The Internal Structure of English Nouns

What Prototypical Nouns Look Like in the English Language

Sep 21, 2009 Heather Marie Kosur

The following article explains the internal structure, or what a word looks like, of prototypical nouns in English.

Nouns in English are traditionally defined as "words that refer to people, places, things, and ideas." Noun phrases are defined as phrases formed by a noun plus any determinatives, modifiers, and complements. In English, prototypical nouns and noun phrases perform eleven grammatical functions:

1. Noun phrase head
2. Subject
3. Subject complement
4. Direct object
5. Object complement
6. Indirect object
7. Prepositional complement
8. Noun phrase modifier
9. Possessive modifier
10. Appositive
11. Adverbial

The grammatical functions that grammatical forms can perform are referred to as the "functional potential" of that grammatical form. Functional potentials help distinguish one part of speech from another. The "internal structure," or what a word can look like, also helps distinguish between parts of speech. In the English language, the internal structures that distinguish nouns from other grammatical forms include number and possession.

Number

English nouns firstly show number. In grammar, number refers to quantity. Prototypical nouns in English may be either singular or plural. Singular nouns reference only one "person, place, thing, or idea." For example, the following italicized nouns are singular:

• The puppy ate a treat.
• A purple flower is growing in the back garden.
• My farm was recently destroyed by a tornado.

Plural nouns reference two or more "people, places, things, or ideas." For example, the following italicized nouns are plural:

• The women rode separate buses.
• Mice ate through three baskets of corn.
• These recipes require six eggs, two cups of milk, and some raisins.

Although most nouns can show number, some categories of nouns cannot. For example, uncountable or mass nouns only have a singular form. For example, the mass nouns milk and rice only have singular forms as in She drinks milk and eats rice but not *She drinks milks and eats rices. The ability to show number applies to only prototypical nouns.

Possession

English nouns secondly show possession or lack therefore. In grammar, possessive nouns indicate some sort of relationship to another noun. For example, the use of the possessive in the boy's bike indicates that the boy owns the bike. The use of the possessive in the little girl's mother, however, indicates a familial relationship between the little girl and the mother. Prototypical nouns may or may not show possession. For example, the following italicized nouns are not possessive:

• The teacher ate her sandwich.
• My dog enjoys his food.
• His father-in-law bought a new farm.

The following italicized nouns are examples of possessive nouns:

• The teacher's sandwich was delicious.
• I spilled the dog's food all over the floor.
• His father-in-law's farm is enormous.

Although many nouns can show possession, only nouns that refer to people and other living things take the possessive clitic ('s or s'). For example, both woman and turkey are people or other living things and can therefore show possession in The woman's face showed her disgust for cleaning her turkey's cage. However, the nouns hotel and table that refer to inanimate objects typically do not have possessive forms but rather function as noun phrase modifiers as in The hotel manager needs to repair the table leg.

Prototypical English nouns can be either singular or plural in number and show or not show possession. Both native speakers and ESL students must learn the internal structure of prototypical nouns in English in order to distinguish nouns from other parts of speech.

Sources

Hopper, Paul J. A Short Course in Grammar. W.W. Norton & Company: New York, 1999.

Huddleston, Rodney. Introduction to the Grammar of English. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1984.

The copyright of the article The Internal Structure of English Nouns in Language Study is owned by Heather Marie Kosur. Permission to republish The Internal Structure of English Nouns in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

English Nouns