The Noun. Lecture 3

1.

Lecture 3.
The NOUN
1. The grammatical meaning, functional properties
and structure.
2. The grammatical category of Number.
3. The grammatical category of Case.
4. Gender.
5. Article determination.
Краснопёрова Ю.В.
К.ф.н., доцент кафедры первого ин.яз. и
переводоведения

2.

Meaning
The NOUN
is a notional part of speech which has
the categorial meaning of substance
and thingness.
It can also mean state, quality, and
property, action.
There are nouns derived from verbs
and adjectives
(e.g.: actor, happiness).
I. The grammatical meaning,
functional properties and structure.

3.

Form
The NOUN
Structural properties of an English
noun are determined by few
inflexions: -s; ‘s; ‘; -en,
but by a great amount of lexical
suffixes: -er; -ness; -ist; -ette; -tion;
etc.
I. The grammatical meaning,
functional properties and structure.

4.

The NOUN
Function
The categorial functional properties of the noun
are determined by its syntactic properties.
The most
characteristic
functions of
the noun
Subject
Object
Predicative
NB: Other syntactic functions are performed by the noun by
equal ease but are not immediately characteristic of its
substantive quality.
I. The grammatical meaning,
functional properties and structure.

5.

The NOUN
The noun is characterized by some special types
of combinability:
The prepositional combinability with another noun,
a verb, an adjective or an adverb.
E.g.: to turn round the corner, red in the face.
The casal combinability.
E.g.: The President’s speech.
Combinability with one another by contact. In the
contact group the noun in pre-position plays the
role of a semantic qualifier to the noun in pastposition.
E.g.: a cannon ball.
I. The grammatical meaning,
functional properties and structure.

6.

The NOUN
Combinability with one another by
contact.
The lexico-grammatical status of such
combinations ???
“the cannon ball problem”
(Burlakova)
one separate
compound word
I. The grammatical meaning,
functional properties and structure.
a word-group

7.

“the cannon ball problem”
The NOUN
Such combinations can not be regarded as a
separate compound word.
Crucial for this point of view is the isolability test
which is performed by transformation.
E.g.: a progress report – a report about progress.
The compound nouns can not undergo the isolability test
with the equal ease.
The transformations are reduced to explanations of their
etymological motivation.
E.g.: a fire-place, a theatre-goer – compound nouns.
I. The grammatical meaning,
functional properties and structure.

8.

“the cannon ball problem”
The NOUN
Due to the comprehensive analysis in this
field we may define this combination as
an attributive word-group with the noun in
the function of an attribute.
NOTE: Contact-noun attributes are
characteristic of professional language.
E.g.: space shuttle trajectory optimization
problem.
I. The grammatical meaning,
functional properties and structure.

9.

The category of number
NUMBER
is expressed by the opposition of the
plural form of the noun to the singular
form.
BOY : BOYS
II. The grammatical category
of Number.

10.

The productive way of
expressing the number
opposition
NUMBER
- (e)s
The non-productive way of
expressing the number
opposition
Vowel interchange (tooth-teeth, man-men).
• The archaic suffix “-en” supported by phonemic
interchange (child-children, ox-oxen).
• The correlation of individual singular and plural
inflexions in some borrowed words
(phenomenon – phenomena).
• In some cases the plural form is homonymous to
the singular one: fish, sheep, deer.
II. The grammatical category
of Number.

11.

NUMBER
The semantic nature of the
difference between singular and
plural
plural
singular (one)
:
plural
(more than one)
• (the potentially
dismembering
reflexion of the
structure of the
referent)
:
singular
(referent in its indivisible
entireness)
E.g.: “paper and papers”
II. The grammatical category
of Number.

12.

NUMBER
The semantic nature of the difference
between singular and plural
the plural forms can express a definite set of objects,
various types of the referent
(wine – wines, tea – teas);
intensity of the presentation of the idea
(years and years, thousands upon thousands);
the extreme point is the lexicalization of the plural
form (colour – colours (a flag), custom-customs).
II. The grammatical category
of Number.

