According to their morphological composition we distinguish simple, derivative and compound nouns.
1. Simple nouns are nouns which have neither prefixes nor suffixes. They are indecomposable: chair, table, room, map, fish, work.
2. Derivative nouns are nouns which have derivative elements (prefixes or suffixes or both): read er, sail or, black ness, child hood, mis conduct, in experi ence.
Productive noun-forming suffixes are:
-er: reader, teacher, worker
-ist: communist, telegraphist, dramatist
-ess: heiress, hostess, actress
-ness: carelessness, madness, blackness
-ism: socialism, nationalism, imperialism
Unproductive suffixes are:
-hood: childhood, manhood
-dom: freedom
-ship: friendship, relationship
-merit: development
-ance: importance
-ence: dependence
-ty: cruelty
-ity: generosity
3. Compound nouns are nouns built from two or more stems. Compound nouns often have one stress. The meaning of a compound often differs from the meanings of its elements.
The main types of compound nouns are as follows:
(a) noun-stem + noun-stem: appletree, snowball;
(b) adjective-stem + noun-stem: blackbird, bluebell;
(c) verb-stem + noun-stem: pickpocket; the stem of a gerund or of aparticiple may be the first component of a compound noun: dining-room, reading-hall, dancing-girl.
Classification of nouns.
Nouns fall under two classes: (A) proper nouns; (B) common nouns.1
1 The name proper is from Lat. proprius ones own. Hence a proper name means ones own individual name, as distinct from a common name, that can be given to a class of individuals. The name common is from Lat. communis and means that which is shared by several things or individuals possessing some common characteristic.
A. Proper nouns are individual names given to separate persons or things. As regards their meaning proper nouns may be personal names (Mary, Peter, Shakespeare), geographical names (Moscow, London, the Caucasus), the names of the months and of the days of the week (February, Monday), names of ships, hotels, clubs etc.
A large number of nouns now proper were originally common nouns (Brown, Smith, Mason).
Proper nouns may change their meaning and become common nouns:
George went over to the table and took a sandwich and a glass of
champagne. (Aldington)
. Common nouns are names that can be applied to any individual of a class of persons or things (e. g. man, dog, book), collections of similar individuals or things regarded as asingle unit (e. g. peasantry, family), materials (e. g. snow, iron, cotton) or abstract notions (e. g. kindness, development).
Thus there are different groups of common nouns: class nouns, collective nouns, nouns of material and abstract nouns.
Nouns may also be classified from another point of view: nouns denoting things (the word thing is used in a broad sense) that can be counted are called countable nouns; nouns denoting things that cannot be counted are called uncountable nouns.
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1. Class nouns denote persons or things belonging to a class. They are countables and have two numbers: sinuglar and plural. They are generally used with an article.1
1 On the use of articles with class nouns see Chapter II, 2, 3.
Well, sir, said Mrs. Parker, I wasnt in the shop above a great deal.
(Mansfield)
He goes to the part of the town where the shops are. (Lessing)
2. Collective nouns denote a number or collection of similar individuals or things regarded as a single unit.
Collective nouns fall under the following groups:
(a) nouns used only in the singular and denoting a number of things collected together and regarded as a single object: foliage, machinery.
It was not restful, that green foliage. (London)
Machinery new to the industry in Australia was introduced for preparing
land. (Agricultural Gazette)
(b) nouns which are singular in form though plural in meaning: police, poultry, cattle, people, gentry. They are usually called nouns of multitude. When the subject of the sentence is a noun of multitude the verb used as predicate is in the plural:
I had no idea the police were so devilishly prudent. (Shaw)
Unless cattle are in good condition in calving, milk production will never
reach a high level. (Agricultural Gazette)
The weather was warm and the people were sitting at their doors. (Dickens)
(c) nouns that may be both singular and plural: family, crowd, fleet, nation. We can think of a number of crowds, fleets or different nations as well as of a single crowd, fleet, etc.
