UNIT 7: THE USE OF CONVERSION IN

ENGLISH
INDEX
• 1. Definition(s)
• 2. Classification
• 3. The problem of direction
• 4. The productivity of conversion
• 5. Morphological vs syntactic process
• 6. Conclusion
• 7. Practice

1. DEFINITIONS
• A derivational process whereby an item is adapted or converted to a new word
class without the addition of an affix. (Quirk et al. 1985). Therefore, there is a
lack of morphological mark and a change of class. [This is derivational
perspective, which implied that conversion is a subtype of affixation: “Zero
Affixation”]
• The use of a form which is regarded as being basically of one form class as
though it were a member of a different word class, without any concomitant
change of form. (Bauer 1983). Therefore, a word functions as a different
grammatical category. [This is a syntactic perspective, which can understand
conversion as “Functional Shift”]

• The use of a word as a determinant in a syntagma whose determinatum is not

expressed in phonic form but understood to be present in content, thanks to an
association with other syntagmas where the element of content has its
counterpart on the plane of phonic expression. (Marchand 1969). From this
definition, conversion could be considered as a case of “Zero affixation”.
MARGINAL CASES OF CONVERSION

• Final consonant / middle vowel change (Replacive Morpheme)

➢ belief-believe (noun-verb) (final)
➢ Extent-extend
➢ full-fill (adjective-verb) (medial)
➢ Choice /s/-choose /z/ (noun-verb) (mixed)
• Stress shift (super fix)
➢ record/ri’ko:d/- record /’reko:d/
➢ torment /to:’ment/- torment /’to:ment/
• While some authors include these cases among cases of conversion (Bauer
1983), others do not (Bauer and Huddleston 2002). For Bauer et al. (2013) they
should be excluded from the domain of conversion as one of the keys defining
properties is the lack of formal change.

2. CLASSIFICATION
A. CONVERSION TO NOUN
➢ Deverbal (from verb to noun)
❖ Ex: John is a bore
➢ Deadjectival (from adjective to noun)
❖ Ex: I’ll drink a bitter
B. CONVERSION TO VERB
➢ Denominal (from noun to verb)
❖ Ex: He bottled the wine
➢ Deadjectival (from adjective to verb)
❖ Ex: Dry the clothes

DENOMINAL VERBS: SEMANTIC TYPES

All these verbs express an action in which the entity denoted by the base plays’
different roles.

TYPES EXAMPLES
LOCATIVE VERBS BOTTLE (The bottle (the base
“To put something in/ on N” noun) performs the action of the place)
 LOCATUM VERBS CARPET (The carpet is
“To put N somewhere” not the place; it is the entity that is put
somewhere)
INSTRUMENT VERBS SAW
“To do something with N” BICYCLE
“To go by N” (Functions as an instrument)

AGENTIVE VERBS FATHER

“To behave like N” (The entity denoted by the noun is the
agent)
RESULT/GOAL VERBS CASH
“To change something into N” (Cash is the result of the action [when
you cash, you change money into cash]
PRIVATIVE VERBS CORE
“To remove N from”
DURATION VERBS SUMMER
“To spend N” (Temporal entity)

DEVERBAL NOUNS: SEMANTIC TYPES

TYPES EXAMPLES
ACTION (“Act of V-ing”) FALL, HIT, JUMP
Ex: We could hear the rise and fall of
voices in the other room
STATE (“State of V-ing) DAZE, DEFEAT
Ex: After their defeat in battle, the
soldiers surrendered
AGENTIVE (“Someone who Vs”) BORE, GUIDE, HELP
Ex: He was a great help (to me) while
my husband was away
 INSTRUMENT (“Instrument of V-ing) CLIP, RATTLE
Ex: The wires were fastened together
with a plastic clip
OBJECT (“Object of V-ing) FIND
Ex: This café's quite a find - I had no
idea there was anywhere like it around
here.
RESULT (“Result of V-ing”) BURN, BUMP
Ex: I noticed a cigarette burn in the
carpet
LOCATIVE (“Place of V-ing”) (rubbish) DUMP, DRIVE (a private area
in front of a house or other building onto
which you can drive and park your car)

