"universal sorter" meaning in English

See universal sorter in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Etymology: Compound of universal + sorter; first used in print in or around 1981 by Hendrik Bunt (see quote below) modeled on universal grinder. Etymology templates: {{compound|en|universal|sorter}} universal + sorter Head templates: {{en-noun|?}} universal sorter
  1. (linguistics) A mechanism whereby uncountable nouns are made countable and abstract. Categories (topical): Linguistics Related terms: universal packager, universal grinder
    Sense id: en-universal_sorter-en-noun-lD21zYM6 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Topics: human-sciences, linguistics, sciences
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  "etymology_text": "Compound of universal + sorter; first used in print in or around 1981 by Hendrik Bunt (see quote below) modeled on universal grinder.",
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          "orig": "en:Linguistics",
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        {
          "ref": "1981, Hendrik Bunt, The formal semantics of mass terms, Amsterdam (dissertation), →OCLC, page 11:",
          "text": "The conceivability of this machine, that we might call the \"Universal Sorter\", indicates that in principle any \"mass noun\" can be used as a count noun. Of course, it is true that a \"mass noun\" like 'wine' undergoes a shift in meaning when used as a count noun...",
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        "A mechanism whereby uncountable nouns are made countable and abstract."
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        "(linguistics) A mechanism whereby uncountable nouns are made countable and abstract."
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  "etymology_text": "Compound of universal + sorter; first used in print in or around 1981 by Hendrik Bunt (see quote below) modeled on universal grinder.",
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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-02-21 using wiktextract (7c21d10 and f2e72e5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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