Nouns and Pronouns: A Comprehensive Guide to Grammar

Nouns

Definition: A noun is a grammatical category that represents things belonging to a class. It designates realities conceived as existing or potential entities, not qualities applicable to other entities. Nouns have inherent gender and can function alone or with a determiner, often as the subject of a sentence. A noun consists of a root (lexeme), morphemes of gender (masculine/feminine), and morphemes of number (singular/plural).

Classifications

Philosophical:

• Abstract: Not tangible realities, not appreciated by the senses.
• Concrete: Realities that materialize.

Semantic:

• Individual
• Collective
• Common
• Proper
• Animate
• Inanimate
• Countable
• Uncountable

Grammatical Gender:

• Heteroclitic: Different lexical roots for gender variations.
• Ambiguous: Undefined grammatical gender.
• Single Gender:
  • Epicene: Single form for both genders (e.g., spider).
  • Unchanged: Same form regardless of gender (e.g., pen).

Functions

1. Noun Phrase Nucleus:
   • Subject (e.g., The book is...)
   • Direct Object (e.g., Pedro drinks milk)
   • Attribute (e.g., Peter, nice, died)
   • Adverbial (e.g., I will come on Monday)
2. Term of a Prepositional Phrase:
   • Direct and Indirect Object
   • Attribute
   • Complement of a name, adjective, or adverb
   • Adverbial (time, mode)

Pronouns

Definition: A pronoun replaces, announces, or points to a noun or noun phrase, functioning similarly in syntax (e.g., They eat a lot).

Determiners

Definition: Determiners accompany nouns, providing information like gender, number, position, possession, etc.

Types

1. Articles: Definite (the) and Indefinite (a, an)
2. Demonstratives: Indicate reality and personal space (this, that, these, those)
3. Possessives: Show ownership (my, mine, your, yours, etc.)
4. Numerals: Cardinal (one, two), Ordinal (first, second), Partitive (half, third), Multiple (double, triple)
5. Indefinites: Quantify nouns loosely (some, any, no, none, many, few, etc.)