Latifah Haryati ;

Writer : Latifah Haryati Responder : Jayanti Ningrum NPM : 10211210058 Class : 3B Final Exam Task Uncountable Nouns Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot "count" them. For example, we cannot count "milk". We can count "bottles of milk" or "litres of milk", but we cannot count "milk" itself. Uncountable nouns (also called mass nouns or noncount nouns) cannot be counted, they are not seperate objects. This means you cannot make them plural by adding -s, because they only have a singular form. It also means that they do not take a/an or a number in front of them. The notion of countable and uncountable can be confusing. Some nouns can be countable or uncountable depending on their meaning. Usually a noun is uncountable when used in a general, abstract meaning (when you don't think of it as a separate object) and countable when used in a particular meaning (when you can think of it as a separate object). A mass noun (also uncountable noun or non-count noun) is a noun that refers to some entity as an undifferentiated unit rather than as something with discrete subsets. Non-count nouns are best identified by their syntactic properties, and especially in contrast with count nouns. The semantics of mass nouns are highly controversial. Given that different languages have different grammatical features, the actual test for which nouns are mass nouns may vary between languages. In English, mass nouns are characterized by the fact that they cannot be directly modified by a numeral without specifying a unit of measurement, and that they cannot combine with an indefinite article (a or an). Thus, the mass noun "water" is quantified as "20 liters of water" while the count noun "chair" is quantified as "20 chairs". However, mass nouns (like count nouns) can be quantified in relative terms without unit specification (e.g., "much water," "many chairs"). Some mass nouns can be used in English in the plural to mean "more than one instance (or example) of a certain sort of entity" for example, "Many cleaning agents today are technically not soaps, but detergents." In such cases they no longer play the role of mass nouns, but (syntactically) they are treated as count nouns. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_noun Relating grammatical number to physical discreteness In English (and in many other languages), there is a tendency for nouns referring to liquids (water, juice), powders (sugar, sand), or substances (metal, wood) to be used in mass syntax, and for nouns referring to objects or people to be count nouns. This is not a hard-and-fast rule, however; such mass nouns as furniture and cutlery, which represent more easily quantified objects, show that the mass/count distinction should be thought of as a property of the terms themselves, rather than as a property of their referents. For example, the same set of chairs can be referred to as "seven chairs" and as "furniture"; though both chair and furniture are referring to the same thing, the former is a count noun and the latter a mass noun. For another illustration of the principle that the count/non-count distinction lies not in an object but rather in the expression that refers to it, consider the English words "fruit" and "vegetables". The objects that these words describe are, objectively speaking, similar (that is, they're all edible plant parts); yet the word "fruit" is (usually) non-count, whereas "vegetables" is a plural count form. One can see that the difference is in the language, not in the reality of the objects. Meanwhile, German has a general word for "vegetables" that, like English "fruit", is (usually) non-count: das Gemüse. British English has a slang word for "vegetables" that acts the same way: "veg" In languages that have a partitive case, the distinction is explicit and mandatory. For example, in Finnish, join vetta, "I drank (some) water", the word , "water", is in the partitive case. The related sentence join veden, "I drank (the) water", using the accusative case instead, assumes that there was a specific countable portion of water that was completely drunk. The work of logicians like Godehard Link and Manfred Krifka established that the mass/count distinction can be given a precise, mathematical definition in terms of quantization and cumulativity. Multiple senses for one noun Many English nouns can be used in either mass or count syntax, and in these case, they take on cumulative reference when used as mass nouns. For example, one may say that "there's apple in this sauce," and then apple has cumulative reference, and, hence, is used as a mass noun. Conversely, "fire" is frequently used as a mass noun, but "a fire" refers to a discrete entity. Interestingly, "fire" as a count noun does allow cumulative reference, since if two fires join in a forest, they are referred to as one fire. Substance terms like "water" which are frequently used as mass nouns, can be used as count nouns to denote arbitrary units of a substance ("Two watersplease") or of several types/varieties ("waters of the world").[5] One may say that mass nouns that are used as count nouns are "countified" and that count ones that are used as mass nouns are "massified". However, this may confuse syntax and semantics, by presupposing that words which denote substances are mass nouns by default. According to many accounts, nouns do not have a lexical specification for mass-count status, and instead are specified as such only when used in a sentence.