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1. Noun. Kinds, Functions and Composition of Nouns. A noun is a word for a person, a place, or a thing.  A noun is a part of speech expressing substance in the widest sense of the word. A noun tells us what someone or something is called. For example, a noun can be the name of a person (John), a job title (doctor), the name of a thing (radio), the name of a place (London), the name of a quality (courage), or the name of an action (laughter/laughing). Nouns are the names we give to people, things, places, etc in order to identify them.

The noun has the following morphological characteristics:

1. Nouns that can be counted have two numbers: singular and plural (a girl; girls).

2. Nouns denoting living beings (and some nouns denoting lifeless things) have two case forms: the common case and the genitive case. Nouns in the common case do not have any special endings. The connection of a noun in the common case with other words is expressed with the help of prepositions: I gave the ticket to my sister. He bought a ball for his son. America was discovered by Columbus. The genitive case: girl’s book, my mother’s bag.

3. Nouns have the category of gender: heir – heiress, waiter – waitress.

The Functions of Nouns in the Sentence

Nouns may have different functions in the sentences. They may serve as:

1) the subject: Life consists in accepting one’s duty;

2) the object (direct, indirect and prepositional):

Frank sent an urgent telex from Cairo this morning (direct object);

Frank sent his boss a telex (indirect object);

He won't listen to any advice (prepositional object).

3) the predicative (non-prepositional and prepositional):

The town has always been a quiet and dignified little place.

The place was in disorder.

4) the adverbial modifier: He spoke in a different tone.

5) the attribute: His officer’s uniform gave slimness to his already heavy figure.

6) the apposition: Laura Myers, a BBC reporter, asked for an interview

Classification of Nouns

Nouns fall under two classes: (A) proper nouns; (B) common nouns.

Proper nouns are individual names given to separate persons or things. As regards their meaning proper nouns may be personal names (Mary, Peter, Shakespeare), geographical names (Moscow, London, the Caucasus), the names of the months and of the days of the week (February, Monday), names of ships, hotels, clubs, etc.

Common nouns are names that can be applied to any individual of a class of persons or things (man, dog, book), collection of similar individuals or things regarded as a single unit (peasantry, family), materials (snow, iron, cotton) or abstract notions (kindness, development).

Thus, there are different groups of common nouns: class nouns, collective nouns, nouns of material and abstract nouns.

Class nouns denote persons or things belonging to a class: a shop, a flower. They are countable and have two numbers: singular and plural.

Collective nouns denote a number or collection of similar individuals or things as a single unit. Collective nouns fall under the following groups:

(a) nouns used only in the singular and denoting a number of things collected together and regarded as a single object: machinery, foliage;

(b) nouns which are singular in form though plural in meaning: police, cattle, people, poultry;

(c) nouns that may be both singular and plural: family, crowd, fleet, nation.

Nouns of material denote material: iron, gold, paper, tea, water.

Abstract nouns denote some quality, state, action or idea: kindness, sadness, idea.

Morphological Composition of Nouns

1. Simple nouns are nouns which have neither prefixes nor suffixes: chair, table, room, map.

2. Derivative nouns are nouns which have derivative elements (prefixes or suffixes or both): reader, sailor, childhood, misconduct.

3. Compound nouns.

Many nouns in English are formed from two parts (classroom) or, less commonly, three or more (son-in-law, stick-in-the-mud):

Single-word compound nouns

There are many words which we no longer think of as compounds at all, even though they are clearly made up of two words: a cupboard, a raincoat, a saucepan, the seaside, a'typewriter.

Nouns formed with adjective + noun: e.g. a greenhouse, a heavyweight, longhand, a redhead. Note the difference in meaning when these words are rearranged as adjective + noun: a heavyweight(= a boxer), a 'heavy 'weight(= a weight that is heavy)

Nouns formed with gerund + noun: e.g. drinking water, a frying pan, a walking stick. The meaning is 'something which is used for doing something: e.g. a frying pan (hyphen optional, = a pan that is used for frying).

