Instructional Systems
Traditional English Grammar
Unit I
Parts of Speech Continued:
Nouns and Pronouns
NOUNS
A NOUN names a person (boy, girl, teacher, student,
soldier, Charles), a place (city, parks, seashore, forest,
church, Paris, America), a thing (pencil, book, tree, road,
car), an animal (dog, cattle, chicken, spider), a quality (love, faith, hatred, fear).
A noun functions in a sentence primarily as a subject
or as a complement that completes the meaning of a verb or
preposition.
Consider the following sentence:
The young man offered no explanation for his strange
behavior.
Here you see three nouns used as a subject, as a complement
of the verb, and as a complement of a preposition respectively.
A noun may be compound (made up of two or more words): mother-in-law, bookcase, dropout, paper-boy, breakthrough.
A noun may be formed from a verb: studying, flying, sailing, reading.
All nouns are either proper or common. Proper
nouns are capitalized: Louise, English, Latin, Negro, Indian, Lutheran, Central High School.
Common nouns are not capitalized: name, city, language,
country, race, religion, school, church.
A noun is concrete or abstract. A
concrete noun is tangible. It has substance; you can touch it,
see it: Louise, car, flower, park, road.
An abstract noun is the name of a quality,
condition, or idea: democracy, fear, poverty, love,
intelligence, patriotism.
A noun is individual (letter, book, soldier,
table, picture, man, woman) or collective (group,
flock, congregation, army, class, club).
Noun Gender
A noun is one of three genders:
Masculine gender refers exclusively to the male sex: man, boy, steer, ram, stag, rooster, stallion.
Feminine gender refers exclusively to the female sex: woman, girl, heifer, ewe, doe, hen, mare.
Neuter gender refers to nouns that have no sex (The word neuter means "neither"): book, house, box, assignment, building.
Often we use a noun that can be both masculine and feminine. These nouns are indeterminate or common gender. The word is common to both a male and a female: person, inhabitant, voter, doctor, teacher, dog, horse, child.
Noun Case
The three cases are these: subjective, objective, and possessive.
Subjective (or nominative): usually refers to the subject.
Objective: refers to an object, such as the direct or indirect object, objective complement retained object or object of a preposition.
Possessive: shows possession or ownership, usually indicated by an apostrophe or an 's.-
girl's, girls', student's, classes', Mr. Jones', the Joneses'.
Helpful Hints for Recognizing a Noun
1. Become familiar with the several suffixes that give a word the quality of a noun.
-ment; government, detriment, argument, resentment, treatment, enactment, alignment.
-ism: atheism, communism, cronyism, fatalism, criticism, humanism.
-ness: goodness, fairness, orderliness, godliness, cleanliness, foolishness.
-tion: education, creation, intervention, reduction, preposition, animation
--ty, beauty, animosity, amity, honesty, parity, sincerity, piety.
-ence or -ance., inheritance, assistance, reticence, fragrance, independence.
2. Try putting the article the or a before the word.
An article with a noun will make sense. "The lightning...... The fly," "The poor...... The swimming"-all make sense while "The when," "The among," and "The during" do not.
PRONOUNS
A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. You would not say this:
Hortense is a friend of the students.
All the students admire Hortense.
Instead you would use pronouns:
Hortense is a friend of the students.
All of them admire her.
The word that the pronoun replaces is called its antecedent. There are several kinds of pronouns: personal, relative, interrogative, demonstrative, indefinite, reflexive, intensive.
Personal Pronouns
The personal pronoun is the most familiar and most commonly used pronoun. It has more inflection (more changes in form) than any other pronoun.
FIRST PERSON (the person speaking): I, me, my, mine, we, us, our, ours.
SECOND PERSON (the person spoken to): you, your, yours.
THIRD PERSON (the person spoken of):he, him, his, she, her, hers, it, its, they, them, their,
theirs.
NOTE: Don't confuse possessive adjectives (his book, her song, etc.) with personal pronouns.
The correct form of a personal pronoun depends upon its person, number, gender, and case. The antecedent determines the person, number, and gender. The use of the pronoun in the sentence (subject, direct object , object of preposition, modifier, etc.) determines its case. Consider this sentence:
Helen took good notes but lost them.
The pronoun them is neuter gender, plural number, and third person because of the antecedent notes.
But them is objective case because it is the direct object of the verb lost.
Relative Pronouns
The most frequently used relative pronouns are who, which, and that. The relative pronoun introduces a dependent clause. It relates (thus the word relative) this dependent clause to the antecedent,
which is in another clause. Note the relative pronoun and its antecedent in the following sentences:
This is the house that Jack built.
While rummaging in the attic, I found some old love letters which my grandfather wrote.
NOTE: The relative pronoun who is usually used to refer to people. Which is usually used to refer to
anything non-human. that can be used to refer to any antecedent.
Interrogative Pronouns
The interrogative pronoun is used in direct and indirect questions. The pronouns that ask questions are what, who, whom, whose, which. The interrogative pronouns are italicized in the following sentences.
I asked Prunella what I should wear to the dance.
Who do you think will win the nomination?
I wonder whose will win first place at the county fair?
Tell me which of the two children is most likely to succeed.
Whom have you invited to the wedding?
Note that the interrogative pronoun has no antecedent before it and thus does not introduce an adjective clause. The dependent clauses in sentences 1, 3, and 4 above are noun clauses used as direct objects. An interrogative pronoun often introduces a noun clause.
Demonstrative Pronouns
The demonstrative pronoun points out. The four demonstrative pronouns are this, that, these, those.
This is my last word to you.
Let's not talk about that anymore.
These are the times that try men's souls.
These words are derived from Greek; those come from Latin.
(Don't confuse the demonstrative adjective these which modifies words in this sentence-with a pronoun.)
Indefinite Pronoun
The indefinite pronoun is so called because the antecedent is not quite clear; that is, it is not a definite person, place, or thing. Look at the following pronouns.
When driving on icy roads, one can't be too careful.
(Who is one?)
I missed most of the answers.
(How many?)
You ought to do something about that leaking roof.
(Do what about it'?)
Everybody had a good time.
(Who is everybody?)
There are many indefinite pronouns: something, nothing, someone, most, few, many, either, neither, both, each, etc.
Don't confuse an indefinite pronoun with a noun. Don't call an indefinite adjective a pronoun: both problems, few lessons, neither child, each day, for example, are adjectives when they modify nouns.
Reflexive Pronouns
The reflexive pronoun is so called because it always reflects the subject; however, it is always an object of some kind.
She obviously thinks well of herself.
(Herself is object of the preposition.)
Can you see yourself as others see you?
(Yourself is a direct object.)
I'm going to prove to myself that I can master English grammar.
(Myself is object of the preposition.)
Neurotics often think too much about themselves and their problems.
(Themselves is object of the preposition.)
You give yourself more time.
(Yourself is indirect object.)
Intensive Pronouns
The intensive pronoun is so-called because it intensifies or emphasizes its antecedent. It acts as an appositive and is most often found in the "appositive" position, that is, directly following the noun it intensifies.
The students themselves have grown tired of anarchy.
The final decision is up to the president himself.
I'll do it myself.
(I myself will do it.)
Note that the reflexive and intensive pronouns look alike but differ in use. Sometimes these two pronouns are called compound personal pronouns because they are made up of two words: a personal pronoun plus self (selves). Here is a list of the compound personal pronouns:
SINGULAR: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself
PLURAL: ourselves, yourselves, themselves
Avoid hisself, theirselves, theirself'. These forms are illiterate.
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