Irregular plural noun.

26. What nouns can be countable or uncountable depending upon their meaning in the context?

To this group there belong:
1. Common concrete collective nouns

· family, crew, committee.

If they denote all the people forming the collective taken together, they function as countables:

· This family is large. These families are large.

If they denote members of the collective viewed separately, they are uncountable and function as Pluralia Tantum.

· My family are early risers.

Among collective nouns there is a group of words which always denote members of the group taken separately (“names of multitude”) :

· police, gentry, cattle, poultry, etc.

They always function as Pluralia Tantum.

Some collective nouns always denote the collective as one undivided whole and thus are Singular Tantum:

· the bourgeoisie, the aristocracy, the peasantry, machinery, foliage.

2. Abstract nouns denoting feelings, emotions, qualities:

· love, hatred, joy, pleasure, strength, weakness.

This nouns are generally used as Singularia Tantum. But when they indicate special manifestations of the abstract ideas, they become countables.

· He hates weakness.

· She had a weakness for good clothes.

· She had many small vanities and weaknesses.

Abstract nouns ending in “-ics” (mathematics, phonetics) when used as names of sciences often agree with the verb in the singular.

· Phonetics is a branch of linguistics.

27 What cases deoes the English noun have? Do these cases have endings?

The noun has 2 cases: the common case and the genetive case. The common case has no endings; the genetive case is formed by adding “-'s” to the stem of the singular or the apostrophe - ' to the plural stem.

28 What is the genetive case? How is it formed?

The genetive case is very much restricted in its meaning and application. The english genetive case partly corresponds in its use to the Russian genetive case. Somebody or something possess something. (The boy's book was lying on the table – this is the book of this boy книга мальчика)

Formation of the Genetive case:

1. Simple (one-stem) noun ending in “s” in the singular (actress's, Dickens's/Dickens')

2. Simple (one-stem) nouns forming their plural without the endings “-s” (men's, children's)

3. Compound (two or more stem) nouns or phrases (boy-friend's)

29 What nouns can be used in the genetive case?

As a rule it will be formed from concrete nouns denoting living beings (persons or animals).

The genetive case is also sometimes formed from inanimate nouns, especially the following:

ñ the nouns 'world', 'country', 'nation', 'city', 'town', 'government', 'society' etc

ñ nouns – names of countries, cities, towns

ñ nouns (substantivized adverbs) denoting time or distance ( a mile's distance, today's newspapers)

ñ nouns denoting planets (the sun's rays)

30 What are “participial adjectives”?

“Participial adjectives” are adjectives that look like participle forms of verbs that usually describe emotions or feeling. These adjectives have ending “-ed” or “-ing”.

31 What adjectives have degree of comparison and how are they formed?

Adjectives (but only qualitative) change their form to express degrees of comparison. They generally speak about the following forms: the positive degree, the comparative degree and the superlative degree.

Formation:

1. one-syllable adjectives

2. two-syllable adjectives ending in -y, -er, -le, -ow

3. two-syllable and many-syllable adjectives

Irregular forms

well – better – best

bad – worse – worst

little – less – least

32 In what cases do adjectives follow nouns they refer to?

In postposition adjectives will be found in the cases:

ñ when the adjective is part of an anjectival phrase (It was a book easy to read)

ñ when used as attributes to pronouns (something interesting, nothing important)

ñ in special combinations generally standing for terms in legal language (attorney general, court martial)

ñ the adjectives “absent”, “present”, “concerned”, “involved” are preferably used in postposition

33 What adjectives are always used attributively?

There is a group of adjectives which are preferably used attributively:

4. relative adjectives (criminal, atomic, medical)

5. “intensifiers” (close, entire, great, strong, mere, sheer, utter etc)

6. “adverbial” adjectives (former, occasional, late, hard, fast etc)

7. emotionally coloured epithets (poor, dear, honest etc)

34 What adjectives are always used predicatively?

There is a group of adjectives which are always or preferably used predicatively:

2. afraid, alert, alive, alone, aloof, ashamed, asleep, averse, awake, aware;

and also:

2. faint, glad, ill, unwell, well etc

35 What do adjectives denote?

The adjective is used to denote a quality or feature of an object (She is a pretty girl). The adjective may qualify an object either directly by denoting its shape, size, colour or some other more general characteristics – qualitative adjectives (pretty, low), or indirectly, through its relation to another object – relative adjectives (silver, wooden).

36 What adjectives are called “intensifiers”?

Among qualitative adjectives we can single out this special group of adjectives. These words do not give an additional characteristics to the object denoted by the noun, but intensify the meaning of it (“a complete surprise”)

The following verbs are generally used as such: certain, sure, pure, sheer, real, great, perfect, close, complete, mere etc.

37 What is the order of the prepositive adjectives?

In cases where there is more than one adjective used as a prepositive attribute to a noun, the order is:

1. “intensifying” adjectives

2. adjectives denoting temporary qualities or expressing the subjective attitude of the speaker

3. adjectives denoting size and shape

4. adjectives denoting age

5. adjectives denoting colour

6. adjectives denoting nationality or style

7. adjectives denoting material

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1981