Part 4: An Algorithm for the Conversions of Parts of Speech and Negation of English Words
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I. Introduction
Chinese is not an inflectioal language, English is. It is quite common to perform the conversions of parts of speech on an English word by adding suffixes. Unlike Chinese where a sentence tends to have multiple verbs, English sentence is centered around a noun. No matter what, a noun is always preferred in the thinking of English people. In their mind, they are noun-holic and verb-phobia (these two words are cooked up by meself). They are inclined to avoid using verb. We need to follow their thought process, change our mindset, think about everything with nouns instead of verbs.
Some examples are given below:
1. There is a concept or process called denomination: changing a verb to a noun.
Example: 他决定吃它 (in Chinese). He decided to eat it (in English). The stress here is on movement or action.
By applying the denomination process, the sentence can be equivalently transformed into:
His decision was an eating of it. The stress here is on the statement of a fact.
2. Use a preposition with a noun to replace a verb.
Example: 我回家 (in Chinese), I go home (in English)
To say the same thing, the sentence can be converted to:
I am on my way home = I go home
without using any verb. Verb go is replaced with preposition + noun: on way (to).
2. Simply use noun without any verb
Instead of saying:
I like hardcopy (like is a verb)
Americans say:
I am a fan of hardcopy (fan is a noun)
A thinking like this seems weird to us Chinese, but that is how Americans think. In my opinion, they are verb-phobia.
In the algorithm below, one example to convert a verb to an adjective is through denomination or noun.
Because it is extremely difficult to describe a verb accurately, using a noun has a benefit when writing computer code:
It is much easier to do a logic test on a noun then on a verb.
The algorithm is based on our research results in Part 2: Most Frequently Used Prefixes and Part 3: Most Frequently Used Suffixes.
Part 2: Most Frequently Used Prefixes
Part 3: Most Frequently Used Suffixes
We hope the algorithm here will improve your flexibility of using an English word.
II. Algorithm for changing the part of speach of an English word:
Noun
^ ^
// \\
v v
Verb <=====> Adjective <===> Adverb
The algorithm shows the conversions between a noun and verb, verb and adjective, noun and adjective and vice versa (as shown in picture above). The conversion betweew an adjective and adverb is usually very simple: add suffix -ly to an adjective we get an adverb, or conversely remove the suffix -ly from an adverb we get an adjective. So the conversion between a noun (or a verb) and an adverb is not considered here in the algorithm. To convert a noun to adverb, use an adjective as a medium, as shown in picture above. Occasionally (but not frequently) an adverb can be produced by prefixing a- to a noun, verb, or even an adjective, examples:
a- + way (noun) -> away (adverb)
a- + head (noun) -> ahead (adverb)
a- + float (verb) -> afloat (adverb)
a- + far (adjective) -> afar (adverb)
a- + loud (adjective) -> aloud (adverb)
It is shown in the picture above that sometimes to convert a vert into an adjective, you have to go through a noun first, then convert the noun into an adjective, or vice versa.
1. Transforming a verb into a noun:
As shown in the table in Part 3: Most Frequently Used Suffixes,
a） add -ion or its variants such as -tion, -ation, -ication etc. to the end of a verb. Example：
tract (verb) -> traction (noun)
b） add -ance or its variant -ence. Example：
appear (verb) -> appearance (noun)
c） add -ment. Example：
enjoy (verb) -> enjoyment (noun)
2. Transforming an adjective into a noun:
As shown in the table in Part 3: Most Frequently Used Suffixes,
add -ity or -ness: Example：
infinite (adjective) -> infinity (noun)
acute (adjective) -> acuteness (noun)
3. Transforming a noun into a verb:
a) add -ize or its variants to the end of a noun:
apology (noun) -> apologize (verb)
bureaucracy (noun) -> bureaucratize (verb)
b) add -ify or its variants to the end of a noun:
liquid (noun) -> liquidify (verb)
horror (noun) -> horrify (verb)
c) add -ate or its variants to the end of a noun:
accent (nound) -> accentuate (verb)
alien (noun) -> alienate (verb)
d) add prefix en- or its variants (em before b, p, m) before a noun:
power (noun) -> empower (verb)
trench (noun) -> entrench (verb)
e) Sometimes, you have to go through an adjective:
industry (noun) -> industrial (adjective) -> industralize (verb)
4. Transforming an adjective into a verb:
a) add -en to the end of an adjective:
light (adjective) -> lighten (verb)
em- + bold (adjective)-> embolden (verb)
sharp (adjective) -> sharpen (verb)
awake (adjective) -> awaken (verb)
b) add -ize:
industrial (adjective) -> industralize (verb)
c) add -ate:
active (adj) -> activate (verb)
d) add -ify:
intense (adj) -> intensify (verb)
e) add -er
low (adj) -> lower (verb)
5. Transforming a noun to an adjective
a) add -al or its variant -ial
person (noun) -> personal (adjective)
b) add -ic or its variant -ical
linguist (noun) -> linguistic (adjective)
geometry (noun) -> geometrical
c) add -y
weed (noun) -> weedy (adjective)
d) add -ly
friend (noun) -> friendly (adjective)
e) add -ish
girl (noun) -> girlish (adjective)
f) add -ous
fame (noun) -> famous (adjective)
joy (noun) -> joyous (adjective)
g) add -ful, sometimes -ous and -ful are interchangable.
