1. Contents
DEFINITION
CLASSIFICATION
Common nouns
Means to emphasize
Proper nouns
Mass nouns
Collective nouns
Abstract nouns
COMMON NOUNS USED AS PROPER NOUNS
PROPER NOUNS USED AS COMMON NOUNS
COMPOUND NOUNS
Derivative nouns
2. Definition. A noun, or substantive, is a word used as the name of a living being or lifeless thing: Mary, John, horse, cow, dog; hat, house, tree; London, Chicago; virtue.
3. Classification. There are different classes of nouns:
1. Common Nouns. A common noun is a name that can be applied to any one of a class of living beings or lifeless things: teacher, student, mayor, president, king, man, lion, tiger, cow; hou tree, city, country, etc. Such nouns are called also class nouns. These nouns usually have a plural.
To emphasize nouns, especially common nouns, and impart feeling to the statement, we often, in colloquial speech, place before the noun some intensive adjective, such as blessed, blooming, deuced, confounded, darn (or darned), or in stronger language damned: 'Not a Missed egg was fresh,' or 'Every bUssed egg was rotten.' 'She is a deduced dial cleverer than lots of men.' 'He's a confounded blockhead.' 'He's a damned fool.'
2. Proper Nouns. A proper noun is the name of a particular living being or lifeless thing: Mary, John, Longfellow, Shakespeare,
Carlo (name of a dog); Chicago, London, England, Pennsylvania, January, Friday, Christmas, Macbeth (name of a general), 'Mac-beth' or Macbeth (name of a drama), Hamlet (name of a prince), 'Hamlet' or Hamlet (name of a drama), etc. ' The Woods (mem-bers of the Wood family) are our best friends.' ' The Cummingses (the members of the Cummings family) will give a reception this evening.' ' The Greeks have contributed much to the civilization of the world.' ' The Germans are industrious.'
In the last four examples the proper nouns are in the plural, but they are not on that account common nouns, as claimed by some grammarians. The use of the definite article is significant. It indicates a distinct group in its entirety. In the general class of man each of these groups is a particular group representing some-thing single in kind, a particular family or a particular nation. The members of a particular group are each single in kind, hence not marked by common characteristics. Also 'the rich' and 'the poor' represent distinct groups, but they are not particular groups, for the members of each group are gathered together on the basis of common characteristics.
As described in 5 below, however, proper nouns are often used as common nouns: a Packard (car), a Shakespeare (a great drama-tist). Such nouns are common nouns, for we regularly, as in the case of common nouns, drop the article before the plural form when we desire to generalize: 'Packards stand a good deal of rough usage.' 'Shakespeares are not common in every generation.'
We employ the definite article with proper noun plurals when we desire to generalize: ' The Cummingses are always on the side of good government.' ' The Negroes have made a good deal of progress since their emancipation.' 'In earlier centuries the Christians were much persecuted.' When, however, the idea of class, i.e. a division upon the basis of common characteristics, enters into these plurals, the article is dropped, as in common nouns: 'Christians shouldn't do such things.' The definite article with proper noun plurals, often, merely denotes totality: 'The Cummingses have left town for their summer home.' We express the partitive idea by dropping the definite article: ' You will find Cummingses active in the various benevolent activities of our city.' The indefinite article is used for an indefinite reference to one member of a particular group: 'I never knew a Cummings to stand in the way of progress.' But in 'He is a Cummings through and through' Cummings is a common noun, for it represents a person as assigned to a class upon the basis of his having the com-mon characteristics of the class.
Proper noun plurals often represent not particular groups but particular individuals: the Carolinas (North Carolina and South Carolina). ' There were three Johns and four Maries in our party.' There are proper noun plurals that have no singular form: the Alps, the Alleghenies, the Rockies, the Hebrides. They represent definite groups.
Many proper nouns were originally common nouns: Baker, Taylor, Smith, Fisher, etc.
3. Mass Nouns. A noun may be not only the name of a thing with a definite form but also the name of a formless mass, a material, here called a mass noun: tea, wheat, sand, water, iron, gold, paper (but with a different meaning in 'this morning's paper'). In 'a pretty lamb1 lamb is the name of a definite thing, but in 'We had lamb for dinner' it is a mass noun. Mass nouns do not usually have a plural, but with changed meaning they often have a plural form.
