Borrowing of verbs vs. nouns? [from LINGUIST list]

[Liland Brajant Ros']

A propos of you query, Dave:

Many languages have a class of verbs consisting of a noun followed by the
verb "to do". Thus in Japanese "to study" is "benkyou suru" where "benkyou"
is "study (n)" and "suru" is "to do"; and in Fiji Hindi "shut up" is "cup
karo" where "cup" is "silence" and "karo" is "do (imp.)" (from "karna" "to
do").

Note that in Japanese verbs of the type described, the noun portion is
usually a Chinese-origin etymon, not native Japanese. Occasionally English
nouns are used, too. This is very common in Fiji Hindi ("stap karna" for "to
stop", referring to a bus, e.g.).

In both Japanese and Fiji Hindi these are very large and unfossilized
classes of verbs.

Liland

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