The noun is a word expressing

§ 1. The noun is a word expressing substance in the widest sense of the word.
In the concept of substance we include not only names of living beings (e. g. boy, girl, bird) and lifeless things (e. g. table, chair, book), but also names of abstract notions, i. e. qualities, states, actions (kindness, strength, sleep, fear, conversation, fight), abstracted from their bearers.

§ 2. The noun has the following morphological characteristics:
1. Nouns that can be counted have two numbers: singular and plural (e. g. singular: a girl, plural: girls).
2. Nouns denoting living beings (and some nouns denoting lifeless things) have two case forms: the common case and the genitive case.
It is doubtful whether the grammatical category of gender exists in Modern English for it is hardly ever expressed by means of grammatical forms.
There is practically only one gender-forming suffix in Modern English, the suffix ess, expressing feminine gender. It is not widely used.

heir — heir-ess
poet — poet-ess
actor — actr-ess
waiter — waitr-ess
host — host-ess
lion — lion-ess
tiger — tigr-ess1

1 Gender, i. e. the distinction of nouns into masculine, feminine and neuter, may be expressed lexically by means of different words or word-compounds:
father — mother
boy — girl
man — woman
gentleman — lady
husband — wife
boy-friend — girl-friend
cock-sparrow — hen-sparrow
man-servant — maid-servant
Very often personal or possessive pronouns indicate the gender of the noun. (See Chapter IV.)

§ 3. The noun has certain syntactical characteristics.
The chief syntactical functions of the noun in the sentence are those of the subject and the object. But it may also be used as an attribute or a predicative.

The sun was rising in all his splendid beauty. (Dickens) (SUBJECT)
Troy and Yates followed the tourists. (Heym) (OBJECT)
He (Bosinney) was an architect… (Galsworthy) (PREDICATIVE)
Mary brought in the fruit on a tray and with it a glass bowl, and a blue dish…
(Mansfield)
(ATTRIBUTE; the noun glass is used in the common case)
The hero and heroine, of course, just arrived from his father’s yacht.
(Mansfield)
(ATTRIBUTE; the noun father is used in the genitive case)

A noun preceded by a preposition (a prepositional phrase) may be used as attribute, prepositional indirect object, and adverbial modifier.

To the left were clean panes of glass. (Ch. Bronte) (ATTRIBUTE)
Bicket did not answer, his throat felt too dry. He had heard of the police.
(Galsworthy) (OBJECT)
She went into the drawing-room and lighted the fire. (Mansfield)
(ADVERBIAL MODIFIER)
“Stop everything, Laura!” cried Jose in astonishment. (Mansfield)
(ADVERBIAL MODIFIER)

The noun is generally associated with the article. Because of the comparative scarcity of morphological distinctions in English in some cases only articles show that the word is a noun.
A noun can be modified by an adjective, a pronoun, by another noun or by verbals.

§ 4. 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:
(a) 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.

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

1 The name proper is from Lat. 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. Proper nouns are individual names given to separate persons 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.
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)

В. Common nouns are names that can be applied to any individual of a class of persons or things (e. g. man, dog, book), collections of similar individuals or things regarded as a single unit (e. g. peasantry, family), materials (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 persons or things belonging to a class. They are countables and have two numbers: sinuglar and plural. They are generally used with an article.1

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

“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 under the following groups:
(a) 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)

(b) nouns which are singular in form though plural in meaning: police, poultry, cattle, people, gentry. They are usually called nouns of 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, fleet, nation. We can think of a number of crowds, fleets or different nations as well as of a single crowd, fleet, etc.

A small crowd is lined up to see the guests arrive. (Shaw)
Accordingly they were soon afoot, and walking in the direction of the scene of
action, towards which crowds of people were already pouring from a variety
of quarters. (Dickens)

3. Nouns of material denote material: iron, gold, paper, tea, water. They are uncountables and are generally used without any article.1

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

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.

C o m p a r e:

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)

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).2

2 On the use of articles with abstract nouns see Chapter II, § 8, 9, 10, 11.

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
sight a 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)

§ 6. 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:

I. 1. The general rule for forming the plural of English nouns is by adding the ending s (-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]

1.1. The noun: general information.

The
noun is a word expressing substance in the widest sense of the word.

In
the concept of substance we include not only names of living beings
(e. g. boy,
girl, bird) and
lifeless things (e. g. table,
chair, book), but
also names of abstract notions, i. e. qualities, states, actions
(kindness,
strength, sleep, fear, conversation, fight), abstracted
from their bearers.

