IV.54 The four MAJOR WORD-CLASSES constitute the core of the GRAMMAR, and most “grammars” recognise them as such. They seem most tidy, classifiable, and reliable. But, as we shall see, they cannot be properly handled in isolation. For example, it would be unproductive to treat the NOUN apart from the NOUN PHRASE, which of course can include several MINOR WORD-CLASSES. So the following sections will follow a broad “from inside to outside” view whilst situating each MAJOR WORD-CLASS in its characteristic environments.
IV.F.1 NOUNS
IV.55 As is traditional, I shall begin with NOUNS, though un-traditionally in doing so from three sides. By the generalizations proffered in IV.43-47, NOUNS are a large and open WORD-CLASS, and frequently self-centred and rich as well. Indeed, they may appear downright acquisitive in raiding other WORD-CLASSES.
IV.56 On the linguistic side, most NOUNS formally distinguish NUMBER: but very few still distinguish GENDER by form, and many of those that do in my data are either quite archaic, like “offendress”, “commandress”, “foundress”, “sempstress”, “alewife”, and “goodwife”; or else on the wane as disempowering names for poorly-paid “women’s jobs”, like “schoolmistress”, “laundress”, and “tailoress”. “Housewife” remains a touchy problem, as we saw (IV.28-32), because of its overload of social and historical baggage. Still entrenched are “waitress”, “stewardess”, and especially “actress”, all of whom attract the public eye with glitzy attire and ingratiating manners.
IV.57 Linguistically too, NOUNS can readily appear alone (IV.1), e.g., on public signs like “Entrance” and “Exit” or “Gentlemen” and “Ladies”, which mercifully keep us from getting belted with glass doors or busted for Trespass Upon Public Decency (in legal language, perhaps “invasio et arsemadspectio in looibus publicis”). NOUNS more often serve as the HEAD in a NOUN PHRASE, which will be described in more detail shortly, notably by following ARTICLES and MODIFIERS like ADJECTIVES [112-13].
[112] The energetic Yankee Statesman attacked the question (Darkest England)
[113] I looked up and met the eye of a pale, grave, elderly lady (Wildfell)
Within the CLAUSE, NOUNS are of course favoured choices for the SUBJECT [112] and the OBJECT [113].
IV.58 When NOUN and VERB can have identical written forms, the sound sometimes tells which is which, as when the VERB places the STRESS on the second SYLLABLE, whereas the NOUN places the STRESS on the first: “con·!vert” [114] versus “!con·vert” [115] or “per·!mit” [116] versus “!per·mit” [117].
[114] A golfer, a member of some obscure American religious sect which eschewed tobacco, alcohol, and premarital sex, tried to convert his caddie (Sudden Death)
[115] With violent agitations and distortions of body, the Camisars claimed the power to work miracles, prophesying that a convert of theirs should rise from the dead (Spectator)
[116] It is an offence to permit drunkenness on licensed premises [and] can lead to disqualification of the licensee. (Hotel Receptionist)
[117] Unlike Scotland, a Water Authority Rod Licence is required in England, prior to fishing, as well as a permit from the water chosen. (Tales of the Loch)
The clarity of the linguistic contrasts should be welcome in cognitive and social matters that may seem a tad bizarre -- for instance, if one “religious sect” stops people from getting drunk [114], which is, amazingly, illegal even in a “licensed” pub [116], whereas another jiggles people pretty well to death while promising resurrection [115]. Just to go fishing in England, one must “licence one’s rod” and then secure “a permit from the water” itself [117], signed and sealed I guess by the Lady of the Lake.
IV.59 The contrast between NOUNS and parallel VERBS suggests a distinction in cognitive stability. “Thinking”, “stopping”, “and “inquiring” can be done in a moment [118, 120, 122]. But if you “have a think”, you ponder matters slowly and carefully [119]. If you “make a stop”, you are likely to stay around, maybe to inspect a “museum” displaying “all the past and present characteristics of the region” [121]. And if you “make an inquiry”, the process can be expansive indeed, especially when a “Royal Commission” is eyeballing the “legal services” of an entire country [123].
