The Semantic Features of Collective Nouns in English

Abstract

The vocabulary, particularly nouns, is considerably more important in communication. Collective nouns are kinds of nouns depending on their meaning. They are distinct terms used to describe a particular collection of things and play a significant role in English. However, it is very difficult for non-native speakers to recall all of the specific nouns used to characterize each category of things. For instance, a "bunch of lions" could be taken advantage of instead of “a pride of lions"; however, it would detract from the language's beauty. Thus, in order to understand and utilize collective nouns accurately learners must be familiar with their semantic characteristics. The research is related to the semantic characteristics of collective nouns that are utilized to teach vocabulary to non-English major students at the University of Foreign Language Studies – The University of Danang. The researchers used descriptive and analytic techniques to comprehensively describe the semantic characteristics of 100 English collective nouns chosen at random from renowned short tales. In terms of semantic characteristics, collective nouns in English from gathered data are utilized to represent humans, animals, and objects semantically. Additionally, this research sought to hypothesize certain metrics for more efficient teaching and acquiring English vocabulary. In conclusion, the results of this research have many significant implications for future English practice and therefore clearly contribute to the development of English vocabulary acquisition and teaching.