Noun

This is an introductory course in English grammar. In the university, most official and intercultural communications are done in English language. Therefore, this course is designed to sharpen candidates’ competence in English grammar and usage. It will also correct their deficiencies and prepare them for the task of communication. This is done with a view to improving students’ command of English language expression, writing skills and comprehension. It also lays a foundation for students’ acquisition and application of theories of grammar.
 * General Introduction and Course Objectives **

MODULE ONE

** Nouns **

**Introduction** The ‘parts of speech’ is a term in grammar that refers to the categories of words in a language. There are eight parts of speech in English. These are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. In this lecture, we shall discuss nouns. We shall describe and explain different classes of nouns and their peculiar features.

**LEARNING OUTCOMES**: At the end of this lecture, you should be able to: **Pre-Test** At a tender age, young, poor Chika lived with great expectations. He realized that his community could only boast of two graduates. He also discovered that most of his uncles ended their education at Grade 4, many of them not bothering to advance to the secondary school. Years later, he was admitted to study Medicine and Surgery. As he had no one to support him financially, he had to engage himself in menial jobs. However, he did not let it disturb his studies. (Adapted from ‘The Story of Poor Chika’ //Saturday Punch,// March 17, 2007)
 * 1) identify nouns in different contexts;
 * 2) state the role each plays wherever it occurs;
 * 3) use nouns effectively; and
 * 4) distinguish between types of nouns.
 * 1) What is a noun?
 * 2) What are the different classes of nouns?
 * 3) Identify nouns in the following excerpt:

**CONTENT** The English language contains several words that make up its vocabulary. Most of These words are listed in a dictionary, and they are put under different categories. This depends, however, on the similarities in their grammatical behaviour in the language. For instance, a word can be used to name things, people or idea (nouns). Another word can be used to describe an action (verb) or used to describe a thing (adjective). A word can also describe the mode of an action (adverb). Thus, due to their different behavioural patterns, words have been classified according to a cline called **Parts of Speech.** The recognized parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections. In this lecture, we shall discuss nouns. Before discussing types of nouns, we shall define the term ‘noun’ as a naming word. It names people, animals, things, places, ideas, notions, etc.

**1. Proper Nouns** Let’s start by introducing ourselves. My name is Akanji and I live in Ibadan. My pet is with me here; and its name is Tiger. What about yours? I assume your name will be something like Funke, Ngozi, Alkali, Shuaib, Wakama, Nnena, Claudius, Laetitia, Mustapha and a host of others. In class, students have nicknames or aliases such as Puma, Johnny and Walata; and also call their teachers nicknames. I also assume that you come from different places, such as Lagos, Akure, Kano, Kafanchan, Zamfara, Abuja, Benin, Warri, Port-Harcourt, Onitsha, etc. In some cases, you hear people give names to their pets, such as dogs and cats. You may call your dog Tiger while your neighbour calls hers Peace. These names, you will observe, identify each of these dogs and stand them out from the others. Thus, one who has five dogs may have five different pet names for them. Then your pet may be called Favour (if you have one) or some other names. Your house may be called a Palace even when you are not a king or a queen. If we put all our names together, we shall arrive at the following: Names of People: Akanji, Funke, Ngozi, Alkali, Shuaib, Wakama, Nnena, Claudius, Laetitia and Mustapha. Nicknames: Puma, Johnny and Walata. Names of Places: Lagos, Akure, Kano, Kafanchan, Zamfara, Abuja, Benin, Warri, Port-Harcourt and Onitsha. Proper Names of Pets or other things: Tiger, Favour, Peace, Palace. These names are proper nouns because they identify each person, place or thing among a group. In addition, the names in the following categories all fall under the class of proper nouns: business organizations, airports, days of the week/month, educational institutions, hotels/restaurants, religious festivals, sacred books, seaports, courses, languages, etc.

**2. Common Nouns** You will note, however, that there are other words which also name people, places or things. These include man, woman, boy, girl, aunt, uncle, nephew, niece, father, mother, teacher, trader and singer (for persons); room, road, school, market, farm and workshop (for places); and table, water, oil, salt, chair, goat, cattle, scarf, computer and radio (for things). Since these words also name things and people, they are referred to as nouns. Nevertheless, they have to be distinguished from those in the first group. The nouns in the first group are called //proper nouns// because they are the names that identify individual persons, places and things. The nouns in the second group are called //common nouns// since these are names, which more than one person, place, or thing has in common. Now what is the difference between the two? The major distinguishing factor is that proper nouns identify individuals with their names but common nouns are shared by more than one person. For instance, when a class teacher faces his/her students and says ‘boys, stand up’, only students that are boys will rise. When the same instruction is passed on to girls, only students that are girls will stand up. However, when he says ‘Mukhtar, stand up:’, only the individual addressed as Mukhtar will rise. This means that //boy// is common to all the male children and girl is common to the female children in that school (and anywhere else)//,// but Mukhtar is peculiar to only one of them. Thus, Mukhtar is a proper noun, but //boys// and //girls// are common nouns. To distinguish this in writing, proper nouns always begin with capital letters, while common nouns start with small letters.

