5. Conversion

Conversion (конверсия) is the formation of words without using word-building affixes. Conversion is the process of shifting a word from one part of speech to another (e.g. salt, n → salt, v; jump, v → jump, n). A certain root is used for the formation of a categorically different word without an element being added, e.g. bag – to bag, back – to back, bottle – to bottle. Conversion is a productive way of forming words in English.

The productive models of conversion in English are the following:

1) formation of verbs from nouns (Noun → Verb), e.g. cash, n – cash, v; work, n – work, v; butter – to butter; ship – to ship, a dog – to dog (следовать по пятам), a monkey – to monkey (передразнивать). The noun is the name of an animal and the verb denotes behaviour typical of this animal. Nose – to nose, hammer – to hammer, i.e. the noun is the name of a tool and the verb is the name of an action, which is performed by this tool.

2) formation of nouns from verbs (Verb → Noun), e.g. fall, v – fall, n; must, v – must, n; to survey – a survey; to call – a call;

3) formation of nouns from adjectives (Adjective → Noun), e.g. criminal, adj – criminal, n; intellectual, adj – intellectual, n; poor – the poor; final – a final);

4) formation of verbs from adjectives (Adjective → Verb), e.g. slow, adj – slow, v; brown, adj – brown, v; dirty – to dirty.

6. Other types of word-formation

Word-composition (словосложение) is the formation of words by joining two (or more) roots, e.g. night-club, man-of-war, passer-by. The combination of two or more existing words to create a new word is one of the most common word-building processes in English. A compound word (or compound) is a unit consists of more than one lexical root, e.g. bluebird (adjective + noun); in-laws (preposition + noun); jumpsuit (verb + noun).

Compound words may be classified according to the parts of speech:

a) nouns: waterfall, looking-glass;

b) verbs: to honeymoon, to outgrow;

c) adjectives: peace-loving, hard-working;

d) adverbs: downstairs, lip-deep;

e) prepositions: within, into;

f) numerals: thirty-seven, fifty-nine.

Compounding (словослияние) is the making of a new word by joining two or more roots together. These words are classified into the following groups:

1) neutral compounds, where the words are joined together, without any connecting element, e.g. headache, heartbreak, bedroom;

2) morphological compounds, in which the words are joined by a vowel or a consonant, e.g. speedometer, craftsman, statesman, bridesmaid;

3) synthetic compounds, in which words are joined by a prepositions or conjunction as a linking element, e.g. down-and-out (в ужасном положении, опустошенный), mother-in-law, good-for-nothing (лентяй, бездельник);

4) derivational compounds, in which the words have affixes in their roots, e.g. film-goer, blue-eyed;

5) contracted compounds, in which one of the words is shortened, e.g. TV-set, H-bag (handbag).

Affixation, conversion, and compounding are the three main types of word-formation in English. There are a number of other ways of forming words, such as:

a) clipping (сокращение) is the process of cutting off one or several syllables of a word, e.g. maths (mathematics), lab (laboratory), gym (gymnastics), ZOO (zoological garden), exam (examination), BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation), i.e. (Latin “id est” – English “that is”), e.g. (Latin “exempli gratia” – English “for example), etc. (Latin “et cetera” – English “and so on”).

Three types of clipping can be distinguished:

• the first part is left, e.g. ad (advertisement), prof (professor);

• the second part is left, e.g. phone (telephone), plane (airplane), burger (hamburger);

• a middle part is left, e.g. fridge (refrigerator), flu (influenza).

b) back-formation (реверсия) is a process that creates a new word by removing affix from another word in the language, e.g. to televise (from “television”), to babysit (from “a babysitter”);

c) blending (стяжение) is the process of merging parts of words into one new word, usually the first part of one and the final part of the other, e.g. brunch (from “breakfast” and “lunch”); smog (from “smoke” and “fog”), motel (from “motorist” and “hotel”), medicare (from “medical” and “care”);

d) sound imitation (звуковое подражание) is the formation of words from sounds associated with objects producing these sounds, buzz, meow, cuckoo, cock-a-doodle-doo, splash, tick-tick;

e) sound-interchange (чередование звука) is a way of making words by changing the phonetic shape of the root, e.g. food, n – feed, v; sing, v – song, n; speak, v – speech, n; life, n – live, n. It was produced in old English and now it is not produced at all;

f) stress-interchange (чередование ударения) is a way of making words by changing the stress in one and the same morpheme in various cases of its occurrence, e.g. ′present, n – to pre′sent, v; ′present, n – to pre′sent, v; ′record, n – to re′cord, v; ′import, n – to im′port.

