Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bill Rea <cctr114 AT it.canterbury.ac.nz>]

Dave wrote:-

>Function is not everything; if I say "I will decision the 
>problem" I have in essence created a verbal that doesn't exist and 
>have violated the grammatical form of the noun "decision."  Does 
>that mean that "decision" is no longer a noun and has become a 
>verb?  I don't think so.

In my lifetime I've observed several such transformations in meaning.
The word ``source'' was always used as a noun when I was young, it is
now often used as a verb. Then I first started hearing it being
used as a verb some twenty years ago, it sounded strange, it no
longer does. Although your phrase  "I will decision the problem"
sounds a bit peculiar, decision is a verb here. Who knows, you may
be starting a trend and in 20 years time it will common to hear
people say, ``I need you to decision that.'' Some words function as
both verbs and nouns. ``Surface'' is one. In the sentence - The 
frying pan has a non-stick surface. - it is a noun. In the sentence -
Order the submarine to surface. - is a a verb. 

Bill Rea, Information Technology Dept., Canterbury  University  \_ 
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