In formal semantics, a predicate is quantized if it being true of an entity requires that it is "not" true of any proper subparts of that entity. For example, if something is an "apple", then no proper subpart of that thing is an "apple". If something is "water", then many of its subparts will also be "water". Hence, the predicate "apple" is quantized, while "water" is not.
Formally, a quantization predicate "QUA" can be defined as follows, where formula_1 is the universe of discourse, formula_2 is a variable over sets, and formula_3 is a mereological part structure on formula_1 with formula_5 the mereological part-of relation:
formula_6
Quantization was first proposed by Manfred Krifka as part of his mereological approach to the semantics of nominals. It has since been applied to other phenomena such as telicity.
References.
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