Luận văn a contrastive analysis of noun verb conversion in english and vietnamese

Among many different word formation processes to creale new lexicon, conversion is a new trend growing up in the productive field, According to Cannon, G 1985-415, conversion will be mor

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, IIANOI UNTVERSITY LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

PIIAM TIII KIM ANII

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF NOUN-VERB CONVERSION

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

(Phan tich déi chiêu chuyển loại đanh từ sang dộng từ

trong tiếng Anh và tiếng ViệU

MLA Minor Programme ‘Uhesis

Field: English Linguistics Cade: 60 22 15

HANOT- 2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, IIANOI UNTVERSITY LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

PHAM THI KIM ANH

A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF NOUN-VERB CONVERSION

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

(Phan tich déi chiéu chuyển luại danh tir sang ding tir

trong tiếng Anh va tiéng Viét)

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Linguistics

Code: 6022 15

Supervisor: Dr Tran Xuan Digp

HANOI - 2010

3 Scope of the study

4 Methods of the study

5 Format of the study

1.2, Conversion— A word formation proccss

1.2.2 Remarkable features

CILAPTER 2: TILE CONFRASTIVE ANALYSES OF N-¥ CONVERSION IN

ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

ABBREVIATION AND SYMBOL Contrastive Analysis

English as a Foreign Language

a parenthesis enclosing the two munbers inside, the first number indicates the year

of publishing, and the second indicates the page being referred to

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1, Rationale of the study

“The topic is chosen due to the following reasons

Among many different word formation processes to creale new lexicon, conversion is a new trend growing up in the productive field, According to Cannon, G (1985-415), conversion will be more active in the future, and so, it will create a great part of the new words appearing in the English language

Nguyễn Kim Than (1977.9) states that the verb is one of the most complex pats of speech, which is widely used, and as a result, play a key role in any language system, Of all the conversion provss

os Toprosunted in English, il is acknowledged, and shown by, for example, Biese (1941), Marchand (1969), Plag (2003) that creating verbs from nouns N-V conversion is the most produetive and by no means unexpected It is due to the lack of derivaticnal means of forming verbs from nouns and adjectives in present-day English

Vocabulary of both English and Victnamesc has a remarkable range of flexibility and adaptability ‘Thus, this study is intended to make the contrast of N-V’ conversion between English and Vietnamese in lsrms of grammatical and semantic features

One more reason is that, a pood understanding of English word formation processes is essential for the EFL teaching and leaning ‘The study will be usefid| for the teachers and leamars with the expectation of building a clear picture of N-V conversion in English and

Victnan

2 Aims of the study

The aims of this study are

» To describe grammatical and semantic features of N-V conversion in English and Vietnamese

> To work out as many as possible the similarities and differences in tarms of grammatical and semantic features between N-V conversion in English and Vietnamese

> ‘To provide some implications for teaching/learning word formation in general, N-V conversion in particular

To fully achieve these aims, the study should answer at least the following questions:

What are the grammatical and semantic features of N-V conversion in Linglish and

MU

= What are the similarities and differences in grammatical and semantic features between

English and Vietnamese N-V conversion?

To whal extenl ae word formation processes in general, and NeV conversion in

particular, considered in EFL teaching and learning?

Y Scope of the study

Many fields relating to N-V conversion need to be explored, However, due to the limited time and available facilities, the thesis is to be focused on the description and conirastive analysis of N-V conversion in English and Vietmarsose with respoct to

grammatical and semantic features at word level

4, Methods of the study

The intended method employed in this study is CA It has bon acknowledged that with this method, the similarities and differences between languages can be worked out effectively

The pracetinrey of the study are in the order as [ullows:

* Collection of relevant documents

* Critical reading of theoretical background related to the study

* Gensrativalion and classificalion of relevant literature

>_ Formation of ideas related to the study,

= Comprehensive description of grammatical and semantic features of N-V conversion in English and Vietnamese

» Detection of similarities and differenees of'N-V conversion between two languages

* Giving comments on these issues in ETL teaching & learning

Saurces of examples:

* Bilingual stories, works, magazines

* Monolingual English and Vietnamese books

* Mouolingual and Bilingual dictionaries

= Research projects, linguistic joumals, articles into English and Vietnamese conversion

