1.
NOUN
Definition of Noun
A noun is a part of speech typically denoting a person, place, thing, animal, or idea.
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the
main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition.
Lexical categories are defined in terms of the ways in which their members combine with other kinds
of expressions. The syntactic rules for nouns differ from language to language. In English, nouns are
those words which can occur with articles and attributive adjectives and can function as the head of a
noun phrase. https://glossary.sil.org/term/noun
(Loos, Eugene E., et al. 2003. Glossary of linguistic terms: What is a noun?)
According to Mercella frank, the noun is one of the most important parts of speech. Its
arrangement with the verb helps to form the sentence core which is essential to every
complete sentence. In addition, it may function as the chief “head” word in many structures
of modification.1 Nouns may function not only in the central core of the sentence, but also in
structures of modification. Noun is a word (group of words) that is name of person, a place,
thing, activity, quality or ideas. Noun can be used as the subject or object of a verb. 2
Frank Marcella.1972. Modern English. USA: Prentice Hall.
1. Marcella Frank, Modern English: A Practical Reference Guide. New Jersey: Prentice Hall,
Inc., 1972, p. 6.
2 . Jeremy Harmer, How to Teach English: An Introduction to the Practice of English
Language Teaching, New Jersey: Longman, 1998, p. 37.
Noun itself, rarely used as a single word in sentence, but it is usually modified by other part
of speech, such as adjectives, adverbs, nouns, or verbs. This construction will make what is
called noun phrase. Danesi said that noun is word that allow you to name and label the
person, entities, places, and concept that make up our world. 49
Marcel Danesi, Ph.D.: Basic American Grammar and Usage. (New York : Barron‟s
Educational Series. 2006), p.22.
In addition, it may function as the chief or “head” words in many structures of modification.
In the book The idea to Essay a Rhetoric, Reader, and Handbook Jo and Anthony Explain
noun are names of person, animal, things, places, characteristic, and ideas.
Jo Ray McCuen, Anthony C. Wincler. From idea to Essay A Rhetoric, Reader, and
Handbook (12thed)( New York:Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.2009),p.574
We can identify the class of nouns in the terms of the fact that they generally inflect for
number, and thus have distinct singular and plural forms. Acccordingly, we can differenciate
a noun like fool from an adjective like foolish by virtue of the fact that only (regular) nouns
like fool- not adjectives like foolishcan carry the noun plural inflection –s. Only the head
noun in such expressions 19 can be pluralised, not any preceding noun used as modifier of
the head noun: thus, in expressions such as car doors, policy decisions, etc. And then the
second noun is the head noun and can be pluralised, whereas the first noun is a modifier some
kind and cannot be pluralised (Radford, 2004:19).
The functions of noun
When we speak of the functions of nouns, we simply mean the different functions that nouns can
serve while appearing in sentences. There are some function of the noun used in a sentence
1. Subject of the Sentence
Nouns can serve as subjectsOpens in new window when they answer the question:
“Who or what is doing the action?”
or “Who or what is being the state of being?” (in a sentence.)
-Chris kicked the ball.
- The sky seemed hazy.
2. Direct Object of the Verb
A noun can function as a direct object in a sentence when it answers the question:
“Whom or what is receiving the action of the verb?”
-Chris kicked the ball. (Ball, is definitely the direct object)
-Han Jisung played a piano. (Piano, is definitely the direct object.)
3. Indirect Object
An indirect object is a person or thing to whom or for which something is done.
A noun can function as an indirect objectOpens in new window, which, like a direct objectOpens in
new window, requires a verb of action.
As with the receiver of the direct object, which is directly the receiver of the action, an indirect
object receives the action of the verb indirectly.
For Example:
- Hyunjin supplied him some goods.
-Lino lent Sooni the book.
4. Subject Complement
Nouns can function as subject complementsOpens in new window, usually when they follow a verb
of being and answer the question “Who?”, or the question “What?”.
For Example:
- The lady is an engineer. (The word (engineer), which follows the linking verb, is, is the subject
complement.)
5. Object of Preposition
Prepositional phrasesOpens in new window are groups of words beginning with a prepositionOpens
in new window and generally ending with a noun.
