Structural and semantic Characteristics of Nouns (стр. 5 из 5)

e) The case morpheme -'s has a certain freedom of distribution, not observed in any case morpheme of the Russian language.

f) Though in both languages the meaning of case is "the relation of nouns to other words in. speech", the meaning of the possessive case is in the main narrowed to "the relation to other nouns" only, which distinguishes this case from the other cases of both Russian and English.

g) Owing to the narrowness of the "possessive case", the only other case, the "common case", is exceptionally wide.

In fact, the extent of its meaning almost equals that of all the six cases of Russian nouns. Hence the necessity of specification by prepositions and, consequently, the enormous importance of prepositions as a characteristic feature of English.

h) One of the prepositional phrases, the o/-phrase can practically replace the possessive case. The difference between them is mostly stylistic. There is nothing similar in Russian.

4. Russian nouns fall into three gender subclasses, which is alien to English.

5. In both languages nouns can be divided into countables and uncountables, the latter — into singularia tantum and pluralia tantum. In both languages uncountables have oblique 'number' meanings through the analogy in form and combinability with countables. But in the Russian language there is nearly always correlation between form and combinability (саниедут, часыстали, семьяждет, комитетзаседает) which is not the case in English (the cattle are, physics is, the. family is or are).

6. The number of Russian nouns having no case opposites is small. They are comparatively recent borrowings like пальто, депо, такси, кенгуру, etc. In English the majority of nouns have no case opposites.

7. In both languages the functions of different case grammemes are different. In Russian only a nominative case grammeme can be the subject, only an accusative case grammeme can be a direct object, only a nominative or an instrumental case grammeme is used as a predicative.

In English possessive case grammemes are used almost exclusively as attributes. Common case grammemes fulfil the functions of almost any part of the sentence.

III. Conclusion

In the present paper we attempted to investigate the noun, the main part of speech in English grammar. We chose the noun as the theme of our qualification work because we interested in it. We used different kind of references to investigate the noun. In other words, we mentioned that we studied the main aspects of English nouns: grammatical categories, grammatical characteristics, semantical characteristics, and rule of correct use of English nouns.

The problem of definition of noun comes to be one of the main problems for those who study noun. There is a great number of definitions that define nouns from different points of view. Summarizing all of them we can conclude that noun is a word expressing substance in the widest sense of the word. In the concept of substance we include not only names of living beings (e.g. boy, girl, bird) and lifeless things (e.g. table, chair, book), but also names of abstract notions, i.e. qualities, slates, actions (kindness, strength, sleep, fear, conversation, fight), abstracted from their bearers.

The present work proves that nouns must be treated very accurately because some nouns, in case of changing their grammatical form, can receive another lexical meaning. If you say “I love this people”, one will understand that you love the exact group of people, but if you say “I love these peoples” you might be understood as loving group of nations. This is because the word ‘people’ is Pluralia Tantum, i.e. has not singular form at all, and prefix –s won’t bring the meaning of plurality, but the meaning of word ‘nations’.

Nouns can be classified further as count nouns, which name anything that can be counted (four books, two continents, a few dishes, a dozen buildings); mass nouns (or non-count nouns), which name something that can't be counted (water, air, energy, blood); and collective nouns, which can take a singular form but are composed of more than one individual person or items (jury, team, class, committee, herd). We should note that some words can be either a count noun or a non-count noun depending on how they're being used in a sentence. Whether or not a noun is uncountable is determined by its meaning: an uncountable noun represents something which tends to be viewed as a whole or as a single entity, rather than as one of a number of items which can be counted as individual units. Singular verb forms are used with uncountable nouns. Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot "count" them. For example, we cannot count "milk". We can count "bottles of milk" or "litres of milk", but we cannot count "milk" itself. We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. Countable nouns are easy to recognize. They are things that we can count. For example: "pen". We can count pens. We can have one, two, three or more pens. We can say that it is finished investigation of this theme our diploma work.

The present material can be used at the lessons of grammar, practical course of English language, lexicology, and speech practice in both: universities and English classes at schools. This paper can help to create the teaching aids, textbooks, etc. Teachers and students might use the results of the present work for the further investigations.

IV. Bibliography

1 В.Л. Каушанская и др. Грамматика английского языка (на английском языке). 1973 M.

2. Kaushanskaya et. al. A Grammar of the English Language (practice book) L.,Prosveshcheniye 1967

3. Ganshina and N. Vasilevskaya. English Grammar. M., 1953

4. B.S. Khaimovich, B.I. Rogovskaya. A Course in English Grammar. 1966 p

5. Г. Н. Воронцова. Очерки по грамматике английского языка. М., 1960

6. Б. Л. Ильиш, “The Structure of English Language”

7. O. Jespersen. Essentials of English Grammar. N.Y., 1938

8. Л. С. Бархударов, Д. А. Штелинг. Грамматика английского языка. М., 1960

9. M. Bryant. A Functional English Grammar. Boston, 1945

10. Ch. Barber. Linguistic change in Present-Day English. Edinburgh, 1964

11. The Structure of American English. New York, 1958.

12. Ермолаева Л.С. Очерки по сопоставительной грамматике германских языков. – М.,1987. – 127 c.

13. Зятковская Р.Г. Суффиксальная система современного английского языка. – М., 1971. – 187 c.

14. Иванова И.П. О характеристике сложного слова в английском языке. «Вопросы структуры английского языка в синхронии и диахронии», вып. I. - Л., 1967. – 95 с.

15. Иванова И.П., Бурлакова В.В., Почепцов Г.Г. Теоретическая грамматика современного английского языка. – М.,1981. - 285 c.