[118] The coach went past me, and for a moment I thought it was not going to stop. But it did stop. (Ghost Stories)
[119] Give me a couple of weeks, I want to have a look at the figures and have a think about it and I’ll come back to you. (managers’ meeting)BNC
[120] As he neared the door, he suddenly stopped, staggered and sat down abruptly on a chair (Message to the Planet)
[121] Follow the road to Urnasch and make a stop here. There is an excellent museum which summarises all the characteristics of Appenzell’s past and present. (Off the Beaten Track: Switzerland)
[122] “Are you expecting some important letter, Rose?” her mother inquired anxiously. (Amongst Women)
[123] The Prime Minister announced the establishment of a Royal Commission to make a general inquiry into the provision of legal services in England (Sociology of the Professions)
The drift toward cognitive stability is clearer yet when quick actions as VERBS, like “notice” and “identify” [124-25], are contrasted with confirmed documents as NOUNS [126-27].
[124] There’s a short, familiar figure in the lift. It’s Bruce Dickinson out of Iron Maiden. I am about to introduce myself when I notice that he’s carrying an armful of eels. Eels? (NME)
[125] The Department of Transport awarded contracts for electronics that would identify cars passing over buried toll gates. (Independent)
[126] The management committee may place a notice on the noticeboard of an ethnic minority community centre (Citizens’ Advice Bureaux)BNC
[127] We know you are working in concert with a man carrying British Intelligence Identification. (White Darkness)
IV.60 The term PROPER NOUNS comes down to us from the times when “proper” meant “belonging to someone” as in “do justice on my proper son” (Henry IV). They best fit the jaded schoolroom definition of a “NOUN” being “the name of a person, place or thing”, which is more cognitive than linguistic in nature anyway. In English, the names of persons and places are capitalised and not expected to carry their own meanings. However, the tendency to ascribe meanings to names is commonplace enough.
[128] Aurora Corona Rest Home? Where did they get a name like that? I thought that was a Mexican beer. (Angel Hunt)
[129] My husband’s name is so difficult to pronounce; it sounds something like “Medikijediki Giriligoloyo” [it was “Milchizedek Gregory”]. It sounds to me like “give the people more vegetables, foxes make holes in the pathway”. (Song of Lawino)
[130] “Damian Flint”. Rachel frowned, [...] struck by the combination of those two names: the dark romanticism of “Damian” and the ruthlessness of “Flint”. A man with a name like that will be both tough and passionate (Ungoverned Passion)
Indeed, a long literary tradition has bequeathed us a host of intentionally meaningful names of persons: Abhorson, Doll Tearsheet, Lady Sneerwell, Squire Allworthy, Pitt Crawley, Farmer Oak, Mrs Lookaloft, Captain Brassbound, along with such thinly misspelled and colourful cameos as the mailcart-driving Lord Mutanhed and the notebook-scribbling Count Smorltork in the world of Mr Pickwick...seemingly effective, if hardly subtle.
IV.61 The name of places may originate with meanings which the passage of time has effaced. I wonder how many people who use them nowadays are aware that “England” came from the invading “Angles” with their funny language, and “London” from King “Lud’s Town”; or that the states of “Virginia”, the “Carolinas”, and “Georgia” were named to flatter British monarchs; or that the states of “Illinois”, “Minnesota”, and the “Dakotas” bear the names of their rightful indigenous inhabitants. And here too, literature sees its chances:
[131] There was something so gentle in her, so much needing protection on Mill Pond Bank, by Chinks’s Basin, and the Old Green Copper Rope-Walk (Great Expectations)
[132] In the great manufacturing cities, Buggingham-under-Smoke, or Gloomsbury-on-Ooze, night may be said to be perpetual. (Discovery of England)
“Nicknames” or “pet names” generally promote SOLIDARITY by rejecting formality:
[133] Much as I admire the French, nothing can compare with being back home in good old Blighty. [Note 6] (Invasion)
[134] Twitbread News informs me that Twitters have made a special award to Paul McCartney as “Scouse Personality of the Year”. Scouse? Surely this term should be used to describe someone who lives and works -- or draws the dole -- in Scouserpool? (What’s Brewing) [Liverpool]
[135] Wedgie then made what I found a very effective speech, pointing out that we had got to look at the problem in domestic as well as international terms. (Cabinet) [Tony Benn, formerly Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn, Viscount Stansgate]
[136] Why make Gazza track back and defend, when we could have other players to do that? (John Barnes in Today) [Paul Gascoigne]
A curious countre-trend currently dominates the names of pop bands, which create small insider fan-groups. When Ned’s Atomic Dustbin advertised for local bands as support acts, among the 400 applicants were Firecharmers, Sludgebuster, Endless Drone, Tribute To Nothing, Pelican Retort, Trumpet Worm, Baboon Frenzee, Toxic Shock Syndrome, and Sideboard To Mars (reported in Melody Maker).