Ex: I'm going to clean out the basement

and take everything I don't want to the
dump

CLASSIFICATION: MINOR TYPES

• CONVERSION OF FUNCTIONAL WORD TO NOUN

➢ Bauer is a must for students of morphology
➢ Patriotism, racism, and any other isms...
• CONVERSION OF PREPOSITION TO VERB OR NOUN
➢ They downed tools in protest
➢ We won’t be able to make a profit unless we up our prices.
➢ For some reason, Mary has a down on the whole teaching profession
• CONVERSION OF PRONOUN TO ADJ
➢ This is how the Fielding’s next door do it, but it’s not quite us

3. THE PROBLEM OF DIRECTIONALITY

The lack of morphological marks makes it difficult to distinguish which word is the
derived one.
THE OVERT ANALOGUE CRITERION

[Remember Marchand’s definition, there is an existence of parallelism with overtly

open systems.]

Cover and enchain are analogous (i.e: similar)

• If enchain (V) (“put chains on”) is derived from chain (N), then cover (V) (“put
covers on”) is derived from cover (N)
However, cover is also analogous to cleaver.

• If cleaver (N) (“instrum. for cleaving”) is derived from cleaver (V); cover (N)
(“instrument for covering”) is derived from cover (V)

CRITERIA FOR ARGUING DERIVATIONAL DEPENDENCE

1. HISTORICAL INFORMATION
➢ The date of the first attestation in the Oxford English Dictionary, of in
historical corpora is therefore important:
❖ cage (N) – 1225 (OED), cage (V) 1557 (OED) (N → V)
❖ sweet (A) – c.825, sweet (N) 1300 (A → N)
➢ The history of a word may go against our present-day intuition
❖ To crowd → Crowd
❖ Which one is derived from the other word? The noun is derived
from the verb.
❖ To crowd (Old English crudan): press, hasten, drive, later
specialised to refer to the compression of multitudes.
➢ BUT there is a problem: both words (in a conversion pair) may have
occurred at around the same time in dictionaries or texts.
❖ claim (N)& claim (V) – c.1300; doubt (N)& doubt (V)- c.1225.
[Uncertainty about which one appeared before]

2. SEMANTIC CRITERIA
a) DEFITIONAL / PRAGMATIC DEPENDENCE
❖ If one member of the pair is semantically dependent on the other
member or semantically more complex, the dependent member is
derived from the other form.

BASE DERIVED
SAW(N) SAW (V)
“A cutting instrument with a “To cut with a saw”
blade, having a continuous
series of teeth on the edge”
WHISTLE (V) WHISTLE (N)
“To force the breath through “Instrument used for
the teeth or compressed lips” whistling”
 ❖ However, this criterium doesn’t always serves since the
definitions may not be clear enough.

BASE DERIVED
SAW (V) SAW (N)
“To cut with a cutting “An instrument for sawing”
instrument with a blade,
having a continuous series of
teeth on the edge”

b) SEMANTIC RANGE
❖ Derived words tend to have a narrower semantic range, as they
are semantically more complex.
V → N CONVERSION N → V CONVERSION
convert (N) (“a person butcher (N) (“shopkeeper
converted to a belief”) who cuts up and sells meat”)
vs vs
convert (V) (“change the butcher (V) (“to kill
form, character or function of indiscriminately and
something.”) brutally”) ‘(like a butcher)’
❖ The meaning of the derived word is more specific and complex.

c) SPECIAL EFFECTS (STYLISTIC COLOURING)

❖ The derived word would be that which appears only in reduced
and specific situations:
o He hungers for love (poetic)
o His novel is a good read. (informal)

d) RANGE OF USAGE
❖ The range of usage is a consequence of the narrower semantic
range. Lower frequency: derived words are usually less frequent
than their bases.
o sweet (A) 2924 (BNC frequency)
o sweet (N) 114 (BNC frequency)

