7.The noun. Semantic classification.

The noun is a notional word which refers to people, things, ideas, feelings, qualities…

Morphological composition

• Simple(cat, desk, floor)

• Derived :

- abstract nouns( arrival, meeting, election, width)

- concrete noun (servant, student, dancer)

• Compound nouns (airport, bluebird, living room, parents-in-law)

• Converted (a walk – from verb to walk)

Semantic characteristics

Nouns can be divided into 2 groups – proper nouns and common nouns.

A proper noun is used for a particular person, place, thing which is, or is imagined to be , unique.

Common nouns are subdivided into count nouns and uncount nouns. Count nouns denote objects that can be counted: they may be either concrete (table, tree) or abstract (idea, question). Uncount nouns are names of objects that cannot be counted. They may be material (silver,milk) or abstract (love, friendship).

There are a number of nouns in Engl. which refer to a set of objects collected together. These nouns are called collective nouns. They include group nouns, nouns of multitude and mass nouns.

Group nouns refer to groups of individuals: army, crew, crowd, family, minority. G. nouns also include proper names, such as the name of a country denoting a national team(England) or the name of a business company. In Am.E a sing. Group noun takes a sing. verb. In Br. a sing. group may be treated as either sing. or pl., depending on the point of view of the writer. Nouns of multitude are used as plural but have no plural ending: people, police, clergy, gentry, cattle, livestock. Mass nouns fall into 2 groups: those which are always used in the sing. and those which are always used in the pl. The sing. Mass nouns denote the substance which is divisible into separate things: furniture consist of pieces of furniture, grass consists of separate blades of grass. Some more: clothing, food, homerwork, mail.

The plural mass nouns are marked by the plural endings -s: archives, belongings, clothes, earnings, goods.

8. The category of number. Irregular plurals.

Number is the form of the noun which shows whether one or more than one object is meant. Some nouns in English have the sing. and the pl. forms. These nouns are called variable nouns. Other nouns are used either only in the sing. or only in the pl. they are called invariable nouns. Variable nouns can be regular plurals and irregular plurals.

Voicing: some nouns ending in –f form their pl. changing –f into –v:wife-wives, shelf-shelves, leaf-leaves, loaf-loaves, half-halves.

Exceptions: beliefs, proofs, roofs, cliffs, cuffs. BUT: still lifes

Both : scarfs\scarves, handkerchief/ handkerchieves.

Mutation: man-men, mouse-mice / ox-oxen (-en plural)

Zero inflection (some nouns have the same form in both sing. and pl.)

nationality nouns: Japanese, Swiss; quantitative nouns: hundred, million, dozen; nouns in –S: series, species, means, works, crossroads; animal names: sheep, deer, cod, salmon.

NOTE that the names of many animals and birds have two forms. However, when you are referring to them in the context of hunting or when you are saying that there there are large numbers of them it is quite common to use the form without -s_t even though you are referring to several animals or birds- They hunted gazelle. Note that the plural Form of the verb is used when several animals or birds are the subject of the sentence, even if you use the form without S: Zebra are a more difficult prey. Similarly, when you are referring to a large number of trees or plants growing together, you can use the singular form of their names. When you are referring to a small number or to individual trees or plants. you usually use the form with -s. The same rule can be applied to the noun fish. The pl. fishes is relatively uncommon compared with the zero plural. In cases of variation, the s-plural typically draws attention to the individual specimens, the zero plural to the animals as a group.

loans: foreign plurals often occur along with regular plurals. They are commoner in technical usage, whereas the s-pl is more natural in everyday language; thus formulas(general)

— formulae (in maths), antennas (general and in electronics) — antennae {in biology).

Some typical number inflections of loan words: stimulus-stimuli (us – i), opus-opera (us – era), phenomenon-phenomena (on – a), stratum-strata (um – a), appendix-appendices (ix – ices), index-indices (ex – ices), basis – bases (is – es), formula – formulae (a – ae).