Download GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

NOUNS / SUBSTANTIVES
(The word NOUN derives from Latin NOMEN meaning “name“.)
A noun is any word which names:
a person, place, thing, idea, animal, quality, activity, state, event, substance,
Distinctive features of nouns:
-
noun-forming derivational affixes
the threefold inflectional sibilant suffix
marking by determiners
fixed position in the sentence
substitutable by pronouns
Some nouns:
- the same form as verbs
- graphically different
- phonetically different
CLASSIFICATION OF NOUNS
COMMON NOUNS (from Latin: COMMUNIS = shared by several things or
individuals possessing some common characteristics)
PROPER NOUNS (Latin: PROPRIUS = one´s own)
- names of individuals = personal names, geographical names,
- names of a group of individuals
CONCRETE NOUNS - definite objects
ABSTRACT NOUNS - quality, action, state, ideas, concepts
COLLECTIVE NOUNS – groups of people or things
MATERIAL NOUNS
- do not require limiting modifiers
- they usually have no plural forms
MORPHOLOGICAL COMPOSITION OF NOUNS
1) SIMPLE NOUNS: no affixes
2) DERIVATIVE NOUNS:
- prefixes:
un-, mis-, pre-, for-; anti-, ex-, il-, -in-, non-, sub-, super-, vice-,
- suffixes:
-al, -ance, -ence, -ant, -ar, -er, -or, -ion, -iour, -ledge, -ment, -y, -ee;
-age, -ce, -cy, -ry, -ty, -ity, -ness,
-ation, -dom, -ess, -hood, -ian, -ism, -ist, -ship;
-ing forms used as nouns
- diminutives: -let, -ing, -ie, -ock, -ette
Typical endings making nouns for people who come from places:
-ian, -er, -ese, -an, -ish, -ite
Nouns with 2 suffixes: -ishness
3) COMPOUND NOUNS:
= two words joined together referring to a single object (the meaning
often differs from the meaning of its elements) chairman
N stem + N stem
Adj stem + N stem
Adv stem + N stem
Verb stem + N stem
CN with –ing forms
CN with a linking element:
- a vowel/consonant
- a preposition
- a conjunction
DERIVATIONAL COMPOUNDS: narrowmindedness
CONVERSION = lexemes change their word class without adding affixes
V > N; Adj > N; N > V; Adj > V; Adv > V; N > Adj; Adv > Adj; Adv > N;
THE GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF NUMBER
Countable Ns = sg + pl [-s, -z, -iz]
valley – valleys; country – countries; BUT: the Kennedys;
photo - photos; BUT: hero - heroes; cargo - cargos, cargoes;
VOICING PLURAL
= change of the voiceless consonant –f- into the voiced –v-:
wife - wives; BUT: roof - roofs; dwarf - dwarfs, dwarves;
MUTATED PLURAL
= change of the root vowel: 7 nouns; man - men; Englishmen; BUT: Germans;
-en PLURAL: child; ox; brother – brothers, brethren;
UNINFLECTED PLURAL
= sheep; fish; animals that are hunted: deer; reindeer; BUT: oysters, lobsters;
There are lots of fish in the lake. (There are fishes of many kinds.)
FOREIGN PLURAL
phenomenon; analysis; bacterium; BUT: focus - foci, focuses; larva;
antenna = antennae, antennas; index = indexes, indices;
PLURAL IN COMPOUNDS
bedrooms; postmen; brothers-in-law; passers-by; forget-me-nots;
NOUNS with only plural form followed by a verb in plural:
clothes, glasses, goods, pyjamas, scissors, trousers,
NOUNS with –s followed by singular: billiards; mumps; Brussels; news;
Statistics is a branch of economics. BUT: Your statistics are unreliable.
NOUNS with the same form of singular and plural = V is in sg. or pl.:
series; means; This species is unknown. These species of butterfly are rare.
COLLECTIVE NOUNS
NOUNS in sg. followed by Vs in sg.: foliage, machinery;
NOUNS in sg. followed by Vs in pl.: people; cattle; poultry; vermin;
Police are after him. BUT: Police is a department of government.
NOUNS that can be both sg. or pl. and used with Vs in sg. or pl.:
crowd, committee, government, jury, board; Family is ...; Families are...;
PLURAL OF NAMES OF NATIONS
Switzerland: sg. a Swiss, pl. many Swiss, nation: the Swiss
The Netherlands/Holland = Dutchman, Dutchmen, nation: the Dutch
Britain; Poland; Sweden; Denmark; Norway;England; Finnland; Germany;
Slovakia; Czech Republic; Poland; Austria; Hungary; Ukraine;
COUNTABILITY
= closely connected with the grammatical category of number
COUNTABLE NOUNS:
- names of living beings or things with a definite form: student, book, house
- some of abstract Ns: idea, hour, mistake, word, day
- describe separate and separable objects
- sg. and pl.
