Lecture 4
Noun and Noun Phrase

Introduction: as has been
pointed out, the noun phrase
is a phrase with a noun as
its head. It is the noun head
that determines the way the
noun phrase is organized.
4.1 Classification of nouns and
function of noun phrases

1. Classification of nouns
Nouns can be classified
according to
“word formation”
“lexical meaning”
“grammatical form”
According to word formation,
nouns can be divided into
(1) simple noun
“man, chair, land, faith, bus”
(2) compound noun
“armchair, motherland, seaside”
(3) derivative noun
“arrangement, ability,
happiness,
socialism”
nouns fall into two major categories:
(1) proper noun
a particular person, place,
thing spelt
with a capital initial letter ,eg:
Anderson, China, USA,
(2) common noun
a name common to a class of
people,
thing or abstract ideas,eg:
Common nouns can be further
classified into:
(1) individual noun
(2) collective noun
(3) material noun
(4) abstract noun
According to grammatical form, nouns
can be divided into two classes:
count nouns/countable nouns
non-count nouns/uncountable nouns
2. Function of noun phrases

The noun phrase can function
as all the elements in a
sentence except the predicate
verb:
4.2 Number forms of nouns

Number is a grammatical
distinction which determines
whether a noun or determiner
is singular or plural.
1) Regular and irregular plural
2) Number forms of the collective, material,
abstract and proper noun
(a) Number forms of the collective noun
(b) Number forms of the material noun
(c) Number forms of the abstract noun
(d) Number forms of the proper noun
4.3 Partitives

Partitives, also called unit nouns,
are commonly used to denote a
whole or the quantity of an
undifferentiated mass. Both
count and noncount nouns can
enter partitive constructions.
General partitives
eg. piece, bit, article, item
 Partitives related to the shape of things
eg. a cake of soap
a bar of chocolate
 Partitives related to volume
eg. a bottle of ink
two bowls of rice

 Partitives
related to the state of action
eg. a fit of anger/ laughter/ fever
a flash of hope/ light
 Partitives denoting pairs, groups, flocks,
etc
eg. a pair of shoes/ scissors/ trousers
a flock of birds/ chicken/ sheep
Assignment
Exercise in the Textbook