3.The Noun as a part of speech

The noun as a part of speech has the categ. meaning of substance or thingness. It follows from this that the N is the main nominative P of S. The N has the power by way of nomination to isolate diff. properties of substances and present them as corresponding self-depen. substances. Ex. Her words were unexpectedly bitter. We were struck by the bitterness of her words. This natural and practically unlimited substantivization force establishes the N as the central nomin. lexemic unit of the lang. Derivative charac-cs: Affixes (a, non, dis, de, mis, mal, pseudo, arch, super, pro, inter, ex); suff-s (er, ship, or, hood, nesss, ing, dom, tion, ment). Types of N:1)Simple(man), 2)derivative, 3)compound(brother-in-law). Classific. Principles: 1-type of nomination (proper(Peter)–common(man)), 2-form of existence (animate(human-non-human)-inanimate), 3-quantitative structure(countable-collective(army)-uncoun.), 4-semantic struct.(concrete-abst.). The most characteris. function of the N is that of the subj in the sent, since the referent of the subj. is the person or thin immediately named. The func. of the obj. is also typical as the substance word. Other func-s: attributive, adverbial and even predicative but they are not immediate characteristics of the N. Differs from other P of S.: transformation shifting the N from various non-subj. syntactic positions into subj. positions of the same general semantic value. Ex. He lives in Glasgow – Glasgow is his place of residence. Special types of combinability: prepositional combinab. is typical (an entrance to the house), possessive combinab. (the president’s speech), sheer contact – without any means. The N in the pre-position is a semantic qualifier (a cannon ball). Gram cat-s of the N: case, gender, number. The cat. of case shows the relation of person or thing denoted by the N to other things or phenom.(John’s flat). There are 4 case theories: 1) the positional theory (Nesfield). Case is expressed not only by inflection but also by the posit. of the N in the structure of the sent. 5 cases: nomin. (rain falls), gen.(john’s flat), dat. (I gave him smth), vocative(are you here, my friend), accus.(the man killed a fly). 2. the prepositional case theory (Curm). The case may be expressed not only by inflections and word order but also by means of preposit-ns. Two cases: gen. (the study of the father), dat.(I gave a penny to Sam). 3 the theory of the possessive post position (Vorontsova) states that there are no cases at all. ‘s inflection is optional (the room of the brother). ‘s is not an inflect. It is a kind of a word showing a character of syntactical dependence called as post-position. 4. Oppositional (Ilyish, Blokh). Two cases: common (unmarked) and possess.(marked member. The meaning of possessivity). It has several shadows: a) possessivity itself (John’s hat), b) relations similar to posessivity (John’s sister), c) subjective relations (the president’s arrival), d) objective relations, e) qualitative relations (officer’s cap). Not all the nouns have the cat. of case. Only declinable, living beings, Ns denoting time and distance (an hour’s work). The mod. Eng. Ns are not supposed to have the cat. of gender found in Rus., Ger. or Fr. But some scholars do insist on the existence of this cat. Blokh says that this cat is expr. by the obligatory correlations Ns with the personal pron. – he, she, it. The noun correlated with “she” – fem. gender, “he” – masc. With “it” express neuter gender. Blokh still admits that many person Ns express both f and m genders (person, friend), in the pl. all the gender distinctions are neutralized. Mod. Eng. disting. b/w 2 numbers: Sg. And Pl. and the opposition is clear. Sg. shows that 1 object is meant, Pl – more than one. The cat of num. gives rise to several very imp. problems. The first prob refers to the special stylistic value of some pl forms. E.g. water – abstract N, not regularly used in the pl, material N. But we can come across “The waters of the Atlantic”. The particular usage is not the idea of plurality but smth diff. This expression denotes a vast stretch of water. We can speak here about a particular stylistic value of the pl. The difference in meaning has developed from the stylistic change or reference. But there are cases of full lexicalization of the pl form. So we have a completed process when the pl form has developed a completely new meaning which the sg doesn’t have at all (custom-customs). The Niagara Falls is very spectacular. Here the bond b/w sg(fall) and pl is obvious. The process is not completed. To the pl tantum we refer trousers, scissors, spectacles (Ns denoting objects consisting of two halves). But some nouns, such as outskirts, express more or less indefinite plurality, used only in the pl. To the Sg. tantum we refer names of abstract notions (peace), Ns denoting material substance (milk, sand). They are outside the sphere of number because they are uncountable. They are marked as such in dictionaries. But if the N is the subject in the sentence the predicate verb is always Sg too. But some Ns denoting substance or material or even abstract notions may have a pl form if they are used to denote the object made of this material or a special kind of substance (wine-wines). Collective Ns: Some of the nouns denoting groups of human beings may be used in 2 diff. ways. Either they are taken to denote the group as a whole (My family is small), or to denote a group as consisting of individuals (my family are good speakers). Ex. Party, police, clergy, cattle. Money belongs to sg. tantum, but there is a term “moneys” used in some specific texts to denote different types of payment. News formally expresses pl-ty but semantically it is a synonym to “info”. That is why it is referred to as a sg. tantum N

vast stretch of water. We can speak here about a particular stylistic value of the pl. The difference in meaning has developed from the stylistic change or reference. But there are cases of full lexicalization of the pl form. So we have a completed process when the pl form has developed a completely new meaning which the sg doesn’t have at all (custom-customs). The Niagara Falls is very spectacular. Here the bond b/w sg(fall) and pl is obvious. The process is not completed. To the pl tantum we refer trousers, scissors, spectacles (Ns denoting objects consisting of two halves). But some nouns, such as outskirts, express more or less indefinite plurality, used only in the pl. To the Sg. tantum we refer names of abstract notions (peace), Ns denoting material substance (milk, sand). They are outside the sphere of number because they are uncountable. They are marked as such in dictionaries. But if the N is the subject in the sentence the predicate verb is always Sg too. But some Ns denoting substance or material or even abstract notions may have a pl form if they are used to denote the object made of this material or a special kind of substance (wine-wines). Collective Ns: Some of the nouns denoting groups of human beings may be used in 2 diff. ways. Either they are taken to denote the group as a whole (My family is small), or to denote a group as consisting of individuals (my family are good speakers). Ex. Party, police, clergy, cattle. Money belongs to sg. tantum, but there is a term “moneys” used in some specific texts to denote different types of payment. News formally expresses pl-ty but semantically it is a synonym to “info”. That is why it is referred to as a sg. tantum N