30 Origin of conversion.

Conversion, one of the principal ways of forming words in Modern English is highly productive in the English word-stock. The term conversion, which some linguists find inadequate, refers to the numerous cases of phonetic identity of word-forms, primarily the so-called initial forms, of two words belonging to different parts of speech. This may be illustrated by the following cases: work — to work; love — to love; paper — to paper; brief — to brief, etc. As a rule we deal with simple words, although there are a few exceptions, e.g. wireless — to wireless(радио-передавать по радио)

-All the other noun forms have their homonyms within the verb paradigm, cf. (my) work [wэ:k]) — (I)work [wэ:k]; (the) dog’s [dogz] (head) — (many) dogs [dogz] — (he) dogs [dogz], etc.

-There is a certain difference on the morphological level between various parts of speech, primarily between nouns and verbs.

-It is true that some of the forms are identical in sound, i.e. homonymous, but there is a great distinction between them, as they are both grammatically and semantically different.

If we regard such word-pairs as doctor — to doctor; water — to water; brief — to brief from their morphemic structure, we see that they are all root-words. On the derivational level, however, the two words differ in the paradigm. Thus it is the paradigm that is used as a word-building means. Hence, we may define conversion as the formation of a new word through changes in its paradigm.¹

The following cases of conversion have bееn discussed in linguistic literature:

1. formation of verbs from nouns and more rarely from other parts of speech, and

2. formation of nouns from verbs and rarely from other parts of speech.

Opinion differs on the possibility of creating adjectives from nouns through conversion.

The treatment of conversion as a morphological way of forming words accepted in the present book was suggested by the late Prof. A. I. Smirnitsky in his works on the English language.

Others hold the view that conversion is the formation of new words with the help of a zero-morpheme.

The treatment of conversion as a non-affixal word-formation process calls some criticism, it does not help to distinguish between cases of conversion and those of sound- interchange, e.g. to sing — song; to feed — food; full — to fill. . The supporter of this interpretation of conversion rightly refer to some points of analogy between affixation and conversion.

e.g. 1. action — doer of the action: to walk — a walker(affixation), to tramp — a tramp (conversion);

2. action — result of the action: to agree — agreement (affixation), to find — a find (conversion), etc.

There is also a point of view on conversion as a morphological-syntactic word-building means,it involves both a change of the paradigm and a change of the syntactic function of the word, e.g. I need some good paper for my rooms and He is papering his room.

Certain linguists and lexicographers especially those in Great Britain and the USA define conversion as a shift from one part of speech to another contending that in Modern English a word may function as two different parts of speech at the same time. If we accept this point of view, we should logically arrive at the conclusion that in Modern English we no longer distinguish between parts of speech.

Conv. Came to existence in13 century, penetrated with the part of speech in 15 and occasional conv. has been known since Shakespeare.