Conversion
In English grammar, conversion is a word formation process that specifies an
existing word to a different word class, part of speech, or syntactic category
without any change in the form of the word. This method is also named zero
derivation or a functional shift. Anthimeria is the rhetorical term for grammatical
conversion.
Conversions from adjectives to nouns and nouns to adjectives are both very
common and unobtrusive in English language; much more remarkable is the
creation of a verb from a noun or other word (e.g., the adjective clean converts into
the verb to clean).
Verbification
Verbification, or verbing, the act of making into a verb, is the creation of a verb
from a noun, adjective or other word.
In English, verbification commonly requires simple conversion of a non-verb to a
verb. The verbs vebify and to verb, the first one by derivation with a suffix and the
second one by zero derivation are themselves products of verbification, and the
term to verb is usually used more accurately, as a reference only to the
verbification that does not change the form of the word. ( thus, verbing in this
specific situation is a kind of anthimeria.)
There are thousands of examples of verbification in English language, including
the most used words like: mail and e-mail, strike, talk, salt, pepper, switch, bed,
sleep, ship, train, stop, drink, cup, lure, mutter, dress, dizzy, divorce, fool, and
merge. Verbification is certainly not limited to slang, it has provided and extended
English with many new expressions: the word “access”, as in “access the file”.
Which was before only a noun, as in “gain access to the file”. More mainstream
examples like this are “host”, as in “host a party”, and “chair”, as in “chair the
meeting”. Other words such as “gift”, are less extensive but none the less
mainstream. More examples are bottle-to bottle, can-to can, closet-to closet, eye-to
eye, fiddle-to fiddle, google-to google, knife- to knife, microwave- to microwave,
name-to name, pocket-to pocket, shape-to shape, spear-to spear and torch-to torch.
Other languages
In other languages, verbification is a more methodical process. However, these
processes often are not considered as conversion, because the process involves
change in the form of the words. For example, in Esperanto, every word can be
transformed into a verb by changing its ending to -I, or by applying suffixes like -
igi and -iĝi.
Noun conversion in English
Deverbal nouns
Deverbal nouns are nouns that are taken from verbs or verb phrases. The process of
forming a verb to a noun is a type of nominalization [ is the use of a word which is
not a noun (verb, an adjective or an adverb) as a noun.] an example in English
language for a deverbal noun include the noun “construct” ( derived from the verb
construct). More examples of verb to noun conversion are: to alert-alert, to attack-
attack, to call-call, to clone-clone, to command-command, to cover-cover, to cry-
cry, to experience-experience, to fear-fear, to feel-feel, to hope-hope, to increase-
increase, to judge- judge, to laugh-laugh, to rise-rise, to run-run, to sleep, sleep, to
start-start, to start-start, to visit-visit.
For example:
The guard alerted [verb] the general to attack[noun].
The enemy attacked [verb] before an alert [noun] could be sounded.
Sometimes you just need a good cry[noun].
She cried [verb] a lot yesterday.
Many English nouns are formed from unmodified verbs: a fisherman's catch, to go
for a walk.
Nominal adjectives
Nominal adjective are adjectives that act like nouns and perform the function of a
noun in a sentence. adjectives are preceded by the article “the” when used as a
noun, and become the subject or the object of a sentence or clause.
For example:
The elderly are very kind.
The French have amazing cheese.
The opposite of right is left.
The best is coming.
In the examples above, the nominal adjectives perform the function of the
subject of the sentences, however they can perform as objects too.
For example:
We have to love the elderly with regard.
This country protects the innocent.
I want the best for her.
Conversion in Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was a fan and an expert of this linguistic device. Some of his
conversions are “I earned her language.”, and “he words me.” He even turned a
person’s name into a verb “petruchio is kated.”
