Conversion of english words denoting human body parts and the vietnamese equivalents hiện tượng chuyển đổi từ loại các từ chỉ bộ phận cơ thể tiếng anh và các hình thức diễn đạt tương đươ

PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale of the study Nowadays, learning English plays an essential role in education and training in many countries in the world. Therefore, a good knowledge of English language becomes a must for learners, especially those of English. Among the four aspects of language, namely phonology, syntax, and lexicology, the last one provides us with information about the form, the formation and the meaning of the word. It is no doubt that the success of a learner of English is not separated from hisher good knowledge of English lexicology in general and English word formation in particular. Today English vocabulary exceeds the number of one million words. The fastgrowing stock of English words is the result of its variety of ways of forming words. Of all the ways of forming new words in English, conversion, a case of coining new words by turning words into different parts of speech, seems to be one of the most productive phenomena. And that English nouns denoting human body parts are converted into other parts of speech, particularly verbs is also a common trend in English language. As a consequence, if the learner of English has a good command of conversion, especially that of words denoting human body parts, heshe can not only understand new words formed in this way, but also produce new words via conversion by himherself. In addition, from my teaching experience, I realize that my students often make mistakes when working with words made from conversion of those denoting human body parts as well as when translating these words into English. For all the above reasons, I have decided to choose the topic: Conversion of English words denoting human body parts and the Vietnamese equivalents for my Master’s Thesis. This thesis is conducted with the hope that the research findings will provide both theoretically and practically useful knowledge for Vietnamese learners and translators of English. 2. Aims of the study The aims of the study are: to provide an insight into English conversion as a way of forming new words in general and conversion of words denoting human body parts in particular, together with their Vietnamese equivalents. to explore how meanings are changed via conversion of words denoting human body parts. to find out the similarities and differences between English conversion of words denoting human body parts and their Vietnamese equivalents. to survey the students’ problems and mistakes in learning and translating English words of human body parts and suggest some solutions. 3. Research questions To fully achieve these aims, the study should answer the following questions: (i) What is conversion and what is the position of conversion in word formation and semasiology? (ii) How are English nouns denoting human body parts converted into other parts of speech? And what are their Vietnamese equivalents? (iii) What are some main ways of semantic change in conversion of English words denoting human body parts? (iv) What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese in terms of conversion of words denoting human body parts? (v) What are the students’ problems and mistakes in learning and translating English words of human body parts and how can they overcome them? 4. Scope of the study The study is intended to cover conversion of only English nouns denoting human body parts, especially those with high frequency of use. It is the fact that conversion may occur among different parts of speech, but in this study conversion mainly takes place from nouns to verbs. Finally, examples for illustration are mostly given in full sentences and quoted from literary works and dictionaries. 5. Methods of the study In the implementation of the study, a number of methods will be adopted. Firstly, the study will make use of descriptive method to describe different features of English conversion in general and conversion of words denoting human body parts in particular. Secondly, in order to find out the similarities and differences between conversion of English words denoting human body parts and the Vietnamese equivalents, the study will adopt contrastive analysis. Finally, techniques of statistics will also be employed to show major ways of semantic change in conversion of English words denoting human body parts and to explore common mistakes made by Vietnamese learners of English in translating words of human body parts. 6. Design of the study The study has three main parts: Part I is the introduction to the study, including rationale of the study, aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study, methods of the study and design of the study. Part II, the development of the study, consists of three main chapters. Chapter 1 provides the theoretical background of the study, namely word formation, semasiology (semantic structure of the word and semantic change), conversion and the human body. Chapter 2 discusses how English nouns of human body parts are converted into other parts of speech together with their new meanings. Chapter 3 reveals the findings of the study. In this chapter, we will find out the major ways of semantic change in conversion of English words denoting human body parts and explore the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese regarding conversion of words denoting human body parts. The implication of the study is also included in this chapter. Part III, the conclusion of the study, gives a brief summary and conclusion of the study as well as some suggestions for further study

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale of the study

Nowadays, learning English plays an essential role in education andtraining in many countries in the world Therefore, a good knowledge ofEnglish language becomes a must for learners, especially those of English.Among the four aspects of language, namely phonology, syntax, andlexicology, the last one provides us with information about the form, theformation and the meaning of the word It is no doubt that the success of alearner of English is not separated from his/her good knowledge of Englishlexicology in general and English word formation in particular

Today English vocabulary exceeds the number of one million words.The fast-growing stock of English words is the result of its variety of ways offorming words Of all the ways of forming new words in English, conversion,

a case of coining new words by turning words into different parts of speech,seems to be one of the most productive phenomena And that English nounsdenoting human body parts are converted into other parts of speech,particularly verbs is also a common trend in English language As aconsequence, if the learner of English has a good command of conversion,especially that of words denoting human body parts, he/she can not onlyunderstand new words formed in this way, but also produce new words viaconversion by him/herself In addition, from my teaching experience, I realizethat my students often make mistakes when working with words made fromconversion of those denoting human body parts as well as when translatingthese words into English