A small crowd is lined up to see the guests arrive. (Shaw)
Accordingly they were soon afoot, and walking in the direction of the scene of
action, towards which crowds of people were already pouring from a variety
of quarters. (Dickens)
3. Nouns of material denote material: iron, gold, paper, tea, water. They are uncountables and are generally used without any article.1
1 On the use of articles with nouns of material see Chapter II, 5, 6, 7.
There was a scent of honey from the lime-trees in flower. (Galsworthy)
There was coffee still in the urn. (Wells)
Nouns of material are used in the plural to denote different sorts of a given material.
...that his senior counted upon him in this enterprise, and had consigned a quantity of select wines to him... (Thackeray)
Nouns of material may turn into class nouns (thus becoming countables) when they come to express an individual object of definite shape.
C o m p a r e:
To the left were clean panes of glass. (Ch. Bronte)
He came in here, said the waiter looking at the light through the tumbler,
ordered a glass of this ale. (Dickens)
But the person in the glass made a face at her, and Miss Moss went out.
(Mansfield)
4. Abstract nouns denote some quality, state, action or idea: kindness, sadness, fight. They are usually uncountables, though some of them may be countables (e. g. idea, hour).2
2 On the use of articles with abstract nouns see Chapter II, 8, 9, 10, 11.
Therefore when the youngsters saw that mother looked neither frightened nor
offended, they gathered new courage. (Dodge)
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Accustomed to John Reeds abuse I never had an idea of replying to it.
(Ch. Bronte)
Its these people with fixed ideas. (Galsworthy)
Abstract nouns may change their meaning and become class nouns. This change is marked by the use of the article and of the plural number:
| beauty | a beauty | beauties |
| sight | a sight | sights |
He was responsive to beauty and here was cause to respond. (London)
She was a beauty. (Dickens)
...but she isnt one of those horrid regular beauties. (Aldington)
The category of number.
English countable nouns have two numbers the singular andthe plural.
The main types of the plural forms of English nouns are as follows:
I. 1. The general rule for forming the plural of English nouns is by adding the ending ‑s (-es) to the singular; ‑s is pronounced in different ways:
[Iz] after sibilants: noses, horses, bridges.
[z] after voiced consonants other than sibilants and after vowels: flowers, beds, doves, bees, boys.
[s] after voiceless consonants other than sibilants: caps, books, hats, cliffs.
2.If the noun ends in ‑s, ‑ss, ‑x, ‑sh, ‑ch, or ‑tch, the plural is formed by adding ‑es to the singular:
bus buses
glass glasses
box boxes
brush brushes
bench bencftes
match matches
3. If the noun ends in ‑y preceded by a consonant, is changed into i before ‑es.
fly flies
army armies
lady ladies
In proper names, however, the plural is formed by adding the ending ‑s to the singular: Mary, Marys.
N o t e. If the final ‑y is preceded by a vowel the plural is formed by simply
adding ‑s to the singular.
day days
play plays
key keys
monkey monkeys
toy toys
boy boys
4. If the noun ends in ‑o preceded by a consonant, the plural is generally formed by adding ‑es. Only a few nouns ending in ‑o preceded by a consonant form the plural in ‑s.
cargo cargoes
hero heroes
potato potatoes
echo echoes
b u t: piano pianos
solo solos
photo photos
All nouns ending in ‑o preceded by a vowel form the plural in ‑s and not in ‑es.
cuckoo cuckoos
portfolio portfolios
There are a few nouns ending in ‑o which form the plural both in ‑s and ‑es:
mosquito mosquitos or mosquitoes
5. With certain nouns the final voiceless consonants are changed into the corresponding voiced consonants when the noun takes the plural form.
(a) The following nouns ending in ‑f (in some cases followed by a mute e) change it into v (both in spelling and pronunciation) in the plural:
wife wives
thief thieves
knife knives
calf calves
life lives
half halves
sheaf sheaves
shelf shelves
leaf leaves
wolf wolves
There are some nouns ending in ‑f which have two forms in the plural:
scarf scarfs or scarves
wharf wharfs or wharves
(b) Nouns ending in ‑th [T] after long vowels change it into [D] in pronunciation (which does not affect their spelling).
