Chapter 3 Nouns

1. Chapter 3 Nouns

2. Teaching Aims • help the Ss to have an understanding about how nouns are used in the English language • help the Ss to be clear about the plural form and the possessive form of nouns Teaching Points • the plural form of nouns in English • The possessive form of nouns in English

3. 1. classification of nouns 2. number forms of nouns 3. partitives 3. possessive form of nouns 4. the gender of nouns 5. usage of nouns in sentence 6. keys to the excises

4. simple nouns Nouns compound nouns derivative nouns

5. A simple noun is a noun that contains only one free morpheme, e.g. man chair A compound noun is a noun that is composed of two or more morphemes, e.g. armchair motherland A derivation noun is a noun that comes from a verb, an adjective or a simple noun with affixes, e.g. arrangement greatness

6. countable proper nouns Nouns individual nouns common collective nouns nouns material nouns abstract nouns uncountable

7. A proper noun is the name used for a particular person, place or thing, and spelt with a capital initial letter, e.g. Anderson, Britain A common noun is a name common to a class of people, things or abstract ideas, e.g. boy, tiger, water. Common nouns can be further divided into individual nouns (e.g. boy, house, tiger ), collective nouns (e.g. family, team), material nouns (e.g. air, tea, snow), abstract nouns (e.g. glory, failure , education)

8. Individual nouns and collective nouns are usually countable nouns (nouns that have plural and which can collocate with numbers and with such determiners as a, an, many few, these, several, etc) while material nouns and abstract nouns are usually uncountable nouns(nouns that can not go with the above mentioned determiners)

9. Exercise 1. Fill the blanks with a suitable noun to complete the following sentences. 1. Can you describe the car? The police need a full _____ in order to find it. 2. I’ve already arranged for your appointment, and this _____ can not be changed. 3. Very few people attended the lecture. The speaker was disappointed at the _____. 4. That comedian loves to exaggerate. His humor is based on the ____ of his misfortunes. 5. There is no point in arguing about this situation, because this _____ can never be resolved.

10. 6. His contributions to charity were generous. His _____ was appreciated by those he helped. 7. The scientist persisted in making the experiment. His _____ resulted in the discovery of a new vaccine. 8. His furniture design was original. Because of its _____, it won an award. 9. The tailor will measure you for the suit. We will keep a record of your _____ for future use. 10. Drinking water must be pure. Chemicals are added to maintain its _____.

11. 1. pattern of plural form of nouns and the pronunciation of “-s” (p. 50) 2. Number forms of individual nouns Individual nouns are all countable nouns and therefore have singular and plural forms. The singular form of an individual noun can follow such determiners as a, an, and one. e.g. a desk, one man. The plural form of an individual noun can be regular or irregular. The regular plural form is formed by adding “–s” or “–es” to the end of the noun like days, houses, stories, etc., while the irregular plural is not

12. formed in such a way but by other means like tooth—teeth, mouse—mice, ox—oxen, etc.. 3. Number forms of collective nouns Some collective nouns are countable, some are not. Countable collective nouns behave just like individual nouns. An uncountable collective noun has no plural form. If we want to “count” them, we will have to use a kind of individual noun related semantically to the collective nouns. e.g.

13. collective nouns individual nouns poetry poem machinery machine clothing garment, coat, etc. furniture table, wardrobe, etc. cutlery knife equipment tool correspondence letter luggage trunk, bag, etc. police policeman clergy clergyman

14. 4. Number forms of material nouns Material nouns are generally uncountable and have no plural forms. But there are such cases that a material noun can be used either uncountable or countable. When used to mean the material itself, they are uncountable, but when used in other senses (e.g. two coffees in the sense of “two cups of coffee” ),they are countable, behaving just like individual nouns. There are also material nouns that take plural endings, e.g. sands/waters in the sense of “large expanse of sand or water” and foods/fruits in the sense of “a variety of food or fruit”. These

15. nouns. Some nouns can be viewed either as material nouns or as individual nouns, therefore the formers are uncountable and the laters are countable. It depends on the meanings of these nouns. e.g. “lamb” in the sense of “the flesh of a young sheep eaten as meat” is uncountable, while is countable in the sense of “a young sheep”. rubber(橡胶)—rubbers（胶鞋）；stone（石料）--stones（石头）；egg（蛋渍，蛋白）--eggs（蛋） ；onion（洋葱味）--onions（洋葱头）

16. 5. Number forms of abstract nouns Abstract nouns are mostly uncountable. They cannot take such determiners as a, an, one or plural forms. But there are a few abstract nouns that are countable like individual nouns (like a victory , two victories, a conference, two conferences ). There are also abstract nouns that have plural endings but are not countable. e.g. He is in financial difficulties. BUT NOT: ※He is in several financial difficulties. Some abstract nouns have both singular and plural forms, but there are some differences between the two forms. e.g.

