Understanding English Grammar: A Course Book for chinese Learners of English

2. Nouns and Noun Phrases

2 Nouns and Noun Phrases Introduction: Nouns and Things You all know what nouns are. Here are some common nouns in English: water, air, earth, rice, sand, gold, paper, money, time, advice, courage As you learned in school long ago, nouns are names of ‘things’ — some we can touch, and some we can’t. We can talk about any of them: 1. Water is hard to find in a desert. 2. Rice grows well in a hot, humid climate. 3. Courage is an admirable quality. Notice that all the nouns in italics in the above examples can be used on their own in a sentence (without an article, etc.) — just as in Chinese. (Think of their Chinese equivalents and you will see.) There is another thing that you should notice about nouns like the above: they all refer to things that do not have any natural shape, size, or boundary. Water is water. There can be a drop, a cupful, a tankful, or even an ocean of water, but it’s still the same substance, water. There’s no sense in talking about ‘one water’, ‘two waters’and so on. The same goes for ‘air’, ‘rice’, ‘paper’, etc. What happens if you do need to refer to a particular unit or quantity of water or rice or paper? You’ll need a ‘measure word’ of some sort, for example: 4. A drop of water cannot do much, but a million drops of water can. 5. There’s not even a grain of rice left in the bowl. 6. How many pieces of paper do you need? 22 Understanding English Grammar Again, this is just like Chinese. (Think of the equivalents for ‘a drop of water’, ‘a grain of rice’ and ‘a piece of paper’ in Chinese: ‘ ’‘ ’‘ ’.) Notice that, however large a quantity we may be talking about, the noun itself (water, rice, paper, etc.) does not change its form. QUESTION 1 Find appropriate measure words for the other nouns mentioned above, and use each of them in a sentence: Air Earth Sand Gold Money Time Advice Courage So far, it would seem that at least some nouns in English behave very much like nouns in Chinese — in being able to occur on their own (‘Water is precious’), and in needing a measure word when quantity is involved (‘many drops of water’). If all English nouns were like that, it might be easier in a way, as all nouns would then be unchanging in form, as in the case of water: 7. I can see water everywhere. 8. Water is essential for life. 9. After exercising, I have to drink a lot of water. But are all nouns in English actually like that? QUESTION 2 Consider the underlined nouns in the following sentences (which are basically similar to 7– 9). What’s wrong with them? How would you correct them? Nouns and Noun Phrases 23 10. I can see soldier everywhere. 11. Tree is essential for parks. 12. After school, I have to read a lot of book. Answer: ‘Count’ and ‘Mass’ Nouns You have just identified a major difficulty about using nouns in English, i.e. how to distinguish between nouns like water, rice and paper on the one hand, and nouns like soldier, tree and book on the other. There’s nothing quite like this in Chinese, where all nouns are essentially like water, rice and paper in the way they are used. But at least you realize that in English it is nouns like soldier, tree and book that behave differently from nouns in Chinese, and may pose more of a problem. Let’s call these nouns by their modern name, count nouns (or ‘countable nouns’) — nouns like table, chair, house, car, flower, man, woman, teacher, school, month, year, etc. The other group (water etc.) are mass nouns (or ‘uncountable nouns’). QUESTION 3 Compare the ways in which the nouns money and flower are used below. Write down all the grammatical differences that you find. Which is a count noun and which a mass noun? Money Flower 1. Money grows on trees. *Flower grows on trees. 2. *Moneys grow on trees. Flowers grow on trees. 3. *A money grows on trees. A flower grows on trees. 4. Much/a little money is good. Many/a few flowers are good. 24 Understanding English Grammar Answer: The differences between the two types of nouns are: Mass Noun Count...