common (adj.)

A term used in GRAMMATICAL description to refer to the UNMARKED MORPHOLOGICAL form of a grammatical CATEGORY. In English, for example, the form of the NOUN other than the GENITIVE could be called the ‘common CASE’ form. Similarly, one might use ‘common GENDER’ in a language where only one contrast is made (e.g. feminine v. masculine/neuter, etc.), or where sex is indeterminate out of context (as in French enfant, ‘child’). In TRADITIONAL grammar, ‘common nouns’ were a SEMANTICALLY defined subclass of nouns (referring to ‘general concepts’) contrasted with PROPER nouns (names of individuals, etc.); LINGUISTIC approaches tend to emphasize the FORMAL distinctions that can be made between such subclasses (e.g. different patterns of ARTICLE usage).