linguoboy wrote:dEhiN wrote:I'm aware of how mass nouns can after a while become countable ones. What I meant by "now" was specifically the usage of "bread" and "flour" as countable. Perhaps even those two being used in a countable sense isn't that recent. However, there are still dialectal areas where those two aren't really used in a countable sense.
[citation needed]
Alright, perhaps dialectal areas isn't the correct phrase, since I've never done a survey of any kind. But considering that my personal experiences speak to those two words being used mostly in an uncountable sense, my whole point was that there are some native speakers who aren't used to those words being countable, and would consider it incorrect on first blush if they saw it being used that way.
linguoboy wrote:dEhiN wrote:That's why, for example, I was surprised by it and miscorrected france-eesti. I know that among my social circles, "bread" and "flour" are still generally considered mass nouns, and the countable usage hasn't taken off.
This is honestly getting embarrassing. Please read a grammatical description on mass nouns before you share any more opinions on them.
(Incidentally, the countable use of "bread" in the sense of "loaf or piece of bread" was found in Middle English. This is completely independent from the phenomenon of pluralising mass nouns to express the concept of multiple varieties or types.)
What is so embarrassing about the fact that another native speaker has had a different experience with language usage? Do you honestly think I don't know what a mass or uncountable noun is? I'm not the only person who considers bread to be uncountable, as witnessed
here, in which one commentator states:
Normally, bread is an uncountable noun. Having said that, searching Google for "three breads" does give many hits. Specifically:
"Three breads" may be used to mean "three types of bread", e.g.:
Salmon and Scrambled Egg with three breads here
BLT choice of three breads, mine was a baguette here
The term is used biblically and in sermons, etc., e.g.:
“Three Breads” - John 6:24-35 here
There appears to be a place in New Zealand, named "Three Breads & 2 Fishes"
This person doesn't say bread cannot be uncountable, but they do say that normally bread is uncountable. So does it not stand to reason that there would be some native speakers for whom bread is only considered uncountable due to perhaps them either never or rarely having come across the countable usage? I honestly don't see what the big deal about all of this is, and why you insist on responding with incredulity that I miscorrected france-eesti and incorrectly believed that bread is solely an uncountable, or mass noun.