4.3 Conversion

    Conversion is the formation of new words by converting words of one class to another class, i.e. by turning words of one part of speech to those of another part of speech in traditional terms. New words are new only in a grammatical sense. Since the words that are made 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:

He was knocked out in the first round.

Round the number off to the nearest tenth.

The neighbors gathered round our barbecue.

The moon was bright and round.

People came from all the country round.

                          (from Lodwig & Barrett   1973)

In each sentence round is used as a different part of speech—noun, verb, preposition, adjective or adverb, illustrating another way by which the meanings of words are increased. 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（零位派生）. Take single and simple for example. Both are adjectives, but single can be used as a verb as it is, e. g. 'She singled him out at once as a possible victim. ' In contrast, simple cannot function as a verb without adding an affix, 'Continental quilts simplify (not simple) bed-making'. The first instance is one of zero-derivation, i.e. 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 item involved but with it the different range of meaning 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 ' She papered the room green'.

 

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（打击）, release（释放）, swim , shut-down（关闭） , teach-in（时事宣讲会）

c.  Result of the action

catch      what is caught

find       what is found

reject（次品）, buy（购买物）, hand-out（分发物）, answer, bet（赌注）

d.  Doer of the action

help       one who helps

cheat      one who cheats

bore（讨厌的） , coach （教练）, flirt（调情者）, scold （泼妇）, stand-in（替身）

e.  Tool or instrument to do the action with 

cover     used to cover something 

wrap     used to wrap something

        cure （疗法）,  paper （纸）,  wrench（扳手）

     f. Place of the action

pass    where one has to pass（关口）

walk    a place for walking（人行道）

Divide（分界线）, turn（拐角处）, drive（车道）, retreat（隐退处）, lay-by（路侧停车带）

    Many simple nouns converted from verbs can be used with have, take, make, give , etc. to form phrases 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 （震颤；发抖）) ; make a ( n ) move ( guess , offer, slip, attempt).

    Words like hand-out, stand-by, lay-by, teach-in（） , shut-down are all converted from phrasal verbs, which are verb phrases formed with a verb plus a particle. 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.

 

    2) De-adjectival

    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（完全转化）, others are only partially, hence partial conversion（部分转化）.

    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:

    Common adjectives

a white （白人）             a crazy（疯子）

a gay  （同性恋者）             a liberal（自由党成员）

a native  （本地人）           a Republican（共和党人）

specifics  （详情，细节）           angries（愤怒的一代）

finals    （决赛）           necessaries（必需品）

     drinkables  （饮料）         valuables（贵重物品）

     

     Participles and others

a given （一致事实）            a drunk（醉汉）

young marrieds      newly- weds

two unknowns（两个未知数）       offerings（供给品）

ten-year-olds        new-borns

 

     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 as nouns while retaining some of the adjective features. The gradable adjectives（等级性形容词）can keep their comparative or superlative degrees, e. g. the poor, the rich , the young, the wounded , the poorer, the more affluent（更富有的人）, the most corrupt（最腐败的分子）.

    Words in this category generally denote 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 （死者）(departed, accused, deserted, condemned)(person).

 

    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 powders.

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.

 

    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 impressive and concise 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.

a.  They now eat better food, live in better houses, and wear better clothes than ever before.

b.  They are better fed , better housed, and better clothed than ever before. 

1) Denominal（由名词转化的词）

    Verbs converted from nouns are semantically related to the original nouns in a variety of ways. Quirk et al summed up as follows:

    a.  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

    b.  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（加润滑剂）, arm , finance, coat

    c.  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（去核）, peel（去皮）, feather, gut（去内脏）

    d.  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（用小提琴演奏）, finger（用手指做）, hammer, shoulder, glue

    e.  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（鹦鹉学舌）, pilot, referee（出任教练）, tutor

f.  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（致残）, fool, knight（封爵士或骑士）, widow（使守寡）

     g. 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 (g. ): helicopter, bicycle, boat, motor.

