Countability and Number Without Number Inflection

Abstract

This chapter explores the mass–count distinction in Haitian Creole, where all nouns, including those meaning ‘mud’ or ‘remorse’, are combinable with cardinals and plural marking. It is argued that the English/Haitian contrast lies in the distribution of covert classifiers—freer in Haitian than in English—rather than in the relevance/irrelevance of the mass–count distinction. This distinction is arguably grounded in both syntax and the lexicon. A subclass of nouns (e.g. liv ‘book’) require 3pl pronominalization when bare, do not combine with small-amount markers, are strictly entity-denoting: they are assumed to merge with a lexically induced classifier. Stuff-denoting nouns (labou ‘mud’, remò ‘remorse’) are ambivalent with respect to pronominalization (3sg/3pl), combine with small-amount markers, and may denote continuous stuff or discontinuous units of stuff. It is assumed that while all lexical roots must combine with a classifier feature to trigger discontinuous readings, this feature may occur in n° (triggering entity denotations) or in Cl° (triggering unit-of-stuff-denotations).