A Noun is a word which names any person or thing:- man, book, gold, Japan, Korea, country, sweetness, honesty, air.
(a) Proper
(b) Common or Class
(c) Collective
(d) Material
(e) Abstract
[Concrete Noun = Proper, Common, Collective and Material Noun]
[Abstract Noun = Abstract Noun]
❒ A Concrete Noun is the name of an object of sense, that is, an object which can be seen, touched, heard, smelt or tasted: boy, dog, song, flower, milk.
❒ An Abstract Noun is the name of a quality, action or state belonging to an object: softness, smile, wealth, silence.
(a) Generally all nouns ending in, -ness, -tion, -hood, -ship, -dom, -ment, -ism, -th, -ty, -ce, -cy are Abstract: goodness, kindness, education, childhood, friendship, kingdom, attachment, Gandhism, strength, cruelty, justice, infancy, etc.
(b) Names of sciences, arts and diseases are now treated as Abstract Nouns: music, politics, grammar, malaria, etc. But when different kinds or attacks of a disease are meant, they become Common Nouns. Thus, "I had one of my headaches; Fevers are generally preceded by chills or rigour."
❒ A Proper Noun is the name of one particular person, place, thing or event (or group of persons or places) as distinct from every other: Ramesh, the Ganga, Calcutta, the Himalayas, the French Revolution, the Ramayana, the Hindus.
❒ Common Noun:
(a) A Common or Class Noun denotes no one person or thing in particular unit is common to any and every person or thing of the same kind.
Thus, man (not any particular man, but any and every man), book (not any particular book like the Bible, the Vedas, the Koran, etc., but any and every book), river (not any particular river like the Ganga, the Indus, but any and every river), country (not any particular country but any and every country) are Common Nouns.
(b) There are a few Nouns, generally classed as Common which are sometimes called Singular Nouns, because there is only one of each of them known to us : earth, sun, moon, etc.
(c) When God and Lord refer to the Almighty, they are Proper; but when they refer to the different gods of mythology and temporal lords, they are Common.
❒ A Collective Noun is the name of a group or collection of persons or things taken as a whole .
Thus, in "a flock of sheep" "sheep" is a Common Noun, because it stands for any and every sheep; but flock is a Collective Noun, because it stands for all the sheep referred to, taken togther, and not any one sheep taken separately. Similarly in "an army of soldiers", "a crowd of people", army and crowd are Collective Nouns, as they stand respectively for all the soldiers and people referred to, taken together.
The Noun of Multitude is practically the same as the Collective Noun. But a distinction is often made between them :
(a) A Collective Noun denotes one individual whole; hence, the verb is singular. The army was defeated. The committee has approved the decision.
(b) A Noun of Multitude denotes the individuals of the group; hence the verb is plural, although the noun is singular in form. The Jury (the men on the jury) were divided in their opinions.
NOTE: (a) According to Fowler, the Collective Noun is the same as the Noun of Multitude. "They (Nouns of Multitude) are treated as singular or plural at discretion, and sometimes, naturally without discretion." — MEU (under Number).
(b) Some again call the Noun of Multitude the Individual Noun.
❒ A Material Noun denotes the matter of substance, of which things are made. It is also called the Mass Noun. Thus, river is a Common Noun, but water, of which it is made, is a Material Noun; sheep is a Common Noun, but mutton, the flesh of a sheep, is a Material Noun.
(a) Countable nouns stand for something that can be counted: boy, apple, men, trees, house etc. Only countable nouns have a plural form and can be used with the indifinite article (a, an) in the singular or many, few, a few, several etc. in the plural:
a school, a boy, an umbrella, many cows, few books, several boys.
(b) Uncountable nouns stand for something that cannot be counted though they can be measured water, air, grass, glass, wood, sand etc. Such nouns have no plural form and are not used with the indefinite article. They are preceded by much, little to denote amount or quantity :
much money, little water.
Some of these can, however, be both countable and uncountable according to the context in which they are used, with a change in their meaning:
paper=the substance on which write. (Uncountable)
a paper= a newspaper, a piece of paper. (Countable)
glass= the material. (Uncountable)
a glass= a tumbler. (Countable)
wood= The table is made of wood. (Uncountable)
a wood= The bungalow is in the middle of a wood. (Countable)
copper= metal. (Uncountable)
a copper= coin. (Countable)
❒ A Proper Noun becomes Common :
(a) When it is used in the descriptive sense to denote an object of a similar character to itself.
Valmiki is the Homer (=a great poet like Homer in india)
(b) When it applies to several persons of the same name:
I know the Patels of Bombay.
There are two Surens here.
[Some regard Patels and Surens in these examples as Proper Nouns. There may be some justification for such a contention, but it is much simpler to regard them as Common.]
(a) When they are particularised:
The water of this tank is clear.
The gold of Golconda is pure.
They praised the honesty of the boy.
He committed a theft.
(b) When they denote things instead of the material, and objects possessing the quality instead of the ruality itself:
He was put in irons (chain made of iron).
He is a Justice (Judge) of the High Court.
She is a beauty (a beautiful lady).
This use of the Abstract Noun is known as Abstract for Concrete.
❒ A Collective Noun becomes Common when it denotes more groups than one : The armies of the allies came in time. NOTE: When a Proper, Material, Collective, or Abstract Noun becomes Common, it must (i) either take an article "a", "an" or "the" before it, or (ii) be in the plural number.
❒ An Abstract Noun becomes Proper when it is personified, that is, when it is spoken of as an individual person. It must then be written with a capital letter, as Proper Nouns are: He is a child of Fortune.
❒ A Common Noun becomes Proper when it denotes a particular person or thing, as distinguished from the class:
Let our Father (= God) bless us all.
He was confined in the Tower (i.e. the Tower of London).
❒ A Common Noun is sometimes used to express an abstract idea:
Check the beast (=beastly passions) in you.
The father (= fatherly affection) in him could not bear the sight.
This is known as Concrete for Abstract.
