dblack wrote

....
> I don't think the verb thing is a necessity.  Maybe I'm just being

If I remember correctly there was a science story floating
around in the mass media recently, about an experiment
that thinking about verbs fire ups more neurons in the
part of your brain usual responsible for motoric coordination,
which in reveres logic probable means that  the Germans love
for compound nouns explains that ... well, take your pick;-)


> influenced by the "Ich kann Deutsch" ("I can [speak] German") idiom.
> Actually this is all reminiscent of Franz Schubert's stock question,
> upon being introduced to or told about another person: "Kann er was?"
> (Can he do anything? i.e., is he good at anything?)  :-)
>
....

/Christoph