Conversion of english words denoting human body parts and the vietnamese equivalents hiện tượng chuyển đổi từ loại các từ chỉ bộ phận cơ thể tiếng anh và các hình thức diễn đạt tương đươ

PART 1: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of the study
Nowadays, learning English plays an essential role in education and
training in many countries in the world. Therefore, a good knowledge of
English language becomes a must for learners, especially those of English.
Among the four aspects of language, namely phonology, syntax, and
lexicology, the last one provides us with information about the form, the
formation and the meaning of the word. It is no doubt that the success of a
learner of English is not separated from his/her good knowledge of English
lexicology in general and English word formation in particular.
Today English vocabulary exceeds the number of one million words.
The fast-growing stock of English words is the result of its variety of ways of
forming words. Of all the ways of forming new words in English, conversion,
a case of coining new words by turning words into different parts of speech,
seems to be one of the most productive phenomena. And that English nouns
denoting human body parts are converted into other parts of speech,
particularly verbs is also a common trend in English language. As a
consequence, if the learner of English has a good command of conversion,
especially that of words denoting human body parts, he/she can not only
understand new words formed in this way, but also produce new words via
conversion by him/herself. In addition, from my teaching experience, I realize
that my students often make mistakes when working with words made from
conversion of those denoting human body parts as well as when translating
these words into English.

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For all the above reasons, I have decided to choose the topic:
Conversion of English words denoting human body parts and the
Vietnamese equivalents for my Master’s Thesis. This thesis is conducted with

the hope that the research findings will provide both theoretically and
practically useful knowledge for Vietnamese learners and translators of
English.
2. Aims of the study
The aims of the study are:
- to provide an insight into English conversion as a way of forming new
words in general and conversion of words denoting human body parts in
particular, together with their Vietnamese equivalents.
- to explore how meanings are changed via conversion of words denoting
human body parts.
- to find out the similarities and differences between English conversion of
words denoting human body parts and their Vietnamese equivalents.
- to survey the students’ problems and mistakes in learning and translating
English words of human body parts and suggest some solutions.
3. Research questions
To fully achieve these aims, the study should answer the following
questions:
(i) What is conversion and what is the position of conversion in word
formation and semasiology?
(ii) How are English nouns denoting human body parts converted into other
parts of speech? And what are their Vietnamese equivalents?

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(iii) What are some main ways of semantic change in conversion of English
words denoting human body parts?
(iv) What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese
in terms of conversion of words denoting human body parts?
(v) What are the students’ problems and mistakes in learning and translating

English words of human body parts and how can they overcome them?
4. Scope of the study
The study is intended to cover conversion of only English nouns
denoting human body parts, especially those with high frequency of use. It is
the fact that conversion may occur among different parts of speech, but in this
study conversion mainly takes place from nouns to verbs. Finally, examples
for illustration are mostly given in full sentences and quoted from literary
works and dictionaries.
5. Methods of the study
In the implementation of the study, a number of methods will be
adopted. Firstly, the study will make use of descriptive method to describe
different features of English conversion in general and conversion of words
denoting human body parts in particular. Secondly, in order to find out the
similarities and differences between conversion of English words denoting
human body parts and the Vietnamese equivalents, the study will adopt
contrastive analysis. Finally, techniques of statistics will also be employed to
show major ways of semantic change in conversion of English words
denoting human body parts and to explore common mistakes made by
Vietnamese learners of English in translating words of human body parts.

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6. Design of the study
The study has three main parts:
Part I is the introduction to the study, including rationale of the study,
aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study, methods of the study
and design of the study.
Part II, the development of the study, consists of three main chapters.
Chapter 1 provides the theoretical background of the study, namely word

formation, semasiology (semantic structure of the word and semantic change),
conversion and the human body.
Chapter 2 discusses how English nouns of human body parts are converted
into other parts of speech together with their new meanings.
Chapter 3 reveals the findings of the study. In this chapter, we will find out
the major ways of semantic change in conversion of English words denoting
human body parts and explore the similarities and differences between
English and Vietnamese regarding conversion of words denoting human body
parts. The implication of the study is also included in this chapter.
Part III, the conclusion of the study, gives a brief summary and
conclusion of the study as well as some suggestions for further study.