16. Ильиш Б.А. Строй современного английского языка (теоретический курс). М.-Л., 1971. – 315 с.

17. Arnold J. V. The English Word. M., 1986. - 240 c.

18. Blokh M.Y. A Course in Theoretical English Grammar. – M.,1983. - 383 c.

19. Glencoe Language Arts “Grammar and Composition Handbook” Grade 6, Columbus, Mc,Grow Publishers 2002 pp.79-94

20. Cramer R, et al. Language Illinois, 1989 pp.200-212

21. Качалова К.Н., Израилевич Е.Е. Практическая грамматика английского языка с упражнениями и ключами. М, 1997. с.20-41, 487-489

22. World Book Encyclopedia Vol.1 NY. 1993 pp.298-299

23. Internet:http://www.esllessons.edu/mainpage.htm

24. Internet:http://www.freeesays.com/languages/S.Hal

V. APPENDIX

Table 1

Table 2

Table 3

Left-hand connections with	Russian nouns	English nouns
Prepositions	1) Not the nominative case2) Different cases with different prepositions	The common case with any preposition
Adjectives	Grammatical combinability	No grammatical combinability
Numeralsa) cardinalb) ordinal	Mostly the genitive caseGrammatical combinability	both cases No grammatical combinability
Verbs	-	-
a) notionalb) linking	1) any case2) different cases with different verbs mostly the instrumental case, sometimes the nominative or the genitive case	the common case with any verb mostly the common case
Left-hand connections with	Russian nouns		English nouns
Nouns Articles	mostly the genitive case---		the common caseboth cases (a not before plurals)
Right-hand connections with	Russian nouns		English nouns
Prepositions VerbsNouns	any case any case, but mostly nominative any case		the common case usually the common caseboth cases

[1]Page 40 of present qualification work

[2]The full list of works and authors is mentioned in bibliography to this qualification paper

[3] В.Л. Каушанская и др. Грамматика английского языка (на английском языке). 1973 стр.22

[4] See В. В. Виноградов, op. cit., p. 167.

[5]See M. Ganshina and N. Vasilevskaya. English Grammar. M., 1953, p. 31—32.

[6]B.S. Khaimovich, B.I. Rogovskaya. A Course in English Grammar. 1966 p. 14

[7]See Г. Н. Воронцова. Очерки по грамматике английского языка. М., 1960, р. 180.

[8]B.S. Khaimovich, B.I. Rogovskaya. A Course in English Grammar. 1966 p. 49

[9]"Double-genitive", in the terminology of Kruisinga.

[10]See А. И. Смирницкий, op. cit, p. 9.

[11]This among other reasons, accounts for the divergence of views concerning the number of cases in English.

[12] Б. Л. Ильиш, op. cit., p. 99—100

[13] What we call a semi-notional word

[14] Б. А. Ильиш, op. cit., p. 100.

[15] Г. Н. Воронцова. Об именном форманте -'s в современном английском языке. («Иностранные языки в школе», 1948, № 3, 4); Г. Н. Воронцова. Очерки по грамматике английского языка. М., 1960, pp. 181 — 183.

[16]We find a similar interpretation of -'s in Л. С. Бархударов, Д. Д. Штелинг, op. cit., p. 42.

[17] А. И. Смирницкий, op. cit., § 60

[18] А. И. Смирницкий, op. cit., § 60.

[19]G.O. Curme. Syntax. Bost., N.Y., Lnd., Heat., 1931, p. 542;

O. Jespersen. Essentials of English Grammar. N.Y., 1938, p. 201

[20]B.S. Khaimovich, B.I. Rogovskaya. A Course in English Grammar. 1966 p. 48

[21]B.S. Khaimovich, B.I. Rogovskaya. A Course in English Grammar. 1966 p. 49

[22] Л. С. Бархударов, Д. А. Штелинг. Грамматика английского языка. М., 1960, р. 35.

[23] Л. С. Бархударов, Д. А. Штелинг, ор. cit., р. 36.

[24]О. Jespersen. Essentials of English Grammar. Lnd., 1943, p. 208.

[25] B. Н. Жигадло, И. П. Иванова, Л. Л. Иофик, ор. cit., р. 30.

[26] Gender, i.e. the distinction of nouns into masculine, feminine and neuter, may be expressed lexically by means of different words or word-compounds:

father —mother man—woman

boy —girl gentleman —lady

husband — wife cock-sparrow — hen-sparrow

boy-friend —girl-friend man-servant — maid-servant

Very often personal or possessive pronouns indicate the gender the noun.

[27]The word proper is from Lat. proprius 'one's own'. Hence a proper name means one's own individual name, as distinct from a common name, that can be given to a class of individuals. The name common is from Lat. communis and means that winch is shared by several things or individuals possessing some common characteristic

[28]It goes without saying that when speaking about grammemes in speech we mean words representing these grammemes.

[29]Some linguists regard the possessive case as a disappearing case (see, for instance, M. Bryant. A Functional English Grammar. Boston, 1945, p. 36). Others (Ch. Barber. Linguistic change in Present-Day English. Edinburgh, 1964, p. 132) speak of "the spreading of the 's-genitive at the expense of the of-genitive".

[30] See Г. Н. Воронцова, op. cit, p. 40.

[31]The Structure of American English. New York, 1958.

[32]Article, possessive or demonstrative pronoun, etc. attached to the noun.

[33] В.Л. Каушанская и др. Грамматика английского языка (на английском языке). 1973 M. Стр. 36

[34]See Appendix Table 3.