The Main Grammatical Categories of The English Noun - Number, Gender, Case

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Profesor îndrumător / Prezentat Profesorului: Conf. Univ. Dr.Braslasu Mihai

Universitatea din Piteşti Facultatea de Litere Specializarea: Limbi Moderne Aplicate

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1.The Noun:
1.1 Definition;
1.2 Classification of nouns;
2.Grammatical categories:
2.1.Number
2.1 The regular Plural, formed by adding the inflection –s;
2.1.2 The irregular Plural, formed through mutation;
2.1.3 The irregular Plural, formed by adding the inflection –en;
2.1.4 The irregular Plural, formed by changing –finto –v;
2.1.5 The irregular Plural, formed by the zero plural;
2.1.6 The irregular Plural, as foreign plural;
2.1.7 The Plural of Compounds;
2.1.8 The Plural of Proper Nouns;
2.1.9 The Plural of Abbreviations, Numbers and Letters of the Alphabet
2.1.10 Nouns with different meanings in the plural and the singular;
2.1.11 Nouns with two plural forms;
2.1.12 Singular Invariables;
2.1.13 Singular Invariables, as proper nouns;
2.1.14 Singular Invariables as nouns ending in –s;
2.1.15 Plural Invariables as nouns formed out of two parts;
2.1.16 Plural Invariable as proper nouns;
2.1.17 Plural Invariables as nouns ending in –s;
2.1.18 Plural invariables as collective nouns;
2.1.19 Singular or Plural concord according to meaning for collective nouns;
2.1.20 Singular or Plural concord according to meaning;
2.1.21 Singular or Plural concord according to meaning, for some adjectives acting as nouns;
2.1.22 Singular or Plural concord according to meaning for some words;
2.1.23 Other remarks concerning the number;
2.1.24 Types of exercises used in teaching Number.
2.2. Case:
2.2.1 The Nominative Case;
2.2.2 The Possessive Case;
2.2.2.1 The S Genitive (the inflected genitive);
2.2.2.2 The Prepositional Genitive;
2.2.2.3 The Double Genitive;
2.2.2.4. Special Remarks on the Possessive Case;
2.2.3 The Dative;
2.2.4 The Accusative;
2.2.5 Types of exercises used in teaching Case.
2.3. Gender:
2.3.1Gender distinction through morphologically unmarked words;
2.3.2 Gender distinction through derivation;
2.3.3 Gender distinction through compounding;
2.3.4 The common denominator;
2.3.5 Gender of nouns denoting people;
2.3.6 Gender of nouns denoting animals;
2.3.7 Gender of nouns denoting things and abstract notions;

Extras din proiect

Chapter 1: The Noun

1.1 Definition

A noun is the name of anything that may be the subject of discourse. Hence the noun is the naming word it is a little difficult to define the limits of this art of speech. Generally, the different parts of speech are marked off by formal criteria.

Traditionally, the noun is a term used in grammatical classification to denote that pat of speech largely defining objects; more specifically:

-beings: man, child, cat, hen, etc.

-plants: rose, oak, barley, etc.

-actions/processes: reading, writing, work, explanation etc.

-states: silence, enthusiasm, fear, health etc.

-qualities/non-qualities: kindness, beuty, rudeness etc.

-abstract notions: time freedom, consciousness etc.

The chief criteria, by which nouns as such are distinguished from other parts of speech, are the formation of the plural by means of the ending –s and the formation of the genitive in ‘s. neither of these criteria is absolute and applicable to all nouns; there are nouns which form no plural, and there are a great many nouns from which the genitive is never formed.

Another criterion is the capability of taking an (adjective) adjunct. Especially when a word can take one of the articles the and a before, we seldom hesitate to reckon it among nouns.

If we make the content a criterion, other difficulties appear; here the chief distinction between nouns and adjectives is, of course, that the former have an association of substance while the latest have an association of quality.

As a conclusion all three criteria must be taken into consideration when we want to point the limits of this part of speech.

A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and abstract idea. Nouns are usually the first words which small children learn. The highlighted words in the following sentences are all nouns:

Late last year our neighbours bought a goat.

Portia White was an opera singer.

The bus inspector looked at all the passengers’ passes.

According to Plutarch, the library at Alexandria was destroyed in 48 B.C.

Philosophy is of little comfort to the starving.

There are many different types of nouns. As you know, you capitalize some nouns, such as “Canada” or “Louise”, and do not capitalize others, such as “badger” or ”tree” (unless they appear at the beginning of a sentence). In fact, grammarian have developed a whole series of noun types, including the proper noun, the common noun, the concrete noun, the abstract noun, the countable noun (also called the count noun), the non-countable noun ( also called the mass noun), and the collective noun. You should note that a noun will belong to more than one type: it will be proper or common, abstract or concrete, and countable or non-countable or collective.

A noun can function in a sentence as a subject, a direct object, an indirect object, a subject complement, an objet complement, an appositive, an adjective or an adverb.

1.2 Classification of Nouns

In modern English form does not play an important part in the identifying ofr the classifying on nouns for inflectional purposes, since more nouns are now declined alike, form and gender having little influence o the inflections of nouns.

According to their form, nouns can be classified as:

-simple nouns;

-compound nouns;

-phrasal nouns.

According to their meaning, nouns can be classified as:

-proper nouns;

-common nouns;

-names of material (mass nouns);

-collective nouns.

The noun can be classified as:

-concrete nouns;

-abstract nouns.

Chapter 2: Grammatical categories

2.1. Number

”The English number system constitutes a two-term contrast: singular, which denotes one, and plural, which denotes more than one.”

Number is ”the grammatical category, most often associated with nouns and pronouns, whose primary correlation is with the number of distinguishable entities.”

”The grammatical term number is the name of the system contrasting singular and plural.”

Definition: The form assumed by a noun to show whether it denotes one thing or more than one in called the number whan one thing is spoken of, the noun is singular; when two or more things are spoken of, the noun is plural.