Word Formation: Conversion

Conversion is the derivational process whereby an item is adapted or converted to a new word-class without the
addition of an affix:
• paper---- to paper new-------to new down---- to down release-----to release
In English, conversion is prominent as a word formation process. Other terms for conversion are: functional
conversion, functional shift ’, and ‘zero derivation ’.
Difficulties arise in explaining conversion, in that one does not have the addition of a suffix as a guide when
deciding which item should be treated as the base, and which as the derived form
Some grammars make distinction between full conversion and partial conversion, where a word of one class
appears in a function which is characteristic of another class. In such structures as ‘the wealthy’ [=the wealthy
people], the adjective is partially converted to noun status by its position [ head of a noun phrase], characteristic
of nouns rather than adjectives. That this is not a full conversion is demonstrated by the inability of ‘wealthy’ as
it occurs in sentences like ‘The wealthy are always with us’, to behave inflectionally like a noun [that is to vary
in terms of number and case]. One cannot say *1 met a wealthy’ or *those wealthies are my friends’. Moreover,
there is inflectional evidence of its unchanged status as adjective: the wealthier’. Such cases can be treated in
purely syntactic terms as ‘adjective functioning as head of noun jjhrase.

The three major word classes chiefly involved in the process of conversion are: nouns, verbs and adjectives.
Conversions from N to V and V to N are the most productive categories.

The V - N conversion
a) Stative verbs to count mass nouns. The meaning is ‘state’: to desire—desire; to doubt—doubt,etc.
b) Dynamic verbs to nouns. The meaning is ‘activity’ or ‘event’: to hit— hit; to fa l—-fall; to laugh—laugh.
c) Object of verb: to answer—answer; to bet—bet; to catch— catch.
d) Subject of verb: to bore—bore; to cheat—cheat; to show off—show o ff (show-offie).
e) Instrument of the verb: to cover—cover; to wrap—wrap.
f) Manner of verbing (of doing): to walk—walk; to throw—throw

Adjective—Noun Conversion
It is not a very productive one: bitter/bitter( I ’d like two pints o f bitter, please); fmal/final: They are running the
final( the final race)

Noun - Verb Conversion : we get verbs which mean:

a) to put in/on N: bottle/to bottle; corner/to corner; catalogue/to catalogue
b) to give N ; to provide with N : mask/to mask; plaster/to plaster ‘ coat/to coat
c) to deprive of N: core/to core; peel/ to peel; skin/ to skin
d) to do... by means of N(to use the referent of the N as an instrument for whatever activity is particularly
associated with it): elbow/to elbow; fiddle/to fiddle, knife/ to knife
e) to act as/ be N with respect to: parrot/ to parrot; pilot/ to pilot; father/ to father
f) to make /change into N: cash/ to cash; group/to group; cripple/ to cripple
g) to send/ go by N: post/to post; ship/ to ship; canoe/ to canoe
Most of the verbs are transitive in this category.
Adjective—Verb conversion
a) (transitive verbs). The meaning is ‘to make adjective’ or ‘to make more adjective’: calm/to calm; lower/ to
lower
b) (intransitive verbs). The meaning is ‘to become Adjective’: dry/to dry; narrow/to narrow; yellow/ to yellow.
Most of the transitive verbs in type a) can also act intransitive. Sometimes a phrasel verb is derived from an
adjective by addition of a particle: smooth/to smooth out; sober/ to sober up; calm/to calm down. This category
of conversion competes with suffixation with ‘-en’ ans sometimes both derivations are available for the same
adjective: He blacked/ blackened his face with mud.
Noun—Adjective conversion
Membership of this category can be postulated only when the noun form occurs in predicative as well as in
attributive positions: reproduction furniture/ this furniture is reproduction; Worcester porcelain/ this porcelain
is Worcester. A noun often functions as a pre-modifier in cases where the language happens to possess no
adjective to perform that function: a stone wall.
E.g. brick/a brick garage; trial/ a trial match; man/ man eater; field/field flowers.

