Partial Conversion

Morphological Structure of a Source-Word

Lexico-Grammatical Character of the Target Word

Lexico-Grammatical Character of the Source Word

Source Word Versus Target Word

Conversion Versus Historical Loss of Endings

Conversion is a synchronic way of word-building. Words formed by conversionshould be distinguished from those formed through the historical loss of endings of nouns, verbs, etc.

conversion	loss of endings
E.g., swim, v.i. & t., & n.	own adj. [OE āgen]
[OE swimman]	own v. [OE āgnian]

Source word (origninal word; prototype derivational source) is a member of the pair of words whose lexical meaningis compatible with its grammatical meaning.

Target word is a member of the pair of words whose lexical meaningis in conflict with its grammatical meaning.

E.g., swim v. a) lexical meaning: action, process

b) grammatical meaning: action,

process

swim n. a) lexical meaning: action, process

b) grammatical meaning: the act or

period of swimming.

Swim v. – sourceword

Swim n. – targetword

The sourcewordis more polysemantic(has more meanings) than a targetword.

E.g., swim v.

1) move through, on or in the water by using arms, legs, fins, etc.

2) cross by swimming

3) float; be covered with; or as if floating in

4) overflow

5) feel giddy or dizzy

6) seem to move or go round and round before one’s eyes

swim n.

1) the act of swimming

2) the main current of affairs (social or public) (sg. with def. art.)

Source wordhas a higher word-building and phrase-forming potential than a targetword:

swim-in n. (wade-in) swimmy adj.

swimmable adj. in the swim adj. phr.

swimmer n. out of the swim adj. phr.

swimmeret n.

swimmingly adv.

swimming pool

swimming crab

swim bladder n.

swim fin n.

swim-suit n.

swim-wear n.

swim against the current (stream)

sink or swim

1) Noun bottle → bottle v.

2) Verb retreat → retreat n.

3) Adjective dirty → dirty v.

daily → daily n.

4) Adverb out → out n.

5) Pronoun my → my interj.

6) Numeral second → second v.

7) Preposition plus → plus n.

8) Conjunction and → and v.

9) Interjection haw → haw v.

1) Noun cheat v. → cheat

daily adj. → daily

plus prep. → plus

2) Verb corner n. → corner

dirty adj. → dirty

and conj. → and

haw interj. → haw

out adv. → out

3) Adjective no go phr. → no-go

off prep. → off

4) Adverb that pron. → that

1) rootword swim v. → swim n.

2) derived word natural adj. → natural n.

3) compoundword honeymoon n. → honeymoon v.

4) abbreviation fax n. → fax v.

scuba n. → scuba adj.

5) affix - ism → ism n.

6) phrase go between → go-between n.

White knuckle →white-knuckle adj.

A targetwordacquires only some of the characteristics of its word class,

i. e. incomplete paradigm.

E.g., The handicapped are (* a handicapped is, * two handicapped are)

To be in the know (* in know, * in a know, *in knows)

To get (give) a wash (* washes)

It is a must (* the must, * musts)

Дата добавления: 2014-01-07