Re: Verbal nouns

On Tue, Oct 03, 2000 at 04:58:38PM -0400, Estelachan@AOL.COM wrote:
[snip]
> let's see... common ways...
> 1) there's a seperate noun and verb, very closely related or having the same
> root but one with a noun ending, one with a verb ending.
Hmm. The verbalizing/nominalizing/relativising morphemes I have in mind
are quite a bit more specific than this -- more on this below:

> 2) using a verbal adjective and a noun to create something like "vomited
> stuff". As a real-world example, English "baked goods" refers to the results
> of baking.
> 3) this is of course not legal in English, but certainly there are languages
> out there that have some affix/verb form that indicates "the result of doing
> X" in a single word, the same way that English has a "doer of X" form
> ("baker" etc.).
Cool. One of the morphemes I have in mind converts a verb into a noun
meaning what is produced by the verb.

> 4) a verbal noun (English uses the suffix -ing) such as "washing" as in "the
> washing is hanging on the line". In English, this is sort of
> archaic/informal/otherwise rare, and the verbal noun ending in -ing often
> refers to the action instead ("I finished the baking" refers to the act of
> baking, not the baked goods.)
IIRC, the -ing suffix here makes the verb into a gerund -- the act of
doing something.

> there's probably more, but that's what I'm coming up with. incidentally,
> thank you for bringing this up, because I just realized that a designation
> "verb->noun" on an affix is not specific enough when I wanted it to refer to
> the action. Englishcentrism strike again! Hmm, wonder if I should have actual
> words for "result of X" and "doer of X" rather than using long phrases.....
[snip]

You're right, a designation for "verb->noun" isn't specific enough. Some
of the other morphemes I have in mind include:
- verb -> noun morphemes indicating:
  - the doer of the noun (eg. "to train" --> "trainer" in English)
  - the thing/person the noun acts on (eg. "trainee" from "to train" in
    English)
  - the instrument of the verb (eg. "iron" referring to the device used
    for ironing)
  - gerunds ("to <verb>" --> "the act of <verb>ing")
- noun -> verb morphemes indicating:
  - to make, to cause to become like the noun (eg. "white" --> "to
    whiten")
  - to act like the noun, to do something characteristically done by the
    noun (can't think of an English equiv, but the basic idea is to go
    from, say, "donkey" --> "to bray")
  - the equivalent of "category" --> "categorize"
- relative -> noun morphemes indicating:
  - the relationship itself (eg. the relative indicating possession -->
    the noun "possession")
- relative -> verb morphemes indicating:
  - the cause something to have the relationship (eg. the relative
    indicating X _on top of_ Y --> verb "to put X on top of Y")
- abstract noun -> relative, indicating:
  - a relationship analogical to that described by the noun (eg. "mind" or
    "soul" --> relative meaning "X relates to Y as mind relates to you",
    something along these lines.)

There are more, but I've to sit down and list them out first :-)


T