Postmodern quantification with stuff

Abstract

Modern semantic theories of count and mass nouns rest on mereologically structured domains (i.e., domains that have parthood relations). Such domains aim to capture cumulative and divisive reference. However, the mereological domains of modern theories presuppose ontologically troublesome atoms of stuff. Furthermore, they predict parts of “atomic” individuals (e.g., handrails) as well as composite individuals (e.g., cars), and they therefore need to define post-hoc properties of reference (e.g., mereotopological constraints) to get the right atoms back.It seems, therefore, justified to assume that modern theories primarily reflect artifacts of their initially chosen starting point (i.e., mereological domains). This assumption is exacerbated by the fact that cumulative and divisive reference is an immediate consequence of a “naïve” domain that assumes sets of individuals (for plural count) and quantities (for mass). Accordingly, we introduce a more recent theory of pluralities and quantification, namely Referential Transparency Theory (RTT), extend it with a quantitative type stuff, and show how issues of count and mass are discussed in a postmodern way. We argue for a unification of mereotopological and lexical approaches, refine earlier taxonomies by hypothesizing six classes of entities denoted by nominal expressions, and explain complement anaphora with mass noun antecedents.