5 Format of the study

The study begins with “Declaration”, “Acknowledgement”, “Table of contents”,

“Spmbols and Abbreviation" ‘Yhis study is completed on the basis of three separating parts: Introduction, Development and Conclusian

Pat A (Introduction) provides a brief account of relevant information about the rationale, aims, scope, methods, and format of the study

Parl B onfitled Development which plays the most crucial role in the whoks study Il is considered as the backbone of the study This part consists of two chapters

© Chapler 1: This chaptcr is abouf theoretical notions necessary for the study covering the coneepts ranging from CA and guiding principles for CA, N-V conversion, and word meaning, It also provides an overview of verbs in English and Viemamese

* Chapter 2: ‘This chapter offers a detailed contrastive analysis of N-V conversion in

English and Viotnamesc, Firstly, N-V conversion in English and Vietnamese will be described and analyzed in terms of grammatical and semantic features Then, considering these features, the similarities and ditferences between two languages will

be worked out Finally, some implications of the study for EPL teaching and learning will be mentioned,

The last part is "Conclusion", which includes the recapitulation of what have been done in the study, the timitations of the study, and the recommendations for the further rescarch The study ends with "References",

PART 2: DEVELOPVEMENT

CILAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

In order to create the basis for carrying out the CA study in the main part, it is necessary (a have a comprehensive understanding of the relevant theoretical background This chapter, therefore, is intended to give an overview of CA and CA guiding principles The concept of conversion as a word formation process will be regarded ani revealed with the provision of definitions and types Tn addition, word

meaning, verbs in English and Vietnamese will be briefly reviewed

1.1 An overview of CA and CA guiding principles

The term ‘Contrastive linguistics’ was suggested by Whorf, B.L (1941) for comparative study which is giving emphasis on linguistic differences and it has been redelined by Fisiak (1981:1) as “a subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the comparison of two or amore languages or subsystems of languages in order to determine both the differcnecs and similarities between them” CA is used as an alternative for contrastive linguistics

CA is very broad field of tinguistics, since il embraces all iis major levels: phonology, semantics, syntax and pragmatic, the latter including text studies and some aspects of the sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic perspective

structure and grammatical structure of two languages, wilh comparalive slalzrncnts, giving

due emphasis to the compatible items in the two systems, It is assumed that leaming of L2

is facilitated whenever there are similarities between L1 and L2 Leaming may be interfered with when there are marked contrasts between 1.1 and 12 CA provides am objective and scientific base for L2 teaching If the L1 and L2 both have significantly similar linguistic features on all the levels of their structures there will not be much difficulty in lcaming the L2 ina limited time

“To help the study bring into play, Chaturvedi (1973)’s the following guiding principles for contrastive study will be applied

G) To analyze the mother longus and the target language independently and completely Gi) To compare the two languages item-wise-item at all levels of their stiucture

1.2 Conversion — A word formation process

2.1 Definition and Terminology

Although conversion has been an important part of English word formation for centuries, linguists have argued over almost every facet relating to this process, even down

to the term used to describe it The terminology used for this process has not been completely established yct Most current linguists usc ‘conversion’, but others refer to the process as ‘fimetional change’ or ‘fimctional shift’, and ‘zero-derivation’ or ‘zero- affixation' Rach term is associated with a different comotation, theory, and slightly

Zero-derivation or zero-affixation, if conversion is viewed as a word-tormation

process, one theory is that it appears to run parallel to the derivational word-formation processcs Inflectional affixes arc said to be ‘class-maintaining’, whereas derivational

affixes are ‘class-changing’; as the conversion process is ‘class-changing’, it is deemed to

be derivation with a “zero-affix’ or ‘zero-morpheme’ ‘Ihis issue has caused debate amongst linguists and divides then into two camps: hose who think (hal there is 4 vero

element involved in the process, and those who reject that theory Prominent linguists who

endonse the theory that conversion is a process involving the addition of a derivational zero

inchule Marchand (1969), Lyons (1977), and Allen (1978) According Marchand (1969:360), “it is because of the parallelism with overtly marked derivatives that we speak

of zero-marked derivatives or zero-derivatives, not just because of the added element of content which characterizes the transposition of the adjective clean to the verb clean, etc”

