Conversion: Nouns - Verbs

English usage avoids adding more syllables just to make your speech sound more impressive. Likewise, Americans made adverbs from adjectives, were in England that is not acceptable.... yet. It's got some logic, after all. As John (1:1) didn't say in the Words Awards: "In the beginning was the Sword, and the Sword was with God, and the Words were Good". 

But  readers react to this device in the uses (see those tree links -and quotes- below). 

1. A noun by any other name sounds not as sweet
2. ABCnews. Judy Muller Annoyed About Nouns as Verbs: 

Buckminster Fuller once said, "God is a verb."  He did not mean that literally, of course, but metaphorically. I think he was trying to say that love is action. He did NOT go on to use that noun as an actual verb, as in "I God you."

 3. Also, in the Wordsmith forum somebody put it clearly into words:

If you ask me "Why do people hate verbing nouns so much?" I've never figured this out. English has been doing it since at least the Middle English period (1100–1450). I observe that we had to talk about verbing nouns without using the noun verb as a verb?. Well, they can be also called by other names:  denominal verbs if, like me, we were so inclined. There are deadjectival verbs, too, and deverbal nouns.

To see some ESL implications about verbing visit ESL-philoxenia

Any rules? Keep it simple -do not waive them (unless the more exotic word actually adds meaning or emphasis). In that case of simplicity, verbing is always in a win-win situation. 

In short, quoting Gowers' Plain words (1948):

"New verbs are ordinarily formed in one of three ways . . .The first is the simple method of treating a noun as a verb; it is one of the beauties of our language that nouns can be so readily converted into adjectives or verbs. This was the origin, for instance of the verb _question. 

In our travels of discovery, we met Gloria Writes who made her duties about language matters issuing this issue:  Double Duties: Conversion from Nouns to Verbs

Conversion, or zero-derivation (derivation with zero affix), is a functional shift by which one word form is generated from another without change in form.  The object of her paper is to investigate how English nouns convert to verbs, how the converted verbs, namely denominal verbs, are used and interpreted, and some constraints of such method of word -forming.

It is a notable characteristic in English lexicon that there is a great deal of homonymy between nouns and verbs. In many cases, the two appear to be just homographs and homophones, as in  matter (n.) / (v.), object (v.) / (n.), fly (v.) / (n.) 

 In other cases in which conversion is obvious, e.g., call (n.)/call (v.) and (n.) / paint (v.), again it is not easy to determine which is the earlier form. But there paint are also many cases in which one is semantically more basic than the other, e.g., box (n.) is more basic than box (v.), and bottle (n.) is more basic than bottle (v.).

Some verbs with the same forms of their counterpart nouns have been well established as verbs.  She has re-created a list of criteria with examples:

·        1) Obvious meanings. Let’s use the names of body parts as examples. These parts are obvious nouns, but can be converted to verbs. You can head (14c) a department, eye (15c) the game schedule, or nose (ca. 1577) a car around a bend on campus. You can shoulder (14c) a blame from the coach, elbow (1605) your way through a crowd, hand (15c) in a paper, knuckle (ca. 1864) down to a task , thumb (1644) a ride to class, back (1548) into the room, foot (15c) the tuition bill,  and toe (1607) a football.

·        2) Order of years the words showed in the dictionary: In Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, a name of year is enclosed in parentheses for each entry. For example, call as a verb was recorded in 12^th century (12c.), while call as a noun was recorded in the 14^th century (14c.), therefore we may assume that the noun call is a converted form of the verb call.

·        3) The semantic range: a converted word only assumes one, or a part of the range of meanings of the base word, e.g., the noun hand (12c) has more than twenty definitions, yet the verb hand (15c) has only five definitions. We amy claim that the verb hand is a denominal verb converted from the noun hand.

·         4) Inflection: If the verb in a pair of homo can be inflected, the noun is converted from the verb. For example: in the pair of bite (v.) (bef. 12c)/ bite (n.) (bef. 12c),  the verb bite can be inflected to bit, bitten; drink (v.) (bef. 12c)/drink (n.) (bef. 12c), the verb drink can be inflected to  drink, drank, drunk. We may conclude that the noun bite is converted from the verb    bite, and the noun drink from the verb drink. Therefore we may claim that both “bite” and “drink” are nouns converted from verbs

5) Phonetical shift: Based on the corpus, we may conclude that the denominal verbs retain the stress pattern of the underlying noun, while deverbal nominalization may involve stress shift. If the noun is distinguished from the verb by stress, e.g., pro.duce’(v.) (15c)/pro’.duce (n.) (1695), and per.mit/ (v.) (15c)/ per’.mit (n.) (1682), it must be considered a derivative from the verb,

