An action noun is a noun that refers to an action or event, often derived from a verb. Gerunds and -tion words can be action nouns, but infinitives are not considered as such in English. Action nouns can be used as subjects, but not always as main verbs.
An action noun, also called a nomen actionis, is a deverbal noun that refers to an action or event. Deverbal simply means that the root of the word is a verb, but in the context of a sentence it is used as another part of speech. The definition of an action noun can appeal to an oxymoron, as verbs, not nouns, are typically described as “action words.” However, an action can also be a “thing,” as in the definition of a noun as a “person, place, or thing.” Action nouns can be verbs, other verb formations, or not derive from a particular verb at all.
Some action nouns are non-finite verbs, meaning they can’t be the main verb of a sentence. A gerund, which is a verb that acts as a noun and is formed by adding -ing in English, can often be used as an action noun. In the sentence “Towing a car is expensive,” for example, “towing” is a gerund referring to the act of towing, making it an action noun. Although “tow” is usually a verb, in this case it serves as the subject noun of the sentence. Other words such as “blessing,” which are as common in their nominal form as their verb form, are also gerunds.
An infinitive is another type of verb that can be used as an action noun in some languages. In English, it consists of “to” plus the base form of the word, as in “to indicate”. Since this is a two-word phrase, it is not considered an action noun. In many other languages, however, the infinitive is a single word and, therefore, a noun of action, as in the Latin amare, which means “to love”.
Action names can also be formed from verbs in other ways, such as by adding -tion in English. For example, “construction” is a deverbal noun since it derives from the verb “to build”. It is an action noun, however, if it is used to refer to the act of building, as in “The construction of the building will be completed in February”. If it is used as an adjective or to refer to something that has been constructed, it is not an action verb because it does not refer to the action itself. In the sentence “a building site”, the word “construction” is an adjective; in “A Construction of Duct Tape and Newspaper,” “construction” refers to an object rather than an action.
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