Re: verbs = nouns?

On Mon, Jan 08, 2001 at 05:53:42PM -0600, Patrick Dunn wrote:
> On Mon, 8 Jan 2001, Matthew Kehrt wrote:
>
> > Does anyone know of any lang, preferrably a natlang, in which the same
> > words serve as nouns and as verbs?  I know it can be done with
> > adjectives and nouns, but are nouns and verbs equivalent in any
> > system?
[snip]
> Chinese, to a larger extent.
[snip]

Ermm... are you sure?

AFAIK, most words in Mandarin are distinctly either nouns or verbs. Yes,
practically every word is in its radical form, and there is next to no
inflection (none at all if you discount the few particles like /de/ and
/le/) -- so nouns and verbs have the same inflection pattern (i.e., none).
But every word is distinctly a verb or a noun -- I can't think of any
words that may behave like both. Even in compounds, a verbal root always
retains its verbal meaning and a nominal root always retains its nominal
meaning, though the compound itself may be either a verb or a noun.


T

--
It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious.
-- Sammy