4. Conversion

Conversion is a specifically English type of word building determined by the structure of English, its analytical character, scarcity of inflections, abundance of mono- and disyllabic words in different parts of speech. Cf.: net (n), get (v), wet (adj.).

Conversion is forming new words in a different part of speech and with a different distribution characteristic, but without adding any derivative element, so that the original and converted words are homonymous. E.g., silence (n) - silence (v). The word building means in this case are 1) the paradigm and 2) the distribution of the word.

Structural Characteristics.

Mostly mono- and disyllabic root words are converted, e.g., to box, to eye, etc. But there is a marked tendency to convert words of a more complex structure, e.g., to nightwatch, to X-ray, to petition, etc.

Most of compound words are verbs formed from nouns (to fox, to hammer, to phone), from adjectives (to dry, to yellow), from adverbs (to up, to out), from other parts of speech (to but, to yes), from interjections (to encore), even from phrases (to my-friend). Nouns are also easily formed from different parts of speech (a try, a find – from verbs, a sweet – from adjectives, ups and downs – from adverbs, encore – from interjections, etc.).

Adjectives are obviously not formed from nouns by means of conversion, because nouns can perform the syntactic function of an attribute, e.g., a stone wall, a gold ring. Stone and gold are nouns in the function of an attribute, but not adjectives for several reasons: they can't be used predicatively, and they can be modified by other adjectives but not by adverbs, e.g., a solid gold ring, a natural stone wall.

Semantic relations between original and converted words are heterogeneous. But some types of relations may be classified and the meaning of the converted word can be predicted. For example, deverbal nouns can have the meaning of result (a catch, a find) or an act (a try, a go); denominal verbs can have instrumental meaning (to radio, to hammer), or agentival meaning «in a manner characteristic of» (to crowd, to dog, to nurse), or locative meaning of container «to put in a container» (to can, to bottle).

Historical background of conversion.

Conversion appeared in Middle English together with and as a result of levelling and loss of endings in words of changeable parts of speech. This process resulted in the appearance of a lot of pairs of words of the same stem belonging to different parts of speech but having no indication of their part of speech belonging. E.g., OE lufu > love (n), OE lufian > love (v). By analogy other con-elations were easily formed in speech, e.g., to tiptoe, to button, to father, etc. In present-day English it is among the most productive types of word building.

5. Shortening

Shortening falls into clipping (curtailment, contraction, or shortening proper) and acronymy (initial abbreviation). Clippings are derived from single words (e.g., mike from microphone); acronyms are derived from phrases (e.g., MP from Member of Parliament). Though some clippings can be due to ellipsis of phrases, too (pub from public house).

Clipping.

It consists in taking away any part of the word. The remaining part, which may be neither a morpheme nor even a syllable, acquires all the characteristic of the word: formal and semantic unity (semantic integrity), formal and semantic variation, grammatical paradigm and syntactic use. E.g., Tony spoke with the vet's wife. Vet is a usual word with all its characteristics.

Structural and morphological characteristics of clippings.

There are three structural types of clipping with respect to the position of the clipped part of the word:

1. initial clipping, or apheresis. The initial part of the word is taken away, e.g., history > story;

2. medial clipping, or syncope. The middle part is taken away, e.g., spectacles > specs;

3. final clipping, or apocope. The end of the word is taken away, e.g., demonstration > demo.

There may be mixed types of clipping, e.g., detective > tec (initial + final clipping). There may be also some changes in the remaining part of the word: pronunciation may change, e.g., laboratory > lab; or spelling may change, e.g., microphone > mike.

Clipping is a source of new morphemes. Clipped words often serve as word building bases, e.g. taxi is a clipping of taximeter cab. This new stem is a base for taxicab, taxi-driver, taxi-man, to taxi.

Clipping is often combined with derivation (e.g., comfy from comfortable, hanky from handkerchief) and composition (e.g., lab-assistant, go-getter).

Semantic peculiarities of clippings.

Polysemantic words are usually clipped in one meaning, but they may further develop new meanings. Compare fantasy and fancy, history and story. Homonymy among clippings is rather frequent, e.g., vac – 1. vacation, 2. vacuum cleaner.

Stylistic peculiarities of clippings.

Clipping is typical of colloquial speech, and clippings, especially the latest ones, are stylistically coloured as colloquial. E.g., exam, pro, dip, dorm. Most of the earliest clippings have become stylistically neutral, e.g., fend, strange, story formed from defend, estrange, history.

Acronymy.

Only initial letters of the phrase are left which may be pronounced in two ways:

1.alphabetic (D.C., USA);

2. according to the rules of reading (AIDS, UNO, UNESCO).

Acronymy is especially widely used in the press for the names of the governmental, social and other institutions, movements, organizations, countries, etc.: e.g., TUC, CIS, ELT, etc. It is also spreading in colloquial English, too, e.g., BF (boy-friend), GF (girl-friend). There are also some abbreviated terms: ТВ, AIDS, HIV.

Acronyms behave as usual words, they may have the paradigm of the part of speech they belong to and its distribution: e.g., She is my BF's GF . Some of the acronyms turned into regular morphemes, e.g., jeep < GP (a car for general purposes). They may also serve as word building bases, e.g., MP'ess.

Homonymy of acronyms is even more regular than that of clippings. E.g., MP may stand for Member of Parliament, Military Police, Marine Police, Municipal Police, Mounted Police, etc.

Shortening of both types (clipping and acronymy) is becoming highly productive nowadays. The reasons for it are both linguistic and extralinguistic. The extralinguistic factor is the ever-growing pace of life. The linguistic factors are:

1) bringing long words in conformity with the orthographic and phonetic standards of Modem English;

2) economy of linguistic expression. So, such words as microphone, laboratory, mackintosh, miserable, impossible and the like easily turn into mono- or disyllabic words: mike, lab, mac, mizzy, imposs.