Nouns

A noun is defined as a word used to name a person, place, or thing. The thing comprises something which can be perceived by humans senses, or that which cannot be perceived but can be thought of.
According to their kinds, English nouns can be logically classified into two kinds, i.e. (1) proper, and (2) common nouns.

Proper noun is a name of a particular, individual person, place, community, or thing who/which is usually unique. A common noun is a name in common to every person or thing of the same class or kind.

A simple rule of Arabic rhetoric is that a noun indicates continuity and permanence while use of a verb signifies occurrence and generation of an act. In the first sentence a verb is used while recurring word is a possessive phrase signifying that it refers to a principle.

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, "a name is a word or group of words used to refer to an individual entity (real or imaginary)" (vol.24, p.733).

The nouns in Arabic, whether Proper Nouns or Common Nouns, in their default state are always "Nominative"; in Arabic مرفوع : its visual recognition is the presence of vowel sign ـُ on the last consonant of the noun.

The name is the code that gives basic cognition of existence and presence of a thing and person. Hence, name is the introduction for apparent/initial recognition of a thing and person. Cognition of the code/name of a thing or person is the first step in gaining knowledge about the thing or person. Name of a thing or person gives it or him a vivid distinction from all other things and persons and makes it or him distinguished, identified, definite and isolated [معرفة]; and grants ability to others to identify, and describe/remember/recall and/or mention-refer it or him to others. The name/code serves as a basis/foundation for others to enquire and study about it to gain further knowledge.

Attributive names/adjectival descriptions give further information, insight and knowledge about the thing or person introduced by a Personal Name-Proper Noun. These are complimentary in nature and help acquaint others about the inner-self [بَاطِن] of the named object or person/being. Every person and thing/object has two aspects; the one evidently apparent [ظَاهر] notwithstanding whether or not it is in the range of focus of someone, and the other is the inner-self, hidden, infolded, not apparent but invisibly embedded therein: بَاطِن.

The evidently apparent [ظَاهر] is the reflection of the fact of existence, and its cognition and reference is by the Name. The pursuit-journey of knowledge is from cognition of existence/Name towards knowing and perceiving the inner-self [بَاطِن] of that which exists and its relationships and equations with all that exists. We cannot have the absolute knowledge of anything and person/being unless we know its/his inner-self [بَاطِن], after its cognition, introductory knowledge of its Name.

Once we know the inner-self, all that is secreted, hidden and its relationships with everything else, we know that thing and Person in near absolute sense. Thereupon, it or He becomes more visible and apparent than the shining Sun in a bright and clear day, even without being in visual sight, the [ظَاهر] aspect of Him. Therefore, we know Him/him with such conviction, which is the absolute-exalted end of the knowledge. This type of knowledge, with reference to personalities, can be attained only about two, Ar'Reh'maan the Exalted; and Muhammad Sal'lallaa'hoalaih'wa'salam-the mercy Personified, since the بَاطِن of both is quite extensively visible to us all around, and through the courtesy of Grand Qur'aan.

Personal Names that introduce and grant cognition of an existing personality; unlike attributive/ adjectival names/ descriptions, never have duality and plurality. Neither there is any process/ phenomenon/rule in the Arabic language for “feminization” or "masculinization" of proper nouns/ names.

Collective and Generic Nouns

Collective noun is that noun which signifies more than two and does not have a singular form like Qaum people. The generic noun is that nouns which has a singular that it shares with a singular noun. The generic noun is distinguished by the addition of the Feminine Ta or the Relative Yaa, for example shajar,

P hilosophy of language, ethics Some philosophers suggest that we distinguish between two kinds of meaning of expressions. Descriptive meaning contributes to a bare presentation of facts, as in the claim “This strawberry is sweet.” Evaluative meaning functions in a different way by offering an assessment, as in the claim “This strawberry is good.” The descriptive meaning of a statement can be determined by its truth conditions, while the evaluative meaning cannot. This is because the descriptive meaning is constant while the evaluative meaning varies with the reactions of those using the expression. For instance, “war” has a fixed and translatable descriptive meaning, but its emotive associations can give it different evaluative meanings. For some “war” evokes a feeling of terror, and for others it evokes a feeling of heroic courage. The distinction between these two kinds of meaning is crucial for the distinction between ethical descriptivism ( cognitivism ) and non-descriptivism ( non-cognitivism ). Non-descriptivism, such as emotivism and prescriptivism , holds that ethical judgments have an element of descriptive meaning, but chiefly have evaluative meaning. In contrast, descriptivism holds that the entire meaning of moral judgments is descriptive. Descriptive meaning is also called semantic meaning . “As the descriptive meaning of ‘good’ in ‘good apple’ is different

The descriptive meaning of an expression is that aspect of meaning which only concerns the relationship between a given sign and its denotation. It contrasts with non-descriptive meaning, which concerns attitudes held by speakers towards a given denotation (e.g. emotive meaning, social meaning).