**3. Collective Nouns** Now you must be wondering whether words such as choir, panel, crew, audience, congregation, team, crowd, swarm, etc are common nouns. Yes, they are, because there are different units of each in the society. For instance, there are different football teams, congregations (in churches and mosques), audiences (at lectures and cinema houses), etc. However, these words have a unique quality that distinguishes them from other common nouns. This is in the sense that they represent a collection of people or things. Choir is a group of singers in a church; audience is a group of people watching a movie or listening to a talk, and crowd is a group of disorganized people on the street. Thus, the nouns are called //collective nouns//.

**4. Concrete** **and** **Abstract** **Nouns** Concrete nouns refer to words that name things which can be seen and touched. Such words include boy, bicycle, book, jug, cup, table, clock, etc. The opposite is the abstract noun. It refers to nouns (which may be an idea or a concept), but whose referent may not be seen physically or touched. Perhaps, such concepts occur in the mind. For instance //beauty// and //faith// are abstract nouns because we may know that a thing is beautiful but we may not be able to extract the beauty from the thing. We can also say a person has faith, but we cannot see or touch that //faith//. Thus, such words are called abstract nouns because they name entities that cannot be touched. Other examples of abstract nouns include love, fear, sadness, joy, justice, belief, sincerity, etc.

**5. Countable (Count) and Uncountable (Non-Count) Nouns** We can also draw a line between nouns that can be counted (count nouns) and those that cannot be counted (non-count nouns). The following words belong to the class of countable nouns because we can take them apart and count them: house, teacher, friend, clock, book, student, box and car. However, the following cannot be so counted: water, salt, information, flour, rice, beans, soup and air. Notice, however, that uncountable nouns may become countable in some instances. We may use established measurements to count them as in the following sentences: two pints of blood, four buckets (or sachets of pure) water, three pieces of silver, two loaves of bread, five kilos of yam powder, ten bags of rice, etc. You may wonder why we consider items such as rice and beans uncountable. The fact is that the stress one will go through in counting the grains does not justify the exercise. The grains are too many to be counted. When next you want to cook either of them, try and count the content of about two cups! Then tell your friends later how easy it was. You might be tempted to equate concrete nouns with countable nouns and abstract nouns with uncountable nouns. Although this might be correct in some instances, it is not always so. The fact is that concrete nouns such as //water//, //oil//, //bread// and //salt// are not countable, but abstract nouns like //belief// and //fear// are countable.

**6. Nouns and Numbers** Singular and plural are concepts that represent //one// and //more than one// respectively. Having identified countable nouns in the last section, let us see how nouns form their plural forms. In English, suffixes, such as //–s, -es, -ies// are attached to words to indicate plurality. In some instances, the plural marker is not indicated; a situation referred to as //zero plural.// There are also other irregular plurals, such as change of internal vowels of words or addition of other affixes as in //ox–en// and //child-ren// Here are some examples: ­ **-s** **//Singular Plural//** boy boys tool tools radio radios tale tales

**-es** box boxes mango mangoes hero heroes volcano volcanoes **singular plural** **-ies** lorry lorries city cities lady ladies berry berries

**-ves** knife knives calf calves shelf shelves hoof hooves **zero** sheep sheep cattle cattle aircraft aircraft deer deer information information **Names** Jones The Joneses Adebowale The Adebowales Abdullahi The Abdullahis

**Foreign Plurals** alga algae stadium stadia criterion criteria radius radii medium media focus foci **Other Irregular Plurals** man men ox oxen child children foot feet mouse mice

Notice that nouns such as //news, ethics, Physics, billiards, scissors, measles, politics, mumps// and //shears// are singular in meaning though they are plural in form. The fact is that they have no singular form. Perhaps, we can refer to them as ‘zero singular’. Other examples include //glasses (spectacles), tongs, bellows, trousers, knickers, remains, annals,// and //scissors.// Some nouns, which do not have the plural affixes, are in the plural form. These include //people, police, cattle, poultry,// and the other examples under collective nouns. In this lecture, we have discussed the noun as a part of speech. In the process, we clarified the term involved. We also examined types of nouns, such as proper nouns, common nouns, collective nouns, concrete and abstract nouns as well as countable/count nouns and uncountable/non-count nouns. || **Post-Test**
 * **Summary**
 * 1) Can you find more examples for each of the sections identified above?
 * 2) What is the difference between an abstract noun and an uncountable noun?
 * 3) Name three classes of nouns and provide five examples of each.