Lecture 4

Noun and Noun Phrase

words that identify the whos, wheres, and whats in language.

Nouns name people, places, and things.

What is Noun?

Francis Macomber had, half an hour before, been carried to his tent from the edge of the camp in triumph on the arms and shoulders of the cook, the personal boys, the skinner and the porters. The gun-bearers had taken no part in the demonstration. When the native boys put him down at the door of his tent, he had shaken all their hands, received their congratulations, and then gone into the tent and sat on the bed until his wife came in. She did not speak to him when she came in and he left the tent at once to wash his face and hands in the portable wash basin outside and go over to the dining tent to sit in a comfortable canvas chair in the breeze and the shade.

RECOGNIZING NOUNS

Francis Macomber half hour tent edge camp

triumph arms shoulders cookboys skinner porters gun-

bearers part demonstrationboys door tent

handscongratulations tent

bed wifetent

face hands wash basintent

canvas chair breeze shade

4.1 Classifications of Nouns and Function of Noun Phrases

1) Classification of Nouns

Nouns can be classified according to

word formation

lexical meaning

grammatical form

According to Word Formation:

Simple Noun

Compound Noun

Derivative Noun

contains only one free morpheme

compound of two or more morphemes (mostly free morphemes)

comes from a verb, an adjective or a simple noun with affix

man

armchair

arrangement

farmland

chairland

greatness

policeman

landless

According to Lexical Meaning:

Proper Noun

Common Noun

a name used for a particular person, place or thing, and spelt with a capital initial letter

a name common to a class of people, things or abstract ideas.

Common nouns can be further classified into Individual, Collective, Material, and Abstract nouns

According to Grammatical Form:

Count Noun

Noncount Noun

Count Nouns Noncount Nouns

storm(s) chair(s) smile(s) book(s)

assignment(s)

weather furniture

happiness information homework

has a plural and which can collocate with numbers and with such determiners as a(n), many, few, these, those, several

noun that cannot go with the above-mentioned words

Look over this chart contrasting count and noncount nouns

Noun

word formation

lexical meaning

grammatical form

Simple

Compound

Derivative

Count

Noncount

Proper

Common

According to Semantics:

Concrete n. Abstract n.

Proper CommonCount

Noncount

Noun

China

the Smiths

two AmericasIndividual

Material

arrival

educationhonor

an idea

a hope

a situation

collective

watertea

sand

2) Function of Noun Phrases

The noun phrase can function as all the elements in a sentence except the predicate verb.

Children at play seldom remember what time it is.

In the hall I saw some extremely valuable pictures.

They elected him chairman of the board.

Children play time

subject

prepositional complementation

subject complement

hall pictures

object

chairman boardobject complement

Mr Brown, director of the coal mine, should be responsible for the accident.

He returned last night.

A photo is taken each time this button is pushed.

conjunction

adverbial

appositive

director of the coal mine

last night

each time

4.2) Number Forms of Nouns

Number is a grammatical distinction which determines whether a noun or determiner is singular or plural.

1) Regular and Irregular Plural

Individual Noun

singular form Countable plural form

base

regular irregular

adding –s or –es Five aspects

2. changing the ending

3. foreign plurals

4. foreign plural and an English plural

5. singular and plural number share the same form

1. changing the internal vowel

plural form irregular Five aspects:

