Agent noun

In linguistics, an agent noun (or nomen agentis) is a word that is derived from another word denoting an action, and that identifies an entity that does that action. For example, "driver" is an agent noun formed from the verb "drive". The endings "-er", "-or", and "-ist" are commonly used in English to form agent nouns. "Agent noun" is also used as the name of the derivational meaning (also called a derivateme).^[1]

Usually, derived in the above definition has the strict sense attached to it in morphology, that is the derivation takes as an input a lexeme (an abstract unit of morphological analysis) and produces a new lexeme. However, the classification of morphemes into derivational morphemes and inflectional ones is not generally a straightforward theoretical question, and different authors can make different decisions as to the general theoretical principles of the classification as well as to the actual classification of morphemes presented in a grammar of some language (for example, of the agent noun-forming morpheme).

See also

• Agent (grammar)
• Nominalization

References

1. ^ Panther, Klaus-Uwe; Thornburg, Linda L.; Barcelona, Antonio (2009). Metonymy and metaphor in grammar. 25. John Benjamins Publishing Company. pp. 101. ISBN 9027223793. 

External links

This linguistics article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Linguistic morphology Linguistics stubs Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную? Chris Lewis Letícia Birkheuer Look at other dictionaries: agent noun — noun : a noun denoting the performer of an action (as writer, inspector, patron, hanger on) * * * ˈagent noun 7 [agent noun] noun (grammar) a noun that refers to a person or thing that does an action, for example ‘worker’ or ‘elevator’ …   Useful english dictionary agent noun — noun A noun that denotes an agent who does the action denoted by the verb from which the noun is derived, such as cutter derived from to cut . The agent noun cutter means a person who cuts or thing that cuts. Syn: nomen agentis …   Wiktionary agent noun — ► NOUN ▪ a noun denoting a person or thing that performs the action of a verb, usually ending in er or or, e.g. worker, accelerator …   English terms dictionary agent noun — noun a noun denoting a person or thing that performs the action of a verb, usually ending in er or or, e.g. worker, accelerator …   English new terms dictionary agent noun — Gram. a noun denoting the doer of an action, as editor or jogger. [1875 80] * * * …   Universalium agent — ► NOUN 1) a person who provides a particular service, typically liaising between two other parties. 2) a spy. 3) a person or thing that takes an active role or produces a specified effect. ORIGIN from Latin agere to do …   English terms dictionary Noun — For other uses, see Noun (disambiguation). Examples The cat sat on the mat. Please hand in your assignments by the end of the week. Cleanliness is next to Godliness. George Washington was the first president of the United States of America.… …   Wikipedia Agent (grammar) — In linguistics, a grammatical agent is the participant of a situation that carries out the action in this situation. Also, agent is the name of the thematic role (also known as the thematic relation) with the above definition. The word comes from …   Wikipedia Agent — An agent is either: * an entity who is capable of action * someone (or something) who acts on behalf of another person.In law* Agent (law): a person authorised to act on behalf of another person ** Patent agent, or patent attorney, a professional …   Wikipedia agent — n 1: someone or something that acts or exerts power: a moving force in achieving some result 2: a person guided or instigated by another in some action where the heads of departments are the political...agent s of the executive, merely to execute …   Law dictionary 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”