4. Collective Nouns. A noun may be the name of a collection of living beings or lifeless things, here called a collective noun: nation, army, crowd, 'a herd of cattle,' 'a row of trees,' 'a chain of mountains,' etc.
A collective noun may by a change in meaning become a com-mon class noun: 'The principal has a very fine library' (collective noun), but 'The principal discussed the question with the com-mittee in his library' (common noun). On the other hand, a com-m o n noun m a y by a change in meaning become a collective noun: 'A foreign body (common noun) in the ear m a y be very dangerous' (Grattan, Our Living Language, p. Ill), but 'What a fine body (collective noun) of men!' (ib.).
5. Abstract Nouns. A noun may be the name of a quality, state, action, or general idea, here called an abstract noun: force, peace; hardness, kindness, formed from the adjectives hard, kind by the addition of the suffix -ness; warmth (warm + -th); youth (young -)—th = young state), but a concrete common noun in a youth and a collective noun in 'the youth of the land'; friendship (friend + -ship), manhood, bondage, serfdom, slavery, hatred, fra-ternity (but a concrete collective noun in 'the members of this fraternity'), formed from nouns; stroke (from strike), throw, growth growing, singing, scolding, increase, decrease, formed from verbs many names of general ideas: music, art, chemistry (but concrete in 'the chemistry lying upon the table'), grammar (but concrete in 'the grammar lying upon the table'). Abstract nouns do not usually have a plural, but with changed meaning they often have a plural form: 'The enemy brought up fresh forces' (= troops).
4. Common Noun Used as a Proper Noun. A common noun is often employed as a proper noun: 'We live at the Eagle' (name of a hotel). 'Ask Father whether we may go.' 'He is a Wrangler' (member of the society called 'Wranglers'). 'They are both Wranglers.' 'He is a Democrat' (member of the Democratic party), but 'He is a democrat' (an adherent of democracy). A common noun often becomes a proper noun through personifica-tion: 'Speak, 0 Star, thy secrets old.'
5. Proper Noun Used as a Common Noun. A proper noun may often be employed as a common noun: 'Virgil was the Homer (i.e. great epic poet) of the Romans.' 'He was a Napoleon of finance.' 'She was a regular Xantippe' (an ill-tempered woman, originally the name of Socrates' wife). 'Lend me your Webster' (dictionary). 'He bought a Packard (automobile) yesterday.' 'He has just sold two Packards.' Compare 3 2 above.
6. Compound Nouns. In the case of both common and proper nouns a group of two or more nouns often forms a unit, a com-
pound: toothpick, tablecloth, sidewalk; George Washington Black Sea, James Russell Lowell; the White House, the Norths Hotel, 'Vanity Fair' or Vanity Fair (novel by Thackeray), etc.
Notice that we do not always write real compounds as one word.
A long stem vowel in thefirstcomponent of a compound is shortened in a few words where the first component is a mono-syllable: bonfire (bone +fire),breakfast (brekfast = break + f forehead (fore + head), shepherd (sheep + herd), etc. This p ciple was once more active in our language than now. There are also elsewhere traces of it. Compare a below, 2nd par.
The formation of compound nouns is treated at considerable length in Syntax.
a. Derivative Nouns. Similar to compound nouns are deriva-tive nouns, i.e. nouns formed by adding to a common or proper noun, an adjective, or a verb, a suffix which in many cases was originally an independent word. These suffixes are: -ness, -ship, -dom, -th, -er, -ing , -ess, etc. the diminutive endings -kin, -ling, -ette, -let, -ie, -y, which also much used to express endearment: darkness, friendship, wisdom, Christendom, warmth,finder,writing, heiress; l&mbkin, gosling, kitchenette, rivulet, kitty, Kitty, Katie, Birdie, etc.
A long vowel in a monosyllabic stem is shortened in a few of these derivatives: knowledge (know + -ledge), width (wide + -th), wi dom (wise + -dom), etc. This principle of shortening a long vowel in the stem syllable when another element is added has been illustrated also in 6 (2nd par.). It is most active in verbs: keep, kept, kept.
On the other hand, the long vowel of a monosyllabic word may become short under the influence of a derivative with shortened vowel. In the eighteenth century the noun wind was still pronounced wind. A common derivative of this word was windy with shortened vowel. Under the influence of windy 'wind' has become 'wind.' The old long form survives in the verb wind ('wind a horn').
The formation of derivative nouns is treated at considerable length in Word-Formation.
