LECTURE # 4 Noun as a Part of Speech in English and Ukrainian

1. Noun as a part of speech: general characteristics.

2. The category of number.
3. The category of case.
4. The category of gender.
5. The category of the definiteness/indefiniteness.
In today’s lecture we concentrate on the contrastive analysis of the noun in
English and Ukrainian. In particular, general characteristics of the noun in contrasted
languages and the categories of noun in both languages.
Noun as a part of speech: general characteristics. Noun as a part of speech is
characterized in English and Ukrainian by a common lexico-grammatical nature of
substance or "thingness". It finds its realisation not only in concrete nouns (book, house,
tree, fish), but also in abstract nouns (love, hatefulness, information). Two main
categories of nouns are common nouns and proper nouns. Common nouns are
subdivided into concrete, abstract, collective, names of materials and class nouns.
Proper names are names of people (Ann, Peter, Петро, Ганна), family names
(Adams, Byron, Сидоренко, Шевченко), names of companies, newspapers, journals, for
example: Ford, Standard oil.
Similarities are observed in the existence of some other grammatically relevant
groups of nouns in English and Ukrainian. Among these are first of all life nouns,
inanimate nouns, countable and uncountable nouns. There is some difference in
realisation of the meaning of number in some groups of nouns in the contrasted
languages. Аmong these are some collective nouns which may be used in English both
in singular and in plural (when constituent numbers are meant): My family are early
risers; The crew has prepared the aircraft for the take off. Тhe crew are young. In
plural these collective nouns become nouns of multitude as police cattle having always
the singular meaning in Ukrainian.
The most characteristic divergent feature of English nouns as compared with
Ukrainian ones is their usually indistinct lexico-grammatical nature at the language. As a
result, determiners (usually the definite or indefinite articles) are used to identify nouns.
English nouns are often determined by the -s /-s' element (today's weather, London's
population). Morphologically the noun is characterized in the contrasted languages by
the existence of a system of suffixes and prefixes. The suffixes fall into several common
subgroups. There are traditionally distinguished productive and unproductive, native
and borrowed suffixes, as well as different semantic groups of suffixes which when
added to various roots or stems form agent nouns. English agent suffixes:- ant: servant,
irritant; -ent: dependent, solvent; ar: beggar, scholar; -er: farmer; -or: sailor, tailor.
Ukrainian agent suffixes: -ник завойовник; -ач/яч: глядач, ткач; -ець: кравець,
співець; -тель: вихователь. There are productive and unproductive suffixes in both
languages: - ier/ -yer: cashier, lawyer; -eer: auctioneer, gangster, youngster.
Numerous in Ukrainian but missing in English are argumentative suffixes:-ищ:
вовчище, вітрище; -ук/юк: каменюка; -уг/юг: дідуга, злодюга. Diminutive suffixes of
nouns are 53 in Ukrainian and only 14 in English: booklet, kitchenette, Daddy, grannie,
gooseling, ladykin. In Ukrainian: голівонька, горбочок, дідунь, лапка.
Common in both languages are also other groups of suffixes:1)those which form
nouns denoting doctrine, action, act or fact of doing, manner of action: - ism:
federalism, -ізм: реалізм;2) forming nouns designating abstract notions of state, act,
art, skill, quality. These suffixes are mostly national by nature: -ness, -dom: freedom,
brotherhood, easiness. Or in Ukrainian: вільність, братство, легкість; 3)
international suffixes. Pertaining only to English is the recipient of action suffix -ee.
Prefixal morphemes in both languages have many common features. They may be
national, foreign by origin. Genuinely Germanic are: mis-, out-, with-, over-, in-. In
Ukrainian Slavonic by origin prefixes are: прадід, віддаль.
Morphological categories of the noun. The category of number. Both
languages have convergent and divergent features in the expression of noun categories.
Convergent is the existence of tow common categories of noun in English and Ukrainian
– the category of number and case. The contrasted languages differ in the realization of
these categories. Ukrainian also has grammatical categories of gender and living beings
and lifeless objects (case forms of nouns, vocative case form for living beings), whereas
English is characterized by the marked category of definiteness and indefiniteness and
partially the category of living beings and lifeless objects (possessive case use with
living beings, pronouns use (he/she and it; that/which and who in English). The only
morphological category of the noun which is almost always marked in present-day
English is that of number. It is realised like in Ukrainian through zero and marked
inflexions: child – children. English like most other languages distinguishes two
numbers for singular and plural.
