Definition. Treatment of Conversion
Conversion (to convert - превращать) - is highly productive in replenishing the English word-stock with new words. The term «conversion» refers to numerous cases of phonetic identity of two words belonging to different parts of speech, e.g.: paper - to paper, work - to work.
From the angle of their morphemic structure these words are root-words. On the derivational level, however, one of them (the 2nd) is a derived word, as it belongs to a different part of speech and is understood through semantic relations with the other, i.e. is motivated by it. The question arises: what serves as a word-building means in these cases? The answer is that the two words differ in the paradigm, and it is the paradigm that is used as a word-building means in cases of conversion. Hence, conversion is the formation of a new word through changes in its paradigm.
There are two main cases of conversion:
- formation of verbs from nouns and rarely from other parts of speech:
doctor - to doctor (from noun); thin - to thin (from adjective); down - to down
(from preposition);
- formation of nouns from verbs and rarely from other parts of speech: to
cut - a cut (from verb); but - to but (from conjunction); ups and downs (from
adverbs).
Conversion has been studied since 1891, and it was H. Sweet who first used this term in his «New English Grammar».
Conversion has been treated differently:
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1. The treatment of conversion as a morphological way of forming words
was suggested by prof. Smirnitsky, and according to this approach a
paradigm is considered a morphological category.
2. Syntactic approach to conversion (functional). A number of English
and American linguists regard conversion as a kind of functional change, i.e.
they consider that a word may function as two different parts of speech at the
same time. If so, they no longer distinguish between parts of speech, i.e. be
tween nouns and verbs, nouns and adjectives, etc. But one and the same word
cannot simultaneously belong to different parts of speech.
3. Morphological - syntactic approach to conversion (by I.V. Arnold) as
it involves both a change of the paradigm and a change of the syntactic func
tion of the word. But it is not correct because the syntactical factor is a se
quence of changes in the paradigm, that is irrelevant.
Approaches to Conversion
Diachronic approach analyses which of the two words was derived and the semantic development of each word:
smoke (дым) - to smoke (дымить) in 1663,
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to smoke - коптить in 1715,
to smoke – коптиться; smoke – копоть (at present).
Synchronical approach deals with the semantic relations between words related through conversion.
Semantic Relations between Conversion Pairs
As one of the two words within a conversion pair is semantically derived from the other, it is of great theoretical and practical importance to determine the semantic relations between the words related through conversion.
I. Verbs converted from nouns. If the noun refers to some object of reality (both animate and inanimate) the converted verb may denote:
1. action characteristic of the object, e.g. witness - to witness; ape - to
ape; dog - to dog;
2. instrumental use of the object, e.g. elbow - to elbow; hammer - to
hammer; stone - to stone;
3. acquistion, or addition of the object, e.g. fish - to fish; tail - to tail;
grass - to grass; dust - to dust;
4. deprivation of the object, e.g. skin - to skin; dust - to dust; bone - to
bone; stone - to stone; tail - to tail;
5. location (with nouns denoting places, buildings, containers), e.g. bag -
to bag; pocket - to pocket; house - to house; tail - to tail;
6. temporal relations, e.g. winter - to winter; week-end - to week-end.
II. Nouns converted from verbs may denote:
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1. instance (moment) of an action, e.g. to jump - a jump; to swim - a
swim; to step - a step; to laugh - a laugh;
2. agent or doer of an action, e.g. to help - a help; to cheat - a cheat; to
bore - a bore;
3. manner of the action, e.g. to drive - a drive; to walk - a walk; to stand
- a stand;
4. object or result of action, e.g. to peel - peel; to cut - a cut; to find - a
find; to make - a make.
There are cases of polysemy of verbs or nouns in conversion pairs, e.g.: to dust, to tail, to stone.
Traditional and Occasional Conversion
Modern English vocabulary is exceedingly rich in conversion pairs. Conversion in Modern English is extremely productive: new conversion pairs appear in fiction, newspaper articles and in oral communication in all spheres of human activity gradually forcing their way into the existing vocabulary and into the dictionaries as well. New conversion pairs are created on the analogy with those which already exist in the word-stock according to the semantic patterns described above.
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In Modern English conversion has become highly productive in the formation of verbs, especially from compound nouns and of words formed by conversion and affixation, e.g.: microfilm - to microfilm; baby-sitter - to baby-sit; tear-gas - to tear-gas; bloodtransfusion - to bloodtransfuse.
Types of conversion:
- traditional - the accepted use of words which are recorded in dictionar
ies, e.g. cook - to cook;
- occasional - such words are used in a given context only, for some oc
casion and do not enter the word-stock of the language, e.g. girl - to girl; boot
- to boot; butcher - to butcher. «I want to boot you of this house» (Priestly).
SHORTENING
1. Shortening as a minor way of word-formation.
2. Graphical shortening.
3. Lexical shortening.
4. Blending.
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