Quite often, students ask: "What is a common noun and a proper name?" Despite the simplicity of the question, not everyone knows the definition of these terms and the rules for writing such words. Let's figure it out. After all, in fact, everything is extremely simple and clear.
Common noun
The most significant layer of nouns are common nouns. They denote the names of a class of objects or phenomena that have a number of features by which they can be attributed to the specified class. For example, common nouns are: cat, table, corner, river, girl. They do not name any particular object or person, animal, but designate a whole class. When we use these words, we mean any cat or dog, any table. Such nouns are written with a small letter.
In linguistics common nouns are also called appellatives.
Proper name
Unlike common nouns, proper names make up an insignificant layer of nouns. These words or phrases area specific and specific object that exists in a single copy. Proper names include names of people, names of animals, names of cities, rivers, streets, countries. For example: Volga, Olga, Russia, Danube. They are always capitalized and refer to a specific person or single item.
The science of onomastics deals with the study of proper names.
Onomastics
So, what is a common noun and a proper name, we have sorted it out. Now let's talk about onomastics - a science that studies proper names. At the same time, not only names are considered, but also the history of their occurrence, how they have changed over time.
Onomast scientists distinguish several directions in this science. So, the study of the names of people is engaged in anthroponymy, the name of peoples - ethnonymy. Cosmonymics and astronomy study the names of stars and planets. Animal nicknames are explored by zoonymy. Theonymy deals with the names of the gods.
This is one of the most promising sections in linguistics. Until now, research on onomastics is being carried out, articles are being published, conferences are being held.
Transition of common nouns to proper names, and vice versa
Common noun and proper name can move from one group to another. Quite often it happens that a common noun becomes a proper name.
For example, if a person is called by a name that was previously included in the class of common nouns, it becomes one's own. Brightan example of such a transformation is the names Vera, Love, Hope. They used to be household names.
Surnames formed from common nouns also become anthroponyms. So, you can highlight the names Kot, Cabbage and many others.
As for proper names, they quite often move into another category. Often this refers to the names of people. Many inventions bear the names of their authors, sometimes the names of scientists are assigned to quantities or phenomena discovered by them. So, we know the Colt revolver, the units of ampere and newton.
The names of the heroes of the works can become household names. So, the names Don Quixote, Oblomov, Uncle Styopa became the designation of certain features of appearance or character characteristic of people. Names and surnames of historical figures and celebrities can also be used as common nouns, for example, Schumacher and Napoleon.
In such cases, you need to clarify what exactly the addresser means in order to avoid mistakes when writing the word. But often you can understand this from the context. We think you understand what a common noun and a proper name are. The examples we have given show this quite clearly.
Rules for writing proper names
As you know, all parts of speech follow the rules of spelling. Nouns - common noun and proper - are also no exception. Remember a few simple rules that will help you avoid annoying mistakes in the future.
- Proper names are always capitalizedletters, for example: Ivan, Gogol, Catherine the Great.
- People's nicknames are also capitalized, but without quotes.
- Proper names used in the meaning of common nouns are written with a small letter: donquixote, donjuan.
- If service words or generic names (cape, city) are next to a proper name, then they are written with a small letter: the Volga River, Lake Baikal, Gorky Street.
- If a proper name is the name of a newspaper, cafe, book, then it is taken in quotation marks. In this case, the first word is written with a capital letter, the rest, if they do not belong to proper names, are written with a small letter: "Master and Margarita", "Russian Truth".
- Common nouns are written with a small letter.
As you can see, the rules are quite simple. Many of them have been known to us since childhood.
Summarize
All nouns are divided into two large classes - proper nouns and common nouns. The first is much less than the second. Words can move from one class to another, while acquiring a new meaning. Proper names are always capitalized. Common nouns - with a small one.
We learned what common names and proper names are. The presentation you can make using this material will help you share what you have learned with others.
