Agentnomsõnal

Agentnomsõnal is a term used in linguistic discussions to describe nominal forms that encode agentive meaning—the entity that performs the action described by a verb. It is presented as a specialized type of nominalization whose core function is to designate the agent within a clause or discourse. The term is relatively new and remains the subject of ongoing typological and theoretical discussion.

Origin and form: The word combines agent and nominal with a diacritic suffix õ, used in some analyses to mark a cross-linguistic or phonological feature of agentnomsõnal systems. In theory, an agentnomsõnal form can arise by nominalizing a verb while preserving or highlighting agentivity, or by attaching an agentive affix to a verb stem. The resulting noun phrase typically denotes “the one who performs the action” rather than the action itself or its patient.

Morphology and syntax: In languages with agentnomsõnal derivations, the agent noun may take case marking, determiners, or numeral classifiers, and may function syntactically as a subject or object depending on the language’s case system. Some analyses treat agentnomsõnal as a distinct lexical class of nouns with agentive semantics, while others see it as a particular realization of nominalization.

Distribution and usage: Evidence for genuine agentnomsõnal formation is mainly found in language descriptions of small languages, experimental grammar literature, and some constructed languages. It is not widely attested as a universal category, and it invites careful cross-linguistic comparison. Researchers debate how it relates to established notions of agentive nouns, gerunds, or participles.

See also: nominalization, agent noun, agentive morphology, ergativity, clause structure.