Are the ‘portioning’ readings (‘several beers’) and ‘grinding’ readings (‘a bit of pear’) the result of lexical derivations with real-time processing effects? The evidence is inconclusive. While Frisson and Frazier (2005) argue that these readings are visible as cost, Lima (2019) reports no such effects. We address this inconsistency through two English self-paced reading experiments. Experiment I testing the ‘portioning’ reading (‘several pears’ vs. ‘several beers’) reveals no additional processing effects. By contrast, Experiment II testing the ‘grinding’ reading (‘a bit of beer’ vs. ‘a bit of pear’) reveals higher reading times for the ‘grinding’ condition one word after the critical noun. These results provide empirical support for an asymmetrical relationship between individuated ‘count' and non-individuated ‘mass' readings. Whereby the former represent the default conceptual representation resulting in no cost, the latter result from a conceptual expansion to include a container-containee conceptualization, which is done in real-time, resulting in cost.