Noun

For other uses, seeNoun (disambiguation).

Ingrammar,anounis a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as anobjectorsubjectwithin a phrase, clause, or sentence.

Inlinguistics,nouns constitute a lexical category (part of speech) defined according to how its members combine with members of other lexical categories. Thesyntacticoccurrence of nouns differs among languages.

In English, prototypical nouns arecommon nouns or proper nounsthat can occur withdeterminers,articlesandattributive adjectives,and can function as theheadof anoun phrase.According to traditional and popular classification,pronounsare distinct from nouns, but in much modern theory they are considered a subclass of nouns.Every language has various linguistic and grammatical distinctions between nouns andverbs.

History

See alsoHistory of parts of speech

Word classes(parts of speech) were described bySanskritgrammarians from at least the 5th century BC. InYāska'sNirukta,the noun (nāma) is one of the four main categories of words defined.

TheAncient Greekequivalent wasónoma(ὄνομα), referred to byPlatoin theCratylusdialog,and later listed as one of the eight parts of speech inThe Art of Grammar,attributed toDionysius Thrax(2nd century BC). The term used inLatin grammarwasnōmen.All of these terms for "noun" were also words meaning "name".The English wordnounis derived from the Latin term, through theAnglo-Normannom(other forms includenomme,andnounitself).

The word classes were defined partly by the grammaticalformsthat they take. In Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, for example, nouns are categorized bygenderand inflected forcaseandnumber.Becauseadjectivesshare these threegrammatical categories,adjectives typically were placed in the same class as nouns.

Similarly, the Latin termnōmenincludes both nouns (substantives) and adjectives, as originally did the English wordnoun,the two types being distinguished asnouns substantiveandnouns adjective(orsubstantive nounsandadjective nouns,or simplysubstantivesandadjectives). (The wordnominalis now sometimes used to denote a class that includes both nouns and adjectives.)

Many European languages use acognateof the wordsubstantiveas the basic term fornoun(for example, Spanishsustantivo,"noun" ). Nouns in the dictionaries of such languages are demarked by the abbreviations.orsb.instead ofn.,which may be used for proper nouns or neuter nouns instead. In English, some modern authors use the wordsubstantiveto refer to a class that includes both nouns (single words) andnoun phrases(multiword units that are sometimes callednoun equivalents).It can also be used as a counterpart toattributivewhen distinguishing between a noun being used as thehead(main word) of a noun phrase and a noun being used as anoun adjunct.For example, the nounkneecan be said to be used substantively inmy knee hurts,but attributively inthe patient needed knee replacement.

Examples

• Thecatsat on thechair.
• Please hand in yourassignmentsby theendof theweek.
• Cleanlinessis next togodliness.
• Platowas an influentialphilosopherin ancientGreece.
• Revel thenight,rob, murder, and commit / The oldestsinsthe newestkindofways?Henry IV Part 2, act 4 scene 5.

A noun can co-occur with anarticleor anattributive adjective.Verbs and adjectives cannot. In the following, an asterisk (*) in front of an example means that this example is ungrammatical.

• the name(nameis a noun: can co-occur with a definite articlethe)
• *the baptise(baptiseis a verb: cannot co-occur with a definite article)
• constant circulation(circulationis a noun: can co-occur with the attributive adjectiveconstant)
• *constant circulate(circulateis a verb: cannot co-occur with the attributive adjectiveconstant)
• a fright(frightis a noun: can co-occur with the indefinite articlea)
• *an afraid(afraidis an adjective: cannot co-occur with the articlea)
• terrible fright(the nounfrightcan co-occur with the adjectiveterrible)
• *terrible afraid(the adjectiveafraidcannot co-occur with the adjectiveterrible)

Characterization and definition

Nouns have sometimes been characterized in terms of thegrammatical categoriesby which they may be varied (for examplegender,case,andnumber). Such definitions tend to be language-specific, since different languages may apply different categories.

Nouns are frequently defined, particularly in informal contexts, in terms of theirsemanticproperties (their meanings). Nouns are described as words that refer to aperson,place,thing,event,substance,quality,quantity,etc., but this manner of definition has been criticized as uninformative.

Several English nouns lack an intrinsicreferentof their own:behalf(as inon behalf of),dint(by dint of), andsake(for the sake of).Moreover, other parts of speech may have reference-like properties: the verbsto rainorto mother,or adjectives likered;and there is little difference between the adverbgleefullyand theprepositional phrasewith glee.

