What is conversion in word formation?

Word Formation Questions Medium



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What is conversion in word formation?

Conversion in word formation refers to the process of creating a new word by changing the grammatical category or part of speech of an existing word, without adding any affixes or altering the word's form. It involves using a word in a different syntactic role or category than its original usage. For example, the noun "email" can be converted into a verb by using it in a sentence like "I will email you later." Similarly, the adjective "green" can be converted into a noun by using it in a sentence like "I love the color green." Conversion allows for flexibility and creativity in language use by repurposing existing words to fit different linguistic contexts.