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English nouns form the largest category of words in English language, both in the number of different words and how often they are used in typical texts. The three main categories of English nouns are common nouns, , and English pronouns. A defining feature of English nouns is their ability to inflect for number, as through the plural – s morpheme. English nouns primarily function as the heads of noun phrases, which prototypically function at the clause level as subjects, objects, and predicative complements. These phrases are the only English phrases whose structure includes determinatives and predeterminatives, which add abstract-specifying meaning such as definiteness and Spatial deixis. Like Noun, English nouns typically Denotation physical objects, but they also denote actions (e.g., get up and have a stretch), characteristics (e.g., this red is lovely), relations in space (e.g., closeness), and just about anything at all. Taken together, these features separate English nouns from other lexical categories such as adjectives and English verbs.
In this article English nouns include English pronouns but not English determiners.
Unlike some common nouns, proper nouns do not typically show number contrast in English. Most proper nouns in English are singular and lack a plural form, though some may instead be plural and lack a singular form. For example, we typically expect Michigan but not *Michigans, and the Philippines but not *Philippine. Proper nouns also differ from common nouns in that they typically lack either a determinative or determinative contrast. For instance, we typically expect Michigan but not *a Michigan, and though the Bahamas includes the determinative the, the determinative cannot normally be varied (compare *a Bahama and *some Bahamas). Finally, proper nouns differ from common nouns in that they typically cannot be modified by restrictive modifiers.Quirk, Randolph, et al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman, 1985. pp. 288–290.
In English, the features that distinguish proper nouns from common nouns do not necessarily apply in the rare situations in which proper nouns lack unique denotation. For example, London typically refers to a unique place, but someone trying to disambiguate between two places named London might pluralize it ( Which of the Londons are you referring to?), add a determinative ( Do you mean the London in Ontario?), or add a restrictive modifier ( Do you mean the London in Ontario?).
Also unlike common nouns, English pronouns show distinctions in case (e.g., I, me, mine), person (e.g., I, you) and gender (e.g., he, she). Though both common nouns and pronouns show number distinction in English, they do so differently: common nouns tend to take an inflectional ending (– s) to mark plurals, but pronouns typically do not. (The pronoun one is an exception, as in I like those ones.) English pronouns are also more limited than common nouns in their ability to take dependents. For instance, while common nouns can often be preceded by a determinative (e.g., the car), pronouns cannot.
In English conversation, pronouns are roughly as frequent as other nouns. In fiction, pronouns are about one third of all nouns, and in news and academic English, less than ten percent of nouns.Biber, Douglas. Longman Student Grammar of Spoken and Written English. Longman, 2011. p. 235.
Common nouns can be further divided into count and non-count nouns. A count noun can take a number as its determiner (e.g., -20 degrees, zero calories, one cat, two bananas, 276 dollars). These nouns tend to designate individually identifiable entities, whereas a non-count noun designates a continuum or an undifferentiated mass ( air, cheese, lots of gravel some water, enough heat).Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge UP, 2002. p. 343. The count and non-count distinction also affects what other determiners can occur with the nouns: singular count nouns can occur with a but not some (e.g., a chair but not usually *some chair) while non-count nouns can occur with some but not a (e.g., some furniture but not *a furniture). p. 246. Many common nouns have both count and non-count senses. For example, beer has a non-count sense in she was drinking beer but a count sense in she drank another beer.Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge UP, 2002. pp. 334–340.
Some varieties of English use different methods of marking the plural, many of which fall into one of three patterns. First, the plural morpheme may be absent when another word already indicates that the noun is plural. In the clause two girl just left, for instance, speakers of some varieties would not use the plural morpheme on the noun girl because the determiner two already marks the noun phrase as plural. Dem, which is derived from them, is often used without the plural morpheme, as in dem book (rather than dem books). This method of plural marking occurs in Gullah language and Caribbean English among other varieties. Second, the plural morpheme may be absent specifically in noun phrases denoting weights and measures but not in other situations. Thus, some varieties may produce noun phrases like ten mile (rather than ten miles) while still using the plural morpheme in other contexts (e.g., two girls). This method of plural marking for weights and measures occurs in certain rural varieties of Southern U.S. English. Third, irregular plural nouns may be regularized and use the – s morpheme. This may happen when the plural is not otherwise marked (e.g., sheeps for sheep), when the plural is typically marked with a morpheme other than – s (e.g., oxes for oxen), or when the plural is typically formed through vowel mutation (e.g., foots for feet). For plurals marked by vowel mutation, some varieties may double mark the plural (e.g., feets). Regularization of plural marking occurs in several Englishes, including African-American English.Katz, Seth R. American English Grammar. Routledge, 2020. pp. 30–32.