Lyons (1977-512) defines that “zcro-derivation is derivation by means of the affixation of

an identity element”, Allen (1978:273) also states, “It is clear that the zero element under

consideration is a derivational suffix, hence attached to the basic word by a derivational word formation tule Nol only is a lexical casgory changc, typical of dorivational suftixation, involved, but inflectional endings cannot appear inside the zero element The zero must, consequently, be a derivational affix”

‘The lenm “Conversion? represenls something of a middle ground between “farctional shift? and ‘zero-darivation’: ‘conversion’ is usually used where the linguist rejects the idea

of a ‘zero’ element, but thinks that the process involves word-formation rather than just

functional chan

in fuel, the term originally apptied to the procass by 8 (189, 38-39), and currently seems to be the dominant theory, being endorsed by, for

example, Bauer (1983) Zandvoort (1972), Pennanen (1971), Katamba (1993), Quirk et al

(1973), Lichor (2005), Vatera ( 2005) Conversion is technicality defined as the detiboralc transtzr of'a word from one patt of speech to another as by Zandvoort (1972-65) Katamba, (1993:54) states that words may be formed without modifying the form of the input word

that serves as the base This head can be a noun of verb This is called conversion

“Conversion is the change in form class of a form without any corresponding change of form” Bauer (1983:32),"Conversion is the derivational process whereby an item changes iis word class without the addition of an affix" (Quirk ef al, 1973-441) “Conversion is the process by which lexical items change (granunatical) category without any concomitant change in form” Lieber (2005:418) “Conversion is one the processes thai may take part m the creation of new lexemes in English” (Valera 2005:20)

Tn short, we have three different terms and theories to negotiate, and various other sninefields of controversy associated with the process to account for in the investigation of

conversion

1.2.2 Remarkable features

Conversion is # convenient and roductive way of enriching Ihe English vocabulary Conversion is particularly common in English because the basic form of nouns and verbs is

identical in many cases (Aitchison, (1989:160)) It is usually impossible in languages with

gramanatica gonders, declensions, or conjugations (Carmon, 1985:430) Ils productivity is considerably encouraged by certain features of the English language in its modem stage of development The simplicity of paradigms facilitates processes of making words of one calegory of parts of speceh from words of another So docs the analytical structure of tha

Janguags A great number of one-syllable words is another factor in favor of conversion for such words are niaturally more mobile und exible than polysyltables:

Cannon (1985:415) asserts that conversion will become even more active in the future because it is a very easy way to create new words in English There is no way to knew the number of conversions appearing every day in the spoken language, allhough we know this manber must be high, As it is a quite recent phenomenon, the written evidence is not a fully reliable source, We will have to wait a little longer to understand its whole impact, which will surely increase in importanee in the noxt decades

The process of conversion has some semantic limitations A converted word only assumes one of the range of meanings of the original word For example, the noun paper

‘hus various meanings, such as newspaper, material to wrap things The donominal verb, though, only contains the sense of putting that material on places like walls, This shows the converted item has only converted part of the semantic field of the source item

1.2.3 Typology

‘There are several ways to classify conversion due to different purposes and points of view Bused on a preference in history, conversion can be divided inta éraditional and occasional, Traditional conversion refers to the accepted use of words which are recorded

in dictionaries, e.g to cook, to look, to capture, etc the high productivity of conversion finds its reflection in speech where numerous occasional cases of conversion can he found, which are nol rogistored by dictionaries, callad nonca words and occur momentarily, through the immediate need of the situation, For example, when a parson keeps saying

“hello, deat” fo anyone he meets, we can coin the verb “hello dear” by saying “the hello dears everybody” We ean also make it anon: “Tm tired of his hello-dcar™

Based on phonetics or morphology, conversion can be: total, partial (Quirk et al

(1997) and approximate conversion (Kiparsky (1982) In total conversion, the converted

words participate in morphological processes (derivation and inflection) c.g bottle (Ni > bottle (l') —+ bottler (N), bottled (V-PAST), In partial conversion, the converted form does not show any derivation ot inflection Conversion from noun to adjective and adjective to noun is rather a, controversial ong, Ht is also called ‘partial conversion” by Cannon (1985 413) and ‘syntactic process’ by Bauer (1983-230), this pecdiar process occurs when "a word of one class appears in a function which is characteristic of another word class”

