Editing Noun (section)

== Characterization and definition ==

Nouns have sometimes been characterized in terms of the [[Grammatical category|grammatical categories]] by which they may be varied (for example [[Gender (linguistics)|gender]], [[Case (linguistics)|case]], and [[Number (linguistics)|number]]). Such definitions tend to be language-specific, since different languages may apply different categories.

Nouns are frequently defined, particularly in informal contexts, in terms of their [[semantics|semantic]] properties (their meanings). Nouns are described as words that refer to a ''person'', ''place'', ''thing'', ''event'', ''substance'', ''quality'', ''quantity'', etc., but this manner of definition has been criticized as uninformative.<ref name=jackendoff>{{cite book|last=Jackendoff|first=Ray|author-link=Ray Jackendorff|date=2002|title=Foundations of language: brain, meaning, grammar, evolution|publisher=Oxford University Press|chapter-url=http://npu.edu.ua/!e-book/book/djvu/A/iif_kgpm_Foundations%20of%20Language.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/http://npu.edu.ua/!e-book/book/djvu/A/iif_kgpm_Foundations%20of%20Language.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|isbn= 0-19-827012-7|chapter=§5.5 Semantics as a generative system}}</ref>

Several English nouns lack an intrinsic [[referent]] of their own: ''behalf'' (as in ''on behalf of''), ''dint'' (''by dint of''), and ''sake'' (''for the sake of'').<ref>pages 218 and 225, and elsewhere in {{cite book|last=Quine|first=Willard Van Orman|title=Word and Object|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|publisher=MIT Press|date=2013|orig-year=1960 print|chapter=7 Ontic Decision|pages=215–254|author-link=Willard Van Orman Quine}}</ref> Moreover, other parts of speech may have reference-like properties: the verbs ''to rain'' or ''to mother'', or adjectives like ''red''; and there is little difference between the adverb ''gleefully'' and the [[preposition and postposition|prepositional phrase]] ''with glee''.<ref group=note> Idioms often include nouns in a way that may be independent of any nominal meaning they may have: in ''rock and roll'' there is no reference to any "rock" or any "roll"; ''lock, stock, and barrel'' is a [[dead metaphor]] that refers only to a figurative sense of a ''lock'' or ''stock'' or ''barrel''. See [[hendiadys]] and [[hendiatris]].</ref>

A [[Functional linguistics|functional]] approach defines a noun as a word that can be the head of a nominal phrase, i.e., a phrase with referential function, without needing to go through morphological transformation.<ref name=rijkhoff2022>{{cite book 
|last1=Rijkhoff |first1=Jan 
|title=Oxford Handbook of Word Classes
|date=2022 
|publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Cambridge 
|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351663779 
|chapter=Nouns
}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Hengeveld |first=Kees | author-link=Kees Hengeveld |title=Non-verbal predication: theory, typology, diachrony |date=1992 |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |location=Berlin |isbn=9783110883282}}</ref>