Peculiarities of conversion functioning as a productive way of word-formation in English literature

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of word formation tools in modern English, one of which is conversion. In particular, the formation of conversion as one of the most effective means of forming new words, which currently has a high activity in all areas of speech and gives a large number of newly formed words. Based on the results already achieved in the field of revealing the essence of the phenomenon of conversion, we tried to present a comprehensive analysis of conversion as one of the ways of word formation in Jack London's novel “Martin Eden”. Conversion is an extremely productive way of word formation that is widespread in modern English due to the grammar and history of the language in question. This is an active process. The conversion process covers almost all parts of speech. However, it is most active within the noun and verb. Conversion – the only way of word formation, in which a new word is formed without quantitative changes in the basic form of the original word and without the use of any linear word-formation tools. In modern English, the most common is the conversion of verbs from complex nouns, nominative combinations, as well as complex abbreviated words, abbreviations, conjunctions. This problem is studied in many ways, the processes of conversion formation, its functioning and role in the literary text are considered. Particular interest is semantic relationships within a pair of conversives. It has been found that conversion is the way new words are formed in modern English, the process of creating a new word from a specific existing root word by changing the category of the part of speech without changing the morpheme form of the original root word. Moving a word from one part of speech to other causes a paradigm shift. The widespread use of conversion as a way of word formation is closely connected with the peculiarities of the grammatical structure of the English language and its history.