CONVERSION AND

COMPOUNDING
Lect.dr. Mirela Copca
 What is a
word formation process?
• The lexicon of a language changes
continuously. New words are created and old
words may also disappear.
• The processes that allow new words to enter
the language are called word formation
processes.
 What is productivity?
• A productive word formation process is one that is
very useful, that is one that can “produce” many new
words nowadays.
• Some word formation processes are very
productive:
– Affixation
– Compounding
– Conversion
• Others are not very productive:
– Backformation
– Reduplication
 Conversion (I)
• Conversion: this process is also known as zero-derivation.
This process changes the part of speech and meaning of an
existing root without producing any change in pronunciation
or spelling and without adding any affix.
I need someone to come to the blackboard.
Is there a volunteer?
Someone has to volunteer.
Otherwise, I will volunteer someone.
 Conversion (II)
• From Verb to Noun
to attack  attack
to hope  hope
to cover  cover
• From Noun to Verb
comb  to comb
sand  to sand
party  to party
 Conversion (II)

• From Adjective to Verb

dirty  to dirty
slow  to slow
• From Preposition to Verb
out  to out
 Conversion (III)
• In some cases, conversion is accompanied by a
change in the stress pattern known as stress shift.
transpórt (V)  tránsport (N)
rewríte (V)  réwrite (N) 
condúct (V)  cónduct (N) 
 Compounding
• Compounding is a very productive word formation process in
English.
• Compounding creates a new word, called a compound, by
combining two or more words.
• A compound is a word made up of free forms. These words
may themselves be simple (a single morpheme) or complex
(formed by more than one morpheme).
blackboard (black + board)
red hot (red + hot)
typewriter (type + write-er)
mother-in-law (mother + in + law)
 Compound Nouns
• Noun + Noun
wallpaper
football
ice-cream
• Adjective + Noun
blackboard
highway
fast-food
 Compound Nouns
• Verb + Noun
pickpocket
swearword
drive time
• Preposition + Noun  
downtown
underworld
afternoon
 Compound Adjectives
• Noun + Adjective
snow-white
machine readable
lead free
• Adjective + Adjective
blue-green
bitter-sweet
squeaky-clean
 Compound Adjectives
• Verb + Adjective (rare)
fail safe
• Preposition + Adjective   
over-ripe

overactive
 Heads and modifiers (I)
• Compounds usually have a word that is the
most important one, we call it the head,
while the other word is usually the modifier.
• The head determines the syntactic category
of the whole compound and receives the
inflectional morphemes (plural, present
tense, comparative, etc.)
 Classification

An endocentric compound consists of a head,

the categorical part that contains the basic
meaning of the whole compound, and
modifiers, which restrict this meaning.
Ex. doghouse, where house is the head and dog
is the modifier, is understood as a house
intended for a dog. Endocentric compounds
tend to be of the same part of speech (word
class) as their head, as in the case of doghouse.
 The notion of head

A head of a compound has similar

characteristics to the head of a phrase: it
represents the core meaning of the
constituent ;
Ex. in sneak-thief, thief is the head (a sneak-
thief is a kind of thief;
thief and sneak-thief are both nouns.
 Endocentric compounds
• the modifier element has the function of
attributing a property to the head;
• most English compounds are of this type;
 Exocentric compounds
Exocentric compounds (called a bahuvrihi
compound in the Sanskrit tradition) have no
head and their meaning often cannot be
transparently guessed from its constituent parts.
In an exocentric compound, the word class is
determined lexically, disregarding the class of
the constituents.
Ex. pickpocket, lazybones, cut-throat, paleface,
butterfly, pot belly.
 Heads and modifiers (II)
• Most compounds have the structure modifier + head
blackboard
office manager
offset
• Some compounds have the structure head + modifier
attorney general
bother-in-law
heir apparent
 Heads and modifiers (III)
• In general, the meaning of a compound is a specialization of
the meaning of its head.
• Sometimes the modifier acts as an attribute of the head:
a blackboard is a particular kind of board which is black
• Sometimes the relationship is not attributive, but a
relationship that could also be expressed in terms of
prepositions
a footstool is a stool FOR one's feet
an office manager is the manager OF an office
an armchair is a chair WITH arms
a raincoat is a coat AGAINST the rain
 Heads and modifiers (IV)
• Some compounds have no explicit head. We can think of
these compounds as complex words where the head is not
said (you have to imagine it)
A skinhead is not a kind of head (a head made of skin) but a PERSON
whose head is without hair (showing the skin)
A redneck is not a kind of neck (a neck that is red), but a PERSON who
usually works outside and burns its neck
• There are also some compounds in which it is hard to
determine which is the head.
blue-green is both a kind of blue and a kind of green
maidservant is both a kind of maid and a kind of servant
boyfriend is both a kind of boy and a kind of friend
 The structure of compounds (I)
• Compounds, like other words, have structures
that can be represented with tree diagrams.
Very often we have compounds that in turn
become part of another compound. The
internal structure of a compound can tell us
what it means.
The structure of compounds
N

Adj. N
high school
 THE PLURAL OF COMPOUNDS
• To form the plural of compound nouns written
as one word, add –s or –es. To form the plural
of compound nouns that are hyphenated or
written as more than one word, make the
most important part of the compound noun
plural.
 THE PLURAL OF COMPOUNDS
1.One word - follow plural rules.
footballs, headlights, strongboxes, rosebushes
2.Hyphenate -make the most important part of
the compound noun plural: great-grandmothers
runners-up
3. More than one word -make the most
important part of the compound noun plural :
maids of honor
music boxes