Hi again!
Lying in bed on this rainy morning before daybreak, I started thinking about this thread again. Raymott and GoesStation both maintain 'export' is a noun, albeit used attributively in:
4. This is an
export company.
I would like to hear your arguments in favour of this standpoint. As contra-arguments I offer the following:
A: 'export' comes to us from the Latin verb 'exportare', which means 'out carry'. 'a carry out', pronounced with rolling rrs, 'carry uut', as my old Scottish friend always said, is a take-away meal. This is a common feature in languages: an adjective is nominalized in lieu of an implied noun, here: meal. Cf "Lets get a take-away."
B: You cannot show me an export. You can only show me an export product. If your country exports wheat, you could show me a ship load of wheat. I would see wheat, not export. Likewise any other product which is 'an export product'.
C: 'export' refers to what we do to a product, namely 'carry it out of the country', not a product or a thing. As the word for what we do to something, it is an abstraction referring to an action, an infinitive.
I would like to hear your thoughts on this! If this is too much for this forum, then maybe privately. I don't want to bother anyone! You can contact me at:
djahrgang1@163.com