CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



a name of, or denotes all the objects known 

 individually as James, John, Adam, Brutus, Noah, 

 &c. It at the same time implies their possessing 

 certain attributes namely, (i) a certain corporeal 

 form, known as the human form ; (2) animal life ; 

 (3) rationality. All this, at least, is included in 

 the meaning or connotation of the word ' man.' 



If, now, we consider any noun of the class 

 called Common, we shall find that while it 

 denotes, or names, or points out a certain object, 

 or class of objects, it also conveys or implies some 

 qualities or facts concerning it or them. In other 

 words, all such nouns have a meaning, or are 

 connotative. Not so with Proper nouns. If any 

 one, pointing to a man passing by, says : ' That 

 is John Styles ;' what does he tell us about him? 

 any attribute or quality? No ; only the fact that 

 such is his name. The name conveys no meaning 

 it is non-connotative. And this is the secret of 

 what constitutes a proper name ; it is affixed to 

 one object, not to convey any fact about it, 

 but merely to enable you to speak about it. 

 Proper names are often given at first on account 

 of the object possessing certain attributes ; but 

 once given, they do not continue to connote these 

 attributes. 



The proper contrast, then, to a Proper noun is 

 not a Common noun meaning by that a name 

 common to a class of objects. Proper nouns, 

 being essentially meaningless designations, can 

 be rightly contrasted only with nouns having a 

 meaning. A better division, therefore, would be 

 into Proper nouns and Significant nouns. If we 

 wish to avoid the possible ambiguity that lies in 

 the word ' signify/ as commonly employed, we 

 might use the terms Non-connotative (Proper) and 

 Connotative. 



By far the greater number of significant nouns 

 are General or Class Names ; that is, they can 

 be applied to any individual of a class of objects, 

 implying that all these individuals have certain 

 attributes in common as, quadruped, book. The 

 quadruped spoken of may perhaps be a horse, and 

 here we have another class name, applicable 

 to the same object, but of less generality than 

 ' quadruped.' Animal, again, is more general 

 than quadruped, being applicable to a far wider 

 class. But it is important to observe, that, as the 

 number of objects that the terms are applied to, 

 or denote, increases, the number of attributes 

 they imply, in other words, the amount of their 

 meaning, diminishes. To call an object an 

 ' animal,' merely implies that it is organised and 

 is alive (with that kind of life called animal life) ; 

 to call it a 'quadruped,' implies all this and a 

 number of attributes in addition ; and to call it 

 a ' horse,' implies a still further addition. 



It is to this class of words that the term Com- 

 mon Nouns is properly applicable ; and the con- 

 trast to them is not Proper Nouns, but Singular 

 Nouns. 



Collective Names are such as regiment, fleet, 

 senate, shoal. They form a subdivision of Class 

 Names or Common Nouns ; for regiment is 

 applicable to all collections of men organised in a 

 particular way. 



Nantes of Materials are such as iron, water, 

 sugar, wheat. These two classes appear in many 

 cases to merge' into each other. In both, the 

 objects named consist of an aggregation. But in 

 collective names, the parts forming the collection 



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are thought of as individual objects ; as the 

 soldiers of a regiment, the fishes composing a 

 shoal. Substances, again, like iron, gold, water, 

 are not made up of definite individual parts (af 

 least to our senses) ; and in such as wheat, sand, 

 the name of the individual visible part (grain of 

 wheat, grain of sand], is derived from the name 

 of the mass, shewing that the idea of the indi- 

 vidual is swallowed up in that of the mass. 



A convenient term for names of materials or 

 substances is that used by German grammarians 

 Stuff-nouns. Sometimes the same word is used 

 as a stuff-noun and also as a class-noun. Thus : 

 ' The cow eats grass ' (stuff-noun) ; ' The botanist 

 studies the grasses, and has found a new grass ' 

 (class-noun) ; ' They had fish (stuff-noun) for din- 

 ner, and consumed four large fishes ' (class-noun). 



Names of materials are not, like collective 

 nouns, a subdivision of common nouns ; they 

 belong to the contrasted class of singular nouns ; 

 and, when the substance is simple or invariable in 

 composition, cannot be used in the plural ; as, 

 gold, water, beef. 



Abstract Nouns. In the expression 'hard steel,' 

 or 'the steel is hard,' the word hard implies a 

 certain quality or attribute as belonging to the 

 steel. This quality has no existence apart from 

 steel or some other substance ; but I can with- 

 draw (abstract} my thoughts from the steel in 

 other respects, and think of this quality as if it 

 had an independent existence. The name of this 

 imaginary existence or abstraction is hardness. 

 All words expressive of the qualities, actions, or 

 states of objects, have abstract nouns correspond- 

 ing to them ; as brave bravery ; strike stroke; 

 well health. In opposition to abstract nouns, 

 all others are concrete nouns that is, the attri- 

 butes implied in them are considered as embodied 

 in (Lat. concrete, growing together) the actual 

 existences named. 



Words like hard, joined to nouns to express 

 some quality, belong to the class called 



Adjectives. 



We have seen, in examining the nature of a 

 Sentence, that when a quality is thus added to a 

 name, one prominent effect is to limit the appli- 

 cation of the name, and make it distinguish more 

 accurately what particular object or class of 

 objects is meant. For this reason, every word 

 that is joined to a noun, and limits the class of 

 objects denoted by it, is ranked among adjectives, 

 though it may not express a quality, strictly so 

 called ; thus, my, this, the, some, are adjectives, no 

 less than good, white, large. Adjectives may be 

 divided into five classes : 



1. Adjectives of Quality ; as, the reverend gentle- 

 man ; a fertile field. The great body of adjectives 

 belong to this class. 



2. Proper Adjectives, or adjectives derived from 

 proper names ; as, the Socratic method ; a Roman 

 camp ; English melodies. 



3. Adjectives of Quantity (including both mass 

 or bulk, and number). 



Quantity in mass or bulk is denoted by such 

 words as much, little, some, any. 



Adjectives denoting quantity in number are of 

 several kinds ; as, 



(a.) Definite Numeral Adjectives : Ex., eight 

 days (cardinal number) ; the eighth day (ordinal 



