- •Outlines of english lexicology
- •Introduction
- •Two Approaches to Language Study
- •Lexical Units
- •Referential Approach to meaning
- •Meaning in the Referential Approach
- •Functional Approach to Meaning
- •Types of meaning
- •Part-of-Speech Meaning
- •Emotive charge
- •Stylistic Reference
- •Change of meaning
- •Causes of semantic changes
- •Linguistic causes
- •Nature of Semantic Change
- •Results of Semantic Change
- •Changes in the denotational meaning
- •Changes in the connotational meaning
- •Interrelation of Causes, Nature and Results of Semantic Change
- •Meaning and polysemy
- •The semantic structure of polysemantic words
- •Diachronic Approach
- •Synchronic Approach
- •Polysemy and homonymy
- •Homonymy of Words and Homonymy of Word-Forms
- •Classification of homonyms
- •Graphic and Sound-Form of Homonyms
- •Sources of Homonymy
- •Word-meaning in syntagmaTlCs and paradigmatics
- •Polysemy and Context
- •Lexical context
- •Grammatical Context
- •Extra-Linguistic Context (Context of situation)
- •Common Contextual Associations. Thematic Groups
- •Meaning relations in paradigmatics and semantic classification of words
- •Conceptual (or Semantic) Fields
- •Semantic Equivalence and Synonymy
- •Patterns of Synonymic Sets in Modern English
- •Connotations of synonyms
- •Dominant synonym
- •Euphemisms
- •Semantic contrast and Antonymy
- •Word groups
- •Some basic features of word-groups
- •Grammatical Valency
- •Structure of word-groups Distribution as the Criterion of Classification
- •Meaning of word-groups
- •Lexical Meaning
- •Structural Meaning
- •Interrelation of Lexical and Structural Meaning in Word Groups
- •Motivation in Word Groups
- •Phraseological units
- •Free Word-Groups Versus Set-Phrases. Phraseological Units, Idioms, Word-Equivalents
- •1. Criteria of Stability and Lack of Motivation (Idiomaticity)
- •2. Criterion of Function
- •3. Criterion of Context
- •Phraseological Units and Idioms Proper
- •Classification
- •Word-structure Segmentation of Words into Morphemes
- •Principles of Morphemic Analysis. Types of Word Segmentability
- •Classification of morphemes
- •Morphemic Types of Words
- •Word-formation
- •Various ways of forming words
- •Word-formation: definition
- •Conversion
- •Synchronic Approach
- •Typical Semantic Relations
- •I. Verbs converted from nouns (denominal verbs).
- •II. Nouns converted from verbs (deverbal substantives).
- •Diachronic Approach of Conversion. Origin
- •Word-composition
- •Structure
- •Meaning
- •Structural Meaning of the Pattern
- •The Meaning of Compounds. Motivation
- •Classification
- •Relations between the iCs of Compounds
- •Different Parts of Speech
- •Means of Composition
- •Correlation between Compounds and Free Phrases
- •Productive Types of Compound Adjectives
- •Sources of Compounds
Diachronic Approach of Conversion. Origin
Modern English vocabulary is exceedingly rich in conversion pairs. As a way of forming words conversion is extremely productive and new conversion pairs make their appearance in fiction, newspaper articles and in the process of oral communication in all spheres of human activity gradually forcing their way into the existing vocabulary and into the dictionaries as well. New conversion pairs are created on the analogy of those already in the word-stock on the semantic patterns described above as types of semantic relations. Conversion is highly productive in the formation of verbs, especially from compound nouns. 20th century new words include a great many verbs formed by conversion, e.g. to motor — ‘travel by car’; to phone — ‘use the telephone’; to wire — ’send a telegram’; to microfilm — ‘produce a microfilm of; to tear-gas — ‘to use tear-gas’; to fire-bomb — ‘drop fire-bombs’; to spearhead — ‘act as a spearhead for’; to blueprint — ‘work out, outline’, etc. A diachronic survey of the present-day stock of conversion pairs reveals, however, that not all of them have been created on the semantic patterns just referred to. Some of them arose as a result of the disappearance of inflections in the course of the historical development of the English language due to which two words of different parts of speech, e.g. a verb and a noun, coincided in pronunciation. This is the case with such word-pairs, for instance, as love n (OE. lufu) — love v (OE. lufian); work n (OE. wēōrc) — work v (OE. wyrcan); answer n (OE. andswaru) — answer v (OE. andswarian) and many others. For this reason certain linguists consider it necessary to distinguish between homonymous word-pairs which appeared as a result of the loss of inflections and those formed by conversion. The term conversion is applied then only to cases like doctor n — doctor v; brief a — brief v that came into being after the disappearance of inflections, word-pairs like work n — work v being regarded exclusively as cases of homonymy.
Other linguists share the views concerning discrimination between conversion as a derivational means and as a type of word-building relations between words in Modern English. Synchronically in Modern English there is no difference at all between cases like taxi n — taxi v and cases like love n — love v from the point of view of their morphological structure and the word-building system of the language. In either case the only difference between the two words is that of the paradigm: the historical background is here irrelevant. It should be emphatically stressed at this point that the present-day derivative correlations within conversion pairs do not necessarily coincide with the etymological relationship. For instance, in the word-pair awe n — awe v the noun is the source, of derivation both diachronically and synchronically, but it is quite different with the pair mould v — mould n: historically the verb is the derived member, whereas it is the other way round from the angle of Modern English (cf. the derivatives mouldable, moulding, moulder which have suffixes added to verb-bases).
Conversion is not an absolutely productive way of forming words because it is restricted both semantically and morphologically.
With reference to semantic restrictions it is assumed that all verbs can be divided into two groups: a) verbs denoting processes that can be represented as a succession of isolated actions from which nouns are easily formed, e.g. fall v — fall n; run v — run n; jump v — jump n, etc.; b) verbs like to sit, to lie, to stand denoting processes that cannot be represented as a succession of isolated actions, thus defying conversion. However, a careful examination of modern English usage reveals that it is extremely difficult to distinguish between these two groups. This can be exemplified in such pairs as to invite — an invite, to take — a take, to sing — a sing, to bleed — a bleed, to win — a win, etc. The possibility for the verbs to be formed from nouns through conversion seems to be illimitable.
The morphological restrictions suggested by certain linguists are found in the fact that the complexity of word-structure does not favour conversion. It is significant that in MnE. there are no verbs converted from nouns with the suffixes -ing and -ation. This restriction is counterbalanced, however, by innumerable occasional conversion pairs of rather complex structure, e.g. to package, to holiday, to wireless, to petition, to reverence, etc. Thus, it seems possible to regard conversion as a highly productive way of forming words in Modern English.