General characteristics and classification

The noun is a word expressing substance in the widest sense of the word. In the concept of substance we include names of lifeless things (book, table), living beings (man, tiger), places (valley, London, England), materials (iron, oil), processes (life, laughter), states (sleep, consciousness), abstract notions (socialism, joy) and qualities (kindness, courage).

The noun is the main nominative part of speech, characterized by the following features:

1. The lexical-grammatical meaning of substance.

2. The categories of number, gender, case, article determination.

3. Typical stem-building morphemes, as in: Marx-ist, work-er, friend-ship, manage-ment, lion-ess, secur-ity, social-ism, address-ee etc.

4. Left-hand connections with articles, prepositions, adjectives, pronouns, other nouns.

5. The functions of subject, object and other parts of the sentence.

Stem-structure is not a reliable criterion for distinguishing parts of speech. Noun lexemes, like those of other parts of speech, have stems of various types. Still, composite stems are less typical of nouns than of other parts of speech, especially verbs. Cf. look on, look out, look in and looker-on, (to be in the) look-out, (to have a) look-in, or onlooker, outlook, etc. We may regard as composite the stems of proper nouns like the Hague, the Urals, the Volga, where the is part of the name. Compound stems, on the contrary, are more typical of nouns than of any other part of speech (greyhound, postmark, pickpock­et, son-in-law, passer-by, etc.). Many nouns are related by conversion with lexemes belonging to other parts of speech:

adjectives, e. g. light, native, Russian

verbs, e. g. love, show, picture

adverbs, e. g. home, south, back.

The noun is the most numerous lexico-grammatical class of lexemes. It is natural that it should be divided into subclasses. From the grammatical point of view the most important is the division of nouns into countables and uncountables with regard to the category of number and into declinables and indeclinables with regard to the category of case.

The classification of nouns into countable and uncountableis based on the ability of nouns to be counted. If the noun is countable it can agree with the verb in the singular and in the plural; it can take the indefinite article, it is used with the indefinite pronouns many or (a) few: This is a great book. These are great books. I’ve got many, (a) few books. If the noun is uncountable it may agrees with the verb either in the singular (wisdom, measles), or in the plural (lodgings, congratulations); it can’t take the indefinite article.

All other classifications are semantic rather than gram­matical. For instance, when dividing nouns into proper – common, abstract – concrete - collective, countable – uncountable, animate – inanimate, personal - non-personal, we usually take into consideration not the properties of words but the properties of the things they denote.

Proper noun is the name of a particular person or a geographical place (Mrs. Honey, Brian, London), it is another, even more peculiar, group of uncountables.

A common noun is the general name of an object, place or an idea (a computer, a city, a boy, love, joy). Sometimes, though, they form number opposemes. Cf. Brown — (the) Browns, a week of Sundays). A common noun, in its turn, may be concrete, abstract or collective. A concrete noun names an object that occupies space and can be seen and touched (a flower, a CD). They fall into class and mater ial. A class noun refers an object to the same class of things. It can be counted. A material noun denotes substance and generally it is uncountable. Compare: a glass- glass, an iron- iron.

An abstract noun names an idea, some notion (freedom, intelligence).

The abstract noun smile does not differ from the concrete noun book in its paradigm (smile — smiles, book — books) or its lexico-grammatical combinability (He gave me one of his best books (smile). Certainly, many abstract nouns (pride, darkness, etc.) are uncountables, but so are many concrete nouns (wool, peasantry, etc.).

A collective noun names a group of living beings or things (a family, people, cast). The group of collective nouns mentioned in many grammars is grammatically not homogeneous. Some collective nouns are countables (government, family, etc.), while others are not (foliage, peasantry, police etc.).

The term class nouns is mostly synonymous with the term countables.

Material nouns is a peculiar group of uncountables.

Animate nouns denote living beings; inanimate nouns denote lifeless things.

Personal nouns is a selection of names for human beings.

The phenomenon of subclass selection can be characterized as part of current linguistic research work.