1
 Minor categories of conversion
There are several anomalous and less productive types of conversion, chiefly used informally; among them the
following are important:
1. Conversion from closed system words to nouns
It is often said that any word can be converted to noun status in English.
E.g. His argument contains too many ifs and buts
This book is a must for our students.
It tells you about the hows and whys o f flight.
2. Conversion from phrases to nouns
Phrases are sometimes reduced to noun status by conversion rather than by any of the normal patterns of
compounding.
E.g. Whenever I gamble, my horse is one o f the also-ran. (one of the horses which also ran but was not among
the winners).
3. Conversion from phrases to adjectives
E.g. an under-the-weather feeling [lacking in health]- T feel very under-the-weather’
An upper-class manner: His manner is intolerably upper-class.
4. Conversion from affixes to nouns
E.g. Patriotism, nationalism and other isms yo u ’d like to name.
Change of secondary word-class: nouns
The notion of conversion may be extended to changes of secondary word class, within the same major word
category: for eg. when mass nouns are reclassified as count pouns, or vice versa. Such transfers are only
partially productive and yet can be explained systematically in terms of derivation. They are therefore parallel to
the major conversion processes already discussed.
e-g
1. Mass nouns converted into count nouns:
a) A unit of noun: two coffees(= cups o f coffee)
b) A kind of noun: Some paints are more lasting than others. •
This is a better bread than the one I bought last.
2. Count nouns converted into mass nouns
Nouns viewed in term of a measurable extent (normally only after expressions ofamoun); an inch o f pencil; a
few square feet offloor
3. Proper nouns converted into common nouns
1. A member of a class typified by N: a Jermiah [ a gloomy prophet who denounces his age]
2. A person, place, etc. called ‘N’: There are several Cambridses.\ places called Cambridge]
3. A specimen of the product made/called ‘N’: a Rolls Royce [a car manufactured by RR]
4. Stative noun- dynamic noun. Nouns are characteristically stative, but they can assume the dynamic
meaning o f ‘temporary role or activity’ as subject complement following the progressive aspect of BE:
He's being a j 0 0 l =)he’s behaving like a fool/hero,..
Jnuisance
nero
Change of secondary word-class: verbs
Similar categories exist for verbs:
a) Intransitive verbs — tt*ansitive ones
‘Cause to V’: run the water (cause the water to run)
b) Transitive —intransitive *
1. Can be V-en (often followed by an intensifying adverb such as ‘well’, ‘badly’: Your book reads well.
Likewise drive, divide, sail, screw up, undo, unlock, wash.
2. To V oneself: Have you washed yet? [washed yourself]
3. To V someone/something: We have eaten. [ eaten something].
c) Intransitive —intensive
1) Current meaning: He lay flat. We stood motionless.
2) Resulting meaning: He fell flat; The Sun was sinking low
d) Intensive —intransitive: What must be, must be (exist)
e) Monotransitive _complex transitive
1. Current meaning: We catch them young (when they were young)
2. Resulting meaning: I wiped it clean, (made it clean)
Change of secondary word-class: adjectives
a) Non-gradable j^-adable: He's more English than the English.
b) Stative __fjynamic

2
 Dynamic meaning is signalled by the progressive aspect of ‘be : H e’s just being friendly, (acting in a friendly
manner)
Approximate conversion: voicing and stress shift
In some cases conversion is approximate rather than complete; that is, a word in the course of changing its
grammatical function may undergo a slight change of pronunciation or spelling. The most important kinds of
alteration are:
1. Voicing of final consonants .
The unvoiced fricative consonants /s/, /fI, and /0/
in the following examples of noun-verb conversion are voiced to /z/, /v/, and / 0 / respectively:
N ► V: advice /s/- advise /z/; use-use; abuse- abuse; grief- grieve; shelf - shelve; half- halve, wreath-
wreathe, mouth- mouth, thief- thieve, etc.
It should be noted that in BE the difference between licence (nj- license (v), is one o f spelling only: both N and V
are pronounced with a final Is/. In Am E., the conversion is complete; both N and V having the spelling license,
practice. A substantial change of pronunciation, including modification of the final vowel is observed in pairs
such as breath !e/~ breath ///; glass /ae/[Am E], /a/ in Southern BE; emphasis /// ~ emphasize /ai/. In other pairs,
such as blood-bleed; food-feed, it is the voewl that changes.
2. Shift of stress
When verbs of two syllables are converted into nouns, the stress is sometimes shifted from the 2nd to the 1st
syllable. The 1st syllable, typically a Latin prefix, often varies its /oweI from Id / in the verb to some other vowel
(in the noun): He was convicted /kdnl o f theft and became a convict /kon/. Examples of words that undergo the
stress shift: abstract(n)- abstract(v), comvound(n)- compound(v), misprint(n)-misprint(v), etc. Yet, there are
many examples of disyllabic noun-verb pairs which do not differ in stress: contact, debate.

