A Grammar of the English Language. Грамматика английского языка. A grammar of the english language
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A GRAMMAR OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE В. Л. КАУШАНСКАЯ, Р. Л. КОВНЕР, О. Н. КОЖЕВНИКОВА, Е. В. ПРОКОФЬЕВА, 3. М. РАЙНЕС, С. Е. СКВИРСКАЯ, Ф. Я. ЦЫРЛИНА ГРАММАТИКА АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА ПОСОБИЕ ДЛЯ СТУДЕНТОВ ПЕДАГОГИЧЕСКИХ ИНСТИТУТОВ Под редакцией проф. Б. А. Ильиша Второе издание, переработанное ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ УЧЕБНО-ПЕДАГОГИЧЕСКОЕ ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО МИНИСТЕРСТВА ПРОСВЕЩЕНИЯ РСФСР ЛЕНИНГРАДСКОЕ ОТДЕЛЕНИЕ Ленинград 1963 FOREWORD The object of this book is to give a course of English grammar for students specializing in the English language. The book includes Accidence, i. e. the parts of speech and morphological categories, and Syntax, i. e. the sentence and the parts of the sentence. The rules are illustrated by examples taken from English and American authors of the 19th and 20th centuries. The material of the book has been used for many years in teaching students of the Pedagogical institute of Foreign Languages in Leningrad, and has thus been put to the test of practical work, in preparing the material for print the authors have cosiderably enlarged it. Exercises on all topics treated in the manual are published in a separate issue, arranged in accordance with the chapters of the present book. The authors wish to acknowledge their obligations to the teachers of the Department of Foreign Languages and the Philological Department of Leningrad University, as well as to the teachers of the Hertzen Pedagogical Institute and all the strangers, who have reviewed the book and made a number of valuable suggestions. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction. Grammatical structure of the English language Part I. ACCIDENCE General classification of the parts of speech Chapter I. THE NOUN § 1. Definition § 2. Morphological characteristics § 3. Syntactical characteristics § 4. Morphological composition § 5. Classification § 6. The category of number § 7. The category of case Chapter II. THE ARTICLE § 1. General notion Use of articles with common nouns § 2–4. Class nouns § 5–7. Nouns of material § 8–11. Abstract nouns Use of articles with proper nouns § 12. Names of persons § 13. Geographical names § 14. Names of hotels, ships, newspapers and magazines § 15. Names of cardinal points § 16. Names of months and days § 17. Nouns modified by proper nouns Use of articles with nouns in some set expressions § 18. The use of the indefinite article with nouns in set expressions § 19. The use of the definite article with nouns in set expressions § 20. Nouns in set expressions used without an article § 21. The use of articles with predicative nouns § 22. The use of articles with nouns in apposition § 23. The use of articles with nouns used in address § 24. Place of the article § 25. Ways of expressing the meaning of the English articles in Russian Special difficulties in the use of articles § 26. The use of articles with the nouns day, night, morning, evening § 27. The use of articles with names of seasons § 28. The use of articles with the nouns school, college, bed, prison, jail § 29. The use of articles with the noun town § 30. The use of articles with the names of meals § 31. The use of articles with names of languages Use of articles with nouns modified by certain adjectives, pronouns and numerals § 32. Most § 33. Few, a few, the few; little, a little, the little § 34. Two, the two; three, the three, etc. § 35. The second, a second § 36. Another, the other § 37. Last, the last § 38. Next, the next § 39. A number, the number Omission of the article Chapter III. THE ADJECTIVE § 1. Definition § 2. Morphological characteristics § 3. Spelling rules § 4. Syntactical characteristics § 5. Morphological composition § 6. Classification § 7. Grammatical characteristics of qualitative adjectives § 8. Grammatical characteristics of relative adjectives § 9. Substantivized adjectives Chapter IV. THE PRONOUN § 1. Definition § 2. Classification § 3. Personal pronouns § 4. Possessive pronouns § 5. Reflexive pronouns § 6. Reciprocal pronouns § 7. Demonstrative pronouns § 8. Interrogative pronouns § 9. Relative pronouns § 10. Conjunctive pronouns § 11. Defining pronouns § 12. Indefinite pronouns § 13. Negative pronouns Chapter V. THE NUMERAL § 1. Definition § 2. Cardinal numerals § 3. The functions of cardinal numerals in a sentence § 4. Ordinal numerals § 5. The functions of ordinal numerals in a sentence Chapter VI. THE WORDS OF THE CATEGORY OF