Prepositions, conjunctions, adverbs, interjections and even affixes can all act as bases of conversion, as in shown by to up (prices), but me no buts, the hereafter, to heave-no (a recent example) and a maxi (this might be a case of clipping). Moreover, most of these form classes can undergo conversion into more than one form class, so that a preposition down, for example, can become a verb (he downed his beer), a noun (he has a down on me) and possibly an adjective (the down train).
Extrocentric phrase compounds might also be classified here as instances of conversion of whole phrase. Established examples where the phrase acts as a noun are an also-ran, a forget-me-not, a has-been and a recent examples as a don’t-know. An established example where the phrase acts as an adjective is under-the-weather.
Derivation by a zero-morpheme.
The term ‘zero-derivation’.
Derivation without a derivative morpheme occurs in English as well as mother languages. Its characteristic is that a certain stem is used for the formation of a categorically different word without a derivative element being added. In synchronic terminology, they are syntagmas whose determinatum is not expressed in the significant (form). The significate (content) is represented in the syntagma but zero marked (i.e. it has no counterpart in form): loan vb ‘(make up) loan’, look substantive is ‘(act, instance of) look(ing)’. As the nominal and verbal forms which occur most frequently have no ending end (a factor which seems to have played a part in the coining of the term ‘conversion’ by Kruisinga/8/) are those in which nouns and verbs are recorded in dictionaries, such words as loan, look may come to be considered as ‘converted’ nouns or verbs. It has become customary to speak of the ‘conversion’ of substantive adjectives and verbs. The term ‘conversion’ has been used for various things. Kruisinga/8/ himself speaks of conversion whenever a word takes on function which is not its basic one, as the use of an adjective as a primary (the poor, the British, shreds of pink, at his best). He includes quotation words (his «I don’t knows») and the type stone wall (i.e. substantives used as preadjuncts). One is reminded of Bally’s ‘transposition’. Koziol/10/ follows Kruisinga’s/8/ treatment and Biese/4/ adopts the same method. Their standpoints is different. The foregoing examples illustrate nothing but syntactic patterns. That poor (presented by the definite article, restricted to the plural, with no plural morpheme added) can function as a primary, or that government, as in government job, can be used as preadgunct, is a purely syntactic matter. At the most it could be said, with regard to the poor, that an inflectional morpheme understood but zero marked. However inflectional morphemes have a predominantly function character while the addition of lexical content is of secondary importance. As for government job the syntactic use of primary as a preadjunct is regularly unmarked, so no zero morpheme can be claimed. On the other hand, in government-al, -al adds lexical content, be it ever so little: ‘pertaining to characterizing government’. Therefore governmental is a syntagma while government (job) is not. That the phrase jar-off can be used as a preadjunct is again a syntactic matter. Characterized adverbs do not develop such functions in any case. We will not therefore, used the term conversion. As a matter of fact, nothing is converted, but certain stem are used for the derivation of lexical syntagmas, with the determinatum assuming a zero form. For similar reasons, the term ‘functional change’ is infelicitous. The term itself doesn’t enter another functional category, which becomes quite evident when it is considered the inflected forms.
Endings and derivation.
In inflected languages the derivant and derivative usually have a characteristic nominal or verbal ending. But, ending are not derivative morphemes. When English was still a more amply inflected language, the present type existed, but inflectional differences were more in evidence. Cf. the OE verbs besceopian, fugelian, gamenian, hearmian, freon (freogian), dernian and their respective bases besceop, fugol, and the weakening of ending was little bearing on this subject. With regard to denominate derivation, however, it is interesting to note that the levelling of endings brought about the loss of distinction in ME between the OE conjugations. The -an of ryth-an as well as the -ian of loc-ian resulted in -en. This reducted the number of patterns for denominal verbs to one.
Derivation connection between verbs and nouns.
With respect to both denominal verbs (type loan verb f. loan substantive) and deverbal substantives (type look substantive f look verb) it can be seen that as early as Old English a derivational connection existed between the present-infinitive stem of weak verb on the one hand and the stem of nouns on the other. As for deverbal substantive, there was some competition in the early stages of the language. Like other Germanic languages, Old English had strong verbs that were connected with substantives containing an ablaut vowel of the verb (ridan/rad, bindan/bend, beran/bora). However , this derivational type was unproductive so far back as Old English. The present-infinitive stem of strong verbs came to be felt to represent the derivative basis for deverbal substantives in exactly the same way as did the corresponding stem of weak verbs: ride verb/ride substantive=look verb/look substantive. But this contention of Biese’s/4/ needs qualification: ‘these facts indicate the resistance should by strong verbs to the process of converting them into nouns before, owing to the introduction of weak inflections, a distinct idea of a universal verb-stem had been developed’. Many of the verbs had weak forms that derived substantives at an early date have either never had weak forms are rare or later than the substantives. Verbs such as bite, fall, feel, fold, freeze, have, grind, hide make steal, tread are cases in point. This goes to show that the existence of weak verb forms is incidental to the rise of a derivational connection between the present infinitive stem of strong verbs and the stem of substantive.