IV.62 In the complementary term COMMON NOUNS, “common” means “shared” rather than “frequent”. Of course, many are frequent too, such as designations of animals [137] or plants [138], whereas others are so rare that most people, including me, don’t know what they mean, e.g., in sound technology [139] or medicine [140] (cf. IV.25).
[137] The creature made a scuttling, circling movement as a cat will make a nest for itself before sleeping. Or a dog or a fox. Or a wolf. (Lost Prince)
[138] Proof of the mildness of this climate is deduced from the oranges, lemons, citrons, roses, narcissus’s, july-flowers, and jonquils (Through France and Italy)
[139] The T-bass has two humbucking pickups being controlled by rotaries: a pickup pan with a useful centre-detente at the “blend” point (Guitarist)
[140] Clodronate reduces the degree of hypercalcaemia and decreases pain in patients with multiple myeloma (Nursing Times)
IV.63 PROPER NOUNS insistently encroach on COMMON NOUNS in such areas as the discourses of marketing, which at times border on sarcasm toward a famously trollied monarch [141] or mockery toward finicky cat-coddlers [142] (cf. §).
[141] Hans Just markets King George IV Scotch Whisky. (United Distillers)
[142] The Good Cat Food Guide [has] awarded the Golden Whiskers Award for the best cat nosh to Safeways’ Sardines in Smoked Salmon Jelly. (Mirror)
In return, a PROPER NOUN can be made over as a COMMON NOUN, normally by placing an ARTICLE ahead of it, e.g., to invoke a person with similar significant traits:
[143] A mind of uncommon activity and power, a Locke, a Lavoisier, a Hutton, a Bentham, a Fourier, imposes its classification on other men (Emerson, Essay on History)
[144] “I’m going to make you the new Madonna”, Waterman promised his new prodigy. (Kylie Minogue)
But this move is not nearly so frequent as the reverse of COMMON to PROPER. Making a person over into an essence is no simple move, as Kylie will figure out if she tries to sing the tile role in Evita; Waterman might better have said “another Madonna fancy-dress clone”.
IV.64 More recent, though no less popular among grammarians, are the opposed terms COUNT NOUNS for what you can normally “count” item by item [145], and MASS NOUNS for what normally comes in a “mass” [146].
[145] Around them, plates, cups, spoons, came together among the shopping bags of Saturday morning. (Gentlemen and Ladies)
[146] And yet, amidst the dirt and grime, grew the occasional camomile (Shoemaker’s Daughter)
Predictably, the COUNT NOUNS more readily have PLURAL forms (“plates”) and are preceded by the INDEFINITE ARTICLE (“a plate”) or by the ENUMERATORS we shall take up shortly (“twelve spoons”, “many cups”) (cf. IV.124-32). MASS NOUNS more readily appear without an ARTICLE [147]; data shown here were hard to find with the INDEFINITE ARTICLE [148] or in the PLURAL [149].
[147] Old dirt is obstinate. (Home Design)
[148] I think it is a dirt on my sensor; taking some pictures, the dirt is not there (Canon Digital Photography Forums)WWW
[149] You are using detergents or chemical additives because some kinds of dirts like oil require chemical processed cleaner agents. (Oriental Rugs)WWW
IV.65 Still, the opposition is less secure than imagined by some grammar teachers I’ve known. Many MASS NOUNS can be used as COUNT NOUNS with PLURALS if the meaning is “several instances”, as in:
[150] The muds or clays form heavy sticky soils richer in chemicals. (Decisions in Geography)
[151] Some dermatologists argue that soap and water is too drying and recommend cleansing creams, milks and facial washes instead. (She)
Even so, these instances are rarely “counted” in ENUMERATORS in the sense of IV.122 and chiefly in technical uses:
[152] Is there any difference in the chemical or mineral analysis of these two clays? (Ultra Chemical)WWW
[153] Three milks were compared on groups of Continental calves over 12 weeks (Sanutrition)WWW
IV.66 GROUP NOUNS are mainly for persons who belong to some unit together, such as a “family” or a “government”. Despite some controversy among grammarians, authentic usage treats them as either SINGULAR or PLURAL.
