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Re: When is a verb not a verb? (was: Trigger language question concerning the use of "to be")

From:Damian Yerrick <tepples@...>
Date:Wednesday, May 11, 2005, 0:49
"Ray Brown" <ray.brown@...> wrote:

> While one can argue that the "verb" in Tagalog is only a "quasi-verb" > since its "enlargements" are treated as attributes (genitives) and not as > 'objects', and thus consider them as a sub-category of 'noun', it seems to > me that you then have a category of noun which is a "quasi-noun" in that, > unlike other nouns, it can be marked for aspect and is marked to indicate > the participant role of its subject.
English verbal nouns can be marked for aspect as well: "pushing" - imperfect aspect "starting to push" - inchoative aspect "having pushed" - perfect aspect
> The latter feature feature is called _voice_ in IE and other languages. I > guess the reason that it is not called 'voice' in Tagalog is that while > with the IE passive, if the Agent is expressed, it is specifically marked > as agent, but in Tagalog it is a genitive attribute just like any other > verbal object/ argument.
Some English verbal nouns mark agent with a genitive case as well: "growth of a plant".
> However, consider Trask's definition of 'voice': > "The grammatical category expressing the relationship between, on the one > hand, the participant roles of the NP arguments of the verb and, on the > other hand, the grammatical relations borne by those same NPs." > > This surely is precisely what is going on in Tagalog.
English does something kinda-sorta similar with its gerunds: "pushing" - active voice "being pushed" - passive voice What would a trigger/all-noun pidgin English look like? -- Damian

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Ray Brown <ray.brown@...>