Compounding ( Composition)

A compound is a unit consisting of two or more bases. Composition can be defined as a process of coining new
words by combining grammatically and semantically two or more than two stems or roots. The semantic-
grammatical connection between constituents is extremely close. It makes it possible for us to regard the
compound as a single word. Thus ‘blackbird ’is no longer felt to be made up of black + bird, and wil be
compared with ‘swallow’, or ‘stalk’, rather than with ‘blue bird’. The free combination ‘black bird’ on the other
hand will be compared with ‘big bird’, ‘blue ribbon’, etc.
Another difference between compounds and free combinations lies in the fact that when the first element in a
compound is an adjective (blackbird) or a participle (mocking bird), it will never be determined by an adverb of
degree (*an extremely blackbird); while the adjective in a free combination will (An extremely black bird). Also
with participles, we can have ‘ written-paper’ but we can’t have ‘a well written-paper’ but ‘ a well written paper’
Ortographically, compounds can be spelt solid (bedroom), hyphenated (tax-free), or open (reading material).
One cannot give clearcut rules concerning the three possibilities of spelling, since there are cases when two, or
even three spellings are equally acceptable: call-girl/ call girl; flowerpot/flower-pot/ flower pot. In American
English compounds are usually written solid as soon as they have gained some permanent status. In British
English, there tends to be more extensive use of the hyphen.
Phonologically, compounds have a main stress on the first element and a secondary stress on the second:
blackbird; flower-pot; singing bird. When the compound is made part of another compound, the secondary stress
is redistributed so as to preserve the rhythm: lighthouse/lighthouse keeper
Semantically compounds can be seen to be isolated from the ordinary syntactic constructions by having a
meaning which may be related to, but cannot simply be infered from the meaning of its parts (darkroom;
hothouse).
None of the markers( ortographic, phonologic or semantic) can be used as strict defining criteria. Syntactic
relationships between two terms entering a compound, may be various. According to these, compounds fall into
two classes: syntactic and asyntactic compounds.
• Syntactic compounds express in a condensed form the syntactic relationships on which English grammatical
patterns are based. They provide language with the largest number of compound words. They are endocentric
and exocentric. Endocentric compounds have at least one head or center in their componency: snow-white,
dark- blue. Exocentric compounds do not have a determination within themselves. A ‘blue- jacket' is
neither‘blue’, nor ‘jacket’; but a person, a seaman in the Nav>.
• Asyntectic compounds are compounds in which the usual granmatical patterns are obscured: upland.

Compounds have an idiomatic character. Two compounds built on the same combinatory pattern and using
words belonging to the same semantic field, do not have similar meanings or have only one similar meaning in
common: a wolf- hunter/ a lion-hunter( 1. A person who hunts wolves/lions; 2. A lion hunter = a person who
*

3
seeks the company of celebrities. The meaning of some compounds can be easily described by phrases using
their component terms: (seashore = the shore of the sea). The basic semantic relations between compounds can
be of two types: restrictive( sunrise, uptrain, downtrain; he-goat;) and relational. The material of which
something is made is revealed in compounds of the type: patier-bag; leather jacket. Place relationships are
expressed in downtown, uptown, seashore. Purpose is evident in looking-glass, goldfield. Comparison is present
in good-for-nothing; larger-than-life. Compounds expressing the idea of sex are: he-bear; she-bear; boy-friend/
girl friend; lady-doctor; woman teacher. Purpose and composition show relationship while the material and sex
show.

Most compounds are made of 2 juxtaposed items: long-distance; blackburry. There are compounds made of
more than 2 items. If these are a preposition/conj unction or an article, the compounds can be treated as having a
linking element: stick-in -the-mud (slow, unadventurous person).

Derivational compounds combine 2 processes of word building: composition and affixation: dwelling-place;
lion-hearted. Some compounds of this type serve for further derivation: openminded---- openmindedly. There
are compounds containing a clipped stem in one of the components: movie goer; dormie house ( dormitory
house), H-bomb; V-day, etc.
Compounds containing a compound stem in one of the constituents: twelve-year-old; bread-and-cheese party;
breakfast room.