goose geeseFoot feet

alderman aldermen dormouse dormice

ox oxen

crisis crises locus loci/kraisis/ /kraisi:z/ ləukes ləuki / ləusai

cactus cacti, cactuses

deer deer

means means

a) Number Forms of the Collective Noun

2) Number Forms of the Collective, Material, Abstract and Proper Noun

Collective Noun

Countable Uncountabledealt with like individual nouns

no plural form

Replaced by individual nouns when counted

Singular & Pluralsingular and plural

sense share the same form

Two forms One form One form

a family/two families

a team/ two teamsfoliage leaf

Police policeman

The family a unit

The family 3 people

b) Number Forms of the Material Noun

Material Nouns

Uncountable

no plural forms

Uncountable & Countable

Uncountable: material itself

Countable: other senses

Uncountable but have plural endings

One form Two forms One form

Base forms and plural forms differ in meaning

Two forms

mostly

meat

sugar

dust

hair hairs

ruin ruinspepper 胡椒粉

a pepper 一个青椒

two peppers 两个青椒

c) Number Forms of the Abstract Noun

Abstract nouns

Uncountable Countable

mostly

cannot take determiners as a(n)/one

or plural forms

dealt with like individual nouns

Uncountable but have plural endings

Base forms and plural formsdiffer in meaning

Replaced by individual nouns when counted

One form Two forms Two forms

a victory

two victories

a conference

two conferences

difficulty

difficulties

kindness

kindnesses

Uncountable & Countable

Abstract nouns

Uncountable: abstract concept itself

Countable: other senses/ concrete individual(s)

beauty 美

a beauty 一美女

two beauties 俩 美女

One formTwo forms

d) Number Forms of the Proper Noun

Plural formsSingular forms Plural forms

Proper Nouns

unique in reference

no plural forms

themselves plural in form

take on some characteristics

of common nouns

One form One form One form

4.3 Partitives

Partitives, also called Unit Nouns, are commonly used to denote

a part of a whole or the quantity of an undifferentiated mass.

1. Definition:

Both Count and Noncount nouns can enter partitive constructions.

2. Scope of Use:

3. Function:

With plural count nouns

With noncount nouns

a group, a pack

countablility

4. Classification:

1) General Partitives

2) Partitives Related to the Shape of Things

3) Partitives Related to Volume

4) Partitives Related to the State of Action

5) Partitives Denoting Pairs, Groups, Flocks

1) General Partitives:With noncount nouns the expression of quantity can be achieved by means of certain general partitives, particularly piece, bit, article, and item, followed by an of- phrase

piece : 一 片 / 块 / 张 / 段 / 枝 / 个 / 幅 / 项 / 件 ] ( 文 艺 作 品 的 ) 部 , 篇 , 首 , 幅 , 出 , 支bit: 小块 , 少量 ,

piece and bit are very general words and can be used with most uncountable nouns

article: 一件 , 一种 ( 物品 ; 物件 ; 商品 ) 一条， 一项（项目 , 条款 , ）item: 一件，一则 , 一条（项目 , 条款，消息，情报）

There are partitives that are semantically related to the shape of things and whose power of collocation is, therefore, quite limited

2) Partitives Related to the Shape of Things

cake 块bar 条

drop 滴

ear 穗

flight 群 ( 飞着的鸟 ) 段 ( 阶梯 )

grain 粒

head 花冠 , 穗 ( 植物，蔬菜 )

头 ( 牲畜 )

lump 块 ( 小 )

spiral 盘，卷

slice 片

bundle 捆，束，包

loaf 条，块 ( 面包 )

3) Partitives Related to Volume

A third class of partitives are those that are semantically related to volume, and all of which are common nouns. They can freely collocate with related nonount nouns

bottle 瓶

bowl 碗

pail 桶

bucket 桶

glass 杯

cup 杯

handful 把

spoonful 匙

truckload 一货车的容量

lorryload < 英 > 一卡车载量

4) Partitives Related to the State of Action

The use of these partitives is limited to certain set phrases

a fit of 一阵 ( 情绪，病痛的发作；，声音 )

a peal of 一阵 ( 声音 )

a flash of 一线 / 闪 / 道

a display of … 的显示，展示

5) Partitives Denoting Pairs, Groups, Flocks

These partitives commonly occur with plural count nouns

a pair of

a group ofa flock of

a herd of

a litter of

a swarm of

一双，对

一群 ( 人、虫、兽等 )

一群

兽群 , 牧群一窝

一群昆虫，人，动物

a bench of

a troupe of

a pack of

a shoal of

a school of

a gang of

一席，全体（法官）

一团，班，伙（演员）

一群（野兽，猎犬）一帮 / 伙人（贬）

一群（鱼）一群 , 队 ( 鱼，水族动物 )

一队（工人），一群（囚犯）一帮（歹徒）

5) Partitives Denoting Pairs, Groups, Flocks