Editing Proper noun (section)

== Proper names ==
Current linguistics makes a distinction between ''proper nouns'' and ''proper names''{{efn|The distinction is recognized in the ''[[Oxford English Dictionary]]'' entry "proper, adj., n., and adv." The relevant lemmas within the entry: "proper noun n. ''Grammar'' a noun that designates an individual person, place, organization, animal, ship, etc., and is usually written with an initial capital letter; cf. ''proper name'' n. ..."; "proper name n. ... a name, consisting of a proper noun or noun phrase including a proper noun, that designates an individual person, place, organization, tame animal, ship, etc., and is usually written with an initial capital letter. ...". See also the ''Oxford Modern English Grammar''{{sfn|Aarts|2011|pp=42, 57}} and ''The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language''.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|pp=515–522}} In a section of ''The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language'' headed "The distinction between proper names and proper nouns", Huddleston and Pullum write: "In their primary use proper names normally refer to the particular entities that they name: in this use they have the syntactic status of NPs.&nbsp;...Proper nouns, by contrast, are word-level units belonging to the category noun.&nbsp;... Proper nouns are nouns which are specialised to the function of heading proper names."{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|p=516}} }} but this distinction is not universally observed{{sfn|Chalker|1992|p=813}} and sometimes it is observed but not rigorously.{{efn|The author distinguishes the two terms (including in separate index entries), but elsewhere in the text he conflates them. This conflation runs counter to the accepted definition of ''noun'' as denoting a class of single words, as opposed to phrases as higher-level elements of clauses and sentences—a definition that he himself gives (on p.&nbsp;627, for example).{{sfn|Greenbaum|1996|p=97}}}} When the distinction is made, proper nouns are limited to single words only (possibly with ''the''), while proper names include all proper nouns (in their primary applications) as well as [[noun phrase]]s such as ''the United Kingdom'', ''North Carolina'', ''Royal Air Force'', and ''the White House''.{{efn|The authors give as an example the proper name ''New Zealand'', which includes the proper noun ''Zealand'' as its head.{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|p=516}}}} Proper names can have a common noun or a proper noun as their [[head (linguistics)|head]]; ''the United Kingdom'' is a proper name with the common noun ''kingdom'' as its head, and ''North Carolina'' is headed by the proper noun ''Carolina''. Especially as titles of works, but also as nicknames and the like, some proper names contain no noun and are not formed as noun phrases (the film ''[[Being There]]''; ''Hi De Ho'' as a nickname for [[Cab Calloway]] and as the title of [[Hi-De-Ho (1947 film)|a film]] about him).

Proper names are also referred to (by linguists) as ''naming expressions''.{{sfn|Leech|2006|p=66}} Sometimes they are called simply ''names'';{{sfn|Leech|2006|p=66}} but that term is also used more broadly (as in "''chair'' is the name for something we sit on"); ''common name'' is sometimes used, to make a distinction from ''proper name''.{{sfn|Jespersen|2013|pp=64–71}}

Common nouns (like ''agency'', ''boulevard'', ''city'', ''day'', ''edition'') are frequently used as components of proper names. In such cases the common noun may determine the kind of entity, and a modifier determines the unique entity itself:

* The 16th robotic probe to land on the planet was assigned to study the north pole, and the 17th probe the south pole.
:(common-noun senses throughout)
* When Probe 17 overflew the South Pole, it passed directly over the place where Captain Scott's expedition ended.
:(in this sentence, ''Probe 17'' is the proper name of a vessel, and ''South Pole'' is a proper name referring to Earth's south pole)
* Sanjay lives on the beach road.
:(the road that runs along the beach)
* Sanjay lives on Beach Road.
:(as a proper name, Beach Road may have nothing to do with the beach; it may be any distance from the waterfront)
* My university has a school of medicine.
:(no indication of the name of the university or its medical school)
* The John A. Burns School of Medicine is located at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Proper nouns, and all proper names, differ from common nouns grammatically in English. They may take titles, such as ''Mr Harris'' or ''Senator Harris''. Otherwise, they normally only take modifiers that add emotive coloring, such as ''old Mrs Fletcher, poor Charles'', or ''historic York''; in a formal style, this may include ''the'', as in ''the inimitable Henry Higgins''. They may also take ''the'' in the manner of common nouns in order to establish the context in which they are unique: ''the young Mr Hamilton'' (not the old one), ''the Dr Brown I know''; or as proper nouns to define an aspect of the referent: ''the young Einstein'' (Einstein when he was young). The [[Article (grammar)#Indefinite article|indefinite article]] ''a'' may similarly be used to establish a new referent: ''the column was written by a [''or'' one] Mary Price''. Proper names based on noun phrases differ grammatically from common noun phrases. They are fixed expressions, and cannot be modified internally: ''beautiful King's College'' is acceptable, but not ''King's famous College''.{{sfn|Quirk|Greenbaum|Leech|Svartvik|1985|pp=288ff}}