STATE § 1. Definition § 2–4. Morphological composition and use Chapter VII. THE VERB § 1. Definition § 2. Morphological structure § 3. Basic forms § 4. Syntactic function § 5. Transitive and intransitive verbs § 6. Lexical character § 7–10. Grammatical categories Tenses in the Active Voice The Indefinite form The Present Indefinite § 1. The formation of the Present Indefinite § 2. The use of the Present Indefinite The Past Indefinite § 3. The formation of the Past Indefinite § 4. The use of the Past Indefinite The Future Indefinite § 5. The formation of the Future Indefinite § 6. The use of the Future Indefinite The Future Indefinite in the Past § 7. The formation of the Future Indefinite in the Past § 8. The use of the Future Indefinite in the Past The Continuous form The Present Continuous § 9. The formation of the Present Continuous § 10. The use of the Present Continuous The Past Continuous § 11. The formation of the Past Continuous § 12. The use of the Past Continuous The Future Continuous § 13. The formation of the Future Continuous § 14. The use of the Future Continuous The Future Continuous in the Past § 15. The formation of the Future Continuous in the Past § 16. The use of the Future Continuous in the Past Verbs not used in the Continuous form The Perfect form The Present Perfect § 17. The formation of the Present Perfect § 18. The use of the Present Perfect § 19. The Past Indefinite and the Present Perfect The Past Perfect § 20. The formation of the Past Perfect § 21. The use of the Past Perfect § 22. The Past Indefinite and the Past Perfect The Future Perfect § 23. The formation of the Future Perfect § 24. The use of the Future Perfect The Future Perfect in the Past § 25. The formation of the Future Perfect in the Past § 26. The use of the Future Perfect in the Past The Perfect Continuous form The Present Perfect Continuous § 27. The formation of the Present Perfect Continuous § 28. The use of the Present Perfect Continuous §29.The Present Perfect Continuous Inclusive and the Present Continuous § 30. The Present Perfect and the Present Perfect Continuous Exclusive The Past Perfect Continuous § 31. The formation of the Past Perfect Continuous § 32. The use of the Past Perfect Continuous § 33. The Past Perfect Continuous Inclusive and the Past Continuous The Future Perfect Continuous § 34. The formation of the Future Perfect Continuous § 35. The use of the Future Perfect Continuous The Future Perfect Continuous in the Past § 36. The formation of the Future Perfect Continuous in the Past § 37. The use of the Future Perfect Continuous in the Past The Passive Voice § 1. The formation of the Passive Voice § 2. The use of the Passive Voice § 3. The use of tenses in the Passive Voice § 4. Ways of translating the Passive Voice into Russian § 5. Uses of the Passive Voice peculiar to the English language § 6. The verb to be + Participle II Modal Verbs § 1. Definition § 2. Can § 3. May § 4. Must § 5. Should and ought § 6. To be+ Infinitive § 7. To have + Infinitive § 8. Shall § 9. Will § 10. Would § 11. Dare § 12. Need Mood The Indicative Mood The Imperative Mood The Subjunctive Mood § 1. General notion § 2. Synthetic forms § 3. Analytical forms § 4. The forms of the Indicative Mood used to express the same meaning as is expressed by the Subjunctive Mood The use of the Subjunctive Mood § 5. Simple sentences § 6. Conditional sentences § 7. Adverbial clauses of purpose § 8. Adverbial clauses of concession § 9. Adverbial clauses of time and place § 10. Adverbial clauses of comparison § 11. Predicative clauses § 12. Subject clauses § 13. Object clauses § 14. Attributive appositive clauses § 15. Attributive clauses modifying the noun time in the principal clause § 16. Emotional use of the Subjunctive Mood § 17. Ways of rendering the Subjunctive Mood in Russian Chapter VIII. THE NON-FINITE FORMS OF THE VERB (THE VERBALS) § 1. Definition § 2. The characteristic traits of the verbals The Participle § 3. General notion § 4. Double nature of the participle § 5. Tense distinctions § 6. Voice distinctions § 7. Functions of Participle I § 8. Functions of Participle II § 9. Predicative constructions with the participle § 10. The Objective Participial Construction § 11. The Subjective Participial Construction § 12. The Nominative Absolute Participial Construction § 13. The Prepositional Absolute Participial Construction § 14. Absolute constructions without a participle § 15. Punctuation The Gerund § 16. General notion § 17. Double nature of the gerund § 18. Tense distinctions § 19. Voice distinctions § 20. Predicative constructions with the gerund § 21. The use of the gerund § 22. The gerund and the infinitive § 23. The