1

Ministry of Education and Science of the Kyrgyz Republic Arabaev Kyrgyz State University Institute of Lingustics

Abtandil kyzy Samara

Diploma Paper

Theme: Comparative - typological investigation of nouns in English and Kyrgyz languages

Scientific supervisor: assoc.prof K.A Abysheva

Bishkek 2012

Content
Introduction....3-6 Chapter 1 The place of nouns in the system of parts of speech in English and Kyrgyz languages 1.1 General Characteristics of English Nouns ..7-11 1.2 Comparative typology11-12 1.3 Kinds of nouns...12-19

1.4 Function of the noun as a part of speech in English and Kyrgyz languages..19-28

Chapter II Morphological peculiarities of noun categories (number, case, gender) in English and Kyrgyz languages

2.1 The category of number in English and Kyrgyz languages......29-37

2.2 Formation of plural form of nouns37-39

2.3 The category of case in English and Kyrgyz languages39-45 2.4 The Category of Number of English Nouns .46-50

2.5 The category of Gender in English and its similarities and differences in

Kyrgyz languages...50-55

Conclusion...................................................................................................56-57

Bibliography58-59

3 Introduction Language is the most important means of human intercourse, means of exchanging opinions, it can perform these various and difficult functions, because it represents the very flexible and at the same time well-organized system. Like an every system language has two hands. It consists of on the one hand the body of material units-sounds, morphemes, words, wordgroups, on the other hand it has a structure. Speaking about the structure we should understand its internal organization, scheme of connections and relationships of its countless elements, enumerated above. There are a great number of languages in the world, each having both the general traits inherent to all languages and the traits inherent to separate languages. Typology is systematic study of the ways in which languages are similar to and differ from one another. More specifically, the study of language universals concerns those properties that are common to all languages, whereas typology is concerned with the systematic variation across languages although in practice both studies must be carried out simultaneously and are often subsumed under either the term typology or the term language universals research. As such, the subject matter of the typological approach to language does not differ from that of other approaches, such as generative grammar. Methodologically, however, the two approaches tend to differ in the extent to which each is data driven (typology) versus theory driven (generative grammar), although in recent years the two approaches have tended alternately to approach and recede from one another. Typology is one of the oldest and less worked out parts of linguistics. It investigates above mentioned common properties, common changes and common processes in languages which belong to different genetic groups. It should be noted that, in spite of a great variety of scientific investigations brought about by our times, comparison of different old and modern languages was one vast, rich and generally useful domain that has been left completely untouched. For the last years the investigation of languages according to the scientific principles of comparative typology is being important and it became necessary teaching them in scientific theoretical and methodical systematization. It should be noted that for the common language theories also the linguistic typology plays a prominent part in the plan of morphological and syntactical classification of languages. Typological investigation of languages is useful in the learning of foreign languages with the help of mother tongue.

4 The numerous observations and experimental investigations show that the native language of students always conditions those difficulties and those stable mistakes which students make in the process of learning foreign languages. In that way, in the present case we will not deal with the establishment of language typology in whole, but we will deal with the definition of typological characteristic of learning language, concerning to native language. This type of typological investigation we call conditionally as comparative typology of native and foreign languages, which represents one of the parts of private typology. The course of comparative typology of different languages aims to teach the students to show up the most essential typological characteristics of given languages, to show those methods and ways which help to compare the structure of given languages and to take into account components of the structure of learning language which are not in the native language as well as the means used for transferring them in native language of student. The scientific novelty of the investigation is that the small amount of research is devoted to the problems of comparative typology - study of noun categories (number, case, gender) in Kyrgyz and English languages. Nouns of the languages are compared not only on the level of a category, but as the main part of speech, all their categories are investigated. It has been revealed that in all the categories of Kyrgyz and English nouns there are some similarities and differences. The project " Comparative typological study of English and Kyrgyz nouns" I presented the project at school practice last year, very interested and led me to study it more deeply. The acuteness of the work can be explained with the following reasons: the comparative typological investigation of these genetically unrelated (English belongs to west German group of Indo - European languages, Kyrgyz belongs to kyrgyz - kypchak group of Turkic languages) and morphologically included to different types (English is inflected language, kyrgyz is agglutinative language) languages are effective in proving the similarities and differences in their categorical systematization. This process is effective in comparative investigation but not only in linguistic side of nouns, also useful in working out of the method of teaching unrelated languages. The main objective of the research is not to compare the only category of definite part of speech, but to investigate comparatively the common systems of all grammatical categories of nouns in the materials of these two languages. The noun is completely considered as an object of investigation in this work. It brings a great advantage in science to compare not only the facts but also comparing some phenomena of tightly related with each other so called microsystems of the language (.., 1989,5).

5 Some nouns in kyrgyz language typologically were investigated in the works of Chonbashev, 1980; Kasymova, 1981; Karmyshakov, 1992; Sagynaliev, 1993. But no one of these works is carried out in full grammatical categories of nouns systematically. A special attention is paid to research work on comparative typology of Kyrgyz, English and Russian nouns by Chorobaeva A.A. for the first time she tried to investigate all the categories of nouns in the materials of these three languages in the typological systematical - grammatical plan. The main aim of my work is to prove the differences and similarities in all categories of Kyrgyz and English nouns and in achieving this gain we have following duties: 1) To specify the theoretical decisions of typological investigations of Kyrgyz and English nouns. 2) To prove the linguistic - theoretical meaning of Kyrgyz and English nouns, considering as an object the typological linguistics of given languages. 3) To analyze typologically the grammatical Kyrgyz Possessive Pronoun and the category of Predicate and to prove their similarities in English. In comparing the number, case, gender categories of these two typologically investigating languages, there are mostly used the materials of the inflected languages. The number and case categories are in equal level in both these two languages but the gender category wasn't founded as a grammatical category in agglutinative languages and among them in kyrgyz also. Kyrgyz language helps in analyzing typologically the Possessive Pronoun and Predicate categories, because this categories are given in English in syntactical way, but wasn't founded as a morphological categories. The theoretical importance and practical value of the investigation is the result of hard work that combined all facts, materials and analyses (sentences and some words) that taken from literary books, bilingual dictionaries and text - books for schools and higher educational establishments can be used easily in the teaching prossess. Used methods: it is necessary to use some definite methods in typological investigation of genetically unrelated and morphologically included to different types languages. Here used following methods of linguistic analysis: inductive (from the single to the common: from some grammatical phenomena to all systems of grammatical categories of nouns) and deductive (from the common to the single: from the all grammatical phenomena) methods and other following methods of linguistic analysis: Component method: to analyze on the schemes and elements by morphemes and semantic structure of words according to the morphological structure of words. Distributive method: to analyze on the grammatical phenomenon of languages according to the several syntactical positions of sentences.

6 The work consists of introduction, two chapters, conclusion and bibliography contains 40 items. The first chapter deals with the theoretical basis of typological research of languages in general linguistic context and grammatical essence of noun, its state in Kyrgyz and English languages is given. In the second chapter morphological, lexico- semantic peculiarities of noun categories (number, case, gender) in given languages (Kyrgyz and English), their differences and similarities are proved. Conclusion is devoted to the main typological results of the work.

7 Chapter 1. The place of nouns in the system of parts of speech in English and Kyrgyz languages

1.1 General Characteristics of English Nouns

The word "noun" comes from the Latin nomen meaning "name." Word classes like nouns were first described by Sanskrit grammarian Painini and ancient Greeks like Dionysios Thrax, and defined in terms of their morphological properties. For example, in Ancient Greece, nouns can be inflected for grammatical case, such as dative or accusative. Verbs, on the other hand, can be inflected for tenses, such as past, divsent or future, while nouns cannot. Aristotle also had a notion of onomata (nouns) and rhemata (verbs) which, however, does not exactly correspond our notions of verbs and nouns. In her dissertation, Vinokurova has a more detailed discussion of the historical origin of the notion of a noun. Exdivssions of natural language will have properties at different levels. They have formal properties, like what kinds of morphological affixes or suffixes they can take, and what kinds of other exdivssions they can combine with, but they also have semantic properties, i.e. properties pertaining to their meaning. The definition of nouns on the top of this page is thus a formal definition. That definition is uncontroversial, and has the advantage that it allows us to effectively distinguish nouns from non-nouns. However, it has the disadvandage that it does not apply to nouns in all languages. For example in Russian, there are no definite articles, so one cannot define nouns by means of those. There are also several attempts of defining nouns in terms of their semantic properties. Many of these are controversial, but some are discussed below. In traditional school grammars, one often encounters the definition of nouns that they are all and only those exdivssions that refer to a person, place, thing, event, substance, quality, or idea, etc. This is a semantic definition. It has been criticized by contemporary linguists as being quite uninformative. Part of the problem is that the definition makes use of relatively general nouns ("thing," "phenomenon," "event") to define what nouns are. The existence of such general nouns shows us that nouns are organized in taxonomic hierarchies. But other kinds of exdivssions are also organized in hierarchies. For example all of the verbs "stroll," "saunter," "stride," and "tread" are more specific words than the more general "walk." The latter is more specific than the verb "move." But it is unlikely that such hierarchies can be used to define nouns and verbs. Furthermore, an influential theory has it that verbs like "kill" or "die" refer to events, and so they fall under the definition. Similarly, adjectives like "yellow" or "difficult" might be thought to refer to qualities, and adverbs like "outside" or "upstairs" seem to refer to places. Worse still, a trip into the woods can be referred to by the verbs "stroll" or "walk." But verbs, adjectives and adverbs are not nouns,

8 and nouns aren't verbs. So the definition is not particularly helpful in distinguishing nouns from other parts of speech. Another semantic definition of nouns is that they are prototypically referential. That definition is also not very helpful in distinguishing actual nouns from verbs. But it may still correctly identify a core property of nounhood. For example, we will tend to use nouns like "fool" and "car" when we wish to refer to fools and cars, respectively. The notion that this is prototypocal reflects the fact that such nouns can be used, even though nothing with the corresponding property is referred to: John is no fool. If I had a car, I'd go to Marakech. The first sentence above doesn't refer to any fools, nor does the second one refer to any particular car. In most cases in treating English nouns we shall keep to the conception of scientists that we refer to post-structural tendency it's because they combine the ideas of traditional and structural grammarians. The noun is classified into a separate word- group because: 1 .they all have the same lexical - grammatical meaning : substance / thing 2.according to their form - they've two grammatical categories: number and case 3.they all have typical stem-building elements : - er, - ist, - ship, - ment, -hood .... 4. typical combinability with other words: most often left-hand combinability. 5. function - the most characteristic feature of nouns is - they can be observed in all syntactic functions but divdicate. From the grammatical point of view most important is the division of nouns into countables and uncountables with regard to the category of number and into declinables and indeclinables with regard to the category of case. So after describing grammatical categories of English nouns we will try to classify them from different points of view. There are a lot of works textbooks of English and other authors about the noun. Different authors gave different opinions, they divided the nouns into different groups, pointed out its grammatical categories. "nouns are names of objects, i.e. thing, human beings, animals, materials and abstract notions (e.g. table, house, man, girl dog, lion, snow, sugar, love, beauty) (E.M.Gordon, I.P.Krylova, 1980).

9 Semantically all nouns an be divided into two main groups - proper names (e.g. John, London, the Thames) and common nouns. Common nouns, in their turn, are subdivided into countable nouns and uncountable nouns. Countable nouns denote objects that can be counted. They may be either concrete (e.g. book, student, cat) or abstract (e.g. idea, word, effort). Uncountable nouns are names of objects that cannot be counted. They may also be concrete (e.g. water, grass. Wood) and abstract (e.g. information, amazement, time)". In the opinions of A. Ganshina and N.M. Vasilevslaya: The noun is a part of speech which includes words denoting substances (individuals: a boy, a girl, objects: a book, a tree) or certain facts or phenomena regarded as substances (qualities: kindness, strength; processes: conversation, writing; abstract notions: time)". They showed as well as the main syntactical functions of the noun in the sentence (the functions of the subject and object).

