The Functions of Nouns in the Sentence

Noun. Kinds, Functions and Composition of Nouns.

A noun is a word for a person, a place, or a thing.

A noun is a part of speech expressing substance in the widest sense of the word. A noun tells us what someone or something is called. For example, a noun can be the name of a person (John), a job title (doctor), the name of a thing (radio), the name of a place (London), the name of a quality (courage), or the name of an action (laughter/laughing). Nouns are the names we give to people, things, places, etc in order to identify them.

The noun has the following morphological characteristics:

1. Nouns that can be counted have two numbers: singular and plural (a girl; girls).

2. Nouns denoting living beings (and some nouns denoting lifeless things) have two case forms: the common case and the genitive case. Nouns in the common case do not have any special endings. The connection of a noun in the common case with other words is expressed with the help of prepositions: I gave the ticket to my sister. He bought a ball for his son. America was discovered by Columbus. The genitive case: girl’s book, my mother’s bag.

3. Nouns have the category of gender: heir – heir ess, waiter – waitr ess.

The Functions of Nouns in the Sentence

Nouns may have different functions in the sentences. They may serve as:

1) the subject: Life consists in accepting one’s duty;

2) the object (direct, indirect and prepositional):

Frank sent an urgent telex from Cairo this morning ( direct object );

Frank sent his boss a telex ( indirect object );

He won't listen to any advice ( prepositional object ).

3) the predicative (non-prepositional and prepositional):

The town has always been a quiet and dignified little place.

The place was in disorder.

4) the adverbial modifier: He spoke in a different tone.

5) the attribute: His officer’s uniform gave slimness to his already heavy figure.

6) the apposition: Laura Myers, a BBC reporter, asked for an interview

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