This derivational connection is partly due to class where a strong verb and a substantive of the same root existed in OE and where phonetic development resulted in closely resembling forms for both in ME. OE for, faru was fare by the end of the 12th century while the corresponding OE verb faran had reached the stage of faren or fare about the same time. Other examples of pairs are bidan ‘stay’/bid ‘delay, dwelling place’, bindan ‘bind’/bind ‘band, tie’, drincan ‘drink’/drinc, drinca ‘drink’, fleotan ‘float’/fleot ‘place, where water flows’, helpan ‘help’/help, hreowan ‘rue’/hreow ‘rue’, slepan ‘sleep’/sl p, slep ‘sleep’. The derivational relation as it have been described them were fully established around 200.
Zero-derivation as a «specifically English process».
It is usually assumed that the loss of ending gave rise to derivation by a zero morpheme. Jespersen/7/ gives a somewhat to simplifying picture of its rise and development . ‘As a great many native nouns and verbs had...come be identical in form..., as the same things happened with numerous originally French words..., it was quite natural that the speech-instinct should take it as a matter of course that whenever the need of a verb arose, it might be formed without any derivative ending from the corresponding substantive’. He called the process ‘specifically English’. As a matter of fact, derivation by a zero morpheme is neither specifically English nor does it start, as Jespersen’s/7/ presentation would make it appear when most ending had disappeared. Biese’s/4/ study shows quit clearly that it began to develop on a larger scale at the beginning of the 13th century , i.e. at a time when final verbal -n had not yet been dropped, when the plural ending of the present was not yet -en or zero, and when the great influx of French loan words had not yet started. Bauer/2/ doesn’t think that the weakening of the inflectional system had anything to do with the problem of zero derivation. Stems are immediate elements for the speaker, who is aware of the syntagmatic character of an inflected form. He therefor has no trouble in connecting verbal and nominal stems provided they occur in sufficiently numerous pairs to establish a derivational pattern. In Latin which is a highly inflected language, denominal verbs are numerous: corona/coronare, catena/catenare, lacrima/lacrimare; cumulus/cumulare, locus/locare, truncus/truncare, nomen, nomin-/nominare; sacer/sacrare. In Modern Spanish there are full sets of verbal ending (though in the declension only gender and number are expressed) both types of zero-derivation are very productive. The weakening of the inflectional system in English, therefor , can’t have much to do with development of zero-derivation.
On the other hand, it cannot be denied that despite the relative productivity of corresponding derivational types in other languages, the derivative range the English patterns, that of denominal verbs, is still greater. The explanation of this seems to de that English, unlike Latin, French, Spanish, or German, never had any competitive types. So, whenever a derivation was made nouns, it followed the one pattern that existed, i.e. derivation by zero morpheme. The only derivative morphemes PE has for denominal verbs are -ate, -ize, -ify. They have restricted range of derivative force: -ate is latinizing and leaned, -ify is learned while -ize is chiefly technical. All three derive almost exclusively on a Latin morphologic basis. The suffixal type dark-en was not originally a deadjectival pattern; in any case, it would have to a certain extent rivaled the type idle verb f. Idle adjective only. Derivation by a morpheme, esp. The type loan verb f. Loan substantive, must therefore be considered the norm and is quite naturally very strong in English. In German, there are many competitive types. It is bath mutated and unmutated verbs (faul-en, hart-en, draht-en, haut-en). There are also denominal verbs with a derivative morpheme ( stein-ig-en, rein-ig-en; with a foreign morpheme telefon-ier-en, lack-ier-en ). In addition, German makes use of the prefixes be-, er-, ver-. Such types as ver-rohen, ver-jung-er, vergrosser-n; er-kalt-en, er-leichter-n; be-end-ig-en, be-herz-ig-en, ver-eid-ig-en have no counterparts in English. English be- has never played a serious role in denominal derivation. Nor has the type em-bed ever become productive to any larger extent. The productivity of the type loan verb f. Loan substantive seems to be thus reasonably for. The deverbal type look substantive f. Look verb has been less prolific and is partly bound up with certain syntactic patterns of grouping. For this, it is do had competitive patterns. There are the suffixal types arriv-al, break-ade, guid-ance, improve-ment, organiz-ation and the verbal substantive type writ-ing though the latter has now chiefly role of deriving action nouns proper. This is the reason why so many zero-derivatives from verbs of Latin and French origin, coined the 15th and 16th centuries, were subsequently replaced by suffixal derivatives in -al, -age, -ance, ment. «After 1650 the suffix formation have completely gained the upper hand of the direct conversion of the disyllabic and trisyllabic words derived from French and Latin verbs»(Biese/4/).
