Basic Criteria of S?mantic Derivation within Conversion Pairs

It is not always easy to determine which of the two words within a conversion pair is a derived member, especially in case of conversion between nouns and verbs. The criteria of semantic derivation by conversion found in linguistic literature [?????????? 1956; ???????? 1959; Marchand 1969; Ginzburg 1979] are as follows:

1) The criterion of semantic dependence of the derived word from the derivational base. If the word, say, a verb e.g. to water includes in its definition the noun, water in our case: ?put water on; sprinkle with water? it means that it semantically depends on the noun, hence it is derived from it. The derived word has a more complex semantic structure. For example, the semantic structure of the verb to pencil ?write, draw, mark with a pencil? is more complex than that of the noun pencil, because besides the meaning of substantivity (thingness) borrowed from the derivational base it includes the verbal meaning of process.

2) The above criterion is hard to apply to the conversion pairs like work v. - work n., chat v. - chat n., show v. - show n., etc. In such cases the criterion of analogy might be applied, which helps to determine the derived word by analogy with synonyms or antonyms derived by affixation. Comparing chat v. ? chat n. and converse v. ? conversation n., show v. ? show n. and exhibit v. - exhibition n., work v. ? work n. and employ v. - employment n., it?s possible to determine the direction of derivation from the verb to the noun within conversion pairs. This criterion as well as the previous one cannot be considered universal. It can be applied to a limited number of words.

3) The criterion based on derivational relations within the word-cluster of which the converted words in question are members. If the centre of this cluster is a noun and the majority of derivatives are denominal ones, we deal with conversion from noun to verb. For example, in the word-cluster hand n. - hand v. - handful - handy - handed the centre is the noun hand. Consequently, we can conclude that the verb hand is derived from the noun.

Accordingly, analyzing the directions of semantic derivation in the word-cluster: float n. ? float v. ? floatable ? floatation ? floating, we discover that the suffixes are added to the verbal base float v, it follows that the derived word is the noun float n. This criterion, however, is also limited as it can hardly be applied to the clusters with few derived words.

4) The criterion of typical semantic relations. The typical semantic relations within conversion pairs were described in the previous section of this chapter. If the semantic relations within a conversion pair in question correspond to any one of the typical patterns of semantic relations, the direction of conversion is the same as in this pattern. For instance, the semantic relations between crowd n. and crowd v. correspond to pattern 3 of typical semantic relations of denominal verbs: ?the object expressed by a collective noun → to perform actions typical of the given object?. Hence, the direction of conversion is crowd n. > crowd v. Considering the conversion pair take v. ? take n. ?act of taking? we determine that the relations of semantic derivation coincide with pattern 1 of deverbal nouns. The direction of conversion is take v. > take n.

5) The criterion of frequency of occurrences of words belonging to conversion pairs. According to this criterion the word having a lower frequency value of the two words in the conversion pair is the derived one. The data of word frequency can be found in dictionaries of word frequency. The following data from M.West?s dictionary ?A General Service List of English Words? of the frequency value of four verb ? noun conversion pairs are presented in the book ?A Course in Modern English Lexicology? [Ginzburg 1979: 135]:

to answer (V=63%) ? answer (N=35%),

to help (V=61%) ? help (N=1%),

to sample (V=10%) ? sample (N=90%),

to joke (V=8%) ? joke (N=82%).

These data of word frequencies prompt that in the first two pairs nouns answer and help are derived from verbs (deverbal substantives), while in the other two pairs the verbs sample and joke are denominal verbs.

6) ?he transformational criterion of semantic derivation by conversion [see e.g. ???????? 1964] ?he transformational analysis includes many complicated procedures. One of them is the transformation of nominalisation which can prompt the direction of semantic derivation by conversion. If it is possible to transform a predicative syntagm into a nominal syntagm, the direction of conversion is from verb to noun: V > N. For example:

Roy loves nature → Roy?s love of nature

John visited his friend → John?s visit to his friend

She promised help → her promise of help

The impossibility of such a transformation shows the opposite direction of conversion ? from noun to verb: N > V:

She bosses the establishment ?|→ *her boss of the establishment

I skinned the rabbit ?|→ *my skin of the rabbit

He taxied home ?|→ *his taxi home

Modern English vocabulary is rich in conversion pairs, highly productive is the pattern of conversion nouns into verbs (denominal verbs). Not only morphologically simple but also polysyllabic and compound words make up conversion pairs: to holiday, to petition, to microfilm ?produce a microfilm of?, to blueprint ?work out, outline?, etc.

Date: 2016-06-12; view: 452