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FUNCTIONAL SHIFT AND DIRECTIONALITY 

 

Comfort Adaobi Obodo, PhD 

Department of English and Literary Studies. 

Paul University, Awka 

Email: obodocomfor@yahoo.com 

 

Abstract 

Functional shift is characterized by a changeless form, new function, new 

word-class and a new meaning. This changeless form of a word being 

converted poses a lot of problems to language users since one may be faced 

with a situation to determine which word is derived from the other. In other 

words, which of the pair is a derivative and which is the root or base? This 

paper sets out to investigate the directionality of functional shift pairs with the 

intention of finding out the best criterion one can use to determine the 

directionality of the functional shift pairs. The study adopts diachronic and 

synchronic approach for the investigation. 

 

Keywords: Functional Shift, Directionality, Diachronic & Synchronic 

Approach 

 

 

Introduction 

Functional shift according to Crystal is “a term used in the study of word-

formation to refer to the derivational process whereby an item comes to 

belong to a new word-class without the addition of an affix” (114).  According 

to Finegan, the term functional shift is viewed as when a word belonging to 

one category is converted to another category without any changes to the 

formof the word (57). Here, one’s attention is drawn to the changeless form of 

the word so converted.One of the questions that may arise is: “Since both the 

roots and the derivatives have the same forms in functional shift, how then can 

one determine which word is the root and which word is the derivative? 

Consequently, the issue of directionality comes up. What then is 

directionality? “Directionality according to Crystal describes the relationship 

between two senses of a lexical item, when one can be shown to be derived 

from the other, as in the case of violin (the instrument) and violin (the player – 

as in She is first violin) [147]. Simply put, directionality has to do with 

discovering which functional shift pair is the original form (base form) and 

which one is the derivative.  According to Bram, there are six approaches to 

directionality: 

1. Formal characteristic-based 

2. Intuition-based 

3. Date-based 

4. Level order-based 



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5. Non significant direction- based 

6. Mixture-based 

    (74) 

 

Marchand similarly outlined his criteria as follow: 

i.   The Semantic Dependence 

ii.  The Range of Usage 

iii.  The Semantic Range 

iv.  Phonetic Shape 

 (242-252)  

Plag further suggests four strategies for determining directionality and they 

include: 

i. Historical 

ii. Semantic 

iii. Formal 

iv. Frequential 

           (108-111) 

 

Several studies prove that these approaches to greater extent attempt to 

discover directionality of functional shift pairs.  However, this present study 

tries to use different lexical data to test the validity of these approaches. The 

data are purposefully selected from the works of three European writers: 

Dickens, Wilde and Shakespeare and two African writers: Soyinka and 

Chukwu. The findings thereof will help us realise the approach with the 

greatest validity rate. 

 

Formal Characteristic-Based 

This approach is based on using formal criterion to determine directionality as 

there are features that distinguish words from one part of speech from the 

other. For instance, when we pick a word ‘slap’ (Verb), and try to convert it to 

a noun, as in: ‘I gave her a slap’; the phrase – ‘a slap’ is therefore a noun 

phrase and not a verb phrase because the word ‘slap’ is preceded by the form-

word attributed to noun; that is the indefinite article ‘a’. It is obvious that 

nouns are preceded by the definite article ‘the’ or indefinite article ‘a’ and 

pluralized by the suffix ‘-s'.  This implies that other word-classes also have 

their own formal characteristics peculiar to their own word-classes. So, formal 

criterion is one of the ways of determining directionality. 

 

Intuition – Based 

This approach advocates that directionality of functional shift pairs can be 

decided through intuition which is similar to reflection. For instance, in a 

word like ‘head’ used in expressions like: ‘Our heads are heavy’, and ‘He 

heads the department’; one’s intuition or knowledge of the English language 

should enable them decipher which word is derived from which. Although this 



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may work perfectly for native speakers of English and advanced users of 

English, it might be difficult for average users of English because many rarely 

used words or even widely used ones may prove difficult for them to trace the 

directionality of functional shift pairs. 

 

Date-Based 

Date-based approach uses the date of attestation to discover directionality. 

The word with the earliest date of attestation is seen as the base form and the 

ones with later dates are seen as the derivatives. This would have been the 

best method of determining directionality but sometimes, historical facts 

behind the etymology of some words may be lost or not properly documented. 

