verbnounlike

Verbnounlike is a term used in descriptive linguistics to describe words that can function as both a verb and a noun with little or no change in their form. The idea centers on lexical items that enter multiple syntactic categories, often through conversion or broad polysemy. While not a formal category in all grammars, the label helps explain how some words flexibly serve as different parts of speech in natural language.

In English and other languages with flexible word classes, verbnounlike items typically share surface form for both noun and verb uses. As nouns, they can be countable (a play, two plays) or mass; as verbs, they take standard tense and agreement inflections (he plays, they played, we are playing). In many cases, pronunciation or stress may shift between noun and verb uses in certain dialects, though the spelling remains the same.

Common examples include play, dance, run, plant, and address. For instance, play can denote a theatrical work (a play) or the act of playing (to play). Dance can refer to a social event (a dance) or the action of moving to music (to dance). Run can mean an instance of running (a run) or the action itself (to run). Plant can be a living organism or the act of placing seeds or saplings (to plant). These items illustrate how a single lexeme can occupy both noun and verb slots.

The concept highlights lexical flexibility and the dynamics of category boundaries in language, contributing to discussions of conversion, polysemy, and cross-lategory usage in linguistic theory and computational parsing.