A. T. Iriskulov Theoretical Grammar of English

Lecture 6
The Noun
Problems to be discussed:
- nouns as a part of speech
- the grammatical categories of nouns
a) number
b) case
- the meaning of gender in Modern English
-
gender and sex.
In most cases in treating parts of speech in English we shall keep to the conception of 
scientists that we refer to post-structural tendency. It's because they combine the ideas of 
traditional and structural grammarians.
The noun is classified into a separate word - group because:
1. they all have the same lexical - grammatical meaning :
substance / thing
2. according to their form - they've two grammatical categories:
number and case
3. they all have typical stem-building elements:
- er, - ist, - ship, - merit, -hood ...
4. typical combinability with other words:
most often left-hand combinability
5. function - the most characteristic feature of nouns is - they can be observed in all syntactic functions 
but predicate.
Some words about the distribution of nouns. Because of the fact that nouns express or 
denote substance / thing, their distribution is bound with the words which express the quality of 
substance, their number, their actions and their relation to the other words /nouns/ in English.
When the quality of nouns are described we make use of adjectives:
big, red apple
energetic crisis
a long, dusty track and others.
When the quantity and order of nouns are described the numerals are to be used:
the six continents
25
th
anniversary
12 students....
When we denote the action of substances we make use of the verbs:
An apple-tree grows in the garden
Russia assisted India in Mounting Bokaro Steal Plant
When the relation of nouns to other words are described we make wide use of prepositions
a window of the school
to the park
at the construction of the bridge
In all these cases with the exception of verbs the noun is characterized with left-hand 
combinability / in overwhelming majority/. So far as to the verbs are concerned they may both 
precede and follow them.