14. The Noun

Most definitions of the noun given in traditional grammars are based on meaning. For example, the noun is defined as "a word expressing substance in the widest sense of the word", or "a part of speech which includes words denoting substance or certain facts or phenomena regarded as substances". A popular definition, which can be found in a number of English grammars published abroad, is that "a noun is the name of a living being or lifeless thing", or "a noun is the name of anything, living or inanimate, real or conceptual".

The usual definitions of the noun have been criticized by structuralists because, in their opinion, they are based on the very subjective and shaky foundation of meaning. Ch.C. Fries, for instance, gives the traditional definition of the noun, as "the name of a person, place or thing", but at the same time shows that such word as "blue" is the "name" of a colour, as is "yellow" or "red”, and yet, in the expressions "a blue tie, a yellow rose', a red dress" we do not call "blue" and "yellow" and "red" "nouns". We do call "red" a noun in the sentence "this red is the shade I want". "Run" is the "name" of an action, as is “jump" or “ arrive". "Up" is the "name” of' a direction, as is "down" or "across “. In spite of the fact that these words are all "names" and thus fit the definition given for the noun they are not called nouns in such expressions as "We ran home", "They were looking up into the sky", "The acid made the fibre red". The definition as it stands – that “A noun is a name" – does not furnish all the criteria necessary to exclude from this group many words which English grammarians in actual practice classify in other parts of speech.

In the opinion of structural linguists we identify nouns not by asking if they name something, but by their positions in expressions and by the formal marks they carry. In the sentence, "The slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe," any speaker of English knows that "toves" and "wabe" are nouns, though he cannot tell what they name, if indeed they name anything. He knows it because they have certain formal marks, like their position in relation to "the" as well as the whole arrangement of the sentence.

The noun in English has two grammatical categories: the category of number and the category of case.

15. The Article

The question whether the article is a separate part of speech or not has given rise to conflicting statements.

The article has definite grammatical functions which distinguish it as a part of speech:

1. The article is used to signify a noun, i.e. it shows which word is a noun: light - to light - a light.

2. The article is used in the sentence to separate a noun with its attributive word(s) from the other parts of the sentence: A terrible weight lifted off his heart. I shall never forget the one fourth serious and three fourths comical astonishment (Dickens)

3. The article is used to denote whether the thing named is known to the listener (or reader) or not: the - a (an).

Opinions differ as to the number of articles in English. All grammarians recognize the existence of the definite and the indefinite article. The problem arises how to interpret cases where a noun is used without any article, as in the sentence "Time is money".' The following views have been advanced:

1. It should be described as a case of the omission of the article. 2. It is a case of the (meaningful) absence of the article. 3. The absence of the article is a special kind of article - the zero article.