Abstract
Zero derivation is a word-formation process when from a word in a certain lexical (sub)category by adding a zero derivational affix, but with allowed inflectional interventions, another, new lexeme is created, with absolutely same form (from a derivational point of view); similar, expanded meaning; and, most importantly, belonging to a different lexical (sub)category. The analytical structure of English makes this a very frequent, productive, and economic process, across almost all categories, with the noun to verb and the verb to noun directions marking the most common process formations. Yet, regardless of the direction, the newly formed, zero derived lexeme belongs to a different lexical (sub)category not only based on the same form but on the similar semantics that the old and the new lexemes share, due to the meaning transfer through cognition. Having seen that the process of zero derivation is present and widespread in everyday life, this paper aims at researching its presence and productivity in online business articles, that is, in online texts which discuss business topics. Online media have been chosen since its quest for timely information requires fast expression and, in such a need, quick word-formation processes, like zero derivation, are in place, making the expression formally short but semantically expanded. Therefore, it is the cognitive transfer of meaning that drives the process. Similar to the reason for selecting online media, business articles have been used as a corpus, to show what language is used when discussing non-language-centred topics, that is, business.
Highlights
Many studies and papers have been written on zero derivation in linguistics, but as this process is present in electronic media too, and we have noted its existence in texts that deal with business topics, this paper aims to show how present and productive this process is in online business texts
For this study we chose a corpus of online business articles from which all cases of zero derivation from nouns to verbs and from verbs to nouns have been analysed, meaning that we did not choose cases of nouning and verbing in zero derivation that are only business-related, but instead of that we studied the productivity and meaning of all cases of nouning and verbing in zero derivation that were found in our corpus, seeing that in online business articles, both business and general lexemes undergo the process of zero derivation
This is a metaphorical meaning of the verb, that is, the noun is not used in performing the action, but as metaphor is in the centre of the process, the metaphorical meaning of the noun is transferred to the verb, which motivates the authors of these sentences to be creative and makes them form verbs based on the established nouns
Summary
The paper aims to revisit the two directions of the English zero derivation process: from a noun to a verb, and from a verb to a noun in online business articles, by exploring the productivity of this process, analysing the usage of the zero derived words in online business contexts, and understanding the speaker’s motivation behind these semantically-driven formations.our research questions are the following: 1) Are a noun to verb and a verb to noun zero derivations in online business articles as productively used as in the other genres and media?2) Is there merely a straightforward semantic transfer from one to another lexeme, or there is or even more present, a metaphorical expansion that drives the process?To answer these questions, we will first define and explain the process of zero derivation in general, discuss its place in the word-formation discipline, elaborate on this phenomenon in English, explain the significance of cognition in understanding and realising the process, outline researchers’ opinions and studies on this topic, present our corpus and explain the method that we will use in analysing the data, offer corpus discussion and finish with the research findings.As a scientific discipline, word formation studies and describes words that are motivated by this process, and those are lexemes which, by form and content, are created from other same-root words. The paper aims to revisit the two directions of the English zero derivation process: from a noun to a verb, and from a verb to a noun in online business articles, by exploring the productivity of this process, analysing the usage of the zero derived words in online business contexts, and understanding the speaker’s motivation behind these semantically-driven formations. To answer these questions, we will first define and explain the process of zero derivation in general, discuss its place in the word-formation discipline, elaborate on this phenomenon in English, explain the significance of cognition in understanding and realising the process, outline researchers’ opinions and studies on this topic, present our corpus and explain the method that we will use in analysing the data, offer corpus discussion and finish with the research findings. It discovers the whole word-formation language system and establishes the norms for its functioning
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