17. a. The teachers met once a year to exchange experiece.(经验) b. Please tell us about your experiences in Africa.(经历) c. My life in China was an unforgettable experience (经历) some abstract nouns are uncountable when used to indicate abstract idea but countable when used to indicate concrete idea. e.g. uncountable countable relation 关系 亲戚 youth 青春, 青年(collective) 男青年 worry 忧愁烦恼 烦恼事 distraction 心绪烦乱,心不在焉 使人心绪烦乱的事,令人分心的事 business 商业,交易 商店,商行

18. Some abstract uncountable nouns have semantically related individual nouns as their countable equivalents Abstract Nouns Individual Nouns laughter laugh work job correspondence letter, note, etc. photography photo permission permit music song fun joy homework exercise

19. 6. Plural forms of proper nouns Proper nouns are unique in reference and therefore have no plural forms, unless the proper nouns have a plural suffix. e.g. the United States, the Philippines, the Netherlands. sometimes the proper nouns may be nominalized and therefore may take plural forms. e.g. a. Have you invited the Browns? (Brown 一家) b. There are two Miss Smiths/ Misses Smith in the class. (指两个同姓Smith的女士)

20. Ex.2: Rewrite the following sentences, putting as many words as possible in the plural form with other necessary alterations: 1. We heard a strange sound in the distance 2. The cheese could not be sold, as a mouse had left a toothmark on it. 3. You should take more care of your health. 4. He is the manager of this business. 5. We do not do much business with him. 6. He has done me a personal kindness. 7. He felt sympathy for her suffering. 8. We have a very high opinion of the old professor.

21. Ex. 3 Correct errors, if any, in the following sentences. 1. The scholars met once a year to exchange experiences. 2. Foreign ships are not allowed to fish in our territorial water 3. I went to the doctor for an advice about my health. 4. In the afternoon I did some baby-sittings, for it is a fun looking after babies. 5. Poultries are dear in the city. 6. In the garden she took a lot of photography.

22. partitives, also called unit nouns, are commonly used to denote a part of a whole or the quantity of an undifferentiated mass. Both countable and uncountable nouns can enter partitive constructions. With plural countable nouns, partitive constructions can denote the idea of “a group”, “a pack”, etc.. With uncountable nouns, such constructions can achieve countability. Partitives fall in the following categories: 1) General partitives with uncountable nouns the expression of quantity can be achieved by means of certain general partitives, particularly piece, bit, and item, followed by an of- phrase.

23. 2) Partitives related to the shape of things there are partitives that are semantically related to the shape of things and whose power of collocation is, therefore, quite limited. e.g. a cake of soap a bar of chocolate a drop of water a slice of meat 3) Partitives related to volume this kind of partitives can freely collocate with related uncountable nouns. e.g. a bottle of ink a cup of tea a bowl of rice a handful of clay a pail of water two spoonfuls of water

24. 4) Partitives related to the state of action (including fit, peal, flash, display, etc.) e.g. a fit of anger/ coughing/ laughter/ fever a peal of applause/ laughter/ thunder a flash of hope/ light/ lighting a display of courage/ force/ power/ skill/ fireworks 5)Partitives denoting pairs, groups, flocks, etc. (including pair, group, flock, herd, litter, swarm, bench, troupe, pack, shoal, school, etc.) e.g. a pair of shoes a flock of birds a herd of elephants a litter of kittens.

25. a swarm of bees a shoal of fish a school of whales a group of people a bench of judges a troupe of actors a gang of hooligans a pack of lies

26. Exe 4 Insert an appropriate unit noun: 1. a _____ of grass 2. a _____ of jewelry 3. a _____ of singers 4. a _____ of lightning 5. a _____ of sugar 6. a _____ of criminals 7. a _____ of sand 8. a _____ of lettuce 9. a _____ of employees

27. 10. a _____ of paintings 11. a _____ of ships 12. a _____ of houses 13. a _____ of firewood 14. a _____ of grapes 15. a _____ of players 16. a _____ of gum 17. a _____ of corn 18. a _____ of chocolate 19. a _____ of elephants 20. a _____ of hounds

28. 21. a _____ of chickens 22. a _____ of people 23. a _____ of actors 24. a _____ of judges 25. a _____ of trees 26. a _____ of poems 27. a _____ of rooms 28. a _____ of aircraft 29. a _____ of musicians 30. a _____ of books

29. Genitive Noun CASE is a grammatical term. It denotes the changes in the form of a noun or a pronoun showing its relationship both grammatically and semantically with other words in a sentence. In present-day English, nouns have not as complicated a case system as that of Latin or of modern German and Russian, although there exists a relic of the former case system---the genitive case . As there is not marked distinction between the subjective and the objective case of English nouns, whether a noun functions as subject or object in a sentence all depends on the word order, being not determined by any case form.

