Posted: Mar 12, 2019 3:37 am
English has a pretty two way flow between verbs and nouns, as in the cases you noted.
A lot of verb to noun transitions (referred to as nominalization) mark casual and informal speech, especially collocating with the verb 'have'. They often have nuanced meanings that are not easily accessible by second language learners. Have a go/laugh/bite/lie down/wash etc.
On the subject of American habits- making a given name out of a family name seems to be popular with our transatlantic cousins.
Bradley, Dexter, Tyler and the like are not traditionally given names in English. (Although the name Fletcher - one who feathers arrows- seems to have been a given name also...It's mutiny Mr Christian!)
Going off at a tangent about names. It struck me that certain colours can serve as family names in English. Green, Black, White, Brown Red (Read) are all possible in English as a family name, both as stand-alone and in combination (Brownrig, Blackwood, Greenacre etc.) It seems pretty unlikely that someone would be called Mr Blue or Ms Yellow or Mrs Purple.
In Japanese Murusaki (purple) is a family name. aoi (blue) is possible in combination (Aoiyama = 'Bluemountain). It just stuck me as interesting that there seem to be constraints on what color words can be used as family names.
A lot of verb to noun transitions (referred to as nominalization) mark casual and informal speech, especially collocating with the verb 'have'. They often have nuanced meanings that are not easily accessible by second language learners. Have a go/laugh/bite/lie down/wash etc.
On the subject of American habits- making a given name out of a family name seems to be popular with our transatlantic cousins.
Bradley, Dexter, Tyler and the like are not traditionally given names in English. (Although the name Fletcher - one who feathers arrows- seems to have been a given name also...It's mutiny Mr Christian!)
Going off at a tangent about names. It struck me that certain colours can serve as family names in English. Green, Black, White, Brown Red (Read) are all possible in English as a family name, both as stand-alone and in combination (Brownrig, Blackwood, Greenacre etc.) It seems pretty unlikely that someone would be called Mr Blue or Ms Yellow or Mrs Purple.
In Japanese Murusaki (purple) is a family name. aoi (blue) is possible in combination (Aoiyama = 'Bluemountain). It just stuck me as interesting that there seem to be constraints on what color words can be used as family names.