For all the above reasons, I have decided to choose the topic:

Conversion of English words denoting human body parts and the Vietnamese equivalents for my Master’s Thesis This thesis is conducted with

the hope that the research findings will provide both theoretically andpractically useful knowledge for Vietnamese learners and translators ofEnglish

2 Aims of the study

The aims of the study are:

- to provide an insight into English conversion as a way of forming newwords in general and conversion of words denoting human body parts inparticular, together with their Vietnamese equivalents

- to explore how meanings are changed via conversion of words denotinghuman body parts

- to find out the similarities and differences between English conversion ofwords denoting human body parts and their Vietnamese equivalents

- to survey the students’ problems and mistakes in learning and translatingEnglish words of human body parts and suggest some solutions

(iii) What are some main ways of semantic change in conversion of Englishwords denoting human body parts?

(iv) What are the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese

in terms of conversion of words denoting human body parts?

(v) What are the students’ problems and mistakes in learning and translatingEnglish words of human body parts and how can they overcome them?

4 Scope of the study

The study is intended to cover conversion of only English nounsdenoting human body parts, especially those with high frequency of use It isthe fact that conversion may occur among different parts of speech, but in thisstudy conversion mainly takes place from nouns to verbs Finally, examplesfor illustration are mostly given in full sentences and quoted from literaryworks and dictionaries

5 Methods of the study

In the implementation of the study, a number of methods will beadopted Firstly, the study will make use of descriptive method to describedifferent features of English conversion in general and conversion of wordsdenoting human body parts in particular Secondly, in order to find out thesimilarities and differences between conversion of English words denotinghuman body parts and the Vietnamese equivalents, the study will adoptcontrastive analysis Finally, techniques of statistics will also be employed toshow major ways of semantic change in conversion of English wordsdenoting human body parts and to explore common mistakes made byVietnamese learners of English in translating words of human body parts

6 Design of the study

The study has three main parts:

Part I is the introduction to the study, including rationale of the study,

aims of the study, research questions, scope of the study, methods of the studyand design of the study

Part II, the development of the study, consists of three main chapters.

Chapter 1 provides the theoretical background of the study, namely word

formation, semasiology (semantic structure of the word and semantic change),conversion and the human body

Chapter 2 discusses how English nouns of human body parts are converted

into other parts of speech together with their new meanings

Chapter 3 reveals the findings of the study In this chapter, we will find out

the major ways of semantic change in conversion of English words denotinghuman body parts and explore the similarities and differences betweenEnglish and Vietnamese regarding conversion of words denoting human bodyparts The implication of the study is also included in this chapter

Part III, the conclusion of the study, gives a brief summary and

conclusion of the study as well as some suggestions for further study

PART 2: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

In order to create the theoretical foundation for the study on Conversion

of English words of body parts in the main part, it is necessary to have acomprehensive understanding of the relevant literature review This chapter,therefore, is intended to give an overview of Conversion in English Theconcept of conversion as a word formation process will be regarded andrevealed with the provision of definitions and types

1.1.1 Affixation

Affixation is the formation of new words with the help of affixes Asaffixes consist of prefixes and suffixes, affixation is further divided intoprefixation and suffixation

Prefixation is the formation of new words by adding prefixes to the

roots Prefixes mainly modify the lexical meaning of the root and rarely form

new parts of speech For example:

un + happy (adj) → unhappy (adj)

re + do (v) → redo (v)

Prefixes are classified in many ways, either according to their origin(native or borrowed: Romance/Latin) or meaning or function (verb-forming,adjective-forming…) Based on meaning, English prefixes are divided intothree groups: (i) negation, (ii) reversal or repetition, and (iii) space and timerelationship, for example:

(i) Negation : un-, dis-, non-, mis-, in-, il-, im-,

ir-un-: unhappy, uneven,

dis-: dishonest, disaffection,

non-: non-stop, non-party,

mis-: misunderstand, mis-use,

in-: in-active, in-accurate,

il-: il-legal, il-logical,

im-: im-possible, im-proper,

ir-: ir-regular, ir-responsible

(ii) Reversal or repetition: un-, dis-, re-, de-, anti-,

un-: unbind, unmask, unpack

dis-: disgorge, dishouse, disengage

re-: rearrange, remarried, reassemble, rebirth

de-: demobilize, decentralize, decontaminate

anti-: anti-war, anti-aircraft, anti-thesis

counter-: counter-attack, counter-weight, counter-revolution

(iii) Space and time relationship: pre-, post-, fore-, over-, super-,

pre-: pre-tax, pre-set, pre-record, pre-christian,

post-: post-graduate, post-impressionism, post-industrial, postscript, fore-: forearm, forehead, forecast, foreword, foreknow,

over-: overcook, overheat, overnight,

: computer, glue, human, man,

super-star

With respect to suffixation, it is the formation of words by addingsuffixes to the roots The most distinctive feature of suffixes is that theyusually change the meaning of the roots both lexically and grammatically Inother words, they modify the lexical meaning of the roots and transfer words

to different parts of speech, for example:

to eat (verb) → eat + able = eatable (adjective); eat + er = eater (noun) green (adjective) → green+ ish =greenish (adj); green+ ness = greenness (noun)

nation (noun) → nation + al = national (adj); national + ize = nationalize.

