THE 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 etc.
2. Derivative nouns are nouns, which have derivative elements (prefixes or suffixes or both): reader,
sailor, blackness, childhood, misconduct, inexperience etc. 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; -ion: operation,
-ation: examination, consideration; -or: doctor, visitor; -ing: meeting, building.
Unproductive suffixes are:
-hood: childhood, manhood; -dom: freedom; -ship: friendship, relationship; -ment: development;
-ance: importance; -ence: dependence; -ty: cruelty; -ity: generosity; -ure: culture, structure.
The most common prefixes are:
re- : reduction, reconstruction; co- : co-author, coexistence ; dis-: disarmament, distribution ;
ex- : ex-minister, ex-champion; mis- : misunderstanding; over- : overestimation;
in- : information, inequality; under- : undersecretary; counter- : counteraction; anti- : anticyclone;
sub- : subdivision, subcommittee; inter- : interaction; un- : unemployment.
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:
1. noun + noun: apple-tree, snowball;
2. adjective + noun: blackbird, bluebell;
3. verb + noun: pickpocket; a gerund or of a participle may be the first component of a compound
noun: dining room, reading-hall, dancing-girl.

THE CLASSIFICATION OF NOUNS

Nouns fall under the following classes:

1. (A) Proper nouns; (B) Common nouns.

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,
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)
B. 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).

2. (A) Concrete Nouns; (B) Abstract Nouns

A. Concrete nouns are nouns that refer to things that exist physically and can be touched, seen, smelled,
felt, or tasted. Here are some examples:
 Can I pet your dog?
 Please pass the salt.
 Your sweater is made of such soft wool.
Concrete nouns can be perceived by at least one of our five senses. Nouns referring to things that cannot
be directly perceived, but have real material existence, such as atoms and electrons, are concrete nouns.
B. Abstract Nouns refer to concepts, ideas, qualities or conditions like love, hate, power, and time.
 All you need is love.
 Morphology is a branch of grammar.
 We must use this time wisely.
 In these sentences, the abstract nouns refer to concepts or feelings that cannot be understood concretely or
touched physically.
3. (A) Countable Nouns; (B) Uncountable Nouns
A. Countable nouns can occur in both single and plural forms, can be modified by numbers, and can co-
occur with quantifying determiners, such as many, most, more, several, etc.
For example, the noun "bike" is a countable noun.
 There is a bike in that garage.
In this example, the word bike is singular because it refers to one bike that is sitting in a particular garage.
However, "bike" can also occur in the plural form.
 There are six bikes in that garage.
In this example, the plural noun bikes refers to more than one bike because it is being modified by the
number six.
In addition, countable nouns can be used with determiners like "several," rather than a number.
 In that garage, there are several bikes.
Uncountable Nouns
On the other hand, some nouns are not countable, you'll see them referred to as uncountable, non-countable
or mass nouns. For example, the word "clutter" is an uncountable noun.
 The garage is full of clutter.
This sentence makes grammatical sense. However, the following example does not.
 That garage is full of clutters.
Uncountable nouns usually cannot take plural forms. Therefore, clutters isn't grammatical.
Liquids and powders are among the items that are considered mass nouns, such
as milk, rice, wood, sand, water, and flour. Other more abstract examples that cannot be counted would
be air, freedom, or intelligence.

4. Collective Nouns
Collective nouns are nouns that refer to a group of something in particular. Often, collective nouns are used
to refer to groups of animals. Consider the following sentences.
 Look at that gaggle of geese.
 There used to be herds of wild buffalo on the prairie.
 A crowd of kids is in the pool today.
 The team did a great job in the competition.