English nouns

Part of a series on
English grammar
Morphology Plurals Prefixes (in English) Suffixes (frequentative)
Word types Acronyms Adjectives adverbs (flat) Articles Conjunctions Compounds Demonstratives Determiners (List here) Expletives Intensifier Interjections Interrogatives Nouns Portmanteaus Possessives Prepositions (List here) Pronouns (case · person) Verbs
Verbs Auxiliary verbs Mood (conditional · imperative · subjunctive) Aspect (continuous · habitual · perfect) -ing Irregular verbs Modal verbs Passive voice Phrasal verbs Verb usage Transitive and intransitive verbs
Syntax Clauses (in English) Conditional sentences Copula Do-support Inversion Periphrasis Zero-marking
Orthography Abbreviations Capitalization Comma Hyphen
Variant usage African-American Vernacular English AmE and BrE grammatical differences Double negatives Grammar disputes Thou
v t

English nouns form the largest category of words in English, both in terms of the number of different words and in terms of how often they are used in typical texts.^[1][p. 16] Like nouns in general, English nouns typically denote physical objects, but they also denote actions (e.g., get up and have a stretch), characteristics (this red is lovely), relations in space (closeness), and just about anything at all.^[2][p. 30] They typically have singular and plural forms and head noun phrases that function as subjects and objects and have determiners and adjective phrase modifiers as dependents.^[1][p. 82]

For the purposes of this article, English nouns include English pronouns, but not English determiners.^[3]

Sub-types[]

English nouns are classified into three major subtypes as common nouns, proper nouns, and pronouns, each with its own typical syntactic behaviour.^[1][p. 84]

Proper nouns[]

Proper nouns are a class of word that occurs within noun phrases that are proper names.^[4] Prototypical proper names, according to The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, "are expressions which have been conventionally adopted as the name of a particular entity."^[5] A prominent category of proper names are the ones assigned to particular people or animals (Elizabeth, Fido). Others include particular places (New Zealand, the United States of America) and institutions (Cambridge University, the United States Senate). While proper names may be realized by multi-word constituents, a proper noun is word-level unit. Thus, Zealand, for example, is a proper noun, but New Zealand, though a proper name, is not a proper noun.^[6]

Unlike some common nouns, proper nouns do not typically show number contrast. Most proper nouns are singular and lack a plural form, though some may instead be plural and lack a singular form. For example, we typically expect Michigan but not Michigans and the Bahamas but not a Bahama. Proper nouns also differ from common nouns in that they typically lack either a determinative or determinative contrast. For instance, we typically expect Michigan but not a Michigan, and though the Bahamas includes the determinative the, the determinative cannot normally be varied (compare a Bahama and some Bahamas). Finally, proper nouns differ from common nouns in that they typically cannot be modified by restrictive modifiers.^[7]

The features that distinguish proper nouns from common nouns do not necessarily apply in the rare situations in which proper nouns lack unique denotation. For example, London typically refers to a unique place, but someone trying to disambiguate between two places named London might pluralize it (Which of the Londons are you referring to?), add a determinative (Do you mean the London in Ontario?), or add a restrictive modifier (Do you mean the London in Ontario?).^[7]

Pronouns[]

English pronouns are a closed category of words that have a variety of features that distinguish them from common and proper nouns. Unlike common nouns, pronouns are mostly deictic and anaphoric pro-forms.^[8] In the clause I like you, for instance, I and you are deictic in that their meanings can only be understood in relation to the context of the utterance. In the clause Tell Anne I want to talk to her, on the other hand, her is anaphoric in that the pronoun derives its meaning from its antecedent (Anne, in this case).