[154] The Royal Family is showing itself to be just as vulnerable to social change as the rest of us. It has our sympathy. (Telegraph)
[155] The Royal Family are destroying themselves. [...] (MP Dennis Skinner in Today)
[156] The Government is committed to allowing solicitors and barristers to represent their clients in the higher courts, the Lord Chancellor said last night. (Independent)
[157] The Government are committed to pursuing a vigorous competition policy in the brewing industry. (Hansard)
However, PLURAL uses like [155] and [157] are more typical in Britain than elsewhere. Discourses of sportscasting like these would sound strange in the US:
[158] Croatia see red as Mexico win (BBB News Online of the 2002 World Cup)WWW
[159] Leeds are ready to put a snarl back on the face of football (Mirror)
IV.67 GROUP NOUNS are also available for some animals, though not within any coherent or comprehensive system: “pack of wolves”, “pride of lions”, “school of dolphins”, “flock of seagulls”, “gaggle of geese”, “covey of quail”, and so on. I find these treated as either SINGULAR or PLURAL:
[160] When a flock of sheep is scattered, the ewes bleat incessantly for their lambs (Emotions in Man and Animals)
[161] a flock of sheep were devoured by these rapacious wolves (Decline)
I also encountered a picturesque trend toward using animal NOUNS on people:
[162] There was the roaring and stamping of a herd of drunks at the other end of the corridor. (Crowd Is Not Company)
[163] a flock of shrieking paparazzi had tailed them all over London (Telegraph)
[164] There was a gaggle of rather obvious secret service agents loitering around the front stoop, glaring malevolently. (Stephenesque)WWW
IV.68 UNIT NOUNS accompany other NOUNS to indicate how things are usually handled, e.g. sold, bought, or consumed [165-67] -- or maybe just plain stolen [168]:
[165] Kiddibitz contains a pack of ten nappies, a large pack of baby wipes, and a large bag of cotton wool. (Parents)
[166] Several local people popped in to buy a chunk of freshly made cheese (BBC Good Food)
[167] On a visit to a Scottish university [Sterling], the Queen was greeted by the sight of a student emptying down his throat, at top speed, the contents of a bottle of alcohol. (Authors)
[Centre: Vice Chancellor of Sterling University]
[168] Detectives are hunting an armed gang of masked men that hijacked a truckload of beer in South Armagh yesterday. (Belfast Telegraph)
[Background: Church of Ireland Cathedral]
That Scot may have needed a quick pick-me-up, recalling the vile treatment of his homeland by the Sassanach monarchy since Edward Longshanks (“the Hammer of Scotland”) or William, Duke of Cumberland (“the Butcher of Culloden”) and his army of “leave-none-alive” Uruk-Hai.
Those Irish may have been seeking for beery oblivion of the memory of Oliver Cromwell (“the Butcher of Ireland”) and the presence of “British” soldiers along the border by South Amargh.
IV.69 CONCRETE NOUNS are most plainly suited for what can be readily taken in by our jolly old “five senses” (especially sight and touch), as in [169-70], whereas ABSTRACT NOUNS are better suited for what cannot, as in [171-172].
[169] The stone seats beside the fire would be replaced with benches, once Cameron brought the spare timber from the linen mill (King Cameron)
[170] She was busy handing around cups and saucers, damask napkins, silver knives and cake forks, setting out the cake-stand, circulating plates of cucumber sandwiches (American Princess)
[Princess Grace Kelly]
[171] Pupils at level 4 should learn [to] get rid of ambiguity, vagueness, incoherence, or irrelevance (National Curriculum English)
[172] True to the Romantic tradition from which this belief sprang, the imagination was valued more than the analytical intelligence (Exploding English)
The discourse of the “English profession” seems to revel in ABSTRACT NOUNS. (Why doesn’t that surprise me?)
