Classification of nouns

Classification of nouns

The noun is a notional part of speech characterized by the following features:

1) The lexico-grammatical meaning of substantivity, i.e. thingness. It denotes living beings (man, bird, etc), inanimate objects (table, necklace, etc), certain facts, phenomena and their qualities regarded as substances (strike, love, simplicity, etc).

2) The noun has the category of number: singular – plural (boy – boys) and the category of case: the common case – the possessive case (boy – boy’s).

Unlike Old English where each noun was assigned to some gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter, Modern English makes no gender distinctions. The forms of the 3 person singular of the personal pronouns (HE, SHE) functioning as noun substitutes convey the biological category “sex”. HE refers to a person or animal regarded as male; SHE to a person or animal regarded as female. In a number of cases the distinction between male and female realizes itself through lexical items: king – queen, man – woman, god – goddess, she-goat – he-goat, tom-cat – pussy-cat.

3) (a) Combinability. A noun can combine with a preceding adjective (large room), or occasionally with a following adjective (times immemorial), with a preceding noun in either the common case (iron bar) or the possessive case (father’s room), with a verb following it (children play) or preceding it (play games). Occasionally a noun can combine with a following or a preceding adverb (the man there, the then president). It combines with prepositions (in a house, an army of soldiers). It is typical of a noun to be preceded by the definite article or indefinite article (the room, a room).

(b) Function in the sentence. The noun may function in the sentence as a subject (The baby was asleep), object, attribute, adverbial modifier (He wrote a film script that year).

Classification of nouns

Semantically, all nouns can be divided into two main groups – proper and common nouns.

Proper nouns are names having unique reference. They include personal names (John, Brown), geographical names (The USA, England, The Mississippi), names of public institutions (The British Council, Scotland Yard), ships (The Queen Elizabeth, The Orleans), newspapers (The Daily Mail, The Observer), etc. Names of the months and the days of the week also belong here (March, June; Monday, Thursday).

Proper nouns may become common nouns: a mackintosh – a coat made of water proof material patented by C. Mackintosh; rugby – a kind of football named after a town with a public school in it which started the game at the beginning of the 20th century.

Common nouns are names applied to any member of a class of living beings (boy, cat) or things (tree, chair), collections of similar individuals (police, crowd, family) or things (linen, crockery) regarded as a unit, materials (water, steel, gold) or abstract notions (peace, darkness, beauty). Accordingly, class nouns, collective nouns, material nouns, and abstract nouns are distinguished.

Common nouns may become proper names: the City – the business quarter of London; the Globe – a theatre at the time of Shakespeare.

Common nouns are usually subdivided into countable nouns, also called countables, and uncountable nouns (uncountables or mass nouns). The distinction between countable and uncountable nouns is fundamental in English, for only by distinguishing between the two can we understand when to use singular or plural forms and when to use the indefinite, definite and zero articles.

Countables denote objects that can be counted. Many countable nouns are concrete (having an individual physical existence):

a girl, a horse, a bottle, a desk, an army, a crowd, a packet, a piece.

A few countable nouns are abstract:

a hope, an idea, a remark, a situation, a proposal.

Uncountables are used only in the singular and may be treated as “singularia tantum”. To this group belong:

(a) concrete nouns (sometimes having physical but not ‘individual’ existence)

(i) names of materials: sand, bread, hair, etc;

(ii) some collective nouns: fruit, shrubbery, furniture, etc;

(b) abstract nouns: permission, advice, progress, etc;

(c) nouns ending in -s, which is part of the root:

(i) names of the branches of man’s activity: gymnastics, linguistics, mathematics, physics, phonetics, acoustics, statistics, economics;

(ii) names of diseases and of abnormal states of the body and mind: measles, mumps, diabetes, creeps, hysterics, etc;

(iii) names of games: billiards, dominoes, draughts, darts, bowls;

(iv) names of cities and organizations: Athens, the United Nations.

Uncountable nouns are never determined by the indefinite article; they may be used with the pronouns some, much, little.

