A Contribution to the Study of Conversion in English

Isabel Balteiro

tammi 2006 · Waxmann Verlag

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This work intends to provide new insights on a controversial word-formation phenomenon or process known as conversion or zero-derivation. It offers a critical review of previous theories and approaches to this subject but it also attempts to provide a new definition, discusses the appropriateness of using one term or the other to name the phenomenon, and identifies its main characteristics. For doing so, it discusses issues such as whether (1.) the category or word-class change is a strictly necessary condition, (2.) priority is to be given to the syntactic function or rather to the change of word-class, and (3.) the result of the process is a derived word, two different and independent units or rather, one form with two clearly differentiated units. Moreover, this study delimits conversion versus other linguistic phenomena with apparently similar results (levelling, ellipsis, shortening, among others), and discusses its different types or classifications (partial and total conversion, and change of secondary word-class). The conclusion is that, despite the appearance of being a "jack-in-the-box" or a "dumping ground" in which any linguistic process involving two formally identical elements may be included, conversion can be both delimited and distinguished from other phenomena with (apparent) similar results.The book has been awarded the national prize "Leocadio Martín Mingorance" de Lengua y Lingüística inglesas (XII edición), the English Language and Linguistics prize "Leocadio Martín Mingorance" (12th edition). This prize is awarded by AEDEAN: Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-norteamericanos (Spanish Association for English and American Studies).

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Isabel Balteiro obtained her B.A. in English Studies at the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain). She taught at the University of Santiago de Compostela and at the University of Granada (Spain), and is currently an Assistant Lecturer at the University of Alicante (Spain). She wrote her M.A. Thesis and PhD Dissertation on Conversion, after carrying out research at the universities of Santiago and Jaén (Spain) and at the University of Oxford (GB). A member of the Interuniversity Institute of Applied Languages (IULMA) at the University of Alicante, she is also the author of several contributions to the study of word formation and lexis in English.