From the Brain of Matty

active verbs (20.06.07 11:47 am)

Next time I make a language, I'm going to introduce the concept of active and passive verbs. Active verbs are those that the subject (the noun in the nominative case) is intentionally and actively performing. Passive verbs are those that happen irrespective of the subject's intentions; though the subject is still the one doing it. That's a bad definition. It'd be better to define it by example.

Consider "to look"/"to see." Looking involves actively seeking visual stimulus; seeing involves passively receiving it. Listening means actively seeking aural input; hearing means receiving it. Those verbs could be combined into single words, the general look-see, and the general listen-hear, then marked with an affix or conjugation to tell us if the active or passive form is intended.

I think it would be very poetic to apply the active/passive concept to verbs such as dream, speak, and live. Or love.

I wonder if there'd be a rule about applying active/passive to transitive verbs..

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