Conlang/Advanced/Grammar/Noun-Verb distinction

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Advanced/Grammar
Noun-Verb distinction

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Although there are no natlangs known to lack the noun-verb distinction, nor do I know of any conlang, it is still a theoretical possibility for a language to lack such a distinction.

One possible method of destroying the distinction would to create a verb class similar to the present participle that would be able to act as a modifier to another verb, essentially creating a long chain of complicated verbs referencing a noun without said noun actually appearing. The noun would instead be substituted by a verb participle as the patient/actor. One consequence of this would be that the language would also lack adjectives, them having been completely replaced by adverbs.

Some possible examples could be:

  • humaningly sitting falls from blocking
  • ~~Be.human+ADV to.sit+SUBSTANTIATIVE-MOOD to.fall+PRES from to.block+SUBSTANTIATIVE-MOOD

This, however, only blurs the boundary a little bit.

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