#Language #Mathematics #English #Grammar .

@StefanMuelller Irrationally, I like this *so* much I referenced it in my display name before I knew about it.

@argv_minus_one @ThreeSigma @StefanMuelller But perhaps not too good.

@StefanMuelller linguist vs mathematician. Only one leaves alive.

@crouton I studied mathematics for a year from 1989 onwards, when computer science became available in 1990 I switched and I am now a linguistics professor. Am I dad? Did I kill half of me?

2/ Hm, I feel a little bad since this turns out to be "my" most successful toot on my linguistic account and the content is not by me. At least it is credited in the image. So thanks to snail.and.snail for this great cartoon.

cc @jendrik

@argv_minus_one @ThreeSigma @StefanMuelller IMHO the distinction between countable and not countable is (while being certainly helpful) the wrong question.

The difference between "much" and "many" is the question for the amount and cardinality. That's why "much" can be used in many (not all) situations instead of "many".

How much/many potatoes do you need? Fine, as long as they are roughly the same size. Eggs? Depends on the dish. For scrambled eggs "much" should be fine, for boiled eggs not.

@joeldrapper that be „how much gold“ van „how many coins“. I suspect the word money is semantically closer to gold than to coins. @StefanMuelller

@weddige @argv_minus_one @StefanMuelller

How are you distinguishing the terms “countability” and “cardinality”?

@ThreeSigma "countability" would be the property, that a meaningful "cardinality" exists, and the "cardinality" would be the actual number of items.

The difference between "how much" and "how many" is also not, if a natural number would be reasonable answer, but if that's the answer, that I expect.

How much potatoes? "1kg" or "5 potatoes" would be valid answers.
How many potatoes? "5 potatoes" or just "5" would be valid, "1kg" would not be valid.

@argv_minus_one @StefanMuelller