There are, however, some cases in which suffixes do not change the part ofspeech For example:

child (noun) + hood = child-hood (noun)

tiger (noun) + ess = tiger-ess (noun)

movie (noun) + dom = movie-dom (noun)

Suffixes can be classified in different ways according to differentprinciples The most practical principle for us is the part of speech formed.Within this scope, suffixes fall into the following groups:

(i) Noun- forming suffixes:

- age: block-age

-ess: tigeress, actress

-or, -er: visitor, teacher

-ice: service, justice

(ii) adjective- forming suffixes

-able: fashionable, eatable, drinkable

-al: national, classical, economical

-ese: Vietnamese, Saigonese

-ive: active effective, productive

-ly: lovely, lively

(iii) Numeral- forming suffixes:

consisting of at least two stems (roots) which occur in the language as freeforms.

e.g classroom, time-table, bedroom, schoolgirl, passer-by, aircraft-carrier,

kind-hearted, handwash, sunbeam, etc

- The components of a compound may be either simple or derived words oreven other compound words

- In a sentence, compounds may function as separate lexical units

- English compounds have two stems: determinant (the first stem) anddeterminatum (the second stem, expressing a general meaning andundergoing inflection)

e.g blackboard(s): determinant black and determinatum board

1.1.3 Shortening

Shortening is a productive way of building words in English, especially

in colloquial speech and advertisement

e.g ad (advertisement), TV, I.O.U.

Shortening includes abbreviation and blending The former includes

Acronyms and Clipping Acronyms are words built from the initials of several

words, for example:

USSR (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics)

UN (United Nations)

UNO (United Nations Organization)

NATO (The North Atlantic Treaty Organization0

EPA (Environment Protection Agency)

S.O.S (Save Our Souls)

MP (Member of Parliament)

VOA (Voice of America)

BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation)

There are two special cases of acronyms, namely monograms andhomonymy-based acronyms Monograms are the cases in which two or moreletters combined in one design, often found in handkerchiefs, note-paper.Wedding invitation cards Homonymy-based acronyms are those acronyms

based on the use of identical sounds of words and letters, e.g IOU (I owe you)

Clipping refers to the case in which some part of the word or

expression is clipped to form a new word Clipping is further classified intoInitial, Final, Initio-final, Medial, and Elliptico-conversional clipping

Initial clipping is the case in which the first part of the word is clipped,

for example: Phone (telephone), cute (acute), fend (defend), mend (amend),

story (history), sport (disport), tend (attend), cello (violoncello), chute (parachute), car (motorcar), plane (aeroplane).

Final clipping is the case in which the last part of a word is clipped, for

example: ad, advert (advertisement), coke (coca cola), ed (editor), fab

(fabulous), gym (gymnastics), lab (laboratory), mac (mackintosh), ref (referee), vegs (veggies, vegetables), sis (sister), doc (doctor), prof (professor), uni (university).

Initio-final clipping is the case in which both the first and the last parts

are clipped, for example: frig/fridge (refrigerator), flu (influenza), tec

(detective).

Medial clipping refers to the case in which the medial part is clipped,

for example: maths (mathematics), specs (spectacles), V-day (victory day),

H-bomb (hydrogen H-bomb), fancy (fantasy), ma’am (madam).

Finally, elliptico-conversional (or phrasal clipping) is a combination of

ellipsis, conversion and clipping, for example: open on (open fire on), daily,

weekly (daily, weekly paper), finals (final examinations), prelims

(preliminary examinations), perm (permanent wave), pop (popular music), prom (promenade concert), pub (public house), taxi (taxi cab).

The second subtype of shortening, blending, is a special type whereparts of words merge into one new word Below are some examples:

brunch (breakfast + lunch)

smog (smoke +fog)

motel (motor +hotel)

medicare (medical +care)

Frenchlish (French +English)

smaze (smoke + haze)

transceiver (transmitter + receiver)

1.1.4 Conversion

Conversion is the formation of a new word in a different part of speechwithout adding any elements For this reason, conversion is also calledfunctional change or zero derivation Here are some examples:

- Words showing names of animals: crow, cuckoo, humming bird,

whippoorwill (whip-poor-will), cricket.

- Words showing sounds made by animals: howl, cock-a-doodle-doo, quack,

croak, mew, moo.

- Words showing movement of water: flush, splash, babble.

- Words showing actions made by man: giggle, chatter, grumble, murmur, whisper, grumpy, groan, grunt, growl.

