Final answer:
A specific person, place, thing, or idea such as James, Africa, or NASA is referred to as a proper noun. These nouns are always capitalized and are used to distinguish unique entities from more general or common nouns. They serve to identify an individual, location, organization, or entity uniquely.
Step-by-step explanation:
A specific person, place, thing, or idea such as James, Africa, or NASA is a proper noun. Proper nouns are used to give unique names to entities, distinguishing them from more general nouns. Unlike common nouns or generic nouns which refer to a general type of person or thing, like 'scientist' or 'river', proper nouns identify a specific individual, location, organization, or entity and are always capitalized to highlight their individuality. An example of a proper noun would be 'Mary' as in 'Mary jogged', where 'Mary' is the specific name given to an individual. Traditional noun functions often include determiners and adjectives that form noun phrases providing additional detail, such as in the sentence 'That tall woman jogged', where 'woman' is a noun and 'that' is the determiner with 'tall' being an adjective, all together forming a noun phrase.
Moreover, in linguistics and logic, as Bertrand Russell posited, proper names or definite descriptions can substitute for a noun to uniquely identify a subject through its unique characteristics. In the realm of astronomy, the responsibility of naming celestial features in a detailed and rational manner is handled by a committee within the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to maintain a dignified and multinational approach.