Entry #12 - Nominalization

What is NOMINALIZATION? What does it imply? 

 In English grammar, nominalization is a type of word formation in which a verb or an adjective (or another part of speech) is used as (or transformed into) a noun. The verb form is nominalize. It is also called nouning.

In transformational grammar, nominalization refers to the derivation of a noun phrase from an underlying clause. In this sense, an "example of nominalization is the destruction of the city, where the noun destruction corresponds to the main verb of a clause and the city to its object" (Geoffrey Leech, "A Glossary of English Grammar", 2006).

Taken from Nordquist, R. (2019) ThoughtCo. "What is Nominalization in English Grammar?"  Website: https://www.thoughtco.com/nominalization-in-grammar-1691430

Examples from Videos

1. More complex (Adjectival phrase) ------->  Complexity (noun) = Nominalization

2. Will take longer (action) --------> Extention (noun) = Nominalization 

3. I handed my essay in late (action) ------> The reason for the late submission of my essay (noun) = Nominalization

4. My kids got sick (action) --------> The illness of my children  (noun) = Nominalization 

5. "Closing the gap" is tricky (action) -------> The challenge of "closing the gap" (noun) = Nominalization 

6. Kids just don´t have the feel for talking in the same way as the way academics sometimes talk each other  (action) -----------> Student´s limited repertoires of academic registers (noun) = Nominalization 

7. We need to keep the park so children have somewhere to play (action) -------> We need to keep the park for children´s recreation. (noun) = Nominalization 

8. Because the President failed to remove the troops, many deaths (action) ------> The failure to remove the troops resulted in many deaths (noun) = Nominalization

Note: Using nominalization, we increase the content of our text and it implies Lexical Density. We can do many things with nouns; especify, describe, classify, and qualify. Nominalization allows us to organize our production in terms of ideas, reasons, causes, etc. 

* More examples of nominalization: 

1.Our company wants to optimize our work force (action) ------> Optimization of our work force is a key goal of our company

2. Susie requires to be single to get the job ----> An excluding requirenment is to be single. 

3. Mathew and Anne discuss about certain issues ----> Mathew and Anne hold a discussion about certain issues 

4.The results can vary according to the student´s age----->  The variation of results are according to the student´s age.