mind (noun) -> mindful (adjective)
h) add -some
worry (noun) -> worrisome (adjective)
6. Transforming a verb to an adjective
Note: Because an adjective is usually made from a noun, so sometimes you will have to convert a verb into a noun first, then to an adjective.
a) add -ory, -ary or -ery
advise (verb) -> advisory (adjective)
ambulate (verb) -> ambulatory (adj)
b) add -ous
continue (verb) -> continuous (adjective)
c) add -al
Because -al is usually used to add to a noun to change a noun into an adjective, so you will have to go through a noun from a verb first:
judge (verb) = judgement (noun) -> judgemental (adjective)
inflect (verb) = inflection (noun) -> inflectional (adjective)
d) add -ful
forget (verb) -> forgetful (adjective)
deceive (verb) - > deceit (noun) -> deceitful (adj)
e) add -ive
appreciate (verb) -> appreciative (adj)
talk (verb) -> talkative (adj)
f) add -ing
annoy (verb) -> annoying (adj)
frighten (verb) -> frightening (adj)
g) add -y
wear (verb) -> weary (adj)
speed (verb) -> speedy (adj)
zip (verb) -> zippy (adj)
wear (verb) -> weary (adj)
h) add -able or its variant -ible
deduct (verb) -> deductible (adjective)
i) add -less to make a negative adjective
care (verb) -> careless (adjective, meaning is negated)
7. Examples of circular conversion
a) From noun back to noun
industry (noun) -> industrial (adjective) -> industrialize (verb) -> industrialization (noun)
capital (noun) -> capitalize (verb) -> capitalization (noun)
carbon (noun) -> carbonize (verb) -> carbonization (noun)
character (noun) -> characterize (verb) -> characterization (noun)
b) From adjective back to adjective
modern (adjective) -> modernize (verb) -> modernization (noun) -> modernizational (adjective) or modernized (adjective)
classic (adjective) -> classification (noun) -> classificatory (adjective)
diverse (adjective) -> diversion (noun) -> diversionary (adjective)
just (adjective) -> justify (verb) -> justifiable (adjective)
pacific (adjective) -> pacifist (noun) -> pacifistic (adjective)
c) From verb back to verb
fract (verb) -> fraction (noun) -> fractional (adjective) -> fractionalize (verb)
center (verb) -> central (adjective) -> centralize (verb)
circle (verb) -> circular (adjective) -> circularize (verb)
collect (verb) -> collective (adjective) -> collectivize (verb)
compute (verb) -> computer (noun) -> computerize (verb)
III. Algorithm for applying negation on an English word
In logic, we have three operators: negation, or, and. Of the three, negation is the most important, because and or or operator can be calculated with negation on or or and operator respectively. As shown in Part 2 Most Frequently Used Prefixes, mankind invents a lot of prefixes to describe negation.
To make negation on an English word, use the following prefixes or suffix:
non-, un-, in-, im-, il-, ir-, anti-, de-, dis-, -less
Examples about using them are given in Part 2 Most Frequently Used Prefixes, so they will not be repeated here.
Note 1: -less can only be applied to a noun or verb.
Note 2: in-, im-, il-, ir- are all equivalent, they are actually the same as in-. See Part 2 for an explanation of assimilation.
For any algorithm to work, it needs precondition. Let me know if you have further interest in this.