 Welcome! This is the first of two e-lectures about head nouns, which constitute the obligatory heads of any noun phrase. Depending on grammatical and semantic properties, different classes of head noun can be defined, and different grammatical features associated with them have to be described. This e-lecture looks at noun classes in detail. In a follow-up e-lecture we will deal with the grammatical features associated with head nouns. So let us start with the definition of noun classes. Using grammatical criteria, two general subclasses of nouns can be defined. Proper nouns, which are basically names, and common nouns, which in turn can be subdivided into count nouns and non-count or mass nouns. The open class of nouns is supplemented by the closed class of pronouns, which can deputize for entire noun phrases. These three noun classes can be kept apart on the basis of a number of formal criteria. But which ones? Well, let's look at them and let's start with proper nouns. Let us first of all list some examples. A proper noun, as you know, is basically a name identifying some particular individual persons, such as Winston Churchill or William Shakespeare. Places can be proper nouns such as New York City. We have events such as 1066, the Norman Conquest. Or things, for example here, the famous ship Mayflower. Proper nouns have unique reference and are usually capitalized, as you can see over here. Depending on the presence or absence of pre-modification, two groups of proper nouns can be identified. One group, where we have proper nouns without an article, for example, personal names such as William Labov. Or geographical names such as North America. We have temporal names such as Christmas or Easter that define particular events. Or we have combinations of proper and common nouns such as Piccadilly Circus. And then there are proper nouns that have an article. For example, plural names such as the Netherlands. Or geographical names, you all know the River Thames, the Thames. Or public institutions such as the famous theater The Globe. And particularly newspapers such as the New York Times or The Observer and so on. Proper nouns can be converted into common nouns, though, by means of post-modification. For example, we can take Christmas and could say something like the Christmas which we celebrated two years ago. Or we can take North America, the geographical name, and talk about the North America of the 19th century. So much for proper nouns, let's now continue with common nouns. Common nouns are sub-classified in two ways. Semantically, according to the type of reference, into concrete and abstract. A concrete common noun, for example, is fly. It is an animate physical object, an insect with six legs and two wings. Thus a concrete noun which is accessible to our senses. It is observable, it is measurable, and so on and so forth. An abstract noun, by contrast, is the noun love. An abstract means that the concept has no physical shape or no extension. Abstract nouns are typically non-observable and non-measurable. However, we can also keep the types of nouns apart using formal criteria. In which case, we can classify count nouns on the one hand. An example is something like boy and non-count nouns. Our example here is beer. Let us take these formal criteria and look at count nouns first. Now count nouns in some grammar books are also termed countable. Count nouns refer to entities that are viewed as countable. For example, boy. Thus they can be inflected for both singular and plural, and can be accompanied by determiners that refer to distinctions in number. In the singular, count nouns must have a determiner. A boy, the boy, one boy, this boy, and so on and so forth. And furthermore, count nouns cannot occur without an article. Boy is impossible. Or in so-called partitive constructions. So some boy is also ungrammatical. Let us apply these criteria and perform this determiner test to differentiate the two nouns, table and anger. Here are the criteria in detail. The first criterion, an indefinite article in the pre-modification slot, clearly applies to table. We can say a table, but an anger is of course impossible. The second criteria, the use of the numeral one is possible in one table, but impossible in one anger. The use of the zero article, that is no determiner in the pre-modification slot, is of course impossible. You cannot simply say table, but anger is of course an option. And some table using an indefinite quantifier is of course impossible, but anger is clearly possible. So quite clearly we can see that count nouns satisfy the first two criteria, whereas non-count or mass nouns satisfy the last two criteria. Let us return to the formal classification of count nouns. In the plural, count nouns can occur without determiners, as in boys, hands, heads and so on and so forth. Furthermore, English makes it possible to look upon some objects from the point of view of both count and noun count, as in, I like chickens, where chickens is a count noun, versus, I like chicken, where chicken is a non-count noun. Such nouns like chicken are said to have dual class membership. They involve a notable difference in meaning. Non-count or mass nouns refer to entities that are viewed as a mass that cannot be counted. Typical examples are music and information, sand, water, milk and so on and so forth. Apart from a tendency for concrete nouns to be count and abstract nouns to be non-count, you remember the semantic classification we mentioned earlier on, there is no necessary connection between noun classes and the entities to which they refer. Non-count nouns, which may be count in related languages, are treated as singular and can be accompanied only by determiners that do not refer to distinctions in number. So, for example, we can have something like the music, no number distinction, all this information, other options are determiners such as much, whereas many, of course, which describes the plural of an entity is impossible in this context. Furthermore, non-count nouns can occur with zero articles and in partitive constructions, for example, in constructions such as some music, some information and so on and so forth. Having dealt with the central head noun types, let us finally look at pronouns. In the extreme case, a noun phrase may consist of only one word, either an unmodified head noun or a pronoun. The latter belongs to a close class of grammatical words and hence cannot normally be pre-modified. Formally, the following subclasses of pronouns are defined. Interrogative pronouns, relative pronouns, indefinite pronouns, reciprocal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns and then the class of central pronouns, which in turn consists of personal, possessive and reflexive pronouns. Let's associate some words with these classes. Central pronouns are words such as I, me, myself or mine. Then reciprocal pronouns are words such as each other or one another. Relative pronouns typically are words like who, which, that, who's or what. Then we have interrogative pronouns, which is almost the same class, who, what, which. We have demonstrative pronouns such as this and that or these and those. And finally, we have indefinite pronouns such as nobody, anyone and things such as nothing. Okay, we're not going into depth here. I recommend that you use the tables in the unit head nouns on the virtual linguistics compass to find out more about this closed but still very large class of words. So let's summarize. In this first lecture about head nouns, we concentrated on the definition of noun classes using semantic and more importantly formal criteria. We saw that there are two central head noun types, proper and common nouns, where in turn the class of common nouns can be subdivided into count nouns and non-count nouns. In addition to this, we looked at pronouns and as I already said, without going into depth. In an additional e-lecture, we will look at the grammatical categories that are associated with head nouns in present day English. That is, we will look at number, gender and case. So I hope I'll see you there. Until then, thanks for your attention.