The child (subject) was silent. (Dickens). The schoolmaster (subject) lighted a candle (object), fastened the wmdowshutters (object) and clossed the door (object). (Dickens). Besides a noun also be used: As a predicative: He was a very young boy. (Dickens). As an attribute: Peter's sister soon heard of all the boy's adventures (Dodge). As an adverbial modifier: The child hesitated for a moment. (Dickens). They stopped at a cottage - door. (Dickens). The noun is associated with the following form - words: The article (definite or indefinite): the house, a house. Prepositions: in the house, behind the house, about the house. Another characteristic feature of the noun is its association with an adjective which serves as its attribute. This is natural, considering the meaning of these two parts of speech - the noun expresses substance the adjective expresses the qualities of the substance: The plain, frank kindness of the honest schoolmaster, the affectionate earnestness of his speech and manner, gave the child a confidence in him. (Dickens). The bright, hot morning had

10 changed slowly to a grey, oppressive afternoon; a heavy bank of clouds, with the yellow tinge of coming thunder, had risen in the south, and was creeping up. (Galsworthy). As to word - building, nouns have some characteristic suffixes such as:

- ing - hood - ship - raent

-tion -sion -ness -ty -ity -a! -dom -er

building motherhood membership establishment brotherhood friendship government childhood neighbourship payment -ion

conversation expression happiness quality specialty criminal freedom worker

objection obsession lightness beauty activity scandal kingdom teacher

collection commission darkness pity

driver

Nouns are also formed by means of sound interchange (usually with the addition of a suffix): mirth (from the adjective merry), length (from the adjective long), strength (from the adjective strong), wisdom (from the adjective wise), speech (from the verb speak). There are a great many compound nouns in English such as newspaper, fountain - pen, forget -me- not, passer - by, postman, Englishman, etc. Nouns are also often formed from other parts of speech by means of conversion: a run (from the verb to run), a wash (from the verb to wash), a stop (from the verb to stop), ups and downs (from the adverbs up and down), a relative (from the adjective relative), etc. 5. The noun has the following morphological characteristics: It has two numbers: singular and plural.

Singular: boy; plural: boys. It has two case forms: common and possessive.

Common case: boy; possessive case: boy's.

11 But not all nouns have these two cases; the possessive case is, as a rule, used only with nouns denoting living beings.1

1.2 Comparative typology

The word typology consists of two Greek morphemes: a) typos means type and b) logos means science or word. Typology is a branch of science which is typical to all sciences without any exception. In this respect their typological method is not limited with the sphere of one science. It has a universal rise. So typology may be divided into: 1. 2. Non-linguistic and Linguistic typology

Non-linguistic typology is the subject matter of the sciences except linguistics. Linguistic typology is a new branch of general linguistic which studies the systems of languages comparatively, also finds common laws of languages and establishes differences and similarities between them. Typological classification of languages. In linguistics we may come across many terms as to the terminological nature of linguistic typology. The are: 1. Comparative methods, 2. Comparative historical method, 3. Comparative (or contrastive) linguistics, 4. Comparative typology, 5. Comparative grammar, 6. Connotation grammar, 7. Descriptive comparative linguistics and on the terms used in Russian and Kyrgyz are not exact either. They are: , , - , , . Classification of linguistic typology. According to the notion of comparison of linguistics phenomenon and the aim directed on we may classify linguistic typology into the following parts a) genetic of genealogical typology, b) structural typology, c) areal typology and d) comparative typology. Genealogical typology is a branch of linguistic typology which studies the similarities and the relationship between the related languages. It is applicated to the systems of genetically related languages. Genealogical typology developed from the comparative historical linguistics dominated during the 19th century in Europe. Its origin was stimulated by the discovery of Sanskrit, the ancient classical language of India. The discovery of Sanskrit disclosed the possibility
1.
1

Blokh M.I, A course in theoretical English Grammar, Moskow,1983. p.383.

12 of a comparative study of languages. The concept of relative languages was confirmed by the existence in India of a sister of the familiar languages of Europe e.g. Sanskrit mata means mother, in the accuse case matarum Dvau-two Trayah three As ti-he is etc. Before the discovery of Sanskrit European linguistics possessed very vague similarities for the current grammars built on the Greek model. They didnt set clearly the features of each languages. It is worth to mention that at the same time Sanskrit discovery gave rise to confuse notions of linguistic relation which lived for a brief time that European languages were derived from Sanskrit. But this opinion gave way to a correct explanation, namely Sanskrit, Latin, Greek, and other were later forms of one divhistorically language. Comparatives gave two kinds of classification of languages genealogical and morphological. Genealogical classification deals with the family relationship of languages which descend from one common ancestor. It distributes languages into different families. Morphological classification deals with the classification of languages according to their structural features instead of a genealogical origin. According to the morphological classification the languages are divided into: Isolating (Chinese; Vietnamese; Japan; etc.) Analytic (Russian; English; German; etc.) Agglutinative (Turkish languages) and other. Genetic Typology compares the systems of languages in two ways: diachronically and synchronically. But in the second case genetic relationship is not taken into consideration. Structural linguistic typology can be understood as a systematization of linguistic phenomenon from different languages according to their specific structural features. Structural typology research makes it possible to establish some traits are universal, unique, and special.2

1.3 Kinds of nouns; In fact, grammarians have developed a whole kinds of noun types, including the proper noun, the common noun, the concrete noun, the abstract noun, the countable noun (also called the count noun), the non-countable noun (also called the mass noun), and the collective noun.
2

.. . -

: , 1998-254.

13 You should note that a noun will belong to more than one type: it will be proper or common, abstract or concrete, and countable or non-countable or collective. Common nouns are the names applied to any individual of a class of living beings or things (a man, a book), materials (snow, iron) or abstract notions (love, friendship). Proper nouns are names given to individuals of a class. (John, the Neva, Moscow). Proper nouns may also include a group of individuals (The Alps, the Balkans, the Urals, the Canaries). Proper nouns may acquire the meaning of common nouns: a Pullman - a sleeping car named after its designer: a mackintosh - a cloak or coat made of waterproof material patented by C. Mackintosh; an ulster - a coat named after the province where such coats were originally made; a Ford - a car named after the manufacturer. Common nouns may become proper names: the City (the business quarter of London), the Globe (a theatre at the time of Shakespeare). A common noun is a noun referring to a person, place, or thing in a general sense - usually, you should write it with a capital letter only when it begins a sentence. A common noun is the opposite of a proper noun. In each of the following sentences, the common nouns are highlighted: According to the sign, the nearest town is 60 miles away. All the gardens in the neighborhood were invaded by beetles this summer. I don't understand why some people insist on having six different kinds of mustard in their cupboards. The road crew was startled by the sight of three large moose crossing the road. Many child-care workers are underpaid. Sometimes you will make proper nouns out of common nouns, as in the following examples: The tenants in the Garnet Apartments are appealing the large and sudden increase in their rent. The meals in the Bouncing Bean Restaurant are less expensive than meals in ordinary restaurants. Many witches refer to the Renaissance as the Burning Times. The Diary of Anne Frank is often a child's first introduction to the history of the Holocaust. Common nouns are subdivided into: concrete nouns and abstract nouns.

14 A concrete noun is a noun which names anything (or anyone) that you can perceive through your physical senses: touch, sight, taste, hearing, or smell. A concrete noun is the opposite of a abstract noun. The highlighted words in the following sentences are all concrete nouns: The judge handed the files to the clerk. Whenever they take the dog to the beach, it spends hours chasing waves. The real estate agent urged the couple to buy the second house because it had new shingles. As the car drove past the park, the thump of a disco tune overwhelmed the string quartet's rendition of a minuet. The book binder replaced the flimsy paper cover with a sturdy, cloth-covered board. An abstract noun is a noun which names anything which you can not perceive through your five physical senses, and is the opposite of a concrete noun. The highlighted words in the following sentences are all abstract nouns: Buying the fire extinguisher was an afterthought. Tillie is amused by people who are nostalgic about childhood. Justice often seems to slip out of our grasp. Some scientists believe that schizophrenia is transmitted genetically. Abstract nouns may turn into concrete nouns when they represent concrete objects; beauty () - a beauty ( ); youth () - a youth ( , ). To the class of common nouns belong also collective noun, a noun naming a group of things, animals, or persons. You could count the individual members of the group, but you usually think of the group as a whole is generally as one unit. You need to be able to recognize collective nouns in order to maintain subject-verb agreement. A collective noun is similar to a non-countable noun, and is roughly the opposite of a countable noun. Ex; The flock of geese spends most of its time in the pasture. The collective noun "flock" takes the singular verb "spends." Collective nouns fall under the following divisions: Collective nouns which have both numbers:

singular: a family, a crew; plural: families, crew. My family is small The two families were close neighbors. When the subject of a sentence is such a collective noun in the form of the singular, the predicate verb may be either in the singular or in taken as a whole unit. The verb is singular if

15 the collective denoted by the noun is taken as a whole unit. The verb is plural if the persons (or things) that form the collective are considered separately: My family is small. The crew consists of two hundred sailors. The party was now complete except for two people. (Mazo de la Roche). My family are early (Jespersen). The party were expected to arrive on Thursday afternoon... (Bronte). "How are your family?" (Hemingway). Collective nouns (names of multitude) such as cattle, poultry, police, which are always used as plurals (without the s-inflection): The poultry are in the yard. "You have cattle?" "There they are", she said pointing with the switch. "...they are the best cattle in the fair." (Macken). Collective nouns, such as foliage, leafage, linen, money, youth (), etc., which are always used in the singular: Her little bit of crockery was ranged on the mantelpiece. (Gaskell). "Yes, said the child... "what is money?" (Dickens). ...the undergrowth was thick with flowers...(Cusack). The air here had a sweetish, earthy odour of too rank foliage... (Galsworthy). .. he saw all the best china and silver on the table at once. (Mazo de la Roche). Collective nouns which are used only in the plural such as goods, belongings, sweeping, tidings, clothes'. A small closet contained his clothes... (London)... I saw some goods behind the cart, just now. (Dickens). The good fellow fetched the greens... (Diskens)... a laborer came in a hurry one day to Nicholas's house and brought strange tidings (Hardy). (A. Ganshina, N.M. Vasilevskaya, 1964). In the opinion of B. Ilyish the noun has following characteristic features: 1. Meaning: thingness. Thus, nouns include nor only chair and iron, etc. But also beauty, peace, necessity, journey, and everything else presented as a thing, or object. 2. Form. Nouns have the category of number (singular or a plural), though some individual nouns may lack either a singular or a plural form. They also, in the accepted view, have the category of case (common and genitive). 3. Function a) combining with words to form phrases. A noun combines with a preceding adjective (large room), or occasionally with a following adjective (times immemorial), with a preceding noun in either the common case (iron bar) or the genitive case (father's room), with a verb following it (children play) or preceding it (play games). Occasionally a noun may combine with a following or preceding adverb (the man there; the then president). It also combines with prepositions (in a house; house of rest). It is typical of a noun to be preceded by the definite or indefinite article (the room, a room), b) function in the sentence.

16 A noun may be the subject or the predicative of a sentence, or an object, an attribute, and an adverbial modifier. It can also make part of each of these when preceded by a preposition. (B. Ilyish, The structure of modern English, Moskow, 1965;). The noun as a part of speech has the categorical meaning of "substance" or 4. "thingness". It follows from this that the noun is the main nominative part of speech, effecting nomination of the fullest value within the frame work of the notional division of the lexicon. (M.Y. Blokh, A course in theoretical English gramar) The noun has the power, by way of nomination, to isolate different properties of substances (i.e. direct and oblique qualities, and also actions and states as processual characteristics of substantive phenomena) and present them as corresponding self- dependent substances. Ex: Her words were unexpectedly bitter. - We were struck by the unexpected bitterness of her words. At that time he was down in his career, but we knew well that very soon he would be up again. - His career had its ups and downs. The cable arrived when John was preoccupied with the arrangements for the party. - The arrival of the cable interrupted his preoccupation with the arrangements for the party. This natural and practically unlimited substantivization force establishes the noun as the central nominative lexemic unit of language. (M.Y. Blokh, A course in theoretical English grammar, 1983). The categorical functional properties of the noun are determined by its semantic properties. The most characteristic substantive function of the noun is that of the subject in the sentence, since the referent of the subject is the person or thing immediately named. The function of the object in the sentence is also typical of the noun as the substance word. Other syntactic functions, i.e. attributive, adverbial, and even predicative, although performed by the noun with equal ease, are not immediately characteristic of its substantive quality as such. It should be noted that, while performing these non - substantive functions, the noun essentially differs from the other parts of speech used in similar sentence positions. This may be clearly shown by transformations shifting the noun from various non - subject syntactic positions into subject syntactic positions of the same general semantic value, which is impossible with other parts of speech. Ex: Mary is a flower - girl. The flower girl (you are speaking of) is Mary. He lives in Glasgow. >Glasgow is his place of residence. This happened three years ago. ->Threeyears have elapsed since it happened. Apart from the cited sentence - part functions, the noun is characterized by some special types of combinability.

