Proper noun


A proper noun is a noun that identifies a single entity and is used to refer to that entity as distinguished from a common noun, which is a noun that refers to a class of entities and may be used when referring to instances of a specific class. Some proper nouns occur in plural form, and then they refer to groups of entities considered as unique. Proper nouns can also occur in secondary applications, for example modifying nouns, or in the role of common nouns. The detailed definition of the term is problematic and, to an extent, governed by convention.
A distinction is normally made in current linguistics between proper nouns and proper names. By this strict distinction, because the term noun is used for a class of single words, only single-word proper names are proper nouns: Peter and Africa are both proper names and proper nouns; but Peter the Great and South Africa, while they are proper names, are not proper nouns. The term common name is not much used to contrast with proper name, but some linguists have used it for that purpose. While proper names are sometimes called simply names, this term is often used more broadly: "An earlier name for tungsten was wolfram." Words derived from proper names are occasionally called proper adjectives, but not in mainstream linguistic theory. Not every noun phrase that refers to a unique entity is a proper name. For example, chastity is a common noun even though chastity is considered a unique abstract entity.
Few proper names have only one possible referent: there are many places named New Haven; Jupiter may refer to a planet, a god, a ship, a city in Florida, or as part of the name of a symphony ; at least one person has been named Mata Hari, as well as a racehorse, several songs, several films, and other objects; there are towns and people named Toyota, as well as the company. In English, proper names in their primary application cannot normally be modified by articles or another determiner, although some may be taken to include the article the, as in the Netherlands, the Roaring Forties, or the Rolling Stones. A proper name may appear to have a descriptive meaning, even though it does not. If it once had a descriptive meaning, it may no longer be descriptive; a location previously referred to as "the new town" may now have the proper name Newtown though it is no longer new and is now a city rather than a town.
In English and many other languages, proper names and words derived from them are associated with capitalization, but the details are complex and vary from language to language. The study of proper names is sometimes called onomastics or onomatology, while a rigorous analysis of the semantics of proper names is a matter for philosophy of language.
Occasionally, what would otherwise be regarded as a proper noun is used as a common noun, in which case a plural form and a determiner are possible. Examples are in cases of ellipsis and metaphor.

Proper names

Current linguistics makes a distinction between proper nouns and proper names but this distinction is not universally observed and sometimes it is observed but not rigorously. When the distinction is made, proper nouns are limited to single words only, while proper names include all proper nouns as well as noun phrases such as the United Kingdom, North Carolina, Royal Air Force, and the White House. Proper names can have a common noun or a proper noun as their head; the United Kingdom is a proper name with the common noun kingdom as its head, and North Carolina is headed by the proper noun Carolina. Especially as titles of works, but also as nicknames and the like, some proper names contain no noun and are not formed as noun phrases.
Proper names are also referred to as naming expressions. Sometimes they are called simply names; but that term is also used more broadly ; common name is sometimes used, to make a distinction from proper name.
Common nouns are frequently used as components of proper names. In such cases the common noun may determine the kind of entity, and a modifier determines the unique entity itself:
Proper nouns, and all proper names, differ from common nouns grammatically in English. They may take titles, such as Mr Harris or Senator Harris. Otherwise, they normally only take modifiers that add emotive coloring, such as old Mrs Fletcher, poor Charles, or historic York; in a formal style, this may include the, as in the inimitable Henry Higgins. They may also take the in the manner of common nouns in order to establish the context in which they are unique: the young Mr Hamilton, the Dr Brown I know; or as proper nouns to define an aspect of the referent: the young Einstein. The indefinite article a may similarly be used to establish a new referent: the column was written by a Mary Price. Proper names based on noun phrases differ grammatically from common noun phrases. They are fixed expressions, and cannot be modified internally: beautiful King's College is acceptable, but not King's famous College.
As with proper nouns, so with proper names more generally: they may only be unique within the appropriate context. India has a ministry of home affairs called the Ministry of Home Affairs ; within the context of India, this identifies a unique organization. However, other countries may also have ministries of home affairs called "the Ministry of Home Affairs", but each refers to a unique object, so each is a proper name. Similarly, "Beach Road" is a unique road, though other towns may have their own roads named "Beach Road" as well. This is simply a matter of the pragmatics of naming, and of whether a naming convention provides identifiers that are unique; and this depends on the scope given by context.

Proper names and the definite article

Because they are used to refer to an individual entity, proper names are by their very nature definite; so many regard a definite article as redundant, and personal names are used without an article or other determiner. However, some proper names are normally used with the definite article. Grammarians divide over whether the definite article becomes part of the proper name in these cases, or precedes the proper name. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language terms these weak proper names, in contrast with the more typical strong proper names, which are normally used without an article.
Entities with proper names that use the definite article include geographical features, buildings, institutions, cities and districts, works of literature, newspapers and magazines, and events. In standard use, plural proper names take the definite article. Among the few exceptions are the names of certain bands.
However, if adjectives are used, they are placed after the definite article. When such proper nouns are grouped together, sometimes only a single definite article will be used at the head. And in certain contexts, it is grammatically permissible or even mandatory to drop the article.
The definite article is not used in the presence of preceding possessives, demonstratives, interrogatives, or words like "no" or "another".
An indefinite article phrase voids the use of the definite article.
The definite article is omitted when such a proper noun is used attributively. If a definite article is present, it is for the noun, not the attributive.
Nouns of address with a proper name also have the article dropped.
Only a single definite article is used where the construction might seem to require two. In a grouping, a single definite article at the start may be understood to cover for the others.
Headlines, which often simplify grammar for space or punchiness, frequently omit both definite and indefinite articles.
Definite articles used in the title of a map might be omitted in labels within the map itself. It is also customary to drop the definite article in tables.

Variants

Proper names often have a number of variants, for instance a formal variant and an informal variant.

Capitalization

In languages that use alphabetic scripts and that distinguish lower and upper case, there is usually an association between proper names and capitalization. In German, all nouns are capitalized, but other words are also capitalized in proper names, for instance: der Große Bär. For proper names, as for several other kinds of words and phrases, the details are complex, and vary sharply from language to language. For example, expressions for days of the week and months of the year are capitalized in English, but not in Spanish, French, Swedish, or Finnish, though they might still be considered proper names. Languages differ in whether most elements of multiword proper names are capitalized or only the initial element. In Czech, multiword settlement names are capitalized throughout, but non-settlement names are only capitalized in the initial element, though with many exceptions.

History of capitalization

European alphabetic scripts only developed a distinction between upper case and lower case in medieval times so in the alphabetic scripts of ancient Greek and Latin proper names were not systematically marked. They are marked with modern capitalization, however, in many modern editions of ancient texts.
In past centuries, orthographic practices in English varied widely. Capitalization was much less standardized than today. Documents from the 18th century show some writers capitalizing all nouns, and others capitalizing certain nouns based on varying ideas of their importance in the discussion. Historical documents from the early United States show some examples of this process: the end of the Declaration of Independence and all of the Constitution show nearly all nouns capitalized; the Bill of Rights capitalizes a few common nouns but not most of them; and the Thirteenth Constitutional Amendment capitalizes only proper nouns.
In Danish, from the 17th century until the orthographic reform of 1948, all nouns were capitalized.