Object-mass nouns specify individuation lexically: Evidence from English and French

In many languages, count nouns trigger a comparison by number (e.g., too many strings), while mass nouns typically do not (e.g., too much string). However, object-mass nouns like furniture exhibit mass syntax but often support a comparison by number (e.g., too much furniture → too many items; Barner & Snedeker, 2005). Some theories argue that object-mass nouns lexically specify individuation, making them semantically like count nouns in that they induce a comparison by number (Bale & Barner, 2009), while others propose that only count nouns force numerical comparisons, leaving object-mass nouns open to contextual shifts (Rothstein, 2017; McCawley, 1975). We evaluated these hypotheses by comparing English quantity judgments for object-mass nouns to (1) collective count nouns, and (2) French judgments for translations of object-mass nouns. In each case, we found that object-mass nouns behaved like count nouns, and were no more susceptible to contextual effects. These findings support the view that object-mass nouns and count nouns specify individuation to the same extent.