Adjectives and Nouns

Adjectives and Nouns

We have seen that attributive adjectives occur before a noun which they modify, for example, red in red car. We need to distinguish these clearly from nouns which occur in the same position, and fulfil the same syntactic function. Consider the following:    rally car   saloon car   family car  Here, the first word modifies the second, that is, it tells us something further about the car. For example, a rally car is a car which is driven in rallies. These modifiers occur in the same position as red in the example above, but they are not adjectives. We can show this by applying our criteria for the adjective class. Firstly, they do not take very:    *a very rally car   *a very saloon car   *a very family car  Secondly, they do not have comparative or superlative forms:    *rallier *ralliest / *more rally / *most rally   *salooner *saloonest / *more saloon / *most saloon   *familier *familiest / *more family / *most family    And finally, they cannot occur in predicative position:    *the car is rally   *the car is saloon   *the car is family  So although these words occupy the typical adjective position, they are not adjectives. They are nouns. However, certain adjectives are derived from nouns, and are known as DENOMINAL adjectives. Examples include:     a mathematical puzzle [`a puzzle based on mathematics']   a biological experiment [`an experiment in biology']   a wooden boat [`a boat made of wood']    Denominals include adjectives which refer to nationality:    a Russian lady [`a lady who comes from Russia']   German goods [`goods produced in Germany']    Denominal adjectives of this type should be carefully distinguished from nominal adjectives denoting nationalities. Compare:     Nominal Adjective: The French are noted for their wines   Denominal Adjective: The French people are noted for their wines

Read More

Count and Non-count Nouns

Count and Non-count Nouns

Common nouns are either count or non-count. COUNT nouns can be "counted", as follows:       one pen, two pens, three pens, four pens...   NON-COUNT nouns, on the other hand, cannot be counted in this way:        one software, *two softwares, *three softwares, *four softwares...   From the point of view of grammar, this means that count nouns have singular as well as plural forms, whereas non-count nouns have only a singular form.    It also means that non-count nouns do not take a/an before them:     Count Non-count a pen  *a software    In general, non-count nouns are considered to refer to indivisible wholes. For this reason, they are sometimes called MASS nouns.   Some common nouns may be either count or non-count, depending on the kind of reference they have. For example, in I made a cake, cakeis a count noun, and the a before it indicates singular number. However, in I like cake, the reference is less specific. It refers to "cake in general", and so cake is non-count in this sentence.

Read More

Common and Proper Nouns

Common and Proper Nouns

Nouns which name specific people or places are known as PROPER NOUNS.   
  

John  
Mary  
London  
France

Many names consist of more than one word:   
  

John Wesley  
Queen Mary  
South Africa  
Atlantic Ocean  
Buckingham Palace

Proper nouns may also refer to times or to dates in the calendar:   
  

 January, February, Monday, Tuesday, Christmas, Thanksgiving

All other nouns are COMMON NOUNS.   

Since proper nouns usually refer to something or someone unique, they do not normally take plurals. However, they may do so, especially when number is being specifically referred to:  
  

there are three Davids in my class  
we met two Christmases ago

For the same reason, names of people and places are not normally preceded by determiners the or a/an, though they can be in certain circumstances:   
  

it's nothing like the America I remember  
my brother is an Einstein at maths

Read More

Characteristics of Nouns

Characteristics of Nouns

Many nouns can be recognised by their endings. Typical noun endings include:  

  

-er/-or	actor, painter, plumber, writer
-ism	criticism, egotism, magnetism, vandalism
-ist	artist, capitalist, journalist, scientist
-ment	arrangement, development, establishment, government
-tion	foundation, organisation, recognition, supposition

  

Most nouns have distinctive SINGULAR and PLURAL forms. The plural of regular nouns is formed by adding -s to the singular:  

 

Singular	Plural
car	cars
dog	dogs
house	houses

  

However, there are many irregular nouns which do not form the plural in this way:  

 

Singular	Plural
man	men
child	children
sheep	sheep

  

The distinction between singular and plural is known as NUMBER CONTRAST.  

We can recognise many nouns because they often have the, a, or anin front of them:  
  

the car  
an artist  
a surprise  
the egg  
a review

These words are called determiners, which is the next word class we will look at.  

Nouns may take an -'s ("apostrophe s") or GENITIVE MARKER to indicate possession:  
  

the boy's pen  
a spider's web  
my girlfriend's brother  
John's house

If the noun already has an -s ending to mark the plural, then the genitive marker appears only as an apostrophe after the plural form:   
  

the boys' pens  
the spiders' webs  
the Browns' house

The genitive marker should not be confused with the 's form of contracted verbs, as in John's a good boy (= John is a good boy).  

Nouns often co-occur without a genitive marker between them:  
  

rally car  
table top  
cheese grater  
University entrance examination

We will look at these in more detail later, when we discuss noun phrases.  

  

---

Common and Proper Nouns

Nouns which name specific people or places are known as PROPER NOUNS.   
  

John  
Mary  
London  
France

Many names consist of more than one word:   
  

John Wesley  
Queen Mary  
South Africa  
Atlantic Ocean  
Buckingham Palace

Proper nouns may also refer to times or to dates in the calendar:   
  

 January, February, Monday, Tuesday, Christmas, Thanksgiving

All other nouns are COMMON NOUNS.   

Since proper nouns usually refer to something or someone unique, they do not normally take plurals. However, they may do so, especially when number is being specifically referred to:  
  

there are three Davids in my class  
we met two Christmases ago

For the same reason, names of people and places are not normally preceded by determiners the or a/an, though they can be in certain circumstances:   
  

it's nothing like the America I remember  
my brother is an Einstein at maths

    

Read More