Lecture 8

THE NOUN in ENGLISH

AND UKRAINIAN

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 THE OUTLINE

1. Typological Features of the Noun as a Part of Speech.

2. Morphological Categories of the Noun.
3. The Category of Number.
4. The Category of Case.
5. The Category of Gender.

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 Typological features of the
Noun
 The noun as a part of speech is characterised by
grammatically relevant groups of nouns: common
nouns and proper names:
life nouns (son, cat, peacock, син, кіт, павич); inanimate
nouns (bell, door, дзвін, двері, шлях); сountable nouns
(star, tree, зірка, дерево); uncountable nouns (air,
honesty, freedom, повітря, чесність, свобода).
 a system of noun-forming affixes (-ant, -ent, -er, -ar, -or,
-ee, -ism, -ment, -ник, -яч, -ач, -eць, -щик, -чик, -ай, -
аль, -ень, -ух, -ар/-яр, -ак/-яка, -ун, -ота, -ище, -ість, -
ство, -тт-я, -нн-я тощо)

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 Allomorphic features

 The realisation of the meaning (and category) of

number and quantity in some groups of nouns in
the contrasted languages (some collective
nouns may be used in English both in Sg and Pl
(family, group, crew, etc. is/are :: nouns of
multitude e.g. police/cattle is, родина/поліція –
знає/працює тощо).
 Indistinct lexico-grammatical nature of English
nouns at language level (determiners required).

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Morphological categories of the Noun

The marked morphological category of noun is number.

Mostly realised synthetically, i.e. through zero and marked
inflexions. E.g.: child - children, ox - oxen, baths, cargos,
jubilees, bushes, watches, countries, heroes,etc.
 An irregularity - in the position of inflexion -s in
compounds, eg: take-off = take-offs, passer-by =
passers-by.
 Completely allomorphic: formation of plural by sound
interchange (ablaut): foot —feet, tooth —teeth, goose —
geese; man —men, woman —women; louse —lice,
mouse —mice; same Sg, Pl (sheep, deer, swine).
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 Isomorphic Semantic Groups
of Singularia Tantum Nouns
English Ukrainian
1. Nouns denoting parts of the
world: the North, the South, the 1.Північ,південь,захід,cхід,північни
East, the West, the North-West, й схід, північний захід, південний
the North-East, the South-East, схід, південний захід.
the South-West. 2.Золото, срібло, залізо, алюміній,
мідь, молоко, масло, бруд, сніг,
2. Names of materials: gold,
пісок, вода, хліб, деревина, сіно,
silver,iron, copper, milk, butter,
солома, цукор.
snow, dirt,sand, water, hay,
3.Білизна, збрід, крам, віниччя,
bread, coffee, sugar, wood.
гарбузиння, капустиння, паліччя,
3. Collective nouns: brushwood, збіжжя, птаство, волосся,
foliage, leafage, furniture, професура, селянство, жіноцтво.
shrubbery, rubbish, hair. 4. Відвага, знання, буття, кохання,
4. Abstract notions as: courage, любов, мир, патріотизм, погода,
knowledge, advice, friendship, прогрес, визнання, гамір,
kindness, love, peace, etc сумління, буття, виховання,
ненависть, каяття.
 Allomorphic features of Noun categories

1) Ukrainian number inflexions are partly predetermined by

the declension groups, and by the gender of nouns and
final consonant or vowel:
E.g.: the III and IV declensions nouns in Ukrainian have hard, soft and
sibilant (шиплячі) final consonants. Their singular and plural
number oppositions:
 in the III declension: и —і: мати—матері, 0 —і: вість —вісті, тінь —
тіні, піч —печі, матір —матері.
 in the IV declension: а —/т/а: дівча—дівчата, курча—курчата,
лоша—лошата, я —л/н/т+я: ім'я —імена
2) The existence in Ukrainian of dual number (двоїна): верба -в'ерби
but дві (три, чотири) верб'и; квітка —квітк’и but дві (три, чотири)
кв'ітки; шапка -шапк’и, дві (три, чотири) ш’апки