Also unlike common nouns, pronouns show distinctions in case (e.g., I, me, mine), person (e.g., I, you) and gender (e.g., he, she). Though both common nouns and pronouns show number distinction, they do so differently: common nouns tend to take an inflectional ending (–s) to mark plurals, but pronouns typically do not. (The pronoun one is an exception, as in I like those ones.) Pronouns are also more limited than common nouns in their ability to take dependents. For instance, while common nouns can often be preceded by a determinative (e.g., the car), pronouns cannot.^[9]

In English conversation, pronouns are roughly as frequent as other nouns. In fiction, pronouns are about one third of all nouns, and in news and academic English, pronouns are a small minority of nouns (<10%).^{[10][p. 235]}

Common nouns[]

Common nouns are defined as those that are neither proper nouns nor pronouns.^[11] They are the most numerous and the most frequently used.

Common nouns can be further divided into count and noncount nouns. A count noun denotes an individually identifiable entity while a noncount noun denotes an undifferentiated mass or continuum. In addition to these semantic differences, count and noncount nouns also differ grammatically. Count nouns can be grammatically singular or plural (e.g., chair or chairs), but noncount nouns are always grammatically singular (e.g., furniture but not furnitures). The count and noncount distinction also affects what determiners can occur with the nouns: singular count nouns can occur with a but not some (e.g., a chair but not some chair) while noncount nouns can occur with some but not a (e.g., some furniture but not a furniture).^[12] Many common nouns have both count and noncount senses. For example, beer has a noncount sense in she was drinking beer but a count sense in she drank another beer.^[13]

Morphology[]

Inflectional[]

A defining property of English nouns is their ability to inflect for number (singular or plural).^[14] In addition to number, pronouns can inflect for case, a feature shared by some noun phrases but not common nouns themselves.^[15]

Common nouns[]

Common nouns in English have little inflectional morphology, inflecting only for number. In modern English writing, the plural is usually formed with the –s morpheme, which can be realized phonetically as /s/, /z/, or /əz/. For example, the singular nouns cat, dog, and bush are pluralized as cats (s = /s/), dogs (s = /z/), and bushes (es = /əz/), respectively. Irregularly, English nouns are marked as plural in other ways, often inheriting the plural morphology of older forms of English or the languages that they are borrowed from. Plural forms from Old English resulted from vowel mutation (e.g., foot/feet), adding –en (e.g., ox/oxen), or making no change at all (e.g., this sheep/those sheep). English has also borrowed the plural forms of loanwords from various languages, such as Latin (e.g., stimulus/stimuli) and Greek (e.g., criterion/criteria).^[16]

Traditional grammars suggest that nouns can also take genitive case endings, as in the –'s in the cat's paws. Grammars informed by linguistics, however, analyze this ending as applying to entire noun phrases rather than the nouns themselves.^[14] In the phrase the cat with brown fur's paws, for example, the possessor is realized by the entire noun phrase the cat with brown fur, not just the noun fur. This analysis can be illustrated in bracketed notation:

• [_NP [_NP the cat]'s paws]
• [_NP [_NP the cat with brown fur]'s paws]

Pronouns[]

Those types that are undisputedly pronouns are the personal pronouns, relative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, and reciprocal pronouns. The full set is presented in the following table along with dummy there. Nonstandard, informal and archaic forms are in italics.

			Nominative	Accusative	Reflexive	Independent genitive	Dependent genitive
			(subject)	(object)		(possessive)
First-person	Singular		I	me	myself	mine	my mine (before vowel); me (esp. BrE)
	Plural		we	us	ourselves ourself	ours	our
Second-person	Singular	Standard (archaic plural and later formal)	you*	you*	yourself*	yours	your*
		Archaic informal	thou	thee	thyself	thine	thythine (before vowel)
	Plural	Standard	you	you	yourselves	yours	your
		Archaic	ye	you	yourselves	yours	your
		Nonstandard	yeyou ally'allyouseetc. (see above)	yeyou ally'allyouse	yeerselvesy'all's (or y'alls) selves	yeersy'all's (or y'alls)	yeery'all's (or y'alls)
Third-person	Singular	Masculine	he*	him*	himself*	his*
		Feminine	she*	her*	herself*	hers	her*
		Neuter	it	it	itself	its	its
		Epicene	they	them	themselves themself	theirs	their
	Plural		they	them	themselves	theirs	their
Generic	Formal		one	one	oneself		one's
	Informal		you	you	yourself	your	your
Wh-	Relative & interrogative	For persons	who	whom who		whose†	whose
		Non-personal	what	what
	Relative only		which	which
Reciprocal				each other one another
Dummy			there it

^† Interrogative only. *This is Kim's, whose we forgot is not possible.