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PART 2: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
In order to create the theoretical foundation for the study on Conversion
of English words of body parts in the main part, it is necessary to have a
comprehensive understanding of the relevant literature review. This chapter,
therefore, is intended to give an overview of Conversion in English. The
concept of conversion as a word formation process will be regarded and
revealed with the provision of definitions and types.
1.1 Word formation
In linguistics, word formation is the creation of a new word. Word
formation is sometimes contrasted with semantic change, which is a change in
a single word’s meaning. The boundary between word formation and
semantic change can be difficult to define: a new use of an old word can be
seen as a new word derived from an old one and identical to it in form. Word
formation can also be contrasted with the formation of idiomatic expression,

although words can be formed from multi-words phrases. In English, we have
different ways of forming new words, such as affixation, word composition
(word compounding), shortening, conversion, sound imitation, sound and
stress interchange and back derivation.
1.1.1. Affixation
Affixation is the formation of new words with the help of affixes. As
affixes consist of prefixes and suffixes, affixation is further divided into
prefixation and suffixation.

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Prefixation is the formation of new words by adding prefixes to the
roots. Prefixes mainly modify the lexical meaning of the root and rarely form
new parts of speech. For example:
un + happy (adj)

→ unhappy (adj)

re + do (v)

→ redo

(v)

Prefixes are classified in many ways, either according to their origin
(native or borrowed: Romance/Latin) or meaning or function (verb-forming,
adjective-forming…). Based on meaning, English prefixes are divided into
three groups: (i) negation, (ii) reversal or repetition, and (iii) space and time
relationship, for example:

(i) Negation : un-, dis-, non-, mis-, in-, il-, im-, irun-: unhappy, uneven,
dis-: dishonest, disaffection,
non-: non-stop, non-party,
mis-: misunderstand, mis-use,
in-: in-active, in-accurate,
il-: il-legal, il-logical,
im-: im-possible, im-proper,
ir-: ir-regular, ir-responsible
(ii) Reversal or repetition: un-, dis-, re-, de-, anti-, counterun-: unbind, unmask, unpack
dis-: disgorge, dishouse, disengage
re-: rearrange, remarried, reassemble, rebirth
de-: demobilize, decentralize, decontaminate
anti-: anti-war, anti-aircraft, anti-thesis
counter-: counter-attack, counter-weight, counter-revolution
(iii) Space and time relationship: pre-, post-, fore-, over-, super-,

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pre-: pre-tax, pre-set, pre-record, pre-christian,
post-: post-graduate, post-impressionism, post-industrial, postscript,
fore-: forearm, forehead, forecast, foreword, foreknow,
over-: overcook, overheat, overnight,
super-: super-computer, super-glue, super-human, super-man, superstar
With respect to suffixation, it is the formation of words by adding
suffixes to the roots. The most distinctive feature of suffixes is that they
usually change the meaning of the roots both lexically and grammatically. In
other words, they modify the lexical meaning of the roots and transfer words
to different parts of speech, for example:
to eat (verb) → eat + able = eatable (adjective); eat + er = eater (noun)

green (adjective) → green+ ish =greenish (adj); green+ ness = greenness
(noun)
nation (noun) → nation + al = national (adj); national + ize = nationalize.
There are, however, some cases in which suffixes do not change the part of
speech. For example:
child (noun) + hood = child-hood (noun)
tiger (noun) + ess = tiger-ess (noun)
movie (noun) + dom = movie-dom (noun)
Suffixes can be classified in different ways according to different
principles. The most practical principle for us is the part of speech formed.
Within this scope, suffixes fall into the following groups:
(i) Noun- forming suffixes:
- age: block-age
-ess: tigeress, actress
-or, -er: visitor, teacher

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-ice: service, justice
(ii) adjective- forming suffixes
-able: fashionable, eatable, drinkable
-al: national, classical, economical
-ese: Vietnamese, Saigonese
-ive: active effective, productive
-ly: lovely, lively
(iii) Numeral- forming suffixes:
-teen: fourteen
-th: fourth
-ty: sixty

(iv) verb-forming suffixes
-ate: facilitate
-fy: beautify
-en: quicken, lessen
-ize: industrialize
(v) Adverb-forming suffixes
-ly: coldly, quickly
-ward: upward
-wise: likewise, clockwise
-long: sidelong
-way(s): crossways
1.1.2. Word-composition/Compounding
Compounding (or word-composition) is the building of a new word by
joining two or more words. As a result, a compound word is a word consisting
of at least two stems (roots) which occur in the language as free forms.

