English grammar - Roger Berry 2012

C2 Nouns which can be both count and noncount
Section C Exploration

Many nouns in English can be both count and noncount. Sometimes there is little difference in meaning except between a general idea and a particular example of it: cake/a cake, difference/a difference, divorce/a divorce, string/a string

See the Website Reference C2.1 for more examples.

In other cases there is a difference of meaning that goes with the difference in grammar. Sometimes this difference is predictable, in which case we say that a noun is basically count or noncount and that the other version is derived from the original by a process of conversion. Two cases where there is a systematic and predictable difference occur when a noncount noun is converted to count, as in the next activity.

Activity C2.1

Consider these two examples where the noncount beer is used as a count noun. What two meanings are expressed?

1. They serve 12 beers in that bar.

2. He drank 12 beers in that bar.

Another more ’literary’ type of noncount to count conversion is when abstract nouns are modified: a strong hatred of communism

Activity C2.2

Consider this sentence:

They played a little football with a little football.

Does this make any sense? How is it possible to repeat the underlined noun phrase exactly?

Conversion also turns count into noncount nouns. One regular situation where it occurs is when an animal’s meat is being referred to: I don’t like chicken.

Activity C2.3

Look at the text below. It is a short passage from a recent historical novel by Bernard Cornwell called Azincourt. Two English soldiers, part of an army besieging a French town, are talking. Look at the different ways the noun dog is treated in the text (underlined) in terms of number and count status. Why is there a difference?

1. Is that a dead dog?’ the man asked, nodding towards a furry corpse lying

2. halfway between the English forward trench and the French barbican.

3. Three ravens were pecking at the dead beast.

4. ’The French shoot them’ Hook said. The dogs run out of our lines and

5. the crossbowmen shoot them. Then they vanish in the night.’

6. ’The dogs?’

7. ’They’re food for the French,’ Hook explained curtly. ’Fresh meat.’

8. ’Ah, of course,’ the man said. He watched the ravens for a while. ’I’ve

9. never eaten dog.’

10. ’Tastes a bit like hare,’ Hook said, ’but stringier.’

Then there are cases where the count/noncount difference is associated with different meanings which are not predictable:

reason/a reason, paper/a paper, room/a room

A room is a particular part of a building; room means ’space’. The difference here is that these meanings cannot be explained by a predictable process of conversion. See the Website Reference C2.4 for more such cases.

Activity C2.4

What is the difference in meaning between these count/noncount pairs?

1. I’ve been invited to a dinner to celebrate the occasion. / My favourite meal is dinner.

2. She gave an interesting speech. / Speech is the most essential human ability.

3. I see you’ve had quite an experience. / Experience is what young people lack most.

4. It was found in a wood. / It’s made of wood.

Activity C2.5

Look at the concordance lines below and work out whether paper is count or noncount. What are the different meanings associated with the difference?

1. They consist of two layers of paper with wood chips sandwiched between them . . .

2. In 1903 he launched a paper, West African Mail . . .

3. ... [it] has issued a consultation paper . . .

4. What they normally do is they get some paper, they light it, they’ll drop it . . .

5. Lo Gazzetto dello Sporto, Italy’s leading sports paper, gave him 5 out of 10 . . .

6. ... it may have looked good on paper, but in practice it was another thing entirely . . .

7. ... a separate piece of paper packed into the box.

8. ... [he] has recently suggested, in an as yet unpublished paper, that . . .

9. ... an account of the cost of software (paper, film, video-tape, slides) must also be included . . .

10. ... [they] submitted a paper based on the analysis . . .

11. ... IPC moved the paper from its cheerful Covent Garden hovel . . .

12. ... just far enough to dimple but not fracture the paper surface.

13. Yes, it’s a page of Government paper in Summerchild’s judicious hand . . .

14. Peeping out of tissue paper was a small red shoulder bag.

15. ... dismissed by the Institute in its consultative paper.

Activity C2.6

Look at the concordance lines and decide whether glass or glasses is

a) a noncount singular noun referring to the substance

b) a count noun (singular or plural) referring to the thing we drink out of

c) a plural noun (see A2) referring to the thing we wear for eyesight.

1. And it’s made of fibre glass, is it?

2. Many, like steel, glass and paper can be re-used . . .

3. ... he was trying to read the leg bands through his glass.

4. ... [it] gives the beer a natural sparkle in the glass.

5. In particularly sunny locations, tinted glass may be desirable . . .

6. ... [they] presented her with a specially engraved glass candle-holder . . .

7. ... smashing dozens of windows and bombarding police with bottles and glasses.

8. [He] hit him on the side of the head and sent his glasses flying . . .

9. Leave both glasses in the same place . . .

10. ... they could scarcely see their car from 25 metres without glasses . . .

Comments

Activity C2.1:

(1) refers to types of beer, while (2) refers to units (bottles or glasses). There are a number of other nouns referring to food and drinks that behave like this. See C2.2 and C2.3 for more nouns which can behave in these ways.

Activity C2.2:

The answer is: it is perfectly possible - because the two noun phrases refer to two different things - one count and one noncount (and also because a little has two interpretations). This is how the two interpretations work:

In a) a little football is the object of play, referring to the type of game they played (noncount), whereas in b) it refers to the thing they used (a ball, which is count). (See C3 for an explanation of a little.)

Activity C2.3:

On line 1 dog is a singular, count noun; on lines 4 and 6 it is plural, count; on line 9 it is (singular) noncount. The reason why dog, normally a count noun, is noncount on line 9, is that the speaker is referring to its meat.

There is another noun which is usually count but is noncount here, referring to the meat. Can you find it?

Activity C2.4:

Check the meanings in a good dictionary.

Activity C2.5:

□ on lines 2, 5 and 11 paper is count, referring to a newspaper

□ on lines 3, 8, 10 and 15 it also count, but referring to an official document

□ on lines 1, 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13 and 14, it is noncount, referring to the substance.

Note the following points:

□ on line 6 paper is noncount; it is piece that is count

□ on line 12 paper acts as a premodifying noun; surface is the head noun

□ on line 8 an is separated from its noun by three words.

Activity C2.6:

a) 1, 2, 5, 6 (used as a premodifier; a determines candle-holder)

b) 3, 4 (with generic reference - see B4), 7, 9

c) 8, 10