Forming Verbs from Other Parts of Speech

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Skomakar'n
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Post by Skomakar'n »

Aszev wrote:
Ngohe wrote: Concerning some other adjectives, the suffix -na forms a verb with the meaning "to become..." or "to turn into...".

gul ---> gulna (yellow ---> to become yellow, to turn yellow)

Some adjectives have corresponding causative verbs:

glad ---> glädja (happy ---> to make happy, to cause someone to be happy).
Just adding that the inchoative -na and the causative umlaut were generally used to form new verbs from verbs as well, eg.

sova (ON sofa) 'to sleep'
somna (ON sofna) 'to fall asleep'
söva (ON sǿfa) 'to put to sleep'

None of these are productive anymore though.
I'd definitely call -na productive, but not umlauting.

I tend to dislike the prefix för-, so I usually use the verb göra (to do; to make), either separate or compounded.

Instead of förlöjliga (to ridicule), I'd rather say löjliggöra.
Instead of förstora (to make big), I'd rather say göra stor/större.

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Radius Solis
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Post by Radius Solis »

linguoboy wrote: I think the last group is the weakest. I'm pretty sure I've heard "he heart attacked" before and Google provides some decent attestations. I can easily imagine "Blackboarded" because here at my uni we use a programme called "Blackboard" and verbing names of software programmes, applications, formats, etc. seems pretty productive in contemporary English. At least, I wouldn't blink an eye at "We World of Warcrafted all weekend" or "Spreadsheet the data and then pdf it."
I won't contest any of this. But I will note that if I ever actually heard someone say he heart attacked out loud, and with all seriousness, I might have one too. It's absolutely terrible! (Which is not relevent to the point, but nevertheless, auggghhllzrhhhg)

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linguoboy
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Post by linguoboy »

Radius Solis wrote:But I will note that if I ever actually heard someone say he heart attacked out loud, and with all seriousness, I might have one too. It's absolutely terrible! (Which is not relevent to the point, but nevertheless, auggghhllzrhhhg)
Ah, quit your bellyaching!

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Re: Forming Verbs from Other Parts of Speech

Post by hwhatting »

FinalZera wrote: German seems to have used this prefix more successfully: befreien (to free), beträuben (to deafen), begraben (to bury (to dig a grave for)), belasten (to encumber). Could a native Germanophone tell me if this is still productive in the modern day?
I would say so - e.g., a relatively recent formation is jemanden besimsen "send an SMS to someone", from simsen "writing or sending an SMS" (both colloquial).

The be-prefix mostly forms transitive verbs; it is used to make intransitive verbs transitive:
leben "live" beleben "to make alive, lively"
or two put a different or new complement into the object role:
schenken "to give (X as a gift to Y) -> beschenken "to give a gift (to Y)"
Er schenkt meinem Bruder einen Hund <-> Er beschenkt meinen Bruder (mit einem Hund).
He gives to my brother a dog (as a gift / present) <-> He presents my brother with a dog.

In many cases, the derived meanings are idiosyncratic or at least lexicalised (sitzen "sit" / besitzen "own, possess"; schreiben "write" / beschreiben "describe" besides the expected "write upon", legen "lay" / belegen "document, substantiate" besides the expected "overlay, cover").

Radius Solis wrote: - most for which there are already perfectly good morphologically related verbs (*He stronged it, *Cook until the sugar caramels, *Engineers heighted the building, *He golded the statue)
- many nouns that are derived from something else already (*He teachered for six years, *I warmthed my dinner, We are employeeing him)
I think the second restriction is a subgroup of the first - why say *he teachers if there is teaches or *the company employees an accountant when there is employs? So we can expect such verbs to be formed when there either is no basic verb or when the newly derived verb has a specialised meaning - e.g. to lawyer in its meanings "to work as a lawyer, to practice law" and "to afflict s.o. as lawyer".

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Ngohe
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Post by Ngohe »

Skomakar'n wrote:I'd definitely call -na productive, but not umlauting.
What's your criteria for something being productive?

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Terra
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Post by Terra »

I would say so - e.g., a relatively recent formation is jemanden besimsen "send an SMS to someone", from simsen "writing or sending an SMS" (both colloquial).
Awesome.

Thank you everyone for the replies.

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