Understanding Noun: Big Step Forward to Explain Literary Texts

 I wanted to do it very long ago, but I could not. Now, finally I am settled to do it. In our country students are taught English Language through English Literature. General practice is to teach literature and grammar separately. I mean it is very rare that literature and grammar are interlinked in some intelligent way. Consequently, most of our students find English a difficult branch of knowledge, and they underperform in this subject.

I have made up my mind that I will prepare lessons by interlinking literature and grammar. This is the first in this series of lessons. In this lesson we will discuss nouns. We will discuss everything that students need to know about nouns, so they could handle them to understand and produce language.

We will discuss:

·         What are nouns?

·         Where a noun comes in a sentence?

·         How many kinds are there of nouns?

·         What are countable and uncountable nouns?

The examples used in this lesson will be from textbooks which students study in 9^th, 10^th, 11^th and 12^th. I am doing it for a purpose. I know how we teach English in our classes and I want to give a specimen how it should actually be taught.

Let us dive into our lesson.

What are nouns?

If we put very simply, naming words are called nouns. Given below are a few sentences taken from the textbook of 9^th class followed by a list of nouns in those sentences. Students and teachers should apply this kind of analysis on each and every sentence until they start feeling comfortable in pointing out nous in the sentences.

Example 1

Quaid-e-Azam was a man of strong faith and belief.

Nouns in this sentence are:

·         Quaid-e-Azam

·         Man

·         Faith

·         Belief

Example 2

The construction of the masjid started in 1609.

Nouns in this sentence are:

·         Construction

·         Masjid

Let us dive a little deeper and write a more encompassing definition of noun, and we work forward.

A noun is a naming word. It can be the name of a thing, place, person, animal, idea or feeling.

Let us take a few more examples and apply this definition to understand noun in a little more depth. Again students and teachers should apply this kind of analysis on each and every sentence until they start feeling comfortable in pointing out nous in the sentences.

Example 3

The Arabs possessed a remarkable memory and were eloquent people.

Nouns in this sentence are:

·         Arabs-------person

·         Memory---------idea

·          People---------person

Example 4

Since this belief was threatening their dominance in the society, the pagan Arabs started to mount pressure on the Rasool (SAW) and his followers.

Nouns in this sentence are:

·         Belief-------idea

·         Dominance---------idea

·          Society---------thing

·         Arabs-----------person

·         Pressure-------idea

·         Rasool--------------person

·         Followers--------------------person

By now, I believe what you should do as students and teachers and how it will benefit you in the long run. Whenever you study a literary text, always locate nouns and describe it further as I have done in the examples above.

Now we should advance.

Where a noun comes in sentences?

A noun can have following places in a sentence:

·         Noun are used as subjects of sentences

·         Noun are used direct objects of verbs

·         Noun are use used as indirect objects of verbs

·         Noun are used before or after prepositions as their subjects and objects

·         Appositive Nouns

·         Noun as Modifiers

Now let us explain these concepts with example sentences taken from 9^th class text book.

Example 5

The Arabia is the land of unparalleled charm and beauty, with its trackless deserts of sand dunes in the dazzling rays of the tropical sun.

Nouns and their explanation in the sentence given above

·         Arabia -------- subject of the sentence ---------- place

·         Land ------- object of the verb is ----------- place

·         Charm ---------- object of preposition of --------- idea

·         Beauty -------------------- object of preposition of --------- idea

·         Deserts ------------------------ object of preposition with --------- place

·         Sand ------------------------- modifier of noun dunes --------------- thing

·         Dunes ------------------ object of preposition with--------------- thing

·         Rays --------------------- object of preposition in --- ----------- thing

·         Sun ----------------------- object of preposition of --------- idea

Let us do it with one more sentence so that students can get very clear how they should tackle the literary text they are given to learn language.

Example 6

He had a pressing urge to eradicate wrong beliefs, social evils, cruelty and injustice.

Nouns and their explanation in the sentence given above

·         Urge ----------- object of verb had ---------- idea

·         Beliefs ----------- object of verb eradicate ---------- idea

·         Evils----------- object of verb eradicate ---------- idea

·         Cruelty ----------- object of verb eradicate ---------- idea

·         Injustice ----------- object of verb eradicate ---------- idea

How many kinds are there of nouns?

While students study nouns, they should also study how many kinds are there of nouns. Knowledge of these concepts gives them better command on language. Now we will discuss kinds of nouns.

Proper Nouns versus Common Nouns

Particular names of persons, places and things are called proper nouns. Examples are Helen, Mecca and Nokia M-12. Whenever a proper noun appears in a literary text, its first letter is always capital. So it is not difficult to recognize them.

General names of things, persons and places are common nouns. Examples are fan, city and man.

Concrete Nouns versus Abstract Nouns

All nouns which have physical existence and can be seen with eyes or in some cases touched with hands  are called concrete nouns. Examples are chair, ball, book and computer.

Abstract nouns do not have physical existence and they cannot be seen with eyes. Names of ideas and emotions are generally abstract nouns. Examples are bravery, beauty, fear and honesty.

While going through literary text students should try to know whether the noun under study is concrete noun or an abstract noun. This knowledge comes handy when students have to explain behavior of nouns in special circumstances.

Countable Nouns versus Uncountable Nouns

Nouns which are counted are countable nouns. Examples are chair, fan, child and computer. Most of the nouns are countable because they stand apart from one another.

They are other nouns which are not counted. These nouns are called uncountable. Names of most of the materials are uncountable nouns.

A very good consept of countable and uncountable nouns comes very handy especially when students have to deal with issue of articles.

Something more about Kinds of Nouns

Students should also know about collective nouns, material or mass nouns and compound nouns because these concepts are also important to understand the behavior of language.

Collective Nouns

Collective nouns are names of collections. Collective nouns are very common in English language. Sometimes different things are given the same name. A common example is furniture. Jewelry is another very common example of collective nouns. While students point out nouns in their literary text, they should go extra length to see if the noun under discussion is also a collective noun.

Material Nouns or Mass Nouns

Names of substances are called material nouns. Examples are salt, wood, sugar and flour. Material nouns generally do not have plural forms and they behave in some peculiar ways.

Compound Nouns

Sometimes two or more words are compounded to form a single noun. This kind of noun is called a compound noun. Very common compound nouns are classroom, whiteboard, countrymen and fellowship.

Summing Up

Teaching English is a challenge in our country. But a teacher can get very good results if he starts applying some method while he is teaching. Bringing literature and grammar together is vital because this equips students explain language behavior in literary text in the first place. And once they start explaining this behavior of language, they start producing their own language very close to models they study as their course work in their academic life. Once more and for the last time let me say that they will not start producing straight off hand desired results, but they are sure to take a joint leap forwards. Using these techniques continuously can yield very good and fruitful results.