A
noun is a part of speech typically denoting a person, place, thing,
animal, or idea.
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose
members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb,
or the object of a preposition.
Lexical categories are defined in terms of the ways in which their members
combine with other kinds of expressions. The syntactic rules for nouns differ
from language to language. In English, nouns are those words which can occur
with articles and attributive adjectives and can function as the head of a noun
phrase.
HISTORY
The English word
noun comes from the Latin
nōmen, meaning
"name" or "noun", a cognate of the Ancient Greek
ónoma
(also meaning "name" or "noun").
Word classes like nouns were first described by
Pāṇini
in the Sanskrit language and by Ancient Greek grammarians, and were defined by
the grammatical forms that they take. In Greek and Sanskrit, for example, nouns
are categorized by gender and inflected for case and number.
Because nouns and adjectives share these three categories, Dionysius Thrax
does not clearly distinguish between the two, and uses the term
ónoma
for both, although some of the words that he describes as
paragōgón (pl.
paragōgá) "derived” are adjectives.
Definition of Nouns
Nouns have sometimes been defined in terms of the grammatical categories to
which they are subject (classed by gender, inflected for case and number). Such
definitions tend to be language-specific, since nouns do not have the same
categories in all languages.
Nouns are frequently defined, particularly in informal contexts, in terms of
their semantic properties (their meanings). Nouns are described as words that
refer to a
person,
place,
thing,
event,
substance,
quality,
quantity, etc. However this type of definition has been
criticized by contemporary linguists as being uninformative.
Linguists often prefer to define nouns (and other lexical categories) in
terms of their formal properties. These include morphological information, such
as what prefixes or suffixes they take, and also their syntax – how they
combine with other words and expressions of particular types. Such definitions
may nonetheless still be language-specific, since syntax as well as morphology
varies between languages. For example, in English it might be noted that nouns
are words that can co-occur with definite articles (as stated at the start of
this article), but this would not apply in Russian, which has no definite
articles.
There have been several attempts, sometimes controversial, to produce a
stricter definition of nouns on a semantic basis. Some of these are referenced
in the Further reading section below.
Form of Nouns
A noun in its basic form will often consist of a single stem, as in the case
of the English nouns
cat,
man,
table and so on. In many
languages nouns can also be formed from other nouns and from words of other
types through morphological processes, often involving the addition of prefixes
and suffixes. Examples in English are the verbal nouns formed from verbs by the
addition of
-ing, nouns formed from verbs using other suffixes such as
organization
and
discovery, agent nouns formed from verbs usually with the suffix
-er
or
-or, as in
actor and
worker, feminine forms of nouns
such as
actress,
lioness, nouns formed from adjectives such as
happiness,
and many other types.
Nouns may be identical in form to words that belong to other parts of
speech, often as a result of conversion (or just through coincidence). For
example the English word
hit can be both a noun and a verb, and the German
Arm/arm can be a noun or an adjective. In such cases the word is said to
represent two or more lexemes.
In many languages nouns inflect (change their form) for number, and
sometimes for case. Inflection for number usually involves forming plural
forms, such as
cats and
children (see English plural), and
sometimes other forms such as duals, which are used in some languages to refer
to exactly two of something. Inflection for case involves changing the form of
a noun depending on its syntactic function – languages such as Latin, Russian
and Finnish have extensive case systems, with different forms for nominatives (used
principally for verb subjects), accusatives (used especially for direct objects),
genitives (used to express possession and similar relationships) and so on. The
only real vestige of the case system in Modern English is the "Saxon
genitive", where '
s is added to a noun to form a possessive.
Type
of Nouns
Proper
Nouns
You always write a proper noun with a capital letter, since the noun
represents the name of a specific person, place, or thing. The names of days of
the week, months, historical documents, institutions, organizations, religions,
their holy texts and their adherents are proper nouns. A proper noun is the
opposite of a common noun.
In each of the following sentences,
the proper nouns are highlighted:
o
The Marroons were transported
from Jamaica and forced to build the fortifications in Halifax.
o
Many people dread Monday
mornings.
o
Beltane is celebrated on the first of May.
o
Abraham appears in the Talmud and in the Koran.
Common
Nouns
A common
noun is a noun referring to a person, place, or thing in a general
sense -- usually, you should write it with a capital letter only when it begins
a sentence. A common noun is the opposite of a proper noun.