(Quirk, 1997:1559) eg best] + best —v*6essM-JL, *hestablel Approximaie conversions arc some Low ca:

(1982)} These can be considered marginal cases of conversion (Bauer (1983:228-229)) Although the shift takes place, they are called "marginal" because of the alterations

in which there are slight noreaffixal changes (Riparsky

to establish the original and derived item has been taken from Marchand (1972: 242-252)

Tt focuses an several aspects:

a, the semantic dependence (the word that reports to the meaning of the other is the derivative)

Ð, the range of usage (the item with the smaller range of use is the converted word)

c, the semantic range (the one with loss scmantic ficlds is the shifted item)

d the phonetic shape (some suffixes express the word-class the item belongs to and, if it

does not fit, this is the derivative)

After this analysis, intuition is still important Verbs tend to be abstract because they represent actions and nouns are frequently comerete because they name material entities Conversion is quickly relaled to shift of word-class With this respect, it mainly produces

nouns, verbs and adjectives Other grammutival calogories, inchiting closod-class ones,

of secondary word class, within the same major word category" ‘This process has no clear terminelogy, for example it is called ‘change of secondary word class’ by Quirk

by Baurr (1983:227) Within the ficld

(1997: 1563) and ‘conversion as 4 syntactic proc:

of conversion, it has not been nrach studied because it is less evident than the classical

conversion Below, a list of conversion pattems is given ‘Ihe list, being rather broad in seupe, is adopted from Quirk of al who consider the paticrns in boldface marginal

Nto-V: (to) elbow, (to) man

Ado-V: (to) better, (to) empty, (to) lower

N (shelf, calf, ball)-to-V; (involving root allornorphy): ((La) shelve, eulve, halvs)

Compicx N-to-V: (to) commission, (to) hostess, (to) streamline

Particle-to-V: (to} down, up, thwart

Virens-lVintrens (lo) soll ears, cars soll

Vintranet0-Vizans (He) runs (every day), (He) runs (a company)

Nopstractioase#-Neoncreteoms’ conversion (a type of word-fornation) a conversion

{an instance of converting); tea, a tea

Nto-A: computer (program), head (bockkeeper}

Participle-to-A: (@) written exam, (an) exciting film

Advio-A: (the) then (presidemt), abave (suggestion)

V-to-N (a) nu, (@) chive, (a) survey

Ado-N (@) given, (a) daily, (the) rich,

P-to-N (tha) ins andl onts, (the) ups and downs

AdvtoN: (the) whys and wheretores, (the) hereafter

Prefixto.N (tha) pros and cons

Ausiliary-to-N (@) must

Phrase-to-N (tha) also-rans, (1) has-been

Table 1: Quirk et al.'s list af conversion patterns

If the criterion of directionality is right, Quirk et al.’s above list of conversion patterns is fully justifiable, since all of them comply with the criterion of directionality From this follows that in a full account of English conversion, the basic pattems mentioned abavs should cqually be dealt with When rescaching the phenomenon of conversion, this approach is considered the most thorough and fullest one as conversion involves in word

class and its function, therefore the study is based on this classification

1.3 Word Meaning

Tt is necessary lo ruention word meaning wửten the CA of N-V cơnversiơn in Bnglish

and Vietnamese will be camieả out with regard to grammatical and semantic features

Word meaning has been a great concem of many linguists ‘he word as a structural and

somwnlie entity within the language syslein has lwo main fypes of meaninys: grammatical

and lexical

According to Lyons (1995:52), a lexeme may have different word forms, which will

gonorally differ in their grammatical meaning The forms of teacher and teachers differ in

respect of their grammatical meaning, of singularity and plwality The grammatical

meaning may be defined as the meaning of categories attached to the word, the component

of meaning reomtent in identical scts of individual forms of diffrent words The

grammatical categories of English are tense, mood, aspect, voice, case, number, person

and compatisen ¢.g, the tense meaning in the word-forms of verbs went, answered, wrote

of the case meaning in the word-forms of various nouns parents’, sister's, student’s, the

phuelity meaning of nouns éables, saidents, houses, jokes In modem linguistic scicnec, it

is commonly held that some elements of grammatical meaning can be identified by the

position of the Hinguistic unit in relation to other linguislic units, ie by ils distribution