According to the part of speech they form, compounds can be:

1. Compound Nouns.
• N. stem + N. stem: mail-box; bull's eye
• Verbal noun stem + N. stem: meeting-place
• N.stem + Verbal noun stem: peace-meeting
• Adj. Stem + N.stem: blackbird
• Pro-N stem + N.stem: he-bear
• V.stem + N.stem: pickpocket
• N.stem + V.stem: sunset
• V. stem +V. stem : make-believe
• Adv. Stem + N. stem : onlooker
• Adv. Stem + V. stem: upstart
• V. stem + adv. Stem: turn-round
• Prep. Stem + N. stem: undergraduate, afternoon
2. Compound adjectives.
• ADJ. STEM +adj. Stem: bitter-sweet
• N. st. +Adj. St: duty-free
• Adj. St. + N.st.'.open-air
• Adj.st.+ N.st.+ ed: evil-minded
• N. st.+ Participles: storm-beaten; sea-going
• N.st. +N.st.+ed: lion-hearted
• Adv. St. +Adj. St: evergreen
• Adv. St. + Participles: well-meaning, ill-favoured
3. Compound Verbs
• N.st. + V. st.: baby-sit
• Adj. St. + V. st. \white-wash
• V.st. + V.sX.\dive-bomb
• Adv. St.+ V. st. '.broadcast
Other compounds result from nominal word combinations converted into verbs: to spotlight; to blacklist.
Compound verbs can also result from back-formation: Stage- manage ( from stage- manager)

4. Compound Adverbs.
• Adj. St.+ N.st.+ ed: dry-lipped
• Adv. St. + 'N.st:up-hill
• Adv. St. + Prep>st. '.thereby
• N.st.+ prep. St.+ N. st.\eye-to-eye

4
 1

3.2.1.2. Suffixation
Noun>Noun suffixes
• -ster / -eer added to nouns to form personal nouns.
Meaning: person engaged in an occupation or activity: engineer, gangster. It is not very frequently used, and
it is in most of the cases pejorative.
• -er added to nouns to form personal or inanimate nouns.
Meanings: 1. something/somebody having something: three-wheeler, teenager,
2. inhabitant of-: Londoner, Dubliner,
3. maker of: glover, hatter
• -let It is a diminutive suffix, added to countable nouns to form countable nouns.
Meaning: small, unimportant: booklet, leaflet, starlet.
• -ling. It is also diminutive; added mostly to countable nouns to form countable nouns.
Meaning: small: duckling, goosling. It is sometimes used with a mildly contemptuous flavour:
Princeling
• -ette. It is also diminutive, being added to nouns to form nouns.
Meanings: 1. small, compact: kitchenette, cigarette
2. imitation: leatherette,flannelette.
3. It can also be a feminine suffix, meaning 'female': suffragette.
• -ess It is a feminine suffix, added to animate nouns to form animate nouns.
Meaning: 'female': princess, actress, waitress, lioness.
Sometimes it is felt to be old-maidish: poetess, authoress or even indelicate: Jewess, nigress, being
replaced by the common genre forms: poet, author, or by periphrases: Jewish woman, negro woman.
• -y, -ie. It is a diminutive suffix added to nouns to form nouns: daddy, auntie, Johnny, Eddie; being
largely restricted to familiar contexts, the suffix has no meaning apart from indicating endearment
or familiarity. It is frequently added to a clipped form of the base/root: nighty (nightgown), movies
(moving pictures)
• -hood, it is added to nouns to form abstract nouns
Meaning; 'status': boyhood, widowhood. Sometimes it is added to adjectives: falsehood
• -ship. It is added to nouns to form abstract nouns.
Meaning: 'status', 'condition': dictatorship, friendship, friendship. Sometimes it is added to
......... adjective base as well: hardship.
• - dom. -added to nouns to form abstract nouns.
Meaning: domain, realm, condition: kingdom. Added to recently formed words, the suffix may add a
slightly pejorative meaning: stardom, officialdom.
• -ocracy. Added to nouns to form abstract nouns.
Meaning: 'system of government': democracy, plutocracy.
• -(e)ry. Added to nouns to form abstract nouns.
Meaning: behaviour: devilery, roguery
• Added to adjective base: bravery
• Added to nouns to form concrete count nouns.
Meaning: place of activity: refinery nunnery.
• Also added to nouns to form mass nouns
Meaning: colectivity: machinery.
• -ing: Added to countable nouns to form mass nouns
Meaning: the substance of which the item designated by the noun is composed: tubing
• -ful: Added to countable nouns to form other countable nouns.
Meaning: the amount N contains: spoonful, handful.
Noun/adiective>noun/adiective
• -ite: added chiefly to names to form personal nouns.
Meaning:
1. member of a tribe/community: Israelite, Brooklinite.
2. member of a faction, sect etc.: labourite, Stalinite. Occasionally, non gradable adjectives are formed
(Stalinite)
• -(i)an. Added chiefly to proper nouns to form personal n Duns or non-gradable adjectives.
Meaning: belonging to/pertaining to: Persian, Parisian, Elisabeth m. Stress shift to the final syllable is quite
common: Shakespeare= Skakespearean.
 2