Zero-derivation with loan-words.
As for Latin and French words and derivation from, there are comparatively few derivatives before (Biese/4/). French words were for some time felt to be foreign elements and were not «converted» with the same ease as native stems were. The phenomenon is in no way different from the one it is observed with derivation by suffixes. Loan words remain strangers for a time, and it usually takes time before a derivation type is applied to a heterogeneous class of words. Zero - derivation was facilitated by the eo-existence of borrowed substantives and verbs., as anchor substantive a 880 (=L) / anchor verb e 1230 (the OED has doubts, but F ancrer is recorded in the 12th e., as Bloeh ). Account substantive 1260/verb 1303, change substantive 1225/verb 1230, charge substantive1225/verb 1297, cry substantive1275/verb 1225, dance substantive 1300/verb 1300, double adjective 1225/verb 1290, doubt substantive 1225/verb 1225, poison substantive 1230/verb 13.., rule substantive 1225/verb 1225.
There are quite a few verbs with French roods for which no French verbs are recorded and which may accordingly be treated as zero derivatives: feeble verb 1225/adjective 1175, hardy verb 1225/adjective 1225, master verb 1225/substantive a 1000, pool verb 1275/adjective 1200, saint verb 1225/substantive 1175. On the other hand, the substantive grant 1225 may be derived from the verb grant 1225. It is only after 1300 that the process of zero-derivation is as firmly rooted with French as with native words. Though French originals for later English words may occur, it is just as safe to consider them as derivatives, as centre verb 1610 fr, centre substantive 1374, combat verb 1564 fr, combat substantive 1567 (or the reverse), guard verb 1500 fr, guard substantive 1426 and others.
Words of Scandinavian origin were more easily incorporated than French words, and derivation occurs as early as the 13th c.: trist «trust», boon «ask as a boon, pray for», brod «shoot, sprout», smithy «make into a smithy» a.o. (see Biese /4/).
The illustration of various types.
Type loan verb fr. loan substantive
(desubstantival verbs.)
Many PE verbs. go back to OE : answer (andsharu / andswarian), blossom (blostm / blostnian), claw (clawu / clawian), fish (fisc / fiscian), fire (fyr / fytian), harm (hearm / hearmian),wonder (wundor / wundrian), bill «strike with the bill, peck», ground «bring to the ground», loan (1240), back (OE), butter (OE), experiment (ME), lamb (OE), night (OE), piece (ME), pit «cart into a pit»(OE), plank (ME), plate (ME), plow, plough (OE), plague (ME), priest (OE), promise (ME), prose (ME), ridge (OE), rivet (ME), rode (ME), root (EME), sack (OE), sauce «season» (ME), scale (ME), screen (ME), shoulder (OE), side (OE), silver (OE), sponge (OE), spot (ME), story (ME), streak (OE), summer (OE), table (ME), thong (OE), tin (OE), veil (ME), winter (OE), all before 1500.
Angle «run into a corner» (ME), balance (ME), butcher (ME), cipher (ME), cloister (ME), coffin (ME), collar (ME), colt «run wild as a colt» (ME), cipher (ME), fancy (1465), fin (OE), gesture (ME), girdle (OE), glove (OE), gossip (OE), grade (1511), husk (ME), kennel (ME), knob (ME), ladle (OE), latch (ME), launder (ME), lecture (ME), libel (ME), mother (OE), neighbor (OE), place (ME), pole (ME), riddle «speak in riddles» (OE), shell (OE), shop (ME), star (OE), stomach «be offended» (ME), sun (OE), vision (ME), all 16th century blanket (ME), casket (1467), lamp (ME), leaf (OE), pilot (1530), race «run» (ME), soldier (ME), all 17th century Capture (1541), diamond (ME), onion (ME), stocking (1583), tour (ME), all 18th century Scrimmage (1470), shin (OE), signal (ME), torpedo (1520), vacation (ME), wolf «eat like a wolf» (OE), 19th century, major 1927.
It would be difficult to give a complete list of derivatives as there is an ever growing tendency verbs from substantives without derivative morphemes. A few recent are service, contact (1929), audition, debut, package, chairman, page, date (1928), process (1945), waitress (1946), pressure (not in OED or Spl.), feature (rec., as in the play features). Mencken/11/ gives many more, most of which are, however, hardly used.