10   Nouns (N) and other nominal categories (NPR, PRO, WPRO, Q, QN)

The class of common nouns (N) is the largest in the language. Although most nouns are assigned to N, overt elements assigned to the categories NPR, PRO, WPRO, Q, QN, and NPR can be considered as nouns, as they are simplex and project NPs.

     Here is a list of a few of the most frequently attested nouns. Note that many are formal nouns.

こと, の, よう, もと, 人, 中, ため, 方, 今, とこら, 前, ほう, 時, 家, 後, 子供, とが, 上, 部屋, 先生, うち, 父

     Proper nouns (NPR) are the second largest class. Here is a list of a few of the most common proper nouns in the corpus:

日本, 太郎, ヘプバーン, ヨーロッパ, グレゴール, イエス, 花子, スミス, 東京, ジョン, アメリカ, 大阪, 政宗, 中国, ジョーンズ, 仙台, 京都, 東北

     Here is a list of common pronouns (PRO):

ここ, そこ, あそこ, こちら, そちら, あちら, こっち, そっち, あっち, この, その, あの, これ, それ, あれ, これら, それら, あれら 私, 私たち, おれ, 我々, 僕, うち, あなた, 君, おまえ, 彼, 彼ら, あいつ, 自分

For a discussion of pronouns, see also section 14.

     Here is a list of common indeterminate pronouns (WPRO):

いくつ, いくら, いずれ, いつ, おいくら, だれ, どこ, どちら, どちら様, どっち, どなた, どれ, なに, なん, 何, 何れ, 誰

     WPROs are typically used in interrogative sentences. However, they can head NPs suffixed by a P, か, も, or でも, to form a constituent with a quantified meaning, for example an indefinite meaning such as だれか (somebody), a universally quantified meaning such as どれも (every one), or a free-choice meaning such as いつでも (whenever). In general, for any indeterminate element (WPRO, WD, WADV, WNUM), a phrase that contains that element can either recieve question focus or be quantified in the same way as with NPs headed by WPRO.

(177)
誰が買ったチョコレートもおいしい。

( (IP-MAT (PP (NP (IP-REL (NP-OB1 *T*)
                          (PP (NP (WPRO 誰))
                              (P が))
                          (NP-SBJ *が*)
                          (VB 買っ)
                          (AXD た))
                  (N チョコレート))
              (P も))
          (NP-SBJ *)
          (ADJI おいしい)
          (PU 。))
  (ID 6_misc_BUFFALO))

Here are examples of some common quantifiers (Qs):

あまり, いっぱい, いろいろ, 大勢, 多く, 各, 数多く, かなり, 十分, 少し, すべて, 全(員) , 全体, 全部, それぞれ, 大半, たくさん, 多少, 多数, 半分, 一人一人, 複数, ほとんど, 毎(日), 皆, みんな

     An item Q can appear heading a noun complement, a floating quantifier, a referring expression, etc. For a discussion of the distribution of quantifying expressions, see section 29.1.

• Kanji compound words such as 全員 and 毎日 are labelled QN. Their function is similar to that of normal Qs and NUMCLPs. Here are examples of some common QNs that appear in the corpus:

毎日, 全国, 全員, 両手, 各地, 毎年, 各々, 毎朝, 全体, 各号, 両国, 各国, 両者, 各党, 両腕, 毎月, 全会衆, 各種, 全長, 全地, 各県, 全世界, 両日, 両側, 毎週, 毎晩, 毎回, 全社員, 全国平均, 両眼, 両目, 両党, 各社員