• -ese. Added chiefly to proper nouns to form personal nouns and non-gradeable adjectives.
Meaning: nationality: Portuguese, Chinese. Extended usually pejoratively to linguistic style: journalese. In
attributive use, the stress sometimes shifts to initial position: Japanese- Japanese art.
• -ist. Added to nouns or adjectives, to form personal nouns or adjectives.
Meaning: member of a party, occupation: royalist, communist, masochist.
• -ism. Added to nouns or adjectives to form abstract nouns.
Meaning: doctrine, point of view, political or artistic movement: Calvinism, idealism, impressionism. Many
nouns in '-ism' correspond to nouns in '-ist': communism- communist.
Verb>noun suffixes.
• -er/-or. Added mainly to dynamic verbs to form nouns- either animate: worker, teacher, translator;
or inanimate nouns: receiver, thriller. It is extremely productive, -er becomes -o r in borrowed and
non-classical words: author, actor, inspector. Some words of this type have no English verb base:
doctor, author. Sometimes '-er1becomes '-ar': liar, beggar.
• -ant. Added to verbs to form personal nouns: defendant inhabitant, contestant; or impersonal
nouns: disinfectant, lubricant.
• -ee. Added to verbs to form personal nouns.
Meaning: is mostly passive: one who undergoes event 'X': appointee, employee, trainee. Sometimes the
meaning is not passive: absentee.
• -ation. Added to verbs to form abstract nouns.
Meanings:
1. 'state': starvation, brutalization.
2. 'action': ratification, exploration.
* it can also be added to verbs to form collective nouns.
Meaning: institution: organization, foundation.
• -ment. Added to verbs to to form nouns which in most cases are abstract.
Meaning: state: amazement, arrangement. Sometimes it is used to form concrete nouns as well: equipment,
sediment.
• -al. Added to dynamic verbs to form chiefly countable abstract nouns.
Meaning: action: dismissal, refusal.
• -ing. Added to verbs to form abstract nouns.
Meaning: activity: driving, writing.
It can be added to verbs to form concrete nouns.
Meaning: something resulting from the activity: painting, building, savings.
• -age. It is added to verbs to form mass abstract nouns: wastage, shrinkage, drainage.
Adiective>noun suffixes.
• -ness. Added to adj. to form abstract nouns.
Meaning:
1. State: Happiness paleness
2. Quality: meanness, up-to-dateness
Note: The difference between 'business' and busyness.
• -ity. Added to adjectives to form abstract nouns.
Meanings
1. State: respectability, sanity.
2. Quality: elasticity, rapidity, chastity
Verb forming suffixes
They are very few in English:
• -ify. Added to nouns. Adjectives, etc. (forms mainly transitive verbs)
Meaning: causative (to make something in a way): amplify, simplify, crucify. It I used mainly with borrowings
and neo-classical formations. Coinages outside the neo-classical sphere tend to be either facetious
(speechify), or even pejorative: dandify.
• -ize/-ise. Added to nouns, adjectives, etc. to form transitive verbs.
Meaning: causative: publicise, legalize, hospitalize, symbolize
• -en. Added to adjectives to form transitive or intransitive verbs, (mainly mono-syllabic adjectives of
Anglo-Saxon origin). The suffix is scarcely productive nowadays.
Meaning: Vt.- causative (make more X): widen,
Vi. -(become more X) deafen, sadden
 3

