The Major Parts of SpeechPittsburgh, but to a whole set of them, which doesn’t seem quite right.
So, there is something right about saying that nouns name classes of
things, but there also seem to be nouns that name individual things. The
nouns that name classes of things are common nouns; the nouns (and other
types of expression) that name individual things are proper nouns: printer
is a common noun; Denver is a proper noun. In English, we conventionally
capitalize the initial letter of proper nouns. A common noun can be turned
into a proper noun, in which case it should be capitalized; for instance, we
have a friend whose dog’s name is Dog. Similarly, we can distinguish god (of
which there may be many) from God (which is presumed to be unique—at
least in some contexts).
Proper nouns name individual things. But these things are many and var-
ied. They include individual people (Madonna), individual animals (Lassie),
individual places (Addis Ababa); individual things (Earth). We’ll have a lot
more to say about proper names in our chapter on Phrases.
We’ve said that common nouns name classes of things, but this needs
development. Certainly, books are things, but is grease a thing? Thing seems
to us to denote only things that can be individuated and counted—thing
one, thing two; one potato, two potatoes, and so on. But grease doesn’t seem to
allow this; we don’t (at least not typically) say two greases, or even just one
grease. Grease is like milk and information and lots of other similar words
in that it seems to denote stuff (physical or mental) rather than individual
things. So, we might revise our definition of noun again, and say that “com-
mon nouns name classes of things and stuff,” or if you prefer to go uptown,
“nouns name classes of entities and substances.” We’ll return to this issue be-
low when we distinguish more fully between count and non-count nouns.
Unfortunately, characterizing nouns as names of things and stuff only
works if we limit our interpretation of “things and stuff” to just what nouns
name, which makes it utterly circular. Moreover, if we answer “yes” when
asked whether events, actions, states, characteristics, and relationships are
things, then we must allow that verbs, adjectives and other parts of speech
also name things. But surely that’s a bit of a problem, because verbs have
traditionally been assumed to name actions and states of being, adjectives to
name characteristics, and prepositions to name relationships. Our focus on
the typical meanings of nouns is what has gotten us into this fix. So we must
look at other characteristics of nouns if we are to have any success in finding
ways to identify them.
We’ve worked through the definition of noun as thoroughly as we did
because we take definitions seriously. We think they should be accurate
(remember our discussion of critical thinking in our Introduction to this