Derivational (for common nouns)[]

Noun forming[]

The most common noun-forming suffixes are: -tion, -ism, -ity, and -ness.^{[10][p. 322]} For example, the verb activate + -tion becomes the noun activation. Nouns can also be formed by conversion (no change, e.g., run → run) and compounding (putting two bases together, e.g., grand + mother → grandmother).^[1][p. 284]

Modifying[]

There are many prefixes that can be attached to a noun to change its meaning. A small list of examples include anti-, bi-, dis-, hyper-, mega-, non-, & re- (e.g., re- + vision → revision).^{[10][p. 320]}

Semantics of nouns and noun phrases[]

Denotation[]

Common nouns and proper nouns prototypically denote physical entities and in English, any word that denotes an entity must be a noun. For example, one of the things that apple denotes is "a common, round fruit produced by the tree Malus domestica, cultivated in temperate climates."^[17] Pronouns can refer, but they have no denotation.

Countability[]

Common nouns may be divided into count nouns and mass nouns. Count nouns allow noun phrases with a number determiner (e.g., three apples), and mass nouns do not (*Hand me those three luggages.). English nouns typically have both count and mass senses, though for a given noun one sense typically dominates. For example, apple is usually countable (two apples), but it also has a mass sense (e.g., this pie is full of apple). When discussing different types of something, a count form is available for almost any noun (e.g., This shop carries many cheeses. = "many types of cheese").^[18]

Most mass nouns are singular only (e.g., meat, information, mud, love), but some are plural only (e.g., police, jeans, genitals, remains, etc.).^[2][p. 343]

Mass nouns denote things that, when put together, remain the same thing. For example, if I have luggage and you give me more luggage, I still just have luggage. Count nouns fail this test: if I have an apple, and I give you more apple or more apples, I no longer just have an apple.^[18][p. 52]

Gender[]

Modern English has lost the system of grammatical gender that was present in Old English, and while there is some disagreement over what has replaced it, generally speaking English is said to have a system of "natural gender", which applies only to the pronouns.^[19] A "natural gender" is one "in which there is a clear correlation between masculine and feminine nouns and biological traits in the referent."^[19][p. 11] But whether this accurately characterizes the English gender system is disputed.^[20] Some grammars attempt to assign various genders to English common nouns,^[21] while others deny that such a scheme makes sense.^[2]

There is also a second system whereby who correlates with persons and pronoun what correlates with non-persons.^[2][p. 428]

Reference and the semantics of noun phrases[]

Noun phrases typically inherit the denotation of the head noun. On top of this, they may have many other semantic characteristics including definiteness, specificity, number, quantification, gender, and person.

Noun phrases often refer. For example, the two underlined NPs in JP is my friend refer to the same person.^[22] Not all NPs refer though. The underlined NPs in the following examples do not refer:

1. Who likes ice cream?
2. It's raining.
3. There's a problem.
4. Nobody came.

The syntax of nouns and noun phrases[]

Defining properties of English nouns are that they function as the heads of noun phrases (NPs) and that they can be specified by determiners and modified by pre-head adjective phrases. A defining property of English NPs is that they prototypically function at the clause level as subjects, objects, and predicative complements.^[14][23]

Functions[]

Nouns only function as the head of a nominal, which in turn mostly functions as the head of an NP.^{[24][chapter 5]} At the clause-level, English NPs typically function as subjects, objects, and predicative complements.^[14] The following table includes these typical functions and the other functions they can take:^[23]