1.1.6 Sound and stress interchange

Sound interchange refers to the case in which new words are built bychanging the root vowel or consonant of the old words, for example:

abide (v) à abode (n) (root vowel)

advise (v) à advice (n) (root consonant)

bathe (v) à bath (n) (both)

It may also be combined with affixation:

strong (adj) à strength (n)

or with affixation and shift of stress as in:

1.1.7 Back Derivation (Back formation)

Back derivation is the building of new words by subtracting a real orsupposed affix from existing words

to cobble from cobbler

to blood-transfuse from blood transfusion

to fingerprint from fingerprintings

to straphang from straphanger

to swindle from swindler

to edit from editor

to force-land from forced-landing

pea (singular) from peas=peas (plural)

to air-condition from air-conditioner

to beach-comb from beach-comber

Within the scope of the study, we are going to focus on one of the mostproductive ways of forming new words in English: conversion

1.2 Semasiology

1.2.1 Semantic structure of the word

In English, apart from a small number of words, usually technicalwords, which have only one meaning, the majority of English words havemore than one meaning (monosemantic) Some even have a lot of meanings

(polysemantic) like run, set, break, cut, play, make, light, clear, draw, give

meanings it has Yet, it is not in every polysemantic word that such a centrecan be found Some semantic structures are arranged on a different principle.

In the following list of meanings of the adjective dull one can hardly hope to

find a generalized meaning covering and holding together the rest of thesemantic structure

Dull (adj)

(i) uninteresting, monotonous, boring: e.g a dull book / film

(ii) slow in understanding, stupid: e.g a dull student

(iii) not clear or bright: e.g dull weather, a dull day, a dull color

(iv) not loud or distinct: e.g a dull sound

(v) not sharp: e.g a dull knife

(vi) not active e.g trade is dull

(vii) seeing badly: e.g dull eyes

(viii) hearing badly: e.g dull ears

Yet we may feel that there is something that all these meanings have incommon - that is the semantic property of deficiency, eg of interest (i), ofwits (ii), of color (iii), of sound (iv), of sharpness (v), etc

1.2.1.1 Types of meaning

It is necessary to mention word meaning before the contrastive analysis

of conversion in English and Vietnamese is carried out in terms of bothgrammatical and semantic features Word meaning has been a great concern

of many linguists The word as a structural and semantic entity within the

language system has two main types of meaning: grammatical and lexical.

Let us have a quick look at grammatical meaning before discussing the lexicalmeaning and its components

According to Lyons (1995:52), a lexeme may have different wordforms, which will generally differ in their grammatical meaning For example,

the forms of head and heads differ in respect of their grammatical meaning of

singularity and plurality The grammatical meaning may be defined as themeaning of categories attached to the word, the component of meaningrecurrent in identical sets of individual forms of different words Thegrammatical categories of English are tense, mood, aspect, voice, case,number, person and comparison e.g the tense meaning in the word-forms of

verbs went, answered, wrote In modern linguistics, it is commonly held that

some elements of grammatical meaning can be identified by the position ofthe linguistic unit in relation to other linguistic units, i.e by its distribution

Word-forms to eye, to head, have the same grammatical meaning as they can

all be found in identical distribution

As far as lexical meaning is concerned, Baker (1992:12) states that thelexical meaning of a word may be viewed as the specific value it has in aparticular linguistic system Lexical meaning is the invariable part ofmeaning It is the proper meaning, the most outstanding individual property ofwords The same lexical meaning applies for all grammatical forms of a word

In contrast with grammatical meaning, it can stand on its own and identical inall the forms of the word

Lexical meaning should be contrasted with lexico-grammaticalmeaning, a kind of meaning which is between lexical meaning andgrammatical meaning The lexicon-grammatical meaning is the commondenominator of all the meaning of words belonging to a lexico-grammaticalclass of words It is the feature according to which they are grouped together.Words in which abstraction and generalization are so great that they can be

lexical representatives of lexico-grammatical meaning and substitute anywords of their class are called generic terms.

Words belonging to one lexico-grammatical class are characterized by

a common system of forms in which the grammatical categories inherent inthem are expressed They are also substituted by the same prop-words, for

example things, ones, etc… and possess some characteristic formulas of

semantic and morphological structure and a characteristic set of derivationalaffixes (Quirk et al, 1972)

The degree and character of abstraction and generalization in grammatical meanings and the generic terms that present them areintermediate between those characteristic of grammatical categories and thoseobserved on the lexical level – hence the term lexico-grammatical

The relationship between the linguistic lexical meaning and the logicalnotion deserves special attention not only because they are apt to beconfused but also because in comparing and contrasting them it is possible

to achieve a better insight into the essence of both

The lexical meaning of every word depends upon the part of speech towhich the word belongs Every word may be used in a limited set ofsyntactical functions, and with a definite valency It has a definite set ofgrammatical meanings, and a definite set of forms

Every lexicon-grammatical group of words or class is characterized byits own lexico-grammatical meaning, forming, as it were, the commondenominator of all the meanings of the words which belong to this group Thelexico-grammatical meaning may also be regarded as the feature according towhich these words are grouped together

In the lexical meaning of every separate word the lexico-grammaticalmeaning common to all the words of the class to which this word belongs isenriched by additional features and becomes particularized.

