2.4. Theory of the field structure of the word.

Theory of the Morphological Field:

In a group of words there are ones which have all indications (signs) of a definite morphological part of speech; there are also words which have not all indications (signs) of a definite morphological part of speech. The former form the nucleus of the morphological field of a certain part of speech; the latter – its periphery.

For example:

*The word table form the periphery of the Noun, not the nucleus, because it can, for example, have a sign of the Adjective. In the word-combination a big table it has a sign of the Noun but in the word-combination a table lamp – the one of the Adjective.

*Words like pen, woman, sky, etc. form the nucleus of the Noun. They always are main and attributed in word-combinations.

Two general tasks of linguists are:

1. to define the structure of the field and the composition of the language elements (words) in the morphological field of a part of speech;

2. to determine the indications which make some language elements close to another or other morphological parts of speech (ex. with table).

III The Noun

1. General characteristics of the Noun. Its Grammatical Meaning, syntactic functions and the system of word-formation.

2. Subcategorization of the Noun.

3. Grammatical categories of the Noun.

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

   2. The category of Number.

   3. The category of the Case.

3.1. General characteristics of the Noun. Its Grammatical Meaning, syntactic functions and the system of word-formation.

Characteristics of the Noun:

1. The Noun refers to the Categorematic parts of speech:

it has lexical meaning and can take a definite syntactic position and serve some functions of a member of a sentence.

2. The Noun has its own Grammatical Meaning:

it denotes objects, things, phenomena. All the nouns (does not matter what type of objects, things or phenomena they name, concrete or abstract) function in a language in the same way.

For example, the nouns man (concrete), friendship (abstract) both name, denote not signs or qualities and not actions or circumstances but an object and phenomenon (which can both be included to the group of Things).

3. The Noun can serve the syntactic functions of the Subject and the Object.

Besides it can also be the Predicative. Though this index makes the Noun and the Adjective alike because they both can serve the syntactic function of the Predicative.

For example, He is a man (a noun). He is smart (an adjective).

4. The Noun has a strong system of word-formation.

It is very important in the light of Grammar for they not only change the meanings of words but also indicate their belonging to the Noun.

The word-formative suffixes of the Noun are divided into two general groups: those which denote persons and those which denote abstract things.

For example:

*suffixes which denote persons:-er, -ist, -ess, -ee (singer, specialist, actress, employee, etc).

*suffixes which denote abstract things: -ness, -ion, -tion, -ity, -ism, -ment (kindness, obsession, rotation, security, pluralism, development, etc.).

5. The Noun has a weak system of word-changing (a kept sign of a synthetic language):

its root and stem coincided. Some nouns can have both forms, Singular and Plural.

For example, pen – pens, day – days, star – stars, etc.

6. Grammatical categories of the Noun are poor.

*There is the Category of the Number (boy – boys, study – studies, etc.).

*The Category of the Case has been still under certain doubts (will be seen later on).

*The Category of the Gender completely disappeared by the end of the Middle Ages though some scientist tend to regard Gender as a grammatical category of the English Noun (will be seen later on).