Word-forms goes, speaks, answers have the same grammatical meaning as they can all be

found in identical distribution, eg only after the pronouns Ae, she, it and before adverbs

like well, quickly, every day

Baker (1992; 12) states that texieal meaning of a word may he vi

das the specific value it has in a particular linguistic system Lexical meaning is the invariable part of

meaning, It is the proper meaning, the most outstanding individual property of words †'hs

sarne lexical meaning applies for all grammatical forms of a word (go, goes, going, went,

gone) In contrast with grammatical meaning, it can stand on its own and identical in all the

forms of the word

Vo Dai Quang (2006:20) also statcs four major components of word meaning shown in

the following table

(what are referred to or THE | (detinitional or Hteral

Chair: a piece of funiture designed

for one person to sit upon

Referential (what the

word refers to)

Give me a chair: a desk chair, a

wing chair, or dining room chair

Somy about your accident!

Expressivefemative | You excelled so absolutely that you

(how things are denoted or TITE

Thatcher Buitish Prime Minister in

(The meaning a word acquires by Associative expensive >< chip

‘virtue of its membership ina system Axtificial limb/ flower sweetener

Collocative

Mary admires Tom Thematic

‘Yom admires Mary

(the meaning a word acquires by

virtue of grammatical classification) Strength (n), strengthen (v), strong

(adv), strongly (adv)

Table 2: Major components of word meaning

He also statos two possible typos of word meaning: dircet meaning and indircot

meaning, By direct meaning, the word directly denotes something, without comparing it ot

associating with other things H is also called literal meaning, By indirect meaning, the

word refers to the thing meant in association with something, we nced context and have lo

compare it or associate with other things to understand it, It is also called figurative or

transferred meaning, The word head in he knocks on my head refers to part of the body and

it is direct meaning but in he is the head of the class the head means a leader so it is

indirect tearing

In terms of lexical meaning, words in English and Vietnamese are similar However,

they differ in respect of grammatical meaning English words carry two types of meanings

Memwhile, Vietnamese word themselves do not cany grammatical meaning,

Almost verbs in English change in form in accordance with the grammatical features

eg She likes cat, they went to the beach, [ enjoy reading short stories

According to Quirk ef al (1972:820), verbs can be the head of verb phrascs playing the

central function in a sentence Some verb types can take complementation, but others

carmot The four verb types taking complemenlalion are intensilive e.g he in John is very

happy, monotransitive 2.2 cach in He caught a big fish yesterday, ditransitive e.g give in

He gave Mary a doll, and complex transitive e.g calf in she called him a hero Uhre other

verb lypes where no complementation occurs are intransitive verbs (never laking an object)

Võ Đại Quang (2006:18) states that there are many ways to classify English verbs as

follows:

In accordance with the functions performed by the elements in the verb phrase verbs can be classified into lexical and auxiliary verbs Lexical verbs can be regular or irregular Auxiliary verbs are primary and modal varbs

In accordance with the possibility of admitting progressive aspect, verbs can be

dynamic and stative verbs Stative verbs are often verbs that denote state or condition

(even transitive verbs) and not commonly used in the progressive tense ¢.g she knows me, Thate myself for lnving you, she's weak, he looks happy They are verbs of inerl perception

and recognition e.g adore, astonish, believe, hate, hear, impress, know, like, etc and relation eg, apply to, equal, deserve, involve, lack, matter, need, owe, resemble, possess, sound tend, elc Dynamic verbs are often verbs thal denole action, bul some may denote state, and can be used in the progressive e.g, they are singing, she is feeling ired now

In accordance with the types of complementation, verbs can be intensive and extensive

1.4.2, Verbs in Vietnamese

Verb class is onc of two fundamental word classes in Victnamesc and the verbs play an

important role in Vietramese vocabulary as well as in forming sentences Grammatical features of verbs rermain complicated

