16. Conversion. Different views on conversion. Semantic relations within converted pairs.

Conversion (zero derivation, affixless derivation) is the formation of words without using specific word-building affixes.

The term conversion was introduced by Henry Sweet in his New English Grammar. First cases of conversion registered in the 14^th c. imitated such pairs of words as love, n – love, v (O.E. lufu, n – lufian, v) for they were numerous and thus were subconsciously accepted as one of the typical language patterns.

Approaches to the study of conversion:

conversion as a morphological way of forming words (Prof. Smirnitskiy);

conversion as a morphological-syntactic word-building means (Prof. Arnold);

conversion as a syntactic word-building means (a functional approach);

Semantic Relations in Conversion Verbs converted from nouns (denominal verbs) denote: action characteristic of the object, e.g. dog (n) – to dog (v); instrumental use of the object, e.g. screw (n) – to screw (v);acquisition or addition of the object, e.g. fish (n) – to fish (v);time, e.g. winter (n) – winter (v);deprivation of the object, e.g. dust (n) – dust (v).

Nouns converted from verbs (deverbial nouns) denote: instance or process of the action, e.g. dance (v) – dance (n); agent of the action, e.g. help (v) – help (n); place of action, e.g. walk (v) – walk (n);object or result of the action, e.g. peel (v) – peel (n).

Other Ways of Conversion

Adjective > Noun, e.g. a bitter, a wet, a regular etc.;

Adjective > Verb, e.g. to dirty, to calm, to empty etc.;

Noun > Adjective, e.g. a stone wall, a cotton cloth etc.;

Modal verb > Noun, e.g. a must;*

Function word > Noun, e.g. too many ifs and buts;

Function word > Verb, e.g. to down, to up etc.;

Affix > Noun, e.g. There are too many ologies and emes in his report

17.Non-productive ways of word-formation.

Back-formation (regressive derivation) is the derivation of new words by subtracting a real or supposed affix from existing words (often through misinterpretation of their structure), e.g. an editor > to edit, enthusiasm > to enthuse etc.

The earliest attested examples of back-formation are a beggar > to beg; a burglar > to burgle; a cobbler > to cobble.

The most productive type of back-formation in present-day English is derivation of verbs from compounds that have either –er or –ing as their last element, e.g. sightseeing > to sightsee; proofreading > to proofread; mass-production > to mass-produce; self-destruction > to self-destruct; a baby-sitter > to baby-sit etc.

Onomatopeia (Gr. onoma ‘name, word’ and poiein ‘the make’) (sound imitation, echoisms) is the formation of words by a more or less exact reproduction of a sound associated with an object producing this sound.

Semantic classification of onomatopeic words:

sounds produced by people: to babble, to chatter, to giggle, to grumble, to titter, to grumble etc.;

sounds produced by animals (to moo, to neigh, to mew, to purr etc.), birds (to twitter, to crow, to cackle etc.), insects and reptiles (to buzz, to hiss);

water imitating sounds: to bubble, to splash etc.;

sounds imitating the noise of metalic things: to clink, to tinkle etc.;

sounds imitating a forceful motion: to crash, to whisk, to clash etc.

Sound-interchange is the gradation of sounds occupying one and the same place in the sound form of one and same morpheme in various cases of its occurrence.

Historical causes of sound-interchange:

ablaut (vowel gradation), i.e. a change of one to another vowel accompanying a change of stress, e.g. to ride – a road; to bear – a burden; to bite – a bit etc.;

umlaut (vowel mutation), i.e. a partial assimilation to a succeeding sound, e.g. full – to fill, a tale – to tell etc.;

consonant interchange, e.g. to speak – a speech, to bake – a batch, to live – a life etc.