Chapter 4: Nouns, pronouns

and the simple noun phrase

Nouns
 Types of nouns
1. Common nouns
a) Abstract and Concrete
b) Countable and Uncountable
2. Proper nouns
3. Package nouns
1. Collective nouns
2. Unit nouns
3. Quantifying nouns
4. Species nouns
 1. Common nouns
a) Abstract and Concrete nouns
• Both Count and Uncount nouns can be divided
into abstract and concrete types.
• Concrete nouns refer to entities which can be
observed and measured, such as horse,
butter, car.
• Abstract nouns refer to unobservable notions,
such as difficulty, idea, certainty, remark.
• The distinction seems straighforward, but in
fact it can be quite difficult deciding whether a
word is being used in a purely abstract or
concrete way.
• Nouns such as structure, version, music,
permit both abstract and concrete
interpretations.
 1. Common nouns
b) Countable: they have a sing. & a plural form;
they can be counted. They refer to persons,
objects, places … specific quantities of
substances, materials, liquids, gases; specific
realizations of abstract realities.
This category includes, in addition to the easily
identifiable words such as book, dog:
• Plural invariable nouns (Quirk et al. 5.76)
which include:
1. ‘summation plurals’
2. ‘pluralia tantum’
3. unmarked plural nouns
 Plural invariable nouns
1- ‘summation plurals’ denote tools, instruments and articles of dress
consisting of 2 equal parts which are joined together e.g. glasses,
binoculars, scissors, tweezers, scales, jeans, pants, pyjamas, shorts,
trousers …
How much are those pyjamas? They are 65 euros
You can also say ‘a pair of’:
I like this pair. How much are they/ is it?

2- ‘pluralia tantum’ ending in -s [= nouns that in a given sense occur only

in the plural] e.g. brains, clothes, congratulations, customs, guts, looks,
outskirts, regards, remains, thanks … They have plural concord.
These are the minutes of the meeting (= el acta de una reunión).
I like the clothes you wear. (= la ropa)
You’ve got some guts, (= narices (valor)
you should use your brains (=la cabeza, el cerebro)
Go through customs (=aduana)

3- unmarked plural nouns: They have no plural marking (no inflection)

BUT are used as plurals. people, folk, police, cattle,
The police are coming
 1. Common nouns
b) Uncountable: they cannot be counted. They refer
to substances (steel), materials (paper) , liquids
(water), gases (air), abstract realities (love, poverty,
expectation) …
This category includes singular invariable nouns:
• notably news:
That’s the best piece of news I’ve heard in a long
time!
No news is good news
• nouns ending in -ics (linguistics, athletics …),
• diseases ending in -s (measles, mumps, shingles)
 “Two loves I have of comfort and despair”
by William Shakespeare
Sonnet 144
Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman colour'd ill.
To win me soon to hell, my female evil,
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her foul pride.
And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend,
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell;
But being both from me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another's hell:
Yet this shall I ne'er know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
 1. Common nouns
• THREE POINTS:
– Many nouns are both C and NC.
– NC nouns cannot be used in the plural.
– Certain determiners cannot be used with NC
nouns.
 “I saw…”
The test for noun classes (Quirk et al.5.2) * not valid
Peter,
1 2 3 2+3
book,
Proper noun Count noun Uncount Either count
furniture,
or uncount
brick
Zero Peter book furniture brick
article/No
article
the the Peter the book the furniture the brick

