Re: A question on abstract nouns

David Peterson wrote:

In a message dated 4/26/01 3:54:52 AM, Daniel44@BTINTERNET.COM writes:

<< I am wondering whether words like 'geology' or 'biology' could be
classified

as abstract nouns.


I think there is a distinction between the word 'study' as in 'study is good

for the mind' (study being an abstract here) and 'earth/life study' (a

specific type of study and therefore not an abstract). >>

   > In my triconsonantal language, I have different infixes for "the study
of" and "the practice of".  So, biology would probably the root for "life"
with the "study of" infix.>

Similarly in Kash.  They would use the same verb for "I'm studying (not
goofing off)" and "I'm studying Catalan (right now, or, probably, I'm taking
a course); the -ologies OTOH are compounds with "science/knowledge":  e.g.
añol+{science} 'astronomy' (añol 'star').