13.

NUMBER
Quantative characteristics
serve as a basis for dividing nouns into
countable
II. The grammatical category
of Number.
uncountable

14.

NUMBER
Uncountable nouns
Singularia Tantum
(absolute singular)
Pluralia Tantum
(absolute plural)
It excludes the use of the
modifying numeral
“one” as well as the
indefinite article.
It can not directly
combine with
numerals.
II. The grammatical category
of Number.

15.

NUMBER
Singularia Tantum
(absolute singular)
is characteristic of
The names of abstract notions
(e.g.: peace, love).
The names of the branches of professional
activity (e.g.: linguistics, stylistics).
The names of mass materials
(e.g.: hair, rice).
The names of collective inanimate objects
(e.g.: furniture, news, money).
II. The grammatical category
of Number.

16.

Pluralia Tantum
(absolute plural)
NUMBER
is characteristic of the
uncountable nouns
Objects, consisting of two halves
(e.g.: trousers, spectacles).
The nouns expressing some sort of collectives
meaning (e.g.: police, cattle, clothes).
The nouns denoting some diseases and
abnormal states of the body and mind
(e.g.: measles, creeps, hysterics).
II. The grammatical category
of Number.

17.

NUMBER
!!! A disputable question is the existence of a
third member opposed to singular and plural.
multitude plural
recognized in collective nouns which agree with the verb
either in the singular or in the plural (family, jury, team,
police, etc.)
E.g.: The jury consists of 12 members. The jury were divided
concerning the verdict.
II. The grammatical category
of Number.

18.

NUMBER
singular
:
multitude
plural
:
plural
BUT!!! the meaning of collectiveness is lexical
and not grammatical.
II. The grammatical category
of Number.

19.

NUMBER
Plural and singular forms are
asymmetrical
Singular
form
Plural
form
has several
meanings:
Quantity
The uniqueness
It means type or
class.
has one
meaning of
quantity,
although
indefinite.
II. The grammatical category
of Number.

20.

CASE
a morphological category of the
noun showing the relations of
the noun referent to other
objects or phenomena.
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

21.

CASE
Controversial opinions about this
category:
some grammarians say that there is no
category of case in English; others argue
that there is. Then the question is if there is
such category, how many cases there are in
English
historically the term “case” was connected
with the morphological properties of the
noun (with inflexions). But some
grammarians tried to define case in the
syntactical structure of the sentence
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

22.

CASE
The approaches to the category of
Case
MORPHOLOGICAL
approach
III. The grammatical category
of Case.
SYNTACTIC
approach

23.

CASE
The SYNTACTIC
Approach
offers different theories
within it:
1. The theory of prepositional cases
(analytical case forms)
2. The theory of positional cases.
3. Case grammar theory
4. A 3-case system theory
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

24.

1. The theory of prepositional cases
The SYNTACTIC
Approach
(analytical case forms)
The foundation of this theory is the function of
noun combinations with prepositions;
prepositions serve to distinguish different
relations between the substances.
Some grammarians find it possible to speak
about analytical cases in Modern English.
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

25.

1. The theory of prepositional cases
The SYNTACTIC
Approach
(analytical case forms)
To + N
Dative Case
For + N
Dative Case
Of + N
Genitive Case (has
parallel forms with ‘s )
By + N
With + N
Instrumental case
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

26.

1. The theory of prepositional cases
The SYNTACTIC
Approach
(analytical case forms)
Disadvantages:
1. The number of cases according to this theory can
be unlimited.
2. In order to treat such combinations as analytical
cases, prepositions should be regarded as
grammatical form-words, i.e. deprived of their lexical
meaning. But prepositions have their own lexical
meaning, which is revealed in the sentence, that’s
why they can not be regarded as form-words.
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

27.