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 Isomorphic Semantic Groups
of Pluralia Tantum Nouns
English
1. Summations nouns: trousers,
shorts, tongs, scissors, scales,
spectacles, eyeglasses, etc.
2. Names of remnants: scraps, slops,
sweepings, siftings, leavings,
remnants, etc.
3. Names of some games: drafts,
cards, darts, skittles, billiards.
4. Some abstract and concrete
notions: outskirts, tigins, (inverted)
commas, goings-on, contents,
means, etc.
5. Some geographical names: Athens,
the Netherlands, the Alps, the
Carpathians, the Azores, the
Bermudas, the Philippines
Ukrainian
1. Штани, шорти, обценьки, ножиці,
терези, окуляри, сани, ночви,
в'язи, баки, граблі, ворота,
цимбали,
2. Покидьки, помиї, висівки,
недоїдки, недопитки, зметини,
вишкрібки, etc.
3. Шахи, шашки, карти, дротики,
кеглі, городки, гилки, etc.
4. Будні, злидні, іменини, родини,
хрестини, лапки, посиденьки,
витребеньки, жмурки, etc
5. Атени, Нідерланди, Альпи,
Карпати, Азори, Бермуди,
Філіппіни, Бровари, Суми, Лубни,
Жуляни, Черкаси.
 The categories of case and gender
Some grammarians found in present-day English 2 cases, others – 4,
still other – 5, 6 and more cases. R. Quirk, S. Greenbaum and co-
authors speak of common and genitive cases (-'s genitive and of-
genitive).
As to Ukrainian nouns - have 7 singular and plural oppositions in the
nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, instrumental, locative
and vocative case, e.g.: хмара, хмари, хмарі, хмару, хмарою, (на)
хмарі, хмаро (first decl.), vocative case; or in plural: степи,
степів, степам, степи, степам, степами, (у) степах, степи (second
decl., vocative case).
 No identity exists in the contrasted languages in the expression of
the category of gender.

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 The category of gender
In Ukrainian - is identified either through separate inflexions of the
attribute or through the inflexion of the finite form of the verb.
Masculine gender - каштан цвів/ріс ведмідь ходив/спав обід
захолов/замерз хлопець сміявся/був
Feminine gender - яблуня цвіла/росла вода замерзла лисиця
ходила/бігла дівчина сміялася/була
Neuter gender - жито цвіло/росло лоша ходило/бігало сонечко
пригрівало дитя сміялося/було.
In English - no gender distinctions of the kind are possible.
Masculine gender - the actor plays the actor played the actor is/has
the actor was.
Feminine gender - the actress plays the actress played the actress
is/has seen the actress was seen
Neuter gender - the child plays/smiles the child played/smiled, etc. the
child is/has seen the child was seen/heard, etc. 10
 The comparative table
of the category of case
English Ukrainian
1. 7 cases in the system of the noun 1. The absence of category of cases
and pronoun. in the system of the noun and
2. Agreement in the category of the existence of two categories
case in adjectives, pronouns of cases in the system of
(except for the personal), ordinal personal pronouns
numbers. 2. The absence of any agreement of
3. The absence of the category of nouns with other parts of speech.
possession. 3. Availability of the category of
4. Isolation of the class of living possession, having
subjects by means of formal morphological expression in the
expression in the accusative morpheme ‘s.
case (хмара - хмару; брат - 4. Isolation of the class of living
брата) subjects using the possessive
suffix -'s mother's handbag
 The comparative table
of the category of case
English Ukrainian
1. 7 cases in the system of the noun 1. The absence of category of cases
and pronoun. in the system of the noun and
2. Agreement in the category of the existence of two categories
case in adjectives, pronouns of cases in the system of
(except for the personal), ordinal personal pronouns
numbers. 2. The absence of any agreement of
3. The absence of the category of nouns with other parts of speech.
possession. 3. Availability of the category of
4. Isolation of the class of living possession, having
subjects by means of formal morphological expression in the
expression in the accusative morpheme ‘s.
case (хмара - хмару; брат - 4. Isolation of the class of living
брата) subjects using the possessive
suffix -'s mother's handbag
 The category of definiteness and
indefiniteness
1) The main means of making the noun definite in English is to use the
definite or indefinite (zero) article or any other determining or
identifying adjunct. For example: Bristol (zero article) means the
town of Bristol, whereas the Bristol is the name of a hotel.
2) The category of definiteness may be also indicated by syntactic, i.e.
lexico-syntactic means. Namely, by an appositive noun or a
substantivised numeral, an adjective or any other adjunct: Cf.: King
Charles III, the first Summit meeting, король Карл Третій.
3) The category of indefiniteness apart from being indicated in English
by the indefinite article a/an, may also be made explicit by the
indefinite pronouns any, some, etc. The expression of indefiniteness
in Ukrainian is likewise realized with the help of the indefinite
pronouns якийсь (якась, якесь), through the indefinite numeral
один (одна, одне).
4) Indefiniteness in Ukrainian - expressed through grammatical shifting
of the indefinite noun into the final position of the sentence. 13