Counting on number: effects of number information on grammatical processing of mass and count nouns

Abstract

© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Previous research has found an influence of semantic number (SINGLE, MULTIPLE) on grammatical processing of mass nouns in people with aphasia. This is the first study to investigate these effects in language-unimpaired individuals. In two experiments, participants had to decide which were the appropriate determiners (e.g. Experiment 1: a[singularcount] – some[mass/pluralcount]) for the name of mass and count noun pictures that were depicted either as single (one bulb of garlic[mass], one cat[count]) or as multiple objects (three bulbs of garlic[mass], three cats[count]). Semantic number congruency between depictions and determiners was manipulated for mass nouns. A semantic number congruency effect was found in both experiments with faster and more accurate determiner decisions in the number congruent (e.g. Experiment 1: MULTIPLE) compared to the number incongruent condition (e.g. Experiment 1: SINGLE). These results provide further evidence for an influence of semantic number information on lexical-syntactic processing of mass nouns.