Descriptive Metaphysics, Natural Language Metaphysics, Sapir-Whorf, and All That Stuff: Evidence from the Mass-Count Distinction

Strawson (1959) described ‘descriptive metaphysics’, Bach (1986a) described ‘natural language metaphysics’, Sapir (1929) and Whorf (1940a,b, 1941) describe, well, Sapir-Whor anism. And there are other views concerning the relation between correct semantic analysis of linguistic phenomena and the “reality” that is supposed to be thereby described. I think some considerations from the analyses of the mass-count distinction can shed some light on that very dark topic. References Bach, Emmon. 1986a. ‘Natural Language Metaphysics’. In Ruth Barcan Marcus, G.J.W. Dorn & Paul Weingartner (eds.) ‘Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science, VII’, 573–595. Amsterdam: North Holland. Bach, Emmon. 1986b. ‘The Algebra of Events’. Linguistics and Philosophy 9: 5–16. Berger, Peter & Luckmann, Thomas. 1966. The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Doubleday. Boroditsky, Lera, Schmidt, Lauren & Phillips, Webb. 2003. ‘Sex, Syntax, and Semantics’. In Dedre Gentner & Susan Goldin-Meadow (eds.) ‘Language in Mind: Advances in the Study of Language and Cognition’, 59–80. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Cheng, L. & Sybesma, R. 1999. ‘Bare and Not-So-Bare Nouns and the structure of NP’. Linguistic Inquiry 30: 509–542. http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/002438999554192 Chierchia, Gennaro. 1998a. ‘Reference to Kinds across Languages’. Natural Language Semantics 6: 339–405. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1008324218506 Chierchia, Gennaro. 1998b. ‘Plurality of Mass Nouns and the Notion of ‘Semantic Parameter’ ’. In S. Rothstein (ed.) ‘Events and Grammar’, 53–103. Dordrecht: Kluwer. Chierchia, Gennaro. 2010. ‘Mass Nouns, Vagueness and Semantic Variation’. Synthèse 174: 99–149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11229-009-9686-6 Doetjes, Jenny. 1997. Quantifiers and Selection: On the Distribution of Quantifying Expressions in French, Dutch and English. Ph.D. thesis, University of Leiden, Holland Institute of Generative Linguistics. Chapter 2: “Mass and Count Properties of Nouns and Verbs”. D lling, Johannes. 1993. ‘Commonsense Ontology and Semantics of Natural Language’. Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 46: 133–141. Durst, Uwe. 2003. ‘The Natural Semantic Metalanguage Approach to Linguistic Meaning’. Theoretical Linguistics 29: 157–200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/thli.29.3.157 Goddard, Cliff. 1994. ‘Semantic Theory and Semantic Universals’. In ‘Semantic and Lexical Universals’, 7–29. Philadelphia: J. Benjamins. Goddard, Cliff. 1998. Semantic Analysis: A Practical Introduction. Oxford: Oxford UP. Goddard, Cliff. 2002. ‘The Search for the Shared Semantic Cor