bath [bRT] baths [bRDz]
path [pRT] paths [pRDz]
oath [quT] oaths [quDz]
But [T] is always retained after consonants (including r) and short vowels:
smith smiths [smITs]
month months [mAnTs]
myth myths [mITs]
birth births [bWTs]
health healths [helTs]
(c) One noun ending in [s] changes it into [z] (in pronunciation):
house [haus] houses ["hauzIz]
II. The plural forms of some nouns are survivals of earlier formations.
1. There are seven nouns which form the plural by changing the root vowel:
man men
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woman women
foot feet
tooth teeth
goose geese
mouse mice
louse lice
2. There are two nouns which form the plural in ‑en:
ox oxen
child children
N o t e. The noun brother has, beside its usual plural form brothers,
another plural form brethren, which is hardly ever used in colloquial
language. It belongs to the elevated style and denotes people of the same
creed and not relationship.
The noun cow has, beside its usual plural form cows, a plural kine, which
sometimes occurs in poetry.
3. In some nouns the plural form does not differ from the singular: deer, sheep, swine, fish, trout.
III. Some words borrowed from Latin or Greek keep their Latin or Greek plural forms: e. g. phenomen on, phenomen a; dat um, dat a; cris is, cris es; stimul us, stimu li; formul a, formul ae; ind ex, ind ices. Some of these nouns have acquired English plural forms: memorandum s, formula s, index es, terminus es, etc.
The tendency to use the foreign plural is still strong in the technical language of science, but in fiction and colloquial English there is an evident inclination to give to certain words the regular English plural forms in ‑s. Thus in some cases two plural forms are preserved (formul ae, formula s; antenn ae, antenna s).
IV. In compound nouns the plural is formed in different ways.
1. As a rule a compound noun forms the plural by adding ‑s to the head-word:
editor-in-chief editors-in-chief
brother-in-law brothers-in-law
looker-on lookers-on
2. In some compound nouns the final element takes the plural form:
lady-bird lady-birds
3. If there is no noun-stem in the compound, ‑s is added to the last element:
forget-me-not forget-me-nots
merry-go-round merry-go-rounds
V. Some nouns have only the plural form:
1. Trousers, spectacles, breeches, scissors, tongs, fetters. These are for the most part names of things which imply plurality or consist of two or more parts.
2. Billiards, barracks, works. These nouns may be treated as singulars. We may say: a chemical works, a barracks, etc.
3. Words like phonetics, physics, politics, optics, etc. are usually treated as singulars except in some special cases.
It was not practical politics! (Galsworthy)
All party politics are top dressing. (Galsworthy)
4. The word news is treated as a singular.
When she goes to make little purchases, there is no news for her. (Thackeray)
The news he gave them was to be read in the lamentations. (Sabatini)
The category of case.
Case indicates the relations of the noun (or pronoun) to the other words in the sentence.
English nouns denoting living beings (and some nouns denoting lifeless things) have two cases, an uninflected form called the common case and an inflected form called the genitive case.
1. The genitive case is formed by adding -s (the apostrophe s) to the noun in the singular and only (the apostrophe) to plural forms ending in ‑s.
SINGULAR: a girls book PLURAL: a girls school
N o t e 1. Nouns forming their plural by changing the root vowel take the
apostrophe s in the plural.
SINGULAR: a mans hat PLURAL: mens hats
N o t e 2. Nouns ending in ‑s form the genitive case in two ways: Dickens
novels, Dickenss novels.
The pronunciation of the genitive case ending follows the same rules as the pronunciation of the plural ending:
[Iz] after sibilants: princes, judges, witchs, etc.
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[z] after voiced consonants other than sibilants and after vowels: boys, mans, kings.
[s] after voiceless consonants other than sibilants: Smiths, counts, bishops.
N o t e. With nouns ending in ‑s and forming the genitive case in two ways
(Dickens novels, Dickenss novels) the ending is pronounced [Iz] whether the
letter s is written or not.
2. Sometimes the apostrophe s may refer to a whole group of words (the group-genitive): Jane and Mary s room. The last word of the group need not even be a noun: I shall be back in an houror two s time.
As to its use the genitive case falls under:
(A) The Dependent Genitive.
(B) The Absolute Genitive.
The Dependent Genitive is used with the noun it modifies and comes before it.
The Absolute Genitive may be used without any noun or be separated from the noun it modifies.
