How to conflate verbs with verbal nouns

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Hyolobrika
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How to conflate verbs with verbal nouns

Post by Hyolobrika »

How to conflate verbs with verbal nouns and noun descriptors with sentence participents aka verb descriptors (genitive case with agentive and dative case with patientive)
For example "my action" sounds and is written the same (and is thought to have the same meaning) as "I do" and "the rain in Spain" similarly = "it rains in Spain"
Use Suffixaufnahme
(ESS is the default case)
1sg-GEN/AGT-ESS act/action/do-ESS = I do = my action (in the neutral case ESS)
3sg-AGT-NOM speak/speech-NOM grows/gets longer-ESS = that I speak gets longer = my speech gets longer
Or use syntax instead of cases
"I" sounds and is written the same (and is thought to have the same meaning) as "my", "action" similarly = "do"
"you spoke interested me" = "your speech interested me"

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Circeus
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Re: How to conflate verbs with verbal nouns

Post by Circeus »

So let me get this straight. You mean a language where there is no noun that corresponds to the action expressed by the verb, i.e. there is not separate form that correspond to the second member of do vs. action, perform vs. performance.

It's worth noting that such noun are very commonly repurposed from a verbal form in Indo-European languages, the english gerund does it,in French, it is the infinitive (e.g. un parler "a dialect", un lancer "a throw", "du manger" "food", un plaisir, from an ancient infinitive form), but English nouning basically does the same thing as French, if you want to go there.
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Znex
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Re: How to conflate verbs with verbal nouns

Post by Znex »

A number of Celtic languages use verbal nouns in periphrastic constructions (though even with these, some copula verb is still being used).

eg. "I'm doing" =
Scots Gaelic
Tha mi a dhèanamh
be.PRS 1SG on do-VRBN

Welsh
Dw i'n gwneud
be.PRS.1SG=1SG COMP do.VRBN

But I suspect you mean more like the constructions in Salish languages; in Lushootseed for instance, the only difference between "coyote" and "be a coyote" is its position in a sentence.

eg.
"The coyote goes/The coyote one is going."
ʔux̌ʷ ti sbiaw
go SPEC coyote

vs.

"The going one is a coyote/The going one is coyoteing."
sbiaw ti ʔux̌ʷ
go SPEC coyote
Native: English || Pretty decent: Ancient Greek || Alright: Ancient Hebrew || Eh: Welsh || Basic: Mandarin Chinese || Very basic: French, Latin, Nisuese, Apsish
Conlangs: Nisuese, Apsish, Kaptaran, Pseudo-Ligurian

Hyolobrika
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Re: How to conflate verbs with verbal nouns

Post by Hyolobrika »

Circeus wrote:So let me get this straight. You mean a language where there is no noun that corresponds to the action expressed by the verb, i.e. there is not separate form that correspond to the second member of do vs. action, perform vs. performance.
Yep

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