2. Definitions of “Noun”
• Classic “A person, place, or thing”
• Sanskrit grammarians - does not have a time axis,
like frozen time
• Formal definition - takes nominal affixes: noun
derivational affix (e.g., government), can take
plural, can occur with possessive suffix
• Functional definition - can be preceded by an
article (the/a house), can appear in a frame
sentence ((The) _____ seem(s) nice.)
3. Number
• Types of plural: normal, internal change, zero plural,
foreign plurals (syllabi, curricula, indices, data)
• Nouns of quantity - three dozen, hundred, pound (in
British English), mile (in some dialects)
• Nouns resitant to singular/plural contrast
– Proper nouns
– Some words ending in -s (news, physics, mumps, billiards,
dominoes)
– Noncount (mass) nouns - cheese, instability
– Binary nouns - scissors, pants, trousers, glasses, binoculars, shorts
– Aggregate nouns - people, cattle, clergy, police, offspring, series,
barracks, committee (British English)
4. Gender
• Generally not a significant grammatical distinction in
English, except for with pronouns
• Animals - Familiar animals often have a gender distinction
and use male/female pronouns (e.g., horse/stallion/mare
(he, she), but spider (it)
• Gender with other nouns
– Gendered nouns (bachelor, usherette, king, princess…) - he, she
– Dual nouns (doctor, student, participant, customer) - he, she
– Plural nouns - “he or she”, “they”
5. Common/Proper Nouns
• Common Nouns do not refer to a specific person, place, event, or
thing
– E.g., shoe, house, day, car
• Proper Nouns refer to specific person, place, event, or thing
– E.g., Pat, the Queen, Chicago, Christmas, Lucille, General Motors
– Do not usually follow articles: on (*the) Christmas Day, in (*the)
Chicago, *the Shakespeare
– Do not usually take plurals
– Exceptions:
• Referring to a real or imagined unique proper noun: “the Christmas of 1942”,
“Are you the Howard Dean?”, “That’s not the Chicago I remember.”
• Certain place names: the Missippi River, the Great Lakes, the Rocky
Mountains, the Atlantic Ocean, the White House
• Certain institutions: the New York Times, the Lincoln Museum,
6. Count/Mass (Noncount) Nouns
• Count Nouns are nouns that can be counted and take a plural
– E.g., shoe, horse, boy, inconsistency, universe
– Occur with “many” - “How many ____?”, “There were many ___”
– Occur with “few” - “too few ____”, “We only have a few _____”
• Mass Nouns (Noncount Nouns) are nouns that cannot be counted
– E.g., sugar, water, rice, wheat, mud, milk, music, laziness
– Occur with “much” - “How much __”, “There is much ____”
– Occurs with “little” instead of “few”: “too little ____”, “We only have a
little ____”
– Occur with partitive constructions to indicate units - grain of sand/rice,
cup of water/milk, piece of music/leather, clump of mud, blade of grass,
slice of meat/pie, item of clothing
• Some nouns can be both
– E.g., pie, cake, brick, stone, love
7. Types of Nouns
Proper Count Mass Either
Isolated
Noun
Pat *book music pie
Definitie
Article
*the Pat the book the music the pie
Indefinite
Article
*a Pat a book *a music a pie
Some N *some Pat some book some music some pie
Plural ? Pats books *musics pies
9. Definite and Indefinite ArticlesDefinite and Indefinite Articles
• Definite Article – the
– Refers to something predictable
– E.g., from a the narrative context – Once upon a time there was a
king…Now the king had three daughters.
– E.g., from the cultural context – What do you think of the President?;
Do you watch the news on television?
– E.g., from the situational context – We went to a restaurant and liked
the menu (waiter, service, food, *teller, *nurse); We were in a house,
in the dining room, when we heard a knock at the door.
• Indefinite Articles – a/an, this (very informal)
– Refer to something unpredictable
– E.g., I met an interesting man; Once upon a time there was a king.; I
know this man and he says…
10. Generic vs. Specific Reference
• Specific refers to a specific person or thing
– E.g., Look at that elephant; Yesterday I met a man.
• Generic refers to any one of a group
– Generic pronouns – one, they, you, s/he
– Nouns can also have generic reference – A good man is
hard to find; The bald eagle is back for near extinction.
• Some sentences are ambiguous in terms of generic
or specific reference – E.g., My sister wants to
marry a rich man; The lion is dangerous.
11. Pronoun Types
• Central
– Personal – e.g., I, me, they, them
– Reflexive – e.g., myself, themselves
– Reciprocal – each other, one another
– Possessive – e.g., my/mine, their/theirs
• Relative – which, who, whose, whom, that
• Interrogative – who, whom, which, whose, what
• Demonstrative – this, these, that, those
• Indefinite – e.g., both, each, nobody, everything
12. Personal Pronouns
Primary Possessive
Subject Object
Reflexive
Determiner Independent
Singular I me myself my mine1st
person Plural we us ourselves our ours
Singular you you yourself your yours2nd
person Plural you you yourselves your yours
Singular
masculine
he him himself his his
Singular
feminine
she her herself her hers
Singular
nonpersonal
it it itself its (its)
3rd
person
Plural they them themselves their theirs
13. Indefinite Pronouns
one some any none everyone another
oneself someone anyone no one any other
somebody anybody nobody everybody no other
something anything nothing everything others
Many, more, most, enough, few, less, much, either, neither, several, all, both, each
