On the quantitative conceptualization of objects in the Portuguese language

This article is devoted to the study of cognitive nature of numeric variations of Portuguese nouns. We examine the subject names which contain collective component. In many languages these names are characterized by paradigm, defective by number and mainly belong to the category of Singularia tantum, but in Portuguese-speaking discourse they can vary in number. Forming of the plural and singular characteristics depends on the conceptualization of the represented object