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Re: Number and noun terminology questions

From:Costentin Cornomorus <elemtilas@...>
Date:Sunday, February 8, 2004, 15:11
--- Philippe Caquant <herodote92@...>
wrote:

> "Patient nouns", I think, would be concepts > like > "prey", "victim", etc, but there seems to be > few of > them. French "le blessé" = the injured person.
Why? An agent noun doesn't have anything to do with whether the noun is in the agent or patient case. "Teacher" can be either agent or patient depending on which end of the action it resides at.
> "Agent nouns" is ambiguous. Does that mean the > agent > doing the action in this very sentence only
No. It means "doer of X", where X is the verb associated with the nominal root. "Teacher" is "doer of teaching"; "actor" is "doer of acting".
> (ex: the > seller has the obligation of...), or the agent > whose > usual function is to do this action (the baker, > the > postman, Latin rex = the one who rules), or > other ?
There may be a misunderstanding: this isn't verbal agency - hence no "patient nouns".
> As to patients nouns, what about nouns > representing > the result of an action (French: la déchirure = > result of tearing apart) ?
Perhaps "state noun" or "resultive noun". Padraic. ===== kâsu ñomklyu tsrasi&#347;&#347;i &#347;äk kälymentwam! -- Punyavantajâtaka -- Ill Bethisad -- <http://www.geocities.com/elemtilas/ill_bethisad> Come visit The World! -- <http://www.geocities.com/hawessos/> .