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e.g. classroom, time-table, bedroom, schoolgirl, passer-by, aircraft-carrier,
kind-hearted, handwash, sunbeam, etc.
- The components of a compound may be either simple or derived words or
even other compound words.
- In a sentence, compounds may function as separate lexical units.
- English compounds have two stems: determinant (the first stem) and
determinatum (the second stem, expressing a general meaning and undergoing
inflection)
e.g. blackboard(s): determinant black and determinatum board
1.1.3. Shortening
Shortening is a productive way of building words in English, especially

in colloquial speech and advertisement.
e.g. ad (advertisement), TV, I.O.U.
Shortening includes abbreviation and blending. The former includes
Acronyms and Clipping. Acronyms are words built from the initials of several
words, for example:
USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)
UN (United Nations)
UNO (United Nations Organization)
NATO (The North Atlantic Treaty Organization0
EPA (Environment Protection Agency)
S.O.S (Save Our Souls)
MP (Member of Parliament)
VOA (Voice of America)
BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)

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There are two special cases of acronyms, namely monograms and
homonymy-based acronyms. Monograms are the cases in which two or more
letters combined in one design, often found in handkerchiefs, note-paper.
Wedding invitation cards Homonymy-based acronyms are those acronyms
based on the use of identical sounds of words and letters, e.g. IOU (I owe you)
Clipping refers to the case in which some part of the word or
expression is clipped to form a new word. Clipping is further classified into
Initial, Final, Initio-final, Medial, and Elliptico-conversional clipping.
Initial clipping is the case in which the first part of the word is clipped,
for example: Phone (telephone), cute (acute), fend (defend), mend (amend),
story (history), sport (disport), tend (attend), cello (violoncello), chute
(parachute), car (motorcar), plane (aeroplane).

Final clipping is the case in which the last part of a word is clipped, for
example: ad, advert (advertisement), coke (coca cola), ed (editor), fab
(fabulous), gym (gymnastics), lab (laboratory), mac (mackintosh), ref
(referee), vegs (veggies, vegetables), sis (sister), doc (doctor), prof
(professor), uni (university).
Initio-final clipping is the case in which both the first and the last parts
are clipped, for example: frig/fridge (refrigerator), flu (influenza), tec
(detective).
Medial clipping refers to the case in which the medial part is clipped,
for example: maths (mathematics), specs (spectacles), V-day (victory day), Hbomb (hydrogen bomb), fancy (fantasy), ma’am (madam).
Finally, elliptico-conversional (or phrasal clipping) is a combination of
ellipsis, conversion and clipping, for example: open on (open fire on), daily,
weekly (daily, weekly paper), finals (final examinations), prelims (preliminary

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examinations), perm (permanent wave), pop (popular music), prom
(promenade concert), pub (public house), taxi (taxi cab).
The second subtype of shortening, blending, is a special type where
parts of words merge into one new word. Below are some examples:
brunch (breakfast + lunch)
smog (smoke +fog)
motel (motor +hotel)
medicare (medical +care)
Frenchlish (French +English)
smaze (smoke + haze)
transceiver (transmitter + receiver)
1.1.4. Conversion
Conversion is the formation of a new word in a different part of speech

without adding any elements. For this reason, conversion is also called
functional change or zero derivation. Here are some examples:
chair (n) à to chair
finger (n) à to finger
milk (n) à to milk
water (n) à to water
Further information about conversion will be discussed in section 1.3.
1.1.5. Sound imitation
Sound imitation is the way of forming words by imitating sounds produced by
actions, things, etc. Below are some groups of words coined in this way:
- Words showing names of animals: crow, cuckoo, humming bird,
whippoorwill (whip-poor-will), cricket.

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- Words showing sounds made by animals: howl, cock-a-doodle-doo, quack,
croak, mew, moo.
- Words showing movement of water: flush, splash, babble.
- Words showing actions made by man: giggle, chatter, grumble, murmur,
whisper, grumpy, groan, grunt, growl.
1.1.6. Sound and stress interchange
Sound interchange refers to the case in which new words are built by
changing the root vowel or consonant of the old words, for example:
abide (v)

à

abode (n) (root vowel)

advise (v)

à

advice (n) (root consonant)

bathe (v)

à

bath (n) (both)