Plural and singular nouns stand in contrast is diametrically opposite. There are
cases than the numerical differentiation appears to be of no importance at all. These are
many collective, abstract and material nouns. If you look at the meaning of collective
nouns you can see that they denote at the same time a plurality and a unit. They may be
said to be doubly countable and are at the same time singular and plural. The double-
sidedness of the collective nouns weakens the opposition and leads to the development
either Pluralia tantum or Singularia tantum.
The dual nature of collective nouns is shown linguistically in various ways by the
number of the verb or the pronoun referring to it: My family are early risers. My family
is not large. The choice between singular and plural depends on the meaning attached to
the noun. We can encounter stylistic transposition or singular nouns in cases like the
following: trees in leaf, to have a keen eye, blue of eye, strong of muscle. Augmentative
plurals, when the plural forms of material nouns are used to denote large amounts of
substance or high degree of something. Such plural forms are often for stylistic purposes
in literary prose and poetry: the Blue Waters of the Mediterranean, the Sands of the
Sahara Desert.
Besides a specific meaning pluralia tantum nouns may also retain the exact
meaning of the singular which results in homonymy, e.g.:I. custom=habit; customs – 1)
pl. of habit; 2) duties; II. color = tint; colours: 1. plural of tint; 2.flag; III. manner =
mode of way; manners: 1. modes, ways; 2. behavior; IV. pain = suffering; pains: plural
of suffering; 2.effort.
 There are also double plurals used with some differences of meanings: brother –
1) brothers; 2) brethren; Cloth: 1) cloths (kinds of cloth); 2) clothes (articles of dress).
Double plural with differentiation of meaning is found in Ukrainian лист – 1)
листя; 2) листи. Morphological variations will be found in nouns foreign in
origin.Through natural process of assimilation some borrowed nouns have developed
parallel native forms: stratum – strata, stratums; formula – formulae, formulas; focus –
foci, focuses.
Foreign plurals are decidedly more bookish than the native ones. In certain
contexts nouns can weaken their meaning of substance and approach adjectives thus
making the idea of qualities of the given substance predominant in the speaker’s mind.
Nouns functioning in this position are generally modified by adverbials of degree: You
are always more of a realist than John. The use of a noun rather than an adjective is
very often preferred as a more forcible expressive means to identify the given quality:
He was quite a success - He was quite successful; it was good fun – it was funny.
And here are illustrative examples of nouns weakening the meaning of substance
and approaching adverbs: a) adverbial relations of time as in: lifelong, week-long; b)
adverbial relations of comparison: straw yellow, ice cold; c) different degree of quality:
mountains high.
In the grammar of nouns there have also developed interjectional uses when they
seem to become intensifiers: why in the hell are you doing it? how the devil should I
know? Dual number in Ukrainian. The nouns express dual number in connection with
the number is mostly indicated by stress which differs as a rule: берег - береги(pl) -
береги (Dat,C).
The category of case. The expression of case relations in English remains a
controversial problem. Some grammarians say present-day English has two cases (O.
Jespersen, V. Yartseva) , some four cases (G. Curme). Ukrainian nouns may have seven
marked singular and plural oppositions of cases: nominative, genitive, dative,
accusative, instrumental, locative and vocative. The most common view is that nouns in
English have only two cases a genitive or possessive case and common case. The latter
is characterized by zero suffix, the possessive case by the inflection 's. In other words,
the common case is unmarked and genitive marked. The grammatical content of the
possessive case is rather complex. Besides implying possession in strict sense of the
term it is widely current in other functions: my sister’s room – possession; My sister 's
arrival - subjective genitive; The criminal's arrest - objective genitive; a child’s
language –qualitative genitive; month’s rent - genitive of measure.
