Noun Phrases I: noun types
Professor Sabine Mendes Moura
sabine.mendes@gmail.com
Types of Nouns
• Nouns as a word class…various sub-groups
– Based on meaning:
concrete vs. abstract; common vs. proper; animate vs
inanimate; collective
– Based on structure:
count vs. noncount
Concrete vs abstract
Is advertisement an
abstract noun?
Concrete vs abstract
An abstract noun is one which cannot be perceived by any of
the senses.
“There is an advertisement (ad) for a concert on
that notice-board”
“The priest’s generosity was an advertisement for
his faith”
Concrete vs abstract
What about pollution?
Concrete vs abstract
An abstract noun is one which cannot be perceived by any of
the senses.
“The haze of pollution that hung over the city made
many people feel ill”
“ The moral pollution of the mayor’s corrupt
activities affected the reputation of the city
council for years”
Rock-and-roll; rock-‘n’-roll
Concrete vs abstract
Is God an abstract noun?
Proper and common nouns
• Zeus
• He is lord of the sky, the rain god.
Proper and common nouns
Classifying...
The Olympian Gods and Goddesses
In Greek mythology, twelve gods and
goddesses ruled the universe from atop Greece's
Mount Olympus. These Olympians had come to
power after their leader, Zeus, overthrew his
father, Kronos, leader of the Titans. All the
Olympians are related to one another. The
Romans adopted most of these Greek gods and
goddesses, but with new names.
HEARING IMPAIRED? HEARING HANDICAPPED? HARD OF
HEARING? DEAF?
WHAT'S IN A LABEL? EVERYTHING!
CCSD uses "Deaf" with a capital "D" to refer to any Deaf person.
This is not to place a particular identity on particular individuals. It
reflects that ASL and Deaf culture are the birthright of every Deaf
individual by virtue of their having been born Deaf or become Deaf
in childhood, whether or not they have been exposed to it. This is in
keeping with how we refer to individuals from other cultural
minority groups such as Black or Jewish (Pizzacalla and Cripps,
1997).
To avoid mis-labelling, simply call us "Deaf". Please remove
"hearing-impaired", "hearing handicapped" and "hard of hearing"
from your list. The Canadian Cultural Society of the Deaf feels that
Deaf people do not need any more labels. "Deaf" is how we refer to
ourselves. Why label us anything else?
http://www.deafculturecentre.ca/
Count & Noncount
• Count Nouns
– Singular
• book, child
– Plural
• books, children
• Noncount Nouns
– Not singular & not plural
– “this kinda stuff”
•
•
•
•
•
Rice
Music
Knowledge
Homework
News
Culture & Counting
• “Countability is partly a matter of how we view the world,
rather than how the world really is.” (p. 57)
• Words can be countable in other languages and not in English.
– In Japanese, the word for “homework” is countable: Children turn in
their homeworks.
• Words can be countable in other version of English and not in
U.S. English.
– In Indian English, the word chalk is countable. Teachers can have 2
chalks.
Lists of Noncount Nouns
• Many words can be either count or noncount depending on their
meaning:
– I like coffee. (noncount)
– I bought a coffee at Starbucks. (singular count noun)
• However, most words have typical uses…used more as noncount than
count or used more as count than noncount
• Tea: typically used as noncount: “I like tea.”
–
–
–
–
In Bank of English’s 450,000,000 words
Tea is used 26,332 times!
A tea = 922 times
Teas = 1115 times
Collective nouns
“Words like herd, flock and shoal are in
common usage as collective nouns for
mammals, birds and fish, but there are
collective nouns that are far more eloquent
and poetic. And this happens because we let
it”.
http://www.sharediaries.com/articles/collecti
ve-nouns
A skulk of foxes.
A murder of crows.
A sneak of weasels.
A caravan of camels.
A seething of eels.
Fairclough (2001)
Stephen King’s “On Writing”