the noun Flashcards
grammatical categories of nouns
- case: possessive or common
- gender: natural gender (not grammatical)
- number: singular or plural; formal or notional concord
exact (!!) word class of a noun
- common vs proper nouns (=names)
- count vs uncount
- concrete vs abstact
gender of personal nouns
-
male/female
=> morphologically unmarked (no inflection for gender): boy–girl, father–mother, …
=> morphologically marked: hero–heroine, actor–atress, widower–widow, .. - dual gender: artist, doctor, speaker, enemy, … => pronoun: they
- common gender: baby, child => pronoun: it
- collective nouns: concord with pronoun singular: which–it or who–they without change of number; plural: which-they
gender of nouns other than personal
-
animals:
familiar => he/she
unfamiliar => it -
inanimate nouns:
ships/machines => she
countries in politics => she
countries in sports => it/they
sun in poetry => she
concord of number
-
formal concord: concord follows the form of the noun
This actor is hopeless. Other actors are much better -
notional concord: concord is determined by the noun’s meaning
Amateur dramatics is her great passion. The cast were applauded for their performance.
when do we use formal concord?
singular form & meaning:
- natural substances and materials
- singular collective nouns: concrete (Machinery has replaced human labor) and abstract (This information is useful)
- countable collective nouns: if the group is seen as a whole
The government has a major crisis.
plural form & meaning:
- plural collective nouns: concrete (These clothes are fashionable) and abstract (Thanks are due to all those who helped)
- proper names in plural: The Alps form a dividing line across Europe
when do we use notional concord?
plural form & singular meaning:
- sciences and specialist areas in -ics (formal concord only in concrete cases: His mathematics are almost non-existent.)
- names of some games: Darts is often played in British pubs.
- certain diseases: Shingles is a very painful disease of the nerves.
- news, the United Nations, the United States, the Netherlands
- countable collective nouns: if the referents are the individual members of the group rather than the group as a whole; companies
The government have a major crisis on their hands. BP has/have raised the price of petrol again.
no plural form but plural meaning:
- nouns denoting groups of living beings: police, clergy, gentry, people
expressions of quantity and measure: such as a lot of, lots of, much/many, numbers, …
Half of the villages have been evacuated; the rest are hoping to be spared. Ten dollars is all I’ve got.
genitive
usually: s-genitive with persons/animals, of-phrase with things
exceptions: of-phrase genitive
- person + lengthy attribute
- focus of the sentence’s information is on the person: They waited for the arrival of the Prime Minister
-
differences in meaning: objective vs possessive genitive
the suspects’ photos (subjective) <-> the photos of the suspect (objective) - animals: in cases of special emphasis (end-focus): It’s the carrot of our rabbit –not yours.
- spoken English (for distinction)
exceptions: s-genitive
s-genitive with things:
* DESCRIPTIVE/CLASSIFYING GENITIVE: a doctor’s degree
* any form of human community
* products of human (mental) activity: the novel’s message
* machines, means of transport, natural phenomena: the car’s engine, the vulcano’s eruption
* personification (literary usage): duty’s call, nature’s wonders
* description of shape, structure, size etc: the crystal’s structure
* s.th. belongs to a certain time or period: yesterday’s paper
* temporal duration: a fifteen minutes’ walk
* fixed expressions: a stone’s throw away
* journalism
use of the independent genitive
- local genitive: my butcher’s stays open late; I was at Fred’s / Madame Tussaud’s
- to avoid repeating a noun which has already been mentioned: This book isn’t yours, it’s my brother’s.
- to avoid anticipating a noun which follows the verb to be: My grandfather’s was a long and eventful life.
double genitive
comes after a noun head, combines of- and s-genitive
partitive meaning
a friend of George’s, a novel of Doris Lessing’s, several friends of the author’s
Summary: major meanings of the genitive
- Possessive genitive: Mr Johnson’s passport
- Subjective genitive: the boy’s application (The boy applied),
- Objective genitive: the prisoner’s release (They released the prisoner)
- DESCRIPTIVE/ CLASSIFYING GENITIVE: a women’s college (‘ein Frauencollege’)
- Partitive genitive (with expressions of quantity; included in double genitive): two of my friends, a friend of Mr Smith’s
-
Genitive of measure (with expressions of time and measure):
this evening’s programme, an hour or two’s sleep, a distance of ten miles - Local genitive
