Bare Nouns in Brazilian Portuguese: An experimental study on grinding

Abstract

Much literature has explored the interpretation of the bare singular (BS) in Brazilian Portuguese. Pires de Oliveira & Rothstein (2011) claim that BS nouns are mass because they denote kinds and argue that this explains why only the BS in Brazilian Portuguese can have a non-cardinal interpretation. In this paper, based on an experimental task with Brazilian Portuguese adult speakers, we explore one of their predictions, namely that the 'volume interpretation' of the BS cannot be explained as a case of Grinding. Our results show that Grinding and Volume readings of a BS noun are not equivalent (in favor of their hypothesis). We also show that a volume interpretation of a noun is never preferred when a cardinal interpretation is available, but that this can be explained by other lexical and pragmatic factors. We conclude by suggesting that Rothstein's (in press) distinction between counting and measuring accounts for the fact that non-cardinal readings are not grinding.

New perspectives on the count–mass distinction: Understudied languages and psycholinguistics

“…Other shifts in the count/mass domain include the universal grinder (Pelletier, ), where count nouns are interpreted as mass, as in “There is banana all over the road,” and the universal sorter (Bunt, ), which derives sorts from substances (Bunt, ). Much literature has explored different types of coercion since they were originally described, including experimental studies (see,e.g., Beviláqua, Lima, & Pires de Oliveira, ; Frisson & Frazier, ). Cf.…”

Brazilian Bare Nouns in Comparatives: Experimental Evidence for Non-Contextual Dependency

“…:Beviláqua and Pires de Oliveira ( 2014)). The issue is whether it is contextually dependent, as argued by Lima and Gomes (2016) and Beviláqua et al (2016) or not. The results indicate that besides a cardinal reading, the volume interpretation is significantly associated with the BS, independently of the context.…”

“…Bale and Barner (2009)), then this contrast between the BS and the BP in BrP shows that the BS behaves massively. Beviláqua et al (2016) and Lima and Gomes (2016) also explored the possibility of the BS being compared by volume dimensions. Beviláqua et al's (2016) performed a Truth-Value Judgment Test (TVJT) and the results showed that the volume comparison is unlikely to be chosen when the cardinality comparison is available for BS nous (against Beviláqua and Pires de Oliveira's (2014) results).…”

“…These results led Beviláqua et al (2016) and Lima and Gomes (2016) to argue that the volume interpretation of BS is only possible when trigged by a volume context, as exemplified below:…”

“…In order to test Beviláqua et al (2016) and Lima and Gomes's (2016) prediction and to arrive at a better understanding of the denotation of bare nouns in BrP, we designed an experiment that combines the two situations tested separately in Beviláqua and Pires de Oliveira (2014) and in Lima and Gomes (2016): the behavior of the bare nouns (BS and BP) in (i) a Neutral context; and in (ii) a Biased context. By comparing the results of the volume reading in the neutral context, as in (3), and in the biased context in (4), we can evaluate whether the volume interpretation of the BS is only triggered by the latter.…”