According to Lé Bién (1999:70), and Digp Quang Ban (1998:21), in terms of general imeaning, verbs refer to actions, activities, progresses, and forms of movements ‘They may

be slaled as in: Ant dy đánh đàn; Cô ấy ngâm tho Chau yêu Hà Nội; Tôi mang anh về Cô

bá trẻ thành tiêu nữ Chị Âu trở nên xinh dep Thé la mo nd di Tay ete

By means of grammatical features, when functioning a5 central component of a verb

phrase, verb can combine with other auxiliary components as follow:

- With aétiary components before verbs to mdicals scope of the action or ablivity c.g

cling, déu, cit, to indicate continuation ¢.g cén, vdn, to indicate tense, aspect e.g chica,

không, chẳng, to indicate advice or prohibit e.g hay, đừng, chớ

- With nouns (this is the most popular combinations) c.g ndng stfu, dn chao

- With other auxiliary components of other parts of speech e.g hat hay, mia déo

Nguyễn Kim Thân (1977) states that verbs in Vietnamese can have different functions ina sonlence The most papular and oulslanding one is predicate or a part of a predivalc

ex Troi mre, Verbs can also be subjects of a sentence e.g, Budu ban lame tăng thêm đạc

nhận cho gia dinh, object e.g Tôi muốn báo vệ luận van trong thang 10

Nguyễn Đỉnh Liòa (1096:153), based on a semantic analysis of transitivity relations and

passive voices according ta the classification of verbs in terms of vaices

Diệp Quang Ban and Hoàng Văn Thung (2002) classify Viemamese verbs into two

types: transitive verbs and intransitive verbs Intransitive verbs are ones that can stand

alone with complete meaning wilhoul help from other words, c.g Bé ngdi Transitive verbs,

in contrast, cannot stand alone, they need help from other words to complete their meaning

eg cổ hàng xóm cho bé một chiếc áo bơi

Rovontly, some inguisis such as Lê Biên eriticives that this đlassiñoation is imposed by European grammatical system, and based on fictions of verbs he suggests a new classification that is independent and dependent verbs, Considering the purpose, this study will be based on the notions suggested by Digp Quang Ban, Nguyén Kim Thin, and Bui Đức Tịnh

‘This chapter provides an overview of CA anda discussion of CA guiding principles

suggested by Chaturved! (1973) which is expected to be helpful for the study, and of

the concept of conversion as a word formation process It also giver a I

introduction to word meaning, verbs im English and Victnamese In short, this chapter has been the theoretical background for the study

CHAPTER 2: THE CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF N-V CONVERSION

IN ENGLISII AND VIETNAMESE

In this chapter, The CA of N-¥ conversion in English and Vietnamese will be made Firstly, the N-V conversion in English and Vieinamese will be mainly focused

on the grammatical features {including syntactic and morphological featurcs) and

semantic features Then the similarities and differences will be detected Finally, some

syntactic and morphological features) and scmantic features

2.1.1 Grammatical Features

‘A, Marchand (1969) in his book "The Categories and Types of Present-day English” treats conversion as a morphological-syntactical word-building because we have not only the change of the paradigm, bul also the change of the syritactic function Verh formed from noim is a deneminal verb, sharing the following syntactic fimetions of verbs:

2.1.1.1 Syntactic Features

‘The denominal verbs oecur as a part ofa predicate of a sentence,

Our company authored the documentation

- Phoasc conference with yom teachar and report

- We are efforting to work this out,

“This will strongly impact the price of the company’s stock

‘The managing editor must interface with a varicty of freelance editors

- Thave been tasked with a new projcet,

2 The derivates of the denominal verbs can have different grammatical functions such as

subjects, objects, ar complements

Brushing his coat with his hand is too easy

- She enjoyed combing her hairin the room Í

ce

- He has agreed /o fiaison with the Division on behalf of those with problem eases

- She took the picture to the wall to tape,

3 The denominal verbs carry markers of grammatical categories such as tense, aspect,

voice, mood, person, number

- You can access the information any time

+ Tim had bicyeled ta the village with Gertrud

- We were stoned and boitled by the spectators as we marched down the street

- ‘To prove his skill as an acrobat he carnwheeled gracefully into the room

Lie stapled the papers together

Any opponent is fabelled a "communist" by the reactionary government

- Can you (ape that programme tonight for me please?

