On Tue, 3 Oct 2000, =?iso-8859-1?Q?J=F6rg?= Rhiemeier wrote:
> Yoon Ha Lee wrote:
> >
> > I suppose it would depend on the language, which isn't a particularly
> > helpful. I think Korean uses a gerund-like construction but I could be
> > completely wrong. And we haven't gotten to this in German <G> but as far
> > as I can tell, you can turn verbs into nouns and they *look* like they're
> > usually assigned the neuter gender after the infinitive-ending -en is
> > stripped, but someone who knows more about German would have to tell you.
>
> No. Clipping off "-en" is not productive.
<bow> I stand corrected. As expected. <G> I guess the neuter abstract
nouns that I vaguely remembered without -en were related forms to verbs
but not nounified verbs per se?
> The nomen actionis is simply the upper-cased infinitive:
>
> erbrechen - to vomit
> das Erbrechen - the act of vomiting
>
> You are right, though, that it is of neuter gender.
>
> But the word "vomit" in the sentence "The vomit is on my shoe" is
> a nomen productis (a noun referring to a product of an action).
<blink> Are nomen actionis and productis standard terminology? They
must not think it's worth teaching us Latin anymore. :-(
YHL