Re: verbs = nouns?

On Tue, Jan 09, 2001 at 05:58:02PM -0500, DOUGLAS KOLLER wrote:
[snip]
> But if hong2 is only an adjective with no verbiness, how, then, can the
> perfective particle "le" be added to it? Isn't "le" a verbal suffix? I think
> the point here is that, unlike in IE langs, adjectives behave more like
> verbs than like nouns.
Oh? I thought "le" simply marks the completion of something, the arrival
at a particular state. When applied to verbs, it marks perfective aspect;
when applied to adjectives, it marks the acquisition of the adjectival
property. So "hong2le" to me simply means that something has finally
reached the state of redness (to me, I interpret the "hong2" as describing
this final state, rather than the process of reddening).

But then again, my understanding of what a verb is may not be the same as
yours, so perhaps that's the cause of this contention. :-)


T

--
All men are mortal. Socrates is mortal. Therefore all men are Socrates.