Morphological composition of nouns.

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): reader, sailor, blackness, childhood, mis­conduct, inexperience.

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:

а) 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 a participle may be the first component of a compound noun: dining- room, reading-hall, dancing-girl.

The class of compound nouns also includes phrasal compounds: forget-me-not, commander-in-chief

Classification of nouns.

Nouns fall under two classes: (A) proper nouns; (B) common nouns.¹

A. Proper nouns are individual names given to people 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.

¹ The name proper is from Lai. proprius 'one's own'. Hence a proper name means one's 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 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)

B. Common nouns are names that can be applied to any individual of a class of people or things (e.g. man, dog, book), collections of similar individuals or things regarded as a single unit (e. g. peasantry, family), materials ^Ґ(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.

1. Class nouns denote people or things belonging to a class. They are countables and have two numbers: singular and plural. They are generally used with an article.¹

"Well, sir," said Mrs. Parker, "I wasn't 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 into the following groups:

1. 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)

2. nouns which are singular in form though plural in meaning: police, poultry, cattle, people, gentry. They are usually called nouns of

¹ On the use of articles with class nouns see Chapter II, § 2, 3.

 

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, government, staff\ team, audience, committee, fleet, nation.

A small crowd is lined up to see the guests arrive. (Shaw)

A whole crowd of us are going to the ball.

There are three nouns ending in – s that can also be singular or plural:

means a means of traffic many means of traffic

series a television series two television series

species a species of bird 200 species of bird

3. Nouns of material denote material: iron, gold, paper, tea, water.

They are uncountables and are generally used without any article.¹

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.

Compare:

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)

 

¹ On the use of articles with nouns of material see Chapter II, § 5, 6, 7.

 

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)}

Therefore when the youngsters saw that mother looked neither frightened nor offended, they gathered new courage. (Dodge) Accustomed to John Reed's abuse — I never had an idea of replying to it. (Ch. Bronte) It's 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

a sight sight sights

 

He was responsive to beauty and here was cause to respond.

(London)

She was a beauty. (Dickens)

... but she isn't one of those horrid regular beauties. (Aldington)

The category of number.

English countable nouns have two numbers — the singular and the plural.

The main types of the plural forms of English nouns are as follows:

1. 1. The general rule for forming the plural of English nouns is by adding the ending (-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_f the plural is formed by adding -es to the singular:

bus — buses brush — brushes

glass — glasses box — boxes

bench — benches match — matches

¹ On the use of articles with abstract nouns see Chapter II, § 8, 9, 10

3. If the noun ends in -y preceded by a consonant, y is changed into i before -es.

fly — flies

army — armies

lady — ladies

In proper names, however, the plural is formed by adding the end­ing 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 -5 to the singular.

day — days monkey — monkeys

play — plays toy — toys

key — keys 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 -5.

cargo — cargoes potato — potatoes

hero — heroes echo — echoes

but:

piano — pianos solo — solos photo — photos

All nouns ending in -o preceded by a vowel form the plural in and not in -es.

cuckoo — cuckoos

portfolio — portfolios

There are a few nouns ending in -o which form the plural both in -5 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

knife — knives

life — lives

sheaf — sheaves

leaf — leaves

 

thief — thieves

half — halves

calf — calves

shelf — shelves

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 [Ө] after long vowels change it into [ð] in pronunciation (which does not affect their spelling).

bath [ba:Ө] — baths [ba:ðz]

path [pa:Ө] — paths [pa:ðz] oath [əuӨ] — oaths [əuӨ z]

But [Ө] is always retained after consonants (including r) and short vowels:

smith — smiths [smiӨs] month — months [m۸nӨs] myth — myths [miӨs] birth — births [b3:Ө] health — healths [helӨs]

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

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

Note. 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_y trout.

III.Some words borrowed from Latin or Greek keep their Latin or Greek plural forms: e. g. phenomenon, phenomena; datum, data; crisis, crises; stimulus, stimuli; formula, formulae; index, indices. Some of these nouns have acquired English plural forms: memorandums, formulas, indexes, terminuses, 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 -5. Thus in some cases two plural forms are preserved (formulae, formulas; antennae, antennas).

IV. In compound nouns the plural is formed in different ways.

1. In compound nouns the final element takes the plural form:

lady-bird — lady-birds

2.As a rule a phrasal 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

3.If there is no noun-stem in the phrasal compound, 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)

Note. The names of sports teams are normally used with the verb in the plural form:

Scotland are playing France in a football match next week.

