Productivity of word-formation means. Conversion. Main types oа semantic relations between the members of a conversion pair.

The term WF means the branch of Lex. Which studies the patterns on which the lang forms the new lex units &it’s used in 2means: the very system of derivation which exist in the lang.; the process of deriving a new w. All the types of ME WFM may be divided into major and minor: major-conversion, affixation & composition(compounding); minor(Shortening, backformation, sound imitation, onomatopoeia, sound & stress interchange. The activity of different types of forming w. may change in the course of time. Some means of WF remain productive for a long period of time. Others may lose their productivity very soon. The term prod. May be used in the meaning of relative freedom with which speakers make new w. understandable for all speakers of the lang. the best way to identify prod. means is to look for them among neologisms & so-called name w. When speaking of functioning of WFM we may analyze them from the point of view of their activity, productivity & frequency of accuracy. The ability of an affix to produce new w. is particular occasional w. is understood as WF activity. The agen suf. –er(laughter) a derivational pattern is qualified as productive when in the w. stock the re are dozens & 100s of derived w. build on this pattern or with the help of suf. In quest. Frequency of occurrence is characterized by the fact that a great number of w. cont. the same derivate, pattern are used in speech often.

Conversion - a productive way of coining a new word by changing the paradigm and distribution of I he-original word without transforming its morphemic shape.

Conversion consists in making a new word from some existing word by changing the category of a part of speech, the morphemic shape of the original word remaining unchanged. The new word has a meaning which differs from that of the original one though it can more or less be easily associated with it. It. has also a new paradigm peculiar to its new category as a part of speech.

Conversion is not only a highly productive but also a particularly English way of word-building. Its immense productivity is considerably encouraged by certain features of the English language in its modern stage of development. The analytical structure of Modern English greatly facilitates processes of making words of one category of parts of speech from words of another. So does the simplicity of paradigms of English parts of speech. A great number of one-syllable words is another factor in favour of conversion, for such words are naturally more mobile and flexible than polysyllables.

One should guard against thinking that every case of noun and verb (verb and adjective, adjective and noun, etc.) with the same morphemic shape results from conversion. There are numerous pairs of words (e. g. love, n. - to love, v.; work, n. - to work, v.; drink, n. - to drink, v., etc.) which did, not occur due to conversion but coincided as a result of certain historical processes (dropping of endings, simplification of stems) when before that they had different forms (e. g. O. E. lufu, n. — Iufian, v.). On the other hand, it is quite true that the first cases of conversion (which were registered in the I4lh c.) imitated such pairs of words as love, n. —to love, v. for they were numerous in the vocabulary and were subconsciously accepted by native speakers as one of the typical language patterns.

Modern English vocabulary is exceedingly rich in conversion pairs. As a way of forming words conversion is extremely productive and new conversion pairs make their appearance in fiction, newspaper articles and in the process of oral communication in all spheres of human activity gradually forcing their way into the existing vocabulary and into the dictionaries as well. New conversion pairs are created on the analogy of those already in the word-stock on the semantic patterns described above as types of semantic relations. Conversion is highly productive in the formation of verbs, especially from compound nouns. 20th century new words include a great many verbs formed by conversion, e.g. to motor - "travel by car*; to phone — 'use the telephone'; to wire — 'send a telegram'; to microfilm -— 'produce a microfilm of: to tear-gas — 'to use tear-gas'; to fire-bomb — 'drop fire-bombs'; to spearhead — 'act as a spearhead for'; to blueprint— 'work out, outline', etc. A diachronic survey of the present-day stock of conversion pairs reveals, however, that not all of them have been created on the semantic patterns just referred to. Some of them arose as a result of the disappear ance of inflections in the course of the historical development of the English language due to which two words of different parts of speech, e.g. a verb and a noun, coincided in pronunciation. This is the case with such word-pairs, for instance, as love n (OE. lufu) — love v (OE. Iufian); work n (OE. weorc) — work v (OE. wyrcan): answer^- n (OE. andswaru) — answer v (OE. andswarian) and many others. For this reason certain linguists consider it necessary to distinguish between homonymous word-pairs which appeared as a result of the loss of inflections and those formed by conversion. The term conversion is applied then only to cases like doctor n — doctor v; brief a — brief v that came into being after the disappearance of inflections, word-pairs like work n — work v being regarded exclusively as cases of homonymy.

The 2 categories of parts of speech especially affected by conversion are nouns and verbs(+2 more)

1. Verbs made from nouns are the most numerous amongst the words produced by conversion: e. g. to hand, to

hack, to face, to eye, to mouth, to nose, to dog, to wolf, to monkey, to can, to coal, to stage, to screen, to room, to floor, to blackmail, to blacklist, to honeymoon, and very many others.

2 Nouns are frequently made from verbs: do (e. g. This is the queerest do I've ever come across. Do -event, incident), go (e. g. He has still plenty of go at his age. Go — energy), make, run, find, catch, cut, walk, worry, show, move, etc

3. Verbs can also be made from adjectives: to pale, to yellow, to cool, to grey, to rough (e, g. We decided to rough it in the tents as the weather was warm), etc.

4. Other parts of speech are not entirely unsusceptible to conversion as the following examples show: to down, to out (as in a newspaper

heading Diplomatist Gated from Budapest), the tips and downs, the ins and outs, like, n, (as in (he like of me and the like of you).

As one of the two words within a conversion pair is semanticaliy derived from the other, it is of great theoretical and practical importance to determine the semantic relations between words related through conversion.

This is the largest group of words related through conversion. The semantic relations between the nouns and verbs vary greatly. If the noun refers to some object of reality (both animate and inanimate) the converted verb may denote:

1) action characteristic of the object, e.g. ape n - ape v-'imitate in a foolish way’; butcher n - butcher v - 'kill
animals for food, cut up a killed animal';

2) instrumental use of the object, e.g. screw n - screw v-'fasten with a screw'; whip n - whip v - 'strike with a
whip":

3) acquisition or addition of the object, e.g. fish n — fish v - 'catch or try to catch fish': coat n - 'covering of paint' -coat v 'put a coat of paint on';

4) deprivation of the object, e.g. dust n - dust v -'remove dust from something'; skin n - skin v - 'strip off the skin from"; etc.

1)instance of the action, e.g. jump v - jump n -'sudden spring from the ground'; move v - move n - 'a change of position';

2)Agent of the action, e.g. help v - help n - 'a person who helps'; it is of interest to mention that the deverbal personal nouns denoting the doer are mostly derogatory, e.g. bore v - bore n - 'a person that bores': cheat v- cheat n- 'a person who cheats';

3)place of the action, e.g. drive v - drive n - 'a path or road along which one drives'; walk v - walk n -'a place for walking';

4)object or result of the action, e.g. peel v - peel n — 'the outer skin of fruit or potatoes taken off; find v -find h - 'something found," esp. something valuable or pleasant'; etc.

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