Re: Terminology query

--- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Christian Köttl
<christian.koettl@...> wrote:

>...there is some info on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agentive.
Here is the passage from Wikipedia.  It's a stub:

"An agentive ending in the English language is the use of the
suffix -er, -or, -ist, or -ian at the end of a verb in order to
create a noun meaning "someone who does the action the verb
describes." Examples include provider (from provide) and builder
(from build).

"Sometimes speakers add an agentive ending to verbs with which
agentive endings are not generally associated. An example of this
sort of lexical invention is suicider (from suicide), a usage which
is attributed to George W. Bush, as in the following quote: "[Saddam
Hussein] was a threat because he funded suiciders" [1]. This usage
has a more specific meaning than most agentive endings since it is
not meant to describe any person who commits suicide, but rather
only one who does so with the intent to kill other people as well.

"Examples of words with -ist and -ian endings include pianist and
librarian."

I find it interesting that, after describing the agentive ending as
a suffix on verbs and giving as examples provider and builder,
he/she then gives as further examples pianist and librarian, neither
of which is suffixed to a verb!

Charlie
http://wiki.frath.net/user:caeruleancentaur

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