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Lecture 8 Back-formation and conversion

Back-formation Taken from Cambridge Grammar of English1 (2006:483)

English Word-Formation by Laurie Bauer (1991:230–232)

Common back-formation derivatives: donate: de r i ved f rom do na t i on

ed i t: de r i ved f rom e d i t or

emote: de r ived f rom e mo t i on

i n tu i t : de r i ved f rom in tu i t ion

l eg is la te: der ived f rom l e g i s la t i on

t e l ev ise: de r i ved f rom t e l e v i s ion

a i r - cond i t i on: de r ived f rom a i r - cond i t i on er

commenta te: de r i ved f rom co mme n t a to r

bra inwash: de r i ved f rom br a inw ash i ng

s igh tsee: de r i ved f rom s i gh t s e e in g

en thuse: de r i ved f rom en thu s i as m

d iagnose: de r i ved f rom d ia gno s i s

l eg i t im ise: de r i ved f rom the ad jec t i ve l e g i t i ma t e

l aze: de r i ved f rom l a zy b y ana logy w i th pa i rs l i ke craze :c razy

Another example: cherry � French cerise [seríz], again with the final /z/ perceived as a plural marker. A recent example of this type of formation is the form alm from alms. Examples of editor and exhibitor: ve rb PLUS -o r � noun exh ib i t exh ib i t o r verb noun M INUS -o r ed i t ed i t o r

1 Authors: Ronald Carter – Michael McCarthy

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In more general terms, where X and Y are form classes of lexemes and A is a particular suffix: Formation: X + A � Y Back-formation: Y – A � X Prefixed forms: eu t roph i ca te: der ived f rom eu t roph ica t ion

l ase: de r i ved f rom l a s e r

l ech: de r ived f rom l e ch e r

oneupman: de r ived f rom o ne up man sh ip

paramedic: de r ived f rom pa ra me d ic a l

ro tova te: de r ived f rom ro t ov a to r

sur rea l: der ived f rom su r r ea l i s t

surve i l l e der ived f rom s ur v e i l l an c e � the nominalization of verbs with the suffix –ance is probably no longer productive, so that synchronically there is no formation rule of the form verb + -ance � noun

Conversion

Taken from Cambridge Grammar of English2 (2006:479–480)

• Verbs converted into nouns: cure, drink, doubt, laugh, smoke, stop (as in bus stop), walk, work. • Nouns converted into verbs: to bottle, to bully, to elbow, to email, to glue, to group, to head, to ship, to ski, to skin, to tutor. • Adjectives converted into verbs (including comparatives): to better, to calm, to clean, to dry, to empty, to faint, to lower, to smooth, to tidy, to wet. • Nouns converted into adjectives: junk food, a rubbish explanation (common in spoken English). Conversion is a process which continues to produce new forms constantly. For example, conversion has most recently produced forms such as to email, to impact, to text, a download.

2 Authors: Ronald Carter – Michael McCarthy

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Less commonly, other word classes are involved in conversion: That kind of remark only ups the stress for everyone. (verb from preposition) Seeing that play is an absolute must. (noun from modal verb) That’s a very big if. (noun from conjunction) You get both ups and downs. (nouns from prepositions) The conversion of a sub-class of proper noun to common noun is also possible: Has anybody seen my Galsworthy? (copy of a book by Galsworthy) He has two Ferraris. (a car manufactured by Ferrari) Whole phrases may also be converted, most commonly into adjective compounds: I really fancy one of those four-wheel-drive cars. Why don’t you have a word with that good-for-nothing brother of his? It was a fly-on-the-wall documentary. Other two exaples: The film is an absolute must for all lovers of Westerns. (conversion from verb to noun) Can we microwave it? (conversion from noun to verb)