There is no formal difference between all these kinds of genitive, but this kind of
ambiguity is clarified by linguistic or situational context. Thus mother's care may mean
любов матері – with reference to some individual and материнська любов in its
general qualitative sense. The meaning of the phrase may vary with the context. The
same is true of such uses as child's psychology, lawyer‘s life, man’s duty. The genitive of
measure or extent is easily recognized as fairly common in expressions of a certain
pattern: moment's silence, a day’s work.
The -‘s inflection offers some peculiar difficulties of grammatical analysis in
idiomatic patters with the so-called group-genitives, Mr. What's-his-name's remark.
There are also patterns like the man I saw yesterday's son. There are a few examples of
special use of the possessive case in the expressions of the formulaic character, such as
to one's heart's content, for pity's sake, at one's fingers' ends.
Use of the genitive case with locative force in patterns like the following: I
bought this at the grocer‘s. The baker's is round the corner.
Of all the meanings expressed by the genitive that of possession is decidedly
predominant, though there is the tendency to avoid the use of ~‘s inflection with nouns
denoting inanimate things. The genitive relationships with reference to such nouns are
expressed by the of-infinitive which has much the same meaning as the case-form but
its distribution is essentially different.
There is a change going on in present-day English which runs counter to the
general trend towards loss of inflections, that is the spreading of-genitive at the
expense of the s’-genitive. Until a few years ago the genitive with ‘s was used mainly
with nouns which could be replaced in the singular by the pronouns he, she, but not
with nouns which could be replaced by the pronoun it: so that people normally said the
man's face but the face of the clock, the surface of the water. In recent years the ‘s genitive
has come into common use with nouns which are replaceable in the singular only by it:
resort's weather - the weather of seaside towns, the game’s laws - the laws of the game. It can
be seen that this tendency for 's to replace of is a development from the analytic to the
synthetic. The of-phrase denoting possession is generally preferred when the noun is
modified by a lengthy attributive adjunct attached to it. S’ genitive of possession is
chiefly used with the names of human beings. With the names of lifeless things the of-
phrase is common.
The of-phrase in English is widely current in various kinds of modification
structures. The first to be mentioned js the so-called genitivus definitivus: a man of
energy, a thing of great importance, a glance if contempt, справа великого значення, людина
великого розуму. Attributive genitives are able to express more complex and more
subtle shades of meaning than ordinary adjectives do. Difficulties in translation may
arise when absolute equivalents of a given pattern cannot be found in another language
at all. A special kind of genitivus definitivus will be found in patters with synthetical
metathesis where the modifier is reinterpreted into the modified, a jewel of a picture, a
devil of a baby, a doll of the baby. Such grammatical idioms are most forceful and
expressive denoting delight, admiration or anger. Synonymous with ordinary
adjectives, they have a distant literary flavour and differ widely in their emotional
connotation.
The category of gender. No identity exists in the expression of the category of
gender. In Ukrainian there are 3 grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.
The morphological category of gender is identified through the inflections (mask. -
zero inflection, also: -а, -я, -о,-е; fem. – -a, -я : земля, калина; neut. – -о,-е,-я.). In
present-day English no distinction of the kind are possible.
Absence of the morphological category of gender in English can be proved by
the unchanged attributive adjuncts to nouns considered to have this category, the great
emperor lived, the great heroine lived, the great desire was. The adjective great does not reflect
any gender distinction of the head nouns emperor, heroine, desire as it is in Ukrainian. The
possessive and demonstrative pronouns may also be used to indicate the extralingual
category of gender in English, the actress and her voice, the child and its toys. A testimony
to there being no grammatical gender in English nouns is the use of appositions
pronouns as to indicate the gender of living beings as in boy -friend – girl -friend, man
servant - maid servant; tom cat – pussy cat, male servant – female – elephant. English suffixes
-ar, -or, -er, -o, -ess, -ine express the morphological gender as in widower, actress,
goddess, heroine.
Category of definiteness/indefiniteness. The noun in English and Ukrainian
can be made definite/indefinite semantically by some morphological or syntactic
means. The main morphological means are articles in English and demonstrative and
possessive pronouns in both languages. I know the student:: я знаю цього студента. The
definite article may point to the noun being generic or unique: The lion is a wild animal.
The sun is a celestial body. The Bible is a holy book.
