cross-posted from: https://mander.xyz/post/33025461

I’m doing some conlanging for a book and I’m having trouble finding the word for how we can take a verb, add -er at the end, and get a word for a person who does that thing. For example, a driver is someone who drives, a commander is someone who commands, a lawyer is someone who laws, and a finger is someone who fings. I am having trouble finding out how other languages noun their verbs in this way since I don’t know what this thing is called. Pls halp.

    • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyzM
      3·
      2 months ago

      I see two ways to do so:

      1. Have multiple agent noun affixes, each for a type of agent. For example I feel like Spanish -dor is more often used for someone who’s repeatedly doing something, while -nte is someone doing it now.
      2. Apply the affix not to the base form of the verb, but to a conjugated form, in a way that preserves tense/aspect/mood information.

      So, as an example of #2. Let’s say your conlang has the verb “lug” (to do), and here’s part of its conjugation:

      • indicative perfect past - lugene (they did)
      • indicative imperfect past - lugavo (they were doing)
      • indicative habitual present - lugien (they often do, they typically do)
      • indicative progressive present - lug (they’re currently doing)
      • [etc.]

      And your agent suffix is, dunno, -bor. Most languages would apply it into the base form and call it a day, so you’d get “lugbor”; you could instead do something like

      • lugenebor - the one who did
      • lugavobor - the one who used to do
      • lugienbor - the one who often does; like Spanish “hablador” (one who talks often = talkative)
      • lugbor - the one actively doing it; like Spanish “hablante” (one who’s talking now = speaker)
      • etc.

      I feel this would go well with an agglutinative language. Just make sure the distinction between adjective and noun is clear, otherwise your conspeakers will conflate the nominalising and adjectivising suffixes.