Which noun is a common noun. Common nouns

It is customary to classify many nouns denoting persons, objects and phenomena in accordance with the object of naming - this is how the division into a common noun and a proper noun appeared.

Common nouns VS onyms

Common nouns (otherwise known as appellatives) name objects that have a certain common set of characteristics and belong to one or another class of objects or phenomena. For example: boy, peach, sturgeon, meeting, mourning, pluralism, rebellion.

Proper names, or onyms, name single objects or individuals, for example: writer Mikhail Evgrafovich Saltykov-Shchedrin, city Essentuki, painting " Girl with peaches", television center " Ostankino».

Proper names and common nouns, examples of which we gave above, are traditionally opposed to each other, since they have different meaning and do not coincide in the scope of their functioning.

Typology of common nouns

A common noun in the Russian language forms special lexical and grammatical categories, the words in which are grouped depending on the type of object of naming:

1. Specific names (they are also called “specific-subject”) serve as names for persons, living beings, and objects. These words vary in number and are combined with cardinal numerals: teacher - teachers - first teacher; chick - chicks; cube - cubes.

2. Abstract, or abstract, nouns name a state, attribute, action, result: success, hope, creativity, merit.

3. Real, or material, nouns (they are also called “concretely material”) - words that are specific in semantics and name specific substances. These words most often do not have a correlative plural form. There are the following groups of real nouns: nominations of food products ( butter, sugar, tea), names medicines (iodine, streptocide), titles chemical substances (fluorine, beryllium), minerals and metals ( potassium, magnesium, iron), other substances ( rubble, snow). Such common nouns, examples of which are given above, can be used in the plural form. This is appropriate when we are talking about types and varieties of any substance: wines, cheeses; about the space that is filled with this substance: Sands of the Sahara, neutral waters.

4.Collective nouns name a certain set of homogeneous objects, a unity of persons or other living beings: foliage, students, nobility.

"Shifts" in the meaning of common nouns

Sometimes a common noun contains in its meaning an indication not only of a certain class of objects, but also of some very specific object within its class. This happens if:

  • The individual characteristics of the object as such are ignored: for example, there is folk sign « If you kill a spider, forty sins will be forgiven", and in this context we do not mean any specific spider, but absolutely any one.
  • In the situation described, we mean one specific item of a given class: for example, “ Come, let's sit on a bench“- the interlocutors know where exactly the meeting place is.
  • Individual characteristics of an object can be described by explanatory definitions: for example: “ I can't forget the wonderful day we met“- the speaker singles out a specific day among a series of other days.

Transition of nouns from onyms to appellatives

Individual proper names are sometimes used to generally designate a number of homogeneous objects, then they turn into common nouns. Examples: Derzhimorda, Don Juan; Napoleon cake; Colt, Mauser, revolver; ohm, ampere

Proper names that have become appellatives are called eponyms. IN modern speech They are usually used to make humorous or derogatory remarks about someone: Aesculapius(doctor), pele(football player), Schumacher(racer, lover of fast driving).

An animate common noun can also become an eponym if this is the name of any product or establishment: candy " Bear in the north", oil " Kuban Burenka", restaurant " Senator».

Nomenclature units and eponymous trademarks

The class of eponyms also includes any proper name of an object or phenomenon, which begins to be used as a common noun for the entire class of similar objects. Examples of eponyms include words such as " diaper, tampax, photocopier, in modern speech used as a common noun.

The transition of the trademark's own name to the category of eponyms eliminates the value and uniqueness in the perception of the manufacturer's brand. Yes, an American corporation Xerox, which introduced the world to a machine for copying documents for the first time in 1947, “erased” from in English common noun xerox, replacing it with photocopier And photocopy. In Russian the words " xerox, photocopying, photocopies" and even " photocopy" turned out to be more tenacious, since there is no more suitable word; " photocopy" and its derivatives are not very good options.

A similar situation is with the product of the American transnational company Procter & Gamble - diapers Pampers. Any diapers from another company with similar moisture-absorbing properties are called diapers.

Spelling proper and common nouns

A common noun, the rule regulating the spelling norm in the Russian language, recommends writing with lowercase letter: baby, grasshopper, dream, prosperity, secularization.

Onims also have their own spelling system, however, it is simple:

Typically these nouns are capitalized: Tatyana Larina, Paris, Academician Koroleva street, dog Sharik.

