HEK 215 CONTEMPORARY CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH GRAMMAR ACADEMIC SESSION 2017/2018
NOUNS STUDENT’S NAMES: ESTHER ANAK LAMARK 133574 NURUL SAFIANI BINTI NOR KAMAZAMAN 133601 GAN JUN MAY 133577 ASMA’ FIRZANAH BINTI SHAHARUM 133569
LECTURER’S NAME: DR ANG LENG HONG
PROPER
Cannot be counted (eg. Sugar, salt)
Cannot occur wi th the indefi nite article ‘a’ Allow contrast between definite & indefinite
Have no contrast for numbers/definiteness
Can have modifiers
Need no article/ plural form
Are singular & defini te
Used when speaker & addressee know which individual is meant wi thout specification
Can be counted (eg. A cow, two cows)
UNCOUNTABLE
Have both singular & plural form (eg. Bus & buses)
COUNTABLE
COMMON
Sometimes have a possessive determiner
Can occur with defini te article ‘the ’ (eg. The Nile, the New York Times)
Can behave l ike common nouns (eg. The Jonesses, a Bentley, two Cadillacs
There is contrast between indefinite & defini te signaled by
NOUN
articles
Abstractions (events, states, times, qualities)
Group of people, animals or things: Bunch of roses, Crowd of fans, Flock of doves, Gang of thugs, Group of things Package Nouns For generalized mass or substance into individual units or pie ces
Physical entities/substances ( eg.
student, chair, town)
A bit of cake, wood A chunk of gold, chocolate
A pie ce of chalk, wood A l ump of clay, butter A grain of corn, dust
Sort of; Kinds of; Types of; Make of; Class of
More physical than abstract nouns
Container basket of; box of ; cup of Shape heap of; pile of
Measure nouns pint, gallon; foot, inch; ounce, pound; ton, tonne Numeral nouns hundred, thousand, million
Large quantities A load of; Loads of; A mass of Nouns ending in – ful Bowlful, earful, handful, mouthful, pocketful
Pair and couple Pair appli es to two things which occur together. E.g. arms, eyes, gloves Couple used to mean ‘two or three, a very small number’; simil ar to a few. E.g. days, babies, examples
Genitive of time and measure
4.9 Case: the Genitive
Number and case in nouns
The form of the genitive
Ending ‘ ‘s ‘
4.8 Number: Singular and plural
Pronounciation +/iz/ afte r /s, z, ∫, Ʒ, ʧ , ʤ/: Charles’s, Jones’s, Liz’s, Thomas’s,
Regular plurals Pronunciation + / ᴵᴢ/ a fter consonants /s, z, f, ᴣ ,tf, d ᴣ /: case- cases, fuse- fuses, ash- ashes + /s / after voiceless consonants (except /s, f, tf/): cat- cats, map- maps, actacts + /z/ a fte r vowels and voiced consonants (except /z, ᴣ, dᴣ /): boy- bo ys, do g- dogs, time-times Spelling N. endi ng in s, z, x, sh, or ch, the s pelling is –es: bus-buses, box-boxes, bushbushes N. endi ng in a consonant letter + -y, the s pelling is –ies: copy-copies, fly-flies, lady-ladies, army-armies Singular n. ends in a vowel letter +-y, however, the s pelling is –s: boy-boys, day-days If the singular ends in –o, the spelling of the plural is sometimes –os and sometimes –oes: pianos, radios
Native Irregular plurals
Man-men Woman-women
Specify time (especially in news writing). Express: Duration: a minute’s hes itation, two hours’ sleep. Dis tance/length: I held the book at arm’s length when re ading it. Val ue: She had to buy fifty pounds’ worth.
