Re: Verbal nouns

In a message dated 10/2/00 3:44:21 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
zebuleon@PEOPLEPC.COM writes:

> I have a verb 'to vomit' and its being used as a noun as in 'the vomit
>  is on my shoe' should it be conjugated like a noun, or just have an
>  affix signifying its a noun, or would it be conjugated like a verb then
>  a noun.  I'm looking for common ways of doing it.
>
>  Mario
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.
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.).
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.)

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.....

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