In each of the following sentences,
the common nouns are highlighted:
o
According to the sign, the
nearest town is 60 miles away.
o
All the gardens in the neighborhood
were invaded by beetles this summer.
o
I don't understand why some people
insist on having six different kinds of mustard in their cupboards.
o
The road crew was startled by
the sight of three large moose crossing the road.
o
Many child-care workers are
underpaid.
Sometimes you will make proper nouns
out of common nouns, as in the following examples:
o
The tenants in the Garnet Apartments
are appealing the large and sudden increase in their rent.
o
The meals in the Bouncing Bean
Restaurant are less expensive than meals in ordinary restaurants.
o
Many witches refer to the
Renaissance as the Burning Times.
o
The Diary of Anne Frank is
often a child's first introduction to the history of the Holocaust.
Concrete
Nouns
A concrete
noun is a noun which names anything (or anyone) that you can perceive
through your physical senses: touch, sight, taste, hearing, or smell. A
concrete noun is the opposite of a abstract noun.
The highlighted words in the
following sentences are all concrete nouns:
o
The judge handed the files
to the clerk.
o
Whenever they take the dog to
the beach, it spends hours chasing waves.
o
The real estate agent urged
the couple to buy the second house because it had new shingles.
o
As the car drove past the park,
the thump of a disco tune overwhelmed the string quartet's
rendition of a minuet.
o
The book binder replaced the
flimsy paper cover with a sturdy, cloth-covered board.
Abstract
Nouns
An abstract
noun is a noun which names anything which you can not perceive
through your five physical senses, and is the opposite of a concrete noun. The highlighted
words in the following sentences are all abstract nouns:
o
Buying the fire extinguisher was an afterthought.
o
Tillie is amused by people who are
nostalgic about childhood.
o
Justice often seems to slip out of our grasp.
o
Some scientists believe that schizophrenia
is transmitted genetically.
Countable
Nouns
A countable
noun (or count noun) is a noun with
both a singular and a plural form, and it names anything (or anyone) that you
can count. You can make a countable noun plural and attach it to a
plural verb in a sentence. Countable nouns are the opposite of non-countable
nouns and collective nouns.
In each of the following sentences,
the highlighted words are countable nouns:
o
We painted the table red and
the chairs blue.
o
Since he inherited his aunt's
library, Jerome spends every weekend indexing his books.
o
Miriam found six silver dollars
in the toe of a sock.
o
The oak tree lost three branches
in the hurricane.
o
Over the course of
twenty-seven years, Martha Ballad delivered just over eight hundred babies.
Non-Countable
Nouns
A non-countable
noun (or mass noun) is a noun which does
not have a plural form, and which refers to something that you could (or would)
not usually count. A non-countable noun always takes a singular verb in a
sentence. Non-countable nouns are similar to collective nouns, and are the
opposite of countable nouns.
The highlighted words in the
following sentences are non-countable nouns:
o
Joseph Priestly discovered oxygen.
The word "oxygen" cannot normally be made plural.
o
Oxygen is essential to human life.
Since "oxygen" is a non-countable noun, it takes
the singular verb "is" rather than the plural verb "are."
o
We decided to sell the furniture
rather than take it with us when we moved.
You cannot make the noun "furniture" plural.
o
The furniture is heaped in
the middle of the room.
Since "furniture" is a non-countable noun, it
takes a singular verb, "is heaped."
o
The crew spread the gravel
over the roadbed.
You cannot make the non-countable noun "gravel"
plural.
o
Gravel is more expensive than I thought.
Since "gravel" is a non-countable noun, it takes
the singular verb form "is."
Collective
Nouns
A collective
noun is a noun naming a group of things, animals, or persons. You could
count the individual members of the group, but you usually think of the group
as a whole is generally as one unit. You need to be able to recognize
collective nouns in order to maintain subject-verb agreement. A collective noun
is similar to a non-countable noun, and is roughly the opposite of a countable
noun.
In each of the following sentences,
the highlighted word is a collective noun:
o
The flock of geese spends
most of its time in the pasture.
The collective noun "flock" takes the singular
verb "spends."
o
The jury is dining on
take-out chicken tonight.
In this example the collective noun "jury" is the
subject of the singular compound verb "is dining."
o
The steering committee meets
every Wednesday afternoon.
Here the collective noun "committee" takes a
singular verb, "meets."
o
The class was startled by the
bursting light bulb.
In this sentence the word "class" is a collective
noun and takes the singular compound verb "was startled."
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