Agentive nominalizations

The most pervasive suffix which forms a nominalization relating to the subject of an activity is -er. This generally refers to an habitual, volitional agent, and will be called Agent-nom.

Suffix -er is of Germanic origin. Alongside it are two suffixes of Romance origin, generally used with Romance verbs: -or (as in inspector, possessor, actor, competitor) and -ar (as in bursar). The three suffixes have merged in pronunciation, all being just /- e / (a linking /r/can be inserted before a following word commencing with a vowel, such as of). Spellings vary and in fact some Germanic Agent-nom’s are written with -ar, including liar and beggar.

Almost all semantic types include some or many verbs forming Agent nom’s with -er (or -or or -ar). There are rather few in the Secondary types (except for the HELPING subtype). And there are virtually none in the LIKING and ANNOYING types, since one cannot have an agentive nominalization of a state. We do find worshipper, but this implies undertaking something physical as an act of worship (for example, kneeling and praying before a cross or other idol, or making a sacrifice), and not just worshipping in the non-physical sense of ‘like a lot’.

The conditions for use of -er can be seen by examining verbs from the subtype MOTION-a. One often hears runner, dancer, diver, jogger and swimmer since these are all volitional activities that people indulge in habitually. Less common are waver and wriggler since these actions are generally not done habitually; but if they were to be, the Agent-nom’s are available.

An Agent-nom is typically used with a modifying adjective which describes how the agent characteristically performs the activity. For example:

All of these Agent-nom’s describe a habitual activity. One can say He is the winner of the 3.20 race, but to describe a horse just as a winner will generally imply that he has won a number of races.

However, there are a few verbs that describe an action which if performed at all is highly significant. For these, an Agent-nom may be used to describe the action being done just once, not habitually—for example, killer, murderer, deserter (from an army or similar force).

Note that -er is not possible with verbs which are unlikely to be agentive, such as fall, spill, upset, capsize (and others from the MOTION-g subtype) and die. And it is not used with verbs referring to an activity which is unlikely to be performed habitually, such as assume, suspect, consider, imagine, ponder, reward, bequeath, insult.

In some situations (in a courtroom, and in formal writing), words of Romance origin are considered to be of a higher class and more acceptable than those of Germanic origin. Certain nominalizations are most used in such situations. This has led to a number of instances where there are two verbs, of similar meaning, and an Agent-nom is generally formed just from the Romance verb, not from that of Germanic origin. For example:

There was at one time an Agent-nom based on see, but this has now taken on a specialized meaning, seer ‘prophet’, and is no longer associated with see. There was originally an Agent-nom looker; it was only as this dropped out of use that a new word looker evolved, with a quite different meaning— ‘look good’, as in She’s a (good) looker. (But note that one can still say a looker on.)

In times gone by, a feminine suffix -ess(of Romance origin) could be added after agentive -er (with phonological shortening), as in manageress, actress. This is now frowned on; a female film star generally prefers to be called just an actor. (Although it has proved useful to retain the -ess form for certain purposes, as when Oscars are awarded for ‘best actor’ and for ‘best actress’.) Note that, although lost from Agent-nom’s, -ess is still retained for referring to animals and the aristocracy—lioness, duchess, princess.

There is a less pervasive affix which can be an alternative to (sometimes an addition to) -er. Suffix -ant/-ent is of Romance origin and is generally added to Romance verbs. In some cases, both verb and nominalization were borrowed into Middle English from Old French; for example, appeal and appellant, defend and defendant. The affix has been extended to some words of Germanic origin; for example, coolant (from 1930) by analogy with lubricant (attested from 1822).

The partial equivalence of -er and -ant/-ent can be seen by their occurrence on pairs of Germanic/Romance words which have a similar meaning; for example:

In these and in some other nominalizations, -ant/-ent has an habitual, volitional agentive meaning, like -er; I group it with -er in forming Agent nom’s. However, the agentive component is sometimes minimal, as in defendant, resident.

For a fair number of -ant/-ent Agent-nom’s, there is the sense of ‘one of a group involved in the activity’, for example:

However, this does not apply to others, such as claimant, defendant, and president.

There are a few verbs which form both -er and -ant/-ent Agent-nom’s, with a difference in meaning:

There is a further suffix forming Agent-nom’s, -ard/-art. This typically carries an opprobrious meaning; for example, drunkard, braggart, laggard (and note dullard, from adjective dull). There are no examples of a verb which forms Agent-nom’s with both -ard/-art and -er.

There are some nouns which have the same form as a verb and which refer to an agent; these include cook and guide. However, they do not qualify as Agent-nom’s. Whereas John baked this loaf gives John is the baker of the loaf, corresponding to John cooked this meal, one cannot say *John is the cook of this meal. (For each of these, the nominal form is the older, having been later extended to use as a verb.)

An Agent-nom formed from a transitive verb can be possessed by the object of the underlying verb if this fulfils the conditions to take ’s (or is a pronoun with animate reference). Thus: My cousin’s murderer, Fred’s employer, Kate’s lecturer, our leader, the professor’s assistant. When the underlying O argument only partially satisfies the criteria, we may get either ’s or of—the governor of the province, the province’s governor, and the operator of the machine, the machine’s operator. For others, just of may be used—wrecker of cars, worshipper of idols, eater of chocolate, framer of pictures, bearer of gifts, explorer of the rain forest.