Theme : The Stylistic power of the Noun

The object: Nouns
Methods of investigation are studying and analysis of scientific literature, experiment, observation and description.
Theoretical value of the paper is that the information of the course paper may be used in some independent research works for those who wants to master modern English language.
Practical value of the course paper is using of different patterns of grammatical categories of nouns in practical classes of practical grammar, lexicology and etc.
The structure of our course paper consists of introduction, theoretical part,
syntactical part, conclusion, the list of used literature. Introduction includes the topicality of our research, its object, subject, aim, objectives, basis of investigation, hypothesis, methods of investigation, theoretical and practical value of the work.
The theoretical part is based on the problems as definition of nouns, main features of English nouns, their grammatical categories. Conclusion summarizes the results of our investigation. In the list of literature is given.

CHAPTER I. THEORECTICAL ASPECTS OF NOUNS AND THEIR CATEGORIES
1.1. The notion of nouns
The English word noun is derived from the Latin term, through the Anglo-Norman noun. The word classes were defined partly by the grammatical forms that they take. In Sanskrit, Greek and Latin, for example, nouns are categorized by gender and inflected for case and number [2;45].
Many European languages use a cognate of the word substantive as the basic term for noun (for example, Spanish sustantivo, "noun"). Nouns in the dictionaries of such languages are demarked by the abbreviation s. or sb. instead of n., which may be used for proper nouns or neuter nouns instead. In English, some modern authors use the word substantive to refer to a class that includes both nouns (single words) and noun phrases (multiword units, also called noun equivalents). It can also be used as a counterpart to attributive when distinguishing between a noun being used as the head (main word) of a noun phrase and a noun being used as a noun adjunct. For example, the nounknee can be said to be used substantively in my knee hurts, but attributively in the patient needed knee replacement.Nouns have sometimes been defined in terms of the grammatical categories to which they are subject (classed by gender, inflected for case and number). Such definitions tend to be language-specific, since nouns do not have the same categories in all languages [2;66].
Nouns are frequently defined, particularly in informal contexts, in terms of their semantic properties (their meanings). Nouns are described as words
that refer to a person, place, thing, event, substance, quality, quantity, etc. However this type of definition has been criticized by contemporary linguists as being uninformative. There have been offered several examples of English-language nouns which do not have any reference: drought, enjoyment, finesse, behalf (as found in on behalf of), dint (in dint of), and sake (for the sake of). Moreover, there may be a relationship similar to reference in the case of other parts of speech: the verbs to rain or to mother; many adjectives, like red; and there is little difference between the adverbgleefully and the noun-based phrase with glee [3;94].
Nouns fall under two classes: (A) proper nouns; (B) common nouns.
a) Proper nouns are individual, names given to separate persons 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. A large number of nouns now proper were originally common nouns (Brown, Smith, Mason) [3;98].
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 ad ass of persons or things (e.g. man, dog, book), collections of similar individuals or things regarded as a single unit (e. g. peasantry, family), materials (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.
1. Class nouns denote persons or things belonging to a class. They are countable and have two. numbers: singular and plural. They are generally used with an article.«Well, sir», said Mrs. Parker, «I wasn't in the shop above a great deal.» (Mansfield)
2. Collective nouns denote a number or collection of similar individuals or things as a single unit. Collective nouns fall under the following groups:
(a) nouns used only in the singular and denoting-a number of things collected together and regarded as a single object: foliage, machinery.
It was not restful, that green foliage. (London)
(b) nouns which are singular in form though plural in meaning:police, poultry, cattle, people, gentry. They are usually called nouns of multitude. When the subject of the sentence is a noun of multitude the verb used as predicate is in the plural: The weather was warm and the people were sitting at their doors. (Dickens)
(c) nouns that may be both singular and plural: family, crowd, fleet, nation. We can think of a number of crowds, fleets or different nations as well as of a single crowd, etc.
3. Nouns of material denote material: iron, gold, paper, tea, water. They are uncountable and are generally used without any article[3;100].
4. Abstract nouns denote some quality, state, action or idea: kindness, sadness, fight. They are usually uncountable, though some of them may be countable.
Therefore when the youngsters saw that mother looked neither frightened nor offended, they gathered new courage. (Dodge)