English

Noun

countification ‎(plural not attested)

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 (on Internet newsgroup bit.listserv.tesl-l)

     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, Ben Zimmer, New York Times (24 May 2010)

     The countification of e-mail mirrors some other recent developments in tech-talk.

Related terms

• countify

References

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