Languages like English make the distinction between count nouns, which often refer to objects, and mass nouns, which often refer to substances. While the former can directly combine with numerals (three books), the latter require the insertion of a measure phrase, or classifier, in order to be counted (three cups of coffee). However, not all languages have grammaticalised this distinction in the same way. In Mandarin, for example, all nouns require the insertion of a classifier when counted. Yet, despite these difference, we can find traces of the mass/count distinction in many languages across the world once we start looking beyond numerals.

This project researches how the mass/count distinction surfaces in different languages by investigating how nouns combine with different types of quantity expressions. Some quantity expressions can combine with both mass and count nouns (a lot), others are sensitive to this distinction (much vs. many). Although "mass-only" quantity expressions can be easily found in English (e.g. much, little and a bit), they appear to be relatively rare cross-linguistically. Yet, they can be found in many different types of languages, including Mandarin, Dutch, and French. Interestingly, these mass-only quantifiers tend to refer to small quantities ('a bit') as opposed to large quantities ('a lot').

This project aims to systematically investigate the distribution and interpretation of such mass-only quantity expressions. For this purpose, new data will be systematically collected for number of languages, resulting in a cross-linguistic database of quantity expressions. This will not only allow us to determine whether small quantities are indeed overrepresented among mass-only expressions, but also to gain new insight into a number of other interesting questions along the way, such as: Which patterns are universal and where does variation occur? Why do languages tend to make a distinction between small mass and count quantities? How do small quantities differ from large quantities? And how is this related to the special status assigned to small numbers in cognition?

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