Assignment “The Noun”

Points for discussion:

1. The Noun as the main nominal word of the English lexicon.

2. Subclasses of nouns.

3. The category of number.

4. The category of case. The theories of case in English grammar researches.

5. The problem of the article.

Ex. 1 State morphological composition of the following nouns

Snow Impossibility opinion passer-by inactivity

Kingdom immobility warmth nurse blackbird

merry-go-round fortune friendship population smelling-salt

sandstone widower exclamation misunderstanding

snowball mother-in-law might succession misdeed

policeman usefulness friend statesman fellow-worker

Eх. 2 Slate to what class the nouns belong.

1 The hotel specialized in homely English bood and we had pieces of excellent lamb with green peas and new potatoes and a deep-dish pie with Devonshire cream to follow.

2 His face was sick with pain and rage.

3 He was reading in the library. I was very much impressed by his power of concentration.

4 He was professor of physics.

5 Snow lay thick in the valley.

6 Isabel poured out the coffee and Larry lit his pipe.

7 I found them sitting over a cup of tea.

8 The hills ran up clear above the vegetation in spires of naked rock.

Ex.3 State whether the underlined nouns denote countable or uncountable objects

1 . The box is made of iron and has a tricky lock.

2 The fever within her was like a red-hot iron pressing upon her breast.

3 Montanelli took the hand and examined it closely. «Have they put irons on a fresh wound?»

4. There was a moon but it was still low in the sky. It gave sufficient light for Victoria.

5. He saw a light in one window on the ground floor.

6. The book gives much food for thought.

7. Health is a priceless possession.

8. Of all prosperity their respective healths naturally concerned them (the Forsytes) most.

9. The boys stood on the bank throwing stones into the river.

10. When I think of this, my heart turns to stone.

Ex. 4 State whether the underlined nouns are collective nouns or nouns of multitude.

1. My family is now in the country.

2. It was eleven o'clock before the family were all in bed.

3. Then one by one the worn out crew were helped on board.

4. The crew of the ship consists of twenty seven including the captain and his mute.

5. No one had seen him since and the police were searching for him.

6. The band were changed and in the gallery already.

Ex. 5 Write the plurals of the nouns and explain them.

Stimulus, Russian, Dutchman, Englishwoman, neucleus, fish, crisis, looker-on, on locker, cuff, rifleman, tooth, commander-in-chief, muff, foot, boot, mouth, sheep, ship, cheese, Burmese, deer, goose, swine, analysis, criterion, series, corps, fruit, datum, thesis, radius, trout, phenomenon, room-mate, species, fellow-worker, basis, apparatus, tie, handkerchief, portfolio, zero, roof, enemy, solo, stimulus, leaf, youth court-martial, ditto, merry-go-round, stratum, salmon, formula, memorandum, scarf, handful, Mary.

Ex.6 Explain the difference of meaning of the following double plurals.

Brothers geniuses

Brother Genius

Brethren genii

Pennies staffs