17 In particular typical of the noun is the prepositional combinability with another noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb. E.g.: entrance to the house; to turn round the corner; red in the face; far from its destination. The causal (possessive) combinability characterizes the noun alongside of its prepositional combinability with another noun. E.g: the speech of the President - the President's speech; the cover of the book - the book's cover. English nouns can also easily combine with one another by sheer contact, unmediated by any special lexemic or morphemic means. In the contract group the noun in preposition plays the role of a semantic qualifier to the noun in post - position. E.g.: a cannon ball; a log cabin; a sports event, film festivals. The lexico-grammatical status of such combinations has presented a big problem for many scholars, who were uncertain as to the linguistic heading under which to treat them: either as one separate word, or a word - group. In the history of linguistics the controversy about the lexicogrammatical status of the constructions in question gas received the half-facetious name "The cannon ball problem". ( .. . ., 1956). Taking into account the results of the comprehensive analysis undertaken in these field by Soviet linguists, we may define the combination as a specific word - group with intermediary features. Crucial for this decision is the insolubility test (separation shift of the qualifying noun) which is performed for the contact noun combinations by an easy, productive type of transformation. Cf.: a cannon ball a ball for cannon; the court regulation -the regulation of the court; progress report report about progress; the funds distribution the distribution of the funds. The corresponding compound nouns (formed from substantive stems), as a rule, cannot undergo the insolubility test with an equal ease. The transformations with the nounal compounds are in fact reduced to sheer explanations of their etymological motivation. The comparatively closer connection between the stems in compound nouns is reflected by the spelling (contact or hyphenated presentation). E.g.: fireplace -> place where fire is made; starlight > light coming from stars; story - teller -teller (writer, composer) of stories; theatre - goes > a person who goes to (frequents) theatres. Contact noun attributes forming a string of several words are very characteristic of professional language. Ex: A number of Space Shuttle trajectory optimization problems were simulated in the development of the algorithm, including three ascent problems and a re - entry problem (From a scientific paper on spacecraft). The accuracy of offshore tanker unloading operations is becoming more important as the cost of petroleum products increases (From a scientific paper on control systems).

18 As a part of speech, the noun is also characterized by a set of formal features determining its specific status in the lexical paradigm of nomination. It gas its word - building distinctions, including typical suffixes, compound stem models, conversion patterns. It discriminates the grammatical categories of gender, number, case, article determination, which will be analyzed bellow. The cited formal features taken together are relevant for the division of noun into several subclasses, which are identified by means of explicit classificational criteria. The most general and rigorously delimited subclasses of nouns are grouped into four oppositional pairs. The first nounal subclass opposition differentiates proper and common nouns. The foundation of this division is "type of nomination". The second subclass opposition differentiates animate and inanimate nouns on the basis of "form of existence". The third subclass opposition differentiates human and non - human nouns on the basis of "personal quality". The fourth subclass opposition differentiates countable and uncountable nouns on the basis of "quantitative structure". Some what less explicitly and rigorously realized is the division of English nouns into concrete and abstract. The order in which the subclasses are presented is chosen by convention, not by categorically relevant features: each subclass correlation is reflected on the whole of the noun system; this means that the given set of eight subclasses cannot be structured hierarchically in any linguistically consistent sense (some sort of hierarchical relations can be observed only between animate - inanimate and human - non - human groupings). Consider the following examples: There were three Marys in our company. The cattle have been driven out into the pastures. The noun Mary used in the first of the above sentences is at one and the same time "proper" (furzy subclass division), "animate" (second subclass division), "non- human" (third subclass division), "uncountable" (fourth subclass division). The subclass differentiation of nouns constitutes a foundation for their selectional systematic combinability both among themselves and with other parts of speech. In the selectional aspect of combinability , the subclass features form the corresponding selectional bases. In particular the inanimate selectional base of combinability can be pointed out between the noun subject and the verb predicate in the following sentence: The sand stone was crumbing. (Not: The horse was crumbling). The animate selectional base is revealed between the noun subject and the verb in the following sentence: The poor creature was laming (Not: The tree was laming). The human selectional base underlies the connection between the nouns in the following combination: John's love of music (not: the cat's love of music).

19 The phenomenon of subclass selection is intensely analyzed as part of current linguistic research work.. It was paid a big attention in Kyrgyz language to the division of words into the parts of speech. The problem of parts of speech is one of the most difficult problems in linguistics. Therefore, in considering this problem it is very necessary deep and history of language. The correct division of words into parts of speech and investigation of peculiarities of each part of speech are very important in science and in teaching practice at school.(Sartbaev, 1985,95) There are a lot of works which are investigated deeply and in many sides in Kyrgyz philology. (, 1936; 1955; 1955; 1987; , 1964; 1994; , 1975; , 1980; , 1987). Noun is a part of speech which denotes the names of the objects (, , , , , , ), the natural phenomenon, the events, accidents (, , , , , ) or some abstract notions (, , , ). Before speaking about the noun in Kyrgyz language, we should consider it's state in ancient Kyrgyz language. According to the writing of speech in the language and it had the some grammatical categories as in modern Kyrgyz language and the same were their functions in the speech. For example, the noun in ancient Turkish languages also was a part of speech which included words denoting substances or certain facts or phenomena regarded as substances, processes, abstract notions. .(, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , etc). (., , , 2002;).3

1.3 Function of the noun as a part of speech in English and Kyrgyz languages

By the definition of D.Isajev, noun is a part of speech which denotes the names of objects, events and natural phenomenon of nature (, , , ). (. . ). We divide nouns into the following main groups by meaning: I. Nouns - names of people.
1.3 .. : 1956 2. Gordon .. Krylova I.P, A grammar of present day English, Moskov, 1980. p.

335.

20 5. Surnames: Asanov, Asanaliev, Nigmatulin, Abdykalykova 6. Names and middle names: , , , , , , , , , . 7. Nicknames: , . . Names, Surnames express the concrete notions and question for these nouns always "is ?who?" a. Nouns which denote the animate objects, except people, and question for these nouns is "? - what?". i. Names of domestic animals. Some of them have proper names. Ex.: a) names of dogs: (, , , , , , ..) b) names of horses: , , , . ii. Names of other animals - fox, Cyyp - squirrel, - rabbit, - cat, - elephant, b. Nouns which denote body parts of people, animals, insect -hand, wing, - foot, - head, - tail, - skin, - hair, - beak. -hoof, -brain, - ear, - horn TOOK

- chicken,

- dove, - swallow, - - insect etc.

c. We include to the noun. The names of any plants: - wheat, - millet, Apna - barley, - maize, corn

V. Nouns denoting things, instruments of labor, buildings, undertaking, dwelling. - property, - clothes, - thread, - brief - case, - ploug, - establishment,

21 - needle, - axe, - headgear, headdress, - welt, - kitchen, -hairdressers. - book

8. Nouns which express the names of substances: - butter, - silver, - paraffin, - glass, pane, - milk, - down, fluff. - sand, Substantial nouns may be used for denoting the parts of things as well materials from what things are made Cyy - water mill, - wooden sopen, - railway, 9. Nouns denoting seasons, months, days in a week, - winter, - day, - summer, - spring, - autumn, - april, - june, of times: - in winter, - at noon - in summer, - at night, - every day. - dawn, - (dinner) midday, - week, - Monday, - Sunday. From these nouns may be formed adverbs

VIII.There are nouns in Kyrgyz language place and several spatial attitudes: - opposite, - beginning, - interval, space, - place, direction, - brink, - end.

a. To nouns belong astronomical and geographical names astronomical proper names. i. astronomical proper names: - Sun, - the Earth, - Moon, - Venus, - the Great Bear. There are common nouns also among astronomical names: - star, meteorit etc. ii. Geographical common nouns: Too - mountain , - sea, - lake, - island, - height, - lowland, etc. iii. Proper Geographical names , , etc.

22 b. Nouns denoting natural phenomenon: - lightning, - snowstorm, - wind, - rain, - winter, - earthquake; c. Nouns denoting general phenomenon, establishments and events: , demonstration, - revolution, - - establishment etc. XII. Names of genera! - politic studies, science and measures: Marxism - ,, chemistry - , physics - , history - , mathematics - , conference , meeting - , building - . (Ex.:, - cultural building). XIILNames of feelings and sufferings: - gladness, - anger, haste, - thought, - thought etc. 10. Nouns denoting abstract sings and quality: - beauty, - cleanness, - laziness. 11. Names of actions, states: - walking, - pressure,

- fight, - dream, oopy - illness etc.

Nouns may not denote objects of reality, but just fantastic presentation:

- god, -, - angel etc.

Like in other languages, there are such groups of nouns in Kyrgyz language which are not characterized by particular grammatical sings in meanings.

Substantial or material nouns: cyy - water etc.

- sand, - iron,

Objective nouns: , - bucket - kindness etc. - torment,

- hammer, - depth, Collective nouns: - army, - forest, - mankind,

- people, - - children

In comparative meaning may be used nouns with the affix -: - students, 2) - civil servants. (., , ;). There was paid a big attention to the lexical meaning and origin of words in the book of Dyikanov. He outlined also all the categories of nouns in Kyrgyz language. (number, case, gender,

23 possessive.) He considered the predicate, category, also but some authors included to these four categories. The animated and unanimated category. There were given four noun categories (number, case, gender predicate ) in the academic grammar which was published in Russian. In this grammar was not considered the animated and unanimated category of nouns. 1. About the word -building of nouns we can find in the work of B.O (Oruzbaeva, 1964; 1994; 1994;) the modeling problem of noun-forming affixes were investigated separately. (Bodykov,1981, 93-95;) There are more than 20 noun-forming affixes in Kyrgyz language and it is known that from 4 to 12 of them are used in phonetically variants. Root nouns. Root nouns like other parts of speech in Kyrgyz language may be monosyllabic and dissyllabic. Most of them originated from the ancient time and serve for forming the new words. Example : cyy, , , , , , , There are number of derivative words in different meanings from one root word "-head" by the dictionary of Yuahin The word "" has 10 meanings, and there are more than to derivative word formed from this word leaving out of account the compound combinations. Examples for bisyllabic root nouns: =+, +, =+, =+, =+, =+. Except such words. There are words borrowed from other language borrowed words are realized in Kyrgyz language as root nouns, they are not dived into parts (stem, suffix), thought some of them are compound words. For example : the word '', borrowed from the Persian language and Tajic language. In Persian "-silver"+ " +water"= - quicksilver" (silver water); in tajic 'wo+' - knife =kyrg. "- - scissors" (two knife) etc. most part of bisyllable and polysyllable nouns are derivative words. Derivative nouns. Derivative nouns belong the nouns which consist of the stem and word forming affixes (suffixes). There are two groups of word-forming affixes. Of nouns: i. The affixes forming nouns from the names. ii. The affixes forming nouns from the verbs. The affixes forming nouns from the names. The affix "-" in Kyrgyz language has following phonetic variants: - , , , , , , , , , , . This affix is added to both common proper nouns, as wellas to adjective, numerals, pronouns, adverbs, participles. The affix "-" combining with nouns, forms following categories: 1. Noun of material notion.

24 - autumn - month - swoo - growth - mother - child - friend -free - winter crops -salary - smoking shed -plant 2. Nouns expressing abstract notions. -motherhood - childhood - frendship - freedom

By means of affix "- " from the names of cities, states, places from the adjectives, but in some case they are taken in the meaning of nouns: " - Muscovite inhabitant of Moscow, Moscow (adj.)", " - Mountain- dweller ; mountaineer; mountain(adj.) " but " rular", " - sea" etc.are used only in the meaning of adjectives. By mean of affix "-" Nouns can not be formed from proper nouns except from some geographical names. Example : , , .

