On the status of conversion in present-day American English: controversial issues and corpus-based study

Abstract

This paper examines both theoretical and practical issues related to conversion. A quite detailed characterization of the 5329 instances identified in a 300.000-word corpus of American English written in the late 90s is provided. The examples are grouped according to the type of conversion involved. Frequency and the internal structure of words are also considered and compared with the results obtained by earlier scholars. In spite of the limitations that a corpus study imposes, the conclusions obtained seem to suggest that any item, independent of its morphological structure, may undergo conversion and this may happen in any register. Moreover, conversion seems to be an important source of new items in American English nowadays.