[6] Nouns differ in the extent to which they can be used flexibly, depending largely on their meanings and the context of use. For example the count noun "house" is difficult to use as mass (though clearly possible), and the mass noun "cutlery" is most frequently used as mass, despite the fact that it denotes objects, and has count equivalents in other languages:  Bad: *There is house on the road. (Bad even if the situation of war is considered)  Bad: *There is a cutlery on the table. (Bad even if just one fork is on the table)  Good: You get a lot of house for your money since the recession.  Good: Spanish cutlery is my favorite. (type / kind reading) In some languages, such as Chinese and Japanese, it has been claimed by some that all nouns are effectively mass nouns, requiring ameasure word to be quantified. Quantification Some quantifiers are specific to mass nouns (e.g. an amount of) or count nouns (e.g. a number of, every). Others can be used with both types (e.g. a lot of, some). Confounding of collective noun and mass noun There is often confusion about the two different concepts of collective noun and mass noun. Generally, collective nouns are not mass nouns, but rather are a special subset of count nouns. However, the term "collective noun" is often used to mean "mass noun" (even in some dictionaries), because users confound two different kinds of verb number invariability: (a) that seen with mass nouns such as "water" or "furniture", with which only singular verb forms are used because the constituent matter is grammatically nondiscrete (although it may ["water"] or may not ["furniture"] be etically nondiscrete) (b) that seen with collective nouns, which is the result of the metonymical shiftbetween the group and its (both grammatically and etically) discrete constituents. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_noun Here are some more uncountable nouns: • music, art, love, happiness • advice, information, news • furniture, luggage • rice, sugar, butter, water • electricity, gas, power • money, currency We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. For example: • This news is very important. • Your luggage looks heavy. We do not usually use the indefinite article a/an with uncountable nouns. We cannot say "an information" or "a music". But we can say a something of: • a piece of news • a bottle of water • a grain of rice We can use some and any with uncountable nouns: • I've got some money. • Have you got any rice? We can use a little and much with uncountable nouns: • I've got a little money. • I haven't got much rice. You can make most uncountable noun countable by putting a countable expression in front of the noun. For example: • A piece of information. • 2 glasses of water. • 10 litres of coffee. • Three grains of sand. • A pane of glass. Some supposedly uncountable nouns can behave like countable nouns if we think of them as being in containers, or one of several types. This is because 'containers' and 'types' can be counted. Believe it or not each of these sentences is correct: - Doctors recommend limiting consumption to two coffees a day. (Here coffees refers to the number of cups of coffee) You could write; "Doctors recommend limiting consumption to two cups of coffee a day." - The coffees I prefer are Arabica and Brazilian. (Here coffees refers to different types of coffee) You could write; "The types of coffee I prefer are Arabica and Brazilian." http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/noununcount.htm Uncountable nouns are materials, concepts, information, etc. which are not individual objects and can not be counted. Information, water, understanding, wood, cheese, etc. Uncountable nouns are always singular. Use the singular form of the verb with uncountable nouns: - There is some water in that pitcher. - That is the equipment we use for the project. Adjectives with Countable and Uncountable Nouns. Use a/an with countable nouns preceded by an adjective(s): - Tom is a very intelligent young man. - I have a beautiful grey cat. Do not use a/an with uncountable nouns preceded by an adjective(s): - That is very useful information. - There is some cold beer in the fridge. http://esl.about.com/od/grammarforbeginners/a/g_cucount.htm Some uncountable nouns in English are countable in other languages. This can be confusing! Here is a list of some of the most common, easy to confuse uncountable nouns. accommodation luggage advice money news pasta progress research travel work baggage bread equipment furniture garbage information knowledge Obviously, uncountable nouns (especially different types of food) have forms that express plural concepts. These measurements or containers are countable: - water - a glass of water - equipment - a piece of equipment - cheese - a slice of cheese Here are some of the most common containers / quantity expressions for these uncountable nouns: - accommodation - a place to stay - advice - a piece of advice - baggage - a piece of baggage - bread - a slice of bread, a loaf of bread - equipment - a piece of equipment - furniture - a piece of furniture - garbage - a piece of garbage - information - a piece of information - knowledge - a fact - luggage - a piece of luggage, a bag, a suitcase - money - a note, a coin Here are some more common uncountable food types with their container / quantity expressions: - liquids (water, beer, wine, etc.) - a glass, a bottle, a jug of water, etc. - cheese - a slice, a chunk, a piece of cheese - meat - a piece, a slice, a pound of meat - butter - a bar of butter - ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard - a bottle of, a tube of ketchup, etc. http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/nouns-un-countable_2.htm