SEMINAR 1 – NOUNS – INTRODUCTION (SGEL 5.1 – 5.2; LEG – 2.12 – 2. 19; Chalker - ex. 46,47; Grammar I – ex. 27 – 29, 30, 33) Nouns: proper v. common - countable v. uncountable – abstract v. concrete Partitives: quantity v. quality; Determiners with countable and uncountable nouns I. BASIC DISTINCTIONS Proper – e.g. Indonesia, Chicago Concrete – e.g. a bun, a pig, a book Nouns Countable (count) Abstract – a difficulty, a remark, an idea Common Concrete – butter, gold, clothing Uncountable (noncount) Abstract – music, business, courage Proper nouns - have unique reference – are used for a particular person, thing, place or idea – determiner and number contrast cannot occur e.g. personal names – Andrew, Mr. Smith, President Kennedy forms of address – Mum, Dad, Auntie geographical names – Asia, India, Wisconsin place names – Madison Avenue, Regent Street months, days of the week, festivals and seasons – April, Sunday, Easter Common nouns - any noun that is not the name of a particular person, place, thing, etc. - may be either countable or uncountable or both! Countable nouns (also called count) – denote individual countable entities - we can use a/an in front of them - a book, an envelope - they have a plural form and can be used in the question How many…? - can be used with numbers – one stamp / two stamps Uncountable nouns (also called non-count) – denote undifferentiated mass or continuum - are not normally used with a / an – Sugar is expensive. - do not normally have a plural form and can be used in the question How much…? - are not normally used with a number in front of them Concrete nouns - are accessible to senses, observable, measurable - can be countable: persons – a girl, a tulip objects – a bottle groups – an army, a crowd units of measurement – a franc, a kilo parts of a mass – a bit, a piece, a slice - can be uncountable: materials, liquids, gases – cotton, milk, air ‘grains’ and ‘powder’ – barley, rice, dust, flour activities – camping, drinking, eating languages – Italian, Turkish - some concrete nouns can be used as countable or uncountable: e.g. glass - a) substance (material) – Glass is made from sand. /U/ b) a unit made of the substance – I broke a glass this morning. /C/ (i.e. a particular thing) c) st specific – I heard a strange noise. d) st in general – Noise is a kind of pollution (for more examples and details see below – the section on Countability) Abstract nouns - nonobservable, nonmeasurable – countable: a hope, an idea, a situation, a denial; also uncountable: honesty, anger, equality II. COUNTABILITY - the distinction between countable and uncountable nouns has a semantic (=is related to meaning, e.g. glass U v. a glass C – different meaning) and grammatical (= different determiners) significance - countable nouns – must have a determiner (a, one, this, my…) in the singular, it is not necessary in the plural: a book, books but not book on its own without a determiner - uncountable nouns do not need a determiner The following table illustrates the range or determiners used with nouns: +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | | Common | | |---------------------------------------------------------------| | Proper | Countable | Uncountable | C or U | |---------------------+-------------------+--------------------+----------------------| | | | | | | | | | | |a) Mark | book | music | brick (material) | |---------------------+-------------------+--------------------+----------------------| | | | | | | | | | | |b) the Mark | the book | the music | the brick | |---------------------+-------------------+--------------------+----------------------| | | | | | | | | | | |c) a Mark | a book | a music | a brick (one) | |---------------------+-------------------+--------------------+----------------------| | | | | | | | | | | |d) some Mark | some book | some music | some brick | |---------------------+-------------------+--------------------+----------------------| | | | | | | | | | | |e) Marks | books | musics | bricks | +-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ a) without a determiner b) with the definite article c) with the indefinite article d) with the ‘partitive’ some e) plural without a determiner Note: there are some exceptions: a) the Chicago of my youth (not Chicago in general as in – He lives in Chicago.) b) The Kate I know wouldn’t do such a thing. (in special grammatical contexts) c) A Mrs Tadley is waiting to see you. (= a certain person I don’t know) Nouns which can be either countable or uncountable A) countable v. uncountable - as countable nouns they are used to refer to single items, things or st specific - as uncountable nouns they refer to substances, materials, st in general C U a) He ate a whole chicken. Would you like some chicken? b) I had a boiled egg for breakfast. There’s egg on your face. c) I broke a glass this morning. Glass is made from sand. d) I’ve got a new iron. Steel is an alloy of iron. e) What do the papers say? Paper is made from wood. f) A good education is expensive. Education should be free. g) Try not to make a noise. Noise is a kind of pollution. h) I need a light by my bed. Light travels faster than sound. i) Are these drawings by Goya? I’m no good at drawing. j) She has a painting by Turner. Painting is my hobby. k) She gave a reading of her poems. Reading is taught early. l) There’s a hair in my soup. She has blonde hair. m) The lambs were eating quietly. There is lamb on the menu today. n) A coal fell from the fire and burnt the rug. They mine coal in this area. In some cases there is little difference in meaning between the C and U noun e.g. The house is built of brick. He used bricks to build the house. But! In some cases there is a notable difference in meaning: e.g. I want an evening paper, please. (= a newspaper) Wrap the parcel up in brown paper. Sometimes the distinction is achieved by separate lexical items: C U a garment - clothing a permit (a work permit) - permission a weapon - arms a suitcase - luggage a machine - machinery a household chore / chores - housework a job - work a note / coin - money B) normally uncountable nouns (e.g. wine) used as countable - if we refer to particular varieties, the noun is often preceded by an adjective - a nice wine - or there is some kind of specification - a wine of high quality - plural is possible here – This region produces some awful wines as well as good ones. - many words for drinks are uncountable when we think of them as substances (a) but we can make them plural and use a / an to mean ‘a glass of…’ or use them with numbers (b) a) Beer / Coffee / Tea is expensive these days. / Do you want tea or coffee? b) A beer / One beer, please. Two teas and four coffees, please. This is a nice coffee. I like Brazilian coffees best. C) Nouns not normally countable in English (are often countable in other languages) - the verb is singular, e.g. The news is rather bad today. accommodation, advice, applause, assistance, baggage, camping, cash, chaos, chess, clothing, conduct, courage, cutlery, dancing, dirt, employment, equipment, evidence, fun, furniture, harm, health, homework, housing, information, leisure, litter, luck, luggage, machinery, money, mud, music, news, nonsense, parking, pay, permission, photography, poetry, pollution, produce, progress, publicity, research, rubbish, safety, scenery, shopping, sightseeing, sunshine, transport, underwear, violence, weather, work Note the differences: C U a) He gave her a box of chocolates. I love chocolate. b) Don’t raise his hopes. There’s not much hope. c) There are some differences. I don’t see much difference. d) There was a sudden silence. We listened in silence. e) I felt a pain in the knee. I didn’t feel much pain. e) These facts show that…. The story is based on fact. f) Don’t omit a single detail. He explained it in great detail. g) She’s an old gossip. She is fond of gossip. h) She was an old love of his. Love always forgives. i)… many needlessly lost lives… He’s a man full of life. Careful: Some normally uncountable nouns, esp. nouns referring to human emotions and mental activity, can be used countably but only in the singular, e.g. knowledge, importance, education, resistance e.g We need a secretary with a first-class knowledge of German. My parents wanted me to have a good education. She has always had a deep distrust of strangers. But mot uncountable nouns cannot be used with a / an at all. So, it´s wrong to say: * a good health, a terrible weather, an excellent English, etc. Task (prepare sentence of your own illustrating the differences in meaning, use a dictionary if you like) C U 1. fruit 2. glass 3. paper 4. iron 5. toast 6. matter 7. rule 8. lace 9. work 10. experience III. PARTITIVE CONSTRUCTIONS - using ‘partitives’ we can refer to a single item (a loaf of bread) or a part of a whole (a slice of bread) or a collection of items (a packet of biscuits) - both countable and uncountable nouns can be used with them - they may relate to a) quantity b) quality - the partition can be singular or plural – it affords a means of imposing number on uncountable nouns – the partition is expressed by a countable noun (e.g. piece, item) + an of-phrase (see below) a) Quality partition - mostly with ‘kind’ and ‘sort’, also ‘type’, ‘variety’ and ‘blend’ (e.g. coffee, tobacco) e.g. a new kind of computer – several new kinds of computer (s) one sort of silk tie – two sorts of silk tie (s) a delicious kind of bread – some delicious kinds of bread a fashionable sort of wallpaper – fashionable sorts of wallpaper Note: two coffees might mean a) two cups of coffee b) two types of coffee (depending on the context) b)Quantity partition e.g. a piece of cake - two pieces of cake an item of clothing – several items of clothing a blade of grass some specks of dust two slices of meat / bread a flock of sheep / pigeons a page of a book two acts of a play a kilo of potatoes a yard of cloth Some quantity partitives are general and some are specific (more descriptive and restrictive): General - a piece of … - the most widely used partitive, either with concrete nouns (bacon, chalk, paper) or abstract nouns (advice, information, news, research) - a bit of … - generally implies a small quantity – a bit of rice - an item of … - usually with abstract nouns (piece is also possible), it is not generally used with concrete nouns – an item of cake (but an item of clothing), an item of news = a news item Specific – typical with specific nouns - an act of friendliness / mercy / malice/ cruelty / kindness - an atom of truth (also: a grain of truth) - a bag of flour - a ball of string - a bar of chocolate / soap - a blade of grass - a book of stamps - a box of matches / tissues / chocolates - a burst of applause / laughter / energy / thunder - a carton of cigarettes - a cloud of dust - a crust of bread - a cube of ice - a dash of soda - a drop of water / rain - a fit of anger / energy / enthusiasm - a flake of snow - a flash of lightning - a game of darts, chess - a grain of rice / truth / sand / salt - an item of news / clothing - a jar of jam - a joint of meat - a jug of water - a loaf of bread - a lump of sugar - a make of car / computer - a metre of cloth - a mug of cocoa - a pair of gloves / jeans / pliers - a peal of thunder - a period of calm - a pile of rubbish / books / plates - a pinch of salt - a pot of tea - a rasher of bacon / ham - a roll of paper / film / cloth - a scrap of paper - a sheet of paper - a sip of tea - a slice of bread / meat - a species of insect - a speck of dust - a spoonful of medicine - a square of chocolate - a stroke of luck - a tube of toothpaste - a wink of sleep - a wisp of smoke / steam / hair collective nouns - an army of soldiers - a bouquet of flowers - a bunch of flowers - a bunch of grapes - a bunch of keys / radishes - a crew of sailors - a flock of sheep / birds - a herd of cattle - a hive of bees - a mob of hooligans - a pack of cards / a pack of wolves - a panel of experts - a set of cutlery - a string of pearls - a swarm of bees / tourists measure partitives – denote length, area, volume, weight, etc. - an acre of land - a metre of cloth - a mile of cable - a pint of milk / beer