Science and Education in Karakalpakstan issn 2181-9203 Science Magazine chief editor

SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES OF CONVERSION PROCESS IN ENGLISH AND 
KARAKALPAK LANGUAGES 
 
Badirova D.A. 
Karakalpak state university named after Berdakh
 
 
Summary: 
This article presents scientific sources devoted to the study of an effective method 
of word formation, the history of the phenomenon of conversion on a global scale, the point of view 
of world linguists explaining the essence of this phenomenon. Like other languages, the similarities 
and dissimilarities of conversion in English can be learned comparatively with Karakalpak 
language and through this investigation language learners will be aware about the ways of forming 
words using this aspect in both above mentioned languages. 
Keywords:
 Language, conversion, word formation, parts of speech, affix. 
English has a very rich repository of lexical items. Certain authorities even contend that up 
to a million words exist in the language, thus rendering English vocabulary probably as the crucial 
factor in successful learning of English as a foreign language and students’ command of the 
language. The conversion process in linguistics (or zero derivation, functional shift, category 
change), one of the most productive word formation processes in English and karakalpak languages. 
As for the objectives of this presentation, we shall consider some of the basic characteristics of this 
process which, as S. Valera [3:20] has put it succinctly, “ conversion- is traditionally a matter of 
same form and different word-class”. Then, we shall briefly refer to the most important kinds of 
conversion, stressing the importance of conversion for the overall command of the language with 
non-native speakers and learners of English. The greatest segment of the article is dedicated to 
different approaches and possible modalities of practicing with conversion in EFL classes or for 
self-study purposes. Instances of many exercise types and strategies have been offered as potential 
to create resource material for primary and secondary teachers of English. 
Conversion can be defined as a characteristic word formation phenomenon which involves a 
change in the word class, function and meaning of a particular lexical unit without any 
corresponding change in the form of that word in terms of adding or subtracting any derivational 
affixes. This, however, does not mean that in the process the original word stops existing, but only 
that its functional pair is obtained.[7:85] 
Example: 
Four inches of unmarked snow blanketed the ground. He forked steak into his mouth. 
When Joanna Trollope swanned into my living room, I was still grumpy... 
As opposed to affixation and composition, this is a non-combinatory process whereby a 
stem belonging to one class is simply taken over into another class as in (1). The novel verb stems 
blanket, fork, 
and 
swan
in this example are not complex in the same sense as a compound or 
suffixation-based derivative would be; i.e., these are not made up of two discrete structural units. 
Strictly speaking, as I. Plag [3:134] defined it, conversion is derivation of a new word without any 
overt marking. 
The above definition of conversion incorporates one aspect of conversion which has been 
quite often neglected in literature, namely that along with class and function words change their 
meaning as well.
Verb to noun conversion is a productive type of conversion, second only to the type noun 
into verb. We can see the examples with the help of following category which is converted the 
words from verb to noun: 
Concrete object or result of the action: 
answer, drink, reject, suspect, meet, bet 

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