When used with a generic word, the onym forms its own name, denoting the name trademark, events, establishments, enterprises, etc.; This naming is capitalized and enclosed in quotation marks: VDNH metro station, musical Chicago, novel Eugene Onegin, Russian Booker Prize.

Nouns are divided into proper and common nouns according to their meaning. The very definitions of this part of speech have Old Slavonic roots.

The term “common noun” comes from “naming”, “criticism”, and is used for the general name of homogeneous, similar objects and phenomena, and “proper” means “feature”, an individual person or a single object. This naming distinguishes it from other objects of the same type.

For example, the common noun “river” defines all rivers, but the Dnieper and Yenisei are proper names. These are constant grammatical features of nouns.

What are proper names in Russian?

A proper name is the exclusive name of an object, phenomenon, person, different from others, standing out from other multiple concepts.

These are the names and nicknames of people, names of countries, cities, rivers, seas, astronomical objects, historical events, holidays, books and magazines, animal names.

Also, ships, enterprises, various institutions, product brands and much more that require a special name can have their own names. May consist of one or more words.

Spelling defined the following rule: All proper names are written with a capital letter. For example: Vanya, Morozko, Moscow, Volga, Kremlin, Russia, Rus', Christmas, Battle of Kulikovo.

Names that have a conditional or symbolic meaning are enclosed in quotation marks. These are the names of books and various publications, organizations, companies, events, etc.

Compare: Big theater, But the Sovremennik theater, the Don River and the novel Quiet Don, the play The Thunderstorm, the Pravda newspaper, the ship Admiral Nakhimov, the Lokomotiv stadium, the Bolshevichka factory, the Mikhailovskoye museum-reserve.

Note: the same words, depending on the context, can be common nouns or proper words and are written according to the rules. Compare: bright sun and the star Sun, native earth and planet Earth.

Proper names, consisting of several words and denoting a single concept, are emphasized as one member of the sentence.

Let's look at an example: Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov wrote a poem that made him famous. This means that in this sentence the subject will be three words (first name, patronymic and last name).

Types and examples of proper nouns

Proper names are studied by the linguistic science of onomastics. This term is derived from an ancient Greek word and means “the art of naming”

This area of ​​linguistics studies information about the name of a specific, individual object and identifies several types of names.

Anthroponyms are the proper names and surnames of historical figures, folklore or literary characters, famous and ordinary people, their nicknames or pseudonyms. For example: Abram Petrovich Hannibal, Ivan the Terrible, Lenin, Lefty, Judas, Koschey the Immortal.

Toponyms study the appearance of geographical names, city names, streets, which may reflect the specifics of the landscape, historical events, religious motives, lexical features of the indigenous population, and economic characteristics. For example: Rostov-on-Don, Kulikovo Field, Sergiev Posad, Magnitogorsk, Strait of Magellan, Yaroslavl, Black Sea, Volkhonka, Red Square, etc.

Astronims and cosmonyms analyze the appearance of the names of celestial bodies, constellations, and galaxies. Examples: Earth, Mars, Venus, Halley's comet, Stozhary, Big Dipper, Milky Way.

There are other sections in onomastics that study the names of deities and mythological heroes, names of nationalities, names of animals, etc., helping to understand their origin.

Common noun - what is it?

These nouns name any concept from many similar ones. They have lexical meaning, that is, informativeness, in contrast to proper names, which do not have such a property and only name, but do not express the concept, do not reveal its properties.

The name doesn't tell us anything Sasha, it only identifies a specific person. In the phrase girl Sasha, we find out age and gender.

Examples of common nouns

All the realities of the world around us are called common names. These are words that express specific concepts: people, animals, natural phenomena, objects, etc.

Examples: doctor, student, dog, sparrow, thunderstorm, tree, bus, cactus.

Can denote abstract entities, qualities, states or characteristics:courage, understanding, fear, danger, peace, power.

How to determine proper or common noun

A common noun can be distinguished by its meaning, since it names an object or phenomenon related to the homogeneous, and by its grammatical feature, because it can vary in numbers ( year - years, person - people, cat - cats).

But many nouns (collective, abstract, real) do not have a plural form ( childhood, darkness, oil, inspiration) or singular ( frost, weekdays, darkness). Common nouns are written with a small letter.

Proper nouns are the distinctive names of individual objects. They can only be used in singular or plural ( Moscow, Cheryomushki, Baikal, Catherine II).

