Conversion in Modern English

4791 Words20 Pages
Conversion is one of the most productive ways of modern English word - building.Consists in making a new word from some existing word by changing the category of a part of speech, the morphemic shape of the original word remaining unchanged. The new word has a meaning which differs from that of the original one though it can more or less be easily associated with it: (yellow leaves and the leaves were turning yellow (adj. denote colour), but - in the leaves yellowed - the converted unit no longer denotes colour). Conversion is an easily way of enriching the vocabulary with new words. The two categories of parts of speech especially affected by conversion are nouns and verbs: face - to face, to hand; He has still plenty of go at his age (go - energy). Verbs can also be made from adj.: to pale, to yellow, to cool. Verbs made from nouns- denote an action performed by the tool: to hammer, to nail, to comb, to pencil, to brush; - noun is the name of an animal: to dog, to monkey, to fox. to rat; - name of a part of the human body: to hand, to eye, to leg: - name of profession, occupation: to nurse, to cook, to maid: - name of a meal: to lunch, to supper. Verb conversion in English In English, verbification typically involves simple conversion of a non-verb to a verb. The verbs to verbify and to verb are themselves products of verbification (see autological word), and—as might be guessed—the term to verb is often used more specifically, to refer only to verbification that does not involve a change in form. (Verbing in this specific sense is therefore a kind of anthimeria.) Verbification may have a bad reputation with some English users because it is such a potent source of neologisms. Although most products of verbification are regarded as neologisms, and may meet considerable opposition from prescriptivist authorities, they are very common in colloquial speech,

More about Conversion in Modern English

Open Document