Re: noun forms of verbs

In a message dated 11/17/01 12:46:34 PM, fuzzybluemonkeys@YAHOO.COM writes:

>ok suppose you take the verb "to sleep"... one way to turn it into a
>noun would be "sleeper" or "sleepers" referring to someone who sleeps
>but you could also use sleep as a noun as in "i didn't get any
>sleep"... there are other verbs that this works for as well but my
>question is: would it be valid to say that "food" is a noun form of
>the verb "to eat"?
The meanings are related, but not the words themselves. In natlangs the
relationship between the meaning of a verb and related noun is not always
clear. "Sleep" as a noun is a state you experience when you do the verb, but
for example, "feed" as noun is not a state you experience when you do the
verb ("feeding" would be the state), but rather something affected by the
action - the thing being fed to something/one else. Another example: in
Hebrew /oxel/ as a verb means "eat" and as a noun means "food" (the thing
eaten), not "eater," but look at the word /roked/ - as a verb it means
"dance", and as a noun it means "dancer."
As for conlangs ... you can make relationships between parts of speech as
clear or as muddled as you want. In Eloshtan, the noun form of a verb always
signifies the "doer" of the verb. Conversely, the verb form of a noun always
signifies being the noun, or doing what the noun does (so "I am an eater" and
"I eat" are both translated the same way - "kamom").

>=====
>fuzzy blue monkeys...shmuli atae muhnkia...jiqek qelek nimmekel...Luddiga
>blå apor...flauschige blaue Affen... tódifai kówainG MANgKIWi...mêndos
>êzoros faffalos...khami zhaftami nuri xhan...jasánni júñi
jakihéññi...Moncaithe
>gorma clúmhacha...Monhyey ngonul hweyaru ryehyumeru... muncaidhean gorma
>molach...jhachtaraadkimyo... monos peludos azules...pushistye sinie
obez'iany...zçínesfersaup
>sülíraup böfparaup...kędzierzawe niebieskie małpy... cirmos ke'k
>majmok...fuzzi serule mini-primate... Hlässöbonakkäa Jonäjë...pluizige
>blauwe aapjes...menomeno yanubi wayanoso...nicole
Josh Roth
http://members.aol.com/fuscian/eloshtan.html

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