II. NOUN-TO-VERB CONVERSION IN HISTORY

Language evolves and words expand ceaselessly. Conversion is a on-going process. Cases of noun-to-verb conversion occurred since early Middle English. The following are some examples:

·        conversion from common nouns: belt (1300); mirror (1410); garden (1577)

·        conversion proper nouns: shanghai (1871, from the name of a city in China, Shanghai, meaning to secure sailors for voyages), boycott (1897, from an English land agent in Ireland, Charles Boycott, who was ostracized for refusing to reduce rents); Xerox (20c.). Google (2006) 

·        compound nouns: broadside (1646); watermark (1866); input (1946)

·        Shortened forms: FAX (1948), X-ray (1896), e-mail (20c.)

·        Acronyms: IM (20-21 c., instant message), MIDI (20c.), MSN (21c.)

·        The inflections of the denominal verbs follow the rules of  regular verbs. The following are some examples:

a. skin (1547): skin/skinned/skinning/ skins:  I fell and skinned my knees.

b. panic (1827): panic/panicked/panicking’panics

The radio drama was so realistic that it panicked listeners who turned in after it had begun.

c. knife (1865): knife/ knifed/knifing/knifes: The little boat knifed through the wave.

d. leaf (1611): leaf/leafed/leafing/leafs (note: so it is not mixed with the verb “to leave”)

e. spy (13c): spy/spied/spying/spies 

III. TYPES OF NOUN-TO-VERB CONVERSION

Gloria has re-create a more complete (vs. Quirk’s)  and well-organized (vs. Clarks) list of categories with three examples for each:

1. to act as the noun to an object or in a situation:

a. to host a party (15c):  to receive or entertain socially

b. to umpire a match (1592): to supervise or decide as umpire

c. to parent teenagers (1663): to be or act as a parent of

2. to put the noun in/on, add the noun to:

a. to butter the bread (15c): to spread with or as if with butter

b. to water the flowers (before 12c.): to moisten, to soak, or to sprinkle with water

c. to oil the machine (15c): to smear, rub over, furnish, or lubricate with oil

3. to remove the noun from: In this form, the base noun (e.g., peel) of the denominal verb (to peel) is generally a proper part of the whole object (the orange), and there is a certain way to remove this part (e.g., with a knife or fingers). The following are some examples:

a. to peel an orange (14c) to strip of an outer layer of

b. to weed the lawn (12c) : to remove weeds or something harmful

c. to milk the cow (before 12c): to draw milk from the breast or udder

4. to turn the object into the noun:

a. to cripple a person (1607): to deprive of the use of a limb and esp. a leg

b. to film the story (1945): to make a motion picture of

c. to orphan (1814): to cause to become an orphan

5. to use noun as an instrument:

a. to hammer the nails (14c): to strike blows esp. repeatedly with or as if with a hammer

b. to staple the paper (14c): to provide with or secure with staples

c. to rake the leaves (13c): to gather, loosen, or smooth with or as if with a rake

6. to put into the noun:

a. to bottle some wine (1622): to put into a bottle

b. to box your lunch (15c): to enclose in or as if in a box

c. to schedule my trip (1862): to place in a schedule

7. to spend the duration of the noun:

a. to summer in Paris (15c): to pass the summer

b. to winter in Aspen (14c): to pass the winter

c. to vacation in Hawaii (1896): to take or spend a vacation

8. to have activities at the noun:

a. to campaign (1701): to go on, engage in, or conduct a campaign

b. to party (1919): to attend or give parties

c. to camp (1543): 1. to make a camp or occupy a camp; 2. to live temporarily in a camp or ourdoors

9. to use metaphorically: Metaphors are analogical processes which rely on the context for their interpretation depending on the change of environment in which the word is embedded. The following are some examples:

a. to chicken out (1943): to lose one’s nerve

b. to horse around (before 12c): to move by brute force

c. to butterfly shrimps (1954): to split almost entirely and spread apart so the object looks like a butterfly

IV. Grammatical Characteristics of Denominal Verbs.  Noun-to-verb conversion may seem trendy, especially in the technology community,  but is it not a new phenomenon.

