Re: verbs = nouns?

On Wed, Jan 10, 2001 at 08:28:43PM +0000, Raymond Brown wrote:
[snip]
> At 10:51 pm -0500 9/1/01, H. S. Teoh wrote:
> [....]
> >
> >OK, I might be way off here, but here's what I remember from Greek class:
> >an adjective is actually distinct from a noun,
>
> In what way?  The Catechism is correct when it says adjectives &
> substantives decline the same way.
Well, OK, so it didn't say adjectives were *distinct* from nouns, but they
were treated separately in the textbook so I assumed they were different.
But yes, they do decline in the same way.

> >but sometimes, you can use
> >it substantively -- ie., as if it were a noun.
>
> Not sometimes - always.
Interesting...

[snip]
> Q. How many kinds of noun are there?
> A. Two kinds, _substantive_ and _adjective_.
>    1. A substantive denotes either a real substantial person or thing, e.g.
> _vir_, a man; or a quality considered by itself, e.g. _utilitas_,
> usefulness.
[snip]

!!!!  This is how my conlang treats nouns and adjectives! Though my
conlang takes it one step further -- adjectives *are* substantives, at
least as far as grammar is concerned. There is no distinction between the
two grammatically; only semantically. Juxtaposition of an adjective to a
substantive does *not* cause the former to modify the latter; rather, in
order for an adjective to modify a substantive, a sub-clause must be
employed. Compare:

1)      d3m0'l      biz3t30'   tww'ma ebu'.
        beauty(org) woman(org) see(v) I(rcp)
        "I see beauty and [a] woman."
And:

2)      n0       d3m3'l      d0         biz3t30'   tww'ma ebu'.
        <subord> beauty(cvy) <aux>(org) woman(org) see(v) I(rcp)
        ^------------------------------^
         Subclause: the beautiful woman
        "I see the beautiful woman."

In (1), the speaker sees *two* things, beauty, and the woman; in (2), the
speaker sees one thing: the woman, who happens to be beautiful (literally,
who shows forth beauty). The language does not require explicit
conjunctions except where necessary; that's why (1) parses as having two
distinct originative nouns, beauty and the woman.


T

--
PNP = Plug 'N' Pray