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• the smallest unit of grammatical analysis.

a morpheme

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MORPHEMES

 derivational

inflectional

work – work(-s)

work – work (-ed)

paradigm

read + -er

un- + tie

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

inflectional rules - relate different
forms of the same lexeme (an abstract

kind of word of which the word forms are all

inflectional variants)



word-formation - relates two different
lexemes.

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

word-formation:



derivation and compounding

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DERIVATION

 different words with a shared base.

 WORD CLASSES (primary grammatical categories)

 CONVERSION (or ZERO DERIVATION):

word passing from one word class to another (or several

others) without taking any affix

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NOUNS

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

What is a noun?

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

A noun tells us what someone or something is called.



a noun can be:

the name of a person (John)

a job title ( a doctor)

the name of a thing ( radio)

the name of a place ( London)

the name of a quality (courage)

the name of an action (laughter/laughing).


Nouns are the names we give to people, things,

places etc. in order to identify them

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

Nouns are designators used to refer to

objects (referents) of extralinguistic

reality.

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The word class of nouns may be

characterized by a set of



a/ syntactic



b/morphological



c/ semantic

criteria.

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

morphological point of view:



nouns are characterized by

grammatical categories (sometimes

called secondary grammatical

categories) which are actually certain

generalizations which are made about

the properties that nouns exhibit.

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

These generalizations are such that

they should be applicable to all items,

yet some tolerance (exceptions to the

rule) is admissible.

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

English nouns exhibit categories of

countability

number
determination
gender
case

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A / represent unique specimens (examples) or

classes of entities – PROPER vs. COMMON

nouns

B/ refer to concrete (perceivable by senses)

objects or abstract concepts – CONCRETE vs

ABSTRACT nouns.

C/ denote individual countable things or

undifferentiated substances that represent

continuums – COUNTABLE vs

UNCOUNTABLE nouns.

SUBCLASSES OF NOUNS

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NOUNS

COMMON

COUNT

UNCOUNT/

MASS

ABSTRACT

CONCRETE

ABSTRACT

PROPER

CONCRETE

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NOUN CATEGORIES:

COUNTABILITY :

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

The category of countability is defined

by the presence of the binary

opposition of countability vs.

uncountability which English nouns

manifest.

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

COUNT (COUNTABLE)



UNCOUNT (UNCOUNTABLE, non-

count, mass).

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The entities which count nouns refer to

are characterized by discreteness

(separateness), disccontinuity and

articulateness, while things which are

referred to by the uncount nouns are

characterized by continuity

(connectedness) and non-

articulateness.

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

The discontinuity of count nouns

allows for their quantitative

differentiation, hence they offer

themselves a countable use.



The continuity of uncount (mass)

nouns allows for their qualitative

differentiation only.

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

two subclasses have different

grammatical features



– count nouns - take plural forms

(bottle –bottles)

- combine freely with

quantifiers and a/an (three bottles,

each bottle, a bottle)



uncount nouns - do not

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

Count and uncount nouns can be

differentiated according to the

following criteria:

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

There are three subclasses of nouns,

which do not have strict boundaries

between them but rather tend to

overlap in some areas:

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1.

nouns which are in principle count

(chair, idea)

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

nouns which are as a rule uncount

(luck, the beautiful)



some of them (when modified)may

be accompanied by a determiner (a

fair knowledge of English

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2. Nouns which can be systematically

used as uncount or count:

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

a material substance vs. an item of that

substance coal/ a coal



(with abstract nouns ) an activity, quality,

state as such vs. their individual

occurrences life/lives



A matter vs a type (sort) of that matter

(food/foods)



A quality vs a bearer of the quality (love/ a

love)



Many nouns have quite different meanings

in the two uses (glass/glasses)

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

Although uncount nouns are themselves

invariable for plural contrast, they may

combine with some auxiliary expressions

(unit nouns), which thus subdivide masses

into separate pieces which can then be

counted (an act of mercy, a lump of sugar.)

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-

These unit nouns (partitives) are of

several types:

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

a/ general-purpose unit nouns (bit,piece)

combinable with most mass nouns (a piece of

cake)



b/ unit nouns typical for particular mass

nouns (a blade of grass, a speck of dust, a fit

of anger)



c/ nouns of measure-depth (a foot of water),

length (a yard of cloth), weight (an ounce of

tobacco), area (an acre of land), volume (a

pint of beer)



d/ species nouns (a type of wood, a make of

car, a kind of behaviour)

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NUMBER



The grammatical category of number

is distinguished only in count nouns

(VARIABLES)



They are either in the singular or in the

plural.