Nouns formed with noun + gerund: e.g. horse-riding, sightseeing, sunbathing. Here the meaning is ‘the action of’: horse-riding (= the action of riding a horse)

Nouns formed with adverb particles: These compound nouns are combinations of verbs and adverb particles: e.g. breakdown, income, make up.

Nouns formed with noun + noun. When two nouns are used together to form a compound noun, the first noun (noun modifier) usually functions like an adjective and is nearly always in the singular This is the largest category of compound nouns and it can be considered under several headings:

a) Compound nouns in place of phrases with of: e.g.: a car key, a chair leg, a door knob, a typewriter key. When we want to say that one (non-living) thing is part of another, we can use of the key of the car. However, this can sound rather emphatic so we often use a compound noun instead (e. g. a car key) for things which are closely associated.

b) Compound nouns which refer to place. The first word refers to a place and the second word to something that is in that place. Both words are closely associated and are stressed but not hyphenated: e.g. the bank safe, a personal computer, a kitchen sink. Also note place names London Airport, Moscow Stadium, etc.

c) Compound nouns which refer to streets and roads. Where the word street occurs, the stress is on the first syllable: e. g. Baker Street, Oxford Street. Where the word road occurs, both parts are stressed e g 'Canterbury 'Road, the 'Oxford 'Road. Compound place names are not hyphenated.

d) Compound nouns which tell us about purpose: e.g. a bookcase, a can opener, a meeting point, a sheep dog. The second word suggests a use relating to the first (hyphen normally optional). A can opener is ‘a device for opening cans’.

e) Compound nouns which tell us about materials and substances: e. g. a cotton blouse, a gold watch, a plastic raincoat. The first word refers to a substance or material, the second to something made of that substance or material.

f) Compound nouns which classify types: e.g. a horror film, a headlamp, a seat belt. The first word answers the question What kind of ? These combinations can be extended to people and the things they do, as in a bookseller, a factory worker, a taxi driver. Note the difference between an 'English teacher (the one who teaches English) and an English 'teacher (the one who is English). Other compounds refer to pieces of apparatus and what operates them, as in a gas boiler, a pressure cooker, a vacuum cleaner.

g) Compound nouns which refer to ‘containers': e. g. a biscuit tin, a coffee cup, a teapot, a sugar bowl. The second item is designed to contain the first.

h) Compound nouns which relate to time. A number of combinations relate specifically to the time at which an activity takes place or to its duration: e.g. afternoon tea, morning coffee, the Sunday lunch, a two-hour walk. Also note other nouns relating to time: an evening dress, a night nurse.

i) Compound nouns formed with 'self, 'man', 'woman' and 'person' self- (stress on some part of the second word): e.g. self-'consciousness, self-con'trol, self-res'pect; man/woman (stress on first word): e. g. an 'airman, a 'fireman, a 'gentleman/woman. Some people replace man by person: a chairperson, a salesperson.

j) Proper nouns with two or more parts: e.g. a Ford car, an IBM computer, a/the Tate Gallery Exhibition.

2. Countable and uncountable nouns. Nouns which can be countable and uncountable with a difference in meaning. Partitives. Countable and uncountable nouns

Common nouns may be divided into countable and uncountable nouns. As the terminology suggests, countable nouns can combine with numerals like one, two, three, etc., whereas uncountable nouns cannot. Moreover, uncountable nouns are always singular, whereas most countable nouns may be either singular or plural. A number of properties related to this basic difference distinguish the two classes of nouns. The following table lists the most important ones, and provides examples of both types of noun. (The asterisk * marks an example as ungrammatical.)