It may also be combined with affixation:
strong (adj) à strength (n)
or with affixation and shift of stress as in:
‘democrat à de’mocracy
Stress interchange is a way of forming new words by changing the place of
the stress on the old one. Below are some examples:
‘accent (n) à ac’cent (v)
‘compound (n) à to com’pound
‘compress (n) à to com’press (v)
‘object (n) à to ob’ject
‘permit (n) à to per’mit
‘rebel (n) àto re’bel

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1.1.7. Back Derivation (Back formation)
Back derivation is the building of new words by subtracting a real or

supposed affix from existing words.
to cobble from cobbler
to blood-transfuse from blood transfusion
to fingerprint from fingerprintings
to straphang from straphanger
to swindle from swindler
to edit from editor
to force-land from forced-landing
pea (singular) from peas=peas (plural)
to air-condition from air-conditioner
to beach-comb from beach-comber
Within the scope of the study, we are going to focus on one of the most
productive ways of forming new words in English: conversion
1.2. Semasiology
1.2.1 Semantic structure of the word
In English, apart from a small number of words, usually technical
words, which have only one meaning, the majority of English words have
more than one meaning (monosemantic). Some even have a lot of meanings
(polysemantic) like run, set, break, cut, play, make, light, clear, draw, give etc,
….
In the semantic structure of polysemantic words, the first meaning is
called the direct, literal or primary meaning, the other meanings are referred
to as direct, derived, secondary or derived meanings. All the meanings of a

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word form its semantic structure and the more common the word is, the more
meanings it has. Yet, it is not in every polysemantic word that such a centre
can be found. Some semantic structures are arranged on a different principle.

In the following list of meanings of the adjective dull one can hardly hope to
find a generalized meaning covering and holding together the rest of the
semantic structure.
Dull (adj)
(i) uninteresting, monotonous, boring: e.g. a dull book / film
(ii) slow in understanding, stupid: e.g. a dull student
(iii) not clear or bright: e.g. dull weather, a dull day, a dull color
(iv) not loud or distinct: e.g. a dull sound
(v) not sharp: e.g. a dull knife
(vi) not active e.g. trade is dull
(vii) seeing badly: e.g. dull eyes
(viii) hearing badly: e.g. dull ears
Yet we may feel that there is something that all these meanings have in
common - that is the semantic property of deficiency, eg. of interest (i), of
wits (ii), of color (iii), of sound (iv), of sharpness (v), etc.
1.2.1.1 Types of meaning
It is necessary to mention word meaning before the contrastive analysis
of conversion in English and Vietnamese is carried out in terms of both
grammatical and semantic features. Word meaning has been a great concern
of many linguists. The word as a structural and semantic entity within the
language system has two main types of meaning: grammatical and lexical.
Let us have a quick look at grammatical meaning before discussing the lexical
meaning and its components.

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According to Lyons (1995:52), a lexeme may have different word
forms, which will generally differ in their grammatical meaning. For example,
the forms of head and heads differ in respect of their grammatical meaning of

singularity and plurality. The grammatical meaning may be defined as the
meaning of categories attached to the word, the component of meaning
recurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words. The
grammatical categories of English are tense, mood, aspect, voice, case,
number, person and comparison e.g. the tense meaning in the word-forms of
verbs went, answered, wrote. In modern linguistics, it is commonly held that
some elements of grammatical meaning can be identified by the position of
the linguistic unit in relation to other linguistic units, i.e. by its distribution.
Word-forms to eye, to head, have the same grammatical meaning as they can
all be found in identical distribution.
As far as lexical meaning is concerned, Baker (1992:12) states that the
lexical meaning of a word may be viewed as the specific value it has in a
particular linguistic system. Lexical meaning is the invariable part of
meaning. It is the proper meaning, the most outstanding individual property of
words. The same lexical meaning applies for all grammatical forms of a word.
In contrast with grammatical meaning, it can stand on its own and identical in
all the forms of the word.
Lexical meaning should be contrasted with lexico-grammatical
meaning, a kind of meaning which is between lexical meaning and
grammatical meaning. The lexicon-grammatical meaning is the common
denominator of all the meaning of words belonging to a lexico-grammatical
class of words. It is the feature according to which they are grouped together.
Words in which abstraction and generalization are so great that they can be
lexical representatives of lexico-grammatical meaning and substitute any
words of their class are called generic terms.

