Unit 8

4.3 Conversion
　　4.3.1 Charaeristics
　　Conversion is the formation of new words by s the formation of new words by another class. This is a method of turning words of one part of speech to those of a different part of speech. These words are new only in a grammatical sense. Since the words do not change in morphological structure but in function, this process is also known as functional shift. Look at the word round in the following sentences:
　　[4a] He was knocked out in the first round.
　　[4b] Round the number off to the nearest tenth.
　　[4c] The neighbours gathered round our barbecue.
　　[4d] The moon was bright and round.
　　[4e] People came from all the country round.
　　In each sentence round is used as a different part of speech: noun, verb, preposition, adjective and adverb. Conversion is generally considered to be a derivational process whereby an item is adapted or converted to a new word class without the addition of an affix. Hence, the name zero-derivation. Take single and simple for example. Both are adjectives, but single can be used as a verb without changing the form, e.g. 'the singled him out at once as a possible victim.' In contrast, simple cannot function as a verb without adding an affix, e.g. 'continental quilts simplify (not simple) bed-making.' The first instance is a case of zero-derivation or conversion whereas the second is one of suffixation as the suffix -ify is added to make simple a verb.
　　Words produced by conversion are primarily nouns, adjectives, and verbs. The most productive, however, is the conversion that takes place between nouns and verbs. It deserves noting that conversion is not only a change of grammatical function of the lexical item involved but with it the different range of meaning that it originally carried. For example, the word paper as a noun has four senses: a) material in thin sheets made from wood or cloth, b) a newspaper, c) a piece of writing for specialists, and d) wallpaper. When turned into a transitive verb, it is related only to d) as in 'the papered the room green.' Conversion involves mainly three classes of words: nouns, verbs and adjectives.

　　4.3.2 Formation
　　1. Conversion to noun
　　1) Verb to noun. Almost all mono-morphemic verbs can be used as nouns, which are semantically related to the original verbs in various ways according to Quirk et al:
　　　　(1) State (of mind or sensation)
　　　　doubt 　　the state of doubting
　　　　want　　 what is wanted
　　　　desire, love, hate, smell, taste
　　　　(2) Event or activity
　　　　search　　 the activity of searching
　　　　laugh 　　 the act of laughing
　　　　attempt, hit, release, swim, shut-down, teach-in
　　　　(3) Result of the action
　　　　catch 　　what is caught
　　　　find 　　 what is found
　　　　reject, buy, hand-out, answer, bet
　　　　(4) Doer of the action
　　　　help　　 one who helps
　　　　cheat　　one who cheats
　　　　bore, coach, flirt, scold, stand-in
　　　　(5) Tool or instrument to do the action with
　　　　cover 　　used to cover something
　　　　wrap 　　 used to wrap something
　　　　cure, paper, wrench
　　　　(6) Place of the action
　　　　pass 　　where one has to pass
　　　　walk 　　a place for walking
　　　　divide, turn, drive, retreat, lay-by
　　Many simple nouns converted from verbs can be used with have, take, make, give etc. to form phrases to replace the verb or denote a brief action: have a look (smoke, swim, try, wash); take a walk (ride, glance, rest, shower); give a cry (grant, start, laugh, shudder); make a move (guess, offer, slip, attempt). Look at the following examples:
　　You'd better have another think.
　　There's no come and go with her.
　　I dutifully recoded a 2-1 win for the guest team.
　　Words like hand-out, stand-by, lay-by, teach-in, shut-down are all converted from phrasal verbs. Such conversion is very common in English. The examples cited here keep their original order, hand-out from hand out, stand-by from stand by. Sometimes, when a phrasal verb is turned into a noun, the verb and particle should be inverted, for example, flow over to overflow, break out to outbreak, fall down to downfall, take in to intake, etc.
　　2) Adjective to noun. It is not unusual to have nouns converted from adjectives. Unlike verbs, not all adjectives which are converted can achieve a full noun status. Some are completely converted, thus known as full conversion, others are only partially converted, hence partial conversion.
　　(1) Words fully converted. A noun fully converted from an adjective has all the characteristics of nouns. It can take an indefinite article or -(e)s to indicate singular or plural number. They can be
　　a. 　　common 　　　　　　adjectives:
　　　　　　a white 　　　　　　 　a liberal
　　　　　　a native 　　　 　　　　Republican
　　　　　　finals 　　　　　　 　 necessaries
　　　　　　drinkables 　　　　 　valuables

　　b. participles and others:
　　　　　　a given 　　　　　　　　a drunk
　　　　　　young marrieds 　　　　newly-weds

　　Look at the actual use of adjectives as nouns.
　　a. Come to the fire and have a warm.
　　b. The inexperienced young hopefuls were pushed aside in the scramble for places.
　　c. Poor innocents!
　　d. I'm one of his familiars.

　　(2) Words partially converted. Nouns partially converted from adjectives do not possess all the qualities a noun does. They must be used together with definite articles. What's more, they retain some of the adjective features, for example, the poor, the rich, the young, the wounded, the poorer, the more affluent, the most corrupt.
　　Words of this class generally refer to a group of the kind, the young = young people, the wounded = wounded soldiers. But such nouns can refer to a single person as well, e.g. the deceased (departed, accused, deserted, condemned).
　　Look at the actual use of partially converted adjectives.
　　a. The old man is the poorest among the poor.
　　b. The young should not look down upon the old.

