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On twitter they say "ЧИТАЕМЫХ" and "ЧИТАТЕЛЯ" Is this pattern productive starting with the root of the verb (ЧИТА) and applicable to other verbs?

MatthewMartin
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    Wow. Have never seen the English word readee. Does it really exist? And as for читаемый, this is not a noun at all. It is passive and means "being read" (like "A book is being read"). And last - the stem is "чит", not "чита". – petajamaja Apr 06 '13 at 16:33
  • The -ee suffix is productive, especially in legal jargon, maybe less so in other areas, ref. http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/9501/ee-and-er-word-endings Okay, that makes sense. – MatthewMartin Apr 06 '13 at 18:19
  • I know this suffix, we've learnt e.g. words "employee", "referee" etc. Thanks for the link, I'll read it for sure, it is a very interesting topic. – petajamaja Apr 06 '13 at 19:27
  • @petajamaja: The word readee does not exist. You'd have a hard time finding it with Google, which is already a good clue about its nonexistence. – KCd Apr 08 '13 at 02:17
  • @MatthewMartin !urgent: please downvote my answer, I've got 666 reputation! – petajamaja Apr 08 '13 at 20:23
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    @MatthewMartin: sorry, someone already upvoted something, so I got past that dangerous number =) – petajamaja Apr 08 '13 at 22:11

1 Answers1

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In some cases this pattern is productive, for example:

  • "интервьюер" - "интервьюируемый" (interviewer - interviewee)
  • "экзаменатор" - "экзаменуемый" (examinator - examinee)
  • "испытатель - испытуемый" (tester - testee)

and other.

In this case, indeed, both words are nouns, the last one formed by changing the part of speech from passive participle to noun.

However, this rule cannot be used in some situations:

  • when the meaning is not "the person who is being exposed to an action" :

    we can't say "спасатель - спасаемый" (this one is unnatural), "работодатель - работоданный" (this is simply incorrect)...

  • when we are not talking about a person: this happens in your example. A book can be read (for example : читаемая мной книга) and it will be a passive participle, but there is no word for a person that is made to read by his angry mother =)

EDIT.

After a short survey suggested by Anixx, I have found out that, indeed, the passive participle "спасаемый" can be used as a noun (mostly in The Bible). However, I have a feeling that the semantics is slightly different : those nouns derived from passive participle can sometimes mean "somebody who can be (...insert the indefinite aspect of passive participle here)". So I have a feeling that "спасаемый" could mean "the one who still can be saved"...

Any ideas?

FINAL EDIT.

The noun "спасаемый" really exists, as shown in Quassnoi's comment.

petajamaja
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    "спасатель - спасаемый" sounds OK – Michael Freidgeim Apr 06 '13 at 21:09
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    Maybe as a passive participle. But I scarcely imagine people on the shore shouting "Спасаемый! Спасаемый! Схватитесь за верёвку наконец!" – petajamaja Apr 06 '13 at 22:20
  • "спасатель - спасаемый" is OK, -1 – Anixx Apr 06 '13 at 22:29
  • OK, should I correct it? – petajamaja Apr 07 '13 at 10:20
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    @petajamaja: from Боевой устав пожарной охраны: "130.При проведении спасательных работ в здании повышенной этажности необходимо ... принять меры к предотвращению паники среди спасаемых" – Quassnoi Apr 07 '13 at 12:37
  • @Quassnoi, thanks for a quote, I will write the final edit in the answer. – petajamaja Apr 07 '13 at 18:55