Sentence examples for semantics of mass from inspiring English sources

We consider several approaches to the semantics of mass nouns.

Nicolas (2008) puts forwards a semantics of mass nouns that does justice to this intuition (see Laycock (2006) and Cocchiarella (2009) for related proposals).

Nicolas (2004, 2010) shows that a general account of the semantics of mass nouns can indeed be proposed, provided one takes a more general stance than when focusing on concrete mass nouns alone.

So it seems that the semantics of mass nouns should leave room, not only for partitions, but also for all kinds of coverings.[17] Let us now see how Gillon (1992 , 1996 2012) accounts for these data.

Parsons' argument is based on a controversial metaphysical assumption, one that a semantics of mass nouns need not make.[3] (See Steen 2012, section 2.2 and supplement 1, for other metaphysical considerations concerning the purely mereological approach).

There are many similarities between the semantics of mass nouns and plurals, cf. sections 5, 6, and 8. Also, at a very intuitive level, if there are eight pieces of silverware on the table, then the speaker seems to refer to eight things at once when he says: The silverware that is on the table comes from Italy.

An appropriate semantics for mass nouns should guarantee things like what follows.

What is the semantics of quantifiers combining with mass nouns: some, all, no, only, little, much, most, two liters of…?

But we haven't considered whether there are logical relations between such sentences, i.e., whether the semantics makes up for an adequate logic of mass nouns.

This decree is not just a quibble over semantics; it is a matter of portraying the physics of mass movements accurately.

The principle of conservation of mass makes this point more than semantics.