But if different persons or objects are named, they can be used in the plural ( Ivanov family, both Americas). They are written with a capital letter, if necessary in quotation marks.

It is worth noting: between own and common nouns There is an exchange going on all the time; they tend to move into the opposite category. Common words Faith Hope Love became proper names in the Russian language.

Many borrowed names were also originally common nouns. For example, Peter – “stone” (Greek), Victor – “winner” (Latin), Sophia – “wisdom” (Greek).

Often in history, proper names become common nouns: hooligan ( English family Houlihan of ill repute), Volt (physicist Alessandro Volta), Colt (inventor Samuel Colt). Literary characters can become household names: Donquixote, Judas, Plyushkin.

Toponyms gave names to many objects. For example: cashmere fabric (Kashmir Valley of Hindustan), cognac (province in France). In this case, the animate proper name becomes an inanimate common noun.

And vice versa, it happens that generic concepts become non-common nouns: Lefty, cat Fluffy, Signor Tomato.

A proper name is Name a noun expressed by the word or, naming a specific object or phenomenon. Unlike a common noun, which immediately denotes a whole object or phenomenon, Name own is intended for one, very specific object of this class. For example, "" is a common noun Name is a noun, whereas “War and Peace” is a proper noun. The word "river" represents Name a common noun, but “Cupid” is Name proper. Proper names can be names of people, patronymics, titles of books, songs, films, geographical names. Proper names are written with a capital letter. Some types of proper names require quotation marks. This applies to literary works (“Eugene Onegin”), paintings (“Mona Lisa”), films (“Only Old Men Go to Battle”), theaters (“Variety”), and other types of nouns. When translating proper names into other languages, transcription methods are used: Gogolya-street (Gogol Street), radio Mayak (Radio “Mayak”). Proper names are not specially distinguished. Proper names and common nouns are not separated from each other by an impenetrable wall. Proper names can turn into common nouns, and vice versa. For example, “avatar” was just a common noun until Avatar was made. Now this word, depending on the context, plays the role of a common noun or own name noun. “Schumacher” is the surname of a certain racing driver, but gradually all fans of fast driving began to be called “Schumachers.” Trademarks that are unique manufacturers can become common nouns from proper names certain type goods or simply monopolists. A striking example is the company Xerox, which produces electrophotographic copiers. This company still exists today, but “copiers” are now called all copiers in general.

Sources:

  • how to write proper names

Tip 2: How to determine whether a proper name or a common noun

Nouns name objects, phenomena or concepts. These meanings are expressed using the categories of gender, number and case. All nouns belong to the groups of proper and common nouns. Proper nouns, which serve as names of individual objects, are contrasted with common nouns, which denote generalized names of homogeneous objects.

Instructions

To determine proper nouns, determine whether the name is an individual designation of an object, i.e. does it make it stand out? Name» an object from a number of similar ones (Moscow, Russia, Sidorov). Proper nouns name first and last names of persons and names of animals (Nekrasov, Pushok, Fru-fru); geographical and astronomical objects (America, Stockholm, Venus); , organizations, press organs(Pravda newspaper, Spartak team, Eldorado store).

Proper names, as a rule, do not change in number and are used only in the singular (Voronezh) or only in the plural (Sokolniki). Please note that there are exceptions to this rule. Proper nouns are used in the plural form if they denote different persons and objects with the same names (both Americas, namesake Petrovs); persons who are related (the Fedorov family). Also proper nouns can be used in the plural form if they name a certain type of people, “selected” according to the qualitative characteristics of a famous literary character. Please note that in this meaning, nouns lose the attribute of belonging to a group of individual objects, therefore it is acceptable to use both capital and lowercase letters (Chichikovs, Famusovs, Pechorins).

A spelling feature that distinguishes proper nouns is the use of capital letters and. Moreover, all proper names are always letters, and the names of institutions, organizations, works, objects are used as appendices and are enclosed in quotation marks (the motor ship “Fedor Shalyapin”, Turgenev’s novel “Fathers and Sons”). The application may include any part of speech, but the first word is always capitalized (Daniel Defoe’s novel “The Life and Amazing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe”).

A noun in Russian has different distinctive features. To show the peculiarities of the emergence and use of certain linguistic units, they are divided into common nouns and proper nouns.

