Conversion is a way of forming new words in a different part
of speech without adding any element.
Conversion is also called “ functional change ” or “ zero derivation “. Eg: hand(n) to hand(v), lecture(n) to lecture(v),…The different between the words in each pair is morphological, syntactic and semantic: Morphological: Farm is a noun, it has two forms( a farm and farms) but farm is a verb, it has five forms( farm- farms- farming- farmed- farmed). Syntactic: Farm is a noun, it functions as subject or object or complement. Farm is a verb, it is predicate. Semantic: a farm is where you plant trees, farm(v)= to raise/ to grow. Conversion may be said to be productive in forming verbs: arm(n) to arm(v), foot(n) to foot(v), skin(n) to skin(v),… 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. The fact that the sound pattern does not show to what part of speech the word belongs may be illustrated by the word back. It may be a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb. Conversion consists of 4 types: Traditional conversion, partial conversion, occasional conversion, subtantivation. Traditional conversion means the type of conversion commonly and traditionally used be the public. The words built by traditional conversion are recorded in dictionaries. Partial conversion is the building of nouns from verbs. These nouns usually go with verbs like “ have, take, make” to form verbal phrases. Eg: Have a look/ take/ smoke,.. Occasional conversion refers to the individual use of conversion in special situations, occasions to express one’s idea vividly, humourously,… It is often used in novels. Substantivation is a matter of controvercy. Complete substantivation is a kind of substantivation when the whole paradigm of a noun is acquired: a private - the private – privates – the privates. Alongside with complete substantivation there exists partial substantivation when a feature or several features of a paradigm of a noun are acquired: the rich,… Those who do not accept substantivation of adjectives as a type of conversion consider conversion as a process limited to the formation of verbs from nouns and nouns from verbs. But this point of view is far from being universally accepted.