Summing up all the points of difference between the things meant, thenotion and the meaning, we can say that the lexical meaning of the word may

be defined as the realization or naming of a notion, emotion or object bymeans of a definite language system subject to the influence of grammar andvocabulary peculiarities of that language Words that express notions mayalso have some emotional or stylistic coloring or express connotationssuggestive of the contexts in which they often appear All the specific featuresthat distinguish the lexical meaning from the notion are due to its linguisticnature Expressing the notion is one of the functions of word but not the onlyone, as there are words that do not name any notion: their meaning isconstituted by other functions The development of the lexical meaning isinfluenced by the whole complicated network of ties and relations betweenthe words in a given vocabulary and between the vocabulary and other aspects

of the language

With respect to types of lexical meaning, Võ Đại Quang (2006:20)

points out that there are two types of lexical meaning: direct meaning and indirect meaning By direct meaning, the word directly denotes something

without comparing it or associating it with other things It is also called literalmeaning By indirect meaning, the word refers to the thing meant inassociation with something, we need context and have to compare it orassociate 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 meaning

1.2.1.2 Components of lexical meaning

Regarding the components of lexical meaning, as mentioned in 1.2.1., it

is often assumed that the lexical meaning of a word is composed of

denotational meaning (denotation) and connotational meaning (connotation).

The denotative component expresses the conceptual (notional)

content of a word It includes or points out things or concepts For example,

the denotational meaning of the word cat is “a small animal with soft fur and

sharp teeth and claws, often kept as a pet, or in buildings to catch mice”,

whereas that of the word dog is “a common animal with four legs, kept by

human beings as pets, or trained for work, hunting, guarding.” When the

referent is a concept, an abstract thing, we have significative denotation and when it is an individual object we have demonstrative denotation.

The connotative component shows us how things, concepts, etc are

indicated (denoted) It conveys the speaker’s attitudes, emotions and so on

For instance, the words father, dad, daddy have the same denotational

meaning but different connotational meanings There are four main types of

connotations, namely stylistic, emotional, evaluative and expressive or

intensifying.

Stylistic connotation (stylistic colouring) means that a word may be

colloquial, bookish, or slangy etc Stylistic connotation may cover:

(i) The associations at work concerning the situation in which the word is

uttered: the social circumstances (formal, familiar, etc).

(ii) The social relationships between the interlocutors (polite, rough)

(iii) The type and purpose of communication (learned, poetic, official, etc.)

For example, the following words have the same denotational meaning, butdifferent stylistic connotations:

horse: stylistically neutral

steed: poetic nag: a word of slang gee-gee: baby language

An emotional or affective connotation is acquired because the

referent conceptualized and named in the denotative meaning is associated

with emotions For example, the words to ask and to beseech have the same denotational meaning but the latter means to ask eagerly and also anxiously.

He besought a favour of the judge.

Evaluative connotation expresses approval or disapproval For

example, whereas the word magic has glamorous attractive connotations, the words witchcraft, sorcery have rather sinister associations.

Intensifying connotation expresses expressiveness or emphasis For

example, all the words magnificient, gorgeous, splendid, superb are used

colloquially as terms of exaggeration

We often come across words that have two or three types of

connotations at once; for example, the word beastly as in beastly weather or

beastly cold is emotional, colloquial, expresses censure and intensity.

Therefore, connotation can be considered as an additional meaning todenotation The diagram below summarises the different types of meaning:

Diagram 1.1: Word meaning

of semantic change, namely (i) extension or generalization of meaning, (ii)narrowing or particularization of meaning, (iii) degradation of meaning, and(iv) elevation of meaning Let us now discuss each type:

(i) Extention or generalization of meaning

Extension of meaning refers to the case where the number of meanings

of the same word can be expended, which leads to polysemy The word

ready, for example, means be prepared for a ride in Old English but be prepared for anything in Modern English Another example is pipe, which

means a musical instrument in Old English but any long hollow tube in

Modern English

Generalization is the case in which not only the word widens itsmeaning but passes from specialized vocabulary into commonly used one For

example, the word camp as a military term used to mean place where troops

are lodged in tents but now means temporary quarters Here are some more

examples:

greedy: hungry eager to obtain and keep

boot-legger: an illegal dealer in liquor an illegal dealer

(ii) Narrowing/ specialization of meaning

Narrowing of meaning means the narrowing of the number of meanings

that a word expresses For example, in Old English the word meat refers to

food in general, but means only animal flesh as food in Modern English The

word deer means animal in Old English, but an animal (con hươu) in Modern

English

Specialization of meaning is the development of meaning from the

more general to the more specific For example, girl means child in Old English, but female child in Modern English, or starve means die in Old

English but die of hunger in Modern English

(iii)Degradation of meaning

Degradation of meaning refers to the case in which some words have

got less nice emotive meaning For example, the word knave means a boy

servant in Old English but an unprincipled or dishonest man in Modern

English; the word artful means art in Old English but crafty or deceitful in

Modern English

(iv) Elevation of meaning

Elevation of meaning is the case in which some words have got more

pleasant ant nicer emotive meanings For example, the word noble used to mean aristocratic in Middle English but lofty in Modern English Or the word

minister means servant / attendant in Middle English but head of a state department / head of a ministry in Modern English.