 

    2) De-adjectival

    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. . . A' or intransitively 'to become A', e.g.

    a.  He walked carefully so as not to wet his shoes.

    b.  The photograph yellowed with age.

In sentence (a), 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 sentence (b) 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:

    c.  Two men carrying a wooden keg （桶）emptied its contents into the opening.

    d.  The play was over and the auditorium （礼堂）began to empty.

Here are some more words: dim （使暗）, 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 much fewer, e. g. sour, slim .

    Occasionally, one may find pairs of verbs, one being converted from the adjective and the other derived from the adjective through suffixation. The two verbs are interchangeable, for example:

    a.  Boon got in and quieted the engine.

    b.  Can't you do anything to quieten the children a bit?

 

    3) Miscellaneous Conversion

    a.  The intellectuals are muched again.（知识分子又受到了重视）

    b.  We downed a few beers.（我们喝下了几罐啤酒）

    c.  The students tut-tut the idea.（学生们对该想法报以嘘声）

    d.   But me no buts.（别老跟我说“但是”）

 

    3. Conversion to Adjectives

    This type of conversion is much less productive than the other two that have been discussed. It occurs mostly between nouns and adjectives. Generally, mass and material nouns can be used as adjectives, e. g.

an iron gate         a chalk board

a gold ring          a silver coin

a brick house        a log cabin

a white silk scarf     cotton fields

Nouns of other kinds are also found to be used as adjectives, for example:

production manager     television programme

a math problem        world population

a consumer city        job opportunity

    Some nouns are used simply to replace the derived adjectives from the same word, e.g. prestige university (for prestigious university),gold cross (for golden cross), affluence society (for affluent society（富裕社会）). There is not much difference between the noun-form adjective and the adjective as far as meaning is concerned. Others, however, show a great discrepancy（）. Compare:

stone house            a house made of stones

stony cushion           a cushion as hard as stones（石头一样硬的坐垫）

bankruptcy lawyer       a lawyer who deals with bankruptcy cases

bankrupt businessman    a businessman who is bankrupt（破产的商人）

efficiency expert         an expert who studies work efficiency（研究提高效率的专家）

efficient expert          an expert who is efficient

riot police              police who stop riot（防暴警察）

riotous police           police who tend to make riots （闹事的警察）

obesity specialist         a specialist who deals with problem of obesity（肥胖病专家）

obese specialist          a specialist who is obese （胖专家）

                          (from 陆国强 1999)

    Phrases hyphenated can be used as adjectives such as upper-class family (See Compounding).

    In some cases, conversion is accompanied by certain nonaffixal changes which affect pronunciation or spelling or stress distribution. The most common changes that take place when some nouns are converted to verbs are the change from the last voiceless consonant to a voiced one, the shift of stress from the initial position to end position and alterations in spelling.

1)  Voiceless to Voiced Consonant 

Noun                   Verb 

house /-s/               house /-z/ 

use /-s/                 use /-z/ 

abuse /-s/               abuse /-z/ 

advice /-s/              advise /-z/ 

mouth /-o/              mouth /-/ 

shelf /-f/                shelve /-v/ 

belief /-f/               believe /-v/

 sheath /-/              sheathe /-/

 

    2)  Initial to End Stress

This stress shift occurs usually in two syllable words. When a word is used as a noun, its stress falls on the first syllable whereas as a verb, the stress moves onto the second syllable, e.g.'conduct (n)（行为）—con'duct (v)（引导）, 

'extract (n)（摘录；提取物）— ex'tract (v)（摘出，榨取）, 

'permit(n)（许可证）—per'mit (v)（许可）

 and so on. In some rare cases, a substantial change of pronunciation may happen as in breath /e/— breathe /i:/, bath /a:/—bathe /ei/（给…洗澡；把…浸没在水中）, food—feed, blood—bleed.