Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

NOUNS

156

Nouns: forms

156a

Nouns are the largest class of words. They denote classes and categories of things

in the world, including people, animals, inanimate things, places, events, qualities

and states. For example, accident, cat, club, competition, conscience, garage,

soldier

, pride, James, Paris are nouns. 

Suffixes

Nouns are not usually identifiable by their form. However, common derivational

suffixes which may enable words to be recognised as nouns include:

suffix

nouns

suffix

nouns

-age

wastage, postage, mileage

-ist

artist, realist, pessimist

-al

approval, withdrawal

-ity

practicality, identity

-ant

deodorant, disinfectant, itinerant

-ment

amazement, containment

-dom

kingdom, wisdom

-ness

fitness, toughness

-ee

referee, tutee

-ship

ownership, studentship

-er, -or

trainer, runner, actor, vendor

-tion, -sion

addition, caption, extension 

-hood

childhood, girlhood

-tude

altitude, multitude

-ing

building, fencing

-y

entry, discovery

-ism

socialism, idealism

Û

539 Glossary for any unfamiliar terms

Introduction to word classes and phrase classes | 297

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The suffixes can be added to verbs and adjectives to form nouns:

verb

noun

adjective

noun

amaze

amazement

bright

brightness

contest

contestant

happy

happiness

refer

referee

loyal

loyalist

survive

survivor

rapid

rapidity

write

writer

Conversion

Conversion can also occur from verbs to nouns. Examples include:

a 

desire to do something

a 

lack of something

a 

cheat

a long 

walk

a 

pay rise

Occasionally, adjectives may be converted to nouns:

He’s a 

regular at our local pub.

The clubs are mostly full of young 

singles.

Prefixes and compounds

New nouns can be formed by other means, for example by prefixes (e.g. non-event,

pre-meeting

) and by compounding (e.g. mousepad, website). 

Û

258–268 Word structure and word formation for further details

Singular and plural

Most nouns have a singular and plural form which can be distinguished by

different inflectional endings. The most common plural form is -(e)s. For example,

cat

–cats, wish–wishes. Some nouns have irregular plurals, mainly because they

reflect older English forms or are derived from foreign words. Examples of these

are: ox–oxen, alumnus–alumni.

Gender

The gender of nouns is significant in some languages. Nouns in English do not in

themselves have masculine or feminine gender. They do, however, sometimes

refer to male or female people or animals, or consist of a pair where one is used as

the neutral term covering both sexes and the other is more marked. For example,

host

–hostess, father–mother, widower–widow, dog–bitch (where dog is the neutral

term).

Nouns: types

156b

Nouns differ in their types of meaning, for example common nouns (e.g. table, boy

and most nouns) versus proper names (e.g. Joanna, New York), or concrete nouns

(cup, bus) versus abstract nouns (love, beauty).

298 | Introduction to word classes and phrase classes

Cambridge Grammar of English

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The major grammatical distinction in English nouns is between count nouns

and non-count nouns. English treats some things as units which can be counted

and some things as indivisible wholes. Count nouns refer to people and things

which can be counted. Non-count nouns refer to things which are treated as

indivisible wholes which cannot be broken down in order to be counted: