Issues to discuss:

1. Categories of nouns.

2. Nouns in groups. Noun modifiers

3. Noun determiners.

4. Functions of nouns in a sentence.

Terminology:

Singular/ plural invariable nouns, subject, object, predicative, adverbial modifier, attribute, apposition, dependent/ absolute genitive.

1. Categories of nouns

English nouns have the grammatical categories of number and case. Unlike Ukrainian nouns, gender is not an important feature of English nouns. In accordance with their meaning, nouns may be classified as belonging to the masculine, feminine and neuter. Names of male beings are masculine (man, husband, boy, son, ox, cock), and names of female beings are feminine (woman, wife, girl, daughter, cow, hen). There is no morphological connection between some pairs (i.e. they are not derived from each other: brother/sister, husband/wife, king/queen). All other nouns are considered to be neuter (pen, flower, family, rain, opinion, bird, horse, pride). Gender finds its formal expression in the replacement of nouns by the pronouns he, she, or it. When there is no need to make a distinction, the masculine pronoun is used for these nouns.

Exceptions: 1) ships and vehicles when regarded with affection or respect are considered feminine: The ship struck an iceberg, which tore a huge hole in her side.

Scotland lost many of her bravest men in two great rebellions.

2) There are nouns in English which may be treated as either males or females. They are said to be of common gender: baby, infant, cousin, parent, relative, spouse, friend, doctor, teenager.

3) The majority of nouns indicating occupation have the same form: artist, cook, dancer.

But a few nouns have variant forms to denote the other sex: an actor – actress, heir – heiress, hero – heroine, host – hostess, manager – manageress, conductor – conductress, waiter – waitress, steward – stewardess, bridegroom – bride, landlord – landlady, widower – widow, duke - duchess.

Category of Number

The only morphological category of the noun which is almost always marked in present-day English is that of Number. Like in Ukrainian, it mostly realized synthetically, i.e. through zero and marked inflexion respectively. The plural forms is marked by inflection –(e)s. Plurals derived from Old English: child – children, ox – oxen, and completely allomorphic (pertained only to English) is the formation of plural by sound changing in the following 7 nouns: foot - feet, tooth - teeth, goose - geese, man - men, woman - women, louse - lice, mouse - mice.

• Regular and irregular spelling and pronunciation: baths, jubilees, bushes, watches, boxes, foxes, countries, galleries (we don’t change –y in the proper names: Marys, the Kennedys: So we go to visit the Smiths, the Kennedys, the Grays, etc. When a family name ends in s, x, ch, sh, or z, however, we form the plural by added -es,). The names of companies and other organizations are usually regarded as singular, regardless of their ending: "General Motors has announced its fall lineup of new vehicles."

• Regular: beliefs, chiefs, handkerchiefs, roofs, cliffs, dwarf, safes.

• Irregular: plurals of words that end in -f or -fe usually change the f sound to a v sound and add s or -es.: wife – wives, loaf – loaves. Also: calf, half, knife, leaf, life, self, sheaf, shelf, thief, wife, elf, wolf.

• Words that end in -o create special problems: add just –s in foreign and shortened forms: photos, kilos, pianos, solos, radios, studios, cuckoos, memos, cellos, and for words where another vowel comes before the o: stereos. Names: Eskimos, Filipinos. Australian crocodile can grow up to seven metres long and the biggest can weigh up to 1000 kilos.

• But in the rest form add –es: potatoes, heroes, tomatoes, vetoes, heroes, echoes, Negroes.

• Both possible: cargoes/cargos, mosquitoes/mosquitos, volcanoes/volcanos, tornados, zeros.

• There are nouns that maintain their Latin or Greek form in the plural.

more than one nucleus - nuclei; one syllabus - syllabi; one focus – foci; one fungus - fungi; one cactus - cacti (cactuses is acceptable); one thesis – theses; one crisis – crises; one phenomenon – phenomena; one index - indices (indexes is acceptable); one appendix - appendices (appendixes is acceptable); one criterion – criteria: to process/ to retrieve/ to store data. It is worth emphasizing that ‘datum’ as a single bit of information and ’medium’ as a single means of communication. Many grammarians nowadays approve sentences like My data is lost. and The media is out to get the President. Even textbooks in computer science are beginning to use "data" as a singular.

Alumni and alumnae (alumni and alumnae — ‘випускники’ по відношенню до чоловіків та жінок) remain problematic. The plural of masculine singular alumnus is alumni; the plural of feminine singular alumna is alumnae. In traditional Latin, the masculine plural form, alumni, could include both genders.

Compound nouns create special problems when we need to pluralize them. Irregularity can be observed in the position of –s in various compounds. Two tendencies are at work in the inflection at the end of the compound:

a) Put the inflection after a noun;

b) Put the inflection at the end of the compound.

1. If the first element is represented by noun, the inflexion –s is added to the noun: mothers-in-law, days-off, commanders-in-chief, passers-by, courts martial, poets laureate, Justices of the Peace.

