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Lecture 7.

CONVERSION. WORD COMPOSITION. SHORTENING

AND MINOR WAYS OF WORD-FORMATION.

1. Conversion.
2. Compounds and free word-groups.
3. Classification of compounds.
4. Shortening. Types of shortening.

1. Conversion.

Conversion, one of the principal ways of forming words in Modern English,

is highly productive in replenishing the English word-stock with new words. The
term “conversion” refers to the numerous cases of phonetic identity of two words
belonging to different parts of speech. As a rule we deal with root-words, although
there are exceptions. This phenomenon may be illustrated by the following cases:
work – to work, love – to love, paper – to paper, brief – to brief, wireless – to
wireless, etc.
It is fairly obvious that in the case of a noun and a verb not only are the so-
called initial forms (i.e. the infinitive and the common case singular) phonetically
identical, but all the other noun forms have their homonyms within the verb
paradigm, cf. my work—I work, public works—he works; my dog-I dog, the dog's
head—many dogs—he dogs, etc.
It is necessary to call attention to the fact that the paradigm plays significant
role in the process of word-formation in general and not only in the case of
conversion. Thus, the noun cooker (cf. gas-cooker) is formed from the verb to
cook not only by the addition of the suffix -er, but also by the change in its
paradigm. As the paradigm is a morphological category, conversion can be
described as a morphological way of forming words.
Synchronically we deal with pairs of words related through conversion that
co-exist in contemporary English. As one of the two words within a conversion
pair is semantically derived from the other, it is of great theoretical and practical
importance to determine the semantic relations between words related through
conversion. Summing up the findings of the linguists who have done research in
this field we can enumerate the following typical semantic relations.

I. Verbs converted from nouns (denominal verbs).

This is the largest group of words related through conversion. The semantic
relations between the nouns and verbs vary greatly. If the noun refers to some
object of reality (both animate and in animate), the converted verb may denote:
l) action characteristic of the object, e.g. ape n —ape v— 'imitate in a foolish
way'; butcher n—butcher v—'kill animals for food, cut up a killed animal';
2) instrumental use of the object, e.g. screw n—screw v—'fasten with a screw';
whip n—whip v—'strike with a whip';
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3) acquisition or addition of the object, e.g. fish n—fish v—'catch or try to catch
fish'; coat n—'covering of paint'— coat v—put a coat of paint on';
4) deprivation of the object, e.g. dust n—dust v—'remove dust from something';
skin n—skin v—'strip off the skin from'; etc.

II. Nouns converted from verbs (deverbal substantives). The verb generally
referring to an action, the converted noun may denote:
1) instance of the action, e.g. jump v—jump n—'sudden spring from the ground';
move v—move n—‘a change of position';
2) agent of the action, e.g. help v—help n—-'a person who helps'; switch v
—'make or break an electric circuit'—switch n—'a device for making or breaking
an electric circuit';
3) place of the action, e.g. drive v — drive n — ‘a path or road along which one
drives'; walk v—walk n—‘a place for walking';
4) object or result of the action, e.g. peel v—peel n— ‘the outer skin of fruit or
potatoes taken off; find v—find n—‘something found, esp. something valuable or
pleasant’; etc.
These are the most frequent types of conversion.
There are cases of conversion of adjectives into nouns (substantivation of
adjectives).Here we must distinguish full and partial substantivation. Full
substantivation is when the adjective becomes the noun and possesses all its
categories: relative a – relative n, criminal a – criminal n. Partial substantivation –
when the adjective have only some features of the noun. It may be used with the
article the without any endings in the plural: old – the old, young – the young.