The marked member of the opposition

is the plural.

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

The plural normally indicates that the

objects referred to can be counted and

that their number is higher than one.



The singular either has the meaning

of one-ness, or, as the unmarked

member of the opposition, is generally

used when counting is irrelevant.

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

Pairs like the singular and plural are

called asymmetric oppositions. One

member of such an opposition carries

a sign which is not present in the other

member.

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A.

: VARIABLE NOUNS:

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

a/ Regular plurals -(e) s – the only

productive, hence predictable, plural ending



/iz/ - horse, glass (after sibilants) -



/z/ - boy, hill, leg – after voiced consonants

(except z, ž, dž ) and vowels



/s/ - cat, book– after voiceless consonants

(except s, š and tč)

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

b/ Irregular plurals - unproductive

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

1. Voicing – change of voiceless fricatives (not

after short vowels or consonants : cloths, months)

and f (also the spelling change) into the

corresponding voiced fricatives



House – houses



Bath – baths



Life – lives



In some nouns, both regular and voicing may

alternate



Truths



Dwarfs/dwarves



Some nouns ending in –f have regular ending



Safe – safes

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

2. Mutation (umlaut) applies to only

seven nouns and their compounds



Man- men



Foot – feet



Goose – geese



Louse – lice



Mouse – mice



Tooth – teeth



Woman – women

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

3. –en plural is restricted to three

nouns



Brother - brethren



Ox – oxen



Child – children

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

4. Zero plural cases include animal names,

esp. in the context of sport or hunting



Trout are scarce in the creek (sheep)



nationality names ending in – ese (Japanese,

Chinese)



some quantitative nouns – (fifty head of

buffalo)



miscellaneous examples with equivocal

number (data, series, species)

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5. Foreign plural – some nouns of Latin,

Greek, French origin have retained their

original plural endings.

Where both foreign an regular – s plurals

are available, the former is used in

specialized, technical contexts, and the

latter in everyday language (cacti/cactuses).

Foreign nouns which are in common use

tend to have – s plural.

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

- us

-i, -ora, -era ( radius,

corpus, genus)



- a

-ae ( larva)



- um

- a (stratum)



-ex/ix

- ices (matrix)



-is

- es (thesis)



-on

- a (criterion)



- eau

- eaux (tableau)



- o

- i (tempo)



Base + im

(cherub)

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

B: INVARIABLE NOUNS- uncount

(mass) nouns, along with proper

nouns

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a/ singular invariables

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

1. mass nouns concrete (gold)



2. mass nouns abstract (music)



- Some uncount nouns may be pluralized when

expressing intensity or extent (This is one of the heavies

snows this winter).



3. Proper nouns (personal and geographical ) denote

unique entities and behave like uncount nouns, though

surnames may be pluralized (the Kennedys)



4. Some nouns ending in –s include the names of

diseases (shingles), games (skittlers), subjects in –ics

(linguistics) and some proper nouns (Brussels)



5. Abstract adjectival heads denoting abstract

qualities (the ridiculous,)) are partially converted

adjectives to nouns

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

SINGULARIA TANTUM

- have only singular form and usually

singular concord with the verb

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

b/ Plural invariables

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1.

Summation plurals – denote objects

(instruments, articles of dress)which

consist of two equal parts (scissors,

briefs)

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2. Other invariables in –s - represent a

numerous and multifarious group of

nouns, some of which also occur

without – s, but with a corresponding

meaning difference (funds/fund)

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3. Some proper nouns – admit also

singular concord – the

Netherlands, The United Nations

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4. Unmarked plural nouns denote collectives,

i.e.organized groups of esp. animate individual

units.

Group collectives form plural regularly (minorities)

while generic collectives usually have no plural

form (the public, cattle).

Collective nouns may have singular (i.e. grammatical)

or plural (i.e. notional) concord. (The department´s

staff is/are excellent)

Some collectives (cattle, clergy, folk,people, police,

vemin, youth) are used in plural form only.

In AE collectives usually have singular concord.