count noun a noun that can occur syntactically (a) with quantifiers ‘each’, ‘every’, ‘many’, ‘few’, ‘several’, and numerals; (b) with the indefinite article, ‘a(n)’; and (c) in the plural form. The following are examples of count nouns (CNs), paired with semantically similar mass nouns (MNs): ‘each dollar / silver’, ‘one composition / music’, ‘a bed / furniture’, ‘instructions / advice’. MNs but not CNs can occur with the quantifiers ‘much’ and ‘little’: ‘much poetry / poem(s)’, ‘little bread / loaf’. Both CNs and MNs may occur with ‘all’, ‘most’, and ‘some’. Semantically, CNs but not MNs refer distributively, providing a counting criterion. It makes sense to ask how many CNs?: ‘How many coins / gold?’ MNs but not CNs refer collectively. It makes sense to ask how much MN?: ‘How much gold / coins?’ One problem is that these syntactic and semantic criteria yield different classifications; another problem is to provide logical forms and truth conditions for sentences containing mass nouns. See also DISTRIBUTION , MEANING, SORTAL PREDICAT. W.K.W.