1. Nouns, Determiners and Pronouns

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

8. 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…

9. 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…

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

13. Indefinite Pronouns