Survey of English Grammar Wiki: Week 4

Nouns

1. Semantic test:
   • Nouns name persons, things or places
   • Problems:
     • Abstract nouns (often properties): honesty, happiness
     • Nouns denoting events or activities: party, rodeo, development
2. Morphological test:
   • Nouns can combine with a plural morpheme (-(e)s) to mark plurality
   • Problems:
     • not all nouns form plural in -s: children
     • not all nouns have singular/plural distinction: milk (no plural); scissors, cattle (no singular); sheep (identical form in sg. and pl.)
3. Syntactic test:
   • Nouns can occur with the possessive 's, i.e. in the environment: __ 's
   • Problem:
     • The possessive 's is a phrasal affix, i.e. it attaches to the right edge of a noun phrase, independent of the part of speech of the word at the right edge. We can construct examples where this word is NOT a noun: [a colleague of mine]'s car got stolen.
   • Nouns can occur between a determiner and a verb, i.e. in the environment: Det __ V
   • Problem:
     • not all nouns can combine with a determiner, in particular proper names cannot: (*The) Pat walked.

Subclasses of noun

Common nouns

1. Count nouns
   • Examples:chair, bottle, tool, clue
   • Characteristics:
     • plural form is possible
     • needs a determiner when used in the singular
     • combines with determiners such as a, every, many, few
     • does not combine with determiners such as much, little
2. Non-count (mass nouns)
   • Examples:furniture, equipment, evidence, music, advice, air, etc.
   • Characteristics:
     • no plural form is possible
     • does not need a determiner
     • combines with determiners such as some, much, little
     • does not combine with determiners such as a, every, many, few
3. Count and Non-count nouns
   • Examples:cake, beer
   • Characteristics:
     • a plural form is possible
     • does not need a determiner when used in the singular
     • combines with determiners such as some, much, little e.g. Would you like some cake?
     • combines with determiners such as a, every, many, few</> e.g. We need to buy a cake for her birthday.

Proper nouns

1. Examples: Chris, London
2. Characteristics:
   • no plural form is possible
   • does not allow a determiner at all

Pronouns

Pronouns	Examples	Characteristics
Personal
Possessive	my, your, her, his, its, our, your, their mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs	has the same distribution as the definite determiner the has the same distribution as an NP, but denotes an entity together with a possessive relation, i.e. mine refers to an entity that belongs to the speaker.
Reflexive	ends in -self/selves: myself, yourself, herself, himself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves
Reciprocal	each other, one another
Relative
Interrogative	who, which, whom, that	stand at the beginning of a relative clause

Exercises on Nouns

Noun Phrases

Exercises on Nouns and NPs

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