how do you count proper nouns

Question

Japan is a proper noun, Canada is a proper nouns, I understand.

Is the United States of America a proper noun or proper nouns? besides, the name include "of" which is not even a noun. How do you count proper nouns?

Thank you,
M

Vorpar · Accepted Answer

Use singular cases for names of groups (collective nouns). The USA is a proper noun.

The team is playing right now. The United States is competing in the olympics.

AlpheccaStars · Answer

A noun phrase can be a proper noun. Only the major words are capitalized.
Names of movies, books, people's titles, street names, country names, and place names are proper names.
The Emperor of Japan
James Earl Jones
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
University of California Santa Cruz Banana Slugs (a sports team name)

Mitsuo23 · Answer

Thank you for the replies, people.

AlpheccaStars,
Do you take a title of an article in newspaper as a proper noun?

Also, do you take "Priority Seat" in the sign as a proper noun?

Thank you,
M

AlpheccaStars · Answer

Here is a definition:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Proper+noun?r=66

Grammar. a noun that is used to denote a particular person, place, or thing, as Lincoln, Sarah, Pittsburgh, and Carnegie Hall.

The http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proper_noun on this subject notes that modern linguists make a distinction between a "proper noun" and a "proper name". A proper noun is a single word, and a proper name can be a noun phrase. So my previous post was specifically about proper names, not proper nouns. (I learned my grammar as given in the dictionary definition, not modern linguistic theory.)

mitsuwao23Do you take a title of an article in newspaper as a proper noun?

To answer whether an article in a newspaper is a proper name, I would say no. According to most style guides, when referencing an article in a citation, the article's title is in sentence case. It is not capitalized, as a proper name would be.

The periodical that the article is published in is capitalized in the style of a proper name.
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/07/

eg. citation (APA Style Guide)
Harlow, H. F. (1983). Fundamentals for preparing psychology journal articles. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55, 893-896.

mitsuwao23Also, do you take "Priority Seat" in the sign as a proper noun?

A priority seat is not a particular (unique) thing. There are many of them in the Japanese transportation system. They are not unique. It is neither a proper noun nor a proper name.
Signs are generally written in title case. That does not make the object referenced on the sign a proper noun or proper name.

Mitsuo23 · Answer

Thank you for the super-clear explanations. Love it

M

how do you count proper nouns

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