The affix "-" can be combined with the adjectives and give the meanings of abstract nouns. - good, -long, - bad, - cheap - Undisciplined, - active - two, - five, -nine - one -a hundred -kindness - length - harm, - cheapness, etc - undiscipline (++) - activity - two - five, -nine -unity - a hundred

This affix also is combined with the derivatives:

The affix "-" adding to numerals, just sometimes form nouns:

Just in some cases this affix is combined with pronoun and from nouns denoting names of supporters of these or those people : -1, - my supporte, - who, - whose supporter, you, - your supporter etc. This affix should not be mixed with - + in verbs.

25 Compare : - stay, - rest, Kec- cut - small knife. Here the affix "-" is formally coincided with the affix of verb in past tens, "- " + affix of plural from, 1 person, "-k". Compare: we stayed, - we cut. The affix "- (- , -,- )" is combined with some nouns and adjectives. In the opinion of L.A Baskakova, this from consists, of two affixes: "- " (kyrgyz -"") and "- " But this variant is not always dismembered into two independent morphemes. For example, there is a word "" but there is no word ""; there is a word " " but there is word "". Example: - , -, -, -, - . The affix "-", combining with nouns, forms new derivative nouns:
-,

- - -- etc. The affix "-(, ,,--, -,-, -, , - ,-)" froms nouns from nouns in meaning of the names of participator of person. For example : - - , - , - The affix - ( -,- ,- , - , -,- ,- , - , -,- ,- ) differs from compound "-na"and "-" and froms nouns from nouns and sometimes from verbs. From nouns: , -, - , - etc. From verbs : - , -, - . ect. The affix forming "- "() is not so efficient, it from the nouns in meaning of names of countries. Ex.: , , , , , etc. The affix "-" from nouns is meaning of dwellings, or some buildings, places for keeping something. Examples: - kitchen(from ani-meal), - stable (-horse), - Liberary (-book), - enterise ( -work) (the affix) In the number of active affixes there is the affix "-" (-,-,)"Affix "-" from nouns from the names of inanimate - , - , -, - ect. -, - , - ,

26 This affix froms nouns from the names of animated objects also. For example : - , -, - , - etc. This affix can be combined with the derivative nouns. For example : , - , - , ect. The affix "-;-" from the names of professions : This affix was borrowed from Iranian language. For example : in Tajic language " -culprit", in Kyrgyz language " -culprit". - - , - - - - ect. The affix "Kop,Kep"froms nouns and adjectives. Example: , -, - , -. Sometimes the affixes "-," are replaced with the affixes , i - , - etc. The affix "-" from nouns from root, as well as derivative stems : (- science), ( - knowledge), (-game). The affix "-(-)" fropm the name of a character : / (from the word ""). (from the word "") (from the word "") 1. All these affixes :- , -, -, , -, - and -, Are close in meaning and they can be included to one structure of synonyms: For example : , , , , ect. Diminutive -hypocoristic affixes. The affix "-(-, ,-)" from nouns from nouns with diminutive shade. For example : (Kan-bag), (-1), -(-game) - (moon) The affix "- (-, - , -)" has the same origin as the affix "-" and forms nouns from nouns with diminutive shade. Ex.: (), (), (), (), ; , , ect. The affix "-(-,-,-)" also froms diminutive nouns: Ex.; (), (),(),(), (). The affixes forming nouns from verbs. The affix "-,(-, -,-)" froms objective nouns: knife (-cut), - heart (-go), - stand ( -stand), - guest(KOH -stay) - ,

27 - Coward ( - to be afraid), -playful () The affix "-,(-,-,-,-)" from nouns and adjectives : This affix in Kyrgyz language expresses material and abstract names : (). The affix "-,(-,-,-,) -,-,-,-," from animated and unanimated nouns from verbs : 12. unanimated nouns : () () () 13. animated nouns : () () (). The affix " - ,(-,-,-)" from nouns from verbs and express or the result of the action, as well as the names of institutions : a) process result of actions: (), () (), () () ect. b) names of institutions: ( ), () The affix "- (-,-,-, -)" from the nouns from verbs. (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (),(), () ect. The affix "-(-,-,-, - ,-,-,-)" froms: a. names of instruments: (), (), (),(). b. names of food or process: (), (), (). The affix "- (-,-,-,-, -,- , -)" forms animated and unanimated nouns: a) names of people : (), (),(). ) unanimated objects: (), () The affix "-, - , - ,-,-,-,- ,-" forms nouns in different meanings: (), (), (), (),(). The affix "-(-,,-)" () (). The affix "-(-,-,-)" from nouns, from verbs : (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), (), () etc.

28 Noun in Kyrgyz language are divided into two groups: Simple noun and derivative nouns To the simple nouns we can include the nouns which haven't suffixes in the stem: , , cyy, , , , , , , , , . the derivative nouns we can include the nouns which formed by the means of suffixes and formed from the simple nouns by syntactical ways: , , , , , , , , , , , . The division of nouns is the same in English also. Compound nouns - a compound noun in both languages contains two or more words. Some compound nouns need to be hyphenate, such as mother -in-low (English) or - (kyrgyz). Some compound nouns are not hyphenate, such real estate (English) or (kyrgyz). Compound nouns are usually common nouns and are therefore lowercase. However, some compound nouns are proper nouns because the name a spesific person or thing. Collective nouns - a collective nouns named a grop made up of persons, places or things. The group of persons, places, or things is counted as a single unit. Collective nouns are usually common nouns and are therefore generally lowercase. For example: class, family, cattle (English) , , - (Kyrgyz) Common nouns - common nouns in both languages are the most general form of nouns. Common nouns refer to general and non-specific persons, animals, places, things, ideas, qualibes, and activates are called persons, animals, things, places, with a specific name is called a person noun. Proper noun are allot always capitalized. Proper nouns used without an article because they are unique names. For example: Shakespeare, London, Bishkek, (English). , , (Kygyz).specific dates are also considered to be proper nouns. The Modern English noun certainly has not got the category of grammatical gender, which is to be found, for example, in Russian, French, German and Latin. Not a single noun in Modern English shows any peculiarities in its morphology due to its denoting a male or a female being. Thus, the words husband and wife do not show any difference in their forms due to the peculiarities of their lexical meanings. Kyrgyz noun as distinct from English has four grammatical categories: number, case, possessive pronoun and the category of Predicate. As to word - building both Kyrgyz and English nouns have three types: of word - building: morphological, syntactical and semantical and simultaneously these types are divided into small groups.4
1. 2.
4

.. .- -: , 1955, 2,

. . - : , 1983, - 267.

29 Chapter II. Morphological peculiarities of noun categories (number, case, gender) in English and Kyrgyz languages

2.1 The category of number in English and Kyrgyz languages

Number is the grammatical category of the noun which shows whether we speak of the thing or of more than one. Accordingly, there are two numbers: the singular and plural. The singular is that form of the noun which denotes either one object (a book, a boy) or an indivisible whole (snow, friendship, foliage). The plural is that form of the noun which indicates more than one object (books, boys). When nouns are used only in the plural, the form of the plural gas collective meaning (sweepings, belongings, tidings) or indicates composite objects (scissors, eye-glasses, trousers). (A. Ganshina, V.M.Vasilevskaya, English grammar, 1964). Modern English, as most other languages, distinguishes between two numbers, singular and plural. The essential meaning of singular and plural seems clear enough: the singular number shows that one is meant. Thus, the opposition is "one - more than one". This holds good for many nouns: table - tables, pupil - pupils, dog - dogs, etc. However, language facts are not always so simple as that. The category of number in English nouns gives rise to several problems which claim special attention. (B. Ilyish, the Structure of Modern English, 1965). First of all, it is to be noted that there is some difference between, say, three houses and three hours. Where as three houses are three separate objects existing side by side, three hours are a continuous period of time measured by a certain agreed unit of duration. The same, of course, would apply to such expressions as three miles, three acres, etc. If we now turn to such plurals as waters (e.g. "A Daughter of the snows", the title of ; a story by Jack London), we shall see that we are drifting further away from the original meaning of the plural number. In the first place, no numeral could be used with nouns of this kind. We cannot say how many waters we mean when we use this | noun in the plural number. What, then, is the real difference in meaning between } water and waters, snow and snows, etc.? It of fairly obvious that the plural form in ; every case serves to denote a vast stretch of water (e. g. An ocean), or of snow, or rather or ground covered by snow (e. G. In the arctic regions of Canada) etc. In the case of water and waters we can press the point still further and state that the water of the Atlantic refers to its physical or chemical properties (e. g. The water of the Atlantic contains a considerable portion of salt), where as the waters of the Atlantic 1 refers to a geographical idea: it denotes a seascape and gas, as such, a peculiar I stylistic value which the water of the

30 Atlantic certainly lacks. So we see that between I the singular and the plural an additional difference of meaning has developed. Now, the difference between the two numbers may increase to such a degree that the plural form develops a completely new meaning which the singular has not got at f all. Thus, for example, the plural form colors has the meaning "banner" which is I restricted to the plural (e.g. to serve under the colures of liberty). In a similar manner, the plural attentions has acquired the meaning "wooing" (pay attentions to a young lady). A considerable amount of examples in point have been collected by O.Jespersen. Number is the form of the noun which shows whether one or more than one object is meant. (E. Gordon, I.P. Krylova, A Grammar of present - day english, 1980). Some nouns in English may have the singular and the plural forms (e.g. room - rooms, work - workers, lesson - lessons). Other nouns are nouns are used either only en the singular (e.g. freedom, progress, machinery, steel, milk) or only in the plural (e.g. spectacles, goods, billiards). The plural of most nouns is most nouns is built up by means of the s u f f i x - s o r es. It is pronounces [z] after vowels and voiced consonants (e.g. books, coats) and [iz] after sibilants (e.g. horses, roses, judges, brushes). It should be noted that some nouns in the plural change the pronunciation of their final consonants: [s] > [ziz] (e.g. house - houses) and [9]> [3z] (e.g. bath - baths, mouth - mouths, pat - paths, truth - truths, youth - youths). In writing the following spelling rules should be observed. The suffix - es is added to nouns ending in s, sh, ch, x and z (e.g. glass - glasses, brush - brushes, watch - watches, box - boxes). It is also added to nouns ending in preceded by a consonant (e.g. tomato - tomatoes, potato potatoes, hero - heroes). But if a noun ends in preceded by a vowel or it happens to be a noun of foreign origin, only - s is added (e.g. cuckoo - cuckoos, radio - radios, piano - pianos, kilo - kilos, photo - photos). Nouns ending in preceded by a consonant change the into ies (e.g. story - stories, fly-flies, country - countries). But if a noun ends in preceded by a vowel, only - s is added (e.g. key - keys, boy -boys, day days). The following nouns ending in f or fe have the ending - ves in the plural: wife - wives, life - lives, thief -thieves, half - halves. But other nouns ending if f or fe take only - s in the plural (e.g. roof - roofs, cliff cliffs, gulf gulfs, proof - proofs, safe - safes, grief - griefs, cuff - cuffs, belief - beliefs).

