Verbing
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Verbing is a common form of etymology and neologism in English, as well as a type of wordplay and a form of anthimeria, in which words other than verbs are used as verbs. Verbing is often done by using nouns and adjectives as participles, though there are numerous other variations.
The linguistic term for this process is conversion or Zero derivation.
Examples of verbing in the English language number in the thousands, including some of the most common words, such as mail, 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.
Although verbing is sometimes thought of as an error or solecism, psycholinguist Steven Pinker describes verbing as one of the things that make English English. Indeed, the very act of translating from another language into English is sometimes called Englishing.
Verbing has a bad reputation with some English users because it is such a potent source of neologisms, which frequently sound odd because they are new. This often happens in colloquial speech, such as telling someone that "I'm going to eBay it", meaning that the person is going to put it for sale on an online auction website. Another is to text someone, meaning to send a text message. The result is often a nonce word, but if the usage sticks it simply merges into the language. To text may sound strange, but to e-mail does not. Verbing is in itself also an example of this, as the word verb started out as a noun.
Zero Derivative
In linguistics, zero derivation or, less frequently, null derivation is a derivation by means of the null morpheme or zero morpheme, i.e., changing the function of the word without changing its form. If the derivation changes the word class, it is also called a conversion.
Conversion is very common in the English language, as is illustrated by the conversion from telephone to to telephone, for example.
More recently, the Tivo corporation has sought to prevent the use of the conversion of the proper noun Tivo to the verb to Tivo (as in: don't forget to Tivo that show).
Quotations
- "Verbing weirds language." Calvin and Hobbes states the negative view.
- "Pork is not a verb." wrote Bart Simpson.
External link
- "Grammar Puss" (http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1994_01_24_thenewrepublic.html) by Steven Pinker