Grammar: Word classes: Nouns

Other types of nouns

Noun types and grammatical patterns

The classification of noun types into 'conscious' and 'unconscious' is useful from a grammatical point of view, because it allows us to see how nouns which represent different types of things are associated with particular grammatical patterns:

pronouns

Masculine and feminine pronouns (he, she, him, her) are generally only available for things in the conscious category, ie humans and higher animals.

First and second person pronouns (I, me, my, you, your) are normally only available for humans; and pronouns for unconscious things are generally restricted to third person (it, they, them), although some things such as ships and cars are often referred to as being feminine.

verb types

Perceiving verbs (see, hear) are generally only available for things in the conscious category, and within this category, normally only humans are associated with thinking and feeling verbs (know, like) and reporting verbs (say), although sometimes such verbs are used metaphorically (the clock says).

countable nouns

Most common nouns are countable, and can be either singular or plural. Some nouns are only ever used in the plural, eg for items which have two parts: scissors (two blades), trousers (two legs).

uncountable nouns

Some nouns cannot normally be used with 'quantity words' (four furnitures, five clothings) which is why they are called 'uncountable'. These include abstractions (love), substances (water) and certain types of objects which are typically viewed as a whole (furniture, clothing).

collective nouns

These tend to be restricted to institutions (family, government) and to animals (herd of cows, flock of sheep, pride of lions, swarm of locusts).

Classifications in different subject areas

An important aspect of learning a language is learning the names for things, or learning the meanings of words. And part of knowing the meaning of a word is knowing how it is related to other words. For example, knowing the meaning of the noun yacht includes knowing that it is a type of boat, that it has sails and is powered by the wind.

Another important aspect of learning a language is learning how things are classified. (These classifications are sometimes called 'taxonomies'). At primary level, students only need to learn how to classify simple everyday items (school bus, double-decker bus, minibus), but if they are studying in an English-medium secondary school they will need to learn the vocabulary which allows us to classify things in different subjects such as Geography (sedimentary rocks, metamorphic rocks, igneous rocks). As in the above examples, often the names will consist of a Classifier + Thing. An example from literature involves the different types of literary genres (novels, poems, short stories, plays).