Afunctionalapproach defines a noun as a word that can be the head of a nominal phrase, i.e., a phrase with referential function, without needing to go through morphological transformation.

Classification

Nouns can have a number of different properties and are often sub-categorized based on various of these criteria, depending on their occurrence in a language. Nouns may be classified according tomorphologicalproperties such as whichprefixesorsuffixesthey take, and also their relations insyntax– how they combine with other words and expressions of various types.

Many such classifications are language-specific, given the obvious differences in syntax and morphology. In English for example, 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 could not apply inRussian,which has no definite articles.

Gender

Main article:Grammatical gender

In some languages common and proper nouns have grammatical gender, typically masculine, feminine, and neuter. The gender of a noun (as well as its number and case, where applicable) will often requireagreementin words that modify or are used along with it. InFrenchfor example, the singular form of the definite article islefor masculine nouns andlafor feminine; adjectives and certain verb forms also change (sometimes with the simple addition of-efor feminine). Grammatical gender often correlates with the form of the noun and the inflection pattern it follows; for example, in bothItalianandRomanianmost nouns ending in-aare feminine. Gender can also correlate with thesexorsocial genderof the noun's referent, particularly in the case of nouns denoting people (and sometimes animals), though with exceptions (the feminine French nounpersonnecan refer to a male or a female person).

In Modern English, even common nouns likehenandprincessand proper nouns likeAliciado not have grammatical gender (their femininity has no relevance in syntax), though they denote persons or animals of a specific sex. The gender of a pronoun must be appropriate for the item referred to: "Thegirlsaid theringwas fromhernewboyfriend,buthedenieditwas fromhim"(three nouns; and three gendered pronouns: or four, if thisheris counted as apossessive pronoun).

Proper and common nouns

Main article:Proper noun

Aproper noun(sometimes called aproper name,though the two terms normally have different meanings) is a noun that represents a unique entity (India,Pegasus,Jupiter,Confucius,Pequod) – as distinguished fromcommon nouns(orappellative nouns), which describe a class of entities (country,animal,planet,person,ship).In Modern English, most proper nouns – unlike most common nouns – are capitalized regardless of context (Albania,Newton,Pasteur,America), as are many of the forms that are derived from them (the common noun in "he's anAlbanian";the adjectival forms in" he's ofAlbanianheritage "and"Newtonianphysics ", but not in"pasteurizedmilk "; the second verb in" they sought toAmericanizeus ").

Countable nouns and mass nouns

Main articles:Count nounandMass noun

Count nounsorcountable nounsare common nouns that can take aplural,can combine withnumeralsor countingquantifiers(e.g.,one,two,several,every,most), and can take an indefinite article such asaoran(in languages that have such articles). Examples of count nouns arechair,nose,andoccasion.

Mass nounsoruncountable(non-count)nounsdiffer from count nouns in precisely that respect: they cannot take plurals or combine with number words or the above type of quantifiers. For example, the formsa furnitureandthree furnituresare not used – even thoughpiecesof furniture can be counted. The distinction between mass and count nouns does not primarily concern their corresponding referents but more how the nounspresentthose entities.

Many nouns have both countable and uncountable uses; for example,sodais countable in "give me three sodas", but uncountable in "he likes soda".

Collective nouns

Main article:Collective noun

Collective nounsare nouns that – even when they are treated in their morphology and syntax assingular– refer togroupsconsisting of more than one individual or entity. Examples includecommittee,government,andpolice.In English these nouns may be followed by a singular or a plural verb and referred to by a singular or plural pronoun, the singular being generally preferred when referring to the body as a unit and the plural often being preferred, especially in British English, when emphasizing the individual members.Examples of acceptable and unacceptable use given by Gowers inPlain Wordsinclude:

"A committeewasappointed to consider this subject. "(singular)

"The committeewereunable to agree. "(plural)

* "The committee were of one mind when I sat in on them." (unacceptable use of plural)

Concrete nouns and abstract nouns

Further information:Physical bodyandAbstract object

Concrete nounsrefer tophysical entitiesthat can, in principle at least, be observed by at least one of thesenses(chair,apple,Janet,atom), as items supposed to exist in the physical world.Abstract nouns,on the other hand, refer toabstract objects:ideas or concepts (justice,anger,solubility,duration).