George ’s, Cox’s +/s/ after voiceless consonants except /s, ∫, ʧ/: cat’s, John’s, Daniel’s, Birch’s, Simth’s, staff’s +/z/ after vowels and voiced consonants except /z, ȝ, ʤ/: boy’s, daddy’s, girl’s, women’s, dog’s, cat’s plu ral nouns e ndings ‘ -s’ eg : girls’, genitive is n ot pronounced
Alumnus-alumni
Curriculum-curricula
Zero plurals Plural forms that do not change from singular to plural Fish Sheep
Plural-only nouns and singular nouns in -s
Plural nouns: people, poli ce, staff, cattle
Singular nouns: news, measl es, mumps, checkers
Stand alone as noun phrase. Not part of another (main) noun p hrase. Many independent genitives involve ellipsis. Exp.: 1. He’s going to a friend’s. (a friend’s house) 2. An op en bottle of Coca Cola’s is on the table. (a carbonated drink
Spelling
Double genitives
Singular noun: ending with apostrophe ‘ –‘s ’ Plural nouns: ending with apost rophe ‘ –s’ ’ Singular nouns/names ending in –s (Davis, Cha rles): ‘ –s’s ’ but s ometimes ‘ –s’ ’ ‘Davi s’s / Davis’’
A special construction in which either the independent genitive or a possessive pronoun occurs in an of-phrase: A good idea of Johnny’s. A st udent of Sam’s. A friend of ours. / One of our friends.
Genitive as determiner: Specifying genitives Answering the question ‘Whose X?’ Same function as the possessive determiner in a noun phrase [the girl’s] face her face [his parents’] home their home Often possible to use an off-phrase as an alternative to the genitive: [decent peop le’s] feelings the feelings [of decent people] Genitives can have post modifiers: someone else’s house
Latin and Greek plurals
Independent genitives
Genitive as modifier: Classifying genit ives Answe ring the question ‘What kind of X?’ Compare specifying and classifying genetives: 1. Several hours later [the bird’s rel ieved owner] a rrived at the station. (sp ecify the owner of a specific bird) 2. His hair looked like [a bird’s nes t]. He was a mess. (classify the type of nest and its meaning) Modifier Genitive The women’s movement Children’s literature A summer’s day
Non-genitive The feminist movement Adult literature A summer day
Semantic types of noun taki ng the genitive Most pa rt, the genitive inflection is used with personal nouns: referrin g humans (proper nouns) Also ge nitive used with other semantic types of nouns (news writing), Most common genitive: collective nouns (human organizations). Moderat ely used genitive: place nouns. (Countries & places with huma n populations: Spain’s inflation)
The choice between geni tives and of-phrases A.
The semantic class of the noun (the future of socialism _
socialism’s future) The meaning relation between the two nouns Poss essive genitive (the family’s car) Attribut ive genitive (Mathilda’s fear) Subjec tive genitive (Chong’s recognition) C. Collocations (for heaven’s sake, for goodness’ sake, for old times’ sake) D. Length of phrases: end-weight(Genitive constructions are generally sh ort, whereas of phrases are often l onger) E. Information flow: end-focus (Given information first (geniti ve) + ne w information (of-phrases)) F. Register di stribution of genitives and of-phrases Factor: register. Of-phras es: Most frequent option overall (especially in academic writing) Genit ive: much higher used i n news writing (pack information B.
Gender: masculine, feminine, personal, and neuter
Masculine and feminine noun reference
Gender bias in nouns - English has no masculine and feminine i nflections for nouns and determiners.
4.10 Gender and Noun Formation
The formation of derived nouns
- usi ng totally different nouns - usi ng derived nouns with masculine and feminine suffixes -er/or, -ess - usi ng a modifie r, such as male, female; man, woman, women - using nouns in -man, -woman - spe akers and writers refer to males more frequently than to females. - the masculine terms are often used to refer to both sexes. - ef forts have been made to avoid masculine bi as by using genderneutral nouns in -person instead of -man or -woman.
Affixation
- prefi x is added to a noun to form a new noun with a diff erent meaning. - suff ix is often added to a verb or adjective to form a new noun with a differe nt meaning.
Conversion
- no affix i s added to the base, but the base itsel f is converted into a differe nt word class. - usuall y from a verb or adjective into a noun.
Compounding - the formation of compound nouns.
→ noun + noun, noun + verb/noun, noun + verb-er, noun + verbing, verb/noun + noun, self + noun, verb-i ng + noun, adjective + noun, verb + particle, particle + verb/noun, noun + noun combinations are the most productive type of noun compound.
