--- Mau Rauszer <maurauser@...> wrote:
> Tim May <butsuri@...> 2002.09.01.
> 13:29:55 +1h-kor írta:
>
> > > > Do you mean that verbs and nouns are
> > > > different things in english? Really?
Depends. There are certainly differecens in how nouns
and verbs are used; but - in my opinion - they are
essentially the same thing. I think of both (and
adjectives, pronouns and numbers) as being naming
words: adjectives name qualities, nouns name objects,
verbs name actions. [The others are relation words.]
Things like case and tense and whatever are just extra
bits, or categories, that we (speakers of the
language) have felt important to relate on certain
kinds of words; but there is no fundamental
difference.
Does that make sense at all?
> > > >
> > > > It's always fun to me that you can
> "cd into a directory",
> > > > "bulldozer a house" and "cash in" :-) The
> whole concept makes
> > > > for a good
> > > > conlang without nouns, having only verbs :-m
> :-)
The verbing of English. English is a wonderful
language in the ways we can contort it into something
new. Not to mention how readily it allows us to change
it!
> > There're certainly a large
> > number of nouns which
> > can be used as verbs and and vice-versa without
> > any change in form,
Probably all of them. "Song" sticks in my head as one
that might be a tad hard to use as a verb.
> > It's generally agreed that all languages make some
> distinction between
> > noun and verb roots, although some make more than
> others.
I think English is one that make somewhat less of a
distinction.
> > I've been
> > trying to read a paper which claims that
> Philippine languages actually
> > have "precategorial" roots. It's an interesting
> argument, but too
> > much goes over my head for me to say whether I
> agree with it.
> This's a feature of my not-so-detailed conlang
> Meyadhew. They don't have distinct nouns and verbs,
> even you can say 'I'm walling' and so.
The lack of distinction is also a feature of Talarian,
where you can easily make verbal roots nouns and vice
versa. There's already no distinction between nouns
and adjectives to boot.
> mau
Padraic.
=====
beuyont alch geont la ciay la cina
mangeiont alch geont y faues la lima;
pe' ne m' molestyont
que faciont
doazque y facyont in rima.
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