Conversion, its definition

Conversion is a highly productive way of coining new words in Modem English. Con­version is sometimes referred to as an affixless way of word-building, a process of making a new word from some existing root word by changing the category of a part of speech with­out changing the morphemic shape of the original root-word. 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. It has also a new paradigm peculiar to its new category as a part of speech.

Thus, conversion is an affixless derivation consistsing 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 most frequent types of conversion are:

- from noun to verb: to hand, to back, to face, to eye, to mouth, to nose, to dog, to wolf to monkey, to can, to coal, to stage, to screen, to room, to floor, to blackmail, to blacklist, to honeymoon, etc. David was still towelling himself dry (Binchy)

She was sitting in front of mirror mascaraing her eyelashes with her mouth wide open (Fielding)

- from verb to noun: do, go, make, run, find, catch, cut, walk, worry, show, move. etc.

He has still plenty of go at his age;

Rachel dropped a kiss on the top of her father's head and sat in her place Howard);

- from adjective to noun and to verb: to pale, to yellow, to cool, to grey, to rough, etc.

We decided to rough it in the tents as the weather was warm;

- Less frequent but also quite possible is conversion from form words to nouns:

"If she remarries in two years, the pinch should be bearable"

He liked to know the ins and outs.

Use is even made of affixes. Thus, ism is a separate word nowadays meaning "a set of ideas or principles" e. g. Freudism, existentialism and all the other isms.

Other parts of speech are not entirely unsusceptible to conversion as the following examples show:

The crowd oooohed and aaaaahed, as though at a fireworks display (Rowling) - namoen oxae ma axae...

A word made by conversion has a different meaning from that of the word from which it was made though the two meanings can be associated. There are certain regularities in these associations which can be roughly classified. For instance, in the group of verbs made from nouns (denominal verbs) some of the regular semantic associations are as indi­cated in the following list:

1. The noun is the name of a tool or implement, the verb denotes an action performed by the tool: to hammer, to nail, to pin, to brush, to comb, to pencil.

2. The noun is the name of an animal, the verb denotes an action or aspect of behavior considered typical of this animal: to dog, to wolf, to monkey, to ape, to fox, to rat. Yet, tofish does not mean "to behave like a fish" but "to try to catch fish". The same meaning of hunting activities is conveyed by the verb to whale and one of the meanings of to rat; the other is "to turn in former, squeal".

3. The name of a part of the human body - an action performed by it: to hand, to leg (si.), to eye, to elbow, to shoulder, to nose, to mouth. However, to face does not imply doing something by or even with one's face but turning it in a certain direction. To back means either "to move backwards" or, in the figurative sense, "to support somebody or something".

4.The name of a profession or occupation - an activity typical of it: to nurse, to cook, to maid, to groom.

5. The name of a place - the process of occupying the place or of putting smth./smb. in it: to room, to house, to place, to table, to cage.

6.The name of a container - the act of putting smth. within the container: to can, to bottle, to pocket.

7.The name of a meal - the process of taking it to lunch, to supper.

8.Acquisition or addition of the object - to fish;

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