La dérivation impropre

The paper provides an overview of conversion types in French as discussed in the literature. A distinction is made between regular and productive conversion. A conversion is called regular if it can be accounted for in terms of a morphological derivational rule. Productive conversions are at the same time regular. It is shown that the derivation « V > N » and « ADJ(colour) > N » are regular but not productive. On the other hand, the derivations « N > ADJ(colour) », « Present Participle > ADJ », and « Active verbal base > Passive verbal base » are productive (hence also regular). The categories ADJ(ethnic) and N(ethnic) are examples of indeterminate categories because any ethnic word can function either as an adjective or as a noun. The derivation of adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, interjections is never regular. The paper provides a detailed description of the conversion of present participles into adjectives and of active verbal bases into passive bases.