Why Do They Do It?

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jan 6, 1909

Why Do They Do It?

Our old English grammars, Gould Brown's, for instance, define a common noun as “the name of a sort, kind, or class of beings or things; as, Beast, bird, fish, insect,—creatures, persons, children.”

It defines a proper noun as “the name of some particular individual or people or group; as, Adam, Boston, the Hudson, the Romans, the Azores, the Alps.”

These definitions are simple and easily understood, and it is not hard to classify nouns accordingly. But some of our modern grammarians, without sense or reason, it seems to us, note many exceptions which are absurd. For instance, the young pupil is told that the names of the days of the week are common nouns. Why? And echo answers, Why? They are particular, proper names for each day of the week. There is but one of each. So of the months. “Months” is a common noun, but January and June are particular names of particular months. There are various political parties. Democrats and Republicans are names of particular parties. There are various races of men. Americans, Maylays etc., are names of particular races. They are proper nouns. Yet by some latter-day grammarians they are called exceptions and belong to common nouns beginning with a capital. Yet according to rule they naturally fall into the category of proper nouns. Why not call them so?