ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: Heart and Hearts

Avangi — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:38:49 GMT

To the extent that you can hold a heart in your hand, it differs from the mind and the soul (assuming that mind does not equal brain). So you wish to talk about "heart" in the abstract. The soul seems to be an intangible concept by definition. The mind means different things to philosophers, psychologists, and biologists.

If it's not too sensitive an issue, think about the "strategy" of "winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqui people." These are definitely abstract nouns. We're speaking of the heart and the mind of an individual person - one heart and one mind. I think that's a countable noun. If you "win over" three people, that's three hearts and three minds. It's still abstract.

The heart of the American people is singular, and very abstract, and surely has a different meaning than "winning the heart of my girlfriend." Is it uncountable? Personally, I don't think so. "One" is a number. It's possible to "win the heart of the American people."

Do you have a reference saying that abstract nouns are uncountable? I don't think "intangible" = "uncountable." Ideas are intangible. I came up with four new ideas today. I think that "abstract" and "concrete" are both members of the common noun classification. Asphalt and concrete are examples of uncountable nouns.

Regards, - A.

Re: Heart and Hearts

Darcy — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 04:43:36 GMT

Thanks for your reply

I think both heart and mind are abstract nouns. I wonder why they can be plural nouns and countable ones.

It is said that if asbtract nouns are added -s ending; changed into countable nouns, abstract nouns changes to a common noun and their meaning is changed.. I wonder if this applies to the example sentence I posted at first

cf> <abstract noun>: a noun that denotes an idea, emotion, feeling, quality or other abstract or intangible concept

<common noun>: a noun that refers to any of a class of people or things, e.g. "singer" and "place," as distinct from a proper noun, e.g. "Lennon" or "Washington." Common nouns can be preceded by words that modify their meaning, e.g. "some" and "any."

Re: Heart and Hearts

Avangi — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 17:11:03 GMT

"hearts and minds" is a very popular fixed idiom these days re discussions of strategy in Iraq, and uses plurals in that case.

Darcy's example implies that the American people may have a common soul, assuming the singular was used deliberately.

The plurals of all three would refer to all the individual hearts/minds/souls of all the people. The singulars would refer to the one mind (figurative), heart, and soul which all the people share.

I think your question <1> should set off the four words in question, either with quotes or italics. Opinions may differ on whether the comma should be a semi-colon or a dash.

(Sorry, this isn't very well focused on your questions.)

Heart and Hearts

Darcy — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 16:44:09 GMT

* Country music reflects the hearts and minds and soul of American people. *

<1>What is the difference between heart and hearts, mind and minds?

<2> Is the number <1> question grammatically correct?