An English Grammar. James Witt Sewell
By ellipses, nouns used to modify.
18. Nouns used as descriptive terms. Sometimes a noun is attached to another noun to add to its meaning, or describe it; for example, "a family quarrel," "a New York bank," "the State Bank Tax bill," "a morning walk."
It is evident that these approach very near to the function of adjectives. But it is better to consider them as nouns, for these reasons: they do not give up their identity as nouns; they do not express quality; they cannot be compared, as descriptive adjectives are.
They are more like the possessive noun, which belongs to another word, but is still a noun. They may be regarded as elliptical expressions, meaning a walk in the morning, a bank in New York, a bill as to tax on the banks, etc.
NOTE.—If the descriptive word be a material noun, it may be regarded as changed to an adjective. The term "gold pen" conveys the same idea as "golden pen," which contains a pure adjective.
WORDS AND WORD GROUPS USED AS NOUNS.
The noun may borrow from any part of speech, or from any expression.
19. Owing to the scarcity of distinctive forms, and to the consequent flexibility of English speech, words which are usually other parts of speech are often used as nouns; and various word groups may take the place of nouns by being used as nouns.
Adjectives, Conjunctions, Adverbs.
(1) Other parts of speech used as nouns:—
The great, the wealthy, fear thy blow.—Burns.
Every why hath a wherefore.—Shakespeare.
When I was young? Ah, woeful When! Ah! for the change 'twixt Now and Then! —Coleridge.
(2) Certain word groups used like single nouns:—
Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow.—Shakespeare.
Then comes the "Why, sir!" and the "What then, sir?" and the "No, sir!" and the "You don't see your way through the question, sir!"—Macaulay
(3) Any part of speech may be considered merely as a word, without reference to its function in the sentence; also titles of books are treated as simple nouns.
The it, at the beginning, is ambiguous, whether it mean the sun or the cold.—Dr. BLAIR
In this definition, is the word "just," or "legal," finally to stand?—Ruskin.
There was also a book of Defoe's called an "Essay on Projects," and another of Dr. Mather's called "Essays to do Good."—B. FRANKLIN.
Caution.
20. It is to be remembered, however, that the above cases are shiftings of the use, of words rather than of their meaning. We seldom find instances of complete conversion of one part of speech into another.
When, in a sentence above, the terms the great, the wealthy, are used, they are not names only: we have in mind the idea of persons and the quality of being great or wealthy. The words are used in the sentence where nouns are used, but have an adjectival meaning.
In the other sentences, why and wherefore, When, Now, and Then, are spoken of as if pure nouns; but still the reader considers this not a natural application of them as name words, but as a figure of speech.
NOTE.—These remarks do not apply, of course, to such words as become pure nouns by use. There are many of these. The adjective good has no claim on the noun goods; so, too, in speaking of the principal of a school, or a state secret, or a faithful domestic, or a criminal, etc., the words are entirely independent of any adjective force.
Exercise.
Pick out the nouns in the following sentences, and tell to which class each belongs. Notice if any have shifted from one class to another.
1. Hope springs eternal in the human breast.
2. Heaven from all creatures hides the book of Fate.
3.
Stone walls do not a prison make.
Nor iron bars a cage.
4. Truth-teller was our England's Alfred named.
5. A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage.
6.
Power laid his rod aside,
And Ceremony doff'd her pride.
7. She sweeps it through the court with troops of ladies.
8. Learning, that cobweb of the brain.
9.
A little weeping would ease my heart;
But in their briny bed
My tears must stop, for every drop
Hinders needle and thread.
10. A fool speaks all his mind, but a wise man reserves something for hereafter.
11. Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much; Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
12. Music hath charms to soothe the savage breast.
13.
And see, he cried, the welcome,
Fair guests, that waits you here.
14. The fleet, shattered and disabled, returned to Spain.
15. One To-day is worth two To-morrows.
16. Vessels carrying coal are constantly moving.
17.
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.
18. And oft we trod a waste of pearly sands.
19.
A man he seems of cheerful yesterdays
And confident to-morrows.
20. The hours glide by; the silver moon is gone.
21. Her robes of silk and velvet came from over the sea.
22. My soldier cousin was once only a drummer boy.
23.
But pleasures are like poppies spread,
You seize the flower, its bloom is shed.
24. All that thou canst call thine own Lies in thy To-day.
INFLECTIONS OF NOUNS.
GENDER.
What gender means in English. It is founded on sex.
21. In Latin, Greek, German, and many other languages, some general rules are given that names of male beings are usually masculine, and names of females are usually feminine. There are exceptions even to this general statement, but not so in English. Male beings are, in English grammar, always masculine; female, always feminine.
When, however, inanimate things are spoken of, these languages are totally unlike our own in determining