Functions of NPs with pronouns and other nouns

Function	Non-pronoun	Pronoun
Subject	Jess is here.	She is here.
Direct object	I have two pens.	I have them.
Indirect object	He tells Jess a story.	He tells him a story.
Subject-related predicative complement	This is my brother.	This is him.
Object-related predicative complement	They made her a manger.
Adjunct	Try again Monday.	I did it myself.
Supplement	I met the host, a linguist.	I met the host, her.
Complement within a phrase	It went to your address.	It went to you.
Modifier within a phrase	a Shetland pony
Determinative with an NP	the box's top	its top

Nominals (see Internal structure, below), also appear as pre-head modifier in a nominal (e.g., a two day conference).

Internal structure[]

Every English noun phrases has a head NP or a head nominal, a nominal being a phrase intermediate between an NP and a noun. An NP with a nominal may also have a determiner. Roughly speaking, the nominal includes everything after the determinative (similar to the way a clause has a verb phrase that includes basically everything after the subject). The following tree shows the internal structure of an NP with all the main types of dependents: modifiers, a determinative, a predeterminative (labeled here as a kind of modifier), and a complement.

Determinatives[]

A basic English NP splits into an optional determinative (usually a determiner phrase or a genitive NP) and a head nominal (e.g., [many] [good people]). In the diagram above, the determinative is the, and the head nominal is preposterous ideas about exercise that Bill has. The determinative, if present, always precedes the nominal and is licensed by the head noun. That is, it must agree in number and countability (e.g., many people, *many person, some police, *a police) with the head noun.

Though the determinative function is typically realized by determiner phrases, they may also be realized by other phrases. Noun phrases that realize the determinative function are typically in the genitive case (e.g., your interview) but do not need to be (e.g., this size home). Determiners can also be realized by prepositional phrases, such as up to a dozen in the noun phrase up to a dozen agencies.^[25]

Predeterminatives[]

Inside the NP, but outside the nominal, there are also predeterminatives, as exemplified by all in the tree diagram above. In this case, all has a specifying role rather than a modifying role in the noun phrase, much like the determinative the, but the determinative function has already been filled. To account for noun phrases like these, some grammars (such as Oxford Modern English Grammar and A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language) also recognize the function of predeterminative (or predeterminer).^[26][27] Other grammars offer different accounts of these constructions. For example, the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language classifies them as a "predeterminer modifier".^[28]

Like the determinative function, the predeterminative function is typically realized by determiner phrases. However, they can also be realized by noun phrases (e.g., three times the speed) and adverb phrases (e.g., twice the population).

Modifiers[]

Inside the nominal, modifiers can be divided into pre-head (before the noun) and post-head (after the noun). Adjective phrases are the prototypical pre-head modifiers of nouns, as exemplified by preposterous in the tree diagram above.^[29] Adjective-like prepositional phrases can also function as pre-head modifiers of nouns. For example, the prepositional phrase under threat functions as a pre-head modifier in the noun phrase the under-threat postal service. The adjective-like nature of these prepositional phrases is indicated by the tendency for them to be hyphenated in writing and the fact that they can typically be paraphrased with an adjective phrase (compare the endangered postal service).^[30] Similarly, adjective-like clauses can function as pre-head modifiers of nouns. In the noun phrase pay-as-you-go SIM card, for instance, the clause pay as you go functions as a pre-head modifier. Like the adjective-like prepositions, these clauses tend to be hyphenated in writing.^[30]

