English noun

1. The general characteristic of English nouns.

2. Grammatically relevant semantic subclasses of English nouns (грамматически существенные семантические подклассы).

1. The categorial meaning of the noun is " substance (субстанция)" or " thingness (предметность)". " Substance" is something that is able to exist independently, for example, book, table etc. Nouns name different phenomena of reality and have the strongest nominative force among notional part of speech: practically every phenomenon can be presented by a noun as a substantivized referent. For example, bitterness (горечь), movement (движение) etc.

Formally the noun is characterized by a specific set of world - building affixes: -er, -ist, -ness, -ship etc. As for word changing categories the noun is changed according to the categories of number (book - books), case (падеж, boy - boy's) and article determination (tables - a table - the table).

The most characteristic functions of the noun in a sentence are the functions of the subject and the object (The student took a pen). Besides the noun can function as a predicative (именная часть составного именного сказуемого, He is a teacher); and an adverbial modifier (It happened last summer); an attribute (The student's book).

2. The main grammatically relevant subclasses of nouns are distinguished in the following binary oppositions:

1) Common (нарицательные) nouns are opposed to proper nouns (собственные). Common nouns present a general name of anything belonging to a certain class of things (a book - any book (подразумевается любая книга)). Proper nouns have no generalized meaning they serve as a sign of a separate individual being or thing (London).

This semantic subdivision of nouns is grammatically manifested through the differences in their formal features of the category of article determination and of the category of number. The use of proper nouns in the plural or with the articles is restricted to a limited number of contexts (The Browns are to visit us); the cases of personification when proper nouns begin to perform the function of common nouns (She doesn't approve of Casanovas like you).

2) Animate (одушевлённые) nouns are opposed to inanimate (неодушевлённые) nouns. The former (первый из двух) denote living beings, the letter (второй из двух) denote things and phenomena. This semantic difference is formally exposed through the category of case as animate nouns are predominantly used in the possessive case (Boy's leg, but the leg of the table). This subdivision of noun is connected with the following one.

3) Person noun denoting human beings are opposed to none-person (animate and inanimate) nouns, denoting all the other references. This semantic subdivision of noun is grammatically relevant because only person nouns in English can distinguish lexical masculine (мужской) and feminine (женский) genders (Boy or man - he, girl or woman - she). None-person nouns are substituted by the neuter (нейтральный) gender pronoun - it. The exceptions take place in cases of transposition (переход из одной группы в другую) of the noun from one group into another (cases of personification). For example, The sun - he, the moon - she, the vessel (судно) - she etc.

4) On the bases of quantitative structure of the referent countable nouns are opposed to uncountable nouns. The former denote separate things which potentially can be counted, the letter - either substances (sugar, water) or abstract notions (anger) or multitudes as a whole (police).

Лекция 4 (07. 10. 15)