3.3. Grammatical categories of the Noun.

Grammatical categories of the Noun are poor.

*There is the Category of the Number.

*The Category of the Case has been still under certain doubts.

*The Category of the Gender is considered to have completely disappeared by the end of the Middle Ages, though there is still some arguments as for considering Gender as a grammatical category of the English Noun.

1. The problem of the Gender of the English Noun.

The gender of an object, thing or phenomenon is expressed with lexical, but not grammatical, means (boy – girl, man – woman, bull – caw; he-goat – she-goat; star – it; window – it, ship – it/she, etc.). Grammatically there is almost no sign to indicate the gender of a noun (the suffix -ess can be considered as an exception: steward – stewardess, actor – actress, etc.).

Some scientists, however, (for example, an American linguist Strand, a Russian linguist Bloch) consider Gender as a category of the English Noun as all the nouns can be substituted by the appropriate pronouns. Though it would not be really correct for the propriety of the Pronoun (to substitute the noun in accordance to the lexical gender the latter expresses) is shifted to the Noun. It can breed a certain confusion in the understanding of the problem of English Grammar.

2. The category of the Number.

1. The category of the Number is based on the opposition of singularity and plurality.

For example:

parent – parents, tree –trees, man –men, life – lives, etc.

Singular form of the Noun is multiciphered (многозначное; can stay singular or change into plural) and Plural – simple (однозначное; cannot change for has already been changed).

The opposition of singularity and plurality can, for example:

1. express differences in size (ex., wood (like material to be used to make a fire; logs) and woods (like an area of trees, smaller than a forest));

2. distinguish a class and a subclass (ex., fish (as a creature that lives in water) and fishes (refers to different kinds of fish)).

2. The category of the Number as for the formal indices is presented in two general models – open and closed.

1). As for the open model or productive (it goes on working) it is displayed by the formal index – the suffix -s/-es (in the Plural form of the Noun) or by its absence (in the Singular one).

For example:

Star – stars, floor –floors, knife – knives, etc.

*To the allomorphemes of the suffix -s/-es the following three are included:

1. [s]; after voiceless (unvoiced, surd, breathed) consonants (ex., cats);

2. [z] after vowels (ex., indices) and voiced consonants (ex., dogs);

3. [iz] sibilant (ex., kisses) and hushing sounds (ex., bushes).

2). As for the closed model (it is a certain historical heritage and does not develop) it is grammatically displayed only morphologically or in the sequence with a verb:

1. morphologically: Ox – oxen, child – children, woman –women, man – men, phenomenon – phenomena, antenna – antennae, data – datum, etc.

2. in the sequence with a verb: the noun sheep does not change its grammatical form at all: The sheep is here (Singular Number). The sheep are here (Plural Number).

3). There are also nouns which are unchangeable and have only singular or only plural form:

1. only singular: advice, information, knowledge, furniture, etc.;

2. only plural: trousers, pants, pyjamas, spectacles, etc.