31 The following nouns gave both forms in the plural: scarf - scafs (scarfes, wharf- wharfs) wharves, hoof - hoofs (hooves, handkerchief- handkerchiefs) handkerchiefs. There a number of nouns in English which form their plural in an irregular way. A few nouns form their plural by a change of vowel. They are: man - men, woman -women, tooth teeth, foot - feet, mouse - mice, goose - geese, louse - lice. Notice also the peculiar plural form in the nouns: ox - oxen, child - children, brother - brethren (= not blood relations, but members of the same society). A few nouns gave the same form for the singular and the plural: a sheep - sheep, a swine - swine, a deer - deer, a fish - fish, a craft - craft, a counsel - counsel (= legal adviser, barrister). The following nouns ending in s in the singular remain unchanged in the plural: a means - means, a works - works, a barracks - barracks, a headquarters - headquarters, a series - series, a species species. Some nouns borrowed from other languages, especially from Greek and Latin, keep their foreign plural forms. These nouns are mostly found in scientific prose. They are: agendum - agenda, analysis - analyses, bacterium - bacteria, basis - bases, crisis - crises, criterion - criteria, datum data, hypothesis - hypotheses, phenomenon - phenomena, stratum - strata, thesis - theses. Some other nouns have the new English plural alongside of the original foreign one: curriculum curriculums / curriala, formula - formulas/ formulae, memorandum - memorandum/ memoranda. With compound nouns it is usually the final component that is made plural (e.g. bookcase bookcases, writing table - writing tables, tooth brush - tooth brushes, handful - handfuls, drawback - drawbacks, forget-me - forget-me-nots, postman - postmen, Englishman - Englishmen). In a few nouns the first component is made plural (e.g. father-in-law - fathers-in- law, commanderin-chief - commanders-in-chief, passer-by - passers-by, court martial - courts-martial). When the first component is man or woman, the plural is expressed twice (e.g. man servant-men servants, woman doctor-women doctors). 5 Pluralia Tantum and Singularia Tantum We must also consider here two types of nouns differing from all others in the way of number: they have not got the usual two number forms, but only one form, the nouns which have only a plural and no singular are usually termed "pluralia tantum" (which is the Latin for "plural only"). Among the pluralia tantum are the nouns trousers, scissors, tongs, pincers, breeches, environs, outskirts, dregs. As is obvious from these examples, they include nouns of two types. On the one hand there are the nouns which denote material objects consisting of two halves (trousers, scissors,

1.

E.M.Gordon, I.P.Krylova, A Grammar of present - day English, 1980

2. ., , : 1947.

32 etc); on the other, there are those which denote a more or less indefinite plurality (e.g. environs 'areas surrounding someplace on all sides'; dregs 'various small things remaining at the bottom of a vessel after the liquid has been poured out of it' etc.). Close to this group of pluralia tantum nouns are also some names of sciences, e.g. mathematics, phonetics, also politics, and some names of diseases, e.g. measles, mumps, rickets. The reason forthis seems to be that, for example, mathematics embrace a whole series of various scientific disciplines, and measles are accompanied by the appearance of a number of separate inflamed spots on the skin (rash). However, the reasons are less obvious in the case of phonetics, for instance. Now, it is typical of English that some of these pluralia tantum may, as it were, cease to be plural. They may occasionally, or even regularly, be accompanied by the indefinite article, and if they are the subject of a sentence the predicate verb may stand in the singular. The possibility of treating a plural form as if it were singular is also seen in the use of the phrase the United Nations, which may, when it is the subject of a sentence, gave the predicate verb in the singular, e.g. the United Nations is a world organization. Examples of a phrase including a noun is the plural being modified by a pronoun is the singular and thus shown to be apprehended as a singular are by no means rare. Here are a few typical examples. I myself still wonder at that six weeks of calm madness... the unity of the period of time, measured in the usual units of months, weeks, and days, is thus brought out very clearly. Bessie, during that twenty-four hours, had spent a night with Alice and a day with Muriel... The unity of the space of time referred to is even more obvious in this example than in the preceding one; twenty-four hours is a commonly received unit of measurement of time. The variant those twenty-four hours would be inappropriate here, as it would imply that the statement was referring to every single hour of the twenty-four taken separately. This way of showing the unity of a certain quantity of space or time by modifying the phrase question by a pronoun in the singular, and also (if the phrase be the subject of the sentence) by using the predicate verb in the singular, appears to be a very common thing in present day English. The direct opposite of pluralia tantum are the singularia tantum, i.e. the nouns which have no plural form. Among these we must first note some nouns denoting material substance, such as milk. Butter, quicksilver, etc., and also names of abstract notions, such as peace, usefulness, incongruity, etc. Nouns of these kind express notions which are, strictly speaking, outside the sphere of number; e.g. milk, or fluency. But in the morphological and syntactical system of the English language a noun cannot stand outside the category of number. If the noun is the subject of a sentence, the predicate verb (if it is in the present tense) will have to be either singular or plural. With the nouns just mentioned the predicate verb is always singular. This is practically the only external sing (alongside of the absence of a plural inflection in the noun itself) which definitely shows the noun

33 to be singular. Some nouns denoting substance, or material, nay have a plural form, if they are used to denote either an object made of the material or a special kind of substance, or an object exhibiting the quality denoted by the noun. Thus, the noun wine, as well as the noun milk, denotes a certain substance, but it has a plural form wines used to denote several special kinds of wine. The noun iron, as well as the noun quicksilver, denotes a metal, but it may be used in the plural if it denotes several objects made of that metal (). The noun beauty, as well as the noun ugliness, denotes a certain quality presented as an object, but it may be used in the plural to denote objects exhibiting that quality, e.g. the beauties of nature; His daughters were all beauties. Many more examples of a similar kind might be found. Accordingly, the nouns wine, iron and beauty cannot be called singularia tantum, athough in their chief application they no more admit of a plural form than milk, quicksilver, or ugliness.6 Collective Nouns and Nouns of Multitude Certain nouns denoting group of human beings (family, government, party, clergy, etc.) and also of animals (cattle, poultry, etc.) can be used in two different ways: either they are taken to denote the group as a whole, and in that case they are treated as singulars, and usually termed "collective nouns" (in a restricted sence of the term); or else they are taken to denote the group as consisting of a certain number of individual human beings (or animals) and in that case they are usually termed "nouns of multitude". The difference between the two applications of such nouns may be briefly exemplified by a pair of examples: My family is small, and My family are good speakers. It is quite obvious here that in the one sentence the characteristic "small" applies to the family as a whole, in the other sentence the characteristic "good speakers" applies to every single member of the family ("everyone of them is a good speaker" is what is meant, but certainly not "everyone of them is small"). The some consideration would also apply to such sentences as. The cattle were grazing en the field. It is also quite possible to say, Many cattle were grazing in the field, where the use of many (not much) clearly shows that cattle is apprehended as-a plural. The following bit of dialogue is curious, as the noun board, which is the subject of the first sentence, is here connected with a predicate verb in the singular, but is replaced by a plural pronoun in the second sentence: "Does the Board know of this?" "Yes", said John, "they fully approve the scheme". (A.Wilson). With the noun people, singular, with its plural peoples (meaning 'nation') and there is, on the other hand, the noun people apprehended as a plural (There were fifty people in the hall) and serving as a king of plural to the noun person (There was only one person in the hall). People can of course be modified by the words many and few and by cardinal numerals (twenty people).

11yish . A. The structure of modern English Moscow: 1965 Leningrad p. 378.

34 In the following sentence the word people is even modified by the phrase attribute one or two, although the numeral one in itself could not possibly by an attribute to the noun people in this sense: One or two people looked at him curiously, but no one said anything. (A.Wilson). Strictly speaking we might expect the phrase one man or two people; however, this variant does not appear to be used anywhere. The perfect possibility of the phrase two people appears to be sufficient ground for making the phrase one or two people possible as well. Recently a peculiar view of the category of number was put forward by A. Isachenko. According to this view, the essential meaning of the category (in nouns) is not that of quantity, but of discreteness. The plural, in this view, expresses fundamentally the notion of something consisting of distinguishable parts, and the meaning of quantity in the usual sense would then appear to be result of combining the fundamental meaning of the category such with the lexical meaning of the noun used in the plural. Thus, in scissors the category of plural number, which, in Isachenko's view, expresses discreteness, combines with the lexical meaning of the noun, which denotes an object consisting of two halves, where as in houses the same meaning of the grammatical category combines with the lexical meaning of the noun, which denotes separate objects, i.e. the plural number in the usual sense of the term. These views put forward by A.Isachenko throw a new light on the problem of number in nouns and certainly deserve close attention. It is yet too early to say whether they can provide a final solution to the complex problem of number in nouns. Except the traditional using forms of singular and plural nouns in Kyrgyz language. There are other peculiarities, which belong just to the number category of nouns: Nouns used only in singular. Nouns used only in plural form. Nouns used only in singular and plural forms.

1. Nouns used only in singular. Some nouns cannot join with the numerals. Therefore they haven't plural form, they are expressed only in singular. Nouns used just in singular are divided into two groups: 1 To first group belong nouns which are used just in singular and denote: 1. names of places, space or intervals of something: - up, - down, - inside, - back, - side, - middle, - opposite, - beginning, - end. 2. names of general politic students, science, processes: , , , , , , , . . 3. names of internal feelings: - gladness, - offence, -haste, -thinking.

35 4. names of sings, actions and states: - beaty, - cleanness, laziness, - walking, - coming, - sip, - dream, - mind etc. 5. Proper names. They are not used in plural form, though sometimes, names of the people and places have the affix of plural form when they are in the similar members. Compare: , , - Akmat, Aisha and Esenkul came to us. Here the from of plural number expresses the notion of similarity and totality, but not plurality. 2. To second group belong nouns, which are used in singular form, but combine with the affix of plurality - . They express not plurality of objects, but their several types or sorts. They are: a) Words denoting (part of) body parts of people, animals, insects: - hand, hands; hands (but different in hands), - foot, feet; - feet (different), - eye, eyes; eyes (the same), - wing, wings; - wings (the same), - head, heads; heads (the same) etc. b) Words denoting names of plants, foods, fruits, meals: - hay, grass; grasses (different kinds of grasses), - poplar, poplars; - poplars (different kinds), - wheat, wheats; - wheats (different sorts), - millet, sort of millet; - millet (different sorts), - apple, apples; - apples (different sorts), - bread, breads; - breads (different types) etc. c) names of substances: - oil, - oils (different sorts), - sugar, - sugars (different sorts), - flour, - flours (different sorts), cyy water, - waters (different: mineral, ordinary) etc.

Nouns used only in plural Some nouns, even they don't take affix of plurality, but express the totality of some persons or objects and phenomenona. To this group belong the nouns, formed by means of addiugs of word bases. They called compound or couple words: - daughters-in-law, - girls, - - village and all the places and people who belong to this village. - tea and all the necessary thiugs for tea etc. But these nouns may be combined with the affix of plural form -, when underlined their plurality. Melioranskiy wrote about this: " For expressing plurality of this kyrgyz people sometimes (specialty in conversation) put one and the same word two times, changing in the second word first sound to "m", for example, -, -, -, -, -, - , , -, -.

36 Sometimes the first sound of the second word is changed to "n" and "", -, -, -, -, -, -, - , -, -, -.

Nouns used in both. Singular and plural. To the nouns which are used in both singular and plural forms belong countable nouns, L e nouns which we can count: 1) Names of people, their posts, ranks, professions, associations, establishments: - agriculturist or agronomist, - agronomists, - man, - people, - pupil, - pupils, - child, - children, - school, - schools, - artel, - artels, - establishment, - establishments, - sergeant, - sergeants, - mother, - mothers, - comrade, - comrades, - enemy, - enemies, 2) Names of animals and other living beings: - horse, - horses, - stallion, - stallions, - cow, - cows, - dog, - dogs, - fish, - fishes, - ant, - ants, - rabbit, - rabbits, - fly, - flies - lion, - lions, etc. 1. Common names of separate count objects, instruments, buildings, rivers, lakes and stars: -table, - tables, - book, - books, - axe, - axes, - house, - houses, -plant, - plants,

37 - collective farm, - collective farms, - mountain range, - mountain ranges,

TOO-mountain,

- mountains,

river, - rivers, -, - lakes, etc. 2. Names of natural phenomena: night, - nights, - day, - days, - lightning, - lightnings, - earthquake, - earthquakes, etc. In short, all the nouns which can be counted are used in plural and ( at the same) in singular also.

