Abstract nouns Concrete nouns

-age: leakage -(i)an: Parisian

-al: refusal -ant/-ent: student

-ancy/-ency: tendency -arian: vegetarian

-dom: freedom -ee: payee

-hood: brotherhood -er: teacher

-ing: cleaning -ician: musician

-ion/-tion: tension -ist: artist

-ism: patriotism -or: visitor

-ment: agreement -let: booklet

-ness: darkness -ess: waitress

-ship: friendship -ine: heroine

-ty: cruelty -ix: proprietrix

-th: growth -ette: usherette

-y: honesty

 

Productive noun-forming suffixes are:

-er: driver, worker, manager, reader, saver

-ist: telegraphist, dramatist

-ess: heiress, actress, hostess

-ness: madness, carelessness, blackness

-ism: nationalism, darvinism

 

Unproductive suffixes are:

-hood: manhood, girlhood, childhood

-dom: kingdom

-ship: relationship

-ment: development, management

-ance: importance

-ence: dependence

-ty: cruelty

-ity: generosity

Compound nouns are nouns built form two or more stems. The meaning of a compound noun differs from the meanings of its elements: The main types of compound nouns are:

noun stem + noun stem: airmail, snowball,

seabird

adjective stem + noun stem: blackbird,

bluebell

verb stem + noun stem: pickpocket

gerund + noun stem: reading-hall

looking-glass

noun stem + preposition + noun stem: father – in – law

man – of – war

substantivized phrases: forget – me – not

oil – well

touch – and - go

 

1.3 Speaking about the syntactical functions of nouns in the sentence it should be noted that nouns may be used in the function of almost any part of the sentence, although its most typical functions are subject and object of the sentence.

Nouns may function as:

· The subject,

e.g. The ship was sinking in the Atlantic Ocean.

· An object (direct, indirect and prepositional),

e.g. You did such splendid work

General Drake handed the man his medal.

He won’t listen to any advice.

· A predicative (non-prepositional and prepositional),

e.g. The town has always been a quiet and dignified little

place.

The place was in disorder.

 

· An objective predicative,

e.g. They elected him president of the club.

 

· A subjective predicative,

e.g. He was appointed editor – in – chief.

 

· Various adverbial modifiers (usually as part of prepositional phrases),

e.g. I lived near Kensington Gardens in those years.

 

· An attribute (in the genitive case, in the common case and as part of prepositional phrases),

e.g. A dog is a man’s best friend.

For some time he read all the travel books he could

lay his hands on.

He set off on a tour of inspection.

 

· An apposition,

e.g. He told us about his father, a teacher, who died in

the war.

 

 

Exercises:

Ex.1A State whether the nouns in bold types are proper or common.

1. By the time the clock on the tower struck midnight the streets of the city were almost deserted. 2. The group of ancient fortified buildings, collectively termed the Tower, is of the greatest historical interest. It is situated not far from the City. 3. Don’t you know the picture? It is a Kramskoy. 4. Young Jolyon, his wife, his two children, and his dog Balthazar, were all out there under a pear-tree. 5. The Van Dyke we spoke about is in the Hermitage.

6. History has dealt with Hitler; history will deal with all would be Hitlers. 7. The “Albatross” dropped anchor at a small port to get a new supply of fresh water. 8. The albatross is a large sea-bird.

9. The snow-covered summit was glistening in the rays of the rising sun. 10. There was a town, down there, as flat as a flannel-cake, and called Summit, of course.