Thus, the distinction between count nouns and mass nouns is not a central part of
Japanese grammar. The same is true of the Mexican Indian language Yucatec and a
number of other languages across the world.
How does this grammatical difference between English and Japanese affect
the way speakers of these languages perceive the world around them? In one
experiment, speakers of Japanese and English were given entities of three different
kinds: complex objects, simple objects and substances. Complex objects had complex
shapes and distinct functions, such as a lemon juicer: