HEK 215 CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH GRAMMAR

ACADEMIC SESSION 2017/2018

NOUNS

STUDENTS NAMES: ESTHER ANAK LAMARK 133574

NURUL SAFIANI BINTI NOR KAMAZAMAN 133601
GAN JUN MAY 133577
ASMA FIRZANAH BINTI SHAHARUM 133569

LECTURERS NAME: DR ANG LENG HONG

 PROPER
Have no contrast for numbers/definiteness Can have modifiers
Cannot be counted (eg. Sugar, salt)
Cannot occur with the indefinite article a Need no article/ plural form Are singular & definite
Allow contrast between definite & indefinite
Used when speaker & addressee know which individual is meant without
Can be counted (eg. specification
UNCOUNTABLE
A cow, two cows) Sometimes have a possessive determiner
Have both singular & Can occur with definite article the (eg. The Nile, the New York Times)
plural form (eg. Bus COUNTABLE COMMON
& buses) Can behave like common nouns (eg. The Jonesses, a Bentley, two
Cadillacs
There is contrast
between indefinite & NOUN
definite signaled by
articles Group of people, animals or things:
Bunch of roses, Crowd of fans, Flock of doves, Gang of thugs,
Group of things
Abstractions (events, states, times, Package Nouns
qualities)
For generalized mass or substance into individual units or pieces
A bit of cake, wood A piece of chalk, wood
A chunk of gold, A lump of clay, butter
chocolate A grain of corn, dust
Physical entities/substances (eg.
Sort of; Kinds of; Types of; Make of; Class of
student, chair, town)

