The Major Parts of Speecheach noun in the following list is count, non-count, common, proper,
concrete, abstract, or collective. Some may belong to more than one
of these subclasses. For each one that does, say which subclasses it
belongs to: aluminum, class, college, couple, criterion, excellence,
information, member, Michigan, nomination, patience, platoon, tran-
quility, troop, Yosemite.
- Some non-count nouns denote substances made up of small discrete
particles, and we can speak of individual particles or numbers of them
by modifying the noun with an expression of the form X of Noun, e.g.,
grain of wheat, kernel of corn. Identify ten more such nouns and the
expressions that denote their particles. - Other non-count nouns denote what Huddleston and Pullum (2002:
- refer to as “aggregates,” that is, instead of denoting masses com-
posed of very similar particles, they denote aggregates of miscella-
neous things that typically share some function. These words also have
special individualizing words, e.g., piece of furniture, item of apparel.
Identify ten more such nouns and the expressions that denote their
individuals.
- We also have special expressions for the portions we typically divide
some stuffs into, e.g., slice of cake, loaf of bread, wedge of pie. Iden-
tify ten more such nouns and the expressions that denote their typical
portions. - Using a selection of count and non-count nouns, determine which
subclass the following expressions may directly modify: enough, little,
each, neither, all. For example, sufficient can modify non-count but
not (singular) count nouns—sufficient money but *sufficient dollar. - The count/non-count distinction poses difficulties for non-native
speakers of English, at least in part because languages do not all make
the distinction in the same way. As a result, nouns that are translation
equivalents may belong to different subcategories. Thus information
is non-count in English, but its translation equivalents in French and
Italian are count. Check a piece of text written by a learner of English
to see whether the writer has full control over the count/non-count
distinction.