2. Compounds and free word-groups.

Word-composition is a highly productive type of word-building when new

words are produced by combining two or more smaller words. The result of this
process is c o m p o u n d s, i.e. words consisting of at least two stems which occur
in the language as free forms. In a compound word the components have semantic
integrity and structural cohesion which make them function in a sentence as a
separate lexical unit, e.g., week-end, time-table, blackboard.
Word-composition may be studied from synchronic and diachronic point of
view. Synchronically we concentrate our attention on such problems as 1) the
principal features of compounds in Modern English which help to distinguish,
them from other structural types of words and from free phrases; 2) the structure of
compounds in Modern English, in particular, their semantic structure; 3) different
principles underlying different classifications of compounds.
Like all other structural types of words compound words are characterized
by nonseparability, i.e. structural and semantic nonseparability (the term of
Smirnitsky), which finds expression in the graphic, phonetic, morphological and
semantic integrity.
1) the graphic indication of nonseparability is a solid or hyphenated spelling,
e.g., railway, ice-cream, war-path. This criterion is not reliable, as the same unit
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may exist in solid and hyphenated spelling, or with a break between the
components, e.g., air-line, airline, air line; headmaster, head-master, head
master; loudspeaker, loud-speaker, loud speaker.
2) the phonetic indication of nonseparability is the unity of stress.
Compound words have three stress patterns: a) a high or unity stress on the first
component (blackboard, honeymoon, ice-cream); b) a double stress, with a
primary stress on the first component and secondary stress on the second
component (blood-vessel, washing-machine); c) both ICs have level stress, e.g.,
compound adjectives are double stressed (gray-green, new-born, easy-going, icy-
cold).
'overwork – extra work; 'overwork – hard work injuring one’s
health;
'mankind – men, contrasted with 'mankind – the human race;
women;
'bookcase – a piece of furniture with 'bookcase – a paper cover for books.
shelves for books.
3) the morphological indication of nonseparability is the specific order and
arrangement in which bases follow one another. The order in which the two
elements are placed within a compound is r i g i d 1 y f i x e d : it is the second
element that makes the head-member of the word, i.e. its structural and semantic
centre, e.g., chess-board, notice-board, sign-board. Then, the c o n n e c t i v у e l
e m e n t s which ensure the integrity, leave no doubt that a combination is a
compound. These elements are few, they are: -s- (craftsman), -o- (Anglo-Saxon),
-i- (handiwork).
4) the semantic indication of nonseparability is the semantic integrity of the
compound, i.e. a compound word has a single semantic structure irrespective of the
amount of components, and expresses only one meaning. When viewed from the
semantic structure compound words fall into: a) semantically transparent (fully or
partially motivated) and b) semantically non-transparent (lack motivation
altogether, idiomatic). The meaning of semantically transparent compounds is
made up of the combined lexical meaning of the bases and the structural meaning
of the pattern, e.g., life-boat – a boat for saving lives from wrecks, boat-life – life
on board the ship; a fruit-market – market where fruit is sold, market-fruit – fruit
designed for selling. There are compounds that are completely motivated, like sky-
blue, foot-pump, tea-taster; and partially motivated, like hand-bag, flower-bed,
handcuffs, a castle-builder ("a flower-bed" its not a piece of furniture, "a castle-
builder" is not a builder, but a dreamer, one who builds castles in the air).
There are compounds that lack motivation, it is impossible to deduce the
meaning of a compound from the lexical meaning of the bases and one meaning of
the pattern, e.g., eye-wash – smth said or done to deceive a person; fiddlesticks –
nonsense, rubbish; a night-cap – a drink taken before going to bed at night.
We spoke about different criteria, graphic, phonetic, morphological and
semantic, which help to distinguish compound words from free phrases, but no one
type of criteria is sufficient for establishing whether the unit is a compound or a
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phrase. In the majority of cases we have to depend on the combination of two or
more types of criteria.
3. Classification of compounds.

