THE NOUN IN ENGLISH

 

o The defining characteristics of central nouns:

 

They are a class of notional words which

- express the general notion of Thingness (the general semantic principle);

- have the morphological category of Number (and, according to some grammarians, the category of Case) (the formal morphological principle);

- function as the Subject, Object, Complement (Predicative) and sometimes attribute in the sentence (the syntactic principle).

 

o Semantic groups of nouns: common – proper, concrete – abstract, animate – inanimate, individual – mass – collective – unit – quantifying, etc.

 

o Syntactic functions: the Subject, Object, or Complement (Predicative). Can also function as the Attribute.

 

o Morphological properties of English nouns:

THE MORPHOLOGICAL CATEGORY OF NUMBER OF THE NOUN

 

o the central means in the functional semantic field of Quantity

o

Meaning: contrast between	Singularity (Oneness vs.	and Plurality More-than-Oneness).
Form: the opposition of	the singular form, unmarked, negatively characterised	the plural form, marked, positively characterised
Type of opposition	binary	privative

 

o The category of Number is not fully realized by English nouns (= not all English nouns have both the plural and the singular form): there is a formal distinction between 2 large groups of nouns:

 

Variable nouns	Invariable nouns
Count(able), have both forms	‘Singularia tantum’ = ‘singular only’: - mass nouns - abstract ideas - miscellaneous	‘Pluralia tantum’ = ‘plural only’: 1. marked plurals: - summation plurals, - umbrella terms 2. unmarked plurals: collective nouns

 

o In the periphery of the functional semantic field of Quantity there are lexical means, lexical-syntactic means, etc.

 

 

THE PROBLEM OF THE CATEGORY OF CASE

 

o A lot of controversy over the status of the –’s noun form

 

o Is there a Category of Case in analytical languages like English?

 

o → Different schools of opinion:

- the prepositional case theory

- the positional case theory

- the theory of two cases

- the theory which rejects the existence of the category of Case in English

 

o The theory of two cases of the English Noun

- The morphological category of Case of the Nounis the central means in the functional semantic field of Relation. Its function is to indicate relations between nouns in the sentence and through these - relations between the objects of reality denoted by the nouns.

 

- In the periphery of the functional semantic field of Relation you can find syntactic means, e.g. prepositions, word order.

 

- These means are used differently in Russian and English:

Russian	English
- A highly elaborate system of noun cases (declension): the Nominative, Genitive, Dative, Accusative, Instrumental and Prepositional cases. - case forms are marked by inflexions.	- Syntactic means are used most commonly: word order, prepositions   - Only one case inflexion, -’s, which marks the Genitive case, is singled out.

 

- The morphological category of Case of the Noun:

Form: the opposition of	The Common case   unmarked	and The Genitive (‘Possessive’) case Marked synthetically by -’s / -’   -Structural types of the Genitive: simple G. group G. double G. absolute G.
Meaning:	negatively characterised	relations between nouns in the sentence - Semantic types of the Genitive: possessive G. subjective G. objective G. descriptive G. partitive G. G. of measure
Type of opposition	binary	privative

 

- The category of Case is not fully realized by English nouns: animate nouns vs. inanimate nouns

 

- Now the category of Case in modern English is disintegrating → a trend towards even more analytism.

 

o The theory which rejects the existence of the category of Case in English

 

The arguments:

- not all English nouns take -‘s

- not only nouns but also phrases and clauses take -‘s

- -‘s constructions have the same function as prepositional phrases

 

→ claim that ‘s is not a classical case morpheme, but only a marker of relations, a postpositional element → there is no category of Case in modern English.

 

o → a compromise:

- ‘s is a syncretic element as it combines properties of a morpheme and a function word. It’s a marker of relations.

 

 

THE FIELD STRUCTURE OF THE CLASS OF NOUNS

 

o Central nouns: concrete countable nouns denoting things and people

o Peripheral nouns: abstract countable and uncountable nouns

 

o Zones of syncretism between the class of Nouns and other word classes:

- N – Adj

- N – V