Traditional grammars suggest that English nouns can also take genitive case endings, as in the –
| which | which | |||
There are also many prefixes that can be attached to English nouns to change their meaning. A small list of examples include anti-, bi-, dis-, hyper-, mega-, non-, & re- (e.g., re- + vision → revision).
English noun phrases can also refer to entities. A noun phrase is referential if it is used to pick out an entity that is distinguished by properties other those inherent in the meaning of the noun phrase itself. For instance, the noun phrase his dog in Sam found his dog picks out a particular entity (a dog) that is distinguishable by properties not expressed in the meaning of dog (such as breed, color, and the like).
Not all noun phrases refer. In fact, some kinds of noun phrases are inherently non-referential. These include negative, interrogative, and bare role noun phrases as well as noun phrases with either or each functioning as a determinative.Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge UP, 2002. p. 401. The underlined NPs in the following examples do not refer:
Non-count nouns denote things that, when put together, remain the same thing. For example, if I have luggage and you give me more luggage, I still just have luggage. Count nouns fail this test: if you have an apple, and I give you more apple or more apples, you no longer just have an apple.
Modern English marks a division between singular and plural number. (Old English pronouns also marked the dual number.) Singular number restricts the denotation of the noun to the set of singularities.Hicks, Christopher. The parameterisation of Number. Studia Linguistica, 1, 1–28. . 2017. Plural number is often said to mean more than one,e.g., Aarts, B., Sylvia Chalker, & Edumnd Weiner. The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. . 2014. p. 310. but, in fact, it restricts the denotation of the noun to the set of non-singularities. That is, in English, plural nouns are appropriate for quantities denoted by all the Real number, including 0 and other quantities smaller than 1, except exactly ±1.
Some nouns are plural only (also known as Plurale tantum), many of which are non-count.Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge UP, 2002. p. 343–345. These include those formed from -ing verbs such as makings meaning roughly `potential'; nouns having to do with compensation, such as dues, earnings, and wages; expressions of feelings, such as condolences, regards, and thanks; and various others, including alms, credentials, genitals, heads (on a coin), looks, reams, etc. Some, such as cattle and police, do not have any plural morphology.
The semantic number and grammatical number of a particular NP may not match. For example, with Collective noun such as committee, which denote a unit composed of multiple individuals, agreement can either be singular because the noun is morphologically singular (e.g., The committee has not yet come to a decision) or plural because it is semantically plural (e.g., The committee have not yet come to a decision).Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge UP, 2002. p. 501. Conversely, the morphological plural does not always call for plural agreement, as in sports is a microcosm of society.
The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language argues that English has a "weakly grammaticalized" gender, which is based only on pronoun agreement. This gender system involves two subsystems: one involving the distinctions between the personal pronouns he, she, and it and another involving the distinctions between the relative pronouns who and which.Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge UP, 2002. p. 486. In the personal pronoun subsystem, nouns can be classified according to whether they are compatible with one, two, or three of these three personal pronouns. Single-gender and dual-gender nouns can be subclassified according to which specific pronouns they agree with. This results in seven classes:Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge UP, 2002. pp. 489–491.
These classes are not equally common. For instance, single-gender neuter nouns account for a large majority of common nouns while dual-gender masculine/neuter nouns account for only male animal species and certain kinship terms that can apply to both humans and animals.
In the relative pronoun subsystem, nouns can be classified according to whether they agree with who or which. Nouns that agree with who are called personal (or Animacy) nouns while nouns that agree with which are called non-personal (or inanimate) nouns.Quirk, Randolph, et al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman, 1985. p. 314.Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge UP, 2002. pp. 497–499. Though there is substantial overlap between non-personal nouns and neuter nouns and between personal nouns and masculine and feminine nouns, the overlaps are not perfect. For instance, a ship can agree with either it or she but can only agree with which (not who). Similarly, which can serve as an antecedent to he or she, as in there is a dog which attacked his/her owner.
| +Functions of noun phrases ! colspan="3" rowspan="2" | Function ! colspan="2" | Noun type |
Though the determinative function is typically realized by determiner phrases, they may also be realized by other phrases. Noun phrases that realize the determinative function are typically in the genitive case (e.g., your interview) but do not need to be (e.g., this size home). Determiners can also be realized by prepositional phrases, such as up to a dozen in the noun phrase up to a dozen agencies.Aarts, Bas. Oxford Modern English Grammar. Oxford UP, 2011. pp. 117–119.
