Valera, S. 2014a. Conversion. In R. Lieber & P. Stekauer (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Derivation. Oxford: Oxford University Press; 154-168.


A classic reference in the field (Dokulil 1968a: 215) places derivation by conversion at the crossroads of morphology, syntax, and lexical semantics. In this, it is like other derivational processes, but conversion raises problems of description which result from the specific conditions that apply in derivation by conversion and do not in derivation by affixation or in compounding. These conditions are word-class change and formal identity between the base and the derivative (Tournier 1985: 171). The first condition raises cross-linguistic questions, because it places conversion, as van Marle (1985: 123) explains, in the framework of a '[...] larger and more complicated [...] system': the system of word-classes. The second condition, formal identity, raises cross-linguistic questions, for example, whether it exists in morphologically different types of languages and, if so, in what form and to what extent, and also language-specific questions, like the role of stress shift in derivation by conversion in English. These and other problems are well known in some Indo-European languages, where conversion stands out as especially controversial. This chapter deals with some of the main problems related to the cross-linguistic description of derivation by conversion. The chapter first reviews the description of conversion as lexical derivation governed by the two conditions mentioned above (Section 10.2). These two conditions are then discussed in separate sections as follows: formal identity (Section 10.3) and word-class change (Section 10.4). The last section is a test of the distribution of conversion over a sample of languages (Section 10.5).