Noun Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! == Characterization and definition == Nouns have sometimes been characterized in terms of the [[Grammatical category|grammatical categories]] by which they may be varied (for example [[Gender (linguistics)|gender]], [[Case (linguistics)|case]], and [[Number (linguistics)|number]]). Such definitions tend to be language-specific, since different languages may apply different categories. Nouns are frequently defined, particularly in informal contexts, in terms of their [[semantics|semantic]] properties (their meanings). Nouns are described as words that refer to a ''person'', ''place'', ''thing'', ''event'', ''substance'', ''quality'', ''quantity'', etc., but this manner of definition has been criticized as uninformative.<ref name=jackendoff>{{cite book|last=Jackendoff|first=Ray|author-link=Ray Jackendorff|date=2002|title=Foundations of language: brain, meaning, grammar, evolution|publisher=Oxford University Press|chapter-url=http://npu.edu.ua/!e-book/book/djvu/A/iif_kgpm_Foundations%20of%20Language.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://npu.edu.ua/!e-book/book/djvu/A/iif_kgpm_Foundations%20of%20Language.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|isbn= 0-19-827012-7|chapter=Β§5.5 Semantics as a generative system}}</ref> Several English nouns lack an intrinsic [[referent]] of their own: ''behalf'' (as in ''on behalf of''), ''dint'' (''by dint of''), and ''sake'' (''for the sake of'').<ref>pages 218 and 225, and elsewhere in {{cite book|last=Quine|first=Willard Van Orman|title=Word and Object|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=MIT Press|date=2013|orig-year=1960 print|chapter=7 Ontic Decision|pages=215β254|author-link=Willard Van Orman Quine}}</ref> Moreover, other parts of speech may have reference-like properties: the verbs ''to rain'' or ''to mother'', or adjectives like ''red''; and there is little difference between the adverb ''gleefully'' and the [[preposition and postposition|prepositional phrase]] ''with glee''.<ref group=note> Idioms often include nouns in a way that may be independent of any nominal meaning they may have: in ''rock and roll'' there is no reference to any "rock" or any "roll"; ''lock, stock, and barrel'' is a [[dead metaphor]] that refers only to a figurative sense of a ''lock'' or ''stock'' or ''barrel''. See [[hendiadys]] and [[hendiatris]].</ref> A [[Functional linguistics|functional]] approach defines a noun as a word that can be the head of a nominal phrase, i.e., a phrase with referential function, without needing to go through morphological transformation.<ref name=rijkhoff2022>{{cite book |last1=Rijkhoff |first1=Jan |title=Oxford Handbook of Word Classes |date=2022 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Cambridge |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351663779 |chapter=Nouns }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Hengeveld |first1=Kees |title=Non-verbal predication: theory, typology, diachrony |date=1992 |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |location=Berlin |isbn=9783110883282}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page