Consequently, some dates of attestation may not be clear or exact. Some other 

times, the functional shift pairs tend to have the same year of attestation. Our 

data analysis on directionality in chapter four will either prove us wrong in 

this issue or uphold our hypothesis. 

 

Level Order-Based 

This approach involves the interaction or interface between morphology and 

phonology. Here, stress patterns are used to show directionality of functional 

shift pairs. In determining directionality of noun to verb conversion and verb 

to noun conversion, it is believed that in level 1 or stratum 1 which is verb to 

noun functional shift, the pair has stress shift (non-neutral). For instance, we 

have the following: 

 

Verb               Noun Functional shift 

to  con’vert            the ‘convert 

to re’cord               the ‘record 

to trans’fer             the ‘transfer 

 

We also have level 2 or stratum 2 which is noun to verb functional shift, the 

pair has no stress shift (neutral). For instance, we have the following: 

Noun                     Verb Functional shift 

the ‘advocate           to ‘advocate 

the ‘patent               to ‘patent 

the ‘pattern              to ‘pattern 

 

Kiparsky’s 1982 generalization that verb to noun functional shift which is 

zero-derivation accompanied by stress shift and takes place at level 1 is not 

unproblematic because Myers noted counter examples as thus: 

acc'ord V N            acc’ount V N              appr’oach V N            

ass’ent V N            adv’ance V N              att’ack V N            

att’ent V N             dec’ay V N               cem’ent V N            

conc’ern V N          am’ount V N            def’eat V N            

disp’ute V N           pres’erve V N           disg’uise V N            



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rel’ease V N           patr’ol V N               supp’ort V N 

 (Myers 59)            

 

Similarly, Bram gave other instances to counter Kiparsky’s generalization as 

thus: adv’ance, comm’and, des’ign, disc’ard, dis’play, em’brace, la’ment, 

re’ject, re’main, stam’pede, su’pply and sur’round (86).   

 

Non-Significant Direction - Based 

This approach regards directionality as less important and focuses on 

identifying stress and/or  

sound pattern, and investigates the phonological differences. Therefore, this 

criterion will not be useful for this study and will be discarded. 

 

Mixture – Based 

This approach involves combining two or more operations of valid approaches 

together and uses them to measure directionality. For instance, we can 

combine date-based approach with level order-based approach etc.  

 

The truth is that all these criteria attempt to answer the question of 

directionality of functional shift pairs in English. We can now test some of 

these criteria to ascertain their levels of validity in determining the 

directionality of the functional shift pairs in English. 

 

Analysis to Discover Directionality of Functional Shift Pairs 

We should remember that directionality of functional shift pairs is simply 

discovering which of the word, is the base form and which is the derivative? 

For this analysis, four (4) criteria will be used: 

i.   Attestation Date 

ii.  Semantic Range 

iii. Semantic Dependence 

iv. The mixture of the above criteria 

 

The data for this analysis are selected randomly from the works of five 

authors earlier mentioned in the work. The data therefore, include words that 

underwent the process of functional shift as used in those texts. The words are 

clearly slated in the data table below and they serve as the data for analysis: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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Data Table 
Better blind carpet Cement Chance chase chronicle dirty doctor dumb 

Eye fail Fancy Father Feast ferret husband make paper panic(k) 

Queen Safe Salary Shame Slap smoke treasure wet womb  

 

 

The above words on the data table were chosen as: 

S/

N 

FUNCTIONAL 

SHIFT PATTERN 

   WORD   

NOUN 

VERB 

 

INTRASITIVE        

TRASITIVE           

 

ADJE

CTIV

E 

SEQUENC

E 

ACCORDI

NG TO 

DATE OF 

ATTESTA

TION 

1 Adjective to 

Verb 

Better  1300                  1384 883 A-Vi-Vt 

2 Adjective to 
Verb 

Blind  1305                   1300 1000 A-Vt-Vi 

3 Noun to Verb Carpet 1345 -               1626  N=Vt 

4 Noun to Verb Cement 1300 1677                  1340  N-Vt-Vi 

5 Noun to Verb Chance 1297 1393                   1859  N-Vi-Vt 

 

