title: Pairing words with syntactic frames: syntax, semantics, and count-mass usage.
abstract: Two experiments examined English speakers' choices of count or mass compatible frames for nouns varying in imageability (concrete, abstract) and noun class (count, mass). Pairing preferences with equative (much/many) and non-equative (less/fewer) constructions were compared for groups of teenagers, young adults, and older adults. Deviations from normative usage were, for all ages, larger for count than for mass nouns, for the non-equative than for the equative construction, and for abstract count than for concrete count nouns. These results indicate that mass syntax is not a developmental default, support proposals that mass syntax is more flexible than count syntax, verify the non-prescriptive use of less with count nouns, and extend the interaction of syntax and semantics in noun classification to older ages, with older adults showing a reduced reliance on semantics. Knowledge of frame compatibility and knowledge of noun class are also shown to be largely independent.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Colorado, Boulder, 80309-0345, USA.
authors.forename: William D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Raymond
authors.forename: Alice F
authors.initials: AF
authors.lastname: Healy
authors.forename: Samantha J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: McDonnel
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007807:Language Tests; D008297:Male; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D012660:Semantics; D014825:Vocabulary