Issues to discuss:

1. Parts of speech classification issues.

2. Lexical and grammatical meaning of nouns and their types.

3. Morphological meaning of nouns.

Terminology:

Morphology, variability, noun, adjective, pronoun, number, verb, adverb, stative, conjunctions, prepositions, modal words, particles, exclamations, articles, number, case, gender, masculine, feminine, neuter, language/ speech level.

1. Parts of speech classification

Morphology is a part of the language grammatical system that unites grammatical classes of words (parts of speech), grammatical categories pertaining to these classes of words and forms of words. Thus, a word with its changes and its grammatical peculiarities are in the focus of morphology. A word as a grammatical unit is a system of all its forms with their grammatical meanings.

Subdivision of words into notionals and functionals seems to be indisputable. The ambiguity of form and meaning of many English notionals, however, brought some grammarians to the assumption that there exists no proper ground for singling out some notionals in present-day English.

The famous grammarian C. Fries, for example, suggested a purely functional approach to the classification of English words. He singled out class 1 words (those performing the function of subject: nouns, pronouns, gerunds, infinitives), class 2 (predicate), class 3 (attributives).

A typologically more relevant classification has been suggested for English notionals by C.T. Hockett, who distinguishes in English ‘parts of speech’ and ‘class of words’. Among the notionals three pure ‘classes of words’ (or regular parts of speech) are distinguished:

1. class N words,

2. class V words,

3. class A words.

Apart from them, the grammarian singled out some double and triple word stem classes.

• NA class, represented by words, such as innocent, private, savage, sweet, cold, light which may function both as nouns and adjectives.

• NV class are words which can respectively have the meaning and perform the function of noun and verb (a book, to book something, damage, to damage, a check, to check, a share, to share, a question, to question, a change, to change, a sentence, to sentence, work, to work).

• AV class represents which can show the adjective and the verb pattern (clean hands, to clean the room; to tidy, a tidy person, last week, to last, to slow, a slow walk, to wrong, a wrong step).

• NAV (the fat of the meat, fat meat, to fat up fowls; a single, to single, a single tree; milk, to milk, milk chocolate; iron, to iron, the Iron Lady; water, to water the plants, water addition).

Thus, classes of words clearly reflect the amorphous grammatical nature of English nouns, verbs, adjectives and sometimes adverbs. Their proper lexical meaning, and consequently their formal and functional characteristics can not be discriminated when taking out of a word group or a sentence.

• The word export can be noun or verb (when indicated by stress or determined by particle to). Compare: to perfect his German, a perfect action. The blue of the sky, the blue sky, to blue sth.

In Ukrainian, on the other hand, the lexical meaning and ‘formal’ or morphological of such notionals as експорт, експортувати, синь, синій, синіти, синіючий are always explicitly displayed already at the language level, when taken separately, out of context (as in dictionaries).

Therefore, many notionals in English, unlike their lexical and grammatical equivalents in Ukrainian, are variable, that is they may change their nature depending on the contextual environment and functional significance. The variability of some English notionals, which can shift from one part of speech to another without any morphological changes in their form / structure is certainly the main typological (allomorphic) difference pertaining to them.

Apart from the semantically and morphologically indistinct word classes like AN, NVA, VN, there also exists in English a bulk of words which lexical and grammatical nature as a part of speech is quite evident and indisputable. Most of the functionals (conjunctions: and, but, or, if, either – or, neither – nor; prepositions: at, under, by, on; interjections: wow, oops, ah, oh, alas, humph; some particles: not, to, except for the articles, have absolute semantic and functional equivalents in Ukrainian.

And - і

But – але, проти

Or - чи

If – якщо/ якби.

As a result, these and a number of other functionals in English and Ukrainian are typologically relevant, isomorphic, and common.

On the ground of identical or similar semantic, morphological (formal) and syntactic (functional) properties of classes of words, the number of notional parts of speech in English and Ukrainian may be considered (from the typological point of view) all in all the same – 7. Namely:

Noun, adjective, pronoun, number, verb, adverb, stative – іменник, прикметник, займенник, числівник, дієслово, прислівник, слова категорії стану.

