Nouns and Verbs

The universal grammatical categories noun and verb are held susceptible to notional characterization. The traditional objections to this claim are overcome by an appropriate view of linguistic semantics, one based on cognitive processing and the structuring of conceptual content. Reasonably precise semantic descriptions of the noun and verb categories are proposed in the context of the cognitive grammar framework. The distinction between count and mass nouns is explicated, and is shown to be a direct analog of the fundamental aspectual distinction between verbs that designate perfective and imperfective processes. The analysis permits the elucidation of subtle semantic contrasts and the explanation of various grammatical phenomena.