2. The theory of positional cases.
The SYNTACTIC
Approach
The unchangeable forms of the noun are
differentiated as different cases according to
their position in the sentence. This theory
includes word-order.
Idea:
all nouns appearing in the position of the
Subject and of the Predicative are in the
Nominative case;
nouns placed after the verb and used in the
function of direct and indirect object – in the
Dative or Accusative case.
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

28.

2. The theory of positional cases.
The SYNTACTIC
Approach
A 4 case system exists in Modern English:
Nominative case
Dative case
Accusative case
Inflexional genitive case
Vocative case
(added by some linguists)
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

29.

2. The theory of positional cases.
The SYNTACTIC
Approach
Disadvantages:
1. It is based on the Latin (synthetical) case system,
where the category of case is treated within
morphology.
2. The syntactical functions of the noun and word-order
should deal with syntax.
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

30.

3. Case grammar theory
The SYNTACTIC
Approach
(developed by Filmore in his book
“Case for Case”)
This theory represents the whole sentence as
a Verb with a set of cases.
E.g.: John cut it with the knife.
The verb “cut” opens vacancies for different cases:
John – agentive, it – objective, with a knife –
instrumental.
Disadvantage:
It is more the theory of valency, not of case.
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

31.

4. A 3-case system theory
The SYNTACTIC
Approach
1. Nominative
2. Objective
3. Possessive
This system is built on the analogy with the cases of pronouns;
the cases are differentiated with the help of substitutions:
E.g.: The boy (he) sees a girl (her).
Disadvantage:
Some add two more cases:
Containtive (a cup of water).
Exceptive (everybody except the king
himself).
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

32.

It appeared in the 17th century. It
was described by classical
grammarians H.Sweet,
O.Jerperson.
The MORPHOLOGICAL
Approach
Henry Sweet
underlined:
”English has only one inflected case – Genetive;
and Common case, which is equivalent to the
Nominative, Dative, Accusative and Vocative in
Latin.”
Thus a 2-case system was singled out. This idea was developed
by Smirnitsky, Barkhudarov, Blokh.
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

33.

The MORPHOLOGICAL
Approach
In modern presentation in the terms of
oppositional theory the category of
case is a binary, privative
opposition:
featured and unfeatured
Boy
common
(zero morpheme)
III. The grammatical category
of Case.
:
Boy’s
:
possessive case
(‘s, a strong member)

34.

The problems of this approach:
The MORPHOLOGICAL
Approach
It’s difficult to state the meaning of the common
case because it’s broad and indefinite and
peculiarities of the possessive case.
The problem of the use of the possessive case.
This usage is lexically limited. It’s used:
1.with nouns denoting chiefly living beings;
2.with nouns denoting a part of the whole.
E.g.: the officer’s face.
3. With nouns denoting time, distance, price.
E.g.: a 3 hours’ delay.
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

35.

The problems of this approach:
The MORPHOLOGICAL
Approach
The problem concerning the paradigm of the
possessive case: boy’s book – boys’ book. Thus
the singular and the plural forms in oral speech
coincide.
Possessive case refers to a group of nouns, not
only to a single noun.
E.g.: Brown and Smith’s office.
It also occurs not only with nouns.
E.g.: Somebody else’s room. The man I saw
yesterday’s son.
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

36.

Ilyish, Arakin, Ivanova, Vorontsova,
Burlakova deny the existence of
possessive case in English.
NO-CASE SYSTEM
Ilyish defines his
policy as such:
“ ‘s constantly develops into a form
element, a kind of a particle which serves
to express the meaning of “possession”.
This form can no longer be described as a
case inflexion.
A new category begins to develop with a
broad meaning of possessivity, thus there
appeared the category of possessivity”.
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

37.

Ilyish, Arakin, Ivanova, Vorontsova,
Burlakova deny the existence of
possessive case in English.
NO-CASE SYSTEM
Burlakova and Ivanova are of the opinion :
that within “’s-case” exists the
category of attributiveness.
E.g.: the car’s roof (individual
attributiveness) – the car roof
(general/common attributiveness).
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

38.