2.2 Formation of plural form of nouns. The plural form of nouns in Kyrgyz language forms by means of the affix of plural number"-" (-, -, -, -, -, -, -, -, -, -, - ). The affix "-" exists from the ancient times and we can meet this affix in all turkie languages. In memorandum - books of ancient Turkie writings we can meet two kinds of affixes of plural number (-, -). For example: - my princesses, - my chiels. The affix " -" in Kyrgyz language has following variants, which are conditioned by phonetic peculiarities of Kyrgyz language. If the stem end in following sounds: Vowel in the last sullable of the stem: vowel, , p voiced consonants, , , , , , e, , - - - - - - , , voiceless except , p

38 - - - - - -

The affix plural form, joining with the stem, derivative and compound basis of words, gives them following meaniugs: a. From the singular nouns forms plural: child, - children, - farmer, - farmers, - school, - schools, - tortoise, - tortoises, - establishment, - establishments. i. To the nouns, which express plurality, totality of objects gives the meaning of reinforcement and denote their different kinds, sorts types. - - cloth, - - clothes (different kinds), - - parents, - parents (parents of different persons), - - old man and old woman, - - old men and old women, - set of dishes, - sets of dishes, - - children, - - kiddies (reinforcement of plural forms) - - girls, - - girls, unmarried women etc. 3, Some uncountable nouns in plural form express the objects of generic notions and their different classes or kinds: - fruit, - different sorts of fruits, - cattle, - different kinds of catties, - flour, - different sorts flours, -meat, - meats (different sorts of meats), - wool, - wools (different kinds sorts of wools), iron, - iron (in different quality), - sugar, - sugar (different types), - oil, - oils (different types). 1. The names of tribes, people, nationalities, show members of society: opyc - russian, russians, - kazahk, - kazahks, - dungan, - dungans, - tajic, - tajics etc. 2. From the names of families or tribes forms the names of people who belong to this tribe: - the name of the tribe (from the name ), -

39 soltos. . Solts live in Chuy. - - There are Bugus also in Isyk-Kul (from the name Bugu - name of the tribe) etc. 3. From the proper names of people form the nouns showing their I adherents: I - All Asans relatives, friends came. 4. Sometimes from the proper names of places forms names of inhabitants: inhabitants of Moscow, - inhabitants of Osh etc. The agreement of numbers is not necessary in Kyrgyz language. Subject and predicate of the sentence make agree in numbers in following cases. a. If the subject is in singular, so the predicate is also in singular. -

Asan came. If the subject is expressed by the word which denotes the generic notion, so in this case the predicate may not be agreed. -Oguzes came (came together) If the subject expresses the plural form, without affixes, so the predicate may be agreed morphologicaly or not agreed with the subject. - - Children came (came together), - - children came (came separately) b. if the subject is expressed in plural form, so the predicate also may be agreed or not agreed with it in number. - students came (came together) - students came (came separately) etc. c. if the subject expresses the name of an animal and given in plural form, the predicate is not agreed in number: - Horses came from pasture - is wrong.7 2.3 The category of case in English and Kyrgyz languages The category of case of nouns is the system of opposites (such as girlgirl's in English, () in Russian) showing the relations of the noun to other words in speech. Case relations reflect the relations of the substances the nouns name to other substances, actions, states, etc. in the world of reality. In the sentence I took John's hat by mistake the case of the noun John's shows its relation to the noun hat, which is some reflection of the relations
7

1.

.. . : 1994;

2. . , : , 1964272

40 between John and his hat in reality. Case is one of those categories which show the close connection: (a) between language and speech, (b) between morphology and syntax. (a) A case opposite is, like any other opposite, a unit of the language system, but the essential difference between the members of a case opposite is in their combinability in speech. This is particularly clear in a language like Russian with a developed case system. Compare, for instance, the combinability of the nominative case and that of the oblique cases. See also the difference in the combinability of each oblique case: , , , , etc. We can see here that the difference between the cases is not so much a matter of meaning as a matter of combinability. It can be said that , etc. are united paradigmatically in the Russian language on the basis of their syntagmatic differences in speech. Similarly, the members of the case opposite John John's are united paradigmatically on the basis of their syntagmatic differences. Naturally, both members of an English noun case opposite have the features of English nouns, including their combinability. Thus, they may be divceded by an article, an adjective, a numeral, a pronoun, etc. a student. the student, a good student, his brother, the two brothers, a student's the student's a good student's his brother's the two brothers'

Yet, the common case grammemes are used in a variety of combinations where the possessive case grammemes do not, as a rule, occur. In the following examples, for instance, John's or boys' can hardly be substituted for John or boys: John saw the boys, The boys were seen by John, It was owing to the boys that, The boys and he, etc. (b) Though case is a morphological category it has a distinct syntactical significance. The common case grammemes fulfil a number of syntactical functions not typical of possessive case grammemes, among them the functions of subject and object. The possessive case noun is for the most part employed as an attribute. All case opposites are identical in content: they contain two particular meanings, of 'common' case and 'possessive' case, united by the general meaning of the category, that of 'case'. There is not much variety in the form of case opposites either, which distinguishes English from Russian. An English noun lexeme may contain two case opposites at most (man man's, men men's).

41 Some lexemes have but one opposite (England England's, cattle cattle's). Many lexemes have no case opposites at all (book, news, foliage), In the opposite dog dog's, men men's, the 'common' case is not marked, i.e. dog and men have zero morphemes of 'common case'. The 'possessive' case is marked by the suffix -'s /-s, z, iz/. In the opposite dogs dogs.' the difference between the opposites is marked only in writing. Otherwise the two opposites do not differ in form. So with regard to each other they are-not marked. Thus, -'s is the only positive case morpheme of English nouns. It would be no exaggeration to say that the whole category' depends on this morpheme. As already mentioned, with regard to the category of case English nouns fall under two lexicongrammatical subclasses: declinable, having case opposites, and indeclinable, having no case opposites. The subclass of declinable is comparatively limited, including mostly nouns denoting living beings, also time and distance. Indeclinable like book, iron, care have, as a norm, only the potential (or oblique, or lexicongrammatical) meaning of the common case. But it is sometimes actualized when a case opposite of these words is formed in speech, as in The book's philosophy is old-fashioned. (The Tribune, Canada). As usual, variants of one lexeme may belong to different subclasses. Youth meaning 'the state of being young' belongs to the indeclinable. Its variant youth meaning 'a young man' has a case opposite (The youth's candid smile disarmed her. Black and belongs to the declinable. Since both cases and divpositions show 'relations of substances', some linguists speak of analytical cases in Modern English. To the student is said to be an analytical dative case (equivalent, for instance, to the Russian ), of the student is understood as an analytical genitive case (equivalent to ), by the student as an analytical instrumental case (cf. ), etc. The theory of analytical cases seems to be unconvincing for a number of reasons. 1. In order to treat the combinations of the student, to the student, by the student as analytical words (like shall come or has come) we must regard of, to, with as grammatical word-morphemes. But then they are to be devoid of lexical meaning, which they are not. Like most words a divposition is usually polysynaptic and each meaning is singled out in speech, in a sentence or a wordcombination. Cf. to speak of the student, the speech of the student, news of the student, it was kind of the student, what became of the student, etc. In each case of shows one of its lexical meanings. Therefore it cannot be regarded as a grammatical word-morpheme and the combination of the student cannot be treated as an analytical word. 2. A grammatical category, as known, is redivsented in opposites comprising a definite number of

42 members. Combinations with different divpositions are too numerous to be interdivted as opposites redivsenting the category of case. The number of cases in English becomes practically unlimited. 3. Analytical words usually form opposites with synthetic ones (comes came will come). With divpositional constructions it is different. They are often synonymous with synthetic words. E. g. the son of my friend = my friend's son; the wall of the garden = the. garden wall. On the other hand, divpositional constructions can be used side by side with synthetic cases, as in that doll of Mary's, a friend of John's. If we accepted the theory of analytical cases, we should see in of John's a double-case word, which would be some rarity in English, there being 'no double-tense words nor double-aspect words and the like. 4. There is much subjectivity in the choice of divpositions supposed to form analytical cases. Grammarians usually point out those divpositions whose meanings approximate to the meanings of some cases in other languages or in Old English. But the analogy with other languages or with an older stage of the same language does not prove the existence of a given category in a modern language. Therefore we think it unjustified to speak of units like to the student, of the student, etc. as of analytical cases. They are combinations of nouns in the common case with divpositions. The morpheme -'s, on which the category of case of English nouns depends, differs in some respects from other grammatical morphemes of the English language and from the case morphemes of other languages. As emphasized by B.A. Ilyish , -'s is no longer a case inflexion in the classical sense of the word. Unlike such classical inflexions, -'s may be attached a) b) to adverbs (of substantial origin), as in yesterday's events, to word-groups, as in Mary and John's apartment, our professor of literature's unexpected

departure, c) even to whole clauses, as in the well-worn example the man I saw yesterday's son. . A. Ilyish comes to-the conclusion that the -'s morpheme gradually develops into a form-word, a kind of particle serving to convey the meaning of belonging, possession. G.N. Vorontsova does not recognize s as a case morpheme at all. The reasons she puts forward to substantiate her point of view are as follows: 1) 2) 3) The use of -'s is optional (her brother's, of her brother). It is used with a limited group of nouns outside which it occurs very seldom. -'s is used both in the singular and in the plural (child's, children's), which is not incident to

case morphemes (cf. -, -). 4) It occurs in very few plurals, only those with the irregular formation of the plural member

43 (oxen's but cows'). 5) -'s does not make an inseparable part of the structure of the word. It may be placed at some

distance from the head-noun of an attributive group. Been reading that fellow what's his name's attacks in the 'Sunday Times'? (Bennett). Proceeding from these facts G.N. Vorontsova treats -'s as a 'postposition', a 'purely syntactical formword resembling a divposition', used as a sign of syntactical dependence. In keeping with this interdivtation of the -'s morpheme the author denies the existence of cases in Modern English. At divsent, however, this extreme point of view can hardly be accepted. The following arguments tend to show that -'s does function as a case morpheme. 1. The -'s morpheme is mostly attached to individual nouns e, not noun groups. According to our statistics this is observed in 96 per cent of examples with this morpheme. Instances like The man I saw yesterday's son are very rare and may be interdivted in more ways than one. As already mentioned, the demarcation line between words and combinations of words is very vague in English. A word-combination can easily be made to function as one word. Cf. a hats-cleaned-by-electricity-while-you-wait establishment (O. Henry), the eighty-year-olds (D.W.). In the last example the plural morpheme s is in fact attached to an adjective word-combination, turning it into a noun. It can be maintained that the same morpheme s likewise substantives the group of words to which it is attached, and we get something like the man-1-saw-yesterday's son. 2. 3. Its general meaning the relation of a noun to an other word is a typical case meaning. The fact that -'s occurs, as a rule, with a more or less limited group of words bears testimony

to its not being a divposition-like form word. The use of the divposition is determined, chiefly, by the meaning of the divposition itself and not by the meaning of the noun it introduces (Cf. n the table, in the table, under the table, over the table etc.) 4. The fact that the possessive case is exdivssed in oxen oxen's by -'s and in cows cows' by

zero cannot serve as an argument against the existence of cases in English nouns because -'s and zero are here forms of the same morpheme a) b) 5. Their meanings are identical. Their distribution is complementary. As a minor argument against the view that -'s is a divposition-like word, it is pointed out

that -'s differs phonetically from all English divpositions in not having a vowel, a circumstance limiting its independence. Yet, it cannot be denied that the peculiarities of the -'s morpheme are such as to admit no doubt of its being essentially different from the case morphemes of other languages. It is evident that the

44 case system of Modern English is undergoing serious changes.

There are six cases in Kyrgyz language. They are following: 1. . There are no affixes. Answers questions: ? Who? What? 2. . Aff:-, -, -, -, -, -, -, -, -, Answers questions:? Whom? Whose? ? what? 3. Aff: -,, , , -, - - -, -, , -, -, -. Answers question (? Whom? ? What?) 4. . Aff: -. -, -, -, -, -, -, , -, Answers questions: ? whom? ? - what? where? 5. . Aff.r-, -, , -, - , -, -. Answers questions: ? where? ? - at whom? ? - at what? Where? 6. . Aff: , -, -, - -, -. -, , -, -, -, - . Answers questions:? - from whom? ? - from what? ? - from where?

l)Words ending with vowels. Examples with wide vowels Examples with narrow 1: vowels Too

45

5) Words ending with voice consonants I? I, .

Examples with narrow consonants E. IT. I. . .

) Words ending with voiceless consonants : A AT . , . I. . .

examples with narrow consonants: l .