30. Ⅰ. Formation and meaning of genitive nouns 1) Rules of formation of genitive nouns a. The genitive is formed in writing by adding ’s to singular nouns and to those plural nouns that do not end in –s. e.g. my mother’s arrival, women’s clothes b. Plural nouns ending in –s take an apostrophe as genitive marker. e.g. the girls’ dormitory, the teachers’ college c. In compound nouns and noun phrases, the genitive ending is added to the end of the compound noun or to the end of the noun phrase. e.g. my mother-in-law’s death,

31. an hour and a half’s talk, somebody else’s opinion. d. in coordinate nouns, the genitive ending is added to each of the coordinate elements when denoting respective possession, and to the last coordinate element only when denoting possession in common. e.g. my brother’s clothes and my sister’s stocking, Mary and Bob’s book e. In the construction of “noun phrase +appositive”, the genitive ending is added to the end of the appositive. It can also be added to both the end of the noun phrase and the appositive. e.g.

32. his schoolmate, Johnson’s, his schoolmate’s, Johnson’s, f. In personal names ending in sibilant /z/, the genitive ending can either be ’s or an apostrophe only (e.g. Dickens’/ Dickens’s, Jones’/ Jones’s) , but it can only be ’s when personal names end in other sibilant sounds. (e.g. Marx’s, Ross’s) The genitive is particular common with personal names and with nouns denoting animate objects or objects viewed as animate. Geographical names, names of celestial bodies, and nouns denoting time, location, distance, measure, value or worth, etc. can also take genitive endings.

33. 2) Meanings of genitive nouns The genitive is chiefly used to denote possession and therefore is traditionally called “possessive case”. But genitive meanings are by no means restricted to possession. They can be summed up as follows: a. possessive genitive e.g. Mr. Brown’s suitcase has been taken downstairs. b. subjective genitive e.g. The prime Minister’s arrival is reported in the morning paper. c. objective genitive

34. e.g. the enemy’s defeat brought the war to an end. d. genitive of origin e.g. Mary’s letter (=letter from Mary) the girl’s story (=story told by the girl) e. descriptive genitive e.g. men’s shoes (=shoes for men) f. genitive of measure e.g. an hour’s work a pound’s weight one dollar’s worth of meat

35. 3) Genitive and of-phrase In many cases, possessive genitive, subjective genitive, objective genitive and genitive of origin can be replaced by an of-phrase. e.g. the trunk of an elephant=an elephant’ trunk, the arrival of the prime Minister= the prime Minister’s arrival But in other cases, however, there is no free choice. For instance, a descriptive genitive cannot be replaced by an of-phrase e.g. children’s pictorial (儿童画报)cannot be “pictorial of children”， men’s clothing(男式服装) cannot be “clothing of men”，a doctor’s degree cannot be “a degree of doctor”.

36. And also, in certain set expressions such as “at one’s wit’s end” , “to one’s heart’s content”, “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, the genitive is also the only choice. But in the case of nouns that are not normally used in the genitive, an of-phrase is practically the only possibility. e.g. the suggestion of those present at the meeting, the opinion of the chairman appointed a month ago, etc. Note: of-phrase can be used to denote apposition and it cannot be replaced by a genitive noun.

37. Exe 5 Put into the ’s genitive, if possible: 1. the father of James 2. the clothes of the boys 3. the glass of someone else 4. the name of my sister-in-law 5. the poems of Byron and Shelley 6. the work of a (whole) day 7. in the time of a week or two 8. in one of the finest shops in London 9. at (the shop of) Brown, the bookseller 10. the arrival of the train

39. Ex.1 1. description 2. arrangement 3. attendance 4. exaggeration 5. argument 6. generosity 7. persistence 8. originality 9. measurement 10. purity

40. Ex. 2 1. strange sounds 2. some mice toothmarks 3. / 4. these businesses 5. / 6. several personal kindnesses 7. sufferings 8. professors

41. Ex. 3 1. experience 2.waters 3. for advice 4. for it is fun 5. poultry 6. photos

42. Exe. 4 1. blade 2. piece 3. choir 4. flash 5. lump 6. gang 7. grain 8. head 9. staff 10.collection 11. fleet 12. cluster 13.bundle 14. bunch 15. team 16. piece 18. bar 19. herd 20. pack 21. flock 22. crowd/group 23. troupe 24. bench 25. grove 26. collection 27. suite 28. squadron 29. band 30. library

43. Exe 5 1. James(‘s) father 2. the boys’ clothes 3. someone else’s glass 4. My sister-in-law’s name 5. Byron’s and Shelley’s poems 6. a day’s work 7. in a week or two’s time 8. in one of London’s finest shops 9. at Brown’s, the bookseller’s 10. the train’s arrival