topics: |  linguistics |

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Nouns used as Verbs

Noun use					Verb use
---------					---------
leave the boat on the beach 			beach the boat
keep the aeroplane on the ground		ground the aeroplane
crush the aspirin into powder			powder the aspirin
stab the man with a knife			knife the man
catch the fish with a spear			spear the fish
make the child an orphan			orphan the child

As the following sentences show, there is a great deal of freedom to
innovate in the formation of such verbs.

1)  a. I wristed the ball over the net.
    b. He would try to stiff-upper-lip it through.
    c. She Houdini'd her way out of the locked closet.

There are also limits on this freedom, however. For instance, a new verb is
rarely coined if a word with the intended meaning already exists. Although
we say jail the robber to mean 'put the robber in jail', we do not say
prison the robber to mean 'put the robber in prison'. This is because the
well-established verb imprison already has the meaning that the new form
would have.

There are also special constraints on the meaning and use of [some verbs,
such as those] created from time expressions such as summer, holiday, and
so on.

2)  a. Julia summered in Paris.
    b. Harry wintered in Mexico.
    c. Bob holidayed in France.
    d. They honeymooned in Hawaii.

Although the sentences in 2) are all natural-sounding, not all
time-expressions can be used in this way. (asterisk = linguistic form or
utterance that is unacceptable):

3)  a. *Jerome midnighted in the streets
    b. *Andrea nooned at the restaurant..
    c. *Philip one o'clocked at the airport.

These examples show that when a verb is created from a time expression it
must he given a very specific interpretation- roughly paraphrasable as 'to
be somewhere for the period of time X'.  ...
Since noon and midnight express points in time rather than extended periods
of time, they cannot be used to create new verbs of this type.

Regularities in language : Systemacity vs Creativity

Systematic constraints arc essential to the viability of the creative
process.  If well-established words were constantly being replaced by new
creations, the vocabulary of English would be so unstable that communication
could he jeopardized. A similar danger would arise it there were no
constraints on the meaning of new words. If They winter in Hawaii could
mean 'They make it snow in Hawaii' or 'They wish it were winter in Hawaii'
or any other arbitrary thing, the production and interpretation of language
would be chaotic and unsystematic, undermining the role of language
communication.

Creative systems are found in all aspects of language, including the way in
which sounds are combined to form words. The forms in 4), for instance, are
recognizable as possible English words (which might be used as names for
new products or processes).

4)	a. prasp
	b. flib
	c. traf

Such forms contrast with the patterns in 5), which simply do not have the
shape of English words.

5)	a. *psapr
	b. *bfli
	c. *ftra

The contrast between the forms in 4) and 5) illustrates that the set of
possible sound patterns permit certain novel sound combinations. but prohibit
others.

Still other considerations determine how new words can be created from
already existing forms with the help of special endings. Imagine, for
example, that the word soleme entered the English language (used perhaps
for a newly discovered atomic particle). As a speaker of English, you then
automatically know that something with the properties of a soleme could
be called solemic.  You also know that to make something solemic is to
solemicize it, and you would call this process solemicization.
Further, you know that the c is pronounced as s in solemicize but as k in
solemic. Without hesitation, you also recognize that solemicize is
pronounced with the stress on the second syllable.  (You would say
soLEmicize. not SOlemicize or solemiCIZE.)

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