Part structures, integrity, and the mass-count distinction
Friederike Moltmann
April 2024 

This paper argues that the content of the mass-count distinction resides in that count nouns, but not mass nouns, convey properties of integrated wholes - a simple case of an integrated whole being a maximally self-connected entity. It argues that there are serious conceptual problems for extensional mereological theories, which do not make use of conditions of integrity and hence require distinct part relations for individuals, pluralities, and quantities. The paper proposes that the part structures reflected in natural language are to be conceived in terms of a single part relation, the notion of an integrated whole, and a situation, the ingredients of the theory of situated part structures.

Format:	[ pdf ]
Reference:	lingbuzz/008061 (please use that when you cite this article)
Published in:	Synthese 116, 1998
keywords:	mass-count distinction, mereology, part-whole structure, integritated whole, extensional mereology, semantics
Downloaded:	94 times

 

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