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Conversion (word formation)

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Many adjectives have become verbs, including adjectives based on Latin passive participles, such as "separate". Usually, at least now, there is a pronunciation difference between the adjective and the verb. (Later this was extended to forming verbs from Latin passive participles even if they were not
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and has furnished English with countless new expressions: "access", as in "access the file", which was previously only a noun, as in "gain access to the file". Similar mainstream examples include "host", as in "host a party", and "chair", as in "chair the meeting". Other formations, such as "gift",
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is a well-known example), most such derivations have become so central to the language after several centuries of use that they no longer draw notice.
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Conversions from adjectives to nouns and vice versa are both very common and unnotable in English; much more remarked upon is the creation of a
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strip dealing with this phenomenon concluded with the statement that "Verbing weirds language", demonstrating the verbing of both
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Examples of verbification in the English language number in the thousands, including some of the most common words such as
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Verbification may have a bad reputation with some English users because it is such a potent source of
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is often used more specifically, to refer only to verbification that does not involve a change in
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In English, verbification typically involves simple conversion of a non-verb to a verb. The verbs
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or joking words. Often, simple conversion is involved, as with formations like
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In many cases, the verbs were distinct from their noun counterparts in
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in golf (referring to a putting-green) is derived ultimately from the
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Many English nouns are formed from unmodified verbs: a fisherman's
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by converting a noun or other word (for example, the adjective
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derivation, are themselves products of verbification (see
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Grammatical process of a lexeme changing part of speech
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Index

Verbing

verification
improve this article
adding citations to reliable sources
"Conversion" word formation
news
newspapers
books
scholar
JSTOR
Learn how and when to remove this message
linguistics
word formation
part of speech
derivation
zero
noun
adjective
verb
Denominal verb
derivation
affix
zero
autological word
form
anthimeria
dictionary
slang
neologisms

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