0 a noun that is the name of a group of similar things, such as "table" or "book", and not of a single person, place, or thing --
1 (in grammar) a name for any group of people, places, or things that are of the same type: --
It may be related to the common noun "coel", meaning belief or omen.
The surname may derive from the obsolescent common noun shriver, a person who shrives.
It is a common noun.
For those who know it as a geographer's term, unembedded in a local context, the possibilities are less constrained, and it can behave more like a classical common noun.
While there is a lot about word learning that could conceivably be language-specific, determining the extension of a common noun is an unlikely candidate for a dedicated process.
The common noun horse, for instance, is a count noun, since it can be combined with the numeral one in the singular and with two in the plural.
In this particular example, the relevant frame is the item-based construction based on the word the that opens up a following slot for a common noun.
The common noun pad, for instance, is ambiguous : it means 'path ' when it is neuter, and ' toad ' when it is masculine.