The noun
The noun denotes thingness in a general sense. Thus nouns name things (book, table), living beings (man, tiger), places (valley, London, England), materials (iron, oil), processes (life, laughter), states (sleep, consciousness), abstract notions (socialism, joy) and qualities (kindness, courage).
Semantic characteristics
Semantically all nouns fall into proper nouns and common nouns.
Proper nouns include:
geographical names : New York, the Thames, Asia, the Alps;
names of individual (unique) persons: John, Byron, Brown;
names of the months and the days of the week: January, Sunday;
names of planets: the Moon, the Sun, the Earth;
names of ships, hotels, clubs (Shepherd's Hotel), of buildings, streets, parks, bridges (Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, Regent Street, Charing Cross Road, Piccadilly Circus, Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, Waterloo Bridge), of institutions, organizations, magazines and newspapers (the United Nations, the New Times, the Guardian).
They are written with capitals.
Common nouns can be classified into nouns denoting objects that can be counted and those that cannot. So there are count and non-count and collective common nouns. The former are inflected for number, whereas the latter are not. Further distinction is into concrete nouns, abstract nouns and nouns of material.
Semantic classification of English nouns is shown in the following scheme:
Certain Kinds of Nouns Are Usually Uncountable:
|
|
|
|
There are some nouns which may be classified both as count and non-count. They often have considerable difference in meaning in the two classes.
|
NOUN |
USED AS NONCOUNT NOUN |
USED AS A COUNT NOUN |
|
|
|
glass |
Windows are made of glass. |
I drank a glass of water. Janet wears glasses when she reads. |
|
|
|
hair |
Rita has brown hair. |
There’s a hair on my jacket. |
|
|
|
iron |
Iron is a metal. |
I pressed my shirt with an iron. |
|
|
|
light |
I opened the curtain to let in some light. |
Please turn off the lights. |
|
|
|
paper |
I need some paper to write a letter. |
I wrote a paper for Prof. Lee. I bought a paper. |
|
|
|
time |
How much time do you need to finish your work? |
How many times have you been in Mexico? |
|
|
|
work |
I have some work to do tonight. |
That painting is a work of art. |
|
|
|
coffee |
I had some coffee after dinner. |
Two coffees, please. |
|
|
|
chicken fish lamb |
I had some chicken/some fish/some lamb for dinner. (the dish) |
She drew a picture of a chicken/a fish/a lamb. (a bird/fish/lamb) |
|
|
|
language |
All children must learn a foreign language. (abstract, all languages) |
How many languages do you speak? (a specific variety) |
|
|
|
beauty |
Beauty will rescue the world. |
She is a beauty. (a person or thing that is beautiful) |
|
|
|
business |
I enjoy doing business (buying and selling) |
I run a small business. (=a company) |
|
|
|
chocolate |
I like chocolate. (substance) |
He brought me a box of chocolates. (pieces of candies) |
|
|
|
cloth |
Bandages are made of stripes of cloth. |
Lay the surface with a cloth. |
|
|
|
experience |
You need experience for this job. (knowledge) |
We had many interesting experiences during our holiday. (things that happened to us) |
|
|
|
hope |
The future is not without hope. (abstract) |
Don’t raise your hopes too high, or you may be disappointed. (expectations) |
|
|
|
space |
There are hundreds of satellites out in space. |
We finally found a space in the car park. |
|
|
|
success |
It will be a great success, I think. |
She is a success. |
|
|
|
art |
Art lasts forever. |
Fine Arts (a method of doing sth) |
|
|
|
potato |
Would you like some potato? |
I’m peeling the potatoes. |
|
|
|
painting |
Paul is goof at painting. (the activity) |
That’s a nice painting. ( a picture) |
|
|
Concrete nouns semantically fall into three subclasses.
1. Nouns denoting living beings - persons and animals: boy, girl, dog, cat.
2. Nouns denoting inanimate objects: table, chair.
3. Collective nouns denoting a group of persons: family, crowd.