Noun : Proper noun
A noun is perhaps the most fundamental of the parts of speech. Nouns occur in sentences in two different ways: as subjects (performers of action), or objects (recipients of action); in the sentence "John wrote me a letter", "John" is a subject, and "me" and "letter" are objects. Common wisdom has it that a noun is the name of a "person, place, or thing".Nouns are classified into proper nouns (e.g. "Janet"), common nouns (e.g. "girl"), and pronouns (e.g. "she" and "which").
A proper noun (also called proper name) is a noun which denotes a unique entity. The meaning of a proper noun, outside of what it references, is frequently arbitary or irrelevant (for example, someone might be named Tiger Smith despite being neither a tiger nor a smith). Because of this, they are often not translated between languages, although they may be transliterated--for example, the German surname "Knödel" becomes "Knoedel" in English, as opposed to "Dumpling".
Proper nouns are capitalized in English and most or all other languages that use the Latin alphabet; this is one easy way to recognize them. Note however that in German all types of nouns are capitalized (with the exception of "ich"). Also, in English, trademarks (e.g. "Dumpster" and "Kleenex") and words derived from proper nouns (e.g. "Aristotelian") are also capitalized; this phenomenon is probably a vestige of English's Germanic roots, and doesn't occur in Romance languages. The word "I", although capitalized in English and apparently refering to a unique object, is actually a pronoun.
Sometimes the same word can appear as both a common noun and a proper noun, where one such entity is special; for example:
- there can be many gods, but there is only one God.
- there can be many internets (networks of TCP/IP networks), but the largest internet in the world is the Internet.
Some languages, such as Toki Pona, classify proper names as adjectives that modify a generic noun. Shades of this are found in the English language in phrases like "English language".
A mass noun is a type of common noun that represents a substance not easily quantified by a number. Mass nouns do not require limiting modifiers ("an", "two", "several", "many", etc.) and are not normally pluralized. Examples from English include "cheese", "laughter", and "precision".
Examples of nouns:
- Janet is the name of a girl.
- Whistling off-key is annoying to me, but not to everybody.
- Cleanliness is next to godliness.
- The World Wide Web has become the least expensive way to publish information.
She started to turn off the power and apply the brake. She
to offend you, though if it had not been for you Paul would not have
one."
Cora flashed an indignant look at him.
"I suppose you meant that for a compliment," she said, "but you
in her tones as she could call up. "I'll not ask you to wait," and
lady when she is in a--temper."
Cora was positively angry. But again came that detestation of
strong the provocation. She would make a purchase to gain time, and
transaction to an interminable length, to the no small disgust of
more broadly than before.
He had taken her place at the wheel.
"You won't mind me driving.html">driving as far as the bank building, will you?"
in bad shape since you--er--tried to smash me."
"I did nothing of the sort. It was your own fault."
"There, there," he said soothingly. "We mustn't quarrel."
Cora felt herself growing pale. She repressed a stinging reply, and
"What makes you dislike me so, Cora? You and I used to pull a pretty
off riding with a common mechanic?"
"Mr. Hastings is a gentleman!" she flared back.html">back at him, like an
of acting as you are now, even if he is a common mechanic."
"No?"
His tone was tantalizing.
"Please turn this corner," she said icily. "I want to get back to
business there, or in the automobile place," and he flashed a
have their own way. I'm driving this car."
He threw in the second speed gear, and the auto dashed forward
the turnpike road!
For a few moments Cora held her breath. Should she shout for help,
came to her.
On
wordlookup.net
All is still licensed under the GNU FDL.
It uses material from the wikipedia.
|
|