Reference

Reference



It means that there is a linguistic term which is used to refer to a thing that is either abstract or concrete or that is either animate or inanimate. There are three major types of reference: generic, unique and specific. The generic reference means that the linguistic terms are used to refer to something in general as in:



Tigers are dangerous animals



In contrast, there is what is called the specific reference which gives a specified meaning to the thing as in:



The tigers in the cage are dangerous animals



The unique reference means that there is only one thing in the world found to be unique as the names of rivers, cities, countries, proper names, etc.

2-Number



Number with nouns is divided into two types: verbal and non-verbal. The invariable nouns are divided to be either singular or plural. For singular ,there are:non-coun nouns:concret as gold, or abstract as music, proper names as Henry, some nouns ending in s as news, and abstract adjectival heads as the beautiful.



For the plural invariable nouns there are summatin plural as scissors, pluralia tantum as thanks, some plural nouns as the Netherlands, unmarked nouns as the cattle, and the personal adjectival heads as the rich.



The verbal plural are either regular or irregular ad ox-oxen, sheep-sheep, or tempo-tempi.



3-Gender



It has two kinds of classification: male and female distinction and personal and non-personal distinction.



For the animate, it is either personal or non-personal. For the personal, there is either masculine or feminine as uncle and aunt.Also, there is the dual as doctor, common as baby, collective as family. The non-personal also there is common, collective, masculine higher animal as bull feminine higher animal as cow, higher organism as France, lower animal like ant, and finally, the inanimate as box.