FORMAL CRITERIA

a) PHONETIC /SEGMENTAL SHAPE

❖ If a word has typical endings of a different grammatical
category, it is very likely derived from that category.
❖ For example, verbs which end in nominalizing suffixes (-tion,
-ment) will be treated as derived members of conversion pairs
(i.e.: verbs which have a suffix common of nouns, they are
derived from nouns (Nominal form) [denominal verbs].)
o Ration, mention, fraction
o Compliment, document, implement
b) STRESS PATTERN
❖ If a word follows the stress pattern characteristic of another word class,
it tends to be derived
❖ In the case of N-to-V conversion, verbs retain the stress contours of
nouns (which tend to put the stress on the first syllable): ’outlaw, ‘outfit,
’outline, ’understudy (nominal stress pattern) (N → V)
❖ V-to-N conversion (of phrasal verbs or Latinate prefix-stem verbs):
involves the shift of the main stress to the initial syllable: back ’up (V) –
’backup (N) ‚sit ’in (V) – ‚’sit-in (N) con’vert (V) – ’convert (N)

c) INFLECTION

PRESENT PAST MEANING

RING RINGED “Provide with a ring”
Conversion from the
noun ring
RING RANG “To sound sonorously”

❖ Newly created words (by means of a derivational process, like

conversion) are inflected regularly since they do not yet have a stored
entry in the mental lexicon (in the example: ringed).
❖ Lexemes with irregular inflectional paradigms should be treated as
nonderived (Myers 1984)
❖ Example: N → V Conversion: Man, Foot

d) SYNTACTIC BEHAVIOUR
❖ Deverbal nouns denoting actions, processes and states often occur with
complements resembling the arguments of corresponding verbs (the
syntactic pattern of the verb is inherited by the noun; just we must notice
that the complement of nouns is always introduced by a prep.)
❖ Examples:
4. THE PRODUCTIVITY OF CONVERSION
• Morphologically unrestricted input/output can be used with:
➢ Different grammatical categories: nouns, adjectives, verbs, prepositions
➢ Different morphological types: compounds, derivatives, acronyms,
blends, clipped forms, simple words
➢ This process is possible with virtually any base. Any word which is
mentioned can be used as a noun:
❖ Ex: no more thank yous (2.5 million hits in Google)
❖ Ex: I’ve also used a stir-fry with broad bean sauce. (compound V
→ compound N)
❖ Ex: Behind Zane Gerard, Tyque Raymond was thumb-upping
me. (cf. “give someone a thumbs up”)
➢ Even whole phrases could be used in this way:
❖ Ex: don’t give me any of you ‘I can’t do its’, ‘I don’t knows’
❖ This suggests that it might be a syntactic process and that it
should not count as conversion

THE CASE OF DENOMINAL VERBS

• The case of denominal verbs is particularly common.

a. It shows our LANGUAGE COMPETENCE, that is the ability to create
and understand innovations.
❖ ...the actress...who handbagged Peter Cook in the face
❖ he telegraphed his intention
❖ I’m airbnb-ing across America this summer
➢ In many cases a new instance of conversion cannot be understood
without reference to the pragmatic environment in which the word is
coined:
❖ Ex: Are you trying to jamesbond my film? (we must be familiar
with the type of films starred by James Bond: commercial, etc)
❖ Ex: Lisa popped a cherry tomato leftover from her salad in her
mouth and Groucho Marxed her blonde eyebrows (we need to
understand what Groucho Marx typically does with his
eyebrows)
➢ According to Clark and Clark 1979, these cases are called
CONTEXTUALS
❖ the perils of Don Juaning (= “seducing women”) (Clark & Clark
1979)
❖ Because of his fear of flying, he Amtraked to New York (=
“travel by train”) (Pinker 1999)
❖ I FedExed the package last night (= “send through FedEx)
(Pinker 1999)
 b. It shows the ECONOMY OF EXPRESSION, only what needs to be
said but with a reduces number of words

c. There is a division between POSSIBLE AND ACTUAL WORDS

❖ To xerox “to produce a copy (of a document) using a copying
(derived from Xerox (brand of photocopying machine))
❖ Fedex “to send or ship by federal express” (derived from FedEx
(parcel company))
❖ However, to Amtrak, to Brexit, were not successful cases
d. It portrays the process of LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
❖ Children get used to the process of using nouns as verbs and they adapt
it to other words.