As with proper nouns, so with proper names more generally: they may only be unique within the appropriate context. India has a ministry of home affairs (a common-noun phrase) called the Ministry of Home Affairs (its proper name); within the context of India, this identifies a unique organization. However, other countries may also have ministries of home affairs called "the Ministry of Home Affairs", but each refers to a unique object, so each is a proper name. Similarly, "Beach Road" is a unique road, though other towns may have their own roads named "Beach Road" as well. This is simply a matter of the pragmatics of naming, and of whether a naming convention provides identifiers that are unique; and this depends on the scope given by context.

=== Proper names and the definite article ===
Because they are used to refer to an individual entity, proper names are by their very nature definite; so many regard a [[Article (grammar)#Definite article|definite article]] as redundant, and personal names (like ''John'') are used without an article or other determiner. However, some proper names are normally used with the definite article. Grammarians divide over whether the definite article becomes part of the proper name in these cases, or ''precedes'' the proper name. ''The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language'' terms these ''weak proper names'', in contrast with the more typical ''strong proper names'', which are normally used without an article.

Entities with proper names that use the definite article include geographical features (''the Mediterranean'', ''the Thames''), buildings (''the Parthenon''),  institutions ('the House of Commons''), cities and districts (''The Hague'', ''the Bronx''), works of literature ('' the Bible''), newspapers and magazines (''The Times'', ''The Economist'', ''the New Statesman''),{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|pp=517–518}} and events (''the '45'', ''the Holocaust''). In standard use, plural proper names take the definite article (''the Himalayas'', ''the Hebrides'').{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|pp=517–518}} Among the few exceptions are the names of certain bands ([[Heavy Metal Kids]], [[L.A. Guns]], [[Manic Street Preachers]]).

However, if adjectives are used, they are placed after the definite article ("the ''mighty'' Yangtze"). When such proper nouns are grouped together, sometimes only a single definite article will be used at the head ("''the'' Nile, Congo, and Niger"). And in certain contexts, it is grammatically permissible or even mandatory to drop the article.

The definite article is not used in the presence of preceding possessives ("''Da Vinci's'' Mona Lisa", "''our'' United Kingdom"), demonstratives ("life in ''these'' United States", "''that'' spectacular Alhambra"), interrogatives ("''whose'' Mediterranean: Rome's or Carthage's?"), or words like "no" or "another" ("that dump is ''no'' Taj Mahal", "neo-Nazis want ''another'' Holocaust").

An indefinite article phrase voids the use of the definite article ("''a'' restored Sistine Chapel", "''a'' Philippines free from colonial masters").

The definite article is omitted when such a proper noun is used attributively ("''Hague'' residents are concerned ...",  "... eight pints of ''Thames'' water ..."). If a definite article is present, it is for the noun, not the attributive ("''the'' Amazon ''jungle''", "''the'' Bay of Pigs ''debacle''").

[[Vocative]] expressions with a proper name also have the article dropped ("''jump'' that shark, Fonz!", "''O'' Pacific Ocean, be pacific for us as we sail on you", "Go Bears!", "U-S-A! U-S-A!").

Only a single definite article is used where the construction might seem to require two ("the '<s>The </s>Matterhorn' at Disneyland is not the actual mountain of that name"). In a grouping, a single definite article at the start may be understood to cover for the others ("''the'' Germany of Hitler, British Empire of Churchill, United States of Roosevelt, and Soviet Union of Stalin").

Headlines, which often simplify grammar for space or punchiness, frequently omit both definite and indefinite articles. 

Definite articles used in the title of a map might be omitted in labels within the map itself (Maldives, Sahara, Arctic Ocean, Andes, Elbe; though typically The Wash, The Gambia). It is also customary to drop the definite article in tables (of nations or territories with population, area, and economy, or of rivers by length).

===Variants ===
Proper names often have a number of variants, for instance a formal variant (''David'', ''the United States of America'') and an informal variant (''Dave'', ''the United States'').{{sfn|Huddleston|Pullum|2002|p=516}}