countification

English

Etymology

count +‎ -ification

Noun

countification (uncountable)

  1. (rare, linguistics) The conversion of a noncountable noun to a countable noun form.
    • 1969, The Yugoslav Serbo-Croatian-English Contrastive Project
      With some mass and abstract nouns, "countification" is accompanied by a shift of meaning: paper (SC papir) vs. a paper (SC novine, dokument)...
    • 1995, Marilyn Martin, “Article question redux”, in bit.listserv.tesl-l (Usenet):
      The use of A with GRAIN gives the class membership of the item and illustrates the "countification" of mass nouns, with the deletion of the understood "type(s) of."
    • 2010 May 24, Ben Zimmer, New York Times:
      The countification of e-mail mirrors some other recent developments in tech-talk.

References

Zimmer, Ben (May 7, 2010). "The Plural of E-Mail". The New York Times. Retrieved May 24, 2010.

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