====================================================================== = Nominalization = ====================================================================== Introduction ====================================================================== In linguistics, nominalization or nominalisation is the use of a word which is not a noun (e.g., a verb, an adjective or an adverb) as a noun, or as the head of a noun phrase, with or without morphological transformation. The term refers, for instance, to the process of producing a noun from another part of speech by adding a derivational affix (e.g., the noun 'legalization' from the verb 'legalize'). Some languages simply allow verbs to be used as nouns without inflectional difference (conversion or zero derivation), while others require some form of morphological transformation. English has cases of both. Nominalization is a natural part of language, but some instances of it are more noticeable than others. Writing advice sometimes focuses on avoiding overuse of nominalization. English ========= Two types of nominalization are found in English. One type requires the addition of a derivational suffix to create a noun. In other cases, English uses the same word as a noun without any additional morphology. This second process is referred to as zero-derivation. With derivational morphology ============================== This is a process by which a grammatical expression is turned into a noun phrase. For example, in the sentence "Combine the two chemicals," 'combine' acts as a verb. This can be turned into a noun via the addition of '-ation', as in "The experiment involved the 'combination' of the two chemicals." Examples of nouns formed from adjectives: *applicability (from applicable) *carelessness (from careless) *difficulty (from difficult) *intensity (from intense) Examples of nouns formed from verbs: *failure (from fail) *nominalization (from nominalize) *investigation (from investigate) *movement (from move) *reaction (from react) *refusal (from refuse) An especially common case of verbs being used as nouns is the addition of the suffix '-ing', known in English as a gerund. *swimming (from swim) *running (from run) *editing (from edit) With zero-derivation ====================== Some verbs and adjectives in English can be used directly as nouns without the addition of a derivational suffix. Some examples include: change *'I need a change.' ('change' = noun) *'I will change.' ('change' = verb) murder *'The murder of the man was tragic.' ('murder' = noun) *'He will murder the man.' ('murder' = verb) In addition to true zero-derivation, English also has a number of words which, depending on subtle changes in pronunciation, are either nouns or verbs. One such type, which is rather pervasive, is the change in stress placement from the final syllable of the word to the first syllable (see Initial-stress-derived noun). increase *'Profits have shown a large increase.' ('increase' = noun) *'Profits will continue to increase.' ('increase' = verb) An additional case is seen with the verb 'use', which has a different pronunciation when used as a noun. use *'The use of forks is dangerous.' ('use' = noun) *'Use your fork!' ('use' = verb) In some circumstances, adjectives can have nominal use, as in 'the poor' to mean poor people in general. See nominalized adjective. Other Indo-European languages =============================== Many Indo-European languages have separate inflectional morphology for nouns, verbs, and adjectives, but often this is no impediment to nominalization, as the root or stem of the adjective is readily stripped of its adjectival inflections and bedecked with nominal inflectionsâsometimes even with dedicated nominalizing suffixes. For example, Latin has a number of nominalization suffixes, and some of these suffixes have been borrowed into English, either directly or through Romance languages. Other examples can be seen in Germanâsuch as the subtle inflectional differences between 'deutsch' (adj) and 'Deutsch' (noun) across genders, numbers, and casesâalthough which lexical category came first may be moot. Spanish and Portuguese, whose 'o/os/a/as' inflections commonly mark both adjectives and nouns, shows a very permeable boundary as many roots straddle the lexical categories of adjective and noun (with little or no inflectional difference). Chinese ========= In all varieties of Chinese, particles are used to nominalize verbs and adjectives. In Mandarin, the most common is ç 'de', which is attached to both verbs and adjectives. For example, å 'chÄ«' (to eat) becomes åç 'chÄ«de' (that which is eaten). Cantonese uses å 'ge' in the same capacity, while Minnan uses 'ê'. Two other particles, found throughout the Chinese varieties, are used to explicitly indicate the nominalized noun as being either the agent or patient of the verb being nominalized. æ ('suÇ' in Mandarin) is attached before the verb to indicate patient, e.g. å (to eat) becomes æå (that which is eaten), and è ('zhÄ' in Mandarin) are attached after the verb to indicate agent, e.g. å (to eat) becomes åè (he who eats). Both particles date from Classical Chinese and retain limited productivity in modern Chinese varieties. There are also many words with zero-derivation. For instance, æè² 'jià oyù' is both verb (to educate) and noun (education). Other cases include åå 'bià nhuà ' (v. to change; n. change), ä¿æ¤ 'bÇohù' (v. to protect; n. protection), ææ§ 'kÇngjù' (v. to fear; n. fear; adj. fearful), etc. Tibeto-Burman =============== Nominalization is a pervasive process across Tibeto-Burman languages. In Bodic languages nominalization serves a variety of functions, including the formation of complement clauses and relative clauses. Japanese ========== Japanese grammar makes frequent use of nominalization (instead of relative pronouns) via several particles such as ã® 'no', ãã® 'mono' and ã㨠'koto'. Hawaiian ========== In Hawaiian, the particle Ê»ana is used to nominalize. For example, "hele Ê»ana" is Hawaiian for "coming." Hence, "his coming" is "kona hele Ê»ana." Zero-derivation in other languages ==================================== A few languages allow finite clauses to be nominalized without morphological transformation. For instance in Eastern Shina (Gultari) the finite clause [mo buje-m] 'I will go' can appear as the nominalized object of the postposition [-jo] 'from' with no modification in form: : See also ====================================================================== *Nominal (word) *Pronominal *Initial-stress-derived noun *Deverbal noun *Verbal noun References ====================================================================== *Shibatani, Masayoshi, and Khaled Awadh Bin Makhashen. 2009. Nominalization in Soqotri, a South Arabian language of Yemen. In W. Leo Wetzels (ed.) Endangered languages: Contributions to Morphology and Morpho-syntax. Leiden: Brill. 9-31. *Kolln, M. (1990), Understanding English Grammar, 3rd edn, Macmillan, p. 179. *[http://brng.jp/en/Japanese-Knowledge-Koto/ Nominalization by Particle Koto in Japanese], Benri Nihongo * License ========= All content on Gopherpedia comes from Wikipedia, and is licensed under CC-BY-SA License URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/ Original Article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominalization .