Supposedly, my list access has been restored. Another test ...

Let's get crazy ...

Phil defines a noun as an entity; but what is an entity? Cognitive 
Grammar defines a noun as "a bounded region in some domain". By this is 
meant something which is "marked off" from other things -- that is, 
differentiated from other things. Also, a noun does not track the 
evolution of some situation through time, which is what verbs do (hence 
the frequent term "process" for verb).

This is, of course, a very vague definition, as it has to be if it is 
to cover all nouns' meanings. There is also more to the Cog. Gr. 
definition, defining prototypical nouns, but I won't go into that 
unless someone asks me.

We also need to consider WHY languages have nouns. And why do we make 
some verbs into nouns, like "flash" and "fight"? Why do we create 
gerunds and noun clauses? Some linguists believe that part-of-speech 
categories emerge out of discourse needs. We need nouns because we want 
to talk ABOUT things. We need nouns (and other nominals) as "hooks" to 
hang predicates on. We need nouns in order to direct our listener's or 
reader's conscious attention to something we want to talk about (in 
other words, to refer). We need nouns in order to have topics to which 
we can add ever more information in a text.

As someone else pointed out, a noun names a category, not a single, 
actual thing. A conceptual category, at that. This is evidenced in 
English by the fact that we usually cannot use a noun (especially a 
count noun) alone to talk about something. I can't say "cat is sick". I 
have to point my listener to which cat I mean -- "My mother's tabby cat 
is sick." Even for generic or category reference, we have to use either 
"a" or a plural: "A cat is a selfish animal." "Cats are millstones." (A 
famous linguist had a cat named Millstone; my favorite cat name -- 
though I do love cats!) Mass nouns can be used alone in the generic 
sense because they already name an unindividuated type: "Sand is 
gritty." "Grammar is hard." Not all languages work this way, of course.

In teaching nouns, I believe children as young as six can use the 
"the", "a", and "my" tests. Since young children's literature and lives 
have a lot to do with concrete things that are prototypically named by 
nouns, I have no trouble with starting out with a combination of the 
functional "the" test and a notional definition; but the notional 
definition has to be extended fairly rapidly to include abstract 
things. Again, you start with stuff that kids are familiar: a task, an 
idea, a joke, a problem.


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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