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Concepts of objects and substances in language.

Lance J Rips¹, Susan J Hespos²

¹Psychology Department, Northwestern University, 2029 Sheridan Road, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA. rips@northwestern.edu.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

|June 15, 2019

Summary

Infants grasp the object/substance distinction early. Grammatical count/mass noun acquisition does not significantly alter this fundamental conceptual understanding in children.

Keywords:

Concepts Mass and count nouns Object concepts Substance concepts

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Science
Developmental Psychology
Linguistics

Background:

Humans intuitively distinguish between objects and substances.
Languages categorize nouns as either count (e.g., 'chair') or mass (e.g., 'water').
The relationship between these conceptual and grammatical distinctions is complex and not fully understood.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the relationship between the conceptual distinction of objects versus substances and the grammatical distinction of count versus mass nouns.
To explore how cross-linguistic and developmental variations in noun categorization impact conceptual understanding.
To determine if the acquisition of count/mass syntax influences the early developing object/substance distinction.

Main Methods:

Analysis of linguistic data, including cross-linguistic noun categorization (e.g., English 'dishes' vs. French 'la vaisselle').
Examination of exceptions and flexible uses of count and mass nouns (e.g., 'toast', 'pottery', 'carrot', 'whiskey').
Review of developmental evidence regarding infants' conceptual understanding of objects and substances.

Main Results:

The study identified numerous cases where the object/substance distinction does not align simply with count/mass noun grammar.
Linguistic evidence suggests flexibility in how languages categorize nouns, and how nouns can be used referentially.
Infants demonstrate an early grasp of the object/substance conceptual distinction.

Conclusions:

The conceptual distinction between objects and substances is established early in development, independent of grammatical noun type.
While the object/substance distinction may evolve, the acquisition of count/mass syntax is not a primary driver of this change.
Grammatical noun categorization does not appear to fundamentally alter the early conceptual understanding of objects versus substances.