Noun

3. Noun

NOUN

- the categorial meaning of substance or thingness;

- the changeable forms of number (-s) and case ('s; s'); the specific suffixal forms of derivation (-er/.or; -ist; -ess; -ee; -ity; -dom; -ness; -ion; -ism; -ance; -ment);

- the substantive functions in the sentence (subject, object, substantival predi­cate);

- combinability with articles, adjectives, verbs, prepositions.

Nouns   may be   classified   into: common (general meaning The man put his life at stake), proper (definite meaning, the name   of a separate   human being, animal, thing:   Mr.Brown la found guilty);    animate   (   a   woman), inanimate (а book); countable   (fault-faults),   uncountable (milk).

Gender.    in   nouns is expressed lexically:

- feminine -   The   girl quitted singing.

- masculine-   The   man   resented it.

- neuter   -    Something emerged from behind the door. Could It   be   a man? Sex-indicators:   boy-friend, girl-friend, landlord, landlady,

he-dog,   she-dog,   actor, actress, lion,lioness

Number   in nouns: Singular (fault)    -   plural   (faults); singular is more gene­ralised,     plural is always concrete.

1. Singular  tantum   (foliage)   - pluralia tan turn (trousers).

2 Forms may be interchangeable: He has no brains or little brain. Rack your brains about it. He has something on the brain.

Plural   forms   may   be   used   for stylistic purpose: a thousand   pities,   full   of   fears, the blue waters of Medi­terranean.

The metaphoric   use   of   the   plural   form: a   dosen suns,

Homonymy:      pain - suffering.

               plural of suffering

pains-<_

               effort

Double plurals:

brother          brothers (sons of one mother)

brethren   (members of one community)

cloths (kinds   of cloth)

clothes   (articles   of dress)

Russian: зубы /во рту/ зубья /пилы/ /

a   silence   •   a   pause   (something will follow it);

Foreign  plurals are more   bookish than   the   native ones:

formula -   formulae, formulas.

Different stylistic sphere of application:

shoe - shoes - shoen   (archaic   or elevated);

You   were always more of a realist than John (the noun weakens the   meaning   of substance, approaches the adjective and is modified   by an adverbial   of degree).

He was quite a   success   (the noun is used to intensify the given   quality,   compare with: Be   was quite   successful. )

Noun   may approach adverbs:   life long, dog tired, silver grey, etc.

He   was   stone deaf to my request. Interactional uses of nouns   ('intensifiers' )

Like   hell   1   wish   -   I   will not

New   tendencies in   using   plural forms:

moneys,   (sums   of. money) understandings,

CASE in Nouns

Case is   a  morphological   category which denotes different relations of   noun in the sentence   and   thus, the relations must be   introduced in the form of   the noun itself.   All the other means (prepositions, word order) are   not morphological, are not the forms   of case   (llyish). The   case theory was formulated by   such scholars   as  H.Sweet,   O.Jespersen, A.Smirnitaky, L.Barkhudarov   and others.

The opposition   -   Common: : Possessive -   : : 's(s') is used with lifeless things as well: a week's notice, 5   miles' distance.

But   's is no longer the   form marker of case (Mukhin, Vorentsova, llyish):

Oxford professor   of poetry's   lecture.(phrase + 's)( The    man I saw yesterday's son .(attributive clause+'s). The category of   case has   lost its morphological characteris­tic*   's(s') is the   form marker of possessiveness (in the broad sense)