2. If the first element is not expressed by noun, it is necessary to add –s to the last element of the compound: forget-me-nots, hand-outs, merry-go-rounds, take-offs, sit-ups, hang-ups, breakdowns, fly-overs, grown-ups, sitcoms, spoonfuls, cupfuls.

3. If one of the elements of the compound is represented by the noun man or woman in such a case the both elements forms the plural: women-doctors, men-servants.

Note that a few simple life nouns have in English the same form for both singular and plural:

Grouse, sheep, deer, swine, fish, salmon, carp, pike, trout, plaice, fowl, aircraft, a means, a series, a species. A means/many means of transport; a/two television series; a/ 30 species of bird.

Unlike English plural forms, Ukrainian number inflexions are partly predetermined by the declension groups to which the nouns are allotted, and partly by the gender of the nouns and final consonant or vowel, which can be respectively hard, soft or mixed. (сирота - сироти, хата – хати; буря – бурі, вишня – вишні, груша – груші, межа – межі, площа - площі).

The major allomorphic feature in the system of number category is the existence in Ukrainian, Russian and Byelorussian of dual number. The nouns express dual number only in connection with numeral adjuncts 2, 3, 4: берег – береги, 2,3, 4 берега, слово - слова, 2,3, 4 слова.

Typologically isomorphic is the existence in Ukrainian and English of singular and plural invariable nouns, which cannot change their number: some of them are always singular in meaning (money, news), some denote plurality (cattle, police).

Singular invariable nouns

A handful of nouns appear to be plural in form but take a singular verb. All non-count nouns also belong to this group:

1. Material nouns: coffee, jam, sugar, wood, oil, butter, iron. But they may become count nouns with a specific meaning: cheeses – kinds of cheese, beers – portions of beer.

2. Abstract nouns: music, consciousness, anger, politeness.

3. Some diseases: measles (кір), mumps (свинка), rickets (рахіт), shingles (краснуха).

4. Some games: billiards, bowls, dominoes, draughts, cards, skittles, darts.

5. Some geographic names: Athens, the Bahamas, the Andes, Brussels, Wales, Algiers, the United States – Карпати, Бровари, Лубни, Суми;

6. Nouns ending in –ics: mathematics, linguistics, ceramics, tactics, gymnastics.

The news is bad. Gymnastics is fun to watch. Economics/mathematics/statistics is said to be difficult. ("Economics" can sometimes be a plural concept, as in "The economics of the situation demand that . . . ."). This is because the word ‘economics’ has two meanings: 1) (functioning as singular) the social science concerned with the production and consumption of goods and services and the analysis of the commercial activities of a society See also macroeconomics, microeconomics. 2) (functioning as plural) financial aspects ‘The economics of the project are very doubtful.’

And another handful of nouns might seem to be singular in nature but take a plural form and always use a plural verb:

Plural invariable nouns comprise two types – marked and unmarked plurals.

In the first type the form of the noun itself shows plurality. These nouns are rather numerous. Semantically they fall into several groups:

a) names of tools or articles of dress consisting of two equal parts which are joined (they almost completely coincide in both contrasted languages): scissors, glasses, spectacles, scales, tongs, tweezers, skates, braces, suspenders, trousers, breeches, shorts, pants, tights, pyjamas;

b) miscellaneous nouns: annals, antics, archives, arms, ashes, the Commons, contents, customs, earnings, goods, greens, manners, minutes (of the meeting), outskirts, headquarters, stairs, suds, surroundings, troops, wages, whereabouts, the Middle Ages.

c) Some proper names: the Netherlands, the Highlands (Scottish Highlands/ Highlands of Scotland), the Midlands (центральні графства Великої Британії).

d) Nouns denoting remnants (scraps, leavings, remains (of food), siftings, sweepings).

My pants are torn. (Nowadays you will sometimes see this word as a singular "pant" [meaning one pair of pants] especially in clothing ads, but most writers would regard that as an affectation.) Her scissors were stolen. The glasses have slipped down his nose again.

Not always coinciding are, however, nouns, denoting in English and Ukrainian some abstract notions (contents, goings-on, means, manners, savings). A number of nouns may have plural meaning in English and singular meaning in Ukrainian and vice versa: barracks, goods, customs, police/militia, arms, works, - казарма, товар, мито, поліція, зброя. There is no identity between the following equivalents: дріжджі, дрова, гроші, вершки – yeast, firewood, money, cream. Compare: ярина – spring crops, озимина – winter crops, зілля – herbs, бадилля – potato leaves.

2) In the second type of the plural invariable nouns the meaning of plurality is not marked in any form. They are usually treated as collective nouns. English collective nouns denote only living beings (family, clergy, police, poultry) and have two categorical meanings:

a) Plurality as indivisible whole;

b) Discrete plurality (denoting separate things). These nouns are called nouns of multitude. Thus, the same noun may be a collective noun proper and a noun of multitude. Thus, if we're talking about eggs, we could say "A dozen is probably not enough." But if we're talking partying with our friends, we could say, "A dozen are coming over this afternoon." The jury delivers its verdict. But The jury came in and took their seats. We could say, ‘The Tokyo String Quartet is one of the best string ensembles in the world’, but we could say, ‘The Beatles were some of the most famous singers in history’. Generally, band names and musical groups take singular or plural verbs depending on the form of their names: "The Mamas and the Papas were one of the best groups of the 70s" and "Metallica is my favorite band." The difference in two meaning is indicated by the number of verb-predicate: singular in a) and plural in b), as well as by personal and possessive pronouns. The meaning of the predicate is also important: predicates denoting physiological or emotional processes or states always imply separate beings involved into them. Compare:

The family was large. The family were fond of their house.

