Classification of nouns.

Nouns fall under two classes: (A) proper nouns; (B) common nouns.¹

A. Proper nouns are individual names given to people or things. As regards their meaning proper nouns may be personal names {Mary, Peter; Shakespeare), geographical names (Moscow, London, the Caucasus), the names of the months and of the days of the week (February, Monday), names of ships, hotels, clubs etc.

¹ The name proper is from Lai. proprius 'one's own'. Hence a proper name means one's own individual name, as distinct from a common name, that can be given to a class of individuals. The name common is from Lat. communis and means that which is shared by several things or individuals possessing some common characteristic.

A large number of nouns now proper were originally common nouns (Brown, Smith, Mason).

Proper nouns may change their meaning and become common nouns:

George went over to the table and took a sandwich and a glass of champagne. (Aldington)

B. Common nouns are names that can be applied to any individual of a class of people or things (e.g. man, dog, book), collections of similar individuals or things regarded as a single unit (e. g. peasantry, family), materials ^Ґ(e. g. snow, iron, cotton) or abstract notions (e. g. kindness, development).

Thus there are different groups of common nouns: class nouns, collective nouns, nouns of material and abstract nouns.

Nouns may also be classified from another point of view: nouns denoting things (the word thing is used in a broad sense) that can be counted are called countable nouns; nouns denoting things that cannot be counted are called uncountable nouns.

1. Class nouns denote people or things belonging to a class. They are countables and have two numbers: singular and plural. They are generally used with an article.¹

"Well, sir," said Mrs. Parker, "I wasn't in the shop above a great deal." (Mansfield)

He goes to the part of the town where the shops are. (Lessing)