The category of parts of speech in Russian is the main one in morphology. It is known that they are divided into four classes: independent, official, modal (or introductory) words and interjections. The first also includes the noun. By and large, it can be considered as the main linguistic concept.
Noun as part of speech
Our vocabulary contains a great many words denoting objects, be it people, animals, some things or substances. These are all nouns. In addition, there are also abstract concepts that include personality characteristics, say honesty, kindness, envy; sleep, running around, dance, rest. Such nouns also have the meaning of objectivity and answer the questions "who?" or "what?".
All these words are called animate and inanimate objects, possess such morphological categories as gender, number, and case. In accordance with this, they are divided into three genders (masculine, feminine, middle), vary in numbers (singular and plural), as well as in six cases.
Noun as part of speech has the initial form in the form of the nominative singular: doll, girl, frost, joy, sugar.
The role of the noun in speech
In Russian, for every 100 words there are 40 nouns. They make up 40% of the total lexical composition. This means that almost every second word is an object or concept that answers the questions "who?" or "what?". Therefore, it is difficult to overestimate the role of the noun in speech.
By and large, without this grammatical unit there would be no full communication. Indeed, in the proposal, as a rule, there are relations between objects and relations between them, therefore, practically in each of them there is a noun, and often not one. Well-known linguist V.G. Vetvitsky, defining her as a “conductor of a grammatical orchestra”, each movement of which is monitored by all “orchestra students” - dependent words that inherit its form and are consistent with it.
The polysemy of nouns, and their use as means of linguistic expressiveness (metaphors, epithets, comparisons), and the presence of many not only direct, but also figurative meanings play a large role.
The use of nouns in speech
This category of this part of speech in sentences fulfills the most important function in the formation of the predicative basis. So, a noun can act as the only main member in a sentence. A striking example is A. Blok's quote: “Night. Street. Lamp. Pharmacy…"
The role of a noun in speech is not limited to this. As a predicate, it can be expressed in the form of a nominative case in the so-called two-component sentences: “My sister is a student”, and in the forms of indirect cases it is used as a distributor of the following meanings:
- object ("Masha fills the diary");
- subjective (“The girl was bright and joyful”);
- definitive (“Chef’s office is quite spacious”);
- circumstantial ("We all gathered at the entrance").
Due to the fact that a noun has categories of gender and number, it has the ability to combine with various forms of words consistent with it: beautiful dress (s), beautiful picture (s), beautiful flower (s).
Use specific nouns
Depending on the characteristics of the expressed value, this part of the speech is divided into several groups, among which there are single (pea, straw), material (milk, honey, silver), collective (foliage, sands, beast). But, perhaps, the most numerous and common words in use are nouns, which are among the specific and abstract concepts.
The very phrase “concrete nouns” already adequately determines the content of the group. These are concepts that call various objects, as well as phenomena of reality. One of their peculiarity is that words from the category of specific nouns are perfectly combined with any numerals - both quantitative and ordinal, and collective: two babies, a second baby, two babies; two pencils - the second pencil.
The second feature is the ability to form plural forms: baby - toddlers, pencil - pencils.
The use of abstract nouns
The names of some abstract concepts also represent a solid layer of Russian vocabulary. These words are nouns that name or designate some abstract concepts, actions or conditions (struggle, joy), qualities or properties (morality, goodness, yellowness).
Unlike specific names, abstracts are used only in one form of number - either only singular (silence, brilliance, laughter, evil), or only plural (weekdays, vacations, choices, twilight). Also, they cannot be combined with quantitative numbers. You can’t say: three silences, two brilliance. Some of the abstract nouns can be used with adverbs a lot - a little, a little - a lot, how much: "And brought a lot, a lot of joy to the kids!", "Delivered a lot of trouble", "And how much happiness!"
Sometimes, to indicate a specific manifestation of abstract qualities, you can use the plural form in the following form: frost - January frosts struck, depth - reached the ocean depths, beauty - admired the beauties of nature, etc.
The most common nouns in speech
If you try to analyze the vocabulary of the average Russian, we can conclude about the popularity of certain words used in it. The most commonly used are, so to speak, household nouns. In the speech of any person, the names of household utensils (spoon, knife, fork, pan, frying pan, etc.), food products (bread, milk, sausage, pasta, etc.), words related to work, transportation, by study.
To determine how often a particular name (name, concept) is used in speech, philologists create special dictionaries. In some of them, only nouns are presented, therefore, based on the study of such, certain conclusions can be drawn. Such dictionaries are called frequency dictionaries.
In one of these lists of the thousands of given nouns, the following words were most often found: year, person, time, deed, life, day, hand, work, word, place.
Nouns in a child's speech
From the point of view of scientists, even primitive people, knowing the world around them, studying nature and its phenomena, gave them their names. These names over time were fixed in the language of the tribes, creating its vocabulary. Similarly, nouns appear in a child’s speech. In fact, these are the first words he uttered: mom, dad, woman, kitty, etc. The kid, like ancient people, also eagerly looks around him and wants to know what this or that object is called, and then more complex concepts.
So, over time, associative relationships arise in children , their vocabulary is enriched with new nouns. For example, a child knows what grass is, and then, when it understands that it has a certain color, it also masters the word "greens." The noun “wall”, depending on the material, acquires “flesh” - brick, stone, wood. And these words also gradually enter the vocabulary of the baby.
Conclusion
A noun, denoting an object or phenomenon, calls it in the broad sense of the word. So, it can be the names of objects and things (school desk, notebook, textbook, bookcase), substances (paint, flour, alkali), living things and organisms (human, cat, starling, bacillus), events, phenomena, facts (opera, thunderstorm, joy), geographical names, names and surnames of people, as well as qualities, properties, actions, conditions (kindness, intelligence, walking, drowsiness). All these are vivid examples of the use of nouns.
With their help, it is easy to navigate the streets of the city, reading signs, because the names of institutions and organizations represent this particular part of speech. In the same way, it’s easier to imagine what the book or article will be about (in the heading, as a rule, there is a noun). It can be called the oldest, most widespread, most independent, most important and most leading part in grammar.
One cannot but agree with L. Ouspensky, who defined the role of the noun in speech, calling it the bread of the tongue. How important this product is in human life, this category is also important in the functioning of the language.