SEMINAR 7

KEY TERMS

morpheme root

free morpheme bound morpheme

affix suffix

prefix inflexions

derived word compound word

productivity conversion

composition compounding

clipping back-formation

TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND EXERCISES

1. What is a word-formation? How is word-formation classified?

2. How do you distinguish between a morpheme and a word?

3. Morphemes; types of morphemes. Structural types of words in English.

4. Affixation. Classifications of affixes.

5. What is conversion? Semantic groups of converted lexical units.

6. Composition. Give examples of different types of composition.

7. Ways of forming compounds.

8. Classifications of compound words.

9. What is back-formation?

10. What is abbreviation, clipping, blending?

1. Give examples of free and bound morphemes (5-7 of each type).

2. Form words with a negative meaning, using prefixes in-, un-, dis-, de-.

Ability, able, accessible, action, admissible, expected, comprehensible, to tie,

eatable, to bind, to charge, to obey, to organize, to mobilize, to bolt, just, justice.

3. State what part of speech the following words belong to. Read the pairs of words and comment on the stress in them.

1. Economy – economic; industry – industrial; technology – technological; solid – solidity.

2. Canada – Canadian; Europe – European; Japan – Japanese.

3. To generate – generation; to investigate – investigation; to form – formation; to specialize – specialization; to analyse – analysis, analytic; emphasize – emphasis, emphatic; to separate – separation.

4. Translate the following compound words into Russian. State the type of compounds.

Undertaker, stay-at-home, red-hot, bird’s-eye, lady-bird, jelly-fish, madbrain, busybody, brassface, fire-eater, handiwork, officer-in-charge, early-riser, T-shirt, golden-haired.

5. Analyse the structure of the compounds. Translate them into Russian.

1. Office-manager, office-managing, office-management.

2. Novel-translator, novel-translating, novel-translation.

3. Mail-deliverer, mail-delivering, mail-delivery.

4. Mainland, letterbox, postman, rain-proof, grandchildren, gentleman, snow-storm, foot-path, ice-breaker, world-wide, oil-rich, first-hand, shorthand, highway, bookshelf.

6. Compare the verbs with the corresponding nouns. Translate them into Russian.

ape – to ape ass – to ass dog – to dog

duck – to duck fish – to fish eye – to eye

finger – to finger monkey – to monkey rat – to rat

wolf – to wolf back – to back bone – to bone

head – to head shoulder – to shoulder top – to top

dress – to dress pocket – to pocket line – to line

face – to face collar – to collar star – to star

Test

1. Affixation is:

a) a way of word-building consisting in adding an affix to the root of a definite part of speech

b) a way of word-building consisting in adding an affix to the root of a noun

c) shortening of words

d) a type of morphological analysis

2. The main function of suffixes in Modern English is:

a) to change the lexical meaning of a word

b) to form the verb

c) to ask questions

d) to form one part of speech from another

3. Сonversion is a morphological way of forming words:

a) when one part of speech is formed from another part of speech

b) when a noun is formed from the verb

c) when a noun is formed from the adjective

d) when a verb is formed from another part of speech

4. Clipping consists:

a) in adding a part of a word

b) in cutting off a part of a word

c) in cutting off a prefix

d) in adding a suffix

5. Determine the number of morphemes in the word “reactivate”:

a) one

b) two

c) three

d) four

6. Inflexions are morphemes used to change:

a) phonetic forms of the word

b) grammar forms of the word

c) semantic forms

d) stylistic forms

PART FOUR