53. Nouns taken unchanged from other languages form their plurals according to the rules of the language from which they were taken; as, 54. Compound nouns form their plural by adding the sign of the plural (1) to the noun described; as, blackberries, steamboats, afterthoughts, sons-in-law, bookcases; (2) to the last word; as, mouthfuls, spoonfuls, bluecoats, runaways, forget-me-nots. EXERCISE 8 Explain the plural of the following nouns : dictape, Dictum, cálf, wheat, flax, diligence, skiff, enemy, shoe, candy, cantos Dr. Jones, fish, march, truth, lady, Mr., monkey, silver, ethics, box, manhood, pailful, riches, seraph, blackboard. P CHAPTER V THE NOUN: GENDER, CASE, DECLENSION Gender of Nouns 55. Gender in nouns denotes difference of sex or the absence of sex. There are three genders: the masculine, the feminine, and the neuter. The masculine gender denotes beings of the male sex; as, father, prince, actor. The feminine gender denotes beings of the female sex; as, mother, princess, actress. The neuter gender denotes objects without sex; as, box, tree, stone. Most nouns are names of things without sex; that is, they are neither male nor female. A few nouns express differences of gender and are called sex words or gender nouns. 56. Gender nouns express difference of gender in three ways: 1. By the use of a suffix or ending; as, 3. By the use of different words; as, 57. Some nouns name objects of both male and female sex and may be called common gender; as, parent, teacher, person, neighbor, enemy. EXERCISE 9 Name the gender of the following nouns: Bachelor, soldier, widow, testator, seamstress, negress, governor, peeress, hostess, mermaid, hen, chicken, sheep, leader, messenger, bride, witch, nymph, moon, wizard, Pope, guardian, tiger, prisoner. Case of Nouns 58. Case in nouns denotes their relation to other words. There are three cases: the nominative or subject ; the possessive or ownership case; and the objective or object case. 59. There are only two case forms. The nominative and objective have the same form and can be dis tinguished by meaning only. The nominative or subject case names a person, place, or thing about which the sentence declares something. The objective or object case names the person, place, or thing which receives the action of the verb. He sweeps the snow - the objective case, receiving the action of sweeps. He fell into the snow-the objective case, with into denoting place. 60. 1. The possessive case is formed in the singular by adding the apostrophe and s ('s) to the noun ; as, boy's, dog's, horse's. Words ending in s, or in the sound of s, in the singular regularly add 's according to rule. But words of two syllables are sometimes written with the apostrophe alone; as, Lewis', conscience', mistress'. 2. The possessive case is formed in the plural by adding the apostrophe alone whenever the plural ends in s; as, boy's, boys'; dog's, dogs'; horse's, horses'. Whenever the plural of nouns does not end in s, the possessive is formed by adding 's; as, man's, men's; woman's, women's; child's, children's. 3. The nouns taken unchanged from other languages (see § 53) form their possessives according to English usage; as alumnus', alumni's; beau's, beaux's; cherub's, cherubim's. |