Instructions

Common nouns are nouns that denote the name of certain objects and phenomena that have general set signs. These objects or phenomena belong to any class, but in themselves do not carry any special indications of this class. In linguistics, a common noun is also called an appellative.

Common nouns are signs of linguistic concepts and are contrasted with proper names - which are used as names and nicknames of living beings or names and names of objects and phenomena. When common nouns become proper nouns, they lose their name linguistic concept(for example, the name “Desna” is from the word “gums” - “right”).

There are several types of common nouns, including concrete (table), abstract or abstract (love), material or material (sugar), and collective ().

Common nouns can denote not only classes of objects, but also any individual objects within a given class. This phenomenon occurs when the individual attributes of an object lose meaning, for example: “Don’t tease the dog, otherwise it will bite you.” IN in this case the word "dog" means any dog, not any specific one. This also includes situations that describe only one object of a certain class, for example: “Meet me at noon on the corner,” that is, the interlocutors know which corner they are talking about we're talking about. Common nouns are also used to describe individual characteristics subject using additional definitions, for example: “I am the day when I first saw her” - highlighting a specific day among others.

Common nouns are closely related to proper names. For example, common nouns can become proper in the form of names, nicknames and nicknames (for example, “Kalita” as the nickname of Prince Ivan Danilovich), and proper nouns can become common nouns to denote homogeneous objects. Such transitions are called eponyms and are usually used in a derogatory or humorous sense (for example, “Aesculapius” is the collective name for all doctors, “Pele” is for football fans, and “Schumacher” is for fans of fast driving). According to the rules of the Russian language, proper names are accepted with , and common nouns - in capital letters.

Common and proper nouns.

The purpose of the lesson:

to develop knowledge and skills to distinguish proper nouns from common nouns,

learn to write proper names correctly (with capital letters and using quotation marks).

Lesson type:

Educational and upbringing.

Common nouns serve to name classes of homogeneous objects, states and actions, persons, plants, birds and animals, natural phenomena, public life. For the most part, they have only one and plural(mountain - mountains, daisy - daisies, rain - rains, victory - victories, demonstration - demonstrations, etc.). Common nouns are written with a small letter.

Exercise: Review the story. Name the pictures you saw (example: mountains, seas, etc.). Do they fit into the group of common nouns?

Proper nouns are used to name individual (individual) objects that may be one of a kind.

Proper nouns are always capitalized and in most cases have a singular form. They can consist of either one word (Zhuchka, Alexander, Boeing, Sahara) or several words (Ivan Vasilyevich, Red Sea, Sofievskaya Square).

Exercise: Listen to Little Red Riding Hood's song. Write down all the proper and common nouns you remember

Capitalized but NOT enclosed in quotation marks:

1. Last names, first names and patronymics (Ivanov Sergey Nikonorovich), pseudonyms (Maxim Gorky, Lesya Ukrainka), first names characters in fairy tales (Ivanushka, Alyonushka, Pinocchio, Malvina), short stories (Ovsov /Chekhov “Horse Surname”/), fables (“The naughty Monkey, the Donkey, the Goat and the clubfooted Mishka decided to play a quartet.” (I. Krylov.).

2) Animal names (Dzhulka the dog, Jim the cat, Gosha the parrot, Parsley the hamster).

3) Geographical names(Ukraine, Southern Arctic Ocean, Lake Baikal, Tibet mountains, Black Sea).

4) Names of celestial bodies (Moon, Sun, Jupiter, Orion, Cassiopeia).

5) Names of streets and squares (Pirogovskaya Street, Leningradskaya Square, Gamarnika Lane).

8) Names with the word name (im.), even in cases where it is implied but not written (Park named after T. G. Shevchenko, Gorky Park, school named after V. Chkalov).

9) Names of organizations and higher government agencies(Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Supreme Court Ukraine).

10) Names of orders, monuments (Order of Bohdan Khmelnitsky, Order of the Great Patriotic War, Order of Glory; monument to M.Yu. Lermontov, monument to the Unknown Sailor).

11) Names of holidays, memorable dates(days), historical events (Victory Day, New Year, Health Worker's Day, Teacher's Day, Mother's Day)

Capitalized and enclosed in quotation marks:

1) Names of newspapers and magazines, television programs (biscuits “ TVNZ", "Arguments and Facts", the magazine "The One", "Fisherman of Ukraine", the program "Field of Miracles", "What? Where? When").