functions of the gerund § 24. The gerund and the participle § 25. The gerund and the verbal noun The Infinitive § 26. General notion § 27. Tense and aspect distinctions of the infinitive § 28. Voice distinctions § 29. The use of the infinitive without the particle to § 30. The functions of the infinitive § 31. Infinitive constructions § 32. The Objective-with-the Infinitive Construction § 33. The Subjective Infinitive Construction § 34. The for-to-Infinitive Construction § 35. The Infinitive with the expressions to be sorry, to be glad Chapter IX. THE ADVERB § 1. Definition § 2. Morphological structure § 3. Degrees of comparison § 4. Classification Chapter X. THE MODAL WORDS § 1. Definition § 2. Classification § 3. Use § 4. Modal words and adverbs Chapter XI. THE INTERJECTION § 1. Definition § 2. Classification § 3. Morphological composition Chapter XII. THE PREPOSITION § 1. Definition § 2. Morphological structure § 3. Classification § 4. Prepositions, adverbs and conjunctions § 5. Prepositions and postpositions Chapter XIII. THE CONJUNCTION § 1. Definition § 2. Morphological structure § 3. Classification § 4. Coordinating conjunctions § 5. Subordinating conjunctions Chapter XIV. THE PARTICLE § 1. Definition § 2. Classification Part II. SYNTAX Chapter XV. THE SIMPLE SENTENCE § 1. Definition § 2. Classification § 3–4. Structure Parts of the sentence The principal parts of the sentence The subject § 5. Definition § 6. Ways of expressing the subject § 7. It as the subject of the sentence The predicate § 8. Definition § 9. The simple predicate § 10. The predicate expressed by a phraseological unit § 11. The compound predicate § 12. The compound nominal predicate § 13. The predicative § 14. The Objective Predicative § 15. The compound verbal predicate § 16. The compound verbal modal predicate § 17. The compound verbal aspect predicate § 18. Mixed types of predicate Agreement of the predicate with the subject § 19. General notion § 20. Rules of agreement § 21. Agreement of the predicate with the subject expressed by a syntactic word-group The secondary parts of the sentence The object § 22. Definition § 23. Ways of expressing the object § 24. Kinds of objects § 25. The direct object § 26. The indirect object § 27. The complex object § 28. The cognate object The attribute § 29. Definition § 30. Ways of expressing the attribute § 31. The apposition § 32. The close apposition § 33. The loose or detached apposition The adverbial modifier § 34. Definition and classification § 35. Ways of expressing the adverbial modifier Detached (loose) parts of the sentence § 36. Definition § 37. The detached adverbial modifier § 38. The detached attribute § 39. The detached object The independent elements of the sentence § 40. Definition § 41. Parenthesis Sentences with homogeneous parts Chapter XVI. WORD ORDER § 1. General remarks § 2–4. Inverted order of words § 5. Position of the object § 6. Position of the attribute § 7. Position of adverbial modifiers Chapter XVII. THE COMPOUND SENTENCE AND THE COMPLEX SENTENCE The compound sentence § 1. General notion § 2. Types of coordination The complex sentence § 3. General notion § 4. Subject clauses § 5. Predicative clauses § 6. Object clauses § 7. Attributive clauses § 8. Attributive relative clauses § 9. Attributive appositive clauses § 10. The use of relative pronouns in attributive relative clauses § 11. Adverbial clauses § 12. Adverbial clauses of time § 13. Adverbial clauses of place § 14. Adverbial clauses of cause § 15. Adverbial clauses of purpose § 16. Adverbial clauses of condition § 17. Adverbial clauses of concession § 18. Adverbial clauses of result § 19. Adverbial clauses of manner § 20. Adverbial clauses of comparison § 21. Polysemantic conjunctions The compound-complex sentence Parenthetical clauses Chapter XVIII. THE SEQUENCE OF TENSES § 1. Definition § 2–5. General rules § 6. Tenses in English and in Russian § 7. Tenses in object clauses § 8. Tenses in conventional direct speech § 9. Tenses in attributive relative clauses and adverbial clauses of cause, result, comparison, and concession § 10. Tenses in subject clauses and predicative clauses Chapter XIX. INDIRECT SPEECH § 1–2. General remarks § 3. Indirect statements § 4. Indirect questions § 5. Indirect orders and requests § 6. Indirect offers, suggestions, and advice § 7. Indirect exclamations § 8. Greetings and leave-taking Chapter XX. PUNCTUATION § 1. General remarks The simple sentence § 2. Homogeneous members § 3. Detached members § 4. Parenthetical words, groups of words, and clauses § 5. Interjections § 6. Nouns in address The compound sentence § 7. Coordinate clauses joined asyndetically § 8. Coordinate clauses