6 Noun to Verb Chase 1297 1375                    1314  N-Vt-Vi 

7 Noun to Verb chronicle 1303 -                1414  N-Vt 

 

8 Adjective to Verb Dirty  1864                    1591 1530 A-Vt-Vi 

9 Noun to Verb Doctor 1400 1865                    1737  N-Vt-Vi 

10 Adjective to Verb Dumb  1300                    1608 1000 A-Vi-Vt 

11 Noun to  

Verb 

Eye 700 1606                    1566  N-Vt-Vi 

 

12 Verb to 

Noun 

Fail 1297 1225                    1325  Vi-N-Vt 

13 Noun to  

Verb 

Fancy 1471 -                1646  N-Vt 

14 Noun to verb 

 

Father 825 -                1400                    N-Vt 

15 Noun to Verb Feast 1200 1300                    1340  N-Vi-Vt 

 

16 Noun to 

Verb 

Ferret 1398 1450                  1483  N-Vi-Vt 

 

17 Noun to  

Verb 

husband 1290   -                       1565  N-Vt 

 

18 Verb to 

Noun 

Make 1325 1387                   700  Vt-N-Vi 

19 Noun to  

Verb 

Paper 1341 -              1594  N-Vt 

 

20 Noun to  

Verb 

panic(k) 1640 1910                  1827  N-Vt-Vi 

 

21 Adjective to Verb Safe   -                        1602     1297 A-Vt 

22 Noun to  
Verb 

Salary 1377 -               1477  N-Vt 
 

23 Noun to  Shame 725 897                      897             N-Vi/Vt 



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1. From the work of Dickens - doctor, paper, fancy and carpet (35-

45). 

2. From the work of Soyinka - wet, dirty, feast, fail, father, husband, 

slap, chance and smoke (1-52). 

3. From the work of Wilde – chronicle (1146-1161), 

4. From the work of Shakespeare - safe, eye and dumb (1.V.50-I.iii 97). 

5. From the work of Chukwu - treasure, cement, chase, blind, 

panic(k), ferret, salary, make and better (63-119). 

 

 

Now, to measure directionality, the date of attestation is used as the first 

criterion. 

 

Date of Attestation in Measuring Directionality 

 

 

(Oxford English Dictionary) 

 

In the above table, attestation dates for the functional shift pairs and the 

sequence of the functional shifts are listed, showing evidences of 

directionality. The criterion is highly valid for determining directionality. 

However, in one or two instances, we noted that some functional shift pairs 

have the same attestation date such as words like smoke and shame. Theword 

smoke has its noun, intransitive verb and transitive verb attestation date as the 

year 1000. Although the word shame recorded a difference in the year of 

attestation as noun and verb, the date for its intransitive and transitive 

attestation is the same. Apart from these minor challenges, attestation date 

criterion proved a near perfect approach. 

 

Semantic Range in Measuring Directionality 

For this criterion, the researcher made use of Oxford English Dictionary. After 

the analysis, the findings reveal that: 

1. Some converted words tend to have more semantic range than the 

source, like the word smoke.  

2. Some other times, the bases will have an equal semantic range with 

their derivatives, like the words: panic(k), slap and  chronicle 

3. Words like blind, cement, chronicle, dirty, doctor, dumb, eye, fail, 

father, paper, shame, treasure wet, etc, actually prove that the base 

Verb  

24 Verb to 
Noun 

Slap 1648 1796                  1632  Vt-N-Vi 

25 Noun to  

Verb 

Smoke 1000   1000                  1000  N-Vi/Vt 

26 Noun to  
Verb 

treasure 1154   -                      1382  N-Vt 
 

27 Adjective to Verb Wet  1310                    950                   888 A-Vt-Vi 



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forms of words suppose to have more semantic range than the 

derivatives.  

 

Sometimes, functional shift items can be completely independent of their 

bases for them to become obsolete. Marchand notes that the word stimulant 

became independent of its adjective base and had now become a full-fledged 

noun to the extent that some speakers do not even realise that it was converted 

from an adjective (Marchand, 361). From these observations, semantic range 

criterion tried to some extent in discovering directionality. Though it is less in 

validity compared to the date of attestation.  