2) Names of literary and musical works, works of painting, names of films (the novel “Crime and Punishment”, “The Master and Margarita”, the poem “Prisoner”, “Candle”, the painting “Black Square”, “Bathing of the Red Horse”, the film “Guest from the Future”, “Petersburg secrets"), etc.

3) Names of plants, factories, ships, airplanes, cinemas, hotels and so on (provided that there is no and the word “name” is not implied (Krayan plant, Roshen factory, motor ship Taras Shevchenko, Hadzhibey) , Boeing aircraft, Tu-124, Zvezdny cinema, Moscow, Krasnaya hotel, Londonskaya).

4) Names of various products (Zhiguli car, Chanel perfume, Samsung refrigerator, Thomson TV, etc.).

Exercise. Read an excerpt from Korney Chukovsky’s poem “Aibolit.” Underline proper nouns with a single line, double dash common nouns.

Suddenly a jackal came from somewhere

He rode on a mare:

"Here is a telegram for you

From Hippopotamus!"

"Come, doctor,

To Africa soon

And save me, doctor,

Our babies!"

"What is it? Is it really

Are your children sick?"

"Yes, yes, yes! They have a sore throat,

Scarlet fever, cholera,

Diphtheria, appendicitis,

Malaria and bronchitis!

Come quickly

Good Doctor Aibolit!"

"Okay, okay, I'll run,

I will help your children.

But where do you live?

On the mountain or in the swamp?

"We live in Zanzibar,

In the Kalahari and Sahara,

On Mount Fernando Po,

Where does Hippo walk?

Along the wide Limpopo."

Exercise. Highlight proper nouns.

The meeting of the “Famous Captains Club” brought together the most famous sailors, travelers, and heroes of adventure novels. The youngest among them was Dick Sand, the hero of Jules Verne's novel The Fifteen-Year-Old Captain. Everyone considered Tartarin of Tarascon, the hero of the novel by Alphonse Daudet, the most cheerful, and the most “truthful” was, of course, Baron Munchausen from Raspe’s book. All members of the club took into account the opinion of the wisest of them, Captain Nemo, one of the heroes of Jules Verne’s book “The Mysterious Island”.

Exercise. Listen to the song from the movie "The Three Musketeers". Answer the question: Are Burgundy, Normandy, Champagne, Provence, Gascony proper or common nouns?

In the Russian language there are many examples of the transition of a proper name into a common noun.

Here are some examples:

1. Napoleon cake received its name from Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte, who loved this type of confectionery product.

2. Saxophone - this is what the Belgian master Sax called the wind instrument.

3. Inventors Colt, Nagant, Mauser gave names to the weapons they created.

4. Orange (the Dutch word appelsien), peach (Persia), coffee (cafe country in Africa), trousers (Bruges - a city in Holland) got their names from the place from which they were imported.

5. Narcissus is a flower named after the mythological youth Narcissus, who angered the Gods because, because he fell in love with himself, he only looked at his reflection in the water and did not notice anything or anyone else. The gods turned him into a flower.

Questions for consolidation new topic:

1. What nouns have singular and plural forms?

2. How to write correctly: Pushkin cinema, Pushkin cinema?

3. Guess the riddles:

“Flying” city - ______________________________.

“Inanimate” sea - ________________________________.

“Colored” seas - ________________________________.

The “silent” ocean is ____________________________.

Flowers with female names - _______________________.

Homework:

Independently come up with 5-7 riddles, the answer to which will contain a common noun (using the example of those made in class) on topics - Interesting Facts Earth, Greek mythology, Russian folk tales.

The use of terminology in defining parts of speech and their varieties is common among philologists. For a common person, all sorts of sophisticated names often seem like something unclear and complicated. Many schoolchildren are unable to understand abstract terms denoting types of parts of speech, and they turn to their parents for help. Adults have to look again at textbooks or search for information on the Internet.

Today we will try to talk in simple and understandable Russian about what proper and common nouns are, how they differ, how to find them and use them correctly in speech and text.

What part of speech?

Before determining the part of speech in Russian, you need to correctly ask a question about the word and determine what it means. If the word you chose matches the questions “who?” or “what?”, but it denotes an object, then it is a noun. This simple truth is easily learned even by schoolchildren, and many adults remember it. But the question of whether the noun in front of you is a proper or a common noun can already confuse a person. Let's try to figure out what these linguistic definitions mean.