a A Peter a book a furniture a brick

some some Peter some book some some brick

furniture

plural Peters books furnitures bricks

 Count and Noncount nouns
• The clear grammatical differences are:
1. Count nouns cannot stand alone in the singular (*I saw
book), but noncounts can (chess is fun, music is my life).
2. Count nouns allow a plural (I like books), noncount nouns
do not. (*furnitures, *musics).
3. Count nouns occur in the singular with ‘a’ (a book);
noncount nouns with ‘some’ (we need some furniture). Both
types can occur with ‘the’ (the book, the furniture)
4. Some nouns can be either count or noncount, depending on
their meaning:
I’ve had many odd experiences (something that happens to you)
I’ve not had much experience (knowledge or skill obtained)
Ex 4.1 Test these words in order to see whether they are
countable or uncountable. Translate the Spanish
sentence using the English word given.
Eg. Tengo un mueble que quiero vender. (furniture)
*I have a furniture that I want to sell.
I have a piece of furniture I want to sell.√
Conclusion: mueble is c.; furniture is unc.
Do the same with these pairs of words:
1 Tengo una noticia que te va a sorprender. (news)
2 No me des más consejos. (advice)
3 Prefiero el arroz al pan. (rice)
4 No puedes salir con esos pelos. (hair)
5 Sus conocimientos de África … (knowledge)
6 Se distinguen varios comportamientos según la edad.
(behaviour)
7 Había un tráfico denso. (traffic)
8 Deja las compras en la mesa por favor. (shopping)
9 Ha hecho varios trabajos para el Ayuntamiento. (work)
10 Algunas informaciones no eran correctas. (information)
1 Tengo una noticia que te va a sorprender. (news)
I have got a piece of / an item of news which is going to surprise you. (some)
2 No me des más consejos. (advice)
Do not give me any more pieces of advice. (a piece of advice)
3 Prefiero el arroz al pan. (rice)
I prefer rice to bread.
4 No puedes salir con esos pelos. (hair)
You can’t go out with that hair.
5 Sus conocimientos de África … (knowledge)
His knowledge of / about Africa
6 Se distinguen varios comportamientos según la edad. (behaviour)
Several types / kinds of behaviour are distinguished according to /depending on
the age.
7 Había un tráfico denso. (traffic)
The traffic was (horrendous) / dense / heavy.
There was / heavy traffic.
8 Deja las compras en la mesa por favor. (shopping)
Leave the shopping on the table.
9 Ha hecho varios trabajos para el Ayuntamiento. (work)
He has done a lot / some work for the City Hall / Council
10 Algunas informaciones no eran correctas. (information)
Some of the information was not correct.
Some of the items of information were not correct.
 2. Proper nouns
• Most proper nouns take capital letters:
1. names of people: John Brown
2. names of places: Spain
3. names of organizations, institutions, religions: the
Town Hall; the University of Zaragoza; Catholicism …
4. names of periods of time: Saturday, July, Christmas …
5. address terms for family members: Hey, Mum! Uncle
Fred! …
6. people or bodies with unique public function: the
Pope, the President, the King …
7. languages, nationalities & ethnic groups: English,
Aragonese, the Irish …
8. nouns (and adjectives) derived from proper nouns:
Marxism, a Londoner, Victorian …
 2. Proper nouns
• Proper nouns do not usually have contrasts of singular/plural or
definite/indefinite. But note the difference bet. Spanish & English:
Los Pérez (unmarked plural); the Smiths (plural marked with -s).

• Proper nouns can act as common nouns:

• He believes he is a Shakespeare (an author like Shakespeare)

• I used to know a Juan Pérez
• A Mr White was trying to contact you
• That Mr White has phoned you again
• I used to know John Lennon quite well. Surely you can mean the
John Lennon?
• In the England of Shakespeare
• Poor old Charles
• The beautiful Princess Diana (but Princess Diana)
• The Dr Brown I know comes from Australia
• The Zaragoza I grew up in has changed a lot.
 3. Package nouns

They include the 4 categories of countable

common nouns:
1. Collective nouns
2. Unit (or Partitive) nouns
3. Quantifying nouns
4. Species nouns
All package nouns are followed by of-phrases.
 3. Package nouns
3.1. Collective nouns
Nouns that refer to groups of people, animals or things;
They behave like countable nouns (2+3).
• some are general or neutral (group, crowd …)
• others have specific connotations (bunch, flock, gang
…).
• Set of is used for abstract nouns: a set of assumptions,
conditions, but also for group of things.
• Some collective nouns have rigid collocations* (cf. a
pack of lies/ una sarta de mentiras)
*collocations (Glossary) a combination of lexical words which frequently co-occur in
texts
Herd of cows, host of stars, series of accidents, shoal of fish, swarm of bees, troop
of inspectors.
 3. Package nouns/1.collective nouns
• Ex 4.2 Decide whether the collective noun is
‘neutral’, whether it colours the noun that it
goes with or whether it is a hard-and-fast
collocation.
• a group of children
• a gang of boys
• a set of spoons
• a herd of tourists
• a swarm of bees
• a flight of stairs
 3. Package nouns/1.collective nouns
• Ex 4.2 Decide whether the collective noun is ‘neutral’,
whether it colours the noun that it goes with or whether
it is a hard-and-fast collocation.

• a group of children (neutral)

• a gang of boys (colours: boys=criminals)
• a set of spoons (neutral? colloc?)
• a herd of tourists (colours: tourists=characterless
animals)
• a swarm of bees (rigid colloc.)
• a flight of stairs (rigid colloc., a set of stairs, usu.
between two floors of a building) we live up
three flights of stairs
 3. Package nouns
3. 2. Unit (or Partitive) nouns
These nouns are usually used to refer to a
unit of something designated by an
uncountable noun: a bit of wood/ a piece
of cheese / an item of information.
Unit noun (Count)+ of + Uncountable.
Singular partitives Plural Partitives
A piece of cake two pieces of cake
A bit of chalk some bits of chalk
An item of news several items of news

a lump of sugar but also two sugars

 3. Package nouns /Unit (or Partitive)
nouns

• Ex 4.3 Provide suitable ‘unit nouns’ that collocate with

the following nouns:
1. a _ of paper
2. a _ of advice
3. a _ of coal
4. a _ of bread
5. a _ of string
6. a_ of water
7. a_ of bacon
8. a_ of dust
9. a _ of chocolate
10. a_ of applause
 3.Package nouns /Unit (or Partitive)
nouns

