FYI: Nouns 101, Latest Conference Index
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Neil Bentley
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I am a graduate student currently teaching an introductory linguistics course at San Diego State University. A recent assignment in my class has provoked a lot of chuckles around here so I thought I would share it with List readers. Enjoy! - H. Bentley Nouns 101 The assignment was to watch the School House Rock video "A noun is a person, place, or thing" (in class) and for homework, critique tha definition of a noun. Most of the students said that the definition was too vague and did not cover "ideas" like freedom, happiness, etc. but what follows is a sampling of some of the more interesting responses: talk about vague. . . ~ In my opinion, the common definition of a noun is adequate, however, it can leave some things unclassified. A definition I find more fitting is that a noun is anything that exists or nonexistent. Overwhelmed: ~ It's really confusing. Everything we talk about is a noun. You would think that we would have a different name for all the words tha are persons, places, or things, but we don't. They are all clumped together and that is really odd. It's one of those things in our language that you never think about until someone brings it up. ~ It seems that there are too many things, people, and places in the world to have them all smashed into one group known as nouns. Not only do nouns denote three major aspects of the world, but they denote aspects that are extremely broad within themselves. Nouns seem to be holding more than they can handle. Panic: ~ In 16 years of education I have heard of no other more thorough definition [person, place or thing] and after reading such an idea I feel that both the definitions of noun and verb have misled me in my studying of language. What? ~ I am a major proponent of the long standing definition of a noun. I believe that a noun in its definition is one of the easiest and mos bountiful communication tools we have. It is not convoluted with multiple uses, like other tools, and seems to add the perfect touch to any statement. The Hard-liners ~ Personally, I have always thought it was a person place or thing. In my opinion, you can't go wrong with it. ~ If I would to go down the street and ask thirty people what a noun is. . .I could bet that the percentage of people would say a noun is a person, place or thing would be in the sixties. The nation is used to saying that a noun is a person, place or thing and I believe it to be correct and that it should not be altered in any way. It would put too much stress on people who already know the definition and it would in some way just be another silly grammar rule that is going to need to be followed. My personal favorite ~ Nouns are more than a person, place or thing; they are keys to advancing civilization. Without nouns or words to explain aspects we would not be the refined race that we are. |