IV.70 If we take into account the further cognitive and social sides of NOUNS, several other types would merit recognition. UTILITY NOUNS apply to useful persons or things in a society, and are mostly NEUTRAL, or else mildly AMELIORATIVE. The more distinctive ones are MULTI-PIECE WORDS, viz.:
[173] Unity Hall, as the agony aunt of the News of the World, [...] became, if hardly the guardian of people’s secrets, nonetheless a gushing fount of comforting advice. (Telegraph)
[174] A lollipop lady has been threatened with the sack because [she] halts traffic for pensioners and invalids, not just children, on her school crossing at Keighley. (Today)
[175] Parents and staff at first school and local residents are requesting that the Council install a pelican crossing on the site of the existing zebra crossing. (Bradford Metropolitan Council Meeting)BNC
[176] Last year, a panda car was taken off the road. [...] When the car was tested for forensics, investigators found evidence at least 10 people had been sexually active in it. (Sunday Mail)
Their origins may resonate with lighted-hearted undertones. The “agony aunt” runs a column telling ordinary people how to exorcise their “agonies”; perhaps “aunt” sounds less worrisome and meddlesome than “mother”. A “lollipop lady” halts traffic before a school with a round red signal on a stick, reminiscent of that treat for pint-sized sugar-addicts. A “zebra crossing” with its black and white stripes gives pedestrians the right of way; a “pelican crossing” is a glib paste-up from “pedestrian light-controlled crossing” and has the stripes anyway. A “panda car” for police resembles that shy and gentle animal only in being originally two-toned (black-and-white or blue-and-white), and small in size (way too cramped for “10 people” to be “sexually active” all at once -- passive, maybe?).
IV.71 EMPOWERING NOUNS can serve real or aspiring “power groups” by restricting communication to EMPOWERED insiders whilst impressing or numbing the DISEMPOWERED population. Presumably, cognitive stability is simply cut off from familiarity, as occurs in the discourses of bureaucracy [177], academia [178], and technology [179] (cf. IV.25, 44), viz.:
[177] Financial products supplied by a financial supply facilitator are not financial supplies. However, a supply of an interest facilitated by a financial supply facilitator is a financial supply by the financial supply provider if the supply of the interest is one to which regulation 40-13 applies. (Australian Treasurer on the Goods and Services Tax)
[178] Randomization defines the parameter of interest expressed as a function of multiple endogenous variables. It orthogonalizes the treatment variable simultaneously with respect to the other regressors in the model and the disturbance term for the conditional population. (Randomization)www
[179] CGMud is a free, softcoded system with a cached on-disk database and dynamic single inheritance, supporting graphical I/O via a custom client. (CGMud)www
In the service of POWER, these three data samples are masterpieces. The “Goods and Services Tax” to be foisted upon countries like Canada and Australia might be loathed even more poisonously if explained in plain language. “Randomization” is an impenetrable slight-of-hand trick whereby “research” in such fields as economics and sociology uses statistics to dump practically real but theoretically intractable variations among human groups or individuals. And computer hardware or software can be touted with such mysterious terms that purchasing takes on the air of an initiation ritual, for which no name could be more apt than “mud”.[Note 7]
IV.72 One well-publicised type of EMPOWERING NOUNS might be called STATUS NOUNS, viz.:
[180] the Tribeca Bar and Grill became the hottest meal ticket in town, [...] with a selection of celebs, wannabes, Wall Street suits and star gazers (The Face)
These typically lend new meanings to common expressions: “meal ticket” for a source of needed income becomes a privileged dining place; “suits” for matched formal outfits become well-paid persons wearing them at work; “star gazers” for astronomers become people gazing upon movie stars. Moreover, powerful insiders should know that “Tribeca” (abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street") is a “vaguely arty district on Manhattan’s Lower West Side” (The Face); and that the builder and owner of the “Bar and Grill” is clapped-out (i.e., applauded to the max) mega-star Robert De Niro.
If “celebs” (celebrities) and “Wall Street suits” definitely have POWER, “wannabes” and “star gazers” definitely do not.
IV.73 Thanks mainly to mass media, the meaning of STATUS NOUNS, like social status itself, can be contested. “Major face time” can empower by appearing on television [181], in film [183], or just on “shelves” of elephantine “supermarkets” [183]; or again as the privilege of face-to-face meetings with a powerful person [184].
[181] Senator Lott appears to be as “dumb as a shoe” whenever he gets major face time on the national media shows. (Free Republic)WWW
[182] One guy was totally pissed because he was taken out of a scene which would have given him some major face time. (filming for The Time Machine)WWW
[183] UK supermarket chain Tesco have added a category for “best imported beer”, [...] a good opportunity for an expanding brewery to get some major face time on the shelves of the biggest player in the UK retail sector. (Tesco Brewing Awards)WWW
[184] I spent hours and hours of major face time with all the senior managers (Robert A. Eckert, CEO of Mattel Toys, in the Harvard Business Review)
[Eckert as Barbie Doll -- A strange change?]