CONCLUSION
CASE
Grammatical categories should be
interpreted in the light of modern
linguistics which considers the syntax
to be primary as to morphology.
Morphology can be regarded only as
one of the means to define the
syntactical relationships between the
words in the sentence
III. The grammatical category
of Case.

39.

Different points of view
upon the category of
gender
GENDER
1. Some grammarians consider that this
category is expressed in English by the
obligatory correlation of nouns with the
personal pronouns of the 3d person singular.
E.g.: he – an actor – masculine,
she – an actress – feminine,
it – a table – neuter.
IV. The grammatical category
of Gender.

40.

Different points of view
upon the category of
gender
GENDER
2. Ilyish B. does not admit the existence
of the category of grammatical gender
“gender” is a lexical difference
IV. The grammatical category
of Gender.

41.

Different points of view
upon the category of
gender
GENDER
3. Professor Ivanova thinks that in O.E.
“gender” was regarded as lexicogrammatical category, because of
inflexions.
Modern English words don’t have
gender as a grammatical category, it’s
a lexical feature, so gender is the
matter of lexicology.
IV. The grammatical category
of Gender.

42.

CONCLUSION
GENDER
The
grammatical
category
of
gender
disappeared by the end of the Middle
English period.
Only names of people and animals have
gender (he-cat, she-cat).
Lifeless things are neutral (neuter).
Sometimes things are personified:
E.g.: time – he - Father time; “ship” for the
English is “she”.
Different words can be used to distinguish
between male and female (ex: cow – bull).
IV. The grammatical category
of Gender.

43.

ARTICLE
a determining unit of specific nature
accompanying the English noun.
The problem of the article is one of the most
difficult in Grammar.
The disputable questions are:
1. What is the nature of the article?
2. How many articles are there?
3. What is its categorical meaning?
V. Article determination.

44.

ARTICLE
The nature of the article
There are 2 main theories about the nature of
the article
The analytical form
theory
V. Article determination.
Article as a functional
word

45.

1. The analytical
form theory
The nature of the article
treats the article as a part of an
analytical noun and an auxiliary part
of it, a specific morpheme which is
attached from the word, because it
has no lexical meaning and is the
morphological signal of a noun.
V. Article determination.

46.

1. The analytical
form theory
The nature of the article
Disadvantages:
Although an article really accompanies a noun and it is its
main function in the language, it doesn’t form an inseparable
unit with it as the analytical form of the verb.
The article can be replaced by pronouns (this, that, some), but
the auxiliary form of the verb can not be replaced.
Having no lexical meaning the article does have a
grammatical meaning and even more than one.
V. Article determination.

47.

The nature of the article
Thus, we can’t treat it as an auxiliary part of
an analytical form of the noun.
Theory 2.
Article as a functional word.
It is the functional word and a component of
a word-combination.
V. Article determination.

48.

The number of articles
The theory of 3 articles
• definite,
• indefinite,
• zero.
An article is a functional word so
we can’t speak about a zeroword .
V. Article determination.
• definite,
• indefinite,
• meaningful absence
of an article.

49.

The grammatical meaning of
an article
the actualization of a concept.
It helps to refer a concept to
the situation and therefore it
should be chosen with
accordance to the contextual
condition.
V. Article determination.

50.

The grammatical meaning of
an article
The definite article
as the indicator of the
information already known,
i.e. the starting point of the
communication.
V. Article determination.

51.

The grammatical meaning of
an article
The indefinite article or the
meaningful absence of the article
introduces the central communicative part
of the sentence, i.e. the part rendering
the new information to be conveyed
from the speaker to the listener or
reader.
V. Article determination.

52.

The grammatical meaning of
an article
The definite article
Function: identification.
e.g.: I’m afraid the oxygen is out. The train hooted.
The indefinite article or the
meaningful absence of the article
Function: non – identification, generalization
e.g.: Oxygen is vital. A train hooted as a signal.
V. Article determination.