The noun that follows a preposition is the object of the prepositionOpens in new window.
For Example:
- From the beginning of the term, Seungmin was certain she would make good grades.
beginning is the object of preposition, from;
term is the object of preposition, of.
6. Predicate Nominatives
A predicate nominative also called predicate nounOpens in new window, is a noun or pronoun that
completes or complement a linking verb and renames the subject of the verb.
It typically come after linking verbs.
For Example:
-The house feels like home.
7. Object Complement
The object complement sometimes called objective complement is usually a noun, pronoun or an
adjective which comes after a direct object to rename or modify the direct object.
For Example:
-We met the boy eating.
8. Appositive
The appositiveOpens in new window merely functions the same way the predicate nominativeOpens
in new window does; but whereas the predicate nominative renames the subject in a sentence, the
appositive renames another noun in the sentence.
An appositive nounOpens in new window must follow another noun and rename that noun. Comma
usually sets off an appositive noun with its modifiers from the rest of the sentence.
The appositive noun may immediately follow the noun, as in the following sentence.
For Example:
1) Meet my new classmate, James.
9. Direct Address
A noun can also functions as direct address.
A noun of direct addressOpens in new window is a person’s name, directly spoken to.
Nouns of direct address are typically used to name the listener when you are addressing, or
speaking, directly to him or her in conversation.
A noun of direct address is separated by commas; it does not have any grammatical relationship to
any part of the sentence.
The speaker merely mentions the listener’s name in attempt to catch the listener’s attention.
For Example:
Sanders, I received your proposal mail yesterday.
→In this sentence, the speaker is requesting Sanders’s attention.
10. Nominative Absolute
A noun can function as a nominative absolute.
The nominative absoluteOpens in new window is a sort of phrase that is made up of a noun followed
and modified by a participleOpens in new window or a participial phrase.
For Example:
The book being short, I read it in two hours.
https://ifioque.com/parts-of-speech/nouns/noun-function
b. Types of Noun
Some nouns may belong to more then one of the types below:
1) Proper nouns (capital letter in its written and printed in several ways that differ from the way it is
used in other languages using Roman alphabet)
2) Concrete nouns (a word for a physical object that can be perceived by the tenses)
3) Collective nouns (a word for a group of people)
4) Countable and uncountable nouns (countable noun usually be made plural by the addition of –s
and –es, uncountable noun is not used in plural)
5) Noun compounds (a group of two words but sometimes more joined together into vocabulary
unit that has function as single part of speech)
Noun compounds consist of the following form:
a) Noun + noun (bathroom, department store, ect)
b) Possessive noun + noun (artist’s model, lady’s maid)
c) Adjective + noun (black bird, blue print)
d) Verb + noun (pickpocket, flashlight)
e) Noun + verb (handshake, lifeguard)
6) Adjective form used as nouns (a plural verb when refer to persons.
Ex: “rich” as “richer”)
7) Verb form used nouns (such noun with –ing endings are called
gerunds. Ex: swimming is my hobby).
c. Concrete Noun Concrete noun is refers to objects and substances, including people and animals,
physical items that we can perceive through our senses, that means concrete nouns can be touched,
felt, held, something visible, smelt, taste, or be heard.
2. Verbs
Verbs are words that denote action. Vandler (in Hatch and Brown, 1995: 252 ) placed verbs into four
classes: activities (run, walk, look for), accomplishment (build, kill, paint a picture), achievement
(recognize, find, lose, understand, hear), and states (know, love, have, desire).
Hatch, Evelyn, and Cheryl B.1995.Vocabulary, Semantic, Language Education. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Hatch, E. & Brown, C. (1995).Vocabulary, Semantics, and Language Education. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Types of Verbs
Main Verbs (or Action Verbs)
Helping Verbs
Linking Verbs
– Transitive Verbs
– Intransitive Verbs
https://www.theidioms.com/verbs/
3. Pronouns
Traditional grammar postit a category of pronoun to denote a class of words which are said
to ‘stand in place of’ (the meaning of the prefix pro-) or refer back to noun expressions.