Other pre-head modifiers of nouns include nominals. In the noun phrase Nirvana's classic early nineties album, for example, the nominal early nineties modifies the noun album. The nominal's status a modifier can be made clearer by paraphrasing the noun phrase that contains it: Nirvana's classic album from the early nineties, in which from the early nineties is more clearly a modifier.^[30] Verb phrases can also function as pre-head modifiers of nouns. For instance, the verb phrase regularly dripping can function as a pre-head modifier in the noun phrase a regularly dripping faucet. The fact that dripping can be and is modified by a manner adverb (regularly) but cannot be modified by a degree adverb (such as very) indicates that these pre-head modifiers are verb phrases rather than adjective phrases because verbs can typically be modified by manner but not degree adverbs while adjectives can typically be modified by degree but not manner adverbs.^[30] Another pre-head modifier of nouns is determiner phrases. For example, the determiner phrase two in the noun phrase these two images functions as a pre-head modifier. While determiners that occur before nouns tend to function as determinatives, noun phrases can contain only one determinative, so additional determiner phrases must have some other function. In these two images, the determiner phrase these fills the determinative function, so the additional determiner phrase two must instead be analyzed as a pre-head modifier.^[30] Some grammars label these determiner phrases postdeterminers.^[31] Rarely, an adverb phrase can function as a pre-head modifier of nouns. In the noun phrase an almost victory, for example, the adverb phrase almost functions as a pre-head modifier.^[30]

Relative clauses, as exemplified by that Bill has in the tree diagram above, are common as post-head modifiers. Prepositional phrases are another common variety of post-head modifier. In the noun phrase an apple in a tree, for example, the prepositional phrase in a tree functions as a post-head modifier. Adjective phrases can also function as post-head modifiers. Some of these adjective phrases are reduced relative clauses, such as balloons full of helium (compare balloons that were full of helium). Others are post-positive adjective phrases, such as the attorney general. Noun phrases themselves can function as post-head adjuncts in noun phrases. In the noun phrase shoes that size, for instance, the noun phrase that size functions as a post-head modifier. Certain determiners (namely, each, enough, less, and more) can head determiner phrases that function as post-head modifiers of noun phrases, as in the determiner phrase each in three dollars each. Rarely, adverb phrases can function as post-head modifiers, such as the adverb phrase soon in the noun phrase some day soon.^[32]

External modifiers exist inside the NP but outside the nominal. These modifiers are often adverb phrases, as exemplified by even in the tree diagram above.^[33] External modifiers can also be realized by prepositional phrases (e.g., by far the greatest ally) and noun phrases (e.g., every bit a philosopher). External modifiers can only attach to the beginnings or ends of noun phrases. When positioned at the beginning, they occur before any predeterminative, determinative, or internal modifier.^[34] In the noun phrase even all their best songs, for instance, the external modifier (even) must occur before the predeterminative (all), determinative (their), and internal modifier (best). Some external modifiers can move freely between the beginning and the end of their noun phrase. For example, by far the greatest ally can also be written the greatest ally by far.

Complements[]

A nominal can occasionally include a complement, a dependent licensed by the head noun. Usually, these are prepositional phrases or subordinate clauses. The head of such prepositional phrases is typically of, as in our review of your application or your receipt of the envelope. In some of these cases, the complement and noun can be compared to a verb and direct object pair (we reviewed your application; you received the envelope). In other cases, the head is not of, as exemplified by about exercise in the tree diagram above. Clauses that function as complements in noun phrases can be either finite (a realization that it is important) or non-finite (a requirement for them to do it). As with prepositional phrase complements of nouns, certain clause complements of nouns can be compared to verb and complement pairs (they realized that it is important; somebody required them to do it).^[35]

Nouns can also be complemented by noun phrases. Unusually, these noun phrase complements occur before the head noun. For example, the noun phrase kinesiology functions as a pre-head complement in the larger noun phrase a kinesiology student. The noun phrase's status a complement can be made clearer by paraphrasing the noun phrase that contains it: a student of kinesiology, in which of kinesiology is more clearly a complement.^[36]

When there is a complement, usually there's only one, but up to three are possible (e.g., a bet for $10 with DJ that it wasn't true.)

References and notes[]