Some nouns have both concrete and abstract meanings:artusually refers to something abstract ( "Art is important in human culture" ), but it can also refer to a concrete item ( "I put my daughter's art up on the fridge" ). A noun might have a literal (concrete) and also a figurative (abstract) meaning: "a brasskey"and" thekeyto success ";" ablockin the pipe "and" a mentalblock".Similarly, some abstract nouns have developed etymologically by figurative extension from literal roots (drawback,fraction,holdout,uptake).

Many abstract nouns in English are formed by adding a suffix (-ness,-ity,-ion) to adjectives or verbs (happinessandserenityfrom the adjectiveshappyandserene;circulationfrom the verbcirculate).

Alienable vs. inalienable nouns

Main article:Inalienable possession

Illustrating the wide range of possible classifying principles for nouns, theAwa languageofPapua New Guinearegiments nouns according to howownershipis assigned: as alienable possession orinalienablepossession. An alienably possessed item (a tree, for example) can exist even without a possessor. But inalienably possessed items are necessarily associated with their possessor and are referred to differently, for example with nouns that function as kin terms (meaning "father", etc.), body-part nouns (meaning "shadow", "hair", etc.), or part–whole nouns (meaning "top", "bottom", etc.).

Noun phrases

Main article:Noun phrase

A noun phrase (orNP) is a phrase usuallyheadedby a common noun, a proper noun, or a pronoun. The head may be the only constituent, or it may be modified bydeterminersandadjectives.For example, "The dog sat near Ms Curtis and wagged its tail" contains three NPs:the dog(subject of the verbssatandwagged);Ms Curtis(complement of the prepositionnear); andits tail(object ofwagged). "You became their teacher" contains two NPs:you(subject ofbecame); andtheir teacher.

Nouns in relation to other word classes

Pronouns

Main article:Pronoun

Nouns and noun phrases can typically be replaced bypronouns,such ashe, it, she, they, which, these,andthose,to avoid repetition or explicit identification, or for other reasons (but as noted earlier, current theory often classifies pronouns as a subclass of nouns parallel toprototypical nouns). For example, in the sentence "Gareth thought she was weird", the wordsheis a pronoun that refers to a person just as the nounGarethdoes. The wordonecan replace parts of noun phrases, and it sometimes stands in for a noun. An example is given below:

John's car is newer thanthe onethat Bill has.

Butonecan also stand in for larger parts of a noun phrase. For example, in the following example,onecan stand in fornew car.

This new car is cheaper thanthat one.

Nominalization

Main article:Nominalization

Nominalization is a process whereby a word that belongs to another part of speech comes to be used as a noun. This can be a way to create new nouns, or to use other words in ways that resemble nouns. In French and Spanish, for example, adjectives frequently act as nouns referring to people who have the characteristics denoted by the adjective. This sometimes happens in English as well, as in the following examples:

This legislation will have the most impact on thepoor.

The race is not to theswift,nor the battle to thepowerful.

The SocialistInternationalis a worldwide association of political parties.

See also

• Description
• Grammatical case
• Phi features
• Punctuation
• Reference

References

Bibliography

• Lester, Mark; Beason, Larry (2005).The McGraw-Hill Handbook of English Grammar and Usage.McGraw-Hill.ISBN0-07-144133-6.
• Borer, Hagit (2005).In Name Only. Structuring Sense.Vol. I. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Gowers, Ernest (2014). Gowers, Rebecca (ed.).Plain Words.Particular.ISBN978-0-141-97553-5.

Further reading

• Laycock, Henry (2005). "Mass nouns, Count nouns and Non-count nouns",Draft version of entry inEncyclopedia of Language and LinguisticsOxford: Elsevier.

For definitions of nouns based on the concept of "identity criteria":

• Geach, Peter. 1962.Reference and Generality.Cornell University Press.

For more on identity criteria:

• Gupta, Anil. 1980,The logic of common nouns.New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

For the concept that nouns are "prototypically referential":

• Croft, William. 1993. "A noun is a noun is a noun – or is it? Some reflections on the universality of semantics". Proceedings of the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, ed. Joshua S. Guenter, Barbara A. Kaiser, and Cheryl C. Zoll, 369–80. Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society.

For an attempt to relate the concepts of identity criteria and prototypical referentiality:

• Baker, Mark. 2003, Lexical Categories: verbs, nouns, and adjectives. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

External links

• Nouns– Nouns described by The Idioms Dictionary.