Re: verbs = nouns?

From: "Marcus Smith"

> You are absolutely correct. However, this does show that "adjectives"
> pattern with verbs rather than with nouns. This doesn't necessarily mean
> that adjectives are verbs, but they are closer to verbs than they are to
> nouns. By calling them stative verbs, we are not necessarily placing them
> in the same category as active verbs, but we are indicating
> terminologically that they will behave like a verb in many (most?)
> respects. They should be able to be modified by tense/aspect markers and
be
> the main predicate of a sentence. I don't know what else they do in
> Chinese. Calling them a stative verb does not mean they will be identical
> in behavior to active verbs -- in fact, if they were identical, we would
> have to distinguish between stative and active.
Indeed, placing the progressive verbal particle "-zhe" or the experiential
"-guo" on an adjective would be nonsensical and ungrammatical  (hong2zhe "it
is redding"?; hong2guo4 "it has redded before"?). (H.S., if you come up with
a counter-example, I will have to hurt you ;)  )

Kou