Филологические науки/7.Язык, речь, речевая коммуникация

Гузий Т.Н., Лашук Н.Н.

Черниговский государственный институт экономики и управления, Украина

Conversion in Present-Day English

It seems possible to regard conversion as a highly productive way of forming words in Modern English. Conversion may be considered to be the predominant method of English verb-formation. If we bear in mind that a new coined word appears not in isolation but only in a definite environment of other words, we shall invariably come to the conclusion that conversion is a combined morphological and syntactic way of word-building.

The bulk of words coined by means of conversion are constituted by verbs. Among them we find those correlating not only with nouns but with adjectives, adverbs and other parts of speech as well.

Among verbs derived from adverbs and other parts of speech there are some that are firmly established in the English vocabulary. E.g. to down, to encore, to pooh-pooh.

This pattern is highly productive so that many neologisms can be quoted by way of illustration. E.g. to chair -“to preside over a meeting”: An afternoon discussion was chaired by Mr. Richard Doll. (Daily Worker) The study of conversion in present-day English is of great theoretical interest as it displays the interdependence of vocabulary and grammar and the systematic character of language quite obviously. The main reason for the widespread development of conversion in present-day English is no doubt the absence of morphological elements serving as classifying signals, or, in other words, of formal signs marking the part of speech to which the word belongs.

Active verbs are converted into passives when they are used in such a manner as to indicate that the subject is really acted upon, as in “How did it clean?” and “It dyes beautifully”.

Conversion is not only a highly productive but also a particularly English way of word-building. Its immense productivity is considerably encouraged by certain features of the English language in its modern stage of development. The analytical structure of Modern English greatly facilitates processes of making words of one category of parts of speech from words of another. So does the simplicity of paradigms of English parts of speech. A great number of one-syllable words is another factor in favour of conversion, for such words are naturally more mobile and flexible than polysyllables. In fact, conversion may be considered to be the predominant method of English verb-formation.

L. Bauer claims that conversion is an extremely productive way of producing new words in English. There do not appear to be morphological restrictions on the forms that can undergo conversion, so that compounds, derivatives, acronyms, blends, clipped forms and simplex words are all acceptable inputs to the conversion process. Similarly, all form classes seem to be able to undergo conversion, and conversion seems to be able to produce words of almost any form class, particularly the open form classes (noun, verb, adjective, adverb). This seems to suggest that rather than English having specific rules of conversion (rules allowing the conversion of common nouns into verbs or adjectives into nouns, for example) conversion is a totally free process and any lexeme can undergo conversion into any of the open form classes as the need arises.

Still H. Marchand, R.S. Ginzburg and E.V. Clark & H.H. Clark pointed out such restrictions:

1. H.Marchand pointed out that derived nouns rarely undergo conversion, and particularly not to verbs. This is usually because of blocking. E.g. a derived noun like arrival will not be converted into a verb if that verb means exactly the same as arrive, from which arrival is derived. In cases where blocking is not a relevant concern, even derived nouns can undergo conversion, as is shown by the series a sign > to sign > a signal > to signal and to commit > commission > to commission.

2. He claimed that verbs couldn’t be converted from proper names. Still there exist no distinct rules and we may come across such cases when verbs are actually converted from proper names. E.g. to boycott, to diddle, to Bogart.

3. R.S. Ginzburg claims that verbs can not be converted from nouns with the suffixes ‘-ing’, ‘-ation’ and ‘-ity’, geographical names, names of science.

But all these restrictions are not stable. They are constantly broken for the speaker’s needs or desire.

Conversion may be combined with other word-building processes, such as composition. Attributive phrases like black ball, black list, pin point, stone wall form the basis of such firmly established verbs as to blackball, to blacklist, to pinpoint, to stonewall. The same pattern is much used in nonce words such as to my-dear, to my-love, to blue-pencil.

As we see conversion is highly productive in replenishing the English word-stock with new words. So I’ve come to a conclusion that conversion as a way of word-formation is widely spread in the English language and is characterized by productivity. And very often people use converted verbs even without knowing or realizing what form they use or what process is engaged in forming this word or word-combination. Besides by constant use of such converted verbs or combinations they fix some of them in dictionaries or just create new occasional words.

Literature

1.Хидекель С.С., Гинзбург Р.З., Князева Г.Ю., Санкина А.А. Английская лексикология в выдержках и извлечениях. – Л., 1969.

2. Arnold I.V. The English Word. – M., 1973.

3. Arnold I.V. Lexicology in Modern English. – M., 1966.

4. Clark E. V. & Clark H. H. When Nouns Surface as Verbs. – Language. – №55, 1979б pp. 767-811.

5. Ginzburg R.S., Khidekel S.S. Readings in Modern English Lexicology. – Len-d, 1969.