On 12/5/05, Taka Tunu <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Henrik Theiling <theiling@...> wrote:
> <<<
> There are some derivational suffixes, I think, e.g. 'zhe3' in Chinese
> for the agent ('-er' in English): 'xue2zhe3' - 'learner'. Searching
> Cedict does not seem to reveal any exception of this referring to an
> agent and '-zhe3' being suffixed to anything but a verb. Anyway, I
> think that that is an exception and that the majority of words are
> ad-hoc compounds. But we'll need figures for comparison.
> >>>
>
> "Agent"? What's that? :-)
> I use "person", "workman", "specialist", "master", "disciple", etc.

I have an "agent" morpheme "tu" in gzb that is used to derive:
1. the agent case postposition, "tu-i"
2. -er type derivations: "tu-~"
3. active participles, "tu-~-bô"  (~ is the verb root)

The second type is in contrast to derivations with
the suffixes -tla and -pja (roughly equivalent to
Esperanto "-ist"); the "tu-~" forms refer to someone
who is actually doing this action now, the "-tla"
and "-pja" forms refer to someone who does
it habitually whether professionally or as an
amateur/volunteer.

Other people-word derivations: a lot of words derive
from "mâ" "human, person" - mostly mâ + adjective.
Where Esperanto has "-an" I have several morphemes,
the suffix "-lô" (adherent of a religion or philosophy)
and the root morphemes "jqwâ" (inhabitant) and
"sqlâ" (member of an organized group of people).

Volapük "-an" is pretty vague, covering the territory
of Esperanto "-ul", "-an" and "-ist".  It seems
odd given that overall Vp has a larger affix set,
I think, including many that are of very specific
use for a limited set of words; e.g. "-üf" for deriving
musical terms.

--
Jim Henry
http://www.pobox.com/~jimhenry/gzb/gzb.htm
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