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 girl's book PLURAL: a girls' school

 

Note 1. Nouns forming their plural by changing the root vowel take the apostrophe 5 in the plural.

 

SINGULAR: a man's hat PLURAL: men's hats

Note 2. Nouns ending in -s form the genitive case in two ways: Dickens' novels, Dickens's novels.

The pronunciation of the genitive case ending follows the same rules as the pronunciation of the plural ending:

[iz] after sibilants: prince's Judge's, witch's, etc.

[z] after voiced consonants other than sibilants and after vowels: boy's, man's, king's.

[s] after voiceless consonants other than sibilants: Smith's, count's, bishop's.

Note. With nouns ending in -5 and forming the genitive case in two ways (Dickens' novels, Dickens's novels) the ending is pronounced [iz] whether the letter s is written or not.

2. Sometimes the apostrophe 5 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 hour or 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.

A. The Dependent Genitive.

1. The chief meaning of the genitive case is that of possession:

... a young man and a girl came out of the solicitor's office. (Braine)

He stayed at Fanny's flat. (Aldington)

2. Very close to the meaning of possession is that of a part to a whole:

A faint smile had come on Victorine's face — she was adding up the money she might earn. (Galsworthy) His sister's eyes fixed on him with a certain astonishment, obliged him at last to look at Fleur. (Galsworthy)

3. The Dependent Genitive may express the doer of an action (the so-called subjective genitive) or show that some person is the object of the action (the so-called objective genitive):

It was Tom's step, then, that Maggie heard on the steps. (Eliot)

Gwendolen's reception in the neighbourhood fulfilled her uncle's expectations. (Eliot)

4. The noun in the genitive case may denote qualitative relations:

He looked ever so much smarter in his new officer's clothes with the little blue chevron... (Aldington)

The use of the genitive case of nouns denoting inanimate things and abstract notions is rather limited.

The genitive case of nouns denoting inanimate things may denote the relations between a part and the whole.

... the sudden shaking of an aspen's leaves in the puffs of breeze that rose along the river... (Galsworthy)

He stepped on the truck's running board hanging on with his left arm. (Heym)

The genitive case of nouns expressing time, space and weight is widely used.

From the depot he was sent to the officers' training camp with two days' leave. (Aldington)

They both quite took to him again and during his month's leave gave him a good time. (Aldington)

There is a remnant still of the last year's golden clusters... (Eliot)

The three of us had had dinner, and walked down past the theatre to the river's edge. (Snow)

B. The Absolute Genitive.

1. The Absolute Genitive may be used anaphorically.

Mrs. Moss's face bore a faded resemblance to her brother's. (Eliot)

The face Michael drew began by being Victorine's and ended by being Fleur's. (Galsworthy)

2. The Absolute Genitive may have local meaning: the stationer's, the baker's, the tobacconist's, my uncle's, etc.

 

On her way home she usually bought a slice of honey-cake at the baker's. (Mansfield)

"My dear," said the lace collar she secured from Partridge's, "I fit you beautifully." (Dreiser)

The Absolute Genitive may be introduced by the preposition of.

She is a relation of the Colonel's. (Austen)

 

Chapter II

 

THE ARTICLE

General notion.

The article is a structural part of speech used with nouns. There are two articles in Modern English: the indefinite article and the definite article.

The indefinite article has the forms a and an. The form a is used before words beginning with a consonant sound (a book, a pen, a stu­dent). The form an is used before words beginning with a vowel sound (an opera, an apple, an hour). The article is pronounced [ə], [ən]; when stressed it is pronounced [ei], [æn].

The definite article has one graphic form the, which is pronounced in two ways: [ði] before a vowel sound [ði 'æpl] and [ðə] before a con­sonant sound [ðə 'pen].

The indefinite article has developed from the Old English numeral an (one), and as a result of its origin it is used only with nouns in the singular.

The definite article has developed from the Old English demonstra­tive pronoun se and in some cases it has preserved this demonstrative meaning in Modern English.

The use of the indefinite article implies that the object is presented as belonging to a class.

The use of the definite article shows that a particular object is meant.

The absence of articles with class nouns in the plural, with abstract nouns and nouns of material has grammatical significance: it shows that the nouns are used in a general sense.

With nouns in the plural some is often used. Some, as well as the absence of articles with class nouns in the plural, is the equivalent of the indefinite article in the singular. Some is used when the speaker wants to emphasize the idea of number. Some is also used with nouns of material if the idea of quantity is implied. Some has the meaning of 'several' with class nouns and ^‘a little' with nouns of material. Some is hardly ever translated into Russian.