Bruce,
I agree that "hug" is a verb that nouns, and, as you point out, that's pretty common with action verbs. However, I don't accept your argument from etymology. Native speakers, who know how to make these shifts and do so with ease, are not historical linguists and are pretty much ignorant of word history. In fact most of the popular ideas of word origins tell us more about our culture and its beliefs than about etymology. The native speaker's knowledge represents usage. While there's no reason why usage shouldn't reflect a word's history, and it typically does, it is not necessary that it do so. That said, I can't, off the top of my head, give you an example of verb-noun or noun-verb shift that reverses the historical development. I'd have to do more OED searching than I'll have time for, at least till the end of the month, at which point I retire.
Herb
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Bruce Despain
Sent: Tue 6/5/2007 1:47 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: hug the verb and hug the noun
Herb,
You didn't seem to be very committed to taking "hug" as primarily of one part of speech or another. Let me comment on "hug" in particular. The question is whether it is primarily a verb, which can be used as a noun; or is it primarily a noun, which can be used as a verb. I believe the former is the case with "hug." Simply find the earliest instance in the written language (1567) and determine its use. The other use would have come later. In fact my dictionary neglects to mention that "hug" is used to refer to an instance of hugging. I suppose that this is such a regular formation from action verbs that it doesn't even deserve a separate entry. I think the writers of the dictionary might reverse your maxim: any action verb can be nominalized without a visible morpheme. This probably best applies to the Anglo-Saxon (Germanic) roots, however, since we see ample Latinate nominalizing forms in use.
Bruce
>>> "Stahlke, Herbert F.W." <[log in to unmask]> 06/05/07 6:06 AM >>>
"Hug", as a citation form, which is how you use it in your first sentence, can't be said to belong to any class because it is not used as a word but merely cited as a form. However, "hug" can clearly be used as both a verb and a noun.
They hugged each other. (verb)
They gave each other a big hug. (noun)
Hugs are good for you. (noun)
Hugging is good for you. (verbal noun (gerund, if you will))
English is rich in words that can be either verbs or nouns. Sometimes, as with "hug", it's a little hard to tell which usage is primary, while with a word like "claim" it's a little easier to claim that the noun is primary and the verb derived. For one thing, the noun has a broader range of meaning than the verb, a common relationship between basic and derived forms.
The derivational process that gives us "claim" (v) from "claim" (n) is called "conversion" or "functional shift", where a word changes category without any change in form.
The productivity of using nouns as verbs in English has given rise to the grammatical maxim, "Any noun can be verbed." It's not quite universally true of English nouns, but it's not far off.
Herb
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Brett Conway
Sent: Monday, June 04, 2007 11:16 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: hug the verb and hug the noun
Hi,
I wonder whether someone can tell me what class of word "hug" belongs to. It is both a noun and a verb but isn't inflected. So, it can't be a gerund or a verbal noun. I wonder what class it belongs to.
Thanks.
Brett
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