Noun Classes, Determiners, Sentences, and Concordance

Classes of Common Nouns

Common nouns can be classified in several ways:

• City (Proper Nouns, capitalized)
• Antonio (Proper Nouns, capitalized)
• Printer (Concrete)
• Love (Abstract)
• Coxes (Proper Nouns, capitalized)
• Salt (Uncountable)
• Lioness (Animate)
• Plum (Inanimate)
• Book (Individual)
• Army (Group)

Determiners

Determiners are words that accompany a noun, introducing or restricting its meaning. Examples include:

• Definite article (the)
• Indefinite article (a, an)
• Demonstratives (this, that, etc.)
• Possessive adjectives (my, our, your, etc.)
• Numerals:
  • Cardinal (one, two, three)
  • Ordinal (first, second)
  • Fractional (half)
  • Multiplicative (double, triple)
  • Distributive (each, every)
• Quantifiers (each, any, little)
• Interrogative/Exclamative (which, what)

Sentences

From a semantic point of view, a sentence is the minimal grammatical unit that communicates a complete idea. Syntactically, sentences are independent; that is, they are not included in a larger syntactic unit. Phonetically, a sentence has its own intonation. Thus, a sentence is a linguistic unit that expresses something meaningful, contains at least one verb in a personal form, and has a distinct intonation.

Types of Sentences

• Declarative: This pencil is red.
• Interrogative: Will you come to my house? Or when will you return the book I lent you?
• Exclamatory: I am so happy!
• Imperative: Bring me water, not cotton.
• Dubitative/Possibility: Maybe I'll arrive a little later this afternoon.
• Optative: I wish I had more money.

Concordance

• Semantic Concordance: The core of the subject and predicate must be able to combine their meanings so that the overall meaning of the sentence is correct.
• Grammatical Concordance: The core of the noun phrase (NP) and the verb phrase (VP) must agree in number and person.

Discrepancies

• With collective nouns accompanied by a prepositional phrase (SP) in the plural.
• When the speaker is included in the subject, the third person is used to achieve a special effect of surprise.
• When a sentence has several subjects, the verb must always be plural.

Impersonal Sentences

These sentences lack a subject:

• Grammaticalized: With third-person singular verbs like "have" and "do", or with the verb "to be" in the third person singular and plural.
• Unipersonal: Referring to natural phenomena.
• 'Any' Impersonal: When the subject is not of interest.
• Reflexive Impersonal: Constructed with a verb and a pronoun in the third-person singular.