More physical than abstract nouns

Measure nouns Large quantities Pair and couple

Container
pint, gallon; foot, inch; A load of; Loads of; A mass of Pair applies to two things which occur together.
basket of; box of ; cup of
ounce, pound; ton, tonne Nouns ending in ful E.g. arms, eyes, gloves
Shape
Numeral nouns Bowlful, earful, handful, Couple used to mean two or three, a very small
heap of; pile of
hundred, thousand, million mouthful, pocketful number; similar to a few. E.g. days, babies,
examples
 Genitive of time and measure
Number and case in 4.9 Case: the Genitive Speci fy ti me (especially i n news writing). Express:
Dura tion: a minutes hes itation, two hours s l eep.
nouns Di s tance/length: I held the book at arms length when reading i t.
Va l ue: She had to buy fifty pounds worth.
The form of the genitive
4.8 Number: Singular and Ending s
plural Pronounciation Independent genitives
+/iz/ a fter /s, z, , , , /: Cha rl ess, Joness, Lizs, Thomass,
Stand alone as noun phrase.
Georges, Coxs
Not part of another (main) noun phrase.
Regular plurals +/s/ a fter voi celess consonants except /s, , /: ca ts, Johns,
M any independent genitives involve ellipsis.
Da niels, Birchs, Simths, s taffs
Pronunciation Exp.:
+/z/ a fter vowels and voiced consonants except /z, , /: 1. Hes going to a friends. (a friends house)
+ // a fter consonants /s, z, f, ,tf, d/: boys , da ddys, girls, womens, dogs, cats 2. An open bottle of Coca Colas is on the table. (a
ca s e- cases, fuse- fuses, ash- ashes
pl ural nouns endings -s eg: girls, genitive is not pronounced carbonated drink)
+ /s / a fter voiceless consonants (except /s, f, tf/): ca t- ca ts, map- maps, act-
a cts Spelling Double genitives
+ /z/ a fter vowels a nd voiced consonants (except /z, , d/):
Si ngular noun: ending with apostrophe s
boy- boys , dog- dogs, time-times A special construction in which either the independent genitive or
Pl ura l nouns: ending with a postrophe s
a possessive pronoun occurs in an of-phrase:
Si ngular nouns/names ending in s (Davis, Cha rles): s s
Spelling A good idea of Johnnys.
but s ometimes s
N. endi ng in s, z, x, s h, or ch, the s pelling is es: bus-buses, box-boxes, bush- A student of Sams.
Da vi ss / Davis
bus hes A friend of ours. / One of our friends.
N. endi ng in a consonant letter + -y, the s pelling is ies: copy-copies, fly-flies,
l a dy-ladies, a rmy-armies Genitive as determiner: Specifying genitives Semantic types of noun taking the genitive
Si ngular n. ends i n a vowel l etter +-y, however, the s pelling is s: boy-boys,
da y-days Answering the question Whose X? Most part, the genitive inflection is used with personal nouns:
referring humans (proper nouns)
If the s ingular ends in o, the spelling of the plural is s ometimes os a nd Same function as the possessive determiner in a noun phrase
Also genitive used with other semantic types of nouns (news
s ometimes oes: pianos, radios [the girls] face her face
writing),
[his parents] home their home Most common genitive: collective nouns (human organizations).
Native Irregular plurals Often possible to use an off-phrase as an alternative to the genitive:
Moderately used genitive: place nouns. (Countries & places with
human populations: Spains inflation)
Ma n-men [decent peoples] feelings the feelings [of decent people]
Woma n-women
Genitives can have post modifiers: someone elses house The choice between genitives and of-phrases
Latin and Greek plurals A. The semantic class of the noun (the future of socialism _
Al umnus-alumni Genitive as modifier: Classifying genitives socialisms future)
Curri cul um-curricula B. The meaning relation between the two nouns
Ans wering the question What kind of X?
Possessive genitive (the familys car)
Compa re specifying and classifying genetives: Attributive genitive (Mathildas fear)
Zero plurals 1. Severa l hours later [the birds rel i eved owner] a rrived a t the station. Subjective genitive (Chongs recognition)
(s pecify the owner of a specific bird) C. Collocations (for heavens sake, for goodness sake, for
Pl ura l forms that do not change from singular to plural 2. Hi s hair l ooked like [a birds nes t]. He was a mess. (classify the type of nest old times sake)
Fi s h a nd i ts meaning) D. Length of phrases: end-weight (Genitive constructions
Sheep Modifier are generally short, whereas of phrases are often longer)
E. Information flow: end-focus (Given information first
Genitive Non-genitive (genitive) + new information (of-phrases))
Plural-only nouns and singular nouns in -s The womens movement The feminist movement F. Register distribution of genitives and of-phrases
Childrens literature Adult literature Factor: register.
Plural nouns: people, police, staff, cattle A summers day A summer day Of-phrases: Most frequent option overall (especially in
Singular nouns: news, measles, mumps, checkers academic writing)
Genitive: much higher used in news writing (pack information
densely & concisely into noun phrases) then academic writing.
Few genitives or of-phrases in conversation.
 Masculine and - using totally different nouns
feminine noun - using derived nouns with masculine and feminine suffixes -er/or, -ess
Gender: masculine, reference - using a modifier, such as male, female; man, woman, women
feminine, personal, - using nouns in -man, -woman
and neuter
- speakers and writers refer to males more frequently than to females.
Gender bias in
nouns - the masculine terms are often used to refer to both sexes.
- English has no masculine and
feminine inflections for nouns and - efforts have been made to avoid masculine bias by using gender-
determiners. neutral nouns in -person instead of -man or -woman.

The formation of - prefix is added to a noun to form a new noun with a different
Affixation
4.10 Gender and Noun derived nouns meaning.
Formation - suffix is often added to a verb or adjective to form a new noun with a
different meaning.

Conversion - no affix is added to the base, but the base itself is converted into a
different word class.
- usually from a verb or adjective into a noun.

Compounding
- the formation of compound nouns.

noun + noun, noun + verb/noun, noun + verb-er, noun + verb-

ing, verb/noun + noun, self + noun, verb-ing + noun, adjective +
noun, verb + particle, particle + verb/noun, noun + noun
combinations are the most productive type of noun compound.