionaries as the evidence to support their proposition that abstract noncount nouns admit a/an when they are modified. Three case studies are conducted to examine how frequently the thirty-six nouns occur with a/an or ø when they are modified by three types of modifiers (adjectives, prepositional phrases and relative clauses). It is found that the presence of a modifier per se is not correlated with a high frequency of a/an. A high frequency of a/an is largely limited to particular combinations of nouns and adjectives, e.g. measurement adjectives and state nouns (a long silence), or limited to nouns denoting liking and disliking in the [to have (to take) + (Adj) Noun + PP] construction (e.g. Victoria had a well-known dislike for small children).
The third proposition is supported by the corpus analysis. All the nouns examined in this study occur with modifiers more frequently than without modifiers when the nouns combine with a/an, and most of them occur with modifiers highly frequently. It is more likely that a/an requires a modifier rather than the other way around. The semantic property of a/an is individuation, and an abstract noncount noun calls for modification to acquire an individuated interpretation of a referent.
Based on the hypothesis that there is some semantic connection between the meaning of a noun and the type of count reading available for the noun, the grammatical behavior of abstract nouns in four semantic groups (emotion, mental activity, quality, state) is examined to explore the circumstances under which abstract nouns that have both a count and noncount use acquire count readings. Many mental activity nouns (e.g. awareness), emotion nouns (e.g. fear) and state nouns (e.g. silence) acquire a count reading when they refer to a viewpoint, a cause and an event respectively. Quality nouns acquire various count readings such as an act (e.g. cruelty), a life form (e.g. intelligence), etc.
Little research has been done on the count/noncount distinction of abstract nouns, and comprehensive guidelines have yet to be developed to help L2 learners to predict a type of count reading an abstract noun may acquire. For the meantime, L2 learners are advised to consult learner’s dictionaries to find if a noun (or a sense of a noun) is count or noncount. However, dictionaries often fail to provide sufficient information about whether a noun can occur with a/an, ø or in the plural form. Based on the findings in this study, some revisions are proposed to make dictionaries more helpful for L2 learners. Also some suggestions are made to improve the way in which the count/noncount distinction of abstract nouns is taught.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):