An Advanced English Grammar with Exercises. George Lyman Kittredge
bravery (from brave).
62. A collective noun is the name of a group, class, or multitude, and not of a single person, place, or thing.
Examples:
crowd,
group,
legislature,
squadron,
sheaf,
battalion,
squad,
Associated Press,
Mediterranean Steamship Company,
Senior Class,
School Board.
The same noun may be abstract in one of its meanings, collective in another.
They believe in fraternity. [Abstract.]
The student joined a fraternity. [Collective.]
63. Abstract nouns are usually common, but become proper when the quality or idea is personified (§ 60).
Collective nouns may be either proper or common.
64. A noun consisting of two or more words united is called a compound noun.
Examples:
(1) common nouns—tablecloth,sidewalk,lampshade,bedclothes,steamboat,fireman,washerwoman,jackknife,hatband,headache,flatiron,innkeeper,knife-edge,steeple-climber,brother-in-law,commander-in-chief,window curtain,insurance company;
(2) proper nouns—Johnson,Williamson,Cooperstown,Louisville,Holywood,Elk-horn,Auburndale,Stratford-on-Avon,Lowell Junction.
As the examples show, the parts of a compound noun may be joined (with or without a hyphen) or written separately. In some words usage is fixed, in others it varies. The hyphen, however, is less used than formerly.
Note. The first part of a compound noun usually limits the second after the manner of an adjective. Indeed, many expressions may be regarded either (1) as compounds or (2) as phrases containing an adjective and a noun. Thus railway conductor may be taken as a compound noun, or as a noun (conductor) limited by an adjective (railway).
INFLECTION OF NOUNS
65. In studying the inflection of nouns and pronouns we have to consider gender, number, person, and case.
1. Gender is distinction according to sex.
2. Number is that property of substantives which shows whether they indicate one person or thing or more than one.
3. Person is that property of substantives which shows whether they designate (1) the speaker, (2) the person spoken to, or (3) the person or thing spoken of.
4. Substantives have inflections of case to indicate their grammatical relations to verbs, to prepositions, or to other substantives.
These four properties of substantives are included under inflection for convenience. In strictness, however, nouns are inflected for number and case only. Gender is shown in various ways—usually by the meaning of the noun or by the use of some pronoun. Person is indicated by the sense, by the pronouns used, and by the form of the verb.
I. GENDER
66. Gender is distinction according to sex.
Nouns and pronouns may be of the masculine, the feminine, or the neuter gender.
1. A noun or pronoun denoting a male being is of the masculine gender.
Examples:
Joseph,
boy,
cockerel,
buck,
footman,
butler,
brother,
father,
uncle,
he.
2. A noun or pronoun denoting a female being is of the feminine gender.
Examples:
girl,
Julia,
hen,
waitress,
maid,
doe,
spinster,
matron,
aunt,
squaw,
she.
3. A noun or pronoun denoting a thing without animal life is of the neuter gender.
Examples:
pencil,
light,
water,
star,
book,
dust,
leaf,
it.
A noun or pronoun which is sometimes masculine and sometimes feminine is often said to be of common gender.
Examples:
bird,
speaker,
artist,
animal,
cat,
European,
musician,
operator,
they.
67. A pronoun must be in the same gender as the noun for which it stands or to which it refers.
Each of the following pronouns is limited to a single gender:
Masculine: he, his, him.
Feminine: she, her, hers.
Neuter: it, its.
All other pronouns vary in gender.
Robert greeted his employer. [Masculine.]
A mother passed with her child. [Feminine.]
This tree has lost its foliage. [Neuter.]
Who laughed? [Masculine or feminine.]
How do you do? [Masculine or feminine.]
They have disappeared. [Masculine, feminine, or neuter.]
I do not care for either. [Masculine, feminine, or neuter.]
68. A neuter noun may become masculine or feminine by personification (§ 60).
Thou