Would you like tea?

[teechar]

I agree that that's possible.

I've never heard of anyone ordering a whole fried chicken, have you?

 

[5jj]

No. (I suggested this in post #4.0

I have heard of people ordering a (portion/serving of) fried chicken.

 

[jutfrank]

My example wasn't meant as a limited context. It was just an example of how it makes sense to use fried chickens countably in a way that doesn't mean whole fried chickens.

As a general illustration meant to get at the heart of the meaning of countability, I think it's reasonably useful to learners to make this point.

 

[teechar]

My example wasn't meant as a limited context. It was just an example of how it makes sense to use fried chickens countably in a way that doesn't mean whole fried chickens.

As a general illustration meant to get at the heart of the meaning of countability, I think it's reasonably useful to learners to make this point.

I disagree with both those points.
1- As far as I am concerned, the contexts in which "fried chickens" is used countably and not in the sense of whole chickens are limited.
2- I think many learners find the basic concepts of countability in English challenging, so I do not find it useful to focus on obscure exceptions instead of the main rules.

 

[jutfrank]

In the sense of 'discrete servings', it doesn't really matter if you're talking about fried chickens, or lasagnes, or vegetable soups, or coffees, or teas, or anything else. If you want to call this particular use 'limited', then okay, but every use is limited to some extent.

I don't see any exception to any rule here. This practice of using a countable noun phrase to refer to 'a portion of' or 'a serving of' or 'a plate of' or 'a cup of' or 'a piece of', etc. is not just a natural and common way of using countable nouns, but in my view also a useful illustration of the very basic sense of countability. If you say 'Can I have two teas, please?', you're not breaking any rules—you're just showing that you mean two discrete portions of tea.

However, the fact that the phrase 'two fried chickens' is ambiguous (it could refer to two whole chickens) could be problematic, yes.