IV.74 STATUS NOUNS as PROPER NOUNS drench the Internet. A “luxury timeshare” – for dupes who, to get the full value out, must “vacation” at the same time and place for 50 years or so – is called “Hiawatha Manor” in “Crossville, Tennessee”; “Wolf Run Manor” at “Treasure Lake, Pennsylvania”, or “Westwind Manor” at “Runaway Bay, Texas”; even the towns have names to conjure with. To salvage a time-ravaged mug, ladies can luxuriate in “SkinCeuticals Face Cream with Triple Anti-Oxidant”; “Exuviance Vespera Bionic Serum Anti-Aging Cream; and even “Dead Sea Mineral Complex Intensive Beauty Cream”, made from “clinically mineral-rich Dead Sea Mud” (for the restorative Dead Sea Scroll Facial Mask?).
The listings are endless, a gushing Exxon of pricey snake-oils.
IV.75 Conversely, DISEMPOWERING NOUNS are pejorative or at least sardonic in meaning, and rough in sound, yet all too readily understood in rich contexts, viz.:
[185] [They] asked 55 schoolchildren to list expressions meaning stupid person. At the top of this list is wally. […] Dickhead, prat, idiot, thicko, cabbage and square are all prominent. Not so predictable are flid, pranny, Rodney, remmy, dappy and Sydney. (Northern Echo)
[186] Frankie would buy a wonderful new suit and within a few minutes he’d look as though he’d slept in it. His shirt tails would come askew, his sleeves ride up. Basically, he was a scruff. (Mirror)
[187] The fellow had long hair, an earring, a beard and worn jeans torn at the knees, a real scuzzbag (Miss Earrings)WWW
[188] I’m a kind of glorified immigration officer really, […], keeping all the rotters out, the cads, the bounders, the bad-hats. (Sainsbury training session)BNC
[189] Every so often, [we] get a review guitar [...] with no high-falutin’ bumph claiming it to be a “sound revolution”, or some equally laughable piece of flannel. (Guitarist)
These are fairly mild, and to my mind wryly humorous; we can work off some resentment against the annoying things and persons we experience in ordinary life, without the hassle of risky confrontations.
IV.76 SOLIDARISING NOUNS promote SOLIDARITY over POWER by suggesting that the users belong on the same level; my term may sound unwonted because SOLIDARITY has been far less in the spotlight than POWER. “Mates” are close, dependable friends [190]; a “stag night” is a debauched ritual of good cheer before the groom’s wedding [191]; a “hen night” is the same for the bride [192]; and people from particular cities can have rough and ready pet names [193].
[190] I just hobbled round to me mates and stayed there for a few weeks. [...] Me mates just kept giving me gear until me ankle got better. (Living with Heroin)
[191] Two mornings ago David Gower and his stag night team-mates were groaning under their bedcovers [after an] epic booze-up on the Channel island of Alderney. (Mirror)
[192] “A quiet night with the girls” [...] transpires into a hilariously raucous hen night at the local striptease. (Women’s Art)
[193] As newly-formed TV AM said “Good Morning Britain”, those likely lads [Dick] Clement and [Ian] Le Frenais threw a disparate gang of regional archetype brickies [literally, bricklayers] together for working class comic-drama. A dumb Brummie [from Birmingham] , a tough-nut Geordie [from Newcastle], a light-fingered Scouser [from Liverpool]… (NME)
When these occur in the same discourse as EMPOWERING NOUNS, the latter are likely to be ironicised or “deconstructed”, viz.:
[194] Don’t worry, darling! I shall give her the once over and deliver my inestimable verdict. [...] I’ve also brought you some of that queenie hooch you live on. You know this smouldering paragon of desire? (Jay Loves Lucy)
Whoever offers a quick inspection as a “once over”, and pink champagne as “queenie hooch”, can hardly be solemn about his “inestimable verdict” or a “smouldering paragon”.
IV.F.2 NOMINALS
IV.76 Conceptually, NOMINALS made from other WORD-CLASSES are not always easy to distinguish from NOUNS. Many usages that may have been “nominalised” are now fully at home in their “noun-ishness”, e.g.:
[195] “Worthy and good-natured mediocrities” are dismissed, and Arnold is rebuked for his “petulant snobbishness”. (English – Englishness).
