GRAMMATICALITY, KINDS AND CASES OF NOUNS, IRREGULAR NOUN

With this article, we intend to discuss:

• Grammaticality
• Kinds of Noun
• Cases of Noun
• Irregular Noun

I. GRAMMATICALITY

Grammaticality in linguistics is the conformity of the structure of a sentence given in a particular language. Grammatically correct sentence strictly followed set of rules in syntax and has a meaningful idea. Take a look on the examples below:

      a. Calvin likes Taylor.

      b. *Calvin like Taylor.

Both sentences are meaningful, but sentence (a) is grammatically correct and sentence (b) is grammatically incorrect. 

Grammaticality is a feature by its own and should not be identified by acceptability and so its acceptability should not be identified by its meaningfulness. In Acceptability, a sentence is accepted in a particular community and in particular culture. Like for example, it is rude to address a person who is superior than you with "you". Some sentences are grammatically correct but doesn't have a meaningful idea and is not acceptable. It sometimes got something to do with 'logic'. Like for example in the idea of Noam Chomsky:

The sentence does not make sense because things logically cannot be colourless and green, simultaneously, ideas cannot sleep and nothing can sleep furiously. It is grammatically correct but semantically ill-formed (meaningless)

Other sentences can be ungrammatical yet meaningful.

E.g. 'I want that he come.'

The sentence make sense although it is grammatically wrong. It has the same meaning as: "I want him to come".

The structure of sentences and their meaning are two distinct things. The essential point is, although words may be grammatically well-formed, they cannot form a meaningful sentences, or be a part of a meaningful phrase.

II. KINDS OF NOUN

Noun is  the part of speech (or word class) that names or identifies a person, place, thing, quality, ideas or activity. There are different kinds of noun:

a. Proper Noun: is a specific name of particular thing, person, animal and place. On the other hand, proper noun is always written with a capital letter at the beginning of the word.

Ex: Philippines, Taylor Swift, New York

b. Common Noun: is a name which is given in common to everyone (person, thing, animal, places, etc.)

Ex: teacher, palace, dog, giraffe

c. Count Noun: refer to things that can be divided up into smaller units which are separate and distinct from one another. They usually refer to what can individually be seen or heard:

Ex. books, finger, bottle, award

d. Mass/ Non-count Noun: refer to things that cannot be counted because they are regarded as wholes which cannot be divided into parts. They often refer to abstractions and occasionally have a collective meaning. 

Ex: blood, rain water

Quantifiers are usually used to modify non-count nouns.

Ex: bag of chips, cup of coffee, bottle of water

e. Concrete Noun:  are things that you can experience through your five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch.

Ex: lotion, stars, colony, food

f. Abstract Noun: refer to intangible things, like feelings, ideals, concepts and qualities.

Ex: courage, hope, love, fear

g. Collective Noun: is a name of number or collection of person, thing and animal taken together and spoken as a whole.

Ex: committee, jury, family

h. Compound Noun: are the nouns that are combined between one word with another word and can make from many kinds of noun, adjective and verb.

Ex: N + N = N              ex: airplane

      V + N = N              ex: spoil sport

      Adj. + N = N          ex: madman

      Prep. + N = N        ex: background

      V + Pr = N             ex: drop-out

      N + 's = N             ex: bachelor's degree

      N + V + ing = N     ex: handwriting

i. Possessive Noun: shows ownership by adding an apostrophe, an "s" or both. To make a single noun possessive, simply add an apostrophe and an "s."

Ex: Lawyer’s fee, Today’s newspaper, Computer’s keyboard

III. CASES OF NOUN

Cases of nouns are the means by which writers show how nouns or pronouns relate to other words in a sentence. Noun cases refer to a noun's function within that sentence. There are three noun cases: subjective, objective and possessive.

a. Subjective case: it is sometimes referred to as "nominative nouns". These nouns either are the subject of t6he sentence or they are used as a "predicate noun".

ex: Mary drove to the store.

      Elvis sang for many years.

      The teacher was the speaker. 

b. Objective case: the noun is used as a direct object, and indirect object and object of the preposition.

     Direct object. Receives the action in the sentence

            ex: Show her the book now.

    Indirect object. Receives the direct object.

            ex:  Mark threw his father the football.

                          Barbara gave her sister a book.

   Object of the preposition. The noun or pronoun that follows the preposition.

            ex: Hansel runs with Gretel.

c. Possessive Case: used to show ownership

ex: Daniel's backpack was red.

IV. IRREGULAR NOUN

Most English nouns form their plural by adding either -s (books, bands, bells) or -es (boxes, bunches, batches). These plural forms are said to follow a regular pattern.

But not all nouns conform to this standard pattern. In fact, some of the most common English nouns have irregular plural forms--such as woman/women and child/children.

There are no easy rules, unfortunately, for irregular noun in English. They simply have to be learnt and remembered. (S. Curtis and M. Manser, The Penguin Writer's Manual, 2002)

Examples of Regular Nouns:

match = matches

box = boxes

thief = thieves

hex = hexes

party = parties

theory =  theories

Examples of Irregular Nouns:

radius = radii

corpus = corpora

beau = beaux

fish = fish
mouse = mice
vertebra = vertebrae

Sources:

Pranata, Yunda. "Grammaticality, Acceptability and Meaningfullnes." Weblog post. Grammaticality, Acceptability and Meaningfullnes. N.p., 15 Jan. 2014. Web. 27 June 2015. <http://www.slideshare.net/niimazroroilminadta/grammaticality-acceptability-and-meaningfullnes>.

"Grammaticality." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 27 June 2015. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammaticality>.

"ADVANCED ENGLISH GRAMMAR." : TYPES OF NOUN. Advancegrammar.blogspot.com, 1 July 2009. Web. 27 June 2015. <http://advancegrammar.blogspot.com/2009/07/types-of-noun_17.html>.

Nordquist, Richard. "A List of the Most Common Irregular Plural Nouns in English." About Education. Web. 27 June 2015. <http://grammar.about.com/od/words/a/A-List-Of-Irregular-Plural-Nouns-In-English.htm>.