Peter & David (et al.),
I have often wondered about this: how can we know that a verb is denominative rather than the noun being deverbal? I have read a fair amount of theoretical and historical linguistics (Hebrew and general), but never seen this discussed.
It seems that the theory of denominativization assumes that nouns precede verbs in the development of a language; has this ever been demonstrated?
I'm not arguing against it, just wondering how sure we can be that things worked/happened this way.
Peace.
Fred
P.S. My students had just read the chapter on the piel, and one asked (to general head-nodding), "So what difference does this make, anyway? I mean, why does it really matter that we know that these verbs are piel, since they just sound normal?" A very interesting discussion ensued, as you might imagine.
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