2. Conversion 

-He was knocked out in the first round.   

-Round the number off to the nearest ten.   

-The neighbors gathered round our barbecue.   

-The moon was bright and round.   

-People came from all the country round.   

Words produced by conversion are primarily nouns, adjectives and verbs. The most productive, however, is the conversion that takes place between nouns and verbs.   

1）Conversion to Nouns   

（1) Deverbal ：Almost all monomorphemic verbs can be used as nouns, which are semantically related to the original verbs in various ways according to Quirk et al. 

a. State ( of mind or sensation ) doubt       the state of doubting  want        what is wanted desire, love hate smell, taste 

b. Event or activity search       the activity of searching laugh        the act of laughing attempt, hit, release, swim,  

c. Result of the action catch        what is caught find         what is found reject, buy, hand-out, answer, bet 

d. Doer of the action help         one who helps cheat        one who cheats bore, coach, flirt, scold, stand-in 

e. Tool of instrument to do the action with cover       used to cover something wrap        used to wrap something cure, paper, wrench 

f. Place of the action pass        where one has to pass walk        a place for walking

Many simple nouns converted from verbs can be used with have, take, make,  give, etc. to form phrased to take the place of 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 ).    Words like handout, stand-by, lay-by, teach-in, and shutdown are all converted from phrasal verbs. Such conversion is very common in English. Sometimes, when a phrasal verb is turned into a noun, the verb and the particle should be inverted. e.g. overflow, intake, downfall, outbreak.

2) De-adjectival    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 crazy  a gay   a liberal   a native   a Republican  specifics     finals  necessaries  drinkables  valuables    b. Participles and others a given   a drunk  young marrieds  newly-weds  two unknowns  offerings  ten-year-olds  new-borns

c. Words partially converted: do not possess all the qualities a noun does. They must be used together with definite articles as nouns while retaining some of the adjective features. The gradable adjectives can keep their comparative or superlative degrees, e.g. the poor, the rich, the young, the wounded, the poorer, the more affluent, the most corrupt.    Words in this category generally denote a group of the kind, but such nouns can refer to a single person as well, e.g. the deceased (departed, accused, deserted, condemned). 

3) Miscellaneous Conversion: This covers nouns converted from other classes rather than verbs and adjectives such as conjunctions, modals, finite verbs, prepositions, etc.. 

a. Would you like a with or a without? 

b. Better to be an also-ran than a never-was. 

c. His argument contains too many ifs and buts. 

d. Life is full of ups and downs. 

e. Rubber gloves are a must if your skin is sensitive to washing powers. 

f. Patriotisms, nationalisms, and any other isms…   Such phrases as ups and downs, ins and outs, pros and cons are well established and should always be used in plural forms.