Why Can't the English....?
Thu, 14 Nov 2002, 12:18 amcrgwllms5 posts in thread
Why Can't the English....?
Thu, 14 Nov 2002, 12:18 amDon't know why it just occured to me, but WHY do we call someone who dances a dancER; who sings, a singER; who writes, a writER; ...etc....; but we call someone who acts an actOR..??
OR WHAT ?
Cheers,
Craig
[%sig%]
OR WHAT ?
Cheers,
Craig
[%sig%]
Re: Why Can't the English....?
Thu, 14 Nov 2002, 03:49 amWalter Plinge
Basically if the agent noun is taken from the Latin, then it keeps a form reflecting its ending in that language. "Auctor" in Latin becomes "actor" in English. The same is true of "counsellor" for example. If the word is formed without a Latin root, then we just add
"-er"
This is also the cause of problems with "ible" and "able" endings (e.g. "responsible" and "habitable"), it just depends on whether the ancient Romans, with their laugh-a-minute complicated bunch of verb and noun endings, spelt words as "abilis" or "ibilis"
And ever had a problem with whether to spell a word as correspondENT or correspondANT? You just have to know that the former derives from respondo / -ere / -si / -sum to see at once thet it must end in ENT, unlike "important" which comes from porto / -are / -avi / -atum and hence logically ends in ANT.
Simple really.
"-er"
This is also the cause of problems with "ible" and "able" endings (e.g. "responsible" and "habitable"), it just depends on whether the ancient Romans, with their laugh-a-minute complicated bunch of verb and noun endings, spelt words as "abilis" or "ibilis"
And ever had a problem with whether to spell a word as correspondENT or correspondANT? You just have to know that the former derives from respondo / -ere / -si / -sum to see at once thet it must end in ENT, unlike "important" which comes from porto / -are / -avi / -atum and hence logically ends in ANT.
Simple really.