The cattle is in the mountains. The cattle are grassing there.

The crew of the ship was excellent. The crew have taken their posts.

The crowd was enormous. The crowd were watching the scene spellbound.

The committee was unanimous. The committee were divided in their opinions.

Note that "the number" is a singular collective noun. "The number of applicants is steadily increasing." "A number," on the other hand, is a plural form: "There are several students in the lobby. A number are here to see the president."

Thus, there are some allomorphism in the realization of the meaning of number and quantity in plural invariable nouns in the contrasted languages, which can be used in English both in singular and in plural. Their Ukrainian equivalents are mostly singular: Вся родина зійшлася / Міліція слідкує за порядком/ Хлопець пасе скотину.

When a noun names the title of something or is a word being used as a word, it is singular whether the word takes a singular form or not.

Faces is the name of the new restaurant downtown. Okies, which most people regard as a disparaging word, was first used to describe the residents of Oklahoma during the 1930s.

Chelmsley Brothers is the best moving company in town. Postcards is my favorite novel.

The Category of Case

Case is a grammatical category which shows relation of the noun with other words in a sentence. It is expressed by the form of the noun. English nouns have two cases:

a) the common case (it is unmarked);

b) the genitive case, which is marked by the apostrophe s (‘s).

In writing there are two forms of genitive:

• For most singular nouns it is ‘s : a girl’s dress;

• For nouns ending in –s and regular plural nouns only the apostrophe (‘): a girls’ school.

Uses and meanings of the genitive

Possession	my aunt’s spectacles the Smiths’ house the city’s famous bridge	An important meaning of genitive is possession (hence the traditional name for it – ‘possessive’). It includes the meanings of authorship (the Austin’s novel), personal and social relations (Peter’s friend), as well as relation of the whole to its part (George’s leg).
Subjective genitive	Henry’s treachery (= Henry was treacherous); the plane’s arrival (= the plane arrived); the President’s death ( = the President died); the lovers’ quarrel ( = the lovers quarrelled)	A potential source of ambiguity is the fact that the genitive word can represent either the ‘logical’ subject or the ‘logical’ object of the second word. Is Henry’s picture 1) a picture that he owns (Subjective genitive) or
Objective genitive	Henry’s admirers ( = people admire Henry); The President’s murder ( = someone murdered the President)	2) a portrait showing him (Objective). In the absence of clues, the answer is probably 1).
Classifying	A boys’ school ( = a school for boys); A day’s pay ( = pay for a day); A stone’s throw ( = a distance a stone can be thrown); A lovers’ quarrel (that kind of argument)	From the point of view of position, the genitive functions more like a determiner or an adjective than other nouns and for this reason some grammarians include the genitive as a determiner. Once again we see how word-classes overlap.
Place – without following noun	St Paul’s, Guy’s, The baker’s , a grocer’s, I’m going to my cousin’s	Have you been to St Paul’s (Cathedral). She’s a nurse at Guy’s (Hospital). Names and nouns denoting people are used to mean that person’s home. But this is only possible in this sort of position.

The genitive case is used:

1. With nouns denoting persons and animals (with animated nouns): Henry’s age, the Smiths’ house, the horse’s hooves.

2. With nouns denoting time and distance, such as minute, moment, hour, day, week, month, year, inch, foot, mile, today, yesterday, tomorrow: a day’s work, a month’s delay, a moment’s thought, today’s weather, three weeks’ pay, a few minutes’ silence. Well, another day’s work finished. Our Academy is at a kilometre’s distance from the centre of the city. This week’s winner won the most money ever in sweepstakes.

3. With the names of countries and cities and often with the nouns world, nation, country, city, town: New York’s night life, London’s West End, Canada’s population, the world’s top guitarists, the nation’s wealth, the entire world’s fuel resources.

4. With the names of newspapers and organizations: the Guardian’s analysis, the Tribune role, the company’s profit, the government’s policy, the organization’s executive board, the firm’s endeavours.

5. With the nouns ship, boat, car as well as details of mechanisms: the ship’s captain, our plane’s engine, the boat’s crew, the car’s wheel.

6. With nouns denoting planets: the sun’s rays, the earth’s life.

7. with some inanimate nouns in the following fixed expressions: at arm’s length, for heaven’s sake, donkeys’ years (довгі роки), to one’s heart’s content, at death’s door (на порозі смерті), out of harm’s way, a hair’s breadth, a needle’s eye, to move at a snail’s pace, at the water’s edge, stir up a hornet’s nest.

Mind that we can add (‘s) or (‘) to a whole phrase: the man next door’s wife; Paul and Mary’s dog; Henry the Eight’s sixth wife.