46 2.4 The Category of Number of English Nouns The category of number of English nouns is the system of opposites (such as girl girls, foot feet, etc.) showing whether the noun stands for one object or more than one, in other words, whether its grammatical meaning is 'oneness' or 'more-than-oneness' of objects. The connection of the category with the world of material reality, though indirect, is quite transparent. Its meanings reflect the existence of individual objects and groups of objects in the material world. All number opposites are identical in content: they contain two particular meanings of 'singular' and 'plural' united by the general meaning of the category, that of 'number'. But there is a considerable variety of form in number opposites, though it is not so great as in the Russian language. An English noun lexeme can contain two number opposites at most (toy boys, boy's boys'). Many lexemes have but one oppose me (table tables) and many others have no opposites at all (ink, news). In the opposite boy boys 'singularity' is exdivssed by a zero morpheme and 'plurality' is marked by the positive morpheme /-z/, in spelling .s. In other words, the 'singular' member of the opposite is not marked, and the 'plural' member is marked. In the opposite boy's boys' both members have positive morphemes s, s, but these morphemes can be distinguished only in writing. In the spoken language their forms do not differ, so with regard to each other they are unmarked. They can be distinguished only by their combinability (cf. a boy's head, boys' heads). In a few noun lexemes of foreign origin both members of a number opposite are marked, e.g. symposium symposia, genus genera, phenomenonphenomena, etc. But in the process of assimilation this peculiarity of foreign nouns gets gradually lost, and instead of medium media a new opposite develops, medium mediums; instead of formula formulae, the usual form now is formula formulas. In this process, as we see, the foreign grammatical morphemes are neglected as such. The plural morpheme is dropped altogether. The 'singular' morpheme becomes part of the stem. Finally, the regular s ending is added to form the 'plural' opposite. As a result the 'singular' becomes unmarked, as typical of English, and the 'plural' gets its usual mark, the suffix s. Since the 'singular' member of a number opposite is not marked, the form of the opposite is, as a rule, determined by the form of the 'plural' morpheme, which, in its turn, depends upon the stem of the lexeme. In the overwhelming majority of cases the form of the 'plural' morpheme is /-s/, /-z/, or /-z/, in spelling (e) s, e. g, books, boys, matches. With the stem ox the form of the 'plural' morpheme is en /-n/.

47 In the opposite manmen the form of the 'plural' morpheme is the vowel change / > e/. In woman women ii is /u > i/, in foot feet it is /u i:/, etc. In child children the form of the 'plural' morpheme is complicated. It consists of the vowel change /ai > i/ and the suffix ren. In sheep sheep the 'plural' is not marked, thus coinciding in form with the 'singular'. They can be distinguished only by their combinability: one sheep, five sheep, a sheep was, sheep were, this sheep, these sheep. The 'plural' coincides in form with the 'singular' also in deer, fish, carp, perch, trout, cod, salmon, etc. All the 'plural' forms enumerated here are forms of the same morpheme. This can be proved, as we know, by the identity of the 'plural' meaning, and the complementary distribution of these forms, i.e. the fact that different forms are used with different stems. As already mentioned, with regard to the category of number English nouns fall into two subclasses: countable and uncountable. The former have number opposites, the latter have not. Uncountable nouns are again subdivided into those having no plural opposites and those having no singular opposites. Nouns like milk, geometry, self-possession having no plural opposites are usually called by a Latin name singularia tantum. Nouns like outskirts, clothes, goods having no singular opposites are known as pluralia tantum. As a matter of fact, those nouns which have no number opposites are outside the grammatical category of number. But on the analogy of the bulk of English nouns they acquire oblique (or lexicon-grammatical) meanings of number. Therefore singularia tantum are often treated as singulars and pluralia tantum as plurals. This is justified both by their forms and by their combinability. Cf. This (table, book, milk, love) is These (tables, books, clothes, goods) are When combinability and form contradict each other, combinability is decisive, which accounts for the fact that police or cattle are regarded as plurals, and measles, mathematics as singulars. The lexicon-grammatical meaning of a class (or of a subclass) of words is, as we know, an abstraction from the lexical meanings of the words of the class, and depends to a certain extent on those lexical meanings. Therefore singularia tantum usually include nouns of certain lexical meanings. They are mostly material, abstract and collective nouns, such as sugar, gold, butter, brilliance, constancy, selfishness, humanity, soldiery, peasantry. Yet it is not every material, abstract or collective noun that belongs to the group of singularia tantum (e. g. a plastic, a feeling, a crowd) and, what is more important, not in all of its meanings does a noun belong to this group.

48 As we have already seen, variants of the same lexeme may belong to different subclasses of a part of speech. In most of their meanings the words joy and sorrow as abstract nouns are singularia tantum. E.g. He has been a good friend both in joy and in srw. (Horney). But when concrete manifestations are meant, these nouns are countable and have plural opposites, e. g. the joys and sorrows of life. Likewise, the words copper, tin, hair as material nouns are usually singularia tantum, but when they denote concrete objects, they become countable and get plural opposites: a copper coppers, a tin tins, a hair hairs. Similarly, when the nouns wine, steel, salt denote some sort or variety of the substance, they become countable. E.g. an expensive wine expensive wines. All such cases are not a peculiarity of the English language alone. They are found in other languages as well. Cf. and .is a material noun, and as a collective noun. Joy and a joy, beauty and a beauty, copper and a copper, hair and a hair and many other pairs of this kind are not homonyms, as suggested by some grammarians, but variants of lexemes related by internal conversion. If all such cases were regarded as homonyms, the number of homonyms in the English language would be practically limitless. If only some of them were treated as homonyms, that would give rise to uncontrolled subjectivity. The group of pluralia tantum is mostly composed of nouns denoting objects consisting of two or more parts, complex phenomena or ceremonies, e. g. tongs, pincers, trousers, nuptials, obsequies. Here also belong some nouns with a distinct collective or material meaning, e.g. clothes, eaves, sweets. Since in these words the s suffix does not function as a grammatical morpheme, it gets lexicalized and develops into an inseparable part of the stem. This, probably, underlies the fact that such nouns as mathematics, optics, linguistics, mumps, measles are treated as singularia tantum. Nouns like police, militia, cattle, poultry are pluralia tantum, judging by their combinability, though not by form. People in the meaning of is a countable noun. In the meaning of it belongs to the pluralia tantum. Family in the sense of a group of people who are related is a countable noun. In the meaning of individual members of this group it belongs to the pluralia tantum. Thus, the lexeme family has two variants:

49 Sg. 1) 2) family PL families family

E. g. Almost every family in the village has sent a man to the army. (Horney). Those were the oldest families in Jorkshire. (Black). Her family were of a delicate constitution. (Bronte). Similar variants are observed in the lexemes committee, government, board, crew, etc. Colour in the meaning red, green, blue, etc. is a countable noun. In the meaning appearance of reality or truth (e. g. His torn clothes gave colour to his story that lie had been attacked by robbers. A. Horney.) it has no plural opposite and belongs to the singularia tantum. Colours in the sense of materials used by painters and artists has no singular opposite and belongs to the pluralia tantum. Thus, the lexeme has three variants: Sg. 1) 2) 3) Pl. colour colour colours colours.

When grammarians write that the lexical meanings of some plurals differ from those of their singular opposites, they simply compare different variants of a lexeme. Sometimes variants of a lexeme may belong to the same lexico-grammatical subclass and yet have different forms of number opposemes. Cf. brother (son of same parents) brothers brother (fellow member) brethren fish fish (e.g. I caught five fish yesterday.) fish fishes ('different species', e. g. ocean fishes). A collective noun is a word that designates a group of objects or beings regarded as a whole, such as flock, team, or corporation. Although many languages treat collective nouns as singular, in others they may be interdivted as plural. In British English, phrases such as the committee are meeting are common (the so-called agreement in sensu in meaning, that is, with the meaning of a noun, rather than with its form). The use of this type of construction varies with dialect and level of formality. All languages are able to specify the quantity of referents. They may do so by lexical means with words such as English a few, some, one, two, five hundred. However, not every language has a grammatical category of number. Grammatical number is exdivssed by morphological and/or syntactic means. That is, it is indicated by certain grammatical elements, such as through affixes or number words. Grammatical number may be thought of as the indication of semantic number

50 through grammar. Languages that exdivss quantity only by lexical means lack a grammatical category of number. For instance, in Khmer, neither nouns nor verbs carry any grammatical information concerning number: such information can only be conveyed by lexical items such as 'some', pii-bey 'a few', and so on. Most languages of the world have formal means to exdivss differences of number. The most widesdivad distinction, as found in English and many other languages, involves a simple two-way number contrast between singular and plural (car / cars; child / children, etc.). Other more elaborate systems of number are described below.8 2.5 The category of Gender in English and its similarities and differences in Kyrgyz languages In Russian the category of gender is a grammatical division of nouns into three classes: masculine, feminine and neuter shown by the form of the noun itself: (masculine), (feminine), (neuter). Adjectives do not form any gender classes by themselves, they agree in gender with the noun which they modify: , , . The same concerns pronouns: , , . Nouns denoting living beings refer to the masculine or feminine gender according to the natural sex distinctions- Names of things and abstract notions may refer to all the three genders: neuter, masculine or feminine. When they belong to the masculine or famine gender, the indication of gender is merely formal (grammatical) without any reference to actual sex distinctions. In Modern English there is no grammatical gender. The noun does not possess any special gender forms, neither does the accompanying adjective, pronoun or article indicate any gender agreement with the head-noun: a little boy a little girl, a little room. .'

What is still traditionally called gender in English is a division of nouns into three classes according to their lexical meaning: masculine (referred to as he) names of male beings; feminine (referred to as she) names of female beings; neuter (referred to as //) names of lifeless things and abstract notions: Masculine: father, boy, brother. Feminine: mother, girl, sister. Neuter: table, lamp, Mness, friendship. The only exceptions are the nouns child and baby which are sometimes referred to as The child has broken its toy. ...she took the baby out of its cradle, and nursed it. (Dickens.) Thus we see that gender in English is expressed lexically by means of different
8

Close R.A. Reference Grammar for student of English; London, 1977.

51 words: father, mother, book. There is practically only one gender-forming suffix in English the suffixes expressing feminine gender. Its chief use is to distinguish persons (host hostess, heir heiressj and a few animals (lion lioness, tiger tigress}. 3. There are nouns which may be applied to both males and females:

1) human 2)

beings: teacher, doctor, friend, servant, parent neighbor, stranger, student, clerk,

novelist, etc.; animals: wolf elephant, bear, sparrow, eagle, etc.;

When it is desirable to restrict those nouns to one sex, a word; is added denoting the sex and thus forming a compound:

3)

girl-friend, boy-friend; man-servant, maid-servant; girl-student; woman (or female)-novelist,

women-voters, woman-clerk;

4) he-wolf

she-wolf; male-elephant, female-elephant; cock-sparrow,

hen-sparram- Sometimes

proper nouns are used with the names of animals to the sex: jack-ass, jenny-ass; billy-goat, nanny-goat; tom-cat. In this case the proper name is not capitalized. Ruth's two girl-cousins were visiting her... (London.) A large she-Bear, with a couple of cubs appeared... (Seton-Thompson.) Words indicating professions which formerly were used with Reference only to male beings are now used as well when speaking of women owing to the extension of the activities of women in all fields: doctor, engineer, journalist, foreman, director, tractor-driver, mechanic: My daughter is a mechanic. Ann is a pilot. Gender of Nouns Denoting Animals 1. All nouns denoting animals may be considered neuter (referred to as it): The horse stood where it was stopped, without movement... (Galsworthy.) ...a large old pointer dog rested its massive head on the knee of one girl... (Bronte.) In its toral state the hedgehog ;is nocturnal. (Chambers.) He pushed the dog aside, but it ame leaping back. (Lawrence.) Unspoken language there is a tendency to associate the names of animals with the feminine or masculine gender: When the noun indicates the sex of the animal it is generally spoken of as he or fasculine: lion, tiger, bull; also with proper names of animals: Rover, Jack. !eminine: lioness, tigress, cow; Jenny. .the lion roared again and Francis thought he was just at the edge of camp, pemingway.) On the window-sill, ...the little dog Carmen was rolling her eyes. Galsworthy.) The bull lowered his head

