THE RELATIONSHIP OF CONVERSION AND OTHER WORD-FORMATION PROCESSES

Language is a dynamic system that continuously evolves to meet the communicative needs of its speakers. One of the key mechanisms of linguistic change and lexical expansion is word formation, which includes various processes such as derivation, compounding, blending, clipping, and conversion. Among these, conversion—the process of changing a word’s grammatical category without altering its form—plays a significant role in the development of the English lexicon. For example, nouns like email and google have been converted into verbs (to email, to google), demonstrating how conversion contributes to linguistic economy and flexibility.