Like the determinative function, the predeterminative function is typically realized by determiner phrases. However, they can also be realized by noun phrases (e.g., three times the speed) and adverb phrases (e.g., twice the population).
Other pre-head modifiers of nouns include nominals. In the noun phrase Nirvana's classic early nineties album, for example, the nominal early nineties modifies the noun album. The nominal's status a modifier can be made clearer by paraphrasing the noun phrase that contains it: Nirvana's classic album from the early nineties, in which from the early nineties is more clearly a modifier. Verb phrases can also function as pre-head modifiers of nouns. For instance, the verb phrase regularly dripping can function as a pre-head modifier in the noun phrase a regularly dripping faucet. The fact that dripping can be and is modified by a manner adverb ( regularly) but cannot be modified by a degree adverb (such as very) indicates that these pre-head modifiers are verb phrases rather than adjective phrases because verbs can typically be modified by manner but not degree adverbs while adjectives can typically be modified by degree but not manner adverbs. Another pre-head modifier of nouns is determiner phrases. For example, the determiner phrase two in the noun phrase these two images functions as a pre-head modifier. While determiners that occur before nouns tend to function as determinatives, noun phrases can contain only one determinative, so additional determiner phrases must have some other function. In these two images, the determiner phrase these fills the determinative function, so the additional determiner phrase two must instead be analyzed as a pre-head modifier. Some grammars label these determiner phrases postdeterminers.Quirk, Randolph, et al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman, 1985. pp. 261–262. Rarely, an adverb phrase can function as a pre-head modifier of nouns. In the noun phrase an almost victory, for example, the adverb phrase almost functions as a pre-head modifier.
, as exemplified by that Bill has in the tree diagram above, are common as post-head modifiers. Prepositional phrases are another common variety of post-head modifier. In the noun phrase an apple in a tree, for example, the prepositional phrase in a tree functions as a post-head modifier. Adjective phrases can also function as post-head modifiers. Some of these adjective phrases are reduced relative clauses, such as balloons full of helium (compare balloons that were full of helium). Others are post-positive adjective phrases, such as the attorney general. Noun phrases themselves can function as post-head adjuncts in noun phrases. In the noun phrase shoes that size, for instance, the noun phrase that size functions as a post-head modifier. Certain determiners (namely, each, enough, less, and more) can head determiner phrases that function as post-head modifiers of noun phrases, as in the determiner phrase each in three dollars each. Rarely, adverb phrases can function as post-head modifiers, such as the adverb phrase soon in the noun phrase some day soon.Aarts, Bas. Oxford Modern English Grammar. Oxford UP, 2011. pp. 129–132.
External modifiers exist inside the NP but outside the nominal. These modifiers are often adverb phrases, as exemplified by even in the tree diagram above.Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge UP, 2002. p. 436. External modifiers can also be realized by prepositional phrases (e.g., by far the greatest ally) and noun phrases (e.g., every bit a philosopher). External modifiers can only attach to the beginnings or ends of noun phrases. When positioned at the beginning, they occur before any predeterminative, determinative, or internal modifier.Aarts, Bas. Oxford Modern English Grammar. Oxford UP, 2011. p. 133.
Nouns can also be complemented by noun phrases. Unusually, these noun phrase complements occur before the head noun. For example, the noun phrase kinesiology functions as a pre-head complement in the larger noun phrase a kinesiology student. The noun phrase's status a complement can be made clearer by paraphrasing the noun phrase that contains it: a student of kinesiology, in which of kinesiology is more clearly a complement.Aarts, Bas. Oxford Modern English Grammar. Oxford UP, 2011. pp. 123–124.