WHY IS IT SO PRODUCTIVE?

• Transparency of meaning
➢ Ex: denominal verbs: the base noun denotes an entity directly implied
in the action denoted, so that the meaning is predictable
• Simplicity of form:
➢ Formation of new words without affixation is easier
• Exploited by children and adults alike
➢ They rely on same semantic relations to create new words
• Creative (literary) use
➢ “My gracious uncle. --” “Tut tut, Grace me no Grace, nor Uncle me no
Uncle:
➢ “I heartily wish I could, but --” “Nay, but me no buts--I have set my
heart upon it.”
 ➢ “Advance and take thy prize, the diamond; but he answered, Diamond
me no diamonds! For God’s love, a little air! Prize me no prizes, for my
prize is death!”

5. MORPHOLOGICAL VS SYNTACTIC PROCESS

• There are a number of cases where it is not clear whether we are dealing with a
morphological process, i.e., the creation of a new lexeme with a new meaning
(conversion, zero affixation), or a syntactic process, i.e. the use of the same
word in different syntactic environments, with different functions (functional
shift, transposition, relisting, underspecification, multifunctionality).

CHANGE OF SECONDARY WORD CLASS

➢ NOUN TO NOUN
❖ Mass noun (Uncountable) used as a Countable noun:
❖ Most common nouns in English can be used as either count or non-
count nouns. I t all depends on the Noun Phrase in which the noun is
used.
o I’d like two coffees
o He tossed one of the milks in the air and tried to shoot it.
❖ Countable noun used as a Mass noun:
❖ This looks like a syntactic matter, polysemy forced by the syntactic
context, rather than conversion (i.e.: not considered a case of
conversion)
o I need an inch of pencil
o There was so much book for so little content.
o It takes up too much page.
o Sometimes people get dogs who turn out to be too much
dog to handle… especially when they are large, strong
breeds.
➢ ADJECTIVE TO ADJECTIVE
❖ Non-gradable adjectives used as gradable adjectives:
❖ Given the right syntactic context, almost every non-gradable adjective
can be used as gradable. There, it appears to be syntactic
o He is very English / He’s more wooden than the other
actors.
 ➢ VERB TO VERB (“VERBAL ALTERNATIONS”)
❖ Transitive verb used as an Intransitive verb
o This book reads well / The window opened (by itself).
❖ Intransitive verb used as a Transitive verb
o The captain marched the soldiers to the field / He waltzed
her into the room.

• The problem with all these cases is that, in addition to the lack of morphological
marks, there is no change of the major grammatical category. Discussed as a
type of conversion by Quirk et al. 1985, not regarded as conversion by Plag
2003 or Marchand 1969
• Why should we speak of new (derived) words in these cases?
❖ The main argument in favour of a derivational approach (that is, a new
word has been created) is based on the semantic change in the new
word.
❖ The process illustrated by these cases (change of secondary word class)
is often referred to as type coercion, a semantic process by which a
lexical item of one semantic/syntactic type, e.g. a count noun, a non-
gradable adjective or an intransitive verb, is forced by the syntactic
context in which it is used into an interpretation as another
semantic/syntactic type, say a non-count noun, a gradable adjective or a
transitive verb.

CONVERSION OF NOUNS TO ADJECTIVES

A fun party
A key issue

• However:
• All nouns can be used in this way
❖ Ex: London bridge, Berlin marathon stone walls, cotton shirts
• Can we then say that all nouns used as premodifiers are derived adjectives?
❖ NO, if a word is the output of conversion, it should have all the
relevant functions of the type to which it has been converted.
DIAGNOSTIC CRITERIA FOR ADJECTIVEHOOD

1. ATTRIBUTE AND PREDICATIVE POSITION

➢ Can the noun be placed on the attributive (before the noun) and the
predicative (after the noun) position?
❖ a fun party/ the party is fun
❖ Education will be the key issue in the next election/This issue is
key.
❖ an Oxbridge accent/his accent is Oxbridge
❖ Compare to: London in London bridge is a noun used attributively
(or a constituent of a N+N compound). *This bridge is London.
2. INTENSIFICATION AND COMPARISON
➢ Can we apply “very” to the noun functioning as an adj?
❖ a very fun party
❖ this question is very key
❖ his accent is very Oxbridge
❖ *Very London bridge
3. COMPARISON
4. ADVERBIAL DERIVATION
5. TYPICAL DERIVATIONAL AFFIXES
[Not explained, but the idea is that if we apply these criteria and the noun
passes them, that means that the noun can function as an adj.]

