Noun vocabulary

Overview Nouns form a majority of the words in the vocabulary of English. In contrast to the unidimensional meanings of adjectives explored, nouns typically ‘denote rich, highly interconnected complexes of properties’ (Cruse 2000: 289). We will outlines ways of describing the complexity, starting with a sense relation that I will call the has-relation.1 The “things” denoted by some nouns have parts, which may figure in the nouns’ meaning. For example, a square has four equal sides and it has 90° angles, and in saying what a square is, one cannot avoid talking about its four sides and right angles. The way nouns are grouped into semantic categories, for example squares, circles and triangles belong together as shapes. In semantic terms to be introduced below, square, circle and triangle are hyponyms of the superordinate word shape. Contrasts between the different kinds under a given superordinate are mainly captured through a sense relation called incompatibility, also to be explained. We finish it with a discussion of meaning differences between count and mass nouns. Mass nouns are ones that English treats as denoting substances – as not having distinguishable parts.