On nouns

Something bothers me. I don't know if I should change; although, even if I were to decide that I should, I don't know if I can.

"Although" in the prior sentence is a conjunctive adverb — it links two indepedent clauses, as opposed to to a subordinating conjunction that links dependent clauses.

Thinking about grammar calms me. It forces me to think about insignificant bits of speech, utilising every brain cell in my tiny space so that none can run amok. Grammar takes up too much RAM for that. It is a good thing.

But I really should start in the beginning when talking about grammar, and the beginning is always the noun, defined as a person, place, thing or idea. The way I organise it, there are three types of nouns, those that deal with names, counting, and compounds. Check this diagram out.



Under "Names", we have pronouns, proper nouns (Singapore) and common nouns (country). Under "Count", we have count, non-count, abstract and concrete nouns. Self-explantory stuff. Under "Compound", we have compound nouns (National University of Singapore) and collective nouns (audience).

This is easy enough. Tomorrow we will do pronouns.

[Watch the schoolhouse rock video on nouns here.]

[Get the book.]