The main grammatical categories of noun

Meaning – thingness

Form: number, case

Function: in sentence – subject, predicative, object, attribute, adverbial modifier (of manner)

In phrase: adj + noun [large room], noun+ajd [time immemorial]

Noun + noun: [iron bar], genitive case [student’s book]

noun + verb [children play], verb + noun [play game]

noun + adv [students there]

preposition + noun

Typical English noun may be preceded by definite/ indefinite article

The first nounal subclass opposition differentiates proper and common nouns. The foundation of this division is "type of nomination". The second subclass opposition differentiates animate and inanimate nouns on the basis of "form of existence". The third subclass opposition differentiates human and non-human nouns on the basis of "personal quality". The fourth subclass opposition differentiates countable and uncountable nouns on the basis of "quantitative structure". Somewhat less explicitly and rigorously realised is the division of English nouns into concrete and abstract.

Morphological features (characteristics) of noun

In accordance into morphological structure?

1. simple

2. derived

3. compound (2 and more stems) [chain-smoker -курильщик]

4. composite

Syntactic features of noun

1. It can be used in sentence in all syntactic function but predicate

Category of case - morphological-declensional form. - Case is the immanent morphological category of the noun manifested(обнаруживаться) in the forms of noun declension (склонение) and showing the relations of the nounal referent to other objects and phenomena. Common case, genitive case

This category is expressed in English by the opposition of the form in -'s [-z, -s, -iz], usually called the "possessive" case, or more traditionally, the "genitive" case (to which term we will stick in the following presentation*), to the unfeatured form of the noun, usually called the "common" case.

the genitive form in its productive uses is restricted to the functions which have a parallel expression by prepositional constructions.

Category of number

Linguistic representation of the objective category of quantity

Number category realized through opposition: singular-plural

1. Singular form may denote oneness – individual separate object

2. generalization: meaning – class of objects

3.indescriteness (нераздельность) (uncountableness) [money, milk] см. Ниже

The category of number is expressed by the opposition of the plural form of the noun to the singular form of the noun. The strong member of this binary opposition is the plural, its productive formal mark being the suffix -(e)s [-z, -s, -iz ] as presented in the forms dog — dogs, clock — clocks, box — boxes. The productive formal mark correlates with the absence of the number suffix in the singular form of the noun. The semantic content of the unmarked form, as has been shown above, enables the grammarians to speak of the zero-suffix of the singular in English.

The other, non-productive ways of expressing the number opposition are vowel interchange in several relict forms (man — men, woman — women, tooth — teeth, etc.), the archaic suffix -(e)n supported by phonemic interchange in a couple of other relict forms (ox — oxen, child — children, cow — kine, brother — brethren), the correlation of individual singular and plural suffixes in a limited number of borrowed nouns (formula — formulae, phenomenon — phenomena, alumnus — alumni, etc.). In some cases the plural form of the noun is homonymous with the singular form (sheep, deer, fish, etc.).

The category of number: single and plural. The essential meaning of singular and plural form shows that one object is meant or many objects are meant. The opposition is one àmore than one. However the category of number gives rise to several problems.

Plural: existence of several objects

The most general quantitative characteristics of individual words constitute the lexico-grammatical base for dividing the nounal vocabulary as a whole into countable nouns and uncountable nouns. The constant categorial feature "quantitative structure" is directly connected with the variable feature "number", since uncountable nouns are treated grammatically as either singular or plural. Namely, the singular uncountable nouns are modified by the non-discrete quantifiers much or little, and they take the finite verb in the singular, while the plural uncountable nouns take the finite verb in the plural.

The two subclasses of uncountable nouns are usually referred to, respectively, as singularia tantum (only singular) and pluralia tantum (only plural). In terms of oppositions we may say that in the formation of the two subclasses of uncountable nouns the number opposition is "constantly" (lexically) reduced either to the weak member (singularia tantum) or to the strong member (pluralia tantum).

Pluralia Tantum and Singlaria Tantum. We have two types of noun which differ from all others in the number. They do not have the usual two forms but only one form. The nouns which have only the plural form are usually termed as Pluralia Tantum. The nouns which have only the singular form are termed as Singlaria Tantum.

Among the Pluralia Tantum are such nouns as scissors, shorts, jeans, etc. They include nouns of two types. The first group includes the nouns which denote material objects consisting of two halves. The second group denotes a more or less indefinite plurality. If we compare the English with the Russian we will find that in some cases they correspond to each other. But other nouns do not correspond ('alum). The reason why the given object is denoted by a Pluralia Tantum noun is not quite clear. Close to the group of Pluralia Tantum are some names of sciences and names of diseases.

Singlaria Tantum. Among them we have nouns denoting material substances (milk, sugar, butter, etc.). Besides they include the names of abstract notions (justice, freedom). Some of them strictly speaking denote notions which are outside of the category of number.

Divided into 3 groups

1. nouns in which opposition discr, indiscr: both forms are used [dogs, cats]

2. discr and indiscr not used both = singularia tantum, pluralia tantum

singularia tantum Groups: proper names, abstract nouns, material nouns, collective nouns

pluralia tantum: names of object 2 or more?pounds [jeans], names of sciences [physics], names with homogeneous forms

3. The number of opposition is not expressed but revealed lexically and syntactically in context

A sheep is/are eating grass

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