 

countable nouns	uncountable nouns
accept the indefinite article: a car, a house, an accident, etc.	do not accept the indefinite article: *a money, *an evidence, *a knowledge, etc.
typically have a plural form: car - cars, house - houses, accident - accidents	have no plural form: money - *moneys, evidence - *evidences, nonsense - *nonsenses
can, and sometimes must, be replaced by the pronoun one: I sold my old car and bought a newone.	cannot be replaced by the pronoun one: *Bill prefers empirical evidence to anecdotal one.
in the plural, combine with plural quantifiers like many, a great number of, etc.: many cars, a great number of houses	only combine with singular quantifiers like much, a great deal of, etc.: much evidence, a great deal of money

All common nouns fall into one of two sub-classes: they may be either countable nouns (sometimes known as unit or count nouns) or uncountable nouns (sometimes known as mass or non-count nouns).

Unfortunately, we cannot always rely on common sense (using the idea of counting as a guide) to tell us when a noun is countable or uncountable. For example, the noun information is uncountable in English, but its equivalent in another language may refer to an item or items of information and will therefore be countable. Experience is uncountable, but we can refer to an experience to mean ‘an event which contributes to experience’:

e.g. They want someone with experience for this job.

I had a strange experience the other day.

Many nouns which are normally uncountable can be used as countable in certain contexts. This suggests that strict classifications of nouns as countable or uncountable are in many cases unreliable. It would be better to think in terms of countable and uncountable uses of nouns. For detailed information about individual nouns, consult a good dictionary.

Countable nouns

If a noun is countable:

- we can use a/an in front of it: a book, an envelope;

- it has a plural and can be used in the question How many?

How many stamps/envelopes? - Four stamps/envelopes

- we can use numbers: one stamp, two stamps

Uncountable nouns

If a noun is uncountable:

- we do not normally use a/an in front of it: Sugar is expensive;

- it does not normally have a plural and it can be used in the question How much?

How much meat/oil? - A lot of meat/A little oil

- we cannot normally use a number (one, two) in front of it.

Some nouns may be countable or uncountable depending on their use.

1. Some nouns are countable when they refer to single items, but they are uncountable when they refer to substances:

Countable (single item)	Uncountable (substance/material)
He ate a whole chicken!	Would you like some chicken?
I had a boiled egg for breakfast.	There's egg on your face.

2. Some nouns are uncountable when they refer to a material, but they are countable when they refer an object made from that material:

Countable (thing)	Uncountable (material)
I broke a glass this morning.	Grass is made from sand.
I picked up a stone.	We used stone to build our walls.

Normally uncountable nouns used as countables

Many nouns which are normally uncountable can be used as countable ones, if we refer to particular varieties. When this occurs, the noun is often preceded by an adjective (a nice wine) or there is some kind of specification (a wine of high quality). This region produces an excellent wine (i.e. a kind of wine which. .)

Kalamata produces some of the best olive oil in the world, it's an oil of very high quality (i.e. a kind of oil which...)

The North Sea produces a light oil which is highly prized in the oil industry

Normally uncountable nouns used exceptionally as countable ones can also occur in the plural: This region produces some awful wines as well as good ones.

Note also many words for drinks, which are uncountable when we think of them as substances: Beer/coffee/tea is expensive these days.

However, we can sometimes use a/an to mean e.g. a glass of, etc. or numbers in front of these words, or we can make them plural, for example when we are ordering in a restaurant: A (or One) beer, please. Two teas and four coffees, please.

Nouns which can refer to something specific or general

e.g. an education/education, a light/light, a noise/noise

As countables, these nouns refer to something specific (He has had a good education. I need a light by my bed). As uncountables, the reference is general (Standards of education are falling. Light travels faster than sound).

Countable (specific)	Uncountable (general)
A good education is expensive.	Education should be free.
Try not to make a noise.	Noise is a kind of pollution.

Some countable nouns like this can be plural (a light/lights, a noise/noises). Other nouns (education, knowledge) cannot be plural; as countables they often have some kind of qualification (a classical education, a good knowledge of English).

Nouns ending in '-ing'

e.g. a drawing/drawing, a painting/painting, a reading/reading

-ing forms are generally uncountable, but a few can refer to a specific thing or event.

Countable (specific)	Uncountable (general)
Are these drawings by Goya?.	I'm no good at drawing.
He has a painting by Hockney.	Painting is my hobby.