Different types of Nouns and details

Classification of nouns[edit]

Proper nouns and common nouns[edit]

Main article: Proper noun

A proper noun or proper name is a noun representing unique entities (such as India, Jupiter, Harry, or BMW), as distinguished from common nouns which describe a class of entities (such as city, animal, planet, person or car).^[11]

Countable and uncountable nouns[edit]

Main articles: Count noun and Mass noun

Count nouns or countable nouns are common nouns that can take a plural, can combine with numerals or counting quantifiers (e.g., one, two, several, every, most), and can take an indefinite article such as a or an (in languages which have such articles). Examples of count nouns are chair, nose, and occasion.

Mass nouns or uncountable (or non-count) nouns differ from count nouns in precisely that respect: they cannot take plurals or combine with number words or the above type of quantifiers. For example, it is not possible to refer to a furniture or three furnitures. This is true even though the pieces of furniture comprising furniture could be counted. Thus the distinction between mass and count nouns should not be made in terms of what sorts of things the nouns refer to, but rather in terms of how the nouns present these entities.^[12][13]

Many nouns have both countable and uncountable uses; for example, beer is countable in "give me three beers", but uncountable in "he likes beer".

Collective nouns[edit]

Main article: Collective noun

Collective nouns are nouns that – even when they are inflected for the singular – refer to groups consisting of more than one individual or entity. Examples include committee, government, and police. In English these nouns may be followed by a singular or a plural verb and referred to by a singular or plural pronoun, the singular being generally preferred when referring to the body as a unit and the plural often being preferred, especially in British English, when emphasizing the individual members.^[14] Examples of acceptable and unacceptable use given by Gowers in Plain Words include:^[14]

"A committee was appointed to consider this subject." (singular)

"The committee were unable to agree." (plural)

* "The committee were of one mind when I sat on them" (unacceptable use of plural)

Concrete nouns and abstract nouns[edit]

Further information: Physical body and Abstract object

Concrete nouns refer to physical entities that can, in principle at least (ie. different schools of philosophy and sciences may question the assumption, but, for the most part, people agree to the existence of something. Eg. a rock, a tree, universe), be observed by at least one of the senses (for instance, chair, apple, Janet or atom). Abstract nouns, on the other hand, refer to abstract objects; that is, ideas or concepts (such as justice or hatred). While this distinction is sometimes exclusive, some nouns have multiple senses, including both concrete and abstract ones: consider, for example, the noun art, which usually refers to a concept (e.g., Art is an important element of human culture.) but which can refer to a specific artwork in certain contexts (e.g., I put my daughter's art up on the fridge.)

Some abstract nouns developed etymologically by figurative extension from literal roots. These include drawback, fraction, holdout and uptake. Similarly, some nouns have both abstract and concrete senses, with the latter having developed by figurative extension from the former. These include view, filter, structure and key.

In English, many abstract nouns are formed by adding a suffix (-ness, -ity, -ion) to adjectives or verbs. Examples are happiness (from the adjective happy), circulation (from the verb circulate) and serenity (from the adjective serene).

Alienable vs. Inalienable Nouns[edit]

Some world languages refer to nouns differently, depending on how ownership is being given for the given noun. This can be broken into two categories: Alienable and Inalienable. An alienable noun is something that does not belong to a person indefinitely. Inalienable nouns, on the other hand, is something that is possessed definitely. Examples of alienable rights would be a tree or a shirt or roads. Examples of inalienable nouns would be a father or shadow or hair.

Pingelapese[edit]

The Pingelapese language uses a distinction between nouns.^[15] There are several classifier forms. the first is for objects which tend to be pretty large in size and not being a favorite possession (tree or shirt), the second is for small, controllable, favorite objects like dogs, books or spear. A third form would be set aside for food objects like bananas, oranges or fish. Drinks like water or coconut liquor also have a classifier forms. A fifth classifier would be designated for things that are to be chewed but not fully consumed. The only example of this was from the book Papers in Kosraean and Ponapeic, the fruit, pandanus, is chewed for the sweet/ bitter juice, but what remains after consuming the juice discarded. The 6th classifier forms are set aside for ways of transportation (bikes, canoes, and boats). The last two classifiers are designated for the land and the house.

Noun phrases[edit]

Main article: Noun phrase

A noun phrase is a phrase based on a noun, pronoun, or other noun-like word (nominal) optionally accompanied by modifiers such as determiners and adjectives. A noun phrase functions within a clause or sentence in a role such as that of subject, object, or complement of a verb or preposition. For example, in the sentence "The black cat sat on a dear friend of mine", the noun phrase the black cat serves as the subject, and the noun phrase a dear friend of mine serves as the complement of the preposition on.

Pronouns[edit]

Main article: Pronoun

Nouns and noun phrases can typically be replaced by pronouns, such as he, it, which, and those, in order to avoid repetition or explicit identification, or for other reasons. For example, in the sentence Gareth thought that he was weird, the word he is a pronoun standing in place of the person's name. The word one can replace parts of noun phrases, and it sometimes stands in for a noun. An example is given below:

John's car is newer than the one that Bill has.

But one can also stand in for larger parts of a noun phrase. For example, in the following example, one can stand in for new car.

This new car is cheaper than that one.

Nominalization[edit]

Main article: Nominalization

Nominalization is a process whereby a word that belongs to another part of speech comes to be used as a noun. In French and Spanish, for example, adjectives frequently act as nouns referring to people who have the characteristics denoted by the adjective. This sometimes happens in English as well, as in the following examples:

This legislation will have the most impact on the poor.

The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.

The Socialist International is a worldwide association of political parties.