[196] A backdrop of meaningless shifts in national policy, from “escalation” to “deescalation” and back again, foregrounds the characters, who are subversives armed with sticks of dynamite. (Postmodernism)
Plausibly, we tend to register NOMINALS when they stand out as unusual or deliberate. In contrast to “man” and “woman” as basic and essential NOUNS, “mannishness” and “womaniser” are NOMINALS constructed for recognisable social motives. The one DISEMPOWERS women for not looking or acting the supposed role [197]; the other slyly EMPOWERS the man’s attractiveness behind a veil of disapproval [198]. I surfed out their rare apparent counterparts on the Internet: aside from dictionaries equating it with “effeminacy in men”, “womanishness” was regularly applied to women [199], whilst “maniser” was used facetiously [200].
[197] There she was, hair swept up as usual, mannishness accentuated by a tailored suit (Delia Sutherland)
[198] Dr. Robert Atkins, the late low-carb diet guru, [...] was a womaniser. [...] “He flirted with all of us, [to] talk one of us into going home with him for the night”, said Barbara Stinson, a former nurse. (Web India)
[Nurses couresty of National Health]
[199] Come tear up the rug with us as we celebrate our womanishness! Have we got a night of treats for you... (Official Ladyfest Kickoff Party)WWW
[200] Are you a maniser or far too fussy, an outrageous flirt or a gold-digger? Take one of our quizzes to uncover your dating personality (icircle)WWW
IV.77 We can also register NOMINALS made from another WORD-CLASS into a NOUN by the simple linguistic means of an ARTICLE or a PLURAL, or both (cf. IV.63). My data proffered NOMINALS from a VERB [201], ADJECTIVE [202], an ADVERB [203], a CONJUNCTION [204-05], a DEMONSTRATIVE [206], an ENUMERATOR [207], and an INTERJECTION [208], plus a whole PHRASE [208-10].
[201] Vintage romeo Ian McShane [...], as a reformed boozer and hellraiser, has experienced more than his share of knock-downs in the auction room of life. (Belfast Telegraph)
[202] a passionate preference for the wild, wonderful, and thrilling -- the strange, startling, and harrowing -- agitates divers souls that show a calm and sober surface. (Professor)
[203] What, without asking, hither hurried whence?
And, without asking, whither hurried hence! (Rubiyat)
[204] The ifs and whens that keep our leaders sleepless. Time trumps ambition, as politicians and pundits all know. (Peter Preston in the Guardian)
[205] This method of dealing with data is good because it removes the dependency of an earlier programme having to know about a later one. Two more becauses, while I think of them... (Matt Webb)WWW
[206] They are off on their yacht sucking down cool ones with thises and thats parading around (RB Racing Pro)WWW
[207] Sara had never seen so many squirrels, groups of twos and threes chased each other up and down the trunks of shady trees (Maljonic’s Dreams)WWW
[208] Be sure to write about me honest: do not prettify me: include all the hells and damns (Walt Whitman and the Civil War)WWW
[209] Well, the game-rooster went as if it was a go-as-you-please, and he didn’t care if it lasted a year. (On the Track)
[210] The toastmaster apologetically says with a sorry-but-it-must-be-done air, “We will now sing The Star Spangled Banner”; some diners are wrecked among the dizzy altitudes, others persevere through uncharted shoals, all make some noise (How to Sing the National Songs)
[foreground: Francis Scott Key; centre: Fort Mc Henry; background: British fleet]
However, as we move steadily away from the MAJOR WORD-CLASSES, some NOMINALS are like “framed” items for what somebody said or might say, as in [208] and [210].
IV.F.3 NOUN PHRASES
IV.78 The term PHRASE, which is glibly used in many “grammars” of all types without definite clarification, can perhaps be best defined for English as “two or more WORDS with a GRAMMATICAL relation between or among them”. Thus, the title of the Smith’s album [211] would count as two PHRASES, but the guitar outbursts of Iron Maiden and the atavistic ululations of Bruce Dickinson [212] would, I think, count as none.
[211] One month later, The Smiths completed the recording of their third album, “The Queen Is Dead”. (The Smiths)
[212] The guitars go “ibbly wibbly wibbly splang”. Bruce goes “Urg urg screeeeek!” (NME)
IV.79 As such, the PHRASE is essentially a form-function correlation that may be fairly complex but still appear simple to users of English who are so familiar with handling it. In reality, the so-called NOUN PHRASE, VERB PHRASE, PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE, and so on, are subtly divergent modes of correlation attending to the respective demands of the GRAMMAR.
