Dirven investigates the phenomenon which is generally known as conversion or zero-derivation, in particular, the conversion from nouns to verbs (e.g., 'author' vs.' to author'). He shows that the process of conversion is typically found in three event schemata: the action schema, the location and motion schema, and the essive schema. Conversion is regarded as a process in which one participant in the event schema is metonymically focused upon, but the whole event is conceptually involved. For example, in the action schema the participants patient ('fish'), instrument ('angle'), and manner ('pearl fishing') are most frequently converted into new verbs ('to fish, to angle, to fish pearls', respectively). Five participant types are regularly exploited to yield new verbs. In conclusion, Dirven raises the question if this selectivity is the result of sociocultural saliency or rather a matter of linguistic preference. (Klaus-Uwe Panther and Günter Radden)