In
linguistics, conversion, also called zero derivation or null derivation, is a kind of
word formation involving the creation of a word (of a new
word class) from an existing word (of a different word class) without any change in form, which is to say,
derivation using only
zero
0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation such as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, 0 also serves as a placeholder numerical digit, which works by multiplying digits to the left of 0 by the radix, usuall ...
. For example, the
noun ''green'' in golf (referring to a putting-green) is derived ultimately from the
adjective
In linguistics, an adjective ( abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the ma ...
''green''.
Conversions from adjectives to nouns and vice versa are both very common and unnotable in English; much more remarked upon is the creation of a
verb by converting a noun or other word (e.g., the adjective ''clean'' becomes the verb ''to clean'').
Verbification
Verbification, or verbing, is the creation of a verb from a noun, adjective or other word.
In English
In English, verbification typically involves simple conversion of a non-verb to a verb. The verbs ''to verbify'' and ''to verb'', the first by
derivation with an
affix
In linguistics, an affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word or word form. Affixes may be derivational, like English ''-ness'' and ''pre-'', or inflectional, like English plural ''-s'' and past tense ''-ed''. They ar ...
and the second by
zero
0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation such as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, 0 also serves as a placeholder numerical digit, which works by multiplying digits to the left of 0 by the radix, usuall ...
derivation, are themselves products of verbification (see
autological word
An autological word (also called homological word) is a word that expresses a property that it also possesses (e.g., "word" is a word, "noun" is a noun, "English" is an English word, " pentasyllabic" has five syllables, and "writable" is writab ...
), and, as might be guessed, the term ''to verb'' is often used more specifically, to refer only to verbification that does not involve a change in
form
Form is the shape, visual appearance, or configuration of an object. In a wider sense, the form is the way something happens.
Form also refers to:
*Form (document), a document (printed or electronic) with spaces in which to write or enter data
* ...
. (Verbing in this specific sense is therefore a kind of
anthimeria
In rhetoric, anthimeria or antimeria (from grc-gre, ἀντί, links=no, , 'against, opposite', and grc, μέρος, méros, part, label=none), means using one part of speech as another, such as using a noun as a verb: "The little old lady tur ...
.)
Examples of verbification in the English language number in the thousands, including some of the most common words such as ''mail'' and ''e-mail'', ''strike'', ''talk'', ''salt'', ''pepper'', ''switch'', ''bed'', ''sleep'', ''ship'', ''train'', ''stop'', ''drink'', ''cup'', ''lure'', ''mutter'', ''dress'', ''dizzy'', ''divorce'', ''fool'', ''merge'', to be found on virtually every page in the
dictionary. Thus, verbification is by no means confined to
slang and has furnished English with countless new expressions: "access", as in "access the file", which was previously only a noun, as in "gain access to the file". Similar mainstream examples include "host", as in "host a party", and "chair", as in "chair the meeting". Other formations, such as "gift", are less widespread but nevertheless mainstream.
Verbification may have a bad reputation with some English users because it is such a potent source of
neologisms. Although some neologistic products of verbification may meet considerable opposition from
prescriptivist
Linguistic prescription, or prescriptive grammar, is the establishment of rules defining preferred usage of language. These rules may address such linguistic aspects as spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, and semantics. Sometimes infor ...
authorities (the verb sense of ''
impact'' is a well-known example), most such derivations have become so central to the language after several centuries of use that they no longer draw notice.
In many cases, the verbs were distinct from their noun counterparts in
Old English, and regular sound change has made them the same form: these can be
reanalysed as conversion. "Don't talk the talk if you can't walk the walk" is an example of a sentence using those forms.
In other languages
In other languages, verbification is a more regular process. However, such processes often do not qualify as conversion, as they involve changes in the form of the word. For example, in
Esperanto
Esperanto ( or ) is the world's most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Created by the Warsaw-based ophthalmologist L. L. Zamenhof in 1887, it was intended to be a universal second language for international commun ...
, any word can be transformed into a verb, either by altering its ending to ''-i'', or by applying suffixes such as ''-igi'' and ''-iĝi''; and in
Semitic languages, the process often involves changes of internal vowels, such as the Hebrew word "גגל" (, ), from the proper noun גוגל ().
Noun conversion in English
Many English nouns are formed from unmodified verbs: a fisherman's ''catch'', to go for a ''walk'', ''etc.''
Humor
Verbification is sometimes used to create
nonce words or joking words. Often, simple conversion is involved, as with formations like ''beer'', as in ''beer me'' ("give me a beer") and ''eye'', as in ''eye it'' ("look at it"). Sometimes, a verbified form can occur with a prepositional particle, e.g., ''sex'' as in ''sex it up'' ("make it sexier").
A ''
Calvin and Hobbes
''Calvin and Hobbes'' is a daily American comic strip created by cartoonist Bill Watterson that was Print syndication, syndicated from November 18, 1985, to December 31, 1995. Commonly cited as "the last great newspaper comic", ''Calvin and Hobb ...
'' strip dealt with this phenomenon, concluding with the statement that "Verbing weirds language",
[Watterson, Bill (1993)]
Calvin and Hobbes January 25, 1993
"Calvin and Hobbes". demonstrating the verbing of both ''verb'' and ''weird''. (The former appears in its use as a
gerund.)
References
External links
"Grammar Puss"by Steven Pinker
Figures of Speech
{{Authority control
Word coinage
Linguistic morphology
br:Verbadurezh