joined by copulative conjunctions § 9. Coordinate clauses joined by disjunctive conjunctions § 10. Coordinate clauses joined by adversative conjunctions § 11. Clauses joined by causative-consecutive conjunctions and conjunctive adverbs § 12. Sentences containing direct speech The complex sentence § 13. Subject clauses § 14. Predicative clauses § 15. Object clauses § 16. Attributive clauses § 17. Adverbial clauses § 18. Complex sentences consisting of two or more homogeneous clauses § 19. Declarative non-exclamatory sentences § 20. Sentences expressing a question § 21. Exclamatory sentences § 22. Unfinished sentences INTRODUCTION GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURE OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE § 1. Languages may be synthetic and analytical according to their grammatical structure. In synthetic languages, such as for instance Russian, the grammatical relations between words are expressed by means of inflections: e. g. крыша дома. In analytical languages, such as English, the grammatical relations between words are expressed by means of form words and word order: e. g. the roof of the house. § 2. Analytical forms are mostly proper to verbs. An analytical verb-form consists of one or more form words, which have no lexical meaning and only express one or more of the grammatical categories of person, number, tense, aspect, voice, mood, and one notional word, generally an infinitive or a participle: e. g. He has come, I am reading. The analytical forms are: 1. Tense and Aspect verb-forms (the Continuous form: I am writing, the Perfect form: I have written, the Perfect Continuous form: I have been writing, the Future Indefinite: I shall write, all the other forms of the Future; also the interrogative and the negative forms of the Present and Past Indefinite: Does he sing? He does not sing). 2. The Passive Voice: I was invited to the theatre. 3. The analytical form of the Subjunctive Mood: I should go there if I had time. In all these analytical forms the form word is an auxiliary verb. (For detailed treatment see chapters on the verb.) § 3. However, the structure of a language is never purely synthetic or purely analytical. Accordingly in the English language there are: 1. Endings: -s in the third person singular in the Present Indefinite: speaks; -s in the plural of nouns: tables; -s in the genitive case: my brother’s book; -ed in the Past Indefinite of regular verbs: smoked. 2. Inner flexions: man — men; speak — spoke. 3. The synthetic forms of the Subjunctive Mood: were, be, have, etc. § 4. Owing to the scarcity of synthetic forms the order of words, which is fixed in English, acquires extreme importance: The fisherman caught a fish. A deviation from the ‑general principle of word order is possible only in special cases. (For detailed treatment see Chapter XVI, Word Order.) § 5. One of the marked features of the English language is the extensive use of substitutes. A word substitute saves the repetition of a word in certain conditions. Here belong one, that, do. One replaces class nouns in the singular and in the plural: Thanks for the compliment, if it is one. The hours he spent with Ruth were the only happy ones he had, and they were not all happy. (London) That generally substitutes nouns, especially abstract nouns and nouns of material followed by an attribute, mostly introduced by the preposition of: He (Martin) watched the easy walk of the other in front of him, and for the first time realized that his walk was different from that of other men. (London) Almost every day thereafter Mrs. Skelton would go for a ride in her own car or that of Castleman. (Dreiser) Do substitutes verbs: You know your law better than I do. (Galsworthy) Forgive me for speaking with brutal frankness, I only do so because I care. (Alexander) Part I ACCIDENCE GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH According to their meaning, morphological characteristics and syntactical functions, words fall under certain classes called parts of speech. We distinguish between notional and structural parts of speech. The notional parts of speech perform certain functions in the sentence: the functions of subject, predicate, attribute, object, or adverbial modifier. The notional parts of speech are: (1) the noun; (2) the adjective; (3) the pronoun; (4) the numeral; (5) the verb; (6) the adverb; (7) the words of the category of state; (8) the modal words; (9) the interjection. The structural parts of speech either express relations between words or sentences or emphasize the meaning of words or sentences. They never perform any independent function in the sentence. Here belong: (1) the preposition; (2) the conjunction; (3) the particle; (4) the article. Chapter I THE NOUN § 1. The noun is a word expressing substance in the widest sense of the word. In the concept of substance we include not only names of living beings (e. g. boy, girl, bird) and lifeless things (e. g. table, chair, book), but also names of abstract notions, i. e. qualities, states, actions (kindness, strength, sleep, fear, conversation, fight), abstracted from their bearers. § 2. The noun has the following morphological characteristics: 1. Nouns that can be counted have two numbers: singular and plural (e. g. singular: a girl, plural: girls). 