Production and comprehension studies on the mass–count distinction in yudja

Abstract

This chapter discusses the grammar of counting in Yudja, a Brazilian Indigenous language. Based on experimental studies with children and adults, the chapter shows that substance-denoting nouns may directly interact with the counting system in the language (constructions with numerals, constructions with count quantifiers such as ‘many’ and ‘size’ adjectives like ‘big’). In presenting the results of the studies for Yudja, the chapter exemplifies how psycholinguistic methods (particularly from language acquisition) can be a useful tool in fieldwork research.