I realize it’s gramatically a noun, but ontologically it’s a verb.
This isnonsense. The notion “verb” only makes sense gramatically. There is no such thing as “ontologically a verb” or “ontologically a noun”, etc. Not every language even uses these same categories or splits them the same way.
Please explain. Currently I find this very unlikely given that the idea doesn’t seem to make much sense in the first place, and the fact that Esperanto is a naturally-evolved mess due to Zamenhof’s original description being vastly underspecified.
This is nonsense. The notion “verb” only makes sense gramatically. There is no such thing as “ontologically a verb” or “ontologically a noun”, etc. Not every language even uses these same categories or splits them the same way.
Instead of jumping to such a reckless conclusion, why don’t you just ask him what he means by “ontologically a verb”?
Esperanto has ontological word classes. They’re surprisingly elegant, too.
Having said that, I agree on your main point—natural languages just don’t do that.
Please explain. Currently I find this very unlikely given that the idea doesn’t seem to make much sense in the first place, and the fact that Esperanto is a naturally-evolved mess due to Zamenhof’s original description being vastly underspecified.