1.3 Conversion

1.3.1 The concept of conversion in English

Although conversion has been an important part of English wordformation for centuries, linguists have argued over almost every facet relating

to this process; even down to the term used to describe it The terminologyused for this process has not even been completely established yet Mostcurrent linguists use ‘conversion’, but others refer to the process as

‘functional change’ or ‘functional shift’, and derivation’ or affixation’ Each term is associated with a different connotation, theory, andslightly different meaning

‘zero-Regarding the term Functional change or shift it is, for example, used

by Cannon (1987:67), who believes that “from a linguistic point of view,functional shift does not add a new form to the lexicon; but the inflectability

or noninflectability of the new function shift requires it to be classed as a newform etymologically”

As far as the term Zero-derivation or zero-affixation, is concerned, if

conversion is viewed as a word-formation process, one theory is that itappears to run parallel to the derivational word-formation processes.Inflectional affixes are said to be ‘class-maintaining’, whereas derivationalaffixes are ‘class-changing’; as the conversion process is ‘class-changing’, it

is deemed to be derivation with a ‘zero-affix’ or ‘zero-morpheme’ This issue

has caused debate amongst linguists and divides them into two camps: thosewho think that there is a zero-element involved in the process, and those whoreject that theory Prominent linguists who endorse the theory that conversion

is a process involving the addition of a derivational zero include Marchand(1969), Lyons (1977), and Allen (1978) According Marchand (1969: 360), “it

is because of the parallelism with overty marked derivatives or derivatives not that because of the added element of content” Lyons(1977:512) defines that “zero-derivation is derivation by means of theaffixation of an identity element” Allen (1978: 273) also states, “It is clearthat the zero element under consideration is a derivational suffix, henceattached to the basic word by a derivational word formation rule Not only is alexical category change, typical of derivational suffixation, involved, butinflectional endings cannot appear inside the zero element The zero must,consequently, be a derivational affix”

zezo-The term ‘Conversion’ represents something of a middle ground between

‘functional shift’ and ‘zero-derivation’: ‘conversion’ is usually used where thelinguist rejects the idea of a ‘zero’ element, but thinks that the processinvolves word-formation rather than just functional changes It was, in fact,the term originally applied to the process by Sweet (189, 38-39), andcurrently seems to be the dominant theory, being endorsed by, for example,Bauer (1983), Zandvoort (1972), Pennanen (1971), Katamba (1993), Quirk

et al (1973), Lieber (2005), Valera (2005) Conversion is technically defined

as the deliberate transfer of a word from one part of speech to another as byZandvoort (1972:65) Katamba, (1993:54) states that words may be formedwithout modifying the form of the input word that serves as the base Thishead can be a noun or verb This is called conversion “Conversion is thechange in form class of a form without any corresponding change of form”

Bauer (1983:32), "Conversion is the derivational process whereby an item

changes its word class without the addition of an affix" (Quirk et al, 1973:

441) “Conversion is the process by which lexical items change (grammatical)category without any concomitant change in form” Lieber (2005: 418)

“Conversion is one of the processes that may take part in the creation of newlexemes in English” (Valera 2005: 20)

In short, despite the fact that there are many definitions, it is largelyagreed that conversion is a way of coining new words by changing theexisting words into new parts of speech without using any affixes

1.3.2 Some remarkable features of conversion

Conversion is a convenient and productive way of enriching theEnglish vocabulary Conversion is particularly common in English becausethe basic form of nouns and verbs is identical in many cases (Aitchison, 1989:160) It is usually impossible in languages with grammatical genders,declensions, or conjugations (Cannon, 1985: 430) Its productivity isconsiderably encouraged by certain features of the English language in itsmodern stage of development The simplicity of paradigms facilitatesprocesses of making words of one category of parts of speech from words ofanother So does the analytical structure of the language A great number ofone-syllable words is another factor in favor of conversion for such words arenaturally more mobile and flexible than polysyllables

Cannon (1985: 415) asserts that conversion will become even moreactive in the future because it is a very easy way to create new words inEnglish There is no way to know the number of conversions appearing everyday in the spoken language, although we know this number must be high As

it is a quite recent phenomenon, the written evidence is not a fully reliablesource We will have to wait a little longer to understand its whole impact,which will surely increase in importance in the next decades.