2. Nouns denoting living beings (and some nouns denoting lifeless things) have two case forms: the common case and the genitive case. It is doubtful whether the grammatical category of gender exists in Modern English for it is hardly ever expressed by means of grammatical forms. There is practically only one gender-forming suffix in Modern English, the suffix ‑ess, expressing feminine gender. It is not widely used. heir — heir-ess poet — poet-ess actor — actr-ess waiter — waitr-ess host — host-ess lion — lion-ess tiger — tigr-ess1 1 Gender, i. e. the distinction of nouns into masculine, feminine and neuter, may be expressed lexically by means of different words or word-compounds: father — mother boy — girl man — woman gentleman — lady husband — wife boy-friend — girl-friend cock-sparrow — hen-sparrow man-servant — maid-servant Very often personal or possessive pronouns indicate the gender of the noun. (See Chapter IV.) § 3. The noun has certain syntactical characteristics. The chief syntactical functions of the noun in the sentence are those of the subject and the object. But it may also be used as an attribute or a predicative. The sun was rising in all his splendid beauty. (Dickens) (SUBJECT) Troy and Yates followed the tourists. (Heym) (OBJECT) He (Bosinney) was an architect... (Galsworthy) (PREDICATIVE) Mary brought in the fruit on a tray and with it a glass bowl, and a blue dish... (Mansfield) (ATTRIBUTE; the noun glass is used in the common case) The hero and heroine, of course, just arrived from his father’s yacht. (Mansfield) (ATTRIBUTE; the noun father is used in the genitive case) A noun preceded by a preposition (a prepositional phrase) may be used as attribute, prepositional indirect object, and adverbial modifier. To the left were clean panes of glass. (Ch. Bronte) (ATTRIBUTE) Bicket did not answer, his throat felt too dry. He had heard of the police. (Galsworthy) (OBJECT) She went into the drawing-room and lighted the fire. (Mansfield) (ADVERBIAL MODIFIER) “Stop everything, Laura!” cried Jose in astonishment. (Mansfield) (ADVERBIAL MODIFIER) The noun is generally associated with the article. Because of the comparative scarcity of morphological distinctions in English in some cases only articles show that the word is a noun. A noun can be modified by an adjective, a pronoun, by another noun or by verbals. § 4. Morphological composition of nouns. According to their morphological composition we distinguish simple, derivative and compound nouns. 1. Simple nouns are nouns which have neither prefixes nor suffixes. They are indecomposable: chair, table, room, map, fish, work. 2. Derivative nouns are nouns which have derivative elements (prefixes or suffixes or both): reader, sailor, blackness, childhood,misconduct, inexperience. Productive noun-forming suffixes are: -er: reader, teacher, worker -ist: communist, telegraphist, dramatist -ess: heiress, hostess, actress -ness: carelessness, madness, blackness -ism: socialism, nationalism, imperialism Unproductive suffixes are: -hood: childhood, manhood -dom: freedom -ship: friendship, relationship -merit: development -ance: importance -ence: dependence -ty: cruelty -ity: generosity 3. Compound nouns are nouns built from two or more stems. Compound nouns often have one stress. The meaning of a compound often differs from the meanings of its elements. The main types of compound nouns are as follows: (a) noun-stem + noun-stem: appletree, snowball; (b) adjective-stem + noun-stem: blackbird, bluebell; (c) verb-stem + noun-stem: pickpocket; the stem of a gerund or of a participle may be the first component of a compound noun: dining-room, reading-hall, dancing-girl. § 5. Classification of nouns. Nouns fall under two classes: (A) proper nouns; (B) common nouns.1 1 The name proper is from Lat. proprius ‘one’s own’. Hence a proper name means one’s own individual name, as distinct from a common name, that can be given to a class of individuals. The name common is from Lat. communis and means that which is shared by several things or individuals