William Ashmore

“ Nouns. Nouns are of many varieties. It will be sufficient to indicate a few of them.
1. Single nouns, consisting of one word, with a fixed and definite meaning. This includes names of persons, places, and things, such as, pûan, a plate; to, a knife; chhe, a fork; iâm, salt; chhòu, vinegar; bō, a hat; ôi, shoes; sìn, faith; ngĩ, righteousness; hái, sea; suan, mountain.—The pupil will expand this list indefinitely to suit his own wants.
2. Double nouns, where two words of similar meaning are joined together, to add force, and prevent ambiguity of meaning. ”

“ It emphasizes the word to which it is prefixed.
tan chí-kâi-sí kâi-sṳ̄, now this matter of death, or, this subject of death. tan chí-kâi, nâng só-kiè-chò-thiàn, now this that people call pain. i kâi-tiâm, its sweetness. tan chí kâi-sìn-tek kâi-ì-sṳ̀, now this idea of faith (is thus and so) . 6. It is to be remembered, also, that adjectives and nouns are often mutually convertible. Adjectives become nouns and nouns become adjectives. In the list of adjectives already given a large number of the words are constantly used as nouns ”

“ Descriptive nouns, where a whole clause has a substantive signification.
ba̍k-kang kâi-sai-pẽ, a wood-work mechanic, i.e. a carpenter. phah-thih kâi-sai-pẽ, a beat iron mechanic, i.e. a blacksmith. thì-thâu kâi-sai-pẽ, a shave head mechanic, i.e. a barber. chò-ôi kâi-sai-pẽ, a maker of shoes mechanic, i.e. a shoemaker. chò-tháng kâi-sai-pẽ, a maker of buckets, i.e. a cooper. kiân-chûn-nâng, sailors. ”