Information AboutVerbification |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT VERBIFICATION | |
| word coinage | |
| linguistics | |
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Verbification may have a bad reputation with some English users because it is such a potent source of Neologisms . Although most products of verbification are regarded as neologisms, and may meet considerable opposition from Prescriptivist authorities, they are extremely common in Colloquial speech, particularly specialized Jargon , where words are needed to describe common actions or experiences. Verbification is by no means confined to Argot , and has furnished English with countless new expressions, e.g. "access", as in "access the file", which was previously a noun, as in "gain access to the file". Similar mainstream examples include "host", as in "host a party", and "chair", as in "chair the meeting". Other formations, such as "gift", are less widespread but nevertheless mainstream. Examples of verbification in the English Language number in the thousands, including some of the most common words, such as '' Mail '' and '' Email '', '' Strike '', ''talk'', '' Salt '', '' Pepper '', '' Switch '', '' Bed '', '' Sleep '', '' Ship '', '' Train '', '' Stop '', '' Drink '', '' Cup '', '' Lure '', ''mutter'', '' Dress '', '' Dizzy '', '' Divorce '', '' Fool '', ''merge'', and many more, to be found on virtually every page in the Dictionary . Often it is impossible to tell which form arose first. Note all the examples in this paragraph involve the process of Conversion / "zero derivation". Some verbifications take the form of Back-formation s. For example, "enthusiasm" has been verbified into "enthuse". This kind of formation was used even by Shakespeare , who wrote in '' Hamlet '' of a Star " {Link without Title} his course to ''illume'' that part of heaven". Verbification is sometimes used to create Nonce Word s or joking words, often (but not always) with the aid of suffixes such as "-ify", "-ate", "-ize", etc. Sometimes these jocular constructions gain favor and become used in serious discourse, due to a subtle shade of meaning which is present in the neologism but absent from similar standard verbs, e.g. "speechify". In other cases, simple Conversion is involved, as with formations like " Beer ", as in ''beer me'' ("give me a beer") and " Eye ", as in ''eye it'' ("look at it"). Sometimes, a verbified form requires an adverb, e.g. " Sex " as in ''sex it up'' ("make it sexier"). In other languages, such as Japanese and the Semitic Languages , verbification is a more regular process. In Esperanto , any word can be transformed into a verb, either by altering its ending to "-i", or by applying suffixes such as "-igi" and "-iĝi". POPULAR CULTURE A Calvin And Hobbes strip dealt with this phenomenon, although it mentioned "verbing" words instead of "verbifying" them. ''"Verbing weirds language."'' EXTERNAL LINKS
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