4.2.1 The Open-class: Nouns (n.)

🔑 The Open-class Words: Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Interjections (in spoken English)

🎯 Learning Goals:

• master the (morphological) form, (semantic) meaning, and (syntactic) function of each open-class word

• recognize each open-class word and its subcategories in context (discrete sentences and discourses)

• understand the rhetorical functions of each open-class word in order to improve your writing

Warm-up activity:

Watch this music video on nouns. What are some subclasses of nouns that you heard? Type in your answers to the Mentimeter box below.

We have learned that among the 171,000 English words currently in use, over half the words are nouns, and nouns form the largest part of the average English speaker's vocabulary. We're going to dive deep and learn about the subclasses in nouns.

A. By Form (Morphology)

1) simple nouns (one free morpheme)

• book, shelf, class, room, tree, lap, top, etc.

2) compound nouns (two or more free morphemes connected w/wo a hyphen in between)

• bookshelf, classroom, laptop,

• ice cream, rain forest

• self-esteem,

• brother-in-law, mother-in-law, etc.

3) complex (derivative) nouns (one free morpheme + one or more derivational morphemes)

• wreckage, importance, assistant, resistance, galvanize, monument, referee, postmodernism

4) compound-complex nouns (a compound noun + one or derivational morphemes)

• hotheadedness (hot-head ➡️hot-head-ed ➡️hot-headed-ness)

• cold-bloodedness (cold-blood ➡️cold-blooded ➡️cold-bloodedness)

• warm-heartedness (warm-heart ➡️warm-heart-ed ➡️warm-hearted-ness)

B. By Function (Syntax)

1. Nouns can fit in the sentence frame: (The) ____ seem(s) all right. e.g., The plant seems all right.

2. Nouns can function as the head of a noun phrase .

• e.g., [an optimist], [the soft March winds]; [Uncle Tom's Cabin] Note: [ ] is used to indicate the boundary of a phrase.

3. Nouns can stand by themselves in elliptical sentences.

• e.g., – Which season is your favorite?

–Spring (is my favorite season).

C. By Meaning (Semantics)

1. concrete nouns: physical entities (people, place, objects, substances, etc.)

   • e.g., sun, moon, trees, houses, people, dogs, apples, tiles, grass, rivers

2. abstract nouns: non-physical entities (ideas, emotions, qualities, states, processes, activities etc.)

   • e.g., happiness, intelligence, loyalty, fear, anger, excitement, religion, justice

4.2.3. Other subclasses of nouns

3) animate vs. inanimate nouns

• Animate nouns include humans, animals, and other living organisms. The possessive form of animate nouns is formed by adding the inflectional morpheme -'s (e.g., Uncle Tom’s Cabin)

• Inanimate nouns refer to non-living organisms such as mountains, rivers, materials, etc. The possessive form of animate nouns inanimate nouns is formed using the structure 'the ... of ...'. (e.g., the definition of nouns)

4.2.4 Various levels of nouness (see Figure 4.2 P.72)

Some nouns look more noun-like than others. It is better to view nouns in a degree of nounness rather than a noun-non-noun dichotomous division.

1. Nouns differ in regard to generality. A writer has the freedom to chose the level of specificity/generality he/she intends to be.

e.g., being > organism > animal > mammal > canine > Labrador retriever > Mickey (my dog)

2. Nouns figure importantly in two mental processes:

• abstraction (the process of grouping things and qualities into ever broader and higher classes) and concretion (the process of dividing things and qualities into particulars).

• The two processes are interdependent, the first allowing us to generalize, the second to illustrate.

• When our nouns are too inclusive and general, the reader is left unmoored and unfocused; when our nouns are too precise and the details too abundant, the reader is dizzied and disoriented.

• Too much generalization leaves the reader with nothing to visualize, to see; too much detail leaves the reader with too many images, with a cluttered storeroom of odds and ends.

• Effective writing integrates the two processes, soaring to generalization for an overview and dipping into particulars for support and authenticity.

• Lively writing also moves back and forth between the levels, the way movies alternate close-ups with longer shots. Stay at one level - any level- for too long, and the reader begins to doze." (Rice, 1992, p. 235)

4.2.6 A Fun Noun Game: Flyswatter

1. Quiz 3 (on Blackboard, due next Monday)

2. Grammar Scrapbook #4: Nouns

3. WS 4.1.1. Nouns (optional)

4. Exercise 4.4 (textbook p. 76) (optional)