possessing some common characteristic. A. Proper nouns are individual names given to separate persons or things. As regards their meaning proper nouns may be personal names (Mary, Peter, Shakespeare), geographical names (Moscow, London, the Caucasus), the names of the months and of the days of the week (February, Monday), names of ships, hotels, clubs etc. A large number of nouns now proper were originally common nouns (Brown, Smith, Mason). Proper nouns may change their meaning and become common nouns: George went over to the table and took a sandwich and a glass of champagne. (Aldington) В. Common nouns are names that can be applied to any individual of a class of persons or things (e. g. man, dog, book), collections of similar individuals or things regarded as a single unit (e. g. peasantry, family), materials (e. g. snow, iron, cotton) or abstract notions (e. g. kindness, development). Thus there are different groups of common nouns: class nouns, collective nouns, nouns of material and abstract nouns. Nouns may also be classified from another point of view: nouns denoting things (the word thing is used in a broad sense) that can be counted are called countable nouns; nouns denoting things that cannot be counted are called uncountable nouns. 1. Class nouns denote persons or things belonging to a class. They are countables and have two numbers: sinuglar and plural. They are generally used with an article.1 1 On the use of articles with class nouns see Chapter II, § 2, 3. “Well, sir,” said Mrs. Parker, “I wasn’t in the shop above a great deal.” (Mansfield) He goes to the part of the town where the shops are. (Lessing) 2. Collective nouns denote a number or collection of similar individuals or things regarded as a single unit. Collective nouns fall under the following groups: (a) nouns used only in the singular and denoting a number of things collected together and regarded as a single object: foliage, machinery. It wasnot restful, that green foliage. (London) Machinery new to the industry in Australia wasintroduced for preparing land. (Agricultural Gazette) (b) nouns which are singular in form though plural in meaning: police, poultry, cattle, people, gentry. They are usually called nouns of multitude. When the subject of the sentence is a noun of multitude the verb used as predicate is in the plural: I had no idea the police were so devilishly prudent. (Shaw) Unless cattle are in good condition in calving, milk production will never reach a high level. (Agricultural Gazette) The weather was warm and the people were sitting at their doors. (Dickens) (c) nouns that may be both singular and plural: family, crowd, fleet, nation. We can think of a number of crowds, fleets or different nations as well as of a single crowd, fleet, etc. A small crowd is lined up to see the guests arrive. (Shaw) Accordingly they were soon afoot, and walking in the direction of the scene of action, towards which crowds of people were already pouring from a variety of quarters. (Dickens) 3. Nouns of material denote material: iron, gold, paper, tea, water. They are uncountables and are generally used without any article.1 1 On the use of articles with nouns of material see Chapter II, § 5, 6, 7. There was a scent of honey from the lime-trees in flower. (Galsworthy) There was coffee still in the urn. (Wells) Nouns of material are used in the plural to denote different sorts of a given material. ...that his senior counted upon him in this enterprise, and had consigned a quantity of select wines to him... (Thackeray) Nouns of material may turn into class nouns (thus becoming countables) when they come to express an individual object of definite shape. C o m p a r e: To the left were clean panes of glass. (Ch. Bronte) “He came in here,” said the waiter looking at the light through the tumbler, “ordered a glass of this ale.” (Dickens) But the person in the glass made a face at her, and Miss Moss went out. (Mansfield) 4. Abstract nouns denote some quality, state, action or idea: kindness, sadness, fight. They are usually uncountables, though some of them may be countables (e. g. idea, hour).2 2 On the use of articles with abstract nouns see Chapter II, § 8, 9, 10, 11. Therefore when the youngsters saw that mother looked neither frightened nor offended, they gathered new courage. (Dodge) Accustomed to John Reed’s abuse — I never had an idea of replying to it. (Ch. Bronte) It’s these people with fixed ideas. (Galsworthy) Abstract nouns may change their meaning and become class nouns. This change is marked by the use of the article and of the plural number:
