Saturday, August 28, 2010

Count Nouns and Mass Nouns

Count Nouns
Numbers quantify them in common speech.  
दस पेणTen pens
पाँच लकड़ीयांFive sticks
पाँच गाँवFive villages

Mass Nouns
These are also called “non-count nouns”.  Typically numbers can not modify mass nouns directly and they cannot be pluralized.  Sometimes only one sense of a word is mass and another is count.  The stared (*) examples sound unnatural to native speakers.  Generally speaking mass nouns are usually gases, liquids, and groups of solid particles that are very small or hard to count.  Abstract nouns also fall in this category.  
आटा रा दस बंडलTen bundles of flour
*दस आटा*Ten flour
पाँच बोतल घौळFive bottles of liquid
*पाँच हवा*Five air
जळ रा एक कप / पाणी रौ एक कपOne cup of water
*दो पाणी*Two waters
हवाAir
आगFire
धूड़Sand
प्रेमlove
ग्यानknowledge
सलाहadvise

For more information seeː
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_noun
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/noncount.htm
http://www.glottopedia.de/index.php/Mass_noun
http://www.glottopedia.de/index.php/Count_noun_and_mass_noun

More Research neededː
In many languages only certain modifiers can be used with count nouns and others with mass nouns.  For instance in English it is natural to say, “much air, less love, few dogs, many pens” but unnatural to say, “many air, few love, less dogs, much pens”.  Marwari modifiers seem to be used between mass and count nouns without these boundaries.

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