Alternative terms: ideational, referential, logical, propositional meaning

We are going to begin by talking about the first branch, the nouns. A noun (or a substantive) (Arabic: اِسْمٌ = “a name”) is a name or an attribute of a person (Ali), place (Mecca), thing (house), or quality (honor). The word “noun” comes from the Latin nomen = “name.” The noun or substantive category in Arabic includes in addition to simple nouns the pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbids (participles and verbal nouns).

Nouns that designate material things (Ali, Mecca, house) are called concrete nouns. Nouns that designate immaterial things (honor) are called abstract nouns.

Permanent names of persons or places are called proper nouns أَسْمَاْءُ عَلَمٍ , other nouns are called common nouns أَسْمَاْءُ جِنْسٍ . Proper nouns refer to unique or particular objects (cannot be preceded by words such as “some” or “any”); common nouns refer to non-unique or non-particular objects (can be preceded by words such as “some” or “any”).

►Mass nouns are nouns that refer to single as well as plural units when they are grammatically singular, and to plural units when they are grammatically plural. These usually refer to plants or animals.شَجَر أَشْجَاْر

When mass nouns refer to uncountable objects (such as water, sugar. etc.), the grammatically singular noun will refer to small or large amounts of the object, and the grammatically plural noun will refer to large amounts of the object. دَم دِمَاْء

Definitions
معرفة	definiteness
نكرة	indefiniteness

A word is considered definite when it refers to something specific in the world, and indefinite when it does not. For example, “a car” or “cars” do not refer to anything specific in the world and thus both examples are indefinite. Conversely, “my car” or “my cars” both refer to actual objects in the world and thus both examples are definite.

Some forms of definiteness, however, are stronger than others. Take, for example, a situation where two people are enquiring about the whereabouts of a third in a parking lot. Both conversers have cars parked in the lot. Now, if one says to the other, “Zaid is in the car,” Zaid may be in the car of either converser and thus the phrase “the car”, although definite, is slightly ambiguous. On the other hand, if one were to say, “Zaid is in my car,” then there is no ambiguity whatsoever. Hence, although both “the car” and “my car” are definite, the latter is more granular and specific than the former, and thus more definite (not only in this context, but more generally as well).

Notice that the concept of definiteness applies only to nouns, phrases, and sentences. This is because verbs and particles don’t have entities in the external world to begin with. Nouns, phrases, and sentences are the only forms of speech that correspond to objects/concepts in the real world.

In Arabic, words, phrases, and sentences are indefinite by default. In order to become definite, they must fall into one of the following categories. These categories are listed in the order of their granularity with the ones at the top being the weakest forms of definiteness.

1. a word made definite by means of the definite article ال (Al)
compare “a car” with “the car”

2. a sentence made definite by means of a relative pronoun
compare “the car was driven” with “the car that was driven”

3. demonstrative pronouns
“this”, “that”

4. proper nouns
“Zaid”

5. personal pronouns
“he”, “I”, “you”

6. objects of vocation
“O car!”

7. a noun which is possessive to any of the above
compare “a car” with “Zaid’s car”

8. a special category
“Allah”

If a part of speech does not fall into one of these categories, it is indefinite. a word made definite by means of the definite article ال (Al)

ls, can indicate either a unit (a piece, a type) or a substance, so those can be both countable and uncountable. However, when plural, they usually refer only to multiple units (countable only). وَرَق أَوْرَاْق

►Collective nouns or irregular (broken) plural nouns are grammatically singular nouns that refer to plural units or to large amounts of uncountable objects. All the “plural”nouns listed in the above examples belong to this category; I am calling them “plural”to avoid causing confusion and because this is how they are usually called.

Oddly enough, although these nouns are called irregular plurals they are in fact singulare tantum, which means that they do not have grammatically plural forms.

It is possible for irregular plural nouns that refer to humans to be treated grammatically as plural nouns; this is typical of Modern Standard Arabic.