·        Some verbs have more than one meaning. For example:  to stone (13c): 1. to hurl stones at, esp. to kill by pelting with stones // 2. to move the stones or seeds of (a fruit)

·        Some verbs even carry opposite meanings, e.g., to dust (1530): 1. to make free of dust, e.g.,  to dust the furniture //  2. to sprinkle with fine particles, e.g., to dust the cake with    confection  sugar 

·        Some verbs can be play more than one role, i.e., fit in more than one of the categories listed in part IV of this paper,  e.g., to garden (1577): 1. to lay out or work in a garden (category 8)  // 2. to make into a garden/ to ornament with a garden (category 2) 

·        Some verbs retain the full force of the corresponding noun, others compromise it in one way or another. For example:  to dog (1519): 1. to hunt or track like a like a hound  //  2. to worry as if by pursuit with dogs //  3. to fasten with a dog  //  4. to fail to do one’s best

·        The converted verbs can be either transitive or intransitive. For example: to fish (before 12c):

1. intransitive: to attempt to catch fish/ to seek something by round-about means, e.g., She is fishing around her purse for her car key.
2. transitive: to try to fish in (the river)/ to go fishing for (salmon)/ to draw or pull as if fishing, e.g., He fished the ball from under the car

Both sides of a coin, and the change of the way, or the way of changing over. Touching videos

Most touching video that all government servants must watch

Warm Compliments to all those who have come up with idea to spread a positive message. Lovely twist at the end, as life itself.  Don't be like in  Matthew, 15-14: where the blind guides of the blind. And if a blind man guides a blind man.It reminds me of the power of words, somehow. 
Crudely lettered, the sign on the beggar shoebox lid read: "Gimme a dime". 
The slow hours went by. Then the little girl from the second floor opposite the road got 
closer and scribbled a fast addenda to the board and hushed a short message: 
"Pray, and you'll have a hot supper."

The evening was coming to a close and the box was singning with the sound of raining coins,
 while the blind couldn't understand who his angel was or what had happen'd to his lame luck. 
She had labeled  on th elid " Today might be a bright day, but I can't see the sky. Gim'me a dime" 
Same plight to receive kudos on the video we share today. We can help out someone who is far down on their luck 'cos can can't see the sky. As in Aldous Huxley's Eyeless in Gaza (no pun intended) There is an old saying the arabs used to say that words have an almost sword-like effect and it is exactly this feeling that Eyeless in Gaza imbued in me when i was reading it. The words and the sentences, the way they are so poignantly structured is magical to say the least. I think this is the greatest achievement of the book

Also, this one.Change (10 min). Is he asking for Change, little coins, or is he asking for CHANGE, new directions, great change?
Follow a man as he affects multiple peoples' lives with just one dollar, proving that it doesn't take much to be the change in someone's life.

Written and directed by Sharon Wright

Brian Friel's Translations

My last book in the november list has been Friel's Translations. 

Glad to deal with historic issues in the context of England-Ireland-Colonialism ans similar stuff.

I enjoyed the play and here you have a couple of reviews to engross in good literature form the periphery... The first one is focused on language and culture and the other on the fictional way of invading another land. As Heaney had it, We forgot to live in our British dimension. More sarcastically, Davies explores the interactions of the 4 cultures in his deep The Isles. Just a couple of isles on the west side of a peninsula of the Asiatic massland.

How Communication Prevents Chaos

Brian Friel's play Translations deals with the issues of the importance of language to an existing culture and to the forced re-creation of an already existing culture. The play explores the difficulties and impossibilities of trying to completely understand a language foreign to oneself and how those difficulties extend to other areas of social interaction which are necessary to the building of a civilization.

The Historical and Colonial Context 

Regarded by many as Brian Friel’s theatrical masterpiece, Seamus Deane described Translations as “a sequence of events in history which are transformed by his writing into a parable of events in the present day” (Introduction 22).  My aim in this page is to firmly place Translations within its historical context, in order to understand the representation of colonialism in the play and to facilitate further post-colonial readings.