When there is a complement, usually there's only one, but up to three are possible (e.g., a bet for $10 with DJ that it wasn't true.)
| even | all | the | very happy | linguistics | students | at the university | themselves | too |
| peripheral modifier | predeterminative | determinative | pre-head internal modifier | pre-head complement | head | post-head internal dependent | emphatic reflexive | focusing modifier |
| Cambridge | evaluative | general property | age | color | provenance | manufacture | type | |
| Darling | opinion | size | shape | age | color | origin | material | qualifier |
| Forsyth | observation | size | age | shape | color | origin | material | purpose |
Stefanie Wulff summarizes and evaluates a variety of other factors that predict the order of pre-head modifiers in English noun phrases. From a phonological perspective, shorter modifiers typically occur before longer ones, other things being equal. For example, the long intelligent book is generally preferred to the intelligent long book. From a semantic perspective, the more inherent qualities of a thing tend to occur closer to the noun. For instance, solid stainless steel is generally preferred to stainless solid steel because the stainlessness of stainless steel is more inherent than the solidness of solid steel. Also from a semantic perspective, modifiers that "are less dependent on comparison are put nearer to the head noun." For example, the redness of a file can be determined without comparing it to another file but the smallness of a file can only be determined by comparison with another file. Thus, a small red file is generally preferable to a red small file. From a pragmatic perspective, modifiers that "are remembered most easily upon the occurrence of the noun" tend to occur closer to the noun. For instance, blonde tends to be more closely associated with hair than nice is, so nice blonde hair is more likely than blonde nice hair. Also from a pragmatic perspective, more frequently used modifiers tend to occur before less frequently used modifiers. For example, big is a more frequently used word than cold, so we would expect a big cold lake rather than a cold big lake.Wulff, Stefanie. “A Multifactorial Corpus Analysis of Adjective Order in English.” International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, vol. 8, no. 2, 2003, pp. 245–282, .
Some grammars have proposed multiple "zones" for pre-head modifiers in English noun phrases. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language, for example, proposes four "premodification zones." The pre-central zone is filled by nongradable adjectives, particularly intensifiers such as major and numerous. The central zone consists of the most prototypical adjectives, that is, adjectives that admit intensifiers and comparison and can also appear in predicate position. Within this central zone, evaluative adjectives typically occur first, and the usual order for the rest is nonderived adjectives, then adjectives derived from verbs, and finally adjectives derived from nouns. The post-central zone includes participles and color terms. The pre-head zone includes adjectives denoting provenance, adjectives with the meaning of "relating to (noun)" (such as annual and political), and nouns.Quirk, Randolph, et al. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. Longman, 1985. pp. 1337–1340. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language proposes two zones: early pre-head modifiers and residual pre-head modifiers. Early pre-head modifiers include cardinal and ordinal numbers numerals (e.g., two, second), superlative adjectives (e.g., largest, youngest), and primacy adjectives (e.g., key, primary). Residual pre-head modifiers include all other pre-head internal modifiers.
| Inflection | number (plural -s) | comparative ( -er), superlative ( -est) |
| Typical functions | subject, direct object, indirect object | pre-head modifier of noun, subject-related complement |
| Typical pre-head modifier | adjective phrase | adverb phrase |
| Occurrence with determinatives | head phrases containing determinatives | do not head phrases containing determinatives |
Color terms also exhibit features of both nouns and adjectives. Often, the category of these terms can be clearly identified. For example, color terms used as subjects ( blue represents hope) or complements ( my favorite color is blue) appear to be typical nouns while color terms occurring attributively ( the blue light) appear to be typical adjectives. Similarly, color terms marked as plural ( the blues in his paintings) appear to be nouns while those marked as comparative ( bluer) or superlative ( bluest) appear to be adjectives. However, James D. McCawley notes an example of a color term appearing to have features of both nouns and adjectives: a deep blue necktie. Here, the modifier of blue is an adjective ( deep) rather than an adverb ( deeply), which suggests that the color term is a noun. However, its function appears to be the same as the adjective blue in the blue light.McCawley, James D. The Syntactic Phenomena of English. Second ed., U of Chicago P, 1998. pp. 767–769. Bas Aarts notes that this apparent dual categorization can be avoided by treating phrases like deep blue as adjective-adjective compounds.
