Conversion

In English grammar, conversion is a word formation process that specifies an

existing word to a different word class, part of speech, or syntactic category

without any change in the form of the word. This method is also named zero

derivation or a functional shift. Anthimeria is the rhetorical term for grammatical

conversion.

Conversions from adjectives to nouns and nouns to adjectives are both very

common and unobtrusive in English language; much more remarkable is the

creation of a verb from a noun or other word (e.g., the adjective clean converts into

the verb to clean).

Verbification

Verbification, or verbing, the act of making into a verb, is the creation of a verb

from a noun, adjective or other word.

In English, verbification commonly requires simple conversion of a non-verb to a

verb. The verbs vebify and to verb, the first one by derivation with a suffix and the

second one by zero derivation are themselves products of verbification, and the

term to verb is usually used more accurately, as a reference only to the

verbification that does not change the form of the word. ( thus, verbing in this

specific situation is a kind of anthimeria.)

There are thousands of examples of verbification in English language, including

the most used words like: mail and e-mail, strike, talk, salt, pepper, switch, bed,

sleep, ship, train, stop, drink, cup, lure, mutter, dress, dizzy, divorce, fool, and

merge. Verbification is certainly not limited to slang, it has provided and extended

English with many new expressions: the word “access”, as in “access the file”.

Which was before only a noun, as in “gain access to the file”. More mainstream

examples like this are “host”, as in “host a party”, and “chair”, as in “chair the

meeting”. Other words such as “gift”, are less extensive but none the less

mainstream. More examples are bottle-to bottle, can-to can, closet-to closet, eye-to

eye, fiddle-to fiddle, google-to google, knife- to knife, microwave- to microwave,

name-to name, pocket-to pocket, shape-to shape, spear-to spear and torch-to torch.

Other languages

In other languages, verbification is a more methodical process. However, these

processes often are not considered as conversion, because the process involves

change in the form of the words. For example, in Esperanto, every word can be

transformed into a verb by changing its ending to -I, or by applying suffixes like -

igi and -iĝi.

Noun conversion in English

Deverbal nouns

Deverbal nouns are nouns that are taken from verbs or verb phrases. The process of

forming a verb to a noun is a type of nominalization [ is the use of a word which is

not a noun (verb, an adjective or an adverb) as a noun.] an example in English

language for a deverbal noun include the noun “construct” ( derived from the verb

construct). More examples of verb to noun conversion are: to alert-alert, to attack-

attack, to call-call, to clone-clone, to command-command, to cover-cover, to cry-

cry, to experience-experience, to fear-fear, to feel-feel, to hope-hope, to increase-

increase, to judge- judge, to laugh-laugh, to rise-rise, to run-run, to sleep, sleep, to

start-start, to start-start, to visit-visit.

For example:

 The guard alerted [verb] the general to attack[noun].

 The enemy attacked [verb] before an alert [noun] could be sounded.

 Sometimes you just need a good cry[noun].

 She cried [verb] a lot yesterday.

Many English nouns are formed from unmodified verbs: a fisherman's catch, to go

for a walk.
Nominal adjectives

Nominal adjective are adjectives that act like nouns and perform the function of a

noun in a sentence. adjectives are preceded by the article “the” when used as a

noun, and become the subject or the object of a sentence or clause.

For example:

 The elderly are very kind.

 The French have amazing cheese.

 The opposite of right is left.

 The best is coming.

In the examples above, the nominal adjectives perform the function of the

subject of the sentences, however they can perform as objects too.

For example:

 We have to love the elderly with regard.

 This country protects the innocent.

 I want the best for her.

Conversion in Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was a fan and an expert of this linguistic device. Some of his

conversions are “I earned her language.”, and “he words me.” He even turned a

person’s name into a verb “petruchio is kated.”