Nouns and Pronouns in English Grammar, UNIR Notes

How to Study This Unit

In order to study this unit you should read the following:

• Hewings, M. (2005). Advanced Grammar in Use. Cambridge: Cambridge University
  Press. (p. 80, p. 82, p. 84.). Available at the virtual campus under the art. 32.4 of the
  Spanish Intellectual Property Law.
• Payne, T.E. (2011). Understanding English Grammar. A Linguistic Introduction.
  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (pp. 114-121). Available at the virtual campus
  under the art. 32.4 of the Spanish Intellectual Property Law.

In this unit we will study different aspects of the English nouns and pronouns:

• Firstly, we will describe the elements of the nominal group.
• Secondly, we will analyse the gender and number of the noun and the difference
  between countable and uncountable nouns.
• And finally we will discuss the genitive case and the types of pronouns.

Nouns and Pronouns Overview

This chapter deals with the characteristics and elements of the nominal group,
defined by Angela Downing and Phillip Locke as the group that "refer[s] semantically to
those aspects of our experience that we perceive as entities" (2006, p. 401). The chapter
also examines the main types of nouns and pronouns in English.

Classes of Entities the Nominal Group Refers To

Table 1. Classes of entities the nominal group refers to. Adapted from Downing and Locke (2006)

The main element of the nominal group (NG) is the head. The nominal group can also
contain in pre-head position a determiner and/or pre-modifier, and in post-head
position -the post-modifier.

The head of the group is the central element; the determiner, the pre-modifier and
the post-modifier are optional.

The Nominal Group Structure

Figure 1. The nominal group.

The Head of the Nominal Group

The head is usually a noun or a pronoun. The examples analysed below only contain
the main element -the head.

People are reading The Guardian these days.
People (noun) is the nominal group and the head of the nominal group.

It contains interesting facts.
It (pronoun) comprises the nominal group. It is also the head of the nominal group.

Although in rare cases, an adjective can also be the head in a nominal group.
The unemployed have difficulty in making ends meet.
The unemployed is the nominal group in this case. The (article) is the determiner and
unemployed (adjective) is the head.

The Determiner

The function of the determiner is to particularise the referent noun in several ways:

• Articles: a bird, an apple, the bird, the apple
• Demonstratives: this library, that story, these libraries, those stories
• Distributives: (each, every, all ... ) each event, every student ...
• Possessives: your exam, his camera ...
• Wh- words: which exam? Palabras con preguntas
• Quantifiers: (three, ten, some, many, etc.) three magazines.

The Pre-modifier

The pre-modifier is placed in pre-head position. When there is a determiner in the
nominal group, the determiner precedes the pre-modifier. Pre-modifiers are usually
adjectives and participles. Here are some examples:

A mysterious island
A (determiner); mysterious (adjective) is the pre-modifier; island (noun) is the head.

A delightful trip
A (determiner); delightful (adjective) is the pre-modifier; trip (noun) is the head.

Pre-modifiers can also be nouns.
Birthday greetings Felicitaciones de cumpleaños
Birthday (noun) is the pre-modifier; whereas the noun greetings is the head.

The Post-modifier

The post-modifier is placed after the head and, like the determiner and the pre-
modifier, is an optional element in the nominal group. It can be comprised by different
items like finite and non-finite clauses, or prepositional groups.

Find a few examples below:

The shop that his father has in the garage sells books.
In the NG -The shop that his father has in the garage- we can see that the is the
determiner; shop is the head of the NG; and that his father has in the garage is a
relative clause that acts as a post-modifier.

The book that you gave me is very interesting.
The book that you gave me is the NG. Here we have: The (determiner); book (head of
the NG) / that you gave me (again a relative clause that acts as a post-modifier).

His shift in the restaurant has come to an end.
His shift in the restaurant (NG): His (determiner); shift (head of the NG); in the
restaurant (this time we have a prepositional group used as a post-modifier).

Structure of the Nominal Group Examples

Table 2. The structure of the nominal group.

Gender and Number of Nouns

Gender

Unlike languages such as French, German or Italian that have grammatical gender,
English is known to have natural gender.

In English we distinguish the following genders: feminine, masculine, common
(dual, i.e. masculine or feminine), and neuter.