He was responsive to beauty and here was cause to respond. (London) She was a beauty. (Dickens) ...but she isn’t one of those horrid regular beauties. (Aldington) § 6. The category of number. English countable nouns have two numbers — the singular and the plural. The main types of the plural forms of English nouns are as follows: I. 1. The general rule for forming the plural of English nouns is by adding the ending ‑s (-es) to the singular; ‑s is pronounced in different ways: [Iz] after sibilants: noses, horses, bridges. [z] after voiced consonants other than sibilants and after vowels: flowers, beds, doves, bees, boys. [s] after voiceless consonants other than sibilants: caps, books, hats, cliffs. 2.If the noun ends in ‑s, ‑ss, ‑x, ‑sh, ‑ch, or ‑tch, the plural is formed by adding ‑es to the singular: bus — buses glass — glasses box — boxes brush — brushes bench — bencftes match — matches 3. If the noun ends in ‑y preceded by a consonant, уis changed into i before ‑es. fly — flies army — armies lady — ladies In proper names, however, the plural is formed by adding the ending ‑s to the singular: Mary, Marys. N o t e. — If the final ‑y is preceded by a vowel the plural is formed by simply adding ‑s to the singular. day — days play — plays key — keys monkey — monkeys toy — toys boy — boys 4. If the noun ends in ‑o preceded by a consonant, the plural is generally formed by adding ‑es. Only a few nouns ending in ‑o preceded by a consonant form the plural in ‑s. cargo — cargoes hero — heroes potato — potatoes echo — echoes b u t: piano — pianos solo — solos photo — photos All nouns ending in ‑o preceded by a vowel form the plural in ‑s and not in ‑es. cuckoo — cuckoos portfolio — portfolios There are a few nouns ending in ‑o which form the plural both in ‑s and ‑es: mosquito — mosquitos or mosquitoes 5. With certain nouns the final voiceless consonants are changed into the corresponding voiced consonants when the noun takes the plural form. (a) The following nouns ending in ‑f (in some cases followed by a mute e) change it into v (both in spelling and pronunciation) in the plural: wife — wives thief — thieves knife — knives calf — calves life — lives half — halves sheaf — sheaves shelf — shelves leaf — leaves wolf — wolves There are some nouns ending in ‑f which have two forms in the plural: scarf — scarfs or scarves wharf — wharfs or wharves (b) Nouns ending in ‑th [T] after long vowels change it into [D] in pronunciation (which does not affect their spelling). bath [bRT] — baths [bRDz] path [pRT] — paths [pRDz] oath [quT] — oaths [quDz] But [T] is always retained after consonants (including r) and short vowels: smith — smiths [smITs] month — months [mAnTs] myth — myths [mITs] birth — births [bWTs] health — healths [helTs] (c) One noun ending in [s] changes it into [z] (in pronunciation): house [haus] — houses [hauzIz] II. The plural forms of some nouns are survivals of earlier formations. 1. There are seven nouns which form the plural by changing the root vowel: man — men woman — women foot — feet tooth — teeth goose — geese mouse — mice louse — lice 2. There are two nouns which form the plural in ‑en: ox — oxen child — children N o t e. — The noun brother has, beside its usual plural form brothers, another plural form brethren, which is hardly ever used in colloquial language. It belongs to the elevated style and denotes people of the same creed and not relationship. The noun cow has, beside its usual plural form cows, a plural kine, which sometimes occurs in poetry. 3. In some nouns the plural form does not differ from the singular: deer, sheep, swine, fish, trout. III. Some words borrowed from Latin or Greek keep their Latin or Greek plural forms: e. g. phenomenon, phenomena; datum, data; crisis, crises; stimulus, stimuli; formula, formulae; index, indices.Some of these nouns have acquired English plural forms: memorandums, formulas, indexes, terminuses,etc. The tendency to use the foreign plural is still strong in the technical language of science, but in fiction and colloquial English there is an evident inclination to give to certain words the regular English plural forms in ‑s. Thus in some cases two plural forms are preserved (formulae, formulas; antennae, antennas). IV. In compound nouns the plural is formed in different ways. 1. As a rule a compound noun forms the plural by adding ‑s to the head-word: editor-in-chief — editors-in-chief brother-in-law — brothers-in-law looker-on — lookers-on 2. In some compound nouns the final element takes the plural form: lady-bird — lady-birds 3. If there is no noun-stem in the compound, ‑s is added to the last element: forget-me-not — forget-me-nots merry-go-round — merry-go-rounds V. Some nouns have only the plural form: 1. Trousers, spectacles, breeches, scissors, tongs, fetters. These are for the most part names of things which imply plurality or consist of two or more parts. 