Note:

[a] Some nouns may be countable or uncountable depending on their use:

a chicken / chicken, a glass / glass, an iron / iron, a paper / paper, a copper / copper, wine / wines.

We use such nouns as countables, when we refer to them as single items, different sorts of material, items made of the material, separate concrete manifestations of the qualities denoted by abstract nouns.

[b] Some singularia tantum mass nouns take an -s and become pluralia tantum with a new meaning: fruits (плоды), airs (г о нор), mineral / neutral waters.

[c] The nouns ending in -ics may function as pluralia tantum when abilities, methods, ideas or concrete objects exhibiting the respective qualities are meant:

politics – (sg) an academic subject, a profession; (p1) political views: What are your politics?;

acoustics – (sg) an academic subject; (pl) sound quality: The acoustics in the Festival Flail are extremely good;

mathematics – (sg) an academic subject; (p1) calculations: His mathematics are very poor.

ceramics – (sg) the art of making bricks, pots; (p1) articles produced this way.

Collective nouns fall into the following groups:

(a) Nouns that are used in the singular and plural: audience, class, club, committee, company, congregation, council, crew, crowd, family, gang, government, group, jury, staff, team, union, orchestra, parliament, choir, chorus etc.

When such a noun is used in the singular it can be followed by a singular or plural verb. The verb is singular and the noun can combine with the relative pronouns which/that and can be replaced by it when the members of the group denoted by the noun are thought of as a single unit, in an impersonal fashion, i.e. as a whole group:

The present government, which hasn’t been in power long, is trying to control inflation. It isn’t having much success.

The verb is plural and the noun can combine with the relative pronoun who and be replaced by they or them when the members of the group denoted by the noun are thought of in a more personal way, i.e. as a number of individuals that make up the group:

The government, who are looking for a quick victory, are calling for a general election soon. They expect to be re-elected. A lot of people are giving in their support.

(b) Nouns that occur only in the singular, but with either a singular or plural verb: the proletariat, the military, the public, the infantry etc.

The public welcomes / welcome the decision. Give the public what it wants / they want.

(c) ‘Singularia tantum,’ i.e. nouns that are used only in the singular with a singular verb:

advice

baggage

information

equipment

furniture

hair

health

homework

news

knowledge

luggage

machinery

money

music

wealth

progress

research

shopping

traffic

success

weather

linen

accommodation

permission

behaviour

chaos

scenery

etc

(d) ‘Pluralia tantum,’ i.e. nouns that occur only in the plural with a plural verb:

arms

belongings

clothes

congratulations

customs

earnings

goods

odds

outskirts

premises

remains

savings

spirits

riches

surroundings

troops

wages

tropics

greens

etc

‘Pair’ nouns, referring to things consisting of two equal parts have no singular form and must be preceded by ‘a pair of’ to emphasize countability. They are also included into the pluralia tantum words: trousers, glasses, jeans, binoculars, knickers, leggings, pants, pyjamas, scissors, shorts, spectacles, tights, tweezers, scales, shears, tongs, pincers, pliers.

(e) Nouns that occur only in the singular, but with a plural verb. They are called multitude nouns. The most important are: cattle, people, police, poultry, vermin, clergy, gentry.

Ex. Extra police are needed here.

Notes:

[a] The plural form of the verb with the nouns in section (a) is more widespread in British English than in American English.

[b] Some proper nouns (football teams, national proper nouns referring to a sports team) can be used as collectives, similarly to those treated above:

Germany have/has beaten England.

Arsenal are/is playing away on Saturday.

[c] National names in the plural (e.g. the Bahamas, the United States, the Netherlands) behave like collective nouns treated either discretely or non-discretely:

The Philippines has its problems like any other country.

The Philippines consist of a group of very beautiful islands.

[d] The noun people may be singular and plural when it means “nation, tribe, race”: The Scots are a proud people. the English-speaking peoples.

Folk in the sense of ‘people, persons’ is normally used without ‘s’ in BrE (Some folk just don’t know how to behave) whereas AmE prefers ‘folks’, which in BrE normally is reserved for familiar address and the sense ‘family, parents’ (I’d like you to meet my folks).

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