As one of the two words within a conversion pair is semantically derived from the other, it is of great theoretical and practical importance to determine the semantic relations between the words related through conversion.
I. Verbs converted from nouns. If the noun refers to some object of reality (both animate and inanimate) the converted verb may denote:
1. action characteristic of the object, e.g. witness - to witness; ape - to
ape; dog - to dog;
2. instrumental use of the object, e.g. elbow - to elbow; hammer - to
hammer; stone - to stone;
3. acquistion, or addition of the object, e.g. fish - to fish; tail - to tail;
grass - to grass; dust - to dust;
4. deprivation of the object, e.g. skin - to skin; dust - to dust; bone - to
bone; stone - to stone; tail - to tail;
5. location (with nouns denoting places, buildings, containers), e.g. bag -
to bag; pocket - to pocket; house - to house; tail - to tail;
6. temporal relations, e.g. winter - to winter; week-end - to week-end.
II. Nouns converted from verbs may denote:
1. instance (moment) of an action, e.g. to jump - a jump; to swim - a
swim; to step - a step; to laugh - a laugh;
2. agent or doer of an action, e.g. to help - a help; to cheat - a cheat; to
bore - a bore;
3. manner of the action, e.g. to drive - a drive; to walk - a walk; to stand
- a stand;
4. object or result of action, e.g. to peel - peel; to cut - a cut; to find - a
find; to make - a make.
There are cases of polysemy of verbs or nouns in conversion pairs, e.g.: to dust, to tail, to stone.