Arnold Zwicky's Blog

Suppose you want to convert the noun California into a verb meaning ’cause to be like California’ or ’cause to be like Californians’. English has several productive schemes for N-to-V conversion, among them (all examples made up so as to make them parallel):

zero derivation (direct conversion): They are trying to Manhattan Palo Alto.

suffixation with -ize: They are trying to Manhattanize Palo Alto.

suffixation with -ify: They are trying to Manhattanify Palo Alto.

suffixation with -ic-ate: They are trying to Manhattanicate Palo Alto.

Zero derivation is the least satisfactory of these alternatives, because it allows for such a wide range of interpretations, but the other three are causative. My impression is that -ic-ate is by far the least frequent formation for N-to-V innovations (though it’s not really possible to search specifically for innovations). But -ize and -ify are both frequent in this function.

Both -ize and -ify are somewhat uncomfortable with bases that end in a vowel, especially an unaccented vowel, especially schwa (as in California); Californiaify is awkward indeed, though there are a few hits for it, like this one:

How is my lil’ Californiaified-​Akronite doing!? (link)

Usually the base is simplified to some degree. Here’s Californiafy from Paul Krugman’s NYT column on November 9 (“Paranoia Strikes Deep”):

… what we may be seeing is America starting to be Californiafied.

Or, more often hiatus is avoided completely by further reduction, in Californify:

At any rate, not only am I Californified, but apparently Pico is too. The dog that used to race out into the rain has developed some pretty refined tastes when it comes to weather … (link)

Anna Friel has been…Californified? Okay, that’s not even a word — Californified! Hah. But really, how would you call it? (link)

Note the recognition in this last quote that the verb is an innovation.

This entry was posted on November 12, 2009 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Conversion, Morphology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.