Investigating the concept of individuation and judgment of quantity: Evidence from count-mass distinction

Abstract

The present study aims to explore English as a Foreign Language (hereafter EFL) instructors’ recognition of count-mass distinction regarding the concept of individuation and judgment of quantity. Accordingly, fifteen EFL instructors recruited from different public universities in Turkey were asked to write the plural forms of a sum of fifty count and mass nouns given in a list. Participants, then, were asked to rate the elements of aggregates (either count or mass) in order to identify their semantic mappings. Following these, the participants were also given a self-rating form to check post-experiment familiarity of those fifty nouns in a random order, and they rated how familiar they were with the items given on a basis of very familiar’, ‘somewhat familiar’ and ‘not familiar’. Descriptive statistics were applied as a part of quantitative data analysis. Demographic information was given on gender and year(s) of teaching experience. As a result, it was reported that EFL instructors conceptualized count nouns as distinct individuals whereas mass nouns were regarded as non-individuals. Familiarity had a probable positive linear effect on success, though. To mention, participants did better at aggregate terms for count nouns than those of mass nouns. Besides, aggregate terms for count nouns were judged to be more familiar than those of mass nouns. The principle of cognitive individuation was confirmed with no external interference of gender and years of teaching experience.