Re: verbs = nouns?

On Mon, 8 Jan 2001 18:44:49 -0500 Matthew Kehrt <matrix14@...>
writes:
> 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?
> -M
> --
> Saráth evenü, cán el-sayü liné!
> "He has seen but half the universe who never has been shewn the house
> of Pain.' -Emerson
-

Well, besides English (which everyone's said already, but i didn't
realize myself) there's Hebrew.  Hebrew present tense verbs were
originally nouns, or something like that.  So the sentence _hu shomeir_
can mean "he guards" or "he is a guard" (since Hebrew doesn't really have
a copula either).
When it comes to conlangs, all verbs in Rokbeigalmki are also nouns.

khaz = sight
azu-khaz = i saw

(az = i ; -u = past)


-Stephen (Steg)
 "Language is the dance of abstraction
  on the shifting ground of the particular."
     ~ TwinkleBelle @ IRC DALnet