English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

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Færd

17:06

post & posting, list & listing, end & ending, place & placing, ...

Is there a word for these pairs of nouns which roughly mean the same thing?

Could anyone expand the list?

Damkerng T.

17:25

walk & walking, sit & sitting, run & running?

Færd

Mhm. Maybe.

crl

sing & singing & singinging

skill patrol

ping & pinging & pinginging

ring & ringing & ringinging

wing & winging & winginging

Færd

thing & ...

skill patrol

swing $ swinging

Færd

17:39

I wanted to know what makes those pairs similar in meaning, while there are many other pairs who aren't synonymous.

Maybe there's no answer but: this is the way they are; maybe there's more to it; I don't know.

Maybe I'll ask on the main site after realizing what exactly I'm looking for.

skill patrol

Context gives meaning.

Anonymous

Well, derivational morphology isn't very regular. Deriving a noun from the -ing form of a verb is rather productive, but there are lots of other ways to form deverbal nouns, and some verbs are derived from homphonous nouns to begin with. So you have all sorts of competing noun forms related to verbs, and the relationships between them aren't going to be regular or predictable.

Færd

I see.

Anonymous

In some cases using the noun derived from the -ing form will be less natural when another related noun exists, but both will be possible. In other cases, both will be fine but have different meanings. And so on. Case by case.

Færd

Perhaps the first requirement for a pair to make it through my list is for there to be a word that can be a noun and a verb (without changing).

Anonymous

17:45

Sure. You don't want to consider other kinds of derived nouns, like establishment versus establishing?

Færd

Right.

Oh. It's not as exciting as I expected it to be.

But thanks for your explanation @snailboat . :)

Mitch

18:13

@Færd what other pairs? Knowing those might help set a boundary

Færd

scrabbles around to find an answer

sing and singing?

Not very good though, 'cause 'singing' is not a noun.

Okay: warm and warming (both as nouns)

Anonymous

Well, you can derive one, but it's probably not the most natural choice most of the time. Sing seems like a bigger problem there.

Anonymous

Sing is rarely used as a noun.

Færd

Maybe most of the pairs that have the first requirement I mentioned above can have similar meanings.

I guess that's all there is to it.

X (noun) and Xing (noun) are probably close in their meanings, if X (verb) and Xing (noun) exist.

@Mitch I failed to find many other pairs. I must take that back.

Now it boils down to this:

For what verbs the present participle can be a noun? Is there a pattern for that?

SmokeDetector

18:41

[ SmokeDetector ] Repeating characters in answer: What is another way of saying "less premium?" by 678 on english.stackexchange.com …

1 hour later…

Mitch

19:47

@Færd all? The present participle is also the gerund form

Are you looking for ... There's the idea of a 'root' form and its derived forms via suffixes prefixes, sound changes whatever. And the derived forms can have all sorts of POS.

Pure adj, purely adv, purify verb, purification noun.

Establish establishment disestablishment disestablishment antidisestablishment antidisestablishmentarian antidisestablishmentarianism

Stable

2 hours later…