12. The noun as a part of speech. The problem of the category of gender.

The Noun is a word expressing substance in the widest sense of the word.

Noun has a categorial meaning of thingness, because noun effects nomination of the fullest value. N-central nominative lexemic unit of L. It functions are determined by it’s semantics. It can be subject, object, attribute, adverbial & predicative.

Types of combinability:

-Prepositional with other nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs. Ex: An entrance to the house.

-The case that is possessive ex: The President’s speech

-With one another by sheer contact ex: Film festival

The existence of this combination (3 types) is a big problem for many scholars. How to treat them? Whether it is one separate word or a word group. It’s a so called “stone-wall problem”

The N is characterized by a set of formal features. It has its typical suffixes, stem models, conversial patterns. Not all scholars are unanimous on the number of grammatical categories of the noun.

Ilyish: The Noun in me has only 2 grammatical categories: number & case. The existence of case appears to be doubtful & has to be carefully analyzed.

Хаймович, Роговская: besides number & case, article determination.

Blokh: Noun is the main nominative part of speech, effecting nomination of the fullest value within the framework of the notional division of lexicon.

Classification of nouns:

1.Proper&common noun (the base of this division is “type of nomination”

2.Animate&Inanimate (the base of this division is form existence)

3.Human&Non-human (based on personal quality)

4.Countable&Uncountable (quantitative structure)

The problem of the category of gender:

Ilyish The ME noun has not got the category of grammatical gender.

+ Between the Sg & the Pl an additional difference of meaning has developed  the plural form develops a completely new meaning which the singular has not got at all (e.g. colour / colours)- the plural form has been lexicalized.

Blokh: The category of gender is expressed in English by the obligatory correlation of nouns with the personal pronouns of the 3^rd person. It’s strictly oppositional, firmed by 2 oppositions hierarchically related.1. Personal noun (strong). 2. Non-personal (weak).

The other oppositions function in the subject of person nouns only. The cases of reductions: 1.Non-person & their substitute are used in the positions of neutralization.

2.Great number of nouns is capable for expressing both female & masculine person genders. Ex: person, parent, friend have a common gender. In plural all genders-neutralized.

Nouns can show the sex of their referents lexically ex: boy-friend, girl-friend or with the help of suffixes –ess (mistress). Category of gender in English is semantic because it reflects the actual features of the named objects, but the semantics of the category doesn’t in the list make it into a non-grammatical one.

13. The category of number of the noun.

• Вариант 1:

A noun is said to be in the singular number when it denotes one person or thing; it is said to be in the plural number when it denotes more than one person or thing.

So the category of number is expressed by the binary private opposition. The strong member is the pl. and the weak member is the singular. The productive ways of expressing the number the morpheme –S.

The productive way of expressing the singular is by zero morpheme. The other ways are vowel interchange men-man (replacive morpheme). The archaic suffix en-ox-oxen,child-children and also individual singular and plural suffixes of borrowed nouns: formula-formulae.

The cases of homonymy (fish-fish)

The semantic nature of the difference between singular and the plural presents difficulty of interpretation ex: three houses and three hours.

Three houses-are three separate object and three hours are a continuous period of time as well as three miles, three acres. Here we distinguish “discrete plural” and “plural of measure” ex: water-waters of the Atlantic. Here we refer to a geographical idea, while the water of the Atlantic refers to it’s physical or chemical properties. Here we see an additional difference of meaning. Talking about the number we’re to mention the process of lexicalization, the essence of which is developing a completely a new meaning of the noun in the plural ex: custom-customs.

We must consider 2 types of noun - Pluralia Tantum & Singularia Tantum.

Among the PT are the nouns: trousers, scissors, etc. The direct opposition of PT is ST. Among this we must note some nouns denoting material substance, milk, butter and names of abstract notions-peace, usefulness with this nouns the predicate verb is always singular.

There exist exceptions when the above mention nouns may have a plural form ex; wine-wines (to denote several special kinds of wine),beauty-beauties (of nature) when we mean the objects exhibiting this quality ex; iron-irons

According to Blokh we should discern absolute plural, the absolute plural form is peculiar to the uncountable subclass of PT nouns. The absolute plural cannot directly combine with numerals. The absolute plural by way of functional oppositional reduction can be represented in 3 ways:

1.In countable nouns having the form of the singular ex: the family were gathered round the table.

2.In countable nouns having the form of the plural ex: I lit cigarette after cigarette.

3.In common countable nouns used n repetition groups.

• Вариант 2:

The category of number of the noun.

A noun is said to be in the singular number when it denotes one person or thing; it is said to be in the plural number when it denotes more than one person or thing.

ME distinguish between 2 numbers singular & plural.So the category of number is expressed by the binary private opposition. The strong member is the pl.and the weak member is the singular. The productive ways os expressing the number the morpheme –S with allophones [s],[z],[iz]

The productive way of expressing the singular is by zero morpheme (coveral morpheme). The other ways are vowel interchange men-man (replacive morpheme). The archaic suffix en-ox-oxen,child-children and also individual singular and plural suffixes of borrowed nouns: formula-formulae.

The cases of homonymy (fish-fish)

The semantic nature of the difference between singular and the plural presents difficulty of interpretation ex:three houses and three hours.

Three houses-are three separate object and three hours are a continuous period of time as well as three miles, three acres.Here we distinguish “discrete plural” and “plural of measure” ex:water-waters of the Atlantic. Here we refer to a geographical idea, while the water of the Atlantic refers to it’s physical or chemical properties. Here we see an additional difference of meaning. Talking about the number we’re to mention the process of lexicalization, the essence of which is developing a completely a new meaning of the noun in the plural ex:custom-customs.

We must consider 2 types of noun-Pluralia Tantum & Singularia Tantum.

Among the PT are the nouns:trousers, scissors,etc. The direct opposition of PT is ST. Among this we must note some nouns denoting material substance, milk,butter and names of abstract notions-peace,usefulness with this nouns the predicate verb is always singular.

There exist exceptions when the above mention nouns may have a plural form ex;wine-wines (to denote several special kinds of wine),beauty-beauties (of nature) when we mean the objects exhibiting this quality ex; iron-irons

According to Blokh we should discern absolute plural, the absolute plural form is peculiar to the uncountable subclass of PT nouns. The absolute plural cannot directly combine with numerals. The absolute plural by way of functional oppositional reduction can be represented in 3 ways:

1.In countable nouns having the form of the singular ex: the family were gathered round the table.

2.In countable nouns having the form of the plural ex: I lit cigarette after cigarette.