The answer is in meaning

All words belonging to the part of speech we are considering are divided into several types and categories according to different criteria. One of the classifications is the division into proper and common nouns. It is not so difficult to distinguish them, you just need to understand the meaning of the word. If an individual specific person or some single object is called, then it is proper, and if the meaning of the word indicates common name many similar objects, persons or phenomena, then this is a common noun.

Let's explain this with examples. The word "Alexandra" is proper because it denotes the name of an individual person. The words “girl, girl, woman” are common nouns because they represent a general name for all female persons. The difference becomes clear, and it lies in the meaning.

Names and nicknames

It is customary to classify several groups of words as proper nouns.

The first consists of the person’s first name, patronymic and last name, as well as his nickname or pseudonym. This also includes cat, dog and other animal names. Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin, Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov, Murka, Pushinka, Sharik, Druzhok - these names distinguish one specific creature from others of their own kind. If we select a common noun for the same objects, we can say: poet, cat, dog.

Names on the map

The second group of words consists of names of various geographical objects. Let's give examples: Moscow, St. Petersburg, Washington, Neva, Volga, Rhine, Russia, France, Norway, Europe, Africa, Australia. For comparison, we also give a common noun corresponding to the given names: city, river, country, continent.

Space objects

The third group includes various astronomical names. These are, for example, Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn, Mercury, Solar System, Milky Way. Each of the given names is a proper name, and you can choose a common noun generalized in meaning to it. Examples of named objects correspond to the words planet, galaxy.

Names and brands

Another group of words that are proper are various names of something - shops, cafes, literary works, paintings, magazines, newspapers and so on. In the phrase “Magnit store,” the first is a common noun, and the second is a proper noun. Let's give more similar examples: the cafe "Chocolate Girl", the novel "War and Peace", the painting "Water", the magazine "Murzilka", the newspaper "Arguments and Facts", the sailing ship "Sedov", the plant "Babaevsky", the gas stove "Hephaestus", "Consultant Plus" system, "Chardonnay" wine, "Napoleon" cake, batch " United Russia", "Nika" award, "Alenka" chocolate, "Ruslan" airplane.

Spelling features

Since proper names indicate a specific individual object, distinguishing it from all other similar ones, they also stand out in writing - they are written with a capital letter. Children learn this at the very beginning of their schooling: surnames, first names, patronymics, designations on the map, animal names, and other names of something are written with a capital letter. Examples: Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, Vanka, Ivan Kalita, Chelyabinsk, Novosibirsk, Novgorod, Angara, Cyprus, Turkey, Australia, Zhuchka, Pushok, Murzik.

There is another feature of writing proper nouns, it concerns the names of factories, firms, enterprises, ships, periodicals (newspapers and magazines), works of art and literature, feature films, documentaries and other films, performances, cars, drinks, cigarettes and other similar things. words Such names are not only written with a capital letter, but also enclosed in quotation marks. In philological science they are called by their proper names. Examples: Niva car, Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, Mayak radio, poem “Ruslan and Lyudmila”, Chanel perfume, Za Rulem magazine, Troika cigarettes, Fanta drink, Prosveshcheniye publishing house , Abba group, Kinotavr festival.

A proper noun begins with a capital letter, and a common noun begins with a lowercase letter. This simple rule often helps a person in determining spelling standards. This rule is easy to remember, but sometimes there are difficulties. As you know, the Russian language is rich in its exceptions to every rule. IN school curriculum such complex cases are not included, and therefore in the assignments of the Russian language textbook, even junior schoolchildren They can easily determine from the first letter in a word whether it is a proper or a common noun.

Conversion of a proper name into a common noun and vice versa

As noted above, a common noun is a generalized name for something. But the Russian language is a living, changing system, and sometimes various transformations and changes occur in it: sometimes common nouns become proper nouns. For example: earth - land, Earth - planet solar system. Universal human values, designated by the common nouns love, faith and hope, have long become feminine names - Faith, Hope, Love. In the same way, some animal nicknames and other names arise: Ball, Snowball, etc.

The reverse process also occurs in the Russian language, when proper nouns become common nouns. Thus, the unit of electrical voltage - the volt - was named after the Italian physicist Volta. Master's name musical instruments Sax has become the common noun "saxophone". The Dutch city of Bruges gave its name to the word "trousers". The names of the great gunsmiths - Mauser, Colt, Nagan - became the names of pistols. And there are many such examples in the language.

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