CHAPTER III OF NOUNS 1. CLASSIFICATION. A Noun is a word used as a name (83). 101. Different Kinds of Nouns.-Examine the names in the following sentence: The crew of the battleship Maine were under perfect discipline. "Battleship" and "Maine" both name the same object, but in different ways: "Battleship" is the name of any one of a class of ships resembling one another in structure and purpose; "Maine" is the name of a particular battleship. "Crew" is the name of a body of men considered collectively. Discipline" is the name of a condition. 66 66 102. Proper Nouns.-The noun Maine," in our illustrative sentence, is the name of a particular battleship. Definition. A noun that is the name of some particular object, to distinguish that object from others of its kind, is called a Proper Noun. Other examples of proper nouns are: Abraham Lincoln Monday Nashville Oregon Pike's Peak Proper nouns, when written, always begin with capital letters; so also do words derived from them: as, America, American, Americanism. 103. Common Nouns.-The noun "battleship" is a name common to all ships of the same class. Definition. A noun that is common or applicable to all objects of the same class is called a Common Common nouns, when written, begin with small letters. EXERCISE 109. Write two proper nouns suggested by each of the following common nouns :— boy city city dog girl newspaper ocean river state EXERCISE 110. Give the common nouns that are applicable to the following individual objects : Brooklyn California Donald England Friday Helen July 104. Collective Nouns. The common noun "crew" is applied to a body of men considered collectively. Definition.-A noun that is the name of a number of objects taken together is called a Collective Noun. Other examples of collective nouns are: army (a collection of soldiers) This distinction is important when collective nouns are referred to by pronouns or are used as subjects of sentences. For instance, we refer to a committee as "it" when we think of it as a whole; when we think of the individuals who compose it, we use the pronoun "they." Similarly we say, "The jury has retired," thinking of it as a single body; jury have dined," thinking of the members. EXERCISE 111. "The What objects are grouped together by the following collective nouns? audience choir drove flock squadron swarm team 105. Abstract Nouns.-An ivory ball we know to be round, white, and elastic. These qualities exist together in the ball; but in the mind we can consider them separately, apart both from the ball and from one another. The mental power that enables us thus to separate a quality or attribute from the object that possesses it is called Abstraction (Latin, separating"). 66 Definition. A noun that is the name of a quality, action, or condition withdrawn or abstracted in thought from the object to which it belongs, is called an Abstract Noun. Examples of abstract nouns are :— This distinction has only slight grammatical bearing; but it is mportant for other reasons. EXERCISE 112. Give two abstract nouns suggested by each of the following objects: a flower a lemon a mountain a race horse a stone EXERCISE 113. Classify the nouns in Exercise 77 (page 112). Nouns are occasionally inflected to show Gender, and regularly inflected to show Number and Case. II. GENDER. 106. Gender Defined.-Observe the distinction between the following nouns : Both nouns name animals of the same general class; but one is the name of the male animal, the other of the female. This distinction is indicated by the inflection "-ess." The distinction between the objects themselves is called Sex. The distinction between their names is called Gender. Definition.-Gender is a classification of nouns and pronouns according to the sex of the objects for which they stand. Definition. A word denoting a male object is in the Masculine Gender. Definition.-A word denoting a female object is in the Feminine Gender. Definition. A word denoting an object that has no sex is in the Neuter Gender (Latin," neither "). Words like "friend," "child," "thief," "bird," which apply without change to either male or female objects, are masculine or feminine according to the sex of the particular object spoken of. Words that apply to objects of either sex are said by some grammarians to be in the Common Gender; but most modern grammarians reject this classification as useless. |