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Mihai ION Basic English Morphology

THE NOUN
1. CLASSIFICATION word-formation simple: pencil, dog, meal derived: childhood, driver, unhappiness compound: postcard, dining-room, editor-in-chief content countable (count): apple, lesson, table [+s, +a(n), many/few] Give me an apple. They eat many apples. uncountable (mass): noise, milk, wisdom [-s, -a(n), much/little] There is much noise in here. proper: John, Italy, July, Tuesday, Christmas, Newsweek collective: army, audience, class, club, committee, company, crew, crowd, family, jury, party, press, public, gang, herd, pack, poultry, swarm, shoal, mankind 2. NUMBER a) Variable nouns (sg & pl) Plural 1) -s added to the singular books, toys, radio s, photos, soprano s 2) -es added to the singular nouns ending in: -s, -z, -sh, -ch, -x, -o buses, fezzes, brush es, watch es, boxes, potato es 3) consonant + y > consonant + ie + s city/cities, fly/flies 4) -f(e) > -ve + s knife/knives, calf/calves, elf/elves, loaf/loaves, life/lives but: belief/beliefs, chief/chiefs, proof/proofs, roof/roofs, safe/safes 5) compound nouns washing-machines, forget-me-nots, grown-up s, merry-go-round s lookers-on, mothers-in-law, passers-by women drivers, men singers 6) foreign plurals stimulus stimuli, larva larvae, stratum strata, analysis analyses, criterion criteria , corp us corpora, genus genera, tempo tempi but: cactus cacti/cactuses, formula formulae/formulas, medium media /mediums, appendix append ices[books]/appendixes[anatomy] 7) irregular plurals man men, woman women foot feet, tooth teeth, goose g eese louse lice, mouse mice child children, ox oxen, brother brethren[religious] 8) zero plurals deer, sheep, fish, fruit Chinese, Japanese, Portuguese, Swiss means, series, species, barracks

Mihai ION Basic English Morphology

b) Invariable nouns (sg / pl) Singular 1) concrete mass nouns: bread, meat, luggage, furniture, money 2) abstract mass nouns: music, progress, information, knowledge, advice 3) nouns ending in -s: news, measles, linguistics, cards 4) abstract nouns derived from adjectives: the beautiful, the good, the evil, the sublime 5) proper nouns: Athens, Brussels, Naples, Wales, the Thames Partitives: a of + mass N piece, bit, item, bar, slice, pound, loaf, lump, sheet, blade, stick, strip, article, roast Plural 1) summation plurals: trousers, pyjamas, glasses, compasses, scales, scissors 2) pluralia tantum nouns: savings, customs, wages, outskirts, colours, goods 3) unmarked plurals: cattle, clergy, people, police, youth, infantry, gentry 4) personal nouns derived from adjectives: the rich, the poor, the injured, the sick 5) proper nouns: the Alps, the Highlands, the Netherlands, the United States 3. GENDER masculine (he/who): man, brother, uncle feminine (she/who): woman, sister, aunt neuter (it/which): book, house, snow common/dual (he/she/who): cousin, friend, patient Gender contrasts different words: husband wife, boy girl, bull cow, cock hen compounds: male student female student, he-bear she-bear, Tom-cat Tabby-cat, bull-elephant cow-elephant, schoolboy schoolgirl, land lord landlady suffixes: host hostess, hero hero ine, bridegroom bride, widower widow 4. CASE. The Genitive a) The Saxon genitive (sg N1s N2; pl N1 N2) is used with nouns denoting persons or other beings: fathers car, Dickens novel, Kim and Joes flat, my mother-in-laws job, a cows milk nouns denoting time, distance, size, weight, value: a three hours talk, a two miles walk, a kilos weight, two pounds worth of sugar collective nouns: the companys policy, the governments decision geographical names: England s history, London s museums nouns denoting abstractions or unique things: lifes joys, the moons rotation b) The prepositional genitive (N1 of N2) is used with neuter (inanimate) nouns: the cover of the book with long noun phrases: the wife of the man you have met in titles: The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Special constructions the elliptic genitive: at the bakers (shop), St. Pauls (Cathedral), at my aunts (house) the double genitive: a picture of Jims (=made by) vs. a picture of Jim (=presenting)

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