As to the functionals their number in the contrasted languages is not identical, because present-day English has the articles, missing in Ukrainian. The rest of them are all common: conjunctions, prepositions, modal words, particles, exclamations, articles.

In Ukrainian: сполучники, прийменники, модальні слова, частки, вигуки.

2. Meaning and types of nouns

The noun is characterized in English and Ukrainian by a common lexical and grammatical nature of substantiality or ‘thingness’. Traditional grammar recognised that there were nouns of different kinds and defined them on notional grounds. The nouns name a person, place, thing, idea, quality or condition. A typical classification was into common nouns (subdivided into abstract and concrete), proper nouns (i.e. names) and collective nouns. Modern grammar makes formal distinctions. Two of the labels retained (proper and collective), while the major division is into mass and count(able).

Proper nouns. Many names for people and places do behave differently from other nouns in grammatical ways. They therefore constitute a formal category Newell, the Adams, the Nile, Birmingham, the Independent. Proper names split in English and Ukrainian into some common subclasses.

The Main Classes of Proper Names

NAMES/NICKNAMES OF PEOPLE, NATIONALS	FAMILY NAMES	GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES	COMPANIES, NEWSPAPERS, MAGAZINES, etc
Michael, Mike, Timothy, Tim, Ann, Nelly, Oscar, Yankee, the English, the Dutch, the Swiss Ганна, Данило, Михайло, Леся, княгиня Ольга, Ярослав Мудрий	Adams, Byron, McDonalds, Newton, Smith, Shakespeare Аврамчук, Лукаш, Литвін, Довженко, Винник, Кизима, Шумило, Петлюра	Alaska, Chicago, Leeds, Ottawa, the Black Sea, the Bukh Аляска, Вінниця, Київ, Чорне море, Північне море, Буг	Ford, Standard Oil, Rolls-Royce, Volkswagen, The Daily Telegraph, „Світоч”, фірма „Світанок”, „Корона”, Прогрес”, „Дніпро”

• Common nouns can be classified into nouns denoting objects that can be counted and those that cannot. So there are:

a) Count (event, week, train, chief, workshop, projector) and

b) Non-count or mass nouns (bread, harm, education, weather, laughter) and

c) Collective common nouns (crew, police, team, family).

• Count nouns include many so-called concrete nouns, i.e.

a) Names for people (living beings) and things (inanimate objects) which can be seen as individual, separate units: book, tray, house, tree, leader);

b) Units for measurement: day, dollar, metre;

c) Individual parts of a mass: bit, piece, portion;

• Non-count or mass nouns include:

1. many abstract nouns: happiness, importance, patience, memory, charity;

2. substances: gold, hydrogen, wheat;

3. many verbal nouns: clothing, jogging, shopping, training;

4. most diseases: chicken-pox, malaria, measles, mumps.

Listed below are some common mass nouns which sometimes have countable equivalents in Ukrainian and Russian: advice, ammunition, fruit, hair, knowledge, machinery, money, news.

• Collective nouns are a kind of count nouns referring mainly to groups of people. They include such common nouns as: air force, army, cast, class, committee, company, couple, crew, crowd, family, firm, gang, government, group, herd, hospital, jury, majority, minority, navy, pair, the press (journalists), public, school, staff, team, tribe, university.

Hence, Common nouns split in the contrasted languages into typologically isomorphic subclasses:

COUNT (CONCRETE)	NON-COUNT (ABSTRACT)	COLLECTIVE
Arrow, cap, carp, doll, tree, house, book; Bird, desk, book, cat, flower, glove, kite; Стріла, дерево, короп, лялька, дім, хата, птах, стіл, квітка, книжка, змій, кіт	Fear, hatred, knowledge, news; Air, flour, iron, salt, copper, snow; Страх, вість, ненависть, сум, знання, радість, повітря, цукор, борошно, залізо, сіль, сніг, пісок	Cattle, crew, fowl, poultry, family, police, government; худоба, екіпаж, сім’я, міліція, уряд