If we take into account the morphological form of the personal pronouns, we will see
that gender is marked by inflection only in the third person singular -he, she, u. The
first person singular and plural -I, we- the second person singular and plural -you-
and the third person plural -they- are unmarked for gender.

When it comes to nouns, gender can be marked in English in several ways (separate
forms; adding suffixes; some have a common gender, some are compound nouns).

Present-day English tends to use gender-neutral language, e.g. chairperson, instead of
chairman, spokesperson, instead of spokesman, police officer, instead of policeman,
whenever possible.

• By separate forms for masculine, feminine, and common gender. Some
  examples are:
  • Masculine: boy, man, bull.
  • Feminine: girl, woman, cow.
  • Common: child, student, pupil, friend, chicken.
  • Neuter: table, picture, house.

Different Words for Masculine and Feminine Gender

Table 3. Different words for masculine and feminine gender.

Masculine and Feminine Words for Higher Animals

Table 4. Masculine and feminine words for higher animals.

• By adding derivational suffixes: In most cases the word for female gender is
  derived from the word that indicates male gender. Widow (female) - widower (male)
  is an exception.
  • -ess: actor>actress; waiter>waitress; tiger>tigress; host>hostess; heir>heiress
  • -ine: hero>heroine
  • -rix: aviator>aviatrix
  • -ette: suffragist>suffragette
• Common gender:
  • -er: teacher, baker, doctor.
  • -ist: chemist, artist.
  • -ian: librarian, comedian.
• Compound nouns: policeman>policewoman; postman>postwoman

Cars, ships, trains are considered feminine in some contexts, especially when their crew
refers to them.

Number

• The most common way of forming the plural of a noun is by adding -s to the
  singular: result>results; coat>coats; house>houses.
• When nouns end in -s, -ss, -sh, -ch, or -x their plural is formed by adding -es:
  address>addresses;
  brush>brushes; complex>complexes;
  peach>peaches;
  bus>buses.
• Most nouns ending in -o form their plurals by adding (-es: tomato>tomatoes;
  echo>echoes; hero>heroes.
  Some words of foreign origin, abbreviated words, or words that have a vowel
  before the fina-o only add
  to make a plural form: kimono>kimonos;
  piano>pianos; photo>photos; kilo>kilos; zoo>zoos.
  Some of the common nouns ending in -o can be spelled with either -s or -es in
  plural: banjos or banjoes, cargos or cargoes, flamingos or flamingoes, frescos or
  frescoes, ghettos or ghettoes, halos or haloes, mangos or mangoes, mementos or
  mementoes, mottos or mottoes, tornados or tornadoes, volcanos or volcanoes.
• Nouns ending in -y following a vowel form their plural by adding -s; boy>boys;
  toy>toys; day>days.
  Nouns ending in consonant + -y nake their plural form by changing y into i
  and then adding -es: city>cities; activity>activities; lorry>lorries.
• Other forms of making plurals include:
  • nouns like half, wife, self; - f changes into -ves: halves, wives, selves.
  • irregular plural like: man>men; tooth>teeth.
  • certain words like pants, pyjamas, and scissors are always plural.
  • collective words can take a singular or a plural verb, depending on the decision of
    the speaker to put the emphasis on the group as whole or the word meaning a
    number of individuals, e.g. class, family, audience, team.

For further information about singular and plural forms of the noun and the agreement
between subject and verb see section 1.1.

Countable and Uncountable Nouns

In English, a referent can be perceived in two ways: as a countable or uncountable
entity. Countable and uncountable nouns are often called count and mass nouns,
respectively.

Countable Nouns

river, building, flower, novel, box, bridge ...

Have a plural form.
rivers, buildings, flowers, novels, boxes,
bridges.

They can be modified by determiners
that indicate plurality.
those rivers, these buildings
a few flowers, many novels,
several boxes, three bridges ...

Uncountable Nouns

snow, bread, baggage ...

They are preceded by a zero determiner.
If baggage is left behind by passengers, the train
station charges €2.74 per item per 12 hours.

They are often preceded by some, any,
little, a little, no, etc.
Get some bread and butter.
Remove the crusts and slice thin.
Retire las cortezas y córtelas en rodajas finas.