Compound words may be described from different points of view and

consequently may be classified according to different principles. They may be
viewed from the point of view of: 1) relations between components, 2) the part of
speech to which the compound belongs; 3) the type of composition and the linking
element, 4) the type of that are brought together to form a compound, 5)
correlation between compounds and free phrases.
Classification from the point of view of general relationship and degree of
semantic independence of components, the compound words fall into two classes:
a) coordinative (often termed copulative or additive),
b) subordinative (often termed determinative).
In c o o r d i n a t i v e compounds the two components are semantically
equally important. Here we distinguish a) reduplicative compounds which are
made up by the repetition of the same base, e.g., bye-bye, fifty-fifty; b) the
compounds made by joining the phonically variated rhythmic twin forms, e.g., zig-
zag, chit-chat, sing-song, helter-skelter, a walkie-talkie; c) additive compounds
which are built on stems of the independently functioning words of the same part
of speech, e.g., a queen-bee, an actor-manager, a secretary-stenographer.
In s u b o r d i n a t i v e compounds the components are neither structurally
nor semantically equal in importance but are based on the domination of the head-
member which is the second component. This second component influence the
part-of-speech meaning of the whole compound, e.g., stone-deaf, age-long (adj), a
baby-sitter, a wrist-watch (nouns).
According to the part of speech to which the compound belongs there are:
a) compound nouns within which we distinguish e n d o c e n t r i c
compound nouns (the referent is named, by one of the elements, e.g., blackboard,
bedroom, madman) and e x o c e n t r i c the combination of both elements names
the referent, e.g., pickpocket a thief, dare-devil "a murderer", turncoat "a
renegade";
b) compound verbs among which we distinguish verbs formed by means of
conversion from the stems of compound nouns, e.g., to blackmail, to blacklist, to
pinpoint, to nickname, to honeymoon and verbs formed by b a c k – f o r m a t i o
n from the stems of compound nouns, e.g., to baby-sit (from baby-sitter), to stage-
manage (stage-manager), to house-keep (house-keeping), to play-act (play-
acting), to playact (play-acting).
They are often termed pseudo-compound verbs, because they are created as
verbs not by the process of composition but by conversion and back-formation.
c) compound adjectives, e.g., snow-white, light-blue, peace-loving, hard-
working, man-made, safety-tested, heart-broken, well-read.
According to the type of composition and the linking element the
compounds may be classified into:
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1) Words formed by merely one constituent after another in a definite order,
which may be a s y n t a c t i c (the order of bases runs counter to the order in
which the motivating words can be brought together under the rules of syntax of
the language. E.g., adjectives cannot be modified by preceding adjectives, but –
red-hot, bluish-black, pale-blue; noun modifiers are not placed before adjectives or
participles, yet – oil-rich, rain-driven) and s y n t a c t i c (the components are
placed in the order that resembles the order of words in free phrases, e.g., blue-
bell, mad-doctor, blacklist, day-time).
2) Compound words whose components are joined together with a special
linking element: a) Indo-European link vowel "o" (gasometer, speedometer,
electro-dynamic, video-phone, video-disc); b) Latin link "i" (handicraft,
tragicomic); c) OE Genetive case "s" (spokesman, towns-man, statesman,
sportsman, saleswoman, bridesmaid); d) possessive case " s" (crow's feet –
морщины у глаз; cat's paw – легкая рябь на воде; dog's nose – джин с пивом).
Compounds may also be classified according to the type of components that
are brought together to make a compound. There are compounds proper and
derivational compounds. C o m p o u n d s p r o p e r are formed by joining
together bases built on the stems or on the word-forms of independently
functioning words with or without the help of special linking element, e.g., door-
step, age-long, babysitter, looking-glass, handiwork, sportsman. D e r i v a t i o n a
l c o m p o u n d s , e.g., long-legged, three-cornered, differ from compounds
proper in the nature of bases and their second component. The two components of
the compounds are the suffix "-ed" meaning "having" and the base built on a free
word-group "long legs".
According to the correlation between compounds and free word-groups it is
possible to classify compounds into four major classes: adjectival-nominal, verbal-
nominal, nominal and verb-adverb.
1. A d j e c t i v a l – n o m i n a l compounds have one following patterns:
compound adjectives of n + a pattern (snow-white, age-long, care-free); compound
adjectives of num + n pattern (two-day beard, a seven-day week); derivational
compound adjectives of (a/n + n) + ed pattern (long-legged, bell-shaped, doll-
faced).
2. V e r b a l – n o m i n a l compounds have one derivational structure n +
nV, i.e. a combination of a noun-base with a deverbal suffixal noun-base (bottle-
opener, stage-manager, peace-fighter, rocket-flying, office-management, price-
reduction).
3. N o m i n a l compounds are nouns of highly productive derivational
pattern n + n; both bases are simple stems (horse-race, pencil-case, windmill).
4. V e r b a 1 - a d v e r b i a l compounds are derivational nouns built with
the help of conversion according to the pattern (v + adv) + conversion (a
breakdown, a castaway, a runaway).
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4. Shortening. Types of shortening.