　　3) Miscellaneous conversion. This covers nouns converted from conjunctions, modals, finite verbs, prepositions, etc.
　　[5] Would you like a with or a without-
　　[6] Better to be an also-ran than a never-was.
　　[7] His argument contains too many ifs and buts.
　　[8] Life is full of ups and downs.
　　[9] Rubber gloves are a must if your skin is sensitive to washing powders.
　　[10] Patriotisms, nationalisms, and any other isms you'd like to name.
　　Such phrases as ups and downs, ins and outs, pros and cons are well established and should always be used in plural forms.
　　2.Conversion to verbs
　　As is often the case, a noun can be converted to a verb without any change. The use of the verb converted is both economical and vivid. For example, 'to elbow one's way through the crowd' is more concise and impressive than 'to push one's way through the crowd with one's elbow'. Compare another two sentences to see the effect of using nouns as verbs.
　　[11a] They now eat better food, live in better houses, and wear better clothes than ever before.
　　[11b] They are better fed, better housed, and better clothed than ever before.
　　1) Noun to verb. Verbs converted from nouns are semantically related to the original nouns in a variety of ways. Quirk et al sum up as follows:
　　(1) To put in or on N
　　　　to pocket the money to put money into the pocket
　　　　to can the fruit to put the fruit into cans
　　　　bottle, garage, corner, shelve
　　(2) To give N or to provide with N
　　　　to shelter the refugees to give shelter to the refugees
　　　　to oil the machine to provide the machine with oil
　　　　butter, fuel, grease, arm, finance, coat
　　(3) To remove N from
　　　　to skin the lamb to remove the skin from the lamb
　　　　to juice the oranges to remove the juice from the oranges
　　　　core, peel, feather, core, gut
　　(4) To do with N
　　　　to pump water to bring water with a pump
　　　　to knife the steak to cut the steak with a knife
　　　　brake, fiddle, finger, hammer, shoulder, glue
　　(5) To be or act as N
　　　　to nurse the baby to be the nurse for the baby
　　　　to captain the team to act as the captain for the team
　　　　father, parrot, pilot, referee, tutor
　　(6) To make or change into N
　　　　to cash the cheque to change the cheque into cash
　　　　to orphan the boy to make the boy an orphan
　　　　cripple, fool, knight, widow
　　(7) To send or go by N
　　　　to mail the letter to send the letter by mail
　　　　to bicycle to go by bicycle
　　　　helicopter, ship, telegraph, boat, motor
　　Verbs of this type are all transitive except (7): helicopter, bicycle, boat, motor.
　　Look at the actual use of nouns as verbs.
　　a. That young writer pens gripping tales
　　b. Watching a television movie is really like watching
　　commercials with a movie sandwiched in between.
　　c. Thumb through any dictionary and you find the word.
　　d. He can't stomach such an insult.
　　e. He Hamleted at the chance and then he regretted for it.
　　f. Let's weekend in the country.
　　g. Robert roomed next to me.
　　2) Adjective to verb. Conversion of adjectives into verbs is not as productive as that of nouns. The verbs thus converted are semantically simple, that is, they can be used either transitively to mean 'to make...adjective' or intransitively 'to become adjective', e.g.
　　[12] He walked carefully so as not to wet his shoes.
　　[13] The photograph yellowed with age.
　　In [12] wet is used as a transitive verb meaning 'make...wet', so the sentence can be paraphrased as 'He walked carefully so as not to make his shoes wet.' The verb yellow in [13] does not take an object, obviously an intransitive use meaning 'become yellow', thus the sentence can be rephrased as 'the photograph became yellow with age.' Most verbs converted from adjectives have both transitive and intransitive functions, for example:
　　[14a] Two men carrying a wooden keg emptied its contents into the opening.
　　[14b] The play was over and the auditorium began to empty.
　　Here are some more words: dim, dirty, warm, cool, slow, clear, dry, narrow.
Verbs restricted to transitive use are still, forward, free, bare, blind and so on. Those limited to intransitive use are by far fewer like sour, slim.

　　3) Miscellaneous conversion
　　[15] The intellectuals are muched again.
　　[16] We downed a few beers.
　　[17] The students tut-tut the idea.
　　[18] She will off and do her own thing.
　　[19] But me no buts.
　　[20] The engineers ahed and ouched at the new car.
　　4.3.3 Changes
　　In some cases, conversion is accompanied by certain changes which affect pronunciation or spelling or stress distribution. The most common changes are:
　　(1)Voiceless to voiced consonant
　　　　Noun 　　　　　　Verb
　　　　house /-s/ 　　　house /-z/
　　　　use /-s/ 　　　　use /-z/
　　　　mouth /-θ/ 　　 mouth /- e/
　　　　shelf /-f/ 　　　 shelve /-v/
　　　　sheath /-θ/ 　 sheathe /-e/
　　(2) Initial to end stress
　　This stress shift occurs usually in two syllable words. When used as a noun, the stress falls on the first syllable whereas as a verb, the stress moves onto the second syllable, e.g. `conduct (n) - con`duct (v), `extract (n) -ex`tract (v), `permit (n) - per`mit (v) and so on. In some rare cases, a big change of pronunciation may happen as in breath /e/- breathe /i:/, bath /a:/ -bathe /ei/, food-feed, blood-bleed.