The mass/count quality of deverbal nouns

Abstract

this paper investigates the mass/count quality of deverbal nouns, more specifically those formed without an overt phonological suffix. Thus, this work starts from the parallelism, found in the literature, between the mass/count quality of deverbal nouns and the Aktionsart of the verbs, which these nouns derive from. This study concludes that atelic predications derive mass nouns and, on the other hand, telic predicates form count nouns. Moreover, this paper argues that both types of nouns undergo the coercion, packing and grinding, and each one of these operations is bound to the type of the interpretation, which one gives to the predicate expressed by the noun.

Keywords

• Qualidade massa/contável. Nomes deverbais. Acionalidade.