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Re: Number and noun terminology questions

From:Muke Tever <hotblack@...>
Date:Sunday, February 8, 2004, 9:29
On Sat, 7 Feb 2004 14:59:43 -0800, Costentin Cornomorus
<elemtilas@...> wrote:

>> "Agent." >> >> And is there such a thing as patient nouns? > > Sure. "Teacher" etc.
rofl :) Patient nouns exist, yeah, and sometimes even in forms matching the agent nouns; for example, |employer, employee| (both from the verb |employ|). I dont think they're too common in English though; AFAICT in many languages it's usually formed from past participles of the verb, but in English, this is more adjective-like than noun-like, except in collective senses ("benefits for teh unemployed"). There are some exceptions, though; |beloved| comes to mind. (You could be picky and say these are verb forms, but even the PIE agent-noun-former -t-r shows up as a verbal form in Skt., so the line is slightly thin.) *Muke! -- http://frath.net/ E jer savne zarjé mas ne http://kohath.livejournal.com/ Se imné koone'f metha http://kohath.deviantart.com/ Brissve mé kolé adâ.