The category of definitness may be indicated in English by the affixal
morpheme: colours/flag, lines/verses or by syntactic means in both languages; e.g. by
adjuncts: the Tory government, King Charles V, перший універсал, готель «Україна».
The category of indefininess is mainly identified by the indefinite article in
English or by the indefinite pronouns, by the numeral one, or by adj + the negative
particle not. E.g. A student is waiting for you, один якийсь студент. The English article is
a special functional word used as a marker of the noun. Lexically empty itself, it
determines the noun and contributes to its meaning. There are some further points to be
made about the article. It seems perfectly reasonable to say that the meaning of the
indefinite article is that of generalization. As a matter of fact, this element of meaning,
referring an object to a whole class of similar ones without its individual peculiarities,
is preserved in all the variety of its uses. Examples are: A) stitch in time saves nine; B)
A bird may be known by its song; C) I consider this picture a masterpiece of art.
As can be seen from the above examples, the element of indefiniteness is
preserved in all the patterns, indefinite article in its full range stands in contrast to the
definite article. The meaning of the latter is that of restriction or determination. It is
important to distinguish the following types of determination: A) reference to a noun
used generically or universally, e.g. The violet is a lovely flower (the so-called generic
singular, reference is made here to a particular class of flowers as contrasted to other
classes); B) reference to the class nouns which denote things to be considered unique:
the sun, the Earth, the Moon, the sky, the Universe; C) indication to individual
instances of the referent of a noun marking them as mentioned before by the speaker or
the context: The poem I have memorized.
There is a formal opposition based on the category of the number: Singular (the
indefinite article) – plural (absence of article); Countable (the indefinite article) –
Uncountable (absence of article).
Основна література:
1. Жлуктенко Ю.О. Порівняльна граматика англійської та української мов:
Посіб. – К.: Радянська школа, 1960. – 160 с.
2. Корунець І.В. Порівняльна типологія англійської та української мов.
Навчальний посібник. (Korunets’ I.V. Contrastive Typology of the English and
Ukrainian languages). – Вінниця: Нова книга, 2003. – 464 с.
3. Сучасна українська мова: Підручник/ за ред. О.Д.Пономарева. – К.:
Либідь, 2001. – 400 с.
4. Andreichuk N. Contrastive Linguistics: study manual /N. І. Andreichuk. – Lviv:
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv Publishing Centre, 2015. – 342 P.
5. Greenbaum S., Quirk R. A Student’s Grammar of the English Language. – L.:
Harlow: Longman, 1991. – 490 p.
6. Karamysheva І. Contrastive Grammar of English and Ukrainian Languages :
textbook / Iryna Karamysheva. — Third edition, revised. — Vinnytsia : Nova Knyha
Publishers, 2017. — 336 p.
7. Sukhorolska S.M., Fedorenko O.I. English Grammar. Theory: Study Manual /
O.I. Fedorenko, S.M.Sukhorolska. – Lviv: Lviv Ivan Franko National University
Publishing Center, 2008. – 360 p.
 Додаткова література:
1. Безпояско О.К., Городенська К.Г., Русанівський В.М. Граматика
української мови. Морфологія: підручник. Київ: Либідь, 1993. – 336с.
2. Сосюр Фердінанд де. Курс загальної лінгвістики: Пер. з фр. А.Корнійчук,
К.Тищенко. – К.: Основи, 1998. – 324 с.
3. Crystal D. An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Language and Languages. –
Oxford: Blackwell Reference, 1993. – 428 p.
4. Krzeszowski T.P. Contrasting Languages: The Scope of Contrastive
Linguistics // Trends in Lingusitics. Studies and Monographs, 51. – Berlin: De Gruyter
Mounton, 2011. - 286p.
5. Leech G., Svartvic J. A Communicative Grammar of English. – L.-N.Y.:
Longman, 1994. – 423 p.
6. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English / D.Biber, S.Johansson,
G.Leech and others. – L.: Longman, 1999. – 1204 p.
Questions for self-control:1. What is the categorial meaning of noun? 2. Give
morphological classification of noun. 3. Give semantic classification of noun. 4. Dwell
on the categories of noun in English and Ukrainian. 5. What are the convergent features
of nouns in English and Ukrainian? 6. What are the divergent features of nouns in
contrasted languages?