The process of conversion has some semantic limitations A convertedword only assumes one of the range of meanings of the original word For

example, the noun paper has various meanings, such as newspaper, material

to wrap things The denominal verb, though, only contains the sense of

putting that material on places like walls This shows the converted item hasonly converted part of the semantic field of the source item

1.3.3 Different types of conversion in English

There are several ways to classify conversion due to different purposes

and points of view Based on a preference in history, conversion can be divided into traditional 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 be found,which are not registered by dictionaries, called nonce words and occurmomentarily, through the immediate need of the situation For example, when

a person keeps saying “hello, dear” to anyone he meets, we can coin the verb

“hello dear” by saying “he hello dears everybody” We can also make it anoun: “I’m tired of his hello-dear”

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) In partial conversion, the converted form does not

show any derivation or inflection Conversion from noun to adjective and

adjective to noun is rather a controversial one It is also called 'partialconversion" by Cannon (1985: 413) and 'syntactic process' by Bauer (1983:230), this peculiar process occurs when "a word of one class appears in afunction which is characteristic of another word class" (Quirk, 1997: 1559)

Approximate conversions are some few cases in which there are slight

non-affixal changes (Kiparsky, 1982) These can be considered marginal cases ofconversion (Bauer,1983: 228-229) Although the shift takes place, they arecalled "marginal" because of the alterations produced in the word Thismarginal group can be divided regarding two different aspects: the

pronunciation and the word-stress e.g 'shoulder (n)->shoul’der (v) (Quirk

grammatical categories, including closed-class ones, can only shift to class categories, but not to closed-class ones (prepositions, conjunctions) Inaddition, it is not rare that a simple word shifts into more than one category.

open-Up to this point conversion has only been considered as a shift fromone grammatical category to another However, these are not the only caseswhere it may happen According to Quirk (1997:1563), “The notion ofconversion may be extended to changes of secondary word class, within thesame major word category" This process has no clear terminology; forexample it is called 'change of secondary word class' by Quirk (1997: 1563)and 'conversion as a syntactic process' by Bauer (1983: 227) Within the field

of conversion, it has not been much studied because it is less evident than theclassical conversion Below is a list of conversion patterns The list, being

rather broad in scope, is adopted from Quirk et al who consider the patterns

in boldface marginal

Table 1.1: Quirk et al.’s list of conversion patterns

N-to-V: (to) arm, (to) head, to (elbow), (to)

shoulder

A-to-V: (to) lower, (to) better

Complex N-to-V: (to) streamline,(to) commission

Particle-to-V: (to) down

Vtrans-to-Vintrans: (to) sell books, books sell

Vintrans-to-Vtrans: (Lan) runs(everyday), (Lan) runs (a

company)

Nabstract/mass-to-Nconcret/ count: tea, a tea

N-to-A: a book keeper

Participle-to-A: (an) exciting film

Adv-to-A: (the) then (vice president)

V-to-N: (a) run, (a) drive

A-to-N: (a) given, (a) daily

P-to-N: (the) ins and outs, (the) up and downs

Prefix-to-N: (the) pros and cons

Auxiliary-to-N: (a) must

Phrase-to-N: (the) also-rans, (a) has-been

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 thecriterion of directionality This follows that in a full account of Englishconversion, the basic patterns mentioned above should equally be dealt with.When researching the phenomenon of conversion, this approach is consideredthe most thorough and fullest one as conversion involves in word class and itsfunction, therefore, the study is based on this classification

1.3.4 Conversion in Vietnamese.

Vietnamese is an isolating language As such, its grammar highly relies

on word order and sentence structure rather than morphology (word changesthrough inflection) Conversion is popular in languages, especially in isolatinglanguages

In Vietnamese, the occurrence of new words by using existingmaterials to create compound, reduplicative, polysemous, homonymouswords are more and more indispensable The presence of conversion,therefore, is natural and acceptable

Lê Biên (1999: 178) states that conversion is the manifestation betweenthe relationship between the thought and language In Vietnamese, conversiontakes place due to the change of how the Vietnamese people reflex, and notthe change of object reflected That is the change of word structure ofexpression

The Soviet Orientists confirm that converting words from this wordclass to another without changing its form is one of the most importantcharacteristics of isolating languages (cited in Hà Quang Năng, 1998: 141-148) This issue has been a controversial one to the linguists There have beenfour main types as following:

Firstly, “one word from multiple word classes” “nhất từ đa loại” isnamed by Le Quang Trinh, Nguyễn Hiến Lê, Hồ Hữu Tùng (cited in NguyễnHồng Cổn, 2003) They claim that in isolating languages like Chinese,Vietnamese, a word can be in any word class The concept “indeterminatetype" “không định loại” leads to the denial of the word class in isolatinglanguage Some researchers disagree with this because they haveacknowledged the presence of word class in Vietnamese, and proved thatword class assigned by three objective criteria:

1) general sense of the word class;

2) the ability to combine;

3) syntactic position of the word

Secondly, in contrast, some linguists consider the concept of word classsomething fixed, unchangeable Lê Biên (1999:178) criticizes that this is "ametaphysical view, not dialectic about the use of the word class"

Thirdly, this phenomenon is treated as conversion In “Ngữ pháp TiếngViệt (1983: 92), conversion is considered the phenomenon of using words ofthis word class with grammatical features of another However, the problem isthat the history of transformation from one type to another cannot be wellreceived: there are cases that could not be ascertained from what word classthat word is converted It is hard to identify whether the names of objects orthe name of action using objects exist first