 

Semantic Dependence in Measuring Directionality 

The contexts where the words in the data table appear in the selected texts 

chosen for the study reveal that there exists an extension of meaning from the 

roots to the derivatives; and this depicts the inherent characteristic of a 

functional shift process. The study therefore shows that the semantic 

dependence criterion proved 100% accurate and has a high level of validity 

rate. The reason behind it remains that the functional shift pairs share a 

semantic relationship. In this, the derivative adopts at least one range of 

meanings from its base or root where it is derived from. Based on this, the 

semantic dependence criterion proves a hundred percent excellence in 

validity. Therefore, all the words in the data table have semantic relations with 

their bases or roots. Apart from the words wet and safe that has no entry for 

verb, all others show evidence of semantic dependence. Therefore, there is the 

possibility of the word wet as a verb (derivative) to have semantic relationship 

with the base or root (adjective) it is derived from; same applies to the word 

safe. This assertion is made based on the fact that there is an evidence of 

semantic relation where the words, wet and safe, are used. The extract: “Will 

guru morin wet my throat?” (Soyinka,16). “And that which most with you 

should safe my going/Is Fulvia’s death” (Shakespeare, I.iii.55).  The verb use 

of the words, wet and safe, from the excerpts show that they have semantic 

relationship with their adjective bases.  

 

The Mixture – Based 

The mixture-based approach as noted earlier, involves the combination of two 

or more operations of valid approaches together and uses them in measuring 

directionality. In this study, to arrive at a more valid generalization of all the 

results, we have to compare all the criteria used in the study in order to 

discover words and functional shift patterns that pass the test of all the criteria 

used. We have seen that these criteria taken individually, actually measure 

directionality to some extent. However, we must arrive at a concrete 

generalization by combining all the criteria together to see if our analytical 

tools for this study are justifiable. So, we can now combine the following: 

 



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i.  Date of Attestation 

ii. Semantic Range 

iii. Semantic Dependence 

iv. Mixture Criterion 

 

Comparison of all the criteria used 
S/N WORD FUNCTIONA

L 

SHIFT 

PATTERN 

TEST 

FOR 

ATTESTATION 

DATE 

TEST 

FOR 

SEMANTIC 

RANGE 

TEST 

FOR 

SEMANTIC 

DEPENDENCE 

MIXTURE 

CRITERION 

GRADE 

  (3/3) 

1 better A > V pass fail Pass  2/3 

2 blind A > V pass pass Pass 3/3 

3 carpet N > V pass pass Pass 3/3 

4 cement N > V pass pass Pass 3/3 

5 chance N > V pass fail Pass 2/3 

6 chase N > V pass equal Pass 2.5/3 

7 chronicle N > V pass equal Pass 2.5/3 

8 dirty A > V pass pass Pass 3/3 

9 doctor N > V pass pass Pass 3/3 

10 dumb A > V pass pass Pass 3/3 

11 Eye N > V pass pass Pass 3/3 

12 Fail V > N pass pass Pass 3/3 

13 fancy N > V pass pass Pass 3/3 

14 father N > V pass pass Pass 3/3 

15 feast N > V pass equal Pass 2.5/3 

16 ferret N > V pass pass Pass 2.5/3 

17 husband N > V pass Pass Pass 3/3 

18 make V > N pass Pass Pass 3/3 

19 paper N > V pass Pass Pass 3/3 

20 panic(k) N > V pass Pass Pass 3/3 

21 safe A > V pass No verb entry No verb entry ? 

22 salary N > V pass equal Pass 2.5/3 

23 shame N > V pass Pass Pass 3/3 

24 slap V > N pass equal Pass 2.5/3 

25 smoke N > V Fail Fail Pass 1/3 

26 treasure N > V Pass Pass Pass 3/3 

27 wet A > V Pass Pass Pass 3/3 

 

From above table, the following words and their functional shift patterns pass 

the test of all the criteria. The words include: blind, carpet, cement, dirty, 

doctor, dumb, eye, fail, fancy, father, husband, make, paper, panic (k), 

shame, treasure and wet 

 

Conclusion 

In all the analytical tools employed in determining directionality of functional 

shift pairs, it is worthy to note that they all address the issue of directionality 

of functional shift pairs though with varied validity rate.  However, the 

semantic dependence tops all other criteria, followed by the date of attestation. 

Therefore, directionality of functional shift pairs can actually be measured. 

 



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