78. Abstract and Concrete Nouns.

Consider the qualities of the boy sitting opposite. You say he is handsome or plain, clever or stupid, industrious or lazy, thin or fat, tall or short, and so on. To these qualities we give names and speak of the handsomeness or plainness, cleverness or stupidity, etc., of the boy. Not that the qualities can actually exist apart from the boy, or from some other subject which possesses them. We cannot separate the boy's stupidity or fatness and say 'There is the boy, and here I have got his stupidity.' But though the qualities have no separate and independent existence, we can consider them separately. We can abstract our thoughts from the boy's other qualities and can think and speak of his stupidity; and then, abstracting our attention from the other points of interest which he presents, we can think and speak of his fatness. The names of the qualities which we isolate from the rest by this process of abstraction are called Abstract Nouns: the names of the things which possess the qualities are called Concrete

Nouns.

A Concrete Noun is the name of a thing regarded as possessing attributes.

An Abstract Noun is the name of an attribute or quality of a thing.

For many qualities or attributes no abstract names exist. If a boy is brown-haired or first man out of the eleven, he has the qualities of brown-hairedness and of first-man-outof-the-elevenness; but when there is seldom occasion to speak of qualities, such qualities have not received names, especially if the names would be long and awkward. We can speak of squareness and redness; not of oblongness and vermilionness.

79. Many nouns are and concrete in another.

abstract in one sense When we say 'His industry

is remarkable,' the word industry is abstract; it denotes a quality or attribute. But when we say 'The cotton industry is carried on in the north,' industry is concrete. We can

use it in this latter sense in the plural and speak of 'the cotton and iron industries.' Now an abstract noun while it remains abstract cannot be used in the plural. It seems, no doubt, as if it could be so used sometimes. Thus the Prayer-Book has the expression 'negligences and ignorances.' But these plurals signify acts or instances of negligence and ignorance, and the words have become concrete. If we say 'Beauty is a perishable gift,' beauty is an abstract noun; if we say 'The baby is a little beauty,' it is concrete. Length is abstract when we speak of 'the length of the course;' it is concrete when we say that 'Oxford won by two lengths.'

80. Modes of formation of Abstract Nouns.

(a) Most abstract nouns are formed from adjectives by adding -ness, as good-ness, white-ness; some are formed by adding -th or t, as tru-th, slo-th, from true, slow and heigh-t from high: these forms are of English origin. Abstract endings from a foreign source are seen in cruel-ty, honest-y, brav-ery, grand-eur, just-ice.

(b) Some are formed from verbs, as possess-ion, instruct-ion, enjoy-ment, err-or.

(c) Some from nouns, as priest-hood, bond-age, serf-dom, friend-ship, hat-red, slav-ery.

QUESTIONS.

1. Take these names and say of each whether it is Proper, Singular, Common, Collective, Abstract, Concrete :-island, Somerset House, hope, a Nero, fleet, the last Chancellor of the Exchequer, truth, universe, chloroform, friendship, nobility. Give the reason for your answer in each

case.

2. State what nouns we get from the following names (a) of persons: -Augustus Caesar, Captain Boycott, Epicurus, Dr Guillotin, James II. (Lat. Jacobus), Colonel Negus, Philip of Macedon, Simon Magus, Duns Scotus: (b) of places:-Bayonne, Calicut, Canterbury, Damascus, Milan, Spain.

3. The following nouns are names of materials, but they can be used in the plural. When so used, what meanings do they bear?— paper, tea, stone, wood, sand, salt.

4. What is a noun? Is the paper on which you are writing a noun? Shew that the second part of your answer is consistent with your definition.

5. Give examples of collective nouns and of names of materials. When are collective nouns treated as singular, and when as plural? Do names of materials ever admit of a plural?

6. What Collective Nouns denote groups composed of the following individuals?—oxen, books, birds, bees, thieves, cut flowers, musicians, singers in a church, cricketers, hunting-dogs, legislators.

7. Define an Abstract Noun, and give the derivation of the term abstract. Form an Abstract Noun from (1) an Adjective, (2) a Verb, (3) a Common Noun.

8. Write sentences in which the following Nouns are used respectively as Concrete and Abstract:-age, youth, fiction, poetry, painting, belief, scholarship, royalty.

9. State whether the italicised Nouns are used as Abstract or as Concrete in the following sentences:-'He contributed liberally to many a charity.'-'Charity begins at home.'-' Necessity is the mother of invention.'-' Men's necessities have led to many inventions.'—' The form of this goblet makes it a great curiosity.”—“ Curiosity is one of the forms of feminine bravery.'—' Life is a time of trial.'-' For some time before his trial he underwent great hardship in prison.'-'They suffered many trials and hardships in their lives.'-'Hasty resolutions seldom speed well.'-'The native hue of resolution is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.'-' Fancy scatters thoughts that breathe and words that_burn.'—' Thought is free.'-'Towards government by the wisest does bewildered Europe now struggle.'-' Before parliament met, the government had resigned.'-'The nobility in some countries form an exclusive society.'-'The test of a man's nobility is the small pleasure he has in others' society. As reason is a rebel unto faith, so is passion unto reason.'- There is no reason why you should fly into such a passion."

10. Assign each of the nouns in italics in the following sentences to its proper class. Give reasons for your answers.

II.

(a) The Terror sailed yesterday.

(b) The nobility opposed the Crown.

(c) At the noise of the thunder she lost courage.

Give instances of the conversion (a) of Abstract into Concrete Nouns, (b) of Proper into Common.

12. Substitute for the following phrases equivalent expressions:-'Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood,'—'a Paul in faith,''a second Hercules,'-' a new Timon,'-'a fat Adonis,''-'a financial Napoleon,'-'a Nimrod of to-day,'- a modern Sappho,'—'a Daniel come to judgment.'

13.

Mention the Abstract Nouns connected with the following

(a) Adjectives:-high, weary, decent, cruel, just, true, gentle, plural, brave, honest, sublime, wise;

(b) Verbs:-enchant, forbear, abstain, steal, wed, gird, grow, know, depart;

(c) Nouns:-child, glutton, hate, horseman, hero.

80

CHAPTER IX.

INFLEXION OF NOUNS.-I. GENDER.

81. Nouns are inflected, that is to say, they undergo a change of form, to indicate Gender, Number, and Case. In English however these distinctions are often made without any inflexion.

82. Sex is a natural distinction which we find existing in the sentient creatures around us; they are male or female. Gender is a grammatical distinction which we make in words, corresponding, in English, to the natural distinction in the sentient creatures. Words are masculine or feminine according as the objects to which they are applied are male or female. The names of the things around us which are without sex,—and such names form by far the largest portion of the nouns in our vocabulary,—are said to be of neuter gender, i.e. of neither masculine nor feminine gender. Some nouns are used to denote objects of either sex, such as parent, sovereign, painter, attendant. These nouns are said to be of common gender.

83. Comparing gender in English with gender as we see it in Latin or German, we note these points of difference.

I. In English, gender corresponds with sex.