The most primitive word in the history of humanity is the name, also known as the noun. Man’s instinctive ability to name things is something we are all born with that sets us apart from other species.
Even in the Holy Bible, when the creation of man is narrated, one of the main functions of Adam, the first man on earth, was to give names to all things. Therefore, the noun is one of the most creative grammatical categories in the entire Spanish language.
The action of naming is a fairly complex and deep process, but one that our brain can quickly process in an impressive way. In the first instance, the concepts that are established regarding the notions of reality that people form in our thinking come from sensory experiences with the environment.
This means that, in order for us to create a word, or name something, the first thing that our mind activates is creativity based on the sensation that that thing produces through our senses.
Therefore, the semantic substance of concepts is of a perceptual nature at first. Then, once the concept has been formulated in an abstract way, our brain’s knowledge of the code of the language we speak is reviewed until we locate the semantic aspects that are phonologically and morphologically linked to what we want to express.
Finally, thought gives phonetic structure to the new concept, and that is when it is said that a word has been invented. Then, filtering the information based on grammatical and orthographic rules is when the “word” obtains its grammatical body.
Communicative functionality
Now, once the word has been created, filtered by the rules and accepted by the speakers, it can be categorized within the rules of its internal category, so that it can participate in the structure of the sentence properly and effectively.
How many times have you not read that “nouns are the words they name”? But, have you ever wondered what they name? It is not true that everything is based on animals, people and things, it goes further; These are sensitive perceptions of very subjective realities that are being accepted by the linguistic community due to their functional nature within a communicative system.
The real importance of nouns comes from their communicative functionality, which makes them an open and infinite category; not like pronouns or articles which are closed parts of speech.
Therefore, its adaptive logic tends towards creativity rather than productivity; that is to say, it will be more important for communication to be able to name a thing that is understood by all, than to produce several names of the same thing but that few understand.
If you want to know more about the definition of the noun, the types of nouns and their main characteristics, you cannot miss this post. Because, in addition to providing you with updated information, we give you examples of everything, detailing specifications for each case.
The grammatical category represented by a word that designates an entity is called a noun. Its conceptual and linguistic structure originates in the substance of the designated entities, which is considered a unit with psychological existence and real existence (concrete or abstract) or imaginary and independent.
They admit gender and number
- Nouns can have two genders: feminine or masculine. For the feminine the mark or ending is -ay for the masculine the mark or ending is -o. For example, lawyer-o, waitress-a.
- Gender as such differentiates the sex of the referent when it comes to animated beings. For example, dog / bitch, boy / girl, mayor / mayoress. In the other cases, gender is simply a grammatical property, with no real connection to sex. For example, journalist / journalist*, hiker / hiker*, pianist / pianisto*; The sex of these nouns can only be designated by agreement with adjectives and determiners with in la journalista / el journalista.
- In other cases, the gender does not correspond to the ending of the noun, but is interpreted grammatically in the syntactic structure to which it belongs. For example, the mowed grass and the wall.
- The neuter gender in -e, currently used in words like “ todes or elles”, widely used in Spanish in recent decades, seems to be becoming more an ideological trend than a real linguistic change. Despite the fact that the norm expresses in the Grammar of the Royal Spanish Academy (2.1.2b) that ” nouns do not have a neutral gender in Spanish”, many speakers choose to neutralize the gender of some nouns such as alumnes* and amiges*.
- There are nouns that have a single grammatical gender suchas the frog, the rat, the owl, the dolphin, the llama, the fly; these are called epicenes. Likewise, there are nouns that are ambiguous because they admit both feminine and masculine articles; for example, la mar / el mar, el calor / la calor* (colloquial use).
- As for the number of nouns, it is a grammatical feature that makes an informative reference to quantity; express whether it is one or more entities, which is known as singular for one and plural for several. The mark or ending of the singular in Spanish is –s and –es; for example, in fish, houses, flowers, fingers.
- The singular in Spanish punctually represents the designated element, which is why it lacks a morphological mark, but rather is interpreted based on the grammatical agreement of the syntactic context in which it is used.
They participate in the composition and derivation processes
- Composition is the morphological process where two or more words are put together to create a compound word. For example, wash + clothes > washing machine or light + dark > chiaroscuro. To avoid the numerous They are characterized by maintaining more than one root in their structure, and may or may not be graphically integrated. For example, shoeshine boy, wise guy, handcuffed, pencil sharpener, wherever, werewolf, valley woman, code word, and sea villa.
- The derivation agrees to derive names from other categories, taking into account the origin root. Derivatives of the noun are grouped into three groups:
- Deverbals: purchase / to buy, bedroom / to sleep, oath / to swear.
- They are called: basurero / garbage, ball / ball, teacher / teacher).
- Deadjectivals: simplicity / of simple, justice / of just, maturity / of mature.
As the head of a noun phrase, nouns can fulfill the following grammatical functions in a sentence:
- Subject: [the messenger ] delivered the letter to the lady in her hand in the morning, it’s a relief.
- Direct complement: the messenger delivered in the morning [ the letter ] to the young lady in her hand, it is a relief.
- Supplement: the messenger delivered the letter to the young lady [in her hand ] in the morning, it’s a relief.
- Circumstantial complement: the messenger delivered [in the morning ] the letter to the lady, it’s a relief.
- Attribute: The messenger delivered the letter to the lady in the morning, it is [a relief ].
Tips
The most general types of nouns are:
Proper and common names
Traditionally they are classified as common and proper, maintaining the particular feature of being translatable into other languages; although there are many other classifications according to their function. The common name, which is known as a name, is used to designate the participants of a class or group.
These nouns categorize people, animals, and things according to common semantic features that differentiate them from other entities. This type of noun can engage in lexical relationships known as hyperonymy and hyponymy ; as well as antonymy and synonymy. Some common nouns are: table, house, street, chair, car, plane, light, camel, turtle, dog, plant, sun, arm, hand, eye, suitcase.
The proper noun represents a being differentiated from the others, without the need to provide information about its semantic features or structure. For example, proper names are places, staff, institutions and mascots such as Málaga, Carmen, Universidad de Salamanca and Fifi.
Countable and uncountable nouns
Countable nouns are characterized by being discontinuous, they represent entities that can be enumerated. For example, a glass, ten stars, three ways of thinking, five languages.
On the other hand, the non-countable ones are characterized by being continuous, with semantic features of matter and mass, but they are measurable; therefore, they represent dimensions, which can be interpreted as substance. For example, a little sugar, a lot of hunger, too much resentment, in a short time.
Individual and collective nouns
Individual nouns represent people, animals, or things that we psychologically process as single entities like professor, bee, and delinquent. On the other hand, collective nouns can designate a group of similar people or things in the singular, such as teachers, swarms and gangs.
However, the concept of collective nouns can sometimes become blurred in their identification; therefore, it only applies in grammatical terms depending on the function of the term in certain syntactic contexts.
Abstract and concrete nouns
Abstract nouns represent immaterial entities; that is to say, an action, a procedure or properties, psychologically interpreting them as qualities independent of them. For example, beauty, counterfeit, evil, desire, or dirt .
Concrete nouns designate the opposite of abstract ones, since they are perceived by the senses. For example, hand, bed, shoe, ice, water, stone, sand, flower, dog are concrete nouns.