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Translations may be located both temporally and spatially to a fixed point in Irish history. The characters hail from Baile Beag, renamed with the anglicised title of Ballybeg. The action of the play occurs over a number of days towards the end of August 1833. Before delving into the play it is clear, from these most general of points, that the mise-en-scene of Translationsis a period of great significance in the colonial relationship between Ireland and England.
(...) To go back another seven decades, in 1704 penal laws were enacted “which decreed that a Catholic could not hold any office of state, nor stand for Parliament, vote, join the army or navy, practise at the bar nor....buy land” (Kee Ireland: A History 54). Thus, by 1778 a mere five per cent of the land of Ireland was owned by Catholics. The Irish people (most notably Catholics, though Protestants also) such as those portrayed in Translations suffered severe discrimination, poverty and hardship.
The French Revolution of 1789 jolted Irish political thinking into a new framework. Events in France, and later in America, coupled with grievances against British Imperialist powers inspired thoughts of an Irish Republic and a rebellion. This culminated in the Rebellion of 1798, lead by Wolfe Tone and the Society of United Irishmen, in which Hugh and Jimmy participated: “The road to Sligo. A spring morning. 1798. Going into battle” (445). But, as these characters soon discovered, the rebellion failed resulting in large executions and the passing of the Act of Union in 1800. This piece of legislation, effective from 1 January 1801, brought Ireland under the direct rule of the British Crown.
1823 saw the rise of Daniel O’Connell (the only real person mentioned in the play), a disillusioned veteran of 1798 who founded the Catholic Association. O’Connell campaigned for better civil rights and social conditions for the Irish people, hence Maire reporting that he said “We should all be learning to speak English” (399). O’Connell believed that it was necessary to use the English language in order to allow Ireland to progress in a quickly modernising Western world. In 1829, due to his efforts in Parliament, the Catholic Emancipation Act came into force overturning the penal laws.
It was at this juncture, when the play takes place, that Britain began to make deeper inroads to Irish society and culture. An attempt to colonise the mind and the people as opposed to conquering land through brute force. Translations is Friel’s vehicle for representing methods central to the colonial discourse of Imperialist aspirations. In the foreground of the play the audience is presented with the British Ordnance Survey of Ireland, a process of mapping, renaming and anglicising Ireland. 
On 21 June 1824 the Spring Rice Report was given to the British Government advocating a general survey of Ireland.
The playwright’s concern with the imposition of a colonial framework is the issue at hand, clearly set out by Lancey’s explanation “a map is a representation on paper” (405). No less, a representation imposed from outside and from above, from the coloniser to the colonised.
A second framework imposed from above was the National Education system and the use of the English language. In 1831 Chief Secretary Stanley introduced a system of National Education in Ireland where English was the sole medium of instruction. 
And from the very first day you go, you’ll not hear one word of Irish spoken. You’ll be taught to speak English and every subject will be taught through English (396).
Maire’s desire, at the opening of the play, to speak English shall soon be enforced by law throughout the National Schools in Ireland. Where Dan O’Connell and Maire both assumed the use of English would allow progress towards their respective national and personal dreams, Hugh believes that English was simply for “commerce” but that it “couldn’t really express us (the Irish)” (418). He realised that the use of Gaelic, of remaining true to their own traditions was a method of resisting colonialism, “our only method of replying to .... inevitabilities” (418).

SPEED MATTERS: How to Fast on fast Broadband while in Korea

The REAL connection speeds for Internet users across the world (charts)

 November 12th, 2010 by Pingdom

How fast are Internet connections across the world? How fast are they in your country?

This article examines the real-world connection speeds for people in the top 50 countries on the Internet, i.e. the countries with the most Internet users.

Why connection speeds matter

Why would you be interested in knowing how Internet connection speeds are distributed among various countries? 

• As an Internet user, you can get an idea of how your own Internet connection speed holds up against others in your country.

 The Huffington Post   won't give away which country boasts the fastest connection speed (You'll have to view the slideshow to find out), but let's just say that it blazes past the United States at nearly 17 Mbits/second.

Check out our slideshow (below) of the top 19 countries listed by Akamai. Are any of these findings a surprise? Share your thoughts in the comments, then see our post on the top 5 riskiest country web domains.

#12 - United States

8 of 20

Average connection speed: 4.60 Mbits/second
Global rank in terms of Internet users: #2

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• Average connection speeds

Before we go on to see how each country’s connection speeds are distributed, let’s look at the average connection speed for each country.

As we mentioned before, the number you see within parenthesis next to each country is its worldwide rank in terms of Internet users, i.e. its size on the Internet. The chart is sorted by the average connection speed.

Some observations:

• South Korea, as is well known, is something of an Internet speed king, and that’s made abundantly clear in this chart. At an average connection speed of almost 17 Mbit/s it thoroughly outclasses the competition.
• China, although the largest country on the Internet, still lags behind when it comes to Internet connection speeds. Its average of 0.86 Mbit/s is far below the world average of 1.8 Mbit/s (see below).
• And speaking of China, Hong Kong, technically a part of China but separated in most surveys for statistical purposes, is clearly far ahead of its mother country. With Hong Kong’s average connection speed of 8.6 Mbit/s, it’s second only to South Korea.
• It’s also interesting that all three top positions are in Asia.
• Of the top 10 in this “speed list,” three are from Asia, and seven from Europe.
• Canada beats the United States, barely, with 4.7 Mbit/s versus 4.6 Mbit/s.

Worldwide averages

The average connection speed for Internet users worldwide, not just among these 50 countries, but all countries, is an average of 1.8 Mbit/s. As an average, this is actually pretty good, but as you’ve seen, there are plenty of extremes in either direction.