Howefer, there are reasons to think that there are a number of different types of pronoun
found in English and other languages ( Radford, 2004:20). One such type is represented by
the word one in the use illustrated below:
a. Jhon has a red car and Jim has a blue one.
b. I’ll take the green apples if you haven’t got any red ones.
From a gramatical perspective, one behaves like a regular count noun here in that it has the
s-plural from ones and occcurs in a position (after an adjective like blue/red) in which a count
noun could occur. However, it is a pronoun in the sense that it has no descriptive content of
its own, but rather takes its descriptive content from antecedent (e.g. one in (a) refers back
to the noun car and so one is interpreted as meaning ‘car’) let’s refer this kind of pronoun as
an N-pronoun. By contrast, in the examples in ‘a and b’ below, the bold-printed pronoun
seems to serve as a pronominal quantifier. In the first (italicised) occurence in each pair of
examples, it is prenominal (i.e, noun preceding) quantifier which modifies a followingnoun
expression (viz., guests/miners/protesters/son/cigarettes/bananas); in the second (bold-
printed) occurence it has no noun expression following it and so functions as a pronominal
quantifier ( Radford, 2004:25).
4. c) Adjectives
Adjectives are used to highlight qualities or attributes. Certain adjectives are typically used to
describe particular nouns. For example, light, dark, bright, and dull are used with color
nouns. Adjectives can point out positive or negative qualities. Interestingly, young children
seem to acquire positive or pleasant adjectives more readily than negative, unpleasant one.
One reason why linguist believe that positive adjectives are learnt more easily is that they
are unmarked.
Adjectives usually provide relevant information about the nouns/pronouns they
modify/describe by answering the questions: What kind? How many? Which one? How
much? Adjectives enrich your writing by adding precision and originality to it.
Example:
The team has a dangerous batsman. (What kind?)
I have ten candies in my pocket. (How many?)
I loved that red car. (Which one?)
I earn more money than he does. (How much?)
https://www.learngrammar.net/english-grammar/adjective
Quirk et al. (1985) also claim four common features of adjectives (p. 402 - 403):
1) They can freely occur in attributive function (i.e. they can pre-modify a noun,
appearing between the determiner, including zero article and the head of a noun phrase).
Ex. an ugly painting, the round table
2) They can freely occur in predicative function (i.e. they can function as subject
complement or object complement).
Ex. the painting is ugly. He thought the painting ugly.
3) They can be pre-modified by the intensifier very. Ex. the children are very happy.
4) They can take comparative and superlative forms. The comparison may be by means
of inflections (-er and -est) or by the addition of the pre-modifiers more or most
(periphrastic comparison). Ex. The children are happier now. These students are more
intelligent.
Khamying, S. (2007). Advanced English Grammar for high learner. Bangkok: V.J. Printing.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316140666_A_Study_of_Adjective_Types_and_Fu
nctions_in_Popular_Science_Articles
5. d) Adverbs
Adverbs are similar to adjectives in many ways although they typically assign attributes to
verbs, to clauses or to entire sentences rather than to nouns. Locative adverb, like here and
there are used very early by young children as ways of pointing to the location of objects.
Time adverbs, like now, then and yesterday are used by second language learners as an
initial way to mark.
Adverbs: functions
Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives, nouns, other adverbs and whole phrases or
sentences:
Example function
Sit quietly! modifying a verb (sit)
Claire was rather quiet. modifying an adjective (quiet)
That week seemed to go
by incredibly slowly. modifying another adverb (slowly)
It takes quite a lot of courage to
jump from a plane. modifying a noun phrase (a lot of courage)
I’m going for a run later so I don’t modifying the whole clause (I’m going for a
want to eat anything now. run)
modifying the whole sentence (I don’t like the
plans).
Personally, I don’t like the plans.
It gives the speaker’s attitude. We often use
commas with the adverb when it modifies the
whole sentence
https://www.learngrammar.net/english-grammar/adverb#:~:text=An%20adverb%20is%20a
%20word,as%20friendly)%20are%20not%20adverbs.
https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/nouns/what/what-is-a-determiner.html