Noun>adjective suffixes
• -ful. Added mainly to abstract nouns to form gradable adjectives.
Meaning: 'full of': pittiful, useful
• -less. Added to nouns to form adjectives.
Meaning: 'devoid of', 'without', 'not giving': childless, restless careless.
• -ly. Added chiefly to concrete nouns to form gradable ac jectives.
Meaning: 'having the quality of: manly, soldierly, beastly.
Some '-ly' adj. are derived from nouns expressing time: daily, weekly.
• -like. Added mainly to concrete nouns to form gradable adjectives.
Meaning: having the quality of: childlike.
• -y. Added to concrete mass nouns to form gradable adjectives.
Meaning: like, full of, covered with: sandy, creamy, milky, hairy.'
• -ish. Added chiefly to proper, and countable nouns to form adjectives; either gradable (foolish,
selfish) or non-gradable(7"ur/c/sh, Spanish)
• -esque. Added chiefly to proper nouns to form adjectives.
Meaning: 'in the style of: Dantesque, Don-Quixotesque, picturesque.
• -some; -worthy; -arian. They are less important than the other ones mentioned above: burdensome,
frolicsome, praiseworthy, seaworthy, parliamentarian, authoritarian.
Adjective suffixes common in borrowed and neo-classical words
• -al, -ic, ive, ous are among the most widely used suffixes in the language, and yet, they are to be
found almost wholly with borrowings and neo-classical words; their occurance with A.S. roots being
extremely scarce: tidal, Miltonic, talkative . '-al' '-ic', '-0|us' are mainly added to nouns, while '-ive' is
primarily added to verbs.
• -al (-ial, -ical) is used primarily to form non-gradable adjectives: criminal, cultural, national,
preferential, philosophical. The stress is usually laid on the last but one syllable of the base.
• -ic is used to form gradable, as well as non-gradable adjectives: problematic, specific, atomic. Stress
is usually on the last syllable of the base.
• -ous (-eous, -ious) is used to form gradable adjectives mainly: virtuous, grievous, courteous,
ambitious. The stress is usually on the last syllable of the base.
• -ive (-ative; -itive) is used to form both gradable and non-gradable adjectives: attractive, productive,
communicative, sensitive. The stree is usually on the last syllable of the base.
Remarks:
a) The noun suffix 'ity' can be attached to all the above suffixes: neutral-neutrality, electric-electrical,
curious-curiosity, active- activity.
b) In some adjectives, '-ic' alternates with '-ical', with difference in meaning:
- a classic show- a classical language; a comic masterpiece—a comical behaviour
(a great/glorious—Greek, Latin Ig.) (of comedy) ( a funny one)
-an economic miracle [pertaining to economy]; an economical car[ money saving one]
- a historic building [with a history]; a historical approach [pdftaining to history]
Other adjective suffixes
• -able(-ible) Added chiefly to transitive verbs to form adjectives. The meaning is generally
passive: able to be + V: drinkable, readable, acceptable, '-ible' is mostly used in borrowed or neo­
classical words: perfectible, responsible.
• -ish. Added to gradable adjectives to form other gradable adjectives. The meaning is
'somewhat...(adj.)', and it is down-toning: whitish, reddish. The suffix is mainly used with simple
monosyllabic bases. Used with ages, it has the meaning of 'about': sixtish.
• -ed. Added to nouns/noun phrases to form adjectives. The meaning is 'having': walled, floored,
long-legged, simple-minded, red-housed. It is very productive nowadays.
Adverb suffixes
• -ly. Added to adjectives to form adverbs of manner. The meaning is "in a... manner": attentively,
hardly.SNhen following '-ic', it generally takes the form:"-ally': dramatically.
• -ward(s). Added to prepositional adverbs or to nouns, to form adverbs of manner meaning 'manner
and direction of movement': onward(s) homeward(s). Forms in '-wards' are preferred in B.E.
• -wise. Added to nouns to form adverbs of manner, meaning 'in the manner of': clockwise. It can also
be added to nouns to form viewpoint adverbs, meaning 'as far as (noun) is concerned': education-
wise, culture-wise.