n be referred to as "names": nouns as substance names, verbs as process names, adjectives as primary property names and adverbs as secondary property names. The whole notional set is represented by the four-stage derivational paradigm of nomination. p align="justify"> The second part of the lexicon forming a closed set includes substitutes of names (pro-names). Here belong pronouns, and also broad-meaning notional words which constitute various marginal subsets. p align="justify"> The third part of the lexicon also forming a closed set includes specifiers of names. These are function-categorial words of various servo-status. p align="justify"> Substitutes of names (pro-names) and specifiers of names, while standing with the names in nominative correlation as elements of the lexicon, at the same time serve as connecting links between the names within the lexicon and their actual uses in the sentences of living speech.
V. NOUN: GENERAL
The noun as a part of speech has the categorial meaning of "substance" or "thingness". It follows from this that the noun is the main nominative part of speech, effecting nomination of the fullest value within the framework of the notional division of the lexicon. p align="justify"> The noun has the power, by way of nomination, to isolate different properties of substances (ie direct and oblique qualities, and also actions and states as processual characteristics of substantive phenomena) and present them as corresponding self -dependent substances. E.g.:
Her words were unexpectedly bitter. - We were struck by the unexpected bitterness of her words. At that time he was down in his career, but we knew well that very soon he would be up again. - His career had its ups and downs. The cable arrived when John was preoccupied with the arrangements for the party. - The arrival of the cable interrupted his preoccupation with the arrangements for the party. p align="justify"> This natural and practically unlimited substantivisation force establishes the noun as the central nominative lexemic unit of language.
The categorial functional properties of the noun are determined by its semantic properties.
The most characteristic substantive function of the noun is that of the subject in the sentence, since the referent of the subject is the person or thing immediately named. The function of the object in the sentence is also typical of the noun as the substance word. Other syntactic functions, i.e. attributive, adverbial, and even predicative, although performed by the noun with equal ease, are not immediately characteristic of its substantive quality as such. It should be noted that, while performing these non-substantive functions, the noun essentially differs from the other parts of speech used in similar sentence positions. This may be clearly shown by transformations shifting the noun from various non-subject syntactic positions into subject syntactic positions of the same general semantic value, which is impossible with other parts of speech. E.g.:
Mary is a flower-girl.? The flower-girl (you are speaking of) is Mary. He lives in Glasgow.? Glasgow is his place of residence. This happened three years ago.? Three years have elapsed since it happened. p align="justify"> Apart from the cited sentence-part functions, the noun is characterised by some special types of combinability.
In particular, typical of the noun is the prepositional combinability with another noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb. Eg: an entrance to the house; to turn round the corner; red in the face; far from its destination.
The casal (possessive) combinability characterises the noun alongside of its prepositional combinability with another noun. Eg: the speech of the President - the President's speech; the cover of the book - the book's cover. p align="justify"> English nouns can also easily combine with one another by sheer contact, unmediated by any special lexemic or morphemic means. In the contact group the noun in preposition plays the role of a semantic qualifier to the noun in post-position. Eg: a cannon ball; a log cabin; a sports event; film festivals. p align="justify"> The lexico-grammatical status of such combinations has presented a big problem for many scholars, who were uncertain as to the linguistic heading under which to treat them:
either as one separate word, or a word-group. * In the history of linguistics the controversy about the lexico-grammatical status of the constructions in question has received the half-facetious name "The cannon ball problem ".
Taking into account the results of the comprehensive analysis undertaken in this field by Soviet linguists, we may define the combination as a specific word-grou...
