Deverbal Nouns and the Agentive Dimension across Languages

Like many other languages, Dutch has a fair number of word formation rules that derive nouns from verbs (for example reger ing, ges chenk, bakk erij , vul sel , bezit, kom st , belijd enis , bijsluit er , huur ling, knoei erd). Not only do these deverbal nouns show a great formal (suffixal) diversity and different degrees of productivity, they also have a rather heterogeneous semantic output, that is they can fill a variety of ‘semantic slots’, such as nomen actionis (for example vernietiging ‘destruction’), affected object (for example geschenk ‘present’), effected object (for example tekening ‘drawing’), experiencer (for example beginneling ‘beginner’), patient (for example gijzelaar ‘hostage’), ergative object (for example overblijfsel ‘remains’), locative (for example bakkerij ‘bakery’), manner (for example gedrag ‘behaviour’), temporal (for example zitting ‘session’), instrumental (for example vulsel ‘filling’) and nomen agentis (for example regering ‘government’). In most cases, there is no one-to-one relationship between form and meaning. Deverbal -ing nominals, for instance, may be found in almost all semantic classes, and -er nominals can be nomen agentis (for example bezoeker ‘visitor’), affected object (for example bijsluiter ‘information leaflet’) or instrumental (for example (haar) droger ‘(hair) drier’).