- articles
- numerals
- How many ...?
- few; a few;
- in exclamations: What a nice hat!
UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS:
- something that can be measured but not counted, things without shape or
precise limits;
- material, liquids, substances: snow, iron, water, gold,
- abstract qualities and ideas: courage, success, peace, literature
- a unique thing: the moon, the earth (= this world)
- a proper name: Mary, Shakespeare, London
- have only one form
- generally without any article or numerals (only with “the“)
- How much ... ?
- little; a little;
- in exclamations: What nice weather!
Uncounts in English but counts in Slovak:
gossip, information, hair, homework, news, luggage, soap, thunder
Uncounts in their plural form indicate various kinds, extension or intensity:
fruits, wines, waters, sands, heats, colds
Some NOUNS = uncounts in one meaning and counts in a different meaning
U = coal, glass, hair, ice, iron, paper, room,
C= a coal, a glass, a hair, an ice, a paper, a room,
Partitives: a loaf of bread; slice, packet, piece, bar, tin, drop, item,
THE GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF GENDER
OE = grammatical gender; ModE = natural gender:
- male beings = masculine
- female beings = feminine
- inanimate things = neuter
One gender-forming suffix –ess: actor – actress, tiger-tigress, duke-duchess,
Other suffixes: hero - heroine, widow – widower, usher – usherette,
Gender expressed lexically:
- by different words: mother – father, boy – girl, husband - wife, monk – nun,
- by pronouns: wolf – she-wolf, goat – she-goat (Billy goat – nanny goat)
- by words indicating the gender: male reader – female reader,
boyfriend - girlfriend;
Nouns with a generic term + a pair: horse; pig; sheep; monarch;
Common gender: singer, journalist, neighbour,
= pronouns tell us whether the reference is to male or female;
When the reference is affectionate (to a pet) = he / she (not: it)
feminine: cat, parrot, fish,....... car, ship, aircraft,
masculine: dog, horse, canary,
Personification:
Masculine gender
- nouns denoting strength, inflexibility, resistance, necessity
- names of winds, rivers, mountains
- summer, autumn, winter, the sun, anger, love, murder, war, death
Feminine gender
- nouns denoting tenderness, feableness, loveliness
- names of countries (ref. to the nation), towns, universities,
- the moon, the earth, the Church, nature, mercy, humility, charity,
faith, hope, modesty, justice, liberty, victory, music, wisdom,
THE GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF CASE
OE = 4 cases: N, G, D, Acc.; ModE:
- the common case = uninflected form
- the possessive / genitive case = inflected by:
-´s in sg: a girl´s book; my mother-in-law´s pen; Peter and Paul´s quarrel;
-´ in pl.: girls´ school; BUT: children´s toys; Dickens´/Dickens´s novel;
DEPENDENT GENITIVE
- personal names: Paul´s car;
- personal nouns: my sister´s school;
- personal indefinite pronouns: someone´s passport;
- names of animals: dog´s life;
- collective nouns: government´s decision;
- geographical names (not in geogr. meaning): Slovakia´s export;
BUT: the longest river of Slovakia; cf. Europe´s future – European future;
- institutional names: the school´s history;
- expressions of time, space, weight, distance: journey´s end; two week´s work;
BUT: the two-week plan
- names of seasons/months/days: Sunday´s newspaper;
BUT a Sunday newspaper
- with words: sun, moon, earth, world: the earth´s surface;
- with words: ship, boat, vessel: ship´s cargo;
- with personification (in poetry): wind´s whistle;
- fixed expressions: to be at death´s door; by a hair´s breadth; for heaven´s sake
The possession of things = the OF-GENITIVE/OF-construction refers to:
- things when we cannot form a compound: the shade of a tree;
- parts of things: the roof of the house;
- abstract nouns: the cost of living;
- partitives: a slice of bread;
- geographical notions: the city of Dublin;
- also: the month of November; the title of professor;
THE ABSOLUTE / ELYPTICAL GENITIVE = without a following noun:
- when it is clear what / who we are talking about:
My car is next to Peter´s.
- when referring to work-places, shops, banks, houses:
at a butcher´s (shop); my mother´s (house); Barclay´s (bank);
THE DOUBLE GENITIVE = when a noun is determined by:
- articles: a friend of my father´s;
- numerals: two sons of my uncle´s;
- some: She is having lunch with some colleagues of hers. = some of her coll-s;
- demonstrative pronouns: This small flat of ours.