People, Places, Things, and Ideas
In this section, we will be talking about nouns. Nouns are defined as, “the lexical category that names entities” (Barry, 231). There are two general types of nouns, possessive and plural. Possessive nouns may be indicated by an apostrophe and an S. For example, “The woman’s drindl”. The possessor being the word woman’s. A plural noun typically ends in an -s or an -es. For example, “The beautiful flowers.” the noun here is the word flowers. There are instances when discussing a group, that both the possessive and plural forms of nouns will be expressed. An example of this is, “The men’s lederhosen”. This, however, has elements of irregular nouns as well, as lederhosen is the plural for lederhose. Men’s is not only the plural for man, but it also expresses the ownership of the lederhosen to the men.
Other types of nouns:
Common: a subcategory of noun that refers to general categories such as girl, boy, flower
Proper: a subcategory of noun that refers to a specific, named entity such as Mirabellgarten.
Concrete: a subcategory of noun that refers to tangible or visible entities
Abstract: a subcategory of noun that refers to ideas or concepts
Animate: a subcategory of noun that refers to animals and humans
Inanimate: a subcategory of noun that refers to entities that are neither human nor animal
Human: a subcategory of nouns; refers to human beings
Nonhuman: subcategory of nouns; refers to entities that are not human
(Barry, Glossary).
Discussion:
If aliens came and visited humanity, would the need for a new type of noun exist?
Agenda and media are historically plural forms, with singulars agendum and medium. What is the evidence that the plural forms have become accepted as singulars? (Barry, pg. 21).
Could plants be considered animate nouns, as they are a living thing despite moving slowly in comparison to humans and animals?
Works Cited
Barry, Anita K. “Chapter 3 Nouns and Noun Phrases.” Linguistic Perspectives on Language and Education, Pearson/Merrill Prentice Hall, 2008.