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Re: substantive and noun

From:Christophe Grandsire <christophe.grandsire@...>
Date:Wednesday, September 18, 2002, 9:29
En réponse à Pavel Adamek <pavel.adamek@...>:

> > Other possible archaisms - > > he uses "substantive" than "noun" whenever possible. > > When the new term for "substantive" is "noun", > what is the new term for "noun"? > > P.A. >
Actually, "substantive" is a newer term compared to "noun", and those are not synonymous :)) . "Noun" is actually a subset of "substantive", as "substantive" refers to anything that can be the head of a "noun phrase" (yes, the terminology is unclear :)) ). So "substantive" includes the pronouns, as well as adjectives used nominally in languages where this is possible (like in French for instance. In English it's normally not possible, you have to add "one"). So actually, instead of being an archaism, the use of "substantive" instead of "noun" is rather a modernism, or at least an nice attempt at precision. Unfortunately, the rest doesn't quite follow :(( . I especially like the difficulty the man had to explain ergative grammar in terms which fit only for accusative systems ;))) . Christophe. http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.

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Muke Tever <mktvr@...>