Criteria of semantic derivation

In cases of conversion the problem of criteria of semantic derivation arises : which of the converted pair is primary and which is converted from it. The problem was first analized by prof. A.I. Smirnitsky. Later on P.A. Soboleva developed his idea and worked out the following criteria:

1. If the lexical meaning of the root morpheme and the lexico-grammatical meaning of the stem coincide the word is primary, e.g. in cases pen - to pen, father - to father the nouns are names of an object and a living being. Therefore in the nouns «pen» and «father» the lexical meaning of the root and the lexico-grammatical meaning of the stem coincide. The verbs «to pen» and « to father» denote an action, a process therefore the lexico-grammatical meanings of the stems do not coincide with the lexical meanings of the roots. The verbs have a complex semantic structure and they were converted from nouns.

2. If we compare a converted pair with a synonymic word pair which was formed by means of suffixation we can find out which of the pair is primary. This criterion can be applied only to nouns converted from verbs, e.g. «chat» n. and «chat» v. can be compared with «conversation» - «converse».

3. The criterion based on derivational relations is of more universal character. In this case we must take a word-cluster of relative words to which the converted pair belongs. If the root stem of the word-cluster has suffixes added to a noun stem the noun is primary in the converted pair and vica versa, e.g. in the word-cluster : hand n., hand v., handy, handful the derived words have suffixes added to a noun stem, that is why the noun is primary and the verb is converted from it. In the word-cluster: dance n., dance v., dancer, dancing we see that the primary word is a verb and the noun is converted from it.

The general categories of conversion are as the followings:

Noun-to-verb conversion (to bottle, to oil, to bicycle, to brake)

Verb-to-noun conversion (a swim/hit/cheat/bore/show off/drive-in)

Adjective-to-verb conversion (to dirty/empty/dry/calm down)

Adjective-to-noun conversion (a bitter/natural/final/monthly/wet)

* In adjective-to-noun conversion, some words can be converted completely but some cannot. For example, the adjective "native" can be completely converted into a noun and ever since has it singular or plural form: a native or the natives. This is termed as complete conversion. But when we convert the adjective "old" into a noun as in "the old", the conversion is not a complete one, because "the old" can not behave like a noun exactly to have its own plural form "*the olds". This is termed as partial conversion.

The further classification of these categories is usually carried out in terms of meaning. For example, the noun-to-verb conversion can be further classified into the following kinds:

a) to put in / on something: can, bottle, house

b) to give / provide something: shelter, sugar, wax

c) to deprive or remove something: peel, skin, scale, weed

d) to do something with it or by using it: brake, glue,

e) to be or to act as someone or something: mother, shadow

f) to make or change something into something: cash

A list of this sort can not be completed and the way to classify further is arbitrary and subjective in nature.

Another classification of semantic relations may be observed between verbs and nouns connected through conversion:

• the noun is the name of a tool and the verb is the name of an action performed with the help of this (to brush, to knife, to hammer)

• N. Is the name f an animal and V denotes an action typical of this animal (to fox, to dog, to ape)

• N. Is the name of a profession/occupation and V. Is activity typical of it (to cook, to nurse)

• N. Is the name of human body and V. Is tan action performed with its help (to finger, to head).