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I'm editing an advanced grammar text book and the author and I cannot decide on whether "reign" is an uncountable noun or not.

The sentence is:

With Mr Smith gone, her reign could begin.

Oxford Dictionaries define reign as:

1. (noun) The period of rule of a monarch:
“the original chapel was built in the reign of Charles I”

1.1 The period during which someone or something is predominant or pre-eminent:
“she was hoping for a long reign as world champion.”

The author has identified other words in the passage as uncountable, e.g. meditation, activity, emptiness, slate, glass, silence, but not reign.

Mari-Lou A
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Ferntree
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    What kind of research have you done to try to answer this yourself? – curiousdannii Aug 19 '15 at 07:33
  • I checked two grammar guides (including the one I'm working on), a dictionary, I asked our grammar consultant and, as the question states, I discussed it with the author of the grammar book. Then I Googled. Finally I came here, curiousdannii. – Ferntree Aug 19 '15 at 09:18
  • You might feel it wise to look up articles addressing 'countification' and 'massification' here on ELU before you continue. There are grey areas too: see A blinding light / blinding sunlight / a blinding sunlight. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 19 '15 at 12:00
  • Usually it's good practice to explain the reason behind the confusion, that way users understand that you have done some research and they can see where your dilemma lies. A citation that defines reign as being countable and one as uncountable, is also helpful for future visitors. – Mari-Lou A Aug 20 '15 at 05:37

4 Answers4

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"Reign" is an interval of time. There's no reason that you can't consider several of these. Consider the book The History of Scotland During the Reigns of Queen Mary and of King James VI by Robertson and Stewart. You may also discuss a reign of terror in Cambodia under Pol Pot or the Reign of Terror in revolutionary France.

All of your examples of noncountable nouns have countable uses, as can be seen by their plural usages and usages with determinatives.

Richard Challoner wrote the book Meditations or considerations upon Christian truths and duties.

Dennison and Knight: Activities for Children in Therapy.

From Ocean of Nectar: Wisdom and Compassion in Mahayana Buddhism By Geshe Kelsang Gyatso

The four emptinesses are: (1) The emptiness of things (2) The emptiness of non-things (3) The emptiness of nature (4) The emptiness of other entities

In 1964, there were two competing slates of delegates from Mississippi at the Democratic National Convention. The challenging slate of the MDFP failed to unseat the slate of the regular party.

Elizabeth Latham: Silences of the Heart

Go here to read about devitrification of natural rhyolitic obsidian glasses ...

deadrat
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  • Thank you. Are you saying that none of these are uncountable nouns? You say reign has a countable use, but so do all my other examples. Slate does not appear in the context you assume, but the slate of a roof. I would also say that "emptinesses" and "silences" are used poetically, no? – Ferntree Aug 19 '15 at 09:22
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    @Ferntree Any mass noun can be instantiated: a particular example of activity is an activity; a particular example of meditation is a meditation and so on. These particular examples are all countable. That even applies to something like rice: you can have several different rices. However I can't see how reign can ever be uncountable. You can't have "too much reign". – Andrew Leach Aug 19 '15 at 10:46
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    @AndrewLeach thanks - that's a great way of formulating it. – Ferntree Aug 19 '15 at 11:03
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So that we can leave poetic usage aside, let's look for some common sense tests:

  1. Andrew proposed "too much ______ "

  2. I like to ask a student if the thing is like water. This seems to enable them to figure it out quite quickly.

  3. How much vs. how many?

  4. Can I make a sentence with "one ______"? With "two ______"?

Tests 3 and 4, applied to activity, show that activity works both ways:

How much activity does your child need during the day to get a good night's sleep?

How many different activities have you planned for the birthday party?

Slate and glass can easily work as both types too. In elementary school, a small blackboard or whiteboard is sometimes called a slate (countable). The type of rock, on the other hand, is uncountable. Glass is both a material (uncountable) and a cup, only taller, made of glass or another material.

If you disagree with your co-author's pronouncement that a certain word is not countable, just send her a sentence showing that it is. If she claims something is countable, but you disagree, ask her to send you a sentence.

Community
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aparente001
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I think reign is a countable noun because when we say "During his reign ..." it means that his reign was not infinite thus it can be counted.

Ali Sheharyar Sheikh
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Most of the nouns referred to can be conceptualised, they elude our sensory organs but that doesn't preclude them to be countable. In other words abstract nouns can be countable. REIGN is a countable noun.

It could have been better if you had left ABSTRACT NOUNS out of your category of countable/uncountable, just limiting yourself to words as simple as 'iron, water, air' etc. For the sake of clarity only.

NOUN>Proper +Common

COMMON NOUNS> Countable + Uncountable ( leaving class/ material/abstract to readers' discretion)

aparente001
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Barid Baran Acharya
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  • Many thanks for this. It is an advanced grammar guide so we would not be able to leave abstract concepts off the list, even for the sake of clarity. – Ferntree Aug 19 '15 at 09:49