NOUNS - Proper/Common, Number, Case, Gender Gramatika 1-02+03 NOUNS: PROPER/COMMON • PROPER NOUN = a specific name for a particular person, place, or thing • always capitalized • sometimes called proper names • e.g.: Buckingham Palace; Peter Pan; Tom; New York • COMMON NOUN = generic name for one item in a class / group • e.g.: dog; ice cream; dentist NUMBER: SINGULAR / PLURAL • Plural: • denotes more that one object (books, boys) • When nouns only in PL: • the form of the plural has collective meaning: sweepings, belongings, tidings or • indicates composite objects: scissors, eye-glasses, trousers * Singular: • Noun form indicating: • indivisible whole one object (a book, a boy) or (snow, friendship, foliage) PLURAL- REGULAR • The PL of a noun is formed by adding -s to the SG: cat - cats, day - days, tub - tubs • -s is pronounced in different ways: • [-s] after voiceless consonants other than sibilants: caps, cliffs, hats, forks • [-z] after voiced consonants other than sibilants and after vowels: arms, bags, bells, doors, eyes, lessons, verbs • [-iz] after sibilants: bridges, horses, noses, pages • -s, -ss, -x, -ch, -sh or -tch PL by adding -es: • an extra syllable pronounced [-iz] buses, glasses, boxes, benches, brushes, matches • -o by adding -es: echoes, heroes, tomatoes but: • nouns of foreign origin / abbreviated words -s only: autos, radios, dynamos, zoos, pianos, kilos, photos, Eskimos • both -s and -es: buffalos/buffaloes, cargos/cargoes, commandos/commandoes, volcanos/volcanoes nouns ending in -y: • after a consonant: • -y dropped + -ie added: babies, countries, flies, ladies • proper nouns add -s: Henrys, Marys, the Kennedys • preceded by a vowel, add -s: boys, days, guys, keys IRREGULAR PLURAL • Some nouns ending in the voiceless fricatives spelled -th and -/have voiced fricatives in the PL followed by [z] • voiceless fricative [s] in SG and the PL has [-zis]: houses Nouns ending in -th: • no change in spelling: if consonants before -th » regular PL: berths, births, months • a vowel before -th » PL often regular: cloths, deaths, myths • PL has voicing: mouths, paths • both regular + voiced PL: baths, oaths, sheaths, wreaths NOUNS: -F(E) • PL with voicing spelled -ves: calves, elves, knives, lives, loaves, wives • regular PL: beliefs, chiefs, cliffs, proofs • both regular + voiced PL: dwarfs/dwarves, hoofs/hooves, scarfs/scarves MUTATION • involves a change in a vowel (7): feet, geese, lice, men, mice, teeth, women • Note: • woman - women: pronunciation differs in both syllables, while • postman - postmen, Englishman - Englishmen, SG an PL pronounced identically What is the PL form of the following nouns? 1. deer, mackerel, salmon, sheep, trout 2. duck, partridge, pheasant 3. fish 4. craft 5. Chinese, Vietnamese 6. basis, crisis, criterion 7. album, dogma, gymnasium 8. formula, antenna 9. Person 10. boyfriend, break-in, manservant, editor-in-chief SOLUTION 1. deer, mackerel, salmon, sheep, trout 2. duck/ducks, partridge/partridges, pheasant/pheasants 3. fish/fishes 4. craft 5. Chinese, Vietnamese 6. bases, crises, criteria 7. albums, dogmas, gymnasiums 8. formulae/formulas, antennae/antennas 9. people (*persons) 10. boyfriends, break-ins, menservants, editors-in-chief CASE • Defines relation of a N to other units • Old English: 4 cases; present day English: common case, genitive (possessive case); word order + closed classes (function words) used instead • -es genitive ending from old English: as's (apostrophe s) for some N in SG and s' (s apostrophe) for some in PL. an actress's career men's work the dog's kennel Russia's exports a child's dream women's clothes children's games a waitress's job John and Mary's bank balance GENITIVE: FORM • Variable pronunciation (/s/, /z/, /iz/) after: • Voiceless consonants: cat's, Jack's • Vowels and voiced consonants except /z, z, dz/: boy's, men's • After /s, z, s, z, ts, dz/: Charles's, George's • PL form: boys-boys' • Variation: proper nouns ending in -s • Charles's grandfather always maintained that the aristocracy was becoming far too lax. • He is in many people's minds the next logical man to fill Charles' place. • Sometimes optional use of genitive: • A man deserves a few weeks' / weeks holiday. • This is the most serious of the offences in the Act attracts a maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment. • ... dollars' worth v. pounds worth ... currency preference • an hour's discussion, a month's holiday... • two-week period, a five-year sentence, ten-dollar bills. SPECIFYING GENITIVES • Function: to specify the reference in the same way as a DETERMINER • Compare with other Dets: a/the/that/the girl's face • Paraphrased by a postmodifying PP (of): • the girl's face v. the face of the girl • Can be substituted for a possessive pronoun • Answers the question "Whose?" CLASSIFYING GENITIVES • Function of some Gs is to classify (rather then specify) • S: Several hours later [the bird's relieved owner] arrived at the station, explaining the parrot had flown off. • S: Even [her two children's clothes] disappeared. • C: His hair felt like [a bird's nest]. He was a mess. • C: Hoppity in Hartlepool is one of the few nearly new shops specializing just in [children's clothes]. • C. Gs answer: "What kind of... ?" rather than "Whose ...?"; similar to adjectives/PREMODIFIERS (rather than determiners) • Inseparable with the following N: new children's clothes • Paraphrased by for-phrase: clothes for children • Idiomatic meaning: a hornets' nest v. bees wax (idiosyncratic spelling) • Frequent use with personal Ns (especially in PL): boys' camp, a women's clothing GENITIVES OF TIME AND MEASURE • function: specify location in time (often in news) • As far as we know, yesterday's job was only their second. • The Stock Exchange is investigating Friday's steep rise in the share price of Pearl Group. • Alternating with common case: • Her visitor had a strong pungent odor of a winter's day. • All four children stood blinking in the daylight of a winter day. • function: in expressions of duration, distance, value, amount • an hour's discussion, a moment's consideration, a month's holiday, a year's sabbatical, ten minutes' duration • / held the telephone at arm's length and stared at it. • They now kept a stone's throw to the left of the road. • She had to buy fifty pounds' worth. • Perhaps he took my thousand dollars and put me to skep with two dollars' worth of ether. • In my book you're a nickel's worth of nothing. ELLIPTIC (INDEPENDENT) GENITIVES • If HEAD NOUN recoverable (from context), the G phrase on its own: • That isn't my [handwriting]. It's Selina's! • Albert, you are neglecting the [glasses]. Mr Deane's is almost empty and so is Monsieur Belmont's. • If a [car]'s dirty it's a woman's. • Full NP with G reduced if it reappears later in the text/utterance: • A: Yeah, I fancy going out anyway. I don't fancy sitting in Terry and Lindsy's flat all night. • B: Oh no, I wasn't planning on staying at Terry and Lindsey's all night. • Conventionalized Gs = no need for a head noun: • She's going to a friend's. • An open bottle of Jack Daniel's is on the candle table. GROUP GENITIVES • G suffix attached to the last word of a G phrase: • The father of five's face was so badly busted he had to befitted with a metal cage to keep the bones in place until they set. • Coordinate construction: • The new girls slept in Zoey and Lucy's room. • He had to take a minute or two's rest to recover his breath. • Choice between a group G and 2 coordinated s-Gs may correlate with a difference in meaning: • Sir David did not comment on Britain and China's war of words over Hong Kong's future. • Not only do the World Cup organizers have to keep England's and Holland's supporters apart, they, will also have to cope with Ireland's peaceful "green army", which could number 20,000. DOUBLE GENITIVE • Phrase with of construction + s-G; head N usually with indefinite article • This was a good idea of Johnny's. • The woman who owns Harte's is a friend of ours, well, of my father's and she's quite incredible. • Remember he's a relative ofKupka's, and close to his wife. • Commonly used with demonstratives pronouns • The child found herself permanently transported from her mother's two-room house to this mansion of her father's • Occasionally with wh-determiners • What business of Winter's was it that he'd had a mere half-bottle of champagne with his common pheasant supper? GENDER • less important grammatical category (compared to e.g. Czech); no grammatical form makes G explicit, only 3rd pers. • Tied to biological sex; reflected in co-occurrence patterns (SG pers., possessive and reflexive pronouns) Not only reflects reality; also: • Convention • Speaker's choice Strategies to avoid gender refs. example nouns pronouns personal/human: masculine Tom, a boy, tfie man he feminine Sue, a girl, the woman she dual a journalist, the doctor he, she non-persona \fneuter, a house, the bird it • Pronouns marked for personal/neuter gender: personal neuter indefinite -bodyf-one -thing (e*g+ nobody, no one, nothing) interrogative who what relative who which GENDER: LEXICAL PAIRS • male v. female (MASCULINE, FEMININE) denotations: • Family relationships, social roles, animals: • king, father, uncle, lord, bull... queen, etc. • Formal markers: • Premodification: male/female... • Compounding: -man/-woman... • Derivational endings: -ess ... (-or/-er) • Some words have strong masculine overtones: soldier, labourer, alderman Frequency of compound nouns ending in -man v. -woman; occurrences per _ million words spokss- each * represents 20 po/'ce" woman -man chair- U nouns ending in -man business- □ nouns ending in -woman * • congress- □ horse- □ • Masculine term if no specific referent identified: • A Ford spokesman admitted the existence of an internal document. • Masculine used even for women: • That's the view of Sheila Davidson, chairman of the Institute of Public Relations. • Eyeline spokesman Rosie Johnson said: "We don't need a vast sum but without it, we'll be forced to close/' • Means of expressing dual gender reference: -person(s), -people; to overcome bias associated with the use masculine forms: • The rally will also be addressed by Amanda Hallaway, chairperson of the Youth Committee of the Northern Ireland Congress of Trade Unions. • Mrs Ruddock, who said she had been nominated as spokesperson for the wives, told reporters: <. . .> • Only moderately common compounds: chairperson, spokesperson, salespeople, townspeople GENDER SPECIFIC / DUAL GENDER REFERENCE • If Ns/pronouns of dual gender: friend, individual, journalist,... anybody; problem when referring by: he, his v. she, her (no neuter personal pronoun ft) • Each [novelist] aims to make a single novel of the material he has been given. • Each [individual] is thus the recipient of the accumulated culture of the generations which have preceded him. ... heavily criticized though intended to have dual reference • Strategies to avoid gender-specific reference: • Coordinated pronoun forms: he or she, he/she • The user acts on his/her own responsibility • Use of plural rather than singular: • Not everybody uses their indicator. • Now they expect responsible customers to pay for their folly. 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