Word-building processes involve not only qualitative but also quantitative

changes. Thus, derivation and compounding represent addition as suffixes and free
stems respectively are added to the underlying form. S h o r t e n i n g , on the
other hand, may be represented as subtraction, in which part of the original word is
taken away. The types of shortening are: clipping, blending, abbreviation and
acronyms.
C l i p p i n g is a type of word-building shortening of spoken words.
Shortening consists in the reduction of a word to one of its parts, as a result of
which the new form acquires some linguistic value of its own. The part retained
does not change phonetically, hence the necessity of spelling changes, e.g.,
double :: dub, microphone :: mike, tranquilizer :: trank.
The generally accepted classification of shortened words is based on the
position of the clipped part. According to whether it is the final, initial or middle
part of the word that is cut off we distinguish:
1) i n i t i a l clipping (or a p h e s i s , i.e. a p h e r e s i s , from Greek
"aphairesis" - a taking away), e.g., cap (captain), phone (telephone), story
(history), chute (parachute);
2) f i n a l clipping (or a p o c o p e , from Greek "apokoptein" - cut off),
e.g., cap (captain), gym (gymnasium, gymnastics), lab (laboratory), ed (editor);
3) m e d i a l clipping (or s y n c o p e , from Greek "syncope" a cutting up),
e.g., fancy (fantasy), ma'am (madam).
Final and initial clipping may be combined and result in the curtailed words
with the middle part of the prototype retained, e.g., flu (influenza), frig
(refrigerator), tec (detective).
If we approach the shortened word from the point of view of the structure of
the prototype we distinguish two groups:
1) shortened words correlated with w o r d s , e.g., cabbie (cabman), nightie
(nightdress), teeny (teenager);
2) shortened words correlated with p h r a s e a , e.g., finals (final
examinations), perm (permanent wave), pop (popular music), pub (public house),
taxi (taximeter-cab).
Unlike conversion, shortening produces new words in the same part of
speech. The bulk of shortened words are nouns. Verbs are rarely shortened, e.g.,
rev (revolve), tab (tabulate). To phone, to taxi, to vac and others are converted
nouns. Clipped adjectives are also very few, e.g., comfy (comfortable), awk
(awkward), impos (impossible), mizzy (miserable).
B l e n d i n g is a type of compounding by means of merging parts of words
into new one word. The process of formation is also called t e l e s c o p i n g ,
because the words seem to slide into one another like sections of a telescope. E.g.,
brunch (breakfast + lunch), smog (smoke + fog), smaze (smoke + haze),
slimnastics (slim + gymnastics). It seems practical to distinguish the following
groups of blends:
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1) coining a new word from the initial elements of one word and the final
elements of another, e.g., drunch (drink + lunch), skort (skirt + short);
2) coining a new word by combining one notional word arid the final
element of another word, e.g., manglish (man + English), radiotrician (radio +
electrician);
3) combining the initial elements of one word with a notional word, e.g.,
mobus (motors + bus), legislady (legislative lady).
Such coinages are often formed with a playful or humorous intent and have a
stylistic status. They can convey various shades of emotive colouring (irony or
mockery), which makes them most active in different types of slang: dopelomat
(dope + diplomat), Yanigan (Yankee + hooligan), nixonomics (Nixon +
economics).
Blends, although not very numerous altogether, seem to be on the rise,
especially in terminology and also in trade advertisements.
A b b r e v i a t i o n is a type of shortening when words are formed from
the initial letters of each part of a phrasal term. Abbreviations are pronounced as a
series of letters, i.e. the alphabetical reading of the letters is retained. E.g., B.B.C.
(The British Broadcasting Corporation), M.P. (Member of Parliament), P.M.
(Prime Minister), T.V. (Television), Y.C.L. (The Young Communist League).
A specific type of abbreviations having no parallel in Ukrainian is
represented by Latin abbreviations, which are not read as Latin words but
substituted by their English equivalents, e.g., a.m. (ante meridium) – in the
morning; p.m. (post meridiem) – in the afternoon; i.e. (id est) – that is; cp.
(comparare) – compare; e.g., (exempli gratia) – for example.
A c r o n y m s (from Greek "acros" end + "onym" name) are abbreviated
words formed from the initial letters of word-combination; the abbreviated written
form lends itself to be read as though, it were an ordinary English word and sounds
like an English word. E.g., NATO /neitou/ - The North Atlantic Treaty
Organization, UNO /ju:nou/ - United Nations Organization, SALT /solt/ - Strategic
Arms Limitation Talks, radar – radio detecting and ranging; laser – light
amplification stimulated emission radio; maser – microwave amplification
stimulated emission radio.
Christian names in acronyms:
Fred – fast reading electric device;
Oscar – orbiting satellite;
Eva – electronic velocity analyzer.