语法Chapter2.docVIP

CHAPTER II THE NOUN 2.1 A noun is the name of a person, place, or thing, or some quality, state, or action. 2.2 Classification of Nouns Nouns may be divided into two main kinds: proper nouns and common nouns. 1)Proper nouns are names given to particular persons, places or things, e.g. Lenin, Korea, Changsha, Marxism-Leninism. 2)Common nouns are names common to a class of living beings or things, materials or abstract notions. They are subdivided into four kinds: (1) Individual nouns indicate individuals of living beings or things belonging to a class, e.g. teacher, country, book, bird. (2) Collective nouns are names given to a collection of living beings or things, e.g. crowd, family, people, police. (3) Material nouns are names of substances of which things are made, e.g. iron, paper, snow, air, water. (4) Abstract nouns are often names of actions, states, or qualities, e.g. unity, realization, hypocrisy, courage, society. In addition to the above-mentioned division, nouns may also be viewed and classified at another angle. When the nouns is the name of something (or: some person) that it is possible to count, it is called a countable noun.. If the noun is the name of something (or：some person ) that it is impossible to count, it is an uncountable noun. Only countable nouns have a plural form and can be preceded in the singular by the indefinite article “a” (“an”). Generally speaking, individual nouns and some collective nouns (such as family and crew) are countable while material nouns, abstract nouns and some other collective nouns (such as police and cattle, which are always used as plurals without the s-inflection) are uncountable, e.g. COUNTABLE: (1) A good teacher must be strict with himself and his students. (individual noun in the singular) (2) Prospective teachers should go in for rigorous training. (individual noun in the plural) (3) A crowd collected round the lecturer. (collective noun in the singular) (4) Great crowds flocked to the square (collecti