Noun
A noun is a member of a syntactic class
- that includes words which refer to people, places, things, ideas, or concepts
- whose members may act as any of the following: subjects of the verb, objects of the verb, indirect object of the verb, or object of a preposition (or postposition), and
- most of whose members have inherently determined grammatical gender (in languages which inflect for gender).
Nouns embody one of the most time-stable concepts in a language. As with verbs, however, this time-stability criterion defines only the prototypical nouns. Other, non-prototypical nouns must be identified by distributional similarities to prototypical nouns.
(English)
- rock
- tree
- dog
- person
These nouns are prototypical nouns in English because they are perceived as concrete, physical, compact entities which do not change significantly over time.
The following nouns are less prototypical because they represent concepts or items that are not perceived as staying the same for a long period of time, or are not concrete:
- fist
- beauty
Payne, Thomas E. (1997) .Describing morphosyntax: A guide for field linguists. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
Mish, Frederick (editor). 1991.Webster's ninth new collegiate dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster. 1,564 pages. 0877795088; indexed 0877795096; deluxe 087779510X.
Hartmann, R.R.K., and F.C. Stork. 1972.Dictionary of language and linguistics. London: Applied Science.
Givón, T. 1984.Syntax: A functional-typological introduction. Volume I. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Crystal, David. 1980.A first dictionary of linguistics and phonetics. Boulder, CO: Westview.
Broader Terms
- BT↑ Lexical Category
- BT↑ Substantive
More specific terms
- NT2 ↓ Abstract Noun
- NT2 ↓ Alienable Noun
- NT2 ↓ Collective Noun
- NT2 ↓ Concrete Noun
- NT2 ↓ Count Noun
- NT2 ↓ Inalienable Noun
- NT2 ↓ Mass Noun
- NT2 ↓ Verbal Noun
Related terms
- RT⇆ Absolute Adjective
- RT⇆ Adverb (Linguistics)
- RT⇆ Agreement
- RT⇆ Allative Case
- RT⇆ Animate Class
- RT⇆ Anthimeria
- RT⇆ Article
- RT⇆ Benefactive Case
- RT⇆ Case
- RT⇆ Causative Case
- RT⇆ Classifier
- RT⇆ Common Noun
- RT⇆ Complement Clause
- RT⇆ Dative Case
- RT⇆ Delative Case
- RT⇆ Demonstrative
- RT⇆ Determiner
- RT⇆ Dual Number
- RT⇆ Elative Case
- RT⇆ Endocentric Construction
- RT⇆ Equative Case
- RT⇆ Ergative Case
- RT⇆ Essive Case
- RT⇆ Fixed Lexical Collocation
- RT⇆ Generic Term
- RT⇆ Genitive Case
- RT⇆ Grammatical Category
- RT⇆ Grammatical Gender
- RT⇆ Head
- RT⇆ Illative Case
- RT⇆ Inanimate Class
- RT⇆ Indirect Object
- RT⇆ Inflection
- RT⇆ Instrumental Case
- RT⇆ Lative Case
- RT⇆ Locative Case
- RT⇆ Masculine Gender
- RT⇆ Neuter Gender
- RT⇆ Nominal
- RT⇆ Nominalization
- RT⇆ Nonrestrictive Relative Clause
- RT⇆ Nonspecificity
- RT⇆ Noun Adjunct
- RT⇆ Noun Class
- RT⇆ Noun Phrase
- RT⇆ Number
- RT⇆ Object
- RT⇆ Open Class
- RT⇆ Partitive Case
- RT⇆ Person Deixis
- RT⇆ Phrase
- RT⇆ Postpositional Phrase
- RT⇆ Predicate Noun
- RT⇆ Prepositional Phrase
- RT⇆ Prolative Case
- RT⇆ Pronoun
- RT⇆ Proper Noun
- RT⇆ Prototype
- RT⇆ Rank Lexical Relation
- RT⇆ Reference
- RT⇆ Relative Clause
- RT⇆ Relativizer
- RT⇆ Subject
- RT⇆ Subordinate Clause
- ExactMatch: https://glossary.sil.org/term/noun
