Re: Nouns from Verbs

In Okaikiar, infinitive verbs are grammatically nouns, and they
refer to the occurrance of the action.  That is, the verb for
"to kick" means "kicking" - either in general, or a specific
instance.   I think "a kicking" is pretty close to "a kick",
so in this instance the noun and the verb are one.

You can productively create both active and passive agent forms,
too, so a verb "to kick" automatically gives you words for
"kicker" and "kickee"; the latter would probably be how
Okaikiar-speakers would refer to a kickball or soccerball.

There are many other relations that you can use to get a noun
from a verb, of course.  The relationship between the verb
"love" and the noun "love" referring to the emotion is
subtle - "loving" is the same as "feeling love", but is it
really the same as "love" itself?  That is, is it another
case like "kick" where the noun and the verb are one?
I decided no, so there's a separate noun for the emotion-
related to the verb, but not (yet) by any productive rule.

As to which is more common, that depends on the language,
I suppose.  In Okaikiar, every verb is automatically a noun,
so nouns from verbs are obviously more common.  In English you
can verb any noun, so verbs from nounds are more common.

On Sat, Jun 14, 2003 at 01:25:45AM -0400, Rob Haden wrote:
> I was wondering what your methods are for deriving nouns from verbs.  More
> specifically, how to derive instances of verbal activities from verbal
> roots/stems -- i.e., "(a) kick" from "(to) kick".  My language, OurTongue,*
> already has a general derivation method for abstract/durative activities: a
> masdar form in -ma (e.g., daruma "being afraid, having fear").  But most
> languages have some nouns derived from verbs which mean "instance of
> [verbing]" like the example above.  I'd like to keep the new forms distinct
> from the verbal roots.  Also, a question: which is generally more common,
> nouns from verbs or verbs from nouns?
>
> - Rob
>
> * Yes, the name is corny.  Even I'm getting tired of it.  I promise to
> change it, once I figure out the word for "tongue".  It won't be long,
> now...

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