Two Types of Substantives Defective in Number: "Mass" and Abstract Nouns

The semantic & morphosyntactic similarities & differences between Romanian mass & abstract nouns are enumerated. Both lack the category of number, occurring as either pluralia tantum or singularia tantum. However, the abstract nouns do not display a uniform behavior in this category: some are unnumbered in all contexts, while others may be marked as plural in certain collocations. Both classes of nouns also show similarities in the category of gender, case inflection, & occurrence with definite & indefinite articles & quantifiers. The mass & abstract nouns share the semantic trait [+continuum] but differ in the semantic feature [+concrete], which is shared by mass & concrete nouns. Examples are produced illustrating the determination & quantification patterns of mass & abstract nouns as well as all the other characteristics mentioned. It is concluded that the morphosyntactic peculiarities of mass & abstract nouns are the reflection of their semantic-referential properties, justifying their treatment as a separate subclass in the much larger class of common nouns. 6 References. Z. Dubiel