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Agent noun
 
 
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In linguistics
Linguistics

Linguistics is the science study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of Meaning ....
, an agent noun (or nomen agentis) is a word that is derived from another word denoting an action
Action (philosophy)

In philosophy, action has developed into a sub-field called philosophy of action. Action is what an Agency can do.For example, throwing a ball is an instance of action; it involves an intention, a goal, and a bodily movement guided by the agent....
, and that identifies an entity that does that action. For example, "driver" is the agent noun corresponding to the verb
Verb

In syntax, a verb is a word that usually denotes an action , an occurrence , or a state of being . Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical mood and grammatical voice....
 "to drive". The endings "-er" and "-or" are commonly used in English to form agent nouns. "Agent noun" is also the name of the derivational meaning (also called a derivateme).

Usually, derived in the above definition has the strict sense attached to it in morphology
Morphology (linguistics)

Morphology is the identification, analysis and description of structure of words . While words are generally accepted as being the smallest units of syntax, it is clear that in most languages, words can be related to other words by rules....
, that is the derivation
Derivation (linguistics)

In linguistics, derivation is "Used to form new words, as with happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine....
 takes as an input a lexeme
Lexeme

A lexeme is an abstract Unit of Morphology Semantic analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken by a single word....
 and produces a new lexeme.






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In linguistics
Linguistics

Linguistics is the science study of natural language. Linguistics encompasses a number of sub-fields. An important topical division is between the study of language structure and the study of Meaning ....
, an agent noun (or nomen agentis) is a word that is derived from another word denoting an action
Action (philosophy)

In philosophy, action has developed into a sub-field called philosophy of action. Action is what an Agency can do.For example, throwing a ball is an instance of action; it involves an intention, a goal, and a bodily movement guided by the agent....
, and that identifies an entity that does that action. For example, "driver" is the agent noun corresponding to the verb
Verb

In syntax, a verb is a word that usually denotes an action , an occurrence , or a state of being . Depending on the language, a verb may vary in form according to many factors, possibly including its grammatical tense, grammatical aspect, grammatical mood and grammatical voice....
 "to drive". The endings "-er" and "-or" are commonly used in English to form agent nouns. "Agent noun" is also the name of the derivational meaning (also called a derivateme).

Usually, derived in the above definition has the strict sense attached to it in morphology
Morphology (linguistics)

Morphology is the identification, analysis and description of structure of words . While words are generally accepted as being the smallest units of syntax, it is clear that in most languages, words can be related to other words by rules....
, that is the derivation
Derivation (linguistics)

In linguistics, derivation is "Used to form new words, as with happi-ness and un-happy from happy, or determination from determine....
 takes as an input a lexeme
Lexeme

A lexeme is an abstract Unit of Morphology Semantic analysis in linguistics, that roughly corresponds to a set of forms taken by a single word....
 and produces a new lexeme. However, the classification of morpheme
Morpheme

In morpheme-based morphology, a is the smallest linguistic unit that has semantics Meaning .In spoken language, morphemes are composed of phonemes , and in written language morphemes are composed of graphemes ....
s into derivational morphemes and inflection
Inflection

In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the way language handles grammatical relations and relational categories such as grammatical tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, grammatical aspect, grammatical person, grammatical number, grammatical gender, grammatical case....
al ones is not generally a theoretical question that is straightforward, and different authors can make different decisions as to the general theoretical principles of the classification as well as to the actual classification of morphemes presented in a grammar of some language
Language

A language is a form of symbol communication in which elements are combined to represents something other than themselves. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon....
 (for example, of the agent noun-forming morpheme).

See also

  • Nominalization
    Nominalization

    In linguistics, nominalization refers to the use of a verb or an adjective as a noun, with or without morphology transformation, so that the word can now act as the head of a noun phrase....