Nouns, Determiners and Pronouns

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.)

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)

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”

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,

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

Types of Nouns

Determiners Articles – Definite (the), indefinite (a/an) Demonstratives – this, these, that, those Possessives – my, our, your… Indefinites (Quantifiers) – some, any, no, every, other, another, many, more, most, enough, few, less, much, either, neither, several, all, both, each, half… Cardinal Numbers – one, two, three, four… Ordinal Numbers – first, second, third…

Definite 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…

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.

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

Personal Pronouns

Indefinite Pronouns