To avoid determining direction of converting, the fourth type calls thisphenomenon "to hold concurrently more than one word class" “kiêm nhiệm từloại” It means that a word of this word class may take the task of a differentone in the different contexts In other words, one word can be used in capacity

of a different word class Words can hold concurrently more than one wordclass in the different contexts because of the meaning relation between theirprominent meanings and the other status in specific contexts Nevertheless,

we cannot replace the name "to hold concurrently more than one word class

by the name “conversion" and put equal sign between them It is necessary toconfirm that conversion is an objective phenomenon in isolating language ingeneral and Vietnamese in particular

Lê Biên (1999: 179) states that conversion is the case of grammaticalhomonymy (with the same origin), not lexical homonymy These are similar

in form (in terms of sound), original (in terms of meaning) and now used indifferent word classes in nature

Hồ Lê (1976: 163) confirms that conversion is one of the ways offorming words, capable of creating new words based on words available, bykeeping the old form and creating a new meaning that has intrinsic logicalrelationship and specific grammatical features with the old one and thatmeaning relation is unique

Therefore, we can divide the products of conversion in Vietnamese intotwo types:

- The words are of the same phonetic form, original meaning, andmembers of different word classes In each word class they participate, theyall have equal status with other words

- The words with original or prominent meanings that decide their mainstatus in certain words classes have additional or derivative sense that enablesthem to function concurrently in another word class.

- It can be concluded that conversion in Vietnamese is a reallyconvenient and flexible way of forming new words and it can be used sopopularly in both speaking and writing styles

1.4 The human body

The human body is the whole structure of human beings There areseveral approaches to the way it is structured For example, one approach sees

it as a structure of three parts, namely: upper part (the head), middle part (thetorso and arms) and the lower part (the legs) Another approach regardshuman body as consisting of the head, the torso, two arms and two legs Eachpart is, in turn, composed of different elements, for example:

the head: face, forehead, eyes, eyes brow, ears, nose, cheeks, mouth, chin,

brain, etc.

the torso: stomach, chest, shoulder, etc.

arms: elbows, hands, wrists, fingers, thumb, etc.

legs: knees, ankles, feet, toes, etc.

There are also elements that are found not just in one part but in the whole

body like blood, skin, etc.

In this study we adopt the second approach to human body, believing that ourbody is divided into the head, the torso, two arms and two legs

Based on the data we have collected the structure of our research

entitled Conversion of English words denoting human body parts and the

Vietnamese equivalents is represented as:

(2.1) The head

(2.2) The torso

(2.3) Arms and legs

CHAPTER 2 CONVERSION OF ENGLISH WORDS DENOTING HUMAN BODY

PARTS AND THE VIETNAMESE EQUIVALENTS

In this chapter, conversion of English words denoting human bodyparts and the Vietnamese equivalents will be explored and investigated.Firstly, the study will present the grammatical and semantic features of eachEnglish conversion phenomenon together with the Vietnamese equivalents.Next, it will look at how each English phenomenon takes place, and finally itwill identify some similarities and differences between the English words andthe Vietnamese equivalents

2.1 The head

As the top part of the body above the neck where the eyes, nose, mouth,

ears and brain are The word head itself and the other elements which belong

to the head are subjected to conversion in English

2.1.1 Head

As a noun, head has a number of meanings:

(a) the part of the body, meaning “đầu” in Vietnamese

Put this hat on to keep your head warm.

(Đội mũ lên để giữ ấm đầu)

(b) a person or animal when considered as a unit The Vietnamese equivalent

is usually “đầu người, or người”, for example:

Dinner will cost $20 per head.

(Buổi ăn đó có chi phí 20 đô mỗi người)

(c) a measure of length or height equal to the size of a head meaning “đầu” in

Vietnamese

Paul is a head taller than Andrew.

(Paul cao hơn Andrew một cái đầu)

Through conversion, the noun “head” is converted mainly into verb “to head” with several meanings.

a The first meaning of “to head” is to go in a particular direction The

Vietnamese equivalent is “tiến về, đi về”, for example:

He headed straight for the fridge.

(Cậu ta tiến thẳng/ đi thẳng về phía tủ lạnh)

b The second meaning of “to head” is to be in charge of a group of

organization or “đứng đầu, chỉ huy, lãnh đạo” in Vietnamese, for example:

She heads one of Britain’s leading travel firm.

(Bà ta đứng đầu một trong các công ty lữ hành hàng đầu của Anh Quốc)

c The third meaning of “to head” is to be at the front or top of something, and

the Vietnamese equivalent is often “đi đầu”, for example:

The Queen’s carriage headed the procession.

(Xe của Nữ Hoàng đi đầu đoàn diễu hành)

d The fourth meaning of “to head” is “to hit a ball with your head”,

meaning “đánh đầu” in Vietnamese, for example:

Hai headed the ball into the net.

(Hải đánh đầu đưa quả bóng vào lưới)