Phrases like the lucky in the lucky don't need to diet also present challenges. Words like lucky in this case have features typical of a noun; specifically, they appear to head phrases that (1) contain determinatives and (2) have the prototypical functions of noun phrases (such as subject, in this example). However, these words also have features of adjectives. For instance, they can be modified by very ( the very lucky don't need to diet) and combine with morphemes that can typically attach only to adjectives, such as un- ( the unlucky must diet). Complicating matters further, they can take as pre-head modifiers either adjectives ( the ostentatious rich) or adverbs (t he completely innocent). Aarts argues that phrases like these are best analyzed as noun phrases with an empty element functioning as the head, yielding an analysis like this: NP ∅N]. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language offers a similar analysis, calling words like lucky and innocent as used here "fused modifier-heads".Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge UP, 2002. p. 410. In other words, they treat these words as adjectives that have fused with an unexpressed head.
| Inflection | number (plural -s) | tense ( -s, -ed), participle ( -ing, -ed or - en) |
| Typical functions | subject, direct object, indirect object | predicator |
| Typical complements | prepositional phrase, clause | noun phrase, clause |
| Typical pre-head modifier | adjective phrase | adverb phrase |
| Occurrence with determinatives | head phrases containing determinatives | do not head phrases containing determinatives |
Painting( s) in 1–4 are unambiguously nouns. Paintings in 1 and 2 feature the plural -s morpheme associated with nouns and also head phrases containing determinatives (i.e., some and Brown's), a feature also observed in 3–5. Painting in 4 is also modified by an adjective phrase ( deft), further suggesting that it is a noun. Meanwhile, painting in 10–14 are unambiguously verbs. Of these, all but 13 take post-head noun phrase complements, a feature of verbs but not nouns. While the painting in 13 does not take a noun phrase complement, it is modified by an adverb phrase ( silently), a feature typical of verbs that is also present in 5 and 9. The troublesome cases are those represented by the paintings in 5–9, which demonstrate features of both nouns and verbs. These are often called (though the terminology can vary). The paintings in 5–9 are noun-like in that they are the heads of phrases functioning as either subject or direct object. The paintings in 5 and 6 are even more noun-like in that they occur with the determinative Brown's. However, the paintings in 5–9 are also verb-like in that they take a post-head noun phrase complement. The painting in 9 is even more verb-like in that it is modified by the adverb phrase deftly.
Linguists have offered a variety of accounts for English gerunds. For instance, Geoffrey K. Pullum and James P. Blevins both argue that gerunds are noun phrases with verb phrase heads.Pullum, Geoffrey K. "English Nominal Gerund Phrases as Noun Phrases with Verb-Phrase Heads." Linguistics, vol. 29, no. 5, 1991, pp. 763–800, .Blevins, James P. "Remarks on Gerunds." Morphology and the Web of Grammar: Essays in Memory of Steven G. Lapointe, edited by C. Orhan Orgun and Peter Sells, CSLI Publications, 2005, pp. 25–47. Other linguists, such as Richard Hudson, argue that gerunds are both verbs and nouns.Hudson, Richard. “Gerunds without Phrase Structure.” Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, vol. 21, no. 3, Aug. 2003, pp. 579–615. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4048043. Yet others, such as Bas Aarts, argue that the fact that gerunds tend to occur in the same places as noun phrases (as subject, direct object, and so on) is not enough to support that they occur within noun phrases and instead treat them as verbs that happen to be in non-canonical positions.
| Inflection | number (plural -s) | comparative ( -er), superlative ( -est) |
| Typical functions | subject, direct object, indirect object | adjunct |
| Occurrence with determinatives | head phrases containing determinatives | do not head phrases containing determinatives |
However, two other features make these words resemble determiners rather than nouns. First, their phrase-initial position ( we students) is typical of determiners ( the students). Second, they cannot combine with other determiners (* the we students), which suggests that they fill the same role. These characteristics have led linguists like Ray Jackendoff and Steven Paul Abney to categorize such uses of we and you as determiners.Jackendoff, Ray. X-Bar Syntax: A Study of Phrase Structure. MIT Press, 1977. p. 106.Abney, Steven Paul. The English Noun Phrase in Its Sentential Aspect. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, PhD Dissertation, 1987. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language similarly classifies this use of we and you as "an extended, secondary use" in which words that began as pronouns have been reanalyzed as determiners.Huddleston, Rodney, and Geoffrey K. Pullum. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language. Cambridge UP, 2002. pp. 421–422.
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