IV.80 The NOUN PHRASE has been a thoroughly-studied PATTERN CLASS in English “grammars”, thanks to its seemingly reassuring order of WORD-CLASSES and their forms. Although potential “rules” are seldom successfully taught, the order seems fairly fixed:
[213] The two big German nitrate ships Preussen and Potosi. (Victoria State Library)WWW [hardly: ??The big two German nitrate ships; *The German big two nitrate ships; *The nitrate big two German ships etc.]
IV.81 Also, it is a staple as the SUBJECT of a CLAUSE and of a DECLARATIVE SENTENCE [214], and may optionally appear in an OBJECT of the VERB [215], or a MODIFIER [216].
[214] The bizarre figure of Laurence Sterne next claims our attention. (Glories of Ireland)
[215] I remarked Dr Johnson’s very respectful politeness. (Boswell)
[216] Cap Horn instruments appear easy to use, working on the one-function-per-button principle. (Yachting World)
A bit incongruously, the function of NOUN PHRASE as SUBJECT can be assumed just by a NOUN [217], or by a PRO-NOUN [218].
[217] Navigation was always a difficult art (Snark)
[218] She rushed forward, with a piercing scream (Boyhood in Norway)
And, like the NOUN, the NOUN PHRASE can appear alone on signs (IV.57):
[219] Mumbling obscenities under my breath, I watched at least 6 people turned away from a perfectly capable till. And the sign above the counter said “Customer Service”. (Simon Timperley)WWW
[220] Next to it was a bamboo out-building with a big sign saying: “The Restaurant at the End of the Universe” (Independent)
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IV.82 When a NOUN PHRASE combines several WORD-CLASSES, it requires a HEAD NOUN, upon which the rest “depend” in various senses. It usually comes at the end of the NOUN PHRASE [221], but in a longer one, BALANCE suggests putting some items afterwards (cf. IV.134), as in a POST-MODIFIER [222], an APPOSITIVE [223], a NON-FINITE CLAUSE [224], or a RELATIVE CLAUSE [225]. These latter PATTERNS will be treated further along.
[221] The Beaver’s best course was, no doubt, to procure a second-hand dagger-proof coat (Snark)
[222] The Winnipeg jail, with all its defects and limitations, was a palace to some that he had known. (Tale of Saskatchewan)
[223] Gardiner’s Island, a famous rendezvous for pirates, is the only place known to have been used as a bank of deposit. (Kidd’s Treasure)
[224] The Catalina, being a small vessel of less than half our size, put out sweeps and got a boat ahead (Before the Mast)
[225] The two great champions, who now confronted each other, were equals in years (Decisive Battles)
The HEAD NOUN might remind one of a multiple electric socket to connect a various forms and functions.
IV.F.3.1 DETERMINERS in NOUN PHRASES
IV.83 A DETERMINER typically “determines” a NOUN by indicating whether it expresses something “definite” or “indefinite”; or points to something; or tells how many or how much is involved; and so on. In their forms, DETERMINERS are fairly predictable within their individual groups; but their functions can be subtle and flexible, and their meanings are often elusive to isolate and define. They nearly always precede the NOUN and any MODIFIERS such as ADJECTIVES that also precede the NOUN. Most belong to small, sparse, closed WORD-CLASSES in the sense of IV.43 and 47. Besides, choosing one DETERMINER often limits or excludes choices among the others (cf. IV.101).
IV.84 On the cognitive and social sides, DETERMINERS can suggest what is specified, decided, familiar; or stable; or, contrarily but less often, they can suggest what is unspecified, undecided, unfamiliar, or unstable. I am aware of no previous “grammar” that applies these terms to the description; but perhaps their usefulness will emerge.
IV.F.3.2 ARTICLES
IV.85 The smallest class of DETERMINERS has the DEFINITE ARTICLE, the INDEFINITE ARTICLE, and the ZERO ARTICLE, that is, none where one might be expected. The terms derive not from “article” in the everyday sense of “a particular or separate thing, especially one of a set” (Oxford Dictionary), but from a Latin word originally meaning a “little joint” and forming the VERB “articulate” meaning “divide into parts”, as its English descendant still can.
IV.86 In a casual perspective, ARTICLES might appear a knotty paradox. They are rarely taught as such to children, nor given much notice by adults, yet fluent native speakers seem to agree fairly well in their usages. Moreover, no other area of English GRAMMAR has so eluded a lucid description by “rules” that are (let alone must be) obeyed. We can at best seek to identify some common and effective strategies.
IV.87 I<