Microsoft Word Theoretical Course of English Grammar

The noun 
1.
Semantic features. The categorical meaning of nouns is substance, thingness (for in-
stance, 
book
, 
friend
, 
iron
), though they can also denote abstract entities, such as qualities and 
states (e.g. 
freedom
, 
wish
, 
friendship
).
2.
Morphological features. Nouns have the inflectional forms of morphological categories 
of number (
a book
– 
two books
) and case (
Sarah’s book
). Structurally nouns are differentiated 
1
Some grammarians (for instance, Biber, Conrad and Leech) refer numerals and pronouns to function word 
class of parts of speech on the ground that they represent closed class of words.

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Theoretical Course of English Grammar 
Script by prof. 
Nino Kirvalidze
27
into simple (
boy; street; car; dog; people, etc
.), derived (singer; brightness; friendship) and 
compound (
bombshell; bridgehead; merry-go-round
)types. 
3.
Syntactic features. Syntactically nouns can function in the sentence as:
subject:
A man was walking in the street
. 
object:
I see a man in the street
. 
predicative (following the link verb in a compound nominal predicate):
She is a
teacher.
attribute:
a stone wall; a gold medal
.
Adverbial modifiers:
Every morning 
(time) 
he goes to the bank
(place).
The adjective 
1.
Semantic features. The categorical meaning of the adjective is quality. Adjectives de-
scribe the qualities of people (
a guilty man
; 
He is guilty
.), things (
a heavy box
) and abstractions 
(
The situation is serious.
); 
2.
Morphological features. Many adjectives take the inflectional suffixes 
-er
and 
-est
to 
mark morphological category of degrees of comparison. E.g.: dark (positive degree) – dark
er
(comparative degree) – dark
est
(superlative degree). Structurally adjectives are differentiated 
into simple (
red, tall, fast,
etc.), derived (
eatable, beautiful, useless,
etc.) and compound (
color-
blind, home-made, ice-cold,
etc.) types. There are some compound-derivatives too (
broad-
shouldered, narrow-minded,
etc.). 
3.
Syntactic features. Syntactically adjectives and adjective phrases are most commonly 
used as attributes (
a beautiful girl came in
) and as predicatives, following the link verb in a 
clause (
It’s nice and warm in here
.).