ATLAS OF LANGUAGE

AT-CORE-243-022 · ATLAS 260

Nominalisation

The formation or syntactic use of a noun from an expression of another word class or from an entire state of affairs.

Part of the subject path Morphology and Word Formation

Why is this entry in the Atlas?

F · Figure / procedure R1 · Distinct contribution to understanding

Nominalisation contributes a grammatical operation that makes a process available as a noun-like object. Changes in temporal and agentive visibility distinguish the operation from nominal style as an aggregate preference for such constructions.

Colours and admission grounds

The rectangular label identifies the entry function: F – linguistic figure or procedure; A – analytical concept; G – foundational concept; E – selected concrete case. The rounded badge indicates the admission ground: R1 – distinctive contribution; R2 – necessary foundation; R3 – justified illustrative case. This editorial rationale explains the current selection rather than claiming an undocumented original selection history.

Explanation

Nominalisation is the formation or syntactic use of a noun from a verb, adjective, or whole proposition. “The committee decides” may become “the committee's decision,” while “the river was polluted” may become “the pollution of the river.” A temporally and perspectivally organised event thereby becomes a nameable object that can be counted, evaluated, and embedded in further propositions. Visibility and grammatical roles also change: actors may recede into possessive or prepositional phrases or disappear, while process, result, or property moves to the centre. Nominalisation is not inherently bad style and is not identical with nominal style; it is a productive grammatical resource whose accumulation may characterise such a style. The movement arrests an event, makes it conceptually transportable, and in doing so shifts its temporal and agentive architecture.

Movement of thought

1. An event, property, or proposition first appears as a temporally organised statement with participating roles. 2. Morphology or syntax forms a nominal unit from it and makes the event available as an object of further reference. 3. The new expression can classify, condense, and connect arguments while tense, modality, or agents recede. 4. A counter-test separates nominalisation as formation or use from an existing noun, nominal style, compounding, and abbreviation. 5. The event returns as a concept: it has become easier to carry, but bears fewer visible traces of its performance.

Scientific use case

Morphology, syntax, specialised-language research, and discourse analysis examine formation, argument realisation, and information density. Corpus comparisons test when nominalisation creates precision or hides agency and responsibility.

Example

“The agency approved construction surprisingly late” names actor and time; “the late approval of construction” makes the event an object but can remove the agency from view.

Counterexample

“The table” is an ordinary noun without a verb, adjective, or proposition being nominalised in the expression under analysis. The presence of a noun alone is insufficient.

Distinction

Distinguish it from nouns generally, substantivisation as a sometimes narrower term, conversion, derivation, compounding, compression, nominal style, and reification; test form and discourse effect separately.

Effect on thought and perception

Nominalisation enables abstraction, compression, and stable technical concepts, but can reify processes, flatten temporal distinctions, and make acting entities invisible.

Resonance

A flowing event briefly congeals into a name; it can be carried onward, while its movement and originators sound more quietly within it.

Etymology

Technical core term; individual etymological review pending

Provenance

ATLAS 241 residual-case triage → profile candidate 241-B → source and neighbourhood cross-check → ATLAS 243

Cite this entry

Reich, Michael (Hrsg./ed.): „Nominalisation“. Atlas der Sprache, AT-CORE-243-022. ATLAS 260, data model 1.6.0. https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-CORE-243-022

https://atlasoflanguage.com/concept/AT-CORE-243-022

The address remains stable; editorial content may evolve. Editorial reading state: 2026-10-15. Include your access date for precise references.

Historical background

Sapir's 1921 analysis treats farmer as a basic concept combined with a derived agent concept, alongside formations such as singer, painter and teacher. Elsewhere he describes infinitives and verbal adjectives formed by duplication in Ewe. The passages document different relationships between verbal content and another word function, rather than a complete historical theory of all nominalization types.

How conceptual history changes the analysis

Agent naming and event naming should remain distinct despite their related derivational contexts.

References for the historical section

  • Edward Sapir, Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech (1921) · Chapter V, agentive nouns; Chapter IV, reduplication used for verbal nouns

    Original English text read in the Gutenberg transcription. No first-coinage claim, full-book verification or automatic endorsement of the author’s 1921 language classifications and generalisations. Examples require modern descriptive checking before reuse as current language data.

Historical source evidence and Atlas applications remain separate; this import does not assert new first attestations or a fresh exhaustive source verification.