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Words belonging to one lexico-grammatical class are characterized by a

common system of forms in which the grammatical categories inherent in
them are expressed. They are also substituted by the same prop-words, for
example things, ones, etc… and possess some characteristic formulas of
semantic and morphological structure and a characteristic set of derivational
affixes. (Quirk et al, 1972)
The degree and character of abstraction and generalization in lexicogrammatical meanings and the generic terms that present them are
intermediate between those characteristic of grammatical categories and those
observed on the lexical level – hence the term lexico-grammatical.
The relationship between the linguistic lexical meaning and the logical
notion deserves special

attention

not only because they are apt to be

confused but also because in comparing and contrasting them it is possible
to achieve a better insight into the essence of both.
The lexical meaning of every word depends upon the part of speech to
which the word belongs. Every word may be used in a limited set of
syntactical functions, and with a definite valency. It has a definite set of
grammatical meanings, and a definite set of forms.
Every lexicon-grammatical group of words or class is characterized by
its own lexico-grammatical meaning, forming, as it were, the common
denominator of all the meanings of the words which belong to this group. The
lexico-grammatical meaning may also be regarded as the feature according to
which these words are grouped together.
In the lexical meaning of every separate word the lexico-grammatical
meaning common to all the words of the class to which this word belongs is
enriched by additional features and becomes particularized.
Summing up all the points of difference between the things meant, the

notion and the meaning, we can say that the lexical meaning of the word may
be defined as the realization or naming of a notion, emotion or object by

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means of a definite language system subject to the influence of grammar and
vocabulary peculiarities of that language. Words that express notions may also
have some emotional or stylistic coloring or express connotations suggestive
of the contexts in which they often appear. All the specific features that
distinguish the lexical meaning from the notion are due to its linguistic nature.
Expressing the notion is one of the functions of word but not the only one, as
there are words that do not name any notion: their meaning is constituted by
other functions. The development of the lexical meaning is influenced by the
whole complicated network of ties and relations between the words in a given
vocabulary and between the vocabulary and other aspects of the language.
With respect to types of lexical meaning, Võ Đại Quang (2006:20)
points out that there are two types of lexical meaning: direct meaning and
indirect meaning. By direct meaning, the word directly denotes something
without comparing it or associating it with other things. It is also called literal
meaning. By indirect meaning, the word refers to the thing meant in
association with something, we need context and have to compare it or
associate with other things to understand it. It is also called figurative or
transferred meaning. The word head in he knocks on my head refers to part of
the body and it is direct meaning but in he is the head of the class the head
means a leader so it is indirect meaning
1.2.1.2 Components of lexical meaning
Regarding the components of lexical meaning, as mentioned in 1.2.1., it
is often assumed that the lexical meaning of a word is composed of
denotational meaning (denotation) and connotational meaning (connotation).

The denotative component expresses the conceptual (notional)
content of a word. It includes or points out things or concepts. For example,
the denotational meaning of the word cat is “a small animal with soft fur and

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sharp teeth and claws, often kept as a pet, or in buildings to catch mice”,
whereas that of the word dog is “a common animal with four legs, kept by
human beings as pets, or trained for work, hunting, guarding.” When the
referent is a concept, an abstract thing, we have significative denotation and
when it is an individual object we have demonstrative denotation.
The connotative component shows us how things, concepts, etc. are
indicated (denoted). It conveys the speaker’s attitudes, emotions and so on.
For instance, the words father, dad, daddy have the same denotational
meaning but different connotational meanings. There are four main types of
connotations, namely stylistic, emotional, evaluative and expressive or
intensifying.
Stylistic connotation (stylistic colouring) means that a word may be
colloquial, bookish, or slangy etc. Stylistic connotation may cover:
(i) The associations at work concerning the situation in which the word is
uttered: the social circumstances (formal, familiar, etc).
(ii) The social relationships between the interlocutors (polite, rough)
(iii) The type and purpose of communication (learned, poetic, official, etc.)
For example, the following words have the same denotational meaning, but
different stylistic connotations:
horse: stylistically neutral
steed: poetic
nag: a word of slang
gee-gee: baby language

An emotional or affective connotation is acquired because the
referent conceptualized and named in the denotative meaning is associated
with emotions. For example, the words to ask and to beseech have the same
denotational meaning but the latter means to ask eagerly and also anxiously.