CONVERSION OF ADJECTIVES TO NOUNS

• DEADJECTIVAL NOUNS PRECEDED BY THE:

➢ Some denote classes of human beings. These cases are understood as
plural
❖ the poor
❖ Further examples: the rich, the famous, the unemployed, the
retired, the disabled, the old, the strong, the hopeless, the resigned
➢ Other cases are understood as singular and denote something non-
human
❖ the old and the new
❖ Further examples: the outrageous, the demonic, the angelic, the
remarkable, the good
➢ Deadjectival nouns have a Nominal behaviour since they appear as:
For Bauer et al. (2013) these cases are almost certainly syntactic rather than lexical
because:
➢ They are very productive
➢ They are not full nouns (e.g. no plural inflection in most cases)
➢ The syntactic context (definite phrase preceded by the) is crucial
➢ They can, alternatively, be treated as examples of ellipsis of the head noun
➢ Ex: people. (i.e.: the poor → the poor people)

• DEADJECTIVAL NOUNS THAT TAKE ANY DETERMINER (TIME-

PERIOD ADJECTIVES, ETC…)
➢ Unlike the previous case, these nouns can be inflected for plural:
❖ There were many intellectuals in the room.
❖ Bilinguals are smarter than monolinguals.
❖ The trial was reported in all the popular dailies.
❖ vs. *There were many poors in the room.
➢ They may occur in a full range of Noun Phrases (with all relevant
determiners):
❖ a/the/the city’s daily
➢ There are unpredictable gaps:
❖ an intellectual (“an intellectual person”) vs *a poor (“a poor
person”)
➢ We can reasonably consider these cases as cases of conversion.
❖ Further examples: a favourite, a variable, a digestive
• COLOUR TERMS
➢ There is too much white in the picture
• ADJECTIVES WITH PLURAL NOUN COUNTERPARTS
➢ This case is very productive in contemporary English.
➢ However, it is not very clear that it should be treated as conversion since
the plural form is required, that is, there is a change of form from the
adjective to the noun, as if it was a kind of derivational mark changing
the grammatical category of the word
❖ Further examples: buyables, drinkables, handwashables,
freezables, burnables

CONVERSION OF VERBS TO ADJECTIVES

Base = Inflected form

• PAST PARTICIPLE
➢ The verbal passive participle, which is the inflected form, can behave as
an adjective:
❖ They were excited by the prospects ➔ “excited” is the passive
participle and inflected form. It is still a verb
 • PRESENT SIMPLE
➢ The verbal progressive participle, which is an inflected form, can behave
as an adj:
❖ You are not convincing me ➔ “convincing” is the verbal
progressive form, inflected form. It is still a verb.

Different analyses have been proposed:

 CONVERSION OF ADJECTIVES TO ADVERBS

It is a non-productive conversion

• Forms that can be used as adjectives or adverbs in standard English:

➢ a. early, fair, fast, hard, loud, slow, quick
➢ b. Daily, deadly, friendly, kindly, monthly, nightly, weekly, yearly
❖ That was an early start. They started too early.
❖ A slow drive. Drive slow.
❖ A quick kiss. Kiss me quick
• Non-standard forms that can be adjectival and also used as intensifiers for
Adjectives (i.e.: adjectives that can be used as intensifiers before other
adjectives):
➢ Blind, bloody, dead, deadly, fucking, jolly, mighty, pretty, real, right,
wicked
❖ I was dead tired.
❖ I’m real tired.
❖ That performance was pretty impressive.
❖ He’s a jolly good fellow.
These forms are extremely common in speech