52 and made rumbling noises in his throat. D'Flaherty.) Pilot pricked up his ears when I came in... (Bronte.) Old Tom went to is mare, took up her hoofs one at a time and examined each shoe. (Seton- lompson.) When the sex of the animal is not indicated by the noun, nouns denoting the rger and stronger animals are generally associated with the masculine gender, nouns noting the smaller and weaker with the feminine: asculine: elephant, horse, dog, eagle. Feminine: cat, hare, parrot. it: canary he, fly he. The elephant lifted his mighty trunk. The cat has upset her milk, e eagle left his rocky nest. (Byron.) "Try to get hold of my horse's bridle and lead n to me," (Bronte.) The air was so clear and pleasant, and the horse seemed to like idea of the ride so much himself, as he stood snorting and pawing at the garden e, that I had a great desire to go. (Dickens.) ties of animals are associated with feminine gender when their maternal instinct is irred to: The mother Bear, still on her hind legs, came slowly towards me... (Seton- Thompson.) ...her [the duck's] attention was wholly taken up by her nest and her brood. (Seton-Thompson.) ...a bird Betrays her nest by trying to conceal it. (Byron.) c) In fairy tales and fables the gender of nouns denoting animals depends on the general characteristics ascribed to the animals: "Wait a minute", said the monkey proudly, "I can climb." He ran quickly up the tree and threw the rich ripe fruit to the ground. There was once a fat old cricket, who thought a good deal of himself. He had such a big, shining body, and a way'of chirping so loud, that no one could ever forget where he lived. Next day the Rabbit went to see his friend the Sable (): she had many daughters and forest people always came to see her. Gender of Nouns Denoting Inanimate Things and Abstract Notions (Personification) 1. Sometimes inanimate things and abstract notions are personified and the nouns denoting them are referred to as belonging to the masculine or feminine gender. Here are some traditional associations: 2. The nouns moon and earth are referred to as feminine, sun as masculine: It is pleasant to watch the sun in his chariot of gold, and the moon in her chariot of pearl. (Wilde.) At first the earth was large and shone in the heavens filling a great part of them, but every moment she grew smaller and more distant. (Wells.) People need to rise early to see the sun in all his splendor, for his brightness seldom lasts the day through. (Irving.) The earth awoke from her winter sleep. 3. The names of vessels ship, boat, steamer, etc.) are feminine: ...I walked to the boat, which waited with her nose on the beach. (Conrad.) The ship moved so smoothly that her onward motion was imperceptible to the senses of men ... (Conrad.) As I saw the

53 ship staggering among these roaring caverns, it seemed miraculous that she retained her balance. (Irving.) 4. The names of other vehicles (carriage, coach, car) are also sometimes made feminine by those who work on them: Off she [a carriage] goes! (Dickens.) "Young gentleman goes up by her [a coach]". (Hughes.) 5. The names of countries are usually referred to as feminine, especially when the untry is not considered as a geographical territory: As a fruit-growing country, the Crimea is especially distinguished for her grapes; she can also grow peaches, pears, and plums. France sent her representative to the conference. But: Ireland is an island; on three sides it is washed by the-Atlantic Ocean, e) When abstract notions are personified, the masculine gender is, given to nouns suggesting such ideas as strength, fierceness, etc.. while the feminine is associated with the idea of gentleness, beauty, etc.: Masculine: anger, death, fear, war. Feminine: spring, peace, kindness, dawn. As I heard the waves rushing along the sides of the ship, and roaring in my very ear, it seemed as if death were raging round this floating prison seeking for his prey. (Irving.) So the Hail () came... He was dressed in gray and his breath was like ice. (Wilde.) The Autumn gave golden fruit to every garden, but to the Giant's garden she gave none. (Wild e.) Remembrance wakes with all her busy train. (Goldsmith.) 2. Where there are no traditional associations English poets are free to refer nouns of lifeless things and abstract notions to any gender (masculine or feminine) in case of personification. For instance O. Wilde in The Happy Prince makes the swallow () of masculine gender and the reed () of feminine: One night there flew over the city a little Swallow. His friends had gone away to Egypt six weeks before, but he had stayed behind, for he was in love with the most beautiful Reed. He had met her early in the spring as he was flying down the river after a big yellow moth... (Wilde.) Once there grew a beautiful toadstool (). He grew in the wood under a large tree. The category of a grammatical gender in Kyrgyz language is not exist like in other Turkic languages. But absence of a grammatical gender does not mean that in Kyrgyz language there are no means for expression of a belonging animated subjects toman or woman. Animated subjects have a category of a biological gender important only concerning the persons and some animals and inanimate subjects have no such distinctions. The gender of a noun is expressed by semantics of the given word or his(its) combination in the certain position with in other words, which designate male or female. Compare: - woman, - girl, - young woman, . Same about an animal: - , - , - of birds from breed chicken etc. express a female, (including - of a pheasant).

54 : - husband, man, - stalion - cock - goat - bull (manufacturer) etc. designates a male. The name of degrees of relationship: - mother, - senior sister, - younger sister, (in relation to the person of a female), the younger sister (about the sister of a man), - wife, relative of the mother; - sister of the mother (senior or younger), () - mother -in - law, () - senior sister of the wife or husband etc. designates the name of the persons of a female. Words: - younger brother, ara - senior brother, - father, - father of the mother, - brother of the mother, ara - () - senior brother of the wife or husband, - younger brother of the wife or husband, - son - in - law (husband of a sister), - grandfather or great-grandfather etc. designate names of a male. Some words express gender and simultaneously age of the people: - young relative of the groom, - mother of the bride, groom or their elderly relatives, - old woman, old man, - young woman, - , unmarried man etc. Similar it is found out and in the names of animals: - on the first year, on the second year, - on the third year, , - the horse on the fourth year, - , - on the third year, - camel. Alongside with such names, there are nouns expressing the general(common) name of breed, without expression of a gender. For example: - horse (as the patrimonial name), - hen (as the patrimonial name), - the large horned cattle (as the patrimonial name), - dog (as the patrimonial name) etc. Sometimes such patrimonial names of animated subjects express on a name of a female. For example: - () and simultaneously patrimonial name of breed sheep, goat and simultaneously patrimonial name , - cow and simultaneously patrimonial name etc. For distinction of peculiarities of male of these breeds have their names: ram, - a goat, - bull etc. Besides still there are words, which denote male of animals, but not of the - ram - camel

55 manufacturers: - , -ram (for 2 years), - goat etc. For the majority of animals, birds and insects in Kyrgyz language are not present the parallel names for expression belonging to this or that gender, when their patrimonial distinction (sexual) has no practical meaning(importance): - forty, - snake, - kokoo, - a mosquito etc. If it is necessary to distinguish them by gender, in these cases it will be done by means of special words.9

1. 2.

.. : - 1988.

., .,1969.

56 Conclusion

From the ancient times it was paid a close attention by linguists to the comparative investigation of linguistic peculiarities (phonetic, lexical, grammatical) of two or more cognate and incognate languages and it helped to the forming of comparative historical method in linguistics in XIX centure. The numerous observations and experimental investigation show that the comparative investigation of languages is very effective in learning foreign languages. The comparative typological investigation represents one of the parts of typology. The course of comparative typology of different languages aims to teach the students to show up the most essential typological characteristics of given languages, to show those methods and ways which help to compare the structure of given languages and to take into account components of the structure of learning language which are not in the native language as well as the means used for transferring them in native language of student. The typological investigation has its own history investigation in Kyrgyzstan. A lot of authors typologically investigated Kyrgyz and Russian languages in 60s K.K. Sartbaev, A. Japarov, N. Alpiev, G.I. Morlets, A.I. Vasilev, G.F. Zenkov, V.D. Skirdov, B.D. Muradova, . V. Zakareva, A. Oruzbaeva, K. Chonbashev wrote research works, manuals etc. Later N.K. Salahidinova, B. Kasymova, A. Karymshakov, M. Sagynaliev, J. Judemishev, Z. Karymshakova wrote research works in the materials of these languages. Most Kyrgyz topologists investigated the comparison of Kyrgyz language with other incognate German languages and proved their similarities and differences in the structure. We can include to these typologiest: A. Bekbalaev, A.H. Liss, J. Buranov, Z.Z. Galatulina, V.M. Karpov, K. Umarov, R. Chybekov, A. Joldoshbekov, K. Jumabaev, A.Irsalieva, A.K. Shamenova, T. Tursunaluiev, J. Sydykov, N.S. Satkynaliev, B. Kasymova, Ch. Bayterekova, Ch. Naymanova, Sh. Kadyrova, M. Akchekeev, D. Koziev etc. This work is devoted to the problems of comparative typology - study of noun categories (number, case, gender) in Kyrgyz and English languages. Nouns of the languages are compared not only on the level of a category, but as the main part of speech, all their categories are investigated. It has been revealed that in all the categories of Kyrgyz and English nouns there are some similarities and differences. The meaning of work is not to compare the only category of definite part of speech, but to investigate comparatively the common systems of all grammatical categories of nouns in the materials of these two languages. The noun is completely considered as an object of investigation in this work. It brings a great advantage in science to compare not only the facts but also

57 comparing some phenomena of tightly related with each other so called Microsystems of the language. According to study the noun is a word exdivssing substance in the widest sense of the word. In the concept of substance we include not only names of living beings (e.g. boy, girl, bird) and lifeless things (e.g. table, chair, book), but also names of abstract notions, i.e. qualities, slates, actions (kindness, strength, sleep, fear, conversation, fight), abstracted from their bearers. In speech these types of nouns are treated in different ways, so one, who does not know ways of treatment, can make mistakes in his speech. In our opinion the practical significance of our work is hard to be overvalued. This work reflects modern trends in linguistics and we hope it would serve as a good manual for those who wants to master modern English language. In comparing the number, case, gender categories of these two typologically investigating languages, there are mostly used the materials of the inflected languages. The number and case categories are in equal level in both these two languages but the gender category wasn't founded as a grammatical category in agglutinative languages and among them in kyrgyz also. Kyrgyz language helps in analyzing typologically the Possessive Pronoun and Predicate categories, because this categories are given in English in syntactical way, but wasn't founded as a morphological categories. The main part of our work includes several items. There we discussed such problems as definition of nouns, main features of English and Kyrgyz nouns, their grammatical categories. In the conclusion we tried to draw some results from the scientific investigations made within the main part of our qualification work. In bibliography part we mentioned more than 20 sources of which were used while compiling the divsent work. It includes linguistic books and articles dealing with the theme, a number of used dictionaries and encyclopedias and also some internet sources.

The present work might find a good way of implying in the following spheres: 1. It can be used by teachers of schools, lyceums and colleges by teachers of English as a practical manual for teaching English grammar. 2. It can be useful for everyone who wants to enlarge his/her knowledge in English 3. It can be used by the scientists who based on typological investigation

58 Bibliography 1. -JI, , 1989-239. 2. .. . - : , 1998-254. 3. .. -: . , 1966607. 4. ., . , . , ., . . -: , 1975-287. 5. ., .,1969. 6. .. .- -: , 1955, 2, .66-78. 7. .. ( ). : , 1991.- 162. 8. .. . : 1994; 9. Blokh M.I, A course in theoretical English Grammar, Moskow,1983. p.383. 10. . . . : , 1983, - 267. 11. ., , : 1947. 12. .. - . . , : , 1977- 311. 13. Gordon .. Krylova I.P, A grammar of present day English, Moskov, 1980. p. 335. 14. . I. - : , 1987, - 402. 15. . , : , 1964-272 16. .. - : - , 1994-: - 22 . 17. . - : . , 19: '55, 104 . 18. . - -, . . 50 , 1990,400 .

59 19. ..; ., JI.A. , : 1981 20. ., ., .. - .: 1981. 21. .. . : 1968. 22. 11yish . A. The structure of modern English Moscow: 1965 Leningrad p. 378. 23. Close R.A. Reference Grammar for student of English; London, 1977. 24. 1 . . ; : 1980,539 . 25. .. - 57000 - . 14- :1983-72 26. 26.0 .. : , : 1994-72 . 27. .. ( )- : . . , 1945-43 . 28. - - . .. - 13500 - . 4-, . . - : . , 1988-480 . 29. .. ( )- , , 1975- 196 . 30. . , , ., : 2002 - 2246. 31. .. : 1959 32. .. : - 1988. 33. . : 1934. 34. .. 34. , , . . 35. .. - 40000 .2 , : , 1965-408

1a) Internet sourses: 1. Internet:http://www.englishlanguage.ru/main/definitearticle.htm 2. Internet:http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/adjectives/theory.htm 3. www.yandex.com 4. www.rambler.ru 5. www.google.kg