2. Billiards, barracks, works. These nouns may be treated as singulars. We may say: a chemical works, a barracks, etc. 3. Words like phonetics, physics, politics, optics, etc. are usually treated as singulars except in some special cases. It was not practical politics! (Galsworthy) All party politics are top dressing. (Galsworthy) 4. The word news is treated as a singular. When she goes to make little purchases, there is no news for her. (Thackeray) The news he gave them was to be read in the lamentations. (Sabatini) § 7. The category of case. Case indicates the relations of the noun (or pronoun) to the other words in the sentence. English nouns denoting living beings (and some nouns denoting lifeless things) have two cases, an uninflected form called the common case and an inflected form called the genitive case. 1. The genitive case is formed by adding -’s (the apostrophe s) to the noun in the singular and only ’ (the apostrophe) to plural forms ending in ‑s. SINGULAR: a girl’s book PLURAL: a girls’ school N o t e 1. — Nouns forming their plural by changing the root vowel take the apostrophe s in the plural. SINGULAR: a man’s hat PLURAL: men’s hats N o t e 2. — Nouns ending in ‑s form the genitive case in two ways: Dickens’ novels, Dickens’s novels. The pronunciation of the genitive case ending follows the same rules as the pronunciation of the plural ending: [Iz] after sibilants: prince’s, judge’s, witch’s, etc. [z] after voiced consonants other than sibilants and after vowels: boy’s, man’s, king’s. [s] after voiceless consonants other than sibilants: Smith’s, count’s, bishop’s. N o t e. — With nouns ending in ‑s and forming the genitive case in two ways (Dickens’ novels, Dickens’s novels) the ending is pronounced [Iz] whether the letter s is written or not. 2. Sometimes the apostrophe s may refer to a whole group of words (the group-genitive): Jane and Mary’s room. The last word of the group need not even be a noun: I shall be back in an houror two’stime. As to its use the genitive case falls under: (A) The Dependent Genitive. (B) The Absolute Genitive. The Dependent Genitive is used with the noun it modifies and comes before it. The Absolute Genitive may be used without any noun or be separated from the noun it modifies. A. The Dependent Genitive. The chief meaning of the genitive case is that of possession: ...a young man and a girl came out of the solicitor’s office. (Braine) He stayed at Fanny’s flat. (Aldington) 2. Very close to the meaning of possession is that of a part to a whole: A faint smile had come on Victorine’s face — she was adding up the money she might earn. (Galsworthy) His sister’s eyes fixed on him with a certain astonishment, obliged him at last to look at Fleur. (Galsworthy) 3. The Dependent Genitive may express the doer of an action (the so-called subjective genitive) or show that some person is the object of the action (the so-called objective genitive): It was Tom’s step, then, that Maggie heard on the steps. (Eliot) Gwendolen’s reception in the neighbourhood fulfilled her uncle’s expectations. (Eliot) 4. The noun in the genitive case may denote qualitative relations: He looked ever so much smarter in his new officer’s clothes with the little blue chevron... (Aldington) The use of the genitive case of nouns denoting inanimate things and abstract notions is rather limited. The genitive case of nouns denoting inanimate things may denote the relations between a part and the whole. ...the sudden shaking of an aspen’s leaves in the puffs of breeze that rose along the river... (Galsworthy) He stepped on the truck’s running board hanging on with his left arm. (Heym) The genitive case of nouns expressing time, space and weight is widely used. From the depot he was sent to the officers’ training camp with two days’ leave. (Aldington) They both quite took to him again and during his month’s leave gave him a good time. (Aldington) There is a remnant still of the last year’s golden clusters... (Eliot) The three of us had had dinner, and walked down past the theatre to the river’s edge. (Snow) B. The Absolute Genitive. 1. The Absolute Genitive may be used anaphorically. Mrs. Moss’s face bore a faded resemblance to her brother’s. (Eliot) The face Michael drew began by being Victorine’s and ended by being Fleur’s. (Galsworthy) 2. The Absolute Genitive may have local meaning: the stationer’s, the baker’s, the tobacconist’s, my uncle’s, etc. On her way home she usually bought a slice of honey-cake at the baker’s. (Mansfield) “My dear,” said the lace collar she secured from |