The
noun has the following morphological characteristics:

1. Nouns
   that can be counted have two numbers: singular and plural (e. g.
   singular: a
   girl, plural:
   girls).

2. Nouns
   denoting living beings (and some nouns denoting lifeless things)
   have two case forms: the common case and the genitive case.

3. It
   is doubtful whether the grammatical category of gender exists in
   Modern English for it is hardly ever expressed by means of
   grammatical forms.

1.2. Noun Plurals

The general rule to form the plural forms of the
nouns is to add “-s”
to the noun in singular.

book – books; house – houses

When the
singular noun ends in: -sh,
-ch, -s, -ss, -x, -o
we form their plural form by adding “-es”.

sandwich – sandwiches; box – boxes;

potato – potatoes

When the singular noun ends in “y”,
we change the “y” for
“i”
and then add “-es”
to form the plural form. But do not change the “y”
for “ies”
to form the plural when the singular noun ends in “y”
preceded by a vowel.

nappy – nappies; day – days

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

cuckoo
–
cuckoos

With
certain nouns the final voiceless consonants are changed into the
corresponding voiced consonants when the noun takes the plural form.

The
following nouns ending in -f
(in
some cases followed by a mute e)
change
it into v
in
the plural:

wife
–
wives; knife
–
knives

There
are some nouns which have two forms in the plural:

scarf
–
scarfs or
scarves
wharf –
wharfs or wharves

There
are seven nouns which form the plural by changing the root vowel:

man
–
men; goose –
geese;

woman
–
women; mouse –
mice;

foot
–
feet; louse –
lice;

tooth
–
teeth

There
are two nouns which form the plural in -en:

ox
–
oxen; child
–
children

In
some nouns the plural form does not differ from the singular: deer,
sheep, swine, fish.

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 -s.
Thus
in some cases two plural forms are preserved (formulae,
formulas; antennae, antennas).

In
compound nouns the plural is formed in different ways.

As
a rule a compound noun forms the plural by adding -s
to
the head-word:

editor-in-chief
–
editors-in-chief;

brother-in-law
–
brothers-in-law

In
some compound nouns the final element takes the plural form:

lady-bird
–
lady-birds

If
there is no noun-stem in the compound, -s is added to the last
element:

forget-me-not
–
forget-me-nots;

merry-go-round
–
merry-go-rounds

Some
nouns have only the plural form:

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.

Billiards,
barracks, works. These
nouns may be treated as singulars. We may say: a
chemical works, a barracks, etc.

Words
like phonetics,
physics, politics, optics, etc.
are usually treated as singulars except in some special cases.

It
was
not
practical politics!

All
party politics
are
top
dressing.

The
word news
is
treated as a singular.

When
she goes to make little purchases, there is
no
news
for
her.

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THE NOUN

I. The noun is a word expressing substance (names of living beings, lifeless things and abstract

notions – qualities, states, and actions).

II. The chief functions of the noun in the sentence are those of the subject and the object. It can also

be used as an attribute or a predicative.

 I saw a gold watch on the table. (ATTRIBUTE)

 He is an architect. (PREDICATIVE)

III. The morphological characteristics of the noun:

1. The number: singular and plural.

2. The case: the common case and the genitive case.

It is doubtful whether the grammatical category of gender exists in Modern English. There is only one

suffix expressing feminine gender (-ess):

Tiger – tigress

Prince – princess

God – goddess

Steward – stewardess

Emperor – empress

Duke – duchess

Poet – poetess

Actor – actress

Lion – lioness

Count – countess

Gender can be expressed lexically:

Father – mother

Hero – heroine

Nephew – niece

Monk – nun

Widow – widower

Bachelor – spinster

Ram – sheep

Gander – goose

King – queen

Man-servant – maid-servant

Tom-cat – Tabby-cat

IV. The morphological composition of nouns.

1. Simple nouns have neither prefixes nor suffixes: chair, table.

2. Derivative nouns have prefixes or suffixes or both: companionship, childhood

-er/ —or

—ness (kindness)

—hood (childhood)

—dom (kingdom)

—ty (loyalty)

-ence/ —ance

-ist

-ism

-ship (hardship)

-ment (involvement)

—th (growth, length)

mis- (misfortune)

in— (inattentiveness)

un—

ir—

3. Compound nouns are built from two or more stems:

housewife

mother-in-law

passer—by

V. Classification of nouns:

A. Proper nouns:

 personal names

 geographical names

 names of months

 days of the week

 names of ships, hotels, clubs etc.

 holidays (Ramadan, Easter, Lent,

Ash Wednesday)

B. Common nouns:

1. class nouns

2. collective nouns

3. nouns of material

4. abstract nouns

Nouns can also be classified from another point of view: countable and uncountable nouns.

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