This is a problem that has been discussed by Plato, Aristotle, Paramenides, Spinoza, Hegel and Kant to name just a few.   It is discussed under a vareity of names so it may difficult to recognize at first, for Hegel the Begriff, for Plato the Logos, and for most English speaking philopshers the Concept or the Idea of Ideas.  In this the issue of the degree to which words and language interact with the actual objects that they refer to.  That is too say, this is an issue of some complexity.  However, for our purposes the issue is more rooted in the specifics of grammar teaching than in the wider world of philosophy but we beg these issues at this point.  The word "dog" is an element of language and exists in the head as part of a system of signs.  However, the meaning of dog (even its nounness) is dependent on the actually occuring animal  for learning and for periodic review.  For example, we must know that a dog has hair, claws, four legs, and so forth.  The word is dependent on this knowledge of the real world.  Also and more generally but no less true, it is a mammal, a living being, an entity, and finally a noun.  This quality can no more be completely severed from the dog as the sequence of three sounds d - o - g can be completely severed from the existing animal.  You, like Paramenides, separate the word the thing a bit too much.  I am much more with Plato, Kant, and Hegel in believing the relation between the word dog and the concept dog are quite dependent.  And thereby I believe that noun is a quality of the animal itself -- more general than entity or mammal but still a quality of the animal itself.  

Phil Bralich

>2. Phil Bralich claims all entities or things are nouns.  A noun is a 
>class of word; classes of words are elements of language; language is a 
>mental phenomenon. Nouns exist only in the minds of human beings. You 
>cannot point to something in the world, like a rock, and say it is a 
>noun. Word meanings are concepts, not things outside the mind. When we 
>are exposed to the world, we make a mental record of our experience; we 
>see things like rocks and form a concept of rocks. We learn to 
>associate a word ("rock") with the concept.  Then we classify words 
>into categories based on certain _perceived_ features of the things and 
>on discourse needs. The prototypical entity likely to be named by a 
>noun is (a) concrete (b) clearly differentiated from other entities (c) 
>time-stable, that is, it does not change its essence or properties very 
>fast; (d) it is internally differentiated, that is, it has parts that 
>are different from each other; (e) it is countable.
>
>The fewer of these properties an entity is perceived to have, the less 
>likely it is to be named by a noun. Also, the fewer of these properties 
>it has, the fewer noun inflection "privileges" it will have, such as 
>being able to be pluralized.
>
>Perception and cultural conditioning are extremely important. Not all 
>languages assign the same phenomena to the noun and verb classes.
>
>In response to Craig and others, I believe it is very helpful to teach 
>students how to use inflectional tests like adding plural -s to 
>identify a word's class. It's like a basic definition in mathematics -- 
>not sexy, but part of the basic equipment. Much more can be said about 
>nouns, of course, and should, according to the students' level.
>
>I spoke in another message of the difference between class and 
>function. "Nominal" is the function that clauses play when they are 
>subjects or direct objects; in fact, "nominal" is the superordinate 
>term for structures that play roles like subject, direct object, and so 
>on. "Nominal" is a discourse function for referring and for supplying 
>something to which we can assign a predicate (say something about).
>
>My own textbook takes a thoroughgoing cognitive/functional approach 
>(along with structural descriptions) to English grammar. If all goes 
>well, it will be out by summer of '07 or a little later.
>
>Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
>Linguistics Minor Advisor
>English Department
>California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
>E-mail: [log in to unmask]
>Tel.: 805.756.2184
>Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596
>Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
>URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba
>
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