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He besought a favour of the judge.
Evaluative connotation expresses approval or disapproval. For
example, whereas the word magic has glamorous attractive connotations, the
words witchcraft, sorcery have rather sinister associations.
Intensifying connotation expresses expressiveness or emphasis. For
example, all the words magnificient, gorgeous, splendid, superb are used
colloquially as terms of exaggeration.
We often come across words that have two or three types of
connotations at once; for example, the word beastly as in beastly weather or
beastly cold is emotional, colloquial, expresses censure and intensity.
Therefore, connotation can be considered as an additional meaning to
denotation. The diagram below summarises the different types of meaning:

Diagram 1.1: Word meaning
Word meaning

grammatical meaning

lexical meaning

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denotation

significative

connotation

demonstrative emotion evaluation

intensity stylistic

1.2.2 Semantic change
Meanings keep changing and have changed in various ways. Some old
meanings have lost their roles in communication and have disappeared, and
some new meanings have appeared to replace the old ones. Generally
speaking, according to Cuong D. T. (2001: 21 – 22), there are four main ways
of semantic change, namely (i) extension or generalization of meaning, (ii)
narrowing or particularization of meaning, (iii) degradation of meaning, and
(iv) elevation of meaning. Let us now discuss each type:
(i) Extention or generalization of meaning
Extension of meaning refers to the case where the number of meanings
of the same word can be expended, which leads to polysemy. The word ready,
for example, means be prepared for a ride in Old English but be prepared for
anything in Modern English. Another example is pipe, which means a musical
instrument in Old English but any long hollow tube in Modern English.
Generalization is the case in which not only the word widens its
meaning but passes from specialized vocabulary into commonly used one. For
example, the word camp as a military term used to mean place where troops
are lodged in tents but now means temporary quarters. Here are some more
examples:

greedy: hungry

eager to obtain and keep

boot-legger: an illegal dealer in liquor

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an illegal dealer


(ii) Narrowing/ specialization of meaning
Narrowing of meaning means the narrowing of the number of meanings
that a word expresses. For example, in Old English the word meat refers to
food in general, but means only animal flesh as food in Modern English. The
word deer means animal in Old English, but an animal (con hươu) in Modern
English.
Specialization of meaning is the development of meaning from the
more general to the more specific. For example, girl means child in Old
English, but female child in Modern English, or starve means die in Old
English but die of hunger in Modern English.
(iii)Degradation of meaning
Degradation of meaning refers to the case in which some words have
got less nice emotive meaning. For example, the word knave means a boy
servant in Old English but an unprincipled or dishonest man in Modern
English; the word artful means art in Old English but crafty or deceitful in
Modern English.
(iv) Elevation of meaning
Elevation of meaning is the case in which some words have got more
pleasant ant nicer emotive meanings. For example, the word noble used to

mean aristocratic in Middle English but lofty in Modern English. Or the word
minister means servant / attendant in Middle English but head of a state
department / head of a ministry in Modern English.
1.3 Conversion
1.3.1. The concept of conversion in English

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Although conversion has been an important part of English word
formation for centuries, linguists have argued over almost every facet relating
to this process; even down to the term used to describe it. The terminology
used for this process has not even been completely established yet. Most
current linguists use ‘conversion’, but others refer to the process as
‘functional change’ or ‘functional shift’, and ‘zero-derivation’ or ‘zeroaffixation’. Each term is associated with a different connotation, theory, and
slightly different meaning.
Regarding the term Functional change or shift it is, for example, used
by Cannon (1987:67), who believes that “from a linguistic point of view,
functional shift does not add a new form to the lexicon; but the inflectability
or noninflectability of the new function shift requires it to be classed as a new
form etymologically”.
As far as the term Zero-derivation or zero-affixation, is concerned, if
conversion is viewed as a word-formation process, one theory is that it
appears to run parallel to the derivational word-formation processes.
Inflectional affixes are said to be ‘class-maintaining’, whereas derivational
affixes are ‘class-changing’; as the conversion process is ‘class-changing’, it
is deemed to be derivation with a ‘zero-affix’ or ‘zero-morpheme’. This issue
has caused debate amongst linguists and divides them into two camps: those
who think that there is a zero-element involved in the process, and those who
reject that theory. Prominent linguists who endorse the theory that conversion

is a process involving the addition of a derivational zero include Marchand
(1969), Lyons (1977), and Allen (1978). According Marchand (1969: 360), “it
is because of the parallelism with overty marked derivatives or zezoderivatives not that because of the added element of content”. Lyons
(1977:512) defines that “zero-derivation is derivation by means of the

