Lecture 8 Back-formation and conversion Back-formation Taken from Cambridge Grammar of English1 (2006:483) English Word-Formation by Laurie Bauer

(1991:230232)

Common back-formation derivatives: donate: derived from donation edit: derived from editor emote: derived from emotion intuit: derived from intuition legislate: derived from legislation televise: derived from television air-condition: derived from air-conditioner commentate: derived from commentator brainwash: derived from brainwashing sightsee: derived from sightseeing enthuse: derived from enthusiasm diagnose: derived from diagnosis legitimise: derived from the adjective legitimate laze: derived from lazy by analogy with pairs like craze:crazy

Another example: cherry French cerise [serz], 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: verb exhibit PLUS -or noun exhibitor

verb edit

noun

MINUS -or editor

Authors: Ronald Carter Michael McCarthy

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: YA X

Prefixed forms: eutrophicate: derived from eutrophication lase: derived from laser lech: derived from lecher oneupman: derived from oneupmanship paramedic: derived from paramedical rotovate: derived from rotovator surreal: derived from surrealist

surveille derived from surveillance 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 (2006:479480)

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.

Authors: Ronald Carter Michael McCarthy

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) Thats 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 dont 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)