• Ex 4.3 Provide suitable ‘unit nouns’ that collocate with

the following nouns:
1. a sheet of paper
2. a piece/word of advice
3. a lump of coal
4. a loaf /slice of bread
5. a ball/piece/foot of string
6. a drop of water
7. a rasher/ slice of bacon
8. a speck of dust
9. a chunk/bar of chocolate
10. a round of applause
 3. Package nouns
3.3. Quantifying Nouns
• These nouns refer to quantities: a kilo of pears.
• Structure: QN + of + Count or Uncount Noun.
a pile of bricks / a pile of rubbish
• Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish them from unit
nouns: a roll of cloth could very well refer to a ‘unit’ or to
a ‘quantity’. Biber distinguishes 7 kinds:
i) nouns that quantify by referring to a container: a basket
of fruit/ a box of matches /a cup of tea …
ii) nouns that quantify by referring to shape: a heap of
leaves/ a mountain of work /a pile of money…
iii) nouns that quantify in officially recognized measures: a
gallon of petrol/ three miles of motorway …
 3. Package nouns
• 3.3. Quantifying Nouns (cont.)
iv) nouns that are plural numerals: dozens/ hundreds/
thousands/ millions of stars
v) nouns that refer to large quantities: loads/ masses/
heaps/ tons of fans (mogollón) (unga bunga things to do)
vi) nouns ending in -ful: two teaspoonfuls of olive oil. -ful
can be added to virtually any container: glass, cup,
bottle, fist, hand, mouth, room, house, classroom, church
(handful= puñado)
vii) the nouns pair & couple are used differently. Pair often
implies that the items are joined (a pair of scissors/
glasses); couple usually means a few (wait a couple of
minutes) in conversation.
 3. Package nouns
3.4. Species Nouns
• These refer to the species or type rather than the
quantity of the following noun: two types of novel, this
sort of character, that kind of film
• Species nouns can be followed by uncountable nouns
(an excellent class of beer) or by countable nouns, in
which case there is a choice of singular or plural for both
nouns:
I don’t like this kind of question (sg + sg)
I don’t like this (or these) kind of questions (sg + pl)
I don’t like these kinds of question (pl + sg)
I don’t like these kinds of questions (pl + pl)
• students are advised to use their Spanish instinct here,
where the rules of concord are much more logical: no me
gusta este tipo de pregunta/ hay dos tipos de pregunta
que no me gustan.
 3. Package nouns

• 3.4. Species Nouns

Sort of and kind of are the most common, but do
not confuse with the stance adverbs, used to
convey imprecision, very common in
conversation (they are called ‘hedges’)
It was kind of strange
I just sort of managed to do what the teacher
wanted
 Noun v. Determiner (LGSWE 4.3.8)

It is not always easy to distinguish the head of an NP, esp.

with quantifying nouns and species nouns. Cf.

We drank our bottle of champagne. (How much champagne

did we drink?) and
He uncorked the bottle of Chablis. (What did he uncork?)

It could be argued that champagne is the head in the 1st &

bottle in 2nd.
A bottle of X could be interpreted either way depending on the
circumstances
 Noun v. Determiner (LGSWE 4.3.8)
Combinations of quantifying nouns + of specify the reference of a
following noun in much the same way as quantifying determiners.
Cf
We knew masses of people (QN)
Loads of people go out there (QN)
And
There were lots of people going through the hills (QD)
A number of people said to me how much they enjoyed the party (QD)

It is not possible to draw a clear borderline bet. QN and QD in these

cases.

Variation in form (use of adjective modifiers) may indicate a noun

instead of a determiner, as in
a great mass of or a large mass of.

But even combinations generally analysed as determiners have

possibilities of expansion:
a mere few / a select few / a whole lot of etc.
 Noncounts and their Count equivalents
• Apart from a tendency for concrete nouns to be count and for
abstract to be noncount, there is no necessary connection
between the classes of nouns and the entities to which they
refer. Many noncount have an equivalent countable expression.
Examples:

NONCOUNT NOUN COUNT EQUIVALENT

This is important information a piece / bit / word of information

Have you any news?
Some good advice
Warm applause
How’s business?
Expensive furniture
What (bad/good) luck!
The interest is only 5 per cent
There is evidence that…
a piece /a bit / an item of good news
a piece / word of good advice
a round of applause
a piece/ bit of business
a piece / an article/a suite of furniture
a piece of (bad/good) luck
a (low) rate of interest
a piece of evidence