~ ‘The denominal verbs can be transitive and intransitive verbs

® As intransitive verbs

- Oh, well, we already have talephoned, cabled faved and e-mailed

- She has grumbled all the way up the stairs

« As transitive verbs

Jer government will start fending many housing development projects next year

- Tn thal year, the army staged a coup d’élal and seized power

- However, Professor Jolm Gum, who chaired the working party said that the delay

was inevitable because of the constraints at the time

2.1.1.2, Morphotogical features

‘The denominal verb consists of one morpheme as a root According to Quizk et al (1973), like many other English verbs, it has five forms Take the denominal verb ship for

example: the base ship the-s form ships, the past form shipped, the past participle shipped,

aud the - ing participle shipping

By means of derivation, it can has derivates as follow: shipper (noun): one who sends goods from one place to another not in the same city or town, esp one who sends goods

‘by water, shipping (adjective): relating to ships, their ownership, transfer, or employment,

as, shiping concems, shipment (noun): the act or process of shipping, as, he was engaged in

the shipment of cual for London, an aeti

The denominal verbs have two advantages over derivational verbs, the main verb is

hipmnanl of wheat from the W

unrestricted in its meanings (as opposed to verbs with affixes, where the aflix has some conizol over the meaning af the verb), and as conversions are far tuore likely to be able ta form patticle or phrasal verbs, this means that two verbs with the same morphological stem can exist side by side with slightly different meanings (a simple conversion and a

ion) e.g hottle(V) vs bottle up(V) (molaphorival usc) Nouns can be converted straight into particle or phrasal verbs without the need for a phrasal/particle con

pre-existing non-phrasal/particle verh form For example, the verb chicken out exists, where *chicken(V) doss not: This

extremely important, and is an area that has, as yel,

been neglected in the literature Where a noun is converted straight into a phrasal verb, users must have thought that the conversion alone was insuflicient to guarantee the conveyance of a clear meaning to an interpreter The relationship between the two clements in the converted phrasal verb is symbiotic, with cach clement being vital to the verb’s meaning and function

The denominal verbs car also be used in such compounds as shipwreck, botile-feed, honey moon, cold-shoulder, free wheel, flashlight, blackball, blacklist, pinball, stonewall, bhue-pencil, my-dear, my-lave etc

2.1.2 Semantic Features

In this section, the different senses of N-V conversion or of the denominal verbs will be explored Like any other lexical verbs, the denominal verbs refer to actions, processes or changes Clearly, the word made by conversion has different meaning from the original

word though the twe meanings can be associated There are certain regularities m theses

association that can be classified Verbs can be formed from nouns of different semantic

groups and have different meanings becausc of that Bascd on Clark and Clark’s

(1979:761-811) classification, they proposed the following classes of denominal verbs:

focatum verbs, location and duration verbs, agent and experiencer verbs, goal and source

verbs, instrument verbs Pascd on the classification suggested by R Quik et af

(1973:442), there are seven subtypes of denominal verbs Below, a closer investigation

which still being far from exhaustive will show, however, same signs of pattemed

relationship, especially if one observes semantically related groups ‘he examples serve only to illustrate and clarity this

1 Verbs have instrumental meaning “To with N” if they are formed from:

(a) Nouns denoting paris of a human body eg eye, finger, leg, Aand, elbow, knee, toe,

shoulder, nose, head, stomach

- The remains being scnt to Hawaii on Tuesday for forcnsic tests were found or handed in

by Vietnamese during a month-long field search, which ended on September 20

- The clerk handed me the key

- She fingered the soft silk

He feaded the ball into the goal

- She elbowed her way forward

- The dog nosed out a rat

- The little boy Aveed the door open

I cannot stomach seafood

- The soldisr shouldered his rucksack

Verbs based on nouns denoting some parts of the human body will show regularity of

instrumental meaning, however, fo face does not imply doing something by or even with

one’s face but mrning it in certain direction, to hack means to move hackwards

Verbs fiom nouns denoting parts of a human body can be used in figurative meaning

Her father once headed the government's propaganda machine

~The major headed the procession as it entered the town

- These important questions are facing us today

- We understand thai Vietnam is facing great challenges of global economic

competition

- She is the candidate who is backed by the Labor Party

- Whois backing the film?

A reporter is nosing about for news

- Donot try to elbow your way in

- Do not wsusele in.