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affixation of an identity element”. Allen (1978: 273) also states, “It is clear
that the zero element under consideration is a derivational suffix, hence
attached to the basic word by a derivational word formation rule. Not only is a
lexical category change, typical of derivational suffixation, involved, but
inflectional endings cannot appear inside the zero element. The zero must,
consequently, be a derivational affix”.
The term ‘Conversion’ represents something of a middle ground between
‘functional shift’ and ‘zero-derivation’: ‘conversion’ is usually used where the
linguist rejects the idea of a ‘zero’ element, but thinks that the process
involves word-formation rather than just functional changes. It was, in fact,
the term originally applied to the process by Sweet (189, 38-39), and currently
seems to be the dominant theory, being endorsed by, for example, Bauer
(1983), Zandvoort (1972), Pennanen (1971), Katamba (1993), Quirk et. al.
(1973), Lieber (2005), Valera (2005). Conversion is technically defined as the
deliberate transfer of a word from one part of speech to another as by
Zandvoort (1972:65). Katamba, (1993:54) states that words may be formed
without modifying the form of the input word that serves as the base. This
head can be a noun or verb. This is called conversion. “Conversion is the
change in form class of a form without any corresponding change of form”
Bauer (1983:32), "Conversion is the derivational process whereby an item
changes its word class without the addition of an affix" (Quirk et al, 1973:
441). “Conversion is the process by which lexical items change (grammatical)

category without any concomitant change in form” Lieber (2005: 418).
“Conversion is one of the processes that may take part in the creation of new
lexemes in English” (Valera 2005: 20).

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In short, despite the fact that there are many definitions, it is largely
agreed that conversion is a way of coining new words by changing the
existing words into new parts of speech without using any affixes.

1.3.2. Some remarkable features of conversion
Conversion is a convenient and productive way of enriching the
English vocabulary. Conversion is particularly common in English because
the basic form of nouns and verbs is identical in many cases (Aitchison, 1989:
160). It is usually impossible in languages with grammatical genders,
declensions, or conjugations (Cannon, 1985: 430). Its productivity is
considerably encouraged by certain features of the English language in its
modern stage of development. The simplicity of paradigms facilitates
processes of making words of one category of parts of speech from words of
another. So does the analytical structure of the language. A great number of
one-syllable words is another factor in favor of conversion for such words are
naturally more mobile and flexible than polysyllables.
Cannon (1985: 415) asserts that conversion will become even more
active in the future because it is a very easy way to create new words in
English. There is no way to know the number of conversions appearing every
day in the spoken language, although we know this number must be high. As
it is a quite recent phenomenon, the written evidence is not a fully reliable
source. We will have to wait a little longer to understand its whole impact,
which will surely increase in importance in the next decades.

The process of conversion has some semantic limitations. A converted
word only assumes one of the range of meanings of the original word. For
example, the noun paper has various meanings, such as newspaper, material

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to wrap things ... The denominal verb, though, only contains the sense of
putting that material on places like walls. This shows the converted item has
only converted part of the semantic field of the source item.
1.3.3. Different types of conversion in English
There are several ways to classify conversion due to different purposes
and points of view. Based on a preference in history, conversion can be
divided into traditional and occasional. Traditional conversion refers to the
accepted use of words which are recorded in dictionaries, e.g. to cook, to
look, to capture, etc. The high productivity of conversion finds its reflection
in speech where numerous occasional cases of conversion can be found,
which are not registered by dictionaries, called nonce words and occur
momentarily, through the immediate need of the situation. For example, when
a person keeps saying “hello, dear” to anyone he meets, we can coin the verb
“hello dear” by saying “he hello dears everybody”. We can also make it a
noun: “I’m tired of his hello-dear”.
Based on phonetics or morphology, conversion can be: total, partial
(Quirk et al., 1997) and approximate conversion (Kiparsky, 1982). In total
conversion, the converted words participate in morphological processes
(derivation and inflection). In partial conversion, the converted form does not
show any derivation or inflection. Conversion from noun to adjective and
adjective to noun is rather a controversial one. It is also called 'partial
conversion" by Cannon (1985: 413) and 'syntactic process' by Bauer (1983:
230), this peculiar process occurs when "a word of one class appears in a

function which is characteristic of another word class" (Quirk, 1997: 1559)
Approximate conversions are some few cases in which there are slight nonaffixal changes (Kiparsky, 1982). These can be considered marginal cases of
conversion (Bauer,1983: 228-229). Although the shift takes place, they are

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